Feedback on our game space (Text Adventure game):
A lot of people really enjoyed our presentation on 'Snow-Tal Recall' and overall felt that we spoke confidently and had put together an informative and visually appealing slide show.
As for ideas our group felt that you could include character skills alongside the character customisation that we had come up with. They also really liked the survival idea as it would add something not usually seen in games, but also add the suspense of making sure you did what you had to do quickly.
Personally I felt our presentation was really good, but I feel we missed the opportunity to tell people more about our game's story as some of the others groups did with theirs e.g. talk more about the helicopter crash and the forgotten city you find in our game.
Split screen space:
The idea for this game was that both players had their own side of their split screen and would have to jump up descending platforms in order to not only avoid falling into the lava, but to also try and shoot the other player as they are in the same area. The catch to this game however, was that you would have to watch both your screen and your opponents as not only are they invisible on your screen, but so are their projectiles and platforms.
Therefore the concept of having 'screen watching' as a positive in a game rather than a negative interested most of the group as we hadn't seen anything like it before. We also felt that this would be interesting as more people play online instead of playing split screen with their friends in the same room. We felt that this was a shame as having your colleagues in the same room with you allows you to also eat together and jokingly beat each other up when one of them keeps winning.
Wraparound space:
For this game space the group came up with the idea in which up to four players drove around an arena trying to destroy one another with an assortment of crazy weapons that the group loved including a rail gun, acid launcher and even a gun that fires a bear! The players would see the action take place at a bird's eye view and the wraparound space itself would allow the cars to drive through one side and reappear at another (think Pacman).
One idea that one of my fellow peers came up with was the inclusion of portals in order to make the transition from one side of the arena to the other seem more plausible.
Overall I enjoyed this fun presentation just as much as the confident group who came up with the ideas did.
2D side scroller space:
This group came up with the idea of telling the story of Frankenstein and his wife on their honeymoon. When they visit a restaurant they are suddenly attacked by angry peasants. Depending on whether the player chooses to play as Frankenstein or his wife the player's goal will be to run away (not always in one piece) from a variety of threats whilst collecting their loved one's body parts that have been scattered around the land, thus bringing them back to life using electricity.
On the whole I was quite interested by this idea as not only was the concept art for it good, but you also had to electrocute yourself in order to return your depleting health back to normal. However, using any of your special abilities also consumes health and therefore the player would have to think quickly in order to decide the best course of action in certain situations.
Another interesting thing they said was that the ending was deliberately going to be harsh on the player as no matter what, Frankenstein and his wife would finally be burned to death on a windmill similarly to how the book Frankenstein ended.This ending is certainly different to most games, but whether or not that is a good thing would depend on the way it was done. Therefore I remember saying that the game could perhaps have a 'true' ending should the player complete certain objectives.
Overall as you can tell this group put a lot of effort and ideas into their work, they also seemed very confident and sounded as though they knew what they were talking about. Therefore, well done to this group for an excellent presentation.
2D contained space:
From what I could hear and understand the next group decided to create a game in which the player had to get from one side of the screen to the other through randomly generated dungeons whilst spikes on the ceiling lowered to stop the player's progress.
When creating this game idea they used numerous game space examples including a Dungeons and Dragons board, but in the end decided to make it more of a platforming dungeon crawler, or so I presume.
As you can guess from my description this group were unfortunately not very clear or audible, therefore I struggled to understand what their game was entirely about and think that the rest of the group may have had a similar problem.
2 axis space:
When asked to describe their game (Kung Fu Cleaner) this group responded by saying that you would be "Kicking ass and cleaning trash". This made sense as the 1-4 players playing this arcade style fighter are expert martial artist bin men who have to pick up trash to collect points and beat up evil hobos. So a game similar to 'Metal Slug' and the arcade version of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'.
One fear that my peers had was that players got to beat up homeless people, thus that may be a negative part of the game and one that some people may find offensive. In response the team clarified that the hobos would not only be evil, but the game itself would be rated 18+, thus allowing them to possibly get away with the content.
The game sounded and looked very silly from the example drawing they showed, but this is probably why we all loved the idea of it so much. Overall I would say that it was a very good presentation with a very good concept. However, for a team of five not everyone had a say, therefore if this team were to work alongside one another again they should at least give everyone a chance to contribute, even less confident group members.
Isometric space:
Taking inspiration from tactical games like 'Xcom' and 'Sims City', 'Geoscape' is a game unlike others as the player doesn't directly control the AI, nor does the AI know of the existence of the player. Instead the player creates the world's resources and controls its weather. For example, the player can fill the planet with numerous resources that would benefit the races who live on it, thus stopping them from thinking about war. Otherwise the player may spend their time making the planet full of deadly materials that may force the inhabitants to fight for new areas to live in, in order to survive.
When I first heard the idea I was intrigued, I had not heard anything like it before and it sounded like it would make for a good 'protect the environment' type game. However, many of my peers thought that not being able to control the AI may stop the player from succeeding in their goals e.g. the player may want peace, but the AI may want war and vice versa. In response to this fair question the group said that this would be part of the game's general life like simulation as the player would set their own goals and overcome setbacks when necessary, rather like in 'Minecraft'. They further went on to say that the player would be able to take on certain set objectives in order to play the game in other ways e.g. make peace or prepare the planet for an alien invasion in a limited number of years.
Overall I was very impressed by this group as not only did they stay calm when asked numerous hard and almost harsh questions about their game, but they were able to answer them in rapid succession and with answers that made sense. Thus keeping their cool in tight spots and making for a clear presentation.
Limited 3D space:
Coming up with perhaps the weirdest game idea, this group's game (Collision) is about alien blades of grass escaping in a space ship from a planet of evil cows trying to eat them, their destination, a planet of T-rexs as they won't eat the grass due to being carnivores. However, the ship is hit which causes it to spin out of control, therefore the player has to steer the spinning ship in order to get past the enemy cow ships shooting at them. To avoid these attacks the player can move left and right out of their line of fire and then using their life absorbing cannon steal health from them in order to try and repair the ship.
The game play is meant to be reminiscent to the orignal first person Star Wars arcade game, however the spinning ship idea concerned some of us. Therefore when we asked if the screen would stay stationary they said no as they deliberately wanted it to be a hard core game. This is concerning as although their idea sounds fun the spinning screen idea, depending on its speed could make the players feel sick and therefore want to stop playing the game. Perhaps if they were to remove the spinning screen completely or only make this happen on the hard difficulty setting then this would be ok.
Now whereas this group was originally reluctant to start they ended up being very good and overcoming their fears. Therefore I congratulate them for getting up, but would perhaps recommend them being a bit fairer on the players for their next idea. After all, you want people to buy your games, not avoid them.
Adjacent spaces:
From memory I think that this group did not have a presentation to show due to a missing team member who had the work. Unfortunately instead of standing up and at least trying to explain their idea they were reluctant to even take part and just sat down and talked, thus making the presentation unprofessional.
Their idea itself was a point and click horror game similar to other games such as 'Clock Tower' and 'Maniac Mansion'. There would be suits of armour in the game that you would later find out hid the crazy man following you. However, they didn't really talk about much else which is a shame as I love point and click games, although from the sounds of things they did plenty of research by playing an assortment of point and click games, but probably didn't get round to doing much if anything after that.
Overall, it could have been nerves and the lack of a presentation that put them off talking about their work, but I wish they could have been a bit more engaging.
Side notes:
- 'Quest' is the same free to download online program that the second years are using. Using this program would allow me to create text adventure games and thus get a head start on what I will be doing in the future in order to learn about writing in games.
- Overall as a task I really enjoyed it as each group demonstrated their creative mind sets and came up with fun and original ideas for game spaces that they would perhaps not otherwise have thought of. These results were exactly what the lecturer was looking for as it teaches us how to leave our comfort zone and beat the limitations and obstacles we have been set by using our vivid imaginations. This is quite possibly good training for the game's industry as who knows what games we will have to make and what will be required of us in the future.
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