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In The Shuttle, the perspective of it being a recording was an interesting way to frame the scenario as a whole. As the story unfolded, narrative was a key component in setting the scene. The key players of the mission and the stakes were set up at the beginning. As it was determined that the mission was a go, you embarked. At this point, the player was offered several options that could determine the path of the story and the outcome. Player choice played a large role in this game, as a few different choices could determine the overall storyline. I enjoyed this element of the game, as I felt like my choices had a large impact and the different outcomes of the story based on these choices left me wanting to play it multiple times and choose different options to see what would come of it. The different options led to a variety of scenarios in which some, or all, of the three man crew you are a part of was either able to escape or be trapped within the shuttle. There was a high level of suspense throughout this game, with certain narrative points illustrating that this mission was different from a typical one, although you were prepared for a certain level of misfortune and disaster. This game definitely had a horror/sci-fi tone to it, which I thought was cool. I'd be curious to know about some of your influences for creating this game and exploring the narratives within it. Another interesting element of this game was the minimalism it engaged with in visual design. The dark starry background, along with the use of several shuttle images, created a sense of eeriness and added to the suspense. There was a lot of content portrayed in the game through paragraphs of text. These paragraphs of text slowed the player down and made them take in the information slowly, but did not reduce the overall suspense. Rather, the use of text in this game perhaps added to the suspenseful feeling of it. In all the scenarios, the end screen is a simple "End of recording." In some cases, you know that you had reached your demise and that ending feels satisfying in a certain way. In other cases, the "end of recording" screen leaves you wanting to know more and feeling curious. This abrupt ending caps off all of the different experiences you may have in this game nicely. Something that may have added an element of shock/suspense to your game would be sound effects, which might be something to play with and explore in future developments. Although, there was a certain eeriness to the silence and darkness of the game, which may have very well been an intentional design choice to create suspense. Overall, the story of this game and the multiple ways that it can unfold create an interesting and engaging sci-fi/horror experience. As previously mentioned, I also feel that someone could get a lot of enjoyment out of all the different possible avenues to explore within this game and could replay it many times exploring these different options. You made great use of player choice in this narrative based game. 

As the other comment mentions, I was also not sure what to expect within this game with the title of "Stars in the Daytime." Certainly, I was not expecting the police/senior center/gambling violent drama that ensued. The scene is set for the game with some basic background information about the role the player is stepping into-- a cop that has entered back into the force to help with a certain mission. Once this foundation is set, the player then moves forward in the mission and choices are offered that create different possible scenarios. The setting of a senior center and being told that the situation is not as simple as it seems creates an element of uncertainty and suspense within the game. Then, the player is offered their first choice. They can either be looking for trouble, fun, or Bob. My first choice was trouble. This immediate choice led me through several passages of narrative that eventually leaded to my demise. I was not offered choice within this narrative-- it simply led to my death with no chance of survival. However, this makes sense, as I did say I was looking for trouble. Well, with that being my first choice, I was prompted to restart and tempted to try again, this time saying I was looking for something/someone else. The second choice of looking for Bob also proved not to be fruitful or to lead to any narrative. This was an interesting choice to subvert player's expectations. If you choose Bob, you are simply told that Bob is not there-- plain and simple. Okay, so I guess the next available option is "fun." I restarted and tried this option out, which led to the most narrative development and player choices out of the three. The setting is then revealed to be an illegal gambling place, which contradicts the immediate setting of a senior center. This is an interesting subversion.  You can choose to play different moves in the game of Blackjack, and then the dramatic elements of the narrative come into play. A conflict scenario unfolds and the player is offered a variety of choices within this scenario. I think the high stakes of the scenario mimic the critical thinking that would need to come into play if this situation was playing out within real life. Many of the options led to death (like the other two), but killing the man with a spear leads to injury and ending up in an ambulance, but allows the player to reach the end of "chapter one." This definitely leads me wanting to know more about this situation, and it was also revealed that this game was inspired by a book, which is interesting and I would be curious to explore this more. The game, especially when the "looking for fun" option is chosen, utilizes a seemingly rapid pace. You are in a life threatening situation and you need to protect yourself and others, and are forced to make the decisions that will determine everyone's livelihood. However, the affordances of Twine and the game allow for the stakes to be lessened somewhat in knowing that you can choose to restart and try again if you make a decision that leads to death/failure. 

Stacking is a game that primarily makes use of a lot of uncertainty and randomness. At first, I wasn't even sure what the objective of the game was or how I was supposed to interact with it as a player. The score counter on the screen gave me the impression that I was supposed to receive points and aim for a high score. I was confused by the white circle on the top of the screen, and never really did figure out what the purpose of it was. Throughout this game, assorted colors of squares fall from the top of the screen. They fall from randomized places, which adds to the overall uncertainty of the game. I did not end up being able to score any points in the game or reach the top, which I believe was the objective. Honestly, this game was frustrating in that regard to me and felt very challenging. It felt like the game was working against my chances of success through its randomization and mechanics. As I figured that I was supposed to use the simple controls of moving left, right, and up to climb up the blocks and reach the top of the screen, I started trying that out. With the upward moving control, I was not sure exactly how to work it properly, but it seemed that I could phase through the blocks (in any amount) to reach the top of one or more blocks that had stacked. The blocks also stack in random ways. Sometimes, a block will simply stack on top of another. Sometimes a falling block will replace or overlap with an existing block. Sometimes a falling block pushes the blocks below it downwards, even sending some off the screen. As the blocks fell, it became apparent to me that I was supposed to avoid the ones that were falling. I did not want to be hit by a falling block, or get squished in between an existing block and the one that stacked on top of it. Because of this, it seemed that my two strategies were to move around on top of the stacks while trying to avoid falling ones or to sit at the bottom, hoping not to be squished into the ground, until I could phase to the top of multiple blocks in a stack. This game had a certain element to it of keeping me hooked and wanting to try to succeed/reach the top. As soon as I got hit by a block, the game instantly restarted-- I was transported to the bottom of the screen in my starting position and blocks began to fall. The visual design of this game is fairly simple, but it's interesting how a seemingly simple game can pose such a challenge for players. The frustration that this game created fueled my attempts to keep trying, as I wanted to score points, reach the top, hit the white circle, or just do anything that allow me to maybe progress in some way or "win" the game. While I ultimately wasn't able to achieve this, I felt challenged and intrigued by the uncertainty and randomness at play in this game. 

There are several challenging components within this game that push the player towards losing. The first is the speed and randomness of the falling apples. It does seem that certain player movement have been anticipated, as there will be an apple or multiple apples falling slowly, the player moves their basket to that point to catch the apple, and then need to move quickly as another apple comes falling down at a much quicker speed. Another element of this game that created an additional layer of challenge was the photo in the background, as the playing field had apples in the background which created little contrast between the falling apples. The game offered feedback, warning you as you neared closer to losing, by way of the apple counter at the bottom, which was a nice touch. It also offered feedback from the other perspective, in that you were awarded points for catching apples. There are not necessarily enemies in this game. You are only trying to collect positive things, rather than avoid negative things. Perhaps adding negative things falling from the sky, especially if there was another level for the player to move onto, would create even more challenge within this game. Another challenge, if this game incorporated some sort of level structure/moving onto a new level if you collect X numbers of apples, would be reducing the numbers of lives that the player starts with. Overall, this game did feel as it was working against the player to push them towards losing at certain points, but the "points" counter also incentivized the player to keep trying again at the game and trying to collect more apples with each round of play. 

The first challenge that was presented to me in this game was getting oriented to the controls of the paddles. I'm glad that the instructions were clearly written, otherwise it may have taken me a bit to figure them out. You need to coordinate the movements of the paddles, and the physical movements of your fingers on the both the keyboard and the mouse. The ball, or potato rather, was moving very quickly as soon as you got into the game. I scored very low in the first couple tries because I had to spend some time orienting myself to moving the paddles. Once I had that part figured out, the next challenge presented itself. It was not only the different controls of the two paddles, but the way in which they each moved, that presented a challenge. The right paddle simply moved where the mouse went, and you could stop it at a specific point if you stopped moving your mouse. But, the left paddle would continue to move up or down until it reached the edge of the window when you pressed the W or S key. As either of these challenges makes the player lose, the counter displayed in the window incentivizes the player to continue to reach a higher amount of bounces each time. It is simple to restart the game, so it's very easy to just continue trying to get more and more bounces. However, there's not necessarily a real downside to losing-- you simply have to try again. This game also keeps players in it and engaged for a long time (possibly as long as they're able to go?) because there are no "levels" or winning. 

Prompt 1

I was immediately able to get a feel for how the space might be set up from the start screen of this game. There was a little sign with an exclamation point, indicating to me that those may be things I want to stop and read throughout the game, and I found it interesting that in order to start the game, you had to walk into the start text. It was arranged similarly to a traditional platformer game with crevices that the player could fall into and platforms that the player had to jump between to stay alive. There were a variety of sprites throughout that you could collect as hop points, and signs that gave you hints throughout the game. However, I found the entrances and exits between levels to be very interesting in this game. At the end of the first level, I realized that rather than just walking to a side of the space or something like that, I had to use the rocket ship to travel between levels. However, I was surprised to find out on the 2nd level that the rocket ship in the lower left corner would make me start the game all over again. That was very interesting and unexpected to me. There is not necessarily anything that the player can collide within in this game. You cannot jump through platforms and you can fall in between the platforms, and you have to interact with the sprites to get their dialogue. I thought the little exclamation points were a good way to guide the player through the gameplay by giving them hints about where to stop and pay attention. 

Prompt 2:

In playing as Bucky trying to get to the capitol within this game, I feel like Bucky represents a hero character. What I wanted to focus on as far as expressive media was the role of the cow. The cow acts as a sort of guide or teacher throughout the process of trying to reach the capitol. Rather than explicitly stating the rules of each level for the player, the cow tells them to you. For instance, the cow tells you that you must destroy the cheese in order to pass the level. I think the cow plays an interesting role in this game as not only a character, but also an interactive component that reveals things about the gameplay itself. There is also the cheese, and they play the role of an antagonist or villain against the hero of Bucky trying to make it to the capitol. That is a way in which conflict is introduced, and a roadblock that adds an additional element of challenge to the game. The rules are fairly straightforward-- get to the capitol. But then there are additional layers of difficulty added in as you progress, in addition to simply having to not fall into the crevices and move effectively from platform to platform. I don't know necessarily of a "real world" situation that this all represents, but it does remind me of a traditional fairytale story in some ways where you have a main hero (Bucky), villians (cheese), and a guide/teacher figure (the cow). 

Prompt 5

For the most part, the clicking that took place within this game was on hyperlinked words or phrases within the story. There were also several spots in which I had a choice of what to click, such as deciding what room of the house to go into or if I wanted to go outside or go back inside at the end. Because of the fairly limited choice that was presented and the clicking that kept me within the designated storyline (for the most part), I felt like the clicking represented me as a somewhat passive person in this situation. This passivity was heightened by the dialogue, which seemed to be coming from another household member,  that indicated that I wasn't really talking back or doing much. This might imply that I was still not fully awake as the other person had woken me up from a nap. So, demonstrating a sense of passivity was one way that clicking functioned within this game. Clicking in this game feels more like following and looking at the other character make decisions and guide me through the dark home. I also thought that my click to choose to go outside at the end might reveal something more to me, but it left me off with "..." that left me curious about what they saw outside. This definitely left the game off with a sense of mystery. I wonder if my choices to go into a specific room of the house would have changed the outcome of this game as well. 

Prompt 4:

I played through this game and restarted multiple times in order to eventually reach "the truth." The more scenarios I decided to pursue (the casino, the grocery store, etc.) and then came to the conclusion that it was just an ordinary day, the more I found myself wanting to get to the bottom of it and find out the truth. I went through the first several scenarios feeling very uncertain about what the truth was, or how I would eventually find it. I thought that choosing to investigate things myself, such as going to the grocery store and talking to the clerk, would eventually lead me to the truth when it was really just a matter of continuing on my original path. So, I did feel like this game suggested those different paths as they were areas that crime was occurring, but they rejected those paths as holding the actual answer. Even then, when I did finally reach the truth, there is not a "clean" conclusion to the story and I still felt like I was seeking the truth to a certain extent. The repetition of the ordinary day passages at the end of most of the paths was interesting, as I found myself anticipating those passages as I tried different paths that didn't lead to the truth. I almost wanted to be able to pursue different paths and "change my mind" rather than just following the story to bed and then restarting. It felt somewhat repetitive in this way, but I suppose that aspect does mimic what an ordinary day might feel like. 

Prompt 3: Describe how you played with the game.

The abstract nature of this drawing tool and the controls made it feel as if I was playing, as I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I clicked on each one and couldn't get too attached to the outcome of what my painting really looked like. I was able to experiment with each of the brushes to see how the different color, size, and brush shape options all interacted. One way that I played with the tool in was trying to get the shape brushes to look like straight lines. The double brush could appear as a single line when it was set at the largest stroke, and the other two shape brushes could appear as a single line if you drew in a straight vertical line. I didn't really set any goals for myself in terms of creating a final product and I thought it was interesting that there was no reset button for the canvas, so once again, I really couldn't get too attached. What I ended up with was sort of a messy canvas with differently shaped, sized, and colored stokes all over it. An interesting way to play with this tool was also in trying to create words and more concrete images, and the shapes of the brush interfered with this in a certain way but made it more unique. I also thought that the third brush setting/shape was really interesting as it appeared to change between circles and longer lines as you drew in different ways, so that was something I else I played with. 

Prompt 1: Describe the game as if it were a physical object.

As the brush in this game seems to be limited to drawing circles, a physical object that it reminded me of was those paint blobbers, or perhaps one of those circle shaped sponges for painting. Additionally, the "grid coloring" setting atop the black background reminded me of those scratch off art projects, where you draw over a black sheet and different colors are revealed. In both of these ways, the game felt nostalgic to me and like a childhood craft. The way that the brush was created in this game creates kind of a "chunky" feeling where you wouldn't be creating any sort of smooth gradient or watercolor type paint. Given the setup of the grid, besides the use of the grid coloring setting, I feel like you could create some sort of mandala or symmetrical painting using this tool. A limitation this game presents is the fact that you aren't able to change the size or shape of the brush, but I think this mimics what it would be like to use one particular brush in a real life application. The clear canvas feature is another thing was was useful in this digital game setting, but perhaps may not have mimicked a real life application, unless the brush was using some sort of erasable paint. Overall, this painting tool, through the stylistic choices of somewhat pastel colors and circular shape, created an interesting visual appeal and allowed me to play around within the limitations of only drawing circles. 

Prompt 2:

The interaction between the yellow sprite that gets added in the third level and the blue main sprite that is being used to reach the goals in the game is interesting. At first, I struggled to figure out the function of the yellow sprite and how it could be used to help me through the levels. When I got to level 4, I had to do a bit of moving around to figure out how to move the yellow sprite to align with the blue to get through the wall. The need for them to align with one another, while they both move in different ways, was at first a bit confusing, but then became an interesting aspect of the game. Then, beyond the yellow sprite's function in helping you go through walls, it was also interesting to me that it got in the way when I tried to move. As a result, I was forced to experiment with moving that yellow sprite out of the way on its own, so that I could advance. I do feel that maybe it could've been used even further as I felt like once it was out of the way, it didn't really affect my gameplay much. A couple other interactions that I found interesting were 1. The ability to stand above the pickaxe to eliminate the sand block below it and 2. the ability of the pickaxe to remove the target. The second interaction created a scenario where I needed to restart the level. The pink sprite and the separate ways in which that interacted with the blue one was also an interesting interaction and aspect of your game.

Prompt 4, Level 1:

I wanted to write about level 1 because honestly, it took me a very long time to beat this level. At first, I just tried moving around a bit to see what happened. Right away, it was interesting to me that the block and the two balls moved around simultaneously in different ways. Then, I noticed the balls turned green so I thought that might be my clue for starting to solve this level. As I continued to move around, I thought that some ways to solve it might be 1) both balls turning green 2) both balls landing in the black rectangle 3) the balls ending up on either size of the box 4) the box ending up in the black rectangle, or some combination of these things. I also looked to the title of "boxing" to try to get an idea of what that might mean in relation to the game. At one point, I did restart completely to see if there was something I may have missed. I continued trying the various solutions I thought might have worked, and couldn't get to any sort of advancement for a while. I probably spent 20 minutes just moving around in different ways to see what I could do. Finally, I got both balls to be green and inside the rectangle and passed the level. I think that the balls changing colors was an effective way of indicating a solution, although it wasn't immediately clear to me how it worked. I also think that the balls both moving around at once created an interesting scenario for solving this, which I would compare to something like a Rubix Cube. 

The text throughout the game was one of the key elements that stood out to me. The initial blurb seems to come from a non-defined narrator and provides a bit of a hint at what to expect and conveys the notion of enjoying the view along the way, but still left me curious about what was to come. In the first room, there were instances of descriptive text (finding barrels of gasoline) and dialogue from the robot. The dialogue from the robot played an important role in guiding me through the game, as it indicated my objective of finding the princess and also provided hints about the hidden walls along the way. The way that you used rainbow text to emphasize certain keywords really caught my attention and made me more interested in looking for/at those specific things. In the second room, the butterflies and cake seemed to utilize an internal voice, as if the player (I) was describing those things and revealing my thoughts as I saw them. The princess' dialogue also utilized different effects (rainbow text and an animation) to convey important points, such as this place being beautiful and where to exit the room. As I moved throughout the desert/beach and forest scenes, the text was mainly focused on revealing thoughts, specifically about the nature and beauty of the setting, which also assisted in revealing the overall message of the game. When you return to the princess, her dialogue ultimately reveals the message of the game which is to appreciate the beauty around you. You continue to use text effects to emphasize this which is effective and adds to the "beauty" of it. 

The spaces and rooms in this game were clearly defined and worked with elements of both time and space. The decision to start the game with the indication of "Day 1" made it clear to me that I might progress through multiple days as the game progressed. As a player, I first went to the object on the right, and upon finding out that I needed to keep looking for the treasure, I went to the left and found the little house with the door. The door very clearly indicated that it led to something/that it was an exit, so that was my natural next step. As I did, I was taken to day 2 and day 3. This was a way of moving the player (me) through time. Within each day, there was also an element of moving in space and I knew to walk towards the right to explore as the first day primed me to do so. The "sea floor" space element of each level/day didn't necessarily seem to be a small or notably vast space. It may have conveyed a sense of "still digging" if the space was a bit larger, but it may have also been frustrating as a player so the space of each level seemed reasonable to me. The whole game and the rooms were conveyed in a fairly linear format with moving from day to day and then searching for treasure on each level. It was also pretty clear to me that the object on the right was what would instruct me, and then the space on the left near the door was where treasure (or trash) might be located.