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This game "ping-pong Jump" by Zoey Zhao is a light game that test the skill and patience of the player. The player controls the ping-pong bracket with mouse, and the player needs to constantly smash the ball up in a scroll that is moving downward. The longer the ball stays up (before falling to the bottom of the screen), the more point the player gets. The game also sets a ceiling barricade that has a moderately large hole in the middle for the ball to get through. Because the position of the hole is different every time, the player needs to get the ball through in a limited time.

There isn't much to say about the choice of interface or art design in this game, but maybe adding a sound effect when the bracket hits the ball or the ball hits the ceiling would be a great future improvement.

The gameplay of this game is indeed giving the player some challenge. The first few attempts might be difficult because the player isn't familiar with the force to hit and control the ball yet. This gives the gameplay much uncertainty at the beginning, because the player don't know how far the ball will be hit when they swing the bracket. The randomness of the ceiling hole also adds to the uncertainty. This gives the player pleasantly failure because the player will start to adjust to the force of the bracket and the randomness of the hole, and it feels like a process of learning. For myself, after several attempts, I start to feel easy to control the ball, and I found a relatively easy way to gain higher points. A point that adds difficulty into the game is that the player have to keep controlling the ball while looking for the next hole and try to beat it through. However, the ceiling can also serve as a ground in this game, so the ball is basically safe for a while after you let the ball through in a certain range of angles. Making use of the ceiling/ground to help me keep the ball safe, I can have way more time to reflex and plan how to hit the ball though the next hole. Using this technique, I scored over 500, and basically ended because I lost my patience. Allowing the player to use the environment to their use is also an interesting design.

Another design that is worth noticing is the collision box of the bracket. The collision box starts from the middle height of the bracket, not at the top, and not according to the shape of the bracket. This is a good design because it make the interaction look like the player is hitting the ball with the bracket's center, like what we did in real life. It also gives a perspective to the whole scene, almost like adding it to 3D.

The reason that I think the game tests player's patience more is that it takes too short of the player's time to fully master the skills, but the difficulty doesn't increase as the points got higher. If the scroll can move slightly faster in time, or the hole might move slowly, some further challenges can be added to this game.

This game "Potato Clicker" by jdneal2 is a stress-relieving mini game that focus on the most simple and direct form of interaction: clicking.

Interface

The interface of the game is also very delightful, I believe that it is very suited for a mobile stress-relieving game too. A big potato at the center that gives the players a focus, surrounded by 2 potato shaped fries that adds some movement and style to the game. The upgrade menu is on the top of the potato, and the detail of the upgrades will arise below the point counter at the bottom of the screen, so that all of the empty spaces were adequately used. The colors of the interface is also properly used. The background color of the potatoes is a grey color that is frequently seen in fast food restaurants, and the potatoes might look more tasty with this color. The background color of the upgrade menu is crimson, probably because it has to be a comparison with the grey color, but also be a warm color that fits the theme of the rest of the game. Another detail that is worth noticing is the font of the point counter and the upgrade information. The font is a cartoon style font which has cow-like spots on them, which looks good in the whole scene.

Gameplay

The gameplay of this potato clicker game is quite the simplest thing at first. The only thing I do is click the potato in the center, then the big potato shrinks while being clicked, and the potato points will be increased by 1.  Without the upgrades, the game will be a pure click counter, and the upgrades successfully added an interesting gaming experience to the game. My expectations for the upgrades in an ordinary games would be it makes the game a bit easier, but I would still think the final goal, which is getting 100000 points for the moustache, impossible to accomplish (before my patience run out). But the upgrades in this game breaks the conventional idea and are incredibly strong. The first upgrade adds 5 points per click, so the speed to get points is actually accelerated by 6 times. What's more, the upgrades in this game can be purchased again and stacked. The second upgrade can turn the game into an automatic afk game by giving the player a cursor that automatically clicks the potato, which can also to stacked 3 times at max. After purchasing the two upgrades several times, the player can see the points are increasing for over 10,000/second. Buying a moustache upgrade would not be a problem after only several minutes of gameplay, and in most time the player don't even have to click. Finding out that the upgrades can stack is the most wonderful part of the game experience, and the smartest design was to hide the information of it and let the player themselves discover this fact.

By the wonderfully designed upgrades, the game turned a repeating clicking simulator into a surprisingly fun experience. 

Prompt 2: Describe the challenge of the game as if the designer was working to thwart you.

The game fitness challenge wants the player to lose eventually, because it's a never ending game. The game is basically controlling a running boy and the goal is to run as long as you can. The game will try to make the player lose from two directions: the obstacle from top and the puddle from below. The player can jump or roll to prevent dying from the obstacles. The game anticipated that the player might want to only press jump to escape dying from the puddle, but if the player did only pressed the up button, the timing must be absolutely right to not die. In order to give the myself a longer window to react, I must add right arrow keys to let the character jump longer. This is also part of how the game wants the players to lose, but learn from losing.

The game doesn't really have enemies, only the obstacles that makes the victory(or living longer and earn more points) difficult. An interesting point is, after the player gain over 100 points from living, the game becomes harder, and the rise of difficulty comes not only from the bigger obstacles, but also the running speed of the character. The speed is faster so it shortens the reaction window of the players. The colors and music also changes to alert the player when this change in difficulty happens.

Prompt 1: Describe the central uncertainty in the game.

In the game Counting sheep? , the constantly moving box makes me unsure of victory. The goal is to move the boxes to the right, but the boxes are constantly doing an ellipse shape motion, they're hard to push in the gate and even if they're in the gate, there's a chance that they will fly out themselves. Another uncertainty comes from the lag between my controls as a player and the movement of the sheep. The sheep doesn't immediately follow my cursor, but more like dragged toward it in a fixed highest speed. So the victory requires not my own physical skills, but the correct strategy to push the boxes in the right moment. The tension feels like the thrill of hunting. I have to wait until that right moment to come, and getting that moment right is very rewarding to a player. 

The source of randomness comes also from the moving boxes. They move in the same circular direction, but the track is not fixed, and the boxes collide with each other. So the movement is random, but not so random. Once the player pushed the boxes, the track will be altered as well. This also adds a little complexity in the game.

Prompt 4 (Evocative spaces): 

The space and scene in this game is an essential part of the game experience. The game takes place in two types of space: comfy indoor space and outdoor space with the first snow. The player will have different expectations for the space. In the classroom space, the character delivers the CS homework, and at this point the player would want to leave the classroom and go home. When the player moves to the outdoor space, the scene is surprisingly pleasant to enjoy. The path is covered in white and large snowflakes fall slowly from the sky. If the player isn't in a hurry, they can even catch the snowflakes. The falling snowflakes is exactly what I expected from the snowy outdoor space, because the first snowy day in a year just have that power to make you want to stay longer outdoors and play with the snowflakes. The space creates an atmosphere that makes the player feel the joy and novelty for the first snow. The 2nd indoor space, on the other hand, provides a feeling of warmness and safety. The house is a warm shelter from the cold snow outside, and there's hot potato and chocolate in the house to enjoy. The game caught the special experience of the first snow day and expressed that in the game. 

Prompt 3: Describe how the text is formatted.

Formatting is a very important part of the experience in this game. The beginning sentence is “You're blind, don't tell them you can see.” and the "you can see" part is crossed out, which shows a sense of rejection, like the character is closing him/herself. This impression continues to strengthen in the beginning of the game, as the player is blind because of an accident. To give the player the impression of loneliness is crucial because it reflects the change which occurred later in the story. 

Such skill in formatting is widely used in this game. When the player is deeply shocked, the "Who are they?!" becomes shaking and in red and yellow. Such formatting, along with all the images used, expresses the shock of the character, gives the player a sense of uncertainty and mystery of the story. In the end and twist of the story, the background changes from dark to bright, it also symbols the change of perception from the character. The character has accepted the reality. The sound effects and music also contributed to this emotional touch at the end of the game.

Prompt 4: Drawing on Brian Upton's definition of narrative play, describe how your process of anticipation and interpretation.

"However, the house is so quiet that you have a bad feeling about it." Such passage gives me uncertainty because it was already foreshadowing and preparing me for some surprising discovery in the later paragraph.  The game uses the comment of the character to do the foreshadowing. 

In the gameplay, the designer gives the player alternatives like taking time to explain to the police or not, believe or not believe the first suspect, and hide or confront the boss. These are the different directions that might have a big impacts in the story, but the result of those choices have somehow subverted my expectation. Explaining to the police is not important, because both choices have the same consequence. Even if the first suspect lied to us, I need to trust him to continue the investigation. This part might need more evidence or foreshadowing. It's also a surprise that hiding from the boss leads to a bad end, because it's usually a safe option, but it was reasonable in the game.

Prompt 2: Describe something you really want to do, but can't.

The game has created a motional scene, which is the water, the blue sky and the floating white cloud on the canvas to let the player draw on. The game also provided a wide range of tools to draw with, including 9 colors and 3 strokes or 3 shapes. This wide range of tool and the pre-build scene makes me want to draw some objects in it. The game encourages the player to use more colors and shapes, but there is also some limitation because the environment has already been given.

Since I want to draw actual objects like a fish in the sea, or a bird in the sky (given the scene) instead of random shapes and graphic effects that most other p5js games do, some things in the game is also stopping me from doing that. One important thing is that the game didn't provide any method to redo or clear the canvas. This would not be a problem if we are doing the random creative graphic, but when I'm trying to draw something, some sort of eraser or redo would be important. 

From a designer perspective, it is also reasonable for not giving the player the undo button, because the player would be force to make other creative adjustment over the mistakes they make. This might create other surprising result rather than just let the player undo and draw their own object.

Prompt 3: Describe how you played with the game.

In this game, I feel like playing a game because my interaction with the colors and shapes in the game created a random but controllable outcome. The triangles will move randomly at the cursor's position, and when I hold the button their moving directions will be fixed and become larger. The 2 different types of the interaction has given the player a sense of control over the randomness of the graphic effects, and they inspired the creativity of the player. After a few attempts, I further found out that the color of the shapes will switch from red to blue after I hold the button once. This feeling of exploration of the rules has given me satisfaction. 

Then I further explored the "Change shape" button, and was surprised to see that the circle had a different rules to manipulate. The circles had the effect of dropping down in a fixed speed, followed one by another. The effect of this combination of new rules is quite pleasant to look at. I also explored what different effects that I can make, like trying clicking and holding in different rhythms. The game actually enables the player to use their creativity to produce all kinds of different graphics, and supports them with interesting motion effects.

In this game, there were multiple types of new rules added to the Sokoban game. First is the blue ground that toggles to green once the player step on it, and they must all turn green to win the game. The second rule is the coins that the player must collect to win the game. The designer added these two rules into the basic Sokoban rules so that the player must consider other mechanics while solving the crate puzzles. The new rules increased the potential of the game to make more difficult puzzles. 

I'll describe my experience playing the last level of the game as an example for further comments. This last level has a scene of the princess Peach locked inside the walls and requires Mario to rescue. The level at first seems easy because it doesn't have that many tiles. However, after a few moves, I found that I went into a dead end. I tried to push the box on the right out, but it will just stuck the box on the left. Then I found out that if I push the box on the left up one tile, I can go around and free the right box. After I found this strategy, I made a few more tries and beat the level. The design of this level is able to let the player make some wrong choices and stuck at the beginning, but isn't to difficult to make the experience frustrated. However, the new rules outside of Sokoban rules are weakly incorporated in this level. The floors that toggles from blue to green can be also toggled when the player is walking against the wall. So I don't really have to consider this new mechanic to solve the puzzle.

In this game, there are some interesting interactions between rules. There are fire and water tiles in the game, and the player have to push the minion to the goal to win. The player will die when he ran into fire, but the player can pass water and turn them into safe ice tiles. The minion can step through and cease the fire, but it will drawn in water. In addition to those basic rules, the fire ashes and the iced water can be pushed. An interesting combination of those rules is when you push an iced water into fire, they will disappear together, and same thing happens when you do this reversely. This is a successful combination of rules, and this interaction can provoke a sense of satisfaction of the player, because it is intuitive that water and fire consume each other. It follows the physic rules in the real world, so the player will understand it quickly. Besides, when the hot and cold stuff mixed together, it will produce a scene that is satisfactory to watch, there are many videos on YouTube that features this. It would be a good thing if the designer can add some sound effect when this combination happens. The interaction between those water, fire and minion rules can also increase the difficulty of the puzzle, so these rules have the potential to make up harder puzzles. In the final stage of the game, there are many cases that the player can use this combination to cancel out the annoying water and fire tiles, but it becomes a bit weird because it is hard for the player to control where the fire and water tiles are pushed, and it's a bit confusing.

The tiles in this game is composed to illustrate the world from the view of a cat. The designer had gave most attention to the major tiles that represent big objects. This might be because that cats have a bad eyesight, so they can only pay attention to the big items in the room, like the table and chairs in the living room or desks and beds in the bedroom. Objects that are given even more attention to are the objects that have a close relationship to the cat in the game, like the water bowl, the fridge, food, or its own bed. Although they should be items, most of those tiles are made as sprites for them to be able to trigger the dialogues for multiple times in the game. Sometimes the designer will use multiple tiles to build one image, like the big table in the living room, or the big bed in the bedroom. The tiles that caught less attention is the tiles that construct the rooms. They're just simple walls and stairs that cat won't pay much attention to. 

The grass tile is particular in this game, it's also the only animated tile in the game. The animation gives an impression of wind blowing over the lawn outside of the house. This is the part where the designer fighting with bitsy, when a room full of single grass tile can produce an impression more than that. As a cat that loves to be out door, the lawn seems much bigger than the crowded inner part of the house, like it could stretch for ever.

This hiking game that the designer created focused on the experience of the preparations for hiking. The main stage of the game is at home, so the organization of those rooms became an important aspect. The game has two-way exits between the rooms and corridor, so that will make the game less linear and more open-formatted. The player can explore a room, go out, come back later and finish the exploration. To put multiple two-way exit in one corridor, the exits were located in the center of the doors, which did cause a bit trouble with going back in the exits again for multiple times. This kind of structure of the maps helps create a realistic view of a house, which has multiple rooms by the corridor, and a big living room at the end.

These transitions between rooms is within the house, so their are no big movements across space. The big movement comes in the final scene when the player gets out of the house and actually went hiking. The space suddenly went from inside the house to the view of the mountain. The real hiking part was rather simple, but that made the preparations part in the house more special. The designer has added many choices in the game to make this process more lively. For example, the player can go back to bed, and "sleep five more minutes", while restarting the game. There are also choices for the places you are going to hike, which is an item to take which will technically change the destination of the final scene.