Key Stage One Essay Review

To start off with I think it would be a good idea to give a general introduction to the Key Stage 1 game we have been creating then I can dissect it to explain some of the major design issues we encountered while creating it. In its very basic form our game is a “Pipe-dream” style game, the player places tile pieces onto a grid which form a circuit for an electrical current to flow, creating a full circuit completes the level whereas breaking the circuit will cause you to lose the level and have to start over. The player is aided by a Mentor who gives advice on placing pieces and generally guides the player through each level if they get stuck. In this form it is a very simple concept, there are obviously other things which you must do to complete the game to make it both challenging and fun, as we we’re making this game for Key Stage 1 students we had to find a balance between difficulty, simplicity and fun, make the game simple and fun wouldn’t make it very involving whereas making it difficult and fun would make it possibly too complicated for a Key Stage 1 student.


This was our first major design issue, this became apparent during the concept stage of development, we played around with a lot of ideas but some were scrapped due to them weighing the game down in one aspect, we felt that changing the simplicity and difficulty the game would be easier at a later stage (as in changing a few lines of code to adjust the difficulty) but what we needed to focus on was to make our game “fun” however we have been taught throughout the course that using the word “fun” when designing a game isn’t a very good idea, it is a bland word, on its own it doesn’t mean anything and can’t be easily described.


Greg Costikyan article – “I have no words, I must design” focuses heavily on the true meaning of a game so I will use this as an example and hopefully I can show how we decided that our game would be fun, he describes a game as “an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards a goal”. (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 24) There are a lot of long words in this sentence and unfortunately I can’t explain it without explaining each individual word;


Interaction – how a player interacts with a game, how they learn the game works, the player must understand if they do X then the game will respond with Y, we chose to use a Tutorial to do this


Endogenous Meaning – This means that something that has value in the game world doesn’t necessarily have value in the game world, this is important as it will help draw the player into the game, for example we added Medals for completing levels in certain times, outside of our game they don’t mean anything, however in our game they mean that you can advance to the next level or that you have completed the level in a certain time frame.


Structure – The structure of a game could also be described as the rules or mechanics, so that if player does X then Y happens, again we used the Tutorial and progressive difficulty increase to do this


Struggle – This is almost equal to difficulty, if a player doesn’t have to struggle to complete a game then it isn’t really a game, struggle makes a game interactive and challenging. This was very a difficult subject throughout our games development (possibly even after our final version) by making the game too difficult KS1 children would struggle too much and would not enjoy the game so it would lose its “fun” aspect which is what we want to keep. However by making the game too easy children would lose their interest in the game which would also lose the “fun” aspect. I will talk about this more later


Goals – These define what a player is actually doing in a game they must complete X to achieve Y Goal, this must be made clear to the player as this will influence how they play the game. The goals we’re explained during the Tutorial.


From these points above we could say that yes we had a game, but was it going to be “fun” and interesting for children


Going back to what I had previously said about Struggle, this is a key factor in what I believe makes a game fun, if a game is too difficult it becomes stale and boring, if a game is too easy then it feels more like a boring chore which you just complete to see if it will get any better at a later stage. We decided to implement a timer as the main struggle in the game; this would enable us to tweak the timer to adjust difficulty at a later stage.


We then moved onto how the game would look visually, and after some research we had done into other Key Stage 1 games we noticed that the graphic’s and sounds for Key Stage 1 games played a huge factor into what made a game fun! If the graphics for the games we played had been any different we would have found the games too easy, but we could put up with the low difficulty since the games were visually pleasing and rewarding.


We then started on setting an art style which we would follow throughout the game, with having Tom White in our group who is an incredibly skilled 3d modeller we decided to build our style around his 3d models which we use in a number of places. We also took inspiration from other popular children’s games and cartoons, such as Jimmy Neutron and to a lesser extent Scooby Doo; we liked the colours in Scooby Doo as they were simple yet pleasing.


This can be linked to remediation, which means when something from one form of media is used in another, we hoped to convert the 3d style of Jimmy Neutron which was a popular TV series into our game, we feel that this has been achieved fairly well, there was other notable games which we could of used as a basis for our art style however we really liked the bright colours, bold shapes and overall appeal of Jimmy Neutron so we decided to use this as our base to build on. Our choice of colours could also be linked to remediation.


The colours we used were picked purely because they were neutral, we wanted our game to apply to both a male and female audience and having a simple neutral palette was one of the ways we did this, we had also considered things such as player name input and picking between a male and female character however we felt that if we left this out then there would be no gender specifics for the game and that it would appeal to anyone. We also took special care in the toys we picked as “levels” so that they could apply to both genders.


When designing our game we had talked about adding a story to keep the players involved, however in the end we didn’t have a set themed story and have left it to be player driven. We got this idea from a Doug Church article where he says "The narrative thread, whether design-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward towards completion of the game"(Doug Church, 1999, Page 5) What we took from this is that you don’t have to have characters with complex dialogue or an involving story if the game doesn’t require it, we felt our game didn’t require a story so we left it to be player driven, these is a slight design driven story in that the layout of the house has certain toys in it and there is our character Mr Spark who helps guide the player but it isn’t a set in stone dialogue after dialogue story.


I’d now like to talk about where our game would fit in a genre.


It became apparent in the concept (and design) phase that our game was a bit difficult to place in its play style, we looked back to the readings we had done on Paidea and Ludus styles of play, Paidea in its most simple terms means play for pleasure, you can play the game any way you wish, Ludus means you are more constrained with your choices and are given a clear path which will lead you to a firm ending (Winning or Losing)


It didn’t take us long to realise that our game sat nicely in the middle, in that what you have to do in the game is a clear example of Ludus where the player is made to understand what they must do to win, however the player can decide how they go about doing this, there are very few boundaries limiting how the player interacts with the game, this gives each level a mixture of both Ludus and Paidea play styles, this will hopefully help to add replay value (a player could attempt to complete a level in a different way)


The next thing I would like to talk about which was possibly a design flaw but somehow slipped past into the later stages of the game is our choice of toys/appliances for the children to fix, we originally had the idea of fixing household appliances but didn’t think this was very appropriate to tell Key Stage 1 children to fix things such as TV’s, lights and kettles.


We fixed on the “rooms” in which each different “level” would be placed, we decided on; a child’s playroom, garden and kitchen, we felt this would give us a wide variety to different toys/appliances. The main problem we noticed with this was that we were asking children to fix kitchen appliances, this of course is very dangerous as (going back to Endogenous Meaning here) in the game world this is fine but most Key Stage 1 children wouldn’t be able to easily distinguish between a fake toy in the game and a real life object in their parent’s kitchen. Using 3d models to represent these toys also didn’t aid in this as they looked fairly realistic, however we overcame this by have all the toys put onto a very toy like kids kitchen play set, the play set along with the bright colours on the toys made it very clear that these were toys the children would be fixing and not in fact real objects.


To finish up with I would like to explore Marc LeBlanc’s Taxonomy (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 26) which we first read about in a Costikyan article, LeBlanc states that a game is made up of 8 elements which can lead to a positive experience or “fun”. These are;


• Sensation: game as sense-pleasure


• Fantasy: game as make-believe


• Narrative: game as unfolding story


• Challenge: game as obstacle course


• Fellowship: game as social framework


• Discovery: Game as uncharted territory


• Expression: Game as soap box


• Masochism: Game as mindless pastime


Well with our game I believe we had added a good amount of Sensation in that there is positive and negative feedback along with pleasing visual design and assets, Fantasy we have also covered with making our own small game world with different levels and objectives, our game has a strong player driven Narrative. There is just about the right amount of Challenge for Key Stage 1 Students. The game was created with timers to add both challenge but it also adds to Fellowship as players can try to beat their peers. Our game has a progressive unlock level system; this covers Discovery as the game world is slowly unlocked. Expression I believe is how the player perceives themselves in the game world, in our game we hope they perceive themselves as the assistant to Mr Spark as he fixes the toys. Submission is when the player lets themselves slip into the game world, which if everything has gone to plan should happen.


If all the facts above are true and people agree with them then I guess we can say we successfully made a “fun” Key Stage 1 game.




Author: Doug Church
Article Name: Formal Abstract Design Tools
Year of Publication: 1999




Author: Greg Costikyan
Article Name: I have no words, I must design
Year of Publication: 2004

Music, also a little bit of film

Music is something everyone is familiar with, but I’d like to talk about the different styles of music and their relation to films, we covered briefly with Matt Applegate why certain types of music are used in trailers or films, calming music mixed with graphic or violent scenes help to keep the viewer on edge which also helps keep their attention, an example of this is the Gear of War trailer (I know I’m not supposed to be relating to games but it’s just this bit) where it mixes the gun violence with Gary Jules – Mad World.


One of my favourite film trilogy’s of all time is easily Lord of the Rings; the story is incredible and is mixed with some brilliant acting and characters. But one of the things I love most is the music, composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore, every piece beautifully matched to the film but also incredible to listen to on its own. Featuring everything from flutes to anvils you get such an incredible range of different sounds and when pieced together carefully they provide an epic track to match what is going on in the film, I can sit and listen to the music and imagine the scenes through in my head, that’s not because I’ve seen them a good number of times but because they just fit together so incredibly well.


In particular my favourite piece is The Bridge of Khazad-dûm as the music changes so rapidly and is really powerful


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUIZvAe3RBg

Extreme Sports

I’ve always been a huge fan of extreme sports, with particular interest in BMX and skateboarding, I’ve tried both myself to varying degrees of success but after a while I realised I’m too afraid of getting hurt, I’ve often been able to record a good video or take a good picture so I started looking at perhaps filming people while they BMX or skateboard.

I was interested after seeing some incredible shots and some breathtaking videos, since I have a fairly basic knowledge of skateboarding (I don’t mean that I’ve completed every Tony Hawks game, even though I have) I thought I might be well geared towards this, as if someone does an impressive trick over a gap that doesn’t look possible to jump normally, chances are they aren’t going to do it again just so you can get your shot.

That is one of the things that interests me a lot in photography and filming of skateboarding, some people are only able to pull off something once so you have one chance to get the picture you want, I see that as a challenge and I think it would be an incredibly rewarding challenge.


Below are a few videos which I have watched time and time again


Danny MacAskill – Inspired Bicycles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o


Danny MacAskill – Way Back Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw


Rodney Mullen – Unbelievable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBJ6z4cu9qI


IsenSeven Films – Lets Go Get Lost

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FE6txbMq4


IsenSeven Films – Don’t Panic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwXwwA7d4Hw

Ancient Games, They're pretty old so I think they've waited long enough for a blog post

I've slipped with blog postings as the course has advanced so now it is time to sit down and catch up on what I should have been posting on a regular basis.
So here it is, my blog post on Ancient Games



The Ancient Game of Ur

Recently in lectures we had a look at the Royal Game of Ur, The game was discovered in Sumeria, in the royal tombs at Ur and is suspected to be from pre 2600 BC, making it possibly the oldest board game to ever exist!

The original board was not found with playing pieces however others were found and contained 2 sets of counters which were black and white (indicating it was a 2 player game) and 3 dice which are tetrahedral in shape (triangular in less fancy terms)

Due to the age and discovery of the game board and pieces it is hard to imagine how it was originally played, there were no rules found with the board, there are a number of different sets of rules which have been created based on the layout of the board and the number of pieces, we played a few games using a rule set we were provided however the rules weren’t 100% clear to us so we interpreted them as best we could and had a go at playing.

The rule set we used was that all pieces remained off the board at the start and your objective was to get your 7 counters to the end of the board before your opponent, we learned that you could stack counters on top on each other, you could roll again after landing on a certain square and that you could knock your opponent off the board sending that piece back to the start.

The results were interesting, it certainly seemed as if it had been cleverly thought out and the rules did seem to work with the board and pieces however personally I felt as if the rules back in 2600 BC could have been slightly different as they may not of had some of the standards we see in board games today, for all we know it might not have been turn based back then!



Senet

Another game we played was Senet now I have already told you that Ur is possibly the oldest game in existence; however Senet begs to prove me wrong with evidence dating it back to 3100 BC!

Senet is similar in some ways to Ur; perhaps Senet was the inspiration for Ur, you have 1 board, 7 pieces of 2 colours and dice, the board again hints that you must get from 1 side to the other and this time all your counters start on the board. Towards the end of the “path” that is the game board are special squares which upon landing on give either positive effects or negative ones, a couple of the squares are really quite nasty forcing you to move pieces back to the start!

Onto the rules, all the counters are placed onto the board in a certain fashion depending on the rule set, you move by rolling a dice and upon landing either a 1 4 or 5 you get an additional roll which you can use on either the same piece you just moved or on a different one entirely, once you have 2 pieces next to each other they are considered safe, when safe these pieces can’t be swapped by your opponent as this is what happens when you land on the same square, if you are able to get 3 pieces adjacent to each other you are then not able to be passed allowing you to tactically block your opponent.

The rules were very good however some misunderstanding on our part led to the game ending very quickly. All in all it was very interesting to play these games which have been around for a truly incredible amount of time.

The Man, the Mystery, Banksy?

I’ve always been a huge fan of street art, I don’t mean pointless graffiti that is just an eye sore or profanities sprayed across road signs, I mean real art, stuff that is clever and makes you think, stuff that is beauty and makes you stop to take a picture. That world to me can all be summarized by one man and only one man truly stands out for me and that is the legendary Banksy

His true identity is not known however he is believed to have originated from London, his graffiti has been seen by many as Marmite, you either love it or hate it, but I hope by this point you can understand that I am absolutely blown away by it. Some of Banksy’s most well know art pieces include his Pulp Fiction piece featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta holding bananas instead of guns, this was painted over and removed by the Transport of London but then tagged again by Banksy only this time featuring the duo in banana suits instead, some of his other most famous works are the kissing policemen, rats and monkeys normally painted with ingenious messages nearby, the princess Diana £10 notes (although we are lead to believe these didn’t have the affect he originally wanted) and one of my favourites Balloon Girl which depicts a young girl reaching after a heart shaped balloon which she has let go, it paints a very powerful message.

The thing I like most about Banksy is his animosity, most of his work is used to paint a message that nobody has the guts to say out loud, he uses his art to say what everyone is thinking but doesn’t have the power to say, he doesn’t do it for money, he doesn’t do it for the fame, he does it because he can and that it what makes it so good. Can you truly say if someone gave you a stencil, a spray can and a blank huge wall with no CCTV that everyone in the morning would be able to see, that you wouldn’t be tempted to give it a go, to paint a message that everyone could see but nobody could blame on anyone? I know I would but perhaps that’s the wrong way to look at it, if I own up and say “yes” I would graffiti an image of a man with a bandana around his face, holding a bouquet of flowers as if it was a Molotov cocktail onto a wall, perhaps it wouldn’t be the same, for one I wouldn’t be experienced enough and would get caught.

Banksy work isn’t simply limited to spray cans and walls, he has also been responsible for a film, books, fake bank notes, replacing CD’s in music shops, putting an inflatable Guantanamo Bay Prisoner into Disneyland and so much more.

Love him or hate him, Banksy is certainly an icon for one reason or another

Personally I can’t wait to see some more incredible pieces of art which make me smile and make a lot of people angry.