Reviewing Games

I asked the Game Emporium, an online business, if they would like me to start reviewing games for them as I am an actual game designer. I can offer some insight into the games for all of you and hopefully will also give you some good advice on games you may have been thinking about buying. They agreed to let me review games and I shall be posting up copies of my reviews here as well. So not only will I be updating you all on my current happenings in my classes and work I shall be updating with reviews as well.

So that you understand how my reviews are going to work I'm going to break each game down into separate pieces and grade each one individually on a scale of 0-5 as well as grading the game overall. 0 will be the lowest score I can give something and 5 will be the highest. The individual areas that I will grade are: Concept, Graphics, Sound, Playability, and Entertainment.

Concept meaning the originality of the piece and whether it just feels like old games redone or if it brings something new to the table and if it does use old ideas, does it use them well or not?

Graphics obviously means I will grade the game on how well it looks. It's style and feel. Whether the graphics work or if they feel like the belong in an Atari 2600 game.

Sound will be whether the music and sound effects make you feel like you're right there in the action or if they make your ears want to bleed.

Playability is all about controls. Does it feel like you're actually punching someone in the face or does it feel like you're trying to steer an elephant down an alley.

Entertainment is whether the game is fun or a chore.

And for those keeping track if you count up the points above from all the different categories that equals a possible 25 points. So I will personally be adding an X-Factor category. Which will make the score an even 30 possible points.

The X-Factor is all about how good the game is. There can be a game that flunks multiple other areas, such as graphics and sound, but if you ignore those flaws you find yourself playing an incredibly addicting game that you don't want to stop even if people look at you funny.

So this 30 point score will be the overall score for the game.

With 30 being this game is perfect if you like video games at all you should try it.

25-29 meaning amazing. This game is a cut above the rest you should check it out.

20-24 very good. This game is a great example of whatever genre it belongs to. If you're an FPS fan and this is an FPS game you will probably enjoy it. Otherwise it may not be for you.

15-19 average. This game is middle of the road. Nothing spectacular but nothing particularly wrong with it either.

10-14 it's ok... The only people that will enjoy this game are people that are fans of the series. Assuming it's a sequel.

5-9 this is a poor excuse for a video game. There may be one or two things that are good about the game but it's hard to notice with the overall pain that the game brings otherwise.

0-4 means don't even bother.

Seeing as I haven't actually reviewed anything yet this system may prove to not work as well as something else. So I may change the system later. But rest assured if I do I will update you on what the new system is before I start using it. And depending on how slow a month is I may even update some of my older reviews to the new system.

I'll also be writing all my reviews in word for it's spell checking abilities before I post them on here so if anyone's been irritated by my spelling and grammar it should hopefully get better. Now as a special treat since you're reading this here on my own personal blog I will tell you what game I'm going to be reviewing first. It is for the Wii and it's name is MadWorld. I hope to have it up soon.

Being a student...

... the summer months are a bit slow for me on things to update about. This being that now that it's summer vacation I'm not actually in production of anything. Oh on a note the EMC didn't pan out this summer so I've been working on my own things.

Specifically I've been in the preproduction of my Senior Team Project game. That I will be working on with Husam Al-Ziab, Asa Gillette, and Taylor Bjorndahl. We may be cut during the school year and put to work on other projects or we gain more members as other teams are cut.

We have four game ideas at the moment which is more than some other groups, who have zero, and what we're working on for the rest of the summer is concept art and some very simple level design work so that I can get used to the engine editor and we can get a feel for how the game might play.

Our plan is to pick the two ideas we like the best and really try to run with those two and then present all of them to our professors at the start of the semester and see which one they think we should continue with. I'd share with you some of the ideas but I keep everything pretty close to the chest when it comes to game ideas and putting them on the internet. Because the last thing I want it is to make a game for a class and then see something incredibly similar coming out for the 360 arcade a year later.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll have more to share this summer, probably not. I'll ask my group mates if they have websites and if I can post them on here for you to look at them if you want... and they want.

Finals

So we delivered our scripts for Interactive Storytelling as well as our gold masters for Production II a couple weeks ago.

I received a digital copy of my script back from my professor for Interactive Storytelling. Except for one section where I seemed to misunderstand what was desired of me, but I still did well enough in the section so it didn't matter that much, I did really well. I received nearly full marks in every section missing a point or two here or there because of a grammar or spelling mistake I missed when proof reading it. Over all my professor was very impressed with the final version and is encouraging me to polish it some more so that I might use it as a porfolio piece.

I will probably want to talk to him some more about it before I decide whether to do so or not. But don't worry, if I do decide to use it as such I will be sure to let you all know.

We also had to deliever a post mortem for our Production II class. Which was a surprising experience. I felt, as many of my fellow producers had admitted as well, that I hadn't done much on the actual project. I believe now that we felt this way because we're all designers and used to helping build the game so when we started organizing things and filling out forms it didn't feel like we were doing as much. No offense to the producers out there in the world. I'm sure you do a lot it just feels different to us.

So during the post mortem we all sat down and talked about what worked and what didn't work. I tried to bring up my job as producer to let them throw me under the bus if they so desired. But I guess I did a good enough job because every time I brought up my producing they would skip over it and talk about something else.

In the end I believe everyone on the project received an A and some of us are talking about converting the game into Source or Unreal so that we can make it prettier and a better game experience. If I can get my two cents thrown in I'm pushing for Source as in my opinion it is a more easily accessible way for us to get our work out there. But who knows maybe I just don't know enough about Unreal Tournament 3 and we can get it out there just as easily.

PS. For clarity's sake I received A's in both of these classes.

On a more unenthusiastic note. I missed some paperwork and in the end did not transfer to the QA side of the UNFPA project. I am not on the project anymore and wish them the best of luck.

I know some of the other students didn't have the same problems I was having, but I felt I had to choose between classwork and the EMC. As a student of Champlain I couldn't really work at the EMC if I failed courses, at least that is how I understand the policy to work, so in my mind it was either one or neither. I chose one.

I have been told that the EMC is aquiring some new projects this summer that they hope to be starting soon, so hopefully I will be able to apply and work on those projects.

Beta

Beta for RYB was yesterday. I can honestly say that it is the first time I ever remember not needing to crunch the night before to make sure everything is done. I mean yes we worked the night before hand but we were done and went our separate ways at 9:30, all confident in the work we had just produced.

I don't want to brag or anything but on Monday when we showed our game off to the rest of the class I have to say our game looked the most fun and most complete out of the class's. Everything about this project is just clicking. It has been a beautiful experience working with all of these fine gentleman.

We have gold master in two weeks and all that's left for us is to play test, tweak, and polish. I believe that we are going to have a wonderful game come end of the semester. I find myself wondering if maybe there's some mojo surrounding me, because this is the second year in a row where I feel I worked on the best game in the class. Maybe it's just coincidence I do not know.

As far as Interactive Storytelling goes, I am having my decision to write a linear game reinforced by seeing what is happening to my classmates. Quite a few of them are dropping their branching dialogue paths in an attempt to actually finish their scripts. I on the other hand am sitting pretty and not stressing out about the script as it was never my intention to include branching dialogue.

The UN project is pushing forward and I'm applying to work on the Quality Assurance side of the project now. The high level concept of the actual game is what Brian George and I came up with at the start of the school year and I feel that as I will hopefully be graduating next year that I should take a step back and let others finish what we started.

I am also planning on being very dedicated to Senior Team Project as it will probably allow me to make one of my best portfolio pieces so I am not sure if I would be able to continue on the UN project this fall and as such I do not want to be in a Lead role and then abandon the project. So this "transfer" to the QA role would be beneficial to everyone involved.

Alpha

Just delivered the Alpha for our game in my Production II class. We're coming along pretty well. I'm still very concerned about scope. I'm going to have to sit down with my team during our weekly meeting and find some way to just hack and slash all the extraneous stuff off and leave just what we need.

I believe I have a very minimalist nature when it comes to designing, drawing, writing, etc. So it feels weird when I'm constantly looking at the games I am working on and I see a lot of scope issues. Life is funny like that I guess.

Updates

Here are some updates on the projects I'm working on.

UN Project:
Things are moving a quick pace as the team is rushing to get a prototype ready to present. It's a very crazy hectic schedule.

Production II:
Our working prototype took a little bit longer than we initially expected. But we're cranking the last few bits of the prototype tonight and then we're set and it's just alpha stuff. The mechanic is working right now we just have a camera bug and need regenerative health and all the mechanics and camera workings will be perfectly and then it's just a case of perfecting the art and such. Which is proving to be a little bit of a hassle as one of our artists has proven himself to be completely unreliable.

Interactive Storytelling:
My original idea for a story to tell in this class was a satire but I've learned from some of my friends who are seniors that there's a designer in their class that does nothing but satires and parodies and such. They consider the man unable to actually come up with original ideas on his own so not wanting to be that guy I threw out my first idea and now I'm working on a second one which is a superhero idea. I'm hoping to push it in a more original path than just a generic superhero story. If it's good maybe I'll put it up on the web.

That's it. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day.

Classes Update

So last semester has ended and this semester has begun. I passed my Level Design and Game Engine classes with flying colors. Plus I was able to work with Husam, an artist in my grade, on the Game Engine final project. I feel like that in particular was a good practice for when we're seniors in Senior Team Project because we're going to be working together. Level Design I was moderately happy with my level. I wish I had more time to work on it but at the same time as my understanding of Unreal kept changing through the course of the semester I kept updating my design so trying keep as close to the original as possible I think I did a fine job.

This semester I am taking Interactive Storytelling which is helpful for us to understand how a game script is written. Even though there are quite a few different methods to doing that, learning a way to do it is very helpful. I am also taking Game Prodution II. In this class we work in groups to actually make a game. I am the Producer of my group so it's my job to make sure that everything stays on track and we don't go out of scope. I have to say that I'm proud of my group so far. From the ideas I've heard from the other groups in my class I definitely believe my group is the most in scope.

We believe that we'll have a working prototype done in the next week or two, which during Production I for us was completely unthinkable so I definitely feel that this game is going to turn out a lot better. It's going to take a lot of testing and work but I have high hopes.

On the UN project front. Since last I posted I went to NYC to talk with our client. They seemed very pleased with what we had to share and very eager to continue working with us. Tomorrow some more of our team are going back down to NYC to give another presentation on an updated plan and design as well as explain the game to some other divisions of the UN to see if they want to help us as well. I am not joining them as I have some classes tomorrow that I don't want to miss.