Exercise 1.4: Game Journal

"Start a game journal. Don’t just try to describe the features of the game, but dig deeply into the choices you made, what you thought and felt about those choices, and the underlying game mechanics that supports those choices. Go into detail; look for the reasons why various mechanics of the game exist. Analyze why one moment of gameplay stands out and not another. Commit to writing in your game journal every day." (Fullerton, 2014, p. 10)

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Cats are Liquid: A Better Place
“You play as the cat, in a place created just for you and your friends. You get to go on a nice adventure with them where nothing goes wrong and everything is perfect, as long as your friends stay there, right by your side.
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This game contains dark story elements, including strong feelings of abandonment and detachment from reality. This game is not for children.” (Last Quarter Studio, 2021).

I tried out this game to unwind at the end of the night and was immediately pulled in by the story.  Growing up playing Mario games, the platformer levels and controls I found to be extremely easy.  I don’t like such easy and boring games, but the story drew me in and on reflection, I doubt the story alone would be engaging enough. The combination of the gameplay and story ultimately is what kept me playing.  I particularly enjoy how intertwined the game and story is - characters come and go from the story and appear in the game sometimes offering new tools and ways to interact.  Cats are Liquid: A Better Place was so fascinating in that it combined such a complex and intense set of emotions through the story and in conjunction with a simple platformer game – a fine example that “a game can certainly be made out of any problem space, provided the designers are innovative enough” (Gee, 2008, p. 231).


Age of Empires 2
“A real-time strategy game that focuses on building towns, gathering resources, and creating armies to defeat opponents. Players conquer rival towns and empires as they advance one of 13 civilizations through four ‘Ages’” (Wikipedia, 2021).

I mostly play this game on the same team with a friend, remotely, against other people around the world.  With human teammates and opponents, the gameplay is very dynamic and is always different.  It is more often than not frustratingly challenging.  The interesting thing about this game (and most other real-time strategy games) is that the player makes many quick decisions and every single choice made dictates the future position you will be in. It can be extremely stressful, but for the most part I feel ‘on’ – alert, ready, and in a state of flow, where great skill and confidence meet a high level of challenge.  This feeling can be addicting.  

Alto’s Adventure
“In this gorgeous twist on the infinite runner, you guide an agile snowboarder down a never-ending mountain, pulling off backflips over icy chasms and grinding along rooftops in sleepy villages. Simple one-finger controls make it instantly accessible, but tackling each level’s trio of challenges requires deft reflexes” (Alto's Adventure, 2015).

The controls are very basic and your moves are limited.   The beautiful visuals draw me in.  There are very few ways to end your run – hitting a rock, executing backflip poorly, getting caught by the bandit, or not jumping across a chasm.  Although backflips offer very few extra points, I am compelled to try and perform a backflip at any opportunity even though I often do not complete the backflip, landing upside down, and ending my run.  So why do I keep on trying if it is the majority of the reason why I lose?  Is it to squeeze in some more action?  Or is it easier to act in some way as opposed to just watch and wait for the player to continue.  Controls in this game are very limited. One tap jumps, and when you tap and hold, the snowboarder will jump and rotate and continue to rotate so long as the tap is held.   

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Exercise 2.2: Players

"Describe how players might join or start a game of Go Fish versus single-player Quake. What steps do they need to take in each case—social, procedural, or technical? There will clearly be differences in the beginning of a multiplayer card game versus a single-player digital game, but are there also similarities? If so, describe them." (Fullerton, 2014, p. 33)

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In both Go Fish and Quake, players need to decide to play, have the components necessary to play (i.e. cards and a game system), and learn to play.  
Go Fish contains social steps as it is played by many people in one physical location while Quake is played alone, more often than not, at home.  

Learning to play occurs in a very different way for a physical card game versus a digital game.  In physical games, the players are in charge of arbitrating the rules of play and therefore must have a significant level of understanding before playing but in digital games, the game design can limit the player and the player explores the game's rules as they play (Fullerton, 2014).

 

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Exercise 2.3: Objectives

"List five games, and in one sentence per game, describe the objective in each game." (Fullerton, 2014, p. 35)

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Age of Empires 2 – the objective is to conquer your opponents by having the strongest military and economy to support it.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – the objective is seal the evil Calamity Ganon and restore peace to Hyrule.

World of Goo – The objective is to get a certain number of goo balls to the exit pipe by utilizing them to construct structures in order to overcome obstacles.

Jungle Speed – the objective is to be the first player to get rid of all of their cards.
 

Hive – the objective is to surround your opponents queen bee before your queen bee is surrounded.

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Exercise 2.4: Rules

"Can you think of a game that has no rules? If so, describe it. How about one rule? Why is this exercise difficult?" (Fullerton, 2014, p. 35)

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Life, war, and love may be considered games with no rules but likely shifts this conversation into philosophy.  There are ‘formal elements’ such as players, objectives, procedures, resources, and conflict however, all are undefined and a matter of perspective of the player.   Fullerton (2014), states “to become a player, one must voluntarily accept the rules and constraints of a game” (p. 33).  So does one choose to ‘play’ life?  What about war or love?  
So for the purpose of game design, it is better to say no, I cannot think of a game that has no rules.

The one rule of the simplest variation of tag is: the ‘it’ person can tag people, and when done so, relieves themselves of being the ‘it’ person and transfers ‘it’ to that other person – ‘tag, you’re it’.

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This exercise is so difficult because rules are a key structural element to games that define objects and concepts, restrict action, and determine effects (Fullerton, 2014). 

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Exercise 2.5: Conflict

"Compare and contrast the conflict in football to the conflict in poker. Describe how each game creates conflict for the players." (Fullerton, 2014, p. 36)

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I will interpret football as European football, or soccer, as I love the sport.

In all games, “players work to resolve [conflict] in their own favor” (Fullerton, 2014, p. 36).  The sources of conflict can arise between player-rules, player-opponent, and player-teammate.  

In both soccer and poker, the rules deter players from “accomplishing goals directly” (Fullerton, 2014, p. 36).  Rules are restricting and make the game objective more difficult to achieve.  For example, in soccer, the objective is to get the soccer ball in the opponent’s net but a rule is that a player cannot use their hands while in poker, a player must convince their opponent that they have the best scoring hand of cards but the

rules limit which cards are visible and/or the process to improving one’s cards.  In both cases, the rules are restricting and achieving the objective is made less efficient so players must use specialized skill and creativity to succeed.

Player versus opponent conflict arises as each player’s objectives are in direct opposition.  For example, in order for one player to win, the other must lose and vice versa.  This competition adds dynamic gameplay that can vary with each opponent as each player may approach an objective or behave differently under the same rules.
 

Player-teammate conflict is only present in soccer, and not poker, as poker is an individual game.  In soccer, teammates have a shared objective, and players of the same team must work together in order to succeed.

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Exercise 3.2: Three-Player Tic-Tac-Toe

"Create a version of tic-tac-toe that works for three players. You might need to change the size of the board or other elements of the game to do this." (Fullerton, 2014, p. 58)

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My three player version of Tic-Tac-Toe:
The objective remains the same – to be the first player to place their shape in three consecutive cells.
The game structure remains the same where each player takes a turn to draw their shape onto the 3x3 grid.

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