Paper prototyping response…….

according to my experience with paper protopyping in this class i tend to agree with this article but at the same time dissagree.

lets start off with the things that i agree with. paper is a material that is very reliable to work with. if it doesn’t work out for you it ca always be scrapped and a new sheet can be used. in the article it states that we are all used to using paper to make things, draw or sketch things…. this cant be more true…. i believe that for more dificult, or ar at leat games with moderate dificulty in its execution and planning, paper prototyping is a way to go because if its versitility in note taking, basic layouts and initial art work. the fact that paper is cheap is also a big plus when you work with limited software or hardware.  as far as game design aspect and understanding the interaction with the game, as the article said, might not always translate into a a finish product because it might not handle the same as a paper version of the game.

here is where the problem lies. translating a game from paper to digital product can be hard to visualize. often timesthe problem, for me anyway, is the programing portion of the game development. also, as pointed out in the article, is the fact that when working with a digital game you have to consider controls. now controls of the game affect the gameplay tremendously. most often then not the paper prototype controls are manual with hands where button controls are done with a touch of a button… now lets say that the game is not made for the iphone, lets say a playstation, designing the same gameplay experience is vertually imposible…

in conslusion i do believe that there is a time and a place for a paper protopyping in a lot of scenarios. more often then not when you try to make a game that is ment to be translated to a button play of sorts it will symply not translate well and it wont give you the same experience…. this is not to say that there wont be certain aspects of the game that can’t be solved using paper prototypes.

player play test responses. digital game UNTITLED

overall responses vary good. upon play testing we found small glitches that caused an alteration to the game…. look at the digital game revision previous to this blog for details on those revisions. overall responses frustration with the blocking blocks since they kept blocking every single shot..  therefore one of the sprites for the blocking blocks was deleted and the others were recalibrated to provide maximum protection from bullets

digital game challenge revision

Upon play testing i noticed couple of glitches in the game. when i try to erase the score and start all over the blue tank hit variable did not reset the score. 

the speeds of black blocking block sprites wee almost the same thus making the game impossible to play in the middle of the map and way easier to shoot your opponent toward the edges. also the size of the blocking block needed to be increased in order for the bullets to fly through.

Interesting gameplay element. 

i placed a black background of deep space in order to make the blocks vanish and i also changed the color of the ships to white in order for them to show u better. …

sugested further revision

motion of  the ships to move in a semicircular movement.

scratch is limiting in that proces in order to make it possible to do this

decisions decisions challenge 5 player response update

the last time the game was played through there were small hang ups that peple didn’t enjoy. there were not enough diffferent types of cards and they were not played they were acted upon. this time around the people responded better in the sense that they actually enjoyed playing their cards as they see fit but i do need to make the game where you will have to roll the dice or not to see if the card is affective on the other player

digital game challenge

2 player digital game

controls

player 1

move up and down with w and s keys respectivly

fire with q key 

 

player 2

move up and down with up and down arrow keys 

fire with a space bar…

 

Goal of the game 

win by getting to 3o while shooting through moving walls

   problems encountered 

the game did not save on the computers at school note to self save it on a flash drive next time. idiot

Chellenge 5 Test 2 response.

after the second playtest it seams that the game seams to move more slowly however players seam to be responding well to playing with the cards in hand. they seam to anticipate to get to the next stage where they can draw the cards.  the cards need to however be more varied and there also need to be cards that players can hold on to and play at any given time against their opponants. the improved board seams to be working quite well and is easier to read then the previous version.

Decisions Ch 5 Board mod

symple board mod that is devided into 7 or 8 sections( decision will be made after testing) . these sections are going to seperate the board into sections where the origin is the center of the circular board. these sections are going to help tell you when you are going to pull a card out of the deck( look at RISK AND REWARD MOD)

Challenge 5 risk and reward update.

the board is now to be devided into about 7 or 8 sections( to be determined after playtesting)(LOOK AT BOARD MOD BLOG) every time you get into the new section you are to draw a card. cards are devided into positive and negative experiences. the positive cards you can keep with you and use them strategically in order to slow down your opponent, multiply your earnings in cash or life xp, get out of jail etc. it can also place you in the area where you would like to be on the map . your choice as long as its on the same lateral line within the section played at the moment.  the negative cards place you in jail, make you lose points or a percentige of whatever experience or lifexp that you are earning, may launch you forward a section or two without having you collect life experiences and money. will be updated by further testing

Challenge 5 responses.

the basic system which was tested was vary successful and it opperated as immagined. it uses your odds in order to help the ritch stay rich and poor stay poorer. it is difficult to maintain dyour status in the rich population so that is something that needs to get addressed.

the two sets of players that playtested the game seam to be vary into the game struggling to maintain status. that alone is exciting to know that this system is keeping them from maintaining status and winning over the opponant.  the responses over all were grat. the next step is to incorporate the espects or cards that can be usid in order to help out or hynder the players along their jurney

HALO WARS REVIEW

Halo Wars Review

Darko Perisic

Gamedev 3-9-2009

Although not developed by Bungy Studios, Halo Wars stays true to the Halo franchise aside from some new additions. There are new various types of vehicles that you can upgrade throughout the coarse of the game. The new developer, Ensemble Studios, did a great job to make sure that the action in Halo Wars RTS is as fast paced as the original Halo FPSs. This is usually done by timers in which you have to rush to collect supplies and build structures and units. For a first go at a Halo RTS is certainly not that bad. The only thing that holds it back is the depth at which the characters can be upgraded. Most of these units have one or two separate upgrades that can be applied. This keeps things simple without overwhelming you with all the buttons and upkeep you would have to do. It is certainly simplified for the x box controller thus making those new to the RTS genre more comfortable to pick up and play.

Story.

The events of Halo Wars take place roughly 20 years before the original Halo story. It follows the crew of the ship called The Spirit of Fire and one crew member in particular, Sergeant Forge. With that said your main objectives which usually don’t vary much, include either saving stranded fellow marines or destroying enemy bases in order to build your own on top of them. In connection to the story the missions actually make sense. The objectives usually move in the direction of the story while at the same time you hear chatter from the command of the Spirit of Fire telling you that there are new objectives and other events happening around the universe.

Presentation

Although not quite up to par to the visuals of Halo 3, the explosions and the amount of chaos happening on one screen at one time, with no frame rate issues, is amazing. The best visuals in this game are between mission cut scenes that almost look realistic but not real thus to not take you out of the game like other games would like Command and Conquer. There are also some cut scenes that are done via in game graphics at a vary close range which makes clipping and pixelaton an issue.

Game play

Somewhat repetitive would be the best way to describe it. The units move at their given speed although if you mix the units it moves as slow as the slowest unit in the group. Also, if you want to move a group of units through another group, the units will not stack up to move out of your way in which case you have to manually shift people around in order to transfer another group of units to a different part of the map. Another small issue is the lack of objective diversity you do the same thing pretty much all throughout the game move, fight, build a base, collect supplies and fight some more then repeat. Where strategy comes into play is where you can build multiple bases on one map you can have one base strictly be a supply depot while the other one can be a full on assault platform.

There is also the elephant where you can train infantry units on the move. Although one of my favorite fighting vehicles in Halo 3, the elephant is rally not a good offensive machine. Its really slow and often times is not equipped with multiple turrets to dispatch enemy infantry. One major problem with the game is it doesn’t allow you to make whatever units you want for example you can’t make Spartans at all during the game but in most missions you start out with two or three of them.

The good.

Halo Wars does a great job to immerse you in the halo universe. With a great and simple control scheme it is accessible for anyone to play. The units are vary responsive and you can place them exactly where you want it to. The units visually upgrade and they really do make a difference in combat. Being that its an RTS there are several vary important things you want to consider when you walk into a match. In most cases you will not be just able to rush and gun. You have to have a diverse set of units to cover all angles. Not only that but you will have to retreat, flank and sometimes go in head on with brute force. Thank God there is no friendly fire.

The Bad

The in-game cinematic have a bad clipping issue.

The units often times get stuck behind buildings or other vehicles.

There is only so many units you can have and in some cases certainly not enough.

The story line is entirely too short. It can easily be beaten in 5 to 6 hours.

No real depth in training units.

The base can not be fortified with walls you only have some turrets that do a descent job but more customization would be nice.

No real replay value.

Last but certainly not least YOU CAN NOT TRAIN SPARTANS.

Closing comments

For a halo series it was a little disappointing but still a lot of fun. The game is vary addicting since it pulls you in and doesn’t let you go from beginning to end. There was no appearances from any major halo characters which was sort of disappointing. Also, there is really no extensive look at how or why the war began, it just throws you into the conflict itself. What it does have is a timeline in a menu that lets you look at different events from the war shortly after it started. I had fun with the game it had a vary good flow it was just too short to be worth the purchase.

 

OVERALL SCORE 6.99ish