Saturday, 20 February 2016

The Witcher 3 – Notes

Narrative: You play as the Witcher Geralt , a monster slayer, and follow his story as he tries to track down his elder blood ‘daughter’ (he treats her and calls her his daughter even though she isn’t his daughter) who is being hunted by ‘The Wild Hunt’. You travel to different locations meeting different characters who give you different quests to do in order to gain knowledge of where Ciri might be. The second half of the story is more about trying to defeat the Wild hunt as they chase you both.

Characters: There are many characters through the story, some who play as small part in 1 -2 missions and some that stay relevant through the whole story. The main character is Geralt the Witcher you play as through the game, he is joined by a hole cast of characters many of which are returning characters from the previous two Witcher games such as Yennefer, Triss, Vesemir, Ciri, Enhyr, Dandelion and many more.  

Game Play: The gameplay of the Witcher 3 is great and players can chose what they want to do. There is a lot of intense fights and battle through the game but there is an equal amount of exploring and adventuring through the massive maps. If players would prefer to have their hand held and only follow the main story they can simply do one main mission after another until they reach the games end although it is not encouraged, in some cases main missions will be too hard as the player is too low level so they are forced to do some side quests to level up.  
  
Visuals: Visually the game is stunning. The world looks photo realistic from its vibrant forests and fields to the dark dank caves and swamps. The graphics couldn’t be better.

Sounds: The sounds of the game are very satisfying and also very realistic, as you run through woods you hear the sounds of your feet snapping twigs and crushing leaves, while on snow you can hear the sound of squelching snow. Every one of the creatures have unique sounds which fit their height, size and appearances.   

Music: The Witchers 3 sound track is one of the best parts of the game, it is done by a small band who use instruments representative of the time the game is set in which fits with the feel of the game. As you enter combat the music will kick in with some faster pace music which makes battles more intense and while you explore the land more wondrous music plays helping you get lost as you aimlessly travel.  

Difficulty: The Witcher 3 can be as hard as you want it to be. If you play on the easiest difficulty the game will really put up no challenge as creates die quickly and you take such little damage. Bump the difficulty up and you will find that creates hit much hard causing you to have to become better at dodging and timing you attacks and utilise your positions and spells effectively to survive.

Replay ability: The Witcher 3 is very replay able as many of the choices you make will affect the ending of the game, meaning that you can play through the game a number of times exploring different paths and getting different outcomes.

Genre: The Witcher 3 is an open world, action, role-playing game.

Target audience: This game is aimed at a more mature audience as it explores ideas such as racism and presents very graphical scenes of gore and nudity.



Personal Response: I really enjoyed the Witcher 3 and liked getting invested it each of the different characters and seeing where they ended up at the end of the game. The gameplay was fun and intuitive, the graphics were breath-taking and immersive and the story (for the most part) was fun and engaging.

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

Twine Game 'The Chase' Feedback

Positives-

  • The amount of choices  
  • Interesting setting
  • Fast Pace
  • Fun to play 
Negatives-
  • Too short
  • Not enough pictures
  • Some spelling mistakes 
  • Linear Story  
  • No story exclamation
  • Easy to complete  

Monday, 1 February 2016

Card Adventure

I could improve my game by making it much longer as there is currently only two paths you can follow to 'win', I could also add more detailed death cards as this would not only make the game more detailed but it would also prevent players from knowing that a choice leeds to death as card 3 was the 'death card'.

I can use the twine engine to add a timer to my games this would make the game more intense and fast passed.

Sunday, 24 January 2016

Text Game

Queers in love at the end of the world-

I found this game the most enjoyable as the fact that you only had 10 seconds play the game created a sense of urgency and fast pace even if the game itself was weird.


The Domovo

This game was clearly the most aesthetic pleasing and there was drawings on every page that helped keep you engaged and visualise what was going on. I also found that the story made more seance and I cared about what was going on.

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Guess The Character - Summery


Average Score (1=Worst 5= Best):

Playability (How easy the game was to understand and how well did it function) 4
Players found the rules easy to play and play.

Visual (How good did the game look and feel) 2
Players felt the components felt flimsy and the cards were see through which effected the gameplay.

Fun Factor (How much fun was had when playing the game) 3
Players for the most part enjoyed playing the game

Average overall score: 3
The game was fun and easy to play but assets were flimsy and needed work.

Sunday, 10 January 2016

Viking Rush Summery

How to improve the game - 

Although I feel that the  games fundamental basics worked and the game was playable and not broken I do feel that there are ways I could improve the game to make it more enjoyable. Firstly I would create more cards that players could draw from in each pile to ensure that cards don't become repetitive and tedious. Secondly I would change to design of the board to make it not only more interesting and visually appealing but to make it match with the Viking theme.

What making a board game has taught me -

Making a board game has helped me clearly understand the rules that are behind almost every function of a game and how they work with one another to create the game itself. Creating this game as also made me realise how any aspect of a game can effect the rules and game play of the game and how holes in the games rules can go completely undetected and can de rail a game completely if not properly accounted for.  

Viking Rush

What I thought the enjoyed about the game -

When watching others play my game I where certain things I thought the player enjoys as well as parts they didn't enjoy. From my observation I thought that the players found the rules simple and easy to understand but that there were too many rules which took too long to read. When observing I also thought that while players enjoyed the dynamic of having both good and bad squares to land on they also found that there was not enough variety of cards in the pile.

What play testers told me -

Player who had had the chance to play my board game told me that they liked being able to mess with the other players by landing on the good squares as they found it fun and more competitive. Players also like the addition of they drink dice saying that all of the effects were creative and added to the game play. The biggest issue both players found with the game was the lack of cards to draw from, they said that the same cards would show up far to frequently and were tedious and annoying. The lack of cards also made the game last much longer then it otherwise would have as one of the cards is to return to the start so players found themselves having to start all over again multiple times.