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IT2012 Platforms and Player Modes Time Intervals Platf...

IT2012 Platforms and Player Modes Time Intervals Platforms Time intervals are time-dependent elements that affect the pacing Each game platform has distinct characteristics. The games of the game. This pacing affects whether the game is played developed for each platform differ in several important respects. reflexively or reflectively. The three basic (3) time intervals used in The following are the various game platforms: arcade, console, games are turn-based, real-time, and time-limited. computer, online, handheld, mobile, and tabletop. Turn-Based: Games that are turn-based allow each player, Arcade: Arcade games are stand-alone game systems found in whether artificially generated or human, to take a turn. Usually, the public venues—such as malls and amusement parks. Most games time allotted for each turn is unlimited. In traditional board and card are played standing up—with player controls consisting of buttons, games, players have as much time as they need to plan their joysticks, or a combination. moves. Console: Console systems are usually played in the home, hooked Real-Time: The opposite of a turn-based game is known as a real- up to a television set. The console platform is proprietary—which time game. In this case, there is no time interval between turns. In means that hardware manufacturers such as Sony, Microsoft, and fact, there are no turns at all. Real-time games are extremely Nintendo have control over what software is developed for their popular online—partially due to the ability to communicate in real- respective platforms. time with other players. Computer: Computer games are played on desktop computers and Time-Limited: A time-limited game is a compromise between turn- laptops. The computer platform adds complexity to the based and real-time games. Time-limited games limit the time each development process due to non-standard setups and a variety of player has for their turn. In the case of some single-player puzzle systems. games, a time limit is placed on the game itself. Online: Online games are played on a computer platform or through a console system connected to the Internet. The largest Player Modes online games involve thousands of simultaneous players, which sometimes requires that the information for the game be stored on There are several possible player modes, which directly correlate several servers. to the number of people playing a game. The choice of the player Handheld: A handheld gaming device is a lightweight, portable mode—as well as the content—has a significant impact on how a game console with a built-in screen, game controls, and speakers. game is played. The player modes are single player, two-player, The small size of handheld devices makes it convenient for them to local multiplayer, LAN-based multiplayer, and online multiplayer. be taken with the player almost anywhere. Single-Player: Only one person can play a single-player game. Any Mobile: Mobile games are games designed for mobile devices, additional players (usually opponents) in the game are known as such as smartphones, tablets, and portable media players. Mobile artificial intelligence (AI) characters or non-player characters devices have a wide range of connectivity features allowing (NPCs). wireless multiplayer games. Two-Player: In two-player mode (also known as head-to-head Tabletop: Tabletop games are played on top of tables. These game), two (2) players play against each other or team up to fight a include board, card, and dice games, and even pen-and-paper common enemy. Early in the industry, players took turns playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, where the game pieces against the game itself. Each player’s experience of playing the literally consist of pens and paper. game was identical to what it would have been in single-player mode. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 2  IT2012 Local Multiplayer: In local multiplayer mode, all players sit in the same space and play the game on the same machine—sharing the same screen using separate input devices or controllers. This is a common mode of play on console systems, which allow for local play of up to four (4) players. Since all players share the same screen, each player can see what the other players are doing. LAN-Based Multiplayer: LAN-based games allow players to share the game on a local area network without sharing the screen or input device. With LAN-based games, it became possible to combine the networking capabilities of online mainframe games with personal computers that could be placed in one local area. Online Multiplayer: In online multiplayer mode, players connect their devices to the Internet and share the game. Online multiplayer games can be played by thousands of players simultaneously. o A Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) persists 24 hours per day and maintain a subscription-based revenue model in which players pay a monthly fee to continue playing it. References: Buttfield-Addison, P., Manning, J., & Nugent, T. (2019). Unity game development cookbook. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Novak, J. (2012). Game development essentials: An introduction (3rd ed.). New York: Delmar, Cengage Learning. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 2  IT2012 Goals and Genres change”) might be created by non-profit, political, or religious groups to raise awareness of certain beliefs, attitudes, values, Goals lifestyles, and causes. Examples of social issues covered by these Games are developed for a variety of purposes, and these can be games include poverty, human rights, global conflict, and climate for entertainment, social, educational, recruitment & training, health change. & fitness, consciousness & change, aesthetics & creativity, and Aesthetics and Creativity: Some games are created to elicit marketing & advertising. creative expression or aesthetic appreciation from players or are Entertainment: Many games were developed purely to entertain developed to express or share artistic ideas. WarioWare D.I.Y. for the players, and many people play games to escape from the the DSi XL allows players to make their own games, music, and stresses of daily life or to relieve boredom. Some games are comics. Guitar Hero World Tour allows players to create and share designed to involved players in in-game actions such as role-play, instrumentals via its GHTunes Service. physical movement, and problem-solving. These allow players to Marketing and Advertising: Some games are created to market a take part in creating entertainment experiences. product or service to consumers. Advergames are specifically Social: When more than one person is playing a game, the players designed as advertising tools and used as an alternative to other might be motivated to interact socially with their opponents or team web-based advertising, such as banners. Many of these games members. This social interaction could exist in simple two-person exist online and are created in Flash or Java tools. Advertisers pay games at an arcade or in massively multiplayer online games sites to host these games, which usually feature the advertiser’s (MMOs), with thousands of people playing simultaneously. brand. Another online form of game-related marketing is Educational: Games are developed to teach while they entertain. advertainment – in which sites developed to showcase a brand This feature in-game knowledge acquisition—where knowledge of contain games and discussion forums, becoming a fun hangout for certain topics (such as geography, math, and reading) is taught or customers. accessed within the game itself. Recruitment & Training: Games have also been used by the Genres military, government, and even for-profit corporations for Genres are categories based on a combination of subject matter, recruitment and training purposes. Simulation games, which setting, screen presentation/format, player perspective, and game- replicate processes, environments, and objects that exist in the real playing strategies. In looking at your target market, consider what world, have been used by government and military institutions such genre these people play because some players focus on playing as NASA and the Air Force to train astronauts and pilots to adjust one (1) particular genre. to changes in the atmosphere and to navigate vehicles. Action: The goal of most action games involves quickly destroying Corporations have also developed games to help build their your enemies while avoiding being destroyed yourself. These employees’ leadership and management skills. games tend to be simpler because they focus on player reaction Health and Fitness: Games created for health and fitness include time. Simplicity is necessary for action games because the average those used for psychological therapy, physical rehabilitation, and brain cannot process much additional information in a fast-paced even exergames—a subcategory specifically related to fitness. environment. People are motivated to play action games for the Many exergames are commercial products such as EA Sports adrenaline rush involving quick reflexes and snap judgments— Active and Wii Fit; even some music and rhythm games such as focusing on reflexive actions rather than reflective thoughts. Just Dance could be considered exergames. Medical games o Platformer: The platformer action sub-genre focuses on include Re-Mission, which gives children with cancer a sense of players moving quickly through an environment—often jumping power and control over their disease by battling cancer cells. and dodging to avoid obstacles, and sometimes collecting Consciousness and Change: Games created for social items along the way. consciousness and change (sometimes termed “games for 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 3  IT2012 o Shooters: The shooter action sub-genre focuses on combat sophisticated electronic games. Casino games, which are often between a player and the other characters in the game world— electronic versions of popular games—such as roulette, craps, usually in the form of shooting with guns and other weapons poker, blackjack, and slot machines—are found in on-ground controlled by the character’s hands casinos. The addiction motivation is closely tied to gambling, and ▪ First-person shooters (FPSs): the player has a first- many online versions of this genre are run by online gambling sites. person perspective and cannot see his or her character Puzzle: Although puzzle elements appear in many game genres, a onscreen. The player can see the character’s weapons, as pure puzzle game focuses on the player solving a puzzle or series well as the other characters in the game. of puzzles without controlling a character. There is little or no story ▪ Third-person shooters: Allow players to see their surrounding in puzzle games, which can be either real-time or turn- characters, along with the rest of the game world. An based. The pattern-based puzzle game Tetris—one of the most advantage of third-person shooters is that the player has a popular puzzle games of all time—is played in real-time, involving much wider perspective than in an FPS—which is limited to a fast-paced game-playing experience. straight-ahead vision Role-Playing Games: Like adventure games, RPGs are o Racing: The racing action sub-genre also uses a first-person characterized by containing strong storylines—but RPGs also or third-person perspective. The standard scenario involves the contain player-characters that improve throughout the course of the player’s vehicle (usually a racecar) racing one or more game. Themes in RPGs are usually variations on “save the world”— opponents on a variety of roads or terrains. The player attempts such as finding the person responsible for a murder, rescuing to make the vehicle move as quickly as possible without losing someone who has been kidnapped, destroying a dangerous object, control of it. or killing monsters. Combat is one way in which the heroes o Fighting: Many fighting games are two-person games in which advance—gaining strength, experience, and money to buy new each player controls a figure on screen and uses a combination equipment. of moves to attack the opponent and to defend against the Simulations: (Sometimes referred to as sims) attempt to replicate opponent’s attacks. These games are often viewed from a side systems, machines, and experiences using real-world rules. Types perspective, and each session lasts only an average of 90 of simulation games include vehicle, participatory, and process seconds. sims. Adventure: Adventure games are all about unraveling stories, o Vehicle Simulations: The player usually operates complicated exploring worlds, collecting, navigating mazes, decoding machinery (often vehicles such as jet fighters, ships, or tanks). messages, and solving puzzles. Unlike action games, adventure In addition to being developed for entertainment purposes, games are usually turn-based—allowing the player to have time for adaptations of these simulators have been used widely by the reflective thoughts. military for training and recruiting purposes. Action-Adventure: action-adventure genre is the only hybrid genre o Sports and Participatory Simulations: Engages the player to that has distinguished itself as an accepted genre. The action experience the simulation as a participant within it. The sports component allows for quick, reflexive movements as the character genre is a type of participatory sim because—like other sims— dodges and hunts down enemies—while the adventure component sports games often accurately reproduce real-world rules and adds conceptual puzzles and story elements to the game. Pure strategies associated with the sport. Players vicariously adventure gamers are not usually interested in action-adventures participate in their favorite sport—as a player and often a coach. because they are used to the slower pace of adventure games. The This allows players to experience “wish fulfillment”—to become action-adventure hybrid has attracted a new audience as well as extraordinary athletes, and to accomplish things they might not some pure action players. be able to in real life. Casino: Gambling has been shown to be addictive, and some o Process Simulations (Construction & Management): game developers are considering incorporating gambling into more Process simulations involve real-world systems or processes. 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 3  IT2012 These games are also known as construction and management References: Buttfield-Addison, P., Manning, J., & Nugent, T. (2019). Unity game development cookbook. sims (CMS), or toy games. The goal in process sims is not to Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media, Inc. defeat an enemy or opponent, but to build something within a Novak, J. (2012). Game development essentials: An introduction (3rd ed.). New York: Delmar, process. These games are considered constructive—involving Cengage Learning. building and creating—rather than destructive. To win these games, players need to understand and control these processes. Strategy: Strategy games have their origin in classic board games such as chess, where players are required to manage a limited set of resources to achieve a particular goal. The player’s resources (troops, weapons) become central to the game experience, and the strategy in these games is based on comparative resources and decisions between opponents. o Turn-Based Strategy (TBS): In TBS games, resource management involves discrete decisions such as what types of resources to create, when to deploy them, and how to use them to the best advantage. The player’s ability to take the time to make these decisions is part of the game’s appeal. o Real-Time Strategy: These games incorporate a real-time interval. RTS players are under such constant time pressure that they do not have the opportunity to truly ponder a move. Common issues in RTS games is micromanagement—the process of rapidly balancing sets of resources (troops) containing several features. Since the game moves quickly in real-time, one set of resources might flourish while others fail because the player cannot feasibly focus on all sets at once. The player must employ a certain level of multitasking to avoid some of these disasters. Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMO): These games enable hundreds or thousands of players to interact in a game world simultaneously they are connected to via the Internet. There are several variations in the MMO genre, and these are massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), massively multiplayer first-person shooters (MMOFPSs), and massively multiplayer real-time strategy games (MMORTSs). One common issue in MMO is the player’s misbehavior. Some players are simply rude while others harass, cheat, or even commit fraud, providing a more serious threat to others’ enjoyment of the game. 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 3 of 3