Games Design Report

In this report I will be comparing many different types of video and computer games to be able to
discuss how their visual style and gameplay are different to each other.

Visual Style
World
The world of a video game consists of many different aspects depending on the type of game you are
looking at. The 3 main aspects of a game world I will be looking at are;

Terrain
Terrain within a video game is the base layout out of
the game, it is the earth that the character will walk
on and interact with (Terrain does not include
buildings and architecture.). There are many
different types of terrain that are possible to use in a
game just like there are different types of terrain in
real
life, it
is
Whiterun Hold (Dragonsreach and the Throat
of the World)

possible to create any type of terrain you want for your

video game depending on how good your software is.
Ever since earliest 3D graphics started to be used in video
games there has been terrain in games. Representing the real world in a Falkreath (Forest)
game has not been a major
priority, game terrains have usually been fantasy worlds.
Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011 by the
developer Bethesda Game Studios (very famous for
creating immersive open world games.). Being released in
2011 meant that Bethesda could use newer technology to
create the terrain for Skyrim and the outcome was
probably the most well received critic reviews. Skyrims
The Rift (Lake Honrich) terrain is based on the Earth and it has all of the same
types of terrain that we have, the theme for Skyrims
terrain is a mountainous
environment with lots of tall snowy
peaks and rivers throughout the
world. Skyrim has 9 different Holds
within its world, each of these holds
has a different type of environment
that the player will experience.
Whiterun Hold is probably the most
normal environment. Depending on
the in-game season/weather Whiterun being in the middle of the map is Eastmarch (Hot Springs)
a grassy landscape with both the highest mountain in the game and lots
of rivers and small streams. Falkreath Hold (present below Whiterun on the world map.) is a vast
expanse of forest, the detail in the graphics that was put into the environment made the forest even
better as you could see all of the details within
the tree designs and the grass and flowers.
The Rift is the hold present to the right of
Falkreath, this hold has a sort of dark and
damp feel to it. Lake Honrich resides
throughout The Rift, this has made the
environment around the lake damper than
places like Whiterun. Water graphics within a
game are very difficult to perfect and make
look as real as possible. The graphics in the
water in the world of skyrim are a dull colour
The Pale (Footprints)
like the lake is dirty with waste, this has made the terrain more advanced as
it adds an extra lore behind the colour of the lake. The
bottom of the lake is all muddy and the water surrounding
you is a dark green like there is lots of algae that presides
there. Above The Rift is Eastmarch, Eastmarch is a barren
landscape with hot springs throughout it. Both The Pale
and Winterhold are the snowy environments within
Skyrim, The Pale is snowy as it is a high mountain range

Hjaalmarch (Swamps)
within
Skyrim and is therefore covered in snow.
Winterhold is on the coast of Skyrim to the
North and is in a constant winter. The effects
on snow in this particular environment are
great as whilst walking along Bethesda took
into account that a person would trail
footprints behind them so they have included

The Reach (Markarth)

 that in the game terrain. Hjaalmarch
is a sort of flat vast, misty ice swamp
to the left of The Pale. As it is right
next to The Pale (a snowy landscape)
you can tell just from the graphics of
the environment that the
temperature of Hjaalmarch would be
very cold but not as cold as The Pale
and Winterhold. The Reach is
another mountainous region within Skyrim, Within The Reach is the city of
Haafingar (Solitude)
Markarth which is a city that has been built into the side of a mountain. The
city has streams running throughout it that come from the top of the mountain. The final Hold is
Haafingar this place is a kind of a mixture of all environments depending on whereabouts you are
stood within the game, it has a coast, a forest, a bit of a swamp and some snowy mountains. The coastal
city of Solitude was created on rock that hangs out over the ocean where you can see some other holds
in the distance.

Looking at Assassins Creed: Syndicate I can see that it

is much more architecturally driven than Skyrim.
Syndicate is set in Victorian London, as it is in the City
of London there isnt much terrain to work off besides
roads, parks and paths. Syndicate like all other games
in the Assassins Creed series was created by publisher,
Ubisoft. Released in November 2015 the terrain of
Syndicate (Road) Syndicate was very detailed from what we could see of
it. The tight cobbled
roads of London run throughout the whole
playable world. The graphics engine used for
this game was AnvilNext, using this engine
allowed Ubisoft to create amazing detailed
graphics to use for the terrain. Along the
roads you can see small puddles, fallen
leaves, dirt and many other things. All of
these factors contribute to making the terrain
more lifelike and real. Looking into the parks
around London I can see that the graphics in
the grass and trees are very good at pin pointing detail like the grass moving Syndicate (Grassy scene)
as you walk/run through it. You can also see details like fallen leaves around the base of the trees and all
of the different colours on the tree trunks.
Architecture
Architecture within video games forms the background for action, and is the scaffolding on which the
characters move, act and, occasionally, die.

Syndicate makes full use of exquisite rendering and

near photo-realistic architectural surrounds, with
playable characters climbing on, crashing into, and
using the buildings to further the story. Being set in
Victorian London gave Ubisoft a great base to work
off for their architecture as they would have to try to
create the world of Victorian London to the best they
Syndicate (Buckingham Palace from The Mall) can as if they didnt they would be advertising
something that they arent providing. The
architecture of Syndicate London included all of
Londons landmarks that were present at that
time The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben,
Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Nelsons Column
and even Hyde Park. Jack the Ripper and
Whitechapel are one of the main focuses of this
game. Whitechapel was known to be one of the
most disgusting places in London at this time and
Ubisoft did a very good job of representing this
with all of the building around Whitechapel being placed so Syndicate (Whitechapel) close
together just like they were in Victorian London.

To see a completely different aspect of

game architecture I would look at a game
like Minecraft. Minecraft is a game where
players have the freedom to create
whatever they want to create using small
blocks to create structures. Over the years
some skilled users of Minecraft have
created some amazing architecture within
their own world. There are some examples
below.
Kings Landing (Game of Thrones)
 Minis Tirith (Lord of The Rings) The Winter Palace

Objects
Within every single there are things called objects, whether these objects are interactive or not depends
on what the developers want within their game. Objects can be anything present in a
game like weapons, a lamp post, even a drinking glass. Around 40% of
Skyrim is made up of interactive objects, these objects include things like
weapons, apparel, food, and miscellaneous objects e.g. buckets and plates.
Things like weapons and apparel are in the game to help you as each piece
Ebony Ingot of equipment will have a different armour and
damage rating, the higher the rating the better. Objects that Daedric Dagger
fall under misc. may be sold to merchants if the player needs some more
money. Some misc. objects such as ingots and gemstones
can be collected to craft equipment and other objects.

In Syndicate objects are portrayed differently, as there are no moveable objects but there are objects
like chests and collectibles that the player can go around and collect to progress further in the game.
As I said these objects are stationary within the game but if interacted with my play a small on-screen
animation to add effect into the
game. In Sydicate weapons are also
used to fight with and different
pieces of armour can be used to
protect you, the player may find
objects to craft weapons and
armour in chests around the game.
Assassin Kukri

Characters
A character in a video game, playable or not, will be
represented as something that is alive and can be animated
in a way to evolve the story/game. Characters can even be
presented as animals just as long as they add to the games
story mechanics or gameplay. Looking at playable characters
within Skyrim there is only one. The character that you play
Skyrim Character Creation
 as is the character that you create and name yourself at the character
creation stage at the beginning of the game. Bethesda have character
creation in a few of their games. Creating your character in Skyrim
allows the user to pick the characters gender, hair style, body mass,
skin colour and lots more. Having a personally created character can
make a game more fun for some people but some people also may not
like it so Bethesda added in a random character generator where the
game will generate a character using the editable features in the
creation. If I was to compare playable character with Skyrim and
Yooka-Laylee (a 3D platform adventure game) I can see that the
character mechanics are completely different as in Yooka-Laylee you
will lay as two different characters that work in unison at the exact
same time, the characters are Yooka a chameleon and Laylee a
bat. Playing through this game you will unlock powers for both
Yooka and Laylee
characters that will help you progress through the game.

Non-playing Characters (NPCs)

An NPC (or Non-playing Character) is in the name, it is a character within a game that
is no possible to play as but will either be part of the story or just part of the games
world itself. NPCs can be good, bad or neutral. A good NPC will be a character that
is helpful to the player throughout the story. A bad NPC is a character that will
usually be one of the characters on the bad side of the games story, bad NPCs
usually come as the main antagonist within the games story. Neutral NPCs arent
always found in all video games as some games were designed without them, a
neutral NPC is a character that neither helps nor hinders your progress through the
game and is just sort of present throughout the story.

An example of a good NPC in Assassins Creed: Syndicate is Alexander Graham Bell.

Bells character was based of the real-life inventor as the Assassins Creed series
trys to base their games on real historical events and people. Alexander Alexander Graham
Graham Bell helps the two protagonists throughout the story Bell (Syndicate)
of Syndicate that is why he is a good NPC.

One of the most famous NPC antagonists is Sephiroth from the

Final Fantasy series. Sephiroth is famous for being a very hard
character to beat within the game, his fast counter attacks and
extremely high health made him almost impossible to beat so his
character has become very famous throughout the gaming
community.
Sephiroth
Looking at Skyrim and its NPCs, it has lots of neutral NPCs throughout its
world. These NPCs wont be interactive but take the shape of a human
and with the help of character AI (Artificial Intelligence) move around like real humans and therefore
count as characters.

Feedback Interface
Feedback interface within video games gives the user
visual feedback on things that happen in games. For
example, looking at Assassins Creed, they have quite a
detailed feedback interface as it has a permanent health
bar in the top corner which drops according to the
damage you take during gameplay. After every mission a
screen will pop up saying the name of the mission and
then Completed underneath it, this screen also
includes other details about the mission like how well you Assassins Creed (Mission Complete)
did and what your rewards are. Skyrim has more of an
opposite interface to Syndicate as its interface is more
focused on health and stamina rather than details of
the quest you completed. In Skyrim your character
has 3 different bars of skills, these are Health (red),
Stamina (green), and Magika (blue). These bars
decrease if the player takes damage (health),
sprinting will decrease your stamina bar and using
spells will lower your magika. Completing
quests/missions will cause a simple animation to be
Skyrim (health, stamina, magika) played that will tell you that you have completed the
quest.

Perspectives
2D
A 2D computer game is a game that is created using only 2D graphics
and elements. Some of the most famous 2D games are some of the old
Nintendo games and arcade games like Super Mario Bros. and Pacman.
With 2D graphics its hard to make a game that has a deep story to it so
the Mario franchise did very good in giving their games a simple story.
2D games are usually platformer games like Donkey Kong and Super
Mario.
Super Mario Bros.
3D
3D graphics were first integrated into home video games in 1981 in
the game 3D Monster Maze. Over the years technology has
evolved and 3D
game graphics are
so much more
advanced like in
Assassins Creed: 3D Monster Maze
Syndicate how
developers can now add so much more detail into the
3D graphics rather than just 3D shapes like in 3D
Monster Maze.
Syndicate

First-person
A first-person game is a game that is played looking through the
characters eyes. A lot of people like first-person games as they feel
it makes the game feel more immersive to the player. A lot of
shooters like Call of
Duty are first-person
Call of Duty
games as it takes away the
distraction of looking at your own
character whilst trying to play. Skyrim has the option the play
in first-person or third-person, this can be changed whenever
the player wants throughout the game.
Skyrim

Third-person

As I said previously Skyrim can be played in either first or

third person. Playing the game in third-person allows the
player to see their character whilst they play the game the
camera angle is from behind the character so you can see
everything in front of the character. Assassins Creed is a
fully third person with a camera quite far behind the
character so that you can see everything around the
character while playing.
Syndicate (camera angle)
 Scrolling
Going back to Super Mario Bros. the series is preliminary a scrolling game.
The view point of a scroller is seen from the side and the character will
usually move from side to side and up and down. Mario is probably the
most famous side scrolling that has been created as it one of the most
famous games in general. A different example of a scrolling game is
Despicable Me: Minion Rush, this game has many 3D elements to it like its
graphics but is still considered a scrolling game as the character moves
forward on three different lanes and you have to maneuver through
obstacles.

Minion Rush

Aerial
Aerial games are games where the perspective of it
from above all of the characters and the world it is in.
A good example of this is FIFA where the angle is so
that the player can see most of the pitch and players at
all times so they can see all what is happening around
them. World of Warcraft is another aerial game; the
strategy game has to be aerial as the player needs to
see their surroundings. FIFA 17

Context-sensitive
Context sensitive controls open up new opportunities for
unique gameplay. Rather than have buttons that do a
single action and only a single action, have button(s) that
can do multiple actions when the time is needed. Like
picking up a weapon, opening a door, take control of a
vehicle etc.
all on one
button. This
can vary the
Skyrim (interact) gameplay greatly and prevent the
player from having to remember
multiple button assignments. When in gameplay, an
indication will pop up, usually represented by the button
and text saying what it does. In the case of (mouse) cursor
based games, the cursor itself can change shape to indicate what Assassins Creed (free run)
default action will be taken when activated. Skyrim uses this in a way that the button X (PS4) or A
(XBOX) can pick up weapons open doors and do many more things. This is also the same in Syndicate as
you can press R2 (PS4) and RT (XBOX) to fire your weapon but also to free run.

Full Motion Video (FMV)

A full motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files
(rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature
FMVs as a way to present information during cutscenes, games that are primarily presented through
FMVs are referred to as full-motion video games or interactive movies. The concept of full motion video
can include pre-rendered animated
cutscenes, which use assets more
powerful than those of the game engine to
create a smoother video image than
would be available by having the engine
itself rendering the events depicted in
real-time. This was commonly used in the
90's and is still used to some extent today.
Final Fantasy XV is a game that uses pre-
rendered graphics for its cinematic scenes.
Using pre rendered graphics allows the
Final Fantasy XV game to look sleeker.

Gameplay
Interaction Model
Avatar

An avatar is the character that you play as within the

game itself. In Syndicate there are two different
characters that are playable, these are Evie and Jacob
Frye. Syndicate was the first Assassins Creed game to
incorporate two playable characters. The Frye twins
each have a
different
play-style, Jacob and Evie Frye (Syndicate)
Jacob has a
very forward combat approach to things whereas Evie
is a master of stealth and therefore has a stealthy
approach to gameplay. In Skyrim your avatar has no
Skyrim avatar visual personality on screen as there are no cutscenes
within this game, the player can choose all of the character decisions and therefore make their
own personality for the character also with Skyrims character creation there are endless
character designs that can be made.

Omnipresence
Usually found in sports and music games, omnipresent crowds
usually just serve as background noise. But certain games they
have a much larger purpose. In FIFA 10, when playing with a
certain team, the crowd may start chanting the team's anthem. In
Guitar Hero games, the crowd lets the player know how well
they're performing.

Guitar Hero

Single Player
A single player game is a game where only one person can play
it at a time with one controller. The Assassins Creed series is a
single player game series as only one person can play it at a
time. Skyrim is also a single player game.

Skyrim

Multiplayer
A multiplayer game can either be online or offline. An
online multiplayer game is a game where you connect to
the internet and play the game alongside other people,
whereas an offline multiplayer game is a game where you
will play it with someone that is in the same room as you
with another controller. A good example of an online
multiplayer game is Call of Duty as this is a shooter where
you play against other people around the world. Mario Kart
Wii is an offline multiplayer game as you play with people Mario Kart Wii
in the same room as you and you can play with up to 3
other people.
Narrative
The narrative or the story of a game is usually
portrayed through cutscenes within the game itself. A
game that has a good narrative usually turn out as
popular games. The winner of over 200 Game of The
Year awards The Last of Us had one of the best
narratives a game has had as through the cutscenes
you can see the development of each character and
how they progress through the story. The Last of Us
had a very emotional story arc this is why it was so
The Last of Us
popular.

Game Setting
Physical
Game settings are almost always made
into some sort of physical space or level.
The player moves his avatar/piece in and
around this level, or moves other pieces,
characters, or units in it. The physical
characteristics of this space determine a
great deal about the gameplay. The
physical dimension of a game is itself
characterized by several three different
elements, which are dimensionality, scale,
and boundaries. If there is a glitch within
Skyrim Wall Glitch
the code for the physical boundaries, then
it may be possible to walk through the boundary and into the outer part of the map. This happens a lot
in Skyrim as it is so big it is hard to spot gaps within the code.

Temporal

The temporal dimension of a game world defines the way

that time is treated in that world and the ways in which it
differs from time in the real world.

In many turn-based and action games, the world doesn't

include a concept of time passing: days and nights or
Skyrim (Wait window) seasons and years. Everything in the world idles or runs in
a continuous loop until the player interacts with
the game in some way. Occasionally, the player is
put under pressure by being given a limited
amount of real-world time to accomplish
something, but this usually applies to only a single
challenge and is not part of a larger notion of time
in the game. In Skyrim the time scale is 3 real life
minutes to an hour in-game time. Therefore, for a Syndicate (London at night)
full day to pass in game it would take 72 minutes
real time. Looking at Syndicate you can see that there isnt a time scale, the time only changes when the
game is interacted with during a mission.

Environmental
Environmental setting within video games links in
with architecture, it is what the surroundings of the
game world include. Depending on what your game
is about, this can include buildings, vehicles, clothing,
weaponry, furniture, decorations, works of art,
jewelry, religious or magical items, logos or
emblems, and on and on. The Last of Us has an
immensely detailed environment as it is themed off a
post-apocalyptic world. It has destroyed building
The Last of Us (Environment) overgrown forest and lots more details.

Emotional
Emotional setting is how the characters
emotions and personalities are portrayed within
the game. Also an emotional setting can be how
much the game engages the player into the story.
As I stated before The Last of Us has a very
emotional narrative this is cause to the
characters personalities and emotions coming
through the emotional setting. Skyrim however
The Last of Us (cutscene)
doesnt have much of an emotional setting as the
players avatar doesnt actually say anything and the game itself only has two cutscenes. The
personalities however of the NPCs does come through in some of the dialogue like how the
tone of their voice changes.
Ethical
Video games being worldwide, and to everyone (not including different age groups) means that
because of todays society the manufacturers would have to take the ethics of the game into
account. This means that the game would have to fit in with the views of the world, so it cannot
be offensive in any way to any race, religion or sexual orientation. In the game Modern Warfare
2 there is a very controversial mission that the player must go through its called No Russian
this mission sees the player massacre hundreds of innocent civilians. There were huge amounts
of controversy when the mission came to light as massacring innocent people in a game was
seen as not good to most people.

Modern Warfare 2 mission No Russian

Goals

A goal within a game can be referred to as a variety of things depending on what game you are
playing, a few example of other words
besides goal are mission, quest, and
task. They are sometimes not even stated
as anything but is still the preliminary goal
of the game. Within Skyrim there are
hundreds of quests that the player can
complete throughout the story and after,
most of these quests will reward the
player with something like gold or a
certain item. Super Mario Bros. doesnt
show anything on screen about what your
goal actually is, you sort of just know what youre Skyrim (quest list)
supposed to do already and play through the level.
Challenges
Challenges within video games come in
different shapes and sizes depending on
what game you are playing. Challenges
can be just a plain challenge, a timed
challenge, or even a skill ranked challenge.
In Assassins Creed each mission you play
will have 1-3 mini challenge for you to
complete within that mission for you to
gain 100% Synchronisation on that
particular mission. In the example to the
right you can see that the mini challenge
Assassins Creed (mini challenge)
was to Kill the lead smuggler, this will
need to be done alongside the mission to
receive the extra reward for it.

Rewards
Rewards in games are received usually for
completing missions and challenges. These
rewards will help the player throughout
the story of the game or just in general
gameplay. In the game Watch Dogs,
completing missions unlocks different
things like weapons and cars so that you
can then buy them with the money you
have collected.
Watch Dogs (Weapon Shop)

Player Actions

Player actions are the movement that the avatar

makes during the game like sprinting, walking, and
jumping. Through the years the catalogue of player
actions that has become available is huge, within it
are very simple things like moving from left to right
and jumping by just using one button. Also there are
very complicated actions like combo moves within
Mortal Kombat XL which require the player to press a
sequence of buttons fast to be able to perform the
move. Mortal Kombat XL (Moves List)
 Rules
Rules of video game life is how the game fits to real life
situations. Some of these rule breaks can be amusing when
you think about like looking at the game Paper Mario and
how the simple
of the Mario
avatar being
made out of
Paper Mario paper yet he
cant catch on fire. In Sims 3 this Sim will not sit down at
the table to eat because there is a letter on the table, this
wouldnt happen in real life. The code of the game
wouldve have made this happen whether it was purposely
done or if it was a mistake.
Sims 3

Difficulty
Difficulty within games is usually set at the beginning of
the game but may also be changed throughout the game
whether the game allows it. Some games like Dark Souls
dont have a difficulty rating as they are very hard in the
first place, that is the challenge of the game itself. In the
game Batman: Arkham Knight making the difficulty higher
will make the enemies health higher and their attacks do
more damage.
Arkham Knight (Pause Screen)

Game Mechanics

Inventory
An inventory in a game is where you keep the
items that you have picked up throughout the
game. Some inventories are restricted by the
weight or size of the object you want to carry like
how in Skyrim you have a certain weight limit that
you can carry and every object you pick up will
have its own weight, if this weight is exceeded
then your character will no longer be able to run
Resident Evil 4 (Inventory)
and will only be able to walk at a slow speed. In the Resident Evil series, the way your inventory is set
out is that you have a certain amount of squares that you can fill and each object will take up a certain
amount of squares.

Scoring
Scoring is how you see who won a game. Scoring usually
only takes place in a game like FIFA or Call of Duty
multiplayer. FIFA is scored by how many goals someone
has made and Call of Duty is measured on kills made
depending on which game mode you are playing.
FIFA (Scoreboard)

Win Conditions
Most games nowadays you cant really win its considered
that you complete a game but games you can win are
games like Mario and games like Wii Sports.

Wii Sports (Tennis)

Balance
Balance is the concept and the practice of tuning a game's rules, usually with
the goal of preventing any of its component systems from being
ineffective or otherwise undesirable when compared to their peers.
An unbalanced system represents wasted development resources at
the very least, and at worst can undermine the game's entire ruleset
by making important roles or tasks impossible to perform.
Sometimes considered as glitches these mistakes can be seen in
Skyrim when depending on what quest you undertake it will not let
you do the other quest as the code isnt right.
Feedback
Feedback within games design is crucial
to making a successful game collecting
feedback on games can help in way that it
tells you if people enjoyed that game so
the developers can use the same sort of
ideas for the next game. In recent
Assassins Creed games, they have
actually started to put a review page after
every mission where you will rate the
mission out of 5 stars. Syndicate (Memory Rating)

Game Structure
Flowchart
In the creation of a video game the designers first need to draw out a
flowchart of how the game and story will play out. A flowchart helps with
the design as it helps perfect the final product because you planned it out
before creation. In a later assignment during this unit I will be creating a
flowchart for my game idea.

Video Game Flowchart

Addiction

For most young people, playing games on a computer, video game console, or handheld device is just a
regular part of the day. Most are able to juggle the multiple demands of school, sports, work or chores,
and family life. Gaming becomes an addiction when it starts to interfere with a person's relationships or
their pursuit of other goals, such as good grades or being a contributing member of a sports team.

Computer and video games, especially the massive multi-online role-playing games (or MMORPGs) such
as "World of Warcraft," allow players to behave very differently from their normal persona. A shy child
can suddenly become gregarious; a passive child can become aggressive.
Young people, who often feel powerless in their daily lives, suddenly have the ability to command
armies, drive (and crash) cars, and wreak havoc on a virtual world with no real-life consequences. This is
seductive!

And when that boy or girl is already finding it a

challenge in the "real world" to make friends,
computer and video games offer a way to
interact with others in their "virtual world,"
without the distress of face-to-face
interactions.

Here are some symptoms of game addiction -

the more of these symptoms you can identify,
the greater the need to get professional help:

Most non-school hours are spent on

the computer or playing video games
Falling asleep in school
Falling behind with assignments
Worsening grades
Lying about computer or video game use
Choosing to use the computer or play video games, rather than see friends
Dropping out of other social groups (clubs or sports)
Being irritable when not playing a video game or being on the computer

There also are physical symptoms that may point to addiction:

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Sleep disturbances
Backaches or neck aches
Headaches
Dry eyes
Failure to eat regularly or neglecting personal hygiene