IP 8 – Game Design 101

Exercise 1.2: D.O.A.

Take one game that you’ve played that was D.O.A. By D.O.A., I mean “dead on arrival” (i.e., a game that’s no fun to play). Write down what you don’t like about it. What did the designers miss? How could the game be improved?

A DOA game I have played was Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Big Rigs is a racing game where the player drives a truck around a selected track as fast as possible. The game received some of the lowest scores ever from critics (8/100 from Metacritic and 1/10 from Gamespot). The absurdity of how unfinished the game seemed to be, its numerous bugs, and poor graphics, among other flaws, made it a meme for many Youtubers to mock, causing it to gain notoriety. I believe most players, like me, played it because they had to see for themselves how bad the game was and/or to try to break the game in the most hilarious ways possible. For me, once the shock factor wore off, there was absolutely no fun trying to play the game seriously.

What I didn’t like

I’m not a big fan of racing games in general because there usually isn’t a rich premise or narrative, but Big Rigs had no description within the game other than the title, so it is up to the player to imagine from the in-game objects and settings, leading me to ask questions like why trucks are chosen as the vehicles racing rather than faster cars. The other truck placed at the starting line with the player-controlled truck never moves, making it not much of a race.

The objects placed in the game have no collision with the truck, so you could ignore and drive through them, taking the shortest path between checkpoints. The only thing that seems solid, is the ground, because even when there are bridges, the truck would go through them, taking the path below the bridge on the ground (through a river) before coming up on the other side.

There were no boundaries for the game so the truck could go very far in any direction with no guidance on how to get back on track.

The speed of the truck depends only how long the player holds the forward or reverse buttons, with seemingly no limits to the maximum speed. This creates an unrealistic experience where the truck defies physics when uphill, downhill, or in reverse (where it would continue accelerating constantly).

What could be improved

  • More realistic physics and collision detection if meant to be realistic
  • Improve and increase the objectives to motivate players to play
  • If what differentiates Big Rigs from other racing games are the trucks themselves, then improve the graphics to include more detail in the trucks and allow players to see them when they play
  • Add multiplayer racing (with other players) or fix the NPC

 

Exercise 2.3: Objectives 

List five games, and in one sentence per game, describe the objective in each game.

Connect Four: Line up four of your chips consecutively before your opponent.

Big 2: Be the first player to get rid of all your cards by playing various hands.

Blackjack: Get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over 21 using the total values of your cards.

Settlers of Catan: Be the first player to reach 10 or more Victory Points.

Poker: Be the last player remaining or have the best hand out of all players remaining.

 

Exercise 3.3: Interaction Patterns

For each of the interaction patterns, create a list of your favorite games in each pattern. If you can’t think of any games in a particular pattern, research games in that area and play several of them.

The following are all video games unless otherwise specified.

  1. Single player versus game
  • The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
  • Diablo 2 (campaign)
  • Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 (campaign)
  • Slay the Spire
  • Warcraft 3 (campaign)
  1. Multiple individual players versus game
  • Blackjack (card game)
  • Kahoot
  • Hexic
  • Golf (sport)
  • Animal Crossing
  1. Player versus player
  • Speed (card game)
  • Little Fighter
  • Chess
  • Pokemon (PVP)
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! (card game)
  1. Unilateral competition
  • Dou Di Zhu (card game)
  • Hangman (children’s game)
  • Among Us
  • Certain mini games in Mario Party
  • Red Light, Green Light (children’s game)
  1. Multilateral competition
  • Settlers of Catan (boardgame)
  • Poker
  • Super Smash Bros (free for all)
  • Risk (boardgame)
  • Heroes of Might and Magic III (free for all)
  1. Cooperative play
  • Halo (cooperative campaign)
  • Portal 2 (cooperative campaign)
  • Overcooked
  • Pandemic (boardgame)
  • Divinity: Original Sin 2 (cooperative campaign)
  1. Team competition
  • Counter Strike
  • Dota
  • Badminton (sport)
  • Spikeball / Roundnet (sport)
  • Codenames (boardgame)

 

Exercise 3.4: Objectives

List ten of your favorite games and name the objec­tive for each. Do you see any similarities in these games? Try to define the type or types of games that appeal to you.

  1. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

Solve the mystery surrounding the emperor’s death and to maintain order in the world until the new emperor is found.

  1. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2

Allied campaign: Defend the US from the Soviet invasion.

Soviet campaign: Defeat the US to achieve a new world order.

  1. Heroes of Might and Magic 3

Restore peace and order to the Kingdom of Erathia by defeating the Kreegans and Nighons.

  1. Stardew Valley

Escape the monotony of city life and find a sense of purpose at your grandfather’s farm.

  1. Subnautica

Escape an alien planet or survive until rescued.

  1. Settlers of Catan

Be the first player to reach 10 or more Victory Points.

  1. Dota

Destroy the other team’s Ancient while defending your own.

  1. Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire by improving your deck and acquiring artifacts.

  1. The Witcher 3

Find Ciri and stop the Wild Hunt from destroying the world.

  1. Half-Life 2

Infiltrate the Combine and liberate earth from enslavement.

One of the similarities in several of my favourite games seems to be a good plot, which makes them stand out among other games in their genre. For example, in the FPS genre, I enjoyed Doom because of the nonstop action and its challenging nature, but the storyline is too bizarre, which is why I enjoy Half-Life 2 much more. The same can be said about RPGs, where there have been so many, yet only a few make it to my favourites.

My favourite games also provide a good challenge but are not too difficult. Slay the Spire and Witcher 3 both become progressively more difficult, but not so much so that I would need to read a walkthrough. Games that are too difficult for me to enjoy would be the Souls games, that just feel like memorization and work.

Another element I really enjoy in games is that each of them have something that makes them stand out from the rest, be it the storyline, certain gameplay mechanics, or the premise. I will always remember how Half-Life 2 allowed the player to interact with most objects in the environment which can be used to kill enemies or help you get to new areas. Subnautica starts from a visually captivating exploration game which ends up having an incredible plot as the player makes shocking discoveries. Stardew Valley combined many of my favourite gameplay elements such as fishing, farming, exploration, and fighting monsters for loot, while allowing the player to do these in any sequence at any time, creating a true sense of freedom.

Exercise 3.9: Resource Types

For each of the resource types just described, cre­ate a list of your favorite games that use resources of that type. If you can’t think of any games that use a particular type of resource, research games that do and play several of them.

Lives – Super Mario, Super Smash, Contra

Units – Red Alert 2, Warcraft 3, Dota

Health – Half-Life 2, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Halo

Currency – Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Stardew Valley, Runescape

Actions – Divinity Original Sin 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Into the Breach

Power-ups – Doom, Vampire Survivors, Hades

Inventory – Diablo 2, Witcher 3, Slay the Spire

Special terrain – Red Alert 2, Warcraft 3, Heroes of Might and Magic 3

Time – Stardew Valley, Vampire Survivors, Charades