FPS: FPS stands for 'first person shooter' it is a game that is played from the perspective of the character, most modern FPS games have a multiplayer feature. A good example of a FPS game is call of duty, it uses a very simple shooter mechanic but does it very well in later generations of the game more interesting mechanics are used like jet packs and kill streaks which is basically a perk you receve after getting enough kills
Hack and Slash: A game played in third person with combat mainly involving two buttons one heavy and one light attack, they tend to be heavily story based as well. They tend to only follow one character. a good example of a hack and slash game is Darksiders 2 it utilizes a very basic hack and slash fighting mechanic, x for a light attack and y for a heavy attack, but they also add alot of other mechanics like combos for example x, x, y might yield a different attack pattern than normal.
Fighting: Fighting games are usually played facing to the side with a fixed camera. it isn’t heavily about any story line and more about the gameplay they mostly feature a multiplayer element. a good example of a fighting game is mortal kombat, it is a very old series that is still going on with their most recent release of mortal kombat x, it uses alot of combos to give players an advantage over others in the game.
Educational: Educational games are games designed mainly for children and the aim of them is to provide information on a particular subject for example alphabet or numbers, they are commonly used in schools. educational games are not commonly talked about as they are usually for kids to learn things they are mostly found online in the form of a flash game.
Simulation: A simulation game is a game that simulates something in real life for example farming or train driving, simulation games usually gain a cult following from a very particular crowd for example fans of the game "farming simulator" are more likely to be interested in farming. framing simulator is a good example of a simulation game because it had its roots as a bad game they was just put on steam but it gained some traction on YouTube and with the money gained from this unintentional advertisement the developer made the game more realistic and now is revered as a good game.
Horror: Horror games are games that try to evoke a strong emotion of fear or uncertainty they achieve this by using sudden appearances from enemies referred to as 'jumpscares' they are the most commonly used feature of horror games. amnesia is a good example of a horror game it uses the mechanic of light healing you to further insinuate a fear of the dark this mixed with the fact that monsters jump out at you from the shadows means it uses alot of good horror game features.
Strategy: strategy games are games that involve the player to make decisions commonly over an army or large unit of people these games reward thinking outside the box and have lots of options as to how to win the games. command and conquer is a good example of a real time strategy game which means everything that happens happens in real time these games are commonly multiplayer.
Sports: sports games are a lot like simulation in that they try to recreate a sport in the game as accurately as possible it has gained its own genre because then it will cater to a wider audience and involve more casual players into playing a game they might actually know how to play in real life. Fifa is a good example of a sports game as it highlights the difference between it and simulation games as it is more stylized for example the blue and red dots under the players to highlight what team they are on and it looks alot more polished.
Puzzle: puzzle games are games that involve very little combat and usually involve multiple ways to get through a room with a trap inside a good example of a puzzle game is 'portal', it uses a main mechanic of a 'portal gun' and occasionally adds new mechanics to keep the player thinking on their feet.
RPG: an RPG is a game that allows the player to go through the game as a made up character it usually involves a good story line, interesting characters and a strong sense of immersion. a good example of an RPG is skyrim, it has an open world, lots of side missions to keep the player involved and a deep lore for the player to learn about
psychological effects of video games
When people play video games too much and neglect going out with friends or talking to real people they develop social isolation where they don’t want to interact with people in the real world, they can also be confused when they have to talk to people seeing them more as characters in a game than real people this can lead to separation from reality blurring the line, for some people, between real life and their virtual ones.
In a study conducted by Vanderbilt University some points about the negative effects of playing video games too much, they tested some different types of video games on children to see what would be more popular and they found that violent games were consistently chosen over any other type from both boys and girls, this implies violent video games, even though they are marketed towards teenagers and adults they still attract a younger audience who might not understand when to stop playing and because of the addictive nature of the violent games they are likely to spent most of their time on games. The study shows that on average children spent 13 -14 hours a week playing games, in addition to going to school this does not leave a lot of time for them to go out with friends and socialize in the real world, they found that “a stronger preference for each of the three types of violent games was associated with lower self-competence scores in one or more developmentally important areas” this implies the more people play games the less they will know about important aspects in life like talking to people or manners.
In contrast a study by the BBC finds that teens don’t usually play games alone instead play them either online or with other people in the room. "Three quarters of teens actually play these games with other people, whether online or in person." This tells us that instead of the idea of gaming alone people mix social interactions and gaming together, however in this study only teens were tested unlike in the other where the age range was more like 8 -12 years old, which seems to indicate that instead of making games less addictive or tamer for younger audiences we should be enforcing a stricter age limit for example a 16+ year old playing Call of Duty will usually be able to know when to stop or to plan their gaming time to fit in their school work and social interactions whereas a 10 year old would probably have trouble knowing when to stop and just play till they are tired. A possible fix for this is having a pop up on the game that says how long they have been playing every few hours reminding people of how long they have been on and possibly the ability to put a time limit on some users who are too young to know when to stop.
Referral links:
- Study about negative results of excess gaming https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2014/04/effect-of-video-games-on-child-development/
- Study about positive effects of playing games socially http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7619372.stm
2D game idea
here is a screenshot of a concept game idea,
in this concept sketch i have included some features that will be seen in the in game screen for example, there is a HUD that contains; a health bar, the type of attack that is selected, the colour of the attack, the enemies health bar and on screen buttons (it is going o be a mobile game), the screenshot also shows a background and a ground block that will be used to signify a walkable platform. the screenshot shows a boss battle that might happen within the game, i used a common game idea which is making the player fight an evil clone of themselves so i just reused the player design and recoloured it, if the game is to be made it will keep its pixelated art style as i think it looks quite good however there would be a wider array of colours in the final game.
the game shall follow the story of its main character 'Not-Mario' the game shall play like a basic 2D side scrolling game having the player progressing through levels by collecting enough stars in previous levels. Not-Mario's reason behind going through the game is because he was approached by a secret organisation called the lizard army they hand Not-Mario powerful runes that grant him the ability to cast elemental magic, there are two kinds of runes, 'elemental' and 'form' the elemental runes dictate what type of attack the cast will be and the form runes dictate what form the attack will take for example qa grass elemental rune and a beam form rune will make a grass type laser be cast.
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