A Game That's Beyond the Depths of the Netherworld

Fun and Accessibility shows a great way to engage your players to your game. It shows you if your game is capable for all people to play. In other words, it shows if  players will recommend it to other players to try it out. This causes your game to be more well shown verses something that is of no interest to anyone There are some things that are great tools to use when making a game, these include challenge, play and story. Challenges show the "flow" of players of what the game has to offer or what types of gimmicks the game mechanics are that interest the player. Play sees the different aspect of gameplay and shows players  imagination from fantasies, social interaction with people, sense of your emotion changing, and collection series of certain games. Story creates players to get engaged from drama where they'll struggle from many obstacles along their way. A very important thing to have in a game is making your players choose their own choices. Not only does this allow players to express more in the game, it gives away the emotional feeling into them. This causes them to become more engaged towards game. What would create players to make their own choices is from a dilemma in a game. Dilemmas weigh consequences of the players choices making players make wise choices to progress in game. They also produce emotions to the player when they are struggling to win in a game. One of my favorite games is an example of this and is entitled  Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is a RPG strategy tactic game, where it takes place in netherworld. The game leads the player to a young demon prince named Larhal. He is the only remaining person left in the place where his parents once ruled the Netherworld. Larhal goes on with his companions who tag along with him. They help him overcome foul creatures and people who are trying to take the place as ruler over the Netherworld.While your greeted with an introduction to the story and the features shown to you, the combat where you fight creatures has the same features as other tactic games, with a few new aspects. As your characters are set up next to each other, your able to make a combo by just making an attack by doing quadruple damage on a single enemy. There is conflict also in the combat system where there are these admitted objects called geo panels. They spread in different directions and if the you land on them, your character might change from stats or even have a bonus, such as 100% Experience points when defeating a monster. If you hit a geo panel, it will destroy all the panels that were spread and may cause you or anyone else damage. Before you start beginning your quest, you'll would start off with a few characters. This may bore some players because  they have to see them in the entire game. There character customization choose what class your character can be and what to name them. After that, you'll have basic stats.  You will receive bonus stats points when you can increase a certain stat, like attack for instant. Instead of a humanoid, you can do the same on a monster you encounter along the way, just  by unlocking them. With a great new dynamic gameplay and character customization, the dilemmas of the game alters the endings. There are many endings throughout the game. There are some that are dramatic, hollow, or have a fast impact. All of them require doing side stories or based on  a certain amount of issues with your allies. By this  I mean loyalty. For example, if you kill one of your allies, you will receive the bad ending and if you don't kill any allies,  then you will have a good ending. These endings are created by how the players  act in the game and they in turn determine how it will end.. This game really gives the field to players who like anime or manga.

Nintendo Kart Racing, Yahhooo!!!

While your developing your game, you must make sure that your game is balanced. When I mean balanced, I mean checking if there are any problems in the game. This means that you have to test repeatedly day after day, which leads to a huge pain for game designers to handle. It may be annoying or frustrating to do but, is highly worth doing in order for your game to become fully functional so that everyone can play without encountering any problems. There are four simple basic steps that can help you balance your game. Foundation will make you understand what your game core mechanic is going to be and seeing if players think the game is fun. Having structure tells you the basic things to have in a game by setting out rules and procedures for the game to be able to be played. Formal details mainly consists of whether the game is functional, internally complete, or balanced.The most important step you need to know is formal details because it shows how a game has to deal with balance. This focuses on variables, dynamics, starting condition, and skill. Variables tell about how many players, resources, and properties are in the game. Dynamics tells about what your game action is set on. Starting positions make sure the game is functional and fair to all players to have an equal opportunity to win. Skill explains how your matching user playing skill from your game. Fully understanding those areas will help you make your game better and well better known to become playable to everyone who seeks your game. If you may think this still seems to be too much in your head,  the game I'll explain to you to further your understanding is "Mario Kart Wii."

This game is a racing game for Nintendo Wii, where you can play as one of the many Mario characters. While it has some recognizable features from the past Mario Kart series, there are some new features such as bikes, which are faster than karts. You can also do tricks when you land on ramps with give you a big boost. If your used to using old Nintendo controllers, your still able to use either the game cube or the classic controller so you don't have to struggle with the Wii controller. There are over 32 race tracks courses including reoccurring ones too plus, ten battle stages. Another new thing they added is WiFi battle where you can race against people all around the world using the Nintendo WiFi connection. The game may also include Wii wheel controller, where you put your Wii remote inside the Wii wheel controller and it acts like your driving a car. In addition, this game also has its own channel where you can do ghost races and sometimes have a chance to fight bosses. Seeing how this game is balanced, we first need to see if the variables are balanced. This game is based for 1-4 players who encounter these "?" blocks that randomly contain many different items you can use along your race, like the koopa shell, bullet bill, and etc. These items will help you along the way, whether your trying to reach 1st place or go beyond your opponents. Balancing  of the dynamics has this game set to players who are interested in racing vehicles with a  high influence to fantasy characters. It's also meant for families or hanging out with your friends. The starting point of this game is where you began playing  and your greeted behind the finish line and a laktiu tells you when your ready to start by setting to 3,2,1. The objective of the race is simple, just reach the finish line after three laps by trying your best to  reach 1st place. All  have an opportunity to win where they can hitting "?" blocks that contain items to gain more advantage over everyone else. What makes the skill point balanced in this game is, the progressing difficulty where there are these different ranks that are 50cc, easy mode with only karts used, 100cc, median mode with only bikes used, 150cc, hard mode where you can use both vehicles, and a new addition mode, mirror mode which is just like 150cc, but 2 times harder. It is recommended to players to start 50cc to end, because this allows the players to progressively get better in the game.

The Visual Looks of Playtesting An Addictive Role Playing App Game!!!

When your developing a game, you need to get feedback in order to make your game better. An easy way to get feedback is by letting people playtest your game. You simply just stop at any point of the development of your game and leave your game unfinished, similar to a prototype. Show your prototype to anyone including your friends, family, or co workers to test out your game. This will give you helpful feedback and comments that will help you improve your game. You also target players who have the same interest depending on the type of game you are developing.You'll sometimes have to repeat the  playtest over and over again with new players. Your game will lengthen due to the suggestions and revisions that you make to the game.  The one thing you want to be careful of your playtesters is, not letting them tell anyone about your product until its released. Don't worry about that because 99.99% won't steal your ideas due to the nondisclosure agreement ( NDA). The six methods for playtesting is one being one-on-one testing where you watch over players by taking notes or questions. Group testing is a second method where you get a group of people to play your game. Feedback forms is a third method that gives players a standard list of questions about your game. An interview is a fourth method where you give an in-depth oral interview. An open discussion is a fifth method where you guide players on conversations or questions. Lastly, data hooks is the sixth method where you analyze players on how they are progressing in your game and gathering data by writing down notes. The game I'm going to use to explain  playtesting is "Brave Frontier."

Brave Frontier is a free mobile game that is a role playing game based on a  summoner. You explore within the game in this world called Grand Gaia, where there's many ancient fantasy gods. You'll have these units, who will help you along the way There are also, six different types of elements including fire, water, earth, thunder, light, and dark. When choosing what level you want to pick, you also have a friend help you along the way. Each unit will  have a leader skill which will boost up your character. There are also items, events, arenas, spheres, and etc. The main objective of the game is that  you must save Grand Gaia from the corruption and darkness that lurks there. The addicting aspect of the game is the combat, because you have to tap on the screen to make the units attack the monsters. Another thing that makes the game addicting is the amount of grinding you do from facing Metal Kings. This gives you more experience to max out your character. A great method for this to playtest is feedback forms because it will show what they like about it or dislike. Also, it shows what should be added into the game to improve it,  like adding new units or realms. All of that depends on the questions you made up for your game. Another way of doing the feedback form is to make a poll and vote for instance, of what your favorite unit is in the game. With having feedback forms, the game designers will know what players like and change aspects of the game or make an update since its a mobile game. 

Standing on the Right Colors

When you think about a particular type of game that you enjoy, you are more likely to be interested in the process of developing the game. Game designers first have to think of an idea,  then make a rough version of the game or what they call a prototype. There are two types of prototype, one being physical and the other digital. Digital prototype is what will be discussed. A digital prototype uses mainly technology and less use of paper. This prototype is mainly about incomplete game play, focusing on questions, parts of design, and minimal art or sound. Use of  minimal art and sound for the prototype should not be a concern. You'll be able to add these things when you figure the design and mechanics of the game. Speaking of game mechanics, there are one of the four different types of digital prototype in which discrete features of formal aspects of the game are seen. The others are aesthetic or the visual dramatic elements, kinesthetics or feel, and technology or the use of a game software. Have you ever imagined that  a physical prototype can be converted into a digital prototype? If so, it would be  a lot different and include many new mechanics. An example of this type of  game is "Twister."

If you are not familiar with the game "Twister,"  I will tell you a brief  summary of the game. Twister is a physical two player game, where you play on a mat board that has many different colored circles, red, blue, yellow, and green. You then, use a spinner that will tell you where the player has to land on using either  their feet or hands and leaving them. There isn't even a time limit so you don't have to stress out about landing on the right colors. While this somewhat acrobatic game is entertaining for two players, what I think would make this game more interesting is changing it more like a digital prototype. The game would be a rhythm game and would be instructed from the TV. It would almost be like "Dance Dance Revolution"  based on how the arrows show you where you have to stand in order  to receive points. The atmosphere of the game would be a cyber/space-like theme,  allowing the player to feel as if they are in the future. The controls of the game will mainly be the actual Twister and it would be connected to the "game system." There will be many features in this new type of Twister. One feature is that you will be able to play the game using actual songs/music, another introduces score points and levels. The game would have an isometric view point because it will be guided with a 3D environment when you play a level. This type of idea makes Twister a digital prototype and  would have the player's kinesthetics to be acting as an actual arcade. I think that this would make Twister a more interesting game digitally as compared to its standard form. The game itself is similar,to the digital  Dance Dance Revolution because they both use mats. This similarity sparked the idea to transform this game into a digital form of game play.

A Prototype Based on Marbles Moving

When your trying to make a game you must gather all of your thoughts and then start making a "beginning of game" or make a prototype. Prototyping is like using your own creation of a game by putting your ideas that you think are best then, start testing it to see if its good. While your prototyping, your able to make improvements or change parts of a game. Its almost like making a rough draft of a story. Most game prototypes may include rough artwork, sound, and features. Another thing about prototyping is that you are trying to have a prototype game that has an original core game play. The core game play are actions that repeats frequently in order to achieve the game's overall goal. A physical prototype is completely different than prototype using technology or digital prototype,we since physical focuses on game play.  You may find it difficult to start a physical prototype, but there no need to worry because there are methods. There are many methods like starting off using slips of paper with hand-drawn markings on them, make a battleship, or a first person shooter prototype. There are many other ways of making a physical prototype. A game that uses a different method of making a physical prototype is called, "Mancala."

Mancala is a two player family board game where you pass marbles on each "pit" and get as many in the goal. The genre is sowing game or can be called a "count and capture game." To understand about this game, the objective to try to capture more marbles than your opponents in order to win. The early parts of the game was  totally different from what is now on some type of wooden flat surface. Mancala originated in Africa and  they play it on the ground. Rocks were used instead of marbles. The pits and "goal were basically dug up. There are other different ways of how Mancala is structured depending  on the country it is played in. This early part of Mancala is more like a physical prototype because of how differently the game is as compared to how it is played in America, whats interesting about it, and how this idea originated many centuries ago. It doesn't use any hand-made items like paper but, instead uses things naturally made from nature. When the creators made this game, they first visualized all their ideas and their core idea or the main things the game is about. The game core game play was players to grab a certain amount of marbles and drop it in each pit until they reach the goal or have no more. Most physical based games don't use many features, but as discussed earlier,  physical game play focuses on simple game play and engaging the players versus digital play with complicated and beautiful graphics..

Mystical Creatures Being Controlled By Rangers!?!?!

When it comes to making a game concept, you need to think of ideas. In other words, you need to brainstorm. Brainstorming is key in knowing what your concept might be for your game. This also allows you to think creatively by saying anything randomly that comes out of your head like a "giant mech T-Rex that has and iron tank on its back shooting lasers". This may sound ridiculous but, this can be the start or be the core idea for your team members to start brainstorming. There are some other ways you can brainstorm such as list a creation, idea cards, mind map, shout it out by voice reordering it, and cut up pieces of  pictures and matching up the cut up picture. Brainstorming ideas should not  be about criticizing because this will cause discouragement to those people who made those ideas. This will also destroy the entire part of creativity, eliminating the purpose of having concepts. The game that I'm going to tell you about has a good concept and is called, "Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs."

Pokemon Ranger Guardian Signs is the third title for the Pokemon ranger series. This game is played only for the Nintendo Ds, and  mostly uses the stylus for game play. Its sort of based on an action strategy type of game with a little of role-playing in it. There were many concepts used in this game, causing it to be different and unlike the other Pokemon titles. One of the key ideas they chose is not to make the protagonist a trainer, but instead a ranger. Instead of capturing a Pokemon using a poke'ball, rangers use these tiny gadgets called the capture disc. This disc allows the player to emotion bond  or befriend the Pokemon when capturing them. Once you capture the Pokemon, you'll gain experience that varies depending how well you capture them. You can use the Pokemon to use field moves. Field moves are helpful in  removing obstacles from out of the way. These obstacles may be giant boulders and trees. The concept action is used for this capture disc and is used by the stylus looping around the Pokemon and dodging projectiles. When I said this has a little role-playing in it, I mean you can increase the power of your captured disc. An example of more power is an increase in the boost of friendship gauge ( which is basically an attack) and health every time you capture a Pokemon. The captured disc is based on a life bar of the game, making you cautious when you get hit by wild Pokemon's projectiles. Soon you won"t feel cautious when you get hit by a projectile because of another idea, quest which were added by the game designers called Game Freak. You can retain them after you finish certain parts of the game. After you are done a quest, you receive many different upgrades like defense boost on a certain element, an increase of the length of your disc, and much more. There are many other editions to this game,  like using your Partner Pokemon, Pichu using its Ukulele that help in capturing Pokemon. This allows you to use captured Pokemon to help you increase your chance to capture another Pokemon, and mount and ride on Pokemon. 

While the game may have a great concept for a Pokemon game, there are a couple of flaws in this game. One being, the game play of the capture disc. It can actually be very boring to some players because you are basically just  looping around. Some players either like or dislike. There is also an annoyance when you encounter Pokemon who are agitated.  These Pokemon  are difficult to capture because if  you stop trying to capture it, it will slowly regain its anger. Some of the sad things about these concepts is that your limited by a certain number of Pokemon. This limitation makes you have to release the Pokemon for more room. With all the upgrades you receive from quest and others, wild Pokemon will begin to feel not challenged because they are capable of  absolutely zero damage. There was some wild Pokemon that are extremely fast and abusively using attacks. In order to improve  this game would be to try  not to make the game too easy and have so many annoyances.

Angel Within The Skies

Feedback is a great way to make a game designer improve their skills because they let you know the main negative parts of the game. Even though feedback may sound negative, it will have a positive effect on the game. A positive effect will create an advantage while a negative effect works against the effect. Balancing them will force the game to have a divergent behavior making the players become engaged. You can also receive feedback just by letting players to play test your game. This is what many game designers do when their game is in beta. Without feedback, games will never improve and many games will result in dead ends. A game I'm going to show you has a few flaws but still a great game called "Kid Icarus Uprising" for the 3Ds.

The game, Kid Icarus Uprising, is a action game where you shoot enemies through land and sky fighting enemies from the underworld. The main hero, Pit, is an angel who was sent by goddess Palutena. She guides you as you travel along the way of your quest. Your quest is to defeat the evil monster named Medusa. She's was once defeated previously from Pit's last adventure from the game, Kid Icarus NES but, she was reincarnated. She was the one who summoned demons across the skies of the overland. Along your adventure, you can obtained dozens of weapons that are melee and ranged. Also, there is another item called, power palettes that have certain powers like healing or increase your attack. You can change the difficulty of the game by using hearts which is currency. The increase of the difficult, the better items you'll get after you beat the game. Another fun thing about this game is that you can face other players using internet battling them in different stages. Even though this game has a fantastic atmosphere, intriguing story, and music, there are couple problems in the game. The controls of the game are difficult to play because of how abstract they are. To move around, you use the joystick and to shoot/attack you use the L button. This is where the problems of controls begin. In order to aim at enemies you have to use a stylus. That allows you use your special attack and use power palette. This style of control creates even more difficult for the player especially for left handed people. While your trying to get used of the controls, the difficulty can be very annoying especially if you're trying to get better items. This is type of game for immediate players or above. Seeing those flaws may sound disappointing but, its still great game to play and it has many interest within the game.