Week 5 - Sports games.

One game that is probably the most iconic sports game would be Wii Sports. Wii Sports is an icon growing up around Nintendo consoles. If you never had Wii Sports in your household, it is likely that you have played it at some point through a friend or a group gathering. 

“First is the ways the games represent the experience of pulling off tricks” (Chapter 8, Sharp).

The skating games explained in the chapter cover how there are certain aspects of Skating such as tricks that are made really easy foer the flow of the gameplay. It would be unenjoyable to play a game where you have to learn in real time how to play a certain sport. Tricks when skating are turned into certain button presses instead. Wii Sports follows a similar pattern except there are multiple sports in one game. For example, playing golf in Wii Sports is as simple as swinging the controller in a motion that you would see a golf club swung in real life.

“Designers can’t really “see” their designs until they are played, and their games can’t be played until they are made” (Chapter 5, Macklin & Sharp).

Playtesting is critical to making a great game. If a designer has an idea and has a vision on how it is supposed to be carried out, it is likely that others may possibly find a way to change this by just playing it wrong or by suggesting an alternative to what is present. In our group project designing “Paper Hurdles,” we went through a single play test phase and immediately knew our game needed a new revamp. This drastically altered our game as we knew it, but we knew this new change would be what we needed to set our game on the right course. It makes me wonder where the Wii Sports designers settled on such a simple game that is accessible to many. I have a feeling the game had much more advanced movements in the playtesting phase that they felt were unnecessary in trying to make these simulated sports feel more real. What makes Wii Sports so appealing is the fact that less is more. 

“Tony Hawk: Shred positions the player as an up-and-coming skater who has somehow managed to get Tony Hawk’s attention” (Chapter 8, Sharp).

Sometimes sports games give a nice storyline to the character that you are playing which gives a reason for all of these skills to be possible without learning. If the character is already a good skater in this case then the skill has a reason to be there. This makes the player experience much more enjoyable overall.