Final Project: Tactical Advantage Board Game

Objective
Strategically out-think your opponents by capturing outposts and bases while using the terrain to gain the upper hand as you eliminate your enemies in combat.

Game Pieces
• Board Base – holds the four Base Tiles and the twelve Terrain Tiles.
• 4 Base Tiles – these are placed into the base slots on the corners of the Board Base.
• 12 Terrain Tiles – these are placed in the provided slots on the Board Base. (See “Setup”.)
• 40 Soldier Pawns - 10 of each color
• 20 Tank Pawns - 5 of each color
• 8 Missile Battery Pawns - 2 of each color
• 4 Yellow Outpost Markers – Non-moving pieces. One is placed on each outpost space.

Setup
• Each player decides chooses a color (red, black, green, or blue) and collects all pawns of that color and as well as the corresponding Base Tile.
• Each player randomly chooses three Terrain Tiles and places them in the order of their choosing in the three Terrain Slots bordering their respective Base Tile.
Place all four the Outpost Pawn pieces on the Outpost positions provided on the board. *NOTE: See the Board Layout chart below for more information

Game Play
• Players each roll one six-sided die to determine who goes first. Highest roller wins and play proceeds clockwise.
• At the beginning of a player’s turn, that player may place up to a total of up to three Pawns on any eligible spawn point(s) for the following locations:
 The Player’s Home Base, as long as the player still controls it
 Any other Home Base the spawning player controls
 Any Outpost controlled by the spawning player
• During their turn, each player gets three “Actions”. An Action consists of a movement, an attack, or a combination of both. (For Example: Moving a Tank two spaces and then attacking with it is considered a single Action.)
*NOTE: See the Player Info and Movement and Attacking charts below for more information

Movement
• The player must determine the Pawn’s movement range from its current position using the Pawn Attributes and Terrain Attributes tables below.
• Pawns may move forwards, backwards, left and right. However, Pawns may NOT move diagonally! (See “Movement and Attacking”)
• When crossing from one terrain to another, movement modifiers are always calculated from the terrain the Pawn started on.
• Multiple Pawns cannot occupy the same space or “jump over” each other.
• Pawns must move around Outposts.
• Pawns and can only stop on an Outpost or Base if it is unoccupied.
• While the player does not have to attack during an action, any attack does signal the end of the current action.
• Missile Batteries may not move and attack on the same action.

Combat

Combat is initiated when a player, during their turn, has a Pawn within range of an enemy Pawn and proclaims an attack (See the Terrain Attributes Table for terrain attack modifiers.)
• Pawns may attack another Pawn, Outpost, or Base that is within range in any direction. (Pawns CAN attack diagonally. See “Movement and Attacking”)
• Pawns may not attack from a spawn space but they can be attacked. (If a Pawn is attacked while on a Spawn Space the defending player should roll the standard Combat Roll for that Pawn Type.)
• Missile Batteries may not move and attack on the same action. Nor can they attack targets that are less than two spaces away. They can however, defend attacks again these close range attacks.

Battle Sequence

1. The attacking player announces which enemy Pawn he/she is attacking and then rolls the specified Combat Role for his/her attacking Pawn’s Type.
2. The defending player rolls the specified Combat Role for their Pawn’s Type. (Pawns defending from an Outpost or Base always roll two, six-sided dice for defense. See “Outposts”.)
3. The attacker only wins if their roll is higher than the defender’s. A tie, or less, always goes to the defender.
4. If the attacker wins, the defender’s Pawn is permanently removed from game play. Otherwise, the attacker’s current action is over and play continues. (*Note: Attacking Pawns that lose in combat are not removed from the game board and are free to be used on the player’s next action.)

Outposts

An Outpost is a strategic location that, when occupied by a player, may be used to spawn said player’s Pawns on the board.
• There are four Outposts on the game board, one at each of the four intersections of four terrains located at equal distances between each of the Home Bases. (See “Board Layout” below)
• The four spaces an Outpost sits at the intersection of are considered one space.
• Only a Soldier Pawn can occupy an Outpost (or Base). This is done by moving a soldier pawn on the space and replacing the Outpost Pawn with Soldier Pawn.
• An occupied Outpost always has a defense roll of two six-sided dice and an attack roll of one six-sided die.
• If an Outpost is occupied, the occupying player can spawn available Pawns at the beginning of their turn in any open space bordering the occupied Outpost. (See “Board Layout” below). The spawned Pawns CAN be moved during that turn.
• If a Soldier Pawn is defeated while occupying an Outpost, the soldier pawn is removed and the Outpost Pawn is put back in its place to signify that it is unoccupied.

Bases

• The Base from which a player starts is that player’s Home Base. It is where the player spawns his or her Pawns at the beginning of the game.
• A home Base must be occupied in order to defend it. However, it does not have to be occupied by its home color to spawn from it. (Like Outposts, bases can only be occupied by Soldier Pawns).
• If a base is taken over by another player, that player must leave a Soldier Pawn on the Base for it to remain their control and use its spawn points.
• If a player’s Home Base is occupied by another player, they can no longer spawn from it. (See “Board Layout” below).

Winning and Losing the game

Players are eliminated from the game in when they have no more Pawns on the Game Board and have no way to spawn more. When only one player is left, that player is the winner. (In the event the game takes too long to come to a “natural conclusion”, players should total up all of their remaining Pawns as well as all controlled Outposts and Bases using the Asset Value Table below. The player with the highest point total wins.

Board Game Feedback

The following feedback was received about my group's board game:

Pros

Rules were easy to understand

Game picks up when players can attack each other

Movement of pieces is good

Sturdy pieces

Cons

Rules are lengthy, and need to be condensed

Picture examples of terrain types are needed

The phrase "Line of Sight" needs to be explained in the rules; specifically related to adjacent spaces

Confusion over what was meant by "terrain tiles"

To address this feedback, we are shortening and clarifying the game rules; we are adding pictures to the game board of the different terrain types along with explanations of how they affect gameplay; and finally we will be using pictographic examples of game pieces movement and attack ranges to address the "Line of Sight" issue.

Chapter Seven Book Work

Question: "What Load and Save system would I implement in my game and why? Also, how would I balance immersion with player control?"

I'm imagining a snowboarding game where the opening screen is the player sitting in his or her car in the parking lot of their "Home Ski Resort". From there, the player can load and save games, change gear, drive to other mountains, or head up to the "Resort Area".

Once the player enters the "Resort Area" they can view a "resort map" to help figure out where the shops, ski lifts, and events (challenges) are.

Gear shops sell snowboard gear and apparel shops sell snowboard apparel to players, who earn money completing challenges and jobs around the mountain. Additionaly, players can load and save the game from within the shop.

The Ski Lifts take the player to the tops of different slopes where they can shred down the hill or head over to any nearby competition, skill challenge or job, where, a player can earn money. Once the player has enough money, they can afford to travel to other mountains, where they will find new slopes, new shops, and new challenges (that's IF they haven't spent all their money on boards and jackets already).

Player will also have something called "Shredder Rep", a reputation system based on three factors:

Talent: This is based on how the player does in competitions and skill challenges. It affects who might be interested in sponsoring the player.

Experience: Based on how many mountains, slopes, competitions, challenges, and jobs the player has completed. This affects what jobs the player will be offered. For example, players with too few skill challenges accomplished are less likely be asked by the resort to give private snowboarding lessons to wealthy VIPs.

Cred: Based on how many jobs and competitions the player has done well at. This affects the player's ability to get higher paying jobs and bigger name sponsorships.

BASIC AI

My Robot did more damage and won more often than then robot in the sample instructions. And while the sample robot moved no matter what. My robot only moved if it facing an enemy (or the goal line). I think that kept it from wandering around.

Paper Simulation: Fable III

OBJECTIVE

Battle your way through towns and villages, gaining followers on your way to Brownstone Castle in your quest to overthrow your evil brother and take your rightful place as King of Albion.

SETUP

• Each player places their game piece on “The Sewers” on the game board.
• Place the ENEMY CARDS and the REWARDS CARDS.
• All players roll one die. The highest roller goes first, play proceeds clockwise.

GAME PLAY

• Taking turns, each player rolls one die and advance the shown number of spaces on the board.
• If a player reaches a Village or Town they must stop and draw an ENEMY CARD and DO BATTLE with the enemy on the card.
• If player does not defeat the enemy, player must wait until their next turn and draw a new ENEMY CARD.
• Once the enemy has been defeated, player draws a reward card. The first player to reach Bowerstone Castle and defeat the Evil Prince wins.

ENEMY CARDS
– Assorted enemies with varying amounts damage and hit points.

REWARD CARDS
– These assorted rewards can be used once to assist in doing battle with an enemy. For example, if a player is rolls a 4 damage, the player could increase that damage to 6 using a reward card like a “Fireball Spell” which adds two to damage.

Chapter Five Book Work

Objective: - Play games currently on the market. Identify at least three areas in each game where your character is given a breadth of choices (preferably more than two). If possible play those sections of the game several times so that you can find out what happens if you make different choices. How is the outcome of the game affected by the choices?

HALO Reach

Decision 1: What type of bonus Armor should I pick?:

• Speed - allows me to sprint over a medium distance, enabling me to escape more quicnkly or get to the fight more quickly.
  
• Armor Lock - allows me to surround my player with a forcefield for a short period of time making me impervious to damage and giving me a little time to regenerate health.


• Jetpack - allows the player fly around the level in short bursts and reach otherwise unreachable positions


• Stealth - the player becomes nearly invisble when still and numerous decoys show up on enemy radar

Decision 2: What weapon do I use?

• Battle Rifle, a semi-automatica meidum-long range scoped rifle. Bad in short range situations.
• Assualt rifle, an automatic rifle that is best used in short range combat and gets less effective as target distance increases.
• Magnum, a short - medium range semi automatic pistol. It packs more of a punch and is more accurate than the Assault rifle, but can't fire as rapidly. Its a little less accurate and powerful than the Battle Rifle but can fired more quickly it's accuracy deacreases over distance.

Decision 3: Which position in the warthog should I choose?

• Driver - can only get kills by running people over and I can control where we go
• Passenger - can shoot enemies from Warthog, but accuracy is a problem. Can jump out at anytime without leaving the driver vulnerable.
• Turret, can get a lot of kills with high cliber machine gun turret but have no control over where we go and what targets are within my aiming range.

SECOND GAME: Fable III

Decision 1: What moral choice should I make?

• Should I save the one I love and let numerous townsfolk be killed instead making me morally corrupt but personally happy?
• Should I sacrifice the one I love and save numerous townsfolk devastating myself personally but endearing me to the people?

Decision 2: Should I buy a home?

• Don't Buy - I could save my money but I wouldn't make any, plus, I would have nowhere to raise a family and my.
• Buy and Live in - I would spend a fair amount of money but I would have a place to raise a family and should make some money if I sell it down the road.
• Buy and rent out - I would spend money but could make it back in rent and property appreciation. However, I would still have no place to raise a family.

Decision 3: how should I handle the Kingdom's Budget

• Should I keep all my promises, bankrupting the Kingdom and leaving us without enough money to defend ourselves from the darkness?
• Should I break all my promises, making the people miserable (and myself VERY unpopular) but leaving enough money to defend the city from the Darkness?
• Keep as many promises as I can while still breaking a few in order to have enough money to mount at least moderate defense against the dark.

GameMaker: Clown Game

"Clowning Around"

We made in SGD Design Class. It's not that fun.

Design Chemistry

The make-up of a good design is an important factor in producing a successful game. If team members don't get along, they likely won't work together well. While everyone doesn't have to like each other, they must at least respect each other's work.

Additionally, I tend to believe that diversity breeds originality so I would try to have a team made of individuals who specialize in different disciplines. An animator, programmer, and designer would be where I would start.

The working environment would be as open and relaxed as possible without hindering productivity.

Prototyping

Whether developing a board or video game, the critical information gathered from thorough play testing during the prototyping phase make it an essential aspect of any serious game production process. Prototypes allow developers to perform rule testing, enjoyability testing and ensure that specific mechanics are obtainable and actually work before spending excess time and money developing something that doesn't work or just isn't fun.

While critically important, prototyping should also be done as quickly and cheaply as possible. When building a board game, the first iteration she be tested using rudimentary materials drawn on paper or even using materials taken from other board games. For a video game, each specific game mechanic should be prototyped and tested before game production actually starts. However, at this phase developers only need to prove the mechanic works and should not waste time and money with elegant coding or performance optimization.

Good prototyping saves money, helps improve the product and can help limit surprises and/or delays during the production process. To borrow and twist an old saying, "if you fail to prototype you are prototyping failure." - or something link that.

SGD Programming: Space Shooter

GAME: SHINY-VERSE

This is my version of a tutorial project provided by Design3d.com for Unity3d as part of the CPCC SGD Programming curriculum.

Click here to play the current version of Shiny-Verse. (Download of the Unity Player may be required.)

My Customizations:
- Fixed bug from Demo that subtracts an enemy when the player is killed
- Changed main player to Serenity model
- Added roll left and right animations
- Added particle renderers to the left, right and center engines of the Serenity model
- Made the following when the player speeds up "w" button:
* background scroll speed increase
* player's engines appear to power up
- Revamped main menu with instructions, background image and the Serenity model
- Added "Main Menu" button to the In Game menu
- Added Level Display between levels
- Removed "Win" condition
- Modified so that once beyond Level 3 the max number of enemies are always generated but the enemy type is random.
- Added extra player bonus every 10,000 points.
- Expanded width and angled one of the overlay levels to add the illusion of depth on the perimeter.

Known Bugs:
- Sometimes the enemy kill count goes wrong and the Levels don't switch correctly or at all.

Chapter Four Book Work

Chapter Four Review, Question #2: Create a Character Triangle

The Hero

The hero/protagonist in my character triangle is Nathan Reynolds. Nathan is a strong man of slightly larger than average build who is motivated by a strong desire to make the world a fair place. He's witty, charming, and intelligent. And yet, his eyes betray a troubled sadness that stems from his youth.

Abandoned by his parents, he was raised as a ward of the Catholic Church where his tortured experiences cost him to his faith and as well as his innocence at an all to early age. Because of this, he's carried a chip on his shoulder ever since looking for wrongs to right, hypocrisies to expose, and villains to purge from this unfair, unjust world.

The Ally

Nathan's ally and within this triangle is Zoe Summers. An athletic street-wise girl who's youth was in many ways the opposite of Nathan's. She grew up in a nice house in a nice neighborhood with well educated, upper-middle-class God-fearing parents. It was around the age of 14, when her father caught her kissing the neighbor's 15 year old daughter that things got hard for Zoe.

Her ultra-religious parents did everything they could to "fix" her. But from embarrassing church interventions to shock therapy during a two-month stay and the local church-run mental health facility, nothing helped. In the end, instead of practicing forgiveness, at the age of 16, her parents turned their backs on her and kicked her out of the house. With nowhere to go she lived on the streets, eventually deciding to join a gang instead of becoming the victim of one.

At 17 she was kidnapped and tortured by a psychotic serial killer for over two weeks. She eventually managed to escape with her life and the help of a young Nathan Reynolds. But she was once again forever changed, hardened. Her unknown assailant was never caught and still haunts her dreams.

The Villain

Caleb Cobb is the triangle's villain/protagonist. A wealthy, middle-aged man, of average build with short black hair, Caleb is considered a philanthropic pillar of the community. In reality, Caleb is a brutal, cold and calculating monster. Raised the way most sociopaths are, Caleb's super-rich parents worshiped material possessions, believed in hard work instead of love, and didn't at all believe in consequences for their perfect child's less than perfect actions. By the age 8, Caleb was torturing and killing small mammals almost daily.

Unendingly fascinated by the splendor of living creatures under the most extreme types of stress and pain, he mastered the art of torturing creatures to the brink shock and then backing off just enough so they continued to suffer without going catatonic. Caleb absolutely hated shock. To him, the Universe had personally affronted him by imbuing all creatures with this natural defense against the one gift he truly loved to give most, unimaginable, unbearable, unspeakable pain. Caleb hated the Universe for it.

By his late teens Caleb's victims were more people than animals, usually choosing small children. It wasn't that Caleb had any particular proclivity for children, not at all. When it came to pain, Caleb was completely non-discriminatory. It's just that children were easier to subdue and contain than teens or adults. He learned that the hard way when one of his victims, a homeless street urchin girl, escaped with the help of some piss ant do-gooder right out from under his nose.

Caleb knows that his true talents will land him in the electric chair if he is ever caught. Fortunately, after helping his parents to an early grave he learned to mask his private passion using the considerable inheritance his family's high social standing.

Accessibility in Video Games

  The assignment this week was about accessibility for the physically impaired. Play a game we are proficient at while physically handicapped in various ways: no hands, no sight, one arm, and, for control purposes, one game without an impairment. I chose the game I've been playing the most lately, Halo Reach. As an XBOX 360 title, it uses the standard wireless XBOX 360 controller. I decided to play four games of Team Swat Deathmatch on XBOX Live.

Game One - No Impairments
  The controls in Halo rely HEAVILY on visual senses and many input commands at once. At any given time you may be moving forward (left stick), looking to the side (right stick), while jumping (left bumper) and shooting (right trigger) at an enemy. That's four different inputs at once. While once the technique is learned and committed to "muscle memory" it becomes automatic, controlling the game is still a relatively complex human behavior to undertake.

Game Two - No Arms
  I played with my feet. My two big toes, really. The left toe was on the left stick which controls for movement forward and backward, strafe left and strafe right. The right toe was on the right stick controlling where I was looking. After a few minutes I was able to cooridnate my feet to the point where I could walk forward and carefully turn and go around corners. However, because the mouse is so sensitive and the human foot is not conditioned for such small movements, even attempting to aim at an enemy was futile. By the time you got the recticule anywhere near where you wanted to shoot, the enemy gone or, more likely, had already killed you. Add to that the fact that in all of the controller configurations, the attack is controlled by the right trigger, which, in order to get to, I have to take my right foot off the aiming stick and turn the controller sideways to reach.

All that being said, I do feel like if the cotrols had been set up differenltly I may have been able to get more than the one kill I managed to muster by walking up behind someone who wasn't playing and assassinate them.

Game Three - No Sight
  Playing Halo3 blind-folded felt ridiculously futile. Watching the replay afterwards showed just how ridiculously futile it was. While I had all the tools I needed to control my player, I had not intelligence behind my movement. I would up just running in random directions and firing my Battle Rife in circles or in to the wall. Amazingly, I did get a single kill when a player happened to spawn right in front of me while I was firing randomly. Unfortunately, he was from our team and my one kill was a betrayal.

Game Four - One Arm
  So for the one armed attempt things went a little better. Being right-handed I chose to not use my left and actually got three legit kills. Its still extremely hard to get in position and aim. Two of my kills came from camping in a spot where I knew opponents would come by and correctly a head shot when they did. In order to make the game even remotely playable the controls would have to be split between the one hand and the feet. One such a device was devised however, I'm certain that those who chose to use it would soon excel at it.

Conclusion:
  In the end, this exercise really showed me how inaccessible video games must be to people with these type of impairments. Game designers would do well to try experiments like this when designing control system for games to be used by both non-impaired and impared players presents a serious challenge.

Game Mechanics Examined

  No matter how good the storytelling, graphics, or level design, a video game’s legacy, replay-ability, and longevity depend almost completely on the quality and entertainment value of its core mechanics. If getting frags in Halo was awkward and difficult no-one would play it. If it was okay but not great "some" people would play it. But because its mechanics are intuitive, exciting, and very well done, Halo is an extremely popular game. (Granted, having the might of Microsoft behind you doesn't hurt either.)

  Once the core mechanics of what makes up the true essence of a game have been established, keeping it simple from that point on through the development is key. Taking a good set of mechanics and dressing them up with "code-candy-mechanics" will often only serve to homogenize an otherwise memorable set of solid core mechanics. Developers must resist the urge to over-engineer their game with superfluous mechanics that don’t further the purpose of the title.

Dice Game

Puh-Puh-Puh-Poker Dice

Objective:
- Be the first player to reach twenty points

Every player starts with the following:
- 5 six-sided dice
- 1 cup
- Pen and Paper
- 10 Points

Play as follows:
- All players roll two dice but keep them concealed from other players under the cup.
- All players roll two more dice keeping them visible to all.
- All players who decide to fold uncovers their dice and turns up their cup.
- All players roll their last die, but keeps them visible to all.
- All players reveal their dice.
- The player with the highest poker-style dice roll wins.
- All players who did not fold or win, subtract one point from their total.
- The winner adds a point to his/her total for every player (including himself/herself) that did not fold.
- If all but one player fold, that player is awarded one point.
- The first player to reach 20 points wins.

Game Review: Chalk

Chalk is a 3rd person, 2-D, side-scroller that takes place on the surface of a chalk-board. The object is to avoid and destroy damage-dealing enemy shapes by drawing chalk lines with your mouse. If your chalk line connects all the right points, the shape blows up.

It’s a challenging game because it really tests the player’s acuity. Within just a couple seconds of beginning a chalk line, the chalk line stops, no matter what. Using the mouse to connect two or more points on a moving target within just a couple seconds is very challenging. I’ve never played a game that required that type of control before and it’s certainly not as easy as it first appears to be.

While Chalk doesn’t have oodles of replay value, at least not for me, its uniqueness and novelty value alone assure that it will at least get a couple plays by most people who check it out.

Chalk is a game play driven title. It completely revolves around speed and accuracy of drawing various shaped chalk lines. While there is strategy involved in deciding what order to attempt o defeat the enemy shapes, it’s really all about being accurate with the mouse.
The game is displayed as if you were looking at an animated chalk board. There are numbers and formulas written on the board that scroll by and all objects on the board appear as if drawn in chalk, including your character. Because of this, most everything is in black and white. This is not to say the graphics aren’t cool because they are, they just aren't mind blowing. While the animation is very cartoon-look, it’s also and really cute. I could see a 8-10 year old girl really enjoying this game for a while.

The only thing you can do in the game is move around the board and draw chalk lines so the controls are both easy to use and easy to get used to. Movement is controlled by either using the W-S-A-D keys or using the right mouse button. To draw a chalk line, the user clicks and holds the left mouse button down. This is the trickiest part of the game, especially when you are trying to connect three or mouse together.

While this game is original and creative, it’s not the kind of game you look forward to playing for hours. So, in the end, I give it 3 out of 5 shiny fireflies.

Chapter Three Book Work

Review Question 2: Design a movement system for my origninal game idea and describe how I would incorporate context sensitive moves.

A few weeks ago, a game concept occured to me that's very idea is context sensitive. The concept revolves around a first person shooter/action-adventure-ish game in which the central character's dimensional reality can be switched using sepcific game objects. The reality that is switched to would vary depending on the type of game object that is used.

Because a different reality is itself a different context, every time the player switches realities the context of the controls change. So, while in one reality the player might be in a building aiming a hand gun at an attacking enemy thug, in an alternate reality he could be under water aiming a spear gun at an attacking tiger shark. Or, he could be in an alien dimension aiming a mercury filled water pistol at a charging zander-beast.

The moves and controls would depend on the context of the player's current reality. In one reality, the [X] button causes the player to jump, while in another it might cause the player to swim or fly. The player would have to experiment to figure out what kind of abilities they have in each reality. They player could learn to switch realities to take advantage of a another reality's ability for a given situation.

Journal One: The Tablet

In his top-floor downtown flat, Diogenes knew what he had to do and that he had to do it fast. Soon they would stop knocking and start shooting. With that thought Diogenes Reynolds slipped in to the bedroom, quietly locking the door behind him.

The heavy knocking turned into pounding and shouting followed by the sound of splintering and cracking wood. "They're through the front door," he thought to himself knowing he only had seconds left.

Diogenes quickly grabbed the chair next to the bed and hurled it through the window over looking the street. He got his head out of the window quickly enough to see the chair smash to pieces as it hit the cold winter pavement 3 stories below. Fortunately, he was planning on going the other direction.

"In here," came a voice from outside the door.

Twisting over backward to look up, Diogenes could see the ledge he needed to reach above. He climbed up on the window's edge and then crouched down and turned around to face the inside of the apartment. Just then, bedroom door burst open. Diogenes caught a glimpse of a black suit and a gun as he sprung upwards from his crouched position towards the ledge above him.

Straining to reach as far as he could, he caught the ledge with his fingers but that was all he needed. Shots rang out below him as he pulled himself up on to the roof. Wasting no time, he sprinted across the rooftop to the fire escape. He quickly scaled down to the alley below and fled on foot in to the darkness.

Diogenes wandered the back streets giving himself time to ponder what it meant; the answer is though the door of the healing fathers. He'd come across it while reading the dead priest's blog just before the uninvited guests showed up. "...through the door of healing fathers" he repeated to himself; something about it rang a bell. Then, like a lightening bolt, it hit him. Diogenes turned to the east and sprinted down the alley and in to the night.

18 minutes later Diogenes Reynolds came to an abrupt halt in front of a large iron wrought door with names formed in large iron letters decorating it's crossbars. He caught his breath as he read to himself the names he recognized; Hippocrates, Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister. These, he knew, were all fathers of medicine. "Healing fathers," he said to himself realizing whatever he needed must be behind the door in front of him.

A tug on the handle revealed the door was locked. After a quick glance around, Diogenes scaled the wall of the two-story brick building and made it to the roof. There he found an unlocked access door and slipped inside. The building appeared to him to be a long deserted medical facility of some sort.

Not knowing exactly what to look for, he began going from room to room opening cabinets and doors, looking under beds and in closets. Finding nothing on the second floor, he repeated his search on the first floor with the same results, nothing.

"It has to be here," he though as he walked to the front door and pressed his palm against it. "Through door of the healing fathers," he repeated to himself, again. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply and then slowly exhaled as he turned around to face long main hall. He opened his eyes a scanned the room. He noticed a series of dusty picture frames hanging on the wall next to a door frame.

He walked over for a closer look. They were photographs of a Cathedral he immediately recognized. It was St. Book's Cathedral. The same Cathedral the dead priest was from. The one who left the clue that led Diogenes here in the first place. It couldn't be a coincidence. He knew where to go next. But St. Books was on the other side of town, he'd have to risk hailing a cab.

15 minutes later Diogenes exited a yellow taxi in front of St Book's Cathedral. He stepped on to the curb and took in the size of the building that stood before him, it was massive. He noted that it seemed much more menacing here at night than in the daytime photo he'd just seen hanging on the wall back in the "house of heavenly docs".

Fully expecting another climb was ahead of him, Diogenes walked over to the Cathedral entrance and pulled on the front door handle. Much to his surprise, the door began to open. "Finally, a break" he thought, as he opened the door and stepped inside. It was dark inside, so dark that he felt the cold steel of a large gun barrel press against his forehead long before he ever saw it. He heard a sound behind him followed by a searing pain at the base of his skull, an then, blackness...

Diogenes opened his eyes. The throbbing he felt in the back of his head as he tried to focus was not unlike that of a severe hangover. Which is exactly what he thought he had until the fist came into focus. It was attached to a large arm belonging to an equally large man who looked very eager to use it. Diogenes realized he was bound to a chair.

"I'll ask you only once," said a British man's voice from behind him "where is the tablet?".

"What the hell is he talking about," Diogenes thought. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me." he said giving Mr.Fist a wry smile.

An explosion of pain rippled outwards from the left side of his upper lip like wildfire. "Ouch, that looks like it hurt." said the voice from behind. He continued, "If you haven't noticed, my friend Badger rather likes to hit things. Honestly" he paused pensively, " I rather enjoy watching."

"Oh. Well in that case. Could you describe the tablet? I mean, was it Kindle-like or more IPad-ish?" Diogenes wasn't going to break, but his nose did as Badger's fist connected with it at blistering speed. Though writhing in agony, he didn't weep. He'd broken his nose before. Soon the searing pain would be replaced by a dull throbbing ache which he recalled would be much more tolerable.

The British man stepped in front of Diogenes and leaned in close until the two were nearly nose to nose. "Here is your choice Mr. Reynolds." He spoke slowly and precisely, "You can tell me where it is and I promise to end you quickly, with a bullet. Or, you can refuse to cooperate cooperate. in which case I shall instruct Badger to end you using only his teeth. Quite painful, as you can image, and also quite slow." He glanced over his shoulder at a grinning Badger. Then looked back and whispered calmly, "Now Mr Reynolds, tell me where the tablet is."

"I told you, I don't even know what you are talk-" Diogenes tried to respond.

"YES YOU DO!" The British man's thundering voice interrupted. He frantically thrust his hand in to his inner breast pocket and fished out a small black and white photo. Still yelling, "TELL ME MR REYNOLDS! TELL ME WHERE IT IS!" He held the photo up in front of Diogenes an shook it violently ... "THE TABLET OF FROZEN SOULS, TELL ME WHERE IT IS!!"

Diogenes felt the blood freeze in his veins. He didn't look at the photo. He didn't need to. At that moment Diogenes learned all he needed to know. He was about to die.

Player Walkthrough: Tactical Advantage

By Adrian Palmer, Jon Daley, Bobby Lee, Mike Gossett

  The Green Army’s forces are on the move and my Army, which consists of 10 soldiers, two tanks, and two missile batteries, is running dangerously low on resources. Currently, we are located in the grasslands about four clicks south of the nearest city. To the East are nearly impassable mountains. To the West are barely navigable forests. However, about 8 clicks to the Northwest, there is a resource facility that, according to reports, is unoccupied. I decide to send a small squad of soldiers to capture it quickly and, in case there’s trouble, a Tank along behind for support.

  After dispatching my troops, I receive word that the Green Army has soldiers advancing on the same resource facility. Although my troops will reach it first, I decide to dispatch a missile battery so that once secured, I can take out the Green Army’s advance forces from a distance. If I can hold it, then I’ll use it as a jumping off point to launch attacks on other facilities.

  As planned, my troops reach the facility first. Unfortunately, the Green Army will be within attack range before my missile battery is close enough to defend. Meanwhile the Red Army has captured its second resource facility and is marching West towards my base. I order two tanks and my remaining Missile Battery to the East to set up a defense perimeter, so I can fend off the Red Army’s approach.

  I soon receive word that we have secured the Northwestern Resource Facility without incident. However, the joy of that operation’s success is short lived when a subsequent report indicates that the Green Army’s tanks are now within attack range of our newly captured facility. They attack and immediately capture one of our soldiers.

  
My support tank returns fire, disables, and captures one of their two tanks. Their remaining tank fires and takes out my troop holding the facility, blast! Our tanks exchange a few javascript:void(0)more rounds of fire before my tank lands a critical hit and capture theirs.

  Happy to have won that battle, I now have a tough decision to make: With the Red Army quickly advancing on our position from the East, can I afford to dispatch more forces to reoccupy the Resource Facility?

  Ultimately, I determine that keeping troops back to defend the Eastern boarder against the Red Army makes more tactical sense than immediately going after the Resource Facility again. My hopes are that my single tank can defend the facility until more troops can be sent to re-occupy it.

... I’ll just have to wait and see …

Game Type Versus Genre

In the article Game Type and Genre, the author, Lindsay Grace, defines the term "Game Type" as a "description of game play," and gives examples such as "Action", "Adventure", "Role Playing" and "Simulation". She defines "Game Genre" as a "description of the narrative content of a game," such as "Drama", "Crime", "Fantasy" and "Horror". While in general these definitions makes sense, the example game types she provides are not complete enough to fulfill her own definition of a "Game Type".

To me, a description of the player's in-game perspective is required for a good game type definition. Yet, according to Ms. Grace's article, the Call of Duty game type is nothing more than "Action". Hardly an adequate game type description for that, or any game for that matter. A better game type description would be "First Person Shooter". Add to it the the Genre and we have a perfect overall game description for Call of Duty: a "First Person War Shooter".

Final Project: Promotional Video

This short trailer explains the primary concept behind a board game entitled "Tactical Advantage," currently being developed by Jon Daley, Bobby Lee, Mike Gossett, and Adrian Palmer as a part of the curriculum for the Game Design Class at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Free Play

FRAXY


Fraxy is a top-down space shooter in the tradition of Asteroids but instead of shooting inbound asteroids in space, you battle crazy shaped enemy ships which shoot various types of laser weapons in a flattened 3 dimensional grid.

Was the game a challenge, fun, entertaining? Why?
- Yes, because of the cool kaleidescope type enemy ships which come in lots of different shapes and shoot cool laser beams. Instead of being in space, like asteroids, you are in a Matrix like grid.

Does the game have replay value?
- This game has limited replay value because it main task (shooting crazy looking spaceships) becomes repetitive relatively quickly. I may play it 5-7 more times at most and I don't see myself wanting to ever play it for more than 15-20 minutes at a time.

Is this game story driven or game play driven?
- Gameplay driven, there is no story. It's just a space shooter like asteroids, except the asteroids shoot back.

How is the game's presentation?
- The graphics are pretty cool, but it has no sound, at least none that I could hear. The game is played on 3d looking grid, but the gameplay is 2d

How are the Controls? Describe the Game's Feel
- At first I was using the default controls and found it awkward to play. However, after switching to the my preferred W-S-A-D configuration the game became quite nimble.

Any other special features you enjoyed?
- Nothing special, just a space shooter. Like asteroids on steroids.

On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate the game? Why?
- I'll judge it for what it is, a really cool, mildly addictive little shooter that is easy to play and has cool and unique graphics. I give it 7 Shiny Fireflies.

Chapter Two Book Work:

Assignment: Discuss the most likely type of game design emphasized in the creation of 3 different games, each from a different genre.

	SSX 3 is the 3rd installment of the (BAD ASS) SSX snowboarding game series (SSX Blur not withstanding). This is a 3rd person snowboard game that seems to have been built to emphasize it's snowboarding simulation technology. The graphics and the music are all really cool and so are the tricks and combos, but the snowboard simulation experience itself is the core of what makes the game so much fun. I prefer riding the SSX snowboard engine to that of any other snowboard game I've tried. It's super-uber!
	Klonoa: Door to Phontomile is a 3rd person adventure-fantasy game that I suspect was built with an emphasis on gameplay. While it does have a prominent storyline with lots of surreal Japanese-style cut scenes, Klonoa has so many different game modes and gameplay mechanics, that gameplay seems likely to be its cornerstone. On the other hand, Klonoa also seems like the kind of game that could be based on a sandbox design. This is where developers come up with a cool game technology that can do a bunch of cool things first, and then they use it to create a game.
	Next up, HALO 3 (because HALO Reach hasn't arrived yet!). I suspect the entire HALO series is simply about First Person gameplay and being the first company to bring it en mass to console. Some consider the Halo series to be the DOOM\Quake of the console world. Before HALO, consoles didn't have too much in the line of FPS shooters. While there were tactical shooters for the PS2, Halo was the first game that really brought that PC-esque deathmatch kind of feel to the forefront of console games.

High Concept: War Zone

- Jon Daley, Robert Lee, Michael Gossett, Adrian Palmer

Overview
War Zone is a 2 to 4 player board game that hinges on strategy and gathering resources. During the game players must navigate their forces through different types of terrain while trying to capture enemy troops and equipment, as well as control strategic points around the game board. The objective of the game is to out maneuver your enemies, capture their forces, and gather the most resources. When all of your resources and assets are gone you have lost; be the last player left standing and victory is yours.

Features
War Zone’s game board is dynamic in that the surface of the board can be changed from game to game. This is accomplished by having modular pieces constructing the board, each piece representing a different type of terrain. The board also features a space for each player’s Main Base, and strategic spaces that players attempt to occupy for control of additional resources.

The different types of terrain on the game board heavily factor into game play; each terrain uniquely affects not only how players can move their assets around the board, but also the minimum distance required to attack enemies. For instance, the Forrest terrain takes away from both a player’s movement and attack range because of the many obstacles that exist in that kind of terrain.

In addition to different types of terrain to navigate, players have access to different types of assets to make up their army. Each type of asset has unique attributes for movement and attack: Infantry has a high movement range but a limited attack range; Tanks have both medium movement and attack range; And Missile Batteries have very limited movement range, but the highest attack range.

Basic Gameplay
Instead of destroying an opponent’s army, players attack and capture assets from opponents by defeating them in battle. The victor can then use the captured assets as their own. Another feature is the ability to hold another player’s defeated Infantry units for ransom, with the option of selling them back to the defeated player during their next turn.

The game is designed to be played in about one hour, but could go on much longer. If the game must be ended before its natural conclusion, the winner is the player with the highest combined number of resources and assets.

Game Play and Control

When one ponders what it is that causes a person to really like a game, it's usually things like graphics, storyline, or, -um, graphics that immediately come to mind. -Did I mention graphics?- Yet, perhaps the most important, and often overlooked factor is actually how the game "feels".

For me, the game that has the best feel to it also happens to be my favorite game of all time. That game; Quake III Arena by id software. This First Person Shooter fits me like a well tailored Italian suit. Once the keyboard and mouse are set up correctly, I feel almost as if I'm connected directly to the game without the aid of input devices. Running forwards (W key), backwards (S key), strafing left and right (A and D keys) are all tuned to the "perfect" speed for me. Also, the turning velocity of the mouse look is customizable, so it's also always just right for me. While the Mouse 1 button is "fire", I always set my Mouse 2 button to jump. I found it makes rocket jumping much easier.

Even the layout of the weapons keys has a sensible "natural" order to it. Starting on the left, key "1" is the the weakest weapon. As you move on to the right and go up in keys 2,3,4,5 etc. the weapons get progressively more bad ass. Furthermore, each weapon's key can be reached without having to stop in the midst of battle to switch weapons.

When it comes to game feel, the best analogy I can think of is a car. A car can be shiny, new, sporty and comfortable, but if I don't like the way it handles, I'm not going to like it. No matter how sweet looking it is. To me, Quake III feels like a well-tuned German Sports sedan. It's good-looking, comfortable and convenient to use, yet tight, responsive and very fast.

Game Design Document

In most cases, creating a game design document is a very important step in the production of a good game. While an experienced carpenter might build a dog house without a blueprint, he would never construct a real house without one. An entrepreneur might start a business without a business plan but he wouldn't get a dime from the Bank without one. Such is the way with Game Design documents.

A game design document may not be necessary for very small-scale, self-funded programs being written by one or two developers. However, for larger projects requiring funding from outside sources, game design documents are a must. Rather than just some interesting idea blurted out at a pitch meeting, the design doc shows the potential investor that the game has been thought out in detail. This indicates a level of seriousness, forethought, and planning that banks and investors really like to see.

Yet, more important than the financial aspects, a game design document forces the game's designers to flush out all the details of the project at all levels. This is an effective way to make sure that no design elements get taken for granted. While parts of it will likely change throughout the development process, once written, a design document functions as a blueprint, a task list, and perhaps most importantly, a reference point for all levels of function and detail.

As one of those programmers who likes to dream it up and start coding, I dislike administrative "paperwork" as much as anyone (that in itself is an understatement). However, I've coded myself into enough corners and had enough late-term design "misunderstandings" with project managers to appreciate any tool that can reduce these unpleasant situations. It's my opinion that a well written game design document can all but eliminate them.

Blog Game Review

As a D&D fan, I've been looking for a legitimate excuse to take the time to download and play "Dungeons and Dragons online Eberron Unlimited". What better excuse than a class assignment?

DDO is a third-person, "over-the-shoulder" MMORPG. It's free to download and try out for 30 days at www.DDO.com, after which, a $14.95 monthly is required to continue playing. The game uses the standard Advanced D&D character generation and classification model. The first time you play you must create the character and select it's gender, class, race and alignment. Next, you can personalize your character's hair, eyes, lips, nose and skin color. Once that's done, you are given the choice of which world you want to play in. I chose "Thelanis". For no other reason than it was at the top of the list.

In "Thelanis" you awake on a beach wearing nothing but robes. Off shore you see a wrecked, sinking sailing ship. You quickly meet and befriend a shifty Rouge name Jeetz. He tells you that you were a survivor of the shipwreck. The ship, he says, was attacked and sunk by a Dragon. He then offers you a sword in exchange for a favor. You accept and from there you begin your first, albeit small, quest.

The game is played by obtaining quests from NPCs. Once a quest is accepted, you set out to accomplish the it killing monsters, solving puzzles, finding secrets, obtaining quest items, and smashing chests and vases to find money and potions along the way. Once the tasks of a given quest have been accomplished, you must go back to the quest giver for a reward. Basically, its your standard D&D fare, which, is exactly what a D&D fan like me wants.

While the controls are programmable to the user's liking, I used the default keyboard and mouse controls: W - Forward, S - Backwards, A - Turn Left, D - Turn Right. The space bar makes you jump. The mouse look controls looking left and right, however, in order to look up or down, you have to either hold down the right mouse button or press the "T" key on the keyboard. I found this to be cumbersome. Finally, to talk to another character, pick up on object or attack an enemy, you left-click mouse on it. Initially I found this to bee a little tricky. Not being used to the controls, I was having a bit of trouble getting my character in position to attack the enemy. Often I would be in range of the enemy, but not facing it; or, facing it, but not in range. As with any game, it can take a little while to get used to get used to the controls. After about 45 minutes, I had become much more proficient at attacking my foes correctly the first time. Yet, still, the controls never exactly felt comfortable. Accessing the various menu and inventory screens was simple enough and pretty much what you would expect from a game in this genre.

When downloading the game (from www.ddo.com), I was given a choice between the "Ultra-high Resolution" graphics package or the or "Standard Resolution" graphics package. Ever the optimist, I chose the "Ultra-High Res" package. Surely my purely pedestrian $450 Acer could handle some fancy online RPG textures. ... Right? Sadly, in order to get the game to run at even tolerable frame rates, I had to back down three full steps from "Ultra-High Resolution" to the lowly "Medium Resolution". I can honestly say the graphics on "Medium Resolution" are easily as inspiring as a bowl of wet flour. By comparison, Guild Wars, which features nicer looking graphics, ran many times better on my older, slower, Acer laptop at higher resolutions than I did DDO on my newer machine. Not surprisingly, I find the graphics to be the most disappointing aspect of the game.

Standard dramatic RPG music? ... Check. Player and environmental sound effects? ... Check.As far as this reviewer is concerned, unless there's something remarkably good or remarkably bad about the sound then I consider it to be average. The sound in DDO is just average.

In the end, if you're looking for a vessel that will satiate your primal D&D itch and you
aren't expecting amazing graphics or smooth, polished, player controls,
DDO will do the trick nicely. If, however, you're looking for a visually engrossing RPG with innovative game mechanics, BMW M3-like player control and a unique story, you'd better keep looking.

I rate this game 2.5 out of 5 Shiny Fireflies.

15 Minute Board Game - Dragon's Den

Objective:

Be the first to make it to the Dragon's Den and defeat the foul beast that lies within.

Rules:
1. Pick your class
     - Wizard +2 attack
     - Knight +2 Defense
     - Scout +1 Dexterity ( + one to roll for movement.)
2. If defeated by the Dragon go back to the start.
3. Roll die to determine movement.
5. If you land on a creature space you must battle.

Battle:
    - If two players land on the same squire they battle, higher card drawn wins.
    - You draw cards to battle the monsters when you land on the squires using the cards.
    - +1-4 means they get that amount added to the card amount they draw.
    - If you lose in battle you lose your next turn.

Designed By - April Lane, Zach Cuddy, & Adrian Palmer (in 15 minutes so don't be hatin!)

Chapter One Book Work

Chapter 1 Review, question 2 asks for a gameplay mechanics comparison between a few games of different platforms discussed in Chapter One.  I chose the classic fixed-shooter arcade favorite, Galaga, released by Namco (Japan) and Midway (N. America) in 1981.  For PC, I chose DOOM, released by id software in 1993.  And for the Playstation 2 console, I decided on Kingdom Hearts, released in 2002 by Square Soft (now Square Enix).

Galaga is your basic 2D arcade shooter with an overhead view of your spaceship at the bottom of the screen and the enemies you're fighting in the upper center.  The controls are simple: move the stick left to go left, move the stick right to go right; push the red button to shoot.

The goal is simply to evade and destroy as many hordes of dive-bombing, laser-shooting, enemy space-bugs as you can before losing all of your lives.  Each cosmic cockroach kill gives you points.  When you clear a level, you move up to a more progressively difficult level. Earn enough points clearing levels and you're awarded a bonus life.

One more interesting gameplay mechanic is getting your ship captured by the enemy for the purpose of eventually getting it back.  If you successfully rescue your ship then you can fight with two ships instead of one.  All in all Galaga is a genuinely fun game that, as a kid, cost me hundreds of dollars in quarters.

Next up, DOOM.  Unprecedented in its time, its realistic 3D graphics engine was far superior to any other real-time rendering engine and is widely credited with putting first person shooters on the map.  As a space marine stranded in a Military Installation on Mars, your objective is to kill demonic baddies, find secrets, and get to the exit in as short a time possible.


DOOM, immerses the player in the game through the eyes of the main character.  Movement as well as the selection and firing of seven different weapons, ranging from a pistol to a rocket launcher, is controlled by keyboard and mouse specifically configured to your liking. Movements are forward, backward, diagonal, strafe left, strafe right and mouse look.  Items such as health, armor, weapons, ammo, and power-ups are scattered around the levels and can be picked up by running over them. Player activated switches to open doors, turn on lights, and raise and lower elevators and platforms are also prevalent in game play.

Not only was DOOM the first multi-player game that could be played over ethernet (the most awesome-cool "nerdy" thing to come about since the invention of the Trapper Keeper) but the game also allowed users to create, modify, share and play their own levels.  Maybe that's not technically a game mechanic, but it sure was an awesome feature for its time.

Kingdom Hearts is a third-person, action-fantasy RPG created by Tetsuya Nomura of Final Fantasy fame.  The game environment is a surrealistic merging of Final Fantasy characters and game play with numerous characters from Disney World and Disney Animated Movies.

Story and style are a huge part of this game so players must be willing to sit through numerous cut scenes, especially in the beginning.  Your character, Sora, who's primary weapon is an over-sized key, called the Key Blade, leads a three man battle party that includes himeself, Goofy and Donald Duck.  As you fight from one kid-friendly hack-and-slash fantasy world to another, you collect health power-ups and experience points along the way.

Being PS2, everything is controlled with the DualShock2. Movement in all directions is controlled by the left analog stick.  Jumping and attacking are controlled by the four action buttons on top while target selection and camera rotation are controlled by the four bumper buttons on back. Gameplay is easy and the battles are fun.  In the end, I found Kingdom Hearts to be a REALLY entertaining video game. Especially for eleven year olds and total Disney freaks.

These three games all very different in more ways than just their platform.  Galaga is a fixed, two-dimensional arcade shooter with two control inputs; a stick that controls left right movement and a button that fires the single weapon. DOOM is a fast-paced, action-packed, three-dimensional first person shooter played on PC.  It has more than a dozen inputs to control omni-directional movement and attacking with numerous weapons.  Kingdom Hearts is a three-dimensional, third-person action-role playing game with heavy emphasis on story and style. Movement, attacking and camera position are all controlled using the PS2 controller.

And yet, while they are all so different, a common theme emerged.  Whether it's blowing up fancy-flying, 2D space- bugs, shotgun blasting demonic hell-zombies on Mars, or slashing sinister "Disnime" creatures with Donald and Goofy at your side,  in each game we battle through legions of "bad guys" until we finally get to the end of the level.  Then, we move on to the next, more difficult, level and do it all over again.  Which, if you think about it, may be the very definition of "fun."

First Entry

This is my new blog.
I will place posty things here.
This one is my first.