CryEngine 3 Demo

Can you imagine how awesome the tofu blocks in this would be?

Ovid and Game Theme Analysis

Ovid writes in an interesting literary time, essentially following the myth of Homer and other ancient cultures while paving the way for modern writing that forms our current culture. Much of Ovid's Metamorphoses is explanatory on the surface, explaining the origins of various flora, fauna and phenomena. Plant and animal origins are very common in the Metamorphoses, possibly always resulting from the transformation of a mortal. Often these mortals are being punished by the gods, as is the case with the sisters turned into bats by Bacchus or Arachne turning into a spider, but mortals also turn into animals and plants as a means of seeking sanctuary or refuge from the horrors around them. Many a girl is turned into a bear or laurel or frankincense within the pages of the Metamorphoses, sometimes with divine intervention and sometimes without. Tereus transforms into a bird out of pure grief from the horrible act he has inadvertently committed, showing that a deity's hand is not always necessary for these metamorphoses, even if they do have some indirect influence on how events play out. These origin stories are interesting because they explain how different elements of the natural world came to be, not unlike many ancient stories from many ancient cultures, but they are also deeply metaphorical, allowing their tortured subjects to escape human nature, either their own or others, but changing into something not human. The punishments, too, are always logical in how the victim is transformed, even if Ovid makes the point that the punishment was unjust. I definitely see some blending between older mythological narrative elements and more modern literary elements in Ovid's work; he always seems to have a sharper point right under the surface of his work, such as the nature of love, or the purpose of art within society. (Within the books there are multiple references to weaving and singing, some of the primary artistic mediums besides Ovid's own.)

Through affairs, rapes, acts of vengeance and jealousy, the gods portrayed in Ovid's text seem to do more to antagonize the mortals within the book than they do to help or benefit them. Ovid doesn't present this as being because of any in-born malicious intent, but instead as a result of their remarkably human emotions and characteristics (Juno's jealousy) and their vastly differing world-view. (Jupiter's entitlement issues) When Minerva weaves her tapestry in contest with Arachne, she presents a world of structure and order, whereas Arachne presents the gods raping the mortals in a horrendous scene. I would not at all be surprised if Ovid is presenting his view of the misunderstandings and struggles politically within Rome at the time. I feel that the class-struggle feeling of the mortals versus the not-so-divine divines is apparent enough that I would label in a resonant theme of Ovid's work, supported and unified by the many acts and plots performed and planned by the gods against the people. Again, however, this is not because of any innate evilness on the part of the gods, but instead due to their feelings and emotions, as well as their robust power which allows them to plot and then act upon these feelings.

The game Morrowind has a very interesting theme that I will analyze from the perspective of the lenses presented in Schell's book. Morrowind does a great job of presenting its theme in a resonant way by use of many physical aspects of the world it has built and also by using many cultural elements created through player interactions with the thousands of NPCs within the world.

What Morrowind does a better job of more than anything else is make the player feel like he or she is really within a foreign world and culture.

The most obvious way Morrowind achieves this sense of the exotic is through the many physical elements of the world. First and foremost, the actual landmass you explore is a massive volcanic island, something that is exotic to most players. Because of this volcano and the story's events, the areas nearer to the volcano, the “Ashlands” as they are called, are plagued by massive whirling blight storms that disease the inhabitants and obscures your vision as you attempt to travel through them. The Ashlands are also marked by large rock spire structures, not unlike stalagmite, but without an obvious formative cause. Throughout the more fertile areas of Morrowind the landscape is dotted with gigantic mushrooms often in places where trees would be, giving the world a very alien feel. The creatures too are often very strange, from the floating jellyfish-like Netch that are kept in fields and killed for their leather to the dog-sized Kwama that have entire hives and colonies with foragers, warriors and queens.

The architecture of Morrowind bridges the gap between the physical appearance of foreignness and the foreign cultural elements of the inhabitants. The indigenous architecture of Morrowind comes in several styles, in the southern delta buildings are made of a sort of adobe style in a flat, blocky style with roofs accessible via trapdoor. The large city of Vivec is made of a similar material, but it is divided into huge, multi-tiered quarters, each a massive building the size of a city block, sitting in the water of the southern coast and connected to each other with footbridges. This style is interesting because while it might have been influenced by african, Islamic, or Native American architecture, it's synthesized well enough to where the influence is not immediately apparent. In the northeast the buildings become even more alien, as the main structures are actually massive plants grown my mages and hollowed out. These tall, spiraling towers have a bulbous quality and from a distance seem to tangle together. The interiors are strange and seem to be coated in a amber substance. In another part of the country there's a building that is actually made out of the exoskeleton of a massive, prehistoric crablike creature, with smaller rooms and living spaces built within. In addition to these and many other types of strange structures, Morrowind is part of the larger empire of Tamriel and as such, even though it's a backwater province, is home to many colonial influenced Imperial towns. These are filled with architecture that is very familiar to the average player, cottages, inns and castles, mostly, and they serve to ground the game in the traditional fantasy genre. They also provide a great source of contrast to Morrowind's intense culture, both in the style of their architecture, and in the inevitable cultural conflict that arises when these foreigners meet natives.

Morrowind's culture is sharply defined from the very beginning as being quite different from the player's own. The native people are the dark elves, their ashy skin reflecting their volcanic homeland, and they are notoriously xenophobic within the game's lore, most likely because of their geographic isolation. The player arrives to the country by boat, and is allowed to choose his or her race when creating a character, including the option of playing as a dark elf. No matter what the player chooses, however, the locals will always refer to him or her as “outlander”, your status determined not only by your race, but also by your implied mannerisms that characters inevitably pick up on. (I think if there was one thing I would want from this game, it would be that as the player replays the game and becomes more familiar with Morrowind's culture and politics, they could prove themselves through conversation and gain favor in that way) This sense of isolation is reinforced by the multitudes of culturally-specific references to politics, important people, institutions, language and religion that permeate the game. Most of this is either eventually explained to you or can be learned through independent study with the many books scattered throughout the game. Still, the sheer mass of information on top of the strangeness of the world around you make Morrowind quite an experience.

Game Design Assignment 2: Design Game Play Using Primitives

To post what I said in class...

The game idea is to play as Perseus during his rescue of fair maiden Andromeda. Neptune's sea monster stands between you and your goal. You must slay the beast.

Ideally the character would fly around said sea monster attacking it with his scimitar. After hitting certain sweet spots a certain number of times, sea monster dies. The sea monster would fight back by a number of possibilities...most likely being physical attacks and breath attacks. Giant waves would be another possibility, but I'm not sure if thats feasible.

Player wins after claiming Andromeda. A counter would need to keep track of the time required to finish in order to keep a 'high scores' table.

Possible scripts would be flight physics and attacking scripts for both monster and player. The monster would also need to able to move around somewhat intelligently.

Game Ideas from Metamorphoses

Python

My first game idea is derived from the incredibly short story Python in Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which the god Apollo destroys the newly-created python by shooting him with his bow. From his black wounds, “venom oozed.”

This by itself is enough to set up the conflict for a really epic game scenario if we can add some suitable mechanics. The gameplay style I've chosen would work well for a simple, bare-bones arcade style game with a scoring mechanic for replayability, or as a boss fight section as part of a much larger game with different gameplay mechanics, so as to break up the tempo and action. Because of this, I haven't added any story other than what was set forth in Python by Ovid.

My game also takes inspiration from one of the earliest programmed computer games, one that now has variants on almost every type of hardware imaginable. Snake. With Snake you control a little blocky line (the “snake”) that is traveling at a fixed rate. You can only turn the snake left or right 90 degrees from the direction it is currently facing. Through a series of well-timed turns, you can navigate the snake around the map towards 'food' objects which make the snake grow in length. This gets you points, but eventually the snakes tail starts to get in the way of his head. If the snake crashes into himself or into a wall, he dies.

My idea is to radically update this formula into a fully-3d space, and have the player control Apollo as he flies through the world at a fixed speed and have the python trailing after him at a fixed rate as well. The player have a variety of methods available to dispatch the massive beast, most of which related to the tangling nature of the gameplay. Apollo could shoot arrows and different marked spots on the pythons body, forcing the player to line up the shots while avoiding the snake's mouth. Another way to damage the snake would be to trick him into running into his own body, biting himself as Apollo flies away unharmed. When the snake is injured, a liquid pillar of black venom would gush from the wound, harming Apollo if he doesn't avoid it.

Because the player will need to navigate in three dimensions as well as aim and keep track of a large snake stalking him, this game would be best suited for the PC or perhaps the Wii with precise aiming options. Standard consoles and other platforms could be accommodated with slight gameplay changes.

Chariot of Fire

Phaethon's chariot ride is an obvious story upon which to base a game, and there are many directions it can be taken. I decided to make the focus on the many exciting sights and experiences described in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

The game would be a 'single-player racing game' of sorts, in which the player would control the chariot with Phaethon aboard, but there would be nothing to race against per se. Instead the player would travel along a preset, semi-visible 'track', about four or five times the width of the chariot it self. The track would stretch from the skies of ancient Rome, winding through many sights and vistas before rising slowing above the entire world, traveling through the constellations and then veering off-course and into many more heavenly destinations. The chariot would travel along this track automatically, the player moving the chariot from left to right within the track's width, and choosing when to speed up and slow down in short bursts before resuming the normal speed. The game still has the feel of being 'on-rails' however. As the chariot travels along the track, the player is rewarded with new sights and events, but also must dodge obstacles and ornery characters. Flying through the Roman skies harpies may attack you, and while in the heavens expect to be charged by Taurus. The longer the player can ride the chariot of fire, the more new scenery he will encounter, as it changes often throughout the trip. The action would hopefully have a somewhat relaxed but engaging feel, collectibles seem a must to add replayability and unlockables. Perhaps pieces of “stardust” you could click or tap on to collect, then throw to trigger secret events?

A strong focus on a stylized and cohesive graphical style would be necessary, as the graphics are one of the central draws and rewards of the game, but the stylization is necessary to make them memorable and more portable to more casual platforms such as lower-end PCs and iPhone / iPad. Ideally all controls could be easily achieved with dragging and tapping motions.

Seeds of Power

I've adapted the story of Cadmus and the Earthborn People into a real-time strategy game instead of a action-oriented combat title.

In this game you would be tasked with building up your city, civilization and army in order to either complete an objective in a campaign mode or defeat your opponent on a quick-play or multiplayer mode, in this way very similar to other RTS's.

Here it is the actual mechanics that are inspired by the story of Cadmus. The actual events of Cadmus will work for a single scenario in the game, and I will use that as an example to describe the game.

The player will start from a pulled out isometric perspective, with only a single Hero unit available to control, in this case Cadmus. Throughout the world there will be various places to collect any of the four elements: earth, wind, water and fire. Only hero units will be able to collect and store these elements, which can then be mixed on a 2x2 grid in order to form new objects. For example, regular villagers can be created by mixing 1 fire and 1 water in order to create seeds for humans. Cadmus will have to farm a small plot of land himself, plant the seeds and wait for people to sprout up. Now the player can control the villagers and make them plow more land, collect resources such as wood or seeds, and grow food and build buildings. This will free up Cadmus to collect elements or use his heroic strength to fight mythical monsters lurking in much of the woods surround the village. When Cadmus meets a serpent monster and defeats him, the monster will drop teeth which Cadmus can bring back to the village and plant in order to grow soldiers. The player can then use these soldiers to kill more beasts to collect more soldiers that differ in type depending on where they are harvested. For example, soldiers grown from the serpent may be able to poison enemies.

As player creates more buildings and fields and his units to grow and progress, the player will discover more possible combinations of the four elements to create more objects and powers to aid him during the game. Elements may be found in the environment or created by divine intervention. For example, if the player needs more of the fire element, he could make a sacrifice to Jupiter who might send down a lightning bolt, setting trees on fire and creating fire collectible by your hero units.

This game would really work the best as a PC game, but if it were implemented as a simpler RTS with a focus on less units that are stronger and more robust it could work on the Wii or the iPad.

Journey to Pluto

Journey to Pluto would be a character-based third person puzzle game starring the duo of Echo and Narcissus. They are on a quest to journey to the underworld and ask Pluto to cure their respective curses. The game would have dark and creepy aesthetic style, but would be lighthearted enough for a casual puzzle game.

Narcissus and Echo would help each other navigate through various levels in the underworld, each one a dark and misty maze filled with creepy cerberi, monsters, and traps to be avoided. The player would switch between each character and use their respective powers to navigate through the maze and help each other navigate as well. Narcissus can switch places with his reflection in pools of water or mirrors placed throughout the level. Because he is now on the inside of the mirror, he can now walk off the edge of the mirror and reappear in another mirror or pool and then switch back into the real world.

Narcissus could then throw and switch or trigger that would allow Echo to pass into an area that she needs to get to. Echo could neutralize monsters with sonic attacks, such as sirens, by repeating said attack back at them. She could also work with Narcissus to repeat things he says from other points on the map in order to draw enemies away allow him to sneak past. Various other environmental elements would be introduced throughout the levels that both characters could interact with in different ways, increasing the complexity and difficulty of the levels as the player progresses.

Because the controls would be simple direction buttons with a character switch and interaction buttons, this game could work on almost all game platforms with 3D capability.

Untitled

One of the recurring themes of Ovid's Metamorphoses I believe is prevalent enough within these first three books that it cannot be ignored as inspiration for a game. That is the idea of a virgin being relentlessly pursued by a male deity. Incorporating this into a game in a tasteful and marketable manner is the main challenge here, however. Instead of handling the issue directly I think it would be best to make the conflict with the main character, a young girl (Virginia, of course), hiding from and beating up hordes of creepy god-men. This would be a simple beat-em-up type of game in which the objective is to get past as many waves of classical deities as possible. Your character would have several transformative abilities which she would unlock as she progressed and could use for a set period of time before having to wait to use that ability again. A crow ability would allow her to fly past the many men and avoid them, while a cow ability would let her trample and gore them with reckless abandon. The tree transformation would hide her completely and she watches them pass by and howl in frustration.

The main way I would keep the game fun would be to make it so over-the-top and ridiculous that the player would have no choice to chuckle at the presentation, even if the subject matter is questionable.

Because of the action-oriented nature of the game, consoles would be a natural fit, using a gamepad would be the best way to control the combat.

Chris Moon - Assignment 3

Assignment 3

In Ovid's Metamorphoses the various books and tales are at times bound with forced or even perhaps clumsy transitions, however when one reviews the poems as a whole various themes become apparent. 

Foremost there seems to be a theme of suffering, oftentimes involving situations where the victim isn't necessarily at fault. For suffering in general almost every tale in the Metamorphoses involves someone being killed, tortured, raped, mutated or scorned. Perseus and Phineus is rife with the almost absurd slaughtering of both the guilty and innocent. In Procne and Philomela we see Philomela raped, and then Procne forced to grieve the false death of her sister. Procne then erupts into a rage upon discovering the truth wherein she slaughters her innocent child and feeds him to Tereus who in turn is transformed into a bird. Throughout the poems Jove continues to rape women whilst Juno transforms her now enemies into a variety of creatures. However at times this suffering is completely unwarranted such as in the tale of Actaeon who accidentally stumbled upon Diana only to be eaten by his own hunting dogs or the countless women who were tricked into sexual abuse. 

Another major theme in Metamorphoses is that of trickery. Often times the gods will disguise themselves as either human or even another god in order to either entrap or invoke punishment on someone. When Mercury offers an old man a cow if he is to remain silent regarding the theft of cows, only to turn around whilst disguised and offer the old man a bull and cow if he snitches on Mercury. The old man accepts the new offer and has his heart turned into flint. In The Contest of Arachne and Minerva Minerva disguises herself as an old woman declaring that Arachne should seek forgiveness for attempting to compete with Minerva in a weaving competition, however with Arachne rebukes the old woman's foolishness Minerva reveals herself to be the old woman. 

Ovid also often uses his poems to drastically exaggerate human reaction to various situations, especially those of carnal lust, rage and fear. Emotions are left to run wild and unchecked. Mere infatuation often leads to rape. Frustration or jealousy leads to murder or permanent disfigurement either in the form of transformation or mutilation. Fear leads to drastic measures of escape. Constantly Jove and other male gods, at the mere glimpse of an attractive woman, desire instant gratification through rape. What would normally be a progression of situations that adhere to the moral constructs of society, is left to only non-consensual moments. Likewise frustration or jealousy, which are often expressed in forms of revenge or violence and drawn out to their furthest extent. Juno in reaction to her husband’s deceit turns Io into a cow, who is only freed by the murder of her captor Argus. As mentioned earlier Perseus, after freeing Andromeda, engages Phineus in contest which breaks out into a mass butchering at a wedding party. 

In regards to Schell’s lenses of unification and resonance Ovid seems to paint the same image or express the same cause and effect repeatedly but in different shades. Perhaps instead of Jove we see Echo allow her lust to run amuck, yet both stories end in the attraction being harmed or rendered unobtainable. Instead of a hypocrite being transformed into a beast we witness a liar or boaster metamorphosed. Throughout the poems there is always a sense of looming destruction or mishap just around the corner. No positive is without negative. 

In regards to a viewing a game through Schell’s lenses of unification and resonance I feel that Demon’s Souls is a game that does a phenomenal job of driving home its core competencies of doom, hopelessness and despair. 

In respect to unification, Demon’s Souls truly seeks to reinforce its theme through every means possible. Artistically the game is set in a western style dungeon crawler style. Players must slink through settings such as wet pitch black castle dungeons to boiling and windingly confusing mines. Light is never abundant and much of the levels are shrouded in complete disorienting darkness. The levels are physically designed to demand patience and caution. Staircases are without rails, bridges are often weathered and prone to collapsing and a variety of traps have been laid from hot metal being poured from cauldrons at a smithy to tumbling walls in narrow corridors. Musically the game drones, haunts and swells depending on the scenario. Often the player is met with an eerie silence punctuated by the tinkling of distant metal or the echos of shrieks. Boss battles are often paired with gregorian choirs or drums of war. 

From an enemies standpoint this game is without “trash-mobs,” that is to say every enemy should be approached with the utmost care and rewarded your full attention. Enemies often have their own unique combat tactics and will adapt to the player’s reactions. A single false swipe, false block or miscalculated step spells out to death. Enemies are often much more powerful than the player and every time the player succeeds it is indeed a small victory. Boss mobs take the same theory and only compound it, causing hours to be spent into attempts to defeat them. 

The core game mechanics also reinforce the themes. The only currency in the game are demon’s souls which you only collect by striking down enemies. The armor and weapons found in the game, which itself is a rarity, cannot be sold or traded for souls. Finding a superior item in the game can be a godsend and any health or pickups should be treasured and used only when completely necessary. Death comes with a fierce repercussion. The player can be in either two forms; human or soul. As a human you have the ability to have max life which is a large advantage. However if you die you enter soul form, lose your body and are only allowed half health. And you’re going to die, a lot. If you die the entire level resets and you are sent back to the very beginning. There are no save points outside of clearing an entire level and defeating the final boss. Additionally if you die you lose all your demon’s souls, and have only one chance to find your body. If you die in the pursuit of your corpse your souls are gone, permanently. 

From a multiplayer standpoint a player is able to view the bloodstains of players currently in the same area. Touching a bloodstain provides a glimpse of the other player’s final moments and can aid a player in terms of warning them to approaching perils. 

In terms of resonance Demon’s Souls finds its glory in baptism by fire and the ability to truly master the elements. Initially one would question why anyone would desire to play this game and attempt to overcome its immense difficulty. Demon’s Souls is frustrating, time consuming and yet incredibly addicting. The game is never unfair and there is always a solution, you simply must weigh the situation and learn from your mistakes. The game is essentially training the player in a variety of combat situations. This isn’t a gung-ho hack and slash game, combat tactics must be heavily weighed and thought out, and a player must be willing to accept defeat at the hands of a skilled opponent. 

Demon’s Souls true sticking power is the way in which it embraces death. Death is the core component, and a player’s actions in death and life influence the game. Throughout the game a player can influence the world in either white or black shading. Acting humbly in life, choosing not to steal or murder and rather righteously earn one’s souls causes the soul-world to offer easier opponents, but decreased drop rates. Acting selfishly in life tilts the shading of the soul-world towards black and while rare items and souls have a higher drop rate, black shades, an enemy only present in black shading, are now present which cause almost every combat scenario to become absurdly difficult. Eventually the player gains the ability to enter other player’s games and either assist them in order to regain their body or kill them for their souls. 

Instinctually a new player has been taught through previous gaming experiences that as a game’s hero their power is unmatched which will eventually allow them to defeat the final opponent. Yet in Demon’s Souls you start off as a complete novice, both inside and outside the game. Your player is initially mocked and some NPC’s refuse to even speak with you. However as you progress, and you will only progress through gaining actual skill, you become revered. And although it sounds kitsch Demon’s Souls isn’t about guiding a hero, its about becoming one yourself, ten-thousand deaths be damned. 

Blog Assignment 3: The Question of Theme in Games and Ovidʼs Metamorphoses

Evaluation of Theme

In our text, Jesse Schell lists two steps dealing with unified theme.

• Step 1: Figure out what your theme is.
• Step 2: Use every means possible to reinforce that theme.

When examining The Metamorphoses, one will quickly realize how disjointed the organization of the story is. Stories start within a story, then move on to another story, only to jump back to that first story. Because of this mechanic (Ovid's style) it is more helpful to start with Step 2 and work backwards to find a theme.

One of the more common occurrences in Ovid's work is the act of rape. Frequently the acts are initiated by Jupiter, husband of the Goddess of Marriage. The two then generally play a cat and mouse game around the rape victim. For example in Book I, Jupiter rapes the nymph Io, but to hide his acts from Juno transforms his affair into a cow. Juno, being herself divine and no fool, uses cow-form Io as an object to extract a strange form of revenge on Jupiter. In the next book the cycle repeats with Jupiter raping Callisto after guising himself as his own daughter Diana.

The most 'comic' of the rape stories is that of Apollo and Daphne. In this case, Apollo is not really the guilty party, as he is simply acting on the will of Eros. The God of Love is guilty for mandating the rape, ending with Apollo groping the tree formerly known as Daphne.

So what theme can be extracted from the most frequently told story Ovid gives us? For a modern reader at least, the Gods seem to have been reversely casted, much more frequently being 'harbingers of doom' than 'divine consolation'. When the God of Love Eros essentially traps Apollo to performing the act of rape, the act farthest from true love, deep and meaningful questions need to be asked toward just how 'loving' Eros really is.

Furthermore, when Ovid moves toward telling more stories focused on humans rather than the gods, the unexpected happens. The story of Perseus involves our hero slaying beasts and men; how and why he goes about such things is questionable. Ovid almost makes Perseus the hero insignificant in that his greatest asset is not heroic at all-Perseus's greatest strength is Medusa's severed head. What is Perseus's greatest heroic achievement? Yes, he rescued Andromeda, but there were clearly exterior motives that led him there.

What possible theme could these stories be supporting? To me, the most basic theme of The Metamorphoses is that the being of a God does nothing to make one just, and that the being of a hero does nothing to make one heroic. Take the story of Actaeon and Diana - the mere mistake and misfortune of seeing the Virgin Goddess bathing warrants a transformation into a deer and death by Actaeon's own hunting dogs (man's best friend).

So what happens in Ovid's other stories? Juno places fault on Jupiter's rape victims rather than Jupiter himself. The acts of one man, Lycaon, warrant the destruction of the entire human civilization. Jupiter and Juno banter on about which gender enjoys sex more. The house of Cadmus is simply decimated by divine retribution. Minerva drives Arachne to suicide for creating a 'flawless' piece of art. Simply put, the Gods are not very Godly, and heroes are not very heroic.

But how does Ovid make all of this stick? I would say his primary tools are dark comedy and surprise. He uses resonance like a drum, just beating the same tune over and over. Zeus doesn't continually rape his victims by accident.

Evaluation of a Game's Theme

Possibly my favorite game of all time is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. When I was a kid back in the late 90's, it served as my favorite escape from the villainy of having an older brother. Understandably my understanding of the game has changed remarkably since then.

At the time, I liked the game for all of the prominent reasons. I though its graphics were unbelievable. The game's music stuck with me. I thought the Zora were awesome, I wished I could swim forever like them. Best of all, I liked the simple opportunity to explore an interesting world.

Let a decade pass and I still love the memory of playing this game. Now I realize that I loved this game because of how strong and resonant its theme is. Nearly every aspect of this game strongly contributes to the experience of being a hero. So in the end when our hero Link earns the title 'Hero of Time', it isn't corny in least. You earned that title.

The game starts off with Link sleeping in as a little kid. The setting is Kokiri Forest, an Eden typesetting populated by the Kokiri - forest elves eternally children. It quickly becomes aware that this is no perfect world, and further that Link doesn't belong to it. Our hero comes from the most humble of beginnings, that of an orphan in a foreign land.

Our hero is forced from both his adopted home and his friends and thrust into a big world (not unlike little hobbits having to leave The Shire). This sudden contrast from small hamlet to huge world transfers significance away from the player and toward Hyrule (the world). The player realizes at this moment the stakes of the game involve the setting rather than just the avatar. If Link loses, Hyrule loses.

While the game is not a true sandbox, it does have a very open feel to it. Especially when considering the game's age, the feeling of freedom generated is impressive. Locations are just far enough away from each other that they feel separate, that they each have their own sense of place. This vibe creates further motivation for the player to take great satisfaction in saving Hyrule.

Wrapped up into the story are some of the more traditional aspects of heroic tales. Cut scenes explain the origin of Hyrule being attributed to three goddesses, each leaving behind a piece of the powerful artifact known as the Triforce. This artifact is the center of conflict in our story- the bad guy wants it for evil, but Link to prevent evil. This back story is critical in the process of making a player care about the conflict.

So what is it exactly that makes this game tick? One thing that sticks out in mind is that all of the characters are remarkably memorable. This is achieved without dubbing- there is absolutely no voice acting in the game, save for one long drawn out evil laugh by Gannondorf (the evil guy). Going along with this aspect, each race encountered in the game is strongly linked to a specific location. When you see this ominous volcano off in the distance, you think about the Gorons that live there. Saving that volcano becomes the same as saving the Goron race.

One of the exciting game mechanics is the ability to move back and forth in time. Link can use his sword to swap between a youth and young adult. What resonates about this though is how well the world's changes in those years Link was away are implemented. The main city of the world lies broken and barren. Monsters fill peaceful pristine areas from Link's past. Who wouldn't want to be the hero to save Hyrule when you can see the 'before and after' of its fall into Gannondorf's domain?

Assignment Four

I plan on creating a labyrinth game based upon the multiple pursuits that occur throughout the first several books of the Metamorphoses. These could be between Arethusa and Alpheus, Apollo and Daphne, or several others. The game will involve hiding and running from the pursuer while also using stealth techniques. There may be the ability to create traps or to even subdue your attacker. The game could be either in the third or first person point-of-view with each having their own strengths and weaknesses. I will make use of AI scripts so that the pursuer will follow player in a realistic faction and follows its sight instead of knowing everything about the player’s location. The physics engine will need to be realistic in order to account for objects in the world to interact with. It will also make use of a script involving the lighting to account for the stealth aspects of the game.