User Interface Questions

1. What type of challenges do you want to include in your game? Do you want to challenge the player's physical abilities, mental abilities or both?

I want the player to be immersed in a virtual obstacle course while playing. Therefore, the challenges that the player will face are mostly mental. It will demand critical thinking and memorization abilities.

2. Game genres are defined in part by the nature of the challenges they offer. What does your choice of genre imply for the gameplay? Do you intend to include any cross-genre elements, challenges that are not normally found in your chosen genre?

The RPG that I will develop will force the player to react to diverse situations and to carefully weigh
the consequences of their actions. I do not intend to include cross-genre elements.

3. What is your game's hierarchy of challenges? How many levels do you expect it to have? What challenges are typical of each level?

It will have several memorization skill levels where the player is expected to memorize some
information within a time limit. There will be 3-4 levels. The challenges are diverse: from planning to
team building.

4. What are your game's atomic challenges? Do you plan to make the player face more than one atomic challenge at a time? Are they all independent, like battling enemies one at a time, or are they interrelated, like balancing an economy? If they are interrelated, how?

Pressing buttons to unlock secret items. All challenges are done in sequence and are independent.

5. Does the player have a choice of approaches to victory? Can he decide on one strategy over another? Can he ignore some challenges, face others and still achieve a higher-level goal? Or must he simply face all the game's challenges in sequence?

The player has different options on how they want to clear levels. The player is not allowed to skip
over challenges. All obstacles need to be cleared for the player to prevail.

6. Does the game include implicit challenges (those that emerge from the design), as well as explicit challenges (those that you specify)?

Secret unlockable stages are scattered throughout the game in addition to the explicit ones.

7. Do you intend to offer settable difficulty levels for your game? What levels of intrinsic skill and stress will each challenge require?

There will be an option to change the difficulty of the game. Higher difficulties will require faster
reaction and greater image processing abilities.

8. What actions will you implement to meet your challenges? Can the player surmount a large number of challenges with a small number of actions? What is the mapping of actions to challenges?

The player needs to map a symbol on a set of buttons pairwise to achieve success. One mistake leads to complete failure. The actions are undefined at the time.

9. What actions will you implement for other purposes? What are those purposes--unstructured play, creativity and self-expression, socialization, story participation, or controlling the game software?

There will be dialog stages for story telling purposes.

10. What save mechanism do you plan to implement?

There is no save mechanism built in. Security policy prevents writes to the filesystem.

Custom User Interface

Custom User Interface

Hero Machine

Armored Technician : Bischof

He is a neo-modern bomb technician capable of arming and disarming explosives. He is outfitted with MAG-41K tactical heavy armor capable of withstanding frag grenade blasts and medium caliber bullets. Bischof is also loaded with a rocket jet and shoulder mounted RPG cannons to help him evade and destroy homing missiles. He is used for dangerous missions that require going deep into enemy territory and nuking the facilities. If an enemy is too close for comfort, Bischof can activate his flame aura to incinerate those who happen to be in contact. Bischof works as a lone wolf style operative, preferring to do things his way. He is accompanied by his dog companion, Mischief.

Renegade Hunter: Katerina

Katerina is a hunter, gatherer in a RPG. This amazonian likes to wear her aviator glasses to intimidate males and get her way. She is outfitted with a large sheath blade, a utility knife, and a leather whip. The  knives help her attack animals. The whip is used against people who wish to defy her orders. She is witty, tactful, and does not take "no" for an answer. She wears a green dress to display pride in her Irish heritage.

Worker, Debt Collector: Grunt

Grunt is your above average bookie who collects money owed for you if the price is right. He is used in a game similar to Grand Theft Auto. He is stocky and outfitted with unconventional weapons to scare the daylights out of the people he deals with. When not collecting "late payments", he is a day laborer, doing all sorts of menial jobs for a living. He prefers tight fitting shirts and has a wild surfer haircut.

Questions for Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball

1) What was the big innovation in the 1940s that made all other pinball machines obsolete?

Flippers revolutionized pinball because it changed the gameplay from luck to skill.

2) In the 1970s, what new technological advance brought pinball up to date and enabled another step forward in the industry?

Pinball machines began to incorporate software run by computers to enhance the gameplay.

What types of innovations did it make possible?

It allowed the pinball machine to function like an arcade game. Graphics can be displayed to further entertain the player.

3) Which company specialized in 1970s pop-culture themed pinball machines?

Bally.

4) What technology shook the pinball world in the 70s? Why?

Video games shook the pinball world by extending the capabilities of the machine.

5) By the 1990s, was pinball successful or not?

Pinball had a very popular fanbase in the 1990s. This period marked the pinnacle of pinball's success.

6) What was the key innovation behind "Pinball 2000"?

Pinball 2000 included a video monitor that projected an image that was reflected off the glass surface.

7) What was the problem with the license behind the first major rollout of the Pinball 2000 idea with a major 3rd party license?

The major 3rd party license had their own agenda and did not release the game in a manner that would capitalize on the hysteria that movie fans would display towards movie based merchandise. Also, the license was expensive.

8) Why did Williams decide in the end to shut down its pinball division?

The production price was too high and required too many resources relative to making slot machines. Slot machines sales were bringing in more income as well.

9) Do you think this was a good idea?

Not really. It saved the company a lot of money. However, the technology was not allowed to be advanced since the company did not license the pinball technology to someone else.

10) Does a good idea always guarantee a commercial win?

There are no guarantees for success. It depends on a variety of business factors most of which are beyond the control of the developers. Only the return on investment justifies whether a game can continue to be made.

Cartoon Network Level Design

ADVENTURE TIME

The challenge of this level is to maneuver the character from platform to platform without touching the lava or running into enemy fire. The character (a penguin) can double jump and fire a wide range sonic attack to dispatch enemies and cancel enemy fire.

The camera mode is static, 2D.

The user interface is made of the keyboard keys that the user presses to control the character. Arrow keys allow it to move left, right, and jump. The space bar fires the attack power.

The goal of the game is to defeat all enemies and reach the "finish line" at the top left corner of the screen.

BEN 10 ALIEN FORCE

The challenge of this level is to maneuver the character to reach and neutralize enemies without touching them or their fire. The character can fly and hover while shooting beams of energy downward.

The camera mode is static, 2D.

The user interface is made of the keyboard keys that the user presses to control the character. Arrow keys move the character left, right, and holding the up arrow key allows it to fly. The space bar fires the beam.

The goal of the game is to kill all enemies and to collect all orbs. You also have to safely reach the finish zone at the top right.

BEN 10 GAME CREATOR 2

The challenge of this level is to maneuver the character from each platform without falling into the open space at the bottom or touching any of the electric charges. The alien can double jump and fire shots at enemies.

The camera mode is static, 2D.

The user interface is made of the keyboard keys that the user presses to control the position of the character (and whether it fires or not). Arrow keys allow it to move left, right, and jump. The space bar fires a shot.

The goal of the game is to collect all of the orbs and safely reach the circular portal at the bottom right corner of the screen.

Google sketchup

Perspective View:

This is the street level view looking at the library and some parked cars. It is a section of an
urban area where the operatives will begin infiltration of the local buildings. It is the
view that you will see as the player perspective.

Side View:

This is the view looking at the police station which has been taken over by terrorists. You can
see the overall scale of the level from this view. The player can map out the routes that
certain teams can take during the planning stage.

Right View:

This view is similar to the side view. It simply provides another angle view to the buildings.
Good for plotting the routes for your teammates.

Overhead View:

This is the view where the majority of the planning takes place. It shows the most detail about
the landscape which defines the boundaries of the level.