Dev.log Magenta

I claim no ownership and this is solely for educational purposes.

Regarding option 3 from our choices of Dev.log assignments; this exercise is number 1.4 from page 10 of Fullerton's Game Design Workshop:

"Exercise 1.4: Game Journal
Start a game journal. Don’t just try to describe the
features of the game, but dig deeply into the choices
you made, what you thought and felt about those
choices, and the underlying game mechanics that
supports those choices. Go into detail; look for the
reasons why various mechanics of the game exist.
Analyze why one moment of gameplay stands out
and not another. Commit to writing in your game
journal every day."

   I chose this exercise since it will allow me to talk about games I'm already familiar with, rather than newer titles. Today I've decided to talk about Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition and it's mechanical choices. It is a re-release that features three additional playable characters, totaling five. This series usually referred to as an extreme character action game/ spectacle fighter/ platformer hybrid, where players take the role of a demon hunter and engage in fast melee and ranged combat against the damned, and creatures from various hellish realms as they enter the human world to cause trouble. There are many different characters to play as throughout it's half a dozen entries all of whom sometimes reuse animations and weapons but still play differently.

   In these games I am put up against various demons who can attack and defend themselves differently in response to the player, changing their strategies to fight. As the levels go on, and the difficulty rises, I am always outnumbered. In other games this might lead to 'stun-locking' or when the player character is playing an animation in response to taking 'damage' or being struck, but so frequently  that they can no longer move. To remedy this there is a hidden mechanic built into the camera. Enemies that are off camera will not enter attack animations. They may idle and stare off into the distance sometimes, or roar, or attempt to slowly walk into the cameras field of view to join the fight. Not only does this prevent the player from being overwhelmed, but it helps keep the spectacle of a fight fluid, and conserves processing power. Other games adapt similar mechanics where enemies or objects will not animate or even exist while not visible to the player.

   It is not enough to have one type of damage either. with a variety of weapons and guns, there are various damage modifiers and types that elicit different responses from different enemies. Attacks can be varied with delays of timing between button prompts, (a staple of this genre) Nearly all characters, like Trish, Nero or Mary-Anne can charge up attacks by holding their button press. This increases their damage output substantially. It doesn't just exist for this reason. It also remedies the problem of hitting a button press too early and getting caught in it's animation while an enemy is attacking, something that will happen no matter what game you are playing. 

   Trish became one of my favorite characters to play as,  a standout from others because of her ability to move enemies around and interrupt them. Distant enemies can pose a serious problem as they can execute unpleasant ranged attacks to punish players who do not close distances. Trish however, can throw her sword like a boomerang. While two other characters can do this, hers lasts longer, and changes her attack functions. With her sword away, she can charge up brutal melee attacks against other foes, and attacks that she couldn't normally perform while holding it. Her boomerang sword also triggers a response some refer to as a 'stagger animation.' enemies caught in it's vortex play a stagger animation to suggest they are vulnerable. The vortex also pulls enemies closer to it's center, and in a total vector closer towards the player character. This not only interrupts enemies before and during attacks, but functions as crowd control, to pulverize many enemies at once with her charged up melee attacks, the momentum carrying on to extend the collision to other enemies in the same general direction. This refers back to keeping the player from getting overwhelmed, while also diverging the gameplay into both tactical and challenging. Another variation of this attack, pulls groups of enemies towards her, even mid air, stopping them from attacking and eliminating the need for the player to waste time repositioning for their next move. 

   This also remedies one of the problems with the games original release; one of the playable characters, Dante has a rough time keeping up with enemies and dealing with large groups and faster, more irritating foes, his attacks focusing on single enemies. This lead a lot of players in addition to other factors, to criticize the game as 'seemingly built around one character.' The other in question being Nero, a character who can summon 'spectral hands' to pull and throw himself towards enemies and perform hard hitting grapple attacks. Having more characters supports more players.

   Another mechanic is the versatility of tools. The two characters, Trish and Dante actually share many weapons and animations. But there is both a gameplay and narrative explanation for this, which keeps it from feeling stale or lazy. One weapon that both of these characters wield is Pandora,  a shapeshifting firearm taking the form of the mythical box, each form named after a different sin or fault of mankind, like 'Revenge', 'Spite', or 'Arrogance', giving us a mythological allusion and an important in universe lore implication. 
   In Dante's hands this suitcase turns into various guns depending if the player is on the ground or in the air and what buttons they pressed. As him, I may turn it into a flying missile silo, a rocket crossbow, and rocket launcher, a Gatling gun or a railgun. (Capcom loves Railguns) Each of these functions differently. A hidden 'battery' called the Disaster Gauge in the user interface increments as I slay enemies with other weapons, allowing me to charge up Pandora and throw it as a homing, bladed-boomerang or, open Pandora's box, and somewhat like the legend, vaporize every enemy on screen.
   In Trish's hands, she overcharges Pandora's Box with her lightning magic. She can summon a different rocket launcher that sprays a wide area, or overcharge the railgun form, creating a death beam. But why would both of these characters use the same tools? Because they work together. Within the context of the story, they are partners, slaying demons and getting paid. They work in the same building. It makes sense that they share weapons, even if those weapons are capable of destroying mankind. This versatility is shared by all weapons in the game, leading to many diverse playstyles even with one character, and satisfying my need for story explanation of the insane, impossible things that I can do in game. 

Regarding option 1 from our Dev.log

   One of the things that struck me while reading chapter 1 of Fullerton's Game Design Workshop was the interviews with designers and their biographies documenting their sources of inspiration. The section on Shigeru Miyamoto was interesting since I loathed Mario as a child and didn't understand the worship he gets in the industry. Shigeru, like many of the other designers discussed draws upon his childhood for inspiration. Coming from an art studio background, I've always looked at other games and artwork  for inspiration. But I can see the more effective strategy here. As a child, I didn't have anyone to play with. My favorite games involved stacking dozens of plastic cups to have new buildings and backgrounds for my Lego mini-figures and keeping a plastic bag from touching the ground without holding it. Both were equally embroiling and just plain fun. 

  It's really fulfilling to see the written texts build off of what I learned last semester reading The Design Of Everyday Things. The play-centric process closely resembles that of objects for real world use, and I can can much of the terminology I learned immediately carries over. Like why you must let unfamiliar parties playtest each iteration, because the initiated, or those who have worked on or played the game  have insider knowledge or a working user model. For the future this tells me that because games change a lot through development, those who like a game during testing, may not like the completed product, similar to the gripes I've experienced with Early access titles on Steam.

   Many of the things I see myself struggling with in the future are listed in the summation on page 23. The 'integration of story and gameplay' is difficult for me since I don't have a writing background other than the terrible stories I wrote as a teenager. Since games aren't a linear medium, this may give me openness to narrative elements I wouldn't have considered as a writer. The bit about  'Embracing new business models for games such as free-to-play or subscription' is also a hurdle since I see them as huge commitments. Coming from an artistic background I view unconstraint and lack of deadlines as essential to the creative process. It's something I'll have to contend with in this industry. I'm not a programmer by nature, but i can see the usefulness of what Christina Norman describes as 'quick and dirty with code' for prototyping. The first time I got serious about coding was using a browser based version of Processing called P5js. Before I knew it, I was attempting to make a game I'd been thinking about for a long time. I've since started using Game Maker Studio 2, but a lot of what I learned helps me. I see coding proof of concepts and prototypes as a means of seeing the feasibility of an idea in trying to estimate how long it will take. They can be just as effective as paper models but are no proper replacement.