Game Testing

 The first peice of material i read was called "7 different game testing techniques" by Niranjan Limbachiya. It discusses that Game testing is a "crucial step to ensure optimal performance and quality in the end product" It gives the development process a "crucial eye to focus on constant searches like errors, completeness, bugs, bottlenecks, inconsistencies, coherence and, etc."

 The reading then goes on to discus what the major risks of game testing are:

• the game doesn’t create a compelling experience for the niche audience
•  the fun factor missing in the games
•  the game doesn’t include a player-centric design
•  the Game is not unique, fast-paced or competitive
• The gaming app fails because of broken features, poor video, technical issues, bad music sound, critical bugs, etc.
• the game should have easy to use features and visual design and the game-play

The reading the goes on to discus its main point which is seven different game testing teqniques whitch are 1.Functionality Testing  2.Combinatorial Testing 3.Ad Hoc Testing 4.Compatibility Testingn 5. Clean Room and Tree Testing  6. Regression Testing and 7.Preformance Testing.

Game Testing

 

Week 9 Reading and Writing

Looking back:

I think the reading assignments are working well for me each week and I can see a big improvement from my first reading task at week three to my one this week at week eight. I find that I am a lot stronger at the reading element of the tasks than the writing element. I fly through the readings each week well under the recommended time and understand them perfectly but I find it difficult to form my thoughts into a blog post in a formal and informative way. My favorite readings so far have been during week seven where we read about game design and game flow theory, I found the game flow theory interesting to read about and the video really helped me understand the topic as I am a visual learner. I do think the reading notes each week are helping especially when they correspond and relate our tasks on game design. They also get us thinking about elements of game design that we wouldn't have previously considered which helps when we brainstormed and choose ideas for our final game. A new reading strategy I have discovered is identifying the main idea presented in the article and summarising it in my blog post. Up until today, I wasn't happy with my game project but since I decided to start again from scratch and focus on the gameplay and functionality of the game over the games looks I have become happier with my game and I now have a clear plan and know what goals I want to reach before the finale submission date. My biggest accomplishment for this module would be showing up getting the work done each week, it hasn't been easy but I'm glad I have stayed consistent. 

Image from my first reading task

I chose the image I used for my first reading task back at week three, I remember writing this blog post like it was yesterday, this year has gone so fast. I thought this would be an appropriate image to use.

Looking forward: 

When doing the tasks in my final three weeks of this module I am going to pay close attention to my reading and writing skills. When reading through my past blog post I can see a clear improvement in both my understanding of the assigned readings and how I write my interpretation of what I have learned. I want to continue improving each week and be able to take the reading and writing skills iv learned during this module and make use of them through the rest of my college experience.

Game Fun

 Today I read three reading all about Fun. How it plays a part in games, the definition of fun and how to make games fun by making the player think about what to do in order to get through.

The first reading was "Gamification Design: Whats fun got to do with it?" by Megamification.com.

It reads that games can be described by the three components Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics (MDA) or otherwise stated as rules-system-fun.  

Eight kinds of Fun

 MDA

There are eight types of Fun outlined by the MDA. These eight are both a source of reference and player experience that blend together in many ways, and essentially what makes a game fun and enjoyable. 

To date, the MDA papers define the '8 kinds of fun' sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, and submission, remain a source of reference and possibly the most popular list of player interactions combining in various forms to attract each player to a particular game.

Fun

“Fun is a byproduct of good design. It is also not essential for a good gamified system,” by Andrzej Marchewski

There are a variety of definitions to describe the term “Fun”. Both Oxford and Merrian dictionaries define Fun as an enjoyment, delight. But within the context of a game it usually refers to a form of pleasurable entertainment. 

Nicole Lazzaro presents four types of fun that are involved in defining how fun a game can be for different players.

• Easy Fun:  This is essentially for players who are new to a game who want to satiate their curiosity. 

• Hard Fun: It is essentially for people who like a real good challenge.

• People Fun: Amusement from competition and cooperation. Meaning Co-op. 

• Serious Fun: Excitement from changing the player and their world.

Image info

There are different types of “FUN” when discussing it; there’s the type 1 games such as poker, chess etc. which require thinking and different techniques to use to win the game. 

Then there’s the type 2 games that require “reflex based skills” in such things like shooters that require a “sharp reflexes” and in fighter games that require “combo memorisation and the execution". 

Fun has everything to do with learning“Fun is just the dopamine in our brains firing when we it is presented with a new situation to learn from” Raph Koster discussed about this saying that the different patterns that we take in helps our brain especially when it comes to enjoying a video game cause once you mater the many patterns that it offers you your brain has nothing to feed off making it unenjoyable to play anymore “Fun is the feedback the brain gives us when we are absorbing patterns for learning purposes.” 

Balance

When playing chess, we learn about strategy, tic tac toe teaches us about reading people’s mind about their next move and when we play games like civilisation or sim it teaches us resource management. When playing games we should be provided with a balance of fun and challenges. 

“Although a large body of research has investigated the negative effects of playing video games, there has been less examination of the psychological experiences associated with the activity.” (Linda K Kaye, Jo Bryce.2012)

The GameFlow model shows that the inherent structure of games is associated with the experience of flow and enjoyment during gaming, at least for strategy games. 

Conclusion

We come across different types of fun in games that fulfil our amusement. Fun in games is experience in many different ways like through socialising with friends or exploring the game world. People experience different emotions when driven by gameplay

Game Decisions

This week I read two articles and watched a video examining and explaining "Game flow" or it is also known as "being in the zone". This has been studied and used by game designers to keep the players engaged and playing their game for as long as possible. It also keeps the player coming back for more game play.  

Gigity McD's video best explained game flow and helps us visualise this with charts like the one below. He starts by explaining how every new player that is introduced to your game is a blank slate and isn't equips with the skills to "beat the boss" or play the more advanced levels of the game. They must first start with simple tasks that introduce the controls and skills you will need to complete each level. If the skills are introduced too quick and the level is too advanced this will cause the player to go into an anxiety state as the will not be able to play the game. This breaks the players flow and causes them to stop playing the game. The opposite to this is when the game is too easy for the player and their skills are too advanced they will get bored again breaking the game flow causing them to stop playing the game. 

"In order for a player to be optimally engaged, challenges should be presented at a level equivalent or slightly higher than their current skill level. Not to easy not to hard" 

"Challenge should then be increased as the players skill increases. Being aware drastic changes in challenges may cause loss of engagement" 

To keep the player in this flow channel and keep them engaged with the game you as the designer can use this information to your advantage by 

• Being conscious of how skilled the player is and increase the games challenge as the player gets better at the game.

• If the player is struggling you want to scale the challenge back to keep engagement.

• If the player is flying through the game you may want to up the challenge again to keep engagement.

• Make sure your game doesn't have with no content or loads of easy tasks in a row.

• Make sure the game isn't to repetitive.

• Make sure you keep introducing new skills and slowly increase the difficulty of the game.

There can also be negative affects of game flow on the player. When the player is in the same he or she may loose track of time and spend too much time playing the game. The player can also get addicted to these games using them as an escape with can alter their idea of reality. This can make the players unsocial and lonely. When designing a game we must take all this information about "Game flow" into account. 

References: 
Building a Princess Saving App (PDF), by Dan Cook. Aimed at interaction designers to explain what productivity applications can learn from games.

What is FLOW THEORY in game design? - The Basics - (Part 1)
(Video) by Gigity McD. He explores the theory of Flow design with a variety of examples.

 Flow experience in computer game playing among Thai university students  (PDF) by Sanjamsai S, Phukao P. To examine flow experience in computer game playing among university students and examine their behaviors.

Game MDA

 The first article I read was titled MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research (here).  It discussed MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics) which is an approach taught to people so they can understand  game design and development, criticise games and do technical game search.  This will make it easier to decompose, design and study games.  The MDA framework breaks games into three components 1. Rules 2.System and 3.Fun.  The article continues to break down each components model starting with aesthetics the example they used was "Charades and Quake are both competitive. They succeed when the various teams or players in these games are emotionally invested in defeating each other." The example they use for the dynamic model is "Dynamics work to create aesthetic experiences. For example, challenge 

Mda Frame work

is created by things like time pressure and opponent play." and the example they use for Mechanic is "For example, the mechanics of card games include shuffling, trick-taking and betting ñ from which dynamics like bluffing can emerge." The article wraps up by explaining that by understanding how formal decisions about gameplay impact the end user experience, we are able to better decompose that experience, and use it to fuel new designs, research and criticism respectively.

I enjoyed the video in this weeks learning tasks titled"Explaining the MDA Design Framework | Video Game Design" it explains the MDA framework in simpler term. It gave great examples of how he uses the framework. He also explains how we can put the framework into practice and use it to improve any game we are working on currently.  

Game Elements

In this week reading we are learning how to "dissect and analyse a game" by reading about its component parts and how they all fit together. The First Paper "What are the qualities of a game" discusses the atomic elements of a game they parts they listed where: 

• Players
• Objectives/Goals
• Rules
• Resources
• Game-state 
• Information
• Sequencing 
• Player Interaction
• Theme
• Game as System 

  

  Game Clipart
  

The article discusses how you can break a game down into these parts to study individually. The article then goes on to discuss critical analysis not as a negative thing but as a useful tool for discussing and comparing games, to find out why you like a game and how to use that in a new game design. 

I really enjoyed the video (here) in this weeks reading task as I am much more of a visual learner and it helped watch the two game designers break down the game idea process into simple steps that you wouldn't even realise where so important. The demonstrated a few of the steps they take to visualise the playing on the game. They started with simply just making the game from paper, they said this was important to get the game into the prototype stage as soon as possible. They then made their way up to playing ping pong in different ways as the game they where developing was a ping pong style. 

Game Design

 The aim of this weeks reading was to understand what a game is and what are the elements that make it a game. I read the paper "what is a game anyway?", I'm this reading it broadly answered that question. It explained the definitions of a game and then proceeded to explain the weakness in these definitions and how different people may interpret them. It played out the criteria of a basic game, what rules and motivation is needed for the participants to play. I then read and followed along with the "Lets make a game" segment of the reading which did what it intended to do and get me over my initial fear of being unable to create a game. It helped me create the most basic game. I went a step further and did my own research and ready this page on what's the difference between games and puzzles, as I have always roped them into the one category.The table clearly lays out the difference.

 I also read "Four basic methods for Generating Ideas" This was a useful reading as it explained the step by step process of how to generate a game idea. Which four simple methods

•  Concentration "You merely think until you have an idea"
• Brainstorming "it is essential that the group of people for the brainstorming be as diverse as possible"
• Scamper "set of techniques that the game designer changes in turn until he finds his idea'
• Ramsey " take a significant amount of information and start looking at it closely and manically, you can find new information or find inconspicuous links"