Game Design Patterns. Features - Pacing And Gameplay Analysis In Theory And Practice. [Starbreeze Studios level designer Filip Coulianos shares a method for analyzing the pacing of games, and applies it to two superhero titles -- X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Batman: Arkham Asylum -- to see how differently-paced games can create very different results in players.]
We have always asked ourselves what great stories are made of; as a consequence, many refined methods for analyzing and creating good stories in traditional media have been developed. As the video game medium is only a toddler, no reliable toolsets exist yet. However, the question remains: what makes great games? Ben Chong's Blog - Indie Game Analytics 101. The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Call it designer ego, but I think the world owes me something when I release a game. I mean, I spent like 5 months making this thing from scratch and now it's SO pretty and therefore everybody including my hero Jordan Mechner should be playing this. Ignore everything I just said. Obviously the first version bombed and I went back to drawing cute levels on my napkins. Shiny new term I heard about this new thing they call analytics. I googled for "game analytics" and found this free cross-platform service called Playtomic . Background of my game Private Joe is a 2d platform shooter.
Here are some metrics that I'd like to share from my game's 30 levels. Metric #1 - Beginnings and Deaths Blue line: steep player drop rates right after Levels 1 and 6. Metric #2 - Heatmaps Heatmap of Level 6 Summary. Features - Scary Game Findings: A Study Of Horror Games And Their Players. This study was undertaken by usability and user experience studio Vertical Slice as an internal investigation. As this piece was not for commercial use, and used games that have already been released, it seeks to determine which Xbox 360 game is the "scariest," and is not intended to be a criticism or full analysis of the games in question. Using some of Vertical Slice's unique approaches to user research, the study used a number of methods including interview techniques, think-aloud, researcher/participant post-play analysis and biometric feedback in order to evaluate the player experiences with each game.
A group of six players, selected from a comprehensive database of over 500 individuals, was asked to play four different games -- each for 30 minutes, or an otherwise similarly appropriate length of time, depending on the game's content. The study was conducted in Vertical Slice's labs in Brighton, UK, which are designed to emulate natural gaming conditions.
Learning by Analysis « #AltDevBlogADay. As my last post turned out to be not as controversial as I’d worried that it might, I thought with this one I would return back to the main brief I’ve set myself: to try and bring my understanding of the role of a senior designer out in, hopefully, a way that’s interesting to read and gives a few insights as well.
So today’s post is about learning how to analyse not just other games but yours as well, with the main aim to be to make it better. One of the best skills you can learn as a designer is the ability to deconstruct another game, to be able to see through its patterns and understand what makes it tick. From there you can analyse the rules behind the game, which can then help you reflect on the game you’re making and reverse the process. This analytical skill exists in all businesses, and many creative industries revel in writing – and reading – retrospectives on how something was achieved. And, like it or loathe it, it has been very successful over the years. Starting an Analysis. Linear algebra for game developers ~ part 1. When I posted about decals last week, a number of readers commented that they would be interested in posts about linear algebra as it applies to game development.
I decided if I'm going to write about that, I might as well start at the beginning! This will be review to many of you who have written games before or taken classes in kinematic physics, so please bear with me for this introductory post -- I will get to more advanced topics later. Why do we care about linear algebra? Linear algebra is the study of vectors. If your game involves the position of an on-screen button, the direction of a camera, or the velocity of a race car, you will have to use vectors.