Art-108

Alyssa Castaneda's (temporary) blog for Fall 2021's Art-108 class. 

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Blog Post 9: Course Reflection

I don’t really play games. I enjoy a few but it is not something I have dedicated a significant amount of time to. Because of this, my prior knowledge of game studies was very limited. I struggled immensely trying to create an interesting and fun board game that wasn’t just based on luck. Though I am still a novice in the study, I think I have learned a lot and expanded my knowledge of games. I think the most relevant information I have learned would be the MDA framework for game analysis. It’s fascinating to see the components of a game and learn how they work together, from designers and players perspectives. I would also say that through this course, I learned how to create a game. The final especially has been my first ever attempt at creating a game for myself. I feel very accomplished for creating a game within a program I had never used before (RPG Maker). Despite the learning curve, I have come to love the program, and am enticed to continue using it for future projects.

It was amazing to see the games and content created by my classmates. Looking over all the games has given me a new appreciation for game development. I thoroughly enjoyed this class, and everything it has taught me.

(The image above is a screenshot of project 2's game development (Space Chase) in collaboration with Bryse Rochester).

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Blog Post 8: Final Project

Marija is an RPG that revolves around a young girl who gives birth to an alien-like, monstrous stillborn at a sleepover. The player must find a way to discard the thing before her friends, and especially her friend’s mother, finds out. The player will encounter personified plushies that will help you throughout the game.

The game is supposed to touch on puberty from a naive, young girls point of view. The story distorts the actual occurrences in the game. Marija doesn’t actually give birth, instead has her first period. She begins to have painful cramps; assuming she just needs to go to the bathroom to relieve herself, her period slips right out of her on the bathroom tiles. She sees it as fleshy, disgusting, and motionless. Having no knowledge of the developments of puberty, Marija is disgusted and confused about the natural occurrences happening to her. This is where the real game begins. Marija, still just a child, spends the night looking for a way to hide her revolting mess from her friends who would surely make fun of her for it. Her imagination brings life to ordinary plushies who attempt to her her through her situation.

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Blog Post 7: JackBox Game: Push the Button

Push the Button is game that only works if you cooperate with each other. The interesting thing about this game, which maybe isn’t rare, is the need to cooperate even with the enemy players.

The game had a slow start, I think early due to the fact that we are all stagers to each other, as well because the hame is unconventional. The point of the game is to play mini games that help weed out enemy players to save the entire crew. Each player has only once chance tactilely eliminate any alien suspected players. I think due to this, most players were not quick to press the button until they had more concrete suspicions. In the end, the alien players won the game. The nonhuman players could not come to collective agreements as to who the enemies were.

The audience aspect of this game is interesting. A majority of online games do not have a spectator mode; you must be participating in the game o watch. Push the Button specifically has two forms of audiences: the invisible, non participating audience, and the in-game players when they are not participating In the mini games. I wouldn’t normally call the players an audience, but the online, virtual aspect of the game creates spectators out of everyone watching, unlike in real life.

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Blog Post 6: Space Chase

Space Chase is a topdown space shooter where you must dodge enemy fire and collect pick-ups to survive. Programmed by Bryse Rochester and art assets created by Alyssa Castaneda (me). There is no music/sound to credit at this time.

The game utilizes arrow keys/WASD to move the ship, and either left click or spacebar to shoot. Enemies are randomized to attack and you must shoot at them to destroy them before they destroy you. You can collect pick-ups to help you in your mission. Pick-ups include a health boost to restore some health, a bullet pick-up that allows you to multiply the amount of rounds that can be shot at a time, and a shield pick-up that will neutralize one damage done by an enemy.

Current "issues" with the game include the inertia of the ship. The motion propelling it is precise; considering the location, there should be some lagging motion that comes from navigating the ship. Additionally, there is no way to "win" the game. There are no bugs, however, if you continuously dodge enemies without eliminating them, eventually the game generates an overwhelming amount of enemies and the game crashes. Lastly, though maybe not very noticeable, there were issues with the ratio, so the yellow border of the game is cut off at the top.

The game includes a detailed end screen that relays the number of enemies you destroyed, your score, and how long your game lasted. This promotes players to play consecutive games to beat their previous attempts.

Since the alpha testing, I would say that the game currently can stand alone as a playable game, where as before there was no title screen, no instructions and no real ending. Additional art assets were needed to flesh out the game, and other programming fixes were fixed, such as the screen ratio and in-game boundaries.

In the final version, there is a slight attempt at story-telling through the scenes. The use of the pink moon is in all backgrounds. In the title screen, we see the cusp of the moon, and an animated yellow comet in the left corner. In game play, as you fly around, you can get a glimpse of the comet hitting the moon; the chaos ensuing from the comet crash and the compiled chaos from the enemy ships is not very clear in connection but there was an attempt. Lastly, in the game-over title scene, the comet has destroyed the moon and you along with it. Had we had a "win" title, it would have shown your ship flying away from the explosion. If I were to continue this game as the artists, I would ensure of this final scene, as well as try to make the narrative clearer.

Overall, I would personally say the game is a success. It is not perfect or addicting to play, but it does offer a playable and fairly enjoyable game. This is the first ever video game I have worked on. I learned a lot about the process and I got very lucky having a great partner and programmer.

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Blog Post 5: First Playable

Space Chase, created by myself, Alyssa Castaneda, and Bryse Rochester, is a top down spaceship shooter in which players must blow up enemy ships to survive.

My titles in the team were that of Artist as well as Producer. As the Producer, I was the one keeping track of progress, making sure we were meeting at least once a week, etc.. My main objective as Artist was creating all the necessary visuals to work the game.

At the beginning stages of the game creation, my main priority was choosing a style and theme for the game, in order to be consistent with the rest of the assets in game. Choosing color pallets and style of art was difficult at first, but thankfully my partner was happy with the work I was producing, as essentially let me choose the artistic approach to the project. Another factor was understanding the components and play style of the game, so I could establish what assets would be needed, such as: any bullets? How many enemies? How many ships? Any collectibles? Once these questions were answered and established, it was mostly a matter of time to draw the components.

Play Testing

I was ready to hear a lot of feedback and criticism due to the fact that I knew the game wasn’t complete. However, despite that, I received compliments regarding the art style, and components of the game, such as the collectables. A main criticism was the speed of the game—too fast! The enemies came on too strong before the player even had a chance to understand the mechanics.

The speed of the game is the main change I think needs to be made to make the game successful. Currently, there is no end to the game, other than dying. Adding a “win” component would make the game enjoyable to play.

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Blog Post 4: Video Game Lab

Trash Town is a game created in Fall of 2019. A main dynamic of this game is it relives heavily on team work. Both characters must work equally as hard in order to beat the game. If only one person is collecting all the trash, everyone loses. Similarly, if only one person is collecting all the recycling, everyone loses.

Nothing to Say by Celia and Rose is a dating-sim styled game. The mechanics are not as intuitive as a conventional dating sim. I fond myself pressing buttons that weren't actually even buttons to progress. However, aesthetically, the game is very pretty and the aspect ratio of the game makes you wonder how this story will progress. It is short, sweet, and admittedly boring. The background never changes throughout the entire game.

Human Hunter is a game from the class Spring of 2019. The common pattern you realize from the first few seconds of playing is the use of the same mechanics. You can only go right, left or jump. There are only ever two different objects that fall, and only one is beneficial. These aspects of the game don't seem to change regardless of how long you play it.

Comparison Between Two Games:

Human Hunter and This is the Only Level, are comparable in their mechanics. Both games utilize a limited set of controls to move the character. It is either left arrow, right arrow or space bar. Human Hunter has no other controls besides these and they do not change over the course of the game. The difference with This is the Only Level is that the control buttons don’t change but the actions they take do change. One level the right arrow could mean move right. But in the next it could mean move left. Sometimes there are actions that need to be taken outside the game to complete a level, such as refresh the tab!

The Difference Between Observing and Playing:

When watching someone play, their failures or shortcoming sin the game are comedic. However when you’re playing it yourself, difficulties in game are not as funny when you’re trying to figure it out. When we are watching a game, we usually only see what’s on screen. We don’t see the button usage or control needed to mounter the game. This could make a game seem more more boring, or fun, or easy if only spectating. Spectators see more of the aesthetics than the mechanics. When you play a game yourself, you earn a better grasp of the mechanics as well as the dynamics and aesthetics. This can make you appreciate a game more. There have been a few times where I watched a streamer play a game that I enjoyed watching, but when I gave the game a play myself I either found it too difficult to continue or just not as enjoyable as watching it.

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Prototyping

I’m Bored is a race to the finish style board game with decision making and chance taking—deception and trust!

The cultivation of this game had a rough start.

After the first session: the amount of penalties increased to the amount of rewards, the use of cards was included, and made the starting and ending points the same tile.

Between play session 1 and 2, a large amount of adjustments and additions were made to the game play.

For one, Blue pucks, which when landed on allowed you to switch positions with an opponent, became golden chips which added the choice of moving onto the next gold chip instead. This was done because players that were already ahead of the game found themselves with nothing to do on this turn.

Originally, black pucks were an extreme penalty that when landed on forced you to start over from the very beginning of the game. However this left players at a large disadvantage of winning the game once this occurred. Instead, the penalty was softened, making it so landing on a black puck meant going back to the last puck, or from he very beginning if landing not he first black puck in the game.

The golden token that allowed for a draw of a card was visually changed to a silver chip to enforce the ambiguity of the item. The silver chip now could force a player back up to 2 tiles if choosing the wrong card rather than just moving you forward.

A black marble was included to add more penalties. Similar to a red marble, a black marble moved you back 4 tiles instead of forward.

Session two still proved to be boring despite the adjustment to the game. There were still not enough actions taking place; most turns went without anything happening. The rules had not been clear regarding landing on new items unrelated to your turn; do I play this tile, or is it null?

Below is a screenshot of what the game looked like after the second run through.

The solidification of the game really happened after session 3. Between sessions 2 and 3 a significant amount of changes were made.

The declaration of chain reactions were made clear. Meaning every possible action you landed on could be acted upon even if it wasn’t your initial turn.

A spinner was added in place of a die for more interest.

The black marble was voided for a purple marble that, when landed on, forced opponents ahead of you to move back two tiles.

The spinner only goes up to 4. However, a player can choose to move as many tiles as they rolled. For example you roll a 4 but on the third tile there is a special marble. You can choose to just move three tiles.

The need to roll/spin the exact number of tiles to win the game was removed. Originally, this rule was added because the game created very large gaps in player positions and made it so lagging players had a chance to catch up and win. Due to the increase in rule changes this was no longer a problem.

The red marble was decreed from 4 to 2 additional tiles when landed on. This was done to reduce the power of an insignificant piece.

The gold chip was realized to be too over powered. The action was diluted to simply an extra turn to spin.

The black puck became the black tile. Instead of forcing players back to the previous black spot, it now forces you to skip a turn. This way, your position on the board is still secure without major penalty.

The most major change was the sophistication of the cards. Before the cards did not give players any decision making abilities. Now, cards would be used as a mini game of “Bullshit,” where landing on a silver chip meant you could draw a card and move forward on the board.

There are 20 cards total: (five far cards) Ace, 2, 3, 4, and Joker (x4). Each numerical card allows you to move forward on the board. A joker card forces you to lie about how many tiles to move forward. A player cannot see the card you’ve drawn until you’ve announced the supposed number card you have. An opponent can choose to call bullshit if they suspect you of lying, regardless of what card you may have drawn. If you are caught, you must move back to the position at the start or your original turn.

This mechanic was included to finally give players the choice to make decisions that would impact their prospects in the game.

Additionally, the prospects of card counting could be incorporate and make the game more competitive.

I do not want to say that at this point I have perfected the game, but it is definitely in a much better place. After the last Olay through, both players found themselves having fun.

Core Mechanism: Race, Roll/Spin and Move, Lose a Turn, Card Drafting

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Game Lab 1: I Doubt

We begin the game feeling uneasy and maybe overall unwilling; I for sure was. We all take some time to grasp a small percentage of the rules before we deal the cards to play. We rearrange the cards in our hand and pray for he best. No one knows how to win, so we just need to figure out how not to lose. Gerry puts out his first card. Then I, then Prajesh, then David. We each have to remind the other to keep count of the number card we just left on, so that the next player knows where to start. From the very start we all feel fucked over and bored. No one is certain enough to call bullshit on any one just yet. I announce that this will be a painful game. On my end, I have already messed up. When I had to put down a 5, all I had was a 6, so of course I put it down rather than skipping my turn! I want to be out of cards to win! No one calls bullshit, and the game continues with no comments. Until I put down a wrong card, and somehow, probably just guess, David calls bullshit. I flip the card over and it’s the wrong card. The group starts to laugh. Finally things are beginning to be more fun. As the loser of the round, I pick up the entire 37 cards on the deck to put into my hand. I am devastated. The game continues, now all collectively with a better grasp of the mechanics. My turn comes around, and I start to put the cards out on the deck. I have more than 40 cards, my chances of winning nil. With so many cards in my hand, not only do I put down all the necessary cards, I also put down extra ones to lighten my hand faster. No one questions it. The round continues, then my turn again. The deck calls for a King. I put down probably 6 cards. Keep in mind I have very little understanding of not only the game, but of cards in general. Prajesh notices this. He asks something along the lines of how I was able to put down so many Kings if there are only a few in a deck. I say, “And?” He does not combat this. No one calls bullshit. We move on. I try this tactic one more time, but get called bullshit of course, I couldn’t continue those shenanigans for long. I pick up whatever remaining cards are in the deck. David says his hand is out. There is no way of knowing unless we count all the cards not only in the deck but in our hands. I tease him, “Suuuure you’re out of cards.” I don’t think he found it funny. And with that, the game ends.

Overall, the game was not very enjoyable. There were moments, sure, but it was definitely not the kind of game you play online with strangers with. I admit, I hardly understood the rules, and I’m sure that contributed to the boringness of it all.

Rating this: 5/10.

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The Simpsons Arcade Game (1991)

Today I played 1991 The Simpsons arcade fighting game by Konami. The plot of the game is that the Simpsons are walking thorough Springfield when suddenly they collide with Smithers who had just stole a diamond from a jewelry store. Maggie ends up catching the diamond, and in turn gets kidnapped by Mr. Burns. You then have to fight off a bunch of hired enemies to get to Maggie. The concept is very Simpsons-esque.

In the emulator, you use the keyboard arrow to simulate a joystick to move the character around. To hit, you use Control, and to jump is Option. The use of buttons is very simple. Im’s sure it works great on an arcade cabinet, however, on a laptop it was difficult. I played on a Mac, and when you press the arrow key and Control at the same time, it closes the window. It made the game unenjoyable to play as every time I tried to hit and run at once resulted in the browser minimizing. The emulator would be more successful if the key to hit was a different button.

Overall, minus the key difficulties, I enjoyed the game. The concept was simple. Your character Is free to move across the game. There is a bit of skill needed to play. I found it difficult at points, as there were too many enemies at times to fight off. I appreciated the excess amount of lives given, as dying didn’t mean I had to start over.