My Multimedia Journey

Screenshot from paper My topic for the readings is 'Commonly Used Challenges in Games' . As I said before in a previous blog post I felt there would be a lot of material on this subject for me to research. To be honest I really struggle with academic writing and reading, it is not something I enjoy so it is difficult for me to focus on a particular paper.  For my reading this week I took at a paper by  Jukka Vahlo (Ph.D.) and  Veli-Matti Karhulahti (Ph.D.). It is titled   Challenge types in gaming validation of video game challenge inventory (CHA).  I have linked the paper here . Overall it was very informative and provided an extremely in-depth look into the different challenges used in games and why, we as a a player, prefer certain aspects of different challenges.

This week is all about reflecting which is a nice switch up. I was excited to see for our tasks this week we had to review everything we have learned so far which jogs the memory and makes you realise how far I have come within only a couple of weeks! Focusing this blog post on the previous readings I have completed I briefly read over what I have written in the past few weeks. When the readings were first introduced I was quite intimidated by them as academic writing was completely alien to me. The CDM website, however, held great tips for tackling academic writing and I used the tips and examples for reference throughout each writing. The first reading I completed was an in-depth look at  Game Design   . I gave myself around an hour browsing the readings and highlights the parts I found the most important. After spending a while reading I found it hard to understand and take all of the information in, I did however find that reading the conclusion section of each readin...

Games can be described by the 3 components Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA) or otherwise stated as rules – system – “fun” . The three reading selections this week and the synopsis below all address the term “fun” in relation to game design. There are eight types of Fun outlined by the MDA. These eight are both a source of reference and player experience that blend together in many ways, and essentially what makes a game engaging and enjoyable. Figure 1: Eight kinds of Fun Both Oxford and Merrian dictionaries define Fun as an enjoyment, delight but within the context of a game it refers to a form of pleasurable entertainment. MDA papers define the '8 kinds of fun' sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, and submission, remain a source of reference and possibly the most popular list of player interactions combining in various forms to attract each player to a particular game. Nicole Lazzaro presents four types of fun that are involve...

  Video In order for the player to be optimally engaged, challenges should be presented at a level equivalent or slightly higher than their current skill. Not too easy, not too hard”( Gigity McD ) The word 'flow state' was coined by Csikszentmihalyi (1975) also known as being “in the zone” This is when the player is fully engaged in the game experience. Csikszentmihalyi put a lot of work into observing and analyzing various groups of people. This theory is focused on the idea of how people should balance their skills and the demands of particular tasks. An example of Flow would be a challenge in a game that interests the player such as a puzzle or a boss battle meant to keep the player interested and not get bored. Csikszentmihalyi also states that flow is related to an ideal psychological condition when a person engages in a challenge-skill activity, often resulting in concentration and a focused emphasis on a task. A practical technique for improving Flow is to look at what ...

  ( Source:   Youtube ) What is the GDD for? A Game Design Document (GDD) is a blueprint for the design and development of a game. The GDD is a way of being creative and documenting the approach to the development of the game.  Gonzale  (2016) states that “ the important thing is to have something that describes your game project (or any other project for that matter) before jumping into production.(  Gamasutra  ) It should help to plan out your game. Though it is recommended that the GDD should be short it needs to be detailed enough so as game developers and artists can coordinate the development of the game independently whilst still keeping to the design. The GDD is a blueprint for how the game is going to be designed and built, similar to a mind map. In conclusion, the game design document is vital to making a game and it is important to have in order to describe your game project. How do we make one? There are a variety of tools that could be used to ...

  MDA image This week for my readings I look into the Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics (MDA) framework of game design. The first reading I delved into was  MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research  by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek. This was a very in-depth look into what the MDA framework is and how it is applied to the majority of aspects in game design.  'Mechanics describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms. Dynamics describes the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each others outputs over time. Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game system.' When setting out to design a brand new game, game designers often take inspiration from games of a similar nature and add aspects of that to their own game. When doing so you have to ask yourself 'what is it that makes this game fun?' ...

  In a previous blog post I made, which can be found  here , I talked in depth about What is a Game? Today I looked into different elements within a game. The first article I read was  What are the Qualities of Games?  by Ian Schreiber. In this paper Schreiber explained that elements of a game include: Players Objectives  Rules Resources and Resource Management  Game State Information Sequencing  Player Interaction Theme (Narrative, Backstory, Setting) Games as Systems He also goes into critical analysis of a game and why it is necessary. Upon hearing the word critical many of people assume that it is a negative look into a game, pointing out it flaws, but in fact it is not. Critical analysis is in fact an in-depth and unbiased look at the game at hand. This is important for game developers because if a game is fun, they want to know why it is fun so they know that that element of the game works and can be carried out in their future work. As well as p...

  What is a game? If you put this question to a hundred people you would, without doubt, get one many different answers. Before conducting some research on the topic I would have said it an activity that involves making choices which results in either winning or losing, but I know realise it is much more complicated than that. The article linked goes into much more depth about what a game is. Even though there are many different answers to the question, there is not one exact right answer which should be used as there are so many various ways to answer it. There are however facts about what games are which include: Games are an activity  Games have rules  Games have goals  Games involve decision making  In order to make your own game or to explain a game to another person it is important that you understand the correct vocabulary to use as it shows a greater understanding of what you are talking about.    Game controller Moving on from a what the defin...