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“Gravity Flip” is a simple maze navigation game that employs different tactics to thwart players from reaching the end easily. One of these tactics is the sprite speed as players input directional commands through the traditional keys W, A, S, D. While the speed initially looks manageable, players soon find out that the longer sprites move in a certain direction, the faster the sprite speed progressively becomes. This makes it difficult to navigate through the maze as touching the maze walls automatically makes players fail the level and sends them back to the beginning of the maze. There are no mechanics that make the game forgiving for players, but this makes players carefully time their moves to make sure to enter the different halls of the maze with precision. This is the main source of complexity within the game, but it must not be taken lightly as the narrow and short halls make it difficult to get a hang of the timing. There are no active enemies to further make navigating the maze difficult even though the direction to get through the maze is clear. Because of these factors, the game seems to be a game that predominantly relies on skill over thoughtfully planned strategy. However, this does not mean that strategy is not required. As players become more used to the game, they may realize that they can control the speed by constantly switching between controls to maintain the slow initial speed of the sprite to be able to make timing the navigation much easier. Rather than the traditional sense of strategizing within a game, strategizing in “Gravity Flip” requires players to work around the concrete rules of the movements to make different parts more forgiving for themselves. Slowing down the sprite piece and using the switched controls certainly made it easier to navigate through the pathways for me. Aside from the features mentioned above, the game seems to be completely against the player, and requires much concentration because of the timing aspects.  As previously mentioned, the halls of the maze are tight and some parts are short, which makes it hard to navigate the maze when the sprite is moving fast. This is another major tactic that thwarts players from reaching the end easily. The walls are what make the players lose the level, so this use of space from the creator is what adds another layer of conflict. The organization of the walls also shapes the experience of the players because the tightness of the walls and space in contrast to the fast speed of the main sprite creates a feeling of being rushed. This initially made timing my moves difficult before getting used to the amalgamation of variables. To add difficulty, each increasing level seemed to make the lengths of the halls much shorter, and the walls extended unevenly to make players make moves last minute before crashing into the walls. Overall, “Gravity Flip” is a simple maze navigation game that uses different factors to enhance the difficulty of the game. 

“Coin Runner” is a game that employs the simple mechanics of tapping or swiping, yet the randomness of the coins and bombs is what creates a sense of difficulty and uncertainty in the beginning. Coins and bombs are randomly thrown up on the screen and come back down in unpredicatble directions. In the meantime, players must try their best to collect the coins without touching the bombs or letting the coins touch the bottom of the screen. Due to the random motion, this also means that coins and bombs may overlap, making it difficult to solely click on the coins at times. However, there is a mechanic that makes the game more forgiving. My initial thought was that the bombs would automatically make the player lose as a similar game to “Coin Runner” makes players as soon as they touch the bomb. However, the game deducts points instead when players come in contact with the bombs, and it is possible to have negative points. As a player, this created a push and pull between myself and the game because while this can be considered a safety mechanism, the idea of negative points personally made me more frantic to get the points back up past 0. However after a while, this aspect seemed to remove the feeling of uncertainty because of the realization that while players would want to avoid the bombs, if the coins and bombs overlap, players can just click the bomb without fear of losing the game as the only thing they would truly want to avoid now is losing lives from letting the coins touch the bottom. All of these observations have led me to think that this game requires more strategy rather than skill as thinking ahead about how to make up the points from the bombs seemed to take over the gameplay. As such, players can anticipate and plan ahead for their next move between tapping coins and how they will make up negative points. This feeling occurs because there are no bonuses that allow for more points and counter the bombs, there is a higher incentive to prevent coins from touching the ground. Another aspect that makes the game more forgiving is the lack of enemies that really try to prevent players from winning and anticipate their next moves. However, this is not a detrimental aspect to the game as it would feel like adding too many complex elements would take away from what makes the game simple and sweet. However, it would enhance the gameplay to make the mechanics that already exist a little less forgiving to make the difference between winning and losing a bit more clear. Additions that are implemented to make the game less forgiving (within reason) may create a greater impetus for players to succeed. All in all, the game employs direct mechanisms that create a game that is easy to understand, and it is easy to understand exactly what the creator wants players to do in “Coin Runner”.

Pacing within games, especially story based games, is very important as it can determine the atmosphere and player experience. “Felinophobia” deals with pacing by having readers read the story in paragraphs (that have been specifically portioned in amounts that effectively show how the author wants the story to be conveyed). The creator inserts breaks visually by inserting photos, which also enhance how the story is experienced because it allows readers into the author’s mind and how they saw their plot come together as they wrote the story. The author also employs clicking as a method to add visual and mental breaks. The clicking aspect of the game is not always from the choices that the reader needs to make, but the creator uses this function to allow for the player to proceed to the next part. In doing this, the player can take in the story in the intended portions, as mentioned above. Another notable aspect of the game connected to pacing is the way in which the passages are organized. The choices that need to be made or the buttons that we need to click are either dialogues that progress the story or are actions that need to be taken next. While readers cannot exactly say what comes next within the story, the choices allow for readers to take a break and have a slight idea on what comes next or what other characters will do.There is also a sense of reflection that happens as players click through the story because of the way in which the choices are laid out. The format of the dialogue that was mentioned allows for the game to emulate the back and forth motion of a real conversation as the only clicking that occurs surrounds that actions and words of the character we are playing. There were also factors that are related to the story that are also worth mentioning as they greatly contribute to the way the plot is perceived. “Felinophobia” starts off mildly slow with an excerpt from another piece of text by Rober Albert. This sets the readers up for the next page, which is a thorough description of cats and their relationships with humans. The following portions, before the readers really dive into the meat of the story, are explanations that set up the world in the story and who we are. This sequence in addition to the clicking mechanism really allows for readers to reflect on what is occurring before we are really dragged into the story, effectively allowing for readers to feel like something is building up without getting carried away. This is a contrast to the ending that is more fast paced. The paragraphs seem longer while packing in more of the story and truly matches the pace of the events within the plot. These are all tools that are used within “Felinophobia” to create an atmosphere of suspense and help readers perceive the story at the same rate as the way the events occur within the story.

“Blastie Squid” has elements that push the player towards losing the game. Firstly, there are the randomly generated squid that come towards the player. The main goal of the game is to blast the squids before they come in contact with the player sprite, and while this seems easy to grasp at first, players must constantly go up against a barrage of enemies from all angles while moving the sprite with the mouse. In addition, players must use different keys to rotate the sprite, which allows the player to aim projectiles that take the squid down. The game anticipates the player's moves by having the enemy constantly follow the player and move closer to the player till the enemy achieves its goal. There seem to be more aspects of the game that are up against the player that make victory difficult, rather than “caring” for them. The only aspect that can really aid the player is the ability to move the sprite at any speed desired. Even the movement of the shooter seems to be against the player at first as it is difficult to control the rotational speed to properly aim at enemies while effectively dodging them. This is the only tool that can really help the player because more squid will continue to appear on the screen without a care for how much the player takes down beforehand. This makes dodging more and more difficult, further players fail to master the mechanisms behind the shooter. There are also no additional components that give players an incentive. All of these factors combine to make a solid gameplay.

The verbs at the core of this game seem to include slide, whether it is sliding the paddle up or down. With these verbs the player can control the way in which the ball moves between the paddles, though this is an extremely difficult part of the game. Sliding the paddles forwards the game, which is deflecting the ball back and forth between two paddles, but the motion of the ball relies on the position of the paddle and its movement, whether it is sliding up or down before hitting the ball. This makes it difficult for the player to guess what the different reactions are, and it also makes it difficult for the player to anticipate the way the ball will move. While this difficulty may become reduced the more the player becomes used to the game, it is one that requires players to think more quickly, rather than strategizing several moves in advance. The game’s verb that requires movement from players is bounce, which is why players must slide in order to return a reaction to the game’s action. While the player cannot prevent that verb as this is the main action of the ball (and the motion that keeps the game going), players can at least try to anticipate where exactly the ball will land. Players can also slide both paddles to make the ball’s movements more predictable, which in turn makes the motion of the ball more manageable. This action and reaction seems to be the main level of interplay within “Hot Potato”. 

Prompt 4: In this game, the player experiences aspects of the world through various elements; however, the most prominent aspect is the dialogue or text. While the player can arguably bypass other elements, the dialogue is crucial to experience as the game is very story and/or dialogue driven. Initially, players are met with a very open layout space, in which they can go any direction of their choice. There is no clear direction that they must take, which can be confusing without knowing the driving force behind the world. From this description, it can be fairly difficult to deduce much about the game world when looking at it upfront. However, there are character sprites with animated markers that drive the player towards different spaces, and these attributes are the driving force behind the way in which the game is played. In addition, there are also items that also add to the game’s story element, and the importance of their roles are highlighted by dialogue. These pieces work together to help players deduce ideas about the game’s story and the world surrounding the story. One of the initial sprites players are met with is a sign that states a little about Tom, one of the characters in the story that drives the player’s exploration of the surroundings. We, as players, cannot piece together much about the story, but the next sprite we are met with, an adventurer, helps players find the next location to go to. This in turn helps us potentially find where Tom is to find out more about the world and character.

Prompt 1: The space within the game is organized in a very interesting manner. Much of the layout of the game consists of ladders aside from the platforming aspect of the game. From personal experience, platforming games mainly go from left to right without much ability to go backwards. In this game, it felt like the player had to go backwards a lot of the time to be able to move between platforms, which was a part of the game that sets it different from conventional games of its kind. Aside from this aspect, another part of the game that was profound was the motion from low to high and vice versa. As stated before, much of the game has a ladder mechanism which dictates a lot of the way space is used in the game. This adds much variation to the motion that the player experiences. The entrances and exits in this game have diverse placements as they are not placed on the ground. Due to the up and down motion mentioned previously, the entrances and exits are also of this nature. For the layout of the game, it is a very open layout without any narrow portions. The game did not have any corridors or small areas, which made the space feel continuous. While there is a floor in the first part of the game, there is no ceiling in sight. For a real world comparison, the game was reminiscent of high diving platforms with the way the ladders and platforms were organized. The major collisions within the game are platforms with spiky blocks on them that reset the level when the avatar touches or falls on top of them. These factors all contribute to the way in which space is perceived for Monkey Run.

Prompt 2: In the game Urban Legend, the player has to make choices a couple times; however, the choices that need to be made are crucial to the progression of the plotline. The choices are all related to the choices the protagonist must make in order to survive their situation. For example, they must choose between taking a doll or not in an earlier part of the story, and later on, this doll is what leads to the protagonist being discovered by the scary woman. The game also lets readers return to previous parts of the story to change their choices to see how the story turns out. This was a device well used by the creator as the protagonist seems to feel helpless throughout the plot, and the more readers go back in the story’s progression, the more the desperation from the readers builds as they make their way to the end. This is because the crucial choices made earlier actually do not really affect the outcome of the main character. All the endings are the same except the only part that changes is what they find near their refrigerator when they “wake up”. From there, the dread and confusion builds. The shape of the story is pretty linear because the choices that readers thought were crucial in the beginning turned out to be somewhat pointless and beyond their control in the end. This connects well with the idea of the story because the situation the protagonist is in, is out of their control.

Prompt 3: The game Don’t Get Fired includes various font styles and effects to convey different portions of the story, and this helps evoke various emotions from players. In the first few lines of the game, players are met with the onomatopoeia of an alarm clock going off. The creator used several different methods to accentuate the beeps. Firstly, they used all caps to make the font seem larger, the font is a bright red to provide a stark contrast with the blue background, and the words are shaking. The combination of these effects provides a jarring experience for the reader like that of an actual alarm clock. In the rest of the story, there are different words scattered throughout the text that are bolded to bring attention to those specific phrases and keywords. For example, the second “page” of the story boldens the word “rush” as it is a very important aspect of the game, and the concept is the very source of why the main characters gets fired or doesn’t get fired. In the successful version of the game, the phrase “[Your] boss is even more proud” is bolded. This is another example of how the creator brings focus through the usage of bold font because the phrase signifies that the reader has reached a goal of the game. Finally, in a route where the reader does not choose to go after their briefcase, the main character realizes that they need their briefcase due to an important work related affair. However, since they didn’t bring their briefcase, they panic. This emotion is communicated by putting the font in all caps and shaking letters. While these choices do not necessarily change the meaning of the paragraphs, they guide readers in picking out the important parts of the text that are really important to the reader’s immersion into the story.

The random yet easy to use nature of this program is what made it feel like I was playing rather than using a piece of software. Using a new piece of software is often accompanied by feelings of confusion and frustration. This program, however, provides a lot of stimulation to the user through its usage of vibrant colors on a black canvas. The user interface is very easy to use, and while the program is very random during the first few times of testing the brushes out, players can easily get a handle of the wide range of brush types. When I first tested the program my attention was most occupied by the ellipse tool and the +click tool because of how unique both of them were. I initially expected a simple ellipse tool, but it ended up being a complex brush that kept pumping out ellipses after ellipses as my cursor moved across the canvas. The +click brush surprised me because the printed patterns changed between white and red depending on whether the user was clicking down or not. Because each of the tools were so different and provided different things within strict limits, I decided to test out how each of the tools would layer upon each other to create different effects, especially with the ellipse and+click tools as they intrigued me the most. The ellipse tool was the only tool that could really create a more 3 dimensional looking piece, this made me determined to use the other tools and see how I could also add dimension with them.

While playing this program, the brush that stood out the most prominently to me was the circle brush because it was the brush that came along with an auditory and tactile experience. Somehow, the little disks that were expelled as I moved the brush across the screen reminded me of thin and colorful plastic disks from back when I was in elementary school. Spreading them across the desk would give a slight click click noise along with a light uneven rolling sensation underneath my fingertips. Every time the gray disks would roll out under the cursor, I would recall this old memory. Another brush that gave me a tactile sensory experience was the concentric circle brush. For some reason, it would make me think of concentric circles drawn in the sands of zen gardens. When I would drag the cursor across the screen, I felt the experience of dragging an object through sand and a rippling granular sensation of moving sand particles. To recreate these sensations in real life, I would just return back to the objects that I thought of when using these brushes, like the plastic chips and the sand art. The final tool I’d like to mention is the triangle tool. Unlike the other tools mentioned, it’s so random in its size, attributes, and colors. The speed in which the triangles come out differ as well. This is the brush where I would say has a life of its own because it’s so unpredictable compared to the other brushes within the program. 

A rule that fascinated me within the game Find the Princess was the teleport rule to find the collectibles within the game, and ultimately reach the princess. At first, it invoked surprise within me because it felt like it was very random. I was confused at first because the avatar was flashing across different parts of the maze at the most random times and areas. There were no sprites to really warn how the teleport function worked or that it even existed. It took several tries to really realize the teleport function was there after fiddling around with the controls and exploring the maze, rather than playing out the purpose of the game. The interaction does not happen as often because the mechanism to trigger the teleportation is not always there and is quite discreet. Even if the rules changed slightly, the overall mechanism and its relationship with the collectibles does not change much because the function just alters the position of the avatar on the board. The purpose of this mechanism is straightforward because it just moves the avatar’s position, as stated previously, so I cannot see other wildly different uses for the interaction that do not have a role in its relationship with the goal. However, the interaction doesn’t occur solely between the teleportation function and the coins, it also occurs between the teleportation function and the blocks that the avatar has to move. In this sense, I think that the mechanism serves different uses in onder to serve its purpose of reaching the goal.

Level three of the Horizontal Sokoban game was the most interesting level to me, solely because of the fact that there was a step to get to the goal. The levels previous to this one had the player just go down some steps to reach the goal. However, this level presented a challenge that caused me to overthink a bit at first. As someone who occasionally plays games on the computer, I am used to using the spacebar to make the characters jump, which is why that was my first reaction to the step. Contrary to my initial expectations, this did not work out as I had planned. My next instinct was to press “W” to see if the character would go up. This also did not work out as I had planned, which is not surprising when thinking about the limited controls within the game engine. My final choice was to press “D” to continue forward, and it ended up being the control that would finally allow me to go up the step. While this was a case of me overthinking the controls for the game, I appreciated that the game allowed me to think in advance about which choices I would be able to make to progress forward in such a simple yet deceiving level. Overall, this level took me around 2 minutes to complete due to me fiddling around with the controls. Looking back, there was definitely one approach to solving the level, but overthinking the level made it more difficult. 

Prompt 2: Up front, the tiles within the game emulate waves and the deep ocean. With other aspects helping players visualize the setting, this really helped in the understanding of the background and helped shape the identity of the character. Later on, the style of motion guided by the tiles  allowed for a specific type of motion that would commonly align with underwater exploration, which was part of this bitsy game. The creator lines up tiles in a way that makes players go up and down which is really reminiscent of swimming games that require players to go up and down to collect points. This was the aspect that stood out the most because the essence of underwater games seemed to have been captured. Another notable design feature the creator added to the game was the use of directional arrows to guide where players should go. These tiles were one of the few animated components throughout the whole game and especially through levels with more complex tile patterns. Levels without the arrows and with more direct pathways to the next map had other animated components such as large waves. This design choice added to the visual nature of the game by making the game look more vast and open, which provided contrast to the dark colors used, which usually create a more cramped atmosphere. Large fields of motion emulated the flow of oceans, making the game seem more animated and vibrant. Overall, these aspects aid in creating motion to the game and help guide players’ eyes through the maze onto the next level.

Prompt 4: The text within this game is a crucial aspect in terms of how it plays. The sprite dialogue guides players by including the actions they need to follow after. Without the dialogue, it would’ve taken players much trial and error as there were strategic traps laid across the map. The amount the dialogue helps players increases as the game goes on. For example, the first map requires players to do more exploring. However, subsequent maps allow players to invite a companion to help them navigate through the field as the companion gives concise and easy to follow clues. The creator could’ve chosen to not include this part, but the use of dialogue truly allows for a smoother gaming experience. Players eventually know what to look out for when navigating the map to avoid the traps. In addition, there were some sprites that contributed to the world building of the game and added to the limited experience the game engine provides. One level that stood out was a map with a knight. The simple dialogue is effectively used to create a sense of panic. This created a parallel to childhood movies and shows where the main characters would have to escape castles, and by doing so, the world building was conveyed. Overall, dialogue was crucial in the game towards creating a more immersive playing experience. The design choices used through the dialogue were smoothly integrated in a way that made the gameplay have more depth despite the limitations of the platform.