Crafting a Dekonstruer 3

The game that I'll do my final Dekonstruer on is a game that has been released for quite awhile and during it's release it was an uncommon game during its time. It is an Action MMORPG that goes by the name Vindictus. Most MMORPGs (at least what I've played) had the same play style where you click on an enemy any just spam the skill buttons on your keyboard, which I got really bored of and almost every MMORPG was like this until I started to play Vindictus which combines a regular MMORPG with action hack and slash elements. Just by making it hack and slash kept me playing the game for many years.

Objectives and Goals
Just like most MMOs the main objective is to complete the main quest and progress through the story line. In Vindictus, players can set their own objectives within the game such as crafting a set of high level gear, or becoming the strongest player in PvP, or be part of the most dominating guild in the game. The game is still active, so every few months a new "chapter" for their story is release and along with that comes new content and features. This gives the players more objectives to complete if they so wish to do so.

Characters
There are currently six characters the player can choose at the beginning of the game. Some characters have unique play styles and every character has 2 weapons that can alternate their play styles. Even though there are classes such as a mage or warrior class, Vindictus doesn't name their characters this way. The class names are their character names and each character has their own back story.

Lann - A dual wield class that can use either two sword, or two spears. The difference between the weapons is that swords offer more survivalbility (they have a mechanic called invincibility frame that will be explained later) because they are more mobile, and spears deal a lot more damage but has a higher risk of taking damage.
Fiona - A defender class that uses a shield in one hand, and either a sword or hammer in the other hand. When using a sword they are quicker with their attacks, and with a hammer, their attacks are much more powerful but lack the speed that a sword has.
Evie - A mage class that uses either a staff or a scythe. When using a staff, Evie has the lowest survivalbility and mobility, compared to the other classes, but she can cast powerful spells from a distance as well as the provide crowd control abilities such as freezing enemies and she is the only class that can heal other players. When using a scythe, she is much more mobile because she gains the ability to blink. She can no longer use any of her spells but she becomes a melee fighter when using a scythe.
Karok - Another defender or tank class that uses either a giant pillar to fight or a claw arm called a Cestus. Using a pillar has more damage than using a Cestus, but a cestus is much quicker but also gives Karok the ability to use some ranged attacks when fighting.
Kai - A archer class that uses a bow or a crossgun (combination of a crossbow and assault rifle). A bow provides more utility by giving the player the ability to knock back enemies even bosses. Crossgun has a ammo system and has less range than the bow but deals a lot more damage over time.
Vella - Vella is similar to a Lann because shes a female dual wielder. She either uses dual swords or dual chain blades. Swords have a longer combo chain and is more mobile. Chain blades are mid ranged Chakrams that can be thrown at enemies can can be used as a grappling hook. They can pull non boss monster to the player, or pull the player towards the enemy.

Mechanics
Vindictus' main mechanic is their invincibility frame which is that when a character does a certain action, they take no damage for a short amount of time. This creates a skill cap where players utilize this feature to avoid enemy attacks. Why this doesn't make the game unbalanced is because most of the bosses have a large hit box range and as a melee character, players will just take to much damage without being able to dodge the attacks. Invincibility frames are really quick as well. The longest invincibility frames are from sword Lanns and sword Vellas with a 0.5 seconds invincibility frame, the the shortest is 0.2 seconds from spear Lanns and Fionas.
Vindictus is an instance base game which means that there is no open world, instead players can queue up with each other on the boat (a lobby for the instance) or in town. In these instances, maps are either linear or semi-linear. Linear maps generally have a single boss a player can fight whereas semi-linear instances can have multiple bosses in certain areas of the level.

Crafting
Vindictus has its own crafting system that the player can use to make equipment. The crafting system in broken into 5 categories.

Armoursmithing - Players can craft light and heavy armours
Platesmithing - Players can craft shields and plate armours
Weaponsmithing - Players can craft swords, hammers, pillars, cestus' and chain blades
Tailoring - Players can craft cloth armour
Goldsmithing - Players can craft accessories, staves, scythes, bows and crossguns

A player can choose to specialize into one of these categories. As they level up their crafting level they can make higher level equipment.

Resources
Like in most games, the main resource in Vindictus is money. Money is a valuable resource that is used to purchase items from NPCs, other players use for certain crafting, opening guilds and repairing equipment. Money is the only way to obtain items from other players, since Vindictus has no player to player trading system. Players put their items they wish to sell on a market place and other players purchases it. Money isn't the only resource in the game, there are materials that can only be obtained through combat. Certain bosses drop certain materials that can be used to craft or upgrade equipment.

Combat

Even though there is a PvP element to the game, Vindictus is more a PvE game where players would team up together to take down a large and powerful boss monster. The game was design initially as PvE so that is pretty balanced, but in PvP there are certain characters that are stronger than other characters making some people avoid PvP all together. In the PvE aspects of the game, players must fight through a bunch of enemies to make it to the boss map, where they will have to fight the boss. Pretty simple and straight forward. There are some maps where the players are given extra weaponry such as the ballista, a giant crossbow turret that can to lock down bosses from moving. This makes fighting a lot easier and also requires teamwork and team coordination to effectively do.

Crafting a Dekonstruer 2

There have been many real time strategy games that have been released such as Age of Empires, Dawn of War, and Command and Conquer. But none of these games has ever gotten to the same popularity as Starcraft II. Starcraft II had become popular for its engaging gameplay, releases of additional features and amazing storytelling. Starcraft II sold over 3 million copies, making it the fastest selling real-time strategy game of all time.

Objective:
The objective in Starcraft II is to destroy all your enemies structure and units. To do this, the player must build up a strong enough army to fight against his/her opponent. The player can harvest resources to build up an army to fight the opponent or they can choose to build another base near resources to increase the amount of resources the player gets. The player will have to advance their army to the enemies base to try and wipe them out.

Race Types and Play styles:
In Starcraft II, the player can play one of 3 races every match. These are Terran, human forces with sci-fi weaponry and structures, Protoss who are aliens who also have their own sci-fi technology and psionic powers and  the Zerg, a horrific alien race with many creatures with many fangs and claws. Although there are 3 races, each race has a certain play style that goes a long with each race.
Terran: Terran are a human race that are very adaptable. They have a special ability where their structures can "lift off" and move their structures on another part of the map. Their ability to adapt to any situation makes them the most versatile race.
Protoss: The Protoss are the only race that has the ability to warp in units and structures instantly, where the other 2 races require lengthy time to build structures and units. They are also the only race where all their units have shields along with their health. The play style for most Protoss player is to split the enemy force or slowly pick off the enemy army.
Zerg: They mass up a large army and try to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers and force. Zergs also have a territory bonus where if they stand on "creep" (black goo that is required to build structures) all zerg units will gain movement speed.

Macro vs Micro:
In Starcraft II, there are two types of management in the game that helps the player win, they are called Macro and Micro.
Macro: Macro manages the structures and overall economy of your force. Expanding the base, building structures, increasing army/worker count all increase a player's Macro.
Micro: Micro is the management of units where the player will effectively use their army the most effective way as possible. A common example is where you have a ranged unit vs a melee unit. To maximize the ranged units damage and minimize the damage the unit takes, the player moves away from the melee unit and attacks between intervals to do damage while avoiding the enemy.

Example of Micro

Resources:
There are 2 main resources in the game, each has a different use. Minerals are the base resources and is used in almost all unit and structure development, whereas Vespen Gas is for upgrades and higher tier units. Since gas is more scarce than minerals (there are 2 places to get gas per base and about 8-10 mineral spots per base). There is also the yellow mineral which players called "high yield" because when harvested, these minerals give twice the amount of the regular minerals. The only problem is, the "high yield" minerals are usually located at a highly contested and risky area, the middle of the map. Basically the "high yield" is high risk and high reward, if someone manages to harvest these, they will gain a lot more minerals that the other player.

Units:
Units can be broken down between workers/harvestors and fighters. Works/harvestors are used to obtain minerals and Vespen Gas, where as fighters cannot obtain resources but they can fight against other units. There are 4 types of armoured units, none, light, heavy and massive, the defensive capabilities increase where none is the lowest defense and massive is the most defense. Where it is true that having units with massive defense would be ideal, it most likely will never happen due to the fact that the more heavily armoured the unit is, the more resources the player needs to invest in. Sometimes it would be better to have no defense or light armoured units because they are more cost efficient. Also there care certain units that deal bonus damage to light, heavy and massive armoured targets. Enemies also have 2 attributes, either ground units or air units. Some units can attack only air, some can attack only ground and there are some units that can attack both ground and air units.

Combat:
Early on in a match, players will have small armies where they will either use to defend their base, scout the map, or harass the enemy player by attacking their workers/harvestors. As the game slowly drags on the players army size slowly begin to increase, and small skirmishes begin to happen. These small skirmishes can help the winner of these skirmishes usually decide to attack the enemy base to try to destroy one of their structures, so the opponent must use some of their resources to rebuild, slowly hindering them more. Later into the game, when large armies begun to erupt, usually means the players are ready for a fight that can either win the game or lose the game.

Strategy:
Strategy is key to winning in Starcraft II. With a solid strategy followed up by great execution, a player can easily overcome an enemy. Strategies can be either what units the player should have in their army, or how the player plans to attack the enemy base. There are other strategies called "Cheese" where the player would use uncommon methods to throw the opponent of their game. These "cheese" strategies are effective but most people look down upon them because  the opponent expects the player to play seriously and standard.

Crafting a Dekonstruer 1

League of Legends has been growing in popularity over the years since their official release in October 27, 2009. Players really enjoy the game and the player base increases over the years. But what makes League of Legends such a popular game? How is this game different from other games of its own genre or other genres? 

A reason why I think League of Legends has been growing in popularity is that the MOBA genre (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) which is what most people categorize this game, is a relatively new genre to a lot of people. Before League of Legends the only known MOBA games where DOTA, a mod from Warcraft III, and another game Heros of Newerth. With very few popular titles for this genre, this opens up the market to a whole new game. 

Goals and Objectives:

The winning condition for each match is to destroy the enemy Nexus, the opponent's main base. To get to the enemy Nexus, there are other structures  that must be destroyed such as a set of 3 towers in each lane was well as another structure in the base called the inhibitor. Additionally there are 2 more towers defending the Nexus itself from enemy attacks.

Nexus (Green/Orange) - Main building, once destroyed that team loses. 

Inhibitor ( Light Blue/Red) - When destroyed, a more powerful wave of minions (A.I controlled monsters that fight for the team) are summoned to help fight.

Towers (Dark Blue/ Purple) - Basic structures which act as turrets to hit enemies who come near it. 

Secondary Objectives:

There are also many minor objectives that help the players win the game. These objectives either give the players additional gold to spend or special buffs for their champion. To obtain the gold or buffs for your team, the player must secure the kill on these neutral monster located around the map. These objectives really help with the flow of the game and creates interesting game play because these objectives can become a double edge sword. The reason being is that there is always a risk that the enemy will steal these objectives. The higher the reward for the objective, the more pressure the enemy team will force on you. This is where either the losing team has a chance to come back into the game to win, or the winning team to push their advantage even further.

These are some of the objectives, listen from high risk/reward to low risk/reward

Baron Nashor - A purple buff that gives everyone on your team increase physical/magical damage as well as high health and mana regeneration

Dragon - Gives a lot of gold for your whole team

Ancient Golem/Elder Lizard - A blue/red buff that is given to the one player that kills the monster.

Roles/Champions

League of Legends has over 100 champions that have different play styles but fall into a generalized categories. Some champions fit into multiple categories because they can play fulfill multiple roles. With many roles and champions, teams can find multiple team compositions.

Tanks: Champions with high defensive capabilities that try to absorb as much of the damage as possible from the enemy team.

Mages: Deal high magic damage to the enemy team

Marksmen: Ranged Champions that deal high physical damage to the enemy team

Support: Either heal or provide other support such as using a lot of crowd control abilities (stuns, slow effects, etc) to protect their Marksmen and Mages.

Bruisers: Fighters who are slightly less durable than tanks but have enough damage to fight. They are usually good duelists.

Assasins: Champions with high mobility and high damage use to instantly kill priority targets such as the enemy marksman or mage.

Gold/Money:

Gold is the number one resource in League of Legends. With gold it allows the player to further develop their character by purchasing items for them. Items give the player stats such has armour, physical damage, health, etc. But why is gold and items so important for the game? It is because if player A has an item over player B, they have additional stats which gives player A an advantage in the game. Players who obtain these advantages earlier than the their opposition will have a much easier time fighting them. 

There are many ways in League of Legends to obtain gold for you and your team. The most basic way is to kill the enemy minions that slowly come out of your enemy's base. Other methods involve killing neutral monsters such as the dragon or Baron Nashor.

Ways to obtain Gold:

Enemy Minions - These give the player the least amount of gold individually but are the most reliable source of income since there is many of them and every wave of minions spawn every 30 seconds

Enemy Players - Killing an enemy will give you gold as well. If the enemy player is on a death spree, the gold they give will be less. It can even drop lower than killing regular minions. Players on a kill spree will give out bonus gold to their killer.

Objectives - All objectives will give out gold when killed/destroyed. These all include Dragon, Baron Nasher, Towers and inhibitors.

Conflict:

Fighting is a large part of the game. The map is divided into 3 lanes and the players are also divided up so in the early game, fights are usually small skirmishes usually with 2-4 players out of the total 10 players in the game. As the game progress and players start to get more items, they begin to group up and are ready to fight. But what is the point in fighting? Taking objectives such as a tower is slow if you try your own, but with the rest of your team it much faster. But the enemy team won't just let you take it for free, they will also try to stop you with their team. Which ever team wins a fight they can secure objectives for the team. Eventually these fights will will be the determining factor whether a player wins or loses the game.

Blog Quest 3: Becoming a Critic

            How do the formal elements of Terraria create such effective gameplay that makes Terraria such a popular game? First what are the formal elements? The formal elements of video games are players, objectives, procedures, rules, resources, conflict, boundaries and outcome.

Players - deals with how players interact

Objectives - deals with specific goals for the players

Procedures - actions or methods of play allowed by the game’s rules

Rules - dictate what the player can and cannot do

Resources - objects with high value for the player

Conflict - the procedure and rules that prevent the player from accomplishing goals directly

Boundaries - rules applied only in the game

Outcome - satisfying resolutions for emotional investments of players

            Player formal elements in Terraria allows for different interactions. The game can be played singleplayer or multiplayer. In singleplayer, the player interacts with the game itself, facing against A.I controlled enemies. In multiplayer, the player as many choices of interactions such as, multiple individual players vs the game, player vs player, Unilateral Competition, Multilateral Competition, Cooperative play and Team competition. As you can see, multiplayer gives the player freedom of how they would want to play the game as well as the Terraria lets the player choose and change how they would like to play the game at any time.

            Objectives in Terraria are not specific at all. The main reason is that the game is a sandbox game which gives the goals of the game to the player. The player creates his or her own goals within the game itself and can choose to complete these goals. These goals could be to beat a certain boss, get better gear, build structures, upgrade the structures, invite NPCs to live in your town, etc. If the player finds that a certain objective is too difficult, they can drop this objective and move onto a new one.

            Procedures in Terraria are pretty straight forward. First the player has nothing but a few basic tools. They then must gather resources and slowly build structure and create better tools/weapons. They can use these upgraded tools to fight monsters that will drop specific items that will be needed to craft more powerful equipment. The player can also build their city, which allows for NPCs to move into their city to give more options to the player. The cycle continues on and on until the player chooses to stop. Since sandbox games generally don’t have a clear end objective, the player will only be finished the game, when they decide so.

            Rules in Terraria tell the player what they can and cannot do. The rules are the building blocks of the game. There are certain conditions that must be met throughout the game. When crafting an item, the player needs the correct items as well as the correct number of items before they can create the new item. Some of the restricting actions in Terraria are that the player has a jump limit (it can be changed with certain items), and the player can only player blocks within a certain range. Determining effects in Terraria is that the player has a certain spawn point. This spawn point can only change when the player has a bed placed on the ground.

            Resources in Terraria are plentiful throughout the whole world. The game gives the player more resources than just the bare minimum to reach maximum status. Some of these resources are used for crafting such as minerals (diamonds, iron, gold), wood, etc. Other resources affect player stats such as heart containers that increase player’s maximum health capacity, and stars which can be used to increase the player’s maximum mana capacity. There are other resources such as materials dropped by certain monsters, money, or items that only spawn in a certain location.

            Conflict in Terraria plays a large part in how the gameplay works. The player cannot evade conflict within the game. Some of these conflicts can be broken down into obstacles, opponents and dilemmas. An obstacle in Terraria would be how the environment is set up. There could be certain blocks that prevent the player from advancing. To continue the player would require a higher tier pickaxe or navigate around the blocks. There are many opponents in Terraria from weak common monsters to big bosses that can give the player additional resources. Dilemmas are also frequent in Terraria. When the player’s inventory is full, and they find a new item, they must decide what item to toss away or to leave this new item that they have acquired.

            Boundaries in Terraria limit what the player can do. The player has a certain number of inventory space. The player cannot exceed this number no matter how hard they try. There is also a limit of how much health the player can have. As well has a limit to how much stackable items can be held in a single slot (typical blocks stack up to 999 whereas potions stack up to 30).

            Outcome in Terraria is what happens after the player’s action. If the player dies, the outcome would be that the player will lose something. If the player creates a softcore character, the player will lose money. If the player creates a mediumcore character, the player will lose items. If the player creates a hardcore character, the player will lose the whole character when they die. After the player builds a room in their city, a NPC may move in to their down to provide services for the player such as selling items or healing the player.

            This gameplay is effective because the formal elements work well with each other. It created a world that is a sandbox game at its core, with options to upgrade certain aspect of the game. Limitations are placed to control and create challenges for the player to overcome. The player can show their creativity by building and expanding on their town or customizing their character to their own style. The player is given multiple ways to play the game with or without other players.

            The owner chose these game design elements because they wanted to create a world where the player has the freedom to build but with many difficulties and limitations that the player will face as they progress through the game. They will find that if they do no beat a certain boss or explore the world, the player is strictly limited into what they want to do in the world. As they progress through the world, some of these limitations will be removed giving the player more freedom to expand their world and their character.

Blog Quest 2: Design your game item

            In most MMORPGs, the player is only able to wield a single weapon such as a sword, axe or bow. What if the player can equip a hybrid of these weapons, such as the gunblade from Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 13? The gunblade feature two different weapons in one, a gun and a sword. This can change the play style of typical MMORPGs where the fighting style is static, (for example melee fighters would always be melee fighters).

            Having a hybrid weapon in a MMORPG can change how the general combat system would work. If a warrior now wields a gunblade, they can either choose to brawl with the enemy up close with the sword or choose to kite the enemy with the gun. With two types of weapons, at least two new play styles can be used in a fight. A more dynamic battle system would change how the game is played and may create more strategy for the player.

            Hybrid weapons would also remove a “profession/class/job system” since now a warrior can both shoot from afar and fight in melee range. This gives more freedom to the players. They do not have to be limited in their own role but they can choose to be. An example of this would be a player who loves melee fighting could have a hybrid weapon of a large 2 handed sword and dual daggers. This will create a melee oriented player, but it also as two different styles of play. A high damage with a large reach but slow 2 handed sword and a quick but low damage with a short reach dual daggers. With the removal of a “class system” the spells and skills of a player would now be with the weapons themselves. The player will learn sword skills if they equip swords, where as they will learn gun skills if they use guns. Instead of having multiple weapon skills generalized in a class (such as a warrior), it is much more specific and more oriented to the weapons the player use. General skill/spells would be given to all players and the players may choose to train these skills/spells.

            With the skills/spells being given to weapons instead of classes, this gives more freedom to parties. A typical party would have a tank, high damage dealers, and healers, but with hybrid weapons and no classes, this lets players play multiple roles at a time. Players don’t have to and can focus on a single role, but it gives more diversity to a party. In MMORPGs, finding the right party members are difficult because maybe there is no healer, or a tank. But a with hybrid weapons, a player can play different roles and also swap roles with their teammates. This creates a more strategic battle and can also create a more competitive fight with other players or clans.

            With so much freedom, limitations must be placed for these hybrid weapons. Some limitations could be that only 2 types of weapons can be combined, (gun + sword, not gun + sword + staff). This gives the player enough freedom to swap between two roles, but not allow a single player to be the “god” player where they can use every weapon and play every single role.

            Hybrid weapons create a more dynamic combat environment because the player can play multiple play styles during combat. There would be no more class system because the player can now freely wield any combination of weapons that they so choose. This creates multiple roles that can be played by each player because there is no more class system. The player can choose to play a specific role though, so if a player enjoys playing the backline healer, they can use weapons that are specific to that class and play that role out during fights. I know a few MMORPGs that allow the player to use multiple types of weapons, but none of them can change during combat or it is not effective to change weapons during combat. With the addition to hybrid weapons such as the gunblade, the player can have more freedom during combat in MMORPGs.

Blog Quest 1: Emotional Contagion

I have played a lot of video game in my lifetime, and none of them has particularly moved me emotionally. But, there were a few games that sparked my imagination. When I play some video games and I get really interested in the game, I feel as if I was the main character and that I am the one living the life of these characters.

One of these games was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time that I played a lot of when I was little. This was probably my first game I played where you have a no-named child become a knight and saves a princess. I thought that was really cool and that Link, the protagonist, was amazing for doing all of this. He was just a little kid just like I was, yet he went through all these adventures, fought his way through difficult monsters and dungeons just to save one person. I imagined myself in Link’s shoes playing through the story of Ocarina of Time all the time when I was little. The stories of a hero saving a princess are really common but Ocarina of Time was one of my first games that had a story like this. I have read books with this kind of scenario, but reading and playing a video game is completely different. I feel video games are more in-depth because not only do you get immersed in the narrative, the visuals and audio are well done to make it feel as if you are in Link himself.

Another game or game franchise that sparked my imagination was the Kingdom Heart series. I loved how Kingdom Hearts had one of their themes as the classic Darkness verses Light. They had a unique story of how these enemies called Heartless would take people hearts and turn them into Heartless themselves. Another interesting thing that I thought was cool when I was little was that the main weapon in the game was a sword called the Keyblade. The Keyblade was a giant key that the protagonist used like a sword. When I was little, I would always think what would happen if this situation happened in our world, where a key is a mighty weapon that can open many locks and that it can defeat any enemy. If I had a keyblade I would be able to open many doors into the different worlds and explore all of them. I think that would be an awesome thing to do if I had a keyblade.

Stories are a very interesting asset that could emotionally grab a person’s interest. I think a video game with a great story is the middle point between a book and a movie. The details and visuals really help bring players into the video game world where their character lives in. Everyone has a game they can never forget. These games are the ones where the players have been emotionally moved or these video games had sparked the imagination of the players. I hope I can find a game in the future that could make me feel the same way as Ocarina of Time and Kingdom Hearts.

Grind Quest: Skills, Goals and Feedback

Feedback is important in a game because it give the player information about the character and the world in the game. One of the most common types of feedback is visual feedback. Visual feedback is typically shown in the player’s HUD. The next common type of feedback is audio feedback. This is sound that is played to let the player know what it going on in the game at a given moment. These two are the main types of feedback in most games out in the market.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a classic game where the player controls the protagonist, Link, to save the world and rescue the princess. Visual feedback in the game is mostly in the main HUD as well as the in game menu. The HUD displays Link’s Health, Magic bar (MP or mana), what equipment is currently being used as well as an ammo counter that tells the player how much ammo is left in Link’s slingshot or bow. Visual feedback in the menu displays Link’s inventory, as well as the map. The map is only revealed if Link has explored that part of the map. Visual feedback is not only static like the HUD or menu, but also when an enemy receives damage or when the player receives damage, the character will glow red for a short amount of time. This tells the player that damage has been dealt.

The HUD in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Audio Feedback typically happens when an event or trigger has occurred in the game. Things such as when Link blocks an attack with his shield, a metallic sound is played to tell the player Link has successfully blocked the attack. Also sometimes when the enemy dies, they create a sound letting the player know that the enemy has died.

Combat is a major part of the game. Link has to fight many monster and bosses to reach the ultimate goal which is to rescue the Princess Zelda. When Link is fighting bosses the player must notice the feedback given by the game, both visual and audio. The bosses in the game are not regular mobs and will not die the same way, but with the aid of visual and audio feedback in the game, the player will have to figure out how to properly defeat the bosses in the game.

Unlike some first person shooters, when using ranged weapons in Ocarina of Time, the player’s aim is assisted with the help of the game’s “Z-targeting”, which is basically the player can lock onto the target to used their ranged weapons. This makes it easy for the player to use ranged weapons. The game also challenges the mind of the player because it incorporates puzzle solving mini-game in dungeons as well as the open world itself.

Z-targeting in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Battlefield 3:

In a first person shooter game, feedback is really important to the player. There is a hard-core mode but that is for the more advanced players. In general Battlefield 3 or any first person shooter game needs to keep track of things such as ammo, weapons and maybe even the aiming reticle on some weapons. This is why the HUD is really important in a first person shooter game. Information is key to winning a battle.

The HUD gives the player a lot of information such as ammo remaining in your guns, grenades remaining and the mini map. The visual feedback of the HUD tells the player how much ammo is remaining in the current magazine of the gun, as well as how much reserve ammo the gun has. The mini map is the most important part of a tactical game such as Battlefield 3 because it gives you a basic layout of the surround area as well as tells you where your squad mates are.

Basic HUD in Battlefield 3

Audio feedback is used a lot in Battlefield 3. Gun sounds are all unique from one another. A sniper shot sound much more devastating than a shot from a handgun. A silenced weapon is more muffled that a gun without a silencer. This lets the player know what kind of guns you are using as well as others are using. Each vehicle has its own type of sound they make. Land vehicles such as tanks sound more bulky than a Blackhawk. Basic sounds like this can let a player know what kind of vehicle is nearby. One unique audio feedback in the more recent Battlefield games is that the player shouts out what is happening to their character. Things such as “I need ammo”, “I need a med pack” or “enemy spotted”. This really helps and lets teammates know what to do in that situation whether to give ammo or health, or to be careful of an enemy or shoot at the enemy.

By combing both the audio and visual feedback, the players will have a more in-depth experience to a military war being fought. Information is given to the players via visual feedback and audio feedback, where they will have to use this to lead the team to a victory.

I split skills into 2 main categories. There are tactical skills where the player develops strategies to take down opponents and complete objectives, and mechanical skills where the player has fast reactions and great aiming during a gun fight. A combination of both tactical and mechanical skills will be needed to successfully complete objectives and lead to the team victory.

League of Legends

Like any tactical game, information is important. League of Legends is like any other tactical game where the HUD is the main source of information. Like I said before, the HUD is most games is the most important part of visual feedback for video games, especially tactical objective based games such as Starcraft, DOTA and League of Legends.

The HUD in League of Legends gives the most important information about the player, basic stats such as physical damage, magic damage, resistances, etc. as well as the minimap, player kills, deaths and assists. The HUD also shows what the player has bought in terms of items as well as how much current gold the player has. All the basic information that a League of Legend player needs is on the HUD. Another visual feedback is when an objective has been completed or if a kill/death happens in the game, the game will show a message of the event that had just happened. This gives the player information that 1 of their players is dead and they should not fight 4 versus 5 or a tower has been destroyed.

Basic HUD in League of Legends

The audio feedback in league of legends goes hand in hand with the visual feedback. When an event happens a pre-recorded voice will say what event had just happen such as “Blue team has slain the dragon” or “Your turret has been destroyed”. League of Legends also has an interesting “pinging” system where any player can mark a part of the map that will indicate what you or others are trying to tell your fellow teammates without typing. Some of these pings are “Danger”, “On my way”, “Fall back” etc. Each ping is has its own indicator on the minimap as well as a unique sound that plays for each type of ping.

Conveying information to your team is important to win a game in League of Legends or any tactical videogame. The feedback given by the HUD, minimap, and the pings, can signal objectives for your team to complete so no one is sitting around questioning what to do next. The more objectives are taken, the more likely that the team will win.

League of Legends skills are divided just like the categories in Battlefield 3, tactical and mechanical. Tactical skills is game knowledge of where and what should the team put pressure on, such as an objective. Tactical skills could also be forming the “ideal” team to put a certain strategy into place. Mechanical skills is the person’s ability to kite (hit the enemy while taking the least amount of damage possible), fast reaction times and judging when to hit a minion (monster that generate gold for players) also called last hitting.

I think successful games require multiple levels of skill to play and beat. The more difficult a game is doesn't necessarily make the game fun. A variety of skill levels should be allowed for all games. Combining different skills such as in Ocarina of Time, where they combine puzzle solving and combat to create a fun action/adventure videogame.

In my own personal game, combining different skills into a game creates a more dynamic and interesting game. People generally like to stimulate their minds so a combination of a puzzle game along with another skill type would be really interesting. A good example of this is the Uncharted series. Naughty Dog did an amazing job integrating puzzle solving along with their adventure game. So I would create a game that require a player’s puzzle solving skills to beat along with other skills the player may need.