DDDEVASTATIONNNSilhouette of a shmup In the second edition of Guert’s Grinder, I will take a good hard look at Radnom game: DDEVASTATIONN. The game follows the vein of the classic 2D shoot-hem-up titles such has Contra or Metal slug. In DDDEVASTATIONNN, the player is thrown in a hellish universe where monsters roam free. Armed with your trusty machine gun, flamethrower and grenades, you set out for a quest for survival... And green sign extermination.
I’ll first examine the game focusing on how it makes the player feel during the experience, such as how is he motivated, how does he know what to do and how much experimentation he can get out of the game. Afterwards, I will look at the game from a technical point of view investigating on aspects like the ergonomics and the stability of the application. Then, I will list suggestions to fix issues that I have raised while examining the game.
Before I start I’d like to clarify a few things. First of all, I will be referring to the player as “he” but this is only a matter of simplicity. The context applies to both male and female player. Second thing, I’d like to mentionned that, even though I have played the game several hours, I have not been able to finish it. It sadens me because I wish I would have beaten the game but too many frustration has lead me to quit. I will elaborate on that matter later on.
EmotionalHow DDDEVASTATIONNN makes us feel when playing? Let’s look at various emotional elements found in the game.
Motivation There are many factors that motivate the player during the experience. These factors are quite varied: the player’s goal, the story, the originality and the emotional involvment of the player in the game universe all affect how the game will grab the player’s attention while playing and how it will attract him back to it once he stopped.
Goals If the player plays, it’s because he has a goal. There are three common types of goals: long-term, mid-term and short-term. Long-term goals are the primary reason for the player to play. The mid-term goals are secondary, usually optional objectives that the player may have along the experience. Short-term goals are usualy directly associated with the gameplay. Let’s see the goals offered in DDDEVASTATIONNN.
Long-term goal
In the case of DDDEVASTATIONNN, the only long-term goal the player can find is very common in the world of video games. The primary goal here is to simply reach the end of the game. True, it is a very effective goal but unfortunately, since it’s the only long-term goal in the game and it is very common, it does not have enough impact to keep the player motivated for a very long time. The game would greatly benefit of at least another long-term goal to grab the player’s motivation. This way, if the player looses interest in one, he will still want to play the game in order to achieve another available goal.
Mid-term goal
The game offers a bit more mid-term goals but still doesn’t have much to show. The first mid-term goal offered to the player is reaching the end of a scene. Since all the levels are divided in short sequences of actions, or scenes, the player has a quick feeling of accomplishement, motivating him at the same time.
Considering the fact that all sequences are different, the player has a secondary mid-term goal associated with it: the curiosity of the player will make him want to see what new creatures and obstacles the game has to offer in the next scene. Elements like destructible grounds or enemies that behave differently helps to keep the player playing from one scene to another.
Alas, the mid-term goals are not strong enough to compensate for the lack of long-term goals. A few more mid-term goals would be a plus but those already in the game do their jobs correctly.
Short-term goal
In terms of short-term goals, the player has a lot more motivation elements. The main short-term motivation a player has in this game is finding new ways of overcoming a challenge. As new enemies and bosses appear, the player will try to find new ways of overcoming those challenges in order to reach the next scene. The different behaviors of the enemies, obstacles (such as the explosive drums) and boss patterns keep the player on his toes, motivated through the entire scene.
Unfortunatly, since most ennemies and bosses have very similar solutions, the short-term goals loose their impacts over time. They still keep the player motivated but adding new ways of overcoming challenges would help to make those short-term goals strong through all the experience.
Originality Part of the player’s motivation comes from the original or unqiue elements that the game offers during the experience. Originality keeps the player wondering about what will happen next hence motivated to keep on playing.
DDDEVASTATIONNN offers few original elements. The game follows most clichés of the genre: mindless enemies, exploding barrels, fixed-screen bosses, hand grenades or machines guns. It is quite unfortunate that most of the game’s originality comes from its artistic direction. The graphical representation of the game universe use a very stylistic and original approach by portraying the elements as silouhettes. The gameplay elements do not match this bold direction and remains in the tired elements we’ve all seen before.
The game would truly benefit of more original gameplay elements that will tell the player that this game is not simply a common shooter-hem-up with a different graphical representation approach.
Storyline The storyline in DDDEVASTIONNN is nearly inexistent. Apart from the warning messages that give small, sarcastic hints of things to come at the very beginning of the game, the player finds no story elements to guide and motivate him. This lack of story elements creates a disorientation for the player: he doesn’t know who he is, where he is, in what time and why is he doing all of these actions. The game doesn’t have to give all those information at once but it will have to provide to the player at least few information within the first ten or twenty minutes of play.
The lack of long-term goals and storyline are intertwined. Creating a simple story or giving story informations along the experience would create a new long-term goal: know what’s the whole story.
Emotional involvement Another big part of the player’s motivation comes from his emotional involvment in the game. What’s his role in the universe? What’s his viceral reason to play this game? How does the action he has to perform make him feel? Emotional involvement is quite important through the experience.
In DDDEVASTATIONNN, the player’s emotional involvment is very low. First of all, he has not been given any reason to play this game, as mentionned earlier. The lack of long-term goal and storyline makes the player feel detached form the universe, as if he was simply looking at the events rather than truly taking part of it all.
This feeling of detachment is even stronger with the fact that the player cannot loose. The lack of lives or chances tells the player that his virtual death is ephemeral and that wheter he wins or looses, the result will be the same. In other term, the game is telling that, if the player plays well or not or not he will still be able to fulfill his long-term goal. And since the long-term goal isn’t quite motivating, the player ends up with no actual reason to play the game.
Related to the lack of chances or lives comes the lack of mastership. Since there are no pressure to win or loose, there are no obvious way to master the game. A competition based game like DDDEVASTATIONNN should always feature few elements on which the players can compete or compare. I’ll elaborate a bit more on that matter later on.
All in all, the game doesn’t offer anything that no other games already offer to the player in order to keep him coming back. This feeling of “been there, done that” doesn’t really help to involve the player emotionaly: he has no reason invest his emotions in a game that doesn’t seem to care about him.
In summary... Overall, the game lacks motivational elements to keep the player in the experience. May it be because of the few goals offered to him, the lack of originality, the absent storyline and the poor emotional involvment of the player, the game offers little to grab the player’s attention.