Game Concept Worksheet

Any video game has a designer.But how the designer manage to implement uniform all the mechanics?To understand the core mechanics behind any video game,you must respond to the following questions:

1. What is the nature of the gameplay? That is, what challenges will the player face? What actions will the player take to overcome them?
2. What is the victory condition for the game, if any? What is the player trying to achieve?
3. What is the player’s role? Is the player pretending to be someone or something, and if so, what? How does the player’s role help define the gameplay?
4. What is the game’s setting? Where does it take place?
5. What is the player’s interaction model? Omnipresent? Through an avatar? Something else? Some combination?
6. What is the game’s primary perspective? How will the player view the game’s world on the screen? Will there be more than one perspective?
7. What is general structure of the game? What is going on each mode, and what function does each mode fulfill?
8. Is the game competitive, cooperative, team-based, or single-player? If multiple players are allowed, are they using the same machine with separate controls or different machines over a network?
9. Does the game have a narrative or story as it goes along? Summarize the plot in a sentence or two.
10. Does the game fall into an existing genre? If so, which one?
11. Why would anyone want to play this game? What sort of people would be attracted to this game?


Here we have an example of the GTA San Andreas's Concept Worksheet  :

1.GTA San Andreas  is an action adventure game that has some RPG elements developed by Rockstar Games.
Gameplay: consists of elements of third person shooter and driving game.The player can walk, run, swim, eat, drive cars, helicopters, airplanes, bicycles, trains, tanks, motorcycles and use firearms.
The main aim of the game is to carry out missions but there are side missions that are optional.The main character, CJ,  must overcome several obstacles to complete his goal:he  has to shoot some individuals,  transport stuff,drive persons.In most missions, the player must reach a certain target using vehicles at its disposal.

 
2.In GTA San Andreas, our character CJ tries to save his brother from prison and then  get revenge on  while battling rivals to succeed .He carries out missions for different individuals.If the player meets all the missions, he will complete his goal.

3.To save his brother from prison, CJ, our character controlled by the player must do  dirty work for a corrupt cop ,Tempenny.Our player can walk, run, swim, eat, drive cars, helicopters, airplanes, bicycles, trains, tanks, motorcycles, use firearms.
The player can perform side missions and briefly deviate from the target, but eventually he has to perform the primary mission .For example,he can rob houses or individuals, struggle with rival band, sometimes starting a war.

4.The action takes place in Los Santos,San Fierro and Las Venturas.


5.The player controlling the character is ubiquitous seen from a third person perspective shooter.

6.A main storyline with a clear narative wire is defined.But, there are side perspective where the player can be a doctor, fireman,officer of the law, can rob houses, deviating a little from the main thread.
The player will see a very violent world full of gangsters who traffic drugs, prostitution, killing, a world where character is caught in the middle and  must spin in order to save his brother and to avenge those who put him in jail.

7.The overall structure of the game: The game is divided into main missions, each mission must be accomplished so that you can move to the next one.The player performs missions using different vehicles, firearms.With every mission completed,our character is coming increasingly more to saving brother and get his revenge.

8.The game is single player, but the newest addition to the game is that you can play with a friend, but not the whole game.

9.The game also has backstory, as the game unfolds creates a narrative that forms a story that will lead to the fulfillment of the purpose 
CJ gets along with the old gang and fights rival gangs.His brother is captured because of Big Smoke and Ryder 's betrayal and thrown in jail so CJ is forced to undertake all kinds of dirty stuff for a corrupt police officer Tempenny. Carl and his new friends open a garage in San Fierro  and waits for an opportunity to return to Los Santos . After Ryder kills ,CJ is contacted by a government agent Mike Toreno , who tells him that he can bring Sweet out of prison if he helps with  some " stuff " .
In the aftermath Carl's family and friends arrive at the Johnson house for a meeting. As his friends and allies celebrate their success, Carl turns to leave. When Kendl asks where he's going, he replies, "Fittin' to hit the block, see what's happening."

10.GTA San Andreas  is an action adventure game that has some RPG elements.

11.If you like stories with gangsters from the  '' 90 and listen to rap music,then  this game will definitely be to your favorite.
The game comes with 200 cars, 11 aircraft, nine helicopters, bicycles, you can modify cars to rob houses, you can buy clothes, food, arcade games you can play, you can even make debts.You can even start a war between gangs.
GTA San Andreas has a very strong history and a narrative story, well-written dialogue, voice expressed extraordinary, impressive graphics, sound game, and the game is very fun and varied.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Review

 It’s the best Assassin’s Creed yet! Which is 90% because Black Flag,  a third-person action adventure about pirates in the Caribbean, isn’t really an Assassin’s Creed game in the traditional sense, and 10% because the lead character is from Swansea.

The main character of the game is Edward Kenway a British privateer-turned-pirate and eventual member of the Assassin Order; father of Haytham Kenway, and grandfather of Ratonhnhaké: the two playable characters of Assassins Creed 3.

Sailing across the massive expanse of The Caribbean, exploring gorgeous and unique islands, and getting yourself into all sorts of  trouble provide some of the most rewarding and memorable gameplay I’ve experienced all year.

No matter which console you decide to play Black Flag on, you can rest easy knowing that it’s one of the best looking games of 2013.

The way the camera zooms out when your ship reaches its maximum speed, the speakers bombard you with the sounds of the wind, and the sunset turns blood-orange, is simply amazing. The PS4 and Xbox One versions are nearly identical, and both deliver the same gorgeous adventure. When you ignore the main mission prompt and simply set out in search of your own fun, Black Flag is at its best. It treats you like an adult, and allows you to explore its gorgeous and activity-filled world. You want to buy a small fishing boat and hunt for all manner of deadly sea creatures, using your spoils to upgrade your character?

Maybe you just want to sail to a remote island, climb to the top of a mountain, and gaze in awe at the world around you. Black Flag is all about embracing freedom and carving your own path through the world. Death animations are relatively short and sweet, with a surprising lack of blood for a game centered around stabbing people. It’s mighty annoying that I had to spend 10 minutes listening to rarely memorable dialogue before I could make the kill. Simply sailing wherever the wind takes me and seeing what sort of trouble I can get into is a complete joy.

So in this game you can do almost anything, from sailing and hunting sharks and wild animals to killing and finding treasures.

The game requirements are:

Minimum System Requirements:

Recommended System Requirements:

CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q8400 @ 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 620 @ 2.6 GHz			CPU: Intel Core i5 2400S @ 2.5 GHz or better or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
RAM: 2 GB RAM			RAM: 4 GB RAM
VGA: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 or AMD Radeon HD 4870 (512MB VRAM with shader Model 4.0 or higher)			VGA: Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 or AMD Radeon HD 5850 (1024MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) or better
DX: DirectX 10			DX: DirectX 11
OS: Windows Vista SP or Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8 (both 32/64bit versions)			OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8 (both 32/64bit versions)

http://gamesystemrequirements.com/

HDD: 30 GB available space		HDD: 30 GB available space
Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers		Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers

Here you can see a short video review:

Call of Duty:Ghosts review

Call of Duty Ghosts is the tenth video game in Call of Duty
series.Developed by Infinity Ward,Neversoft and Raven Software was released on November 5 for Xbox360,PlayStation 3,Wii U and will appear on November 22 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is a third-person shooter that features a completely new setting, characters, and system, though it is in the same universe.

The game's main protagonists are the Ghosts, a force of U.S. Special Operations personnel trained to conduct clandestine missions behind enemy lines.

The single player mode is played through the protagonist Logan Walker.Players assume the role of Logan for most of the game, with several other playable characters, including an astronaut specialist named Baker, and Logan's father, Elias Walker.

In Call of Duty: Ghosts you don't just create a class, you create a soldier. Choose the head, body type, head-gear and equipment, and you can even create a female soldier for the first time. With over 20,000 possible combinations, you can create the soldier you've always wanted. And each soldier you create will also have his or her own load outs.
The action takes place in Mexico,San Diego,Caribbean Sea,Antarctica,Brazil,Low Earth's orbit,Atlantic Ocean

You can also play in multiplayer mode.Here,you have 7 new game types:Search and rescue,Cranked,Search and destroy,Kill Confirmed,Free for all,Blitz,Domination,Team Deathmatch.

In Call of Duty: Ghosts, for the first time, the player will be able to alter their experience on each map, with Dynamic Maps coming into play for the first time. Examples given include knocking down a stack of logs, destroying a map with the new KEM Strike killstreak reward, collapsing a gas Station and blowing up doors. There are limits to these factors though, and they are only available on preset spots.
You can choose from a variety of maps:chasm,flooded,prison break,siege,tremor a.s.

COD Ghosts introduces a new game type named squads.Squads introduces a whole new level of competition to Call of Duty. The best parts of the Multiplayer experience are combined  with a vastly improved AI and the new mechanic of creating your own squad-mates. All the hard work you've put into customizing, playing, and prestiging your squad can now be put to use on a brand new playing field.You can play squad vs squad,wargame or safeguard.

There are over 20 NEW Kill Streaks in Call of Duty: Ghosts — such as Juggernaut Maniac, Helo-Scout, Vulture and the ODIN Strike. You can even bring in Riley, from the single-player campaign, as your guard dog to warn you when enemies are near, and to attack enemies if they get too close.
Extinction mode is a new game mode featured in the Call of Duty: Ghosts; its existence first proven through achievements.

Achievements

• No Man left: Escape with all four players
• Sprinter: Reach the exfil chopper with 1 minute and 30 seconds on the clock.
• Made it Out Alive: Escape 1st time
• Completionist: Complete all Extinction challenges and escape.
• Cabin Fever: Make it to the cabin.
• City Dweller: Make it to the city.
• Any Means Necessary: Get 50 kills with the electric fence and fire traps in a single game.
• Trash Picker: Scavenge 40 items in a single game.
• Throttled Escape: Escape using a relic.

The new Perks system has more perks than ever before. Every perk has a value from 1 to 5, and you have 8 points to allocate. So for example, choose 4 perks each valued at 2 points a piece, or even 8 perks, each valued at 1. You could also choose to get rid of your secondary weapon and get up to 11 perks.

About the movement mechanics,you can:lean around obstacles without adding button combinations,move fluidly over objects, while not losing momentum.The knee slide allows you to naturally transition from sprinting to crouch to prone.

Weapon selection is intensely personal. The way the guns are balanced within a given category, there is rarely one vastly superior weapon for an SMG or an Assault Rifle. Instead, it comes down to what you find most comfortable. Choosing the right type of weapon for the map and mode is generally more important than choosing one specific gun within a particular weapon class.

The weapons you use determine your role on the battlefield, from fast-moving SMG assault to long-range Sniper support. Mastery of all weapon types is essential to the flexible combatant. Whether the mission is urban search and destroy or open-field battle, having the skill and confidence to choose the correct weapon and utilize it effectively is a vital talent.And don't forget,bullets deal 20 % more damage!

Your life tank has 25% more health!

About the vehicles mechanics,they can either take the form of civilian cars or trucks . Cars are littered across the maps (usually on the streets) and can easily be destroyed with explosives, light machine guns, etc. When cars sustain enough damage, they will catch on fire. Cars on fire will sustain constant damage until it explodes. This puts the player at great risk whenever they decide to hide behind a vehicle and can cause great frustration, especially if they were killed in either the multiplayer or single player levels due to this.

Fueling this all new Call of Duty universe, the franchise's ambitious new next-gen engine delivers stunning levels of immersion and performance all while maintaining the speed and fluidity of 60 frames-per-second across all platforms.
A completely revamped audio design featuring an ADSR-based reverb system, reactive emitters and locational battle chatter gives you a more immersive experience.
Stephen Lang voices Elias Walker, Brandon Routh voices David "Hesh" Walker and Kevin Gage voices Gabriel Rorke in the game. David Buckley scored the game's original soundtrack.Eminem's track "Survival" is featured as the game's credit song.
From an exuberant campaign full of spectacle and variety to the way Extinction's unpredictable aliens force you to use those targeting skills in entirely new ways, Ghosts strikes an excellent balance between the familiar and the novel. This is a game that's keenly aware of the series' strengths, but doesn't find itself beholden to them. No matter what standard you apply, Call of Duty: Ghosts is a terrific first-person shooter.
Here's a video with the gameplay:

Grand theft Auto V Review

       The most anticipated video game of 2013, GTA V was created by the company Rockstar North and definitely lives up to the name Grand Theft Auto.When you wouldn’t believe it can surpass the success of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, this game has exceeded players expectations, we can even say that is the best in the entire series.

It was released on September 17, 2013 for the Xbox and PlayStation 3.

Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure video game played from a third-person perspective in an open world environment. You have to opportunity to experience single-player mode, as well as  online multiplayer mode .Grand Theft Auto Online was conceived as a separate experience, which would be played in a continually evolving world.

     GTA 5 has a lot of new features in comparation with the other games of the series. It evolves nearly every mechanic that was in the previous Grand Theft Auto games

The single-player mode of Grand Theft Auto V is played through three player-controlled protagonists: Michael, Trevor, and Franklin, criminals whose stories interconnect as they complete missions.  GTA 5 does a remarkable job of providing each with their own motivations, their own missions, and their own personas you'll come to love as you swap between them. 

Swapping characters feature happens in a Google Earth styled manner and was displayed during a Game Informer demo, which it showed to have ran smoothly and without lag.

   

    The action takes place in Los Santos.

Michael is a retired professional bank robber, who after making a sweetheart deal with FBI, returned to the life of crime. Trevor is the loose cannon in this story, who is also a long time best friend of Michael's and a hot-head psychopath as well. Last but certainly not least, we have Franklin, a young and grim repo agent who has a large amount of experience behind the wheel, but no real experience to crime until he meets Michael while he was trying to get a hustle.

Weapon selection has now also been changed. Instead of the old way of selecting through all the weapons, there is now a weapon wheel,

Each time the player fires the gun, the radar will show a red circle as weapon's noise. If any threat is within the red circle, they will be alerted by the player, and if a cop is within the noise range, the player may gain a wanted level.

The player can use melee attacks, firearms, weapons, and explosives to fight enemies.

A perpetual objective for the player is to complete missions to progress through the story. These missions can be completed at the player's leisure.You can practice hobbies while you complete a mission like hunting,parachuting,yoga,different sports.

Your character  can run, jump, swim, or use vehicles to navigate the game's world.

The missions are frequently incredible, which makes it a bit easier to overlook the occasional contradictions in character behavior, if not the mixed political messages. The high points of the game are the heists, big jobs planned by Michael and the gang. These jobs usually give you a few different options for how you want to approach a situation, and your choice completely changes how the heist plays out.

   

If your dream is to drive an expensive car,this game fulfills your wishes:you can drive sports,vintage cars,SUVs,motorcycles,vans.You even can drive trains,planes.

You can invest your money in the stock market,and then take your gains and put it in Los Santos real estate market.

Exactly like in the last games,cops can bust you.If you do something illegal like bad driving or shooting,if the cops are in your range you will gain a wanted level.

     GTA 5, one of the best-looking games currently available on consoles. But this improved fidelity comes at a cost. The game's massive, sprawling, detailed San Andreas is obviously pushing the hardware to its limits, so don't be surprised to see framerate drops or objects popping into existence as you speed down a highway. Other changes have only positive impacts to the game--gunplay is extremely strong thanks to improvements to the aiming, and while the driving controls are looser than they are in some other open-world games, they make for some thrilling chases.

     For those stuck in traffic,tune in to the Los Santos radio station for a wide range of music styles to choose from.

    The game generated significant controversy because in some missions you have to torture people.Some might even  declare that the game is misogynistic and has no respect towards women.

    With a strong story, well-written dialogue, extraordinary expressed voices, impressive graphics, sound, and a gameplay extremely fun and varied, Grand Theft Auto V is an amazing game, exciting  and must not be missed.
Here's the official video with the gameplay:

I will be back soon with new posts detailing all the mechanics of this game!