Racing Genre

       

Today's topic is about Genre. There  are really many genre out there. After looking through the following game genres, I have decided to choose "Racing". I used to be a huge fan of racing. Anyways, There are many types of vehicle in a racing game. These vehicles may be any form of air, land or even seas vehicles. There are over 2000 games being released by various gaming companies. I have created a “timeline”. that indicates games that were known!

PART 1:

PART 2:

As it is mentioned in the timeline, the first racing game was created by Atari. As years passed by, many companies created different form of racing games.  Some racing games may be simple as just controlling the car by pressing the arrow keys. Certain games tend to have more mechanics than other types of car racing games.


Overall, all the car races can be either 1^st person or 3^rd person perspective and it can be any form of sub-genre such as sports racing or street racing.

Is game design a form of play?

I personally think that “Game design is a form of “Play”.  The term “Play” is defined as “Play is the free space of movement within a more rigid structure”.  Scholar Roger caliilois has classified “Play” into four different parts. They are:

Type	Definition	Examples
Agon	Competitive play	Chess, rugby, find four
Alea	Games of chance	Roulette,  Bingo, slot machine
Mimicry	Role playing  or Simulation	Dragons and Dungeon, final fantasy,
Ilinx	Playing with physical sensation of vertigo and risk taking.	Flying fox and dancing, rock climbing.

Not only that, Caillois had stated that games can be also defined in this way:

Type	Definition
Paidia	No rules! Wild, free form, uncontrolled fantasy
Ludus	Rule bound, regulated, formalised.

Basically, games can be classified under any of the mentioned sector.  A game does not necessarily need to fall in one specific category. For an example, Cluedo (board game) can be classified under Alea as the players’ uses dice to make their moves. At the same time, it can be considered as Agon as it is a competition between players to solve a mystery.

Heading back to the main question, I personally feel that game design is actually form of free play.  Game design can fall under the category of Ilinx and mimicry.

It falls under IIlnix as the game designer is taking a risk while developing a game.  Game designers might not know whether the gamers will like and play the game. Hence, it will be under Illnix.

Mimicry is included during the creation of a game. They have to be in character in order to find out on how the game is going to be like.  Role playing may help the designer to develop their characters in a way that fits into a game.

If a game designer is limited within a box, then it falls under the Ludas. Within the rule bound, the designer is not given much of choice to create a game. When the game designers are allowed to think out of the box,there will be no rules to make a game plan. Hence, the designer is given a choice to create a game in the given freedom. This is known Paidia.

Overall, I feel that game design can be classified as a play.

Cluedo

The game “Cluedo” deserves the title of “A thousand Year Game”. Cluedo is a mystery or murder themed board game.  It requires about 2 to 6 players to play.  The story line begins with a murder. “Dr. Black was found dead on Saturday evening at approximately 8.45pm. The body was found at the foot of the stairs leading to the cellars, on a spot marked "X". Miss Scarlett found the body. Apparently, her screams were heard in the village nearby! Does Miss Scarlett protest too much? Cause of death has yet to be determined, but there are several likely objects around the house that could have been used.

The objects are: Dagger (found in the lounge),Candlestick(found in the dining room) ,Revolver (found in the study) ,Rope  (found in the ballroom) Lead Pining ( found in the conservatory)  and Spanner  (found in the kitchen)The Chief suspects that it have to be the guests who were here  for the weekends. They are: Prof. Plum (Purple), Mrs. White (White),Mrs. Peacock (Blue), Miss Scarlett (Red),Col. Mustard (Yellow)  and Rev. Green (Green) , 

                                  

                                   credits:http://edtec670.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/clue-game1.jpg

 At the start of the game, the will be three different decks of cards. They are separated according to suspects, weapons, and rooms.  A player will choose randomly one suspect, one weapon and one room card from the three sets of cards.

These chosen cards will then be placed in a special envelope, so that nobody will be allowed to see them as it represents the answer to the case. The remaining cards are then evenly distributed among the players. After distributing the cards, the player is allowed to select any characters (tokens) they wish to represent.  To move their tokens, the players need to roll the dice.They are allowed to move their tokens in any direction they want except diagonally. Every player is given a checklist (a list of all the cards in the game.) The player is allowed to tick off any clue they are given. The main aim of this game is to find out the murderer and the cause of the murder (the cards in the envelope).

Credits:http://www.smartfellowspress.com/First_of_Sheila.htm 

When a player is trying to give the details of the murder, He or she will try to tell his/her suggestion. For an example “I think it was Mrs peacock, in the kitchen, with a rope.” At that moment, the player needs to place the tokens that were mentioned in the room she/ he stated. Then, the player sitting on the right must disagree with the statement, by showing only one of the cards (suspect, room, and weapon) secretly to that player who made the statement. This will then prove that the card in not in the envelope.  

                                           

                                          Credits:http://www.silysavg.com/gamesandparts/clue/itempics

Once a player managed to narrowed down the solution, that player is allowed to conclude. The player will proceed to check the cards in the envelope, without letting any players to see it. If that player makes a wrong conclusion, He or she is to leave the game. If the player makes the right conclusion, he or she must show the solution cards to the other players and the game ends here!

Though the rules may be straight, there are some challenges in the game. As a player is given limited card, He or she is not given much clues to start with. Not only that, the player needs to think a lot before making an accusation, as they are given only a chance in each round. If they make the wrong accusation, they are wasting their chance of getting to the answer which may benefit the other players.

The climax of the game is when all the players are getting close to finding out who is the player. Any of the players may know who the killer is, and each player wants to be winner of a game. At the same time, they do not wish to make the wrong decisions.If they make the wrong decision, they have to the leave the game. Therefore, that moment will be very stressful for the entire players.

Overall, I think it is a good game, as I feel that it has very good storyline, it can be played many times as there are many possibilities of Dr black murder, and it has many challenges. There is also a climax in the game (the part when the player makes an accusation and checks the envelope). It does not require any luck at as it is all about logic. All a player needs to do is to think carefully before making their moves.

Therefore, I feel that this game deserves :A thousand year game title".

Sonic Rivals

There are really many types of good games out there in the market. Out of the many good games, I have decided to choose “Sonic Rivals”. Sonic rival is a simple and exciting game. The game consists of “One to one foot” races in many complicated stages. There are roughly 6 different types of world in the game. All a player need to do is to defeat their enemies and their opponents to get to the next level. During a race, players are allowed to collect “Power ups” such as ice cube to use them to temporarily stop their rival on tracks. By slowing down their rival, it gives a player a greater chance to win.

 Not only those, the characters are allowed to collect as many rings as possible before their opponents gets it.  After completing a race, the players get to few trading cards which could be traded with other sonic players through Wireless play!

The story begins, when a mysterious land mass known as “Onyx Island” suddenly appears out of nowhere. Sonic, the blue hedgehog and Tails a sidekick finds out that Dr Eggman an evil Villain is up to something. After finding out that the evil villian has developed a special camera that he uses to snap a picture and turn them into a trading cards,  it is up to sonic to help his friends who were turned into trading cards. Sonic has to go through many obstacles and defeat a handful of bosses ( big machines). However, sonic is not the only one who is after the villian.  Shadow, Knuckles and Silver wants to defeat Dr Eggman in their own ways. Hence, this becomes a mad race between headhogs to see who get to the Mad scientist (Dr Eggman) first.

                                                credits:http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/File:Dr.Eggman_-_Artwork_-_(1).png

There also certain obstacles in the game that does not make it very convenient for a player to win.  There are a lot of hazards in each stage. There are enemies to hit or attack you using power ups, jump on your character to make your characters to lose the rings that you have earned, pits to fall into and spikes to poke.  A player needs to dodge all this obstacles, and attack the opponents in order to win the game.

                               credits:http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2012/07/review-sonic-rivals-psp.html

There are three modes in the sonic game. They are “story mode”, “Challenge” and “Cup circuit”. Players are given a chance to choose the mode they wish to play. Each mode has different number of stages to complete. Every time a stage is being completed, the player is allowed to collect trading cards and unlock certain special items such as boots for the headhogs!

The game supports up to two players via connection or both players need to have a copy of the game.  When players compete with other players (instead of A.I.), the graphics get a little more slower, but when you compete with A.I It runs really well. The speeds of the characters are fast compared to playing in wireless mode!  Hence, this game runs better when it is played with Artificial intelligence. 

I personally think this a good game, as it has a clear storyline, a really fine graphics, a great opportunity to choose from three types of mode and level of difficulties. Not only that, after passing the first few stages, my rival changes to another character! I like this idea as I feel that by changing the character, it just makes a game more challanging to play. Imagine playing a game against the same enemy?

 It somehow makes it less interesting. I also enjoy collecting the trading cards! I just dislike the boss level. The boss level is a really annoying level for me. I have to defeat a giant robot by jumping over it's weak point. During this challange, I usually cheat by restarting the level, so that I will not lose out the trading card and defeat the giant robot before my rival does! Anyways, I also like the way how you are allowed to attack or defeat your rival! It tend to make me think more on how to set up my power ups, so that I can slow down my character. Overall, it is one of the games that everyone should play!

credits:http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2012/07/review-sonic-rivals-psp.html

Smurf Village

                 

1)Pick a “non-game” and analyse the Formal Elements of it.

After looking through some of the non-games, I have decided to choose "Smurf village”. It is a free social game that allows a player to build his/her village. Not only this, the players are allowed to visit random villages and their friend's village. As it is an iPhone/iPad/Android game, all a player needs to do is to tap on the screen in order to control the game.

The content of the game is to help the blue characters (Smurfs) to rebuild their home after Gargamel an evil villain discovers them and scatters the Smurfs throughout the forests. When “Papa Smurf” and a group of smurfs find an empty spot at the forest, they will decide to build a new village together in the hopes that other smurfs will find their way home.

At the start of the game, the player is only given a small plot of land to build the village. As we move up the levels, the player is allowed to pay a certain amount of smurf money for the land expansion. However, it takes time for the player to expand their village.

 During the first few level, Papa Smurf and Brainy Smurf will guide a player on how to play and where to find the necessary items. In these levels, other well known characters such as Jokey and more will be introduced. Each of these special characters help a player in the game in their own unqiue ways.

The players will not only build a village, but  they will have to complete mini challenges and puzzles to earn smurf money, “XP”  and unlock certain things such as Smurfberries. "XP" can be defined as level of experience a player have in order to get to another level. Smurfberries are used to buy special products such as large Tiki lamp. Apart from this,Smurfberries are also mainly used to speed up the building process. The central of Smurf village, is to grow different types of crops such as tomatoes blueberries, etc. Each of the crops have various timing.

 For an example, blueberry crops takes about 30 seconds to be grown, whereas a raspberry crops takes about 5 minutes to grow.  The game plays with"real time", so this makes the players to check back on the harvest constantly.

                   

When their crops are being sold for money, the players can use it to buy mushroom houses, bridges, lamp post and many other things. The mushroom house is built so that new smurfs can enter the village.  However, if the crops are not being harvest on time, their goods will withered.

The real time is a major problem for players, as it affects them to achieve their goals. The players at times need to wait for hours in order for their crops to be harvest or their house to be built. As it was mentioned earlier, Smurfberries could be used to speed up the harvesting and building of infrastructure. Then why can’t the players use it to speed things up? Well, the Smurfberries comes in a limited quantity. If you need more Smurfberries, you have to purchase it by using credit card/debit card to pay online.

Overall, in order to play this game, one needs to earn money through crops and mini games. The money can’t be easily earned, unless the player is willing to buy using real money.  So, what happens after completing all the levels? Well, you can continue playing by harvesting crops and re arranging things in the village. Or you could simply press the restart button on the menu, and start the game all over again!

2) suggest how you would modify the "non game" into "a game" that fits into the definition we covered this week.

Smurf village can be modified from a “non-game” into a game by changing certain things. Non- game can be defined as games which lacks of challenges, goals and objectives, which allows the player to set up their own goals.

Though the objective is to build a village, it seems to be vague. By creating more  objectives and goals it will also be more challenging for the player. For an example, the villian’s cat could  be disguised as a smurf. When the Smurfs finds out the truth that there is a spy among them, they will have to find ways to track down who is the spy or else the cat will slowly destroy the crops and the houses.

The objective of adding an evil character is for the player to think and find ways to remove the cat so that he/she can continue to build hos or her village.  More goals can be included to make it more
captivating for a player. An example of a goal would be, “Build 5 mushroom houses within three days to unlock a" special character”.

Hence, by adding such goals, and more objectives, I personally think that this non game will turn into a game!