Tuesday, February 25, 2014

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.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

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.