Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=697https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3124GAMEPLAY The second time around, the game was a lot more fun. None of its control aspects became boring because they were woven into the fabric of the game so well. The levels were reasonably challenging, but not too difficult. It was good that you could skip some levels from a painting and come back to them later rather than having to play the whole thing all at once. That kind of linear gameplay would not have been fun. The game was interesting because it provided such a diverse gameplay experience. Every painting level was very different from every other painting level. Also, within each painting level there were different quests that encouraged you to explore the area in different ways. DESIGN The game’s reward structure provided a great incentive to continue playing for a long time. There are 120 stars in the game. They vary greatly in the difficulty that is required to get them. Some have interesting cut scenes that go along with them and other do not. The game makes use of space in a very innovative way. There is a hub castle world that has portals leading to all of the other worlds. Some of the portals’ worlds contain buttons that unlock abilities or areas in other parts of the castle. Eventually you can launch up onto the roof of the castle and fly around it.Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:45:26 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3124&iddiary=6064https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3124SUMMARY In Super Mario 64 the player controls a character in a three dimensional world. There is a “hub” castle, which has picture-frame portals that lead to other worlds. The end goal is to defeat the evil Bowser and save the princess. GAMEPLAY While playing this game I stayed consistently happy. It had a kind of cartoon-animation feeling to it, which made me feel like I was watching a cartoon. The levels were not too hard and not too easy, so they stayed enjoyable. The controls were very well designed as well (this contributed greatly to the enjoyableness of the game). There was very little character development. The purpose of the characters was to further the fun of the gameplay rather than develop as individuals. There was a small amount of textual dialogue at certain points in the game, but I would not go as far as saying that the game had a plot. Toad appeared in random places throughout the castle, and Bowser somehow had big painting-portals of himself in three places in the castle.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:12:21 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3124&iddiary=5809https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2649GAMEPLAY After getting the horse, the game got a whole lot better. I spent a lot of time just riding around out on Hyrule field. That really made the game for me. Some of the conversations with other players were strange and out of place, which made the game humorous. The characters’ clothing complemented the setting nicely as well. It was good to meet characters who offered to sell things because then you could refill on items. I experienced flow while playing the game in a slower way than I do usually while playing other games. Flow requires constant challenge that is not too difficult. It’s true that this game provided a constant challenge and that it is not too fast-paced or difficult overall. I think that because it was so slow-moving it may have had some gaps in time where not a lot happened. It was not quite boring though. DESIGN The game was innovation. The item equipping function was of particular interest. It was fun equipping various items to the C buttons. I found myself doing that often. Also, the dungeon design was very good. Its fundamental structure was copied from the original Zelda games, but the new graphics and 3Dness made it much more fun. There was a whole new strategy to it. The tone of the gameworld was friendly and moderately bright, while having monsters appear sometimes. There was never a strong feeling of being threatened, however, even when the monsters appeared. In a word, the tone was lighthearted. This game gave me the idea of uniformity for my own game project. That is something that I was seriously lacking in my game design. In terms of the setting, enemies, ammunition, power ups, and the ship you control, the whole thing is kind of a hodgepodge of different things that I thought would look good together, but none of them are actually what they’re supposed to represent. The spaceship is an icon that does not look very much like a space ship. The ammunition is a collection of randomly colored pixels. The background should be space, like a regular SHMUPS game, but it is a brown and black image instead. It is possible that will implement some kind of uniformity to create cohesion in my game like Zelda does so well.Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:13:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2649&iddiary=5579https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2649SUMMARY In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time you control an elvin character named link in a magical feudal world called Hyrule. Link has a fairy that follows him around and talks to him as he collects rupees for currency, hearts for life points, and a variety of other items. The goal of the game is to pass through dungeons, towns, and areas as well as side-quests in order to ultimately defeat an evil character named Gandalf and save the princess Zelda. GAMEPLAY This game inspired a wide range of emotions in me. I think this was because each of the areas had a very different tone. The water dungeon, for instance, had magical fish creatures with dark, ethereal undertones, while Kokiri forest, where you begin the game, had a happy, fairytale-like feeling to it. The game was fun to play because it was not like most platform games. In terms of the controls, there was no jump command; jumping happened automatically. Furthermore, it seemed like the game was more about solving puzzles than it was about reflexes and other real-time skills. It made me feel unclear about what genre game it is. The most interesting part of the game was the battle system. It was particularly entertaining because you could lock onto enemies in order to automatically target them. This created a dynamic in which you walked a circle around enemies when you were fighting them. You didn’t have to worry about targeting with projectile weapons, and when performing sword attacks, you only needed to pay attention to the distance. During boss fights this was something that was not constantly used because half of strategy in boss fights was to maneuver outside of the target mode.Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:33:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2649&iddiary=5021https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2394GAMEPLAY The second time around, Ratchet and Clank was more fun than the first time. I think this was mostly due to the weapon upgrades. The weapons each have their own strategic purpose. As the character progresses through the game, they receive more opportunities to use new weapons, and with that comes the opportunity to use more interesting strategies. One example of this is the Taunter weapon, which can be used to lure opponents toward your character when they are in a position where they have the advantage. The best part of the storyline so far has been the hover-board race. It was a lot of fun in terms of the plot because it connected several characters and planets together. The actual race was one of the best parts of the game as well. It involved doing tricks and hitting arrow points on the ground for power-up boosts while dodging boxes and explosives. You have get 1st place against 4 other racers in order to get the trophy you need to give to the agent in exchange for goggles. At one point before the race my character spoke with a Captain on the metropolis planet who was advertising the race. He turned out to be a robot, which made me laugh because it was so absurd. The robotic protagonist’s sidekick, Clank, had to point out the spring that was in the place of the Captain’s legs to Ratchet, who was shocked by it. DESIGN The balance of enemies is very well laid out. It seems to provide just the right amount of challenge in terms of patience and focus. The enemies get harder as your weapons get more effective, and you need to keep up with the increasing complexity of the gameplay. There is a wheel screen activated by the triangle button, which allows you to toggle between a set number of weapons and devices. Later in the game this toggling of weapons and devices becomes a large focus of the game. The one boss that I have played against so far was really fun. His attacks were rhythmic and varied in such a way that you had to jump over walls of flames and dodge laser beams at the same time. There was really only one weapon that could be used against this boss effectively, which made getting the ammunition very important. Another thing that I liked about this game was that you only had to pay attention to about four things at once: the enemy fire coming at you, the direction whatever your mission objective is, your ammunition, and collecting bolts. This created a feeling similar to that of older two dimensional platform games—very user-friendly while being engaging at the same time.Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:35:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2394&iddiary=4979https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2394SUMMARY In Ratchet and Clank, a fox-like animal named Ratchet wears a robot named Clank like a backpack while exploring different planets. There are a lot of weapon and item upgrades, different kinds of enemies, and bosses. The primary goal of the game is to get info-bots in order to progress to new planets. GAMEPLAY Because the game has a cartoonish and lighthearted feel, I stayed in a happy emotional state for the whole time I was playing it. The environments are all bright, almost pastel, and rounded to the point that they are something like a relaxing dreamworld. Even the sludge planets are rendered in a friendly style. The characters in the game are all very cartoonish. Both in-game and during cut-scenes, the characters all move in an extreme and dramatic way. The interactions between the two main characters, Ratchet and Clank, are endearing when they become comfortable with one another as the game progresses. Furthermore, every character in every cut scene has a lot of personality in the way that they move their faces and bodies. The game was really interesting to play because, for one thing, there are bolts and nuts that you collect as currency scattered throughout the game, and they make a really satisfying noise when you pick them up. Another thing that’s interesting are the powerups. You can get a helicopter upgrade that allows you to glide and jump higher that you can at the beginning of the game. Just as that starts to get boring, you find a grind boots upgrade that allows you to ride on rails. It really keeps you on your toes!Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:14:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2394&iddiary=4544https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2265SUMMARY Super Smash Brothers is a Nintendo 64 four-player fighting game with the unique feature that in order to beat an opponents, you have to knock them off the side of the map to the edge of the screen. In order to do this, you have to weaken their resistance to power attacks using damage attacks, which are not mutually exclusive. Also, there are dodge and shield commands. GAMEPLAY This is a game that reliably got me and my friends very excited while playing on the multiplayer mode. It was very fun and interesting. There were a lot of elements that made this the case--the music, sound effects, items, attack artwork, maps, and dodging/shielding commands. Together, all of these elements result in a fast-paced dance that involved a surprising amount of technical skill to master. The characters were great because they are mostly taken from old Nintendo games, so they were familiar. Additionally, the characters fell into different tiers of potential effectiveness (and there are handicaps available), so competing players could balance out their skills by choosing appropriate settings. The first person story mode of this game was fun because all of the levels were very different from one another. Some had one slow powerful character to defeat, some had targets to break, some had lots of small characters, and some had a few standard characters. It was very varied. The social aspects of this game should not be underestimated. In all honesty, I found this to be one of the most socially conducive games around. Again, there are a lot of reasons why this is the case, but I think the most prominent one is simply the feature of having to knock your opponent off of the map to the edge of the screen—for some reason, this feature has a really interesting effect on the format of the battles. DESIGN The levels all contributed to the gameplay differently. The most straightforward levels were those which were larger and more flat. These allowed for more complicated fights in terms of technical moves. However, the smaller levels created a greater conflict by making the battle more imminent. In this sense a large part of the battle is made to take place in simply observing the map. The tone of the gameworld is largely cartoonish and happy, although some levels are kind of dark. This changes with the items that are equipped and the characters that are being played. Overall, it stays true to the time-tested Nintendo theme of accessibility. The game exhibits a great amount of emergent complexity in the battle system. The largest contributors to this are the shield/dodge functions and the double jump. Because of these moves, there are a large number of attack and defense combinations that can be used. There are specific movements which counter others, and there are specific combinations of movements that work synergistically.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:16:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2265&iddiary=4306https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1902Entry #2 GAMEPLAY My second hour of gameplay was much more fun than the first. It was essentially the same kind of pattern of talking to bystanders, fighting fiends, and watching cutscenes, but the game became much more developed. New characters joined the party bringing new magic spells, physical techniques, and personality. I got a nice feeling of community when the party began to get larger. It was really interesting to see all the different character personalities interacting both during battles and in the other modes of gameplay. Also, some of the bystanders and sales people became recurring characters, and it was nice to get to talk to them in different areas of the game about the gameworld’s current events. I stayed pretty happy and entertained while I was playing this time around. I think it must have been largely due to the beautiful landscapes and soothing music. As soon as I started feeling like one section of map was starting to get boring, it would always end or change. Also, the story’s narrative progression kept me absorbed in the plotline. DESIGN The Blitzball tournament added an especially unique gameplay element. This was an underwater team sports game that the main character and one other character and his team play together. This is a good feature of the game because it provides a kind of minigame that can be revisited and expanded upon at every save point. A great design element of this game is the fact that it has an epic battle about once an hour in which an especially powerful fiend must be fought. These are probably the most fun parts of the game because they allow and encourage the player to make use of all of the different battle commands and develop more complex strategies than regular fiends require. This keeps the game interesting by keeping the player motivated to keep their stats up in order to defeat these larger opponents. The game creates conflict on many levels, the first and most obvious being the conflict of the main character Tidus wanting to get home to his original dimension. Aside from that there are lots of small plot conflicts like Kimari’s quarrel with the other two characters of his species, Wakka’s challenged views about Yevon, the religion, and the conflict between Yuna and the other summoner she meets along the road. The game makes good use of space in the gameworld by making the view locked on one angle so that you are always seeing the best view. Also, backgrounds are never reused and always very artistic. The paths, which are more 3D than the other sections of the game, have moving elements on them like plants as well. The game does have emergent complexity in the battle system, but it develops slowly from a unique upgrade game feature called the sphere grid, which allows you to use spheres gained from battle to give your characters new stats and abilities. Complicated tactics can come out of high-stat battles. These tactics are the emergent aspects of the gameplay.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:31:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1902&iddiary=4275https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1902SUMMARY In Final Fantasy X, the player controls a party of characters represented on the screen by one character, Tidus. In the regular map mode, the player can walk around, talk to characters, and open treasure chests. Some areas of the map mode send you into battle mode where magical and physical techniques can be selected from menus in order to defeat opponents called fiends. The goal of the game is to defeat a creature called Sin by learning to summon gods called Aeons to fight for you in battle. GAMEPLAY When I started playing FFX, I was initially a bit repelled by the voice acting. The main character, especially, seemed to have a way of talking that just didn’t feel like it fit to me. I wanted to quit playing just because of that, but I kept at it because some of the characters had asymmetrical clothing. The game was interesting because the cut scenes kept the storyline moving, much like a movie, and the storyline was compelling. The regular mode of play in which Tidus runs around various paths, towns, and boats is beautiful, and truly a work of art. The battle modes stay fun because the magical and physical attacks progressively become more and more powerful and colorful as you progress in the game. I felt a strong feeling of flow while playing FFX because of the regular rhythmic phases to the gameplay. For instance, there is a reliable alternating pattern between battling fiends and large sections of storyline with save points scattered throughout the game in practical places. I don’t think I would have been able to enjoy the game as much if there were any fewer save points. DESIGN The tone of the gameworld is mostly very soft and pleasant, while being serious at the same time. This is achieved by the use of bright colors, vivid plant life swaying in the wind, thoughtful architecture of the buildings, and friendly people in most of the maps. The serious tone is achieved by the constant battles and conversations about the troubles around Spira (the gameworld). The game’s reward structure is designed in such a way that I would not mind playing the game indefinitely (or past the official ending of the game) because there is so much room to improve the characters’ stats. After every battle, there is a pleasant screen with pastel colors and very easy-to-listen-to background music. This screen shows you the gil (money), power spheres, and level upgrades you received from the battle. In terms of reward, this screen is perhaps the most cleverly designed section of the game because a lot of work went into its aesthetics, and it makes you feel really good to get all the upgrades presented in such a pretty way. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:55:57.)Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:07:59 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1902&iddiary=3684