STARDEW VALLEY

Website: http://stardewvalley.net/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot7uXNQskhs

Stardew Valley is a mixture of farming simulation and RPG. We assume the role of a person who escape from the city mundane life by inheriting his/her grandfather’s farm in Stardew Valley. There are lots of activities you can do in this small town – grow your crops, raise your animals, befriend the town people, and many more.

Aesthetics: Pixel Art with cartoony style. The choice of colour palette helps to convey the atmosphere of seasons and emphasize the beauty of nature. Furthermore, the style still allows each character portray to display their emotion clearly.

Story: Other than the premise that leads to the protagonist moving to the stardew valley, there is no main plot in the game. However, the game is packed with short stories that the player can experience by befriending the townsfolk, completing quest, and progressing through the year. Immersion comes from shaping the farm to our liking, so this aspect does not really negatively impact the experience.

Mechanics: There are many different activities that can be done in this game, but everything can be simplified to two main mechanic: using tools, and interacting with objects. Tools can be used anywhere and anytime so long it is equipped, but can only yield something at the designated place – axe to cut tree, hoe to toil ground, weapon to attack monster, etc. Similarly, items can be spent only on their intended function –  seeds on soiled ground, hay to feed animal, food to be consumed. Using tools used up stamina, and if you spent your entire stamina, you will not be able to do anything and your movement slowed down. There are also various craftable items which allows the player to obtain more sellable product such as bee house for honey or crab pot to catch prawns, crabs or snails

Technology: Current technology, much like the most of the modern game, allows the developer to deploy update to the game. The latest update deployed is the choice of location of our farm.

Lens of goal

• Main goal told by Mayor is to revitalize the town’s community centre
• Other small goals in form of request in the bulletin board townsfolk’s personal request which if fulfilled helps in player’s effort to befriend them
• Except for the bulletin board request that has time limit of two in-game days, other goals have no real time limit.
• Rewards are listed for the completion of segments of community centre revitalization effort which might entice player to clear it to figure out what the actual reward is.
• In favour of this design since I personally feel this game supposed to be a relaxing game where player should be able to take their time to enjoy the game in any way they want. Whether we want to focus on raising animals, planting crops or fishing to gather money is up to us. Perhaps, even, the player wants to focus more on befriending all the townsfolk instead to learn all their stories.

Lens of Emotion

• The game, I believe, wants us to feel comfortable, at ease while playing the game. The game wants us to feel pleasant, and at times surprised by the unexpected outcome or unlockable after doing certain actions or achieving certain goal.
  • Done by the art style and the music that emphasize certain aspect of seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, as well as in certain places such as the town’s mine or town square.
• Invested/feels of ownership to the farm that we develop.
  • Provides freedom in planning and arranging the farm, including the location of the farm and position of the building such as coop or barn
  • Allows us to decorate the farm with structure such as path and fences. Additionally, items that serve functionality such as scarecrow can also have unique design.
  • Even our own home can be decorated with some furniture!
  • Personalisation give a sense of ownership to the player since each farm have high probability of being unique and different from other player’s farm.

Lens of Fantasy

• Fantasy of living in a countryside and taking care of a farm
• Element of magic in modern world. Non-human NPC, monsters, and unreal This aspect is a surprise for new player when first introduced in-game and compelled them to question and test the limit of the world design. At the same time, this set the stardew valley world different from the real world. Make it feels more special.

Is that a gigantic Mushroom?

Lens of Simplicity and Transcendence

• Simplicity
  • Player’s character has no problem interacting with anyone.
  • Player’s character already master the technique of planting and farming. All actions are reduced to equipping tools and clicking the action button.
  • If the player have the recipe and the ingredient, any food can be cooked and any items can be crafted.
  • Townsfolk never lie about their opinion on the gift given to them, making it easier to gauge if the gift is the right gift for them.
  • This does not make the game too simple however.
    • Recipe still need to be found, be it through levelling up skills or befriending people.
    • Player still need to find out on their own what gifts are perfect for the people they like, giving a wrong gift will impact their relationship negatively
  • Transcendence
    • Players can tell how much stamina they have left so they can gauge how many more actions they can make before feeling exhausted.
    • Players are given the information to know how much each townsfolk like them.
    • Players can interact with fairies that has the power of repairing village’s infrastructure after fulfilling their request. In this respect, the player is given the ability to fix and improve the village, making them sort of the heroes that improves the life in the valley.
    • Upgrading equipment let players do some impressive feat. For example, a high-level hoe can toil 6 tile of lands in one go. Although the aesthetic style does not make these features immersion- breaking. Plus, this really helps in speeding up the farming process.
  • I feel there is a balance in term of simplicity and transcendence. Things that are simplified are things in the pipeline that are tedious and time-consuming if implemented. Transcendence element most of the time gives the player a good measure of the result of their actions or give them a sense of progress

Thank you for not lying as well!

The Binding of Isaac is an independent roguelike dungeon crawler game created by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. The game was inspired by the Biblical story of the same name. You play as Isaac, a young boy who lives with his religious mother in a small house. She receives a message from the voice from above calling for the sacrifice of Isaac to proof her faith. Isaac escapes by jumping into the basement below where he must fight unknown monsters and eventually his mother.

The game is similar to that of The Legend of Zelda as you navigate your way around labyrinth-like levels fighting enemies with tear projectiles and bombs. With procedurally generated maps, every new game you play feels different as the items you collect and bosses you fight are also randomly generated.
The Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics
The goal of the game is to reach the final level and defeat Mom. Each floor (level) consists of a randomly generated layout of rooms with monsters. You need to find your way to the boss room, which upon clearing you can then proceed to the next floor below.

As a top down 2D game, you control your character with the standard WASD and fire projectiles in the direction of your arrow keys or left mouse button. These controls come natural as they are similar to that of FPS shooter games. Along the way you pick up an assortment of collectables (items) which changes the player’s stats and appearance. These items you pick up synergizes with one other and with some luck, your character usually becomes stronger the more items he picks up. Collectables can be obtained in several ways in all levels, from trading souls with the devil to entering treasure rooms.

Story
The game’s story is loosely inspired by the Biblical story also called The Binding of Isaac. It’s creator Edmund McMillen wanted to show the positive and negative aspects of religion as he was raised by a family split between born-again Christians and Catholics. As such there were several references made in the game that relates to Christianity. Items such as the rosary, the Bible, and several controversial symbols can be picked up and had different but relevant effects in the game. For example, using The Bible in a boss fight against Mom would instantly kill her. It is then explained in the cut scene that followed that God had intervened and struck Mom with a Bible from the shelf above her when she was about to kill Isaac. The plot closely follows the original biblical story where God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, but intervened when Abraham complied.

Aesthetics
The game elicits a dark and mysterious feeling as the game art and soundtrack works very well together. Drawn in a 2D Flash art style (because it was made in Adobe Flash), the elements in the game are highly stylized but yet it achieves its goal of conveying its themes. Another reason for the simplistic character designs was because the game was initially a result of a short game jam – all of the game art was done within 2 months. Even so, the game sold well and Edmund reworked the game art in the subsequent remake The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Technology
The game was originally created with Adobe Flash and you could play it on a computer using keyboard controls. Due to software constraints in Flash, there were several bugs and performance issues discovered by players when the game became popular. However, the game was smooth for the most part when I played it on my desktop, besides the occasional lag, and did not affect my gameplay experience.
Analyzing Isaac as a whole, the game fuses these four elements well considering the short amount of time spent in development as each element is well thought out and brings about the common theme together.
The Lens of Surprise
– The game is filled with surprises from the start, where the only instructions you get are the controls. You are to discover more about the game through playing it or looking up the game wiki page online.
– Every game is different as the maps are procedurally generated and the items and bosses are randomized.
– Achievements will only be unlocked after certain activity in the game that is told to you explicitly

instructions for the game is seen on the first room of every run

The Lens of Expected Value
– Chance and probability is a huge factor in this game. One of your stats (luck) directly affects how lucky you are in the game.
– However, the perceived chance is not completely reliant on the game’s RNG as you are allowed to alter the values (with the items you pick up) that determine the probabilities in the game.
– This gives the player choices when picking up items as they may have future consequences in the game that may not be apparent at that moment.
– The game may appear to be quite challenging at times especially in an unlucky run where a consecutive number of “bad” collectables show up that does not improve the player’s stats by much.

The Lens of Dynamic State
– In the normal game there are 100 collectables (much more in the future versions!) but only a few will be available at the beginning. As you play the game and unlock other achievements, you also unlock more characters and rare items that are meaningful to the game.
– For example, by using the Bible in a Mom fight, besides defeating her instantly, you also unlock an item called The Halo, which implies that Isaac is a good boy and has been spared by God.
– After a certain point in the game and completing it a few times, the game becomes permanently more challenging and more content is revealed to the player such as going deeper into the basement and meeting new final bosses.

The Lens of Skill vs Chance
– Ultimately the game is mostly a balance between Skill and Chance. You need to master dodging enemy projectiles with WASD controls and fire accurately with your arrow keys and at the same time to choose your pickups wisely and know how to use it to your advantage.
– The game appears to be designed for casual play as each the current state of each run cannot be saved. Hence, one would think that to win the game, luck is a huge contributing factor. However, I disagree with that it takes requires the player’s skill to know how to use every item well even if it is a “bad” item.
– A skilled player is able to win the game most of the time as he uses whatever item that is given to him to his advantage.
– Thus the game does not take away the player’s sense of control even if the outcome of each run is reliant on RNG.

Official Website:  http://store.steampowered.com/app/115320/

Trailer Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_BXB6q-OUc

Game Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWhk5_4sslU

Description:

In Prototype 2, the stage is in New York City, under the outbreak of the Blacklight virus. This virus can turn livings become crazy like a zombie. However, there is an exception, Alex Mercer, protagonist of the original Prototype, he can stay rational and he is more powerful than normal zombies; even more, he can infect other human to make them like him.

In this game, the player will act as a man named James Heller. His families were killed in the outbreak of the Blacklight virus. The outbreak of the Blacklight virus is certainly caused by Alex Mercer. Therefore, James Heller started his revenge to kill Alex Mercer. Pursuing Mercer for vengeance, Heller is infected by Mercer with a strain that imbues him with similar superhuman abilities.

Then the player will control James Heller to fight and collect the information about Alex Mercer. As James Heller become stronger and know more about Alex Mercer, he will finally have the chance to fight with Alex Mercer.

Elemental Tetrad:

1. Aesthetics:

The environment in Prototype2 is the ruined New York City. It use dust, smoke and dark yellow ambient light to make player feel that the New York City is really scarred. There is no back ground music except for you enter some special scenes. The only sound you will hear are the howl from the infected monsters, the cry from the citizens, the communication of the army and the noise when something is destroyed. These sounds make this city more dreary. In this kind of atmosphere, the player won’t feel excited for that he is a superman here, he will only want to end this disaster quickly.

2. Story:

As mentioned in the description, Prototype 2 is a story of revenge. Alex Mercer start the outbreak of Blacklight virus, so that James Heller’s families were killed. To kill Alex Mercer, James Heller make himself stronger and collect the information of Alex Mercer. Finally James Heller completes his revenge and stop Alex Mercer’s crazy plan, conquer the world.

3. Mechanics:

In Prototype 2, player can walk, jump, run and glide. The moving control is easy but completed. The most attractive part for me is that the protagonist can run on the vertical buildings.

In the game, player also needs to control Heller to fight. Heller can change the shape of his arms to make them become weapons, blade, tendrils, whip-fist, claws and hammer-fists. Heller can also create biological bomb, summon monsters and consume others to get health point. Play can use these ability freely to control Heller to fight.

4. Technology:

This game is developed on Titanium 2.0 engine. It can play on PC, Play Station and Xbox 360. It is a single-player game.

The Lens of Fantasy:

In Prototype 2, the player is not a human being. He will be a biochemical people, a collection of virus, a leader of monsters. He can change the appearance of himself, he can treat himself quickly from be injured, and do many things a human cannot. It really make player feel fantastic, because in this game, the player can become a fantastic being.

The Lens of Freedom:

In Prototype 2, although there is a main story designed for player to complete, player can ignore it then shuttle in the city and do whatever he want, destroy things, fight with monsters, fight with army; or just walk around and observe the city. The New York City in this game is just like a stage specially designed for the player. The player will feel free like the master of the city.

The Lens of The Hero’s Journey:

Although the protagonist, James Heller, starts his story as revenge, as the game goes on, the player will find that the man Heller want to kill, Alex Mercer, is a crazy biochemical people who wants to conquer the world by terror. The player is not only a avenger, but also the man who tries to stop a future dictator. At the end of the story, as the last biochemical people, Heller chooses seclusion instead of beginning his own conquering. I think he is certainly a hero who knows how to use his power correctly.

The Lens of Visible Progress:

At the beginning of the game, Heller’s ability is limited. When the game starts, the only weapon Heller can use is his fists. After completing more and more missions and fighting with different enemies, Heller will learn to run on buildings, glide in the sky, and change his arm to become different types of weapons. Meanwhile, the enemies will also become more strange and powerful. Player can feel his progress visibly.

Tales of Zestiria is a JRPG developed by Bandai Namco, and tells the story of Sorey, a human living among a race known as the Seraphim who protects the world from Hellions, creatures borne of negative emotions.

Game website: http://www.talesofgame.com/en/game/tales-of-zestiria/

Gameplay link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH5pQnsNe3c

Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

• Focuses on exploration of the game world and interacting with NPCs
  • Eventually unlock more abilities, such as short-range teleportation and punching to break rocks to uncover more of the world
• Also focuses on real-time battles

Story

• Linear storytelling, with optional sidequests to flesh out more of the world
• Story begins with the player being introduced to Sorey, a human living among Seraphim with a passion for exploring ruins
• More backstory is introduced to the player as part of the main storyline, allowing the player to understand what transpired to bring the world to the state it is now

Aesthetics

• Visuals and audio are generally bright and colourful
• Certain parts of the world however are dark and gloomy, adding to the contrast between the normal world and the world covered in malevolence

Technology

• Uses standard hardware for PCs and consoles
• No particularly innovative technology being used here

Lenses

#27: Lens of Skill

• Exploration side of the game does not require too much in the way of skill, although certain objects are hidden in difficult-to-spot locations
• Battle side of the game requires several different skills
  • Managing attack types, as certain attacks are more or less effective against certain enemies
  • Reflexes, as blocking significantly reduces damage taken, while quickstepping at the right time reduces damage taken to 1.

#40: Lens of Reward

• Many types of rewards offered for both the exploration and battle side
• Exploration:
  • Chests: may offer equipment or items (or a fight against a Mimic Giant, which is quite rewarding)
  • Herbs: permanently increase stats such as attack or defence of a character
  • Normin: special characters that help increase the chances of getting beneficial effects on equipment obtained
• Battle:
  • Experience: used to level up, increasing character stats and allowing them to gain new skills. Experience gained is decreased with increased difficulty level
  • Gald: the game’s currency, used to buy equipment/items and to upgrade equipment. Gald gained is increased with increased difficulty level
  • Grade: a measure of how well the player did in the battle, increased by actions such as not taking damage, hitting a certain combo count, or finishing the battle in a short amount of time. Used to unlock beneficial effects from characters known as Lords of the Land. Grade gained is increased with increased difficulty level

#46: Lens of Economy

• Gald acts as the game’s universal currency
• Typically gained by exploration via chests, or from winning battles
• Additional other avenues to gain gald, although these do not contribute much under normal conditions:
  • Certain characters have a passive ability to generate items or gald after travelling a certain distance, and said items can be sold for gald
• In early to mid-game, gald gained is sufficient for buying items and some equipment, but doesn’t allow much for other features such as equipment fusion
• Late-game item exists to increase the amount of gald given by a battle by 50%, which can be used multiple times in the same battle, resulting in astronomical amounts of gald earned, trivializing the economy if done right

#68: Lens of the Hero’s Journey

• Less elements, and in a different order than that prescribed (potential spoilers below):
  • 1. The ordinary world – The first scene of Sorey is him exploring a ruin that is otherwise unremarkable
  • 4. Meeting the mentor – The player soon meets Gramps, who acts as Sorey’s guardian and mentor
  • 2. The call to adventure – Realising that the person Sorey met in the ruin was being chased by a dangerous Hellion, Sorey leaves his village with his close friend Mikleo
  • 5. Crossing the threshold – Sorey leaves the village of Seraphim he has lived in and travels to the human world
  • 6. Tests, allies, enemies – Too many to list, as this part takes up about a third of the entire story
  • 7. Approaching the cave – While solving challenges from the above point, he meets and is easily defeated by Heldalf, the main antagonist
  • 8. The ordeal – Sorey and his allies walk into a trap, which results in the loss of one of his allies
  • 11. Resurrection – While finding a way to defeat Heldalf, Sorey and his team discover that the malevolence in the world is caused by the corruption of the Lord Maotelus
  • 12. Returning with the elixir – While Heldalf has been defeated, Sorey stays behind to purify Maotelus, which is expected to take hundreds of years.

Placing the player in the role of sole survivor on an unknown planet rife with hostile life, Risk of Rain is a side-scrolling platformer that marries action with roguelike elements. Through the course of the game, the player traverses an endless gauntlet of randomly generated biomes, all the while facing off against an onslaught of procedurally generated enemies that get increasingly challenging as time passes. The player may don the mantle of one of several survivors to undertake this arduous journey, each possessing their own set of unique skills and abilities. Along the way, the player collects various items that aid in their endless struggle against the indigenous fauna, be that to bolster their own defenses or reach crazy levels of firepower. Death is permanent, however, and marks the end of the player’s run.

Webpage: http://riskofraingame.com/

Game Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cia3haHicFU

Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics:

Each level in the game contains a teleporter placed at a random location on the map, which serves as the main goal for all the levels save the final stage. Procedurally generated enemies impede the player’s search for the teleporter, and upon death provide experience and an in-game currency used to unlock items. Each level increases the player’s strength, and items collected along the way confer passives bonuses, which stack on acquisition of duplicate items. The difficulty of the game scales with a timer, increasing each time after a set interval through 10 levels, whereby monsters have more health and damage. Upon death the game ends, however each run may unlock items or additional characters for future playthroughs through progress made, or sub-goals performed.

From Drizzle to HAHAHA difficulty. Feel the rain on your skin; no one else can feel it for you.

Story:

Risk of Rain features a loose story that chronicles the protagonist, a stranded survivor crash landed on a hostile planet, and their journey to find a way off the planet. Pieces of the story and background information about each enemy are revealed through monster logs that foes occasionally drop, and finishing the game ends with a cutscene that provides further insight into the motivations behind the selected character. These story elements serve mostly to complement the mechanics and aesthetics of the game more so than actually drive the player forward, and a lot of the story is left up to interpretation by the player, adding to the feeling of being stranded in an unknown and unforgiving locale.

Cause it’s just you against the world.

Aesthetics:

Featuring graphics reminiscent of retro 8-bit games, the pixelated two-dimensional aesthetic of the game together with the muted colour palette, ranging from the cool and dreary greys and blues to the outlandish but warm pinks and browns, bring a nostalgic yet appropriately foreign and alien-esque feel to the aesthetic of this dangerous planet. Sprites are simple but complemented by animations that breathe life into them, and the monster logs provide beautifully detailed art of each enemy encountered. The music of the game also heavily features a lot of synths that add to the mystique and nostalgia, every piece specifically tailored for each of the different biomes, starting relatively serene and ending in soaring crescendos reflective of the scaling difficulty of the game.

Nothing says “Mass Alien Genocide” quite like a warm sunset against cold steel.

Technology:

Originally conceived as a student project, Risk of Rain runs on GameMaker and as such some of the mechanics of the game and the graphics were tailored to conform to the limitations of the engine to prevent overloading and risk crashing the game, such as introducing tougher but fewer enemies on later difficulties to reduce the on-screen clutter.

I suppose one can’t have too many rockets.

The Art of Lenses

The Lens of Punishment:

Each playthrough of Risk of Rain ends when the player character dies, and all the items acquired, experience gained, and levels perish alongside them. The player is thus punished should they make severe enough mistakes that lead to their death, the most trying of challenges happening early in the game when the player is without the means to combat the ever increasing difficulty scale; However, should the player manage their time and items well, there is an exponential growth in character strength the longer they are able to survive, as item effects stack the more of each the player acquire and reward those who do avoid dying early. The thrill of cheating death and proceeding to the next level with a full stack of items intact is truly exhilarating.

Can’t deny that.

The Lens of Motivation:

Risk of Rain features a meta-game system, wherein every playthrough the player is able to unlock new items, modes and characters as they complete sub-objectives or achievements. These are available in all subsequent playthroughs after acquisition, and motivate the player to make several runs in order to reap all the rewards. These new characters and items enable the player to progress further in the game, by adding to the pool of items that may be procedurally generated or through providing a different set of skills and abilities to the player, supporting the motivation to survive as long as possible.

Someone’s been busy.

The Lens of Chance:

Many of the major elements in Risk of Rain are governed by chance, as both enemies and items are reliant on random generation. A player may only have access to less than stellar items whilst simultaneously facing off against tougher enemy archetypes at the start of the game, invoking a sense of hopelessness and lack of control, but because of the random nature of the game be elevated to heights of excitement at a whim when they chance upon a superior item. The player may also make risky plays, sticking with their collection of sub-optimal items if they happen to possess one or two of the rarer items. Do you continue your gauntlet with a ragamuffin collection of items, just because you hold on to one or two gems?

The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity:

Strewn throughout the levels are artifacts, which when acquired make fundamental changes to the game. These artifacts can vary the difficulty of the game, removing the random aspect of items, for example, allowing the player to choose what they want, or handicap the player by making enemies far stronger. There is an emergent complexity through the interaction of items, both between themselves and with artifacts. Certain items become far more valuable under the effect of some artifacts, and encourage the player to pursue these item configurations in order to find the most success in the playthrough.

Simple puzzles bar your way to the artifacts, sometimes requiring specific items to solve.

Rust is an Early Access massive multiplayer survival game created by Facepunch Studios. Rust was inspired by games like DayZ, Minecraft and Stalker. In Rust, players can determine how they would like to play using the game’s building tools to attempt surviving through harsh open world environment conditions, such as attacks from wildlife, radiation, starvation, temperatures as well as other players.

Website: https://playrust.com/

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spGt2Mhzy8

Elemental Tetrad

Technology:

• Rust uses procedural map generation to create a unique map for each server.
• It was developed using Unity 5 game engine.

Mechanics:

Some of the mechanics present in Rust include:

• Ballistic trajectory for its projectiles (arrows and bullets) to simulate a more realistic game physics
• Hit tracking mechanism which means shots to different parts of the body deal different damages
• An extensive crafting system
• In-game voice chat for useful/critical in-game communication

The game mechanics in Rust are not uncommon in any Open World survival games, seeing how it had been compared to as a mix between Arma 2’s Day-Z mod and Minecraft. However, the way Facepunch Studios incorporated them – features that are missing in either Day-Z or Minecraft – made it a game with immense potential.

Story:

There is no story to this game. The developers created the game on the idea that the player shall decide how he or she wants survive the harsh elements within the game as well as how they would like to play the game, be it fighting against others or making allies and helping each other survive. Like what the developers said: “We provide the tools. How players survive is up to them.”

Aesthetics:

Rust’s graphics have significantly improve over recent years since it was first released as an early access game. This was partly due to the development team porting over to the Unity 5 game engine. Structures, foliage and the environment are nicely modelled and built, while wildlife like bears and wolves are nicely implemented. Audio is also properly developed for example, a user can accurately identify the direction an attack helicopter is coming from, as well as footsteps and movement nearby. However, bugs are still present within the game thus negatively affecting players’ game experience at times.

Lens of Time:

Rust uses a Day and night cycle – roughly 50 minutes of daylight and 10 minutes of night – to bring about a sense of time for players in-game. During daylight, visibility is not impaired allowing players to view their surroundings clearly. Hence, it is the best time for players roam about freely and explore. However, when night arrives, visibility is almost zero. It turns pitch black very quickly, even the moonlight is insufficient for illuminating the terrain. The player’s only option will be to use a torch or other craft-able light source, which could potentially be more harmful as he or she becomes an obvious target for other players and/or attack helicopter. The use of time cycle adds an element of strategic play to the game as players would have to plan for each activity, keep in check the time spent as well as considering their ability to respond to danger.

Lens of Expected Value:

Clockwise From Top-Left : Destructible Barrels, Airdrop, Weapon and Medic Crates, Attack Helicopter

Rust does incorporate the element of chance within their game. Some more notable events are:

• Airdrops, an important element in Rust which happens randomly at random locations around the map, that may contain valuable supplies. Airdrops are delivered via a propeller plane, and can be seen coming in from extremely long distances, this results in players sometimes running towards the airdrop and competing for it.
• Interactive objects such as destructible barrels, medical supply crate and weapons crate are scattered across maps usually at fixed locations near landmark sites, and each of these objects provides players with the chance of obtaining certain resources or items ranging from either common to rare.
• Attack helicopters, another important element to Rust, they are randomly spawned between a certain time interval (24-48 of in-game hours), are NPC-controlled and are rather hard to defeat. The attack helicopters will patrol iconic landmarks in the map called monuments and will fire at players if they are spotted (only on certain conditions). Defeating a helicopter will cause it to drop extremely rare loots but there is a cooldown before players can access the crash sites. This invites challenges from other players who are keen to attempt stealing the loot.

Lens of Competition vs Cooperation:

The most important goal in Rust is to survive, not only from the environment but more importantly other players. As mentioned above, players ultimately have to compete for resources and items. However, the open and free playing concept of Rust also enables cooperation between players. One good example is the option for players to form “clans” in the game. Clans creates an in-game faction where players belonging to the same faction help each other with housing, provision of items and supplies, partaking in organized raiding of other players and looting. The feature of clans creates a balance for competition and cooperation, as it helps to make the game more enjoyable by giving new players a lifeline to work with others, rather than always getting killed by more established and advanced players a few moments into the game.

Lens of Imagination:

Building is an essential tool for survival in games, and this is also likewise a prevalent concept in Rust. Like Minecraft, albeit with a more extensive building system, players can use their imagination and build homes or structures in the game for different purposes. This freedom allows players to be creative and tactical with building a base for survival, which is evident from the numerous video tutorials and guides to building different structures increasingly found on sites like YouTube and Rust’s community pages.

Description:

Age of Wonders is a turn-based strategy game with some RPG elements, co-developed by Triumph Studios and Epic Games. It was released in October 31, 1999 and the first game in the Age of Wonders series.

Website Link: http://triumph.net/ageofwonders

Trailer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P–zaTS2iuA

Gameplay Video: https://youtu.be/JlG5xEvo-_4?t=24m41s

Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

• Controls are simple and straightforward as only the use of mouse is required.
• Despite having simple controls, the game itself is quite complex.
• Gameplay revolves around turn-based strategy with an isometric view of the map over hexagonal tiles.
• Strategy Element
  • Fog of war, which is pretty common in strategy games, prompts the user to venture out into the unknown to explore.
  • Tactical combat challenges players to outwit other players in command of units.
• RPG Element
  • In-depth hero customization wide variety of special abilities to choose from, multitude of spells to research and arsenal of equipment to find.

 Story

• Setting: Medieval fantasy world with magic and a diversity of races
• Conflict: Humans killed the Elven King Inioch and conquer the Elven Court, claiming The Valley of Wonders. The remaining elves split into 2 factions: The Keeper, led by Elven Princess Julia and The Cult of Storms led by Elven Prince Meandor.
• Campaign: Join and aid one of these 2 factions in reclaiming The Valley of Wonders.
• Branching story based on different paths taken throughout the campaign. Final stage of the campaign is the same map for all paths, however objectives and alliance are different based on path taken.

Aesthetics

• Graphic
  • Detailed environmental tiles depicting different terrains such as snow, forest, desert, cave and etc.
  • Hero portraits consists of multiple version for each races.
  • Beautiful sprites depicting elemental attributes.
• Audio
  • Compelling and engaging soundtracks.
  • Different sound effects for spells to indicate its elemental attribute. (i.e. lightning)

Technology

• Game is built to run on Windows platform.
• Not much is known about the game engine as they used an in-house game engine.
• Has a map editor available for developing custom level. This is a great feature as it encourages player made custom levels.
• Multiplayer supports through LAN, over internet or by Email.

Lenses

Lens #27: The Lens of Skill

• Requires players to take advantage of their terrain, racial bonuses, alignments and etc.
• Balance between economy, expanding troops and exploration of map.
• Tactical combat has a high demand of skill. Even in a disadvantageous battle against larger amount of higher tier troops, with tactful play, a player maybe able to turn the tides.

Lens #29: The Lens of Chance

• Chance is an important aspect in this game as it makes the outcome of battles unpredictable.
• A prime example how chance plays a big role in this game is stats.
  • Attack determines chance of landing a hit.
  • Defence determines chance of dodging an attack.
• A hero with max stats losing a melee fight against another hero with lower stats based on chance. (Hero with max attack stats misses all his hit, and failed to dodge any attack despite having max defence stats as well)

Lens #38: The Lens of Competition vs. Cooperation

• This is very applicable in multiplayer game, especially in non-allied victory. (Only 1 winner)
• Players have to compete for resources, cities and artifacts. (equipment)
• Despite being a game of competitive nature, it also prompts player cooperation with diplomatic feature in place.
• Weaker players can form temporary alliance to join forces in attacking stronger players.

Lens #46: The Lens of Economy

• There are 2 main resources in this game, gold and mana.
• Gold is mainly used for upgrading cities and maintaining upkeep of troops.
• Mana is used for spell research and spell casting.
• Choices of spending resources wisely is important.

Lens #75: The Lens of the Avatar

• Player’s main hero is his/her avatar in this game and they are given free rein in customizing their hero.
• Max level of hero is 20, therefore there is a limited amount of abilities and stats the hero can have.
• Examples:
  • Combat oriented hero with max stats and multiple melee elemental strikes.
  • Magic oriented hero with more spell casting points.

Assignment 1: Game Analysis for Mappy

Description:

The game I am discussing is Mappy. It is action game distributed twenty years ago first as arcade game. Player controls the character Mappy, a mouse to collect items while avoid being caught by cats within a mansion. Mappy and the cats move between floors with the trampoline. The trampoline will break if Mappy stays on it for more than 4 rounds. Mappy can open the nearest door it faces to obstruct cats or passes through. There are 2 types of door, 1 blinking and the other not blinking. Opening the blinking door will release a wave and catch the cats along with it.

Try the game: http://www.retrogames.cz/play_008-NES.php?language=EN

Lens of Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetic

Considering the game is created 20 years ago, the images drawn were quite ok.

Mechanics

Mainly running left and right, jumping onto trampoline and move to the other level. Other than that is to open or close a door in the direction of the player

Technology

The game is available on arcade, Nintendo and now on PC. Controls are straightforward and easy

Story

There is no Storyline in Mappy, as it is just the player collecting items while running from the enemies.

Lens of Fun

The game is fun as structure of each levels are different, thus creating a different strategy to obstruct and avoid the enemies while collecting items. Included in the game is hidden bonus, where the player collect items in pair give bonus points. Other than the normal stages, there is also some bonus stage where you can collect numbers of balloon within a time limit.

Lens of Problem Solving

The player needs to find a way to delay approaching enemies while preventing sandwich by enemies.

Lens of Emergence /Time

There is a time limit within each level of the game. When time exceeds limit, it shows “Hurry” word in the game, the background music will be faster and the enemies will increase and become faster, giving the player a sense of urge to complete the level.

Lens of Simplicity/ Complexity

The rules of Mappy is very simple and straightforward: collect the items before getting caught and move to the next level or get caught and lose the game.

There are only 3 control buttons: Left, Right and A/B for moving left or right and open or close the door.

The player can understand the game within minutes.

Lens of Visible Progress

Other than the first 5-10 stages that are quite easy, the progress can be visible through the change of color of mansion and the stage modification.

Gampeplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J64Gn60y1o4&index=1&list=PLebpytFvkBzvMlypgiChn9bUthdFXcQwf&t=473s (Uses the PC port that was released in 2005)

Description

The Halo series is one of the flagship titles of the Xbox and this was its very first game, released in 2001. There have been 5 games in the main series to date, along with several spin-offs and remakes. This is about the original game that was released in 2001 and not the 2011 Anniversary version, which comes with additional features and improved graphics.

The game opens in medias res. You are in the middle of a war between humans of the future and more technologically advanced aliens. From the very beginning, the situation is already bleak. As a super soldier, you are tasked with an important duty of not dying or being captured and explore the strange structure that you have found yourselves stranded on, the titular ring world of Halo.

Elemental Tetrad

Aesthetics

Due to the game being released in 2001, the graphics cannot compare to today’s ones. Even the anniversary version, which had updated graphics, is still very underwhelming compared to the newest game Halo sequel. However, the reason why I chose the older version despite the fact that there was a newer updated rerelease was because for all intents and purposes, the aesthetics served their purpose well. Humans are very identifiably humans and the aliens even more so. There is a very clear distinction between them and throughout the game, it is always evident that humans are on your side and everything else isn’t.

The music, even today, is still top notch. The title screen, the first thing you see when you boot up the game, already sets the mood. You are treated to a spanning view of the titular ring world and given ominous music that hints that the world has many mysteries that are not all good. The title sets the tone that this will be a dark and serious game. Then in the very game itself, the music sets the lows and highs of the game very well. When you are hiding in the shadows, shying away from the overwhelming numbers of the enemy or from the zombies known as the Flood (shown on the right), the music is creepy and scary. I remember as a child that while at first I was afraid of the aliens known as the Covenant, they could not at all compare to the Flood, which are nightmare fuel in their own right that I always attempted to kill as soon as possible. The music was what cemented that experience. Imagine listening to this while being chased by a wave of zombies and desperately shooting everything you have. The only reason why it is not evolve to an outright horror game was because you were still capable of fighting back, which the music also enforces.

Technology

As this game was originally released on the Xbox, it used the capabilities of the Xbox as much as it could. Most buttons were mapped in as intuitive a manner as possible, such as the right trigger being used to fire your weapon. The Xbox controller’s ability to vibrate was used to emphasise a lot of the things happening on screen. The Xbox was also one of the stronger consoles of its time, contesting with the Playstation 1. This was made use of by pushing that to its limit, creating a large and beautiful world that one could explore and discover using 3D graphics.

Mechanics

Halo is a first person shooter game, and thus that makes it straightforward. Find a weapon. Point and shoot. I felt that all of its weapons had their own unique characteristics that none of the other weapons shared. For example, the weapon that the Master Chief, the main character, uses in the cover is called the Assault Rifle, which is very simply a machine gun that one just holds down the button to continually spray bullets until one has to reload. The pistol, on the other hand, serves a very different purpose, capable of zooming in and serving as a good long range weapon as well because of its ability to down most unshielded targets in a single headshot. The alien weapons that use plasma serve well to take down shielded enemies, on the other hand. The plasma pistol in particular is capable of taking down a single target’s shields with a charged shot, something which was taken advantage of as the difficulty increased.

Story

The story is also one of the hooks of Halo. While at first, the player is thrown into a world without any prior information, a lot of the game goes into revealing more about the world, as well as the titular Halo. The all important war between the humans and the aliens known as the Covenant is a mere backdrop to the horrifying Halo and its secrets. The Halo was built by an even more advanced race than the Covenant known as the Forerunners, who had one day suddenly disappeared from the universe. All that was left was their technology and their AI, of which most notable in this game was 343 Guilty Spark, otherwise known as the Monitor of Halo.

The Lens of the Character Web

The main character in this game is the Master Chief, the armoured superhuman who we are never able to see the face of in-game. He is stronger than all the other humans and essentially the most important human in the series. The player gets to play as him, living a legend as he single-handedly brings victory to the human race.

However, this game does not focus on just this. The characters around the Master Chief never outright tell the Master Chief that ‘You are the most important person here’. Actually, the Captain of the ship is the most important in story. But the player gets the feeling because every time the Master Chief appears on scene, the characters react immediately to him. The humans thank him profusely for appearing and helping them out of a pinch, rallying behind him without hesitation. The Covenant fear him and the smaller mooks cry out in dread when faced against him. Some even run away the moment the strongest aliens in their squad (aptly named Elites by the humans) get defeated. There is also Cortana, the AI who accompanies you for much of the game, giving off snarky commentary when she can, lampshading and highlighting many of the aspects of the game and providing a nice contrast to the mostly silent Master Chief.

The interactions of the character around him is what solidifies the Master Chief, and by extension the player, as a person of importance and makes the player feel good playing as him.

The Lens of Pleasure

The goal of a first person shooter is simple. Give the player an ability to shoot things and kill them in a satisfactory manner. In that way, I believe Halo has succeeded tremendously. As mentioned before, its many different weapons provide different ways to kill enemies. But that is not the only thing it has. It also provides a satisfying way to kill enemies through a melee attack to the back if the enemy is unaware of the player. Then there is also sending an enemy off the cliff and letting them fall to their death. Of course, there is the way of sticking a sticky Plasma Grenade onto an enemy and watching it struggle to get it off before exploding in a satisfying explosion of blue plasma. Then, there is simply driving over an enemy with a vehicle of choice. I believe Halo has brought much variety to the different ways to kill enemies, which entertains the player sufficiently until the very end.

The Lens of Skill

As my first game on the Xbox and technically my first video game ever, I can safely say that I possessed no prior ability with first person shooters. Halo was well made in that it rewards players for being skilled while still having a low learning curve. If you don’t know what to do, you are provided a default weapon capable of just holding down the trigger to pepper your enemies with a constant rain of bullets. However, as you grow more skilled, the default sidearm, the pistol, gives you the ability to one-shot most enemies with a headshot. The ability to melee attack is also well implemented, due to its ability to interrupt any action you are currently performing to perform a melee attack, thus allowing you to constantly be doing something and not be stuck in a reload animation while facing down an enemy. Skilled players who are able to get behind enemies are also rewarded by being able to melee attack them and thus kill in a single attack. The grenades also provide skilled players with the ability to put a well placed grenade to take out most enemies. The plasma grenade has the capability to ‘stick’ onto enemies, which means that a well placed plasma grenade ensures that enemy’s death. There is not much randomness in this game except for shot deviation, thus allowing players to improve their skill very easily.

The Lens of Curiosity

Halo has a large map for its time, and curiosity for exploring the map is rewarded a lot of the time. Sometimes, it is merely a hidden Medpack (which restores health) or an Overshield (which gives one more layer of shielding). However, at other times it is a stronger weapon or an easter egg.

This lens is expanded even further in the sequels, as more easter eggs (including the soon well-known Skulls) were added.

Conclusion

I think that Halo was a great game and a game of my childhood, which was why I chose it.

Official Website: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/journey-ps4/

Trailer Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU3nNT4rcFg
Game Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8LzZj51ef4

Description:

In journey, players will play as a traveler with red robe and a black mask in the desert at first. The only determination is the mountain which is far away. We do not have any weapons during this journey, instead we only have a red scarf which will support us the ability of flying. As we collect more red cloth during the journey, the ability of flying will be enhanced. As we walk towards the high mountain, we will go through remnants of a once-thriving civilization. As we complete one chapter, we will find the stones where the forerunners rest and watch a fresco to know about the development of this civilization. During this journey, we will experience exploration, cooperation, dangers and even death. At last, when the travelers arrive at the top of the mountain, he will becomes a white meteor to the starting desert and start a new journey.

Elemental Tetrad:

1. Aesthetics:

Desert

Journey is really a beautiful game! During the journey to the top of mountains, we can enjoy the beautiful 3D scenes of desert, remnants, towers and snow mountains. It has really nice shadow and light effects and the scenes are all magnificent. The whole journey is filled with grace and Buddhist mood. There is no violence and competition in this game, instead there are understanding and supporting between players. Also, the music is perfect to show the beauty of the scenes. There is no dialogue in this game, but it is enough for players to feel the emotions through the music. In a nutshell, this game is full of the beauty of humanity and Buddhist mood.

2. Story:

Journey only has a simple story, that walking through deserts, remnants, towers, and snow mountains to the top of the mountain. There is no dialogue during the Journey, so that the meaning of the journey needed to be thought by the player self. The whole story is silent and harmonious. There will be a partner selected by the system which is acted by another real player during the journey. Players need to help and support each other until the end of the journey, but players will never know who the partner is because the random selection. It is just a fantastic meeting and journey and give different players different experience.

3. Mechanics:

In Journey, player only can walk, run, jump and fly for a while. Players can use these ability to go through the scenes, collect red cloth to enhance the flying ability and open gears. Players cannot communicate with another player, and they can only make a strange sound with a special symbol. They are not allowed to hurt each other, and can only help each other to solve the problem as well as complete the journey.

4. Technology:

This game is only available on PS4 and PS3 and has a high-quality game screen. It support most 2 players during one journey with internet connection.

Lens of Emotion:

At the start of this game, there is only yourself standing at a hill in the desert. It makes players feel alone as a lonely traveler. During flying through the remnants in the desert, it makes players feel excited when watching the large and beautiful scene of the desert. When the traveler is going to die in the cold snow mountain, players will feel sad for the death of the traveler. As the traveler is revived by the god and sees the nice scenes of the top of the mountains, players will feel pleased. The experience of the traveler and the well-timed music will lead the emotion of players.

The Top of The Mountain

Lens of Essential Experiences:

Journey is like an experience of life journey. At first, you are alone to walk towards your aims. During the journey, you will meet some partners to help you but you may not know their name. Also, you will meet dangers in the remnant and see beauty after overcome the dangers. You may almost die in the cold snow and be revived by strong spirit support. As you arrive at the final aim, you will be sent to the start of the journey and restart a new one as well as a new samsara. It is really like the journey of our life, but it is more harmonious and Buddhist mood to give us a really new experiences. It is from life experiences but higher than it with more fantasy.

Lens of Problem Solving:

There are not very hard problems in Journey. Most of the problem is open some gears to collect some red cloth, stones or release some fishes. Also, there are some problems like hiding from the enemies. These problems are not hard so that no mater you are a new player or old player, you can solve them easily. However, if you would like to collect all the items and achievements, you need to cooperate with your partner to jump higher or fly farther to open some special gears.

Lens of Beauty:

The beauty of Journey is not only from its scene and music, but also from its artistic conception. It is called a work of art by many game evaluation organization. It make player go far away from cities or noisy and feel the beauty of traveling and nature. It do not have any violence or competition, and it only makes players to think and enough the emotion. That the beauty of this game, peace, harmony and Buddhist mood.