Our game takes place in one location, a classroom. The overall color pallet of the game is purple. Around the classroom there will be objects related to wizards and school. For example in one corner there will be gems sitting on a tables. When the player walks over to the gems, a mini game called “gem hunt” will begin. 
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Game Inspiration
D’Andre N, Stepahnie T, Alyssa M
DMS 448
4-19-18
Our game didn’t draw many too many inspirations from many outside games however. For the clothing of the game, we’ve drawn some inspirations from Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed. Because our game takes place on an island, and centers around a climber, looking at the Creed series that spans several different centuries and locations. The clothing is a light, rugged, free flowing material allowing the character room for movement and adequate protection.
As for our environment, we initially didn’t chose a game to build ideas from, although in the end we got close to presenting a game similar to thatgamecompany’s Journey. After several rounds of ideas, we’ve narrowed our platform to Twine, a linear storytelling system. Journey’s cinematic astethics would probably be the best to replicate as pictures throughout the story for visual aspects.
Emilia-Environment Refernce Images
We grabbed a few reference images of an intersection in Tucson, Mexico. We plan on having the game take place here as you search the area for clues and speak to bystanders and suspects in the case. The plan is to lock players into this intersection area.
Dylan, Trent, Ananya, & Jiale
Wizarding 101
Matt DiMaria-Week 11
Frasca makes a fair and even correct point when he states right away how the debate of “Ludology Vs Narratology” is misdirected and somewhat foolish debate when it comes to what the debaters are actually debating over. He states how in many cases, it seems that many people on both sides feel like the other is arguing that only one needs to be there, and that is simply not the case.
I believe that in order for a game to succeed, both ends need to hold up their side for the game to truly be captivating and keep people locked in to playing the game. Two certain games that can be looked at for this are two games created for the superhero genre, being 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series. In the case of these two examples, we can see how narrative still works itself into play and proves itself important. In the case of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the game itself scored about a 5/10, via IGN. While the game was praised for its gameplay mechanics, with combat being smoothened from the first game released back in 2012, and the addition of a two trigger web system, allowing players to alternate and choose which hand Spider-Man would be swinging from with each web, it’s story was greatly criticized, with it becoming too disjointed, and the back half of the gaming having very little to no connection with the first half and basically being an excuse to include fan favorite villains from the comics and movies. Many online reviewers, namely YouTubers, such as AngryJoe, despised the game, stating it was an obvious cash grab and was simply stuffing too much into the game, with Joe himself feeling all that was in there was simply for trailers, as one of the early trailers for the game focused heavily on the inclusion of Electro and the Green Goblin, which held about a 20 minute section in total between the two of them in the full game.
Continuing with this, when 2015 saw the release of the final entree in the Batman Arkham series, Batman Arkham Knight, many had been saying through the year wait for its release that this would easily be the best superhero game ever made. The game looked super promising, after nearly four years in production, Rocksteady had mastered its combat system, rendered a complete Gotham City with seamless transitions between environments, and added a whole new play mechanic through Batman’s iconic Batmobile. Mix this with enthralling trailers promising a mysterious and dangerous new villain made completely from scratch for the soul purpose of the game and a The Dark Knight Rises styled theme suggesting the possible death of Batman by the end of the game, players were hooked by the idea of what this finally nearly 6 years in the making could entail. And then release came, and players were a little less than enthused. While gameplay mechanics were certainly the best they’d ever been, players were bogged down with an overly important Batmobile and the promise of an intriguing and mysterious new villain turning out to simply be a re-skin of the already iconic Red Hood character and storyline. While this didn’t hinder the game as much as it did to the Spider-Man release just the year prior, there is still a heavy community of Arkham players that see the 2011 release of Batman Arkham City as the superior game. While there were still some kinks to its gameplay, the story overall was intriguing and kept players on their toes.
Opposite this of course is a game like The Sims. One of the things that I personally feel has helped keep this franchise alive and thriving is the fact that the game has almost no story at all. And while this may seem to contradict the earlier points of both Frasca and my examples of the Spider-Man and Batman games, I truly feel that the lack of story within this series keeps it fresh. But what makes this game different, well, for me, it would be the fact that the story of The Sims is entirely created by the player. You chose exactly who your Sims is, what he/she does, and who he/she is meant to be. If you want to have your story be that of a writer struggling from home to make ends meet, you have it. If you want to go more exciting and join the spy career, you can do that. Everything within the game is open ended to you and how you want to handle it. For me personally, the only real issue I run into with The Sims is my attention span with it. Eventually, I’ll grow bored of the same few things and jump to something else, but the open ended nature of the game allows ,e to easily jump back into it months later and pick right back up in the thick of it where I wouldn’t find it as easy to take month breaks from a game like the aforementioned Batman Arkham Knight, as I’d feel somewhat lost if I left the game for 6 months and then jumped back in in the middle of the story, as I’d be scrambling to remember what happened up to this point.
Overall, I feel it is important for games to have both elements involved within them. Even with the best story ever made, I’d find it hard to go through a game if it’s mechanics were poorly designed and flawed. While this isn’t exactly something thats a huge hindrance to me personally, as I personally hate the way the early Resident Evil games were controlled, yet I love the overall story and series that I pushed through it just to play through the first few installments, I do feel that if a game is un-fun to play, it’ll likely cause people to drop out of the experience far before they reach the end. Mechanics and Narratives are two components that should really be trying to work hand in hand, rather than against each other, because whether it is a strict narrative, like in Batman, or an open one, like seen in RPG’s and The Sims, one cannot throve without the other.
Study of Games (w11)
This week’s topic takes gaming down to a much more black and white level. To think of it in the simplest context of their narrative elements and the rules that define the system. Neither of these elements can exist alone because without both the game is missing either its experience or learning potential. It’s only when justly incorporated, does narratology and ludology create a complete gaming experience.
In a game, the rules are the primary “definition” system. They dictate what can or can’t happen as the “laws” of the in-game world. The manipulation of these various laws directly shape the process of interaction the player is forced to undergo throughout gameplay. Rules create the context or develop the situation in question. By understanding the different components of games such as timers or corresponding combinations of controls to actions resembling the difficulty of the task, give you a stronger sense of what the characters of that world “go through” in order to achieve things. However, without or therefore the lack of these rules, you get more of an experimental game where the player is left more or less unguided. They have to seek answers by trying their own button sequences, gestures, or in-game action to observe the game’s response so they can further act accordingly. This is the most critical thinking area of games that I imagine when the topic is brought up as this makes you reapply and try to learn what the game accepts and doesn’t. Sandbox games are the best example of how rules affect context as they allow you more freedom than most other types. Although sandboxes provide virtually an endless amount of fun and possibility, without rules to narrow in what “should” be happening, you get lost in that search until the game becomes boring and unplayable as you’ve “done everything there is to do.”
Over in terms of narratology, the narrative of the game is to make the game make sense. The narration is the explanation of the game it’s entirety realized through playing the game. It determines the plot and the problems, how they align for the player to find them, and the answers to whatever questions may arise. The narrative develops the user’s experience within the game. Just as shows have particular storylines or formats to follow that get edited accordingly to match its product, games should accomplish the same idea through play. No matter how good a game is physically in terms of is responsiveness or structure to the rules, it begins to fall apart if you can’t understand why things are happening the way they are even as you’re watching it unfold. It creates a disconnect between the player and the world they’re playing to be apart of. That disconnection reverts the game into just a controlling of structured objects to reach a certain point. You start moving everything mechanically rather than being involved into what’s happening, where a lot of learning can take place because you’ve committed yourself emotionally to the game. Personally, being able to establish a link between a game and that particular player’s emotion will drive them to accept that game more than any other factor.
Games are indeed a combination of a myriad of different elements, some being subjective while others are more objective. However, unlike we’ve done before, this week we acknowledge from the beginning that these combinations are a requirement rather than looking at it as one side against another.
W11 – Ananya Sharma
Video games are made up of a variety of different things that all come together to form the game that the player enjoys. Video games allows people to do whatever they ant, the limit is your imagination. There are games of all sorts that give you the ability to explore anything and everything you want. However, even in the chaotic collection of games that range from simple games like Tetris to a complex creation like Skyrim, there exists certain things that are common in every single type of game. From the top of my head, I can’t think of a single game that doesn’t have a set of rules that you have to follow in order to succeed in the game. On the other end of the spectrum, I can think of a multitude of games that are driven by the story and narrative. Unlike with most debates, both experts of ludology and narratology agree with the fact that games cannot ignore one or the other- both are required in games.
Unlike narratology, ludology is something I believe that a game cannot exist without; I can’t imagine any game without rules. On the other hand, there exist examples of games that do not have any narratives and still are popular with the people. This point is discussed by Jenkins when describing Tetris. This is a game with no story- it’s just a simple set of rules that one has to follow ad try to achieve the highest score possible by trying to survive a long as possible. The same can be said a multitude of games such as Slither, Agario, Flappy Bird, and many more. These games provides the gamer with a challenge to beat- the high score, and challenges them to attempt and beat it. The process is repeated multiple times and the fact that you can see your own improvement makes it even better. On the other hand there are games that are absolutely loved by the general public because of the narrative that goes alongside the game itself which allows the player to feel like more of a part of the universe. It allows the gamers to build a connection with the characters and truly become a part of the game. Games such as BioShock and Mass Effect 2 have a narrative that was very well integrated with the game allowed the gamer to understand how simple actions such as the mining of materials from a planet led to upgrades that were vital to the survival of a mission. The narrative tied every single action one made in the game and allowed the gamer to truly understand the universe.
By looking at the two different concepts, I can understand why experts had to agree upon the fact that it both ludology and narratology are required when analyzing games. The two functions play a critical part in games and their creation and cane be the factor that determine the type of game it will be. I personally believe that it is the perfect blend of the two that creates the best type of game. The fact that while following the set of rules the gamer has the ability to affect an entire universe and the outcome based on the choices the made is something that I believe to be truly remarkable.
11
I think games heavily intertwine rules and narratives. I think rules are mostly shown through the game mechanics. For example, if the narrative is that you have to sneak around or be quiet, then you might might not be able to move as fast. I think that rules in games are a tricky line to balance. If there’s too many rules then the player will get frustrated. If there’s not enough rules, then the player will feel like they have too much freedom and not know what to do.
Touching on the example I provided earlier with the speed of the character depending on the situation in the narrative. I think that this is an example of where rules can become annoying. I have personally felt frustrated in games when I cannot move fast enough. I feel like I’m being trapped and wasting so much time.
With the final project, my team has decided to pay special attention on narrative and rules. Our game is about a young wizard who has trouble developing her powers, while the rest of her class has no problems. At the beginning of them game, the controls will be fairly easy, to show that she might be able to overcome her difficulties without reaching out for help. As the game progresses, the same controls will gradually become more tough. This is to show that learning disabilities are something you should not be embarrassed about and how difficult they can be without receiving help. We thought this aspect was important to add into the game because it added a sense of realism and also pushed the narrative. It also kept the gameplay fresh and interesting.
I think that the controversy between whether Ludology or Narratology is more important depends on the game. First, it matters whether it’s a serious game or more of a throw away game. Personally I care a lot less about the narrative of the game than the controls. I rarely have time to relax, so when I do, I don’t want to be bogged down by a game with a heavy story which takes up my brain space with a confusing plot. I want simple, fast, mindless controls and a easy plot to follow. This also goes for TV shows. I don’t watch show with drawn out plot, I usually watch sitcoms like the office, park and rec and new girl where the plot is so easy to follow and I can not pay attention for 10 minutes and still know what’s going on.
Ludology vs. Narratology
In my opinion, video game qualities of ludology and narratology are dependent with inversely proportionality. The more narratives and storyline, the less game mechanics and ludology. It is like a percentage. However, narratives are not necessary to games in some situations. Abstract games like Tetris, Pong, and Agar.io have absolutely no narratives, but are still video games. The mechanics of a video game gives the game a framework and the narrative part of the game gives the game content. However content is optional, just like “fun” is optional from the serious game discussion. If you think I am wrong, tell me about it in the comments. I will admit that non abstract games do require a little bit of story, but the ratio of ludology to narratology is different for game to game. If you look at the successful games today, there is no game that is 95% ludology or 95% narratology. The games, I would assume, be about equivalent to engage the most people whether they like narrative games or mechanical games. My group is creating a serious game and we are making it more narrative based than mechanical. The mechanical parts would be decision making and puzzle solving.
I play video games for the mechanics and how the user input can be turned into a game. The feeling of creating a new world to mess around in and play games with friends is fun to me. The story is secondary to me and the feel of movement and competition makes me want more. However this is only my opinion. There are games that I like that have story like Assassin’s Creed, but the more I think about it, the more it seems like the story is set aside and the game is made for the mechanics. For sandbox games, there essentially no story so you have to be creative and give meaning to the game.
Many popular games today are multiplayer. From a developer standpoint, it is very difficult to make a story game that you can play with your friends. If player A continues to play without player B, the story would be different to both players so player A and player B would either not be able to play together, or would somehow mess up the Space Time Continuum (interesting idea for a game). In Star Wars Battlefront, the player is randomly assigned to the rebel or the empire fleet and the player strives to win. In this case, the story is completely wack because the map is randomly selected which does not make logical sense. That is why multiplayer game developers try to make the game more focused on game mechanics and not story. Overwatch is a first person shooter with character selection. The game has issues at the surface because to preserve balance, there could be the same character on both teams which does not make logical sense. The developers acknowledge the issue and throws “who cares” around and gives the lore to digital comics and video strips.
DMS 448 