Difficulty and Balance

Difficulty and Balance

Balance is directly linked to the difficulty within a video game. In all games, the difficulty of the game during the beginning is very easy; this is important because this allows a new gamer to understand the controls of the game and help the gamer slowly progress their skills in the game. Furthermore, it is important that you have difficulty settings which can be adjusted throughout the game, this is because different gamers may have different expertise, meaning they may change the difficulty of the game in order for it to suit their ability, so it is not too easy (boring) or too hard (frustrating) for the gamer. Moreover, as the game gradually progresses, the difficulty also becomes harder, such as more enemies, complex terrain etc. This is because the game is under the assumption that you are becoming better with every mission. This constant rise in difficulty allows the player to become more immersed into the virtual gaming world as the harder the game becomes, the focused you will have to be to complete the mission. However, if the gamer's abilities have not necessarily improved, a game such as Call Of Duty allows the gamer to reduce difficulty or keep it the same. Another good example of a game which you can change difficulty is Fifa; this game allows the gamer to change the CPU's difficulty, which may make it harder or easier to play against the opposing team.

Players Actions

There are two different types of player actions used within games. One is the main actions in which the gamer can control the character. This can vary from jumping, running, shooting and punching. The other type is how the gamer controls the player within the game via a remote controller. For example, two games which may differ in controls are GTA 5 and Super Mario. GTA 5 has more complex actions than Super Mario; GTA 5 has more controls such as jumping, climbing, shooting, driving etc. whereas Super Mario only allows you to run and jump.

There are different ways in which the gamer can control the main character of the game. However, this depends on the console in which the game is being played on. For example, if the game is played on a console such as a Playstation or an Xbox, the character will likely be controlled via a controller. whereas, consoles such as Wii or Xbox Kinect allow the player to control the character through a motion sensor. To add to this, a controller is an input device which is connected to the console either wired or wireless and enables the the gamer to control the actions of the character by either pressing a certain button or a combination of buttons. Below you can see the different controls for Fifa 15, by pressing certain buttons the players do different tasks.

Nevertheless, motion sensor devices are also input devices which helps to control the main character, however, the difference is that instead of pressing buttons, it detects the movements of the gamer and implements it into the game.

Narrative

Narrative / FMV / Cut Scene

Narrative

Narrative is a storyline of a video. The narrative of a game can exist without a plot or as a larger system in which the plot exists. Narratives can be embedded within missions to ensure that the gamer knows what the current mission is going to be about or they can emerge during the gamer's progress throughout the game. Furthermore, video game designers often use narrative within their games in order to highlight to the player what point they are in the game, or they may do it to notify the gamer that there is a new mission at hand. Narratives are usually included in single player games rather than multi-player games, this is because single player games have a storyline to follow whereas multi-player games are often just competitive competitions between others. An example of a single player game which uses narratives is 'The Last Of Us'. This game is all about surviving a zombie apocalypse; this storyline keeps the player involved and also helped them keep their progress up to date as there was narratives throughout the game. There are two different types of narrative, they consist of FMV (Full Motion Video) and Cut scenes.

The advantage of having narratives within a game is that the gamer is aware of their progress in the game and what mission they will have to complete to continue their progression. However, a disadvantage of including narratives is the fact that it will indefinitely slow down the players progression, as they will have to wait until it is over in order for them to continue playing. 

FMV

FMV, which stands for Full Motion Video, is real life video footage used within video games and allows gamers to see what current mission is going to based upon. They are pre rendered movies which have been pre recorded into the game's engine. FMV is used within games as it allows the game designers to use their skills and use full motion animation for the cut scenes which enhances the visual style of the game as the cut scenes quality improves drastically; for example, the new call of duty 'Advanced Warfare', uses the actor Kevin Spacey to play the role of an army general, which more or less looks like an animated movie. The downside of including FMV during a game is that the transition between game play to the FMV is very noticeable and may take time to load up.

Cut Scenes

A cut scene is is a movie sequence which has been coded and created to be rendered in order to fit in within the game's engine. It is a scene which develops the storyline and is often shown after the completion of a mission, or is something important has happened which may divert the storyline, This may sometimes limit the performances and the limitation of what can be created within a cut scene. However, they have much smoother transitions than FMV and looks more professional. Cut scenes are often used to smoothly transmit the movie scene along with the playable area of the game, this will in turn keep the gamer immersed into the game as they will not have to wait every time it loads. A game which uses a lot of cut scenes is adventure games such as Assassin's Creed for example. this game uses a cut scene after every successful mission completed. Cut scenes are often favoured over FMV, due to the fact of that doesn't take time to load, not very noticeable transition and still has a good visual style.