UI Application : Story Research and Development

The Beggar's Ride

Description

The Beggar's Ride is a unique, story driven puzzle-platformer game. The story is very interesting whereby the character of the game is an old beggar who has given the power to explore the world in different way with an ancient mask. Besides that, the mask has power that enables the player to solve the puzzles.Follow the beggar’s ride to a distant land, there's another world hidden on the other side of the rain.The player have to overcome the dangers of forgotten realm by wearing the masks of and use its powers to command the forces of nature.

Story

I like the story of this game because it uses the story of a beggar and make some plot twisting in order for the game to be more interesting. What can we think of when the word 'beggar' come across our mind? Poor? Old? Weak? Sympathy? I'm interested with the story of this game whereby an old beggar are destined by the god to become a hero or warrior. Besides that, I like the concept that we can explore a different world with just a mask. This also related to the current society where we can view things differently from different perspective. There is a short cut scene at the beginning of the game, but after that, the story is told through words in the environment and the occasional voice over to go with them. It is definitely a cool way to tell the story and keeps the gamer firmly planted in the game’s world.

Interactions

In the Beggar's Ride, the player can collect four different mask that have different powers. There are different scenes in the game world that leads the player to explore and solve the puzzles by using the mask. These masks fold into one single mask and increase your power set. The second mask lets you tilt the level to affect gravity and slide things about. The third lets you slide special pieces of ground along designated paths. The fourth and final mask lets you control the sun and moon in the sky, switching between day and night at will. Player can also shoot beams of light from the sun, and cycle through the phases of the lunar cycle. Whenever the mask is put on, everything becomes illuminated and golden, with interactive objects highlighted in red. 

Design and Audio

The graphics of Beggar’s Ride are really good. I like the look of all of the characters, especially the main character, and all of the levels are well designed. There is a lot of visual variety to each area. There is a little bit of voice acting in the game that enhance the overall game.

Oddmar

Description

Oddmar is a story-driven adventure game, playing the game along with story connects the player with the characters. Oddmar's story, beautifully illustrated as a motion comic, is narrated by Julian Casey (​We Happy Few,Assassin's Creed series) and written by Frank Gibson (​The Amazing World of Gumball comic book series). The story line is being plotted for the player to immerse themselves in an epic Viking story which animated as a motion comic. Along the game, player has to go through 24 beautifully hand-crafted levels of physics-based puzzles and platforming challenges.

Story

Oddmar struggles with life in his village and is not worthy of a place in Valhalla. He is shunned by his fellow Vikings and must redeem himself of his squandered potential. One day he is offered an opportunity to prove himself, but at a price. When he wakes up from his dream, he has given a pouch of mushrooms. After eating the mushroom, there's where the journey starts.The story is presented in a cut scene for the player to understand the story first before playing the game. 

The videos shows all the cut scenes of the game. They portrayed very well in the game in order to let the player to immerse themselves inside the Viking world when the stages are getting higher.The developers of Oddmar did an excellent job with their level design and a natural tempo for the playing style of different players. Bouncing along the environments, finding secrets, and propelling yourself off enemies to reach the next point felt seamlessly fluid.

Idea & Concept

I really like the concept of the gameplay. The game features twenty-four action-packed stages which player can play through. There are collectibles and time trials to be accomplished. There’s the “Re-play value.” Here’s an Oddmar Gameplay Image to help you visualize what I’m saying.

Rather than making a game that’s action heavy they went for a game that has a balance of adventuring through different beautiful and vibrant stages with the right number of enemies to not feel overwhelming. This made the gameplay experience that much more enjoyable.The well-thought-out distribution of enemy placements throughout each level shows they went with a rather different approach.

Interactions

There are also a lot of unique enemies, boss fights and characters that player can interact with in the world. The environments are very dynamic and are filled with friendly and adversarial characters that Oddmar encounters along the way.These dynamic environments add extra levels of complexity to the gameplay.  In one level, player maneuver around a constantly changing structure being lifted up by a balloon. In others, player encounters companions that can ride on, temporarily switching up the way the game plays. Besides that, there are subtle animations and nice sound effects throughout the gameplay.

Wenjia

Story

Wenjia tells the story of a spirit cat that seeks to stop a being known as the Child of Energy from harming other spirit animals.The world of  Wenjia takes place in two realms: the realm or energy and the realm of matter. The character of the game is a cat-like entity that is tasked to save the bunnies when an earthquake threatens the Energy Realms.

Interaction

Player play as a kitten that has to reach and rescue spirits from volcanic eruption following a massive earthquake. In order to traverse the vegetation-ridden landscape of the forest, player need to make use of basic jumping mechanics as well as the unique ability to change between a "light" and "dark" reality. These different dimensions are mostly the same, but there are key differences depending on which level you're on. For example, where a ledge might be covered in spikes in the light reality, there will be a log that you can jump on instead in the dark one. Throughout the game, player have to switch between the dimensions in order to solve the puzzles.

 

The types of areas come in two varieties as well: normal levels and shorter, timed levels. Each of these contains three light orbs to collect. Most of the other levels in Wenjia just have the three orbs scattered, without any need to race to the end. However, if the player complete the level fast enough, they can get a good rating and receive two additional light orbs.

Design and Audio

I like the artstyle of the game especially the design of the background.The scenes are hand-painted and have high contrast between the damaged chaotic Energy Realm and the more tranquil Matter Realm. Besides that,the scenes are accompanied by melancholic piano soundtrack that urges the player to continue their journey on saving the animals.

Thoughts

In a nutshell, the stories have inspired me to think of something that is related to adventurous mission for the player to accomplish. Furthermore, I'm inspired by the different realms in the game which motivates the player to continue completing their task throughout the game. This is because player might get bored if the scenes are just repeating and they will lose their interest on continuing their game. I'm also inspired by the graphics of Beggar's Ride. Everything seems very eye pleasing and there are many new scenes along the way that motivates the player to continue their journey.