So that's a thing. When it comes to this blog, it basically means that I've had to replay what I played of Rayman from the start. Very thankful that I hadn't gotten that far.
Anyway, tangents aside, let's talk gameplay.
As far as I can tell this far into the game, there are essentially three parts of the gameplay that flow into each other. These would be, in no particular order, platforming, collectibles and combat. I was this close to count combat and platforming as the same thing, but for the sake of explaining a point I'll keep them separate for now. Keep in mind that I in no way mean that it feels like these three don't blend well together. They do! They very much do! But I'll get to that in a bit. Let's once again bring up the bullet points, because that's a system I enjoy.
1. The Platforming
Basically the bread of the game, with the platforming being the butter. It's a platformer, so it should come to no surprise that the game has a lot of it, and it is good. There are a few key components to making a platformer in this style work. Fluidity, responsiveness, speed and level design is what I'd name as the most important. Let's use Super Meat Boy and Super Mario World as examples. Both fine platformers. They have several similarities, first of all being some very fluid and responsive control schemes. Hell, Super Meat Boy you wouldn't even have a chance at if it was less responsive. The platforming feels fluid partially because of the responsiveness of the controls, but also because of the speed of the games and because of the level design. Both games are fast, you need fast reflexes and good response timing in Super Meat Boy, and Super Mario World, while not as fast, is still a very fast game. The level designs of both games are there to add to this. Super Meat Boy is largely based on the jumping, be it wall jumping, timed jumping or just jumping in general. The level design is made to compliment this, with you being able to go horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and I'm sure several other -ally's more. The puzzles and dangers are also set up in a way to compliment this, the dangers often requiring, as I mentioned, swift response time. Super Meat Boy is basically a game built up around one ability, jumping.
Super Mario World, however, is built up like a Mario game. It has some vertical elements, but it's made for you to go horizontally and it doesn't have the crazy jumping mechanics Super Meat Boy has. Instead it's based around not one mechanic, but several. First of all we have Mario's basic abilities, jumping and spinning. Those give several options to how you can design a level, but it'd be hard to have variety. So that's why you have all the different upgrades Mario can get. The game is still mainly based on just the jumping and spinning, which is amazing to me since that seems so limited, but the fire flower, the cape and so on just add a bit of variety to the mix.
It should be noted that both games share something in addition to this. Both have worlds that give a basic theme to a few levels and in both games, every level has it's own spin that gives it a unique twist and makes you remember it, which is so important for engrossing a player that I cannot stress it enough.
Both games are expertly designed, and every part of the platforming bleeds into the next, from the mechanics, to the fluidity and speed and finally to the level design.
Does Rayman: Origins do that?
I'm going to keep part of my opinion to myself for now, because I want to keep playing the game and see if my suspicions hold true. But basically: Yes. The platforming feels great and is amazingly responsive and fluid even on a keyboard. Big kudos to Ubisoft for that. The level design and everything, it's just a great thing that they've done.
I'll get more into it when I finalize the gameplay portion here, but I believe it's going to have to be split into parts. Part 2, talking about the collectibles, should be up tomorrow.
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Friday, 8 February 2013
First Impre- JESUS THIS GAME IS PRETTY!
Watching a game on Youtube or looking at screenshots is one thing when it comes to a game's visual design. Actually playing the game and seeing it in action is a whole other.
I knew it was a good looking game, that much is obvious when you look at the screenshots and videos available, but when I was actually playing the game? I was grinning from just how frickin' gorgeous it looks. Whether you like a design or not is entirely subjective, everyone should know this, but this style just appeals to me a ton, which I'd attribute to three things.
1. The colours
In an era where blacks, browns and blues largely dominate the gaming market, even if it's gotten much better compared to a few years ago, it's an incredible relief to see a game that looks like this!
Obviously the picture is dominated by green, and from what I've seen of the game so far green does play a heavy role in the colour choice, and it's important to mention that this is just what I've seen from the "dreaming tree" hub and the first two stages. But it's balanced with other colours, like the blue of the sky, the brown of the cliffs, the purple of some enemies and Rayman, to name a few things. Plus, all the colours are bright. This is extremely important. You can look at a game like Dead Space and say that it's a good looking game, just like I can say this is a good looking game. But can you look at Dead Space and say that the choice of colours makes you happy? Probably not. But I can look at Rayman Origins and say that the colours just make me happy. Bright, varied and extremely vibrant colours? Amazing colour choice. The colours also seem to be chosen in a way to make the usable objects and characters stand out compared to the background. Take a look at the image above. Rayman, the reaper hiding inside that tree and the hat are all visually distinct when compared to the background. You may be wondering why. Well, it's actually incredibly simple.
Colour opposites.
Take a look at the following image of Rayman, a heart and an enemy.
Rayman is a mix of purple, red, brown and white. The heart is red and the enemy is red.
This is a chart of colour opposites.
As you can see, red and purple are on the complete opposite of green. This makes our eyes perceive them as more distinct. So when the background is mainly green, with some blue and brown thrown in here and there, it makes us focus on what's different, namely Rayman, the enemies, and the collectibles.
2. The style
The general style of the characters, of the environments, of the entire game, is pretty much entirely unique. It looks drawn, which is one thing. It's not common, but it's not unique either. I think it's more the way it looks drawn. It doesn't look drawn in the way the game Don't Starve does. It doesn't look hand drawn. By it looking drawn I mean that it looks like any frame could be a piece of art by itself. It's hard to put into words, but I'd say that it is that the style by itself makes it look more like an animated movie than a game.
The general style of everything is great, too. It's a combination of the "newer" style of Rayman, by which I mean everything past the first game, and this drawn graphics style. Rayman already looked very unique, and combined with this drawn thing? It looks fantastic. Not only does it look very different, but it also looks really, really good. But again, this is subjective.
3. The animations
The animation quality. Dear lord the animation quality. It is... superb. Stupendous. Amazing. If the animation quality was ice cream I'd be licking the bowl so I could every little bit of the fluid goodness in me.
Look, this is hard to show without having a video, and even if I had one Youtube reduces the framerate to 30 FPS. This is really hard to show, but just trust me. The animation quality is incredible. You have to play the game for yourself to really see it, but dear lord does it look good. Especially coupled with a graphics style that I, personally, have trouble imagining as working well with fluid animations. But it does! It really, really does!
These things together just make a really great treat, to use my ice cream simile again. It's a feast for the eyes and watching it while playing just makes you... happy. It's not the stress relief you get by killing horde upon horde of enemies, like many other games. It's the kind of stress relief you get by just feeling a kind of childlike joy. I cannot praise how it looks enough.
Next post will be my first impressions of the actual gameplay. It'll probably not be as gushy as this post, but here's a spoiler: I really like it.
I knew it was a good looking game, that much is obvious when you look at the screenshots and videos available, but when I was actually playing the game? I was grinning from just how frickin' gorgeous it looks. Whether you like a design or not is entirely subjective, everyone should know this, but this style just appeals to me a ton, which I'd attribute to three things.
1. The colours
In an era where blacks, browns and blues largely dominate the gaming market, even if it's gotten much better compared to a few years ago, it's an incredible relief to see a game that looks like this!
Obviously the picture is dominated by green, and from what I've seen of the game so far green does play a heavy role in the colour choice, and it's important to mention that this is just what I've seen from the "dreaming tree" hub and the first two stages. But it's balanced with other colours, like the blue of the sky, the brown of the cliffs, the purple of some enemies and Rayman, to name a few things. Plus, all the colours are bright. This is extremely important. You can look at a game like Dead Space and say that it's a good looking game, just like I can say this is a good looking game. But can you look at Dead Space and say that the choice of colours makes you happy? Probably not. But I can look at Rayman Origins and say that the colours just make me happy. Bright, varied and extremely vibrant colours? Amazing colour choice. The colours also seem to be chosen in a way to make the usable objects and characters stand out compared to the background. Take a look at the image above. Rayman, the reaper hiding inside that tree and the hat are all visually distinct when compared to the background. You may be wondering why. Well, it's actually incredibly simple.
Colour opposites.
Take a look at the following image of Rayman, a heart and an enemy.
Rayman is a mix of purple, red, brown and white. The heart is red and the enemy is red.
This is a chart of colour opposites.
As you can see, red and purple are on the complete opposite of green. This makes our eyes perceive them as more distinct. So when the background is mainly green, with some blue and brown thrown in here and there, it makes us focus on what's different, namely Rayman, the enemies, and the collectibles.
2. The style
The general style of the characters, of the environments, of the entire game, is pretty much entirely unique. It looks drawn, which is one thing. It's not common, but it's not unique either. I think it's more the way it looks drawn. It doesn't look drawn in the way the game Don't Starve does. It doesn't look hand drawn. By it looking drawn I mean that it looks like any frame could be a piece of art by itself. It's hard to put into words, but I'd say that it is that the style by itself makes it look more like an animated movie than a game.
The general style of everything is great, too. It's a combination of the "newer" style of Rayman, by which I mean everything past the first game, and this drawn graphics style. Rayman already looked very unique, and combined with this drawn thing? It looks fantastic. Not only does it look very different, but it also looks really, really good. But again, this is subjective.
3. The animations
The animation quality. Dear lord the animation quality. It is... superb. Stupendous. Amazing. If the animation quality was ice cream I'd be licking the bowl so I could every little bit of the fluid goodness in me.
Look, this is hard to show without having a video, and even if I had one Youtube reduces the framerate to 30 FPS. This is really hard to show, but just trust me. The animation quality is incredible. You have to play the game for yourself to really see it, but dear lord does it look good. Especially coupled with a graphics style that I, personally, have trouble imagining as working well with fluid animations. But it does! It really, really does!
These things together just make a really great treat, to use my ice cream simile again. It's a feast for the eyes and watching it while playing just makes you... happy. It's not the stress relief you get by killing horde upon horde of enemies, like many other games. It's the kind of stress relief you get by just feeling a kind of childlike joy. I cannot praise how it looks enough.
Next post will be my first impressions of the actual gameplay. It'll probably not be as gushy as this post, but here's a spoiler: I really like it.
Friday, 25 January 2013
Rayman: Origins
Hi there, I'm Kate. I'm currently studying in a class focused on games and gaming in Sweden. I've been a gamer for around 18-19 years, played basically any kind of game that exists. In other words, yes, I'm a massive geek. And yes, this blog is going to be gaming related. To be more specific, during this spring we have an assignment. Play a game and analyse it in a blog.
Which is precisely what this thing here is.
Now, you may be saying "Kate! This is all well and good, but can you please get to the point?" I'll ask you to calm yourself or you'll get your knickers in a twist. I'll get to it.
The game I'll be playing is Rayman Origins, a side-scrolling platformer developed and published by Ubisoft for a great variety of platforms. Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation Vita, Nintendo 3DS and, finally, the PC, which is the version of the game I'll be playing. I'm going to analyse as many aspects of the game as I can, trying it with a variety of controls and with both multiplayer and singleplayer, examining how it works from as many perspectives as I can. The main focus will be on the general design of the game, how Ubisoft could, using a genre that's generally considered quite old-school, make a modern interpretation of their age-old franchise. I wouldn't call myself a fan of the series, but one of the games I played the most in my old Nintendo 64 days was Rayman 2: The Great Escape (which is a fantastic game, by the by, and you can pick it up cheaply at GoG.com), so I have some experience in it.
This concludes this introduction. The next post will come after I've played through the first few levels of the game to give my first impressions.
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