After finishing my 30 comparison reviews and refining the criteria adding things from a variety of theorists I thought I should compare the game I’m making to the same criteria and think about how I should deal with each aspect.
Name: Cancelled?
Type: AGON & MIMICRY
Platform: PS4, PS3, PS Vita & PC
Quick Breakdown:
This game falls under AGON because you will be ranked at the end of every stage, these ranks will go all the way from SSS (the best) to T (for terrible). You’re ranking will be based off damage taken, number of continues used, time taken to complete each stage and enemies killed. The rankings will be entered into a leader board automatically which can be compared amongst your friends on your private leader board and across the world on the open leader board.
This game falls under MIMICRY because you are taking on the role of Shin Haroki in his quest to make his manga No. 1.
Forms of play:
LUDUS – This game has clear preset rules and goals.
What needs does the game fulfill:
Competence – There will be a variety of stages with multiple parts allowing for a sense of progression You would not get the same sense of progression if each Level was not made of several smaller stages as one long level would seems to go on forever and feel more like an endurance match.
Autonomy – I would like to have a dialog tree for each of the main characters interactions. The player will then choose from different dialog options and have them lead to different conversations and items. I would also like to have multiple endings that will add replay value as well as a larger feel of control.
What player type(s) does this game suit best:
Explorer because I would like to have multiple endings depending on the players choices throughout the game.
Achiever because of the rankings you would receive from each level which would unlock bonuses.
Examples of Punishment and reward within the game:
As the game goes on check points become more scarce making the player have to go further back till their skills are sufficient to complete the obstacle. Dieing will cause the player to return to the beginning of the stage or the closest checkpoint if a player dies while they have no lives left its game over and you have to load the game. You will also loose points in the rankings at the end of each stage for using continues and taking damage. Rewards will take the form of power ups and new skills gained from beating bosses or reaching a specific milestone as well as higher rankings at the ends of stages for performing well and not taking damage.
How does it deal with the Hedonic Treadmill:
I would hope that the competitiveness between friends would motivate people to play stages again. This is why I plan to include a private leader board which only compares you to people on your friends list, which means that you can see which of your friends scores are higher than yours and then you can try and beat them. The inclusion of multiple endings and branching dialog trees will help keep the story mode from feeling to much the same. The inclusion of other playable characters after you complete the game would also increase the games life span. Trophies and achievements will keep people who play that meta game playing until they have unlocked everything adding extra incentive to casual players to pick the game back up as well.
Final Thoughts:
Doing this review made me think of things that I was overlooking like what platform I would like to put my game on and what type of player was I aiming to attract. I chose only Sony consoles because of the cross play feature they provide allowing you to continue your save no matter which of their systems you are playing on. I also chose PC because of the promotion you get from being sold on a store like Steam, new launches on steam are mostly featured on the from page and it is one of the most used digital stores in the world so that is a big deal to be seen on the front page of a store that gets a huge amount of traffic.
Braking things down like this really helped me see how my game would fulfil each element and writing it down in this format made it more clear to me. This is something I will definitely keep in mind and review future game ideas in the same way to make sure it will fulfil its full potential.