Batman Arkham Origins

Batman Arkham Origins has a lot of the same feel as Arkham City: fun brawling mechanics, massive cityscape, and unique characters. Two differences standout to me with Arkham Origins 1) There is a darker undertone in this game that gives it a sort Max Payne feel, 2) Greater emphasis is put on the refined detective mode. I would play an entire game built around this detective mode alone.

All that said, I don't see myself playing Batman: Arkham Knight anytime soon. These last two games were similar enough to make me feel as if I've had enough of the series. Plus, I think maybe the super hero mania that has swept my generation over the last decade has turned me off from the genre a bit. This is not to say I don't appreciate what the folks at WB have put together. Their unique fighting mechanics stand out to me in all of their games (see Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor). I think I'm just ready for something different.

Fallout Shelter

I heard praise about Fallout Shelter for a few weeks before I decided to give it a try. The first thing I noticed about the game was its tutorial system. Tutorials can be particularly tricky for game developers. You want to give players enough information to understand how to play the game, at the same time you don't want to give too much away. The method of delivery is tricky to. Players can get very turned off if they are forced to go through 5 minutes of tutorial before they can start playing, especially if there is a lot of reading involved. At the same time, if you add a skip button, 8 times out of 10 the player will skip the tutorial and feel frustration when they come across something they don't understand.

The developers at Bethesda did a great job in implementing Fallout Shelter's tutorial system. The game has a very small amount of forced tutorial, and what is there is very plain and clear. A few arrows point to UI elements and plainly tell the player what they are and why they are important. Once the player is hooked on the game, they can dive into 20+ pages of optional tutorial info. Fallout Shelter developers don't hold anything back. They give players all of the information they need to develop successful strategies and trust in the balance of the system to provide an engaging experience, even if the player has a detailed road map of how to win.

The golden goose of Fallout Shelter is in its systems design. Once you grasp how all the pieces effect each other, that's when the game gets really addictive. Weeks of gameplay come from beefing up character stats and maximizing resource gathering efficiency. This is all coming from someone who favors the achiever style of playing games. Fallout Shelter has been carefully crafted to fit other play styles as well. Explorers can collect rare armor, weapons, and characters while killers can send their vault dwellers to the wasteland to defeat increasingly difficult creatures.

The art in the game is minimal, fun, and cartoonish. It appears that less time was spent in developing art content, and more was put into creating a juicy user experience. Collecting food, water, and electricity could be something simple that just happens at set intervals without player input, instead, the player has to tap resource rooms in order to collect these resources. Such a small interaction gives players the rewarding feeling of putting in work to gather resources. It's especially rewarding to watch those resources fly up to the top of the screen and add to your stockpile. A+ user experience design for this mobile game.

Fallout Shelter is also an example of excellent cross-promotion marketing. I feel the urge to play Fallout 3: New Vegas every time I open Fallout Shelter. No doubt part of the marketing strategy for the soon to come Fallout 4.

All of this was to say that you've got me Bethesda. I'm thoroughly addicted to Fallout Shelter and excited for Fallout 4.

Journey into Open Water: A Common Core Math Adventure

The first weekend of May I participated in the Now I Get It! Jam at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center with my company, Simcoach Games. This game jam was different then your typical jam event. Usually one topic is announced the day of the jam and teams compete against each other to make the best game possible around that topic. For this event, teams were given different topics and were notified of that topic ahead of time. Topics themselves differed from your average jam as well.

"The Now I Get It! Jam was designed around the idea that the power of interactive media can be harnessed to make difficult concepts more approachable by everyone, and that these experiences benefit from the partnership of developers, educators & domain experts."

My team was given challenge #7: Explain the reasoning behind the new common core approach to math and give parents the tools to be able to help their child with math homework in this new style.

With this challenge we built Journey into Open Water: A Common Core Math Adventure. Journey into Open Water was built to be a shared experience between a parent and child where the two explore the fundamentals of common core math together through exploratory puzzles. We decided early on to make the game about the foundations behind common core math instead of the actual equations and algorithms used in the classroom.

CAWP Reinforcers

     Reinforcers allows you to practice tying the same ties used to stabilize concrete on a construction site. Players learn and practice the basic moves for 3 different types of rebar ties and watch structures come together as more rebar is tied. Efficiency, speed, and hand-eye coordination are needed to be a master reinforcer.

     

     We developed this game for the Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania as part of their Virtual Pre-Apprenticeship program, an online hub for acclimating aspiring construction workers to the different jobs within the industry. Everyone at CAWP has been fantastic to work with, and I know that we at Simcoach look forward to the opportunity to build many more games together.

     

     I highly recommend Reinforcers to anyone who is looking for insight into the world of concrete and rebar tying. The game is challenging and addicting even if you are not interested in construction. Check the game out at one of the links below, and write us a review to let us know what you think.

Apple Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reinforcers-cawp-arcade-production/id1016478101?mt=8

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simcoachgames.reinforcers&hl=en

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

This was Pink book number two for me (see A Whole New Mind). The title, Drive, says it all. In Drive, Pink discusses what motivates us in our daily lives and how that fits into today's culture. Surprise! There are some disconnects between today's individuals and their environments.

Individual: Seeks autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Most motivated (and happy) when pursuing intrinsic rewards. A person is most committed when she can set her own goals and pick her own team to work with.

Environment: Favors extrinsic motivation through carrots and sticks - bonuses, vacation time, salary increases, promotion, demotion, etc. Sets up strict rules/procedures in hopes of limiting the chaotic actions of untrustworthy personnel. 

In Drive, Daniel Pink gives a few example of forward thinking companies that treat their employees just a little differently.

Whole Foods: Let's store employees make new hire decisions,

Netflix: Allows for unlimited vacation days as long as the work is covered.

Tom's: Donates a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair sold.

3M: Sets aside 20% of the work week for employees to work on projects of their choosing.

All of these companies exhibit certain behaviors to support autonomy, mastery, and purpose. I'm proud to say that the company I work for now does a lot to supports these behaviors as well. So much so that I often feel like the agent that is reintroducing rules and procedures. It's a challenging balance, but a rewarding one as well.

Thanks Daniel Pink for reminding me to take advantage of opportunities to promote autonomy, mastery, and purpose within my life/organization.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

The third time's the charm. It took me three attempts in the five years Skyrim has been out to finally play through the entire game.

Attempt 1: I played some of the main quest and decided I should probably take on some guilds and side quests in order to better prepare for the rest of the main quest line. The result was playing through the College of Winterhold (Mage's Guild), Dark Brotherhood (Assassin's Guild), and Thieve's Guild quest lines before losing interest in the main quest line and taking a break from the game for a while.

Attempt 2: Again, I started the main quest line and quickly found more entertainment in some of the game's other content. This time I played through the Companions and College of Winterhold quest lines. I also took on more of an explorers play style. I set out to earn as many words of power as I could, get my hands on all the Daedric items that I could find, and even learn some of the legendary spells that could only be gained at levels 90 or above. Even after accomplishing all of this, I did not take the time to complete the main quest line. It would be more than a year before I tried again.

Attempt 3: A Steam Summer Sale influenced me to purchase Skyrim and all of its expansions at a fantastic price. I told myself that I would not play any of the expansions until I completed the main quest line. Fast forward a few weeks and I have played through Dragonborn, Dawnguard, and of course the original game's quest line.

All that's left to do now is explore the rest of Solstheim, build a house, and play through some side quests. Skyrim is a fantastic game, but Morrowind is still my favorite Elder Scrolls game. We'll see if the next installment of the series revisits the island of Vvardenfell.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling

I see two valuable outcomes from reading this book:

1) Being given a formula to accomplish Wildly Important Goals (WIGs).

2) The realization that the majority of our efforts go toward fighting the whirlwind. We work to get through the day, and rarely to accomplish what is truly important.

What is ironic about 4DX is its similarity to playing a game. There are goals, steps to work toward those goals, a scoreboard, and accountability systems. That sounds like every team sport ever played.

Jim Huling, Sean Covey, and Chris McChesney take goal setting to the next level in The 4 Disciplines of Execution. The book is not just about setting and accomplishing goals, but about motivating teams to accomplish long term goals in a manner that builds accountability and engagement.

The book addresses high level leaders and managers who are struggling to hit performance metrics, those that can strategize but find difficulty executing or rather inspiring others to execute. I found value in this book coming from almost the opposite perspective, as a performer who is looking to learn better how to develop strategy.

I look forward to practicing 4DX at the office in the weeks to come and gamifying the process of making games.