Week 6

Over this past week, I looked at the video game of Snake. Snake is the online game that can be played just on Google, where you direct a snake around a 15x15 grid so that it can eat apples and grow longer. If the Snake runs into the walls of the 15x15 play space or into itself, you lose. The reason I decided to look into this game was because of the uncertainty and the want to keep playing, even after losing. In my experience at least, when I lose a game of Snake, I willingly repeat the game because I have a feeling of “I could have done better”. I found this aspect very interesting as it was similar to the feeling I get when I play games that are in the “Souls-like” genre. So, the question I asked was like the questions posed in chapter 6.

“What does the player do when playing? As game designer and educator Tracy Fullerton puts it, what does the player get to do? And how does this make the player feel physically and emotionally?” (Macklin and Sharp, Ch 6)

This led into looking at other design aspects also talked about in chapter six: decision-making, uncertainty, and emotion.  When thinking about decision-making, Macklin and Sharp ask: “How and where do players make decisions? How are decisions presented?” (Macklin and Sharp, Ch 6)

Concerning Snake, I believe that most players make decisions off the top of their head, and it is done mostly by instinct. A player needs to move 5 spaces, and so they do so. However, the player also must think about the uncertainty of what will happen if they do not change direction fast enough. The probability of running into a wall at the beginning of the game due to not changing fast enough is the same as it is later. I believe this answers the proposed question of “From what sources does uncertainty develop?” (Macklin and Sharp, Ch 6)

Lastly, concerning the emotion of the game, I looked at the question of “What emotions might the game create in players?” (Macklin and Sharp, Ch 6). I believe that most players want to try again after the game ends. Knowing knowing that they could have gone just a little bit further drives them to play again. I think this creates a combination of frustration when they lose (and possibly even stress) and joy when they get further than they did the last time.

To paper prototype the game, I used a page of paper that had a 6x6 grid drawn on it, 2d6 and coins. The 6x6 grid represented the game space, the 2d6 were used to determine the location of the apples and the snake’s starting space, and the coins were used to represent the snake, being heads, and the apples, being tails. Originally, I used a d6 to determine the movement of the snake. The player would select the direction they wanted to go and then roll the d6. If they were able to move without running into a wall or themselves, they were good, otherwise, the game was over. The issue with this was the fact that the grid was only 6x6. So, when a player would move using the d6, if they ever rolled a 6, they would lose. A suggestion that was given was to use a d4 to represent the movement. This proved to be a lot better and allowed the grid to stay at a 6x6.