What Makes a Game Great – Dylan

This week we took a break from the technical practice and stepped in to a new realm. What truly makes a game fun to play? In class this week we talked about game design, less about creating a game, and more about designing one. In class we sat and discussed, what made our favorite games special, and what did we dislike about them?

Most people chose series of many games, or a single game that has been updated over several years, which allowed us to discuss our likes and dislikes over time.  People mostly chose well enjoyed series like Animal Crossing or Fallout. I personally chose the Pokemon DS games as well as World of Warcraft (WoW), two very different games.

The Trigonometry of Blasters! – Dylan

Blasters are such a staple to video games. Think back to space invaders, that game is almost completely just a simple blaster that moves side to side. That works great if you only want to shoot in a single direction, but what happens when you would like to aim in a full 360 degrees?

Power-ups! – Dylan

What is the best part of a game to you? The sweet end music? The awesome rewards? Well, for me, it was always power-ups, there is nothing more staple in video games than a power up. I mean, who doesn’t know what a Mario mushroom looks like by 2018? That’s what I have been working on lately, making simple power-ups that make a game feel more alive.

Big Bad Code – Dylan

As my class has really jumped into our work, everything has really taken off. We have jumped right in to coding and designing simple “game-like” projects. Our first being a simple maze-like machine in order to practice creating objects and effects. Effects are a lot of fun to work with, not much is quite as satisfying as creating an invisible black hole effect that sucks a marble in.

As you can see there was quite a complex system of parts that were both visible and invisible, allowing for effects that seem to appear out of thin air. This lead to quite a fun element of surprise as the marble was rolling through the maze. Though slightly challenging, that project was quite a lot of fun.

The Building Blocks of Building a Game – Dylan

Video Games have been a staple of my personal interest for as long as I can remember. At the age of five I clearly remember playing on my friend’s older brother’s PlayStation 2, and I instantly fell in love.

http://www.johnsonsclassroom.com/video-game-design.html

 

As of recently I have had a growing interest in how video games are made, and I am looking to pursue that interest in college.  Thankfully the DigiPen Institute of Technology offers online high school classes. So this week I dove into the world of video game design, a world that I hopefully grow to love.