tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31354176243342399282023-11-15T22:18:30.420-08:00Thoughts, Reviews, Journals on GamesAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-23250496701485036882015-04-17T01:23:00.001-07:002015-04-17T01:29:46.534-07:00Mock Player Data Analysis of Marvel, Contest of Champions<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been playing Kabam’s new street fighting game, <i>Marvel, Contest of Champions</i> on mobiles
and I am interested in viewing the game from a bigger picture, how players as various
groups react to the systems and interact with the interfaces. So I did this
mock player data analysis. By saying “mock”, it means that all the scenarios
are my prediction and I didn’t bother to fake some statistics and to delve into
design changes/decisions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are two aspects that the player data can help us to
understand our games: what they like best and what is problematic for them. It
is not very meaningful to make assumptions on what they like, so I will focus
on the later one. Also, I am very interested in the systems and UI/UX design. So
I will talk about the intersection of them and below are the areas that I tackled
with:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; text-indent: -36pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-stretch: normal; text-indent: -36pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-stretch: normal; text-indent: -36pt;">I. </span><span style="font-stretch: normal; text-indent: -36pt;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -36pt;">System design</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><b>1. PvP system</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a) To fake or not to fake?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game has been pushing a PvP system and I think this mode
is fake. Because I feel that instead of fighting against a real player real
time, the players are just fighting against AI (which is understandable),
although the game is pulling out champions owned by real players.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We all know that players generate infinite content for a
game, so I think it would be super cool if they can actually fight against real
humans, or at least the experience could feel like more fun and different than fighting
AI in the quest mode.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I wonder how the players will rate the experience (AI in
PvP mode) without implying anything such as that they were not fighting against
real players. If many out of the testers are pretty sure that they were
fighting against AI and didn’t feel satisfying and dominating after defeating a
champion owned by another player, they might want to improve the AI and overall
experience in PvP mode.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">b) The intensity and reward system<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn’t play through many PvP seasons (and honestly, it was
because I felt frustrated by the system). But I know that each mobile game (actually
all the games on all platforms) have a life cycle. If the game asked you to
spend too much time, you probably don’t want to touch it again when the reward system
is not good enough. And even though it is pretty decent, it is dangerous to
over-motivate the player and break the curve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I really want to know the experience curve of players’
PvP experience in this game (like how many hours do they invest in PvP, and
time allocation between PvP and PvE; do they get bored after overplaying PvP in
a short period; if they keep playing very constantly, what drive them to do so;
do the reward system feel satisfying for them; do the reward grow as they
expected; etc).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Champion system</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game monetizes by selling crystals (that can open champions),
in-game currency and other stuff. Since the champions have tremendous impact on
the player’s performance and result of every single fight, I think the crystals
are the biggest selling point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just wonder which on-sale champions are more popular than
which, how many out of how many people paid for crystals after which champion
is released. And bring them back to analysis the champion design, such as the appearance,
the abilities, fight style, the specs, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><b>3. Balancing in difficulty (PvE mode)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The strongest feeling I had when progressing in the game
was, when I finished the first chapter in PvE mode, the quests suddenly felt
super hard to beat. I think the game tuned the difficulty on purpose. Because
the players who already went through the first chapter seem to like the game a
lot and it is just reasonable that they pay to get better. I simply wonder how
many among all the players who finished the first chapter paid right after the game
became harder for them, and what they bought (champions or other stuff). In
this case, we can learn about how to tune the balance to increase in-game
purchase.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -36pt;"><b>II. UX design</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="text-indent: -36pt;">1. </span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Game flow</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game already has a pretty smooth game flow. However,
when I played through the game, I was still confused by some designs. To be
more specific, there is chance that the player uses the “back” button on top
left corner to reach an interface that they have never been to during the
current play session.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want to know if the players would get confused by the flow and
whether they want buttons to make their life easier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><b>2. Items on upgrade interface</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are two systems to upgrade a champion, “level up” and “rank
up”. The two systems require totally different types of items and they already
designed a distinguish interface for “rank up” than the “level up” upgrade. I
have been confused why they also make “rank up” items available for the player
in “level up” upgrade. And when the player selects the “rank up” items (the
catalysts), a warning message will pop up, asking whether the player wants to “deselect”
or “continue”. If the player hits “continue”, the item will be consumed and it
grants 0 XP for the champion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This feels like a trap and it is very unfriendly. The game actually
allows the player to sell the catalysts for money and the player can purchase
in-game currency with real money. I understand that inflation has always been a
problem for video games. It is so easy to tell that the item has no effect on
the champion that I don’t think any player will keep pushing the “continue”
button. So I wonder how the players think/react to this design. I disliked the design a lot, because games
should always provide possibilities for the player to win in all cases. Since
there is no way to trade money between two players in the game, and the in-game
currency is not a big selling point. It is totally fine that even everything
gets convert to money eventually. And by doing this, the player also gains satisfaction
and a sense of ownership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I am really curious that how players react to this design
and what if they just not show the catalysts on “level up” interface.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><b>3. Other design changes I noticed</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been constantly checking this games since it came out,
so I noticed a couple of design changes they made so far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, they previously just added that, after
completing a daily quest, the player may purchase the awarded catalyst with a
discount. I think this is a pretty good design change. But I wonder how impactful
this offer is. Thinking from a player’s stand point, if I already earned this catalyst,
how much chance that I would like to buy another one (exactly the same catalyst)?
Since there are two conditions to get the specific catalyst without buying from
vault, completing the daily quest and opening the chest and getting it. So who
will encounter the scenario that they went through the quest but didn’t get the
specific catalyst? The ones who want/need the catalyst and didn’t get it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I would suggest that they try offering the discount for those
groups of players, as a compensation for the fact that they were just not lucky
so that they failed to get the catalyst. Because they are more likely to pay
for the catalyst than the ones who already get one after doing the quest.
Simply distributing two versions of this part can tell the effect of this
change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above are some thoughts on how to use player data from a big
picture to make design changes/decisions. There are more things I wanted to
address but couldn’t delve into. I hope video games can effectively use players’
actions and feedback to refine their design and to craft better gaming
experience. Games should be better than life and they can be perfect.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-2107011567403707742015-04-12T17:16:00.003-07:002015-04-12T17:21:42.890-07:00Reward System Analysis of Bloons TD 5<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b style="text-align: right; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><b style="text-align: right; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Overview</span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">As a popular casual game, Bloons TD 5 has nice reward
loops. The game is rich in content (turret/map/upgrades/etc.), so it has decent
replayability. Meanwhile, it is super time consuming (each play is 20 minutes
in average).</span><span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">II.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Reward System<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The game ties all the rewards to the experience points
(XP). Killing Bloons grants the player XP for the tower used to kill the Bloons
as well as the player’s account. Unlockables (new towers/upgrades/enemies/game
modes) come out as the player ranks up and the towers level up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">It is very easy to rank/level up at the beginning. The
speed slows down as the player progresses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Because of the reward system, new unlockables are
constantly being introduced to the player. Even I am already Rank 25, I still
get new content in an acceptable pace (I was dropping all types of towers in
order to unlock their upgrades as fast as possible).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Except the unlockables, the game also has accomplishments
being unlocked as the player does something that meets the condition, which is
rewarding to the player. But they don’t appear to be very meaningful, since
they are not real rewards. They are just badges representing what you achieve
in the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Below is a rough chart showing the content being unlocked
as the player ranks up. Rank 30~35 seem to be a turning point for the player,
since 80% of the content is available for the player by then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDj8qUC4CiIwErmYn4XIDf3UDp50dXhsZbrkHhu7Ee5G7J-oLb9EJ9oFPfVjTi9OeqCHKvIu4fWThV69UGukMuMUpdoKGeHqXoz2ex6D1wlH_5ilT_B77n1xB1Nk6K6Vuib3uMsdgQaI/s1600/Reward+System+Analysis_chart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDj8qUC4CiIwErmYn4XIDf3UDp50dXhsZbrkHhu7Ee5G7J-oLb9EJ9oFPfVjTi9OeqCHKvIu4fWThV69UGukMuMUpdoKGeHqXoz2ex6D1wlH_5ilT_B77n1xB1Nk6K6Vuib3uMsdgQaI/s1600/Reward+System+Analysis_chart.jpg" height="234" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">
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<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">III.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Time Investment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Each play session is about 20~40 minutes, unless the
level is super challenging. In that case, each play could last merely 5
minutes. Since the game is designed for the players who want to kill time (?!),
I got bored very quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">It took me around 40 minutes to beat a Beginner-Easy level
and get the accomplishment. Then I tried Beginner-Medium and Beginner-Hard
modes for the same map, each spent </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">≈</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">3 minutes, in
order to learn the increase in difficulty. Then I tried some Intermediate maps
and failed at Round 40 out of 50/65/85. Then I tried Advanced maps and felt
overwhelming. So I learned that Intermediate maps were fit for my current
level. Daily Challenges were very hard and I had to give up in a few rounds. Unlike
Normals, Special Missions don’t allow the player to choose a difficulty. The
pace was too slow so I put the game aside after several rounds (or let the game
run by itself instead of staring at the screen, waiting to interact with the
game real time). And I still got some XP and leveled up, just in a slower pace.
After exploring all the modes, I decided to learn more details about the game
by playing Intermediate maps and unlock things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">So, it took me 2 walkthroughs, each for a level and some
quick trials for other modes/difficulties (</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">≈</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">1 hour in total) to get bored with the system. It took me
a few more play sessions (</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">≈</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">2 hours in total)
to familiarize with and experiment on the towers/upgrades/enemies. Then I kept
playing and spent </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">≈</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">6~8 hours to level
up and try out new unlockables until Rank 25. Because the game doesn’t feel
intense to play, I was multi-tasking and spent more time than planned. But I
felt enough with the game when I hit Rank 25, although there are more content
awaiting me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">In summary, I spent more than 10 hours to figure out 60%
content of the game and didn’t have much interest in learning more at the
point, since the game pace is too slow and I could kind of imagine the rest of
the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Maybe they can fix this problem by only showing the next
upgrade for each tower in the tower menu. In this case, instead of being able
to check all the upgrades before unlocking them, the game can not only hold
some surprise for the player to explore as they progress, but also the player
will have a better focus on content when they look at the available upgrades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Also, as I mentioned, I don’t feel that there is a strong
motivation for a player to keep playing after having unlocked 80% of the
content. So maybe the game can spread out the XP required to unlock the next
upgrade/tower, since the unlocking relies on XP gained for individual tower and
the player have no limit in tower choice as long as they can afford them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">In addition to the limit on tower choice, maybe the game
can trim the game modes corresponding to the theming of each map. For instance,
there is a ship tower which can only be placed on water. The game can just
remove or grey out this tower for the maps with no water area. In this case,
the player won’t get confused why the tower is available even it seems not possible
to be used. The game can limit more on tower choice, which can not only help
the player to explore the towers that they are not so familiar with but fun to
use, but also strengthen the fantasy of each map. And of course, it makes
unlocking a new map more exciting since they might bring different tower selection
and new play style.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">IV.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Bloon Franchise<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">As mentioned in Balance Analysis, the
Bloon series is also very popular on mobiles. I tried the Bloon 5 TD on iPhone,
featuring multi-player modes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The main content remains the same with the
one I have been discussing, but this version has decent tutorials and a better
learning curve (and much better graphics). Since I already knew enough about the
game, I ran through every available module very quickly (spending </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">≈</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">30 minutes). Then I tried more of the multi-player modes,
Assault Mode and Defensive Mode. Assault Mode allows you to send Bloons to
crush your opponent, which was fun and more strategic than the classic game.
However, Defensive Mode is similar to the Normals in the Kongregate game,
simply adding another player. You two play the same level and try to defend
longer than the other player. It has some level of social meaning. But I wasn’t
playing against a friend, so I didn’t find the social factor strong. The total time
spent on the iPhone version was </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">≈</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">40 minutes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">V.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Among all types of rewards the game is
providing, I think the new towers and upgrades are the most appealing part.
Also, using players as infinite content generator adds more fun to the classic
gameplay (Assault Mode in mobile version).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">To sum up, the game has a nice reward
system which constantly provides new goals for the player. But the game pace is
too slow for me. Comparing the time invested to beat more advanced levels with
the potential new content, I stopped playing after </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">≈</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">12 hours in total. But because of the fact that there are
some good content, I might pull out the game again when I want to check or show
someone else something.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-26499825242016674512015-03-29T20:14:00.002-07:002015-03-29T20:22:44.300-07:00Game Balance Analysis of Bloons TD 5<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Overview<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Bloons TD 5 is a top-rated casual tower
defense game on both webs and mobiles. The player allocate points to buy monkeys
or similar things (as towers) to protect the base from the bloons (balloons). Link of the game: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Ninjakiwi/bloons-td-5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">There is no multi-player, so I will focus on
the balance in “Game versus Game (GvG)” and “Player versus Game (PvG)”.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">GvG<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The difficulty/mode system is structured as below:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Modules<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">There are 3 similar modes in this game. Daily
Challenge and Special Missions are unlocked based on the player’s rank.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">a)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Normal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The original and
default systems of levels. Levels are categorized by different maps/tracks of
difficulty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">b)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Daily Challenge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Seems to be a new
feature. A different level is up there every day. The player can go back and
check out the previous ones. Daily Challenges are really challenging, much harder
than the Advanced maps in Normal Module.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">c)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Special Missions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">There are a few
distinguished gameplay modes than the Normal levels. Some are unlocked based on
the player’s rank. They introduce new gameplay into the existing game systems.
These games need different strategies to beat. It is hard to compare the
difficulty and other factors with the Normal games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Maps/tracks (+ Modes)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">As mentioned,
Normal is the original/default playground in this game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The game has a complicated difficulty system.
It not only categorizes maps into five difficulties: “Beginner”, “Intermediate”,
“Advanced”, “Expert” and “Extreme!”, but also provides 3 modes for each map: “Easy”,
“Medium” and “Hard”. (There are also more different play modes being unlocked
for each map based on the player’s rank: Deflation, Apopalypse and Sandbox. But
I will not talk about them in this essay.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">For each map, the difficulty of different
modes is simply being tuned by the number of lives and the enemies:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7l9nTDoETua7v_VSpUCNM2yzFuwxHKZEBgr5WovHueI8FQFRpSHITwgPpVPrFb6oaZXnCUKiXtPSCFwfc6iTsROhxl4qkaEHJzzWXikWtDagNYLyKgaU_oX89l-6hfLTdPceR526B3g/s1600/QQ%E6%88%AA%E5%9B%BE20150329200950.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7l9nTDoETua7v_VSpUCNM2yzFuwxHKZEBgr5WovHueI8FQFRpSHITwgPpVPrFb6oaZXnCUKiXtPSCFwfc6iTsROhxl4qkaEHJzzWXikWtDagNYLyKgaU_oX89l-6hfLTdPceR526B3g/s1600/QQ%E6%88%AA%E5%9B%BE20150329200950.png" height="152" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Maps determine the distribution of areas
having different influence on the enemies. For instance, in Beginner maps,
there are more areas that are very influential and the player would have less
chance placing the towers at weak spots which leads to the loss of lives. In
contrary, the advanced maps tend to have fewer “good” spots which means that
the player needs to choose carefully when they place a tower.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Also, the number of branches varies from map
to map. The more advanced a map is, the more branches.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">In addition, it feels that the increase of
enemy power is also being tuned with the difficulty of maps. (Not sure.) The
more advanced a map is, the more difficult it gets through beating various
enemy waves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">a)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Beginner: Sole path, bigger influential
areas, and less challenging<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Beginner maps are very simple. They are
definitely the best/safest places to start the game. The player can easily
figure out how the bloons move and place the towers accordingly. At the same
time, the player can learn the UI for the maps (distinguish paths from areas
that can place towers, or familiarize towers and their power-ups). The player
can also learn a specific tower super well by practicing with the map that the
tower works best with, and familiarizing patterns. But sometimes feel they are
too simple and boring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">b)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Intermediate: 1 or 2 path(s), medium
influential areas, proper challenges<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Intermediate maps
are tuned finely in the middle of Beginner ones and Advanced ones. There are
some variations in maps, such as loops and binary branches which converge
later. It is more fun to play compared with the Beginner’s maps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">c)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Advanced: 2 paths/branches or more (dynamic
switchers), smallest influential areas, super challenging<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Advanced maps are
way harder than the other ones. There are always multiple paths and sometimes
the switcher connecting various branches change after each round.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">d)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Expert<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">No access…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">e)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Extreme!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">No access…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Enemies<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The enemy system
is relatively simple compared with the play modes and tower design. All the
enemies are balloons (Bloons). The basic one is destroyed when being hit by a
single shot. The advanced ones have more layers, which means it needs more
shots to destroy them. Except the ordinary ones, there are also another type of
Bloon called Camo. The Camos camouflage themselves, so only specific towers/upgrades
can detect and damage them. Some Bloons (lighter ones) also move faster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The game helps the
player distinguish various Bloons by their color/texture/size/shape and speed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Towers<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">There are 17
towers and 2 consumables in total. Each tower has a different behavior and 2 upgrade
paths. Towers get XP and level up to unlock new upgrades. The towers are balanced
because of their uniqueness in behavior and the increasing power as leveling
up. I don’t feel anyone is obviously stronger than others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Also, because of
their varied costs, towers tend to be used in different stages of play. As a
general trend, the more pricy a tower is, the more powerful it would be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Since the
behaviors are very different from one to another, it is hard to compare only the
attributes. Below are specs of towers in level 1 (<u>Advantages</u>):</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6eXVs_BK47Jv3ixyz4JKocITJkLXnIURyO4U-Bp2S1qPTs7bMz5qF5rHkP7C3M5PAxNjg8fAoDWsBAdVl1GEOfr2prjeNTMkC2uACLPu50SBtmaTTP-8-1eWV14ANye6bSjCOICpc6AQ/s1600/3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6eXVs_BK47Jv3ixyz4JKocITJkLXnIURyO4U-Bp2S1qPTs7bMz5qF5rHkP7C3M5PAxNjg8fAoDWsBAdVl1GEOfr2prjeNTMkC2uACLPu50SBtmaTTP-8-1eWV14ANye6bSjCOICpc6AQ/s1600/3.png" height="397" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Reward Systems (Overlapped with PvG)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The direct reward for the player is
experience points (XP). The player also ranks up automatically by gaining XP.
As the player ranks up, new towers, upgrades (and enemies) are being unlocked.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">In short, the reward loop is: XP -> Rank
up -> Unlockables.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">This game has a reasonable ranking up pace,
which feels similar to many other games. Sometimes duo objects are being
unlocked when ranking up, which is a satisfying moment. However, the game
introduced very few enemies (officially, but they already appeared in the play)
and a LOT of towers/upgrades at the earlier stage, and started to throw out a
LOT of enemies afterwards. I prefer to learn powers and enemies hand in hand/in
turns, rather than doing one continuously and then another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Playback Speed<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The game provides two speeds for the player
to choose between during the play: Normal and Fast. I think the Normal is too
slow (but it is fine since it is the original pace). But the Fast is too fast,
if anything happens, the player wouldn’t have enough time to react, such as
placing spikes or explosives on the map.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">In some TD games, there is also a Stop/Cease
button which allows the player to freeze the game and do some urgent operation
to rescue some lives. I think it will be great if the Cease button is added to
this game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Special Agents<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The game also
offers a lot of in-game purchase. I think they can definitely help the player
beat the levels easily and I am not focusing on them…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Overall, the GvG is well balanced in this
game. The progression felt very smooth. And it provides enough choices for the
player, high longevity (although each play can already be super long and time
consuming...) and appropriate challenges.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">PvG<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Besides the different aspects listed above, I
also want to talk about the balance between the player and the game:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Since the game provides many difficulties for
the player to choose from, the player can easily tune the difficulty to fit for
themself (GvG). But still, there are moments that I felt the game was throwing
too much information all at once and I felt that was totally overwhelming. Most
of them happened in learning phase (when the game introduced me new
towers/power-ups in as rewards) instead of the play phase.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">UI/UX design<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Good UI system teaches the player how to play
by itself. Although the game has decent graphics for UI, it takes a while for a
player to figure out what to do next and learn how to do what by themself. And
the game has no tutorial even during the first play for a player. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">a)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Game Flow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Only have some tips, without any tutorials/walkthroughs
is confusing.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Notes:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">“Didn't know what to click on first. Took me
5 seconds to figure out what to click on.” This was not so bad. But still
“...felt like having a little more instructions or tutorials that could walk me
through some basics would prevent me from getting lost.” Personally, I think having
a compact game flow is super helpful for web and mobile games. This is
somewhere the game can improve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">b)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">UI Layout<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Giving lots of specs for each tower, it took
me quite a while to find out the attack modes selection
(First/Last/Close/Strong) and the where to upgrade the tower. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">c)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Icons<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The icons are designed visually pleasing and
convey its function pretty well. However, not having any feedback when a
tower/upgrade is first introduced to the player (highlight, or an animation of
the icon moving from the reward interface to the in-game position) makes the
player easily lose track of the new unlockables.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">I also noticed that, sometimes, the game
seems to reward powers that work well for the current level. So it somehow
makes up a little bit for the problem of not being able to track the latest
unlocked powers.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Notes:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">“Especially hard to find out which upgrade
belongs to which tower.” It is hard for the player even to find out the
latest gained power, owing to the inaccessibility to all the upgrades for a
tower. It seems that the UI couldn’t teach well by itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Reward Systems<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The player can earn experience points by
playing the levels. As the player ranks up, new towers, power-ups (and enemies
I believe?) are introduced at the same time.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Notes:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">“The game introduced too many towers and
power-ups at the first play. Needed some time to connect the icon with its
functions.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Challenge/Narrative/Interest
Curve<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">a)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Within a Level</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Within each level,
as the player beats waves (rounds) of enemies, the game gets harder as the
overall trend.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The increase of difficulty feels unobvious in
simpler games (maps/difficulties), however, it can be super challenging in more
advanced ones.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">To be more specifically, I kept spamming
“Play” button in easy modes, since even if I did’t do anything, the current
powers could survive many rounds by itself. In contrast, in advanced levels, I
always felt that my towers were running behind the enemies and I made
irreparable mistakes in selecting and placing towers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21pt; text-indent: -21pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">b)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Out of a Level<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Players do get better as they learn more
about the game. So a new player wouldn’t always stay with the Beginner’s maps,
s/he will jump to the advanced ones and maybe go back and forth. The gaps
between different difficulties of maps are pretty big, but the game managed to
fill the gaps by having three minor levels of difficulty for each map. In this
case, the player can tune their challenge curve by themself and wouldn’t be
restricted by the game systems.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">To sum up, although the game is top-rated, I
think the PvG part is not perfectly balanced. The game leaves the choices to the
player which reduces the chance that the player feels overwhelmed or
frustrated. But it failed to convey and display everything nicely. A better
UI/UX or game flow would help.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">II.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The game is
overall pretty balanced. It does a good job in balancing content statistically
(GvG). However, there are too many details and various scenarios in the game,
so it couldn’t teach the player everything clearly/step by step, which
sometimes cause confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-86654884797130875712015-02-19T00:49:00.000-08:002015-02-19T00:49:09.683-08:00Review of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Overview<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">I have played the original Ticket to Ride several times.
But with the new rules, this edition feels more complicated and worth playing.
I played with two other people. We enjoyed the game. Below are what I noticed
and what I thought:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<u><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'EngraversGothic BT', sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Breakdown </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Corbel, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">(each was rated from 0 to 10)</span></u><b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.25pt; mso-char-indent-count: 0; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -21.25pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT";">1<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Set Up (8):<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">I like the Set Up a lot, because there is an instruction
picture printed on the rule book, which shows the layout and how to use the
space around the board very clearly. This saves lots of effort on setting up
the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Since it is a turn-based game, I was concerned about the
first-hand advantage, while this game starts with “the most experienced
traveler”. However, it fixed this problem by ending the whole game with a nice
rule “when one player’s stock of colored trains gets down to ≤2 at the end of
his turn, each player including that player, gets one final turn.” When we
played the game, we didn't feel there was obvious advantage for the first
player as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">The only thing that I dislike is how it was explained with
texts (see picture). I didn't notice that the numbers at the end of each
sentence is corresponding to the components on the image. I think if they could
rearrange the space and add arrows to link the texts with the icons, it
wouldn't confuse me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT";">2<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Obstacles/Decisions (6):<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">There are some interesting decisions in this game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">For example, after you finish the Destination Cards that
you initially drew when the game starts, you have 3 options: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">You
can choose to draw new Destination Cards;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">You
can try to guess other’s paths and try to block them;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">You
can make use of your hands and get more points.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">I find this very interesting, first because of the
uncertainty of other’s destinations; second, it brings lots of other
interesting decisions. For instance, if I want to block other players, who
should I focus on. And these are also influenced by the stage of play. If
someone is running out of his car, then I won’t consider drawing a new Destination
Card. But if I already have lots of paths and I noticed that my destinations
are very short and there are a thick deck of Destination Cards left. I probably
should draw 3 new Destination Cards and pick from them, which could have changed
the winner of our play.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">On the other hand, I didn't like the additional rules on
the longest path, the ferries and the tunnels. From the market perspective, I
can understand why this game (theming in Christmas, shooting for families)
ranks higher than the original version. But design wise, I especially feel the
complicated rule specifically for only one path seems to be a little too
farfetched, although when a player really built that path, we all laughed out
because we saw him spending 20 cards on a single route. For the ferries and
tunnels, the usage of the wild card is explained clearly but too inefficient.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT";">3<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Rules (8):<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Overall the rules are very simple. As a family game,
even little kids can pick it up, find out some strategies, and eventually master
it. When first read some of the rules, it can still be confusing. But since
this game is so popular, many people know the basic rules and the rule book
really explains everything clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">When it comes to the depth of the game, I think there is
much replayability. It takes some times for the player to know the map and Destination
Cards well. Also, because of the interesting choices in the game, you can have
different strategies. Your opponents and starting hand also add to the
replayability. If you have a troller friend, you might want to play safe and
win the game easily, or just have fun taking extra Destination Cards. If you
have skilled players, you might want to deceive them by building some paths irrelevant
to your goals. If your friends are building long routes and you are scared by
that, you might try blocking their paths instead of drawing extra Destination Cards.
If you start with some short paths, you might want to build as many as possible
and give up the longer ones. If you get some long paths as your starting goal,
you might want to build them carefully. So, I think this game can be played
many times and still feel satisfying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "EngraversGothic BT";">4<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Goal (9):<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">The ultimate goal for every player is very simple: get
as many points as possible by building routes or completing Destination Cards.
You can also get 10 more bonus points by completing most number of destinations.
However, the Destination Cards are actually “quests” serving as subtasks. It is
very interesting that players don’t know each other’s destinations. During our
play, I (P1) was trying to block another player (P2) who seems to be building a
very long route. I even persuaded the third player to block him as well, which
made the P2 laugh out loud. He might be acting, or I was so wrong. However, all
these actions add a nice social element to the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fun Elements </span></u></b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(each was rated from 0 to 10)</span></u><b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sensation (7): </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">The art of this game is
really simple and kind of generic. I wanted to rate sensation “5”. But I
realize that the art style actually support the theme and story pretty well. It
is just that I am not a fan of this art style. And the usage of colors, design
of map and plastic car tokens are also fairly good for setting up the entire
relaxing and fantasy atmosphere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fantasy (8):</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";"> The theme of Christmas
works. Personally I didn't feel so attached to the theme might because that I didn't
have much western cultural background as local western people. But I do feel
that if the places are replaces with city names in China, I will enjoy a lot
playing this game, maybe reminding me of some trips in a specific place and
stories happened there, or if I always wanted to visit somewhere but didn't get
chance, however I virtually “reached” there through the play. Then the theme
would actually be super interesting and add a lot of fantasy elements. Also, the
theme of traveling by train (or building train rails) works too. I am a big fan
of traveling by train, because the pace is just right: You can watch the
beautiful and changing scenery as you talk with other travelers. You can physically
experience the travel through time and space at the same time and feel the
change in your mind (like, reaching a new place might remind you of something
delightful, which changes your mood). For some other players, the theme might
be more like a story of a train tycoon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Narrative (7): </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">The story is very simple.
And as a Euro board game, some rules don’t make much sense to the story.
However, from the perspective that narrative is also the events occur during
play. The simple framework of the game actually provides lots of different
scenarios.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Challenge (8): </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">The challenges are not
very difficult. But the game provides a relaxing atmosphere while the players
are facing some interesting choices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fellowship (8):
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">As a
board game that can make a group people laugh, it gets the basic credit on
this. Not like some other hard core board games, players sometimes don’t pay
attention to what others are doing on their turn. What I noticed from our play
was, we always knew what others did on their turn and response to their action,
such as picking up the wild revealed after the last player just took a card
from the shared resources, or taking the left lane on a two-lane route when one
was just taken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Discovery (6): </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Although this game doesn't
have much juicy content, it has space for discovery. Because players can always
find new strategies depending on different situation, play style, goals or other
players.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Expression (8):
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">As a
family/party game, it successfully makes the player express his enjoyment, regret,
surprise, excitement, etc. Since the game is well-balanced, two of us were
almost tie at its conclusion, so it ended with a dramatic tension.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "EngraversGothic BT","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Submitting (7):
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Pulling
out this game on Christmas day (or whenever a family wants to have fun together)
seems a good idea?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-45157319724920555142014-06-02T11:51:00.004-07:002014-06-02T12:20:47.699-07:00PIGDA 2014 Board Game Jam & TestamentThe PIGDA Board Game Jam is a full day event held by Pittsburgh International Game Developers Association annually for people to team up and make a board game and play each other's game. I can't wait to share my experience in the 2014 Board Game Jam! (Finally got ETC and had access to a computer!!!)<br />
<br />
I teamed up with Yan Jin, a game designer who usually has lots of weird and amazing ideas. It was held in the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I was late and stuck in a traffic jam when he texted me the secret topic of this game jam: > travel. My first idea was to make a simulation game about travelling in a town that players need to deal with traffic jams and pick different vehicles and sometimes switch between them.<br />
<br />
When I got there, we started brainstorming around 10:30. We talked about a variety of topics, themes and mechanics. He threw out ideas like bacteria travelling in a body and interact with other stuff in it. He also introduced me the game play of a board game called Mr. Jack which allows players to take their turns to explore and interact with each other in limited area. I thought about travelling to different times with a time machine and have parallel universes. I felt it very interesting because I was sure that all teams would definitely be thinking about travelling through space although it sounds really abstract if we make a game about travelling through time. I tried to figure out how it might work, but I didn't get anything but headache. When I was about to abandon the time travelling idea, Yan went through all the things we had and we realized that both of us sort of liked it. So we decided to try our best and see what we could reach. I never doubted that it would be a hard process and it turned out to be true. We listed all the elements and fragments of design ideas. We decided to have three Time Sections: the Past, the Present and the Future. Whatever was done in former time sections changes the things and events happening in the later section. It was really hard to put them together and to make everything reasonable. However, as time went by, I formed the story line and basic mechanics in mind gradually. I got a bunch of problems and couldn't link them together. I tried to express them and let Yan solve all the problems. He did a good job reading my mind, iterating on the details including the items, events and maps and approving my thoughts. I was not confident with the idea of using items to link the three worlds together and I thought it not fun enough until he said it was brilliant to figure out that. We made a rough prototype, tested and changed more than five times. We'd been trying to simply the game play and making it as intuitive as possible, still I felt it hard to understand because there is no similar models in real life. I was almost 2:00 p.m. and we hesitated whether to push down and start over again. I really wanted to follow the spirit of Fail-Fast-and-Flow-the-Fun. But again, we really wanted to create a game about time travelling. It was also partly because of the text on blackboard: "Theme: > Travel". I was wondering if the ">" indicated that we were supposed to make something about super travel or things more than purely travelling. Anyway, we decided to stick to whatever we had. After the organizers set up the printer, it was almost 5:00 p.m. when we printed 3 copies of the map and drew the icons on them. All things were done in a hurry and we didn't even get enough time to run the final version.<br />
<br />
There were 8 games at last. It was Demo time from 5:00-6:00 p.m. and we run all the games one by one. We were Team 1 and we named the game <i>Testament</i>. In a play of our game, there was a boy who tried to fight with me with his weapon, the Screwdriver. But he failed and killed himself. It was so fun. (He revenged and killed me in his game later...||||) The second game was about earning resources, delivering them, building and fighting. It looked very professional and clean. The third one was made by a lady and it was on a colorful graph containing lots of paths. The next one was similar to the classical board game Snack and Ladders in game mechanics but they got different themes. The next one was a Hello Kitty flicking game. The most impressive thing about this game was that the players who are not in their turn (basically flicking) are meant to count for the one who's moving, which keeps the game intense and adds more fun. The next one was also made by one person (Tim in a T-shirt with the Massive Chalice on it). It was about all band members earning fame and money for their band and themselves. When they count the total income it is a cooperative system and when it comes to individual it is competitive. He got explanations about all the characters, situation and events, which was awesome. Actually the game play was similar to the final pitch of my Game Design course team, a combination of <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> and <i>Guitar Hero </i>which allows player to experience the process of becoming a rock godfather from a shabby street singer. The last game but not the least was made by two high school (not very sure) boys and it was about wanders visiting various landmarks in Pittsburgh, gathering weapons and money and fighting against one another. The game rules are not perfect but it was really fun to play.<br />
<br />
At last, we were awarded the most complicated and confusing. The judge said "We believe that there's something in there." Honestly I had the presentiment of getting this award when we were designing this game. Well it was great fun playing other teams' game, seeing new visuals and novel mechanics and talking to board game lovers there. I appreciate that the organizers provide the materials and food for us. I had never seen that many kinds of materials for making board games. They are really idea provoking. I was a great day and I hope to participate more board game jams in the future.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-14706753035701892982014-04-17T13:13:00.003-07:002014-04-17T13:13:32.303-07:00How to Get New Ideas<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Thinking up
new ideas is always important at any time of designing a game. When I was
young, there were always many things in real life that I
couldn’t understand. However, as I grow up, I feel the truth is that I didn’ t
understand myself. Creating virtual worlds is a process of knowing ourselves as
the guests and applying them in a proper way in your games. I believe
that unique ideas come from people’s raw feelings and unprocessed inspiration
in real life. Except for common ways like reading/watching as much as we can or
researching on your topic, here I am going to share my methods to fill myself
with personalized new ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Pull yourself out of current scene or
have a short trip to somewhere else.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">
When I was in college, I used to commute between the city I studied in and my
hometown three months a time. The trip was short so I didn’ t fall asleep and
couldn’ t do anything deeply. So I would like to pick a random topic about what
I was focusing on at that period of time, and thought about it. To my surprise,
I could always come up with new thoughts which were strikingly different from
my original thoughts because of the rapid change in distance. It’s like doing
experiments on your topic by putting it into different environment and taking a
trip physically can always be effective. You were restricted in a cage and now
you are free. On the train, you are not bothered by outer factors and are ready
for meeting strangers but don’t really need to care much. So when you run out
of your ideas about a specific topic, try to put your objects in another time
or space, pull yourself to another perspective, redefine the relationship
between various objects, and something new will come along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">List whatever weird about yourself.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";"> Everyone is unique. I personally can
easily write down a long list of strange things about my habits or settings,
which can be aspects we consider when designing a new character or start a
story. They don’t necessarily to be too wild or unusual. By putting them
together or modifying to an extreme will make them more dramatic and fun to
play with. They are nothing about right or wrong, so don’t be afraid of talking
about them. Here is a list of examples of myself:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Good at using chopsticks, can use
with both hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Can tear up in one minute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Fall over on flat ground very easily
no matter how focused when walking without heels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Can remember a number/letter sequence
up to 50 digits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Forget lyrics almost every time when
step on the stage, which used to kill the drum of a band.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">6.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Can put on makeup on a jolt bus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">7.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Have beautiful handwriting. Copy
others homework and convinced herself to be the original author by handwriting
without words in high school. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">8.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Forget what just happened in the last
minute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">9.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">The last to wake up, the first to
arrive at classroom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-fareast-font-family: Corbel;">10.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Like gambling, seldom win.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Do some slow physical exercise while
thinking.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";"> Having a
good idea means saving lots of work and solving the problem in a smart way. The
key to this method is to follow the flow and slow down the cadence of your
whole body including your brain. I found this super helpful when I was also in
college. It was an extremely stressful time when I was working on a wide
variety of activities, promo-videos and assignments. But I kept the habit of go
swimming twice a week. It was a precious chance to relax and not to think about
anything stressful – at least it was my plan not to think, but it turned out
that I couldn’t keep my brain empty and simply focus on doing exercise. So I
compromised and started dissect the problems I was encountering in a very slow
pace. To my surprise, I was able to notice the inner reason of the crux or come
up with solution by slowing down to the pace of exercise I was doing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Try new routines of your daily
curriculums.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";"> I used
to walk to school every day, and it was within 20 minutes’ walk. It sounds like
what I listed above, taking exercise. But here what I want to address is that
always find new paths to reach your destination or even simply pay attention to
the other side of scenery or go through the same road from the opposite
direction. Sometimes I would set out 10 minutes ahead of time to leave some
time for exploring new path although I’m going to exactly the same place every
day. It helps people improve the intelligence level according to research. To
my own experience, this helps me discover new ways to a specific place, learn
the construction of the city, and gain the sense of space. I used to be
terrible with directions. But after travelling through some squares, subways or
other landscapes for a few times, I feel much easier to remember directions and
project the positions from the map. As an environment artist and level
designer, I feel it very helpful to practice understanding and visualizing the
structure of the environment in real world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Get ready to take notes on your
thoughts at any time.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">
Defen Zhang, a famous Taiwanese writer and creator wrote in her books, ‘can’t
bear not writing down my fleeting ideas, use whatever I can grab, even a lipstick
or eyeliner…’ I agree with this, and I think having a pen and notebook with us all
the time is very useful, taking pictures or recording voice can be good choices
too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Connect anything to your game. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">After doing a bunch of design, I feel
sometimes it’s possible to pick random objects and create a game for it. It
doesn’t mean that comparing between all the options is useless. But to some
degree it is true. Creation is sometimes about combining unrelated things in
incredible ways. Pushing yourself with a certain subject is more effective and
can be good exercise for your brain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Apply a mechanism in industrial
design to your gameplay.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">
In Chinese there is a saying ‘Da Dao Xiang Tong’, which is from Lao Tsu’s
theory, Tao Te Ching. In my opinion, it basically describes the situation that
the world has a shared rule set and everything in a substance world obeys these
rules. Game mechanisms are always about verbs. By learning how a machine or a system
works, we can always understand the ways to control different shapes and some
tricks in design.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">Link your design with your special
experience.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";"> Game is
about having whatever can be useful for players to capture an experience and
make them a whole. Everyone has his own stories. Any specific experience or
feeling you want to share with others can be revived through a game. Have you ever taken an unforgettable journey
which is as fascinating as a dream? Have you ever be betrayed by your friends
owing to a misunderstanding? Have you ever had the feeling of growing up after
a night? Have you had a secret that you never wanted to tell anyone else
because of any concern? … I’m sure there is something in your life that only
belongs to yourself; it’s hard to look through others eyes. What you can do is
to dig into the feelings, why you feel that way, what you want to do, what you
wish to happen, what you can/can’t do in that specific situation, and turn them
into ideas, which can be an indie game about transformation or an adventure
game about a wonderland.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif";">After
talking about many ways to get new ideas, you might think I feel it very easy
to come up with new concept. But the truth is, whatever we do is not fully
inventing something from zero, they are raised by someone else in the past. In
the Game Developers Conference 2014, there was an indie talk that each indie
developer had around five minutes to express their indie thoughts. One of the
speakers, a female developer started her talk with “Don’t worry. Whatever we
are doing has been done by different people for many times in different ways…”
But what we are doing still worth to be done. I can’t agree more, I believe
that the countless ways to organize and present an element make each work
different. As what Garfield said, the thing worthy of being done worth to do
again and again. What we should do is to get new ideas and dig out unique
inspiration from our distinguished life and turn them into games that have something
worth sharing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-88214747598966468612014-03-31T10:47:00.001-07:002014-03-31T11:08:59.459-07:00Cytus: One of my Favorite Games<div class="MsoNormal">
Cytus is a rhythm game developed by Rayark Games. The main
reason why I love this game is because it looks very busy from the perspective
of a spectator, but when you play it, it’s not that hard and you feel cool with
yourself thanks to the well-designed player experience. From every little detail,
I can see how careful they are making decisions to improve the experience.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfctSt2dcVT_MEzjnYkWgHGi2pGXTIBKEkN_1Tz60d3jM7fssn_TqHNGGVcAkXgyThuZCUN4dbC6ytHH5s37y9q6kVRu7DkmVqapFybVFuGklb1IXLyuTtqECjVmF0vOou0WGZoFtmANw/s1600/zkScrsi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfctSt2dcVT_MEzjnYkWgHGi2pGXTIBKEkN_1Tz60d3jM7fssn_TqHNGGVcAkXgyThuZCUN4dbC6ytHH5s37y9q6kVRu7DkmVqapFybVFuGklb1IXLyuTtqECjVmF0vOou0WGZoFtmANw/s1600/zkScrsi.png" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Being as simple as possible. As what I said, this game looks
very fancy and busy when you see someone else playing it without knowing the
manipulations of the game. However as long as you follow the scan line and be
clear with the three kinds of gestures, you know everything about how to play
this game. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXRSs0R_ZLDNjNgE6-ENoby4o1t1vqgZO5NNhTO5AFfVihhnUf9kFvV7UHn-ikHKgSp8vt6IqKG-QnpnrtNNfTwLDdVW8Hwi5s-aTskG1Uzp2qvQVpNaWBjVBxYBCZDIVoaOeDMVCn0Uc/s1600/wpid-cymera_20140218_101825.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXRSs0R_ZLDNjNgE6-ENoby4o1t1vqgZO5NNhTO5AFfVihhnUf9kFvV7UHn-ikHKgSp8vt6IqKG-QnpnrtNNfTwLDdVW8Hwi5s-aTskG1Uzp2qvQVpNaWBjVBxYBCZDIVoaOeDMVCn0Uc/s1600/wpid-cymera_20140218_101825.jpg" height="215" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Clear and smart UI design. The notes indicate all the
information you need to get while playing it. The relative distance between the
scan line and notes tells you when to tap the screen. The color and size
changing of notes gives clear sign for you to catch the beat (of course follow
the rhythm at the same time). Different gestures have very distinguished UI.
Have clear but not overwhelming feedback of combo count and grade of each note.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sound. “Cytus has 60+ songs and 120+ variations, including
famous composers from all around the world.” I personally like the genres (mainly
Classical Crossover) of the music in this game. However what I want to talk
more about the sound is, first, in default setting, there’s no aural feedback
when you are playing a song. There are many rhythm games that have aural
feedback such as muting the notes that you didn't hit or having other sound
effects to break the sense of hearing. I always feel very frustrating when a
note isn't played at the exact point-in-time, let alone missing a note or hit
wrong notes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Detection and difficulty. This game has more than 10 levels
of difficulty and each song has two modes: Easy and Hard. The detection is
pretty loose, which I’m sure that it reduces the frustration of potential Missings
and Bads. As a skillful keyboard user and an amateur singer/pianist, I feel the
difficulty of this game is just fine, which means that I can always have the
sense of accomplishment, I’m confident to challenge songs in a certain range
and I always feel that I can eventually get a Master (all notes are Perfect)
after practicing enough. After playing for about two weeks I realized this
state and my true level. But I would like to keep playing it because of the
fluent playing experience and I can always get a higher grade which will make
me feel cooler. But there are still a few songs that reamain to be nightmare to
me, and I don’t even know how to distribute my fingers to reach all the notes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Addiction. Unlike some simulation games, this game uses its
enjoyable playing experience and a good interest curve to make it more engaging
rather than setting little goals and utilizing social features to tie players to
the game and being active without knowing how much time you've spent on virtual
items. The gameplay is mostly intensity in this game. And as what I talked
about in the difficulty, you can choose the levels that fit your proficiency,
challenge them, practice a little bit (I would practice a song for 10 times if
I can get a Master and still feel not boring because I’m busy figuring out new
ways to play it perfectly. But for casual players, merely two times will be
enough to get familiar enough with the song and notes.), get a higher score,
switch to another song at any time, etc. As long as you are comfortable with
this music game and want to play it better, the flow will work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Exercising your brain, fingers and eyesight and improve your
sense of music. A good sense of rhythm, agile split vision and flexible fingers
will definitely help players do better in this game, and players can exercise
themselves by playing this game. I feel I understand the notes with more
sensibility after practicing this game.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3135417624334239928" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3135417624334239928" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3135417624334239928" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Surprise. I've been
playing this game without checking any other videos and information, so I didn't
know the best grade of a play is Master. I used to share my feeling and grades
with a friend who started to play at the same period. He seemed to know the
secret songs and other stuff. But he didn't tell me about the Master. So when I
first get all the notes perfectly played, I got a Master and there was a quick fancy
animation right when I hit full score, which was a surprise. I felt that it was
a little reward for advanced players because I can only view it after achieving
it. Another surprise of this game is the secret songs. When I showed my high
scores to my friends, I was asked to try the secret songs of each chapter. You can
enter them by hitting some symbols at the right timing at song select screen.
The secret songs are always a little harder than normal songs. Sometimes they
are multiple variations in different styles, which is a successful way to give
bonus. Players will be grateful with the bonus and feel developers’ enthusiasm
about their game. Although when I showed a secret song to a friend, she felt it
wasn't a good design because it was too hard to discover without knowing any
hint, I still feel it fine to have such bonus. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Level design. What I mean by level design in this game is which
notes to have players tapping and how to organize them, such as layout,
different gestures. It’s interesting to discover the notes arranging in a tilted
row in being counterpoint to the music phrases. The layout is also very clear
and well-designed. I can feel the designers are trying to make the notes much
easier to reach rather than picking <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="OLE_LINK4"></a>inconspicuous notes and organize them
in a way that conflicts human engineering in order to make the game hard to
play.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Besides what I listed above, there are other aspects make
Cytus a good game, such as the consistency of art and music style, beautiful
illustration and short animation for each song, the States screen, etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What I don’t really like. Just from my personal experience,
it’s natural to have some part that I think is possible to be improved.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Slow songs. The slower songs are always sorted in a little
lower level in this game. But when I play a song which is too slow, I feel
harder to keep focusing on because it’s not very intense. Also, the slower the
notes’ animations are, the longer your fingers need to touch the screen, which
will highly increase the chance of getting a Miss or a Bad. I don’t think I’m
too skillful, and the attention of players of different levels shouldn't have
much gap, so maybe the speed of songs need adjustment through play tests.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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Stories. I know this game has stories for each chapter, but I didn't really get or care the plots through the game. I might make it better to have stressed more about the stories though it's a good game without stories or characters. Maybe this is a reason that they made their new rhythm game Deemo.</div>
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To sum up, Cytus succeeded to create a smooth and enjoyable
player experience. I like the way that they are trying their best to make a
hard game to become much easier and cooler to play.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-83000025012686485592014-02-27T09:00:00.001-08:002014-05-03T12:19:09.923-07:00My Understanding about Meaningful Play<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Imagine in the
faraway future, where new advanced technologies allow humans to experience anything by connecting to AR device or playing an </span>immersive<span style="font-size: small;"> video game. Even nerves can be stimulated electronically, providing a truly immersive experience. It reminds me of a scene in the animated film </span></span><i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">WALL-E</i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
that owing to the technological</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;"> </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">advances, humankind </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">became so comfortable, lazy, so averse to physical activities and obese,that they never bothered to experience nature in its natural phsical form. If this happened, how do you feel as a game designer?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Games are not meant
to supplant real life experiences; they are meant to enrich our human experiences. This is what I thought after watching that scene. You might wonder: am I only talking about educational games. No, not really. Possibly as a result of the high strung force-fed education that I had (in China), I think there are many aspects can be improved in educational games. When I first heard the term “educational games”, it was field under the genre of </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">“</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">serious games</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">”</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, and hence never caught my eye. As the genre sggests, most </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">“educational games” are either too</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> utilitarian or too boring.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">However the more
games I've played, the more I feel that games is a good tool to have a meaningful impact on human life. It is not only about games that are tagged as "educational", but also about any games that cast influence on players. So what is the problem? How can we solve it? </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">The key lies in the difference between being “educational”
and “influential”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">I remember that we used to have <i>Ideological and Politics</i> class in school. I always find these classes are nothing but time consuming, mind numbing and brainwashing. What
they taught made sense but the way of its being taught is far from pleasant; which is exactly
the contrary of what I mean by “meaningful</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">”</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> interactions. For instance, in China, </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">“</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">patriotism education</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">”</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> is the first lesson we learned in </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">kindergarten</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">. It probably sounds ridiculous and hard to imagine for who've grown up in the free world. Regardless, at that age, it’s
impossible for children to understand what “love” means, what “nation” is, and
what “party” stands for, let alone to put them together. The teaching is excessively utilitarian in its sole purpose to get everyone brainwashed rather than educating
effectively. That’s certainly not a good means of education. </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But, there was a teacher who impressed me. She taught honestly (as honest as she could), not afraid of comparing the education in China with the ones in other countries, especially the early education.</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In some other
countries, children are guided to feel the love for themselves, their parents,
their friends, the people, public facilities, the country, etc. The main
differences here are, “rote learning” vs. “inspiring by feeling”. The effect of the two methods should be apparent.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">However, I feel
there’s no excuse not to develop entertaining meaningful games. The
reason why I emphasize the word “entertaining” is that the more
enjoyable a game is, the more convincing and powerful it will be. Gaming is a
process b which the emotions of the player play an integral part. So I treat “entertaining” to be just as important as being “educational / meaningful / influential”. Maybe because I’m also an artist, I can’t regard educational games as real games. It’s
kind of like the sophistry paradoxes of “A white horse is not a horse”.
It doesn't make a game for not being fun enough; at most it is just sequence of
interactions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">There are well-crafted
educational games that can achieve their goals. There are engaging
indie games with deep intrinsic values, and it often makes people consider their real life. Like what I said earlier about games being meant to enrich our human experiences, a good game
tries to form a certain behavior pattern by guiding players to solve the game; a good character tends to be a positive example by inspiring players to comprehend and learn from their behavior. It might sound difficult and impossible. But it’s not. So my
attitude is to achieve and never asking the outcomes. Because if you
focus on how much you can influence your audience, it tends to lose fun. In
other words, it depends on the audience. That’s why I feel “meaningful play” more accurately describes what I’m thinking than “meaningful games”. Without
the interactions of players, we can never judge a game. Meaningful games are where
meaningful play happens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 宋体; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Let’s go back to
the scene I described at the beginning. There seem to be a conflict between completely taking over people's lives and bring positive value to our players. By taking these considerations into heart, we can be more direct and
clear when designing a game. Like, what do I want to convey
through designing this entertaining game that might change the way that players
do something? Is there any positive ways my characters can do something which will hopefully be emulated by players do or think about something? Or is it more effective for
an educational game to better engage our guests?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-1101757488556536102014-02-13T07:08:00.005-08:002014-02-13T07:21:15.226-08:00What Makes Games AddictiveI remember when we talked about what we
want to learn in Game Design class, someone said ‘how to make games addictive’
while another asked ‘how to make games not addictive’. Being addictive to video
games is a common phenomenon and mostly it was discussed as a negative part of
games. But as game designers, in order to make our games more engaging or
popular, sometimes we do need to make our design kind of addictive. So today I’ll
talk about what makes games addictive.<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">First of all, social features make games
addictive. When I say social features, I mean interactions between various
players and anything that helps building relationships with others. Not only in
MMO games, but also in many small games on network tools such as Facebook or
mobiles, social features play an important role. In my last blog, I shared the
reasons why I love playing computer games. The most motioned reason in replies
is about social connections. Games do help shorten the distances between different
people. Do you have a bunch of request from your friends sent through social
games when you log in Facebook? If you ever played an MMORPG, do you enjoy
leveling up or going through instances (PVE) grouped with other players? Even
when you are playing MOBA, do you like teaming up with your friends and
fighting against another real people who are on the same level as you are? I
always think that MMORPG was the most massively engaging genre of video games.
Now with the sensation of <i>League of Legends</i>, it kind of becomes the most
popular games. And the things they have in common are having real people
players as teammates and having real people players as opponents (PVP in MMORPG).
Needless to say, how teaming up plays its role in drawing people together again
and again. PVP mode is interesting, because real person players are definitely more
fun and challenging to beat comparing with AI. Also, I think when playing with
other players, it simply makes you feel safe because you think you are doing
something the same with other people, so it should be a good or right thing. To
sum up, I think social features are the most important thing that makes a game
addictive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Second, operations of a game can make it
addictive. People like gatherable things. A typical example of this is simulation
games. Are you attracted by the fancy particle effects and vivid small
animations of the ripe crops or collectable coins after a task is completed?
Can you simply leave them there and try to never tap to gather when you see
them? I can’t. Because the animations and glow are so distracting if I try to neglect
them so I can’t help gathering them. This happens in other games too, let’s say
MMORPG. My boyfriend is a programmer. Once he complained to me, that the game
designer was asking him to change the mail system again by insisting on adding
the function of letting player go to the mail guy, have a conversation with him
and collect the attachments in every mail by hand. Yeah, that’s true. People
just like collecting things with their own hands because this adds to the sense
of receiving. When I started playing a SIM game, <i>CastleVille</i> last night, I
found that I can keep on tapping here and there without any stop for the first
30 minutes (the true time might be longer, because another thing why this kind
of games are addictive is that you don’t even notice it’s so time consuming.)
and it was when I reached level 7, I first feel I need to stop and wait for
something and come check it again. When I play games, I would like to follow
the flow and feel the way I was lead or influenced by the game. Not everyone
who plays SIM games does like me, but it still reflect some problems. So the
interactive of some games are exactly designed to make it addicting. And to
some degree, they are good design.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Adorable animations make games more
addictive. Similarly to the gatherable things, they simply control you to check
the game all the time. If you ever played <i>Sims Free Play</i> or <i>Hay Day</i>, do you
feel guilty when you log in the game your characters are starving to die owing
to your poor upbringing? Some people do feel that way and can’t help making up
for that and start doing a sequence of operations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Fast paced gameplay makes a game addictive.
Remember in the Lightning Round in BVW (Building Virtual Worlds, a course for
the ETC students in first semester), we are asked to make a game that focuses
on a simple mechanic and creates a fast and addictive experience. Then we have
a game based on<i> Tetris</i>, a game called <i>Sum-O-Drums</i> which allows four players
controlling two characters doing sumo wrestling against each other, etc. Those
games are really exciting and addictive. Once you start playing, you don’t know
when you can drop them. Another example is <i>Flappy Bird</i>. As you may know, this
game just quickly became an overnight sensation as it climbed to the top free
app in App Store and Google Play last week.</span> Players do report that they
want to smash their phones or tablets after playing a few minutes. But at the
same time, they can’t stop playing it. Because this game is super hard and you
always think you can do better after a few more trials.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Last but not the least, the fluent flow or
stories of a game make it more addictive. This happens very often in story
based games, such as RPG or AVG (adventure games). When I start play an RPG, I
don’t quite identify the avatar as myself at the very beginning. And I don’t
feel the immersion of the game, and don’t really care what happens to this game
world. But as the story goes, the sense of identification grows stronger and
stronger, I turn out can’t wait to accept each challenge, beat the boss, go
through the dungeon, touch the truth and finish the game in one breath. This is
because the story is closely organized by the writer and you think you need to
do it now! I used to read a book about game design. In that book, it said ‘The story
of a game is actually fixed, but a good game can successfully make you feel that
you are the only hero who can save the world, just with the sword in your hand,
and if you DON’T do that NOW, some tremendous tragedies will definitely happen.’
Remember you already build the connection between yourself and the character in
the game? Then it’s natural to be addicted to the game and can’t stop playing.
If it’s a long game, even there’s ‘Chapter 1’ or ‘Act 2’, still you can hardly
get out of the game sometime. Because there are dialogues, quests, check
points, dungeons, cut-scenes coming after one another. Everything just comes so
fluently without leaving you any chance to quit and take a breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Above are the top five things that I think make
games addictive. Other elements that contribute to addiction of video games can
be the level-up system, the unyielding</span> spirits
of players and so on. However being addictive to games is not a good thing.
What we can do is to use our tastes to choose what we love and use our eyes to judge
what we see. Hope this helps you design or understand games. Thanks for
reading.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03467438870140317149noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3135417624334239928.post-56428386443136379102014-01-28T07:20:00.001-08:002014-01-28T07:24:10.115-08:00Why We Love Playing Games<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 21pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Everyone plays games, from physical games
to digital ones. It is widely discussed before: Why people like gaming? Basically,
the reason is to have fun. Today I would like to talk about why I like playing games.
I’m quite open to all kinds of games and am not very picky to them. In this
passage, I’ll focus on digital games and board games that I played most. So
here are my ideas on why I love gaming:</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>Games are meant to be interesting,
imaginative, relaxing and enjoyable.</b> Like interactive comic or TV series, games
are very interesting and they can help you kill boring time as well as relax
people. In order to make players enjoy the experience in the virtual worlds
that they've created, game designers are always trying their best to create
novel mechanics and gameplay.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>I love playing with others in
game worlds.</b> Teamwork, social and PVP are definitely the key words for almost all
multi-player games. Some games allow us to cooperate with others. For instance,
MOBA games such as <i>League of Legends </i>or
<i>Dota</i> allow players to communicate and
achieve the goal with the help of each other. Multiplayer role-playing games
such as <i>World of Warcraft</i> or <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> allow players to
enter a dungeon and kill bosses with different characters in various classes.
From these games, we always feel that one person can never rescue a world on
his own. It can be really painful if you play with randoms who are not skillful
or you are not familiar with each other, but you can try to communicate with
them. If you achieve your same goal by talking to each other, it’ll be a good
game. There are also many light-hearted games that stress social features much.
Do you often send out or receive request from your friends on Facebook through <i>Hay Day</i> or <i>Candy Crush</i>? These social games are so popular that almost everyone
is playing or has played them. To some degree, it is because you see your
friends are playing them now and that you help each other by a few clicks. I
remember the first master I had in MMORPG games; she was very responsible for
me and treats me as a close friend in real life. She is my mentor to this game
genre. She also brought lots of friends to me and made me feel like being at
home. I was really amazed at the beginning. In return to her accompany and
help, I wrote lyrics and recorded a song as a present to her. Competition is
another side of social features of games. I believe that player is much more
interesting to play with than all the AI of games.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>People like challenge.</b> Some
games are really hard to play. They are designed for some so-called hardcore
players. Even you are smart, skillful and experienced, you might not play them
well. People don’t like things that are too easy to complete. Think about the
feeling after you solve some complicated puzzles or command something that
seems to transcend the limit of humans. The sense of accomplishment along with
the rewards offered by the game will make players feel content. In this case,
games are your good friends; they will never trick you and will always provide
equal rewards after you reach some goals. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>Games link your body and mind
together, which simply makes you feel comfortable.</b> Someone said that play is
simultaneously a source of relaxation and stimulation for the brain and body. Once
I read from a book in which it wrote, that a prisoner will feel good even when
he cleaned his place. This is because when you do something right physically,
no matter how simple it is, you’ve completed a conjunction of body and mind,
which is a basic level of happiness. I was amazed when I first read this
thought in Zhang De Fen, a Taiwan writer and spiritual mentor’s book. However,
I realized that it’s true when your brain control your body to make and are
told it’s something right that will simply make you feel joy. So game is a
thing that you will probably find yourself enjoy playing it as long as you are playing
it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>Games are artworks.</b> With the
development of digital arts, games are becoming more and more visually and
aurally adorable. As a 3D artist, I always focus on the beautiful graphics when
playing a game with great visual elements. In my opinion, graphics might not be
the most important thing for games, but a game with bad aesthetic
implementation will definitely make a failure. So as the sound, because
sometimes we find that sound can be more powerful and convincing when creating
the atmosphere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>We love stories that have
twists and turns.</b> When I was a little girl, my favorite games are <i>Xianjian</i> series RPG games. For some
genres such as RPG or AVG, story plays an important role. The first work of <i>Xianjian </i>series was released in the year
1995. At that time, digital arts and game engines are not well developed, while
it made a hit by its touching stories. I also remember when I first played <i>Gujianqitan</i> (another Chinese RPG game)
through, It was the last second week before a final exam. After that, I had a
strong feeling that compared with the big disaster happened to the main
characters, everything is not that important in my life. But it doesn't mean
everything in real life is meaningless. On the contrary, then I cherished my
life for being so harmonious. I worked harder, because I felt it is happiness
that I can achieve what I want with my effort.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>To experience what we will
never experience in real life.</b> When I talked about<i> Gujianqitan</i>, I also think up that this game created a long journey
that I won’t have chance to experience in my real life. Games are virtual
worlds. Many game developers are trying their best to achieve immersion using
new technologies so that people can feel like they are in real world. People
are curious about unknown things and games provide infinity possibilities. It
is a big difference that when you hear or read something from experience it by
yourself. You can’t really think as your parents unless you’ve grown up.
However, games have the potential to make you experience something by using elements
like graphics, sound, interactions, stories, etc. Other examples, like when I
play <i>Warhammer Fantasy</i>, I play as if I’m
really leading an army of high elf and that my opponent’s Skaven army will definitely
get panic when I killed most soldiers of one square team. And when we play <i>Dungeon & Dragons</i>, we are really
exploring in a dungeon where Goblins will appear and hurt us so we need to take
actions fast!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">8.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><b>People like to customize or own
something even in virtual worlds.</b> Think about any simulation game such as <i>Clumsy Ninja</i> or <i>Princess Maker</i>. Even other games like </span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Plants vs. Zombies</span> </i>ask you to name your something at
the beginning which will let you have the feeling that ‘I will take charge of
this’. We start to like this from we were kids, children enjoy decorating their
clubhouses several times a day.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">9.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>I really love collecting things.</b>
Although it sounds not fun at all and a little stupid, I just like having
collections of a bunch of virtual props and the sense of being wealthy in game.
This is a reason why in some cases, the game will let you physically reap or
collect what you get with a simple click, rather than have the item in your ‘inventory’
automatically. That’s because game designers want to convey the feeling that ‘It
is me who just got something with my hands!’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span lang="EN-US">10.</span><span lang="EN-US"><b>Games help you exercise your
brain and learn something new.</b> Meaningful pay is also a goal of successful game
design. Not only educational games, many entertaining games can help you
exercise your brain from time to time. We can say that strategies are necessary
to all kinds of games. What’s more, being themed differently, there are many
things we can learn while playing games. For instance, <i>Monopoly</i> teaches us
economic, while some anecdote based games teach us history and mythology, which
may help us understand our real world better.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Above are the
top 10 reasons why I love playing games. There are other ones like ‘It’s
nothing but addictive!’, ‘sometimes I like to solve puzzles alone’, ‘I want to
show off to others!’, ‘I design games so I must play a lot’, and even ‘I learn
English!!!’ (Please don’t laugh. ^^) …Well, hope you find something in common
or something meaningful. Thanks for reading and enjoy playing!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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