P1 - The Study Of Mechanics

PROJECT ONE - VARIATIONS (The Study Of Mechanics)

My 3 Chosen Game Mechanics:
Health:
I chose this mechanic because it is a very common mechanic used in video games to determine how much damage the character can withstand. Hit-points are often depend on the power of the character, in games like Pokemon, the number of hit-points are dependent on the level/stage of the character. Character (or object) health is often displayed in bars, which represent a thin, horizontal rectangle full of colour. The coloured area gradually reduces towards the left as health is lost.





Upgrade:

I chose to briefly analyse the Upgrade mechanic, because it is interesting as it also plays as a built in feature as well as a mechanic. The Upgrade mechanic has the purpose of allowing the player to change their character/object or change their character/objects abilities in order to improve combat or make them harder to destruct.

In games like Age Of Empires, the upgrade will usually commence by pressing a button installed into the game. 90% of the time, the further you progress in the game, the more upgrades available.

Editor:

The Editor is a built-in mechanic exclusive to a small number of real-time strategy games such as Warcraft, Age of Empires & Civilisation. I chose to look at this one because it is a unique and interesting mechanic. The Editor allows the player to build their own game using the games built in objects, terrain and characters. The player will simply choose each players civilisation and colour (which will code the player). To play your custom-made game, simply save your map and the game will be able to be accessed and played in the game menu.

Health Mechanic Investigation:

In many cases health can refer to the hit-points, status or lives x of the character or object. Health can be displayed in many different and interesting ways, which may not include bars, but numbers (or another unique visual aid) as a visual indicator.

The aesthetics and dynamics that accompany the health mechanic will be demonstrated in the examples of games I have chosen below.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

In the action/platformer game, the characters health is displayed in a rectangular bar like many games. When underwater, Lara has an extra bar for 'holding her breath,' an interesting feature built on top of the health mechanic in this game.

To regenerate health, Lara must obtain bags of medicine throughout the game

Crash Bandicoot (Original)

The old platformer game Crash Bandicoot demonstrates the characters health with a visual feature - the characters mask.

The character must spin crates to regenerate health and gain lives.

Pokemon (Original Handheld Series)

In these games, the health bar will appear green when full, yellow when half full and red when low (will also let off an alarm sound at this point)

In this game health can be restored using collected items such as potions, moomoomilk etc.

Health can also be affected by status problems such as poisoning, burns etc.