Weekly team assessment

We had a meeting on Friday after the class to discuss the details of the game. The first thing we need to do is to complete the game documentation and prepare for the presentation for the next class. We quickly divided the part and I was put in charge of writing characters and game world concept.

2nd Game Critiques #2 - Starcraft: Brood war

This game offers several different game play modes to the players; however it can be mainly divided into a story mode where a player can enjoy the background story of the game and a custom play mode where a player can play the game without the limitation that set by the story mode.
A story mode is a stage where the player follows a given instruction and completes the objective. The instruction is usually based on the scenario that written by the game maker. A player can enjoy the storyline that provided by the game or he/she can choose to ignore the story and just follow the instruction. There are several different stages through out the story mode. In some cases, a player only can only control the single or several units in order to finish the stage whereas some round actually offers a basic set of base: workers, main buildings and some defense units. The challenges that a player has to overcome also vary time to time. In some cases, a player needs to destroy the enemy bases without losing a certain unit from the base. However, sometimes a player must hold the base from the enemy attacks within the time limit. Although story mode offers varieties of challenges and interactive model, the perspective of game play is always the same and never changes: omnipotent view.
A custom play mode does not limited by the boundaries that defined in the story mode. In the story mode, a player must follow the given instruction to complete the stage; however a custom play mode does not have any instruction to follow. A player is usually given a basic set of units: four workers and main resource building. By using those basic units, the only objective that needs to complete for this mode is to destroy the enemy on the same game. The challenges that a player may encounter during the game are quite similar to the one that experienced in a story mode. Although a player does not have to save a unit from enemy base or eliminates a certain unit from the game, a player will have to make similar tactical decision such as displacements of units or effective usage of gathered resources in terms of game playing. The whole perspective of the game is also same as story mode.

2nd Game Critiques #1- Need for speed: Most wanted

This game has two different game play modes: racing mode and customization mode. A racing mode is mainly about the racing against the other cars. In this game, a player can change the perspective of views so a player can have a better understanding of the situation. For example, third person view provides a better view for the rears and surrounding of the cars compare to the first person view. With this information, a player needs to maneuver the car carefully by using a keyboard or a controller. Challenges for this mode are always same. It’s about how to run faster than others and avoid any obstacles in the closed circuit. A customization mode is a bit different than racing mode. In this mode, a player can purchase or modify a car to win the upcoming race. As a player advances to the next level, the game usually gets harder. The other racers will get a much faster car so a player needs to prepare for that. The only challenges for this mode is how to assemble the given car component to improve the car performance. Since the customization mode is not about the racing, it doesn’t require a first person view, hence it’s usually in third person view.

1st Game Critiques #2 - Starcraft: Brood war

-Game concepts: This is a real time strategy war game by Blizzard. A player choose one of the race, terran, zerg and protoss, and compete each other. A player must gather resource located on the map and build an army and destroy the enemy. Each race has its own unique style of units therefore winning a game depends on how the player uses it

- Why I love this: There are two things that make this game fun; Challenge and competition. Before this game, the other real time strategy game only had a computer as an opponent. Although computer can make a precise decision when it comes to the unit control, it cannot react well against any new strategy that a human player uses. However, this game offers a free online game server that people can access and play against other human players in the world. This makes the game so much fun because people don’t play like a computer so there is never same pattern in the play hence it’s more challenging.

1st Game Critiques #1- Need for speed: Most wanted

Need for speed: Most wanted

-Game concepts: This is well known racing game that made by Electornic Arts. There are several different versions of the game. In some series, a player can play as pro racer or some cop that pursuits an illegal street racer. However, in this series, a player, well known street racer, must beat up bunch of other street racers by racing while avoiding any pursuits from cops.

-Why I love this: There are several reasons that I love this game. One of them is a player can buy cars that he/she can only dream of in the reality. In the game, a player earns money by defeating a competitor and can buy new and better car. All cars are based on famous cars from the reality and whenever I buy one of them, it actually gives a feeling that I owned them. Another reason that I love this game is a story. Although this is racing game, it also has a story plot that draws a player into the game. It gives me a sense of purpose in the game while I play it.

Game concept

Here's my game concept

http://www.sfu.ca/~sungsoos/IAT410/MonoRail.ppt

Unfortunately, people didn't love my idea :(

Hello, World!

Name: Daniel(Sung-soo) Shin

Contact info: sungsoos@sfu.ca