Richard Garfield

Name: Richard Channing Garfield
Genre: Person
Age: 50

Richard Garfield is a game designer that was born in philadelphia on June, 26, 1963. He spent much of his young life with his father who was an architect. He has designed many successful games including Magic: the Gathering with its debut in 1993 as well as other games including Roborally, King of Tokyo and a whole slew of other TCGs. 

Start of his Career

In 1985 Richard Garfield he received a bachelor of science degree in computer mathematics and later studied combinatorial mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania. Soon after he developed the idea for Roborally and decided to bring the idea to Wizards of the Coast to see if they could back the game for him. Wizards said no because it would have been too costly for them to make at the time and suggested to him that he work on some quick and easy to play game for conventions. What came out of this was the first true trading card game Magic: the Gathering. For early testing mostly a group of his close friends formed a playtesting group of sorts to test the game in its early stages of research and development. 

Current Games and Work

Garfield stepped down from Wizards of the Coast in 2000 when they sold the computer rights of D&D to Hasbro. The list of some of Garfield's current games include Netrunner, Dilbert: Corporate Shuffle, Filthy Rich, Twitch, Pecking Order, Rocketville, Stonehenge and Ghooost! just to name a few. He has worked on several of the versions of D&D over the years as well as actively contributed to the current versions of Magic: the Gathering. In more recent years he has became an independent game designer and wound up working on more computer and video games. In 1999 Garfield was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame as was his brainchild Magic. Some of his most recent games include the TCG Android: Netrunner and his most recent card game Ghooost!

Tsuro Wants to be a Digital Game

Title: Tsuro
Genre: Tile Placing Game
Rating: 8+
Original Creator: Tom Mc Murchy
Published By: Calliope Games

Tsuro is a tile placing based game played on a 6x6 grid making a total of 36 squares to place tiles on. No two tiles are the same there are some that are similar but there are not any two that are the same, making for much more interesting games. The premise of the game is that each player is one of eight dragons each marked on the board by a differently colored marker and each is following its own path of life.

Digital Applications

Tsuro is just waiting to be made into a digital game. This game would most likely be an app like the one pictured to the left. If the game were an app with multiplayer and singleplayer based systems. The game is so much fun for the players because the goal for them may not be just to win and there are many ways of doing so as well. If a player simply wishes to crash into another player and just end the game there for both of them they could do so, or if they wished they could take a more risky path and go closer to other players in an attempt to make them go off the board or even make them collide with another player.

Dance Dance Revolution Feedback

Name: Dance Dance Revolution

Genre: Music/Rhythm Game

Rating: E10+

Developed by: Konami

Published by: Konami

Dance Dance Revolution also known as DDR is a rhythm based dance game created in 1998 and was also the first rhythm or dance game of its kind. The game is based on a series of arrows laid out across a grid with one facing left, right, up and down. This game also incorporated a feedback system that was based on how accurate players were with their hits on the arrows.

The System of Feedback

In Dance Dance Revolution there are five types of feedback for how close players got to hitting the arrow. These include Perfect, Great, Good, Almost and Miss. All of these types of feedback to the player change the game in some way. If a player strings together a group of Perfects then a score multiplier will be added for each additional hit that is scored after that. Alternatively if the player is consistently not hitting the notes the player will receive negative feedback from the game and the score multiplier will go down and the player may even eventually fail the song if they keep missing the notes. Players also get feedback from the game based on how good their scores are compared to other players and by the game's rating system ranging from AAA-F.

Character in Video Games

Name: Bastion
Genre: Action RPG
Rating: E 10+
Developed By: Supergiant Games

Published by: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment

Bastion is a two dimensional RPG where the player controls the kid and their every move is narrated by the stranger, better known as Rucks. The player navigates through the environment which is made up of square shaped tiles that fall from the sky as the player navigates through the level. There are also many different enemies that the player will encounter over the course of the game, but the player also has access to a wide variety of weapons to deal with them. One of the most interesting aspects of the game that though there is a main character he never once speaks for the entirety of the game instead the whole story is narrated by Rucks.

Rucks, the Stranger

Rucks is one of the more interesting characters in the game because you never learn much about him other than what he tells you. In fact all the player learns throughout the course of the game about Rucks is that he was in the Celondian military and that he was one of the Mancers responsible for the construction of Celondia's rippling walls and the construction of the Bastion. Rucks also was a mason according to his comment when he says to the kid, "there are only two of us left" when the kid finishes the mason memorial. The Bastion he created was a last resort should the Ura who were the enemies of the Celondians breach their walls or some other catastrophe should take place. The game opens with one of the few survivors of the Calamity waking up on the rippling walls. Soon though you find that the entire story has already taken place and the narrated events are being told to his companion Zia, while the kid goes to his final confrontation. Rucks also gives all of the backstory of everything around you. When you find a new enemy he manages to make you feel bad for it, take this quote for example, "The windbags once kept the Workmen Ward humming along. Now they’re not so friendly." Rucks also has encyclopedic knowledge of the entire world and continually gives the kid advice.

Interacting with Magic The Gathering

Name: Magic the Gathering
Genre: Trading Card Game
Rating: 13+
Original Creator: Richard Garfield
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Magic the Gathering is interesting with its player interaction because there is no one way to interact with the game. Each player has to build a different deck for each game type because the way the players interact with each other is so drastically different in each one. If a standard deck designed for one on one play were to be used in a multiplayer match then they would probably lose because they simply couldn't deal with more than one threat at a time. A deck designed mainly for multiplayer however would get thrashed in a one on one match by just about any deck designed for that simply because multiplayer decks are designed with a certain degree of the no one wants to be the aggressor mentality. In a one on one match this does not matter because the sole goal is to make the person sitting across from you lose, not to survive long enough to win.

Standard

All standard matches revolve solely around player vs. player matches so the decks are usually designed to be as aggressive as early as is humanly possible. This means matches are usually over within ten turns for each player unless they are very evenly matched decks or they are both extremely slow decks. Typically however standard decks are one of two things incredibly aggressive or based around letting your opponent sit there and do nothing ever, those ones are called control decks.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer decks usually have entirely different goals because this game type is based around multilateral competition. In this game type people tend to play the long game by either getting into a strong enough board state that nobody can do anything about them at that point or eliminating those they find most threatening while convincing the other players to not turn on them. That last bit usually requires a bit of smooth talking because nobody wishes to look like the aggressor but at some point there needs to be somebody who loses.

Player Engagement and Shadow of the Colossus

Name: Shadow of the Colossus
Genre: Third-Person Adventure
Rating: T
Developed by: SEC Studios Japan
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Shadow of the Colossus is a third-person adventure game created as a spiritual successor to ICO on the PS2. This game was released in 2005 for the PS2 and again as a new remastered version in 2011 for the PS3. This game proved to be a great success by winning many awards for its game play, art direction and soundtrack. This game engaged players in the game play and also in the art, soundtrack and the story which is something few games manage to do, let alone do it as well as this game has. 

Game Play

The main point of the game centered around finding and killing all 16 Colossi to restore the life of Mono, a mysterious girl that the player knows little about until the end of the game. As the game first starts and the player is set loose to find the first Colossus they realize that they only have a bow, a sword and a horse named Argo. Only the first two can be used in every fight seeing as how the player must sometimes abandon Argo to climb to the top of a mountain to where the Colossus, is or swim through a lake, or even take to the skies. The main thing about the game that always kept players on their toes was that each Colossus was a completely unique creature that had to be interacted with in a new way each time to defeat it. Some of the things that changed from one battle to the next were where the Colossus's weak spots were, how large they were, if the environment around could be helpful, or if the player could get near it easily. But that was part of the challenge, half of the fight was figuring out how to hurt it; the other half was having the skill or patience to pull it off. Figuring this out was puzzle-like in a sense. Even getting to the Colossus itself could be a challenge as well with all of the routes to it never being quite as direct as they look from the start of the journey.

Visuals and Score

The visuals are breathtaking from the landscapes to the architecture to the characters, and especially the Colossi themselves. The art takes you within the world of the Colossus and makes it feel like you are there. Though much of the land you're in is made up of barren wasteland- whether it is rock, sand, or simply dried earth- there are also some smaller segments of living and thriving plant life, like dense woods or waterfalls, for example, giving a glimpse of what the land once was. It all melds together in such a way that you may never realize that a couple minutes ago you were in a forest and now you are on a cliff face. In this way the transitions always feel natural and not forced upon the player. 

The score of the game is just as well done as the visuals with the soundtrack always conveying the feeling of the main character. If the player is climbing a mountain there are thunderous drums or if you are in an open area the music conveys the vast sweeping feel of the area. The music also changes the narrative arc throughout the game with it starting upbeat at the start of the game then later changing casting Wander in a darker light at the end.

Why Super Mario 64 Was Such An Innovative Game

Name: Super Mario 64
Genre: Digital, Platform Game
Rating: K-A
Original Creator: Shigeru Miyamoto
Publisher: Nintendo

Super Mario 64 is a 3D platformer game originally created for the launch of the Nintendo 64 as one of the flagship titles for the console. This was the first true 3D game created--by that I mean a game that freely allowed the player to move in any direction with the full 360 degrees of movement. This game has left a lasting impact on the world of 3D game development by the implementation of a free movable camera and the analog stick, which allowed the player to control Mario .

The Mechanics

Since this game was in a 3D world there had to be a new way of moving and viewing the character; hence the development of the analog stick and a free moving camera. The incorporation of the analog stick allowed players to control the full range of newly available motions found in a 3D world, without it the game would not have been nearly as enjoyable. Take this for an example: if a player were attempting to control Mario with one of the old controllers like a D-Pad then they would only be able to move Mario in one direction at a set speed, but with an analog stick players can instantly change the direction they are going in and control the speed they are going at all times. Not only does this allow for new gameplay that could never have been experienced on prior systems, but it also allows the player to be completely in control at all times to such a degree that the player's skill plays a much larger role in this game. In other platformers players never had to deal with a third dimension, they either had to worry about what was above, beneath, in front of and behind their player or some other combination. Notice that the player never has more than four sides that have to be worried about at one time and generally not all four side are in constant danger. In Super Mario 64 however the player has to keep track of what is in front, behind, to the left, to the right, above and below them at all times otherwise they won't be able to play the game successfully. In order to keep better track of all of these sides there had to be new technology developed to help the player see the 3D world more effectively so for the first time the idea of a static camera that only looked at the player from one direction would make the game far more difficult. To remedy this situation the idea of a camera that moved freely to follow the player was introduced or if the player didn't like the way that worked they could simply control it themselves.

The Story and Setting

Super Mario 64 is set in Princess Peach's Castle, which consists of three floors, a basement, a moat, and a courtyard. The area outside the castle is an introductory area in where the player is first introduced to the controls and that the game is actually being filmed by lakitu who controls the in game camera. As soon as the castle is entered Mario finds out that the 120 Power Stars had been hidden in the paintings in the castle. Many of the castle's paintings are portals to other worlds, in which Bowser has hidden the stars and now Mario has to go in search of the stars to release Peach.

The Game Play

The game play centers around Mario going and working his way through the levels with his new abilities to get the star at the end of each course. Each course is an enclosed world within a painting in which the player is free to wander in all directions and explore the area without time limits. The worlds within the paintings are filled with enemies that attack Mario as well as friendly creatures that provide assistance, offer information, or ask him a favor or to do a task for them, such as the pink Bob-ombs or the mother penguin in one of the snow levels. The mother penguin asks that you find her child and in return sh gives you a star. The Bob-omb will open up cannons around the level to let you get to new areas. Mario gathers stars in each course and many of them only appear after completing certain tasks. The stars often have to be acquired in order, and how to do so is often hinted at by the name of the course. The ways to get the stars can be as difficult as fighting a boss or as simple as gathering coins but also include solving puzzles or getting to a certain part of the stage. The more stars that are collected, the more areas of the castle that become available after each time they beat Bowser. There are also many hidden mini-courses and other secrets in the game, such as the hidden slide area where Mario tries to slide down a ramp within a certain period of time or the area or where the wing cap is first introduced where Mario first learns how to fly. But while Mario is in this new environment he also needs new abilities available to him to help him navigate this area as well as battle enemies such as the wall jump and his new ability to preform a back flip or how each consecutive time he jumps he gets significantly higher.