5. Workshop week 5 - RPG Board Game

In workshop at week 5, I learned about the mechanics of RPG game. It was not the one that is visualized on the computer screen, but it was a board game!

At first I could not imagine of how this game was going to play with paper and dice. Because I knew that an RPG game involves character selection, equipment selection, purchasing items, character appearance, and last but not least a complex calculation for character's status

Here is the game that my friends and I played during the workshop. We formed a group and then the lecturer passed me a form of character specification, as well as a bundle of paper listing the game mechanics such as list of monsters, list of items or equipment, in-game rules, as well as the game story line.

Game title: Microlite20 Purest Essence

Created by: Robin V. Stacey, Darrell King, and Al Kombach

Players have to choose a character, and fill a character form to set up the character's name, height, status, skills, as well as equipment.
There are 4 types of character with 4 different races.

1. Classes: 
• Fighters
• Rogues
• Mages
• Clerics
2. Races:
• Humans
• Elves
• Dwarves
• Halflings

Afterwards, players have to set up the character's status(Strength, Dexterity, Mind) and skills by following the given rule. 

Last but not least, players have to purchase several equipment using the given credits/money.

After the characters are set, then my group members and I tried to play the game. However, it was not really working well since we played using dices and it also required a frequent calculation.

4. Battle City

Click here to play: http://nesbox.com/game/battle-city/rom/4790d4c1c59af5ca9ae29744050a55d5

Introduction

Battle City (a.k.a Tank 1990 or  Tank) is a multi-directional shooter video game for the Nintendo family computer produced and published by Namco in 1985. The game was later released for the Game Boy and was included in the Japanese version of Star Fox: Assault. It is a prt of the arcade game Tank Battalion with additional features (two player simultaneously play). There was also a rendition for Nintendo's Vs. System arcade cabinets.

Gameplay

• The player controlling a tank, must destroy enemy tanks in each level, which enter the play-field from the top of screen.
• The enemies attempt to destroy the player's base (represented as phoenix or eagle) as well as the player's tank itself. 
• A level is completed when the player destroys all 20 enemy tanks, but the game ends if the player's base is destroyed or the player loses all the available lives.

Play-field

1. Yellow rectangle - represent number of enemies
2. Blue rectangle - represent available lives of the player
3. Green rectangle - represent player's base
4. Blue arrow - represent the player's tank 
5. Silver tanks are the enemies

Interactivity

The actions involved in this game are shooting (use Z or X button on the keyboard) and moving around the play-field (using UP,LEFT,RIGHT,BOTTOM arrow on the keyboard)

Concept and Setting

Setting of the game is like being in a war zone, where the player controlling a tank and defending a base from enemies (tanks).

Goal

Goal of the game is to eliminate 20 tanks at each level and protect the base.

Challenge

The challenge is to avoid being killed by enemy tanks while protecting the base. Bricks could distract the player's movement, however player could destroy only the red bricks.

A.G.E Framework

3. Snake

Snake is a casual video game that originated during the late 1970s in arcades and has maintained popularity since then, becoming something of a classic. After it became the standard pre-loaded game on Nokia mobile phones in 1998, Snake found a massive audience.

Snake 2D

It was first developed as 2 dimensional casual video game. 

Snake 3D

This is the second generation, with 3D view. Unfortunately, it did not succeed to hit the market because it has lost its simplicity of the gameplay. 

Snake Trouble
Click here to play: http://www.onemotion.com/flash/snake-game/

Snake Trouble is a casual video game powered by flash. It has the similar gameplay as the one on the Nokia mobile phone.


Interactivity:
The action involved is just moving the snake using mouse. Users can freely move the snake around the map.

Concept and Setting:
It is a casual game while players play this game just for fun. They also could try to get the highest score.

Goal:
The main objective is to get points as high as possible by devouring mice at each level/stage. Eating a mice will lengthen the snake at a particular size.

Challenge:

The challenge occurs when the snake has devoured a lot of mice so that the body becomes long enough. It will reduce the scope for the snake to move since the snake is not to eat its own body. Last but not least, the snake should have eaten the snake before a period of time 

A.G.E Framework:

2. Tetris Battle

Click here to play : https://apps.facebook.com/tetris_battle/‎

Tetris is a tile-matching video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix 'tetra' (all of the game's pieces contain four segments).

Tetris Battle on Facebook is a comprehensive online Tetris competition game

It comes with several features such as

1. Ranking - this game has 6 game mode and each have ranking systems.A player has to earn 5 stars in order to rank up. Winning the game earns 1-2 stars, while losing and quitting while playing will decrease 1 or more. Highest rank is 110 with 50 stars.
2. Energy meter - indicates a limited amount of matches and each match costs 5 points of energy. The only way to refill are either wait up to 25 minutes or buy an energy pack.
3. Player level - the level meter indicates Experience Points (EXP) that earns after the game has finished. Filling up the meter will award 1 tetris cash and fully charged energy meter

It has several game modes:

2 Players

4 Players - Sprint

6 Players

Interactivity:

The action involved in this game is moving blocks using UP,RIGHT,DOWN,LEFT on the keyboard and use shift to hold a block.

Concept and Setting:

Concept of this game is a tile-matching, where players compete to get the highest score

Goal:

The goal of this game is to accumulate points as much as possible before it times up.

Challenge:

The challenge is that the player needs to accumulate the points as much as possible before it times up, also players are encouraged to do combos as much as possible to earn extra points. Moreover, there is an event where the ground is getting higher and higher usually because of either rivals did a lot of combos or the match is about to time up.

A.G.E Framework:

1. Centipede

Click here to play: http://www.atari.com/arcade/arcade/centipede#!/arcade/centipede/play

Centipede is a 2D vertically oriented shooting arcade video game published by Atari, Inc. in 1981. It was designed by Ed Logg and a female game programmer, Dona Bailey. The main objective of this game is pretty simple, the player just need to defend against swarms of insects, and he/she can complete the stage after defeating the centipede which always move closer to the player ground.

Tips: try to survive by dodging and killing distractions (insects)

Briefing...

Gameplay

This is how the gameplay looks like at the level 1. There is a centipede moving to the player ground, and a spider distracts the player. Player can only move around on the player ground, and can only shot upwards.

1. Red arrow = showing the score (earned after defeated insects)
2. Green arrow = showing the current stage/level
3. Black arrow = showing player's life (given 3 life for each level)
4. Yellow arrow = the centipede (must kill)
5. Orange arrow = other insects (distractions)
6. Yellow star = the player
7. Oval blue = player territory (player ground) 

Interactivity - Core game mechanic or action

The action involved in this game is shooting using SPACE button on the keyboard, and move along the player territory using W,S,A,D or UP,DOWN,LEFT,RIGHT on the keyboard. 

Concept and Setting - Big theme

Theme of this game is being in a jungle, defending a camp (i my opinion) from brutal attacks of various insects.

Goal 

The goal of this game is to survive at each level and get the highest score among other players. 

Challenge

The challenge of this game is to dodge and then kill every insects on the field. More insects are coming at the higher level, and those are getting more annoying since they move faster and faster.

Story

I do not thing that there is a story element within this game. 

A.G.E Framework