I attended the "Game Design and Development Project Gala of Doom" held in Schaefer, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the games created by the students of the class. Let this be my disclaimer that I am not very knowledgeable about games, nor am I very good at playing them successfully. I played Nanaquest, Iron Dust, King of Nunn, and the Natty Boh Hunt with the assistance of my friend.
All of the games featured a very basic directional keypad with button for jumping, and typically featured a shoot button. The Natty Boh Hunt bragged a focus on nonviolence, and so did not have a shoot button, but the point of the game was also to make your way through the game while getting increasingly drunk. I give them extra points for originality, flare, and attention to the local culture. I really enjoyed playing all of the games; they all had an interesting balance of playability and difficulty, and they were all very fun. I do have to say that reading all of the text in King of Nunn was too overwhelming.
Focusing on the artistic elements of the games, I enjoyed the colorful aspects of Nanaquest because it deviated from the stereotypical presentation of a space setting being dark black with white spots and the occasional asteroid. I'm referring to Galactica and similar games, just because those are the only space games that I tend to enjoy. Contrastingly, Nanaquest featured the characters playing on the actual planets, in wildly colorful settings. The color schemes seem to be toxic or neon, getting across the fact that these settings are otherworldly. For some, the amount of color might be overwhelming, but I think the students did a good job of making sure that the main characters could be easily viewed in a prisoner orange spacesuit, that could contrast well with the contrastingly muted background. However, I did make it past the second level, so this may have changed later on in the game.
The design of Iron Dust was lovely, and fit well with the theme of the game, in which the main character is trying to avenge his decimated village. Once again, color played an important theme in the design of the game, with the setting being a series of muted browns, tans, and dull blues. I especially enjoyed the towers that looked as if they'd been slightly rusted and in the process of falling apart. They added a good dimension to the game while also being functional. Every part of the game looks carefully handcrafted, and that is something rarely found in today's games. Due to this overall tone of the game, I struggled with accepting the style of the "Next" button, which is reminiscent of the style of selection buttons on the game systems of Playstation or Gamebox (I can't remember which one). I wish the overall handcrafted tone of the game was kept even in small elements such as the "Next" button.
Natty Boh Hunt's design is very interesting and I have never encountered anything like it. Basically, there is no gravitational direction once the character is inebriated, creating a very trippy effect that is not as stereotypical as this. The background is a very pixelated picture of the campus stretched out to fit the entire design, and on top of the digitally illustrated pathways, there are pictures of real trees. While any other attempt to recreate this kind of design would be unpleasing, the context of the game allows for, and even necessitates such an unorthodox creation. In addition to the lack of gravitational pool, it was discovered that the character could not die and whenever he fell, he would end up in another part of the campus. This accurately and hilariously reflects the false notion of a drunk college student that they are invincible. The humor in this piece was very enjoyable.
All of the games featured a very basic directional keypad with button for jumping, and typically featured a shoot button. The Natty Boh Hunt bragged a focus on nonviolence, and so did not have a shoot button, but the point of the game was also to make your way through the game while getting increasingly drunk. I give them extra points for originality, flare, and attention to the local culture. I really enjoyed playing all of the games; they all had an interesting balance of playability and difficulty, and they were all very fun. I do have to say that reading all of the text in King of Nunn was too overwhelming.
Focusing on the artistic elements of the games, I enjoyed the colorful aspects of Nanaquest because it deviated from the stereotypical presentation of a space setting being dark black with white spots and the occasional asteroid. I'm referring to Galactica and similar games, just because those are the only space games that I tend to enjoy. Contrastingly, Nanaquest featured the characters playing on the actual planets, in wildly colorful settings. The color schemes seem to be toxic or neon, getting across the fact that these settings are otherworldly. For some, the amount of color might be overwhelming, but I think the students did a good job of making sure that the main characters could be easily viewed in a prisoner orange spacesuit, that could contrast well with the contrastingly muted background. However, I did make it past the second level, so this may have changed later on in the game.
The design of Iron Dust was lovely, and fit well with the theme of the game, in which the main character is trying to avenge his decimated village. Once again, color played an important theme in the design of the game, with the setting being a series of muted browns, tans, and dull blues. I especially enjoyed the towers that looked as if they'd been slightly rusted and in the process of falling apart. They added a good dimension to the game while also being functional. Every part of the game looks carefully handcrafted, and that is something rarely found in today's games. Due to this overall tone of the game, I struggled with accepting the style of the "Next" button, which is reminiscent of the style of selection buttons on the game systems of Playstation or Gamebox (I can't remember which one). I wish the overall handcrafted tone of the game was kept even in small elements such as the "Next" button.
Natty Boh Hunt's design is very interesting and I have never encountered anything like it. Basically, there is no gravitational direction once the character is inebriated, creating a very trippy effect that is not as stereotypical as this. The background is a very pixelated picture of the campus stretched out to fit the entire design, and on top of the digitally illustrated pathways, there are pictures of real trees. While any other attempt to recreate this kind of design would be unpleasing, the context of the game allows for, and even necessitates such an unorthodox creation. In addition to the lack of gravitational pool, it was discovered that the character could not die and whenever he fell, he would end up in another part of the campus. This accurately and hilariously reflects the false notion of a drunk college student that they are invincible. The humor in this piece was very enjoyable.
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