Week 3: Exercises

5.1: Objects and Properties (p128)

Cards Against Humanity:

Objects - Properties:

• White cards - contain the answers
• Black cards - contain the questions
• Players - points, the cards in their hand
• The white cards draw pile - contain all unused white cards
• The black cards stack - contain unused black cards

  
  

  • The one who asks the question
  • The ones who answer the question:
    • The one who gets picked
    • The ones who didn't get picked

5.2: Behaviors (p129)

• White cards 
  • Be put down one at a time as an answer
  • Stay in the players' hands
  • Get drawn from the pile
  • Get discarded after a turn
• Black cards
  • Get picked from the stack and read out loud
  • Get discarded after a turn
• Players
  • Be the one to ask the question
  • Be the ones to answer the question
  • Gets picked as the winner of the round
  • Didn't get picked
  • Becomes the winner with most points
• The white cards draw pile
  • Gets card drawn from it
• The black cards stack 
  • Gets card drawn from it

5.3: Relationships (p131)

The relationships between the cards in this game is decided by the players as what is the funniest answer to the question that was drawn. Therefore, with the players active, the relationship of the questions and answers on the cards are subjective. Still, at the same time, they have a linear relationship of one being a question and another the answer, which means that the round cannot be complete without one or the other. The relationships of the player will shift each round, with one person who reads the question being higher on the hierachy due to the fact that they have the power to decide which players the point will go to. The players will remain in a competitive relationship. The relationships can also be described by the winning player(who have the most points) vs the losing player(the player with the least points), with the latter player being lower in hierachy(further from winning), which might intensifies the losing player's  focus and relationship with the cards as that certain player will be trying to gain more points.

5.4: System Dynamics (p137)

Changed rule: Make the players vote for which card is the funniest.

This didn't eassentially make the game unplayable. However, it disrupted the role of the player who reads the question, who now have no agency to the game in that turn except to read the what's on the card, which isn't a crucial role anyway since everyone can also read the card themselves. This resulted in a down-time for a player in every turn, acting as a bystander rather than a judge or a refree. In addition, this creates a possibility of a draw in every turn, which caused the game to not end. This was because the players can keep voting for themselves. Although players might laugh at one card more than the others, since the winning objective is to get the most points, so the player can opted for the choice that get them closer to victory. This change shifted the dynamic of the game from a fairly fast-paced one to one with a down-time for one player and lasted longer than it could stay interesting, even with the jokes on the card.

6.2: Game Deconstruction (p167)

Dear Esther

Formal:

As analyzed before, Dear Esther is a single player game with its main player's objective being to explore the different areas in the game. Since there are no set directions for the player to follow, they have the agency to choose which direction to go towards, or which part of the story narrative they are more interested in and walk towards the area that might be connected to that part of the narrative. The only constraint in the game seems to be the fact that the player cannot leave the island. Surrounded by water, if the player try to go into the water, the player will drown and respawned to their previous position on land. This could also suggest that the character the player is playing as couldn't swim. The player cannot interact with objects in particular in the game, although many will trigger a narrative when the player gets close to it. In addition, there are no other characters within the place where the player is, only the voice of the narrator telling the story. The player doesn't need to collect any resources, fight anything, or solve any conflict, but rather listening to the narrator and the conflict within the story, in which the exploration of the island might be a solution to the that is story being told. What the game has, in addition, is the clear beginning and end. The started off knowing nothing, then they gained the knowledge of the story being told, as well as the geography if the island, through exploration. The ending of the game will also be triggered when they enetred a specific area and started the last narration and cutscene.

Dramatic:

The grim and windy atmosphere on the island, along with the absence of any animals or people, created a melancholic atmosphere right at the start of the exploration. Yet, the physical state of the island only contribute to half of what really created the dramatic element of the game: the narration. The narration that started off like a simple story got more complicated and emotional throughout the player's exploration, creating a very dramatic scene even without seeing actual characters performing in front of the player. Every strong emotion expressed by the narrator seemed to concur with the weather of the island, making the previously empty island become full of emotions with every breath of the gushing wind.

Dynamic:

The dynamic of the game builds off from the dramatic elements. As the player learns more and more of the story from the narrator, they can start to piece the story together and connect that with the surrounding environment. When the surrounding makes more sense, the player becomes more affected by the narrator's story. Although the player character would always be walking at the same speed, the build up of the story along with the atmosphere create an illusion of a more dynamic and intemse gameplay. Especially towards the ending scene of the game, the player can tell that the ending is incoming, due to the various visual cues the game has given them, like the how it becomes night time after the game started during the day time, or the tension build up during when the player climbs up to the top of the radio tower which seems like there's no where else to go, hinting that the story has come to an end.