Game Description

Flappy Bird is a side-scrolling mobile game with 2D retro style graphics. The objective of the game is to direct a flying bird. The bird is flying towards right direction constantly while it has to avoid the pipes that blocks its way.

Gameplay Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQoJZuBwrkU

Figure 1

Own Experience

Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetic

I find the game graphics to be very cute. This is because that it uses retro style graphics to illustrate the game world. On one hand, it is a simplistic game hence complicated graphic effects become unnecessary. On the other hand, pixelated graphic style suggests that the game is very light-weighted and it is easy to get hands on.

Technology

Although the game does not have realistic graphics, it has relatively realistic physical engine. The motion of the bird is accurate and it corresponds to how I imagine it to be.

Mechanics

The rules and procedures of the game is very clear. A straight-forward instruction is given at the beginning of every game (See Figure 2). Before the game starts, user will see a bird floating up and down, locating at the center of the screen. The ground is moving towards left, indicating that the bird is flying towards right. The pre-game animation hints the goal of the game is to keep the bird flying forward. Another instruction is given to show user how to control the bird. A Tap sticker, a grey replica of the same bird and an upward arrow suggest that each tap will make the bird fly higher.

Figure 2

Story

The game has only one character – the bird. Throughout the game, there is only one event that is happening – the bird is flying towards right and it has to avoid the pipes that block its way. There is no clear storyline or branching of events. However, the different height and orientation of pipes makes the gameplay more dynamic.

Lens of Curiosity

The game triggers my curiosity. In the first few rounds, I was not able to get more than 10 passes (a.k.a score more thant 10 points). However, when I finally got more than 10 passes, I was awarded with a bronze medal. I wondered what I would get if I reached more than 20 passes, or even more. Additionally, I was curious whether the game has an end.

Lens of Skill vs Chance

The game is well balanced with skill and chance. It requires skills to get good results. During the game, I have to be concentrate and alert at all time to avoid the incoming pipes. However, sometimes chance does matter. As the height and orientation of the incoming pipes are randomly generated, a skilled player like me might also fall in front of the first pipe. The balance between skill and chance made me think that I am well equipped with the skill, and I was just unlucky sometimes. That thought motivated me to have another attempt.

Lens of Head and Hands

The game has a good balance of mental and physical elements. When I was playing the game, I was always mentally focused. I had to assess the risk of making the bird flying higher when a pipe was near – either too high or too low would make the bird crush onto the pipe. While being mentally focused, I had to make sure my hands execute the right command. The game challenged my brain-hand coordination. I could feel my hands shaking when my score was increasing.

Other’s Experience

Lens of Challenge

My friend watched me playing the game and he proposed to challenge me. The challenge in the game mostly happens between players. By listing the highest score at the end of the game, Players are motivated to play again to beat the highest score (See Figure 3). My friend said he kept on playing because he wanted to beat my record.

Figure 3

Lens of The Interest Curve

My friend was a first time player. At the first few trials, he could not even pass the first pipe. The experience was very demotivating for him. However, the interest curve raised rapidly once he picked up the skill. After a while, my friend got bored of the game as he could not make any further progress. The more he plays, the more impatient he got and the worse result he obtained. The interest curve dropped constantly as time progress.

Lens of Accessibility

My friend is a first time player. However, he knew how to play the game and understood the game objective naturally. One reason is that he had seen me playing before. The other reason is that the game is equipped with high accessibility. The starting screen provides instruction of how to interact with the system. The game graphic is pretty similar to Mario Brothers (See Figure 4). Both Flappy Bird and Mario Brothers are side-scrolling game. They share similar objectives – to direct the main character to move towards right. However, there is one confusion in this familiarity. In Mario Brothers, Mario can jump into the pipe to access other part of the world. In Flappy Bird, the bird has to avoid all the pipes.

Figure 4

Comparison and Learning Points

First of all, I learnt that players with different skill levels will have different playing experience. My friend is a first time player, hence he focused more on exploration. He paid more attention on the number of successful passings. He wondered what was going to happen if he broke my record. As for me, a relatively experienced player, I did not waste my focus on small details. I paid more attention on directing the bird.

Secondly, I discovered that player’s profile affects game experience. Though getting frustrated by the obstacles he encountered in the game, my friend requested to play again and again. As I recalled my gaming experience, in most of the cases, I played this game because I wanted to kill some time (eg. waiting for bus). Some players can get addicted to a game very easily, and some can not.

Thirdly, intuitive instruction in the game widens its audience base. A game with steep learning curve always loses new players at the beginning. For example, EVE Online is a great sandbox game. However, it does not have much player base due to its steep learning curve. Observing my friend playing Flappy Bird for the first time, I noticed that Flappy Bird has a very shallow learning curve. It is very easy to get hands on but mastering it requires many practices.

Lastly, I learnt the importance of testing the game with different players. By observing my friends playing the game, I got to access a different perspective. I am an experienced player hence my verdict on the game’s learning curve may not be accurate. My friend is a first time player, therefore his playing experience provided me more insights on how people get their hands on the game. By observing more than one people playing the same game, I was able to understand how gaming experience varies as player profile differs. It helped me to assess the audience base of the game.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI) is the latest installment of Bioware’s Dragon Age Series. Like its predecessors, DAI is a 3D role-playing game (RPG) set in the fictional world of Thedas. The player takes on the role of the story’s protagonist who eventually comes to lead an organization called the Inquisition which aims to restore order to the world. The Inquisition is made up of various well-written characters, with 9 of them being potential party members whose skillsets and gear are also customisable like the protagonist’s. Select expanses of Thedas are also open for the player to explore, fight foes and complete quests within, with more unlocked as the player progresses. Combat is mostly action-orientated, with the player controlling a party member while the others will behave according to their individual AI.

Protagonist of the Story: The (soon-to-be) Inquisitor

Game’s Homepage: http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/home

Gameplay Video, by ChristopherOdd and also used in this analysis:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjKh8QzYtaQ
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFhWN2CnRM

In this assignment, I chose to analyse in particular the very first stage of the game between my playthrough and that of ChristopherOdd’s “Let’s Play” Video. Being a game being focused around a main plot, I had found that the experience could vary greatly when played at different points of the plot, especially the emotional responses to events of the story and difficulty differences. Thus, fixing the part of the game to analyse would be easier to compare and contrast directly.

Elemental Tetrad

Story

I find Story being the most prominent out of the four elements, especially with the very detailed lore of the world. The game began with the showing of cutscenes of the protagonist’s plight. From the first few conversations the protagonist has with the character Cassandra, the ongoing chaotic situation of having a giant green hole in the sky was set up before me. Though, few things that happen in this first stage elicit much response from me as a returning player. For ChristopherOdd, being the first time he is playing the game, was actually surprised at various points of the stage such as the bridge collapsing when he tries to cross it. The dialogue system also allows him to learn more about the situation and characters around the protagonist to grasp a better understanding of the story.

Prominent Characters of the Inquisition

Aesthetics

It’s unfortunate that with my low-end PC, I am not able to fully enjoy the 3D environments. Nonetheless, the great voice acting is able to bring forward the personalities of each character. Music tries to play up the ongoing doom-on-the-world tension. From the sound effects, I could even tell whether or not my attacks are connecting with the moving targets.

Aesthetics also aid ChristopherOdd in picking up the mechanics. For example, from the metallic bars above Cassandra’s health bar, he deduced that she has some sort of armour on her in which he was quite correct even though he did not know that they represent her “guard”, a commodity which takes damage in place of her health.

Mechanics

Combat is DAI is mostly action-based. Mechanics are also flexible enough to allow us to take different approaches to combat. For example, in the same fight, I did take out the weaker ranged enemies first before focusing on the enemies with more health while ChristopherOdd usually tries to take out the closet target.

I’ve found that Mechanics meets Story particularly in Rift fights. These green tears in the Veil could be disrupted by the protagonist in combat to deal damage to surrounding demons, something unique to the main character since he had woken to find a strange green mark on his hand at the start of the game.

Technology

Though not very apparent, it appears to be the glue in DAI’s well-meshed Elemental Tetrad. My favourite feature of the game is the characters. Aesthetics, of both animation and voice acting, and writing are meshed through technology to make them feel very much like real people. It’s also Technology that allows us to move our character freely and interact with objects, choose dialogue option and make visuals and sound play through our screen and speakers.

Screenshot from the First Stage (Credits: http://www.allgamesbeta.com)

Lens of Essential Experience

Although I was replaying the tutorial stage, I was still able to have an exciting on-the-edge boss fight by playing in the most difficult “Nightmare” mode. The increased difficulty challenges me to employ better tactics in fight as I could easily run into crisis points in combat and possibly lose. As this was not my first playthrough, I was rather impatient when cutscenes are going on as they are not new to me. Nonetheless, I still find myself being amused by the back and forth responses between characters, especially the witty remarks of Varric Thetras. The AI, models and voice contribute to life-likeness of the characters, reinforcing the illusion of my protagonist fighting alongside other people, and not mere pawns I can control as the player.

This tutorial stage seems to be able to guide ChristopherOdd smoothly into the controls and rules of the game through presenting popup explanations of combat skills, items and control as he encounters them. The game also makes an effort to instruct him through the party members, such as telling the protagonist to “use the mark”, which cues him to interact with the Rift using his character. Such efforts allow instructions to be presented in a “natural” way in the game’s setting and interrupts immersion less than the instructional popups.

Lens of Curiosity

While playing the game, I tend to look around a lot while hitting the search button repeatedly. This is likely because of the question of “Is there loot nearby?” in my head. The more I find, the more I am convinced that there are more lying around somewhere, especially when there seem to be the trend of loot waiting to be found in dead ends and corners off the main path of the stage. Similarly ChristopherOdd tends to search the area for loot thoroughly, probably due to the same question.

As a first time player, ChristopherOdd also appears to be curious and wanting to know more about where the stage and story is headed. The game begins with the cataclysmic event of a Breach being opened in the sky but there are many unanswered questions of how the protagonist ends up with the special ability to influence Rifts. The voices heard at the Temple of Sacred Ashes and the vision seen later also makes him wonder “What is going on?” probably not just about the vision itself, but also to the story behind the explosion that created the Breach.

Pride Demon Stage Boss (Credits: http://guides.gamepressure.com/)

Lens of Endogenous Value

Both of us collect as much loot as possible from this stage probably for similar reasons. We know gold would allow us to buy things we would want in future parts of the game, a parallel to real life money. Equipment we find that are better than what we are currently wearing would help us towards combating foes we meet. Combat is a major part of the game and if we are to complete it, we would have to win against enemies we come across. This give importance to developing our characters’ combat prowess and thus, attaching importance to good equipment. Similarily, we learn from this first stage that levels give ability points which are exchanged for usable skills and passive boosts for combat. Although experience points in this first stage are limited, we come to know that they are important as they lead to levels and thus, ability points.

Lens of Problem Solving

At the beginning of the stage, we are given the quest to “Get to the Rift with Cassandra”. This is the first of many problems disguised as a task and quest. Getting to the Rift means needing to overcome the foes encountered on the path to the Rift. Similar quests and problems make or guide us to the end of the stage to the Pride Demon boss.

A different problem was presented when fighting the boss. We would have to disrupt the nearby Rift in order to remove the shield on the Pride Demon boss that makes it immune to attacks. This slight change in the rules and the increased power of the opponent makes the problem of defeating the boss more challenging, creating the experience of the climaxing fight of the stage.

Conclusion

The experience of the first playthrough of this first stage of the game could be quite different from that of subsequent replay. Although my curiosity for what-happens-next is dimmer than ChristopherOdd’s, the wanting of valuable loot and the curiosity of what I can find had me exploring the stage as thorough as I could. Although I was already versed in the game and impatiently skipping through tutorials, I could still have fun through the increased difficulty as it challenges me to apply what I already know to overcome the problems. On top of it all, characters that I have grown fond of during my previous experiences of the game were present, no less well-presented and amusing as I remember them from previous plays.

Offical Website              Gameplay demo

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a free-to-play collectible card games created by Blizzard Entertainment which is played by two players.

Elemental Tetrad

• The mechanics of the game is to reduce the health points to zero with decks of 30 cards which consist of minions, spells and weapons. The minion can attack each other or the enemy’s hero. The spells cards have diversity effects, from damaging and drawing extra cards to spawn new minions. Once your hero’s health falls to zero, the game is over
• Hearthstone has impressive graphics.

• One of the features of Hearthstone that I was impressed by is their Tutorial Mode.

• It wasn’t only to introduce player to cards and mechanics of the game, it was giving the sense of progression from fighting lesser bosses all the way to Illidan. It gave me a sense of closure, before moving on to the next stage of the game.
• Hearthstone is available for Windows, Macintosh and iPad.I find that the four elements (Mechanics, Aesthetic, Story, and Technology) are working well together , it makes the game pleasant, interesting and challenging for the players.

The 5 lenses

1. The Lens of Fun

The duration of the game ranging from just a few minute or more than 20 minutes. This allow each player to play against variety of enemies. Thus, it doesn’t make a player reach a state of boredom.

There are 9 playeable heroes which user have to strategise differently and we have to choose 30 out of more than 400 cards to bring in the battlefield, this can be quiet rewarding. The competitiveness in Ranked Mode makes the game engaging to the players.

Having a new class could make the game attractive to the players. As there will be new decks of cards to collect and new abilities. Currently, Hearthstone has it’s first game’s expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes. Since then, it has increases my interest in playing the game.

2. The Lens of Surprise

During the battle, the player does not know what card will be drawn form their deck of 30 cards. The card will determine the player’s strategy.The cards in our enemy’s hand is unknown to us. While playing the game, you tend to predict what cards does your opponent has.

3. The Lens of Motivation

Players are motivated to obtain higher rank in the ranked mode. Starting from rank 20, each player needs to obtain 3 stars and they will lose one star everytime they lose a battle. The competitiveness of the game drives the player to play more.

Losing the battle sometimes demotivating the players, especially form rank 20 onwards. You can win 3 times in a row, at the same time you can lose 3 times in a row. Thus, it gave a sense of zero accomplishment to the players.

4. The Lens of Chance

There is randomness in the type of enemy you will play against. A card that will be drawn to your hand during the battle is randomise by the AI. The outcome of the game determine by the correct or incorrect order of the cards.There are different daily quest that player have to fulfil in order to obtain a gold reward.

The long –term success doesn’t fully depends on the chance. The extended knowledge of the game and one’s intelligence are the greatest factor of success.

5. The Lens of Balance

The player will be matched against the opponents who has similar skill/decks and the number of wins.This provides a good balance in the game as it prevents player to battle with a player that has better cards and abilities.Every time the player buy 1 new card pack, there is no factor affecting what cards can a player obtain. Thus, there is fairness in the game itself.

Friend’s Analysis

1.The Lens of Fun

There is a great sense of satisfaction every winning round. The competitiveness increases as there is a sense of accomplishment playing at the ranked mode.Playing against different type of players makes the player feel adventurous as the player needs to adjust their game strategy accordingly.

2.The Lens of Surprise

During the battle, the player constantly thinking of the cards that he/she will obtain. It has always been a surprise for the player every time the new card is drawn to their hand.

3.The Lens of Motivation

The number of wins in the battle encourages the player to keep on playing. The more wins you obtain, the faster you can obtain a higher rank.

4.The Lens of Chance

The cards drawn to their hand is always unpredictable. Thus, player tends to be constantly adopting different strategies to deal more damages.The opponent’s deck affected the approach that a player has.

5.The Lens of Control

The interface is simplistic. Player knows how to put their cards into the board. It is easy to navigate and it is easy to master all the controls in the game.The outcome of the game is determine by the type of cards each player put on the board. It gave sense of control of the game.

Overall game design of hearthstone is simple and easy to grasp for the first time player.

Compare and Contrast

1.The Lens of Fun

Both player find that the satisfaction of winning the battle initiated the fun in the game. The more you win the battle, the more you want to play.

Additionally, by playing multiple games with different types of opponents each time stimulate the player to find more opponents to defeat. This game requires a right strategy with the right order of cards.

2.The Lens of Surprise

As the cards are drawn randomly, both players have to srategise their battle on the spot, with respect to the cards on their hand

3.The Lens of Motivation

The competition between both players and the goal to achieve legendary ranks or even to get a higher rank for every season has make the game attractive for both players.

4.The Lens of Chance

It is random thus it is difficult to predict what is the next movement. Both player experience similar feeling, excitement when the right card is drawn and frustration otherwise.

5.The Lens of Balance Vs Control

The randomness in the game makes the game fair to everyone. The new card pack bought by every player differ in the rarity of the cards.

Additionally, the first time player find it easy to play the game as there is a concise tutorial that have been provided. In this case, the elemental tetrad of the game is well balance and it has increase the pleasure and excitement of the game.

In conclusion, despite playing the same game, different player experience different feeling and emotions. It is interesting to see how a game can affect individual differently.

Short Description

Battle Camp is a mobile-based game that is very much like Pokemon. The player starts off with 5 basic monsters in his team and progresses to each new town by defeating a hall boss (much like Gym Leaders). Every new town gives access to better monsters, which improve your team’s Power Rating (PR).

The rarity tier of monsters goes from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super, Ultra, Epic and Legendary Monsters. Players can only obtain up to Super monsters by completing the main questline. For Ultra monsters and above, players can either compete in Events, or spend money to spin “Ultimate Grabs”, which has a random chance of giving Ultra and Epic monsters.

Each monster has its own zodiac sign, which means there are 12 versions of each particular monster. Another way for players to improve their PR other than obtaining monsters of better rarity is to match zodiacs e.g. using all “Scorpio” monsters in the team. This will activate powerful passive bonuses, which may include additional Attack stats, or HP stats.

An important aspect of the game is that players cannot sit down and complete a ‘playthrough’ in a single session. It is a passive game, where Energy is used to battle monsters, PvP other players, participate in Events and fight bosses. Every 10 minutes, 1 energy regenerates, and the total energy cap at any one time is 5. This means that players can only play for a short while, depending on how fast they use up their energy. After depleting their energy, they must either wait 50 minutes or use In-App-Purchases (IAP) to buy extra energy.

My experience

1. Lens of Time

A lot of times, I just play the game passively. After using up my energy, I just close the game and go and do other stuff. Even though the game notifies me when my energy is refilled, sometimes I forget and let them go to “waste”, since there is a cap imposed. This is directly related to the Lens of Time. In this case, for me I think it is just a different style of gameplay, and I am neither frustrated that the game is too short, nor bored because it is too long.

2. Lens of Endogenous Value

When I ran out of energy, I went to the ‘Management’ Tab and looked at my monsters and inventory. This is relatable to the Lens of Endogenous Value, which asks the question of ‘what is valuable to the players in the game?’ For me, it is obvious that my team of monsters and those in my inventory have endogenous value because it is essentially what the game is all about to me – improving my team and getting better monsters.

3. Lens of Motivation

I also find myself exploring the ‘Social’ Tab and looking at my friends’ monsters, comparing his team to mine. I also PvP occasionally when I feel like it. I think the Lens of Motivation comes into play here as I feel motivated to play and upgrade my team so that I can beat other players.

4. Lens of Spectation

An interesting thing that happened when I was doing this assignment was that another friend (not the one who I was planning to do this assignment with) became interested in watching me play. This may be explained by the Lens of Spectation, and I think the game is interesting to watch because animations are everywhere and people are generally attracted to moving things.

5. Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics – This game is heavily invested in aesthetics, as it is filled with nice animations and good looking monsters. On one hand, the common and lower-leveled monsters tend to look small and cutesy, while evolved monsters grow in size and give off intimidating looks, so this actually allows the game to cover a broad theme of art.

Technology – For technology, I do not know what game engine is powering the game, but I feel that it can be improved. When playing on my Android device, I always experience lag. On the other hand, my friend has no lag problems on iOS.

Mechanics – The mechanics of the game mainly revolves around matching gems, and is not new. Unlike Candy Crush, the player can move a gem anywhere on the map, displacing gems along the path taken and making multiple combos this way (see gameplay video).

Story – There is hardly any storyline progression in this game.

My friend’s experience

1. Lens of Time

Unlike me, my friend was glued to his phone screen. It was clear that the 50 minutes recharge time for energy is too slow for him, and he was frustrated that he could not play longer.

2. Lens of Endogenous Value

Similar to me, while my friend was waiting for energy, he would look through his current team of monsters and inventory.

3. Lens of Chance

During his playtime, he actually used his free “Ultimate Grabs”. Although initially a paid feature, sometimes the game gives out free grabs as rewards to players in event. The chance of getting a good monster from spins is totally random. One of the questions asked by the Lens of Chance is: Does the randomness give the players positive feelings of excitement and challenge, or negative feelings of hopelessness and lack of control? Actually, it depends. If the player receives a very rare monster (e.g. Epic-tier monster) from the spin, then they would obviously be very excited. However, the chances of this happening is very low, and most players experience negative feelings when spinning such “Ultimate Grabs”. A lot of them have even advised other players to spend their money on other items instead, such as buying energy. In fact, some have even came up with their own term for “Ultimate Grab” – they ridiculed it as the “Rare Grab”, which means you only get Rare-tier monsters from it. Unfortunate for my friend, he did in fact get a rare-tier monster from his grab.

4. Lens of Reward, Lens of Triangularity

My friend participates in events actively. Relating this to the Lens of Reward, events can be counted as the main source of rewards for players, as they usually reward monsters with much better stats compared to those that can be obtained through quests. Players are always excited to receive these better monsters as rewards. At the same time, events can also be related to the Lens of Triangularity. Event rewards are separated into Tiers and only the top 5000 players receive good event rewards. Some players may choose to spend lesser energy, and are satisfied with a lower tier. However, they may also choose to spend more energy to advance to the next higher tier. This is obviously very risky as players are competing against players and if everyone were to spend more energy, then nobody would advance at all.

General

1. Lens of Community

There are 12 versions of each monster in the game. When getting new monsters (spinning grabs or event rewards), players do not necessarily get the new monster in their zodiac. Hence, trading among players is a very important aspect of the game as it allows players to match their zodiacs and receive bonuses.

Analysis

A learning point from the analysis of Lenses of Elemental Tetrad would be that a game does not need to have all elements; in fact if even one of the elements is done well (e.g. Aesthetics), players would be drawn into the game all the same.

Different people can have different reactions and experiences to the same game. This is evident in the Lens of Time analysis between me and my friend. Therefore, it is not only important to use the different Lenses blindly as a guide to game design, but to also consider that different people may react differently to the same Lens. A learning point from this may be that players are generally very fussy, and one man’s meat may be another man’s poison.

Despite the differences, some parts of our experience do share common reactions, such as the part on Endogenous Value. Although this may sound contradictory to the previous point about players reacting differently, I think this further reinforces the learning point that players are hard to please.

From both our experiences, I have been able to use multiple different Lenses to analyze the game. As a learning point, it is important to note that while using the different Lenses to design a game, it is better to stick to the rule of “more is better”. Some features may appeal to certain audiences e.g. passive playing and make others frustrated, but as long as the game has other features that addresses the needs of such players, then it would still be okay even if you have to make the player wait a while for some energy.

Website: http://pennypop.com/

Gameplay videos:

(Battle System) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cR5Ibg0ozo

(Ultimate Grabs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIkiu0yk4aQ

Description:

Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena video game. It is played in discrete matches involving two teams of five players, each of which occupies the opposite corner of the map. Each of the bases called the “Ancient”, which the opposite team must destroy to win the match. Each player controls a “Hero” character and focuses on leveling up, collecting gold, acquiring items and fighting against the other team to achieve victory.

Game website: http://blog.dota2.com/?l=english

Analysis of my gameplay:

Observing my friend playing:

What I have learnt from the process:

Lens of emotions and Elemental tetrad – story

My friend and I were going with the flow of the game i.e. following the team around. Perhaps we are not so aggressive in nature; hence there are similarities in the way we play.

I realised that the elemental tetrad – story can be created by the players themselves. The game designers create the elements of potential conflicts while the players will able to create the experience through those conflicts. It is a refreshing idea. Emotions are created based on how the players play the game. For instance, if it is a friendly match, the teammates would be forgiving and will purely enjoy the process, not the result. By allowing players to have the freedom to decide what they want to do with their heroes, it gives lots of variety of attack technique such as sneak attack or gang attack. This allows different game experiences every time they play.

Elemental tetrad – mechanics and Lens of skills

My friend is more skilful than me, however he is more defensive. One thing I notice is that the personality of the players plays a part in how the game wins. Somehow, the personality of my friend connects with the hero in the game, which might be the reason why he loves this hero so much. Also, the game finds and matches the team’s skill level so that it will not be unbalance. Once you know how to play a hero well, you will enjoy the game better and better. Sometimes you will find interesting techniques to kill using your items and skills. That makes you want to play more to try out.

Unification theme and Elemental tetrad – aesthetics

This game is more of heroes in 2 different teams fighting to defeat each other’s base which is the Ancient. The overall aesthetics match the strange creatures (heroes) and it emphasise on how surreal the game environment is. This gives off a sense of uniqueness or fantasy-like environment. I am more into the aesthetics so for instance every time I see a cute courier, I will be very tempted to buy. I love the music especially when into gang fights. The music that is played makes me more engrossed and makes the fights more epics. My friend on the other hand, is not really into the aesthetics. However, if he is wandering around the jungle, he will sometimes imitate after what the hero said.

Technology

My friend and I have experienced this latency of the network connection. Especially in team fights, the game screen will sometimes hang and the next time you know, your hero died. You do not even know what kills you. I hope that the game server will improve.

Lens of Endogenous Value

The game makes the struggle easy to understand, which is determined by your health, gold and your levels. Recently, it makes changes to the runes such that opponents will go to the runes to get gold. Even before the game “starts”, players will start to kill each other just to get it. I find that this is a good design as compared to the previous version as it allows the fun to begin even earlier. No more waiting till the creeps appeared.

Game description (taken from steam market): “Hack, slash, and smash your way to victory in this award winning 2D arcade adventure from The Behemoth! Featuring hand-drawn characters, Castle Crashers Steam Edition delivers hi-res visuals like nothing you’ve seen before. Four friends can play locally or online to save your princess, defend your kingdom, and crash some castles!”

Own elaboration on game mechanics: Castle Crashers was originally a console-based game but is now available on PC. My friend and I played using the keyboard (mouse can be used too, depending on own settings), moving around the 2D plane with up/down/left/right arrows, and attacking and using skills with left hand keys. Game is broken down into stages (think Candy Crush), new ones unlocking upon completion of previous ones and progress is shown on a pathed map. Each stage consists of hacking at enemies (similar gameplay) and travelling right until a boss fight, which has varied gameplay (normal battle, a race/chase, battle with tanker which deals damage by running over players and creating explosion spots instead of melee attacks). Screenshot of a normal melee-oriented boss battle shown below:

Analysis of Self

Player and game profile: Female, enjoys MMORPGs, RPGs, FPSs, arcade games, story is very important in RPGs, takes gaming maybe a bit too seriously. First game of Castle Crashers, playing with the friend to be observed later in a “co-op” local game. Plays games primarily on the PC.

1. Upon launching the game, I felt excited. The graphics (aesthetics) were to my liking –old school, cute cartoon characters, very colourful and medieval themed –and the music was also fast-beat and exciting, to make the player crave for action. The theme (lens 9: theme) was reinforced by the type of monsters, their costumes, the weapon choices (sword, axe, bow and arrow etc.), and the story (saving the princesses). Having a unification theme makes the game feel more complete, well-made and also prepares the player for the game.

2. As the game started off easy, I was having fun and was eager for more. I kept wanting to travel rightwards because that was the way to progress (lens 2: fun & lens 5: endogenous value). Cut scenes at the start of the game and before boss fights add to the excitement and eagerness. Here are some other examples of lens 2, 3, 4 that add to the fun and plays on curiosity:
   1. Monsters that look dead and part of the background would spring up to attack us!
   2. Boss would hit us normally for most of the fight then suddenly pause to drink a potion which we were curious to find out its mysterious effects.
   3. At the end of the boss fight, players had to battle it out for the only princess available… Was totally caught by surprise that I had to turn against a fellow player!
   4. Variable game play of boss fights, as mentioned in the game mechanics section, resulting in many mini-games and not just all about hack-and-slash.
   5. Random objects that may or may not be interactable (crates, ladder, animals etc.).
   6. The game is social and playing with friends is always fun!

3. I felt cooperative at first because we had to work together to kill off enemies which highly outnumbered us (lens 6: problem solving via cooperation) or kill the boss. However, I felt greedy and more and more competitive as the game progressed. This was because we realized that the gold dropped was not shared and whoever got to the gold first will gain it. The same went for opening of treasure boxes, food drops that refills health points etc. I found myself abandoning my friend who was being flanked by monsters to open treasure boxes… Because of how players battle amongst themselves at the end (story, mechanics), this game has a very unique game play that is both cooperative and competitive!

4. Negative emotions due to game mechanics: I felt angry and confused when I was unable to escape attacks or hit the boss as I was not used to the controls. When I was on the verge of dying, I felt even more flustered and played badly, spamming the keyboard keys without much thought. I felt sad when I didn’t have enough gold to upgrade my character and when I died, especially to my friend at the end, because I did not like killing off fellow players!!! I felt bored when my friend kept taking all the items from me.

5. I felt successful/satisfaction when we completed a stage, when I got to kill enemies, and when I got to items before my friend and when I obtained new skills and ability points. Being and RPG, players would want to keep upgrading so obtaining items, skills and ability points is fun and satisfying. It is also exciting and satisfying when we get stuck at some parts of the map but finally break through (lens 6: problem solving).

Analysis of friend

Player and game profile: Male, enjoys all kinds of games, places priority on immediate fun rather than story. Played Castle Crashers on solo-mode. Used to own an X-Box, plays primarily on PC now.

1. Since he was now playing solo, he started off apprehensive. With two players, it was already difficult to survive and he was not sure how a single-player game will go. At the same time, he felt excited (lens 4: curiosity: having different modes adds to the excitement of the game) and confident (since this is a repeat play).

2. He was satisfied and happy when he cleared each stage. When he did not, he felt disappointed yet in some sense accomplished and eager for more. This is because the game grants players some ability points when s/he fails to clear the stage and players can become stronger and attempt to clear the stage again (lens 5: endogenous value in playing over and over even if the player isn’t strong enough to clear the stage yet).

3. My friend was obviously more focused playing alone. Now his intention was just to clear the stage whereas previously, we were just trying out a new game, having fun and also fighting for resources.

4. He also felt panic or curious when he didn’t know what was happening. Playing solo also meant that the stage restarts upon death, so staying alive was more important than in multiplayer where we can revive each other. When death is less imminent, he would be curious and ask what he’s supposed to do now and try out new things (lens 4/6: curiosity/problem solving).

Comparison and Learning Points

The lenses I focused on are surprise, fun, curiosity, endogenous value, problem solving, the elemental tetrad and unification theme.

The similarities in our experiences are: fun, surprise, curiosity, being eager for more and satisfaction.

It is fun to kill monsters, maybe because it makes players feel powerful and in control, and also, there is endogenous value in doing so –gain money and items to improve self and to progress through the game. The ability to upgrade one’s character to progress further into the game is essential to keep players playing for longer hours. The awarding of ability points even if a player fails a stage is also important to prevent players from rage-quitting, and also makes a player want to test if s/he can defeat the stage on the next try. Another factor that keeps players is that the game is broken into short stages. Like in Candy Crush, the player keeps wanting more. Short stages are less tiring and gives the sneaky illusion that one has only been playing for a short time.

There are a lot of options, random objects and different gameplays which ups the surprise factor and player’s curiosity: a few stages unlock upon completion and lead to different paths in the game, player chooses how to pump ability points according to own play-style, map has interactable objects and boss fights are varied. The most difficult part of each stage is the boss fight and thus it is the part to “look forward to”. The game becomes more interesting when there are different ways to defeat the boss, keeping players excited to meet the next challenge and problem solve. Different boss fights also evoke different emotions and satisfaction upon victory (racing against the boss vs attacking it).

Castle Crashers is social and the ability to play with friends usually adds to the fun factor, although it also requires better technology. As mentioned, the game is both cooperative and competitive and this is quite unique. Perhaps I felt sad and bored because I was expecting a cooperative game (since it seemed as though we were a TEAM with the same goal); it was quite difficult to keep switching from being allies to enemies. In hindsight, it should have been much more fun if it was clear from the start that it was a largely competitive game. I was also expecting a lot more story since it’s an RPG but was highly disappointed in that aspect. Hence, my conclusion is that the marketing of a game is important to hit the right target group!

Another reason why my friend probably enjoyed the game more than I did is that he was familiar with console games while I was not. The game instructions were catered for console-use and although there was a disclaimer indicating so, I still feel that they should have catered for PC-use if they really wanted to bring it to the PC. (There’s almost no excuse since it has been available on PC for about 2 years…) If not, players like me would just feel very lost and confused, and our interest in the game will dwindle.

Overall, Castle Crashers has its fair share of fun and surprise, but is not exactly my cup of tea. Its plus points are that it pushes the boundaries by being/having mini games of a mash of genres (it is competitive, cooperative, race, puzzle, mindless hack and slash, a bit of skilled fighting and character placement etc.), and it does have nice graphics. It could greatly improve in terms of story and providing assistance to new players (it was super difficult gauging if I was in line with or in rage of the monsters or not, not the mention the instructions for consoles popping up all around).

Short description of the game

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena video game released by Valve in 2013. It originated from a custom map made in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne back in 2004. The main objective of the game is for the players in each team to destroy the opponent’s Ancient tower. Players will get to choose from a variety of heroes to compete in the arena. Through the process of gaining gold and leveling up, players will ultimately overcome the enemy base’s defenses to claim victory.

Link to game website: http://blog.dota2.com/?l=english

Link to game documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZYMI1zB9s

Observation of myself

Lens #37 – The Lens of Cooperation

Fig 1.0 – Teams cooperate to take down their opponents

Right into the start of the game, we assigned ourselves to the different roles of the team. This is essential as having each player focusing on their specific roles improves the chances of winning. Therefore, players will need to work together regardless if they are friends or strangers. Cooperation is also enhanced by having proper communication channels such as the chat box and the chat wheel. Dota 2 also has special communication hotkeys where clicking on skill icons and health bar provides more information to your teammates regarding the current skill or health status. Furthermore, they are also able to communicate through the in-game microphone. Therefore, the game offers many opportunities for players to cooperate among their own team.

Lens #30 – The Lens of Fairness

Dota 2 does its best to ensure that the game is fair and balanced. Public games can only start when there are 5 players per team. Should any player suddenly quit the game out of anger, he will receive warnings or be put into a lower priority pool for future games. Furthermore, the game automatically tries to match similar party sizes into a game to ensure both teams are equally balanced in terms of team familiarity. On top of that, the game also has a matchmaking system that tries to put players of the same skills in the same game through internal skill calibrations after every round played. Therefore, the game is carefully designed to ensure that all players receive fairness in terms of gameplay.

Lens #25 – The Lens of Goal

Fig 1.1 – The ultimate objective, the Ancients

The ultimate goal of the game is clear. The minions of each team are programmed to walk towards the main objective, the Ancient. Therefore, it is clear to players that their ultimate goal is to destroy the Ancient. Completing the main objective will rewards players with cosmetic items and experience points to level their main accounts. There are also mandatory side goals such as destroying towers and also killing optional bosses where players are rewarded with items and extra gold which will give them an advantage in battles and bring them closer to the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal can only be achieved after destroying some key towers. Therefore, goals are interlinked and progressive.

Lens #7 – The Lens of Elemental Tetrad

• Story

Dota 2 does not have any lore tied to the gameplay. Each hero also does not contain any personal history that spices up the rivalry between each of them.

• Mechanics

The mechanics of Dota 2 are thorough and complex. They range from hero mechanics which involves attack types and how experience, stats and abilities are gained to gold economy which is affected by how much bounty players can gain from killing things. Some mechanics also involves chance such as the randomization of boss spawn timers and power up runes. Having played the game for many years, there are certain mechanics which are fully understood. Therefore, there were times when I found myself guiding players through important sections of the game where certain decisions can affect the outcome of the game.

• Aesthetics

Realistic 3D graphics with high level of details and quality incorporated into the heroes, environment and cosmetic items.

• Technology

Dota 2 is a PC game runs on a heavily modified version of Source Engine. It utilizes technology that enables players to customize any hotkey to any functions they want, including setting skill hotkeys and customizing their chat wheel.

Observation of friend

Lens #27 – The Lens of Skill

Having only played less than a week, there are many mechanics in the game which she has yet to be familiarized with. Furthermore, Dota 2 demands heavy hand eye coordination and cognitive reflexes. Therefore, veteran players have an advantage over newer players. However, upon playing more matches, she gets more experienced, skillful in performing certain roles and having faster reaction to enemy actions. Therefore, Dota 2 is a game which requires certain skills and it allows players to improve them with practice.

Lens #40 – The lens of Reward

Fig 1.2 – Cosmetic Rewards

Upon finishing a game, my friend experienced joy upon receiving a cosmetic reward. These cosmetic items can customize how each hero looks in the game. Furthermore, it is clear as to what these rewards do as the game provides good visual feedback on characters with their new cosmetic items after equipping them. However, these rewards are given out on a slow and random rate such that the possibility of completing a cosmetic item set is low. As such, the game has a reward system which needs to be further refined to ensure that players receive the rewards at the right amount and at the right time.

Learning Process

Even though two players may play the same game, they may have different experiences, decision making, interactions and feelings invoked while playing. This may result in different expectations than what the game designer wants from players. Therefore, as a game designer, it is good to test your prototype against players of different skills and background to ensure that the game is well designed.

Furthermore, the game might not necessarily need to do well in all aspect of the lens in order to be enjoyable. As shown by the analysis previously, there are certain lenses which Dota 2 did not successfully achieve even though it is a successful game with close to one million unique players per month.  It can be due to a combination of certain lenses that are well thought out and interlinked which may result in making Dota 2 an enjoyable game.