Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (HR) is a first-person action role-playing game by Eidos Montreal. The game has a “Cyberpunk” aesthetic art-style and is set in 2027 where technology has progressed to a stage where people can have surgically applied biomechanical augmentations to enhance physical attributes. Deus Ex: HR has been met by critical praise for its non-linear design. The biomechanical augmentations play a vital role in the games mechanics which allow the player to tailor the games player character into the way they would like to play the game. The primary “pillars of gameplay” as described by the developers are “Combat”, “Social” “Hacking” and “Stealth”. The games level design in turn is designed around these different play styles. For example one level with a clear objective is to infiltrate a police station in order to access the morgue. The player can walk straight up the front reception of the station and try to talk their way into the building (social), storm the front entrance by force using combat, sneak in by jumping over a fence and accessing the basement of the station through a manhole (stealth), or by hacking into a terminal which will gain access in to the back of the station. These choices are just the beginning of the level, once inside the player is presented with more and more of these choices which can be mixed and matched in order to reach the objective. For example, once the player has stealthily entered the station via the manhole. They could use combat to reach the objective from then on, sneak past policemen or hack terminals to reach less guarded access to the goal. None of these choices harder than the other to achieve, they are all relative to the player’s gameplay style. These choices are presented throughout the whole level and it creates an experience of freedom and accomplishment for the player which can only be achieved with non-linear design. Mechanics such as this require complex design. Taking note of Dues Ex: HR, a successful way of creating an enjoyable non-linear level is to create multiple routes to a desired location. For example, out-door and indoor areas, different floors in buildings, hidden corridors, air vents, locked doors that can be accessed by a certain skill or item. All these aspects must link together to create a tree branch of possibilities.


Image taken from: http://www.platformnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Launch-Trailer.jpg

Using time as a mechanic

Created by PHD of Computer Science, Christopher J. Hazard. Achron is a single/multi-player RTS game that plays a lot like other games in its genre where you collect resources and can create structures and units to manoeuvre around a map to defeat opponents. However Achron allows the player to manipulate time by using a timeline on the interface. This time line allows the player to see when they deal damage and when they are under attack by an opponent.

The blue horizontal line represents where the player is in time. The blue graph lines show the damage a player has dealt in time and the red shows when the player is under attack. By looking at the time line the player can see the intensity of an upcoming attack and make preparations. The game will also calculate when a player makes a choice so for example if a player decides to manoeuvre some units to the north on the map new graph lines will appear which is a prediction of enemy units in that area and the outcome of the battle which will happen. By clicking on a desired point in time on the timeline, spending chronenergy (represented by the large vertical blue bar at the top of the HUD), the player can transport themselves to that part of time. This can be used to travel to the future to see where an enemy might attack from to gain an advantage or lay an ambush or to travel back in time to undo a bad decision or build necessary units or structures for an upcoming battle.

With the ability to see the past, present and future all at once and to be able change any of the choices made in of these time intervals Anchron creates an interesting innovation for the RTS genre.

Unity 3

Unity is a game engine which comes with a free license version. I have started using this software to develop my dramatic dynamics project. Unity is a handy tool in particular because it is very user friendly, allowing artists and designers to create interactive projects with ease. At the present I have been learning to get to grips with the engine by importing assets such as 3D models and textures, as well as applying scripts to objects within a game scene.

Image taken from: http://imedia.brookes.ac.uk/imageshare/unity.jpg

Protection Racket by Alex Tutty

Article by Alex Tutty of Sheridans Solicitors. Tutty presents issues with protecting IP, copyright and patents. Tutty claims that  quote Mark Pincus CEO of Zynga "I don't fucking want innovation. You're not smarter than the competitor. Just copy what they do and do it it until you get their numbers" is a shocking common approach by some companies. How can a product be copied before it steps over legal lines? Using farmville as an example titled 'Farm Ranger' he discusses how he could protect the micro payments system that would monetise it. Software patents are only granted if they are deemed to have a technical effect, the process the computer takes to achieve the effect. Games have no obvious technical effect so it is not useful for 'Farm Ranger'. A product like Kinect can achieve patents, so anyone developing for Kinect has to apply for a license. He explains that there are many forms of protection available, but the context of games, there are times where these forms are inadequate, and often the originators of the popularly copied idea achieve the greatest success, meaning copycats may not necessarily make money.

The original article can be read here
http://www.bydesigngames.com/2010/11/08/gi-article-protection-racket/