I'm mostly out of video games to review for the moment, but simpler tabletop games can teach just as much about game theory as can video games. I've always liked Go Fish. While often considered somewhat childish, it's a good game for when you simply want to pass time without the stress of some other card games. Part of what makes it work so well is its simplicity. It's at heart a memory game; one of the most important aspects is keeping track of who has asked for which cards (meaning the asker has at least one of said card) and who does not have them. Interestingly, while drawing a card is a penalty (common in many card-based games), it can end up working to the player's advantage, either by providing a needed card or simply giving the opportunity to lay down more sets of cards. This, plus the inherent comedy and triviality in a phrase like "go fish," can help make the game less stressful than more "serious" card games. What can be gleaned from this is that comedic aspects can be useful for cutting tension in any game and preventing the player from growing too anxious or frustrated. Allowing disadvantages to be taken into stride and even used to the player's benefit is another interesting idea to keep the player motivated. While these aspects are not ideal for every game, it's helpful to consider what makes such a simple yet well-known game work. So, to summarize:
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Considering its recent surge in popularity, I think it's time to finally take a look at one of the video games that dominated my middle school years. One of the interesting things about Minecraft is that it doesn't exactly have an ending. Sure, there's a progression that ultimately leads up to a couple big boss fights, but considering that it is an open-ended sandbox survival game with huge potential for world customization, structure building, player designed-challenges, server games, mods, and more, it's hard to pin down replay value. The many possibilities outside the classic survival playthrough should certainly keep players busy until they're ready to try another survival run with the new updates. Random world generation also lends itself nicely to multiple plays.
The gameplay is paradoxically both very simple and very complex. It's very simple and intuitive to fight, break and place blocks, create items, grow crops, and breed animals. This forms the basis of the game. However, the variety of landscapes and enemies one encounters throughout the game, and the various strategies used for dealing with them, is where gameplay grows complicated. There's certainly a good amount of variety, and the optionality of the main narrative (preparing to defeat the main boss) gives players the opportunity to explore as much as they want. In this aspect I'd say Minecraft has an edge over several other sandbox survival games; the extensiveness of the open-endedness can sometimes grow exhausting or overwhelming. I've never really felt like I was "missing out" the way I have with some games. The difficulty is customizable, as is common for survival games. Surviving the first night is easy if you know what to do, and in general it's not overly challenging if you know how to prioritize, but going in blind you're likely to die several times, especially since not all the enemies appear particularly like enemies at first. With boxy models and 8x8 pixel graphics, the is visually very simplistic. When I first looked into the game several years ago it did put me off at first glance, but I soon got used to it. If you like very high-resolution games this isn't for you, but if you can stand the simple textures you'll soon grow used to them. Despite the simplicity, the textures are still, for the most part, aesthetically pleasing, and the landscapes generated by the game can be truly stunning. It is at least easy to tell what everything is. Shaders alter the graphics significantly; they are visually quite pleasant, though they make water hard to see and the glare can be, in my opinion, pretty obnoxious. The animation would look extremely awkward on more realistic models, but it fits the blocky style of the game. Some of the render settings are customizable, such as render distance/fog, cloud appearance (including removing them altogether), and whether or not leaves are see-through. This can be very useful if your computer is not powerful, but low render distance fog can be annoying. Overall, it's simplistic but effective. The soundtrack is simply fantastic. It sets the mood very well, and is enjoyable to listen to outside of the game–that's a good value, in my opinion. However, it can get a bit loud sometimes; volume is customizable, but it can be annoying when the song starts out quiet and builds up. There's also long gaps of silence between one song and the next, which can get a little awkward; the music also stops if the player goes underwater and does not pick up (or even start a new song) upon surfacing, which has gotten on my nerves in the past. The sound effects are well done and make sense. There is, however, the issue of the "cave sounds." These are essentially spooky sound effects that might play when a player is close to an enclosed dark area; their purpose is a mystery, as they have no impact on gameplay. They're pretty chilling even if you know what they are, and genuinely terrifying for a new player. There's also not an easy way to disable them, as it will disable other sound effects as well. It might be a petty complaint, but sometimes I just don't want to be jumpscared by a demonic train whistle. Closed captions with directional markers are available for deaf and hard of hearing players, which is an important consideration since sound effects are often key to alert the player of nearby hazards (nobody wants a surprise lava flow to the face). The controls are well-designed and mostly customizable, although a few of the more niche options are not, which can be troublesome when the assigned keys have other functions on the computer; I've had this minimize my window and mess up my graphics settings before. The interface is well-designed and has been improved fairly recently. The hint system mostly helps with item recipes, which is useful for players who don't want to constantly look them up, and also streamlines the process of crafting items. The game does not often crash, but despite the simplistic graphics, lag can be severe on less beefy machines. Overall, I rate it 5/5 stars. For just under 27 dollars, considering the amount of playtime and overall enjoyment I've gotten out of it, I'd say it's certainly worth the value. This was my was one of my first handheld games (I think it was the first), and for some reason I decided to dig it out again after a couple years of not touching it. The basic premise of the game is to take care of a variety of fantasy pets. This is done via three minigames, one for feeding, one for play, one for grooming. A fourth mini game (known as the "magic world"), unlocked when all needs are filled, allows the player to unlock new pets if they score high enough. It's either one of two types of obstacle course or one of two types of "bullet storm" games, depending on the pet's "element" (there are four). The feeding minigame requires the player to color in as much of the food item as possible in the time limit, with a time penalty for drawing outside the lines. The grooming minigame requires the player to spray the pet with a hose (or similar) while they run around, jumping in what are apparently interdimensional portals in an attempt to hide. The playing minigame has the pet transforming into essentially a living basketball hoop (I was somewhat alarmed the first time this happened) as the player attempts to throw the toy into them with the stylus. No explanation is given for why any of this works the way it does. The minigames (at least the play one and the magic world) get harder the higher on the progress tree your pet is. I'm not usually much of a minigame person myself, but for some reason I enjoy these. I think they require just enough effort to keep me interested. More about progressing: the player starts with a choice between two eggs, which will hatch the first creature. Completing the magic world game unlocks two more eggs. This is organized on a chart similar to an outcome tree. The end goal is presumably to hatch all the eggs and unlock all the pets. It makes sense, but despite incentives to stay on a single pet for a while such as discovering a pet's "favorites" (toys, food, etc), it can be tempting to just race through the tree–and it gets pretty easy to do so after you've practiced. The pet care minigames do get dull after a while. The aesthetic design of the game is very good in my opinion. The graphics are decent, but what it lacks in shiny hyperrealism it makes up for in creativity. The eggs are cool looking (a must if you want the player to be eager about hatching them), and the pet designs are charming and unusual. There are a few recognizable creatures–dragons, flying horses–but most of them are just weird fuzzy animals. My first pet was a lion with wings. Not a griffin, a lion. With feathered wings. At any rate, they're cute. They come in four varieties, presumably "elements" (though it's never stated directly). These appear to be sky, fire, water, and earth, but of course this is never explained either. This mainly affects the type of magic world minigame they play and their appearance as a living basketball hoop. I have not noticed any correlation between element and favorite items. The obstacle course magic world games are definitely better looking than the bullet storm games, if only because of the fantastical 3D landscapes. The sound design is good but nothing extraordinary. Overall, the game is fun for a while, but it can be very tempting to just rush through, as it gets repetitive. It's a good way to kill time, and considering the way most real-time mobile games are played, I think it serves its purpose. So, to summarize:
I got it over winter break, and I have no regrets. What's better than 2D exploration and questing...in space? This game is similar to Terraria, which I've reviewed before. The goal, at least initially, is to gather resources and survive in an unexplored world. It branches out from there, however. Once you gather enough resources and complete a couple of quests, you can leave the planet altogether and set off into the galaxy to do more quests, fight bosses, create colonies, or just do whatever's possible within the bounds of a survival sandbox. There are seven unique species the player can make their character, ranging from humans to carnivorous plants to walking clouds of gas wearing cowboy hats (no, I am not making this up). Each is based on a different part of history, and each has its own armor, weapons, and ships–which come with unique pets. Even the dialogue when the player examines an object is different depending on the species (this is how I found out my glowing gasbag man was, in fact, a cowboy). I love little details like this. In addition, the questing, fighting, exploring, and survival aspects of the game are all interwoven very well into the story, combining dangerous away missions, boss battles, and excursions in search of lost artifacts into a single cohesive story.
In terms of design, I adore this game. Large variety of wacky planets with a diverse set of biomes (including a forest of eyes)? Check. Unique creatures with their own attack mechanics? Check. Weather systems with actual variety? Check. Randomly spawned NPC camps? Check. I think that's really the best part of this game, that everything is so weird and varied. There's just so much stuff. I have real respect for the developers on this. And to top it all off, a great soundtrack. I do have some complaints. The main one is that parts of the main quest can be confusing, because it doesn't exactly lay out what you're supposed to do, to the point I had to go to the wiki and contact a friend who had played the game to figure out how to do relatively simple things like leaving the planet and following vague quest guidelines. "Scan Floran artifacts" doesn't help much when I'm given no information on a) what a Floran artifact is supposed to look like, b) how many I need, and c) where I find them. The answer to the last point is "not on this planet," which also did not help as it probably took me ten to fifteen minutes at least trying to figure out how to do so. At least some kind of instructions on how to use basic functions of my spaceship–you know, like navigation–would have been nice. My other pet peeve is that it lets you pick out an outfit (those suspenders look fantastic) and then tells you you need to wear your uniform all the time. Disappointing, but at least there are cosmetic armor slots in case you want to wear a tuxedo over you super high-powered space armor. Overall, I love the game. I got to playtest a game about loansharking–and in the process learn how not to get ripped off. Lenders are not your friends. Last Friday I had the opportunity to playtest Shady Sam, in which the player is a loanshark working for the titular character. Long story short, you have to pick from three loan options to make the most money off of innocent people who didn't read the fine print. It's sadistically fun, and now I know what to look for to avoid in order to not lose loads of money–long terms are great if you're the one doing the lending. The game also provides a lot of incentive to keep replaying, including an random selection of various rewards to put on your desk; enough different scenarios to keep the end profit from always being the same; a 1-5 star (actually dollar sign) rating; and you even get a cool nickname at the end. I've never been happier to be called "Bad News." All that, and it's only in beta. The game requires you to use your head and look closely at all the terms, and even exercise math skill, all of which you have to do when actually looking for loans. It also throws in other factoids, like student debt figures, types of fees to look for, and how cycles of debt happen. I feel more confident about borrowing money now. However, it did get a little repetitive after a few plays, so a larger variety of scenarios would be nice. Playtesting is useful because it can help find bugs–for example, sprites not showing up, which happened several times. It's also useful because it allows the designers to see how players actually interact with the game, sometimes in ways they may not have anticipated, and if all the features work as intended. It allows the designers to learn about areas of improvement as well as what should definitely be kept. So, to summarize:
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AuthorI'm moving on to my 4th (and final) year as a Game Art & Design student at Durham School of the Arts. I'd like to call myself an artist, but I'm a programmer at heart. Archives
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