State of Decay 2 Is Decent: We’re Addicted to Mediocracy

This video essay will be on what I believe to be a topic of great significance, the state of video games and more specifically, why the industry has constantly produced fairly mediocre games in the past decade and have still managed to attract fans. The topic came to the forefront of my mind on the Sunday before Memorial Day, I was playing State of Decay 2 and hanging out with my friends. My friend then asks me, “is State of Decay 2 any good?”, usually to this question I would simply reply “Yes”, but this time I felt incentivized to say “It’s decent.” On the surface, it seems like nothing, just a different response than normal, but this response never left my mind, and then I realized what I was actually saying. That State of Decay 2 is a good game from a gameplay standpoint and can provide hours of fun, but it is certainly rough around the edges and thus cannot be considered a great game like those independent developers have spoiled us in recent years (Hades, anyone?)

SCRIPT:

When my friend saw me wasting away my weekend on State of Decay 2, he asked if it was any good, I replied “It’s decent.”  Not something all that peculiar, but after hanging out with him I gave this response some thought and realized what I was saying, that State of Decay 2, albeit, fun for hours with an addicting gameplay loop and a boatload of content, is very rough around the edges, and thus made me ultimately think of it as mediocre. I then thought about this more and realized the same can and should be said for the majority of video games being played right now. The recent Call of Duty games are a great example, Borderlands 3, Dead by Daylight, Fortnite, and many other games also help prove my point. So the question is, why are gamers, myself included, hooked on objectively average games, especially when we could be playing something better, and for a fraction of the price in most cases? To answer this question, this video essay will have two parts to it, in part one I will briefly analyze State of Decay 2, revealing what makes the game nothing but average, in part two I will use the information in part one to conceive possible answers to this question.

PART I: State of Decay 2 Analysis

 

Part II: Why The Average Caught The Eyes Of Many

 

VIDEO ESSAY:

 

Risk of Rain 2 Analysis 2021-22

Game: Risk Of Rain 2

Genre: Roguelike, Third-Person Shooter

So, based on the game’s Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam and the generally positive reviews you’ll find on console marketplaces such as the Xbox Live Store or the PlayStation Marketplace, it’s a safe bet to say Risk of Rain 2 is a good game. Possibly one of the best in recent years, although I’m very biased in saying that as I have been playing this game for a total of around 500 hours, own it on both console and PC, and it has earned the title of one of my all-time favorite video games. But what makes Risk of Rain 2 a modern masterpiece?

Basic Mechanics

One of the largest strong suits and a great place to start is how easy the game is to pick up. Risk Of Rain 2 only has a few mechanics required to play move and shoot, so most players will immediately find the basics of the game to be second nature, so they may focus on learning the rest of the game if they choose, which is not as easy to master. Each run takes place in a randomly generated environment where the player’s goal is to kill enemies for gold to purchase chests, loot items by opening said chests with the gold they have collected, and reach the teleporter.

Once they reach the teleporter the player activates the teleporter, causing a teleporter boss randomly selected from a pool of bosses to spawn and a charge to begin, which is approximately 90 seconds. During this time, enemies will spawn infinitely until the teleporter reaches 100%, and the teleporter charge will only go up to 99% until the boss is defeated. Once the teleporter reaches 100%, the player can activate the teleporter again and all the gold they’ve collected will turn into experience points towards their level for the run and they will be teleported to the next randomly generated stage, and although it’s a small nuance, there are no loading screens between stages as the next stage is loaded in the background when the player activates the teleporter.

When I said some mechanics were not as easy to master I was referring to the countless number of items that affect the player’s run in a variety of different ways, such as giving the player a temporary barrier upon killing an enemy, increasing your attack speed, and even making all of your attacks explosive. These items can be stacked and combined with other items to make infinitely powerful builds, although from personal experience, making a good build requires some math as stacking loot involves adding percentages to determine how dramatic of an effect a given item has on the player. There is also a rarity assigned to each item, Common (white), Uncommon (green), Legendary, (red), Boss (yellow), and Lunar (blue). The rarity does determine some things, but not much. Although the rarities determine which chest an item is more common in. Like in a small chest the player has an 80% chance of getting a Common item and a 20% chance of getting an Uncommon item, and in a large chest, the player has an 80% chance of getting an Uncommon item and a 20% chance of getting a Legendary item. Boss items have a chance of dropping after the teleporter boss is killed, although the chance is an 80% chance of an Uncommon item dropping and a 20% chance of a Boss item dropping, and the Boss item that drops depends on the teleporter boss the player fought Because of this, most Boss items replicate the signature skill of the Boss the player just fought, for example, the Clay Dunestrider’s Boss item siphons health from enemies, for example, the Clay Dunestrider attempts to siphon health from the player at 25% health. Lunar items are obtained by either opening a lunar bud with a Lunar Coin, which is an alternate currency that occasionally drops from enemies, or by buying a Lunar item at the Bazar Between Time, which can only be accessed through a Lunar Portal, which has a 37.5% chance of spawning after the teleporter reaches 100%, or it can be guaranteed to spawn after the teleporter reaches 100% by spending a Lunar Coin at the Newt Altar on the stage before activating the teleporter. Lunar items have the most dramatic effects of all items in the game, with massive benefits at the cost of huge drawbacks, for example, the Shaped Glass doubles the player’s damage while halving their health, and as this is stacked, the damage output of the player is doubled, and health is halved, and at one point the player can be doing godly amounts of damage to even the toughest of enemies, but have what is essentially 1 health point.

Each of the items is stored in a logbook once collected, encouraging the desire to discover everything and thus replay the game. The logbook also stores monsters you fight and bosses you fight, although their entries only drop upon killing that enemy by chance. Each environment can be scanned by buying a radio scanner on the ground, which permanently adds the environment to the logbook, although it should be known that radio scanners don’t always spawn. Each of the characters, or survivors, has log entries that can be unlocked by beating the final boss of the game with that character. These entries are usually about as long as this analysis.

Something I should mention is the game has to scale difficulty, so playing fast is encouraged. This is reflected in skills such as the Huntress’s primary fire which is Agile, meaning it can be used while sprinting. The game does have a selection of difficulties before each run although these don’t affect the difficulty of the enemies directly, they affect how fast the scaling difficulty goes, as well as the player’s health regeneration speed and how much damage they take.

One last basic mechanic that should be known is the system of the player’s level per run. Throughout a run, the player will gain experience and level up. The player gains experience by killing enemies and by having their money converted to experience after activating the teleporter once it reaches 100%. Each level increases the player’s base health and damage, so even without loot, those stats do increase, although how subtle those increases are making it nearly impossible to survive multiple stages without items. On top of that, the enemies also have levels, which go up by 1 each stage, increasing their health and damage output, just like the player.

Gameplay Nuances

This section will be short in comparison to the last because otherwise, it would involve talking about some of the game’s secrets, which are the best part of the game in the eyes of many which is why you’re doing yourself a favor by going into the game completely blind, no prior knowledge on anything regarding the game. These secrets involve how each survivor is unlocked, which is something the player will need to find out by interacting with the game in all sorts of ways, and survivors themselves are the different classes the player can play in. While we’re on the topic, class design in Risk Of Rain 2 is flawless, with every class being viable and equal to each other in strength, all with clear advantages and disadvantages, for example, the class I play most often, the Huntress, is the most mobile character in the game and does the most ranged damage in the game, but has the lowest health out of all survivors. The codes for each artifact are another cool secret, after finding the code, it should be entered at the Artifact Portal located at the bottom of Sky Meadow, which is every 5th stage. After the code is entered, the portal must be activated, it will then light up, and going through it will take the player to Bulwark’s Ambry, where they can do the trial for their artifact Artifacts modify gameplay when turned on, such as letting the player choose their items, only allowing elites to spawn, or making the player deal 500% their base damage, but have 10% of their base health. There is also the secret of the golden shrine, which I would go into more detail about but like I said, I do not wish to spoil the game in this analysis.

Speaking of Sky Meadow, every 5th stage takes place on Sky Meadow, and on Sky Meadow is a special teleporter called the Primordial Teleporter. Here you can shift your destination to fight the final boss (which is the default), or to loop again, which means you go back through the environments of stages 1-4 although your items stay and the difficulty still increases as technically this would be going onto stages 5-10., and the stages have a few changes as well, for example, Scorched Acres gets the addition of Alloy Vultures.

Most of the time, the sound effects sound wonderful and make the game more engaging to the player, the only exception is occasionally on console platforms because of the countless bugs in the console port, which is very unfortunate. The soundtrack is another highlight, although more so than the sound effects and a lot of what makes the game great. The melody of the soundtrack perfectly complements the mad dash to the teleporter the game demands from the player. The beginning of the track starts out slow, as the player has plenty of time to loot items and prepare for the teleporter, and as the player approaches the five-minute mark, which is about when the player should reach the teleporter, the music speeds up, completely switches gears, and sometimes introduces a new instrument to the track. The song also lasts for twelve minutes on average so it won’t just loop the song for slow players, although if you take long enough, it will loop the song as long as you’re still on that stage.

Conclusion

By and large, Risk Of Rain 2 is a game that is very easy to pick up, but very difficult to master. It is a game with ample content to keep the player occupied for hours before they’re even close to completing the game. It is a game with many different ways to play, so almost anyone can pick up the game. It is a game that is very simple, yet very complex at the same time. Hopefully, now we all understand why this is a great game to analyze, and why this game has almost perfect Steam reviews and generally positive reviews for the console port, although due to the number of bugs and how much they affect the game, it cannot be deemed as a masterpiece to the level the PC version can. Nevertheless, analyzing both ports is wonderful and either one you play, at the end of the day, you’re still playing one of the best games of the modern rougelike era.

Estius Production

Itch.Io Link:

https://thedaileygrind.itch.io/estius

Estius is a 2D platformer boss-rush hybrid where the player traverses a series of levels, fighting a boss at the end of each until they reach the summit of the deadly Mount Estius. Estius is a WIP and will change drastically over time, if you are interested, a list of upcoming changes for the game is in the description on the itch.io page.

Leadership Tasks 2021-22

“The Future of Information Technology” by MDGovpics is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

My goal is to, by the end of the year, take on and complete as many leadership tasks as I possibly can.

Setup:

I’ve decided to use the Notes app on my phone to create a checklist of the tasks I need to complete (I have skipped Attend SkillsUSA because I have been an active member since 2019 and I skipped Attend Find Your Future because the event already passed).

Final Checklist:

 

Create a game for another organization or self and make a blog post about it:

I’ve taken on the creation of Estius, a platform boss-rush hybrid, as a personal project. The blog post regarding Estius is below.

Estius Production

Create an analysis blog post:

I’ve created an analysis blog post of Risk Of Rain 2, one of the most popular roguelikes to come out in recent memory. The post is below.

Risk of Rain 2 Analysis 2021-22

When The Bell Tolls Production Project

“The Detective” by paurian is marked with CC BY 2.0.

SUMMARY

When The Bell Tolls is an interactive murder mystery where the player takes on the role of a detective solving the case of who murdered the mayor of Bell Town.

Role

Director/Producer

Intention (SMART Goal)

By May 10th, as part of team 5, I will test my leadership skills by leading team 5 to create a fully-functional, successful game and provide assistance to the team as needed.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Raising Kratos is a documentary about the making of God Of War (2018). I believe this documentary has a lot to say about the process of Cory Barlog, the renown director of the game, as well as  God of War (2005), God of War IIGod of War III, and God Of War: Ascension

Christian Dailey was formerly an executive at Bioware. He worked on, Dragon Age: OriginsDragon Age II, Mass Effect, Mass Effect IIMass Effect III, and Anthem.

Training Source(s)

How To Create A Dialogue System In Unity (BASIC)

Stealth Enemy AI (Line of Sight)

Project Timeline

  1. Brainstorm Tasks
  2. Add Tasks to Trello
  3. Fibonacci Number Tasks
  4. Create Basic Player Movement
  5. Create Basic Dialogue System
  6. Create Interactions
  7. Build MVP
  8. Write Story
  9. Add Evidence and Non-Evidence Items
  10.  Code scene swapping to transition between different levels
  11. Add Search Warrants and conviction
  12. Build Next Version
  13. Code petting animals logic
  14. Create player animations
  15. Implement player animations
  16. Create NPC animations
  17. Implement NPC animations
  18. Create music and SFX
  19. Implement music and SFX
  20. Build Final Version

Proposed Budget

$0.00

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The GAME Creation)

https://chsgamedesign.itch.io/period-6-team-5

Skills Commentary

Slideshow

In this session I focused on leading a team of six talented developers to create a successful game. I assisted the coder, writer, and the artists as needed and guided everyone towards my creative vision over the course of two months. I helped the coder create key scripts, such as the interaction script, I reviewed the writer’s work, and guided the artists towards the right direction to fit with my vision. I also helped the team determine that our game would have a bestiary-type inventory.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Each day of the session, Adam and I would contemplate solutions to various bugs within the code.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

I clearly communicated my creative vision with my team members and answered any questions they had in regards to it.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I looked to online sources to gain a better understanding of video game development.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

This session helped me further develop my leadership skills and communication skills in general.

Reactions to the Final Version

Not much reaction as the game wasn’t finished. Although the general consensus was that the art was a strength of the game and that it had potential to be a great product with more development.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

We bit off much more than we could chew. Nevertheless, I think this session’s iteration of When The Bell Tolls turned out well for what we could achieve.

Grammar and Spelling

Built-In Spell Check

Editor

Ezekiel

How To Create A Dialogue System In Unity (BASIC)

Notes:

  • 0:58 Create a C# script called DialougeManager
  • 1:06 Create an empty gameobject to hold the DialougeManager script
  • 1:23 Open the script in Visual Studio and delete the Update() method
  • 1:54 Use a queue for the sentences rather than a string array
  • 1:56 Use the System.Collections namespace to use a queue
  • 2:00 How does a queue work?
  • 2:26 Define a type for the queue. This will be of type string.
  • 2:29 Initialize the queue in the Start() method
  • 2:48 Create another C# script called Dialogue
  • 2:51 What is the new Dialogue class for?
  • 3:07 Ensure the Dialogue class does not derive from MonoBehavior
  • 3:13 Delete the Start() and Update() methods in Dialogue
  • 3:20 In the Dialogue class, create a string array of the sentences that will be loaded into the conversation
  • 3:30 Create a string variable for the name of the NPC we’re talking to
  • 3:33 Use System.Serializable above the definition of the class to make the class editable in the inspector
  • 3:57 Create a third C# script called DialogueTrigger
  • 4:30 In the DialogueTrigger class, delete the Start() and Update() methods, and create a variable of type Dialogue referencing the dialogue class
  • 4:35 We now have a dialogue variable where we can change the name and edit sentences from the inspector
  • 4:41 Edit sentence size to create more sentences
  • 5:02 In the Dialogue class, specify the text area. Inside the parentheses of the function, specify the minimum amount of lines used by a sentence and the maximum amount of lines used by a sentence.
  • 5:55 In the DialogueTrigger class, create a TriggerDialogue() function
  • 6:15 Find the DialogueManager using FindObjectOfType<>()
  • 6:24 Call the StartDialogue function on the DialogueManager object. Pass in our dialogue variable as an argument.
  • 6:39 Create the StartDialogue() function. Have it take in a Dialogue object.
  • 7:51 In the StartDialogue() function, call the Clear() method on the sentences array
  • 7:56 Go through all of the strings in the sentences array with a foreach loop
  • 8:00 foreach(string sentence in dialogue.sentences)
  • 8:06 Queue up a sentence in the foreach loop
  • 8:20 Call the DisplayNextSentence() function
  • 8:25 Create the DisplayNextSentence() function
  • 8:37 In the DisplayNextSentence() function, check if there are any more sentences in the queue
  • 8:48 If there are no more sentences in the queue, call the EndDialogue() function and return
  • 8:55 Create the EndDialogue() function
  • 9:09 In the DisplayNextSentence function, if we still have sentences left in the queue, load the next sentence in the queue. Store it in a string variable called sentence.
  • 10:16 Ensure the script is using the UnityEngine.UI namespace
  • 10:24 Create name and dialogue text variables
  • 10:35 In the DisplayNextSentence() function, set the dialogue text variable’s text component equal to the current sentence being loaded
  • 10:47 Set the name variable’s text component equal to the name in the Dialogue class

Session 3 Production Project

SUMMARY

Role:

UI/HeadsUp Display

Intention (SMART Goal)

By January 28th, as part of my game design team, I will watch videos on color theory in order to better understand and use color theory in the UI I create for our Session 3 project.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

“Andy Budd” by mezzoblue is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Andy Budd is a UX leader at a UX design agency named Clearleft and also the creator of a usability testing application called Silverback. He has also made groundbreaking contributions to the Web Standards Movement with post options and useful links posted regularly for fellow designers.

Training Source(s)

Project Timeline

Proposed Budget

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Reactions to the Final Version

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

The MDA Game Framework

“cyberlabe: The MDA framework and the 20 Cs of meaningful enterprise gamification Game mechanics” by eric.delcroix is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Cue

Notes

Why is game analysis so important?

MDA is a framework used for game analysis.

To what extent can the mechanics make or break a game?

Mechanics are the basic components and rules of the game.

What impact do engaging dynamics have on a game’s success?

Dynamics are the actions happening on-screen from the mechanics.

To what extent do a game’s aesthetics impact how a player enjoys a game and how much they enjoy that game?

Aesthetics are what the player feels when playing the game or is supposed to feel.

With so many aesthetics, why are most drawn to only a select few?

There are many aesthetics used in games, but eight are most commonly used.

Does sense pleasure play a role in how one looks upon a game in the future?

Aesthetic #1: Visuals/Audio that is pleasing to the senses.

What role does a fictional world play in keeping a player playing a game?

Aesthetic #2: An imaginary world.

To what extent can an engaging story affect replayability and how is its impact on replayability?

Aesthetic #3: An engaging story.

Can a challenge change the player’s perception of a game?

Aesthetic #4: Urge to master something.

Why are multiplayer games more popular than single-player games nowadays?

Aesthetic #5: Community.

Which element of a game is more important to replayability, exploration, or challenge?

Aesthetic #6: A world to explore.

How does expressing oneself through creating your own character, weapon camo, etc,  affect a player’s perception of a game and how they remember a game after they are done playing it?

Aesthetic #7: Expression of oneself.

In what ways can the player establish a connection to the game?

Aesthetic #8: Connection to the game as a whole.

Given this relationship between the three aspects of the MDA framework, which is the most important to determine first?

The mechanics generate dynamics that generate aesthetics.

How could the MDA framework be improved?

The MDA framework has been criticized for being too arbitrary with how it explores emotional responses within games to be suitable for all games.

Summary

The MDA framework is a framework for game analysis. The framework breaks down the game into three components: Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics. All three of these components work together to shape the game into what it is, and how the player perceives the game. Although the framework isn’t perfect and can’t support every game and every experience a player could possibly have, it provides a great start for analyzing those the player is most likely to come across, and thus most crucial to understand.

Tileset in Photoshop

Notes:

0:34 What is a tile?

0:51 What is a tileset?

1:15 Tile atlas example from Super Mario Bros.

1:28 What is a tile atlas?

3:56 In general, you want to ensure the left and right sides of the tile correspond with each other

4:39 Start painting

5:35 Select a lighter shade, create a new layer, and add more detail

5:46 Add more layers of highlight as needed and use a lighter shade each time

6:05 Create additional layers for different parts of the tile

6:41 Paint shadows on separate layers

7:50 Duplicate the dirt layer

7:58 Add noise to the layer

8:03 Rasterize the image

8:09 Select Uniform (and Monochromatic if you want your noise to be only black and white)

8:24 Scale it up to make the noise look like a pattern rather than noise

8:33 Delete the vector mask

 

Pixel Art in Photoshop

Notes:

0:30 Configure the canvas for pixel art. It depends on what you want to make, but as a general rule of thumb, I keep the dimensions under 100*100, but you want to go to the larger side for more detailed pixel art. Lastly, set the resolution to 72.

0:40 Zoom in on the newly created canvas

0:51 Set up a grid for an indication of where pixels can be painted

1:12 Optimize the grid for pixel art by changing the Gridline Even unit from Inches to Pixels. Change the subdivisions of the grid as needed.

1:48 Set the image interpolation to Nearest Neighbor (preserve hard edges)

2:34 Paint with the pencil tool rather than the brush tool

2:49 Replace regular brushes with basic brushes

3:07 Choose a color palette

3:16 Add a color to swatches to add it to your palette

3:33 Go to color.adobe.com to find good color palettes

3:44 Explore color schemes from the community

5:27 Disable anti-alias

6:21 Open a new window for pixel art

6:43 Preview the canvas at a 1:1 pixel ratio

7:07 If you’d wish to (unless you’re working in a game engine), crop the image to make your pixel art bigger

7:19 Size up the image (change the units to Pixels)

7:37 Change the Automatic resampling to Nearest Neighbor

7:57 Export the image