Summary
Game Play Analysis
| Formal Elements | |
| The Basics | The player uses their weapons against an enemy while dodging attacks to achieve victory. |
| Name of the game | Dark Souls |
| The platform | Consoles and PC |
| Time played (should be at least 30 minutes) | 300 hours |
| If you could work on this game (change it), what would you change and why? | I would improve the animations to allow for the attacks to feel weightier |
| Players | NOTES |
| How many players are supported? | 8 |
| Does it need to be an exact number? | this is not an exact number |
| How does this affect play? | Players can enter the worlds of others to make their game harder or easier. |
| Some types of player frameworks: Single Player – like Solitare. Head-to-head – 1 vs. 1, Chess. PvE – Player vs. Environment, or multiple players vs. the game. Common in MMOs like World of Warcraft. One against Many – Single-player vs. multiple (obvy). Free-for-all – Every man for himself (1 vs. 1 vs. 1 vs. 1..). Most common for multiplayer games, from Monopoly to Modern Warfare. Individuals Against the System – Like Blackjack, where the Dealer is playing against multiple players, but those players have no effect on each other. Team Competition – Multiple vs. multiple, i.e. sports. Predator-prey – Players form a circle and everyone’s goal is to attack the player on their left and defend themselves from the player on their right. Five-pointed Star – Eliminate both players who are not on either side of you. | this game is PvPvE (player versus player vs environment) |
| Objectives/Goals | NOTES |
| What are the players trying to do? | The players are trying to go further into an area until they die, or reach the end where there is normally a boss fight. |
| Some common objectives include: Capture/Destroy – Eliminate all your opponents pieces (Chess). Territorial Acquisition – Control as much territory as you can, not necessarily harming other players (RISK). Collection – Collect a certain number of objects throughout the game (Pokemon). Solve – Solve a puzzle or crime (Clue). Chase/race/escape – Anything where you are running towards or away from something (playground game Tag). Spatial Alignment – Anything involving the positioning of elements (Tetris or Tic-Tac-Toe or that game at Cracker Barrel). Build – Advance your characters or build your resources to a certain point (The Sims). Negation of another goal – The game ends if you perform an act that is forbidden by the rules (Jenga or Twister). | The common objective is to reach the next checkpoint, dodge the attacks, learn enemies, or learn the environment. |
| Rules/Mechanics | The player can use their weapons, this can include swinging a physical weapon or casting spells, dodge, use items, and interact with developer specified objects or characters. |
| There are three categories of (what the book Rules of Play calls) operational rules: Setup – the things you do at the beginning of a game. Progression of Play – what happens during the game. Resolution – How an outcome is determined based on the game state. | In the beginning of a level the player’s goal is to learn what the enemies of the area is, then they learn the enemies, then try to get through the area until the reach the boss or the next area., if they die then they lose all of their money, and get reset to the last checkpoint that they rested at. If they beat the boss they will get a large chunk of money, and are allowed to move past the boss’s arena. |
| Controls | NOTES |
| What controls are used? | Mouse 1 is for attacking, the space bar is for dodging, wasd is for movement, e is for interact, r is to use items, and mouse 2 is for using the offhand weapon, and ESC is for opening the menu. |
| Was there a clear introductory tutorial? | there is a clear tutorial level. The player is not able to beat the level until they understand the basics of combat, navigation, and interaction. |
| Were they easy to understand or did you find yourself spamming the controller? | The controls are easy to understand, I suspect that this is due to the lack of input possibilities for interacting with the world. |
| Resources & Resource Management | NOTES |
| What kinds of resources do players control? | The player controls their weapon, when they attack, their stats, their stamina, their health by use of the game’s health potion, their over all weight and as such their dodge speed, and the spells and items they have equipped. |
| How are they maintained during play? | The player makes sure that they have enough stats to use the weapon that they want, in combat they must control their stamina to allow them to dodge attacks that come their way, through the game they will remove or add equipment to maintain as much defense while rolling at a speed that is comfortable to them, they also have to find time to use the game’s healing potions, and they have to obtain enough money to level up when they reach the next checkpoint. |
| What is their role? | The stamina is a way to punish the player for being greedy with combat, the weapons are to make the game feel different and allow for build variety, the armor is to allow for more build variety (if the player wants to be able to back-flip, or if they want to withstand a blast from an orbital laser), the stats are to stop the player from having access to the strongest equipment without investment into the stats required by the equipment. |
| A resource is everything under the control of a single player. Could be the money in Monopoly or health in WoW. Other examples are: Territory in RISK The number of questions remaining in 20 Questions Objects picked up during videogames (guns, health packs, etc.) Time (game time, real-time, or both) Known information (like suspects in Clue) | The player is in control of their health, their stamina, their spell uses. |
| Game State | NOTES |
| How much information in the game state is visible to the player? | The player is allowed to know the locations of anything based on sound or visuals, they are shown what happens when they die, and they are explicitly reset. |
| A snapshot of the game at a single point is the game state. The resources you have, the un-owned properties in Monopoly, your opponent’s Archery skill all count towards the game state. Some example information structures are: Total Information – Nothing is hidden, like Chess. Info per player – Your hand of cards is only visible to you. One player has privileged info – Like a Dungeon Master. The game hides info from all players – Like Clue, where no one knows the victory condition. Fog of War – In video games, where certain sections of the map are concealed if you do not have a unit in sight range of that area. You also cannot see other players’ screens, so each player is unaware of the other’s information. | the game hides significant info from the players in the sense of mechanics that are never explained to players explicitly or are hinted at and not stated, such as poise, and stamina usage. There is also a fog of war like system where the player is not told something and the must find the object before they can know what it is used for. |
| Sequencing | NOTES |
| In what order do players take their actions? | the game is realtime, and so most actions take place when the player feels safe to attack. |
| How does play flow from one action to another? | the player will often switch from taking combative actions to taking more defensive options as their health bar decreases and their resources run out. |
| Some structures include: Turn-based – Standard board game technique. Turn-based with simultaneous play – where everyone takes their turn at the same time (like writing something down or putting a card down in War). Real-time – Actions happen as fast as players can make them. Action-based video games. Turn-based and time limits – You have this long to take your turn. | real time |
| Player Interaction | The player can only interact with the world in a combat, exploration and lever pulling context. |
| Some examples: Direct Conflict – I attack you. Negotiation – If you support me here, I’ll help you there. Trading – I’ll give you this for that. Information Sharing – If you go there, I’m warning you, a trap will go off. | there are bits of direct conflict, negotiation, and trading. If the player has another player enter their world then they have to come to a common understanding of what will happen. A player can convince the other to not attack them by giving them gifts, or show them a secret in the level. |
| Theme & Narrative | NOTES |
| Does it have an actual story structure? | it has a story structure |
| Is it based on a historical event (or similar)? | it is not based on history, but there are some references to real world events. |
| Does the theme or narrative help you know how to play? | the games theme does not teach you how to play, but the themes do help the player through the game by providing inspiration to keep going. |
| Does it have emotional impacts? | if you nearly beat a boss and fail then it can feel quite bad, and if a quest line is failed or reaches a bad conclusion the player will either never see that NPC for the rest of the playthrough, or they will be forced to kill an NPC that they may have had a connection to. Learning about the stories behind the bosses, items, or NPCs can also provoke emotions, but that is not necessarily something that a player will learn about in the game. |
| Also, look for en media res (does it start in the middle of the game)? | it starts at the beginning of the players story, but at the end of many other character’s story. |
| The Elements in Motion | NOTES |
| How do the different elements interact? | The difficult elements force the player to be careful about how they move and engage with everything. |
| What is the gameplay like? | the gameplay is slow and methodical, but also requires some reflexes to dodge the faster attacks.. |
| Is it effective? | The gameplay is effective. |
| Are there any points where the design choices break down? | There is a boss that ignores the dodge mechanic, and the boss doesn’t reset every death so it can be killed without using skill. |
| Design Critique | NOTES |
| Why did the designer make these particular choices? | to improve the vibes of the game, and improve the themes that run throughout the game |
| Why this set of resources? | the resources are to make the player feel more like the other human sized characters in the world by giving them similar means as the other NPCs, and another intention is to make the player feel incredibly weak against the larger bosses, as they |
| What if they made different decisions? | |
| Does the design break down at any point? | |
| Graphics & Sound | NOTES |
| Does the game art pair well with the mechanics? | The game looks gritty with bits of beauty, so i think that this pairs well with how the game is difficult, but winning feels incredibly good |
| Did you find any bugs or glitches? | while at a medium weight the player can roll through fall damage. |
| What about sound? | The sound is used to build the ambience of an area with music only used in specific areas or in boss fights. |
| Can you spot any technical shortcuts? | the further into the game you get the messier the game is. |
| Various Stages of the Game | NOTES |
| To wrap up, some things to keep in mind (as if there aren’t enough already) as you play: | |
| What challenges do you face, and how do you overcome them? | |
| Is the game fair? | |
| Is it replayable? Are there multiple paths to victory or optional rules that can change the experience? | |
| What is the intended audience? | |
| What is the core, the one thing you do over and over, and is it fun? |
This analysis form was adapted from https://notlaura.com/a-template-for-analyzing-game-design/
Resources
- Playing Like a Designer – I: Examine Your Experiences by Extra Credits
- Playing Like a Designer – II: How to Analyze Game Design by Extra Credits
- Game Analysis Guidelines by MIT
- Level 3.2: Critical Analysis of Games at learn.canvas.net
Books
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
- Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers
- Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Katie Salen