#gamejournal

[dracubellum]

Having the hardest time with Meddling Mirabels quest, this raccoon won't be chill!

[morgansplayjournal-blog]

Classic Arcade Games: Ms. Pac-Man

By: Morgan Filyaw

This week I visited Pinballz arcade where I had the chance to play the 1982 classic arcade game Ms. Pac-Man.

Me at Pinballz                                               Me playing Ms. Pac-Man

The classic arcade game, as defined by Richard Rouse III in “Game Analysis: Centipede”, has the following traits: single screen play; infinite play; multiple lives; scoring/high scores; simple, easy-to-learn gameplay; and no story (462-465). Ms. Pac-Man, being one of the most iconic games of the classic arcade game form, follows all these aspects. On the surface, the game’s premise is straightforward; a novice player would quickly learn that points are earned from eating pellets and fruits; contact with ghosts leads to a lost life; and eating a “power pellet” temporarily turns the ghosts blue, allowing them to be eaten for extra points. Considering only these elements, the game may seem elementary, but the complexity of the ghosts as well as how the game changes as the player progresses make it challenging and contributed to its success.

The Enemy

One of the most complex elements and greatest strengths of Ms. Pac-Man is the game’s enemies: the four ghosts. At first, the ghosts’ movements may appear random to the player, but after a few tries—and many deaths at the hands of the red ghost, Blinky, or the pink ghost, Pinky—the player may realize that the ghosts’ movements aren’t all random. In fact, each ghost has its own personality, and some are better at catching the player than others. For instance, Blinky has a chaser personality, whereas Pinky likes to ambush Ms. Pac-Man.

[A few short clips from my gameplay showing the chaser personality of Blinky and the ambush personality of Pinky]

The distinct personalities of the four ghosts give the game more replayability, which Rouse states was very important for arcade games in order to be profitable (461). They keep the game from becoming boring while also giving players learnable behaviors.

Faster! Faster!

Another aspect of Ms. Pac-Man that contributed to its success is that it, like other classic arcade games, continuously gets harder and harder for the player as they progress. In the first level of the game, the ghosts begin at a certain speed; this speed increases when the player progresses to level 2, and so on. This increase in speed makes it harder for the player to anticipate the ghosts’ movements and thus makes it easier for the ghosts to catch Ms. Pac-Man. Another way in which the game increases difficulty is by decreasing the duration that the ghosts are blue after a power pellet is eaten.

[Two clips from my gameplay showing the duration that the ghosts are blue after a power pellet is eaten in level 1 vs level 4]

When comparing level one and level four, the duration decreases from 7.5 seconds to 6 seconds, giving the player less time to eat the ghosts as well as less time to play without the threat of the ghosts.

Overall, the complexity of Ms. Pac-Man’s enemies as well as the ways in which the game increases in difficulty made for a fun and engaging play experience that I very much enjoyed. 

Works Cited

Ms. Pac-Man. Arcade Version, Midway, 1982.

"Ms. Pac-Man (Flash Game)." Arcade Division, 2019, www.arcadedivision.com/

    classicgame2/classics/ms-pacman.html

Rouse III, Richard. "Game Analysis: Centipede." Game Design: Theory and

    Practice, pp. 460-73.

[conquestjournals]

Forget winter. GAMING IS HERE! It's time for Gen Con 50! Last minutes errands today, set up tomorrow and then it begins! We'll be in booth 2306 and bringing a very limited quantity of these officially licensed Gen Con game journals for $9.99 each. Who's coming? #gencon #gencon50 #gencon50th #gencon2017 #conquestjournals #conquestjournal #gamejournal

[blanketswilson]

Unravel - Game Journal #2

Unravel is a photo-realistic 2D platformer. You play as a character named Yarny, who is in fact made out of yarn. While being small in size, you have to make use of the objects in the environment to proceed. Often times you will use your yarn to connect two points to use as a bridge. Or tie it around an object to pull down. But you don't have an unlimited supply of yarn, as it comes from your body. At all checkpoints, there will be bundles of yarn to replenish your supply.  

"How beautiful this was, when it was new. And how beautiful it still is, even though time has made it different."

A moment that stood out to me, was when you're taught new mechanics after failing. There's no way you can proceed without a scripted action causing you to make a mistake. You'll have to use the yarn attached to you, to climb back up.

Each level is presented as pictures in an album frame. With the pictures being memories from a family, and the level is where the picture was taken at the time. After completing a level, you're taken back to an inside of house, with a picture album on the table you can interact with. The pictures shown seem like they are from a childhood from the developers. I appreciate how things in the pictures actually made it into the game. Whether it be small crabs in the ocean, or flies in a field. After seeing the pictures, those "enemies" all of a sudden held more meaning.  

Each level has a handful of secrets, which usually aren't too hard to find. Levels can be completed by reaching the end and find a yarn patch that represents the level.

Often, I felt like I was solving the same puzzle in each of the levels. And was using the same mechanics over and over. And no matter how beautiful the world was, I never felt like I could stop and stare. But each level presented a new twist on what I had been doing for the whole game, and those moments, while being brief, stood out to me. While I wasn't there when the pictures in the game were taken, they were general enough which allowed me to relate. Nor did I know the people in the pictures personally. But I didn't have to, to be able to connect people close to me in my life, to the one's in the game.  

[maskedemerald]

Day and Night are not so Different - Moon pt 1

Here is Moon’s part one. It goes up to the same point as Sun but this is from the other point of view. This one is a little shorter just because of the character.

My eyes were closed but I wasn't asleep. I had been but that was awhile ago. I didn't move as Meowth attempted to wake me. Mom probably wanted my help. Maybe helping with the packing would help tire me out. I didn't mind staying up late but having slept all day I was bound to be up all night. Meowth followed me into the living room. The doorbell rang. I  headed to get it but didn't need to as our guest let himself in. I waved a hello to the Prof. I was a little surprised by his late visit but then it was only just after sunset so it wasn't too bad.

In the end the unpacking Mom wanted my help with could wait, even she said so. I headed back to my room to grab my hat and bag. The Prof was taking me to get my first pokemon while I was awake instead of waiting till morning. I stopped just before leaving my room and glanced back. For a moment I thought I had seen something but it was just the way it had been when I got up.

I walked happily in the fresh air with the Prof to Iki town to see the Kahuna for my first pokemon. My head was almost unscrewed from my head with all the looking round I was doing. This was the first time since arriving that I had really gotten the chance to look round the island. Once reaching the town I got even more time to look around as the Prof asked me to look for the Kahuna while he waited in case the man turned up at the meeting spot. I hopped up the stairs looking for anyone who stood out. The Prof said he would stand out. She stood out but wasn't a he. I still couldn't help but look. She was bathed in light. Glowing in the dark. She was looking at me. I wanted to ask how she was doing the glowing. Figured it was a pokemon causing it. That would be a cool pokemon to have.

A voice caught my attention. Easily distracted I looked over. Another girl this one dressed in white talking to herself. That was odd. Now I had two people that stood out and neither of them were the Kahuna. Maybe one of them knew him. The girl in white walked off between the trees and the glowing girl ran after her. She faded and grew less bright for a moment. I jogged to catch up and then ran beside her. I tried to ask her if she'd seen the Kahuna. There was no response. She didn't respond to a word I said all the way up the trail. I had to wonder why. Could she even hear me. I tried waving for her attention but nothing. Could she even see me I wondered. At the top a pokemon burst out from the girl in white's bag and shot half way across the bridge. Three wild spearow swooped down attacking the little thing. The girl in white begged us to help her Nebby.

I didn't even think about the girl beside me it was only the light that told me that she was also running across the bridge. I missed a plank as my foot came down just before reaching Nebby. I tried to catch myself but failed. I fell over Nebby my hands out stopping me from falling onto the small pokemon. I had fallen into her. There was no other way to really describe it. We were occupying the same space. I didn't know what to do. She was moving but I couldn't feel the shifting. Without warning I was falling again. I grabbed Nebby as it fell. She was above us falling too. She reached out and so did I but it wasn't  enough. There was a sudden jerk as gravity stopped pulling down and I was blind. My eyes had adapted to the dark and now there was far more light than they could handle. I was set down on solid ground and blinked spots from my vision. Lightning faded from round a pokemon. It stayed for a moment before lightning returned and it shot off through the sky looking like a shooting star. The glowing girl before me looked frantically round as the girl in white asked if I was okay. I didn't see but I guessed the pokemon had saved the glowing girl too. She didn't seem to have that as she only relaxed when she saw me. Which meant she had been ignoring me. At least she was just rude and not heartless. It was odd though how the girl in white didn't seem concerned about her. The glowing girl flickered out of sight completely. I staggered to my feet staring at the spot. Once I was on my feet she was back. The girl in white handed me something. A stone. It was shiny even more so as the light from the glowing girl who made the same moves to take something from thin air cast light over it. It looked pretty cool with the odd shapes I thanked her and tucked it into my bag. The girl in white asked me to keep her pokemon a secret. I grinned telling her not to worry no one would hear about it from me. She then asked If we could head back to town together.

I thought about trying to talk to the glowing girl again as we walked back down the trail but was put off by the facts. There was something really strange going on. Now I wasn't falling I figured that even if we had been able to reach each other it would have just been like it was on the bridge. I wondered if she was a ghost. Ghost pokemon existed so why not human ghosts. She made no attempt to talk to me which was the final decider. No point talking if the other party didn't want to.

The Prof was waiting for us. He paid no attention to the glowing girl but introduced the one in white as his assistant Lillie. It wasn't just Lillie that couldn't see her. The Kahuna was the same. Lillie mentioned the pokemon that had saved us? Me? Tapu Koko the island guardian. The statement from the island Kahuna that it doesn't always save people was a little chilling with me stood next to what I thought was a ghost. I was distracted from the morbid thought by him offering me a pokemon.

The three reminded me of the starters in Kanto. Grass, fire and water. There was no real decision to be made in my mind. I had always wanted to start with grass. Back in Kanto that meant Bulbasaur, here it was Rowlet. Decision made and the girl vanished. My nerves settled but spiked again as she returned while I stood waiting to see if Rowlet would accept me. She was less bright and definitely see through. I  tried to ignore her slightly off mirroring after  Rowlet accepted me as his trainer. I named him Sherwood and was given a pokedex. I was glad as I set off for home. I figured that the ghost was stuck in a certain area. I hadn't seen her before making it to Iki town so that meant she wouldn't follow me home. The hair on the back of my neck could finally stop standing on end. My mind could stop supplying creepy endings to the encounter. I hadn't even gotten out of town with her still beside me before I was stopped. A kid wanting a battle. I wanted to bail but at the same time I didn't want to back out. Even Lillie was saying she would watch after just saying that she didn't like seeing pokemon battle. She said she would watch because it was me. In the end I battled. Slightly distracted as the ghost too seemed to be locked in battle with someone I couldn't see. With pokemon I couldn't see. I won but only through type advantage. Had he something other than a Popplio I might have struggled with the ghost having so much of my attention.

She flickered out as it ended only to come back on like a faulty light bulb. I wanted to leave but the Kahuna asked to see the stone Lillie had given me. I wasn't really paying attention as he spoke. The bad endings were getting worse. All I got was he would give it back tomorrow. I wanted to run a head as the Prof walked us home. She was less bright but had followed beyond the town with ease. Worse still she entered the house. Mom talked and gushed over Sherwood. I didn't dare go to bed. She had finally gone but not before slowly fading as she walked over to my room. I fell asleep eventually on the sofa.

[maskedemerald]

Day and Night are not so Different - Sun pt 1

I've was playing Sun and Moon yesterday and the idea for this rp journal has been in my head since some of the early trailers so I decided to write it. There is another part 1 coming for Moon as well. Which should also be up today, was going to be last night but tumblr mobile is a pain so I waited to get at my pc. Its only up to just after the starters because of the time it took to write both parts but I'll put it under a read more in case anyone is still waiting to play and worried about spoilers.

I'm exhausted, time is all messed up and I just want to sleep. I tried to ignore the yowls of Meowth come to wake me. I just wanted to sleep some more but it was light out and if I didn't move Meowth would only keep pestering me. There was no way I was getting any more sleep. I staggered from the bed and Meowth retreated from the room. For a moment I felt odd. I caught a flicker of movement from beside me but there was nothing. I shook my head, stupid jet lag.

I wandered into the living room and paused. There was someone in the house. Standing over by the counters.  Mom appeared before I could find out why they were there. She acted as if nothing was off. I wondered if she had let them in. I glanced over and the stranger was gone. The door hadn't opened. I knew it hadn't. It was hard to miss the creak the thing had that I had noticed when we arrived. Maybe I was still dreaming. The ring of the doorbell brought me out of my thoughts. That must be Professor Kukui Mom told me. I had known he'd be coming over from the call but I hadn't expected it to be this soon. I had barely gotten half way across the room before he let himself in with a grin on his face. I hadn't thought anything would get me out of my tired funk yet I was running back to my room all tiredness forgotten for my hat and bag. Professor Kukui was taking me to see the island Kahuna. I was going to get a pokemon. My own pokemon. I was in so much of a rush I didn't even mind that I had missed some joke that had both him and Mom laughing.

I would have run all the way to Iki town had I known the way. Instead I had to take my time despite the excitement. At least on the way I got to see some interesting pokemon. Unfortunately the Kahuna wasn't there or at least wasn't where we were meant to meet him. Professor Kukui told me to go look for him while he waited at the meeting point in case he turned up. I dashed off before realizing that I had no idea who I was looking for. With no idea where to start I glanced round and something off caught my eye. A figure masked in shadows despite the sun high in the sky and nothing near to cast that shadow over them. A  boy I guessed. He too was looking around. For a moment his gaze lingered on me then someone else caught his attention. A girl dressed in white seeming to be talking to herself. Then she disappeared through the trees. Maybe  there had been someone else just out of sight. I took off after her. She had been nearby and Professor Kukui had said the Kahuna was someone who stood out. She did that. The strange shadowed boy ran along side me.

We caught up with the girl at the top of the trail as a strange pokemon that seemed to be covered in stars burst from her bag and floated half way across the rickety bridge. Three spearow swooped down on the small pokemon. The girl turned to us begging for us to help Nebby. I dashed forward, spearow didn't scare me! I could handle this. The shadow boy ran beside me. I tried to pick up the pace. I didn't need his help. I could handle this. Just because I was a girl didn't mean I needed help too. In the short distance I failed to pull a head. The rickety planks didn't help. I reached to scoop up the little pokemon but the spearow dived at us. As I knelt over sheltering the pokemon I was seeing double. The boy. Shadowy arms attached to my elbows. Was I dreaming? Then there was a flash and the bridge beneath us broke. I pulled the pokemon close as gravity pulled us down. With a spare arm I reached for the also tumbling boy. We'd fall slower I hoped. My arms, his arms neither were long enough. There was a flare of lightning and a crackle as something swooshed by grabbing me. The the light prickle of static. Light blinded me for a moment. Then I was on the ground the girl in white beside me. The lightning landed and faded out to reveal a pokemon orange and black. It was familiar. I was sure I had seen an image of it somewhere but not a photograph. I stared as in jolted away lightning engulfing it once more as it shot through the sky. It was only as the girl checked if I was okay that I realized that she was just talking to me. There had been a frantic moment when I had almost been driven to jump up and rush to the edge, hoping that he had landed somewhere safe. However he was right beside me. He flickered out a moment as I got to my feet returning a moment later standing too. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. I didn't want to look crazy.

The girl's pokemon picked something up and she handed it to me. I caught the boy making the same motions of taking something but from no one. I turned over the shiny stone in my hand. It was odd but sort of pretty. I tucked it into my bag thanking her. It was worth keeping. I had picked up all sorts of stones back in Kanto. Anything that looked interesting. Secretly hoping that actually they had something do do with pokemon. Kept hoping that one of them would turn out to be a water stone or something like that. Maybe my first one in Alola would be the lucky one. He too made the motions of  putting something into his backpack. The girl insisted I didn't tell anyone about seeing her pokemon. I figured she wasn't meant to have it. I knew some kids back home that hid rattata's in their wardrobes when they weren't allowed a pokemon. She asked that we walk back together, just in case of any more wild pokemon.

The professor was waiting for us as we reached Iki town. It turned out the girl was his assistant Lillie. Like Lillie he said nothing about the shadowed boy beside me. Not far behind the Professor was the Kahuna Hala. In a way the professor was right in saying he would stand out. He walked with heaps of confidence. It turned out he had been there but rushed off having seen the island deity about. The island deity. As Lillie mentioned it I realized where I had seen that pokemon that had saved  us. As Lillie said that pokemon was the guardian deity Tapu Koko.

The Kahuna offered me one of three pokemon. Rowlet, Litten and Popplio. It was a hard choice with them all being so cute. I noticed the shadow beside me. I felt a bit like he was my shadow. In the end it had to be Popplio and in the moment I made that decision the shadow flickered out. As I waited for popplio to choose me too he flickered back in but faint. At first I thought the little cutie wasn't going to come. I thought that I'd have to choose again but then it bounded over. I scooped it up a grin splitting my face. I had a pokemon. This was my first pokemon. He would need a name. Pop... Popplio... Poppet! Lillie's Nebby escaped the bag again as she congratulated me. Luckily the Professor and Kahuna Hala already  knew it was there. The Professor gave me a pokedex. That made me giddy. This was quickly becoming the best day ever. It would be even better if following getting my Poppet the shadow hadn't become more solid beside me. I tried to act out keep him from mirroring my movements but the only  time he differed was as he put something in his backpack while I put my dex in my bag.

I was excited to get back home, to show Mom my Poppet. I didn't even get out of town before I was intercepted by a boy wanting a battle. He said he had been looking for me. The Professor must have told him I was coming here for a pokemon. His name was Hau the Kahuna's grandson. I reached for Poppet's ball as I agreed to the battle. My first battle. My first chance to see how Poppet and I worked together. Hau sent out a Litten and the battle started. He moved first but only because I had only just realized that I didn't know what Poppet was capable of. I knew a lot about pokemon in Kanto but the pokemon in Alola were different. I went safe. Water gun. Poppet was a water type after all and of course it was a good move choice with Litten being a fire type. Pound followed. Hau's Litten got in a really nasty scratch but Poppet pulled through and delivered the final pound. With that I had won my first battle. I jumped up and down cheering. The day just kept getting better. I scooped Poppet up and continued said cheering. I had forgotten to close my bag after getting out Poppet's ball and my jumping bounced my shiny stone right out. The Kahuna thinks the guardian left it for me and asked to keep hold of it til after the festival tomorrow. I figured it couldn't hurt. The festival sounded fun so I'd be going to that anyway.

It was getting dark and Professor Kukui walked me back home with Lillie and frustratingly the shadow that I had completely forgotten about. I couldn't help but notice he wasn't as dark even though I was trying to ignore him. It grated even more when he walked beside me into the house. Mom's excitement over Poppet helped get my mind off him. Thankfully he faded out as I crashed into bed. Probably just needed more sleep.

[jbroots]

Samurai

Game Journal: Fantasy Flight Games has another winner! Last year FFG started producing a line of Euro Classics and this is the line’s newest addition. Dr Reiner Knizia designed this simple yet intriguing family weight game. Ed (8 yrs) picked it up quick! Ava (10) takes the win. For more check this out: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/9/24/conquering-japan/. Or get the full scoop at the Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3/samurai

[ragingelefants]

Anyone else?

Tbh I made a little notebook dedicated to ACNL (as I have for all versions of the game) that has all the different guides. Like hair guide, face, the list of bugs and fish, and where and when to catch them. A list of furniture I want in my house, and where and how much to buy them. All my friends think it’s too much. But am I really the only one that’s done this?