GAME DESIGN TIPS FOR ANY VIDEO GAME
A computer game is essentially a game, controlled by a computer device, where players get an opportunity to interact with various objects displayed on a screen for purposes of entertainment. A Video game is basically the same type of entertainment but does not only refers to games that are played on a personal computer, but also to others run by arcade machines and consoles. A video game is a responsive and interactive digital entertainment that you can play through a game console like PlayStation, or the Xbox, or via a computer. You can also play them on a tablet or a phone.
Video games are basically sports that take place in a computer gadget. They may involve interactive movies or television shows. At times they can be digital card games and board games. They are daily life simulation, which at times may include whichever career you do for a living. Other video games are results of artistic expressions.
Video game design can be defined as planning, designing, and creating video games. The whole process of creating a video game is a collaborative effort of video game designers and other team members who work hand in hand to come up with quality video game consoles and video games for computers. This is one of the few challenging and specialized careers.
Most of the quality video games in the market have not been created over-night, or even for a few weeks, as most people tend to believe. Some of these video games have taken a couple of years to prepare.
Most of the video game designers are very artistic in their line of duty, but that does not bar them from obtaining other basic computer programming skills that can be helpful in certain parts of the game. The game is usually tested once its first copy has been created. This helps in checking if there are any bugs or problem within the game. Creation of video games is one big process that is subdivided into various parts. Creating a complicated video game, for instance, involves a lot of activities. There is a team that is responsible for coming up with the story behind the whole game, while another team is focused on creating animation and characters. There is another crew that is tasked with coming up with the layout and settings of the game. Another integral component of a video game that should not be forgotten is sound. There is another team of designers that mainly focuses on creating music character voices, and other sound effects in a video game.
There are various genres of video games, and they are not necessarily defined by the game's average play or the real play. Instead, they are determined by a common challenge.
These genres may at times contain a broad array of games, which brings other classified small groups called sub-genres. An action game, for instance, may be subdivided into various sub-genres. These genres may include fighting games and platform games. Apart from action games, others, notably mobile and browser games are mostly classified into numerous genres. The following are some of the common video game genres that are available in the market.
Shooter games, platform games, fighting games and beat 'em ups, survival horror, sports games, stealth games, visual novels, and virtual reality games.
Quick Design Tips On How To Make A Fighting Game/Beat Em and Other Genres
Generally, there are various quick tips on how you will design a fighting game and other games and they include:
- You will start by designing several basic set rules such as the roles by which the characters are destined to do and the controls used by the characters.
- List the details of how the characters will be moving.
- Create animations based on the storyboard.
- Install various input based on the damage that the character is expected to destroy or damage.
- Set up the model which should be simple and it should also include the animations that you had created and correct any mistakes to do with any set up.
- Start the game and begin to earn.
The above tips apply to any fighting game and should be followed strictly and consistently to bring out the best.
DESIGNING TIPS FOR VARIOUS VIDEO GAMES
SHOOTER GAMES
Shooter games are one of the standard genres of computer games that are available in the video game market. The duty of a game designer in this type of a game is to decide which direction a game is supposed to take. Apart from that, they need to create the settings and design the tools that will allow the players to play the game.
In this genre of games commonly referred as shooters, players' takes part in the action using ranged weapons. The action occurs at a distance. Violence has been an element of most shooter game videos, where deadly weaponry is used to destroy the opponents.
A favorite shooter game like Splaton however, does not involve any violent objective.
Subcategories As Per Game's Perspective
Shooters have various aspects of the play, and can also be considering that. The first classification as per the point of view of the game is the first person's shooters, which are mainly played from the perspective of the lead character. Most of them contain a heads-up display that showcases relevant information like the current state of the protagonist's health.
The other subcategory is known as third person shooters; and here the body of the actor is fully displayed, while the surrounding is shown from a glance. Certain groups of shooters that use all the two subgenres in one video game. Some shooters are either multiplayer third or first person shooters, and they are known as Hero shooters. Hero shooters inspire cooperative game play carried out between players on the same team. This is made possible by using a premade hero characters. Each hero character brings unique and valuable skills, attributes, weapons as well as other available activated roles. When making up a match, players within the same team should basically choose a hero that has not been selected by other teammates. The player will gain more experience in unlocking their heroes' strong abilities as the game continues. However, the capacity to personalize the heroes' appearances is still given to players, but outside the match and with no any other in-game effects.
Examples of popular hero shooters games include Paladins, Battleborn, Champions Of The Realm, and Overwatch.
Other types of shooters are mainly controlled by gun-shaped controllers and are known us light gun shooters. The technology used here is where light guns operate through light sensors, leading to the name "light gun." There other players that are typically shooting from an automobile and against a huge mass of opponents; they are referred to as shoot 'em ups pit players. In this subgenre of shooter games, the player must avoid all the attacks and obstacles from the opponent while also attacking at the same time. Instead of influence the protagonist actions, players in this type of game control the actions of the car.
A huge percentage of video game sales are occupied by first person shooters. Their popularity began to rise as early as 1992.
One of the original successful shooter game was the 1992 Wolfenstein 3D. It was the first game to introduce graphics and gameplay features integrated by many other shooters.
Wolfenstein 3D was created by Id Software who are known for creating other famous games like Doom.
PLATFORM GAMES
Platform games are commonly known as platformers and are primarily designed in a 3D (three-dimensional) or a vertical environment setting. In this genre of games, players offer guidance to various characters and role players in different scenarios, while at the same time jumping onto multiple platforms and fighting enemies so that they can improve and advance.
One of the famous platform games was known as Donkey Kong. This is a game that successfully blended in elements from various games like character abilities and leveling that can only be found in role-playing games, all while creating an addictive game.
During its era, it was classified by American gaming press as a climbing game. There are also other successful games that fall into this category. A good example is the Super Mario Bros that close over forty million copies. When platform consoles adopted the use of 3D graphics, the first game that was released was Jumping Flash, which was also very successful.
Space Panic released in 1980, however, was the first real platform game to be ever released. It came a year earlier than the Nintendo's Donkey Kong.
Subcategories Of Platformers
There are two subcategories of platformers that include single-screen platformers and side and vertical scrolling platformers.
Single-Screen Platformers
Just as the name suggests, this subcategory of platform games is usually played on a single game screen. They include various obstacles that the player must strive hard to avoid as well as objectives and goals they must complete within the allocated time.
Donkey Kong, a favorite video game falls in this subcategory. It presents a scene where the main characters, Mario moves up and down steel platforms dodging and even jumping the barrels that are thrown down at him. The player goes through all the objectives of the single screen before they move to the next different screen or may even choose to stay at the same screen. In both scenarios, goals, and objectives of the next screen must practically become very challenging.
Other famous games that fall in this category are Miner 2049er, and Elevator Action.
Side And Vertical Scrolling Platformers
The central identification of the side and vertical scrolling platformers is their scrolling game screen that they have. As the player moves towards on of the game screen edges, the background also moves with them. This is also another noticeable identification.
A variety of scrolling platform games can also be characterized based on their multiple levels. In this type of games, players move across the screens as they collect items while fighting and defeating enemies as they complete different goals until the completion of the level. Once they have completed one level, they get a chance to move to the next stage, which must be more complicated and arduous.
Some of this platform games have every level end with a fight involving one of the play's 'bosses.' And the player must fight and defeat these bosses before moving to the next level and screen.
Classic games such as Super Mario Bros, Sonic The Hedgehog, Castlevania, and Pitfall!.
Making Of A Platformer
Designing a platformer is not as complicated as the game may look. In the real world, nobody would want to jump off a cliff without having to identify a safe landing spot carefully; the same should be considered when designing the game. You should also ensure that the game is kept just simple while ensuring that all levels can be quickly completed.
Most platform games have a strategic energy placement, where enemies are placed in locations that clearly matches the design of the level. The enemies are used in smart ways that always gives the players puzzles to solve. Designers, however, are advised not to be so arbitrary when designing this type of games. Placing coins, power-ups or doors in absolute positions can only frustrate the player.
The Decline and Revival of Platformers
Since the late 1990's, the popularity of platform games went down considerably. This is since graphics continued to become more advanced making a video to become complex and complicated generally. In their peak, they constituted almost fifteen percent of the market. Around the year 2002, they had only 2 percent of the market share.
Recent years has witnessed a resurgence in the popularity of this once-famous video game genre. This can be partly credited to the introduction of mobile phone app stores, which are virtually filled with very many types of platform games. They have also managed to introduce a new breed of game players to the genre through the release of new original games and older games.
FIGHTING GAMES AND BEAT 'EM UPS
Beat 'em ups are also known as brawlers and are a genre of action games that involves a melee combat between some enemies and a protagonist.
There is a small distinction between fighting games and beat 'em ups, and that is the number of opponents. Beat 'em ups involves one on one fighting in very rare occasions. Another distinctive feature is the ability of the protagonist to move through a stage or level as opposed to being confined on a single screen.
In most cases, fighting games incorporate a short eye combat against many opponents, which mostly involves exaggerated and violent attacks directed at the opponents. The presence of melee and ranged weapons in any fighting game, always highlight hand-to-hand combat.
In many of the beat em ups, the protagonist has the freedom to move on the screen (a horizontal plane movement). These are the type of beat 'em ups that are referred to as 3D beat 'em ups.
Fighting games also involve profoundly strong attacks that are based on different systems of martial arts.
Fighting games have been in the video game industry from the early 1990's. However, in the late 1990's, the industry witnessed a major decline. Fighting games that were released after the year 1990 did not enjoy the popularity that others released earlier experienced.
Beat 'em ups also experienced a sudden decline in the same period fighting games were facing popularity decline. Three-dimension beat 'em ups have, however, maintained their game.
Examples of popular beat 'em ups include Rock Zombie, Kick-Ass 2, Disney Gravity Falls: Rumble's Revenge, and Brawlin' Sailor. Typical examples of fighting games are River City Ransom, Cybog Justice, and Super Double Dragon.
SURVIVAL HORROR
This is a subgenre of video games that acquired their primary inspiration from horror fiction. The game is all about trying to scare the players by using scary ambiance or horror graphics but at the same time ensuring that the survival of the character is considered.
Apart from applying combat as part of the gameplay, the player is always made to feel like they are not controlling much, compared to practical action games. Providing limited ammunition, speed, health and even vision does this. They are given less control by using different obstructions each time the player tries to interact with the mechanics of the game. To unlock the path to new areas in the survival horror games, players are challenged to look for items that will enable them to open those areas. To move on to the next game, the players also must solve certain puzzles that are presented in the game.
Survival horror games are full of strong horror themes that include expected enemies' attack and dark maze-like surroundings. The other theme that is present in the entire game is the subject of isolation. Survival horror games have very few non-player characters, and therefore mostly tell their plight using other second-hand means like audio logs, texts, or journals.
The central design of a survival horror game is where a player cannot wholly prepare their avatar. The primary option here is to portray the combat in an unattractive image, and this is achieved through encountering various factors such as invulnerable enemies or the limited number of ammunition and weapons. In this genre of video game, players are more vulnerable if compared to action games. There is also an element of a very hostile environment that brings out a narrative where odds are conclusively measured against the avatar.
Another area that the survival horror genre has been known for is the non-combat challenges that include solving puzzles at various points in the game world. The levels are created with different designs to offer suspense and some challenge to the player.
The storyline of survival horror games mostly includes the confrontation and investigation of horrific powers. This is the reason why most games transform standard features to gameplay challenges from common elements. They usually feature a particular type of monsters that possess unique and strange behavior patterns. The time an enemy can appear is generally not known, and the game levels are mostly created with certain scripted sequences. The enemies can drop all the way from floors or even crash as they go through windows. The survival horror games are mostly rooted around the boss encounter; where for a player to move to the next stage, they must face a daunting opponent.
Some of the typical examples of survival horror games include, the 2005-released F.E.A.R, Left 4 Dead, Fatal Frame IV, and the all-time favorite series of Resident Evil.
STEALTH GAME
A stealth game is a particular kind of video game that instructs its players to navigate surreptitiously through a surrounding that is occupied by an enemy. All these should be done while avoiding detection and maintaining discretion.
This game has other various options where some allow the player to select between a stealthy approach, or decide to attack the antagonist directly. It has incorporated the use of the different themes including rouge, counter-terrorism, and espionage, with a host of protagonists identified as assassins, ninjas, thieves, spies, and Special Forces operatives. In some games, the stealth features have been blended in with other genres like platformers or first-person shooters.
This type of game was mainly popularized by Metal Gear, a series of games released by Hideo Kojima in the year 1987, although there was some early games tin this genre that existed earlier. Games like Manbiki Shounen released in 1979, Lupin of 1980 and Infiltrator of 1986.
The game earned more popularity in 1998 when Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Thief: The Dark Project and Metal Gear Solid became more successful in the industry.
Stealth Games Gameplay
The element of the gameplay is hiding in the dark, and shadow and light have been used as a very integral part of the game design. The player is given the ability to disable individual sources of light. The audio design of the stealth game is also given some emphasis, whereby players must hear the subtle sound effects used to alert their enemies of their activities. As the player makes its way on various surfaces, they tend to produce different noises, for instance, a wood surface would not create the same noise like a metal surface. Players, therefore have to move carefully lest they attract the enemies by the sound they make.
The restriction of the AI (Artificial Knowledge) knowledge has been done to make the game ignorant to various sectors of the game world. This is the only way the game can bring out the features of the stealth play. The reactions of the enemy to the effects caused by the action of the player are taken into proper consideration by the Artificial Intelligence element available in stealth games. Some of these measures include turning off lights instead of just facing the enemy in a direct way. Enemies also have been created with a certain feature that enables them sense if a player has slightly touched them or moves with a fixed small distance.
Stealth games vary depending on the player's action that the Artificial Intelligence would detect and even react to. Lately, more games have been empowered to provide a broad array of the reaction of the enemy.
Since the movements of the AI are mostly regular and predictable, they give the player an opportunity of devising an unusual strategy of overcoming their adversaries. At times survival horror games overlap with stealth games, for instance when players are forced to hide and therefore avoid the supernatural enemies who may make an attempt of tracking down the player. A good example of a hybrid horror/stealth games includes the Penumbra video game series, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and the Outlast.
From the year 2002, the stealth game industry has witnessed significant developments and successes. With the progress and development observed in this genre, stealth games have been mashed up with other genres to bring out a unique and high quality. The latest incident was in the year 2012 when the game known as Dishonored attempted to include some features of stealth that came as a result of the stealth game, Thief. Factors like the importance of shadow and lightning were clearly brought out. Realism factor later caused the directors to drop that particular system and the game went to focus on another system.
Some of the known stealth games include Splinter Cell and Hitman series, Metal Gear Series, and Castle Wolfenstein.
LIFE SIMULATION
Simulation video games are mainly created to carefully simulate some features of a true or a fictional reality. There are various types of simulation, from construction and management to vehicle and life simulation.
Life simulation is also commonly referred to as artificial life games. In this genre of video games, a player is given power over one or more practical life forms. Life simulation game may be created on the theme of individuals and relationships, or it could just be a simulation of a particular ecosystem.
The main reason why these games have been released to the market is to shed some light on how to maintain and grow a population organism that can be easily managed. This is the reason why players are granted power to control and manage the general life of creatures or autonomous people.
They have been in the market from as early as the year 1985 when the first one known as Little Computer People was released. The game has seen so many improvements and is still improving and developing till now.
Life simulation games have further been subdivided into various categories. The categories include digital pests, biological simulations, social simulation, biological simulation and social simulations.
Digital Pests
This is one of the subgenres that exist in the entire genre of life simulation games. It mainly involves a process where players go through training, maintain and even watch a simulated animal. The pets that are used here, at times can be real animals simulations or just fantasy pets. Digital pet games provide the player with an opportunity to interact with one of the pets or even all at once. Genetic artificial life games on the other side mainly emphasize on a significant population of various organisms. When compared to artificial life games, the subgenre of digital pests in most cases do not either die or reproduce, even though there are instances where the pet is forced to flee away if ignored and has faced mistreatment.
Digital pets are designed to try out various behaviors and emotions that suggest to the player the best ways of influencing a pet. Besides that, they are every cute. The attention of the player must be sustained through a process of putting together normal known behaviors and those that are a bit rare. They have, however, been termed as software toys due to the fact that they lack the victory condition or challenge. Examples of games in this subcategory include Nintendogs, which has been implemented for the Nintendo DS, and the Neopets.
Biological simulations
They are commonly referred to as genetic artificial life games. It is a scenario where artificial life games give the players certain powers and dominion over a population of organisms in several generations and attempt to fulfill the populations' goals on their behalf. The players are also given a chance to crossbreed creatures that come with a set of descriptors and genes to clearly define the features of that particular creature. Due to the presence of other environmental and random aspects, some games create mutations, which is beneficial to the entire population as recreation goes on. But, they have a very short lifespan, whereby some survive for just half an hour to about seven hours.
There is another category of biological simulation games that tends to simulate the life of a particular animal, which the player assumes its role.
Some of the best-known biological simulation games include Bird Week, Evolution: The Game Of Intelligent Life, and EVO: Search for Eden.
Social Simulation
These games seek to inquire into the social interactions that exist between various artificial organisms. One of the best-known social simulations is The Sims, which got its inspiration from the Little Computer People game that was released in the year 1985. Another good example ids the Nintendo's Animal Crossing which falls in the category of virtual dollhouse games. Others are the Activism's Alter Ego, which was released in 1986, and The Story of Seasons series.
VISUAL NOVEL
A visual novel can be best described as a mixture of a novel and a computer game. Visual novels are basically computer games, which has small player's interaction but has a storyline that based on an extensive text.
A good example of a visual novel comes wit a text over a nice anime-style background picture or image, coming together with background music. Some few questions are presented in the course of the game, which the player must engage in since they have some impact on the outcome of the story. This is the fact why playing a visual novel for a second time while at the same time providing other answers may lead to a whole new plot. Kinetic novels and sound novels can be classified as types of visual novels, but visual novels have a clear distinction among others that exist. As the Japanese make it clear, a distinction is always created between visual novels, often shortened as NVL, from the word visual NoVeL. They mainly consist of narration and come with less interactive features as well as adventure games.
Visual novels generally have a minimal gameplay, and this is what sets them aside from other breeds of games. Most of the player's interaction is reduced to clicking to retain the text, sound moving and graphics, while at the same time making various narrative choices. Latest developments have seen the introduction of fast-forwarding or pale toggles, and these only makes the sound moving unnecessarily.
A variety of visual novels is presented with various storylines and endings that usually exceed one. The gameplay style can be likened to an interaction fiction that is based on a particular story, or even the real-world gamebook books, whether detailed or short.
Visual novels do not have just to confine themselves on just the interactive fiction part, but can also introduce a variety of features and elements to them. A case where a player must play some musical instrument to enable them to get good scores for advancing to the next level is a good visual novel that has incorporated other features other than the interactive fiction traits. Symphonic Rain game falls entirely in that category.
A good number of visual novels use voice actors to produce voices for various characters and role players in the game. But despite all other characters being fully voiced, there is one that is usually left unvoiced, and that is the protagonist. This is a step aimed at helping the player to identify the protagonist easily.
There are various types of visual novels. A good example is branching narratives and RPG hybrids.
Branching Narratives
A common trend for visual novels that regularly applies various branching storylines to come up with various endings is the non-linear branching storyline. Along the way, a non-linear freedom of choice is always granted.
The simple structure of a branching narrative involves a branching structure. In the beginning, you are offered a variety of options, which later takes to other new sources, and this can continue forever without ceasing. A fold-back structure is always created where players are given options, though all these branches just lead to one place. It's only in branching narratives where the behavior of the player can materially impact the conclusion of the story. This is because they are a real interactive and unconstrained series of drama. The user is given consequential choices instead of just continuing the storyline in a single manner.
Every decision that the player makes in a branching narrative comes with its unique set of consequences. This component reflects real life, where each and every choice people commit triggers an avalanche of different outcomes. It resembles a real life scenario where future options are influenced by the choices that people make.
The only differences that exist between a computer games branching narrative a true-life chaos are a predetermination, flexibility, and richness. In real life, there has been no firm conviction of outcome or even full control over different boundaries; it is naturally unpredictable. Just like in the branching narrative computer games, every outcome and decision are not fully predefined. Therefore the narratives cannot be wholly free given the constraints of the production. The narratives are drawn back by producers to shared nodes, which appear as the outcomes of potential unrelated decisions and therefore gives a means of reducing the range of other outcomes.
A good example of a branching narrative is Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward and Fate/stay night. Other visual novels have non-branching plots, and they include Muv-Luv Alternative, Planetarian: The Reverie Of A Little Planet, and the Higurashi When They Cry.
RPG
RPG hybrids are special role-playing video games that involve some characteristics of visual novel-style elements. Typical examples include Lost Odyssey and the Sakura War series produced by Sega. Sakura Wars did so well that it led to a whole series of games that have incorporated both visual novel and role-playing elements. Some of the games that came as a result of the Sakura Wars successes included Luminous Arc, Riviera: The Promised Land, and Thousands Arms.
Visual novels have had an evolution of a style that is so distinct from the print novels. Generally, this type of games is mostly narrated mostly from the narrative of a first person than the third. The events that are recounted are mainly from one character's point of view.
The graphics that are presented in a visual novel consist of a set of generic backgrounds, with some character sprites. The protagonist is not easily seen in this type of video games; they usually remain unseen. Exceptional computer graphics may be showcased at various critical moments and scenes in the game's plot. You can find these Computer Graphics within the game and unlock them so that you can be able to view them anytime. The main reason why this feature is created is to provide motivation to play the game again and even attempt to make sure useful decisions.
The content of most types of this video game genre is focused on drama, portrayed with themes that include family and romance. However, other visual novels are mainly based on horror fiction, fantasy fiction, and science fiction, though this subgenre is not very familiar.
They also involve some erotic contents. An H-game or eroge is virtually any Japanese game that consists of sexual content. A good number of visual novels are eroge, while most eroge are visual novels. This, however, should not be considered as a rule. A dating simulator can be likened to a visual novel even though if it's meaning is a bit vague. The difference is that a dating simulator mostly uses a gameplay that is fully based on statistics.
Most dating Sims and eroge may not fall under the category of visual novels, but they have various features of visual novels. There is also a subgenre that is derived from this existing genre and is known as nukige, where the primary focus is the sexual gratification of the featured player.
Some examples in this category include Night Life, developed by Koei and released in 1982, Lamp of Sugar and Gaku Ou: The Royal Seven Stars.
Science fictions are also another subcategory of Visual novels. Most games in this category include so many innovations that even involve the animation use instead of still images. A good example is the NES console's Suisho no Dragon, released by Square in 1986.
Nakige, meaning a crying game is also another favorite subgenre of visual novels. Ustuge is another one that refers to a depressing game. Nakige usually portrays a happy ending while making the player to have a feel of the characters and cause them to cry due to the emotional situations that have a huge influence on the player once the game is over. A good example in this category is Clannad and Kanon.
Visual novels also have horror-themed games that were mainly influenced by the introduction of Nakige, the crying game. Some of the popular games in this subdivision are Corpse Party, Higanbana no Saku Yoru Ni, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, and Saya no Uta.
The last category of visual novels is the fan-made/self-published works known as Dojinshi games. At times they are called Dojin soft and are mostly based on romance that is between two characters in the play. They may at times become sexual.
RACING GAMES
Racing video games is a unique kind of video games where players take part in a racing competition using any variety of air, land, or even sea motor vehicles? They are mostly set in either first person or third person perspective. This genre of video games may be designed based on various things including a whole fantastical design or real-life racing competitions.
Racing games can also be spread along a scope anywhere between accessible racing arcades to complex hardcore simulations. They can also be categorized as sports games.
Racing games are video game staples, which have stayed famous, and popular from the time they were introduced to the market. This video game mainstay has evolved over the years from humble beginnings to the current ones that has incorporated much use of photo-realistic images.
The first racing game was released by Atari in the year 1974, and it was known as the Gran Trak 10. This game was one of its kind; a beautiful elementary, coin controlled arcade game, which offered the player an opportunity to drive around a track that is a bit bendy. The car was driven from a top-down perspective, and the player had to try hard and beat the clock. There was a steering wheel that the gamers used to control the black and white action. Other control gears that they could use were pedals, arcade cabinet, and gear stick. This game concept stayed in the market for some time before the next one was invented.
The year 1976 saw an introduction of a more advanced racing game that was released by the same people who brought the 1974 Gran Trak 10, Atari. This time they came with a pseudo-three-dimension racing game known as Night Driver. This game has gone the history books as one of the best first perspective racing games that have ever been released in the racing game industry. It featured a camera that was set behind the car while the player drives the car down a black pitch road, trying hard to avoid the barriers that are located on both the two sides of the road. With time, the track becomes a bit complicated, and the game begins to move in fast speed, making it hard for the player to avoid crashing.
The operated arcade game was mainly controlled using a gearstick, a pedal for acceleration and a wheel.
Contrary to what the game may make you believe, the on screen vehicle is not actually presented by the machine. Instead, there is a plastic insert that is carefully placed underneath the screen, and the player just moves their trucks around it. This activity, therefore, creates an illusion that the car that is not moving and is making a turn through every bend.
A glimpse of the future was offered to racing game lovers when towards the end of 1970's, the Vectorbeam game designers released Speed Freak. They wanted to try out something new, and also to provide a sneak peak to what was yet to come especially with its three-dimension graphics.
In the year 1997, coin operated racer had an initial first-person view and tasked players with avoiding several cars and even roadblocks, while making sure that they reach the finish line just in time.
The 1980's came with a major ramp in the technology, and it was in this era that the first golden age racing game was produced. The game developers started using two dimension images, and animations and games generally became very immersive. The gameplay also had some improvements and became even more attractive.
The first racing game to be released in the 1980's was Pole Position, produced by Namco in the year 1982. It came with a nice sprite-based presentation, an arcade cabinet that resembled a real racing car and a spurious three-dimensional graphics. This game one of the most popular arcades and has been termed as the most important racing game that has been ever made. In Pole Position game, players had an opportunity of driving a Formula One vehicle around a trial lap before getting to a race wit others. It went down in the history books, as the first racing game that ever used a real-life circuit, and that was the Fuji International Speedway.
Weapons were later introduced in the racing game by Spy Hunter, which was released in the year 1983. It was not exactly a racing game but had vehicles used in it. In this game, players would shoot at the cars of their enemies while driving and again protecting civilians. This vertical scrolling game was considered as a classic of its own.
By this time, the genre had earned much popularity, and the developers started to place their spin on it. This gave birth to a revolution of motorcycle racing games. This happened in the early to mid-eighties.
Sega released Hang On in 1985, and it became very successful because of its 16-bit graphics and an almost full sized motorcycle players displayed in the arcade cabinet.
Another classic was unleashed in 1986 and came with a lot of improvements in the field. It was a Ferrari-driven game known as Out Ran, which had one of the most impressive graphics of that time, and different branching circuits that provided the player with various choices while en route. In this game, players could even change the car stereo's radio station and get to listen to different music backgrounds as they raced in the courses provided. They had to avoid traffic and try to record the fastest time they could.
The 1990's brought another technology to the racing games. Using sprites became a thing of the past and developers started to explore the use of polygon based three dimension graphics. This made racing games to become more realistic in all the times.
The first racing game that used polygonal 3D graphics was the Virtua Racing released in the year 1992. It is the game that popularized three-dimension graphics and created a unique and easy to use the system of camera change. But a rival did not take long to arrive, and that was Ridge Racer, created by Namco in the year 1993. The graphics were improving at a very fast speed. Others that came later were Gran Turismo in 1997, the 1995's Sega Rally and Crazy Taxi.
In the year 2001, video gaming had become mainstream while Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo were competing for the gamers attention with their PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. EA decided to upgrade the street racing when in 2003 it released Need For Sped: Underground. This game also made some contribution to racing games by offering stories that players would follow as they continued with the game. This was inspired by the famous series of films known as Fast and Furious.
Forza Motorboat, the Xbox's most revered racing game came in 2005 and became a hit. It had 231 licensed cars and both mechanical and cosmetic damage that would influence your car's performance. Players could also customize their cars. Sony also released MotorStorm in 2006, with top-notch graphics.
Racing Games Subgenres
The sub-genres of racing games are arcade style racers and racing simulators.
Arcade-style racing games focus mainly on fast-paced experience and fun while cars are usually put to compete in various unique ways. They have a far more advanced physics. To allow the player stay with their speed while drifting through a turn, arcade-style racing games gives the player an opportunity of power sliding the car. Compared to simulation racers, track obstacles, collisions, and other traffic cars are very much exaggerated. Most of these races occur on windy roads, highways, or even in various cities; and they can be a point-to-point or multiple-lap circuits, always presented on either one or very many paths.
Need For Sports series, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and the Midnight Club series are some of the well-known examples of arcade-styled racing games.
Simulation style racing games, on the other hand, tries to copy the handling of a motor vehicle irrevocably. They are mainly created for those who possess a high grade of driving skill, but they have help for those who may not possess the top class driving knowledge.
Kart racing games are beat known to possess easy driving mechanics, while at the same time adding more unusual track design, obstacles, and other action features. Good examples of this subgenre of games include Super Mario Kart and Crashing Race.
MUSIC GAMES
A music game is a genre of a video game where gameplay is significantly and in most cases fully aligned around the interaction of the player with individual songs or musical score.
Commonly referred to as music video games, they occasionally adopt varying forms and are classified together with puzzle games. This is because they often use rhythmically engendered puzzles.
The genre has enjoyed much popularity in the industry, and this has led to a significant expansion. They are the only games that have exhibited abilities to incorporate various styles of gameplay. As of today, the most common music game type is naturally rhythmic and has adopted the name rhythm game. Sandbox style that inspires a free-form approach to gameplay is also another common breed of music video games gameplay. There are also other methods that tend to incorporate elements of music and other traditional genres like a puzzle and shooter games.
Subcategories Of Music Games
Music Memory Games
The first subcategory of music video games is known as music memory games. This type of game seeks to the musical memory of the player on a test. Sight-reading music games apply different forms of based on the component of the music that will serve as the primary emphasis of the gameplay. The main objective of the player in all these game-forms is to offer an express injective response to all the prompts from a particular game. Good examples of rhythm-based games include Donkey Konga, Dance Dance Revolution, and Guitar Hero. Specialty input devices like electronic drums and dance mats were created as a result of the popularity of these games. Other games that have been produced under this music video games subgenre include PaRappa the Rapper and Dance Aerobics.
Free-Form Music Games
A freeform music game is another subcategory. These are games in which music creation takes high prevalence over gameplay, and this makes the freeform music games similar to certain non-game music synthesizers.
Free form music games are closely comparable to sandbox games especially in the domain of non-musical games. A good example in this category may include Slim Tunes and Tenori-on.
Hybrid Music Games
Hybrid music games are mostly characterized by meaningful and considerable interactions between the music present in the game and the player. In most cases, the music in the game apparently belongs to a genre that is non-musical. Generative-form hybrid music video games usually make the concert music that comes as a result of the interaction between in-game dynamics and the performer a main objective of the game. Non-musical genres are therefore characterized by straightforward, and simple dynamics.
The main difference that exists between reactive and generative forms of hybrid music video games is that generative form games provide for the making of music as determined by the gameplay. Reactive hybrid music games use music to identify the gameplay.
Examples in this category are Pteranodon, iS – internal section, and Rhyme Rider Kerorican.
SPORTS GAMES
These are types of video games that replicate sports. They tend to copy the playing of ancient physical sports like American football, Association football, Australian rule football, boxing, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, cricket, bowling, golf, tennis, skateboarding, rugby and a variety of others.
Some of these sports games actually focus on playing the sport while others shift their focus to the game plan behind the sport. There are also other sports video games that deride the sport for its comical side.
Traditionally, the only difference that exists between sports video games and a real sports game is that a variety of sports are played multiplayer, while many video games are played, single player.
Sports video games still rank as one of the most successful products of the game market. It began so many years ago and had managed to stay on top as one of the most popular video games of all time. It has also been so competitive, a trait that can be likened to the real world sports.
However, there are a variety of other sports games that fall under the fighting games subcategory. These are those sports games that include boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts. Other genres of games that also at times fall under the category of the sports game are the racing games.
Sports Games Subcategories
Sports games are the only genre of video games that has more than fifty subcategories. It has a total of 56 subcategories, some of which are; American football video games, Association football video games, cycling video games, cue sports video games, Disney sports video games, ESPN video games, fantasy video games, golf video games, and horse-related video games. Others are ice hockey video games, judo video games, karting video games, multiple-sport video games, NBC Sports video games, and Nintendo 64 sports game.
Another group consists of roller skating video games sports management video games, tennis video games, water sports video games, winter sports video games, and sports video games stubs among others.
Sports games recreate a broad range of real-world competitive activities. Based on the sport, many them usually comes with either strategy or action focus. Famous sports games are mostly produced and released yearly, with new improvements being witnessed each year.
Recently, sports games have started to offer the option of managing just one player instead of the entire team. This technique provides the game with a unique role-play feel as the game strives hard to create and develop their selected character within the course of the season. There are also a wide variety of sports betting that one can choose from.
Some of the popular sports games that have ever been released to the market include the Novel Gamer Show's The Rising Board 3DS.
This arcade surfing game is very addictive and fun at the same time. It has managed almost to perfect the entire idea of bite-sized play. Entirely, this game is presented with an attention and appeal of a fruit machine, and this is a nice way. Though it only lasts for a short time, the bright colors, nicely designed 3D scenes, and cheerful sounds make it a nice enjoyable short journey. The level of design is the spectacular " wipe out." Part of the challenge in the game is to ensure that you do not hit the land while forcing cautious navigation through some narrow straits and then jump over islands. When you tap 'A,' the hero penguin flaps his or her arms to stay in the fight and hover over a large piece of land. The only disappointment in this game is that it is a pace killer. No mechanism has been designed in the game to tell exactly the size of the ground below or even where the nearest return to water may even be found. But it is a great game and just shows how sports games can be fascinating.
Other popular sports games that have hit video game screens include Skate 3 360, FGTV: Mario Tennis 3D 3DS, Virtua Tennis 4 PS Vita, Everybody's Golf PS Vita, FIFA 360 and a variety of others.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual reality simulation is the use of three-dimension objects to create engaging and immersive learning experiences. Their main purpose is to offer education, training, and information, but there are others that are mainly tasked with offering entertainment to the public. Many people enjoy using fight simulators even if they are only meant for purely training purposes.
The virtual reality technology came in the 1980's, with marketing and development of systems that consisted of a data glove attached to a computer device, and HMD- Head Mounted Display. They simulated three-dimensional environments that were shown on a stereoscopic vision on the HMD. This original technology has assisted in defining what is usually meant by virtual reality as interactive and immersive 3D computer generated environments, where interactions occur over very many sensory channels and include positioning and tactile feedback.
The central principle of virtual reality education is to practice, impart, and verify the user's knowledge while applying environments and scenarios that reflect situations in the real world. Virtual reality employs various means to promote immersions, and some of the means are hardware and software, the effect of wind, water spray, physical motion, vibration and a host of others.it is the same technique that has been applied in the making of X-d cinema.
Certain virtual games do not have interactive elements in them. Their difference with X-d cinemas comes in the video technology aspect. Therefore virtual reality simulators can be classified as non-interactive and interactive.
They can also still be grouped based on the position of the user's body during any operation like standing, sitting, suspending and other positions.
Another class in which virtual reality simulators can be classified is their ability and possibility to connect other extra devices that include gaming joystick and others. They can also be classified based on profile, where you will have the universal virtual reality simulators and the special virtual reality simulator. Special reality simulators include such like driving simulators, and fight simulators.
Another classification of virtual reality simulators is those that are based on networking opportunities. They include those without network mode and those with network modes.
There is also a unique classification of a virtual reality attraction, and these are the virtual standing universal interactive attraction that has a possibility to connect an extra game device and a network mode.
Business simulation games do not include enjoyment as one of their features. They are mainly designed to teach specific business aspects like finance or management techniques. These simulations are mostly applied in business schools and universities.
However, these games still have some fun elements in them and this help to promote learning.
Some online simulation games contain complicated relationships and rules that are purely based on real life situations, while mainly focusing on social interaction.
Using a three-dimensional technology, which in most cases is called Real World Environments, game designers can be in a position of designing any situation or environment that they want to. This immersive technology has enabled the world of learning to move at a recommendable speed and introduce more fun in the education sector.
Virtual reality offers a real interactive experience and quality standard of e-learning techniques that are used for hearing and viewing information. Users are given an opportunity of freely navigating in the environment so that they can interact with various objects and make decisions. They are also allowed to carry out various tests and even make mistakes until they fully master the subject of learning. Giving learners opportunity to practice in a virtual surrounding allows you to clearly see what learners have been able to learn within the time that they were allocated. They will also be able to learn various approaches and thought the process to a particular problem.
The Connection Of Computer Games And Human Values
In computer ethics, computer software's and systems are termed as value-neutral and not value laden. The same applies to computer games, which may offer suggestions, promotions, and simulations and at times may even reward particular values while at the same time discouraging and shunning others. At times computer games may promote gender and racial stereotypes and at times may include biased and implicit assumptions regarding gender, interests, and abilities of the player. This is why computer games are referred to as value-laden.
They may also be created to portray actions of violence as the only solution to the problems that a player goes through. They may also be value-laden based on the storylines that they suggest for players and even the rewards and feedback that are provided. Certain first person shooters give extra points, for instance, for not killing as many as possible.
A good example is a famous video game known as The Sims, a game that can use to show how various values have been implanted in various games. It is a game that shows day-to-day lives as well as the social responsibilities and duties of an ordinary person. The main goal of the characters in this game is happiness, and this has been achieved through the satisfaction of various basic needs like hygiene, comfort, hunger, and fun. Ways of satisfying these needs can be through consumption as well as social interaction, and success that are in a person's career.
This game has brought forward an idealized version of an advancing and liberal consumer community where the main goal in life is happiness that is achieved by being a responsible worker and consumer.
There are special responsibilities that are applied in various sectors of virtual reality and computer simulations. For instance, the use of virtual reality in psychotherapy and therapy needs special consideration to principles of informed agreement and the ethics of human subject's experimentation. The video game industry, as well as computer, has a special responsibility to review the cultural and social impacts of their products because many people including children use them.
Game developers, therefore, must carefully review the type of messages that their games send to the users, and should strive to make sure that they produce and market game contents that are more inclusive of all masses and is age appropriate.
Virtual reality and computer simulations have, in the past, tabled new challenges for ethics. This has continued since more advanced applications are still being created and their application has become more widespread than in the past.
The virtual environment, moreover, can imitate some real life properties and therefore has a variety of ethnic dilemmas that are true in real world. Virtual realities should, therefore, strive not just to present ethical challenges that are only meant for professional users and developers, but also for the society as a whole.
