Random interval (or often: Random drop) is a player reward mechanic commonly used in games. From board games utilizing shuffled cards or similar elements to the complex arrays of digital games, random interval is used to simulate spontaneous occurrences of rewards in order to add to the excitement of player efforts in the interim of gameplay.
Like many a term in gaming, it is difficult to cite an accurate source or precise definition across platforms, genres, or gaming sub-cultures for its "random drop" alternate name. I'd suggest the term came into being from the nature of the rewards and the most frequent appearance methods of these rewards; being occasional and often difficult to rationally tie to their sources with appeaing in the gaming world on the 'persons' of defeated foes or their immediate area as if 'dropped' from possession.
Cons
Can fail to be desirable by players with specific goals or those whose characters cannot effectively use the reward
Rarity of specific rewards becomes artificially greater as the list of alternate rewards increases
Often requires inventory management and liquidation efforts in order to make rewards useful
May trigger impulse control issues similar to gambling due to player market demands, wider range of reward values, and inconsistency of rewards to player efforts
Pros
Incredibly easy to design, program/implement, and expand upon
Can be a very effective means to promote player-ran/player-participant in-game markets
Excitement factor of more desirable rewards can aid in extending play duration
Commentary
Random interval rewards have a number of other instances aside of the more apparent; likely any time that there is a chance of variation in instance rewards for player efforts, they are interacting with a random interval mechanic. Some random interval systems also have a randomized chance of rewarding the player either due to sharing rewards with cooperative players or by adding a null reward option.
Random interval reward systems should very rarely (if ever) be used for progression systems as they will force players out of comparable or competitive capacity at no fault of their own efforts.
One way to think about random interval is that it's a simplified mechanic that tries to remove consideration of player specific goals and needs and offers a single system that rewards players approximately equal values of rewards for approximately equal efforts.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Game review: Waterfalls 3
Waterfalls 3 is a physics-puzzle game primarily utilizing particle effects and made by MoonMana.To get through the levels, the player must use the available redirection nodes to fill the goals with the corresponding particles.
Summary of analysis
Quick new player experience, enjoyable gameplay experience, mouse-controlled game with bare minimum interface, highly visually appealing, risky choice in background music.
Tutorial/New player experience
The game has very little in tutorial elements, leaving a new player to figure out the puzzles through experimentation. Given the nature of Waterfalls 3 as a puzzle game in addition to the gameplay, it's likely this was a good idea as walking players through each level with hints may strip away too much.
Gameplay experience
In my experience with the game, there was a rather low amount of difficulty in progressing the levels at least until the higher ones, where I needed a lengthy amount of time to start reconditioning the skills I'd learned in the lower levels in order to have the particles redirected in less expected ways and combine the efforts of multiple nodes in less direct solutions, including one where I played hot potato with the nodes in order to get the solution.
I will definitely say that Waterfalls 3 was fun and worth the try, my one regret being the limited availability of levels to play.
Interface & Controls
Mouse-only control scheme with very minimal interface.
Graphics
Simple and reasonably descriptive nodes with vibrant particle effects. While easily described, it hardly does credit to the visual appeal of the game's graphics.
Music & Sound
Throughout gameplay there was a relaxing background music featuring a singer. This began to lose its appeal over time as music with words is extremely hard to effectively loop without starting to become a nuisance. As I happened to like the style, I was able to listen to it a lot longer than I expect those with differing tastes in music would.
Commentary
All three of the games in the series share most of the same mechanics, making them easy extensions of one another. I recommend starting with Waterfalls 3 as it's seems to have the lowest difficulty curve due to having had the most time for level design to be refined.
Summary of analysis
Quick new player experience, enjoyable gameplay experience, mouse-controlled game with bare minimum interface, highly visually appealing, risky choice in background music.
Tutorial/New player experience
The game has very little in tutorial elements, leaving a new player to figure out the puzzles through experimentation. Given the nature of Waterfalls 3 as a puzzle game in addition to the gameplay, it's likely this was a good idea as walking players through each level with hints may strip away too much.
Gameplay experience
In my experience with the game, there was a rather low amount of difficulty in progressing the levels at least until the higher ones, where I needed a lengthy amount of time to start reconditioning the skills I'd learned in the lower levels in order to have the particles redirected in less expected ways and combine the efforts of multiple nodes in less direct solutions, including one where I played hot potato with the nodes in order to get the solution.
I will definitely say that Waterfalls 3 was fun and worth the try, my one regret being the limited availability of levels to play.
Interface & Controls
Mouse-only control scheme with very minimal interface.
Graphics
Simple and reasonably descriptive nodes with vibrant particle effects. While easily described, it hardly does credit to the visual appeal of the game's graphics.
Music & Sound
Throughout gameplay there was a relaxing background music featuring a singer. This began to lose its appeal over time as music with words is extremely hard to effectively loop without starting to become a nuisance. As I happened to like the style, I was able to listen to it a lot longer than I expect those with differing tastes in music would.
Commentary
All three of the games in the series share most of the same mechanics, making them easy extensions of one another. I recommend starting with Waterfalls 3 as it's seems to have the lowest difficulty curve due to having had the most time for level design to be refined.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Game review: Realm of the Mad God
Realm of the Mad God is an fast-paced action game and self-described MMO (presumably Massively Multiplayer Online game). Realm of the Mad God is by Wild Shadow Studios. The player's objective is to slaughter the infinite hordes of Oryx in an attempt to 'call out' the game's end boss and then slay them.
Summary of analysis
Underdeveloped new player experience, gameplay experience lacking in depth and of debatable entertainment value, keyboard and mouse controls and bulky interface, basic and effective graphics, barely adequate music and sound.
Tutorial/New player experience
The game's tutorial elements are outlined with the writing on thewall floor of the tutorial level. While learning to play the game seems easy, cautiously remind yourself that it's intended to be an MMO and that the tutorial level is a pale representation of the rest of the game. After completing the basic lessons, a new player is dropped into an open game world with at least hundreds of players, pointed to a random 'quest creature' and forced to rush to meet objectives before someone else randomly gets it first. But refrain from worrying, there will always be another random objective to chase after should one fail to reach it in time.
Gameplay experience
If you've come to grind in an anarchic collective, kudos on your choice of game. If you've come for anything else... expect disappointment and confusion. Though there may appear to be an economic system in the game, the game currency is only there for non-essential items or account upgrades (in other words, don't bother picking something up unless your character can and will use it).
The game has a guest account system, meaning that a player doesn't need to go to the trouble of registering for an account if they just want to try the game out, the game also seems to randomly assign a character class to guest account players and the rest are unlockable through gameplay.
Interface & Controls
The game's interface takes up about a third of the screen but is probably going to be ignored more than half of the time playing the game. There's also a few menu screens but little reason to reference those outside of learning the hotkeys or changing controls or options. The game's control scheme utilizes both mouse and keyboard controls.
There's also a chat system, though I'd be hesitant to call that a good feature.
Graphics
The game utilizes sprite graphics which can become confusing in highly player-populated areas but will have a very low system demand.
Music & Sound
To the designer's credit, they skimped on background music making the game's file size manageable for flash, so bring your own unless you can stand a tedius grind on the ears to go with like gameplay. The sound effects are okay, much better than the music.
Commentary
Having played a lot of MMOs, Realm of the Mad God appears to be more an attempt at satirizing the genre rather than a legitimate attempt at good game design. While I'll give them points for the attempt of launching an MMO in flash, it's painful to watch the way the game 'works'. There's overabundant player clutter, an overly complicated inventory and class systems, I'd say it's easy to get lost, but the game lacks direction and appears to be ninety-seven percent grind. While there is a replay value, it's more grinding in a barely different character class trying to unlock yet more grind.
Summary of analysis
Underdeveloped new player experience, gameplay experience lacking in depth and of debatable entertainment value, keyboard and mouse controls and bulky interface, basic and effective graphics, barely adequate music and sound.
Tutorial/New player experience
The game's tutorial elements are outlined with the writing on the
Gameplay experience
If you've come to grind in an anarchic collective, kudos on your choice of game. If you've come for anything else... expect disappointment and confusion. Though there may appear to be an economic system in the game, the game currency is only there for non-essential items or account upgrades (in other words, don't bother picking something up unless your character can and will use it).
The game has a guest account system, meaning that a player doesn't need to go to the trouble of registering for an account if they just want to try the game out, the game also seems to randomly assign a character class to guest account players and the rest are unlockable through gameplay.
Interface & Controls
The game's interface takes up about a third of the screen but is probably going to be ignored more than half of the time playing the game. There's also a few menu screens but little reason to reference those outside of learning the hotkeys or changing controls or options. The game's control scheme utilizes both mouse and keyboard controls.
There's also a chat system, though I'd be hesitant to call that a good feature.
Graphics
The game utilizes sprite graphics which can become confusing in highly player-populated areas but will have a very low system demand.
Music & Sound
To the designer's credit, they skimped on background music making the game's file size manageable for flash, so bring your own unless you can stand a tedius grind on the ears to go with like gameplay. The sound effects are okay, much better than the music.
Commentary
Having played a lot of MMOs, Realm of the Mad God appears to be more an attempt at satirizing the genre rather than a legitimate attempt at good game design. While I'll give them points for the attempt of launching an MMO in flash, it's painful to watch the way the game 'works'. There's overabundant player clutter, an overly complicated inventory and class systems, I'd say it's easy to get lost, but the game lacks direction and appears to be ninety-seven percent grind. While there is a replay value, it's more grinding in a barely different character class trying to unlock yet more grind.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Game review: Swift Turn 2
Swift Turn 2 is an action-puzzle hybrid game by Andriy Vinchkovskiy with art, sound, and music by Volodymyr Dzitsiuk. The objective of the game is to collect all the stars in each level and then reach the level's goal.
Summary of analysis
Originally jarring but later good new player experience, passable gameplay experience, directional-only main game controls with alternates during mini-games, effective graphics, mediocre music.
Tutorial/New player experience
With one notable exception, the game's tutorial elements help the player through newly-introduced elements of gameplay. The exception is that the player is left to guess at the basic controls on the first level of the game. Aside from one glaring error, the new player experience of the game is well-accomplished.
Gameplay experience
Swift Turn 2 has it's ups and downs (pun unintended). At times the controls felt sluggish, likely due to the game's physics resisting changes in motion. Unlike many puzzle games I've played, this one seemed to discourage analyzing a level and encouraged jumping right into the action and adapting or restarting. A number of levels relied on a sort of play and pray mentality where launching the character into the unknown was the only way to progress and probably having to restart with the knowledge of where the landing point is afterwards.
Interface & Controls
Keyboard arrow keys or wasd control scheme with choice of hotkeys or mouse for menu selections. There are a few mini-games scattered that rely on slightly different control schemes such as space bar only or drag and drop mouse action.
Graphics
Simple and consistent art style, with a few animated objects including the player character (an anthropomorphized cube). One thing to watch out for is spiked surfaces, they're sometimes really small but no less deadly spikes.
Music & Sound
The game's background music, while nice to listen to, seems a bit out of place in this game. It's somewhat relaxed whereas the game is largely action-oriented. The game's sounds on the other hand do their job much more effectively than the music.
Commentary
This game might have been better made had there been a larger team. Having one person programming and handling level designing is a frequent route to needlessly hard levels. The mini-games also seemed a bit out of place as they functioned dramatically-different from the rest of the levels. had they been implemented as an extra feature rather than being part of the regular level progression, it's likely they would be less unusual.
Summary of analysis
Originally jarring but later good new player experience, passable gameplay experience, directional-only main game controls with alternates during mini-games, effective graphics, mediocre music.
Tutorial/New player experience
With one notable exception, the game's tutorial elements help the player through newly-introduced elements of gameplay. The exception is that the player is left to guess at the basic controls on the first level of the game. Aside from one glaring error, the new player experience of the game is well-accomplished.
Gameplay experience
Swift Turn 2 has it's ups and downs (pun unintended). At times the controls felt sluggish, likely due to the game's physics resisting changes in motion. Unlike many puzzle games I've played, this one seemed to discourage analyzing a level and encouraged jumping right into the action and adapting or restarting. A number of levels relied on a sort of play and pray mentality where launching the character into the unknown was the only way to progress and probably having to restart with the knowledge of where the landing point is afterwards.
Interface & Controls
Keyboard arrow keys or wasd control scheme with choice of hotkeys or mouse for menu selections. There are a few mini-games scattered that rely on slightly different control schemes such as space bar only or drag and drop mouse action.
Graphics
Simple and consistent art style, with a few animated objects including the player character (an anthropomorphized cube). One thing to watch out for is spiked surfaces, they're sometimes really small but no less deadly spikes.
Music & Sound
The game's background music, while nice to listen to, seems a bit out of place in this game. It's somewhat relaxed whereas the game is largely action-oriented. The game's sounds on the other hand do their job much more effectively than the music.
Commentary
This game might have been better made had there been a larger team. Having one person programming and handling level designing is a frequent route to needlessly hard levels. The mini-games also seemed a bit out of place as they functioned dramatically-different from the rest of the levels. had they been implemented as an extra feature rather than being part of the regular level progression, it's likely they would be less unusual.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Game review: Zombie Goes Up
Zombie Goes Up is a casual, action game produced by Neutronized. The programming and artwork is by Glonathan Pesaresi and music by Sserrac. The player's objective is to get the zombie up to the surface, navigating around obstacles and opposition.
Summary of analysis
Quick learning curve which parallels steep difficulty curve, decent if occasionally unforgiving gameplay, minimal interface and simple keyboard controls, cartoon-style graphics, interesting and amusing sound.
Tutorial/New player experience
With only four in-game controls, it's a fairly quick learning curve to master the basics. As new elements of the game are introduced, the player will be passing by the tutorial elements in the form of underground signs. Be careful about getting confident, as the gameplay difficulty increases just as quickly as the new elements are introduced.
Gameplay experience
After the first few levels, it gets frustrating trying to dodge between obstacles, thankfully there appears to be an infinite lives mechanic at play. Nonetheless, there are quite a lot of times when the game's safe path is tightrope-thin.
Interface & Controls
The interface consists of a progress bar, score, and game menu controls (pause and mute functions). The gameplay controls are just the four arrow keys.
Graphics
Cartoon-style zombie and creatures alongside similarly-styled world objects and animated interactive objects. The graphics definitely help the casual appeal and it's always nice to see Halloween-themed games abstain from the blood and gore tedium.
Music & Sound
Zombie Goes Up has an interesting background music that seems equal parts light-hearted and dramatic tension. The sound effects certainly go along with the graphics with plenty of boings, pops, and tiny explosions.
Commentary
It's a well-made game and decent way to fill a little time. I'd say that after the first few levels, the game's bound to lose appeal to a casual gamer audience but due to the time commitment by that point, it's already starting to tread into hardcore gamer style anyway.
Summary of analysis
Quick learning curve which parallels steep difficulty curve, decent if occasionally unforgiving gameplay, minimal interface and simple keyboard controls, cartoon-style graphics, interesting and amusing sound.
Tutorial/New player experience
With only four in-game controls, it's a fairly quick learning curve to master the basics. As new elements of the game are introduced, the player will be passing by the tutorial elements in the form of underground signs. Be careful about getting confident, as the gameplay difficulty increases just as quickly as the new elements are introduced.
Gameplay experience
After the first few levels, it gets frustrating trying to dodge between obstacles, thankfully there appears to be an infinite lives mechanic at play. Nonetheless, there are quite a lot of times when the game's safe path is tightrope-thin.
Interface & Controls
The interface consists of a progress bar, score, and game menu controls (pause and mute functions). The gameplay controls are just the four arrow keys.
Graphics
Cartoon-style zombie and creatures alongside similarly-styled world objects and animated interactive objects. The graphics definitely help the casual appeal and it's always nice to see Halloween-themed games abstain from the blood and gore tedium.
Music & Sound
Zombie Goes Up has an interesting background music that seems equal parts light-hearted and dramatic tension. The sound effects certainly go along with the graphics with plenty of boings, pops, and tiny explosions.
Commentary
It's a well-made game and decent way to fill a little time. I'd say that after the first few levels, the game's bound to lose appeal to a casual gamer audience but due to the time commitment by that point, it's already starting to tread into hardcore gamer style anyway.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Gaming theory: Grinding
Grinding is the terminology in gaming that's often applied to elements of tedious, repetitive tasks the player may (in some cases, often) need to accomplish in order to maintain a minimal degree of character power level or character skill competency according to the challenges they're expected to face.
Grinding does have a degree of subjectivity to it depending on the particular tastes, expectations, and how a specific player defines what is fun in a game. In my own case, for example, I often consider nearly all combat elements to be grinding unless it directly affects the outcome of a game's storyline yet I often enjoy the logistics and industry elements of a number of games which a lot of my friends simply cannot stand.
Cons
Unnecessary padding of game duration (though many times considered a pro, especially in subscription-model Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs)
Lacking entertainment value (subjective)
Emphasizes and reinforces character skill over player skill (more in commentary section below)
Pros
Aids development of reflexive player patterns (quicker player response times for common strategies)
Emphasizes and reinforces character skill over player skill (again, more in commentary section)
May be used to establish a period of learning strategies, features, etcetera with repetition of new elements
Commentary
There is both good and bad that can be said about a game that focuses more on character skill. To its benefit is how it allows for a slightly more fair playing field for casual or less experienced players, something that many MMOs will need to thrive due to their reliance on a much wider player-base. It is also a heavily criticized element of gameplay, for the same reasons, by hardcore players who often feel lacking challenge from games that implement grinding systems and which essentially handicaps development and implementation of more advanced strategies.
An important thing to keep in mind about grinding is that it tends to be more rewarding when considered as a rate equation (rewards over time) rather than a work equation (rewards over effort). This means that low-end efforts tend to pay off a lot better than high-end efforts due to lower chance of failure and a steadier but less impressive income of rewards. These sorts of efforts support the practices known as item or gold farming (randomized reward game elements have a higher output with higher numbers of weaker opposition defeated than fewer but higher quality opposition) and is sometimes why the practice of grinding is called xp farming.
Grinding does have a degree of subjectivity to it depending on the particular tastes, expectations, and how a specific player defines what is fun in a game. In my own case, for example, I often consider nearly all combat elements to be grinding unless it directly affects the outcome of a game's storyline yet I often enjoy the logistics and industry elements of a number of games which a lot of my friends simply cannot stand.
Cons
Unnecessary padding of game duration (though many times considered a pro, especially in subscription-model Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs)
Lacking entertainment value (subjective)
Emphasizes and reinforces character skill over player skill (more in commentary section below)
Pros
Aids development of reflexive player patterns (quicker player response times for common strategies)
Emphasizes and reinforces character skill over player skill (again, more in commentary section)
May be used to establish a period of learning strategies, features, etcetera with repetition of new elements
Commentary
There is both good and bad that can be said about a game that focuses more on character skill. To its benefit is how it allows for a slightly more fair playing field for casual or less experienced players, something that many MMOs will need to thrive due to their reliance on a much wider player-base. It is also a heavily criticized element of gameplay, for the same reasons, by hardcore players who often feel lacking challenge from games that implement grinding systems and which essentially handicaps development and implementation of more advanced strategies.
An important thing to keep in mind about grinding is that it tends to be more rewarding when considered as a rate equation (rewards over time) rather than a work equation (rewards over effort). This means that low-end efforts tend to pay off a lot better than high-end efforts due to lower chance of failure and a steadier but less impressive income of rewards. These sorts of efforts support the practices known as item or gold farming (randomized reward game elements have a higher output with higher numbers of weaker opposition defeated than fewer but higher quality opposition) and is sometimes why the practice of grinding is called xp farming.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Game review: Piggy Wiggy
Piggy Wiggy is a physics puzzle game developed by Anton Kosechkin with graphics by mAx and music by Sergei Stern. According to the credits, it was made using the Box 2D engine. The goal in the levels of Piggy Wiggy is to help the pigs reach acorns through creating and breaking tethers as well as manipulating objects.
Summary of analysis
Hands-on new player experience, short and fun gameplay experience, mouse or mouse+keyboard control scheme with minimal non-gameplay interface, cutesy graphics, appealing music and sound.
Tutorial/New player experience
There's only a few skills a player will need to learn in order to make it through the game and they're effectively introduced mostly through one-time only interface elements. This game gives the player these hints and lets them watch what occurs in order to teach them how to play.
Gameplay experience
Piggy Wiggy is a short and amusing game, there's a low degree of difficulty, making for a pleasant diversion.There's a slight amount of replay value for those wanting to get a higher score.
Interface & Controls
The game is mostly mouse-controlled with a few keyboard hotkeys available if desired. The game's interface holds a few menu controls and the mouse variant to the keyboard hotkeys.
Graphics
Cute, cartoonish piggies! They have idle animations in addition to interactive animations such as collecting the acorns and, unfortunately, crying should they get lonely or in pain.
Music & Sound
There's a single, upbeat background track throughout gameplay that effectively supports the game's theme. In addition, there's some pleasant and amusing sound effects to go along with the animations.
Commentary
Piggy Wiggy seems to effectively accomplish what it set out to do, be a fun game without being a major time commitment to either player or developer.
I was surprised to see that although the game's developer has a lot of titles under their belt that they've yet to establish a personal-professional site. By now, I'd imagine that they've got enough experience to showcase their accomplishments and even pursue a career with many of the established studios.
Summary of analysis
Hands-on new player experience, short and fun gameplay experience, mouse or mouse+keyboard control scheme with minimal non-gameplay interface, cutesy graphics, appealing music and sound.
Tutorial/New player experience
There's only a few skills a player will need to learn in order to make it through the game and they're effectively introduced mostly through one-time only interface elements. This game gives the player these hints and lets them watch what occurs in order to teach them how to play.
Gameplay experience
Piggy Wiggy is a short and amusing game, there's a low degree of difficulty, making for a pleasant diversion.There's a slight amount of replay value for those wanting to get a higher score.
Interface & Controls
The game is mostly mouse-controlled with a few keyboard hotkeys available if desired. The game's interface holds a few menu controls and the mouse variant to the keyboard hotkeys.
Graphics
Cute, cartoonish piggies! They have idle animations in addition to interactive animations such as collecting the acorns and, unfortunately, crying should they get lonely or in pain.
Music & Sound
There's a single, upbeat background track throughout gameplay that effectively supports the game's theme. In addition, there's some pleasant and amusing sound effects to go along with the animations.
Commentary
Piggy Wiggy seems to effectively accomplish what it set out to do, be a fun game without being a major time commitment to either player or developer.
I was surprised to see that although the game's developer has a lot of titles under their belt that they've yet to establish a personal-professional site. By now, I'd imagine that they've got enough experience to showcase their accomplishments and even pursue a career with many of the established studios.
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