Summary: Flow is a game about a little organism drifting in the depths of the sea trying to survive by eating other creatures and becoming stronger. You control an aquatic organism and lead it through each level which then takes you deeper and deeper into the oceans atmosphere. This is a good concept to keep in the back of my head when I try to design my own game. The theory of taking the character deeper and deeper into the story/ into the unknown #interestingthought.
How would you describe the visuals in Flow?
The visuals in flow are very interesting, the use of bright neon colors for both the organisms and the background are really striking and are effective for attracting the consumers attention.
The neon coloring seem to take on a sci-fi type of vibe however with the character's (if you can call the organism that) design being almost old-fashioned alien hieroglyphics/symbols connected and alive, it is really intriguing how the futuristic coloring is combined with simple but graceful artwork. It appears as if the color choice and character design are one of the main reasons why people might play this game. Think about it, you go from a small and insignificant organism to an almost almighty and god-like creature. Although the creator could also be recreating realistic deep sea creatures character as creatures in the dark depths of the ocean also have plain exteriors with glowing neon aspects on their bodies. And like these creatures the neon glow of the characters also attract the consumer to the game.
 |
| example of a deep sea creature |
 |
| example of the Flow character |
The sound in Flow appears (if sound can do that) sort of twinkly,majestic and elegant as if it is introducing an adventure or journey in which it is ok to move at your own pace. Similarly the sound assists in the creators purpose in trying to create a game in which the difficulty changes in accordance with the players' skill level. The elegant sparkly and majestic sound in the game does this by also providing the consumer with a calmer sense of time, the sound helps the player forget where they are and encourages them to dive into the game. When I played the game without sound, I wasn't entertained as much and I couldn't escape into the game easily but when sound was included with the game it became less of a chore to play #thesoundwasprettyrelaxing. http://jenovachen.info/foundation
However although the visuals were impressive and the sound was useful, how the game is played was a let down. To play the game you would pilot the organism through the deep sea using your mouse to control the direction and the space bar or the left mouse click button in order to increase the speed of the organism. As the controls are simple the game is easy to play, however the actions to control the organism are so easy and the lack of obvious villains (or any villains at all) let down the game. In Flow the consumers are given the opportunity to control their game (progresshttp://jenovachen.info/implement-flow/). Although because the game is so relaxed and so "go with the flow" the consumer loses track of who they even are in the story which becomes a problem as the complete lack of roles in the game leave the player confused as they have no purpose, no reason to carry on, no motive to complete the level if you don't even know who you are in the game. I can now see how identity and narrative are important to a game as without it, the game has no structure and the consumer cannot identify the game's genre(*Note: I will try to include a narrative in my game).
Flow challenges our ideas of what a fun game is by creating a world were fun is were you lose track of time and defeat enemies that are at your level.
"When the challenge is greater than our abilities, we become anxious and potentially dead. When the challenge is significantly less than that of which we are worthy, we become bored, and potentially dead."
http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames/flowtheory.htm
Although if there is nothing pushing the consumers limits or if the challenges are within their abilities and become predictable the player could lose interest.
From Flow I learnt how if you float through every day life and do challenges that are within your limits life will get boring and predictable. However I can understand how biting off more challenges than you can chew is a destructive and reckless way to live and that any type of media that lacks some sort of narrative isn't very engaging. Flow just appears to be a game where you have to be very chill and have nothing else to do to play and thoroughly be entertained. The idea of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment is also an intriguing idea when applied to gaming and when creating my own game I will keep this concept in mind.
The game Flow, can also be connected with society and how we choose to progress to each stage by either jumping in or testing the waters first and the level of challenges that arise faced are the results of these choices of how to progress to the next level of our lives. How strong you are in each stage also reflects on the hardships experienced. Maybe because subconscious links between real life and the progress of the game are made, it is possible for the consumer to become bored due to these links that are made in the back of their heads as in their heads they'll have already been through this before.
Flow game trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5YPMU5dFJA
No comments:
Post a Comment