The Game of My Choice...

For the game of my choice, I’ve decided to pick an online mystery game titled A Case of the Crabs as a working example to try and answer the following questions. It’s very much like a detective game set in a typical 1920/30s Dick Tracy’s style, especially with the black and white-coloured graphics :) Oh well, here goes…

1. Describe the formal elements that make up the game. Be as clear and detailed as possible.

Number of Required Players – Basically 1 (but who really cares if your little sister comes long and give you a few suggestions here and there *shrugged*, especially since the computer can’t tell anyway :p)

Role - The player would take on the role of Nick Bounty or well, at least “take control” of the character as he embarks to solve the case of counterfeit crabs.

Objectives – To help Nick Bounty to gather clues and solve the case by:

a) Gathering items, either for use, as clues or evidence
b) Travelling to different locations on the map to interrogate other people

In other words, it works very much like how a detective would work to solve a case.

Procedures – The gameplay/story unfolds at Nick Bounty’s office as Arthur Griffen, a salesman who sells crabs, gets murdered in front of the former’s very own eyes. From that time on, the player could choose to do a number of things with the options found at the lower bar, namely Look, Get, Use, Talk, Move and Shoot. In addition, the player/Nick Bounty is required to perform certain actions before a new location gets “unlocked” on the map which he could then travel to (but WHAT and HOW TO DO are not exactly stated anywhere so I guess a bit of trial and error is needed).

Here's an example of a screenshot taken from the website:

Rules – There aren’t any explicit rules but there are quite a number of things that a player can’t (or Nick Bounty simply won’t) do. For instance, trying to get rid of the rat at Jim’s Shack ‘O Crabs (otherwise Jim won’t talk since he’s being badly traumatized by its presence) by shooting at it and Nick Bounty would say, “That’s a waste of good bullets” and among other things in which he would simply respond with a “Nope.” or a sarcastic “No.”

Resources – These would be the various items that the player/Nick Bounty is required to collect that would help him in solving the case.

Conflict – I think the conflict in this game comes mainly in the form of various obstacles that Nick Bounty has to overcome in the course of gathering clues. For example, on top of gathering clues, he also has to figure out how to create a fake I.D. in order to enter the Blue Crab Café, etc.

Boundaries – The number of locations that the player/Nick Bounty could travel to depends greatly how many has been “unlocked” as mentioned above under Procedures.

Outcome – Solve the case and put the “Big Boss” behind bars, what else…

2. Does this description fully capture the requirements for playing the game? Are there any additional rules or assumptions that you may have left out? Do these need to be written down? Why/why not?

I think the above description would very much fulfill the requirements for playing or rather, I can’t seem to think of any missing components that may hinder it otherwise :p Although I have an inkling that such has more to do with the fact that the game is being played on a computer so everything would very much be like a “hands-on” experience where the player could learn as he or she plays the game. If the game is to be played on some other form of medium, then it may be a completely different story. As for additional rules, I don’t think there would be any, especially since it all bores down to “If it works, it works and if it doesn’t, then it just doesn’t” with no penalties/forfeits or whatsoever. But then again, it could also be due to the way I play the game? ... On the other hand, there could be an assumption that while the order of actions taken by the player/Nick Bounty may affect the progress of the narrative in the game, it should not affect the ending/eventual outcome nor be regressive in nature.

3. Following Doug Church’s approach, try to extract the abstract design concepts that constitute the gameplay. Can these be transferred to a different type of game? Why/why not?

Based on the readings by Doug Church, I think the game bears all 3 abstract design concepts, namely – Intention, Perceivable Consequence and Story. The concept of intention could be found in the need for the player to decide what items to collect and how to use them to a certain extent (although the game itself does set a limit to what could be added to the inventory, how to use them and in what scenario :p) and what to say to other characters (but again, from within a limited set of choices). Perceivable consequence is almost immediate with response(s) being made by the main character, Nick Bounty or other characters whenever an action has been taken. Overall, I would say that the story of the game has been more designer-driven than that of player (again with regard to the point that certain actions could be taken but others could not).

The use of these concepts could be transferred to other types of games, but in this case, I think it may work better, perhaps on games that place a higher emphasis on the narrative development relative to anything else. This is mainly due to the fact the story of the game is designer-driven and hence, there is little that a player could do to alter its course. On the other hand, although the game does require some decision-making from the player, the accompanying set of limitations would not only reduce the level of interactivity but make gameplay almost “predictable” after a first round of play. Thus, it would not be very appropriate for games that seek to provide a lot of interactivity between the game and its player(s) or to be long-lasting (i.e. could be played over and over again) for the matter.