Roberto's Bloggerino

B00089106 Robert Byrne Brimage I read about stories in video games.  "Level 8 games and art" questioned "Can games be art?" Fun is not detrimental in having a purpose within a game. A game can be successful without being fun. Other objectives can come before fun. i.e Strategy or story-telling. Many games are simple and small in scope, which gives designers an opportunity to flaunt their skills and establish themselves in the game development world. --------------------- "What every game developer needs to know about story" Talks about how important story is to a game. Story is conflict and intrigues and interests the audience. *Side note* Story is in my opinion becoming less important as gaming is now more accessible due to mobile devices being a gaming platform of their own. Companies are just developing them without story, but more of an addictive high score subject area. Classic Story structures include: Introducing the hero.  Th...

Robert Byrne Brimage B00089106 Week 7 was about "game fun" Game Fun is a nice way of saying "Learning". The aim of Game fun is to out the player in a Flow state ... known as fun. My reading was "Level 7: Kinds of Fun". Different kinds of fun and how they're thought about in video game development in order to make a game fun. In order to make a game fun, it would be wise in development to incorporate the following: Sensation  - A game that takes into thought the potential visual and audible side. an example of this would be the game ABZU. Fantasy - Games are a great medium for make - belief games. These can be more interesting to than the real world alternative. E.G. Skyrim Narrative - A game can have an interesting story that makes the game fun if it is done right. E.G. Red Dead Redemption, John Marston, the protagonist's goal is to return to his wife and son and meets amazing characters along the way. Challenge - A challenging game...

Robert Byrne Brimage B00089106 This weeks reading consisted of learning about the relationship between player and system. This sets video games apart from traditional media. You deal with flow theory and decision making as a systems designer. A games coziness translates as how strong a game can evoke the feeling of safety, softness and abundance. A game that comes to mind for me when I think of these feelings is: Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS. A game about caring for dogs. There is no losing in this game. When considering safety, there will be no danger or risk. No losing is implemented in the game. Abundance means there is quality in the content that is present. Softness refers to the game using a strong aesthetic environment and letting players know they are in a stress free game. There are bad decisions that can be made in a game. These are: Meaningless decisions, they have no effect on game play... therefore meaningless. Obvious decisions: where the decision should at least...

Robert Byrne Brimage B00089106 This weeks reading material consisted of a brief description with information mostly on board games, This will of course benefit my digital game as both need to function as a game. Board games came first therefore there is a lot to learn from them to make your digital games better. Use colors to distinguish items, However choose wisely... picking red and orange in a video game could be detrimental to the user experience. Both colors are similar and different screens show colors differently. Using Red or green however would be more successful. Also, if it isn't broke don't fix it. Make different components distinct from one another. Use a legible and distinguishable font. Photo Info Avoid Clutter, keep the game neat as possible. From reading about the box , I take that the NAME and the BOX art similar with video game cover art both need to be appealing. I will use examples for this. DOOM has a very cool name, but the box art is also eye...

Robert Byrne Brimage B00089106 The MDA Framework consists of Mechanics, Dynamics & Aesthetics . They are casually linked. MDA is a taxonomy for models, There must be knowledge of the interactions between the MDA framework. Properties of good models include: Formal wee defined. Abstract Widely applicable. Proven Known to work. There is more to "fun" What type of fun in particular is present. Different games pursue multiple aesthetics of fun. For Example... Quake and Final Fantasy are both FUN games. However Quake gives: Challenge, Sensation, Competition, Fantasy Whilst FF gives Fantasy, Narrative, Expression, Discovery, Challenge, Masochism. Fun has different mediums. Mechanic Dynamic and Aesthetic compliment each other. You need to have all three to keep the user happy. There is more than meets the eye once again. An excellent read that I was not aware of.

Robert Byrne Brimage B00089106 Good article explaining all elements needed to make a game, a good game. Mario 64 was an excellent example to showcase all elements within a game. Every user plays Mario 64 differently, this game allows the user to do this. It has consistency yet always keeps us entertained due to abstract level design and characters and level goals. But if Mario eats a STAR then he will always get the same power-up and become invincible. The user can predict this and choose to play this way or to not play this way. A quote I'm going to hold onto is: STORY:  The narrative thread, whether designer-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward completion of the game. I love this quote, it's simple and so obvious but brought a light towards in my opinion the most important part of game that is mainly about adventure. Which is possibly what I am going to try to do this year. Another message I have taken from the...