Playtested games

I playtested two games today. They are "Tiger Attack," by Chris, and "Aliens," by Tyson. "Tiger Attack" is a 2D platformer game where you control a tiger. The game currently has climbing mechanics, a score system, a life system, and a HUD. "Aliens" so far, is just a custom map made using Source SDK running in Alien Swarm. What's planned is to have 1 GM take charge is sending enemies and health to the players. Their games show progress, but not complete yet.

Update 11/7/11: Playtested a third game called :oBaMa. It is a political game created by, Brian Tamayo. The goal is knock down political opponents by stomping on them using Obama. The goal is to rack up points in a minute. Plan is to improve effects and randomize the holes the opponents come out of.

After getting my game playtested, my conclusion about my game's difficulty proved correct. It is tough. Out of everyone that tried it, no one was able to make it to form 2. One suggestion was to give the game the ability to fire using the arrows instead of relying on the mouse. I will implement this control next.

My game analysis

The game I created is a top down space shooter. It has free movement instead of a scrolling type gameplay. The game is 1 player and the goal is to defeat the boss in the middle. The only rule is you have only 1 life. 1 shot will take out the player and it's game over.

The game is controlled using WASD-movement and E and space to accelerate and decelerate the ship. While moving using E, the WASD movement still works. If the ship is moving at max speed from E, pressing one of the four WASD will add speed or slow down depending on the direction. Left-click is use to fire.

So far, the gameplay is looking like bullet hell style, but that might change later. As of right now, winning is extremely tough.

Zork

Played the text based adventure game Zork. The game is old. It was made in the 80's. The game uses no words and has no graphics interface whatsoever. Everything is done through text and commands. While playing the game, I noticed how easy it is to get lost, so I actually tried to create a map of where I was going. This proved to be helpful and it turned out to be common practice among those that played these type of games.

Zork is actually quite tough. Navigating the game is already hard, but it seems that there are puzzles too. The good thing is the game is designed in a way so that you won't get stuck. You will get lost though.

Since there are no pictures in the game, the way you see the world is entirely up to your imagination. This type of game play is probably why the game was considered memorable. People make up their own views of the world and some created highly detailed maps to show the area.

A Theory of Fun chpt. 4

Koster talks about games teaching people skills. I find this to be true. However, in his writing, I noticed that he seems to put together the notion that games have to teach something. This is false. A classic example of a non-teaching game, a game that takes nothing but pure luck is the common slot machine. The slot machine does not allow the player to do anything at all, yet people find it fun to play. Most people consider it to be a game. While most game teaches some skill, a game can teach no skill and still be considered a game.