Jess Plays More Games :D
Steam decided to have a special Halloween sale full of
horror games just in time for me to buy, play and analyse them for my project.
Thanks, Steam! I bought 4 games, Anna (Dreampainters, 2012), Dark
Fall: Lost Souls (Darkling Room, 2009), Scratches:
The Directors Cut (Nucleosys, 2006) and finally the Penumbra Collectors Pack (Frictional Games, 2007). I played Penumbra:
Overture for
research/this post.
Jess Plays Dark Fall: Lost Souls &
Scratches!
I bought
these games on a total whim. I watched the short preview videos for them which
were on their Steam game profiles and I honestly never realised they were point
and click games *facepalm*. In other words,
nothing like the gameplay we want! I had bought them though and wanted to try
them out for the good of the research. Unlike my previous “Jess Plays” posts,
these will be mainly focused around gameplay as that is my key area of focus.
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Dark Fall: Lost Souls is an point & click horror
adventure game with amazing sound design and clever mechanics to send shivers
down your spine. When playing it I was on the edge of my seat and it was only
because I had a short amount of time to play and take notes that I couldn’t
continue further.
I will admit that the point & click mechanic of the
game confused me at first (it was my first try playing a P&C game) and
there were times I felt frustrated that I wasn’t able to just move around
freely. The atmosphere was still there though, I still felt like I was playing
a horror game.
Point and click core mechanic.
Point and click to select an area
which the game suggests is movable so that you can move yourself over to this
area.
First person perspective.
Pointed finger suggests you can move
left or right by moving the mouse to the appropriate areas of the screen.
Magnifying glass means that you can
investigate objects you are highlighting further.
There are puzzles to solve.
The camera is clever, when you move
round in a circle (by continuously selecting the left/right side of the screen)
the perspective moves slowly at first then suddenly jolts into position as if
you have turned around slowly but then felt scared and turned faster to see
what is behind you. This adds a lot of tension.
Scratches: Directors Cut
Scratches is an point & click horror adventure game
set in creepy mansion grounds that you are visiting. The game is told to you in
small pieces of information that you find as you go around the house exploring,
clicking your little fingers away at interesting objects.
Yes, its another P&C game which I just bought because it looked cool
until I realised this very point. Please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing
against P&C games and in fact both this and Dark Fall scared me and made me
feel nervous to explore just like modern horror games such as Amnesia which is
really interesting. What is bad is that they don’t reflect the type of gameplay
we want in our game. I discussed this with my group and Stacey advised me to
blog them anyway because it shows good depth to our research and I agree, it
shows that even mistakes can be helpful! And these really were.
Move mouse to select areas on the
screen that are of interest.
The screen glides left to right when
to replicate how a person would look around.
Point & click.
A hand is your cursor and it changes
shape to indicate where you can and cant go (i.e. it will point in directions
the player can proceed to follow).
Right click brings up your inventory,
you can then double click items to use, right click to return to game with that
item and if that item is usable it will glow.
On screen text.
There are some items which spawn
speech such as when the telephone rang and I clicked to pick it up and enter a
conversation.
It is of course in a first person
perspective.
If your hand is a clenched fist it
means there is nothing to click on and activate. A pointed finger means you can
“go back” and return to the room from investigating. Open hand means that you
can activate/pick up items and a magnifying glass shows you that there is more
to be learnt about this object.
Click on an item to load new areas.
The player can click to find and read
notes themselves.
There is no UI, only what you see
through your screen (I was very early on in the game, this might have changed
had I carried on).
Conclusion Part 1
Both these games were right on the mark for horror
games, I felt dread as I explored, anxious as I turned every corner and scared
to carry on. Everything you want in a horror game and lets not forget I was
only playing these games for roughly 40 minutes each. All those emotions, in an
point and click game, in the opening chapters is fantastic. It draws the player
in and sets the scene. While we know we don’t want out game to have point and
click core mechanics, we can take a lot from item finding and PC horror
controls which will help such as how we can communicate to the player where
they need to interact with items and show them that an item is helpful in some
way whilst not making is totally obvious.
Jess Plays Anna and Penumbra: Overture!
I have heard good things about both these games so I
really needed to research them for my project. Both horror adventure games with
survival elements (Penumbra more so) they proved incredibly helpful for me as I
am in the final stages of writing up our gameplay mechanics. Penumbra is
actually made by the same people who made Amnesia (one of our key influences if
you hadn’t already guessed) and I can see the similarities even from only
having played the game for half an hour.
Anna was
incredibly puzzle based and I didn’t actually make it past the first door (I
ran out of time as a result of writing notes and trying to figure out the
puzzle both on a limited time frame) but
the controls influenced me a lot so it wasn’t a waste!
Anna
Anna uses standard and common W - S -
A - D keyboard controls. W moves you forward, A moves you left, S moves you
backwards and D moves you right.
You left click the mouse to examine
objects and items.
There is a red aiming reticule which
is visible when there are objects to be interacted with.
Small hand icon appears on the screen
to show that I could go through the door, the door is obviously important and
interactive.
Middle mouse button click for the
inventory.
Left click an item from the inventory
to use it in game.
Right click on objects which can be
opened and pull or push with the mouse to activate them.
Aiming your vision towards something
you think is important and the game will tell you what that item is, even if
its not really integral to the game.
Penumbra: Overture
The inventory system is bought up by
pressing the tab button and is presented in tile form with various objects
taking up 1 tile. Items could be assigned to number keys by clicking and
dragging.
Health is presented by the small
silhouette of the man on the left of the screen outlined in bright green. He
moves position when you’re hit and losing health to indicate how bad you are.
When hovering the mouse over the image there is on screen in game text which
tells you how badly injured you are but there is no definitive “hit point”
system.
When hit by an enemy the screen pulses
red and you hear your heartbeat. When you're this badly hurt you health will re
generate to a certain amount so that the pulsing red screen does not annoy you.
It’s just an indication of how close to death you became and are getting.
When you die there is a game over
screen with a simple continue or quit option presented to the player which
is clickable by them.
There is a difficulty choice at the
start.
There are static image cut scenes at
the start with voice over's to begin the story.
The game gives an instant tutorial in
a safe environment (much like our safe museum section) where it establishes
control with the player; left mouse
click to pick up and right mouse click to look at objects and points of
interest/significance.
A pointed finger icon appears when the
player can interact with an object; important or not.
There is an eye icon when you can
investigate an area or object further.
Use the left mouse click to pick up
the item (from the pointed finger stage) and then use the mouse to move that
object where you like.
W - S - A - D controls, forward, let
right and back.
To use doors or set pieces that can
open, left click them and then push or pull with the mouse.
The “G” key is a shortcut for the glow
torch in case you run out of batteries in your torch.
Hit left CRTL to toggle crouch, when
crouched you can restore your night vision (nothing fancy or supernatural, just
get better ability to see in the dark as your calm and getting used to it).
This is signified by a blue tint on the screen.
By pressing “Q” or “E” you can peek around corners to scope out your path
and check for enemies.
If an item is important to the game it
will glow.
The blue tint on the screen also suggests that you are
hidden from enemies which is helpful if your hiding place isn't very good.
You are also told not to stare at enemies as this makes
you panic and causes you to be more obvious.
Clicking on certain items will cause flashbacks and
reveal parts of the story.
When a monster is near by or knows you are around there
is a musical cue, this music is very unsettling and scary.
Conclusion Part 2
Anna and Penumbra have core gameplay mechanics that are
much more alike to our own thoughts and ideas and this research and testing has
really helped me solidify my ideas for the gameplay mechanic designs. The notes
I have taken have been far more gameplay related which has helped a lot. The
core mechanics of both these games are all similar to the ones we want to use
for our game so ultimately I feel really good about where our design is heading
knowing that I have done a lot of first hand research so that it can be
perfected.
