Graphics News #14 « Frogatto & Friends November 20th, 2010 by Jetrel We’ve added a new tileset to the game, which is exclusive to the new “arcade mode”. Unlike our full, story-mode tilesets, which are essentially a hybrid mix of 16×16<->64×64 tiles, intermixed in lots of wacky combinations, this tileset is a strict collection of 16×16 tiles. It’s not possible to do very organic rock faces and such in this tileset; everything will feel very blocky – however, it makes for much more flexible arrangements of tiles (since quite a few up-close arrangements were not possible with our story-mode tiles). Especially for our arcade mode, which will be based on some very tight platforming challenges, this is a good fit for gameplay. Ultimately, we decided that rather than choosing between either style of tileset, we’d choose to have both. Also, here are some updates on forest stuff; showing off some new branches, better foliage, and one of the new palette shifts. (click to zoom in)
Gamasutra: Paul Sztajer's Blog - Game Design Tools: Narrative Graphs The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. There's an awesome video where Kurt Vonnegut explains the shapes of stories using narrative graphs. In fact, I'm going to just link the video here ( and talk about their applications after. Chloe and I started talking about the narrative for Particulars a couple of weeks back, and one of the first things we did was to use a Vonnegut 'Good/Ill Fortunes' graph to map out our plot (in fact we made two graphs: one for the flash game and one for the full game. They're below: see if you can guess which is which). Why is this? By graphing out what you want from one of these (in this case, story), you force yourself to ask how the others will affect it. Have you had any cool experience with narrative graphs?
Platforming Games 101: Running, Jumping & More Presented by Gamerforlife The Racketboy crew is back with yet another ambitious effort to educate the masses on some retro-gaming (and even some modern gaming) essentials. In this Retro Gaming 101 installment, we will be taking a lot at one of the most essential and popular genre in video games. Platforming games really kick-started and pushed the 8-bit and 16-bit generations and the genre has remained an integral part of modern gaming culture. Of course, the Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog series are the most well-known examples of the genre, however, there are many games that preceded them and there are many subsequent games that broadened what we can expect from the genre. Genre Foundations What is a Platform Game? While some video game genres more often focus on killing, defeating or avoiding enemies (shooters, beat’em ups, fighting games, survival horror, etc.), platform games are more about how skillfully players can move through an environment. Donkey Kong (Arcade), 1981
Lost Garden: What are game mechanics? The phrase “game mechanics” sends a pleasant shiver down my spine. At the heart of every game are these mysterious whirring clicking mechanisms that deliver to the player pleasure and thrills. We use them, we build them, but I’ve never seen a good unified definition of game mechanics that gives us a practical base upon which to build great games. Game mechanics are rule based systems / simulations that facilitate and encourage a user to explore and learn the properties of their possibility space through the use of feedback mechanisms. It is a simple definition, but it offers a good amount of insight into why games work and how we can make them better. Feedback loopsCentral to the model is the concept of feedback loops that encourage learning. Player performs an action.The action causes an effect within the simulated game world. The info treats that a game provides to the user need not be used to solve the immediate black box at hand. Some mechanisms have highly predictable burnout rates.
Critical-Gaming Network - Blog - Complex Time Simplified pt.2 Take a 2D fighting game for example. Using the dynamics of 2D space the animations and matching hitboxes for attacks create a variety of timing challenges. Intercepting an enemy target with an attack of your own is the equivalent of hitting a moving target with a moving target from a moving position. It can be difficult to wrap your mind around the fact that most attacks move the character in one way and strike in another and that both of these aspects can be used to create tight strategies. So if you haven't already checked out my An Examination of Skill article series, at least watch the video on the various timing challenges in Super Smash Brothers Brawl found at the bottom of the page here. Of course, playing at such a level is something most players will never experience. image from capcom-unity.com The answer is hit-stun and block-stun. For players that may be used to other kinds of action games where they always have full control of their characters (Super Mario Bros.
MDA - Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics Mass Effect: Massive Interface Fail Part I Mass Effect received a lot of praise when it came out. It still receives a lot of it. It is considered as one of the prime examples of next-gen western RPGs. It is a status I don’t think it quite deserved. Yes, Mass Effect offers a visually and thematically rich, cinematic experience. “You won’t get away with your sloppy interface design this time. One can argue a lot about the various shortcomings of the game and whether or not they bear a significance to judge the game. The endeavor turned out to be more laborious than I thought. Character Customization Lazy interface design. The game greets you with a series of menus for customizing the appearance and character of the player’s avatar. Blind re-using of generic interface elements: Facial features can be controlled by adjusting horizontal sliders. The HUD. Let us move to something more common: The HUD. (Bad) Styling obscuring function: Let us focus on the health bars in the lower right left corner. Character Management End of part I
What gamers want Researchers develop tool to predict player behavior Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method that can accurately predict the behavior of players in online role-playing games. The tool could be used by the game industry to develop new game content, or to help steer players to the parts of a game they will enjoy most. "We are able to predict what a player in a game will do based on his or her previous behavior, with up to 80 percent accuracy," says Brent Harrison, a Ph.D. student at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. The research team developed the data-driven predictive method by analyzing the behavior of 14,000 players in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. "In a game like World of Warcraft, which is constantly developing new content, this could help guide content design decisions," Harrison says. "A good game stands on its own," says Dr. "For example," Roberts says, "you could develop a program to steer players to relevant content.
Triple Town Beta (Now with Bears) Exciting times. You can now play our puzzle game Triple Town in your web browser. We are releasing it as a beta and the game should evolve quite substantially over time. Triple Town is a special game. On the surface, it is a simple match-3 variant, but after a few games you'll start noticing the strategic depth. The big addition for this release? Bears, bears everywhere Triple Town helped solidify how I construct the world and setting in my games. (You can read a bit more on the theory of how games are unique suited to creating emotional experiences in my previous essay on Shadow Emotions and Primary Emotions. Tuning emotions When I revisited the Triple Town design, the emotions were already clearly evident. Emotions are complex to say the least so we need some sort of entry into the topic. There are a variety of theories. An ambiguous physical response (your adrenaline jumping and your heart rate elevating)The system-derived context of the situation you are in. Monsters or children?
Gameplay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Overview[edit] Arising alongside video game development in the 1980s, the term gameplay was used solely within the context of video or computer games, though now its popularity has begun to see use in the description of other, more traditional, game forms. Generally, gameplay is considered to be the overall experience of playing a video game excluding factors like graphics and sound[citation needed]. Gameplay types[edit] There are three components to gameplay: “Manipulation rules,” defining what the player can do in the game, “Goal Rules,” defining the goal of the game, and “Metarules,” defining how a game can be tuned or modified.[12] In video games gameplay can be divided into several types. Ambiguity in definition[edit] The term Game play can be quite ambiguous to define, thus it has been differently defined by different authors. For instance: "A series of interesting choices." Playability[edit] Playability's facets[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Further reading on playability[edit]
The Power of Mario Voilà, c'est mon tour d'avoir fini "l'Histoire de Mario" de William Audureau. Bien intéressant, même si j'avoue que le côté "pourquoi lui ?" mis en avant par l'auteur ne correspond pas à ce qui m'intéresse le plus. Ce qui me tente, moi, c'est de comprendre comment sont apparu les mécanismes qui en font à ce point un jeu hors pair. Au risque de décevoir, je dirais que graphiquement, Super Mario Bros était dépassé techniquement avant même sa sortie. J'en veux pour exemple Pac-Land en arcade en 1984. Un des grands absents de ce point de vue, dans le livre d'Audureau est sans doute le bloc-question. I'm pretty lucky we have Pix'n'Love editions around, to provide us great retro-gaming material. La fonction du bloc-question est claire et géniale en même temps: indiquer clairement au joueur l'emplacement des bonus tout lui cachant le nature de ce bonus -- et ça tout en utilisant le mécanisme premier du jeu: sauter. Mais alors, que s'est-il passé avec la forme ?