League of Legends (LOL), commonly referred to as League, is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. It is inspired by a modified version of Warcraft III:Defense of the Ancients (DOTA). In League of Legends, there are two teams. Each team has five players. Before the game begins, each player chooses one champion. A champion is a character with special abilities such as damage and shield. There are about 150 champions to choose from. To win the game, one team should destroy the enemy base. When born in the Summoner’s Rift, each champion starts at level 1 and begins with 500 gold coins. Champions become more powerful by leveling up and buying items with gold. Champions can level up and earn gold by killing monsters and enemy champions.
Link to game’s website: https://lol.garena.com/
Game Play Demo
Story
The League of Legends is set in the fictional world of Runeterra, of which Valoran is a supercontinent, and the League of Legends on Valoran has a diverse cast of characters with their own backstories, often related to political struggles on the continent. The “League of Heroes” on Valoran has a variety of characters with their own backstories, often related to political struggles on the continent. In addition, there are heroes who come from islands outside of Valoran, or from worlds outside of the Rune Lands. These heroes conflict with each other and are reflected in the “League of Heroes”.
Aesthetics
1. Champion
Champions are designed carefully with beautiful original skins and Splendid skills. Besides, this game has many skins that can be used after paying and they are much more attractive. LOL’s skin designing sometimes interacts with traditional Chinese culture, as in the demo below.
Dragon Fist Lee Sin — Lunar Revel Collection
2. Map
The map of this game is characterized by three lanes, each defended by several turrets. Summoner’s Rift is almost symmetrical. It has been overhauled aesthetically and graphically, and some vegetation has been added/reduced, but most of the basic design of the map remains unchanged. The details of the entire map were further optimized。 The map is becoming more and more appealing and bright. It is worth mentioning that when winter arrives, the map will also be designed to include elements of Christmas.
Technology
LOL’s hardware requirement is relatively lower than many 3A games. The minimum configuration requires a CPU i3-530, 1GB of video memory and 16GB hard drive, 2GB or more of RAM, system win7, win8, win10 are available, and both 32-bit and 64-bit can be run. The low requirement makes it easy to be access by many players.
Mechanics
It is team-based and 5v5 MOBA game. Players control champions with keyboard and mouse to destroy the enemy base. Players in the game try to kill minions for gold and use the gold to buy items. They should find a way to get gold effectively while preventing their opponents from doing the same thing. There are about 150 characters to choose and many in-game items to purchase. It requires team members to act quickly to avoid attacking and attack the opponents. At the same time, good decision of teamwork is also very important.
However, in my opinion, there are too many champions to choose from in the game and new champions with hard-to-learn skills are still popping up all the time. This makes it even harder for beginners to join in the fun of the game.
Lens of Surprise
Each champion has only a few skills. But the skill sets of the same champion or different champions are magnificent and surprising. Many skills can be released in unexpected combinations. Teamwork in the game can sometimes lead to unexpected results that people cheer for. With further research by players, many combos have been developed by players to surprise people. The game also surprises players with its blast settings. Sometimes even if you have a very low probability of hitting a blast, you can still hit several blasts in a row if you are lucky
Lens of Challenge
The game’s ranking mode gives players a challenge, and players will improve their game proficiency in order to achieve a higher ranking. Players are generally improving their skills, and this presents a challenge for every player. At the same time, many of the newly developed champions are hard to practice, and this challenge makes the game even more appealing.
Ranking system
Lens of Fun
In addition to the traditional Summoner’s Rift map, the designers have designed some less competitive and more entertaining maps for this game, such as Howling Abyss and Crystal Scar. Besides, they developed the Infinite Firepower mode which is played in the Summoner’s Rift map. In this mode, players can release champions skills with very short Cooldown time. It is worth mentioning that the designers have also designed a randomly selected championship mode and a very difficult human-competition mode. These different modes and maps really bring us lots of fun.
Lens of Freedom
lol has a relatively high degree of freedom, players are free to move around the map with purpose, can attack enemy minions and champions, and can kill wildlife. For example, we can often see champions who are in the middle appearing elsewhere. At the same time, champions in the jungle may appear in various parts of the map. The increase in the number of heroes gives players more combinations of champions, which is also a reflection of the game’s high degree of freedom. There are a lot of props that can be freely purchased in the game, and they have different functions. Players can decide which props to buy and in which order they want to buy them.
Rhythm Doctor is a one-button rhythm game set in a hospital that heals patients by defibrillating in time to their heartbeats. Players press the space bar to every 7th beat of the music for each level, and each level expands on that same basic concept by adding interesting poly-rhythms, offbeats, irregular time signatures, multiple patients and also surprising mechanics of breaking the fourth wall.
Lens of Surprise
While the basic premise of Rhythm Doctor is simple, the game introduces many surprising mechanics that aims to surprise and distract the player from the main game play, playing around with glitches and even messing up the audio. For instance, in Level 2-X All The Times, the game minimizes the game window and moves it around the screen to surprise and confuse the player (video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkXtILc1XUc&t=134s).
In Rhythm Doctor it is easy to rely greatly on the large visual hints (moving beat and red ‘X’s to signal pauses) to help with timing hits. By obscuring these visual hints, players are often forced to break their visual focus and instead concentrate on listening to the music and keeping beat in their head.
From personal experience in playing the game, I was very pleasantly surprised at the ingenuity and creativity in the kinds of surprises thrown at players at every level, and I looked forward to finding out what the next level held in store for me. Being forced to distrust my visual and audio cues was also refreshing, and not something I have experienced in other more static rhythm games.
Window moves off screen in Level 2-X All The Times
Lens of Simplicity / Complexity + Lens of Skill
Being a one-button game, rhythm doctor is deceptively simple. The mechanics of the game makes it easy for new players to pick up – just a very short explanation and tutorial is required to get new players started, which draws players in easily. As the game progresses, it increases in complexity through level design and more complicated music rhythms, but the basic mechanism of a single button press remains. This design choice makes the game accessible for almost all casual players.
However, further play will reveal that Rhythm Doctor is not a simple game. As compared to other rhythm games, Rhythm Doctor has a stricter hit timing window, and the surprise elements of the game as described above evolve from level to level, placing a greater demand on players’ focus. Paired with the difficult rhythms, Rhythm Doctor is agreed to be, and through personal experience, a difficult game to excel in. However, the play through for each level does not change, making it easy and satisfying to repeat levels to earn the B+ grade to move on in the story. This design choice gives players the sense that they are developing skill in their game play, with immediate and obvious improvements in performance through practice and repeated play.
Lens of Community
Rhythm Doctor comes bundled with a level editor built into the game. Players are able to create and share custom levels at https://rhythm.cafe/ and it is easy to download custom levels to play too. The in-built support for custom player levels greatly encourages the building of a fan community where players can exchange levels and continue engaging with the game long after they have finished the original gameplay.
There is also a lot of support for people looking to create their own levels, with a tutorial guide https://rhythm-doctor.gitbook.io/level-editor/ and even a discord server for community support https://discord.gg/rhythmdr. This mirrors the community building model of another highly successful rhythm game osu! that has 19.3 million monthly active users in its fan community, whose game content is nearly entirely community-created. While the fan community for Rhythm Doctor is not as large, there is potential for it to grow in the same way.
Conclusion
Rhythm Doctor is a deceptively simple game that is surprising and refreshing in its innovation of game play mechanics. It is definitely one of the most creative rhythm games I have played, and suitably challenging and engaging even for someone like me who gets bored of games easily. By analysing the game through the lenses of game design, it is apparent that Rhythm Doctor is well thought out and carefully designed to pull players in and provide a rewarding and memorable experience.
Rhythm Doctor is a one-button music game, which was inspired by Rhythm Heaven, developed by the 7th Beat Games, and published by both the 7th Beat Games and the indienova on Feb 26, 2021. Rhythm Doctor currently is available on Steam, and it is still in the Steam Early Access stage. The development team is developing more new characters, new levels, and is working to complete the entire backstory.
Mechanics The music game is designed to tap the keys to the rhythm. As a one-button music game, Rhythm Doctor is based on the simple and unique principle of pressing the keys perfectly on the seventh beat of the rhythm. This game can be played as a single-player or as a two-player. Players will receive a rating for each completed stage to determine how well they play and whether they pass the stage. As each stage passed, the story moves forward. The goal of this game is to go through the whole storyline and complete all the chapters. Depending on the player’s performance, additional bonus stages may be available.
Each stage of Rhythm Doctor is presented differently. For example, in some stages, the game will exit fullscreen mode into small window mode, and the small window will scurry across the screen like it’s infected with a virus. This mode affects the player’s line of sight, in which case the player needs to rely more on their sense of hearing, thus getting closer to the essence of the music game.
Furthermore, in some levels, for example, the player will hear multiple vocal parts at the same time, each with a different rhythm. The more complex rhythms evolve from the most basic seven beats. Players need to find the rhythm of each vocal part and press the button at the right time.
Story In this game, the player takes on the role of an intern doctor who treats patients by pressing buttons to the rhythm. Patients have strange and bizarre diseases, and the rhythm will have diverse themes for each character. In the process of treating them, the player is able to learn the unique story of his/her patient. Since the game is still in its early access stage, there is no clear main mission.
Aesthetics The game visually features pixelated art design and each stage is a song of its own. The developers have put a lot of effort into it, treating each song as a separate MV to make. The background of the game will change with the mood of the patient. Additionally, unlike other music games that have sensible visual cues, Rhythm Doctor has a lot of sophisticated visual distractions and gives the player a strong visual impact. The playing of the songs is also interspersed with conversations between the intern doctor (the player) and the attending doctor or patient, which allows the player to have an immersive experience of healing the patient.
Lens of Essential Experience Rhythm Doctor is essentially a one-finger game of keystrokes. The basic experience that most players have is the simplicity and satisfaction that comes from mastering the perfect rhythm. This simple and brutal way of operation can easily bring players a sense of psychological gratification. In addition, the beautiful music, moving story, and exquisite pixel graphics will give players an immersive feeling and make them move for the characters in the story. This is another essential experience brought to players by the game’s aesthetics.
Lens of Freedom Since Rhythm Doctor is still in the early access stage, many players feel unfulfilled after passing all the chapters. Fortunately, players can make their own stages in Rhythm Doctor and can use any background music they like. Rhythm Doctor will provide players with all the rhythms that have appeared in the game, such as the basic seven beats, irregular beats, hemiola beats, etc. Players can make their own dazzling visual effects similar to the official version. Following is an example of play-made stage:
Lens of Curiosity Although each stage of Rhythm Doctor is a separate song, the connection between the characters (the patients) is fascinating and makes players wonder where the story will go next. The game also features advanced stages (night stages), whose songs are made more difficult and complicated on the lower stages (day stages) and can only be unlocked after the lower stages have been perfectly cleared. This game mechanic takes full advantage of the player’s curiosity and desire to win, pushing the player to keep on challenging until the stage is perfectly passed.
Lens of Unification The theme of Rhythm Doctor is consistent, through the title players will know that they need to play as a doctor in the game, their means of cure is “rhythm”. This is constantly emphasized during the game, continually reminding the player of their identity and facing all kinds of patients.
Long Live the Queen is a tough but satisfying stat-building social simulation visual novel, similar to the Princess Maker franchise. The player guides Elodie, the 14 year old princess who will be crowned queen when she reaches adulthood in the game at 15… if you can keep her alive that long. Being royalty isn’t all fun and games when you’re faced with many different factions, enemies at your border, and magical dangers. Through every week until her coronation, the player gets to choose what Elodie studies — and those skills are what she will have to rely on to survive the twists in the story, with the ultimate goal of first finishing the game, and later obtaining the different endings or a ‘perfect’ playthrough.
The game follows Elodie, who is to be queen after her mother suddenly dies. Whisked from her school back to the palace, she is thrown into week after week of lessons…and also, power. Despite not yet being crowned queen, in order to prepare her she gains some control over the fate of her kingdom, and the player’s decisions have a great deal of power, not only to shape Elodie’s fate but that of her court, her kingdom, and her country’s interaction with others. Additionally, part of the story is about the many perils of ruling. There are many ways to fail and never reach Elodie’s coronation.
The story is closely supported by the mechanics. In this game, knowledge is power and all knowledge, from decoration, handling dogs or horses, vocal lessons to military, political and magical knowledge has its uses. (Some however are more useful than others). Certain decisions and choices are locked behind skill checks based on whether Elodie has enough of that particular knowledge, but you need to be prepared ahead of time, which is why what you study each week matters. Furthermore, it leans into the fact that Elodie is young, and hence emotional. Every week her mood will affect her choices on what she is able to study, giving her positive or negative modifiers to what she is able to learn. Time is always linear, and the tradeoffs of every choice become obvious early, making plays feel like their decisions matter. Finally, while the events of each week are linear, the overall player experience is not the same every time, because depending on the way you train Elodie, her abilities and her experience is different. This allows players to learn and anticipate as they go through multiple playthroughs, and really learn about the power of their choices and the many potential dangers of being a young ruler.
Long Live the Queen embraces a simple, cutesy aesthetic and the colour pink. It also provides a clear callback to similar games like Princess Maker, and other female-targeted games. While at first this seems at odds with the darker political themes and dangers in the story, the contrast also serves to highlight how the fantasy of being royalty is very different from the reality. For me, it felt particularly novel and fresh that each potential death Elodie could achieve was immortalized in a cute chibi badge on your achievements page. The urge to collect them all tempts players to replay the game just to achieve particular bad-endings and not just good endings, encouraging the discovery of the different impacts your choices can make. You even have the ability to dress up your princess (though this is actually an additional mechanic, because using the dress-up outfits increases your skills in a particular field, encouraging players to use the different outfits). Being a very story driven game, there is no action and the game is static, 2D screens with a great deal of text. The events in each week are told via short Visual Novel style scenes, in which the stat logic fades away so that you can focus on the story. Parts of the story’s lore is delivered through small text snippets summarizing Elodie’s lessons each week, which gives the player the context to understand what is happening during the story — but these dense snippets are displayed in a different kind of box, so the player can choose to read or not as they wish.
The technology is also in harmony with the rest of the tetrad. The tricky stat-crunching is easily managed for the player, and players can also save at any point. This makes the act of trying different choices at different parts easier and making it more fun to go back and replay different parts. Hence, the technology highlights the story and the satisfaction of building Elodie’s stats in different ways to overcome challenges.
I believe the game could be more immersive with more varied graphics or music, because the aesthetics were simple to a fault. In particular, the music quickly becomes repetitive. The simple graphics also made the deaths and other endings feel more sudden, which can be frustrating to the player. However, overall the graphics served the story, mechanics, and technology well, and might have been a necessary concession to producing the game quickly, and to put the players focus on the text.
Lens of Curiosity
Long Live the Queen excels in applying the lens of curiosity, and encourages players to keep coming back to the game again and again. The first few times you play, you probably won’t win. There are just too many potential dangers. This causes the player to wonder “What will it take to win? What should I make Elodie study on my next playthrough?” The story itself is interesting, where decisions cascade (actions done in earlier weeks affect events in later weeks), which makes a player feel like they want to find out what happens next in the story because they had a role in creating it.
There is a tendency to do completely different things in later playthroughs (for example, studying music in the first playthrough and royal demeanor in the next), leading to different options. You can see every check you fail, piquing the curiosity about what other text you would see if you had passed the check. Once you solve the game for the first time, most players immediately want to play it again to explore more paths. Furthermore the death achievement collecting page gives players hints about what paths they haven’t figured out yet, and that unknown is very motivating.
Lens of time
“Games give us the chance to do something we can never do in the real world: control time”
— Art of the Game Lenses
This lens is interesting to observe the game through, because the main mechanic of the game is choosing what Elodie studies every week — speeding through the time before her coronation. The game length partially comes from these interesting but thought heavy decisions, and figuring out what to study in order to unlock new scenes and discover new things. As choosing individual subjects to study each day would lead to decision fatigue and a very long game, the game restricts the number of activities you can choose to just two. This is where the technology really supports the game. As mentioned in the tetrad, you can rewind time via saved games. Additionally you can actually speed up time. For scenes that you’ve read previously, you can speed through the dialogue, which allows you to get through repetitive content quickly.
Lens of Pleasure
The three main pleasures this game offers (via LeBlanc’s taxonomy of game pleasures) is discovery, narrative, and challenge. For discovery, as stated in my analysis of the lens of curiosity, players enjoy finding out both how to win the game as well as how to win the game in different ways. Discovering new scenes also gives a strong sense of achievement and satisfaction. For narrative, as explained earlier the story is the games core strength. However, noting that narrative is more than story but also a dramatic unfolding of events, the structure of the game actually lends itself to this pleasure in particular. This is because each week is pre-coded with particular dramatic events. There’s rarely a dull moment in this game, because every week has the potential for something big to happen, and as described in chapter 17, the game uses the “string of pearls” method to space cutscenes with interactivity and challenging character choices.
Challenge then, comes from figuring out how to navigate this game in order to discover new scenes, strategies, and endings, and to progress the narrative. And this is quite difficult. The limited time, coupled with Elodie’s moodiness, really limits what you can study — and the games events wait for no player. There is always a time-crunch and a new threat, and the punishing stat checks drive many players to pull out their notebook or excel sheet to map out what future decisions they need to take to survive. But it is precisely this puzzle which makes the game so fun for me. The difficulty in even surviving gives me a lot of pleasure in triumphing over adversity (This is unpopular with certain kinds of players though, and if this doesn’t sound fun to you this probably is not the game for you).
Lens of Emotion
I experienced frustration, joy, surprise, sadness, regret, dread, worry, curiosity, satisfaction and triumph playing this game. The strength of the story experience carried all of these for me, and I would like to highlight what emotions I felt at certain key moments.
Firstly, deaths and failed checks. I almost always felt frustration when my run was suddenly cut short, or my plans for that week were dashed because I failed a skill check. However, I usually also felt surprise about the different outcomes, dread as I waited for Elodie’s bad end, and even satisfaction with the deaths due to having unlocked a new outcome. In some senses, the game made failure fun.
Secondly, I wanted to raise the tangible worry i felt for Elodie. While the player’s journey and that of Elodie are very closely intertwined, there are times where I felt very separated from her character, and I am sure this was intentional. Elodie is young. Elodie is a child, put in a horrible position of having to deal with being queen. At times in her story, I just felt so bad for the decisions I was making, which might put her in a bad place after the story ended — and while I did try to get her bad endings, I also tried very hard to find endings where she would be happy and the kingdom would be well, because of those emotions I felt about her.
Conclusion
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Long Live the Queen! I think it is an excellent and novel game, with a tricky puzzle to solve regarding what stats to build and a complex and surprisingly deep story which quickly pulled me in. If you do not enjoy stat-raising games or puzzles which encourage frequent replay, this is not the game for you. But if you’re interested in trying to help a young would-be-queen beat the odds, maybe you’d enjoy this deceptively cutesy princess-raising game.
Outer Wilds is 2019 open world mystery game developed by Mobius Digital and published by Annapurna Interactive. It is a critically acclaimed and award-winning game where you play as a space recruit exploring a solar system trapped in a time loop.
The official reveal trailer for Outer Wilds
Elemental Tetrad
Story
In Outer Wilds, you play as a Hearthian – an alien race native to the planet of Timber Hearth – who joins the Outer Wilds Ventures space program to explore and learn more about the solar system and its history, mainly, the history of the Nomai – another alien species that previously inhabited this solar system. The Nomai were highly advanced in technology but their race has gone extinct for mysterious reasons.
A Nomai
A group of Hearthians
The story begins with the player preparing for their first-ever space expedition! While exploring the solar system the sun goes into supernova but instead of dying the player goes back in time 22 minutes before the sun explodes. That is when they realize that they are stuck in a 22-minute time loop that ends whenever the sun explodes or the player dies.
The different planets in the solar system contain Nomai remains with clues that link to their history. The main premise of the game is to use these clues to uncover the story of the Nomai and their extinction, understand the cause of the time loop and some of the weird happenings of the solar system.
Mechanics
The player has a spaceship that can be used to fly around the solar system. Although the controls are simple, navigating the spaceship can be quite challenging due to the physics of the game with each planet having a different gravitational pull force, this can cause the player to crash and damage their ship in many different ways.
The player can explore the planets deeper by putting on their space suit, grabbing their oxygen tank, and walking around the planet. They can walk, jump, and interact with some objects by picking them up and putting them down.
Additionally, the player is equipped with a translator that can translate Nomai scripts into a language that Hearthians can understand. These scripts are usually found on walls and they look like curves that glow purple and turn orange after reading them. These texts are dialogues between Nomai that contain hints and information about the solar system as well as Nomai history and technology. These dialogues are the primal source of knowledge in the game and the player is required to connect the dots through different texts found on different planets.
Using the translator to translate some Nomai writing on a wall
Aesthetics
A planetary chart of the Outer Wilds solar system
Outer Wilds uses 3D graphics and goes for a sci-fi aesthetic. The solar system of Outer Wilds contains 6 unrealistically small planets. The game focuses more on the design and details of every planet rather than making the game look realistic. Each planet in the solar system is completely unique and designed to stand out for one reason or another. For example, one planet has a black hole in its core that teleports you to the opposite side of the solar system and another planet has giant cyclones that shoot small islands into its orbits before falling back into the planet.
Brittle Hollow – planet with a black hole at its core
Giant’s Deep – planet filled with cyclones
Technology
The game was developed using Unity engine. It runs on Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4/5, and a Nintendo Switch version is currently under development. It is best played using a controller. The game does not run on VR, however, since Outer Wilds is an atmospheric game I believe that playing the game in VR would add to the immersion experience and enhance the atmosphere of the game.
Lenses
Lense of Curiosity
Outer Wilds is purely driven by the curiosity of the player. The game hands the player a spaceship in the beginning and throws them into space with no direction at all, except for one question: Where do you want to go? It could be the weird smoke coming from the moon, some Nomai script they found guiding them to a specific location on another planet, or a strange-looking planet that caught their eye. Outer Wilds rewards its players with knowledge for following their curiosity and more questions start forming with that knowledge, slowly piecing the story of this universe together. This serves as a positive feedback loop where the game encourages curiosity and rewards the player for acting upon it.
Lense of Freedom
Unlike most games, Outer Wilds does not state any clear goals or objectives to the player. It does not have a list of quests for the player to fulfill. Once they get access to their spaceship, every single planet is accessible for them to go to with no restraints. This amount of freedom could be overwhelming to some players especially since each planet has random clues and bits of information about Nomai history with no clear chronological indication. Keeping track of bits of knowledge can be challenging to piece together, so the game balances this out by keeping a ship log in the player’s spaceship. The ship log serves as a log with all the important information discovered so far about every planet. The player can utilise it to make sense of all the information they found and it could help them decide which area they want to explore next.
Lense of Time
Time is an important element in Outer Wilds. First of all, each time loop is 22 minutes long meaning that by the beginning of each loop, the player has to decide what tasks they want to achieve in that limited time. Usually, when you discover you’re in a time loop and each run is time-limited you’d think that you would want to explore a location as quickly as you can before your time runs out and you lose all your progress. However, Outer Wilds uses time to its advantage by making both being fast and waiting rewarding. Some areas require the player to go at the beginning of the loop while others require they wait for some time to pass.
The Amber twin at the top and the Ash twin at the bottom
The best example of this in the game are the Hourglass Twins. The Hourglass Twins are binary planets orbiting each other. The first twin, the Ash twin, is a planet filled with sand, and the other twin, the Amber twin, is a rocky planet with a cave system. Due to the change in the gravitational pull of these planets, the sand from the Ash twin moves to the Amber twin filling up its cave system and creating an Hourglass-looking effect when observed from a distance. The player can only explore the cave system in the Amber twin at the beginning of the loop before the sand fills up, otherwise, they’ll get crushed inside. On the other hand, the sand leaving the Ash twin uncovers some structures hidden underneath that they cannot access until some time passes.
Lense of Emotion
Outer Wilds evokes a wide range of emotions in its players. From fear and sadness to hope and happiness. The game is filled with chilling revelations and intense moments that are amplified by the imagery, atmosphere, and soundtrack. One of the more emotional revelations was finding out how the Nomai died. Throughout the game, you can see many Nomai skeletons littered around the solar system on different planets. Seeing their remains, in the beginning, does not have much of an emotional impact because you are told from the start about this ancient civilization that has gone extinct, so, seeing their dead bodies is not surprising. However, the more Nomai dialogues you find and read you, the more you start getting attached to the characters that appear recurrently in these dialogues and their journey in this solar system. Later on, discovering the cause of their extinction and finding some of their dead bodies nearby accompanied by well-crafted emotional music can fill you with complete sadness and devastation.
Stray is a game which I recently played and fell in love with. It is about a cat that falls into an underground city. With the help of some robots, the cat successfully returns to the surface in the end.
Mechanics
The mechanics in stray is basically what a cat would do in daily lives, which by itself makes the game interesting. As a cat, the player can walk on water pipes, jump up to high places, get through narrow passages, sprint on the streets. Using keyboard to move and jump, the player needs to find a way to the target place, solving puzzles and helping NPCs along the way.
Furthermore, walls and carpets can be scratched at, knees can be lovingly rubbed against, objects can be heartlessly pushed off shelves, and there is even a meow button. All these livelily mimic how a cat, without any supernatural abilities or magic power, would behave, thus providing the player an immersive experience when playing the game.
Another essential mechanics of the game is that the player as a cat needs to run away from Zurks, which is the only type of enemy in the game. The player can adopt different strategies to avoid Zurks, such as dodging or making use of surrounding obstacles. After some time, the player obtains a UV light gun to kill Zurks, which introduces some shooting element to the game.
Story
The story is set in a futuristic environment where walled cities were constructed to combat pollution. Humans invented robots called companions to assist with various tasks. However, a plague killed all people in one of the cities and access to the outside was cut off. Being left alone, companions developed their own personalities and consciousness. It is especially touching when the robots tried their best to help our cat against Zurks, mutant bacteria of human time, and to get out of the city. This rich story constantly engages the player, who are intrigued to know more about this world.
Aesthetics
The aesthetic aspect of the game is coherent with its setting and story. It features neon lights, intelligent robots with various styles and design and many other things that give the player a cyberpunk vibe. Different levels also have distinct visual designs. High concentration and warm colours in residential areas are contrasted by cold and dark colours in danger zones, making the game visually attractive to the player.
Technology
Since the game is developed by a small and independent studio, it does not use many advanced game making techniques such as ray tracing and DLSS. The animations are hand-made instead of made using motion capture due to animal rights. The game engine utilised is UE4.
The lens of novelty
An ordinary cat protagonist in a role-playing adventure game? Being a normal cat in a cyberpunk world full of intelligent robots is very rare, but we have to admit that being a cat, doing all “cat things”, such as breaking all glass bottles without considering the consequences, can be very satisfying. This novel concept also appeals to cat lovers or cat owners.
The lens of curiosity
There is a robot named B-12 that contains a scientist’s memories. However, the memories are corrupted and our cat protagonist needs to help B-12 recover them by finding out and interacting with items that are not so easy to spot. This inspires the player to explore and find out what has happened to this world. And there is one more question – “wouldn’t you be interested in what are inside those hidden corners when you are a cat?”
The lens of emotion
The robots in Stray have their own personalities and emotions. They can be depressed when they lose their family members, relieved when an old friend returns, and excited when they repaired a useful weapon. The player can easily relate to their experiences and resonate with them. One thing that most of the robots, if not all, have in common is that they are sincere and accommodating. Sometimes the player may feel that they are more humane than human-beings, especially when B-12 sacrifices itself to help our cat protagonist get out of the slum, which is definitely a heart-breaking moment and appeals to the player’s emotions.
The lens of the puzzles
There are many puzzles in the game, such as opening a door, unlocking a safe, and getting an equipment that is heavily guarded. The player is required to perform “cat actions” to solve these puzzles – toppling a pot of paint to break the glass roof or climbing high up to discover a hint – which are closely related to theme of the game. By giving the player a sense of achievement after solving a puzzle, it makes the whole player experience more enjoyable.
Puzzle and Dragon’s trailer from 9 Nov 2012, when it was only available on the app store.
Puzzle and Dragons is a free-to-play match-three gacha puzzle MMO that has RPG and strategy elements. It is developed by Gung-Ho Online Entertainment, a Japanese video-game developer and publisher. The game is currently celebrating its 10th Anniversary and has consistently been one of Japan’s top grossing mobile games. The series has spawned its fair share of spinoffs, like Puzzle and Dragons BATTLE, an augmented reality competitive game with an e-sports scene exclusively for Japan and Puzzle and Dragons X, an 89 episode long anime.
A screenshot of gameplay of Puzzle and Dragons, where characters from the game’s numerous collaborations like Hello Kitty, Demon Slayer, Monster Hunter, Fate and Power Rangers are working together to defeat fried shrimp from Takaoka City, Japan.
Puzzle Mechanics
At its core, Puzzle and Dragons is a turn-based tile-matching puzzle game, where the number of matches made contribute to the strength of the attacks. Players are given minimally 6 seconds to continuously move an orb across the board, while attempting to make as many matches of 3 as possible. Orbs come in 5 different types and follow a familiar rock-paper-scissors relationship, with monsters taking more damage to elements they are weak against and taking less damage from elements they are strong against. As with games typical to this genre, light and dark are solely weak to the other type.
Those wanting to give the puzzle mechanic a go can visit the website below. Note that the simulation can be run on mobile devices for a more authentic experience.
The Strategic part of the game comes naturally in the form of teambuilding when talking new dungeons. As this is a gacha game with a long history and almost 10,000 units to collect, players will each be equipped with a unique set of monsters each with its own strength and weaknesses, making teambuilding a unique experience for every player.
Each unit comes with an active skill, a leader skill and awoken skills. Active skills require afew turns to charge up and gives buffs, debuffs or changes the board. Leader skills boost the health and damage of the team if certain conditions are met, for example a leader skill could reduce incoming damage by 75% of 3 dark matches are made in a turn. Awoken skills improve the damage of the unit if certain conditions are met. An example of this would be the “L” awakening, that multiplies the unit’s damage output when orbs of the unit’s element are matched in an L shape.
Putting both the Puzzle and Teambuilding mechanics together, we get a highly customizable gameplay experience, where players who are more confident in their puzzling abilities can opt for leader skills that are harder to activate, whereas players less confident of their skill can opt for leaders that boost their defensive stats more, or load their team with various active skills to blast away any potential walls they may face.
Dungeon Mechanics
Enemies in the dungeon each have an attribute and health, which are depleted as the player attacks. They also have a small turn cooldown timer to specify how many turns before the enemy next moves. More challenging dungeons see enemies using more special attacks, like voiding/absorbing damage above a certain threshold or imposing hazards like restricting the board size or preventing the player from moving orbs in an area.
Technology
Puzzle and Dragons was made in Unity back in 2012, originally released for iOS devices before being ported to android 7 months later. Since then, the game has been developed for Kindle Fire and more recently for Nintendo Switch.
Story
The story of Puzzle and Dragons consists of numerous side stories without a clear main narrative line. Originally, these side stories were revealed in a discrete way, by revealing bits of background information in the form of Active / Leader skills and short 1-line dialogue when fighting monsters. More recently, the developers have added a story mode to more clearly relate the side stories of numerous original characters and occasionally collaboration events will have a time-limited story mode.
The lack of a story is not a hindrance especially when considering the numerous collaborations that Puzzle and Dragons has had over its long history. Instead of trying to be one coherent story, the game’s side story structure lends itself well into its collaborations that span across 100 different titles including McDonald’s, Seven-Eleven and SoftBank Mobile’s robot Pepper.
Aesthetics
Puzzle and Dragons has not updated its sprites since its initial launch a decade ago. A majority of its character portraits are very vibrant, cartoony and all follow a similar aspect ratio. Characters from collaboration events also follow this scheme while still retaining their original art styles. In a class JRPG style, art in dungeons is limited to the enemies and backgrounds. These usually consist of a simple 2D splash with the occasional animated background and small visual effects.
The menus and UI of the game similar to an arcade style and the font used is big and rounded while still being extremely readable on smaller devices.
The Elemental Tetrad
These 4 elements as mentioned above work with each other to create a mid-core game that is easily accessible and deceptively simple. Being a game played in portrait mode, a majority of gameplay can be done with 1 hand, making it easy to play during commute. Players can also save their premade teams into different slots, allowing one to hop into a game session instantly. Having the aesthetics and story simple also lowers the barrier to entry and the great depth of mechanics and skill expression keeps players hooked for a long time.
The Lens of Reward
While there are numerous types of rewards, they can mostly be boiled down into 2 main categories.
The various ways to improve a unit
Unit Improvement
In classic gacha style, characters that players obtain have a multitude of ways to be upgraded, which are paramount to the player’s progression. Units have to be leveled to gain stats, awoken skills need material to activate, units need more material to evolve amongst many others. The game routinely hands out these rewards, with dungeons dedicated just to farming them. These upgrade materials all come in the form of special units whose descriptions relay to the player their purpose.
To the new player, all options to improve their unit of choice are displayed when they choose to upgrade their unit. The game also filters out the types of material they will use when upgrading this unit, making it clear to the user despite the huge amount of upgrade types available.
To the more experienced player, meaningful upgrades to their units start becoming few and far between, being mainly locked behind the hardest content. While these upgrades are extremely potent, it is possible for the player to be unable to clear the content without getting better units.
The generosity of upgrades to a meaningful level means that newer players can power through content to catch up with more experienced players and experienced players are able to develop more units to test out their team compositions. As there are so many different units in the game, this frequency of rewards is nice so that players spend more time fighting harder content instead of farming easier dungeons for their rewards.
A free-to-play user with over $6.7k USD of premium currency handed out to players over the years.
Premium Currency
The main revenue source of the game is through magic stones which are used to pull for new units in the main, seasonal and collaboration shops. Unlike most gacha games, Puzzle and Dragons does not feature a pity mechanic, meaning players can spend hundreds of dollars trying to chase for 1 unit yet never get it.
Instead, the game is extremely generous in handing out magic stones. In the most recent Player’s appreciation event, the developers gave away $300 USD of magic stones to every player, letting the average player roll for units to their heart’s content.
As a gacha game, more premium currency is always a good thing. More magic stones means more units, which means more teambuilding and more fun. However, too many units can be an issue for newer players — while its a good problem to have, without experience to judge the strength of a unit, new players may find it overwhelming.
Qualifier round for Puzzle and Dragon’s Esports Cup 2023
Lens of Skill
Puzzle and Dragons is deceptively a skill based game. To the beginner, the biggest hurdle is getting used to the orb moving mechanic, a skill that can be as simple as playing the game Candy-Crush style. The game has a long tutorial that can be skipped as well as multiple training floors for players to develop these mechanics, allowing even the newest of players to get accustomed with the unique gameplay.
As the number of units a player has grows, teambuilding starts becoming a quintessential part of the game. While some players can use their greater skill to crack through harder content, one can also as easily come up with a team specifically geared to combat the mechanics in a dungeon, reducing the skill needed to spin the puzzle.
When approaching hard content, the skill required ramps up significantly. Harder dungeons means more dungeon mechanics and harder enemies means one needs more damage, which normally comes from having leader skills that are increasingly difficult to build a team for. From here on, tougher content can be made easier by having rare units that require magic stones to acquire, or through play testing your team, getting better mechanically and refining it to suit the dungeon’s needs. This is where some players may decide to start spending money, to keep up to date with the newest and strongest units to solve their weaknesses. Players still stuck after this process would face a huge wall of difficulty, being unable to clear harder content to get stronger.
Lens ofInterest Curve
The feeling of finally getting your favorite unit, clearing an exceptionally hard dungeon for the first time, or getting an exceptionally high combo count all add to memorable moments that piques the Interest curve. This is a skill based game with a myriad of random elements so naturally, things may work against or for the player.
A game with as long a history as Puzzle and Dragons would have a challenge keeping the interest of its players. However Puzzle and Dragons keeps players wanting to come back by their numerous collaborations with popular and outlandish titles alike. The developers also routinely buff older units to make it compatible with newer and harder dungeons, giving a boost for players to get past difficult walls.
To keep players sustained with content, the game pushes out harder and harder content every few months, each having more unique mechanics and twists to the standard gameplay loop. To combat this and promote new content, they equip their collaboration units with more and more buffs, resulting in a huge power creep issue over the years.
To the normal player, chasing these updates would be extremely meaningful to get the most powerful team possible. However having experienced the game from when doing a million damage was incredibly powerful, to now casually reaching the integer limit and still not be able to kill a monster, this cycle can get repetitive. Instead of a challenge, waiting a few months for power creep before reattempting a hard dungeon sometimes becomes a more enjoyable experience.
The Lens of Story Machine
One’s memories and experiences of the game varies wildly depending on the date they started playing the game. With Puzzle and Dragon’s constant updates and seasonal collaborations that may not come back, every player has access to a unique set of monsters with a unique set of solutions for every dungeon. New players with more recently released units may have the raw power to complete harder dungeons, but experienced players can still tackle them by cherry picking the perfect team from their larger pool of units, providing everyone with a unique story.
Conclusion
Puzzle and Dragons is a great game to have while commuting. The constant puzzle solving element gives a constant challenge, and the frequent rewards the developer pushes out allow you to constantly roll for new units even without playing the game frequently. If you are looking for a Free to play friendly gacha, or are inspired by similar games in the match 3 genre like Puzzle Quest and 10000000, this could be the game for you.
NieR: Automata is a post-apocalyptic action RPG developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix. As an android named 2B, players join the organization YoRHa in their fight against machines. The game offers a thrilling blend of hack-and-slash combat, platforming, and exploration, with multiple endings based on player choices.
I was captivated by its emotional story and fully immersed in its world. The soundtrack, visuals, and gameplay all contributed to an unforgettable experience. The story’s emotional moments, such as the tragic fate of 2B and 9s, left a lasting impact in me. The game’s unique soundtrack added to the overall immersiveness.
Mesmerizing Experience
The visuals, especially the amusement park, were mesmerizing and breathtaking. The fast-paced combat and challenging platforming sections kept me engaged throughout the game.
Odd Satisfaction
Lastly, the satisfaction of taking down enemies with the pod’s stream of bullets and the dynamic combat moves made the experience even more enjoyable.
Lens 9: Elemental Tetrad
The Elemental Tetrad of NieR: Automata showcases the game’s exceptional design and execution.
Mechanics:
The game features fast-paced and fluid combat, which is a combination of hack-and-slash and bullet hell elements. Besides, it also features a variety of weapons, each with its unique abilities, which the player can switch between during combat. It also features elements of exploration, puzzle-solving, and platforming.
Story:
In terms of the story, Nier Automata features a complex and multi-layered narrative that explores themes of humanity, identity, and the meaning of existence. The story is told from the perspective of multiple characters, each with their own unique perspective on the events of the game. Besides, it also features multiple endings, which are determined by the player’s choices and actions throughout the game.
Aesthetics:
Nier Automata has also done exceptionally well for the aesthetics. It features a unique and striking visual style that combines the sleek design of machines with the organic beauty of nature. I think another element that is worth mentioning is the soundtrack. It has a good mix of orchestral and electronic music that enhances the atmosphere of the game!
Technology:
According to The Wikipedia, Nier Automata uses the PlatinumGames engine, which is known for its fast and fluid combat. It also makes use of advanced graphical techniques, such as high-resolution textures and particle effects, to create a detailed and immersive world.
Lens 1: Emotion
I think that Nier Automata effectively evokes a wide range of emotions in the player through its story, characters, and gameplay. The game’s post-apocalyptic setting, which reflects on the themes of humanity, identity, and the meaning of existence, creates a sense of despair and hopelessness. The player’s journey with the characters, such as 2B and 9S, creates an emotional connection with them, as they question their own existence and purpose. Its multiple endings and the choices the player makes throughout the game also contribute to the emotional impact, as the player reflects on the consequences of their actions. The striking visual style and fitting soundtrack also contribute to the emotional atmosphere and the player’s immersion in the game’s world. Overall, through the lens of emotion, Nier Automata is a game that effectively evokes a wide range of emotions in the player, making it a powerful emotional experience.
Lens 5: Fun
Additionally, Nier Automata offers a fun and engaging gameplay experience through a variety of mechanics, challenges, and rewards. The game’s fast-paced and fluid combat system, which combines hack-and-slash and bullet hell elements, is enjoyable and challenging, providing a sense of satisfaction when the player successfully overcomes enemies. Nier Automata also offers a variety of weapons, each with its unique abilities, which the player can switch between during combat, adding depth and variety to the gameplay. Its exploration, puzzle-solving, and platforming elements also offer a fun and engaging experience, as the player discovers new areas, solves puzzles, and navigates obstacles. Not only that, its multiple endings, which are determined by the player’s choices and actions throughout the game, also add to the replayability and fun. Overall, Nier: Automata is a game that offers a fun and engaging gameplay experience through a variety of mechanics, challenges, and rewards, making it a enjoyable and satisfying game.
Lens 6: Curiosity
Nier Automata effectively taps into player’s innate curiosity through its story, characters, and world-building. Its post-apocalyptic setting, which is rich in detail and history, creates a sense of mystery and intrigue that drives the player to explore and discover more about the world. The characters are also intriguing, as they question their own existence and purpose, creating a sense of mystery and intrigue that drives the player to discover more about them. The multiple endings, which are determined by the player’s choices and actions throughout the game, also add to the curiosity, as the player wants to discover all the possible endings and the consequences of their actions. Its exploration, puzzle-solving, and platforming elements also tap into player’s curiosity, as the player wants to discover new areas, solve puzzles, and navigate obstacles. Overall, Nier: Automata is a game that effectively taps into player’s innate curiosity through its story, characters, and world-building, making it an engaging and intriguing game.
Lens 71: Beauty
Nier Automata also showcases beauty in its unique and striking visual style, its captivating soundtrack, and its thought-provoking themes. The soundtrack also effectively enhances the beauty of the world, adding to the atmosphere and emotion of the game. The themes, which explore the meaning of existence, humanity and identity, are thought-provoking and they are presented in a beautiful way, making the player reflect and ponder on them. The characters are also presented in a beautiful way, as their design and behavior are visually striking and memorable. Overall, Nier: Automata is a game that showcases beauty in its unique and striking visual style, its captivating soundtrack, and its thought-provoking themes, making it an aesthetically pleasing and memorable game.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as I reflect on my experience playing Nier Automata through various lenses, it is clear to me how the game was able to create such a profound impact on me as a player. The designers behind the game expertly crafted an emotional and psychological journey that captivated me from start to finish. The intricate storyline, stunning visuals, and dynamic gameplay all contributed to my deep connection with the game. Through this analysis, it is evident that the creators of Nier Automata put a great deal of thought and care into addressing my emotional and psychological needs, ultimately leading me to fall in love with the game.
TFT is an eight person free-for-all League of Legends strategy game where players combine LoL champions and items in different formations to defeat the seven other players in a match. As the leading game in the auto-battler genre, players tactically place an army of characters on a grid-shaped game board for a last-player-standing automated battle. Since launching in 2019, TFT has emerged as the top contender in the genre, with over 100M players globally since its launch, providing a fun and deep chess-like gameplay experience for all types of players.
Aesthetic
In TFT, all the champions have their unique skins from LoL, and these different series of skins divide all the champions into different professions and races. Also, the skill CG of champions also inheritates from LoL, which are well designed and give players visual enjoyment. Besides the aesthetic design around champions, there are also other things in TFT like the different series of small variants, arena skins and ‘boom’ effects. Players can use any variant or arena skin they like and see all these thing during every game. As TFT allows 8 players to play together, they can go to other’s arena to see or show their variant. So a beautiful variant and arena skin even boom effects can highly improve the game experience of those players who like this(like me XD).
An example of a series of champions(Star Guardian)
Star Guardian:
Lux: Tier 1 Spellslinger
Rell: Tier 2 Defender
Yuumi: Tier 2 Mascot, Heart
Kai’Sa: Tier 3 Recon
Nilah: Tier 3 Duelist
Ekko: Tier 4 Prankster, Aegis
Taliyah: Tier 4 Spellslinger
Syndra: Tier 5 Heart
The champions in this binding is from the skin series of star Guardian. Designers keep different skills and attributes of champions to divide them into different tiers like mentioned above. Besides tiers, champions also have star levels. Three same star level of one champion can make into a high level version if this champion and also will slightly change the visual, attributes and skills of this champion.
Story
The champions in TFT will change from set to set, so the background story will also change from set to set. The whole storyline is based on the LoL world, like the profession of champions and the story of different series of skins. Then the designer will add some featured champions to fulfill the world view. For example, in the current season the story happened on Spatulopolis, the city that never sleeps—because you’d have trouble sleeping too with all these monster attacks! So this season called ‘Monster Attack!’. And the designer add hero augments in this season to make every champion become a monster!
Another example of story setting is the last season which is called ‘Dragonland’. As the name called dragonland, so there are a series of dragon champions in this season and several main races in this season are different kinds of dragons which have different binding effect.
Lens 1 Problem Solving
During playing, Players can enjoy the process of using their strategy to fight with other seven players and makes their army stronger than them. Their strategy should cover the allocate of money, equipment, champions and so on. First, They need to plan the usage of money to upgrade their shop to get high tier champions or refresh the shop to get or improve the champions they want. Second, Every game Players will get different Dragen augments or hero augment. Third, the monsters at the end of each round will bring different equipment and champions or some other props. Players need to plan what their line-up will be in this game according to all the factors before. Also, according to different versions, the strength of champions will change from version to version so choose a strong line-up is also important.
Lens 2 Surprise & Fun
Since the random equipment and props get from monsters at the end of each round, Players can wait for some surprise from monsters like ‘tome of traits’ or random high Tier champions. Also, Player will have three rounds to choose three augments in every game. There are some super interesting augments and if players can meet the augments they want it will be super fun. So waiting for the augments of every game is also attracted to players. Besides, there is a shared draft every round, random champions with random equipment will appear. All the players will stay together and choose the desired champions in reverse order of their current ranking. During this shared draft, sometimes players can surprisingly meet the champions they hardly can get from shop so they can make their line-up formation earlier. Finally, since the shop will refresh every small round so sometimes there will be high tier champions in the shop which is nearly impossible to appear in the low level shop.
An example of shared craft
Example of hero augment
Lens 3 Gambler’s mentality
As you know, Gambler always think that next time he will get the rewards he wants, so he will try and try and try. This mentality can easily find in many places in TFT like augments or refresh shops. Because there is a lot of luck involved, players will think that it is not due to strength and that they can definitely win if they are luckier next time. As a result, players will try and try again to wait for that lucky time like a great augment or champions of the line-up they want. That’s why TFT can attract players to keep playing it. Another appearance of Gambler’s mentality happens when players refresh their shop to find the champions they want. Since you will never know what will be in your shop next time, so you will keep thinking that it will be here next time! However, players cannot use all their money to refresh the shop because they need to upgrade to put more champions on the arena and improve the possibility of refreshing high tier champions.
Lens 4 Competition & Cooperation
In TFT rank, you need to fight with other 7 players and get the top four rank to win the game. You need to compete with them to upgrade and get the limited number of champions in the shop. Since the number of one champion in shop is limited, and people always pretend to play the strong line-ups, then some hot champions are always needed by 3 or even more players in one game. When this happen, It’s important for players to find the timing to upgrade and refresh shops. If earlier and unlucky, players will lose neither money nor quality. If later, even though players may have more money, but the champions in the shop maybe all taken by other players so the money is useless. So the competition among players happen not only on the ranking but also on the searching of champions.
Besides classical TFT rank, TFT also have double up mode. Players can choose to compete with their friends in classic rank or cooperate with their friends in double up mode. You know, playing with friends is much fun and can have different experience from playing alone. In double up mode, players will divide into two per group and the two players in one group can transfer champions and equipment to each other. This will change the strategy in classic mode and need new ideas about how to win the game.
Dead by Daylight is an asymmetric multiplayer (4 vs 1) survival horror and action game where one player plays as the killer and the other four play as survivors. Essentially, it is a game of hide and seek.
Players can choose to play either as the killer or survivor.
The 4 survivors’ role is to repair 5 generators which can be found around the map, power up the exit gates and escape the trial.
While the survivors try to achieve their goals, the killer interferes by patrolling the map and damaging the generators while also hunting for the survivors. Once the killer catches up to the survivor, he/she can strike them. Striking a survivor once will put them into the injured state and striking them again while they are injured will put them into the dying state. Killer can then pick up and carry the dying survivor to sacrificial hooks. A sacrifice will be complete if the survivor is left on the hook for too long, or if they were rescued by their ally and hooked for another 2 more times (Getting hooked 3 times will kill the survivor).
Every killer also has their own power, making each of them unique in their own ways.
Items are unlockable which the survivors can use to help them during the game.
Some of these items include:
Flashlight
Keys
Maps
Med-Kit
Toolbox
Another core mechanic of the game is perks. Perks are unlockable skills which can be equipped by survivors and killers to help them gain advantage in different ways. Each of the characters in Dead by Daylight have their own unique perks which can be unlocked with the use of blood points earned after completing a match. With many combinations of perks available, even the same killer can be played very differently when equipped with a different loadout.
Story
The main focus of Dead by Daylight is on the gameplay and not the story. However, there exists character’s lore for players to read if they wish to know more about the characters in the game.
Aesthetics
The game currently has 34 survivors and 30 killers, composed of characters unique to the game as well as those from popular franchises. Some examples of collaboration are shown below.
Collaboration with Resident Evil franchise
Collaboration with Halloween franchise
The characters are well designed to fit into the horror aspect of the game, as well as the character’s lore.
There are 19 realms and 40 maps available in the game, each with their own distinct landmarks. Realms are semi-procedural locations within the world of the Entity where each realm was a site of tragedy in the past now serving as arenas for the Entity’s trial.
Most of the maps are designed with the environment looking dark and gloomy, while some may appear brighter. However, brighter looking maps are also designed such that it fits into the horror theme of the game.
Technology
Dead by Daylight uses Unreal Engine as its game engine. It is available across multiple platforms such as Microsoft windows, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo switch and Xbox. It can be played with a mouse and keyboard or with a controller.
Lens 32: Goals
Survivors: The ultimate goal of the survivors is to escape the trial.
Killer: The ultimate goal of the killer is to prevent the survivors from escaping the trial.
There are tutorials for both survivor and killer to understand what they have to do to achieve their goals.
Outside of a match, there are also challenges available for players to complete. Completing these challenges in game will reward players with blood points necessary for unlocking more perks and items, as well as progressing through the battle pass which unlocks cosmetic items for character customization.
There is also a ranking system in the game where players rank up or down depending on how well they play each match. Rank resets on the 13th of every month and blood points will be awarded according to the rank achieved.
Lens 44: Cooperation
The lens of cooperation applies to players playing as survivors as they need to work in teams of 4.
Cooperation requires communication. Communication is possible when playing with friends where you are able to hop into the same discord voice chat for example to communicate while playing the game.
However, there is not enough opportunity for survivors who are playing with other players to communicate. There is no chat and voice chat function during the match, making it difficult to know what your teammates are doing unless you can see them on your screen. Without knowing what each other are doing, it is hard to make a decision on whether you should be repairing the generator or make your way to rescue a survivor on hook.
Fortunately, there are plans for future updates where the in-game HUD will indicate what action each survivor is performing with an icon.
Lens 34: Skill
Although it is a game of hide and seek with additional conditions, Dead by Daylight requires different skill sets.
Decision making
During the match, players are constantly making decisions. For survivors, they have to make decisions like what action they should be performing or which part of the map should they be staying at.
For killers, they have to make decisions on which survivor they want to chase and also which generators they might want to defend.
Mind game
During a chase, mind games can help the survivor to create distance between them and the killer or help killers to catch up to the survivor. Knowing how to fake your movement is important and this also requires players to know the map well.
Knowing the maps well
Knowing the maps and landmarks well can help survivors to survive longer or help killers to take shortcuts to intercept the survivors.
Understanding both survivors and killer’s perks and abilities
Survivors will not know which killer they are up against until they see or hear them in the match.
Both the survivors and killers will not be able to see what perks they equip prior to entering a match. They can learn what perks are equipped as they play the match.
Hence, understanding the different perks and killers’ abilities will be useful to know how to play against them.
Lens 94: Atmosphere
The atmosphere of the game is well designed to fit the horror theme. The visual and audible design of the different characters will make you feel like you are in the game itself.
At the start of every match, there will be a short 8 to 9 seconds intro theme depending on the map you are playing on. The theme really helps players to feel like they are part of the world.
There are also other sounds such as heartbeats and the killer’s unique soundtrack which only the survivors can hear in game to tell them that the killer is in their vicinity. This helps to make players feel nervous especially if they can hear the music but not see the killer, making them uncertain of the killer’s exact location.
There are a few exceptions for killers who can stealth, meaning there are absolutely no audible cues to alert the survivors, allowing those killers to launch a surprise attack.
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