Video Game Lab (aka Fun Day)
Links to the 5 games played:
I will discuss three out of the five games I played and what I enjoyed about them.
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| Oh, the struggles of everyday life |
Don't Sh*t Your Pants! is a survival horror game, but it is not your typical survival horror game. The game is literally about you, the player, to not sh*t your pants. The game starts with 40 seconds where the player is holding onto the struggles of holding your sh*t. Once the timer is over or if you input the wrong answer(s), the player will take a sh*t. If you sh*t your pants, then it is game over. If you don't, then you win. What I like about the game is that it is simple and funny. It starts off as the picture above. From there it requires word(s) inputted from the user. The game interacts with the user by showing actions depending on what the user typed. If the user types a word that the program doesn't know, then it will respond back with the message "I don't know how to word you typed." From looking at the background, you are able to guess what specific actions you might need to do such as opening the door.
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| A prime example of sharting. |
The game does a great job of leaving hints for the players especially after failing. With these hints, it helps the players who are stuck, an idea on how to reach the main goal and achieve victory. I find the cartoony look to be interesting and fun. There is no music during the game, but it doesn't require it since it is short and gives off a great retro vibe I like for simplistic games. The failed sound and the victory sound are hilarious and are surprisingly fitting to the appropriate ending earned.
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| Oh the smell! |
Even when you fail the objective, the player is treated with a nice picture and sometimes funny messages. This type of game makes you want to lose at times just to know what the ending may be. In my mind, this seems like a win-win situation since sh*tting your pants doesn't necessarily feel like a game over, but just an opportunity wasted.
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| Victory! Wait, no toilet paper. Ahhhh sh*t! |
Once you have typed the correct words or phrases, you are able to realize what needs to be done. In fact, sometimes reaching one goal such as opening the door, leads to the obvious words to type next such as typing "sit on toilet" once you see a toilet appear when opening the door.
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| Think outside the box |
Of course once you achieve success in not sh*tting your pants, you start to experiment on how to beat the game in other ways such as the picture on the right. You start figuring out loopholes such as typing sh*t at the main menu only to see the message of losing before the game even started.
The basic mechanic of the game is to find a way to sh*t without having your pants suffer from the intoxicating smell and aftermath by typing word(s). This mechanic forces the player to think which word would lead them to the next event or dilemma. There is also an award list that players can complete depending on their actions. This type of reward system forced me to try all sorts of ways to beat the game. The list isn't too long or short and gives enough motivation for the player to at least attempt all of them.
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The Achievements Earned in the game
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| Looks easy until you actually try the game |
QWOP is basically a race to the finish game that is considered by some to be the hardest game to play. The controls seem straight forward by pressing the Q, W, O, and or P keys to move the character. What doesn't seem easy is to control the character without him landing on his face. Moving the character successfully relies on knowing exactly what each key moves which specific body part and balance. The background is simple and not too distracting, which I liked since the game itself requires focus to succeed.
As you can see on the picture on the left, I was able to find a rhythm by understanding a little bit of the game mechanics. All I can say is that unless you truly know how to run the character flawlessly, slow and steady will win the race. Something about the game just compels you to play again after defeat. The game does a good job in giving players the urge to break their own record, to finish the race, or the inevitable RAGE QUIT.
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| Soooo close, but no medal :( |
I managed to take my time and continue using the controls to keep moving the character forward by a few meters. Unfortunately for me, I was met with challenging obstacles such as a hurdle once you reach 50 meters. It took me a while to get over it, but was an interesting feature to make a game that is considered hard for players even more difficult. Looking at the picture on the right, I was so close to probably beating the game, but stumbled on an obstacle that required me to jump over right before this mark.
Overall, QWOP is a stressful game to play, but that is the whole point. If the game was easy to move the character, then it wouldn't be special or memorable. The game's visuals will probably not persuade you to play it, but the whole game mechanic of moving the character to the finish line is what keeps people interested and a sense of accomplishment once the game is beaten.
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"This is the Only Level" was perhaps my favorite game to play and was quite an enjoyable experience. The game centers on moving an elephant onto the orange pipe on the other end of the level. After successfully moving the elephant to the orange pipe, you are greeted with Stage Complete: But is the level over... From then on, you can tell that there are multiple stages based on one level needed to beat the game. The mechanic of the game is to use the arrow keys to move the elephant. Left arrow key moves left, up arrow key makes the elephant jump, etc., but what makes this game really special are the stages later in the game that require alternative ways to reach the pipe. The game leaves hints under the level name on how to beat the level. I find this feature quite helpful and interesting. The timer and death counter offers the player the motivation to play the game multiple times to beat their previous record.
You can tell after beating the first stage that each stage has its own theme such as moving in the opposite direction to move the elephant forward in stage 2. What I found most enjoyable were the stages that required you to think outside the box such as stage 4, where the arrow keys are useless and that you have to realize that moving your mouse is the only way to move the elephant. Another level was stage 15, where you had to literally refresh the web page to unlock the green bar in order to advance onto the next stage. It is such a brilliant concept that I would enjoy playing all over again. Although the level design remains the same, the maker of the game keeps it interesting by making each stage feel different. There are dangers and challenges, but they are needed to make the game fun and not too easy. The visuals itself are pleasing to my eye with its basic colors. The changing of the color for each stage helps make each stage feel unique and different. The music doesn't annoy me too much, but gets you into the mood of being stuck in a maze that makes you wonder how long this game is and will it run forever.
"This is the Only Level" was a fantastic game and seems like a game that I would enjoy making and testing. Overall, the game mechanics leaves the players satisfied when they beat the stage and offers them the desire to beat the whole game from start to finish.
Thank you for reading my blog. Please leave a comment below about my blog or any of these games.
