tianyushi

[tianyushi]

ATP Journal

Week 1

My definition of a game: A game is an interactive activity with the primary purpose of entertainment by setting goals for the participants, limiting them with rules, and having reward and punishment mechanisms to prompt them to make a series of interesting choices.

Home work：

I want to design a card game based on some mature board games, with the traditional Chinese culture of gossip as the background

- The game is played by two players

- Two players share a set of cards in one game

- The basic resources of the game are eight elements, which correspond to the eight elements of the Chinese gossip (traditional Chinese culture). The initial cards are called "Gua" and players can combine two different "Gua" (traditional Chinese culture) cards into a better card called "Xiang" (only certain (only a specific set of two "Gua" cards can be combined into one card). "Xiang" can also be used to make "Yi", and the last two "Yi" cards can be used to make "Taiji "Taiji" (direct victory)

- A turn is divided into [Draw Phase] [Compose Phase] [Play Phase] [Discard Phase], players can directly use the initial cards to attack, defend, recover, etc. against the opponent, or save their hands to compose a better hand. However, each time the number of cards in the player's hand cannot exceed his or her blood (player blood is 4 points)

- Both players alternate between the four phases, and the first player to kill the other player or synthesize a "Taiji" hand wins.

I realized that real game design is definitely not an easy design, game design theory is very important and I needed to build up a lot of knowledge. Game design is not a completely fixed

Reflections on Reading：

process, nor is it some formula or theorem. We need to build up your own theoretical system, design style, and build up a proper understanding of the game, the players, and the various playing systems, in order to be able to make the right choice when faced with any decision, rather than just rely on luck and feelings.

I think the "play", "experience" and "rules" are different. We design the game by designing what the rules are and how the players will apply them. Once the player understands the rules, the next thing he or she will want to do is to test them. Knowing the rules, understanding the rules and applying them is the core of the gameplay.

Week 2

I've been working on some of the same types of board games lately

《Dead Reckoning》

This game uses the Card Crafting System. This system uses card sets that are usually used for protection as game accessories. Before the game starts, it is necessary to insert the base cards into the card sets. During the game, players will insert them into the card sets in various ways. Variety of transparent plastic cards to change the content of this card (the process is a bit like a sticker), full of imagination.

Perhaps the fusion of two cards in our game could be introduced into the Card Crafting System.

Reflections on Reading：

The game needs to combine a lot of rules together. I think one way to keep players interested in a game for a long time is to test the player's use of a single ability when they start out with fewer abilities available to them. Once the player is familiar with the game, new rules are provided for the player to master. After that the rules are applied and they transform into the player's abilities. However, when too many abilities are required to be used by the player at the same time, the game can become boring. A successful example: in Zelda, the protagonist has several basic abilities that emerge from the basic rules of the game engine and elemental interactions that drive a great deal of gameplay.

The design of emotional & affective experiences in games is important, just like in art forms such as cinema. It's just that games have a level of interactivity that other art forms don't have. Take PUBG for example, most conventional FPS games are designed with emotions and emotions in mind, such as the sense of achievement after killing enemies, the hatred and anger that players feel when they confront each other. In contrast, PUBG's emotions and experiences are different from these conventional emotions and experiences, creating an atmosphere of fear in the game, thus avoiding the homogenization of emotions and experiences and making it stand out from its competitors.

Week 3

Considering the time and cost, we abandoned the idea of making a board game. Instead, we use Unity to make a card breakout game. Players will control a character to fight with the computer.

We can refer to "Saly the spire" "Saly the spire" can be said to retain the Roguelike elements that I like, but the core combat into a card game, and compared to some traditional card game, it makes me feel comfortable is that each climbing process is a new deck building process . Each time the player starts the battle with a basic deck, slowly building and fleshing out the deck as they climb the tower. Since the type of enemies you will encounter and the cards you can collect after defeating them is a completely random process, each experience is made interesting by the unknown.

Our game could also retain the synthesis of cards while introducing a new system: each time a player passes a level, he or she can acquire some new cards. As the player repeats the game, the variety of cards available becomes more and more varied and, accordingly, the player can try out more combinations of cards in the next level.。

Reflections on Reading：

I think that in these days the game genres are already tending to be unified. Most of the games we play can even include a mix of 2 or 3 game genres. This homogenization and unification of game genres will continue to grow as the capacity of games and technology gradually increases. I think this is one of the reasons why gamers find games increasingly boring these days. It's hard to really pinpoint a game these days, with its complex core content and numerous secondary gameplay options, even creating a clamor for the main event at one point. In an ARPG you can even play elements of an SLG game, and sometimes the SLG gameplay can be more enticing than the original ARPG content. So today's games we shouldn't quite define categories for him.

I think games will become a medium for humans to express themselves and create meaning in the future, and will become our new way of being. Games are changing our lives at an unexpected rate, and if we use the power of games in our work and life, it is possible to produce some unexpected surprises.

I don't think video games are art per se, and they don't need to be called art. I prefer to think of video games as a new language that creates artistic experiences and enables emotional communication.

Week 4

Background and theme of the game: I wanted to add some background story to our game. We associate the "Bagua" synthesis with the card synthesis. Bagua is used as the player's card. In this ancient legend, a divine tortoise emerged from the Luo River during a flood in ancient China, carrying the "Book of River Luo" and offering it to Dayu. The Great Yu was successful in controlling the flood. So we intend to set the game in this period, and players control the turtle to fight with the monsters that caused the flood.

Reflections on Reading：

I believe that when we design a game experience, we are designing "what the player feels" and "what the player is inspired by". Designing the experience requires consideration of the gameplay and features, the difficulty of the levels, the art resources and the soundscape, and unifying all aspects of the game around the 'game experience' in order to achieve the ultimate goal.

The game development process involves a lot of work, sometimes more than we can take on. So, we don't need to take on the whole project at once. Iterative design is a way to break down a game project into something that can be designed, produced, tested and executed effectively. Creating a game takes a lot of time and effort, and we have to make sure we use every tool at our disposal. Iterative design is one of the tools that can refine the quality of a game and improve its performance.

Week 5

presentation of our project：

Reflections on Reading：

I think the game designer needs to ensure that the player makes a purposeful choice (action). A choice only makes sense if the player is making it purposefully and if he can understand the consequences of that choice.

As a newcomer, I initially found it cumbersome to do documentation and stuff. But now I realize that making games needs to be standardized and that doing the troublesome documentation that needs to be done can make it easier later.

I think it's very difficult to design a game on your own. When we hit a bottleneck in the design process, a little bit of help from others, a little bit of new thinking, can probably help you a lot. It can also help you expose some of the game's flaws and develop creative ideas for solutions. I think the most important thing about teamwork is communication. Take the time to meet regularly with your teammates to discuss the progress of your development project.

I think concept design is the beginning of a game, and having a clear concept allows for the rest of the work to proceed smoothly. I think the best approach to concept design is to set a goal for the experience and then design mechanics based on that goal and make a corresponding prototype. I think all the good mechanics have basically been explored by indie games over the years, and the only way to make a valuable innovation is to start from the experience goal.

Week 6

Testing of the prototypes revealed the following issues.

The synthesis gameplay seems unnecessary, it would be better to just give the player higher level cards

Difficulties for players not under the influence of Chinese culture cannot understand the meaning, two cards that can be synthesized need to give hints.

The amount of cards is too much and it seems impossible to assign functions.

Solution: Keep the synthesis gameplay and try to prevent players from synthesizing too many higher cards in one turn.

When a player clicks on a hand, the system will prompt the player for that card in their hand that can be synthesized.

Two hand cards that can be synthesized share one attribute.

Reflections on Reading：

I don't think a prototype for a game is limited to any form, the most important thing it exists for is to have an experience of my idea. It helps me to prove ideas quickly and they are the drafts of my game. In this process of validating the prototype I will constantly add new ideas.

Designers have to make a lot of decisions during the game development process. We don't need to be fully versed in programming or art, but we need to have some understanding of some of the concepts of front/back-end technology, otherwise difficulties can lead to us coming up with a lot of unachievable requirements or ideas that are extremely uneconomical to implement, and then you can force things that don't work and lead to ineffective work. (This is what is happening in our group right now)

Week 7

I have designed the character images and animations for this game. The images of the monsters come from traditional Chinese novels.

Monster 1 reference:

The flying fish, which lives in the rivers of the Lushan Mountains, has a call that sounds as melodious as that of a mandarin duck and possesses bird wings that bring floods wherever it appears.

This animal sounds like a modern flying fish, with wings, and will fly out of the water in case of danger. In fact, other fish may also make a frightening jump out of the water, for example, in case of a flood, which often brings a lot of rain and lightning, which will bring a large number of fish to the surface.

Monster 2：The Nine-Headed Dragon

The Nine-Headed Dragon is a water and fire monster with nine heads, capable of spitting both fire and water, and it screams like a baby. Legend has it that when the tenth day of the year came into being, the water in which the nine infants lived boiled up, so the nine infants jumped from the water to the shore and plagued mankind, eating them on sight.

My design.

I designed the monsters based on the depictions in the source material, with reference to traditional Chinese brush painting techniques and traditional color schemes.

In ancient times, realism and resemblance were prized in painting; the subjects were broadly divided into figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, etc.;

When painting, I use a flat approach to seek variation within the base color of the object, rather than creating a three-dimensional effect.

Reflections on Reading：

I think good rules need to be: not repetitive in design.

There should not be too many rules, and different rules can be freely combined by players to correspond to different scenarios.

I think that when introducing a new element into the game, it is important to avoid an overly steep learning curve. It is possible to ensure that the new mission is the sole focus of the player at the particular moment it appears. When teaching players how to play a new task, do not confuse them with something else that will make the new task the focus of their attention. Provide questions that feel familiar to the player, introduce a new pattern, and then follow that pattern throughout the completion of the mission.

Week 8

I designed some animations for these characters, which were not implemented because of technical problems, and I hope they will appear in the game later. The animations were made by members of my group.

Reflections on Reading：

I think it is human instinct to seek out games. We deserve to go after interesting information and to play the games we like.

All people like games, although there will be differences in the games people like to play.

Some people like to read all kinds of stories. Some people like the sight of others. Some people like knowledge of all kinds. Some people like overcoming difficulties. Some people overcome others. These are all areas of play

If we take video games as an example, some people like fictional games, some people like social games, some people like adult games, some people like games with complex settings, some people like puzzle games, some people like competitive games.

Week 9

We tried to do the fusion deck feature, but it was not possible for technical reasons. We have kept the ability to get new cards after passing a level.

Reflections on Reading：

I believe that the core experience of a game is really why the player wants to play the game. Designers design the experience by designing 'what emotions the player will feel' and 'what they will inspire in the player'. This is the important dividing point between designing the experience and designing the gameplay and functionality. The design experience needs to consider the gameplay and functionality in general, combined with the numerical and system design to support, consider the game's art resources and sound effects, and unify all aspects around the "core experience" in order to ultimately achieve the goal.

The world of the game, the designer creates the environment in various ways, sets up various types of gameplays, systems and levels, all with the aim of allowing the player to immerse themselves in the virtual world and satisfy their fantasies in the real world. Everything is to let players feel the beauty of the virtual world, and gradually gain self-identity, emotional catharsis, communication and empathy with others in the process of playing the game.

Week 10

Finally we have finished the game. However, there are some features that we have not implemented for the time being, such as the function of combining two cards into a new one. The animations that were created were not implemented in the game either. Of course we have created full levels, new cards are awarded after passing a level, there is an upgrade system and the backstory is very well developed.

Itch：https://tianyu-shi.itch.io/book-of-river-luo

Video:https://youtu.be/s4V3sXyQcG0