Video Game Lab

For this game lab, I played 6 interesting, different games. The three that I very much enjoyed and were pretty easy to play were called, Soul Shape, Tatsuo on the Beach, and The Narwhal Game. The Narwhal Game and the Tatsuo on the Beach game were very similar on many levels. The Narwhal Game consisted of the mechanics of moving your character to avoid objects in your game, and Tatsuo on the Beach’s required exactly that to be successful on their game as well. They are also similar in that they are both platformer games and they both involve lives. In each game, you are provided a number of lives, and if you touch any of the objects that may come in your way, you lose a life. Soul Shape was so entertaining to me that I easily got hooked on it. It is a puzzle, shape-shifting type of game and it uses shapes from the classic game of Tetris. Each level of the game gets a little more challenging even though it may look easy to solve.

In the game lab, I also observed my group members, George and Kyra, play some games. The task of observing versus the task of playing a game is way different. When I was observing, I found myself thinking about how I would play better than them, and what I would do in their situations when they would struggle. When I played these games and had all the control, I actually found it more difficult to learn a game. I think it is because there is more of the mental effort of learning the controls, watching what you are doing, and also thinking about how to win. When I observed, I was able to understand the games that they were playing faster, understand other people’s perspectives on these games, and learn from other people’s behaviors.