Hero Machine

RPG type superhero mutant game. 

Here is a male character who has the power to generate fire.  As a result his skin has been melted down to mold against his muscles.  The player has the ability to change what he is wearing and his facial features, but not his fire ability or his fire hair. They can change his weapon as well, although it must be metal for him to use it.

This is a robot character who is very quirky, with laser eyes that can identify and shoot enemies even in disguise.  He has the ability to pick up any weapon and immediately use it without having to learn or adjust his skill, but he does not have much of a personality and can't interact with other people very successfully.  Players can change his weapon and the paint job on his body, and along the way he can be upgraded to include more feature, but he always needs his hat.

This is a female character who is made of crystal.  As she moves she makes chiming noises, which can be annoying when trying to be sneaky. It is useful as a tool to strike fear into enemies, and adoration from fans.  She has the ability to focus light in such a way that it can blind enemies as well as create illusions.  She likes to wear jewelry with different helpful qualities.  For example the player can change her charisma enhancing ring to a light force enhancing necklace.  Her clothing can also be completely adjusted by the player, as well as her hair, despite it being awesome as it is.

Morality/ Amnesia

Game image slideshow

Answers to questions  I can read these aloud or give an overview while the 11 pictures are shown

Game World

The world I created was a small part of a medieval village in front of a castle.  The idea behind this game is a sort of 3D shooter game, but more of an adventure game.  The character (maybe a historian working with artifacts at a museum) is thrown back in time, and can be a male or a female.  They have to navigate this world while trying to fit in, at risk of being branded a witch or something worse.  At the same time they have to find a way to overthrow the evil prince who has taken control of his sick father's throne.  The gameplay would consist of interacting with people and finding places to stay, using weapons to hunt and do jobs, building up to building an army of villagers and knights to overthrow the prince.

So this map is where the player starts out in history, in conspicuously modern clothing.  So the first goal is to change into regular clothes, so that means finding something to dress in.  There are different pieces of clothing scattered around the area to pick up, as well as minor weapons and information about the area.  The character is a historian so he has some knowledge of the time period, it's just about finding when and where he is.  Below is an optional path the character can take out of view of the main square to find less conspicuous clothing.

Manet/Saint-Saens

Powerpoint of Game Idea
Music

A Romantic era France setting with a female protagonist (and female antagonists).  I changed the music from Vivaldi to Camille Saint-Saens since he was contemporary to the storyline, and French!  I only chose Vivaldi because I had about two seconds left.  The pictures are all about the women in them, and the weird way in which they aren't really giving attention to the other people around them.  Suspicious!

Pinball Playfield Exercise

The first pinball game I played was Disney's Wall-E, and it was great.  It was medium to fast paced and had cute sounds, which kept it true to the movie.  It was fairly simple but probably the most complex out of the three games that I played, and fairly easy to get rewarded with points (as well as sounds and lights) for hitting a series of targets.  Since I love computer pinball, I have played a bunch of different kinds, and this is a fairly good version, although typical.  The mechanics seem really good, the responsiveness of the flippers and their angles, but the ball just looks small and I think that takes away a good connection with the game since it is much harder to follow on screen.  As for the playfield components, the wire ramps weren't very long or complex at all, but they had original effects when the ball went through them.  This game was pretty easy and rewarding, as well as fun to play and watch.  I liked this game a lot.  Belowthe playfield components for Wall-E are mapped out and identified.

The next game that I played was RapidMotion pinball, and I thought it was really cool.  It was a non-traditional adaptation of the game, and as such it was pretty confusing at first and I had no idea what I was doing or what was happening.  Honestly, I still don't, but it was pretty fun anyway.  It was really fast paced since the playing area is so small, and basically all the walls were bumpers.  I guess in a way part of the challenge is to first figure out what is happening.  There are three balls on screen, one is bronze and that is the only one affected by gravity.  You interact with it via your flippers, and if it hits one of the other balls that are bouncing around at the top of the circle, they turn bronze instead.  There are different sort of power ups, or maybe they are just points, that you can collect in the center of the playfield that appear randomly.  You ball can be captured in one of three holes at the top that periodically open up, and I guess it is either captured for a time or it is just taken away.  I'm really not sure what exactly happens.  Also your gutter has a shield which depletes each time the ball comes in direct contact with it.  When it is completely gone the ball can fall into it and you lose that ball.  The best part was that there is something wrong with the high score saving system (I think, otherwise there is no real high score list), so it ended up showing that I got the World High Score and was therefore the World Champion.  Awesome!  What a way to reward the player.  (You can see in the screen cap above that the top score listed is, in fact, MY score. Nice!)

Here are the playfield components for RapidMotion:

The last pinball game I played was Starsky & Hutch, and honestly, it sucked compared to the first two.  It was just too fast and the flipper response was like a millisecond too fast as well, so it was pretty impossible to hit the ball and make it go where you wanted it to go.  This reminds me of the early days of computer pinball where the physics just didn't feel right at all, probably because the physics just don't feel right...at all.  Also the sounds are really repetitive and annoying, especially if you lose multiple balls in a rapid sequence "Not cool" "Not cool" "Not cool".  I guess just human voices, especially Ben Stiller's voice, are not ideal if you don't want to antagonize the player. Other than that the playfield was lacking more areas of visual interest besides the three bumpers at the top, especially since the phsyics make it pretty rare to go up a ramp.  It just needed one or two more areas where the ball could interact with some elements.  As you can see below in the map of the playfield elements, there is almost nothing for the ball to interact with in the bottom half of the playfield.

Finally, the questions.

What is "good gameplay" when it comes to pinball design?
I guess in a way it depends on the player and what they prefer, but in general I think good gameplay for pinball is fast paced, absorbing, and has real world physics in its player interactions (so the player has a pretty good idea of what will happen when they hit the ball a certain way).  It should also have many areas of interest to avoid the game from becoming boring quickly.

How do pinball playfield designers create exciting experiences?
To create exciting experiences, they create areas where the player can use skill to complete challenges to earn points.  There are multiple areas and a variety of ways to earn points, to keep the player on their toes.  They also incorporate some element of narrative to make the game more interesting, even if it's only a picture that relates somewhat to the overall theme of the game.  Basically they incorporate "good gameplay" in their design for ramps, bumpers, rollovers, and any other element of the game; they try to make it so that the ball interacts with these elements in exciting ways and with some element of speed.

Cartoon Network Game Creator - Batman

A) What options are available to you as a 'game designer'? 


The options that are available are pre-created characters and basic level designs that can be edited, as well as basic enemies and obstacles, power ups, collectables, etc.  You can set the goal of the level as well. 


B) How are these options provided?


They are preset options that are available in a side panel. The build process is set in steps, so there needs to be basic decisions made prior to actually designing the level itself.

C) What types of elements are provided for you to use to 'build' the game? 


There are environmental elements like water and walls, floors, disappearing platforms and walls, enemies, lasers, missiles, collectibles, teleportation devices, etc.


D) What limits are set on the level of the game play able to be customized?


The limits are the size of the level, it is a very small screen that the character can navigate.  Also there are a set number of options for each step (only a certain number of characters who have certain powers, only one view available, limited number of types of platforms, enemies, types of obstacles, basically everything they give you there is only a small number of options [if any] available to use).


E) What does the process of using these game creators teach about the notion of the 'difficulty and achievement' balance? Explain using an example from your research.


It really shows that the level of difficulty has to be worth the achievement.  For example, there is no achievement really for winning.  So the level of difficulty has to be enough that the player won't die an extreme amount of times before the goal is achieved, otherwise the gameplay is boring and frustrating, and the player will not see the point in trying to continue to play.

King's Cross

This is a two player game where the object is to trap the King before he eats all of your pawns.  The two players take turns moving four defending pieces and eight pawns, while the King moves around by the use of two die rolls.

The game begins set up like so:

The white King starts in one of the four center squares, while two pawns and one defender stem from each of the four corners.  The King can only move North, South, East, and West (board either says which side is which or players agree on the directions); same with the pawns.  There are two knight defenders, and two rook defenders, and they retain their range of movement from the original game of chess, except that they can also move backward. The movement of all pieces, including the king, can go off the side of the board and continue on the opposite side, as long as there is nothing blocking the move.  For example, if a player moved North from the top left corner, the next space it would enter would be the bottom left corner.  If it moved West from the top left corner, it would move to the top right corner, and so on.

The game starts with the King's move, which is two dice rolls or two die.  One roll determines the number of squares it can move (1-6), and the other roll determines the direction it moves (1=N, 2=S, 3=W, 4=E or any agreed upon arrangement).  Then one player moves, and they move first their defender and then a pawn (if they so choose).  The object of the movement is to either block the King from eating a pawn, or to try to trap the King by surrounding it on all four sides.  The other player then moves; they can move the same pieces as the first player if they wish.  Then the King moves again in the same manner.  

If the King runs into a defender, it's turn ends in that spot.  Neither piece is otherwise affected, they just can't move past the other.  In the below example, if the King rolled to move 6 spaces West, it would only be able to move one square before it's movement was stopped.

The game continues on in this way until the King encounters a pawn. In the example below, the King would encounter a pawn if it was moving West as it made this move.  The King only eats a pawn if it is in the path of its movement.

When the King hits a pawn, it eats it and the pawn is gone from the board.  After it eats a pawn, the King earns a new roll.  After the first pawn it eats, it then has two moves per turn (two separate rolls of the two die).  When it eats another pawn, it earns a third move per turn.  The King will continue to move three times per turn until the game is over, even if it eats more pawns.

If the King is blocked on any side at the beginning of its turn, it can't complete a move in that direction.  If it has more than one roll per turn, it has another chance or two to move in another direction. Thus, if it is surrounded on three sides, it has to wait until it gets a roll in the one direction it can move in. 

The game ends when the four defenders successfully surround the King and it can no longer move.  This can appear a number of different ways, since movement can go off the board. All the examples below show a winning board.