Game 2 – Interactive Digital Narratives

What does agar.io do?

Very reminiscent of Pac Man, it occurs to me that agar.io might be the closest thing to a modern multiplayer Pac Man. Whereas Pac Man has a specific level design and series of obstacles the player is required to tackle in order to progress through the game, agar.io has far less structure and goal in mind, with no landmark achievements the player is working toward (like beating the level in pac-man) and an infinitely long possible gameplay time, with the player staying safe in gameplay as long as they remain the largest player and manage to eat all smaller players. Despite the competitive and sometimes intense or fast-paced multiplayer gameplay, players have the option of simply grazing on the numerous dots spawning around the gameplay grid and minding their own business (as long as a larger player doesn’t decide to make them a snack). The more open-world nature of agar.io in comparison to Pac Man seems reflective to me of a more general trend in the way games have changed since the rise of arcade games. I see games becoming more and more open-world, with the rules defining the world of a game becoming less and less rigid. Even though the mechanics of agar.io are very simple (beyond the multiplayer online aspect), the game is not one I could easily have seen being made during pac-man’s time (or at least an 8-bit version). To me, this change represents a shift to a more Ian Bogost-like “do things with video games” attitude, with the things agar.io “does” being creating an informal online community as well as simulating a sort of hypothetical biological cannibalistic relationship wiith a completely darwinistic attitude. The other players almost feel like some kind of bacteria floating in a graph-based fluid, the stronger ones preying on the weaker. The shift to more free-form open-world games allows games to make much more interesting commentary than they previously could.

Changes in agar.io

Having played agar.io several times a couple years ago, I was very surprised to see its popularity has been maintained (if not grown) since the last time I played. When I last played there was no revenue-generating system of payment or advertisement present in the game from what I remember. Now when I open the website in my browser, I am first faced with an image informing me that I am using an adblocker (true) and asking me to disable it, followed by a number of panels advertising new apps and games that the developer has released as well as social media widgets for sharing the game and your score. Additionally, another ad appears superimposed over everything and you must close it before reaching the widgets to log in and play. Players may now customize more elements of their “character” like the skin and name displayed on your circle as you glide around the grid-based map eating smaller dots and players. I’m interested in both the fact that so many people still play this game despite how old it is (at least to me) and also the ways in which the game has been able to create apparent revenue streams and update content in a way that maintains the engagement of players while still creating an economic profit for the developer. Despite these superficial changes, there seem to be few (if any) changes to the actual mechanics of the game (unless there are some that I missed) and I found little difference in the actual gameplay experience from when I first started playing. I find the gameplay of agar.io to be part relaxing, part competitive. I would say the game is relaxing in that the movements of the player are smooth and very simple in mechanic nature, with the player simply guiding around their circle-shaped character with the mouse. It is also competitive, with the multi-player combat incentivising to absorb smaller players in order to increase their size.

A Driving Habit: Cultural Context and Familiarity in Race the Sun

In his chapter on Habituation in How to Do Things with Videogames, Ian Bogost argues that making a game familiar is more important than making it learnable – he specifically claims that games are most easily learnable if we’ve become habituated to their conventions. According to Bogost, successful casual or coin-op games aren’t “easy to […]

In his chapter on Habituation in How to Do Things with Videogames, Ian Bogost argues that making a game familiar is more important than making it learnable – he specifically claims that games are most easily learnable if we’ve become habituated to their conventions. According to Bogost, successful casual or coin-op games aren’t “easy to learn, hard to master,” but rather culturally familiar and easy to habituate to.

Playing Race the Sun kind of makes me wonder if the developers read Bogost. Well, some of Bogost, at any rate.

Starting a game of Race the Sun most immediately evokes classic racing games, which makes a lot of sense when you consider the title. We take control of a fast-moving vehicle after a rolling start. The camera is placed in the traditional racing position, over and behind the craft (though it can be changed to the front, as in most racing games) and we navigate the gameplay space as though it were a racetrack, rather than moving through a side scrolling level. So we head into a run with the habituated context of a racing game, and we already know what our objectives are – move as quickly as possible through the track and don’t hit anything, because you’ll crash and burn.

A crossover between racing game and endless runner is not exactly a new idea – most endless runners give you something that you need to race against or escape so that you don’t go through the courses too slowly. In Race the Sun it’s, well, the sun, but in Temple Run (an earlier and more well-known endless runner) your character is fleeing from a group of mysterious temple guardians that you foolishly awakened, and in Canabalt your character is fleeing the destruction of his city. Race the Sun, however, borrows the most explicitly from the genre, with regular trick jumps and obstacles forming safe tracks that require careful maneuvering. These combine with item collecting and high scores from endless running games to create an experience that is surprisingly intuitive, for a game about a completely nonsensical scenario.

Bogost seems to think that the best “habitual” games on the market build on previously established ideas. Tetris, he claims, succeeded because it combined several successful elements from old-school domino games – tiling and assembly, to be precise. In this regard, Race the Sun succeeds admirably – the fusion of two popular genres creates a gameplay experience no other game can replicate exactly, and ties into our own cultural knowledge of driving cars. So how come the game hasn’t been successful?

Race the Sun doesn’t carry the name recognition of Tetris or even Temple Run despite occupying similar genre with a unique style of gameplay. Perhaps it’s just that the game was simply published too late. Or perhaps it costs too much – Race the Sun costs under $5 on iphone, but given the trend that mobile games are heading in, any cost may be too much to ask. Temple Run is free, as are some versions of Tetris, and in a world where a free game can deliver a habitable experience as well as Tetris does, it takes something truly extraordinary to succeed as a paid product. Race the Sun might simply not have what it takes to do so.

Use of Nostalgia to Make Evoland “Cool”

As I have already talked about in a previous posts, Evoland provokes many nostalgic feelings towards past adventure games and movies. Here, I hope to expand on this thought, discussing different ways that Evoland uses nostalgia. Zach Whalen edited a book on nostalgia in video games in 2008, and within it there is a chapter by Sean Fenty entitled “Why Old School is ‘Cool’: A Brief Analysis of Classic Video Game Nostalgia. When talking about what motivates a nostalgia in games, he proclaims “Designers must motivate players to put forth the effort involved in playing. They need to set goals and give rewards; they need to set up a situation that will make players want to succeed at the game and want to learn the rhythm of things”(25). He takes it a step further by saying if this is not accomplished, then the game will not foster nostalgia, but will be forgotten.

With this in mind, it is worth looking at some games/ movies mentioned in Evoland: The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Skyrim, Lord of the Rings, Mario, Diablo, and League of Legends. All of these games are popular titles with significant name value. All the games mentioned successfully achieve what Fenty sets down. Thus, Evoland, not in a manipulative sense, uses the success of other games to drive its own success. It plays off nostalgic feelings established by prior games and implements them in a way to make its own game more playable.

In addition, Henty uses the term “playing the past” in his chapter. This also applies to Evoland as further in the game, the player must go back in time in order to advance the gameplay. This takes the game back to the older graphics, again promoting thoughts of older games with 2d graphics. This, to paraphrase Henty, causes players to yearn for the game, as they represent the past while also giving the players a chance to play in the past. As such, Evoland, despite being a new game, invokes the same feelings as the classics, thus putting it in the same nostalgic category of “cool”.

Whalen, Zach, Laurie N. Taylor, and Sean Fenty. Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2008. Web.

Evoland: A Salute to the Trailblazers of the Adventure Genre

2As previously mentioned, Evoland is filled with nods in the direction of old adventure games. It seems impossible to progress more than a couple minutes without getting another reference to a past game or film. And while Evoland’s story is independant of the past games and it is presented as a game that tracks histories of role playing games, it’s character development as well as other elements of the gameplay are built on a foundation of reverence to past successful titles. Ian Bogost talks about reverence in his book “How to do Things With Videogames”, and while he mainly addresses this issue in regards to cities and monuments, it acts the same way with other videogames.

Bogost spends a lot of time within the chapter talking about the inclusion of the Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man. A large part of his argument is centered around how its inclusion as a key level in the game appreciates the cathedral’s relevance more than it depreciates it (27). I agree with Bogost here, as in my personal experience the inclusion of monuments or cities tends to add relevance to a certain area, rather than detract from it. Evoland acts the same way, as it adds to the lore and significance of the games mentioned, almost explicitly pointing out that Zelda or Final Fantasy set the bar for future adventure games. Another point of this is that Evoland’s narrative does not require any aspects from past games; rather they act as a compliment, calling upon the success and recognition value to supplement the story at various points.

Furthermore, this use of reverence allows Evoland to be elevated from any general adventure narrative and becomes one filled with acknowledgements of its predecessors successes in order to generate excitement within the game. For example, as someone who has played Skyrim, Evoland’s use of an otherwise stagnant character to tell Clink how he once took an arrow to the knee turned a dull moment of interaction with an NPC into a rather humorous moment, while paying homage to another successful game of the same genre. Evoland uses reverence very frequently, and to good effect. I have never come across such a game, and it a rather fitting example of just one of many things to do with video games.

In for the Long Haul: Keeping Player Interest in Race the Sun

Race the Sun is at its core an endless runner with a bunch of gimmicks attached. You control a solar-powered craft that must remain in sunlight in order to stay flying. Stay in the shadow for too long, and you’ll run out of solar energy and crash. Run into an obstacle (of which there are […]

Race the Sun is at its core an endless runner with a bunch of gimmicks attached. You control a solar-powered craft that must remain in sunlight in order to stay flying. Stay in the shadow for too long, and you’ll run out of solar energy and crash. Run into an obstacle (of which there are many) and you’ll crash. Don’t pick up enough boosters on the track, and the sun will go down, causing you to run out of energy and crash. There are enough ways to crash in the game that you’ll get hit with one of them sooner or later.

I’ve played a number of endless runners, but none of them have managed to hold my interest for very long. Most of them have barely any variation in terms of gameplay – one mode that’s basically a score attack is all you get. And one thing I’m learned about myself as a gamer is that the lure of beating my high score over and over isn’t enough to keep me interested in a game by itself. Race the Sun, however, has stayed on my phone for a longer time than most, and I find myself returning to it fairly regularly. I attribute the fact that it’s kept my interest to a number of factors – chief among them a leveling system and a variety of modes.

Race the Sun has four modes – the classic, baseline mode, a much faster and more lethal apocalypse mode, a slower-paced labyrinth mode that ditches the sundown mechanic and adds an endpoint but requires the player to precisely navigate a maze of tight corridors, and an “endless” sunrise mode, with reduced difficulty and no sundown or end. Only the base mode and sunrise are unlocked at the start – the rest must be unlocked by leveling up. One levels up in Race the Sun by completing in-game challenges. Some challenges (travel 10,000 meters) are fairly straightforward; others (do a barrel roll ten times in one region) are less so. Leveling up also unlocks new attachments and decals for the ship (which change how it controls and looks, respectively).

The leveling system, in my mind, gives Race the Sun what other endless runners I’ve played have been lacking – a system of goals outside of the effort to improve my highscore. Trying to complete one of the challenges would often give me something to aim for after a series of bad runs, and that would convince me to keep playing for longer or for more often than I otherwise would have. The larger variety of game modes and modifications to my ship helped as well. I spent a good amount of time changing the modifications on my ship, either for different challenges or to see which setup would let me go the farthest, and trying to increase my score that way added a lot of time to my sessions. As for the game modes, I found that each one not only offered a different experience, but usually took a different amount of time as well (Apocalypse mode sessions were usually over the most quickly, because it’s easier to crash in that mode). This not only increased the variety of gameplay features, it gave me more settings to play the game in – I could play a reliably shorter mode if I was only taking a short break to play, or I could start a longer game mode if I had a lot of time.

And all that is on top of the main effect of having multiple modes, which is to break up the monotony of endless runs of an endless runner. If that was the plan, it worked well enough to get me hooked – and expanding an audience is good for any game, casual or no.

Nostalgia in Evoland

Evoland is a mobile game that is centered around one member of the Order of Dragon Knights, with a default name of Clink, as he attempts to save Evolandia from evil. This is a very unique game in many aspects. As it probably can’t be called a “casual” game, it falls more into the adventure or role playing game category, similar to playing a Legend of Zelda game. However, it lacks the seriousness of a true adventure game, and spends a lot of time commenting on similar, familiar titles. But what it lacks in intensity it makes up for in nostalgia, as it references numerous games and movies of a similar genre.

Evoland was designed to plot the history of RPG’s, and change as the player gets further along. The game experience starts with 8-bit color on a 2d side scroller resembling the game “Passage” that was played earlier in the semester. However, soon into playing the game many upgrades are found, unlocking graphics and mechanics upgrades in chests around the map. These give you weapons, add in more colors, increase resolution, allow you to save, and add meaning to the game. For example, there is no back story to start the game- but when the “Storyline” milestone is unlocked, Clink’s mission is revealed.

As previously mentioned, one thing that I noticed in Evoland is the references to other games. This, along with with its old school graphics at the beginning, foster a strong sense of nostalgia as Clink wanders through the map. Within Evoland, there are numerous references to older games, most notably Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy games. The names Klink and Kaeris, Clink’s companion, are references to Link in the Zelda games and Aeris in the Final Fantasy series. To name a few more, Klink’s adventure takes him to the “Noria Mines” (very similar to the Mines of Moria in The Lord of The Rings), his items, including bombs, a bow and a sword, bear a strong resemblance to those of Link (including a legendary sword opposed to a master sword), and the currency is a gli, compared to the gils of Final Fantasy.

In doing this, Evoland morphs into more of a meta-game, commenting on generic adventure themes and tropes throughout, while also serving as an ode to the classics. And while it is unique in its presentation and format are the main feature of the game, its storyline and allusions contribute in a way to elevate it beyond a simple mobile game.

What’s the Appeal in Celebrity Games?

Glu Mobile created a new genre of video game with its release of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood in 2014. Since then, Glu has released celebrity game with Kendall & Kylie Jenner, Katy Perry, Gordon Ramsey, Nicki Minaj, and of course Britney Spears. Glu has dozens of other mobile games but they are best known for their celebrity games. A writer from the Daily Dot calls Glu’s games “freemium mobile games.” I believe this is a fitting title, as their games are entirely free to download and everything in the game is accessible without any in app purchases. However, in app purchases do make the game a lot easier and more accessible, but they are completely playable without it.

The CEO of Glu says he believes “people are always looking for a way to get closer to the celebrities they idolize.” No doubt this is where the inspiration for their celebrity games come from. This also explains why these games have the potential to be such hits. The combination of good game mechanics with the brand power of a celebrity’s name is what brings true success.

The commercial for Kim Kardashian’s game heavily draws on our desires to know our favorite celebrities and enter their glamorous worlds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h-uvrvrg3w

While the target audience for the game is obviously Britney fans, the glamorous world and lifestyle that American Dream offers can appeal to anyone. Purchasing nice clothes, cars, and houses and going on high profile dates don’t need a celerity brand stamp to be fun, but with it Glu goes the extra mile.

I have played Kim Kardashian Hollywood and the mechanics are extremely similar to Spears’ game. I imagine all of their celebrity games rely heavily on very similar gameplay, just with a different skin. It seems to me like 6 or 7 identical games with different celebrity faces on it couldn’t all exist and be successful, but I suppose I underestimate the fan base for all of the celebrities I mentioned earlier. When game play is so similar, I have to believe these games’ individual appeal comes from the celebrity name attached to it.

The Daily Dot asked Nicolo Di Masi (Glu CEO) what the American dream is exactly these days. His response: “I think these days the American dream is as important as ever in the world—freedom of speech and expression, democracy, capitalism, and hard work being rewarded.”

I think the American dream as part of a videogame appeals to a lot of people, and is an interesting concept. However, the version of the American dream in Spears’ game is extremely glossed over and sugarcoated. The player never has to pay characters rent, purchase food, insurance, or pay any bills. They don’t have children or other dependents, and their race, gender, or sexual orientation has no effect on gameplay or success. And, as Audra Schroeder points out in her article, the game ignores the sexism, abuse, and harassment aimed at female artists.

Its not hard to imagine why these less than pretty aspects about the American dream and climb to fame were left out of the Spears’ American Dream: they don’t at all contribute to the appeal of celebrity games.

Works Cited

Schroeder, Audra. “Britney Spears: American Dream’ is a mobile game that makes you work, b***h” The Daily Dot. dailydot.com. May 2016. http://www.dailydot.com/upstream/britney-spears-american-dream-glu-mobile/

Parallax View

Casual Game: Rhythm Heaven Parallax View Sounds like the name of a bad 80s movie, right? This theory actually belongs to Slavoj Zizek and is mentioned in Ian Bogost’s How to do things with Videogames. According to Zizek, “The common definition of parallax is: the apparent displacement of an object (the shift of its position against a background), … Continue reading “Parallax View”

Casual Game: Rhythm Heaven

Parallax View

Sounds like the name of a bad 80s movie, right? This theory actually belongs to Slavoj Zizek and is mentioned in Ian Bogost’s How to do things with Videogames. According to Zizek, “The common definition of parallax is: the apparent displacement of an object (the shift of its position against a background), caused by a change in observational position that provides a new line of sight.” Zizek goes on to establish a philosophical twist on the term, but that does not apply to video games as much as it does to life.

Bogost uses the term, parallax view, to describe the experience of playing Rhythm Heaven. According to Bogost, the term represents, “a shifting perspective between two points without synthesis.” This is true, because as mentioned in an earlier post, Rhythm Heaven allows the player to experience music simultaneously as actor (characters) and instrument (DS stick). This game makes music operational through distorted abstractions with bizarre characters and strange character movements that align to a specific rhythm in a song. The character and the song may not necessarily go together, but the player must connect the character’s actions and the rhythm in order to successfully complete a level. Sometimes the distortion becomes too much and it’s easier to close your eyes and tap along to the rhythm instead.

Strangely, it isn’t always easier to play the game without the visuals. Although some can play the game without looking at the visuals, the visuals do help in cueing the player when a beat is about to drop or change. For example, Karate Joe is typically seen hitting pots like the one below.

However, when that pot changes into a barrel, the player knows to expect a change in rhythm and prepare his or her wrist to flick the screen differently. Without this visual cue, it’s almost impossible to know what’s coming up. The visuals and the music sometimes work against each other since the player must pay attention to both simultaneously, which can be confusing! The overlap of senses – sight and sound – can sometimes be overstimulating since there is no synthesis between the two. The player must focus on both the character and the music in order to survive.

http://www.lacan.com/zizparallax.htm

A Parallax View by Slavoj Zizek

It’s all in the wrist!

Casual Game: Rhythm Heaven It’s all in the wrist! This game can be categorised under the genre rhythm action, which Ian Bogost mentions in How to do things with Videogames (Bogost, 32). When playing Rhythm Heaven, “you see, feel, and hear the musical patterns in a song that otherwise go unnoticed, blending into the overall flow and feel of its … Continue reading “It’s all in the wrist!”

Casual Game: Rhythm Heaven

It’s all in the wrist!

This game can be categorised under the genre rhythm action, which Ian Bogost mentions in How to do things with Videogames (Bogost, 32). When playing Rhythm Heaven, “you see, feel, and hear the musical patterns in a song that otherwise go unnoticed, blending into the overall flow and feel of its melody, harmonies, and rhythm,” (33). According to Bogost, “the game bears much similarity to Dance Dance Revolution or Rock Band. But Rhythm Heaven does away with the natural mappings between instruments and their rhythms, replacing the visuals and player interactions with arbitrary, often absurd fictional skins,” (34-35).

True to Bogost’s words, each level of Rhythm Heaven has it’s own story. Each level (minus the mega mixes) are completely independent from each other. Here are all of the levels laid out chronologically:

As you can see, none are the same! Each level posses a new character, a new rhythm, and a new song. Unlike Guitar Hero, Rhythm Heaven’s songs do not directly correlate with the characters or performance. In fact, all of the characters were imagined in order to fit the music and have little to with the actual performance of music. They each have their own plot line and their own tactics of expressing music. One level may have two scientists in love throwing flasks at each other, while another level takes the player into outer space where he or she must shoot down enemy ships in time to the music. Unlike Guitar Hero, this game allows the player to act “simultaneously as actor and as instrument,” (35). Really, it’s all in the wrist! You must know how to flick the wrist in time to the music. You must then connect that to the actions of the characters on the screen. If you figure out how to put the two together, you can conquer every level!

Another part of the game that makes it stand out is how it punishes the player for messing up. The game makes it clear when you fail to align to a specific rhythm, because it makes a distinct sound and the character that you’re playing exhibits a negative reaction.

For example, in “Lockstep” the character is noticeably out of sync with everyone else when you mess up. The character is hit by the other characters and the player hears a loud smacking sound.

Other characters make funny faces of exasperation or cringe when the player messes up. This is notable, because every level and every character’s reaction is unique.