The Evolution of Flow in Street Fighter 4 to Street Fighter 5

Fighting game is a unique genre in term of flow. The flow of the game is highly dependent on the gap between the player’s ability to play the game. A player with a high skill level will most likely not find any form of ‘flow’ in the game playing against his grandmother who’s never played any game in her life. Playing against the artificial intelligence in the game do have a certain flow in it, but most fighting game is designed for player versus player.

So now that we’ve stated that flow works between the player, fighting games nowadays have created some sort of flow for themselves, built within the game as a game mechanic. In Street Fighter 4, players who had lost half of their health are allowed to perform an Ultra move, a powerful move which can turn the game around with just one clean hit. This creates a bridge which separates the more ‘chill’ first half and the much more intense second half of the game, as the player who dealt half health damage must now ‘respect’ the idea that the game can be turned around anytime. The problem with that is the uncomfortable feeling of uniformed flow. The player can almost know what to expect when the game reach a certain period – It’s like knowing that a jump-scare is around the corner and you are just waiting for it to happen.

Jump forward 8 years later, Capcom announced Street Fighter 4’s successor, Street Fighter 5. In the sequel (and I use that term very loosely), the Ultra bar has been removed completely, and they’ve added new mechanic such as the V-Trigger, V-Reversal, and a three level super bar. The V abilities, while working similarly as the previous game (being able to fill up as you lose roughly half your health) does not have to filled to full to be able to use. Players can now spend their resources anytime, making the game more random. The flow of the game is now more random – the best way to describe this is that now the jump-scare may happen anytime.

The super moves (or Critical Art) can also be spent earlier for EX skills, which once again randomize the game. This system exists in the predecessor, but it was overshadowed by the Ultra mechanics. Overall, Capcom knew what the players were feeling about the flow of their game, and chose to take a bold step forward on changing what worked for 8 years with something new – something that is generally appreciated by their fans. 

Star Control 2

I can almost guarantee that if I was old enough to play and understand this game back in 1992, I would not leave my house for days or weeks. I believe back in the days, content and depth were not paid as much attention as it was compared to games nowadays. I remember going back to play a number of 90s games and they were mostly focused towards one mechanic and the game is built upon that. Simplicity was the key back then, and it was not a bad thing necessarily – but it certainly made games like Star Control 2 stood out among its peer.

The worlds existing in the game is vibrant and lively. Sure, they aren’t detailed with extreme uniqueness, but each time the player makes a trip to a different world it feels like an adventure. Failing to make the right choice can sometimes result in the permanent death of a race – something that can make you either chuckle or feel terrible for letting that happen.

There are a lot of ‘untold’ story with how the game present its character. It tells a huge depth of story without explaining it directly. Their world building is their way of narrating the story – something that was tastefully and magnificently done with the game. The game pulls you in with its world – it makes you want to participate and explore its vast content by continuously introducing new characters, race, and worlds.

Unfortunately, I was only able to put in a very short amount of hours in the game. If I had known of this game’s existence 10 years ago or so, I can almost confidently say that I would be an even more introverted kid.

Stanley Parable Demo + Giana Sisters

STANLEY PARABLE DEMO

This demo was one hell of a strange, yet pleasing experience. The game messes with the player’s head with clever remark that builds up the game, making the player wanting more and more… only to not give them what they want, but something else that might prove to be more engaging. 

So to talk about the "demo", the best way to describe the experience is to imagine playing a game that was not the game you were expecting, nor the game you were supposed to be playing, in order to get a taste of the game you are about to play without knowing what the game is all about. I admire the creativity of this demo right to its core. The "demo" had nothing to do in the game; and yet it gives you a feeling of the quirkiness and uniqueness of the game. Imagine being promised to eat a new type of food without eating the said food, but eating another food that has nothing to do with the food you are supposed to eat.

To be honest - I could easily mistook this game as a huge trick the developers play on the player. If I had played the demo back when it was released in 2013, I would probably not expect a real Stanley Parable game. The demo is the game that was being developed.

One of the most critical aspect of the demo is its 4th wall breaking/self aware element of the game. 4th wall breaking/self aware elements can easily work against the creator of the content, but if used well, it can be their strongest weapon.

To be honest, I was sold on the demo, but at the same time I’m not sure what to expect on the actual game – which isn’t really always a bad thing as I was left with a pleasant feeling. I can only look forward to it.

GIANA SISTERS: TWISTED DREAMS

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams lets the player to switch between dimension in their gameplay. It allows great variety in platforming, boss battle, and general gameplay, but I can’t help but thinking that it’s a lacking element when it’s a main mechanic. This mechanic had been used several times in many games, especially in the indie games community. That said, Giana sisters have done something that made it stand out from the rest of the ‘dimension switching’ mechanic games – Fully utilizing this mechanic within narrative and aesthetic context.

Game such as Mighty Switch Force allows the player to change the world with a push of a button, but it was never explained why or how. Giana sisters needed this mechanic to complete certain puzzles. The transformation of the dimension doesn’t stop there - The “Cute” Giana can glide through the air to protect herself from danger while after transforming to the “Punk” Giana, she can attack enemies and perform other action related to offense. Giana can travel between her dream in order to find her sister. The transformation is her way of manipulating her dream, which the hazards are representing her internal conflicts.

While the symbolism of the world and its inhabitants actually help the narrative and gameplay mechanic, making the entire thing to be some sort of a lucid dream seems to be lowering the intensity and the urgency of the story. Even so, one can appreciate the attention to detail they put in to keep the player immersed.

World Design 5 - Portal

Portal takes one of the more "basic" element of a concept and somehow made it into a really innovative mechanic. I say "basic" with quotation marks because while on paper it has a simple and easily understandable concept, I can imagine it being a very difficult idea to execute well. The game generally revolves around one mechanic and have the narrative and level design based around that single mechanic. Almost everything is really well designed in this game. Tutorial was not jarring, level design is interesting, characters were interesting, and it managed to piqued the interest of someone like me who does not have an affection towards puzzle game.

When I played the demo, I could feel that the game has a really nice flow and atmosphere which let itself to be one of the most memorable game of all time. The game starts with a sense of danger and mystery set in what seems to be a laboratory. The player then would be introduced to GLaDOS, aka the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. GLaDOS could be said to be the face of Portal and what makes the game what it is with her memorable voice and quirky personality.She introduces the player to the game's mechanic, while managing to not break the immersion thanks to some excellent writing. She also unfolds the story slowly, as the player progress more and more with the game.

The puzzle design in Portal gives some sort of sense of accomplishment due to its nature: it's not a piece of cake (ha) yet it's not jarringly difficult to the point of frustration which might make the game a tedious chore. The tutorial, narrative, and flow of the game was not intrusive, which is quite important to make the game much more immersive.

World Design 3 & 4 - Kairo & Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

KAIRO

What an odd game to experience.

Maybe I just couldn't appreciate the beauty of abstract and symbolism enough, but the game repels me with its lack of decent basic control and empty space. However, to be fair - it was not all that out of my taste. The throne chair in the beginning was a nice touch, it somewhat hints a backstory to the character you control. 

The game’s simplicity is probably its strongest unique selling point. The ‘puzzle’ is simple yet they were well laid out, especially the part with the beam of light. The self-building level of moving platforms was very nice, it invites the protagonist to an adventure that is dynamic and otherworldly. The sound is also a nice touch. It’s chilly and eerie ambiance is a good trigger for the imagery of the player, to what kind of mysterious world the player is treading upon.

The simplicity, or better yet the 'abstractness' of the game uses plenty of negative space, saturated flat colour (such as red and white) to divide the player's attention towards danger, goal, and progress. You can't really get lost, despite its abstractness which is a huge point in its genre.

However, as much as an abstract game goes, the game relies heavily on my endurance to pursue a goal I can’t clearly understand, to perform things I don’t get the purpose. Perhaps I would understand more if I play the full game, but the lack of firm control such as mouse sensitivity and other menial things such as the uncomfortably low jump really puts me off.

Despite all the hate spewed within such short body of paragraph, I can comfortably say that this game would appeal to others with different taste and appreciation to people like me. Some people could easily appreciate the negative space, while some might like a world with more life.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia is an odd series that I have come to experience. I started playing the game with the 2008 version simply called ‘Prince of Persia’ which back then I assumed was a reboot or some sort. I was not that pleased with the 2008 iteration, due to it having obvious personal experience flaws such as repetitive mission and awkward difficulty curve. In 2010, I watched the Jake Gyllenhaal movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and I actually enjoyed the movie. The movie had flaw - but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It’s safe to say that I’m not that familiar or attached with the Prince of Persia series.

So recently I’ve gone back and had my hands on the demo of the 2003 version - aka the reboot of the golden age Prince of Persia. Surprisingly, it was an interesting experience to have. I always thought the game is always set in the middle-eastern, so when I was introduced to the Indian architecture I remember that Persia used to own at least half of India back then.

The demo was great with the fact that it doesn’t waste any time with its mechanic introduction. In such a short slice of the game, they equip the player with the dagger of time and let the player let loose with it. I’d also like to add at how nice classic third person camera as opposed to the really saturated over the shoulder third person camera games.

The design of the level synergizes quite well with the gameplay - a dungeon under the kingdom of the Maharajah. The narrative explains the traps and all the parkouring needed, so props to the developer of creating a believable experience to the player.

So which came first? The gameplay or the narrative? Simple answer – everything seems to lead me to believe that the narrative came first. The environmental design, the stage hazard, even the water which replenish your health, they’re all game elements which derived from the narrative. Prince of Persia, despite the huge amount of time you will be investing on the gameplay, is very narrative driven. Sure, it does not have the same size of content like a telltale game, but the world and almost everything that is interact-able tells itself a story.

World Design 2 - Bioshock

BIOSHOCK

Good Ol’ Bioshock is a game that always had a special place in my FPS-genre hating heart. While my head suffers in nauseating motion sickness, the game had always somehow propelled me into finishing its 10-15 hours of story. This is fully demonstrated in the first portion of the game, which the demo successfully portrays with its eerie and well-made introduction. Right off the bat, the game introduces the player in a cinematic, which for gaming standards in 2007 it was rather groundbreaking. The narration of the main character, the emotion he delivered with just a few lines prepared the player for an epic journey.

What was an eerie start is then followed by a series of unfortunate events for the protagonist. The protagonist survived the crash (surprise surprise) and was thrown into the middle of an ocean that looks more like a graveyard of broken airplanes. With no additional waiting or hand-holding, the player is then allowed to swim around the ocean. Everyone at some point had probably been stung by a hot utensil once in their life, so with the firewall blocking the protagonist’s path, the player most likely will swim around the fire into the direction which the game wants the player to go. The use of a landmark also helped the player plenty, as the massive tower extruding from the ground in the middle of the ocean is screaming to the player to go visit this location so the game can begin.

Once inside the building, the player is greeted by an uncommon soundtrack and architecture in video gaming: A theme so vintage, it would inflict a different effect on two kinds of players: Nostalgia for elder generation of gamers and a mysterious world for the younger generation of gamers. Bioshock’s timeline is a theme not visited quite often in video gaming. The moment the music plays, gamers know that they are not playing a buff army guy trying to save America from foreign terrorists or the other cliché alien invasion. They will know, that this is not ‘that kind of game’.

The demo was done in a way that the lighting, soundtrack, and architecture invites the player to an epic story unlike others. Not only that, the lack of hand-holding more common in recent video games is also gone. You are on your own, and you are to use your wit to survive. The fact that it taught many players on how to play, introduce them to a unique world of amazing architecture, and as it invites them to an epic story by use of very little to no narratives is truly a golden move in the gaming industry.

http://img09.deviantart.net/d0bc/i/2011/320/5/b/bioshock_big_daddy_by_archiesnow-d4gf3v3.jpg

World Design 1 - Doom Level Map

CHAINGUNE

such map, many chaingun, wow

In this map, the player must navigate a circular open area shaped like Doge in order to get to the target point. However, if the player chooses to go to the center, they will most likely immediately get shot by the hordes of chaingunner swarming the entire level. Instead, there are trail of bloods that the player can follow, circling the map to get to the other side of the map for his first key.

The player is armed with a chaingun, and there will be no ammo-pickup in the entire game. Instead, every hostile unit in the game are also armed with a chaingun, and killing them will cause them to drop their chaingun, which the player can pick up to refill their chaingun. The player must continously pick up the dropped chaingun if he wishes to ‘chain’-kill the enemies.

Once the player comes across their first key, surrounded by health bonus shaped as the word ‘WOW’, he can then open the first door, which is located on the right eye. After obtaining the first key, the player can navigate to the second eye, and ultimately finish the mission.

The goal of the map is to have continuous killing with the chaingun, while constantly picking up dropped chainguns and collecting medikit, as both ammo and lives are constantly going down. It’s a circular level in which the level ends generally near the starting location.

"wow such map, much effort, actulli not rly"