Month: January 2021
Ghost VS Hunters – Demo Video
GHOST vs HUNTERS pt. 5
Final Post on this project, concluding many things. It’ll be quite short as I’ve the report next, and its mostly an update on rules and the game board.
Following the proposed changes to the map, these factors were added to it by Valeria! (I’m still amazed at her skill, I might have to steal her for some future projects.)
* Corridor room
* Entrance from Kitchen to Game Room
* Attic Room
* Rounds Counter
We believe the increase in rooms as well as the added entrance will allow Hunters to move more freely through the board. The rules have also been updated to take into account some of the faults we had in the previous version. It is using the shorter (Trini’s version) of the game!
The rules clarify that players can enter claimed/contaminated/ectoplasmed rooms. And the definition of a turn has also been updated to the new version.
Things we’d likely add/change with more time:
– A way to clear out rooms.
– Balance the ghosts and hunters’ adversity to be more balanced.
Conclusion:
The game is playable, and is a playable prototype. There are certain things that need balancing, such as the Hunter’s stalemate advantage, or the fact that Ghosts can blatantly claim a large amount of rooms from the get go, but that should be countered by the randomness and dynamic actions of the players.
We don’t have to deal with muting each other, which is a plus seeing as it helps with the cooperative/competitive aspect of the game, as well as the communal one. Its always better to hear your adversary rather than them being silent.
All in all, I had a lot of fun developing and improving my knowledge around prototyping these games, the conference call restriction was both refreshing and unexpected! Trini and Valeria were great help, and I couldn’t have done anything without them!
Ghosts VS Hunters, pt 4
Going over the rules:
Our two different set of rules were based around strategic deliberation, or quick thinking and anticipating movements. We’ll dub both versions the longer and shorter versions for the sake of simplicity.
Playtesting the longer version:
* Ghosts deafen themselves. Hunters deliberate on positions.
* Hunters deafen themselves. Ghosts deliberate on positions.
* Both teams reveal positions, Hunters first, and then clashes are resolved accordingly.
* Ghosts can move anywhere on the map. Hunters can only move to a room adjacent to the one they are currently stood in. Both must move to another room on their next turn.
* In a stalemate (3 ghosts vs 3 hunters in the same room), Hunters win and the Ghosts are removed from the game.
Conclusions with this version!
* Boredom: The deafened team pretty much did nothing for quite a while, which led to loss of interest from that very team until it was there turn.
* Unseen advantages: The Ghosts could claim rooms immediately that Hunters cannot reach, which then forces Hunters to play with a smaller amount of rooms.
* Poor movement: The layout of the map inhibited the Hunter team from moving properly, adding another advantage to the Ghosts’ team.
* Too slow: it takes too long to deliberate, and lacks a quick resolution, sometimes making the game exceed the assignment’s time limit.
Playtesting the shorter version!
Trini came up with this one! Essentially the execution goes as fellows:
* Teams toss coin to determine who goes first, and move to their positions. They do so by typing their position in the chat at the same time as the rest of their team.
* Clashes are revealed on the end of the Hunter Team’s turn.
* Ghosts can move anywhere on the map. Hunters can only move to a room adjacent to the one they are currently stood in. Both must move to another room on their next turn.
* In a stalemate (3 ghosts vs 3 hunters in the same room), Hunters win and the Ghosts are removed from the game.
Conclusions with this version!
* Stalemates are still favorable to the Hunters, Ghosts may still claim 3 rooms before Hunters can do anything.
* Less strategic, more random and impromptu. This solves both the boredom and slowness of the previous game, by letting things become a bit more chaotic.
* Still the issue of movement for Hunters.
After playtesting with other members of the course, we decided that adding two additional rooms and a pathway to from the kitchen to the Game Room would grant Hunters sufficient an edge to go toe to toe with the other team. These are the proposed changes:
Final Thoughts on Session:
During playtesting, players expressed they prefered the shorter version as it gave more dynamics to the game, and I agree. It felt better are more reactive than the longer, more strategic version.
There was also talk of a way for Hunters to ‘unclaim’ rooms. These rooms had been claimed by Ghosts taking their turn to move towards it, so long as it wasn’t occupied by a Hunter. However we felt as if players didn’t understand that Hunters could enter already claimed rooms safely, rather than stay out of them. This could have prevented a number of Hunter losses during playtest so that’ll be improved later on.
Sadly, we couldn’t completely get rid of the Game Master, someone still needs to set up the board and note people’s placements down. The only way to properly get it replaced would be digitally.
Case Study: Thief, the Dark Project
INTRODUCTION:
Thief, the Dark Project (hereby known as Thief), is a game developed by Looking Glass games, and published by Eidos Interactive in 1998.
Thief a first person stealth game, focused on the fantasy of emulating a thief in a gaslamp fantasy setting, called the City. You play as Garret, a master thief taught to sneak and steal by an elusive origanisation of thieves called the Keepers. With an arsenal of various arrows (noise, water, fire, rope, moss, etc), a blackjack to knock out enemies, a sword to kill or defend yourself, health potions, holy water for undead, and so on.
Disclaimer! Much of the following is from my own personal experience, and analysis during gameplay.
THE TOOLS FOR THE TRADE:
As a master thief, Garrett’s goal is to simply pay rent. He needs cash, so any kind of thief’s job is no trouble for him, and the more he can acquire the happier he is. However things get complicated over the course of the story, when he gets roped up into pagan cults and zealous crusaders wanting to skin him alive. As Garrett isn’t the best fighter, he’ll have to skulk around the various levels of the game to avoid getting caught. To do this, Thief makes effective use of three factors: movement, sound and light.
LIGHT: The game has a light meter (known as the Light Gem) that scales between full and empty depending where the player is standing. Shadows obstruct a guard’s field of view, and thus make the player’s shape difficul to spot, whilst light will make the player’s form obvious. These areas are visibly obvious, if an area is darker than another, then the light there is dimmer. In Thief, you are advised to stay in the shadows, and avoid the light.
The player can use the light gem to determine if they are in any light source, or in complete shadows. If they are in an area of pitch darkness, moving will cause the light meter to increase a bit. Certain objects emit light, such as torches, fireplaces and lanterns. The two former can be extinguished using water arrows in Garrett’s quiver.
SOUND: Certain surfaces produce sound when walked upon, such as solid iron floors, or tiling. The sound is produced at regular intervals, and will attract guards even if cloaked in shadows. Consequentially, the player must seek out surfaces such as wood, stone floors, or even carpet to muffle their steps (dirt works as well, but gravel is the bane of any thief).
This works both ways! Guards whistle or mumble to themselves when bored, making it easy to gauge their distance from you if unseen. Their footsteps carry sound as well, allowing you to figure out when to come out of hiding, or when to strike; if multiple guards are in a same room, the game’s sound design is clear enough to determine an approximate amount. Finally if other louder noises are blaring through the game, such as a forge or an alarm of some kind, then they can be used to drown out your own movement and footsteps.
MOVEMENT: How Garrett moves is important, as it becomes a synergy between both factors. Walking quickly will make noise, sneaking and crouching around will make you too slow to catch up to guards or (later on) run away from undead & monsters. Furthermore, what you move on, or past whom, will factor into your stealth to ensure you don’t get caught. Movement in Thief is slow and methodical, even whilst running, and helps emphasise the thief like fantasy.
As a player, you are undetectable if you are: not moving, in complete shadow, and making no sound. Anything short of that risks detection, and to further the gameplay and risks induced Garrett isn’t a great fighter. Most guards will slay him in two hits, but it takes five or six to kill a single guard, four to kill priests and civilians.
Regardless, by making use of these elements, Thief creates a tense gameplay that emphasises the necessity of stealth. The health imbalance, the importance of sound and light mechanics help the player get into Garrett’s skin, and think like him. At first the movement and attempts are clunky, with missed blackjack strikes or mis steps into the light, but eventually you grow to master the game. When to save your arrows? Which guards should you avoid, and which should you take down? Where should you hide, and where is it safe to run?
What’s important is that Thief is considered a pioneer of stealth/action games, who makes use of light & sound mechanics in addition to the typical line-of-sight detection mechanics other stealth games already possessed at the time. Metal Gear Solid (1998) comes to mind. Its sound system revolutionised the method stealth games were played, as it brought a new auditive dimension to gameplay. Audio was even central to the game’s design! (Gamasutra – Postmortem: Thief: The Dark Project, pg. 2)
So the question is, why am I making a case about this? Simple: for my final major project I plan on building a stealth game myself.