Cops4Kidz: Animations

So we've decided to make all the characters in the game dogs. Everyone likes dogs, and perhaps a policeman you'd like to pet might mend some bridges. But here's one of two possible main characters pulling out a cellphone to call the police or firefighters, as they do in the beginning of each mini-game. I was aiming for poodle, but it's very clearly a golden lab.

This one is a bulldog, and not a koala.

Black Sun: Breaking News

I'll pause a moment and explain what I'm up to.

Black Sun (which is no longer the name, but without replacement at the moment) is a top-down twin-stick hack-and-slash action-adventure about the fall of the Aztec Empire. Did I mention pixel-art?

Here's the concept GUI, showing weapons, health, magic, and the blood spilled meter. Spilling more blood strengthens the Gods, who in turn grant you further powers.

The player has two items, primary and secondary, and weapons and abilities can be swapped in. The player carries a small reserve of items, but should they need others, a larger cache is found in the temple in the center of Tenochtitlan.

Here's some of the abilities granted from the Gods.

Controls: 

w - move up

a - move left

s - move down

d - move right

mouse - character aim follows mouse pointer

right-click - primary attack

left-click - secondary attack

shift - shield

tab - menu (weapon menu, map)

Cell: in ten seconds or less

Cell

A PC game for Steam

          INTRODUCTION
Cell is a twin-stick-shooter rouge-like top-down action adventure for the modern age, in the style of The Binding of Isaac, with hints of FTL: Faster Than Light, where the player pilots a human-esque body through harsh landscapes, fighting off dangerous animal predators and fearsome diseases, and building up their defenses and health.


          FEATURES

• Combat:
  

• Player/Ship health system:
  

• Features added as soon as I can draw them.

Black Sun

Black Sun is a mess. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's cut to the chase. So let's go.

The story was good; we'll keep that. We could make it with M.U.G.E.N. and it'd be a 1v1 fighter. Could we do this:

x15-20/equivalent tasks

Perhaps still a bit lofty. Option 2, use RPGmaker, and hope to attract early final fantasy fans.

or C- Go for a Link to the Past/Link's Awakening type thing.

I personally like the Link's Awakening idea, as it can incorporate one of the few original game mechanics I can call my own...

Still working on it, but I've even put some Aztec weapons in.

Gamer Profile v3

Our third gamer profile adapted some questions from previous questionnaires: here's some things we already knew.

We know that gamers are mostly male, with females making up roughly 49%. Our third survey was 94% males, and while that's certainly not ideal in finding out what female gamers want, there's a telling statistic that follows:

Without knowing precisely the amount of males and females who fall into each grouping, we can safely say that most gamers (73%) have no preference to the gender of the protagonist. One main concern was the use of a female protagonist in the game, which has the possibility of alienating male players. Luckily, we now know that only 18% of our audience is completely turned off at the thought of controlling a female.

We also know that our audience is PC gamers who use Steam to buy games. Our profile shows we are generally in the right area regarding hardware.

There was also a general fear that a game featuring excessive violence and bloodshed, even with a slightly older player, would limit the audience. But we can see from the survey that most people (98%) would not be bothered by a game based on gratuitous violence. 

Gamer Profile v2p2

(Part Two)

In the last episode, we touched on who our audience is (age and gender), their platform (for play and purchase), and DLC buying manner (per game and month). But what about the games?

Now, this is a particularly difficult subject to interpret due to several different factors. First of all, genres are elusive in terms of definition, and rarely exist solitarily without also utilizing factors of other similar genres. Furthermore, we chose not to give additional definition or context to the options as to utilize the connotative understanding of each genre. And in addition, the question allowed for up to three selections.

So essentially, what we have here is a question stating 'when you turn on a game, what do you want to do?' The answers show some trends. A plurality of people like RPGs, or rather, RPG elements (which I think we see reflected in the next graph's character development and story/narrative answers, but we'll get to that soon enough). Polling second are FPSs: this is not a surprise, and while I would like to write off its popularity as being 'the right answer' in our common parlance, it does indicate that we are catering to a niche audience.

What concerns me more is that Hack and Slash only came in at 4%. It's certainly not the fan favorite at the moment, but I think what it tells us is that people don't think of games as 'hack and slash' specifically. With our game, perhaps emphasizing other elements, like the RPG skill tree, or the game environment.

From the popular feature list, the three most important factors are: Character Development, Narrative, and Combat. From what I've tried to create, these really are the primary focuses of Black Sun (the Fifth Sun title is out).

Finally, what makes people buy games?

Oddly enough, most people (35%) reported being most influenced by cinematic trailers. With games being an interactive medium, I'm surprised game demos (7%) weren't more popular. But this perhaps explains why 'Let's Plays' (streams/youtube for 28%) were second rated. Either way, this is good information for the marketing of our game.

Fifth Dusk: Story

Story

1325 - The founding of Tenochtitlan. A tired group of Mexica wander through the desert. Their leader, is given a vision from the god Huitzilopochtli: they shall see an Eagle perched on a Cactus, eating a Snake. Their incursion into the Mexico Valley leads them to Colhuacan, and the King Coxcox, offers the Mexica a deal: a tract of land of their own in exchange for their military prowess in defeating a nearby tribe, the Xochimilco. The Mexica were successful, but requested King Coxcox daughter, Toci, who would be venerated as Queen of the Mexica. Coxcox concedes, but upon attending a ceremony in his daughter’s honor, finds that she has been sacrificed to the god Xipe Totec (Toci was flayed, and her skin worn by a dancer in the ceremony). In his rage, King Coxcox expells the Mexica, driving them into the land around Lake Texcoco. Upon the island of Tenochtitlan in Lake Texcoco, the Mexica see the sign promised by Huitzilopochtli, and settle there, building a city.

1519 - There have been many omens, many telling of the fall of the Mexica, that have instilled a quiet panic among the people of Tenochtitlan. While sacrifices are made and ceremonies performed to appease the gods, the Mexica ruler, Moctezuma II, is convinced of the invulnerability of Tenochtitlan. Knowing his folly, the gods take matters into their own hands, resurrecting their first offering, the daughter of King Coxcox, and bestowing her some mystical abilities, a dagger, and the directive ‘have fun.’

Gameplay

This is a game about Violence, and its absurd intersections with Entertainment and Piety. The Mexica were brutal warriors, and in conjunction, The Fifth Sun pits them in a life or death struggle against the Spanish. Violence is the path dictated by the gods, and as such, the game requires a visceral, bombastic combat system.

And as a Tarantino-esque revenge fantasy, it would be weird if there weren’t torrential blood. A central tenet of Aztec belief was the power of blood sacrifices to maintain the balance of cosmic forces, and in the game, a meter tracks how much blood has been spilled - the more blood, the more the player curries favor from the gods, the more they are able to use their abilities.

Fifth Dusk: The Design Document

Introduction
The Fifth Dusk is a PC third-person hack-and-slash RPG adventure following Toci, the daughter of King Coxcox, a girl unwittingly and brutally sacrificed, now resurrected by the god Huitzilopochtli as a last hope for the survival of the Aztec Empire against Hernan Cortes and his evil army of Conquistadors. Toci must spill enough blood to bring the universe back into order, and save the very people who flayed her alive.

Description
-Deep Stygian blue water-

-An eagle perched upon a prickly-pear cactus tearing apart a writhing snake-

-A severed ear-

Images fade into the bleakness of the subconscious, and wash away in the rising yellow light.

Toci has just been wretched from death; resurrecting at the peak of the Ziggurat temple in the heart of Tenochtitlan, and you stand before Huitzilopochtli, the city's patron, god of war and human sacrifice. With no time to lose, the setting is unveiled: Spanish troops have taken Texcoco to the west. Cortes and several tribes convinced of his divinity are amassing and moving towards Culhuacan, and already scouts have managed to infiltrated Tenochtitlan. The very existence of the Aztec Empire is at stake. Huitzilopochtli's open outstretched hand offers dagger, fresh blood staining the edge, pooling in his hand, dripping upon the ground.

From the top of of the Ziggurat, you navigate through the market and into southern districts on the lookout for Spanish spies. You see one, charge forward and slide the blade across the throat. The body falls, blood seeping into the dirt, and from the puddle, Xipe Totec arrises. The more blood spilled, it's explained, the stronger you grow. And though you wield great power, your dagger will not be enough, and your best course of action would be stopping back in the marketplace to buy stronger arms (some armor wouldn’t go amiss either), but only if you have enough Cacao beans to afford it.

The game world takes place in a 20x20 mile square, cut from the Valley of Mexico around Lake Texcoco encompassing the cities of Texcoco, Tenochtitlan, Culhuahan, Tlacopan, and Azcapotzalco.

Key features

• Uniquely lethal weapons 
• Five cities to explore
• Use special abilities to lay waste to Spanish hordes
• Ten different enemy types to dismember and disembowel

Genre
Third-person isometric hack and slash RPG.

Platforms
PC, Steam

MDA, if only we could work another M in.

What a 'Game' is is the subject of some debate, or at least was until Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek advanced the conversation (http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf). Currently, the working model of 'Game-ness' involves three factors: Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics.

Mechanics are the particular rules and procedures of a Game, or as I have begun to think of it: Mechanics are the walls defining a boundary. Phenomenologically, a Player Entity entering this Mechanical space instantiates a Game. The Dynamics are movements (actions and choices) of the Player within that space - their limitations being dictated by the Mechanics. The Mechanics are what a Player can do, the Dynamics what they do (and to a lesser degree, but none the less utilizable, what they don't) do, the Aesthetics (a relationship between the Mechanics and Dynamics) are the methods which the Game uses to engage the Player. More generally, Aesthetics are how the Player feels: why they do what they do.

There are nine main ways Aesthetic manifests:

• Sensory - This could be a Game having a distinct visual style, or a particular emphasis on sound, or even the way the controller is used and the buttons are pressed. A Game could be pleasing to the taste, smell, or ability to see dead people, but I personally can't think of any examples.
• Fantasy - The Game employs a particular perspective, allowing the player to experience a role or ability, and while that might be something fantastical, it need not necessarily be. A simulation of something tedious would still most likely fall into this category.
• Narrative - The Game engages through a rich story, and Players 
• Challenge - The Game exists as an obstacle to be overcome. While many Games may use difficulty (in the strictest sense) in this manner, the similar effect could be achieved with requiring a Player to not only prevail, but with style or grace.
• Fellowship - Players cooperate with other Players to accomplish tasks that might be too daunting or unable to be completed by a single person.
• Competition - The Game pits Players against other Players, changing the primary antagonists from Game AI to real-world entities with Human intelligence. 
• Discovery - Players unlock and uncover aspects of the Game, whether it be exploring levels or developing abilities or seeing new cards. The Player begins with little or no information, and must build up from square one.
• Expression - Games utilizing Expression often provide the Player with blank slates on which they can project aspects of themselves. This could be a design-a-character feature where a Player designs in-game objects, or even branching fiction, where the Player chooses possible Narrative options.
• Abnegation - The Game is a enjoyable recreational activity. This seems especially subjective.

Chess: Aesthetics and then some

And so we come to the finale, the Aesthetics of Chess and the inevitable Deconstructionist novel herein. Goddamnit. I should have less to say.

From what I've come to understand personally, every Game uses every single Aesthetic tactic, obviously in varying degrees (some only nominally, but the concept applicable nonetheless), with roughly two to four of them with particular prominence. And for Chess (now the albatross around my neck), I think I'll argue...just in general.

• Sensory - This is not a major feature of Chess, but I do think there is something to be said for it. The checkerboard layout is visually pleasing, as is the simplicity of the rules, which I find especially agreeable with my sense of understanding. The strategy and mechanics are like a small weight in my hand, with enough mass to have a satisfy pull towards the ground but light enough that I can toss it from hand to hand, or twirl it between my fingers. There's infinite depth to the Game that one can get lost in, but none of it is in anyway beyond the realm of one Player.
• Fantasy - Again, I wouldn't call Chess a Fantastical Game, but the Game does use the idea of commanding regiments to its advantage. Each side is an intricate machine, and it's important to remember that the Player is sitting behind the controls in the head of the Gundam. But this is a minor point and a similar topic will be broached in the next bullet.
• Narrative - This might seem odd, but I do consider Narrative to be a core Aesthetic. Chess has always been and will always be a War-simulation Game. And while I don't wish to dwell on the fact that the reality of what War is, is flux, and while at one point War may have bared more resemblance to the board game, but that definition is archaic at best, I will capitulate only in nomenclature and offer Battle-simulation Game. As different from the Competition point I'll argue in a few, Chess is about maneuvering and striking and defending. I've already made my Chess as Boxing analogy point before, but I will add that its the reason Chess Boxing makes so much sense in its own odd way. Boxing is a Sport about wagering one's own brain, life, health, declaring that one can deal more damage with their body than can be inflicted upon it. In the same sense, Chess weighs the sacrifices of one's own forces and agency in the Game to the possible victory of stamping out opposition. The genius of Chess Boxing is that the Player's primary weapon in Chess (the brain, consciousness, awareness), the tip of the sword the Chess player drives into the opponent is the same part that the Boxer is hiding most guardedly behind his shield.
• Challenge - This, Narrative, and Competition, I wager, are all going to appear to converge in the distance, but I'm going to do my best to not cross the streams. While interpersonal Competition is an important consideration, Chess offers other tests, be it an optional 'Speed Chess' slant to the Game, or the way Chess Mechanics can be used to reverse-engineer strategy in Chess puzzles. This does tangentially hit on a point that'll be made in Discovery and Expression, but I think distinct elements of Challenge thrive in the idea that Chess, as a Game, cannot be solved, or at least by any algorithm yet.  
• Fellowship - Chess is not a exactly a cooperative Game and I'm not about to argue to the contrary. I would say that around Games there exist communities and cultures, which in-and-of-itself is prosocial behavior, but the Game of Chess is a separate entity than the context it exists in (or at least it is in the context of this discussion), thus not applicable. And I will note, for completeness' sake, Fellowship and Competition are but two halves of the save whole, and that Fellowship is Competition/Competition is Fellowship.
• Competition - If I had to pick one and only one defining characteristic of Chess, I think I would eventually settle on Competition. I know that hitting a ball against a wall can't be Tennis, but the gears of Chess grind without the interplay of two intelligences. Or perhaps a better comparison would be the futility of shadowboxing to kill. Chess is an interpersonal relationship, expressed in turns in a bounded Cartesian plane, and I'll conclude the matter by revising the analogy of one player Chess to the absurdity of enacting a romantic date by oneself.
• Discovery - Just a cursory thought to the possibilities of the range of possible Chess Games would obviously point to a number in the range of Infinitely Sublime, but apparently there does exist the Shannon number, which attempts to quantify this amount- the game tree complexity estimate being 10^123, a number so absurdly large it's essentially meaningless. A single Chess Game does not swim in an ocean of possibilities, it is lost in currents around Laniakea (to understate the matter).
• Expression - In a related sense, the Discovery element may have introduced virtually infinite possibility, but travel through this space is not random in any sense. Even with few games under their belt, a new Player can feel themselves finding preferences in pieces, strategies, even a disposition to White or Black. Because there's so much room, Players can spread out and find a place all their own.
• Abnegation - And at long last, the Game of Chess is also a game. And a crux of such is the absence of vital physical sacrifice in pursuit of entertainment. There's nothing inherent in the Mechanics or Dynamics of the Game that makes it anything more than bits of stone being shuffled around a grid, as contrasted to something more like Mumblypeg, where most the concept lies in a knife possibly lodged in a foot.

Now that I'm mostly done with my projectile-prognostication, I'll take a step back and say that there really are only a couple core Aesthetic facets that all nine dispositions play part in.