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I had a great time playing Listen. It is a well-designed puzzle game with lots of complex interactions between the player and the objects in the game. Few rules and objects were brought to my attention immediately when I started playing in the colored boxes and the plus sign. The player needs to push the plus sign into the white plus sign box, and change the blue boxes to green boxes to win the first level. Then, the designer brought up a new rule starting on the second level. A red box appeared which need the plus sign to bypass it to change it to a regular blue box. These rules made this puzzle game more interesting by having the player come up with a good strategy before making any moves. There was one level I moved my plus sign without thinking, then I ended up failing because there was no way to move that plus sign out from a dead end. This failure was useful to my strategy. It teaches me how to plan my moves before my hands. In addition, I believe that there are multiple ways to solve a level. The freedom of either pushing the plus sign in place or trying to make all colored boxes green is the player’s choice. Therefore, the choice from the player matters. One interesting interaction between the two rules was the red box. As I mentioned before, the player needs to bypass the plus with the red box to change it into a blue box. When I first encountered this rule on the second level, I got confused because I don’t know what to do. Then I experienced the boxes a little and figured out this interaction. I appreciated the designer not specify what is the rule for the red box because that allows the player to take some time to explore this interaction on a simpler level before it gets hard in the future levels. Since this rule appeared, it was used very often in the gameplay. Personally, I think it makes the game more interesting because the player needs to consider which plus sign they choose to do the bypass without getting it stuck at a dead end.

A level I remember the most is the one with a big white box on the left with multiple plus targets and many blue boxes on the right. It is a rather simple level to finish in my opinion, but it also has a lot of freedom for the player to learn the interactive rules once again to enhance their understanding and the use of the plus signs. My take was to put the plus signs into their target first, then change the blue boxes. Overall, it is an amazing puzzle game. I want to keep playing it and explore different strategies as a player. The designer did a great job on the combination of rules and game verbs. I would recommend this game to my friends who love solving puzzles! 

Ping-pong Jump is a simple but intense game. I believe it is a harder version of the designer’s last p5.play game project. Compared with the older version of Ping-pong, Ping-pong Jump has more uncertainties. Not only the player has to balance the ball on the bat, but there are also boundaries now on each level as the game screen goes up. It adds a new uncertainty because the player does not know where the gap of the boundary is going to be next, and it is essential to pass the bat and the ball through that gap to continue the game. I was kind of struggling with my physical skill because the ball speeds up really fast while hitting the bat, left and right edges, and the boundaries. It gets harder to avoid the ball falling when it accelerates. There’s no clear strategy per se, but it is best to keep the bat as close as you can to the ball in my opinion. Therefore, the player’s reaction time could be reduced and makes it a little easier to adapt to the situation. However, once I accidentally strapped my ball below the boundary, it makes it harder to catch the ball. The tension of the gameplay increases. As the player goes through numerous levels, there’s no hint if the player will ever reach an end to the game other than failing the game. I got frustrated because I began to lose my attention and patients to catch the ball. I ended up having 193 as my best score. Randomness sources such as the speed of the ball, the location of the gap, and the never-ending board add more tension to the game experience. The designer used this tension to make the gameplay more unpredictable, and this uncertainty makes this simple game more complex.

There is a bug I experienced during my gameplay. Sometimes if the velocity of the ball is fast enough, it will go through the boundaries. I was surprised by seeing this bug, and I even took advantage of it in some of my gameplay. Interestingly, the bug makes it easier to play because the player doesn’t have to pay attention to the ball the whole time (by taking a few seconds to break while the ball bounces off the boundaries). A suggestion I would make is the designer could include other objects or checkpoints in the future. Objects that could represent extra points to collect or deduction points to avoid; checkpoints to make the game less stressful or a scene change into a harder level. However, I do agree with the fact that sometimes the simplicity of a game is making it more difficult but more fun to play with. The mechanics of bouncing the ball with the bat is easy to understand yet challenging to keep doing it in the game and in real life. Overall, I think this is a great advancement of the designer’s last game. I enjoyed how she take ideas from her last game and makes it into an even harder game. 

I have to say this is a challenging but satisfying game. It is very hard to complete the level, but it is also satisfying when you do so. I appreciate the color various colors, calming background music, and the visual effects of the game. 

I think the designer wants the player to feel challenged because the game experience supposes to be not as simple as just going through the circles. In my opinion, the designer wants the player to be patient in order to succeed. The game includes layers of circle boundaries and strikes (when the player hits the boundary) to make it difficult. The moves are simple: the player could either go clockwise or counter-clockwise in a layer and go through the gap to get to the inner layers. The force that makes player’s victory difficult is the small space between layers and the numerous layers the player needs to go through to win. The player cannot go too fast or otherwise, it increases the chance of hitting the boundary. There are 4 strikes each round, and the player loses when the strike is down to 0. These forces are concrete in my opinion. They are tricking the player to hit the circles. Something that the game is helping me to get through the process is the music. Compared with the intense gameplay itself, the background music is calming and relaxed the gameplay a little. 

The main goal of this game is trying to get through the layers to the center. The core verb for this game is the movement of the small red circle. The player uses this verb all the time during the gameplay. The player could interact with the verb either moving it towards the center or ending up hitting the boundary. The player could get a sense of punishment by hitting the boundary. There’s an electrocuted effect with it to remind the dangerousness of this action. However, the player could avoid this punishment by simply not hitting the boundary, but is challenging to do so. Some risky actions can be taken in the game to maybe make the process easier in a sense. For example, the player could bypass a few circles since there are 4 strikes available. But then that will make the process of going through the circle even harder because losing one strike is more crucial. 

One suggestion I would like to mention is that the red circle can’t go through some parts of the game. For example, some circled boundaries are not complete on the screen, and it is impossible to go beyond the screen. Also, as the other comment said above, there are some minimal bugs. But they don’t make the game less fun to play! I still enjoyed the gameplay, and I was very excited when I finished the journey. I wish to see more levels too. Maybe the layers could be in different shapes (square, diamonds, etc.), and it could get harder by starting at a far away layer. 

I am surprised to see how the designer use Bitsy to build this engaging game. Personally, I love cooking, and I know how to make this tomato scrambled egg dish. This game is taking the cooking experience to the next level. The designer organized the space in a way that is similar to a Chinese kitchen setup. For example, the stir-fried pot is in the center of the screen with the fan on top of it. In addition, there are seasoning bottles over the counters. There are also some contrasts in the setups. One thing I noticed is the color change for each scene. The colors get brighter after each scene, and the designer even made the last scene looks like the color of the tomato scrambled egg. There are no “visible” entrances/exits, they are embedded in the interactive elements. For instance, the player could process into the next scene when they finished preparing the main ingredients. Some of the objects have more attention than others. The interactive objects are definitely having more attention from the players, but I found the recipe object (the one as ? at the lower right corner) does not have as much attention I thought. For instance, maybe is because I know how to cook this dish so I know what is going on, but I didn’t use the recipe hint as often. I think it could be somewhat better if the recipe is shown at some point at the begging of the game to have the player have a general idea of what they are supposed to do. 

I guessed one of the designer’s design goals is to create this interactive recipe. With this idea in mind, I believe the designer perfectly fulfilled this goal. Players need to follow certain orders on how/when to put ingredients together. This order helps the player to understand the correct way to cook this dish and the order matters in this case. Therefore, choices matter in this game. If the player didn’t follow the order and make their own decision, sometimes it could “ruin” the dish and result to start over the game. 

Some moments I remember in the game were seasoning. I know some people like to make this dish salty while some want it to be sweet. I think it is interesting that the designer included this detail in the game. The player could choose one of them or do both salt and sugar. Personally, I usually use both in my dish in reality, so it makes me feel that I have some freedoms in the game experience. I was curious about how the visuals of this game are going to turn out. It is very appealing when the player mixes the egg and the tomato in that last scene. It looks realistic in my opinion. 

Overall, I would recommend this game to my friends because it is a fun way to learn how to cook a dish, and also shows a different kind of perspective of cooking. 

Prompt 2:

This game want me to lose because it seems to be an easy game of counting the candy canes. However, what appears to be easy is in fact every hard to play. The mechanic is simple, clicking on the candy cane to count them within 3 seconds, but with the fast pace of the moving candy cane and player’s slow reaction time, it makes this game impossible to win (count all the candy canes). The player needs to be super fast on clicking the candy cane on screen as well as hitting on it at the right spot since the candy cane is tiny. I guess the game didn’t anticipate my moves, and there’s no enemy (or maybe the enemy is speed and timing). Again, the force that makes the game difficult is the speed and timing. The best score I got so far is 3, and I felt it is nearly impossible to count all candy canes in 3 seconds. The obsticle is very concrete in my opinion, it is very obvious that the player can’t keep up with the speed. I don’t think anything in the game is helping by how simple it is. All players could do is trying to click on as many candy canes as possible within 3 seconds. With my trackpad, it makes it even harder because there’s a delay while I move the pointer on the screen. As a player, I kept pushing myself to try to get as many as I possibly could, but it is still a “mission impossible”. 

(Sorry I wrote my response but didn’t realize there are two comments already)

Prompt 1: 

I lost the game several times before I figured out a way to win it. The movements of the balls are definitely the uncertain element that makes me unsure of victory. There are 15 balls that roll in different directions in every try, as the player, I can’t predict which way these balls will go. Also, their speed is very fast, and it seems impossible to avoid them. I did doubt my physical skill because it is so hard to adjust to the movement/speed at the beginning. Everything happened too fast, and I didn’t have time to process what happened or think of any strategy. Later on, I found a good strategy to avoid the balls: trying to stay as still as I can on the edge. I figured out that if I am constantly moving, there’s no doubt I will get hit by the ball. However, if I stay on the edge, there’s a chance that the balls will hit the edge at an angle that doesn’t affect me. As I mentioned before, the movements of the balls are the source of randomness. I believe that it is also the source of extra complexity, and the limited “hiding” space is also an additional source of extra complexity. The movements of the balls are hard to perceive, and they move too fast to react to. Overall, I think it is a challenging game to play. Once the player gets a sense of what is going on, it is not too difficult to come up with a strategy.  

Prompt 5:

Personally, the most memorable moment in the game is seeing the bunny as the first customer. It almost feels like this scene is a branching story from my Phil’s game series hahahaha. I actually told my friend about my experience with this game when I was playing it. I told them the same thing about the bunny, and how interesting this game is. One thing I remembered telling them was as a “uber driver”, the player is able to travel between planets to see distinct planet landscapes while meeting new customers. In the game, I believe my movements/choices matter because customers have their destinations in mind, and I need to get them to their destinations as a player. One time I tried to take the bunny to the muddy planet, but it takes me to a blank screen. So I figured maybe I need to get the customer to the correct destination. Also, the avatar needs to go through the cave-looking structure on the volcano planet to meet the next customer. My actions matter in this scenario because I need to get the avatar through the puzzle. In my opinion, the designers can’t plan how the player can explore the map. For example, when I was in the scene where there are four planets and some meteorites, I had to get around the meteorites to land safely on the destined planet. The designers can’t predict which route or how the player can avoid the meteorites, and they also somewhat can’t predict which planet the player decides to land on (some might land on a planet different than the destinated planet). One thing that surprise me when I was playing is how to get through the volcano puzzle. It looks easier than it actually is. I believe the narrow space and the fast-moving pace are making it harder, but it is a fun level to experience with. 

Prompt 1: 

In this game, the space is organized around a snowy day. Scenes take place both outdoor and indoor. The designer included many snow-related objects, such as snowflakes, snowman, and a warm place to stay indoors. There are entrances and exits. For example, in the first scene, the player exits the classroom after handing in their homework. Then, after exploring the snowy pathway, the player enters a house-like structure that is full of winter food. The designer also includes wide and narrow parts. For instance, the snowy pathway is narrow where the player needs to follow the path in order to get to the next scene; in comparison, the warm house is a wider space where the player can explore the house freely. It has real world analogues all over the game, too. The outdoor snowy scene looks very realistic, and the color contrast between the indoor space and the outdoor also adds a sense of warmness. These elements make me feel like I am experiencing a snowy day. Going back to the title “初雪” (the first day of snow in Chinese), I can totally relate the experiencing the joy of seeing snow for the first time in a year. The space is mostly continuous. The snowy outdoor scene is a great example of a continuous scene: the player is able to walk through the pathway while catching the snowflakes. The player also collides with many objects in the game. An example of this would be the trigger in the classroom. The player needs to turn in her homework to go out to the snow.

Prompt 1: 

At the first passage of this story, I was immediately drawn to the bright light in the center of the screen. By reading the text, I had a general idea of what is happening in the story and who I am: I am a prosecutor and I am investigating a briefcase. I didn’t understand the connection between my role with the bright light icon in the center by then.

Moving forward by clicking on the blue text. The click almost felt like I am opening this briefcase to investigate what is in it. Then, the screen moved on to the next screen. The second passage explains who I am going to meet and some background information about this man. I sensed that this background information might be helpful for me to make a judgment later on on this person or the case I am investigating. 

The screen moved onto the next passage by clicking the blue text again. This time I was clicking on “The man”, and it felt like I was approaching this man or starting to have a conversation with him. This passage included more information on this man: his name, his current situation, and his motive to show evidence to me. I noticed that this man might be under a lot of pressure due to his debts, and also has a negative attitude because no one is willing to help. The idea of revenge could also lead to a story further on depending on what this man could do to those people or what is the status of his attitude. 

Prompt 2: The player has a lot of choices in this story.  Since we are going to Disney World, we have plenty of choices from parks to attractions. Players are free to choose whichever park or attractions they want. Some other options that are different from choosing your entertainment are that players also have a choice to go back to the previous step (to back to a park or choose a different park). There is an option as showing the tickets to the park. I think it is very interactive because this option and the mechanics of clicking on the text make me feel like I am at the entrance of a park. Another interesting option is to go home. I think the designer link each attraction to a certain area of a park, area to the park, and park to the place to choose which park we are going to. Players could definitely go back to where they come from, it is just like you are walking in Disney World and hopping on and off an attraction. As a player, I do want to go back because I want to explore all the areas of a park, all attractions, and all the parks.  The overall shape of the story is similar to a theme park experience where players are immersed in the experience. The vivid description of how a person feels with each ride makes me feel like I am at a “virtual  Disney World”. Players get this experience by reading this interactive story. Again, the shape of this story definitely connects with the theme because people would go back and forth and explore each park in Disney World.  

Prompt 4

This drawing tool is definitely full of uncertainty when I play it for the first time. I was trying to discover the four buttons on the top of the canvas (Boom, Bam, Bop, Pow) and see what they can do. I was surprised when I clicked on each one of them. I wasn’t quite sure what these sound phrases meant in the first place. I was really shocked to see Bam and Pow. Bam creates a target-like circular graphic once I click on it (almost looks like an explosion with the sound effect “bam”); Pow is erasing the entire canvas to a blank page (like everything just puffs away with the sound effect “pow”). These visual feedback definitely help me to understand what is going on with the drawing tool. I tried to create a face with the tool: Boom brush for the facial details, Bam brush for the eyes, and Bop brush for the hair. It diverged from my expectations because some brush strokes showed up immediately once I clicked on their buttons. It twisted my perspective for a face a little bit. I believe there is some randomness in the Bop brush. Different shapes of polygons appear in a random order with different shades of colors. I think this brush add-on the uncertainty of the entire drawing tool. In addition, I believe there is some hidden information in the Boom brush. The color of the bush varies based on where it landed on the canvas. For example, all the brush marks on the center of the left edge are blue whereas the brush marks on the upper right corner are purple.

Prompt 3

I feel like I am playing with this drawing tool because there are many uncertainties and diverse graphics. The triangles and circles are moving all over the place on the canvas with a somewhat pattern following the pointer. I feel like I am not using the tool to draw something, but rather playing with it to see its visual effects. There isn’t much creativity I brought in the experience, but I do enjoy matching the background color with my objects on the canvas. I tried messing around with the size of the object. For instance, the circle brush looks like a worm when I point it in a straight line then the circles expand when I press my mouse.  I didn’t have a goal when I was playing. Again, I felt this drawing tool is mostly engaging players with the experience rather than having an actual piece of art as the result. Elements combine together in a very interesting way. I experience the combination of the expanding effect and the brush itself as I mentioned above with the circle brush. The visual effect is very pleasing in this combination. The game supports my play experience with visual effects similar to it. I felt like this is something I would enjoy when I am bored during a long lecture. Something really satisfying to just follow the objects and watch what they can do.

The two rules I interacted with in this game were the water and the chicken. With the water, I felt annoyed. Not because of the rule itself, it is because I kept pressing the arrow key and accidentally pushed the sheep into the water. I felt surprised with the chicken because when I first interacted with it I had no idea what was going to happen. The dialogue mentioned that the chicken will scare the sheep back, but I didn’t quite understand what “scared back” means in the first place. When I moved Bob away, the sheep jumped back one space once it interacted with the chicken. I think it is an interesting rule, and very creative with the combination of the sound effects. The combination of the chicken pushing the sheep into the water on the last level was intriguing. I thought of this interaction when I was on level 4, then I felt satisfied once I saw the creator mentioned this interaction in the dialogue before level 5. I can imagine that there can be other uses with this interaction. For example, what if the chicken can be scared into the water, or what if the chicken can scare both the sheep and Bob once they are in a row. I think this interaction will still persist if the rules are changed. I also think the physical game mechanic is the part that makes the interaction interesting. Once the sheep are scared into the water, the entire level restarts. So it is important to keep in mind to actually avoid this interaction with the mindset of passing that last level.

I was on the last level of Pinkchu. The first thing I tried was immediately going up to the upper left corner and pushed the blue Pikachu to the Pinkchu. I undo some steps towards the end because I had all the Pikachu with me and they blocked my way to the ball. I first went back to the last Pikachu I picked (the upper-right one), then I tried to formulate the other three Pikachus so that there would be a clear pathway to the ball once I grabbed that last Pikachu. One wrong strategy I tried a few times was having all the Pikachu clustered together. I had a hard time making any progress because I was blocked by the Pikachus. I tried a few times because I was desperate to figure a way out, and I thought you have to have all the Pikachus together in order to win the game. I am not quite sure if there is an intermediate step, but I did move around a lot once I had all the Pikachus with me. Again, I was trying to find a way to the ball and I figure some pathways were blocked but some didn’t. I did work backward several times. Once I was stuck, I always tried to go back to where I came from. Then, I decided to go in a different direction from the past. This strategy did help me a few times. I think there are plenty of ways players can get through this level because it does have lots of free spaces. Overall, I took 1-1.5 minutes to solve this last level. However, I figured out you might not need all Pikachus to complete the level when I tried it again, so my second try went a lot faster.  

The designer defined exits in a great way. There are two types of exits: one is the exit to the next room and the other is an “exit” to the outer space beyond the light blue border. The designer uses a different color (light green) and different pattern to specify the first type of exit. It is obvious to players that that specific tile is an exit. As for the second type of exit, which I believe is a “secret pathway”, they are only specified with a dot on the border. It is noticeable to players but I had no idea that I could go past the border before I approached that dot. The transition between rooms is also interesting. The animation of the transition is very sudden, but the designer has a dialogue prepared before each transition. The dialogue simply tells players if they get this level correctly, if so, the avatar will jump to the next room. I believe it moves me in space. Rooms tend to get harder to solve gradually as well. Each room looks similar while they are distinct from each other in detail. In my opinion, the rooms are constructed in both linear plot and an open format. I had no idea what was going to happen in the next room before finishing the first room. As I discussed above, each room shares some similarities yet there are different binary problems that need to be solved. The “beyond the border” element provides players an open format. The avatar can interact with the symbol on the bottom left corner, and each symbol displays different dialogue that show appreciation for the designer’s mentor. It is a smart design full of surprises and details.

In this game, almost every room has a different setup of the tiles. For example, the square tiles of the first room are repetitive which gives me a sense of dizziness while entering the game. In my opinion, this dizziness also matches the storyline towards the end of the game (where the character was actually in coma). In addition, the maze also brought lots of attention to me. The tiles in the maze are straight-forward simple: the tiles are filled in with either blank or in the shade of purple. The choice of tiles in the maze room help players to easily identify the path, and present a puzzle that challenges players yet still solvable.  Another example of tile design in this game would be the beach room. The designer uses the room as a canvas in which each tile is a part of a larger image. Also, the representation of a beach is abstract: dots represent the sand and animated curves represent the waves. One thing I observed is that the style of the tiles combination in rooms are interspersed. Some rooms look simple (hospital bed/the maze) while some other rooms look more complex (princess castle/the beach). It is interesting to see different styles of representation are included in this game, and it helps to set players on a balanced level(not too easy and not too challenging). One thing that the designer might be fighting with Bitsy is the transition exits. The designer chooses to use animated arrows or a door tile to direct players to exit the current room. I do see in some rooms (such as the beach) players do need a direction to proceed to the next room, but the arrow tiles sometimes take some attention away from the game itself.