LIS 678 Game Design

  A hero for Galendria by jloft I intended to create a "getting ready in the morning," type of game but realized that it would probably take me too much work to create new characters and scenes or maps. I then switched to embrace the fantasy visuals that come standard with RPG Maker.  I intended to make this game a subtle commentary on the seemingly growing movement to ban books and/or interfere with curricula within the classroom. I also intended to have the hero and his party build skills by exploring the new world they have entered collecting tools and weapons and reading hidden books. I thought the weapons might start with a stick or rope that helps them fend off attacking insects. I then wanted the weapons to increase in strength by moving to a whip or a metal pole, and leading to swords and bows and arrows. Designing a videogame is quite difficult, but I did discover that the iterating, prototyping, and debugging can provide its own sense of flow. As complicated and exh...

Since my game was about a child trying to get out of the house and catch the bus on time, I decided to do a child for my piece . And, since I’m new to Tinkercad, I decided to do a cartoonish child. I did my best to construct the child out of the shapes. I had the idea to make the child look like he was running, but I was worried about the complexity of the form, and my ability to create it as a new user, and whether it would be stable. To avoid just placing the character on a circle base, I tried making the feet big enough to support the stability of the piece. Next, I wanted to make sure the piece wasn’t too big or too small. I know I needed the base to be about half an inch, so I looked up what that was in millimeters and saw 12.7, so I figured 10 mm would be good. As I did the tutorials, and I began creating a human out of shapes, I decided to start bigger and hopefully I’ll be able to shrink the entire piece when done. The final size of my original large piece was 40 mm by 60 mm ...

This assignment brought back more and more memories as I wrote, so hopefully I can edit myself and it will not run on too long! I’ve broken it down into the different categories of games. Board games: I always wanted to play Mousetrap because the commercials made it look exciting, and it looked like it involved building an elaborate trap for the mouse. But, I only remember us having Monopoly and Clue at home. I liked playing both, but I liked playing Clue more. I liked trying to solve the mystery of the murderer and the weapon, versus the randomness of how money was made and lost in Monopoly, and I don’t remember winning very often. I played Candyland at a friend’s house. I think it was very similar to Chutes and Ladders, but if not, then I also played Chutes and Ladders at that friend’s house, and I forget what Candyland was actually like. My dad also had a couple of games that my brother and I would play: Penté and Mastermind. Out of those two, I enjoyed Mastermind more, beca...

Sydney is a five-and-a-half-year-old girl. She plays educational games on an iPad at school, but her time is monitored and limited to 20 minutes. She does not play video games at home, although she regularly asks her parents to buy her an iPad. The parents are trying to prolong her exposure to technology, especially at home, although they know that technology is a necessary part of our lives today. They are also concerned about the negative aspects of teens and social media, so they are trying to start early to minimize her access and exposure to mobile devices, to hopefully avoid the potential for technology or cell phone addiction. Because of this limitation at home, she loves going to the library where she can play educational games on their computers. The library is where I initially observed her playing video games. She was observed, later, on a laptop. The library games start with a title screen containing several game options consisting of math-related games, building games an...

While checking out a thrift store for pieces to create my personal board game, I decided to get a playable game for this blog that could include my 5-year-old daughter. Therefore, I bought Candy Land as it was the only game I came across that was for ages 3 and up. As expected, since this was purchased used, some of the pieces were missing from the Candy Land game. So, when I made my trip to the dollar store for more items for my personal board game, I purchased some toy figurines to use as substitutes. Additionally, there were no instructions, so I searched those out on Hasbro.com. Game mechanics My board came with a spinner, but it also came with cards. After searching for instructions (and information) online, it looks like there are two ways to play: either the spinner or with cards. The spinner is the method of play for the more modern versions, while having each player take turns choosing a card is the original method of play. I’m not sure I have all of the cards...

I bought this game at what was then called Ed McKay’s, a used bookstore, after receiving a Nintendo DS for Christmas. This was during a period where I had broken my shoulder and had more free time, while recuperating from surgeries at my parents’ house. I never owned a Gameboy, but when I realized the DS could play Gameboy games,  I started looking for the Gameboy versions of older games that I had played on Super Nintendo in the late 80s and 90s, such as Super Mario Bros. This week, I traveled back to Greensboro for work and found my old DS in a drawer in my bedroom, along with some of the games. I was looking forward to playing a game on a dedicated device with a control pad and buttons instead of using my computer keyboard. After charging the DS I put in the Cartridge and turned on the DS. Some of the workings to navigate to the game was still intuitive, using the A or start button for confirming the selecting, and using the B or select button to reveal options or back out of ...

Monument Valley follows Ida, a cone-hat wearing figure in white through ten or so chapters of a perspective-based, 3-D puzzle à la M.C. Escher. Each chapter is accessed by clicking on its particular side of a rotating building. The overall feel of the game is very dream-like, due mostly to its visual design, which uses a colorful, but muted palette. This dream-like, Zen state is fitting for these M.C. Escher structures come to life, and the sound also adds to the ambiance. The phrase “Enya on Dramamine” seems like an accurate description of its new-age music with occasional chimes and wind (or white noise) when the music fades. When moving certain objects, there is a calming sound of a flamenco guitar, or plucked harp. Similarly, when buildings rotate, grow or shrink, there is a pleasing stone-on-stone sound, kind of like when someone rolls a heavy boulder in a movie. The first chapter, or level, serves as a tutorial. Here you are introduced to the basic mechanics of the game and ...

 This Week I played XCom2, War of the Chosen . It was available for free play, for a limited time on Steam. This is a turn-based strategy game, and I typically don’t like those types of games, but I figured it would be good for me to try a style of game that doesn’t appeal to me. As I start to play the game, I wonder why I don’t like these types of games, as it’s really just like a board game, where a player wait’s his turn. With that realization, I then wonder if I have been spoiled by video games and the immediate “action” so many of them provide, and I think that must be the reason. And so, as I start the game, I choose the novice level and the tutorial so that I can acquaint myself with the game. It is 2035 and an alien race has taken over the world. Initially, it seems this was supposed to be a beneficial undertaking, but now more earthlings are protesting and a rebellion against the aliens has begun. Out of the turn-based games that are out there, I think this one might b...

 I downloaded this game from the Apple store many years ago. I came across it on an older laptop while trying to get another, older, 32-bit game to run on Steam. It is somewhat similar to Super Mario Brothers, in that you are a character navigating a side scrolling adventure. Since I am a casual gamer, I never finished the game. I think it became too difficult for me. Since I remember so little about it, I decided to delete its preferences and start from scratch. The game starts with “Braid” in fiery letters and a silhouetted boy to the left, standing on a bridge. White wording saying “use arrow keys to move” appear on the bridge and disappear. A contemplative violin or cello plays in the background. As you move right you enter a building with five rooms, four of which are dark, but the first room has light… and a door. The door takes you to a room full of clouds and six green books on pedestals. The title “2. Time and Forgiveness” is at the top of the room. As you pass each book...

After reading a couple of people’s review of Geoguessr, I thought I would try it out this week. I haven’t traveled that much, but I like to look at maps to prepare whenever I do travel.  Also, I occasionally like to look up places that I have visited in my youth, but haven’t seen in years, to see if I can locate them now that the internet and google street view exist. For example, my grandparent’s house was in rural Maxton, N.C., and I only had their mailing address, which was a P.O. box. It took about a week of occasional searching, but I did eventually find it. But back to the gaming! I searched Geoguessr and found a free version called Worldguessr. Since I had read other students’ reviews, I knew the general way to play and jumped right in. The first placement was pretty easy, as I could see the Taj Mahal in the background. However, I realized I wasn’t quite sure where in India the Taj Mahal was located. I went to the aerial map of the world and started zooming in to India hop...

You are Kaitlin Greenbriar (Katie), home to your parent’s new house after time abroad in Europe. The house is locked, and possibly uninhabited, unless your parents are asleep elsewhere in the house as it is midnight. Your younger sister, Sam, appears to have run away, according to a note on the front door. Gone Home’s game play is pretty intuitive with just a few rules as you start: use the mouse to look around and the keyboard arrows or WASD keys to move your character around. As other controls or keyboard commands become necessary, text explaining their use appears on the screen, such as shift to zoom in and look at an area more closely, or to click to pick an object up, or shift to examine a held object closer. I think this helped to ease entry into the game, by not overloading the user with all of the rules or keyboard commands at the beginning. After looking at a few of the approved games, I picked this one because it reminded me of the first computer game I played as a child ...