School Work

Well.

School is fun. But it sure does slam you with a bunch of homework!

My first day in English Composition class I was given homework. I have a 1,200 word essay due next time I’m in that class. First thing.

I just finished typing it up. Tomorrow I have to find a place to print, and a stapler. I think it’s time I got myself a printer… and a stapler.

But my OTHER CLASS…

Oh, My, God. I love it.

It is the most awesome class ever.

It’s called “Game Design Fundamentals”

The first thing we did was introduce ourselves and the game that made the most impact on our lives.

IT IS SO IMPOSSIBLY HARD FOR ANY NERD TO DO SUCH A THING.

But I somehow managed. Somehow, we all did. I chose Final Fantasy 6 for the SNES (3 in America, 6 in Japan).

THEN, we dissected what makes a game fun. And basically it all comes down to Control. Which is nice. We talked about how some games provide more levels of control than others… and how some games try to fool players with the illusion of control.

Which made me tell the teacher about Rambo 2 for the NES. When you start Rambo 2, Like the movie, it starts with Rambo in prison and the colonel visits him, and offers him a mission that would get him out of the prison. Then the colonel asks Rambo if he accepts the mission – Yes or No.

If you choose No, the colonel will say “But Rambo, the game will not begin until you say yes – Yes or No.”

No control there. =P

Then the class was split up into groups. I was in group 7. We were assigned a genre in which we would have to design a game for. The genre my group got was “Survival/Horror” games. Which is cool.

However, there came a twist. We were given a bag that had 3 random items. We had to incorporate the items, or something similiar to or representative of the items, into our games.

Our bag of 3 items contained the following: Reflective shiny paper-like strip, A toy whale, and a toy kid’s whistle.

So this is what we came up with:

You play as Jack Elrich, a guy who is on the Queen Elizabeth II for his vacation. Somehow (haven’t developed this part yet) the passengers of the ship become mutated, and are pretty much like zombies. All Jack is equipped with at the start is a mirror, and a knife. Survive and get the hell off the ship.

For the reflective shiny strip, this is what we came up with…

Jack has a mirror at his disposal. The game will be played in first person view, so to overcome the challenge of looking around corners, Jack will use the mirror.

Also, the mirror will see things that the normal human eye cannot. Jack may find himself in a room where he hears a noise, but there is nothing in sight. However, looking through the mirror, he will see that he is actually not alone in the room, and that there is a ghost behind him!

The mirror will also serve as a useful tool. The zombies will be attracted to shiny objects, or a reflection of what they believe is Jack. So the mirror can also act as a diversion.

And finally, the mirror actually BEATS third-person view in that Jack is able to strategically place the mirrors at an angle on walls, allowing him to see beyond 2 corners. Something even third-person view can’t do.

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For the whistle, this is what we came up with.

We don’t actually put a WHISTLE in the game, but instead stuck with the idea of a SOUND. There will be a sound that certain “Minibosses” make when you are near them. The sound is not natural or normal.

When the “Miniboss” gets near Jack, or when Jack is closing in on something extremely evil,… A high pitch shriek//ringing sound will begin to be audible. And you will also hear the beating of Jack’s heart. The closer you get, the harder Jack’s pulse will be, the more audible the shriek. The best way I can describe the shriek, would be like this: Combine the following 2 sounds. A slow high-pitch violin chord pull + Zelda: Ocarina of Time ReDead shriek.

—

And for the hard one, the WHALE, we have an interesting solution.

W.A.I.L. — Weapons Analyst Intelligence & Logistics (whose logo is a whale) is the corporation that created these zombie creatures with an experiment, but you wont find that out until halfway through the game.

—

We put so much detail into how the game would work, it was unreal.

Smart AI, fully utilizable environment (and destructible), multiple solutions to survive, a “Chance of Survival” calculator that displays when you pause the game (lol).

It was great. I love that class.

~Bruce