Accessability in Games

     I wanted to see how accessible a game that has been made for the newer consoles and is fairly new, so I picked Call of Duty Black Ops since I just bought it. The controls for these types of first person shooters can be complicated if you have never played one, especially one from a AAA title like the Call of Duty series. Almost every button has two different functions with buttons, analog sticks, and two types of triggers. They are definitely hard to master and learn, but the game yields a high reward when done. Though they are difficult to learn and master, the controls are very precise and smooth. With a company like Treyarch you can count on the controls being top notch.

     So I logged onto multiplayer with two friends and played team deathmatch. I played with my feet since it was the next most capable part of my body to use a controller besides my hands/arms, this proved impossible to use all of the mechanics available, so I just stuck with trying to control the two analog sticks. Doing this at first proved difficult, but with practice in minutes I was moving and looking fine…if you consider only moving forward and trying to only look left or right. By clicking the analog stick I could knife someone, so I was able to fight at least. My friends Ian and Chad didn’t have much faith in my doing anything that round, but to their surprise I murdered two players in that round. That wasn’t much to anyone, but to my friends they knew I had taken on two people using both their hands and won using only my feet (just two big toes at that). The only thing I would add to the game would be being able to choose exactly what functions you want attached to the analog sticks. They have some you can switch around, but you cannot choose just any function you want for the analog sticks.

     This part of the trials I knew would be the hardest to complete, but I turned the monitor off as soon as the match started and was very put off. Playing the game without a monitor is very disorienting, because you are losing sight and sound all at once. I had my friend lead me to a corner where I could attempt to crouch and randomly fire into enemies. All I could do was try to think about what my controls did and input each move carefully to control my player, though I knew that wasn’t helping much as Ian called Chad over to where I was to laugh hysterically while I tried to quote “run into walls and shoot all the birds.” The only thing I can think of that would make this game more accessible to anyone without a monitor would be to have a control scheme that would move the character in direct rotations and snap movements when they pressed the appropriate buttons as well as a narrator on headphones or external speakers.

     Now I had imagined that playing with one arm would have been the easiest trial to complete, but I could have used a helping hand. Trying to move and look with one hand simultaneously was hard, there was no way I could use any other buttons besides the analog sticks and that was only possible because I have huge hands. I was having a hard time moving and looking at the same time until I learned to just run forward and look only when I saw an enemy. Somehow I managed to knife two opponents in the round that I played, though I died about 12 times and was the player with the lowest score. This game was not built for the handicapable, but again a control scheme with snap movements and rotations would help someone only using one arm play this game more accurately.

Chapter Three Bookwork

Chapter 3 Book Work

Game Development Essentials

Gameplay Mechanics

               Recently I have been playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, The perspective used in this game is a third person with a fixed camera. I like how this perspective was done, but many times during the game there would be parts of the scene I couldn’t view clearly, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. If I could change the perspective and try to remedy that situation, it would definitely change how the game would be played. I would set the camera behind the player, almost an over the shoulder third person view so the camera wouldn’t be fixed and you could move to fit where you needed to look. This would bring the camera in closer and bring the enemies in closer to view, giving you a better look when you tore through them. The gameplay would also be more focused on the player/enemies instead of the vista, none of the players moves would have to be changed, but being able to look around would help the game out immensely.

Chalk - Free Play

The game Chalk was a very interesting find, though finding it wasn’t the challenging part. This game is definitely a challenge if you don’t play through the tutorial, getting past the first level even after playing the tutorial proved difficult but fun. The game is challenging and fun and still manages to be played using only the mouse; though the four keyboard input keys do help.

With only having so many game mechanics, this game does have a moderate replay value. I love that you are able to play through the levels taking things head on one at a time or trying to use as much chalk as possible in a line to do combos and essentially knock out almost everything on the screen, if you are skilled enough. The levels stay the same which keeps it from giving replay a different challenge each time.

Chalk is undoubtedly game play driven; the mechanics of the game drive the player to enjoy their experience. There isn’t any story at all besides what the player makes of it, a Parisian girl fighting off monsters and ships with chalk. That doesn’t sound like the kind of game I would want to play. But when you describe Chalk as a game that uses chalk as an “Omni tool”  to manipulate enemies and objects in the game to protect your character, it presents the game as a gameplay driven game which will target more people to play this game.

The game’s graphics and sound is bare bones compared to today’s console titles. Though only 2d, the graphics are very artistic and theme-like. You control a Parisian girl that has a magical piece of chalk that destroys and deflects and moves objects around. A very indie like feel to the game, everything looks like it was drawn in chalk and keeps the game looking child-like, even though the gameplay is nowhere near a child’s game. The games sound was great; I love the feel of old school 8 and 16-bit music. It keeps a fast pace which correlates with the pace of the game, and each power up sound brings me back to Mario and Mega Man.

The controls are great, It was extremely easy to learn and very accessible for anyone to play. The controls of drawing the chalk are so simple to learn but trying to master using the chalk is very challenging which makes for a lot of fun. You only have the mouse and four or five keys, if you want a challenge you can just use the mouse and two mouse buttons to move and draw. Using minimalist controls and a high challenge keeps players interested and focused in the game, trying to get better and up their game.

I loved the boss fights, they were innovative and fun. There are even mini boss type enemies during levels that you have to kill while avoiding blue box line breakers and ships. I could barely talk to my fiancé and play through the levels without dying.

I don’t know if I would change it necessarily, but the amount of time you can draw the chalk would be interesting if you could level up and draw longer or get an upgrade which lets you draw longer for a limited time. This would give you a chance to do bonus damage and clear the screen, helping you during difficult times. A simple addition with many possibilities.

I give the game Chalk 7 out of 10 Taylor Lautners being eaten by a pack of wolves. I love the way the game brings you into it with a training level to teach you everything and then starts you off with a challenging level instead of a level with a ridiculously low challenge. Solving puzzles while defeating enemies with chalk definitely takes the violence out of video games, I have never had so much fun playing with chalk in my life.

Genre Vs Type

     Genre and type have been confused in the gaming community not unlike any other trends that get popular and evolve over time.  Video games when they first came out were so simple that a genre could infer both narrative and type, but as they have grown and evolved the definition of games needs to change with it. As with most changes there are those who are afraid of changes or for some other reason don’t want to change the way things have been. Some call it tradition and some say the afformentioned are just stagnant. I believe that like the law, some definitions should be changed over time, when the original definition is “unconstitutional” or when it causes confusion. To make it clear to anyone wondering, Genre is the narrative and setting of the game, while type is the gameplay and how the game is played. Though, if you start networking with anyone(James Cameron) who says differently just smile and nod.

GameMaker 8

Hey, spent a saturday class working on modding a clown game. Wanna play it? BAM

Dice Po-po-po-pokerFACE

Dice Poker Game

CUP-O-DICE

Objective:
- Be the first player to reach twenty points

Every player starts with the following:
- 5 six-sided dice
- 1 cup
- Pen and Paper
- 10 Points

Play as follows:
- All players roll two dice but keep them concealed from other players under the cup.
- All players roll two more dice keeping them visible to all.
- All players who decides to fold uncovers their dice and turns up their cup.
- All players roll their last die, but keeps them visible to all.
- All players reveal their dice.
- The player with the highest poker-style dice roll wins.
- All players who did not fold or win, subtract one point from their total.
- The winner adds a point tot his total for every player (other than himself) that did not fold.
- If all but one player fold, that player is awarded one point.
- The first player to reach 20 points wins.

Player Perspective

Palling ‘Round with God

Player Perspective

                My comrade Biggs is dead, the vodka is gone and I’m running through the field trying to resurrect my wounded fool of a friend. Now my other chum Wedge decides to move through the holy field, once a palace like field that encompassed all in the area with an aura that shined upon the towers and statues built to worship the relationship between Man and God are now almost rubble, and the shine that once was is replaced with a haze that creeps over the land.

As Wedge approaches his waypoint to report back to his teammates, he looks back to see his path became enshrined in a holy aura. With wide eyes and excitement Wedge sends word that the treasure was just stepped over and that it was time to rally and make a break for the treasure.  Thunder struck the sky and the winds howled, God was near and it was evident he wasn’t just observing. It was a sure bet that God was reigning in the troops to protect the treasure, but it would still be a heavy gamble to try and revive Biggs and make our team whole again. God had commanded and his army obeyed, the field is fresh with monsters and I hesitate to move toward the direction of the treasure without my wounded friend beside me. I shake my oracle ball and ask what I will see in my near future, but all lady luck tells me is that I’m not long for earth. I mutter something about manifest destiny to the useless prophet and toss the ball off the nearest cliff.

Surprised that the fates could piss me off even more, I run out to save my fallen comrade. BAM! An ugly Jabberwocky ambushes me and tries to take off my head with his giant claws but only manages to make contact with my shield and knock me into the broken marble floors of a worn away temple. My back is killing me but my pride is what was really wounded, I play dead and wait for the beast to close in, Jabberwockys are so easy to fool. As soon as he is in range I sweep low with my sword and take his front legs completely off and I scramble ahead trying not to get caught in the fall. Before I have the chance to finish him off, the Jabberwocky cries out an awful shriek that dizzies me. I try to run and continue on to Biggs but I don’t get far before the Jabberwocky reinforcement responded to the cries of his friend, who knows what other monsters heard the call.

 I turn and run up a flight of stairs that don’t lead to anywhere to try and get some high ground; the pain in my ass follows and leaves a trail of burnt dust in his rage for revenge. When the Jabberwocky sees me at the top of the stairs he charges like a bull toward me and I use whatever luck I had left to dodge and let his weight collapse the staircase.

 Biggs cusses at me when I approach him, something about taking my sweet time. I punch him in the mouth as I patch him up, don’t need him to talk just fight. By the time Biggs gained his strength Wedge had already been trolling the aura filled passageway always ready to find the treasure with no risk too great, meaning his comrade’s lives. Wedge continued to run through the field block after block scanning the area sans protocol, until he bit off more than he could chew and a monster big enough to wreck a train blindsided him and threw him into a hard marble wall. Great, even before Biggs’s painkillers kick in Wedge is already out of commission because he can’t follow protocol and check in, always a loose cannon.

Biggs runs ahead of me to cut off the monster’s descent upon Wedge and manages to cause the ground behind him to uproot like a damn earthquake. A light even stronger than the aura permeates the space around the earthquake and blinds everything in sight before Biggs could turn around to see what happened. Thank Bill Cosby! The treasure had been located and fully revealed and the strategy had changed, Biggs wasn’t trying to keep the horde from reaching Wedge, now he was playing king of the hill with the horde yelling at me to get to the treasure while he was still conscious.

We had to leave Wedge as a lost cause not because he would have done the same to us in a heartbeat, but that was protocol when the treasure was uprooted and in jeopardy. Our odds of getting to our fallen comrade and getting the treasure are lower than if we made a break for it with only two men standing, we all knew what had to be done. I understood why as I dominated through the passage to the treasure, The look on Biggs’s face holding back the horde was beyond despair, there were more monsters in all directions getting closer and he couldn’t hold them all off.

With God’s army on my back I haul ass to the treasure, but instead get introduced to a one-winged angel knocking me off the uprooted land. I wake up and it’s begun to storm and my reaction is to stop the dagger from being inserted into my face, I must have slept through the boring parts. Lady luck must have changed sides as I maneuver my leg to the angel’s side and use the leverage to kick him off of me. The rain picks up and we stand up and face each other, round two reminds me too much of Lethal Weapon so I shake it off and taunt my opponent by calling him a traitor(Satan). The angel laughs and lunges at me with his wing, the wind speed causing me to lose balance and gives the angel a chance to slice open my side. The blood stains the wet ground and the angel is laughing at me again but I’m laughing harder, at God. Lightning cracks and the one-winged beast falls to pieces, his head rolls toward me and gives me a confused look while I wipe the blood off of my sword.

 I hear Biggs cry out as I limp up the torn earth to the treasure, which makes me fight even harder to stay awake. I don’t know if it’s the blood loss or the treasure, but the closer I get makes everything surrounding the treasure fadeout of view. I approach the treasure and start to grab the orb that is hovering above the ground. When I hold the orb in my hand it glows and the glowing covers my body and heals my wounds, before I can reach for my victory cigar my body tingles and I am transported to the heavens. Looks like Heavens got a brand new God…now where do I hide this orb?