What's the difference?
I haven't had time to analyse all sorts of games yet but i made a quick gues of the average action and puzzle games.
Technology is more or less the same. Triple A action games are more likely to strive for technological innovation. Like physics, particle effects, etc. That's why action games are scoring a little bit higher.
Puzzle games have a smaller story element. Especially games like sporos, tetris, dots, flow,... None of these games have any story.
Aesthetics is a different thing. Most action games are 3D. 3D requires more work and also a bigger production budget. Still i think the detail in the graphics is the same given that the assets of a 2D game usually look very crisp.
Simple puzzle games can have very different art styles. Action games usually do not vary that much from one another.
Both games genres seem to get their names from the dominant aspects in the mechanics curve.
I think I got it wright with levels, mental skills and the puzzle aspect dominating the puzzle genres curve.
With the action genre curve, I think I'm wrong about the time and complexity aspects. Still the physical skills aspect and the action aspect dominate this curve. Action games require better reflexes, better eye hand coordination and more accuracy.
Also, most action games are 3D which means that the boundaries of these worlds need to be dictated by the game rules.
Puzzle games have a smaller story element. Especially games like sporos, tetris, dots, flow,... None of these games have any story.
Aesthetics is a different thing. Most action games are 3D. 3D requires more work and also a bigger production budget. Still i think the detail in the graphics is the same given that the assets of a 2D game usually look very crisp.
Simple puzzle games can have very different art styles. Action games usually do not vary that much from one another.
Both games genres seem to get their names from the dominant aspects in the mechanics curve.
I think I got it wright with levels, mental skills and the puzzle aspect dominating the puzzle genres curve.
With the action genre curve, I think I'm wrong about the time and complexity aspects. Still the physical skills aspect and the action aspect dominate this curve. Action games require better reflexes, better eye hand coordination and more accuracy.
Also, most action games are 3D which means that the boundaries of these worlds need to be dictated by the game rules.
Nested curves
In my previous post i deepen out the aspects of all the curves. One of the aspects that I displayed was the characters aspect.
characters:
lens 76: the lens of the hero's journey
lens 80: the lens of help
lens 82: the lens of collusion
lens 85: the lens of the avatar
lens 86: the lens of the character function
lens 87: the lens of the character traits
lens 88: the lens of the interpersonal circumplex
lens 89: the lens of the character web
lens 90: the lens of status
lens 91: the lens of character transformation
So how much influence has 1 single lens on the outcome of the score of the aspect? Does every lens has the same influence?
I don't have a clear anser for these questions. Most of these aspect scores are based on the feelings of the person that analyzes the game. But I'll talk about subjectivity in the next paragraph.
1 thing I do know is that 1 aspect of 2 different games can have the same score but the lenses within that aspect can be arranged totally different.
For example Final Fantasy 7 and Limbo have very different characters. Yet the lonley character in Limbo seems to have such a strong attraction that you can give the same score to the character aspect of both games.
So what now?
If you can't diverge from the competition by overall score of an aspect, you might want to take a look at the lenses inside that aspect. This way you go deeper into the game design to create a curve of the aspect itself.
I will try to examine this further in my next post.
characters:
lens 76: the lens of the hero's journey
lens 80: the lens of help
lens 82: the lens of collusion
lens 85: the lens of the avatar
lens 86: the lens of the character function
lens 87: the lens of the character traits
lens 88: the lens of the interpersonal circumplex
lens 89: the lens of the character web
lens 90: the lens of status
lens 91: the lens of character transformation
So how much influence has 1 single lens on the outcome of the score of the aspect? Does every lens has the same influence?
I don't have a clear anser for these questions. Most of these aspect scores are based on the feelings of the person that analyzes the game. But I'll talk about subjectivity in the next paragraph.
1 thing I do know is that 1 aspect of 2 different games can have the same score but the lenses within that aspect can be arranged totally different.
For example Final Fantasy 7 and Limbo have very different characters. Yet the lonley character in Limbo seems to have such a strong attraction that you can give the same score to the character aspect of both games.
So what now?
If you can't diverge from the competition by overall score of an aspect, you might want to take a look at the lenses inside that aspect. This way you go deeper into the game design to create a curve of the aspect itself.
I will try to examine this further in my next post.
Subjectivity
Games players and review scores. It has always been a complicated thing. Lazygamer has a good article about it. Reviewing a game is not the same as analysing a game. However giving a score to certain aspects of a game is done in the same way people give a review score of a game.
A score is always based on the feeling and opinion of the person that analyses the game.
So 1 analysis of 1 game will not represent the true values of the strategy canvas. Only when lots of people analyse the same game, you will get a curve that comes closest to the true values of that game curve.
A score is always based on the feeling and opinion of the person that analyses the game.
So 1 analysis of 1 game will not represent the true values of the strategy canvas. Only when lots of people analyse the same game, you will get a curve that comes closest to the true values of that game curve.