Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice was developed by Ninja Theory and released on the 8th of august 2017, this game provides a unique player experience not only through it’s tough combat but its very impressive voice acting which is constantly playing while you play through the game.
Hellblade uses a very advanced system in which it uses the surround sound setup in a headset to project voices all around the player, this gives the player not only a unique experience while playing but also expresses Senua’s story and what she is going through. This system also comes into play mechanically telling Senua where the enemies are attacking from and where to dodge or attack next. I believe this is a very strong approach to storytelling and mechanical game play which provides the player with an unforgettable experience.
Hellblade has wonderful level design in which it gives the player a sense of openness while leading them down a very linear path. My experience with this helped me feel like I wasn't enclosed in tight walls while moving about the player space but I was also easily guided and didn't lose sight of where to go. Using this design Hellblade is able to pull off one of its core mechanics which is the puzzles restricting player movement until they find all the symbols they need to open a door, these puzzles are designed to break up combat and again make the player feel more connected and open with the environment.
Hellblade’s core loop is:
- Travel to an area
- Fight enemies
- Travel to another area/door
Within this loop there are puzzles after either combat or a new area is found.
Hellblade has decent combat mechanics much similar to others in the genre. It felt smooth and it kept me engaged throughout the experience; the use of the voices really enhanced the combat for me and allowed me to easily pass through stages that I would not generally be able to complete.
This game has influenced the wider game dev community in showing how effective good sound design can be in not only game play but storytelling as well. Many game dev studios also take influence as it shows the effects of a mental illness, where most games struggle to find a good way at expressing what it's like.
Hellblade received world wide praise from not only critics but the general public as well, achieving an average score of 9 out of 10 on most review websites. Hellblade held a large community of Let's players past it’s release providing a large community to form around it. Today there are still discussions about the game mainly focusing on the mental illness aspects within.
Hellblade is a unique experience which teaches the effects of mental illness on a strong female protagonist, using a strong and fluent combat system, sound design and level design the player is given a sense of story and an attachment to Senua.
The production planning unit at AIE has taught me many things in planning for a game, the process of this is long and rigorous for a producer and now i can understand how much effort goes into game development.
First my team and I came up with a solid game idea which we then iterated off and made a GDD with everything in it. Then we began planning the hours and tasks to be done in Alpha and preparing for the other milestones as well. This is great practice for me as I can finally see what it's like laying out a game from start to finish and work out what needs to be done and if there is enough time to do it.
The hardest part for me was pitching to an industry panel as i'm not confident at public speaking, I got there in the end and most of the industry panel liked our game.
Overall this unit has taught me whats its like to plan an actual game and understand what goes into just preparing to make a game.
My experience with the Testing and QA unit at AIE was quite a eye opener on how extensive testing in video games is.
The highlight for this unit was going out in the industry and testing for a game developer, where i got to cover many different elements of gaming testing, from finding bugs to general object placement throughout the scene.
The rest of the unit i was given a game to test where i had to get user feedback on the game and arrange it in an easy to read way to then send to the developer of the game. I did other types of testing on this game too like, bug testing and smoke testing.
Overall it was a good unit and it definitely helped me understand the proper pipeline game developers have to take in order to get good feedback on their games.
Marketing in video games is very important, for a game to be successful marketing needs to be well done, the two GDC video’s i’m comparing shows very different perspectives in marketing a game especially indie games.
The first talk presented by Erik Johnson from Infinite Monkeys covers the statistical evidence gathered from steam games. Johnson Uses Steam Spy to gather large amounts of information on all titles in steam.
Johnson uses these statistics to justify a correlation between sales revenue and scores/ratings, although a weak correlation it can be justified that sales revenue is impacted when the scores/ratings are higher. He also goes to explaining how streaming services such as Youtube and Twitch can be valuable for a games revenue, he uses examples from popular youtubers Pewdiepie and Jacksepticeye to prove that it does not work with all games, Pewdiepie’s video claims to have netted the company responsible for ‘Crypt of the necromancer’ $60,000 whereas Jacksepticeye’s video netted ‘Life goes on’ $500.
Another important topic Johnson brings up covers the beginning of a project and the target audience that the development team decides to aim towards. He says that the target audience must want what you are making and that the audience is big enough to keep the game afloat financially. He also says to consider whether the target audience has been over saturated with games.
In comparison with this presentation, Chris Dwyer takes a different approach to explaining his marketing/PR expertise staying away from statistics he shows how his real world experience with multiple different projects has affected the way he markets games. Dwyer’s main point is to express setting aside time for marketing and going through it fully with your team on how to go about it. Dwyer makes it clear that it is important to understand your own game first before you know how and who you will be marketing towards, and with this you can start to get the attention of your target audience easier because the aim is for them rather than you the developer.
He also covers the importance of ditching all the extreme expectations of marketing and just going with how you’ve developed the game. Keeping it simple from the beginning will keep it in the back of one's mind but not stressing them out to focus all attention on the marketing side of things.
These two talks are very informative and can guide an indie development team through marketing and understanding the importance of taking the correct steps in marketing. It is important to do marketing correctly to bring in success to your game, there is plenty of information on how to go about it and i believe that this is very needed to help indie developers grow.
(Opportunity) Cost Effective Marketing & PR for Indies by Chris Dwyer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsFgXXjoLi8
Know Your Market: Making Indie Games That Sell by Erik Johnson -
My experience with narrative design although short has been so informative and I thank AIE for showing me lots of ways to explore narrative deeper in video games.
My project this unit has come a long way and i am very proud of how it turned out.
I had to make a short vertical slice of a proposed game i came up with. My story explores the troubles a young boy goes through as he discovers what happened to him after his home set a light. I aimed to explore the deep story between the boy and his parents to give my audience a heartfelt experience.
This entire scene is made up of my own meshes with a few particles from the Unity asset store.
I used a bunch of techniques to draw the player to certain areas of the scene, i did these using lighting, framing and audio.
I think everyone knows that No Man’s Sky had a rough initial release, but with the recent release of NEXT the game has received a lot more attention. The developers at Hello Games worked extremely hard to bring back No Man’s Sky with NEXT and I believe they have been successful in delivering a great product.
My experience with No Man’s Sky NEXT has been a positive one, the way the game teaches the player what to do while showing them the world they are in is very effective. The transition between space and planet exploration really broke up the gameplay for me, keeping me engaged throughout the whole experience. Sometimes the procedural generation of resources on the planets can be a little hard to find but that is made up for with the fun of exploring the planets and discovering new things.
With the addition of multiplayer CO-OP in NEXT my experience was more enjoyable as I was able to explore and discover things with another person rather than myself.
I found the crafting system in the game to be a little hard to learn but easy to master once you get the hang of it which provides the player with a challenging first experience but rewarding once you know how to use it. Mining in No Man’s Sky is simple and easy to do as it will be the majority of gameplay in between all the fun exploring parts.
As I mentioned above No Man’s Sky did not receive a very good response on initial release, getting reviews around 6/10 from well known reviewers like Gamespot.
With the release of NEXT there are much more positive reviews online and is generally praised with its comeback.
Core Loop includes:
Mine Resources --> Fly to a new plant
Main Mechanics include:
- Mining
- Crafting
- Flying spaceship
No Man’s Sky has a large influence in the sense of not having a limit to how big the game is and how much you can discover through its procedural generated worlds, creatures, Etc.
No Man’s Sky Community
Since the release of NEXT there has been a large increase in active player count on Steam, because of this multiple communities have formed in support of this game, these are centred around base building, planet finds and creature finds. Most of these provide a space where they can share what they have done or found in the world of No Man’s Sky.
No Man’s Sky NEXT is a very promising look into the future of space exploration games and the possibilities that they may bring in the future.
Learning how to create a compelling narrative for a short vertical slice of a video game has got to be one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done this year.
Looking forward to learning more on how to create great experiences for players using story.
By the way this is a mirror and i made it to show the player who it is they are, the frame next to it will have a picture of them also to show that the they lived at this abandoned log cabin in the woods. Can’t wait to chuck some textures on this and see how it turns out!
The Prototyping unit at AIE has taught me a lot about Coding and how I might go about coding my own games. Before this unit I didn't know anything about programming but now i’m comfortable with the basics of code and I understand how to create something through prototyping stages.
I’ve learnt the importance of going back over my scripts and fixing any mistakes i’ve made or bugs that have appeared.
I created a small Dodgem car game with 8 C# scripts, it turned out well and has taught me how to work through problems and create things from scratch.
This game i also learnt how hard it is working with physics and how buggy they can be if not done correctly.
User Experience is very important in video games, UX Design keeps players playing the game by giving them satisfaction through whatever they do in game, they do this through emotional response and other forms of controlling user experience .
Emotional Design
A GDC 2017 talk on emotional Design through UX by Jim Brown (Epic games) helps explain what UX design is and some techniques that Epic Games has used to keep their players playing.
A very important topic which was covered in this talk was on Patterns and how they can keep a player interested in the game by giving them things to familiarise them with every time they go into the game. Brown used an example in Paragon showing how everything a player may have to do repetitively was done in such a way that they could do is subconsciously without breaking the players attention on the game.
Another important topic in this talk was feedback and how it makes the player feel. The experience the players feel is only dependent on how the game makes them feel, so through feedback a player can understand what they are doing and how they might continue, for example, Gears Of War uses this very well by providing the player with strong feedback when they throw themselves in and out of cover showing the strength of the character and verbally alerting them that explosions are happening all around them.
Importance of knowing your audience
Another Talk on UX design at GDC 2015, This one is based on World of Tanks Blitz, the talk was presented by Olga Kachalina. She expresses that reiterating over prototypes and fixing issues based on testing is still very important in UX design. UX design is heavily based off its target audience and every stage should undergo testing, World of Tanks Blitz controls had to have an extensive look in the placement of controls and UI based on the audience and the theme of the game.
~World of Tanks Blitz Main Menu - Location of buttons and controls~
Kachalina goes over how to interact with players and not lose them anywhere in their gaming process, for example through monetization, extensive amount of controls/buttons and tutorials. Rewarding players is important.
Both of these talks express the importance of User Experience and how with today's games UX is very important in making a game the best it can be. After all games are for the players not the developers. To me User Experience is making the players know and feel why they are playing the game and it makes them want to stay.
I believe that games can benefit a lot from what UX has to offer, i feel both of these talks could of covered more on identifying who your game is for and how to tailor it to suit their wants.
GDC Talks:
Designing UX in World of Tanks Blitz: What got us to Best Appstore Game 2014 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abdy1Cmueyg
From Rational to Emotional: Designs that increase Player Retention -
Level design fundamentals has been my favourite unit so far exploring how to create levels from scratch using Maya and Unity.
I have created many 3D models throughout this unit using Maya, learning all the important steps to ensure a model is created correctly, steps like modelling, unwrapping and texturing.
The process although extremely long provide me with the knowledge i need to build models if i ever need to. This also made me realise i actually enjoy creating models, seeing them work and complete in a game is a feeling that really makes all the hard work worth it.
The research involved with this units game made me realise how many photos you really do need to provide enough information to base a model and scene off.
Mother Duck Project
So far AIE has been very fun and i'm enjoying every minute of it.
Dear Esther is the one game that began the ‘Walking Simulator’ genre, this game is noteworthy in the sense of beauty and narrative design. This game manages to tell a story using only one mechanic (Walking). Dear Esther uses level design to tell most of its story, through the island’s landscape it gives the player a sense of location. As the island is clearly stripped of human life anything that may visually appear on the island makes the player wonder how it may have gotten there and the story behind it. Every little object that is placed in this world is important and tells a story.
Level Design
The level design in this game really emphasizes how important it is to make a world feel how its meant to feel, Dear Esther really shines in showing what objects are and how they are significant to its story. A technique used in many good games with excellent level design is the presence of a ‘Weenie’ in the world to guide the player where to go or at least the direction they should be moving, Dear Esther uses a radio tower with a bright red light as its weenie.
The radio tower (Weenie)
The core loop for Dear Esther would simply be:
- Walk to a location
- Walk to another location
Beauty and leading the player
Dear Esther shows how beauty in a game can be portrayed, in this it is through the scenery which draws players to certain areas to learn of a story. This game does an excellent job in leading the player through a level. It does this by having open areas which makes a player think they're in control where really they are guided through the level subconsciously using landmarks and paths to lure the player.
The original release of this started out as a half life mod which had significant amounts of support behind it, it received an independant release mainly because of the support it had from its followers.
The goal for this game was for the player to find their own way through the world and figure out the story themselves. It uses randomly selected objects to be placed in the world every runthrough so that the player can have an individual story to someone else.
Dear Esther uses sound design to tell what the player should be feeling at certain moments in the game. This is an effective way of setting a mood for the player and i believe it is quite an important piece to have in a game with so few mechanics.
Through playing this game I have learned how important it is to give the player enough content to know what is happening throughout the story, but also how story driven games can be very effective in telling its story through its environment specifically what the players sees and hears.
Dear Esther is an example of a first game that defines a genre, it is important to see what it does effectively and what it does not before creating a game within its genre. I see Dear Esther as a brilliant example in how storytelling is very important in games.
My experience with the Introduction to game design unit at AIE has been a great insight into the tasks that a game designer will complete in their careers. I’ve learnt how much thought it requires to make a working Game Design Document, but also how fun it can be to just throw my ideas into a document and mess around with what works and what doesn't.
In the unit I have been playing around with Unity and Photoshop learning some important skills in designing games. I have learnt how to grey box and create basic levels in Unity, I’ve played with particles and other little interesting features built into the Unity engine.
It was great to find out more about the history of games and that E.T. wasn't that bad of a game after all.
We have covered board games which was a fun little segment, giving me a good understanding of game mechanics.
Important games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom were great ways to learn where the 3D games market evolved.
There is heaps of other things i have learnt throughout this unit that i haven't mentioned but to sum it up it has been awesome and i cannot wait until the next unit! I am going to continue to push myself and be the best i can be.
If i were to give anyone any advice about my experiences so far, stay positive, work hard and you'll get things done.
Storytelling in video games has always interested me, it's fascinating how developers can use storytelling to really make the player feel like they are apart of the game. Yes, all game developers intend for their story to impact the player differently, but it's that goal of actually making the player feel something, that’s what good storytelling is.
That goal of making people feel is what fascinates me and has inspired me to write about storytelling and why it’s important.
GDC Talk
A recent video based on the 2014 GDC posted on the GDC YouTube channel discusses the game ‘High School Story’ and explains the importance of storytelling and why the developers believe it is so important in their game.
This section of the video is very important, this shows the devs point of view on why the story is important, I believe what they are saying is correct and is a goal I would like to strive for when making games.
To have a player come back and play your game means the story is important and the players are engaged in what they are experiencing.
This talk also shows the importance of building a character. Playing the game shows hidden attributes of a character that the player may not have originally seen before.
New Yorker Article
An article in the New Yorker explains storytelling in a different way more aiming towards very text heavy games which have a deep story. In this article there is a section on the Telltale game ‘The walking dead’.
This paragraph shows that a game can achieve what was mentioned earlier in the GDC talk, making a player feel they are apart of the game that their decisions mean something.
This also explains how a game can go about making the player feel with attributes like, making relationships and talking to people. In my opinion this is a strong example of a game which forms relationships between characters and then breaks them apart, making the player feel for the characters.
This post also expresses how gaming is never a writer's medium, meaning that games aim to create an experience where a player can feel through mechanics and actual experience within the world of the game, not just a written story. This can show how incredibly deep a game has to be to actually make a player feel, it’s not just written words it’s how everything comes together.
This article aims to prove that games are not books or movies but something in the middle, that they are an important medium for anyone so that they can experience storytelling in a form not seen in a written form.
My Feelings on this type of storytelling
I learnt from this topic the importance of stories and how games can approach storytelling, like for example Both high school story and the walking dead approach storytelling in a way that build relationships and characters so the player understands what's happening. I've also learnt that stories aren't always just writing.
Researching storytelling in games has helped me learn that all games are different, for example both of these articles/talks approach storytelling in a different way and yet they both ultimately tell the same thing, that games are an experience.
Thank You for reading, the links to both sources of information are below.
