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.