Blog Relaunch!

Having re-invited the FD1 Practice in COntext group to be authors of this site, I'd like to restate the aims of this blog. That is to provide a forum for the discussion of the lecture and seminar themes in relation to Game Design practice, and to comment and debate on any current issues that directly affect and/or engage with Game Design practices.

My First map analyse

The first game I have chosen to analyse is far cry 2. The functions of the map in this game are to navigate the player through the huge open world. One problem that I found with this game was that at times in the game I found myself wondered if I was actually playing a game or playing a hiking simulator! It is not fun to continually have to navigate a map! While there are a few different types of maps used in this game, there is no map on your HUD. So when you need to look at the map you either bring it out of your bag on screen or look at the map included in the game box. When you are riding in vehicles there are built-in “mini maps” but you can still pull out your main map onto your lap while driving.

A good point about the mini maps is that they point in the direction the player is facing. This is in contrast to the main map which is always pointing upright to north. The maps are useful to a degree, importantly they allow the player the able to navigate the game. This helps you to manage the fact that your character is infected with malaria and this means that you need to do missions every now and then in order to get more medicine to continue with your treatment, If you took away the maps this would become an impossible task to get to the next position in time and you would die. Removing the map would mean that you would have to remove that game play aspect making the game harder as the environment is too large resulting in a frustrating game. I would say a minor improvement would be to have a permanent mini map on HUD, your not going for realism if you didn't have it for that reason. Since if you were you wouldn't say how many bullets you have and how much health you have.

Innovative use of Space in Games

I'd like to see some examples here (provided by you) of games which use notions of space in innovative ways, or which exemplify ideas of space and place as discussed in Sally Hall's lecture.

Time Lines

Add your time lines here...

Thinking about Context

How much do we need to know about the setting/ history/ social and cultural context of a game in order to attain the maximum playing experience? For example, will I engage more with the repetitive gameplay of a game like Assassin's Creed if I know a little (or a lot) about the Knight's Templar and the histories/ myths regarding the crusades?

As game designers, how important is contextual research as part of the design process?

Discuss...

Welcome to your blog

This blog will act as a forum for the discussion of issues, ideas and theories addressed in your lectures and seminars.

You are welcome to add your posts and respond to each other's (and mine). The content is up to you, but I would encourage you to use the themes and ideas from PCAD400 as a starting point for this blog.

I would suggest that you label each post with your own name so that, should you wish to, you will be able to find your own posts/ comments and include them in your own research file.

Happy Blogging!