Monthly Archives: February 2013

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Game Prototype: Mine My Mine

This game prototype is my personal exploration on delivering repetitive pleasure with experiencing as little challenge as possible. When players mine with each click, the income increases so further investment can be made to upgrade the sensor (view range), prospector (mining range) and accelerate the growth of mines.The mines automatically grow after being mined, even if it is empty(grey).

Also, I tried to apply the typical freemium monetisation strategy here.


Mine My Mine from Ni Hu on Vimeo.

Download the prototype

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Game Prototype: Melody

Melody is a simply notion of a music ludic feature that can be exploited further. By flowing the melody, the player completes the melody by entering simplified notes (without considering inputting intervals larger than an octave or key signatures).

Melody intends to bring simple pleasure and challenge to music lovers not by means of “twitch gameplay” (action) but by music cognitions, which attempts the more “melodic” mechanics of music games .

Here is a demo video:

Melody from Ni Hu on Vimeo.

What’s more?

I can think of a decent library of various genres of music available for a melody game like this. Variations of gameplay can be exploited.

Several examples:

Mixed music pieces in one game session;

Complete the melody in a backward order (of each melody question and answer);

A “campaign” of music history and evolution/movements;

Realistic mode including accidentals–12 tones (Ha, Schoenberg~)

Download the prototype

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Why Can Journey Be Considered as an Art Game in Terms of Aesthetics?

INTRODUCTION

Being one of the most critically and commercially successful video games on PlayStation Network in 2012, Journey (Thatgamecompany, 2012) received mostly high critical acclaims (Metacritic, 2012) among the video games press and players for its exquisite visual and audio art style and unique the experimental gameplay experiences unified with implicit narrative which engages the player with another player through the shared emotional experiences. There are views and discussions regarding Journey as a work of interactive art (Stuart, 2012). And as the debate of whether video games can be art goes on, Journey can be a living case worthy of attention and discourses. This essay starts by justifying the feasibility of video games as a form of art and continues to argue why Journey, based on the justifications, can be considered as an art game in terms of aesthetics, in which examination and analysis on the game’s aspects of visuals, audio, gameplay and narrative are conducted and presented.

VEDIO GAMES AS ART

It has been a controversial topic that whether video games, or more precisely, digital games, can be considered as a new form of art. There’s no doubt that video games are a form of medium with creative artistic elements such as story, visual arts and music in a similar way as they are presented in films. Although some notable figures do admit this point, they question the artistic nature of video games as they are goal and choice–driven, rule-based, and meant to be played interactively. Among these arguers, one most noticeable is film critic Roger Ebert, who at first stated in an online discussion (Ebert, 2005) that video games are works of craftsmanship that lack authorial control, inferior to film and literature and “for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilised and empathetic”. He continued to argue in an essay on the rule and goal-based nature of video games (Ebert, 2010). Other similar views were expressed by game designers Brian Moriarty (2011) and Michael Samyn (2011). Continue reading →