Duet

A few weeks ago I downloaded a very elegant game in my mobile phone: Duet. The game is a minimal and hypnotic experience created with a simple interface and high level of involvement. It is an invitation to “expand the limits of your radial awareness”.



The game comes from an Australian publisher named Kumobius and the composer Tim Shiel signs the awesome soundtrack. The idea is very simple: you press the right side of the screen, two small balls spin to the right; you press the left side of the screen, they spin to the left. With these two simple movements you must dodge elements that fall from above. Check the gameplay below to understand the main idea:


The game has a complex learning curve with a real challenge in the high levels. This kind of experience tells us about how a casual game could be a challenge even for hardcore players. And, in this scenario, we can see how rich the field for good ideas to mobile media is.

Another point to highlight on Duet is the simplicity of the interface. With few elements, the game conveys an engaging idea and a perfect ballet between aesthetics and gameplay. About that, it’s possible to say that “Gameplay must take place somewhere, and so the design and creation of digital environments is a critical factor in developing outstanding games. (…) Designing game spaces comes in two distinct parts – the first is the look and feel of the game environment, and the second is the design and challenge of the playing space” (THOMPSON; BERBANK-GREEN; CUSWORTH: 2007: p.98).

Let’s discuss more and more about this emerging category of the gaming industry.

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Reference:

THOMPSON, Jim; BERBANK-GREEN, Barnaby; CUSWORTH, Nic. Game Design: principles, practice, and tecniques - the ultimate guide for the aspiring game designer. New Jersey: Wiley, 2007

Immersion, image & games

Last week we had the announcement of the new Microsoft's console, Xbox One. Few weeks ago we saw the presentation of the Playstation 4 and Nintendo launched the Wii U in the beginning of the year. The new generation of video games is here and gamers are curious about the enormous possibilities of this new communicational ecosystem. Undoubtedly, the graphics are one important piece to analyze in this process.

What I want to highlight in this discussion is the evolution of graphics on video games, since the first electronic games until today. We had a great leap from the first textual games (like Zork) to the modern first person shooters (like Call of Dutty).

Graphics on video games are important pieces to a player’s immersion. And I’m not talking about realistic graphics only, because all we know that an abstract game like Tetris could create a strong immersion in the players. A textual game could be immersive too, but it seems that images can be more determinant in this complex act.



As Aarseth remembers (1997, p.102) “images, specially moving images, are more powerful representations of spatial relations than texts, and therefore this migration from text to graphics is natural and inevitable”.

I think it’s possible to say that the main object of the graphics on a game is to be a kind of “bridge” or “portal” to the immersion. A kind of facilitator/translator to the player to get totally inside the game interface.

As Nitsche says (2008, p.44) “evocative narrative elements encourage players to project meaning onto events, objects, and spaces in game worlds. They help to infuse significance. Their value is not realized on the level of the element itself but in the way players read and connect them. Creating these connections, players can form narratives that refer to the game world. If this meaning assignment becomes very strong, the virtual items themselves can leave the rule-based space, fictional space, social space, and even the play space”.

In a world full of possibilities of connections and full of screens all around it’s important to study ways to create better immersion process to our players.

Now on to your opinion.

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References:

AARSETH, Espen. Cibertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Maryland, 1997.

NITSCHE, Michael. VIDEO GAME SPACES: image, play and structure in 3Dnworlds. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2008

Game interface

Here comes some good quotes from the book Game Interface Design. I believe they are essential ideas to assist the process of creating games. Let's check these points.



Even more important than the visual aspect of interface design is the funcionality. A poor interface can ruin the entire video game experience. The game experience will be negative if the user is confused and can't figure out how to navigate the front-end menu or if he can't understand where to find information while playing the game. (page 2)

Interface planning helps game design. A detailed plan for a video game interface can really help drive game design. Fleshing out all of the details in the menus and the HUD (heads-up display) will force many game-lay decisions to be made early. (page 10)

Simplicity and organization should still be your design goal. The user will enjoy being able to look at a screen and instantly know what to do. Keep your design simple. (page 69)

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REFERENCE:

FOX, Brent. Game interface design. Boston: Thomson Course Technology, 2005.

More about ludic interfaces

By Vince

BORJOMI, a georgian mineral water, launched a few weeks ago an awesome site with a great ludic interface. The creative team of the site found a very clever way to talk about the main feature of the product.



The mineral water has a curious differential: its source lays under 8 kilometers from the surface, so the water has a high level of purity.

There was a great challenge in this case and the solution for this advertising piece was not so obvious, but the creative team had a great idea: to create the deepest site of the internet.

They created a site that allows the user to scroll the screen for (real) eight kilometers. Looks weird, but it is true and you can check this on the URL http://thedeepestsite.com/ and on the video below.



If you have patience to "dig" the screen to the end, you will find the mysterious and pure source of water BORJOMI. As a prize you can write your name in a kind of hall of fame and tell the fact in your Facebook timeline to your friends.

An important feature of the site: anytime you want, it's possible to save your progress by using your Facebook login and password.

The BORJOMI's site is an excellent example of ludic interface. It is not a game, but it uses characteristics of games as "save", "badges", "ranking" and "mechanics" to promote a brand. This case shows us that is possible to put ludicity in many differents aspects of advertising and marketing.

I want to bring more gaming advertising cases to the blog. Wait for news.

Szia!

Video game origins

By Vince

A long time ago, in the beggining of the 80's started a great video game revolution with the Atari system.

A lot of titles from this time became the first inspiration for modern genres.

It's possible to see the first insights for FPSs and RPGs in these primitive interfaces.

Let's check some curious examples:


Battle Zone X Battlefield 3


Dark Chambers X Diablo 3


Enduro X Forza


Pitfall X Limbo


Tennis X Virtua Tennis 3

It's possible to create a huge list. Send suggestions and enjoy!

Szia!