Description

Honor of Kings (王者荣耀 in Chinese) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games for the iOS and Android mobile platforms for the Chinese market. Released in 2015, it has become the most popular MOBA game in mainland China. Nowadays, the game has more than 100 million daily active players. However, as a phenomenal game in China, it is largely unheard of in the rest of the world.

Link to the official website: https://pvp.qq.com/

Link to game play demo: https://youtu.be/JGBojVkNE-M

Lens #9: The lens of Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics:

The sophistication and variety of skins form a major part of the game’s aesthetics and also play a crucial role in generating revenue. The most representational example is the skin of Zhao Yun (a famous military general who lived during Three Kingdoms period of China) raises 150 million RMB within one day. Originated in China, the design with oriental aesthetics perfectly integrates with Chinese traditional culture and history, bringing in visual enjoyment to players. The very fast update of skins provides players an extremely large number of appreance choices and lots of freshness. The skin design competition improves the player participation and involvement in creating a skin of their interest, maintaining high player stickiness.

Mechanics:

The most popular mode is the 5v5 player versus player matches. The basic gameplay involves controlling a hero with unique abilities to kill non-player characters and opponents to gain experience and gold, with experience used to unlock their character’s abilities or further augment the ability’s power, and gold used to purchase items at the shop (which change specific attributes depending on the item bought).

The teams start on opposing ends of the map, with the victory conditions either being to destroy the enemy’s core building or the enemy team surrendering. To destroy the enemy Nexus(core building), teams must destroy defensive turrets, which are situated on the 3 main routes(top, middle, bottom) used to reach the enemy base.

106 Heroes are categorized into 6 types: tank, assassin, warrior, support, archer, and mage. Players adopt various strategies in the picks and bans of heroes and collaboration within the team.

Story:

Honor of Kings has a rather complex storyline though many players are attracted by its game mode to a larger extent. The heroes usually originate from folklore, mythology, or mythical creatures, with others coming from works of literature, movies, and even other in-game heroes. This greatly enriches the diversity of the game’s story and increases the player’s familiarity with the game characters.

Technology:

As a real-time MOBA game, the requirements for back-end servers and networks are very demanding, and higher requirements are placed on cloud service providers. Frame synchronization technology is utilized to ensure low latency of game. Also, the development of the mobile Internet and the popularity of smartphones have contributed to the success of the game.

Lens #27: The Lens of Time

The average time taken for one game is 15-20 minutes. Not-too-long game duration makes it easier for players to open the game in various scenarios. On the streets of China, you will see people of various occupations playing this game with friends during their work break. Commuting on the bus and subway and waiting for food in restaurants is no longer so boring with this game. 

At the same time, the gaming duration is not too short as well. Players will experience all stages of the game, feel the visible progress, the improvement of the character level, the gradual destruction of the turrets until the final breakthrough of the Nexus, which can bring players a rich game experience within only 20 minutes.

Lens #45: The Lens of Competition vs Cooperation

The special region-based ranking system motivates competition among players. The system indicates a player’s ranking in his home street, county, city, province, and even the whole country. It encourages players to achieve a higher ranking in their own region, and then enter a higher level to compete with players from all over the country. Meanwhile, it does not discourage players too much because players will always find a suitable level and achieve a higher ranking.

Honor of Kings encourages the players to cooperate with teammates and defeat the opponents. The design of 6 hero types is an excellent example, 5 players within the same team are supposed to choose heroes of different roles to form complementary abilities and improve the overall strength of the team.

Lens #46: The Lens of Reward

Throughout the game, players get various kinds of rewards which brings lots of sense of achievement.

Resources:

Experience value and gold are the two most important resources in the game, player gains them by killing heroes, other characters and destroying turrets. Resources lead to the higher value of attributes and better weapons, improving the power of the hero.

The unique sound and light special effects：

Players get special effects and sign on top of the screen when they achieve a killing spree. Compliments from teammates and loss of opponents greatly bring satisfaction to the player.

Powers:

The player gets a buff, which is a status effect given to the hero that gives it a beneficial boost to their performance. The increase in power makes it easier to get the victory and the special appearance of a buff is another kind of reward to the player as well.

Lens# 96: The Lens of Friendship

Relying on WeChat and QQ, two billion-level communication tools, players can easily team up with real friends by logging in through WeChat or QQ. The process of playing together helps strengthen friendship and forms a community of Kings of Glory. Matching with unfamiliar teammates also allows players to meet new friends and form a larger social circle. Playing the game together rapidly breaks the ice among people and creates more possibilities for a closer relationship with other players. Convenient sharing of the game in WeChat moments and Qzone increases the game exposure and improves the discussion of the game among friends.

Description

Unpacking is a zen puzzle game in which players are tasked to, you know, unpack. The game narrative follows an unnamed character that players help to unpack for between the years 1995 to 2015. While unpacking for various house moves, the player learns of clues about the character’s life story. For a game with no dialogue and little to no words used, it is impressive to be able to craft a character’s personality through unpacking boxes. It is no wonder the game is also a finalist of several categories for the Independent Games Festival 2022, including Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative and Excellence in Audio.

Gameplay Video

The Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics
Unpacking is essentially a simple game to play in terms of mechanics as it mainly involves using the mouse to point and click to move items to places you want. The game starts off small in a child’s room which allows the player to adapt to the game mechanics before slowly moving to larger living spaces which are larger puzzles to solve.
There are no time pressures while playing the game as there are no countdown timers, so the players can have a easy and relaxing time playing the game.

Story
The storytelling in Unpacking is a very interesting element they have. Instead of specific dialogue happening in-game, the players are given hints in the form of items present in each level when they unpack the boxes. Players can identify what are the items that were brought over from the character’s previous house to their new house, and what are the items that are new to the story.
Unpacking allows players to unpack not just boxes, but eventually the life story about the character in the game.

Aesthetics
The game uses an isometric, pixel art aesthetic, coupled with satisfying sounds when interacting with different objects. The game soundtracks and sound effects add to the relaxing experience for players. The game sound design includes over 14,000 foley effects, with multiple pick-up and placement sound effects unique to each item.

Technology
Unpacking supports gameplay on Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The Lens of Emotions

With the gameplay centered around the character’s life progression, the player is influenced to be attached to the story and changes while the game progresses. This captivates the player to continue playing the game to discover what comes next and leaves the player wanting more.

Besides the usual gameplay, the game also provides an option for the player to review their whole attempt at the end of the round. The player is given a fast forward clip of their whole attempt when unpacking the boxes, showing how the items fill up the initially empty room or house. This gives a sense of satisfaction to the player at the end of the round, making them feel accomplished and motivated to continue playing another round.

The Lens of Curiosity

As the story is not told in an outright manner through dialogue or usage of words, the player is often left wondering what the subtle hints given by the game actually means.
The life story of the character slowly unfolds as the player progresses through the different stages.

The Lens of Challenge

Unpacking challenges the player to arrange the items given in boxes in a satisfying manner, figuring out and placing the items where they belong. Initially, the first few levels are relatively easier but it slowly progresses to a higher level of difficulty as players are given more items to unpack. Eventually, players are challenged to be able to figure out the correct placement for the items.

However, it can also be argued that there is less of a challenge when playing Unpacking due to its ultimate goal to be a zen puzzle game that allows the player to have a relaxing experience. There is no time limit for the player to work against, and there is no other character or player to beat.

The Lens of Fairness

The game allows many different ways for each level to be solved, which makes sense as there are different places where people prefer items to be placed. In a sense, this mechanic makes it fair for players as opposed to having just one strict answer to the puzzle.

Game description

Journey is a game co-developed and released by thatgamecompany and Santa Monica Studio in 2012. It is modelled after the progression of human life. (Note: I am unable to upload any images, hence I was unable to upload screenshots of the game)

Game website: https://thatgamecompany.com/journey/

Game playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkL94nKSd2M

In this review, I first will be examining each of the elements of the elemental tetrad. Throughout and after this examination, I will be evaluating the game through different lens as well.

Aesthetics

Journey is set within the landscape of a vast, endless desert with the remnants of a fallen civilization buried in sand.

• #54 The Lens of Accessibility: The landscape of the game is marked consistently by one distinct mountain, with light flowing from its summit. This sends a strong signal that the mountain is the player’s destination and guides the player to travel in its direction.
• Other than the general desert theme, the game is divided into several stages at different locations. From exploring ruins in the middle of the desert, to wandering lonely underground towers, to enduring the blistering cold of the mountain, the stages are varied enough to convey different moods and experiences to the player. At the same time, the setting of each stage is well integrated into the overall story.
• The music is mainly orchestral, with oriental undertones, and ties consistently into the mood created by the setting and gameplay at each stage of the game.

Story

In Journey, you play as a cute red cloaked being, with the goal of reaching the top of the mountain. On the way to the mountain, you reach checkpoints where you meet a larger white cloaked being, which could represent a deity or higher being of sorts. At each checkpoint, we learn more about the history behind how this world came to be, as well as how it met its ruin.

Mechanics

The story of the world depicted through the game suggests that its game world is structured around a single form of “magic” which comes from the mountain which you are travelling to. You can use this magic in two main ways:

• The first is by evoking such magic through sound, which is dispersed in all directions in your immediate vicinity. In doing so, certain items can be activated and can fulfill certain functions.
• Secondly, you can store this magic in the form of glyphs on your scarf. The length of the scarf represents its capacity. The magic from your scarf can be used to fly but must be replenished by certain magical items/beings at different locations.

#24 The Lens of Novelty: The concept of “magic” in this game manifests in a novel way compared to most other games. Magic in this game world can be felt and used in a variety of ways, allowing the player to explore all its uses and experience all its manifestations. For example, it can be visualized as glyphs on your scarf which light up, or when magical items turn from grey to bright crimson as they are activated, or different musical notes when you evoke the magic, or a form of communication towards other magical beings (e.g., you can use it to ask the magical kites to help replenish the magic in your scarf). In this way, it avoids an overly simplistic and cliched interpretation of magic.

Technology

The game was first released as a PlayStation game but can be played on the computer and various mobile devices. While the technology is limited, its stunning visuals and music are enough to make the game an immersive experience for any player.

Overall, the four elements of the elemental tetrad work well to portray a unified theme of the “journey of life” and bring the theme to life within the player’s experience.

Other lenses

#21 The Lens of Flow

• The game structure is simple, having a purely linear flow with distinct stages (making it more game-like than the real world in this respect). At each stage, the goal is constantly to reach a checkpoint which brings you to the next stage. At the same time, there are typically sufficient spatial clues which lead the player towards this checkpoint.
• During the 3^rd stage through the desert, the path is less straightforward. However, this may have been done purposefully, with the aim to replicate the stage of nearing adulthood (in real life) when we are given more autonomy and choices, and the road ahead becomes is less fixed and certain.
• The stages follow a gradual increase in difficulty, as players learn how to better use their skills. In the 2^nd stage, not much skill is required as we are simply required to walk around the arena activate certain items in the desert to unlock the path forward. In contrast, in the 5^th stage, we must avoid detection from huge metal monsters. However, it could be argued that the difficulty remains rather tame throughout the game.

#67.5 The Lens of Metaphor

• The game manages to convey themes and feelings at each stage matching universal aspects of human life. For example, the awe and excitement when exploring the desert with magical kite friends is akin to that of childhood exploration and the fear when first encountering metal monsters in the underground ruins is akin to that of facing your first serious challenges in our childhood/teenage years.
• Furthermore, as you come closer to reaching the mountain, your journey is shown as an important part of the narrative of this world. In the same way, perhaps all our individual life journeys carry significance in the real world.
• However, the game avoids overly literal expressions such as dialogue, or environments which restrict the player’s freedom or movements. This leaves room for each player to interpret and experience each stage in their own way, proving complementary its objective in modelling human life, which similarly, would have a different set of experiences for everyone.

#94 The Lens of Atmosphere

• The 4^th stage brings the player through a lighthearted experience of surfing through the ruins of the desert, while being led by magical kites to our next destination. The thrill and fun of surfing is complemented by a breathtaking view of the sunset, inspiring awe and wonder at the beauty of the game world. The visuals are heavily populated with red and golden hues, complementing the warm bright red that characterizes magical items and creating a warm and bright mood.
• In the 5^th stage, the player enters the underground, which is coloured in dark blue hues, creating a colder, lonelier, and creepier atmosphere. This stands in stark contrast to the previous stage, invoking stronger feelings of fear and unease in players and warns of the dangers posed by the metal monsters which lie ahead.
• The different atmospheres in these two stages are very well portrayed. Their juxtaposition also serves very well to evoke stronger emotions and immersion of the player.

All in all, with its stunning graphics and minimalistic gameplay, the game stays focused in bringing across its story and theme as an experience to players.

Valorant is a team-based first-person tactical shooter game developed by Riot Games. Even though the game started development in 2014, it was only released in 2020.
Set in the new future, players play as an agent that each have unique abilities and can utilise a variety of weapons to try and defeat their opponents in a variety of gamemodes.

Game Demo

Lens 9: Elemental Tetrad

MECHANICS
As a tactical shooter, Valorant, at its core, is a game about working together with your teammates to try accomplish a specific objective or to defeat your opponents. Of course, being a shooter game, players are rewarded for precise and accurate mouse movements to aim and win gunfights. In addition, players can use their variety of abilities, as well as their knowledge of maps or understanding of different visual or sound cues to assist them in winning gunfights or achieving their objectives. The game also has an economy system, where players earn money from winning rounds or achieving certain results, such as defeating an enemy. Players then use this money before each round begins to purchase their weapons and utility for the next round.

AESTHETICS
The aesthetics of the game aren’t anything special. In fact, for a game released as recent as 2020, the graphics seem low quality. This is done on purpose however, as the developer intended for the game to be playable on any PC, no matter the specifications. Furthermore, as a competitive shooter, players need to be able to discern their environments and the location of other players as quickly as possible, something which high quality graphics could actually be detrimental for.

STORY
The game does not have much in terms of story apart from a couple of videos released every few months. This is to be expected however, as the bulk of the game is about its gameplay and competing with other players.

TECHNOLOGY
The developer, Riot Games, chose to develop the game on Unreal Engine 4, as it allowed them to focus more on gameplay and optimization. As I mentioned earlier, this was also done to lower the performance barrier and allow as many people as possible to play the game without worrying about hardware requirements.

Lens 34: Skill
Being a tactical game, Valorant requires many skills from players, which they can continuously develop and improve at the more they play. Things like being able to read the enemy’s intentions based on the information you have at any moment, using your abilities in the most efficient way, controlling the information you’re giving the enemy to work with and of course, the most important skill in a shooter, aiming. What I enjoy the most is that wins and losses are determined by how good a player is at any of this and the feeling that you are able to constantly improve as you play the game. Of course, this also means that the higher skilled player would win more often than not but this is made less of an issue with a matchmaking system to ensure that players in every game are at approximately the same skill level.

Lens 27: Time
In every match of Valorant, each team competes to be the first to win 13 rounds. Furthermore, each round lasts for only 100 seconds, which makes the game a fast-paced experience. This forces players to make decisions quickly , which in my opinion, makes the game more fun. It also prevents players from being dead for long periods of time or from being devoid of action for a long time. This ensures that the game remains engaging and not boring.

Lens 6: Problem Solving
Due to the fast paced nature and relative complexity of the game, a player would have many different aspects to consider at any moment, such as their time remaining, what resources they have to work with and information regarding their enemies, such as their last known position and the tools they have. They would then have to come up with a plan of action that they think would lead to them winning the round. This particular element of the game allows me to always feel engaged and invested while I’m playing, which in turn makes it feel enjoyable to me. Furthermore, there is also an economy in the game, where players can buy their utility and weapons for each round. This means players have to decide on the best way to spend their limited amount of money each round to maximise their chances of winning, as well as the number of rounds they win.

Lens 96: Friendship
As a team-based game, Valorant requires players to work together and to communicate to improve their chances of winning. Due to its fast paced nature, most players choose to communicate using the in-game voice chat as it is faster than typing. They can then use this to share information so that they can all make better individual or team based decisions. Valorant also allows players to add each other to a friends lists and allows them to queue up together, up to 5 players in a group. This means that players can choose to go into the next match with people they work well with or with their friends.

Conclusion
The analysis of this game has allowed me to see exactly what makes this game so enjoyable for me and why this game has been as successful as it has been up till now.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (BATOTS) is an adventure game developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by 505 Games on numerous platforms. It has received critical acclaim, having won the award for Best XBOX Game (2013) at VGX Award Show and Best Game Innovation Award (2014) at British Academy Games Awards. The game has the option of co-op or single player and takes place in a fantasy world filled wth fictitious creatures like orcs and trolls. It brings you a puzzle solving experience involving the story of two young brothers on a fairy tale journey to find the “Water of Life”, a cure for their father’s illness.

#9 : Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

One of the essential elements and what I deem as the key for immersing players into the game is the constant need to interact between the brothers in order to progress in the game. I played this game with my brother and used the co-op function where we control one player each. Although both players have the same set of controls, most (if not all) puzzles require some form of collaboration between players to complete. In a sense, this naturally implies the need for communication between players which keeps players engaged throughout the gameplay. Even for single player mode, the player has to strategically decide how and when to move each of the brothers simultaneously to proceed.

Although the controls and mechanics of the game are fairly simple, the puzzle-solving aspect of the game makes the gameplay more dynamic – different situations require different approaches or combinations of controlling the characters. Players have the basic movement options like moving in 4 directions (left, right, up, down), jumping, grabbing and climbing.

Story

The game provides a fantasy-based setting, where most of the entities are fictitious. It has the otherwordly feel which helps isolate the story into a specific “mini world”, where it focuses only on one problem. This gives the story a more coherent flow as the side plots are easily tailored to support the main storyline. The main conflict in the story was that the brothers’ father fell heavily ill and as sons, they wanted to find a cure. Emphasis was given on the “Water of Life” as the possibly only solution to save their father, hence the motivation to set on a journey to obtain it.

Personally, I feel that there is beauty in having a simple plot or context and expanding on it during the journey itself via tasks instead of introducing more complicated problems that digress from the main resolution. The game is well-made in a sense that it utilizes the potential setbacks or difficulties during the journey to be the puzzle-solving aspect, thus weaving in the plot and gameplay more seamlessly. Despite the storyline being simple, a plot-twist is introduced in the end which was impactful because (i) the plot involves kinship and death which makes it highly relatable to the human life, (ii) the journey gameplay gives time for players to get invested into the story and form attachment towards the character and (iii) it leaves players with thought-invoking topics and perspectives towards the ending. The plot ends in a conclusive (in terms of what factually happened) yet leaves you reflecting on life decisions and thinking back deeply about whether the journey was worth it in the first place.

Aesthetics

The graphics did a beyond impressive job at extending that immersive experience to make the fantasy more convincing. The lighting and illumination gave the game a dream-like feel, hence accentuating the aspect of fiction in the setting. Additionally, since the tale takes place in a rural environment, the sounds of nature and human-made noises are amplified to set the mood and context. For example, you will hear sounds from birds chirping, wood knocking and people going about their daily duties. At this point it doesn’t just feel like a game but a movie that indulges you in the presence of a society, and you will be left with wanting more!

Technology

BATOTS is available on many platforms, ranging from PC to controllers. Depending on the platform you use, the difficulty level of the gameplay may vary. For example, playing in co-op mode and sharing a keyboard may be more difficult than having a controller each.

#44 Lens of Cooperation

Cooperation is one of the core mechanics of the game. When playing the game, my brother and I found ourselves taking turns to lead the path and being the supporter in solving the puzzles. This involves constant communication and understanding of each other’s skillset. Some players may be more skilled in parkour-based controls whereas some can plan more strategically. This game hones on the chemistry between the players and utilizes their individual strengths in order to come to decisions effectively. Not only do you have to progress, but you have to progress together because the camera only pans when both players are within the same frame or in a certain proximity.

One thing I found interesting was that since I played with my brother, it felt like we were a translation of the brothers in the game itself and that gave a real touch to the experience, almost as if this story was ours.

#50 Lens of Character

BATOTS brings a unique twist to reality in a sense that it incorporates civilization invention, materials and entities into the adventure. For example, players have to use man made bridges to crossover and start throwing sheeps around to act as weight. It gives a sense of humor when solving the tasks and puzzles because of how it contrasts with how we usually use or behave around such entities in the actual world. Another memorable component of the gameplay is also how trolls are central to the development and progress of the quest. They act as friendly aid to the players to open up more avenues for exploration, almost as if they were the key to our freedom. It plays into the idea of fiction and having fictitious entities expand the possibilities our imagination.

To build on the concept of trolls, I noticed that the trolls had faces resembling that of humans, and thought that this might be the reason why I felt safe in their company. The trolls resemble humans in their actions, reactions and appearance and that they are much bigger in size compared to the brothers. The brothers’ mother had died at the start and their father fell sick, hence they only have each other to rely on. The trolls could possibly symbolize as the guide and protector of the brothers. If so, this was a really nice touch to showcase or imply the inner feelings of the main characters.

#55 Lens of Visible Progress

On the note of progress, I liked that there were indications and clues provided throughout the gameplay to signify that my brother and I were one step closer to obtaining the “Water of Life”. What BATOTS did was to show that there was a change in the environment and mood of the avenues explored. This included changes in platforms, type of strategies used to solve the tasks and the characteristics of the entities encountered. This progression was also more seamless because of the nature of the mechanics, where the puzzles and tasks depends on the available resources in the environment and how players can potentially interact with them. There is also a visible change in climate, where you get to experience being in different temperatures and the four elements (i.e fire, water, earth, air). Interestingly, as the brothers got deeper into the adventure, the altitude of the platform and environment gradually increases too.

#54 Lens of Accessbility

BATOTS alternates between story plot and actual gameplay quite frequently, though the transitions are not abrupt. This actually helps preempt the players when they need to solve the puzzles presented to them in the environment. Despite the flow being non-abrupt, the switch is significant or noticeable enough to indicate that its time for the player to watch or act. The game also makes use of camera pannings, music changes and vocals to transition between the switches. The puzzles are easy to adapt to due to the clearly defined space given to players to explore when carrying out the tasks. The possible strategies are also highly visual based which eases players into the problem solving situation.

Overall Thoughts

Overall this experience has been nothing short of amazing. Despite it being a pretty short gameplay, my brother and I had fun discussing how to solve the tasks and being immersed into a new world together. Though BATOTS captures impressive graphics and feel of the game, I do believe that there could be more depth in the characters and how they feel throughout the journey. Yet, perhaps the whole point of not being more explicit with the emotions of the characters was to ride on the imagination and personal feelings of the players themselves. Each player feels and interprets differently, and there could be beauty in not excessively restricting the emotion flow throughout the gameplay. This might also be the reason how BATOTS was able to leave players with an impactful and thought-provoking ending.

CHUCHEL is a comedy adventure game from the creators of Machinarium, Botanicula and Samorost. As the recipient of  Excellence in Visual Art Award in IGF2018 and many other rewards, CHUCHEL stands out by having its unique, cheerful and glamorous game designs, graphics, story lines, sounds and music that always crack players up throughout the game. In this blog post, I will analyse this game using 6 lens as well as its limitations.

Lens 1: Essential Experience

As an adventure game, CHUCHEL has a strong story line that is easy to understand and it makes the entire game more integrated so that players never feel lost. Each game level is part of this story and just like those popular movies, there are many twists in the plot and players never know what will happen next, which is essential for an adventure game to be successful and popular.

In the game play, players fully immerse themselves as the hairy hero Chuchel in solving numerous puzzles, conquering different challenges to retrieve the precious cherry that Chuchel lost while sleeping. In this process, players get to experience the amazing graphics, funny characters and lots of humours while they interact with the game objects. And probably the most outstanding element of the game is its expression of the emotions via presentations and music, and players could strongly experience them while playing, which makes the entire game more alive.

Lens 2, 3 & 4: Surprise, Fun & Curiosity

There are many game levels in CHUCHEL with no repetition with each other. The entire game is full of surprise which brings out players’ curiosity to further explore and experience the fun of it! For example, players might think they have gotten back the cherry, but there are always unexpected changes that surprise them, like being knocked down by the tree or stolen by the mouse.

In each game level, players have to be curious and interact with different game objects to understand the mechanics behind in order to solve the game puzzle and advance to the next level. The puzzles require open minds using untraditional thinking, which in personal opinion is the most fun part of it! At the same time, the puzzles are not too difficult to frustrate players and there are help along the way to facilitate players understanding the mechanics. Once figured it out, players could feel the level of achievement and satisfaction in solving the puzzle. The game also has different pacing at each level so that it does not make user feel monotonous and bored.

Unlike the normal adventure game, CHUCHEL is a comedy adventure game and the emphasis is to let players feel relaxed and experience humours and fun while solving puzzles, rather than tightening their nerves and surviving from the dangerous world. This makes CHUCHEL special with its own personalities.

Lens 5: Endogenous Value

Rather than monetary rewards, there are seven game achievements for users to unlock (Gooding Morning, Blabber, Blue Bean, Three Caps, Cloudbuster, Creature maker and Snail racing competition). All of the achievements is embedded inside the game levels and are secrets that players may not find out even though they pass the level. The seven rewards serve as an extra bonus for players to be more interactive with the scenes and re-explore the game.

And of course! CHUCHEL brings players cheerful situational humor, wild music and sounds by the band DVA and dozens of hilarious gags that warm up even the coldest of souls. Plus a huge pile of cherries that Chuchel receives at the end!

Lens 6: Problem Solving

As mentioned previously, CHUCHEL is a puzzle solving game that requires untraditional thinking. Players are the problem solvers that makes themselves advance to the next game level. And players have to observe the scene to spot the possible exit. Solving the puzzle normally requires multiple steps and a bit of extra thinking to alter the scene before finding the solution. But fortunately, the game has an excellent graphics design with simple and clean game scenes that makes problem solving easier.

Limitation

CHUCHEL adopts the cartoonish style of design which might not appeal to everyone and some might view it as being childish and hence not able to sense the humour of it. Also as a common limitation for all adventure games, the entire game span is only around two hours and some people may prefer the longer games with more levels inside.

Conclusion

Despite its limitations, CHUCHEL is an excellent game that paves its own path of comedy adventure. For people who loves the cheerful theme and designs, this game is definitely a recommendation. Simply seat down and empty the mind, enjoy the simplicity and the humours, and release the stress from a day of busy and mind tiring work.

Brawl Stars is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and third-person hero shooter video game that was developed and published by a Finnish video game company Supercell. The game was nominated for “Mobile Game” and “EE Mobile Game of the Year” at the 15th British Academy Games Awards. The game had the second highest game downloads in Europe.

Lens #9: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

Before I touch on the mechanics of the game, I would like to explain a little about the characters and game modes that Brawl Stars offers.

There are 54 brawlers available in the game, where the player has to unlock or buy. The player can choose amongst the few that they have unlocked. This is important as each brawler can have very different ways of attacking. Some are shooters where you drag and aim to shoot, while some are throwers where you aim on a specific spot to throw your bomb at. There are also melee characters and many more.

There are tons of game events for the player to choose from. They are refreshed daily with different maps and sometimes changing events. Depending on the mode of game, there can be 1 – 3 members in a team playing for different objectives. Almost all modes (Gem Grab, Heist, Siege and Bounty, etc) have 3 members in a team, while Showdown modes have either 1 or 2 members in a team. For ease of discussion, I’ll focus on talking about some of main events of Brawl Stars — Gem Grab, Showdown and Brawl Ball.

• In Gem Grab, a team of 3 has to gather and hold 10 gems collectively for 10 seconds for the game to end.
• In Brawl Ball, your team has to shoot the ball through the opponents goal, while defending your own.
• In Showdown, you have to survive! Take others out and be the last one standing.
• Thanks to its amazing graphics, the 2D gameplay looks 3D. There are bushes and walls in the terrain that the players can hide in or destroy as well.

Story

• While there isn’t really a storyline in gameplay, Brawl Stars offer seasons instead. Each season last around 3 months and they offer an entirely new theme to the game. I find that it gives a sense of progression and continuity from one season to the next. Season 8 had Once Upon a Brawl, where game is based in the world of fairy tales, and Season 9 had a Brawlywood theme, inspired by Hollywood.
• Each brawler may also have their own story that can be accessed in their character profile. Some character voiceovers and story even hint at possible friendships and relationships between different brawlers.
• Brawl Stars also likes to release interesting animations (video above) to introduce new brawlers for each seasons. Here we can peek the personalities of various brawlers and the backstory of the new brawler.

Technology

• Brawl Stars is published for iOS and Android in 2018. It only supports online multiplayer gameplay, though players can choose to team up with friends or be randomly matched with other players.

Aesthetics

• Each season in Brawl Stars brings about a whole new look to the game. It is impressive that they can retain the original feel of the game while changing its theme so often.
• There are often new skins (unique to the theme or to festivals) for many brawlers and the event maps are also changed to match it.
• All animations for each brawler are unique and dynamic, which I find adds to the game feel. I have heard people say that brawlers sometimes seem more invincible when they don a specific skin.

Lens #1: The Lens of Emotion

• Playing Brawl Stars gives the player a sense of excitement during gameplay. Regardless of the game event, the games are usually fast paced and there is a strong sense of competition as we play against other people.
• As I play against other teams, I often get excited, stressed and competitive. I get angry if there is a player on my team that afk-ed or if we are losing and the other team mocks us.
• Gameplay is much more fun when played in a team of friends. We have fun strategising and celebrate our wins. Although there have also been times that we scold each other for mistakes in gameplay (all in good fun!).

Lens #21: The Lens of Flow

• Each game mode has very clear goals. The instructions can be read in the event description. Even without it, the rules are simple enough for the player to figure it out as they play. In Gem Grab, an instruction to “Grab 10 Gems to Win” is very clear and takes no time at all to understand.
• There are little to no distractions in the game as the objective is clear and it becomes the main focus for the player.
• There is also a nice flow of progression as each brawler unlocked starts from power and rank 0. This allows them to start from the bottom and work their way up to face tougher and higher ranked opponents. This gives them time to familiarise with their new brawler and improve their skills.

Lens #37: Lens of Fairness

• Players and teams are matched by their rank, not power. This makes the game asymmetrical especially if some players get a new brawler with rank 0 but spend a lot of money upgrading it to the highest power. This makes lower rank gameplay very easy for that player, but hard for everyone else.
• The game uses our rank as an indication of our skill level and (hopefully) power level. In majority of the match ups, this does hold true. Despite that, the number of unfair match ups aren’t little as well.
• In the case of lacking players, the game might match you with a team that has an average rank much higher than yours. The start of the game will indicate that we are the underdog of the match and we will get some additional trophies back as compensation.

Lens #96: Lens of Friendship

• I love playing with my friends as it is easier to communicate and play together.
• Other than known friends, Brawl Stars also allows you to play again with your team (whether you know them or not). After a couple of rounds with the same player, you can go to your friends list and send them a request. This allows players that worked well together become friends. There are chatting functions when you form your team, where stickers and text can be used.
• During gameplay, players can also use emoticons to communicate with one another. They can put out happy emoticons when they score the great goal, or an angry emoticon when someone made a mistake.

Conclusion

There is much more to Brawl Stars that is hard to encapsulate in one blog post. I find the game a fun and competitive one that you can play with a bunch of friends. Looking at the Lens of Elemental Tetrad, the game is a bit lacking in the storyline component. Despite that, I think the game is very well made and all other components: Aesthetics, Mechanics and Technology work very well together in harmony. The unique character designs and backstories for each brawler makes for an interesting storyline for the game and could be a potential area to explore. Overall, the game has a great cohesive game feel and I would definitely recommend you to try it out!