Reveiwing History...

Sometimes whilst playing our visually attractive and overly technical computer games, it is hard to remember where it all began. With modern titles releasing in greater numbers every year, each with new technologies, updated graphical interfaces and game play mechanics, are the games of past years forgotten?
For my next task in Critical Games studies I am to create a 'review' of sorts using all the terminology and knowledge in which I have been studying the past few weeks.

This is a draft for an essay which will be used to generate my final grade.
(I am currently not sure as to how good this essay is, it is my first time writing about and reviewing games in this way)

For this assignment I have chosen to review Donkey Kong.

When games were first computerised, designers and developers would have had a vast canvas of opportunities for game play mechanics, stunted only by technological limitations. As gaming was a relatively new concept, only explored via board games, some aspects used in early computer games were taken directly from non electronic games then expanded upon. A lot of other concepts were invented in this early time, concepts which were not possible in board games.

Originally games could be broken down into 5 elements of design, these were:
Interface - How the game interacts with the player
Rules - Restrictions on what the player can or cannot do
Goals - Objectives for the player to achieve
Entities - Objects in the game
Entity Manipulation - How the object is interacted with

These elements when used in board games are fixed and often will not vary throughout game play. When applied to computer games, there is the possibility for each of these elements to change as the game state can be changed as and when the designers see fit for optimal gaming experience. In Donkey Kong the rules will generally stay the same however as you progress new rules are added, giving the player a 'Hammer' ability and extra ways to score points. Although the goal will stay the same, the methodology to achieve the goal will vary dependant on the game state. Similar to the rules, the Entities in the game advance as the player does through the game, suddenly the way in which the player interacts with these objects changes dependant on strategies to achieve their goal. For example gaining or ignoring bonus objects, or deciding to avoid a barrel by jumping or climbing a ladder.

The actual game interface will also change as the player advances through the levels. This introduced new possibilities to game designers, described as 'Spatial Segmentation'.
Donkey Kong has been acclaimed one of the earliest 'Platform' games. Using various inspirations from film and television, Shigeru Miyamoto (lead games designer for 'DK') used cut scenes and animations to advance a simple plot. This meant that multiple screens could be included thus creating 'Levels'.
Levels were one of the many early inventions in gaming, along with Waves and Bosses, creating new game play divisions like this added new possibilities for games designers. As a player plays through the levels, the difficulty may increase thus extending game play time, or as Mega Man games explored, the player choosing the level, depending upon previous levels completed other may become easier to complete as new abilities are granted.

Donkey Kong, folowing a Ludus, rule bound style of play, pushed gaming to new bounds. The game could be argued as one of the many Nintendo games that made the term 'Nintendo Hard' a phrase used among gamers to express the immense difficulty of a level or wave in a game. This term can be broken down to denote one of the 8 terms in Leblancs Taxonomy that games designers will use to provoke an emotion from the player.
Donkey Kong successfully utilises Challenge. This makes the game re-playable as for only the most skilled players could use effective timing to overcome the final level of the game.

Donkey Kong has successfully utilised goals to create purposeful interactivity between the player and the game interface giving the player reason to continue in their attempts to complete the game. With the goal always achievable, the player must respond to the game state with snap decisions, for example to either jump or climb to avoid barrels or fire balls, in a struggle to reach the top of the level. Using this structure dictates how the player will attempt to complete the game as not only is timing required but the use of perceivable consequences of the players actions.

Back to basics game play concentrates less on the graphical interfaces for the player to focus on, but more on actual game play mechanics, or in simpler terms, how the game works. This means we can discover how the game is built up easier as there is less focus on the aesthetics involved in the game and more upon how the game is actually making play more engaging.

Refrences

Paul Brownlee, Nintendo Hard vs. Easier than Easy
from his blog 'Scramble Dash'
available online at:
http://www.scrambledash.net/?p=52


So hopefully this has covered enough criteria for a decent grade. As I write I feel as though I go off topic a lot so I appreciate any criticisms or guides upon where I could go with the final essay.

Otherwise thanks for listening =)

Ross, Out.