U72: Difficulty & Structure of Gameplay

Difficulty:

Difficulty in games is something that determines how challenging a game is, or how difficult the challenges are. For example, if there is an enemy you need to destroy to collect a key off them to progress the level. Low difficulty could give the enemy low health so it can be killed quickly, or doesn't do as much damage to the player. Medium difficulty could give the enemy increased health, attacks that do more damage and give the enemy more abilities that the player has to watch out for.

In most games, difficulty can be changed to suit the player's style, if they are new to the game or are not very good players they can opt to have a low difficulty - making te challenges easier to accomplish according to their skill level. Veteran players, or players who may already be familiar with the game (From a prequel or playing several similiar types before) may increase the difficulty for a greater challenge, or so the game is not too easy, and thus boring.

Balance is also a primary component of games that has to be taken into consideration at all times, balance defines the 'learning' curve of a game, player skill progression, character development and increase in difficulty. Designers must take balance into account when developing a game to ensure it can stay enjoyable, but isn't boringly easy, or frustratingly difficult - Which diminishes gameplay value and enjoyment.
- For example, making a game too easy will offer no challenge, and challenges are the main component of a game, so with an easy challenge the game becomes boring.
- If a gamer will always strive to become better and stronger, making a game too difficult will block a player from becoming strong enough to overcome that challenge at an acceptable difficulty rating. Why would a player play a game if they can't even defeat a challenge that's too difficult? Only hardcore players would endure through it, which means most other aduiences will be pushed out which is bad for profit and popularity. Players would give up knowing they are putting in all that effort and getting no reward for it because they can't defeat the challenge.

Balancing a game can be done in a variety of ways, the main one employed by most games is an actual difficulty setting. For example you may select "Easy, Medium or Hard" modes as you play a game, this would affect things such as enemy health, enemy skill (Aiming skill, fighting efficienty etc) Some games even allow for the player to change the difficulty in mid-game such as Skyrim, Oblivion and Two Worlds II, The second way is to make the start of the game easy, player skill will most likely be low because of their unfamiliarty with the game and its mechanics. Players would progess through this and become attuned to its workings and gameplay, thus become better and smarter at the game, as a response, difficulty usually increases to reflect this - Presenting new challenges the player can attempt with their new skill sets - This keeps the game enjoyable, without being too hard nor too easy but keeping the player striving for better abilities, equipment or a progression of story line at a comfortable rate.

Some games of course break this for the pure sake of targetting a particular audience, for example the Dark Souls game is exceptionally anti-newb friendly and is very difficult to play, there are no difficulty settings and the difficulty progression remains high. This gives players a great challenge and would put off most casual gamers (Within the first 20 minutes there's a boss you cannot kill!) Dark Souls even brought out a version called "Prepare to die edition"

 



 

Structures of challenges:

There are three common ways of progressing a game, or providing play a means to travel from level to level, challenge to challenge. Although there are three main ways, they can all be included in the same game to add variety to how a player may progress through levels and challenges.

 

Linear Structure

- A linear structure defines a game where the play progresses from various levels in a straight forward fashion. Level 1 > Level 2 > Level 3, players can only progress forward and can never revisit a level they have already completed.

- Examples of games with a linear structure:

The Halo series all have linear structure, the player has a set series of levels that the player progresses through. Level 1, the player has X challenge to do (Capture an objective) which leads to Y challenge (Hold the objective for 5 minutes) Then level complete. The player then progresses to level 2.

 

 

 







U72: Gameplay Fundamentals

Task 1: Deconstruct a game level you have played and identify key elements of gameplay indicated above.Include screen shots or video clips to help when explaining.

Game to deconstruct - Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun.

Level - Capture hammerfest base

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Goals
Primary Goal - Destroy the enemy base
Secondary Goals
- Capture Hammerfest base to produce a force in order to attack the enemy base.
- Collect resources
- Build refineries, power plants and buildings to generate resources, power and units.
- Defend your construction Yard

Challenges
- The player starts with only a handful of units to take the base, these are finite and if they are destroyed the player will have to restart the level.
- The player has to use this handful of units to defeat enemy forces to recapture the bases, these can retaliate and overwhelm the player if they do not positon their troops correctly and don't take advantage of objects (Such as Oil barrels that can destroy units and blockades)
- When the base is recaptured, the player has to defend it from initial attack using the few troops still availible.
- The base is heavily damaged and can be easily destroyed, this also means the damaged power plants do not output enough power for buildings and defensive weapon turrets, which means the base is more vulnerable to being attacked. The player has to try repair everything and still keep the base intact.
- There is a finite number of starting resources and the player must spend these on generating more resources, buying units to protect the base and amassing a force.
- The enemy constantly produce new units to defend and assault your base, as well as reconstruct their own defenses, so the challenge lies within getting a stronger force at a faster speed and destroying the base to eliminate any chance of them recuperating.
- The Fog of War shrouds the map in blackness, the player has to move units into this fog of war to reveal it on screen and on the minimap. This means it will be difficult to generate strategies and requires a risk in sending units to scout the new area, which could be an ambush or a heavily fortified area.

Player Actions
- Can select individual or multiple units to attack specified targets or buildings to destroy them.
- Players can select buildings to perform actions such as repair them, shut off their power (To divert to other buildings) and sell what structures you do not require, or if you need the resources from selling them.
- Use the UI panel on the right hand side of the screen to build units, buildings and research. Right click to stop, cancel and remove units, research and buildings from the build queue.
- Place buildings, walls, turrets and other structures down to access their functions via the UI panel.
- Can use explosive weaponry (Missiles, grenades, disc throwers) to destroy bridges to cut off enemy reinforcement, and send enemies on the bridge plunging into the water to destroy them easier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M9PEVO7FkA&feature=relmfu
The above video's opening seconds show this tactic being employed to sink an enemy infantry man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onxcs3is1ck&feature=related
This shows a quick video of the UI panel, on how to build and place structures, queue units and unlocking the tech tree (Building & placing Structure X, will unlock structures Y and Z, for example)

- Ctrl+Left click. When units are selected, this can be used to "Target the floor" meaning units will fire at the spot
Rewards
- Completing the main goal allows the player to complete the mission and progress through the campaign to other missions.
- Completeing some of the secondary goals unlock the primary goal (Taking over the base to attack the enemy)
- Destroying certain units/objects can unlock additional units to make taking the base much easier.
- Generating resources, destroying enemy units and structures, protecting your own structures and other similiar accomplishments increase your score and stats in the debriefing screen.
Game Mechanics
- Fog of War, is a game mechanic that restricts vision so tactical decisions on how to approach or explore an area must be considered.


As you can see, the map is black until the units approach
The blackness, it is likewise revealed on the minimap.

- The level & camera border is also a mechanic that stops the player from placing structures and units outside of the map. It also means there's a limit on the amount of resources available, as well as a build limit.

- Terrain is a mechanic that limits player actions and forces them to change their tactics to accomodate the effects of terrain. For example. cliff edges, hill slopes and the resources (The green Tiberium on the floor) restrict placing structures and buildings. Tiberium & vines can slowly kill infantry that move across it and the vines can, over time destroy vehicles. Water will stop any non-flying, non-amphibious units from moving through it, and ice can be destroyed to sink units on it, heavy vehicles also fall through ice and are destroyed. These force the player to maneuver their units stretgically through the safest possible route, or provide a risk if a player needs to get units A through dangerous terrain, to area B in cases of urgency.

This image shows two things, firstly how the terrain forced the Nod vehicles (Red) to traverse the bridge, whereas the MLRS (Yellow flying vehicles) are floating across it easily, as you can see the bridge is being destroyed and the resulting carnage forces them to plunge into the water to be destroyed, this is a way how terrain can limit the way you move your forces.



- Power is another game mechanic that players have to keep in check to keep their base functioning. The player needs to construct power plants to provide power to their buildings, without power, the building's functions will not work (E.g. Turrets will not fire, radar dish will not show the minimap). Damaging a power plant will lower its power output, meaning less power available to provide for the base. Players will need to provide power, and defend their plants to keep their base from being destroyed in its vulnerable state.



 This is the power bar, the red potion indicates how much power is being used. The yellow and green bars represent excess energy, bot currently being used. Yellow means a low amount of excess, it is a sort of 'danger' signal, if you're in the yellow power bar ONLY, then you are likely to use more power than you generate when you build more structures. Green means there is a surplus of energy, and that you are less likely to power down when placing new structures.














- The resource, Tiberium, is the most important mechanic in the game. This resource system is used for everything from purchasing units, to spending resources to build structures, turrets and repairing structures. Players will primarily fight over collecting this "Tiberium" to produce more units, larger bases and gain an advantage over their enemies.

The green particles you can see to the north-east and southwest. Units called "Harvesters" have to collect these and refine it in order to produce money to spend as a resource.