Gameplay Week 5

Do the choices you make in the game contribute to the sense of meaningful interactive moments?

The game I decided to play this week was 'Deus Ex' (2001) a first person shooter/RPG, I didn't feel that the dialogue choices throughout the game were meaningful and also did not have any branching narratives. One of choices in the game was the selection of weapons, initially my understanding or assumption was that this would indicate to the player how to easily and successfully kill the enemy with different options for different weaponry, however throughout game play I found a number of new weapons to use, this made that choice  of weapon selection meaningless. Through the entirety of the game the player could make a choice on whether they wanted kill or avoid the enemy by sneaking past. To me the option of 'kill' or 'avoid' did not result in branching narrative paths but potentially effect game play as it impacted on how fast or slow it would take the player to conclude the game. I felt that I was always able to anticipate the outcome of my decisions as I played. This would be mainly based on my prior knowledge and experience with past shooting games which tended to use the same problems, same choices and therefore confirm my assumption. In the end I did not quite enjoy this game.

The Wolf Among Us

The game I'm playing this week is 'The Wolf Among Us', already I like how the graphics look, though it is 3D the art is created in a way to make it look like a retro 2D comic almost. The short sequence at the start menu is really cool, the lighting, colour pallet and music all together help give it a mysterious and perhaps almost ominous vibe, which really draws me in and made really excited and curious of what the game had to offer.
When first starting the game I realised that there is a time limit when deciding the choices you make, the choice situation is quite obvious but I feel as the player, you don't have enough time to make your decision, so I did not know how what would happen with the outcomes of my choice which I found it a bit frustrating because I always like to stop and think about my decision rather than just randomly clicking an answer, however I also feel like this makes the game and character feel more realistic and almost movie like. The interaction in the game also felt like I was joining in along and helping the character with his work but most of the choices I made for the character had no major impact for the narrative.
I did play this very quickly so perhaps my views will change, but in the end I really enjoyed this game.

Game-Sonic 2

Did linear storytelling in your chosen game(s) engage and excite you as a player? Explain why or why not.

I really enjoy old games like Street Fighter, Space Invaders and Super Mario (my favourite). So I was very excited to play Sonic. I will admit that I am not the greatest  gamer, so obviously I was very poor at this game. When I was playing the game I really enjoyed the retro graphics and music, I especially loved the music because it had an upbeat, 'feel good' vibe to it that captivated me, though saying that, the start did feel like there was really no story, however as I continued to play I felt like game was trying to tell me that this forest land is his home and I as the player am trying to save his home from being destroyed, and that happens a lot in reality with our society, so in a way you can definitely relate to the game.

However, I also felt the game was very repetitive and I was basically making Sonic run the whole time, the design is kinda going all over the place so I felt like I couldn't really take everything all in, and though it does have some boss battles, in the end for me it ends up losing its excitement.

Mood Board for Ghost Lady

Here are some examples that I thought could work well for our ghost bride.

The first character that I thought we could get some inspiration from was the earth spirit lady from Fantasia/2000 (1999), I feel like Taylor's ghost lady would be described as a gentle, pretty and cute character, so I thought the earth spirit was a good example for this.

As you can see her movements are gentle and uplifting as she floats delicately through the air.

The next character I thought could be useful is Eris from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003). 

 In this image Eris moves very fast and this makes her look menacing (not the best example lol but she still looks cool).

     



Because she is an underwater enchantress....creature......thing......its been a very long time since I've last seen that film...Anyway her hair floats around her as if she is still in the ocean, which I think makes her look even more beautiful and adds a bit of grace to the way she moves.

Like the earth spirit, her body trails after her as she floats through the air, however Eris' lower part of her body is made up of smoke, I find this more fitting for our character.

The last character I thought was cool is Princess Yue, Moon Spirit from Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008). Her design is very beautiful and I like the yellow glow, I think that would be fitting to the ghost bride, however, I know that others in the group have different ideas for her colour pallet and thats totally fine, just throwing ideas out there. 

Thats all I have right now, any feedback or suggestions is much appreciated. 

Game 1-Never Alone

First game I played was 'Never Alone', already the opening sequence had me hooked, it fits very well with the music which makes it very mysterious and captivating. I liked that the game gave me me a bit of insight of the Inupiat native people before I started my quest, I found that very interesting. The narration/ story telling worked very well very well the animation

So as the story continued, it showed the first character, a young girl, I thought the graphics looked really nice and went very well with the game. And then I get a massive panic attack as the game tells me to start running. I've only started the game and already freaking out because I'm horrible at any type of video game, its also not helping with the scary, intense music, however, it works very well with the scene, this with the help of my fear made me very determined to keep my character alive.

I thought my character was about to die but I saw a white fox in the background following my character, and the hungry polar bear and pray its my spirit animal!!! The game got to a point where I was able to switch to the fox to distract the bear and save the girl, I was very relieved but terrified again 'cause I has to keep running!....I died twice because I didn't know how to use the controls....

The cutscenes are very cute and I already can see a friendship form between the young girl and the fox. They work together as a team to keep each other safe, however the fox acts more of the guardian towards the girl.

I did find it disappointing that i could not save the game, (unless I'm just stupid and haven't found the save button in the menu) I don't want to have to start all over again because I feel it loses the emotion/feeling of the game.

Well thats it so far, I plan to complete this game, it was really intense and a lot of fun I can't wait to see what happens at the end.