Rocket to the Paper Moon

So in my last post I mentioned only two genres that environments have lead game-play, but I forgot another one which is Platformers. Paper Moon is a web app game using Unity. It is a time trial platform game where the player's aim is to rack up as much points as possible by collecting fruit, time bonuses and finishing the game in a fast time.

The main game-play comes from the player controlling both the character and environment to advance through the game. There is not really any story so the player is just focusing on the levels, and pushing the focus on to the environment even more.

The basics behind the game-play are you move the environment between the foreground and the background to cross sections of the levels, kill or block enemies and reach different paths to the end. What this does is make the player the sole reason for failure in getting a decent score in the game.

If the player fails its their fault.

Some of the ways to get through the levels are quite well hidden in the background and foreground and some times you don't realise the other ways you can do things. For instance, in the first level there is a set of stars hanging in the sky all the way through. However, further on in the level they can be used to reach another section of the level but its hard to notice without seeing them move if you can use them.

I like what this game does psychologically to the player. The way it makes you feel when you make yourself fail. It gets bloody annoying! I'm not sure if this is a bad thing though. Will have a look into it a little more might ask a couple of people how it makes them feel. I think it could be a thing that could put people off coming back to a game or carrying on with it if this style of game-play was used in a larger game.

Year Walk Part 2

So today I tortured myself again. I finished it this time though.

Last time I left it at a puzzle where I had to find bunch of strange looking baby... things. I had to find 4 of them in total. The reason I'm bringing it up is because I really like what did for the game-play. Basically, where the baby things are hidden, makes the player think outside of the box. They literally need to think of the environment outside of the screen, like the games environment carries on passed the boarders. Sometimes this can be just swiping across the screen as if grasping for an escape from the screen, or even just wondering whats dripping blood from the sky. This another way the environment is leading the game-play within this game.

One other thing I really liked about Year Walk was the use of the companion app to carry on the game after the 'game' had ended. It's strange when your reading the extra content that you unlock at the end of the credits. The feeling when your analysing the images within that content. I could believe I was still playing the game, even though I thought it was over.

I don't think I have seen this before where the game influences the player that much that it gets them to keep 'playing' by read up on lore and another side of the story.

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Thought I'd add this little bit just quick. I've been thinking about the games I have looked at up to now, including some of the ones I haven't posted about. The thing is, I can't seem to think of any games that use the environment in the way that these do, by leading the game-play, that aren't either Adventure or Puzzle games. I need to research a little more and either find one that does or a reason why not.

I also wouldn't mind to explore expanding an environment outside of the visible with a 3D world. Or something along those lines.

Frustrated much?

So today I chose to frustrate myself. Well I didn't want to be I did anyway.

Josh mentioned an app game called Year Walk a couple of weeks ago. The game is a kind of adventure puzzle game based on Norse myth and folk lore. The game comes in two parts the actual game and the companion app which explains the lore behind the game. This does also give some insight into the puzzles.

But oh my days.... does it get frustrating!

So usually in this kind of game, you have hints around the environment to push you in a certain direction. They pretty much point things out for you. Big glowing edges and wiggling objects. You end up just aimlessly roaming the environments until something catches your eye.


However Year Walk is different. Yeah there are hints but less obvious. You have to explore the environment properly rather than just aimlessly, often this means concentrating on an area for several minutes. And by several minutes I mean a lifetime. I think I got that hooked into the puzzles and the environment, that I lost track of what I should have been looking for. I was tricked into thinking too much.

  

Often, it looked like I was given what seemed to be a solution to a puzzle then when I went to do the puzzle I would try the solution, and it wouldn't work. I kept trying though. Over and over. And over. After a while I would get so confused to why it wasn't working, I would just sit there trying the same thing over and over again. then I tried reversing the combination. Then all of a sudden. BOO! A ghostly figure jumps in front of your face. Once again, I dropped my guard. I couldn't figure out if the I was using the wrong solution to the puzzle or the game was making me over think, or even if I was only given part of the solution. I don't know.

It seemed the majority of my time within the game was spent concentrating on the games environment and not puzzles. To say that this game looks to focus on the story/myths or even puzzles from the outside. The game was pushing you into looking at your surroundings in greater depth to push the game-play.

Like I said this game seems to be an exception in its genre. I don't think I have seen an adventure puzzle game with such little amount of clues/hints and environment that doesn't just look pretty, but makes you think about the puzzle contained in it.

I got my Fez on!

So when I was thinking about the games that have an environment that leads its game-play, I instantly thought... hmmmm... Fez!

Fez to me, is probably the best example of this. The only way you can get anywhere in the game is by using the environment to reach doors and new ledges. The player is the environment and the character, in turn making it the players fault when they can't beat the game.

The whole game and story is based off the environment as well:
An almighty polygonal god created a 3D world but the inhabitants only live in 2D. BUT... The player receives the gift to see all the sides of the 2D3D world, or what ever you want to call it, and he must save it from an inevitable demise.

I have played Fez a lot. It's probably in my top ten. The idea is genius.

Makes me wonder if it would work in a full 3D adventure/platforming style game.