Games Testing

This week I've been reading various articles on the general concept of play testing (http://theclosetentrepreneur.com/giving-criticism-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly). When it comes to giving criticism, some of us can be very shy and timid while others can be very blunt and outspoken, but if there is one thing we all share in common when it comes to actually giving criticism, it’s that most people aren’t very good at it! For instance, have you ever been asked for your thoughts on something only to say “I like it!” when deep down you actually don’t like it at all? Or, have you ever criticized someone/something and it led to an argument? Unfortunately, it’s in our nature to let our emotions speak first and our logic speak second, and this can sometimes lead to some problems when left unchecked. (https://www.keengamer.com/article/20183_video-game-criticisms-need-for-change)

The good form of criticism is also known as constructive criticism, it offers valid feedback both positive and negative. Giving constructive criticism can provide much needed assistance to someone by giving them feedback on things that can be improved and issues that can be avoided. Giving constructive criticism can also help determine your credibility and expertise by ensuring that you know what you’re talking about. Anyone who benefits from your critiques will be more likely to give you credit in some way or form for playing a part in their success. Constructive criticism can also keep feelings from being hurt by focusing on things that can be improved while avoiding personal attacks or insults. (http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/05164.32231.pdf) 
The most important thing to keep in mind when critiquing other people’s work is to focus on valid and unbiased feedback. By this kind of feedback, we’re talking about feedback that is tangible, credible, well-founded, and free of individual opinion or personal tastes. The theory behind this, is that your criticism is focused on concrete feedback instead of personal tastes or opinions, as everyone has a different opinion on how something should be done. Another important thing to keep in mind is to make your criticism clear, understandable, and relevant. Giving criticism can be stressful enough, so try not to make it worse by being vague and have the conversation spiral out of control. If you’re going to criticize someone’s logo, elaborate on what exactly needs improvement or could be better (is it the font, letter-spacing, line-spacing, contrast, hue, size, style, alignment, etc.) If your only response is “I don’t like it”, then chances are you’ll start an disagreement. The less ambiguous and more clear your criticism is, the better your chances of getting your feedback across and helping out your friend/acquaintance.

Image from Pixabay

Games Stories.

This week, I've went onto read various articles on stories & games, where they explain the different storylines, different objects/items they used, etc. For example, Gamasutra's "The Blue shell and its discounts" (https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/218696/the_blue_shell_and_its_discontents.php), features everything wrong with the Blue Shell from Mario Kart, yes, that spiny blue shell power-up that's taunted players since its second iteration in 1996 (as you can tell I'm also a victim). It's a pickup item sometimes given to players who are far behind in a race, which hones in on the leader, bringing delight to any player that's far behind. While all of us refer to the Blue shell as such, it's actually called "Spiny's Shell" as explained so in the Mario Kart 64 manuals.

⤷ Another article I've read in relation to this topic is how Nintendo has doubled it's first-party game sales in 2019 compared to 2018 during the same six-month period (https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/353259/Nintendo_has_nearly_doubled_its_firstparty_game_sales_in_2019.php). According to Nintendo, they've sold approximately 14-15 million copies of first-party titles during the period between April and September of 2018, but in 2019 however, that number of games sold in the same time period has spiked to over 20 million! In the briefing, Nintendo's credited games like Fire Emblem: Three houses, Super Mario Maker 2, and the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for spiralling its growth.

⤷ And lastly, I thought I would mention this article aswell and also coming from Gamasutra, Nintendo has launched a monthly subscription for its free-to-play mobile game Mario Kart Tour that offers players to earn more in-game rewards in exchange for 5 euros a month! (and you are certainly right to assume I have that pass too)(https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/351131/Nintendos_freetoplay_mobile_Mario_Kart_now_offers_a_monthly_subscription.php). Those that buy into the Gold Pass receive access to a faster, 200cc mode in-game and can earn additional in-game rewards while playing the tours for the duration of their subscriptions, such as limited-edition characters/skins, more karts, gliders, or even its currencies! (coins and/or diamonds).

Source; Pixabay

Week 9 Reading & Writing.

Overall, I think the reading and writing assignments were working quite well for me. I've learned a lot about the different aspects of game design and there is much more behind it, ranging from GDD's, MDA's, MUD's and so on and so forth. I now know there is a lot more work put into game design. My favourite reading thus far would possibly be based on game elements, where I done further research on gamasutra.com, thegamesjournal.com and even on reddit.com, as I got to question myself on what really makes a game fun, what qualities it must have, and what unique elements a game must contain in order to be classified as "fun". Reddit has also taught me all the errors in a bad game and how to overcome them, from unclear and bad gaming controls, to unnecessary features such as ugly user interfaces. Some games even feature extremely long and unneeded tutorials, and if a player can't play the game fast enough, they usually lose interest. I'm definitely going to try to avoid this, as I'd like my game to be "fun" and fresh. The reading notes do help me in creating my game, as I've put more thought into coming up with my own unique concepts to include into my game, so it would then be more entertaining for  game players. Also learning about the design, development, technicalities and criticism of a game put me into a much more critical mindset so I could push myself to create a much better game. I've discovered doing further research into other articles aswell as reading the ones given to us, help me understand the topics a lot more and already answer my questions. I'm very happy with my game project idea, I think it's a unique concept and I haven't seen something done before (there have been similar concepts but I don't think there are any about raising awareness on global warming and becoming more sustainable). My biggest accomplishments for the class, would be creating the actual game. At the start of the semester I had no idea what unity was, how to use it, the complications of game design, all of it. I now have a much greater understanding on each and every one of these topics, and am quite proud of myself that I am nearly finished with a fully functional game on a topic that's relevant to me.

Reading, Week 6 image.

I chose this image as one of my favourite images from my previous reading notes, as it is very clean, and sticks to minimalistic colours. This image also represents how me and my friend, Ellie, usually work on assignments together (but instead of coffee and overpriced snacks, its a Caesar salad wrap and a Diet Coke for me, and good old Navan roll for her). I also love the artsy aspect to it, and the decorations are placed in a way the scene still seems neat (oddly enough?).  I'm very excited to do further readings and research that benefit my game, and I am as excited to complete it!

Game fun.

Not long ago, I came across several articles related to MUD games (http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm). An ‘MUD’ is a multi player real-time virtual world that’s typically text-based. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat. Most MUDs can be traced all the way back to Trubshaw's 1978 game called “Bartle, 1990” and “Burka, 1995” and, possibly because of this legacy, the vast majority are regarded as ‘games’ by their players (https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf). There are four things that people typically enjoy about MUDs. Achievement within the game, where players give themselves in-game-related goals, and set out to achieve them. This usually means collecting and disposing of big quantities of high-valued treasure, or cutting a through hordes of mobiles (such as monsters built into a virtual world). The exploration of the game is another one too, where players try to find out as much as they can about the virtual world. Another thing would be socializing with others, where players use the game' communicative services, and apply the role-playing aspect, as a setting in which to interact with their players (https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-7-introduction-and-readings). MUD’s also support a much more formal approach to design. This allows us to aim specifically towards specific design goals, and to expect changes that impact each feature of the framework and it’s executions. There are also three levels of abstraction, we can theorize the dynamic behavior of game systems. Understanding games as dynamic systems help us develop our techniques for designing and improvement, and allows us to control for any undesired outcomes, and tune for desired behaviour.

Gaming.

Games Decisions.

A little while back, I've come across some articles talking about decision making and the flow theory (https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-6-introduction-and-readings), that I find quite interesting. Lots of difficulties associated with making a huge multi player online game, comes in several parts. An ‘MMO’ (Massive Multi player Online game) is particularly delicate to create due to technical reasons involving ‘server scaling’, as well as designing issues involving scaling economics, politics, level design, pacing, persistence, and progression. (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2247/e6a3f394bf389c7ffe1c8dbbcf05eff86265.pdf). Many early ‘MUD’s (Multi-User Dungeons) involve populations of dozens-to-thousands of people and still have vibrant communities thus far. Minecraft, for instance, is wildly successful, despite its reliance on relatively small, instanced server, and other games, such as Fortnite, that successfully limit their focus to matches of 100 or less. There are plenty other game genres, in particular action and strategy games, that haven’t been successfully scaled to the massively multi player realm thus far. The main reason is that these games meet different requirements in terms of scalability than an already scalable role-playing genre: in particular, it’s player densities. When researching to make human-scale systems, there are several key concepts based on social psychology, each providing a set of restrictions on social design (https://lostgarden.home.blog), and it’s quite obvious it all comes down to friendships and social circles.

Friendship.

Games GDD

I've recently come across several articles on the early stages of the designing process (https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-5-introduction-and-readings). When deciding what to include, I tend to constrain my own ideas and concerns that don’t actually need extra time (i.e perfecting it to a T). Something I really love about games is their physical presentation, I'm more likely to appreciate one that has a lot of thought put into its design principles, such as its box, its rules and its components. The design mechanisms can go a long way in shaping how much a game can really be adored (http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/DesignConsiderations.shtml). For the most part, the design of the box really has nothing to do with how a game is played, but there are still problems to take into account. A lot of first impressions of a game come from the box ,and so a good design will go a long way into advertising it. Keeping in mind, but writing clear and short rules to a game does seem like it should be a simple task, until one really tries it. In fact, I think it's a very tough process and one of the trickiest things to get right. No matter how great a job I do, somewhere, someone is going to misunderstand them. With this in mind, there are some overall principles that can help minimize problems. Examples of this would be to include a detailed list of components and to not intentionally write vague rules, as this can make it more difficult for gamers to understand the controls and objectives of your game (http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/1415/the_game_design_process.php).

Designing.

Games MDA

Recently, I've came across a few articles talking about the different mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics of games (https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf). MDA is a much more formal approach to understanding video games, and differentiates game design and development, the technicalities and the criticism of a game. Reading webpages like these really get me thinking as to what makes a game "fun"? Any game can be labelled so, but there's a much more in-depth explanation for this, such as if the game was more sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression or submission-based. 

⇸  http://gamedevelopertips.com/mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics-game-design-theory-behind-games/, shows the dynamics of a game. Dynamics work to produce much more aesthetic experiences, for instance, challenges created by the likes of time pressure and rivalry-gameplay. Friendship can be encouraged by sharing information between specific members in a team, or even providing winning conditions that are much more difficult to achieve alone (such as capturing an enemies base). 

⇸  Lastly, https://medium.com/@jenny_carroll/using-the-mda-framework-as-an-approach-to-game-design-9568569cb7d, goes into the specifics of mechanics in a game. The mechanics describe a particular component, action, behaviour or control mechanisms of a game, using the level of data representation or even algorithms. Together, with the games content, the mechanics maintain the overall game's dynamics. In conclusion, I believe it's a much more helpful technique as it's given me a better understanding on how too categorise games and how changes can impact each aspect of a game's structure. In addition, I am now better at being able to break down those experiences, and use them to create new designs, research, and critique respectively.

Mechanics.

Game elements

I've recently came across some articles talking about the atomic elements and the qualities of a game that I find rather interesting. Games do have a repetitive theme, and each game has its own set of rules, it's own conflict, various choices, and its own goals.

↬ https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal_abstract_design_tools.php  discusses the formal abstract design tools and whether a game is "fun" or not, which I quite agree with. Whether a game is fun or not comes from a thorough and unbiased outlook on a game, and simply stating if a game is "fun" does not actually tell designers why it actually is entertaining. In turn we should be able to a pick a specific game, choose a single cool aspect from it and apply it to our own game, or even take a game that we love "if it weren't for one annoying aspect" understand why it bothers us, and make sure we don't create a similar mistake in our very own games. I think this is a very interesting approach to game design and I'll definitely be sticking to it.

↬ http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatMakesaGame.shtml covers some very interesting topics on what actually makes a game good. For instance, it would have to be an original concept and has to possess unique elements that have never been used before, otherwise gamers would be considering playing other games as they would have the same concept with a more advanced approach. The freshness and replayability of a game makes its players want to play it again and again, and it should feel exciting each time it's played as it was the first time.  Games lacking this quality will soon becoming boring. Games should also be enriched with surprised and repetition in sequence, progress and events should be strictly avoided.

↬ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/64z7w8/what_are_the_qualities_that_make_up_a_bad_game/ features all the errors in a bad game and how to overcome them, from unclear and bad controls, to unnecessary features like ugly user interfaces. Some games also feature extremely long and unneeded tutorials, and if a player can't play the game fast enough, they'd lose interest, meaning your game is probably too complicated/complex and you'd need to tone down the specifics. 

Complex Terrain.

Game Design

After doing some research online about what a "Game" and what "Game design" really is, it got really thinking about how complex the whole industry really is. A game will always have a start to end, have various tasks to do/choices to make, own rules and goals etc. and that's only some perks (http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatIsaGame.shtml). After reading this article, I was given a better understanding of a concept of a game, and got me to think more about the different components and criteria for a future game I plan to develop. It encouraged me to think about a better lay-out, different scenarios a player can encounter and even the rules of the game. I also got to learn about the history of games, starting from the early 1900's such as tic-tac-toe and chess, to more advanced gameplay today by the likes of "World of Warcraft".

↺ I've also done some follow-up reading in a blogpost called; "Don't Be a Vidiot; What Computer Game Designers Can Learn From Non-Electronic Games " (http://www.costik.com/vidiot.html), where I got to learn about the enormous gaming industry and it being a field for originality and creativity. For someone who's very educated in both software and games, it is a very confusing development, and there is so much one can do, from audio development, to creating your first character for players to enjoy.

↺ Lastly, I got to go in-depth in researching about game design on http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LewisPulsipher/20110516/7453/So_Youre_Going_To_Make_A_Game_For_The_Very_First_Time.php. I've never really noticed but game developers will most likely re-create their game from someone else, because it's very rare to come up with an original storyline nowadays with the endless amount of games everybody has access to. Realistically, a game developer would have to focus on the gameplay rather than the appearance because players are drawn to storylines rather than the art of the game.