MDDN 243 - Anmesia: Dark Descent

Speaking of horror games and the mechanics that can be implemented to create a more terrifying feel to the game, i came across another blog that spoke of some personal opinions to changes to Amnesia: Dark Descent.

To start off I will say that yes, i have played through the whole game, with surround sound, in a dark room, and my couch about 1 meter from the large TV screen. And yes, i did nearly crap myself (excuse my French) on multiple occasions, so the game does have that scare / psychological factor.

Now i will begin by addressing the mechanics that are used in this game. There is the main mechanic that is a factor throughout this game and could be effective to incorporate in the later assignments. This mechanic is the dependence on a light source and the minimal light provided by this. Also, the decreasing amount of fuel for the lantern makes the player have to think about how many torches they light up or how long they use their lantern. That mechanic ties in together with the sanity mechanic that produces hallucinations throughout the game. The emphasis on survival and helplessness to defeat the enemies is important too. This makes the player feel useless, forcing them to hide which just emphasises their utter useless.

But these additions that Keller talks about and gives examples of would literally boost the level of frightfulness and make the continuation of horror easier.
He starts by explaining that the player can break the horror at any point by bringing up the inventory menu. This gives a pause in the game which allows the player to relax and calm down. But as Keller explained, what if instead of having a button-press inventory system that pauses the game, having a sort of rucksack that the character has to pull out, dig around in to find the key or oil for a lamp, without pausing the game entirely? This is incorporating a style of menu that was used in the Dead Space franchise, where the character has a hologram of their inventory displayed from their spacesuit. This will mean that the horror effect will not be pause-able, making the horror of the game much more effective. Keller explains this effect with the example:

Say you've found a key by sneaking past a terrible necrotic beast-monster, except now the monster knows that someone's been nearby fiddling with his key. Sneakily, you've got to make your way to the locked door and unlock it. But, just as you reach the door, you hear a shuffling behind you! The monster! 

Quickly, you pull  up your satchel, pawing frantically through the things you're carrying with you--matches, lamp oil, laudanum--until you find the key! Hurry! Put it in the lock! GO! THE MONSTER IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

He then goes on to bring up the point that where would you be able to see your sanity level or your health level? They're important parts of your inventory screen aren't they? By using a similar sort of interaction to the previous example, the game is less broken up and there is no pause in the horror, making sustained horror easier to achieve. Keller's example was to have an animated sequence of the character lifting two fingers to their wrist and the sound of a heartbeat would be audible to the player. The speed of the beat determined what the condition of the character was. For example a slow, heavy beat would be healthy and sane. A light, fluttering beat - Near death; a quick beat - going insane and will snap any moment.
This system will make a continuous horror style that makes the player fear more for their own safety in the game. Rather than stopping the game-play completely to check on their condition, they must find a safe place to interact with themselves to find out their condition.

 Now, because this system hasn't been used in games before it could crash and burn quite easily, as players would find it "stupid" or "too different" in comparison to the other mechanics used. But the exact opposite could be achieved, where players accept the change in mechanics and systems and agree with the new horror style mechanics.


Info sourced from: http://wwwidd.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/amnesia-part-one-basic-mechanics-or.html

MDDN 243 - Horror game Mechanics?

I have found an article that talks of 10 different game mechanics that could be incorporated in Horror games to make them appear more frightening. These have been used in some recent games such as Amnesia: Dark Descent, but the article notes that these are not commonly used.
In my opinion, Normality isn't completely necessary. Having an unknown situation or place that is un-relatable can create worry, and a sense of not belonging which can scare some people. People feel safer in places they will recognise, whether it is dark and broken or not.

1) Normality

In most games the player usually starts out in some strange and not very normal situation. In Amnesia, the story takes place in early 19th century and has the protagonist waking up in gothic castle. Not something very easy to relate to. Other games see the player have some secret agent trap in a spooky town/village, etc. All of these are very abnormal situations, and something few of us will ever find ourselves in.

2) Long Build-Up

Most games want to kick off the action as soon as possible. Even games with a drawn-out introduction, like Silent Hill 2, introduce the horror elements very early on. 
The problem is that sustaining a really high level of terror is only possible in shorter bursts, and the more the audience has to contrast to, the greater the peaks intensity will feel. 

3) Doubt

Many of the best horror stories raise the question of whether a phenomena really exists. Is the protagonist really seeing ghosts, or is it all in her mind? 
Solving this is no easy feat, but I think a first step is to embrace the previous two entries in this list: normality and a long build-up. If the player relates to the game as "real life" and gets enough time to establish this idea, then she will eventually start to compare any features of the virtual world with the real.

4) Minimal Combat

The worst thing about combat is that it makes the player focus on all the wrong things, and makes them miss many of the subtle cues that are so important to an effective atmosphere. It also establishes a core game system that makes the player so much more comfortable in the game's world. And comfort is not something we want when our goal is to induce intense feelings of terror.

5) No Enemies

By this I do not mean that there should be no threats to the player lurking about. What I mean is that we need to stop thinking of any creatures that we put into the game as "enemies." The word "enemy" makes us think about war and physical conflict, which is really not the focus in a horror game. 

6) Open World

By this I do not mean that horror games should strive to be GTA-like sandbox experiences, but simply that they should allow more freedom of movement. Most horror games set up a very strict path for the player to follow even if they have, like Silent Hill, a large world to explore. 
Instead, I think future horror games should allow for the player to skip certain areas and to go about in the world in a free way. This increases the player's feeling of being in a real world, increasing any emotions associated with it. 

7) Agency

Horror games are so effective because they can make the player feel as though they are there when the horror happens. Other media, especially in the horror genre, have to try really hard to accomplish this, but for games it comes almost automatically. It is then a waste that many horror games does not take advantage of this properly and destroy the sense of agency in all kind of ways.

8) Reflection

The video game medium tops all others in giving its consumer a sense of responsibility. If something caused by the protagonist happens on the screen, the player has been part of that. This opens up for the game to be able to reflect itself upon the player and to make players think about themselves while playing. 
Games have tried to do this in the past, but I do not think it has come very far yet. So-called moral choices are very common in games, but are hampered by being obvious predefined selections (choose A, B or C) and by being connected to the game dynamics (making the choice more about what is best for the player stats wise). 

9) Implications

What really brings some horror home is when it has implications in real life. This can be something like the fear of TV sets that Ring manages to achieve, or the bleak and disturbing universe that Lovecraft's stories paint. 
Elements like these are almost entirely missing from video games, and again it ties into other entries on the list. Normality is probably the most important, and if we are able to achieve that, it will be much easier to tie elements of the game into everyday life. 

10) Human Interaction

The final entry will also be the hardest one: to bring human drama into the game's actions. 
Most horror in other media does not have the phenomena/situation per se as its focus, but instead its effect on people. The Exorcist is a great example of this, and so is The Shining. However, in video games the main actions still revolve around inanimate objects or brainless foes. By typing the player's player's actions directly to other people, the horror gets so much more personal and intense.


Sourced from: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/169476/10_ways_horror_games_need_to_evolve.php

MDDN 243 - Game mechanics for Role-playing games

Typical role playing games have similar mechanics to one another. These mechanics are most effective at creating a successful role-playing game.

The Elder Scrolls Series
This series is well renown for being one of the top RPGs that have had the "Game of the Year" title more often than not. Each game has exactly the same game mechanics, with a few developments n graphics and story-line between each game. The Elder Scrolls Series has the best and most common set of game mechanics that developed closely from early role-playing games, even the majority of tabletop role-playing games.

          - Leveling up character system
          - Inventory system
          - Loot and looting system
          - Character Customization
          - Persistent weapon, armor and skill upgrades
          - Quest system and detailed main story-line

These mechanics build up a typical RPG style that contribute to the development of other RPG style games, and set a sort of prerequisite for what an RPG entails.

MDDN 243 - Documentation from group role-playing games

This is the documentation from the group role-playing game we had to create in class. We decided to use Yahtzee dice roll style, focusing on the mechanic of creating combos to defeat enemies, with typical role playing game mechanics to create a simple role-playing game. We used the class system from typical role playing games along with the achievements of levels and acquisition of new skills per level to create a game style that still appears balanced even when the 'monsters' that you were battling against increased in difficulty.
The skills that were created were specifically based around the middle dice, one that must be incorporated in the outcome of the dice patterns. For example, the mage can use its ability to re-roll the middle dice, the warrior can increase any of their dice by one and the rogue can switch out one of their own dice numbers for the middle dice. We attempted to balance each class as much as possible so that it didn't seem as if one class was a lot better than another.

MDDN 211 - Video Theme

For Assignment One, we need to select a theme for the video iterations we are creating. The examples that were shown in the lecture today were the theme of Coffee, a theme of Meat and a theme of Babies. Each theme has three videos with a different atmosphere "emotions".

The theme that i have chosen is 'Lava'.

Lava is interesting to turn into atmospheric emotions. I have chosen to make the iterations into:
                                              - Aggression
                                              - Soothing Calm
                                              - Stalking / Following

Because Volcanoes and lava is naturally aggressive, especially when they are erupting, I intend to use different footage other than eruptions to create an aggressive atmosphere, specifically by speeding up flowing lava and using fast motion footage. This will make the aggressive lava appear to have a purpose, giving it aggression by giving it motive.
To create a Soothing Calm, the opposite effect would need to be created to get that atmosphere. Slowing down the footage to make the lava appear calm and nearly ambling with no purpose, as well as using a lot of softer footage to create a calm appearance.
To make the iteration of stalking or following, footage of a suspicious person who seems to keep looking over their shoulder and appearing worried about their own safety. If this was put alongside footage of lava appearing over a hill or over a ledge, making it look as if the lava is 'watching' the person. This will give the appearance of the lava stalking the person.

I do not want to rely on the music to get the atmosphere but would prefer to rely on the footage. It is important that the music or sound effects support this footage, but don't over-rule it and take away from the effect created by the footage.

MDDN 243 - Readings

Some important quotes from the Sicart reading that help to understand the concept of Game Mechanics are:

- Game Mechanics are a way of summarising game rules
- Mechanics is a term that encompasses those rules that are applied when the player interacts with the game
- Game mechanics would be a low-level description of game rules or clusters of game rules
- For example "take cover" is a key game mechanic in Gears of War (Sicart, 2008)

MDDN 243 - Game Mechanics

Strategy

So I've decided to view games under a certain category to find game mechanics. This will make it easier to find different games and research the mechanics behind them. With the strategy category, I find that they have most versatile game mechanics over any other genre, forcing the player to micro-manage different activities. I've chosen Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, Sid Meier's Civilization V and XCOM: Enemy Unknown as the three main games to research into, mainly because of their great interest to me and because of the differences between their strategy styles.

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
This is an RTS game (Real Time Strategy) that focuses on the development of a city and the destruction or conquer of an enemy nation. It incorporates technology research to further you're power and building capabilities, the training and battling of soldiers that can be further upgraded with the research, and building cities and defenses. It is the most common style of strategy game in my opinion, with games such as StarCraft, WarCraft, Anno and Command and Conquer.
The main, core game mechanics that would come from a game like this is what i have stated above.
                -    Research Technology
                -    Build a city
                -    Conquer the enemy 

Sid Meier's Civilization V
This strategy game implements the turn based style, that allows the player to think through every move before it has been made and take as long as they like for an action before they end their turn. Civilization took the free building and changed that into a different style. The world, despite looking normal, is built up of hexagonal shaped tiles that can have one building on each. This reduces the choices of buildings such as barracks, Castle, Farm, Wall, Towers etc. seen in real-time strategy games like Age of Empires to the bare minimum. On each tile there is a limited choice of buildings such as farm, quarry, lumberjack etc. This makes building less of a core game mechanic than AOE, but the mechanic is still important to further the development of the empire. Despite the change in style of strategy, the core game mechanics remain somewhat the same for this game in particular.
                             -    Research Technology
                             -    Build an empire
                             -    Destroy the enemy

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
This strategy game is, in my opinion, one of the most complex style strategy games that has been made in the past decade. It uses elements of an RPG, where you can customize your character from their name, to their voice, to hair, to face shape, to the colour of their body armour. It combines these elements into the strategy genre to make the game appear more in-depth and have connections with each character, making each game play a different experience. It uses a similar style game play to the classic Nintendo Advance game Fire Emblem, which had turn based movement for each character per player turn, then the enemy has their turn. They have developed this game further from the classic Fire Emblem by including other game mechanics that can be seen in the aforementioned strategy games. When not in the fight, you can research new equipment for your characters, developing new body armour and new weapon. You can also build up your facility with workshops, laboratories, Satellite uplinks etc. This makes the core mechanics similar to the other games, as without this development you would be unable to win the game or defeat the alien threat.
                                   -   Destroy Alien Threat
                                   -   Research technology
                                   -   Build facilities
                                   -   Create characters