https://conor-p4.itch.io/tutorial-top-down-shooter
Teens are overwhelmed, partly because they don’t yet have the skills to manage the unprecedented amount of stuff that enters their brains each day. – from LifeHacker.com
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
“You can do anything, but not everything.”
― David Allen, (GTD) Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World
You are going to learn to develop your own version of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) process in this ‘room.’
Paper and pen or pencil is what I use because I can constantly have it physically in front of me, and can take it with me if I want. I don’t think a GTD system using my phone or computer would work for me, because that would mean my GTD system is within something else, and not its own dedicated object. I specifically use notecards, as I have a stack of hundreds of blank notecards on my desk, making it very accessible.
| Formal Elements | _______________________________________ |
| The Basics | REMINDER: PLACE YOUR RESPONSES IN THIS COLUMN (DELETE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE YOU WRITE) |
| Name of the game | South Park: The Stick of Truth |
| The platform | I played the game on PC, but I believe it’s also available on Xbox and Playstation |
| Time played (should be at least 30 minutes) | 12 hours |
| If you could work on this game (change it), what would you change and why? | Make the tutorial a little more in-depth. There were really important things that I learned about the game halfway through playing it |
| Players | NOTES |
| How many players are supported? | 1 |
| Does it need to be an exact number? | Yes |
| How does this affect play? | It’s the only option that makes sense for this game |
| Some types of player frameworks:Single Player – like Solitare.Head-to-head – 1 vs. 1, Chess.PvE – Player vs. Environment, or multiple players vs. the game. Common in MMOs like World of Warcraft.One against Many – Single-player vs. multiple (obvy).Free-for-all – Every man for himself (1 vs. 1 vs. 1 vs. 1..). Most common for multiplayer games, from Monopoly to Modern Warfare.Individuals Against the System – Like Blackjack, where the Dealer is playing against multiple players, but those players have no effect on each other.Team Competition – Multiple vs. multiple, i.e. sports.Predator-prey – Players form a circle and everyone’s goal is to attack the player on their left and defend themselves from the player on their right.Five-pointed Star – Eliminate both players who are not on either side of you. | Single Player PvE |
| Objectives/Goals | NOTES |
| What are the players trying to do? | The goal of the main storyline is to get the Stick of Truth for your faction, and stop the government from nuking South Park. |
| Some common objectives include:Capture/Destroy – Eliminate all your opponents pieces (Chess).Territorial Acquisition – Control as much territory as you can, not necessarily harming other players (RISK).Collection – Collect a certain number of objects throughout the game (Pokemon).Solve – Solve a puzzle or crime (Clue).Chase/race/escape – Anything where you are running towards or away from something (playground game Tag).Spatial Alignment – Anything involving the positioning of elements (Tetris or Tic-Tac-Toe or that game at Cracker Barrel).Build – Advance your characters or build your resources to a certain point (The Sims).Negation of another goal – The game ends if you perform an act that is forbidden by the rules (Jenga or Twister). | |
| Rules/Mechanics | |
| There are three categories of (what the book Rules of Play calls) operational rules:Setup – the things you do at the beginning of a game.Progression of Play – what happens during the game.Resolution – How an outcome is determined based on the game state. | |
| Controls | NOTES |
| What controls are used? | M+KB for PC |
| Was there a clear introductory tutorial? | Yes (but it’s too quick and basic) |
| Were they easy to understand or did you find yourself spamming the controller? | The general gameplay is pretty easy to understand |
| Resources & Resource Management | NOTES |
| What kinds of resources do players control? | The player character has certain gear and weapons that effect gameplay. You can also use class specific abilities, “Magic” (special kinds of farts), consumables that effect your stats in combat, and a companion that you fight with that has fixed gear and abilities. |
| How are they maintained during play? | In combat you maintain your resources by using consumables, and using other moves directed to keep you fighting. You maintain your consumables and get new gear, money, abilities and items by looting defeated enemies and things in the environment. |
| What is their role? | The progression of the different resources you control makes your character more powerful, in order to fight more difficult enemies as the game progresses. |
| A resource is everything under the control of a single player. Could be the money in Monopoly or health in WoW. Other examples are:Territory in RISK The number of questions remaining in 20 Questions Objects picked up during videogames (guns, health packs, etc.)Time (game time, real-time, or both)Known information (like suspects in Clue) | |
| Game State | NOTES |
| How much information in the game state is visible to the player? | All of the information about the player themselves is relevant to them. Some information about the enemies is restricted, like the moves they can use and their effects, but most of the non-player information is available. |
| A snapshot of the game at a single point is the game state. The resources you have, the un-owned properties in Monopoly, your opponent’s Archery skill all count towards the game state. Some example information structures are:Total Information – Nothing is hidden, like Chess.Info per player – Your hand of cards is only visible to you.One player has privileged info – Like a Dungeon Master.The game hides info from all players – Like Clue, where no one knows the victory condition.Fog of War – In video games, where certain sections of the map are concealed if you do not have a unit in sight range of that area. You also cannot see other players’ screens, so each player is unaware of the other’s information. | |
| Sequencing | NOTES |
| In what order do players take their actions? | combat is turn based, with each side having a turn, an then everyone on the other side having a turn. Before entering combat, the player can stun some enemy AI with their ranged weapon, and if you hit the enemy first before entering combat, you get the first turn. |
| How does play flow from one action to another? | The player uses their actions until they run out, then they defend from enemy attacks, and the cycle continues until you win or lose. |
| Some structures include:Turn-based – Standard board game technique.Turn-based with simultaneous play – where everyone takes their turn at the same time (like writing something down or putting a card down in War).Real-time – Actions happen as fast as players can make them. Action-based video games.Turn-based and time limits – You have this long to take your turn. | Turn-based |
| Player Interaction | |
| Some examples:Direct Conflict – I attack you.Negotiation – If you support me here, I’ll help you there.Trading – I’ll give you this for that.Information Sharing – If you go there, I’m warning you, a trap will go off. | Direct Conflict for the most part |
| Theme & Narrative | NOTES |
| Does it have an actual story structure? | Yes |
| Is it based on a historical event (or similar)? | Some side quests are based off of, or continuations of things from episodes, but it’s mostly a standalone story |
| Does the theme or narrative help you know how to play? | Not much with combat, but it does help you progress through the game |
| Does it have emotional impacts? | The game is meant to be comedic |
| Also, look for en media res (does it start in the middle of the game)? | No |
| The Elements in Motion | NOTES |
| How do the different elements interact? | The player progresses through the story in an open world, having it available whenever they decide. When you get to certain points some things happen that you can’t control, and you have to play through them. When you meet enemies in the open world, you switch to the combat screen once they hit you or you hit them. |
| What is the gameplay like? | The heart of the gameplay is the story. The game feels like an interactive episode of South Park, and the developers did a really good job with it, |
| Is it effective? | Yes. The fact that it’s a game feels like a bonus, because it does all of the great things that the show does with jokes and storytelling that the show does, while creating fairly simplistic and enjoyable combat and interaction. |
| Are there any points where the design choices break down? | No |
| Design Critique | NOTES |
| Why did the designer make these particular choices? | To make the game that any South Park fan will enjoy playing. |
| Why this set of resources? | Every resource in the game is something that exists in the South Park show, or that would exist in it |
| What if they made different decisions? | I can’t picture the game with different decisions being made |
| Does the design break down at any point? | No |
| Graphics & Sound | NOTES |
| Does the game art pair well with the mechanics? | Yes. The art style is the same used in the show, and the game is made in perfect parallel to the show. |
| Did you find any bugs or glitches? | None in my playthrough. |
| What about sound? | Again, same as the show. It would have felt wrong if it was different |
| Can you spot any technical shortcuts? | I didn’t spot any |
| Various Stages of the Game | NOTES |
| To wrap up, some things to keep in mind (as if there aren’t enough already) as you play: | |
| What challenges do you face, and how do you overcome them? | |
| Is the game fair? | Yes. The difficulty is fairly low, but high enough that there are some parts you’ll have to replay multiple times. |
| Is it replayable? Are there multiple paths to victory or optional rules that can change the experience? | Yes, but there are only enough story paths to make a second playthrough interesting |
| What is the intended audience? | South Park viewers |
| What is the core, the one thing you do over and over, and is it fun? | The story, and it’s a very fun story |
This analysis form was adapted from https://notlaura.com/a-template-for-analyzing-game-design/
“Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner” by classic film scans is licensed under CC BY 2.0
“Analysis gave me great freedom of emotions and fantastic confidence. I felt I had served my time as a puppet.”
| Formal Elements | ____________________________________ |
| The Basics | You are in control of a galactic empire, starting out on one home planet or within a home star system |
| Name of the game | Stellaris |
| The platform | PC |
| Time played (should be at least 30 minutes) | 5 hours |
| If you could work on this game (change it), what would you change and why? | I don’t think I’ve played the game enough to say anything too in depth about changes I would make. Maybe make the options for buildings on planets more diverse. I felt like there was only one or two different buildings to preform each function, which seemed out of place in a game with this much room for creativity. |
| Players | This game is mostly built around playing against AI, but Multiplayer is available. You would be either playing with friends, or would have to join a Stellaris PvP Discord server, as there is no in-game matchmaking. |
| How many players are supported? | Up to 32 in Multiplayer (but I’m sure that rarely ever happens). |
| Does it need to be an exact number? | No |
| How does this affect play? | The game is mostly single player oriented, as the developers knew the majority of players would not be playing multiplayer. |
| Some types of player frameworks:Single Player – like Solitare.Head-to-head – 1 vs. 1, Chess.PvE – Player vs. Environment, or multiple players vs. the game. Common in MMOs like World of Warcraft.One against Many – Single-player vs. multiple (obvy).Free-for-all – Every man for himself (1 vs. 1 vs. 1 vs. 1..). Most common for multiplayer games, from Monopoly to Modern Warfare.Individuals Against the System – Like Blackjack, where the Dealer is playing against multiple players, but those players have no effect on each other.Team Competition – Multiple vs. multiple, i.e. sports.Predator-prey – Players form a circle and everyone’s goal is to attack the player on their left and defend themselves from the player on their right.Five-pointed Star – Eliminate both players who are not on either side of you. | Depending on how you and the AI make (or don’t make) alliances, it could be One against Many, or Team Competition, or Free for All. There are a variety of ways to play, and a variety of final goals to achieve. |
| Objectives/Goals | You win by either being the only faction left standing, or by having the highest score at the end of the game. You get the highest score in a variety of ways, generally being the territory owned by you or your subjects, your strength, the strength of your alliances, and your performance in crises (I had to look this up, as games take way longer than the time I had to play). |
| What are the players trying to do? | Claim, and conquest as many star systems and resources as possible, while creating colonies, a fleet, and buildings on your colonies to become as strong as possible. In the end you want yourself or your alliances to control everything by the end of the game. |
| Some common objectives include:Capture/Destroy – Eliminate all your opponents pieces (Chess).Territorial Acquisition – Control as much territory as you can, not necessarily harming other players (RISK).Collection – Collect a certain number of objects throughout the game (Pokemon).Solve – Solve a puzzle or crime (Clue).Chase/race/escape – Anything where you are running towards or away from something (playground game Tag).Spatial Alignment – Anything involving the positioning of elements (Tetris or Tic-Tac-Toe or that game at Cracker Barrel).Build – Advance your characters or build your resources to a certain point (The Sims).Negation of another goal – The game ends if you perform an act that is forbidden by the rules (Jenga or Twister). | Capture/Destroy, Territorial Acquisition, Collection and Build. |
| Rules/Mechanics | |
| There are three categories of (what the book Rules of Play calls) operational rules:Setup – the things you do at the beginning of a game.Progression of Play – what happens during the game.Resolution – How an outcome is determined based on the game state. | In the setup you work to claim as many empty star systems as possible before other empires can get to them. As the game progresses, certain empires will take over others and expand by force, eliminating the others. In the resolution, only one civilization is left, or one is strongest. |
| Controls | NOTES |
| What controls are used? | you look around the map by pushing the mouse to the sides of the screen. Most other controls come from clicking on the UI or objects in the game to interact with them. |
| Was there a clear introductory tutorial? | I played in tutorial mode, but I still had to learn a lot of the functions by myself. Tutorial mode just told you what things were the first time you clicked on them, not how you should proceed through the game. |
| Were they easy to understand or did you find yourself spamming the controller? | The controls were easy to understand, but it was hard to find all of the things you could, and should, control. |
| Resources & Resource Management | NOTES |
| What kinds of resources do players control? | There is a bar along the top that tells you how much of each resource you have, and how much of it you’re gaining or losing per month. They include Energy, Minerals, Food, Alloys, Influence and Consumer Goods. Other resources include pops (population) and ships. Ships include fighting or “Navy” ships, construction ships, science ships, colony ships and starbases. |
| How are they maintained during play? | They are either extracted from planets, moons, asteroids or stars that have them, or produced on a colony (technically your one home world isn’t a colony, but the same applies)0. |
| What is their role? | You need them to build stuff, maintain happiness among your citizens and to enact various policies. |
| A resource is everything under the control of a single player. Could be the money in Monopoly or health in WoW. Other examples are:Territory in RISK The number of questions remaining in 20 Questions Objects picked up during videogames (guns, health packs, etc.)Time (game time, real-time, or both)Known information (like suspects in Clue) | |
| Game State | NOTES |
| How much information in the game state is visible to the player? | All of it for the player specifically is visible, while information on the game state of the other space empires is limited based on diplomatic relations. |
| A snapshot of the game at a single point is the game state. The resources you have, the un-owned properties in Monopoly, your opponent’s Archery skill all count towards the game state. Some example information structures are:Total Information – Nothing is hidden, like Chess.Info per player – Your hand of cards is only visible to you.One player has privileged info – Like a Dungeon Master.The game hides info from all players – Like Clue, where no one knows the victory condition.Fog of War – In video games, where certain sections of the map are concealed if you do not have a unit in sight range of that area. You also cannot see other players’ screens, so each player is unaware of the other’s information. | Info per player and fog of war. |
| Sequencing | NOTES |
| In what order do players take their actions? | All players can make actions at the same time. |
| How does play flow from one action to another? | Time is a constant flow, unless the game is paused. You are not limited in the amount of actions you can take, unless those actions require resources that you don’t have. |
| Some structures include:Turn-based – Standard board game technique.Turn-based with simultaneous play – where everyone takes their turn at the same time (like writing something down or putting a card down in War).Real-time – Actions happen as fast as players can make them. Action-based video games.Turn-based and time limits – You have this long to take your turn. | Real-time actions. |
| Player Interaction | |
| Some examples:Direct Conflict – I attack you.Negotiation – If you support me here, I’ll help you there.Trading – I’ll give you this for that.Information Sharing – If you go there, I’m warning you, a trap will go off. | All of these are possible, except for Information Sharing with the AI (to a degree). |
| Theme & Narrative | NOTES |
| Does it have an actual story structure? | Every playable civilization has their own story, but after the game starts, there is no predetermined storyline. |
| Is it based on a historical event (or similar)? | No. It is set between 2200 and 2750 (but you can shorten the end date, or extend it infinitely). Earth is playable, but it has apparently changed a lot in 200 years. |
| Does the theme or narrative help you know how to play? | Not really. Every civilization is just beginning to expand into space at the start of the game. |
| Does it have emotional impacts? | Mostly no. It’s not meant to at least, although players may decide to do or not to do things for emotional reasons (but who has morals in a video game?) |
| Also, look for en media res (does it start in the middle of the game)? | No. |
| The Elements in Motion | NOTES |
| How do the different elements interact? | They generally create a continued expansion and exploration through space, which likely turns into conquest. The whole time you’re trying to manage problems on your different worlds, resources and diplomacy. |
| What is the gameplay like? | Most of the actual gameplay consists of building and managing, while combat is only occasional. I enjoy games like this, but to others it can be boring. |
| Is it effective? | I think it’s a well developed game for what it’s trying to do. I think it also flows better and feels better to play than a lot of other strategy games. |
| Are there any points where the design choices break down? | Not that I experienced, but I didn’t play the complete game. I usually am only definitive in how I feel about a game after about 30 – 50 hours playing it. |
| Design Critique | NOTES |
| Why did the designer make these particular choices? | I think most of the choices the designer made were made around the general theme of space, or the general theme of grand strategy. Paradox makes a lot of grand strategy games with a similar feel, with most of the differences having to do with the theme. |
| Why this set of resources? | Those would be the theoretical basic resources that the developers thought a space empire would use. |
| What if they made different decisions? | Certain small differences could have been made in the intricacies of play, but if you put a Paradox dev team in a room and tell them to make an outer space game, you’ll always get something very similar to this. The main difference would probably be the art style (which all of the art in this game is beautiful, very impressed with this aspect in particular of the game). |
| Does the design break down at any point? | Not that I’ve seen. Based on other reviews of the game, it can slow down significantly late game. |
| Graphics & Sound | NOTES |
| Does the game art pair well with the mechanics? | YES. The art is absolutely incredible, and it all works very well with the futuristic space theme. Usually art in Paradox games is so-so, but I was very pleasantly surprised with this game. |
| Did you find any bugs or glitches? | No. The game has been out for a while, so I imagine the dev team has fixed most of them. |
| What about sound? | The music is ok, but it all sounds similar. The sound effects are good but nothing special. |
| Can you spot any technical shortcuts? | Not yet. |
| Various Stages of the Game | NOTES |
| To wrap up, some things to keep in mind (as if there aren’t enough already) as you play: | You’ll probably have to kill everyone eventually. |
| What challenges do you face, and how do you overcome them? | Stagnation after all of the empty systems have been taken, which is solved by Military conquest. |
| Is the game fair? | I imagine you can get unlucky and get stuck in an unfair game, but it was quite manageable in the game that I played. |
| Is it replayable? Are there multiple paths to victory or optional rules that can change the experience? | Yes. There are lots of different civilizations you can play as, all with their own traits, backstory and ethics. You can choose to make the game take longer or shorter, or to make the galaxy larger or smaller. |
| What is the intended audience? | People with a lot of free time. Games take a long time. Also, people generally interested in strategy games would probably enjoy this game in some way. |
| What is the core, the one thing you do over and over, and is it fun? | Probably the process of taking over the galaxy in general, and all of the different random situations you’ll be put in to have to do it. |
This analysis form was adapted from https://notlaura.com/a-template-for-analyzing-game-design/
“The successful free to play games are selling positive emotions. Not content.” – Nicholas Lovell
“It should be the experience, that is touching. What I strive for is to make the person playing the game the director.” – Shigeru Miyamoto
Mechanics are the core components of any game. If a game is created with poorly designed mechanics, the effects will trickle down to the rest of the game. Mechanics with Dynamics and Aesthetics in mind will result in a more complete experience for those playing the game.
Dynamics are the experiences that we engage in from the mechanics. This is basically how things in the game interact with each other, and the player experiences those create in the moment. Games that don’t heavily rely on story (or aesthetics in general) need fun dynamics to stay engaging and fun to the player.
Aesthetics are the experiences the player engages in from the complete game. This can come from the story, art, music, dynamics, progression/ loot systems and many more. There are eight distinct types of aesthetics, and most good games use a combination of different aesthetics to create an enjoyable game for the player.
“‘Be shapeless and formless.. like water’ (Bruce Lee)” by Akinini.com is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
“Have a mind like water.”
― David Allen, GTD
When asked the most important thing I should teach my students, the MIT student I was interviewing simply stated , ‘ teach them logic.’ – Mr. Le Duc
“Day 092/366 – To Do List” by Great Beyond is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Your toughest work is defining what your work is! – Peter Drucker
In this ‘room’ you are going to try Getting Things Done (GTD).
Start steps 1 through 3 again, repeat for your school day
“I coach C-suite executives and rising stars from the earliest startups to Fortune 100 companies. My passion is to help ambitious leaders achieve their full human potential.” – Read more about Katia…