Saturday, September 21, 2013

Designer Megaman X

          Megaman X starts out with no instruction and leaves you on a road, fending for yourself. You have only the controls, but not what each button actually makes Megaman do. Right off the gecko, this game forces you to learn a new skill, as objects move toward you, which cause you to lose health. You must quickly learn how to jump, and soon after, shoot, as a larger enemy stands in your way of advancing in the game. 
          Playing this game and taking in the details about it was a small challenge, as for me it is easy to make notes of things made in the game, and more importantly, what isn't there. This may be because I start a game with a certain bias, which in this case helps me to comprehend the game. It makes me look for small things that one might not notice in a flawless game, but does in a poorly created game. Once I had understood how the gameplay was going to be, I suspended my bias to try to see how this game was going to force me to think. In some situations, the game made me think it was straightforward, when in fact, it was an out of the box concept that was the answer to the puzzle.
          During this game, there were some mechanics that indeed were used more than others. Jumping and shooting were the only to moves that I had discovered yet, and were equally important in the gameplay. I think these were important enough to be considered primary commands, as the gameplay centered around my ability to manipulate Megaman with these controls. From where I had gotten in the game, I had not gotten to a point where other controls were introduced, making there be no need to push controls to less accessible buttons. 
          In all, this game had a quality introduction to the gameplay, had a solidly pieced together structure, and had chosen a easy to get used to control frame, with the most dominant controls in accessible locations.

No comments:

Post a Comment