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Tuesday 15 January, 2008
GAMELOG #1 – Part 2 (Master of Illusion)
Gameplay
Upon playing Master of Illusion for a second time I have learned a lot more about the game. For one I have tried some solo magic and some magic training. The solo magic can be entertaining diversion, but many of the tricks are easy to see through and most of the tricks seem to rely solely on mathematics. Relying on math isn’t a bad thing, but I found myself often disregarding tricks because I had the feeling that math is no problem for the DS and that I could do the trick to if I was a computer.
The magic training also had some mixed results. For example, most of the games were fairly fun to play, but I didn’t really have a pressing urge to play any of them, besides for the fact that they were an easy way to gain magic points, which unlock new tricks. I was also disappointed to realize that there were not as many games as I thought because many games were just more difficult version of other games. In some ways it felt like a bit of a copout because what would look like a spot for 2 more games ended up just being 2 more difficulty levels of the same game. One thing that was fun was the rating system, which rates your performance as being a certain animal. This was much more fun than simple high score board and lead to many suprises because you don’t know what animals they use until you score in that range.
In addition to all of this I also tried some more magic tricks. These magic tricks where much more complicated than the earlier tricks and relied heavily on the use of the games card and the touch screen. To lower the difficulty many tricks have cues on the upper screen to help the magician remember what to do, but at some level this seems like training wheels and an insult to your abilities. However the cues do help because you don’t have to waste time thinking and therefore look suspicious, and it helps if you haven’t done the trick for a while or haven’t done it much.
The packed in cards also add a lot to the game because it makes a trick even more impressive when the DS is able to predict a seemingly normal card without any clear input as to what the card is (one person actually thought the cards of having microchips in them). The only problem is that the secret of the cards is not well hidden and people can figure it out if they know that there is a secret (my girlfriend figured it out). So it is important to assure the audience that they are normal cards, which can be hard because the ace of spaces says Nintendo on it. Another problem that arose for me was that since all the tricks are performed with the DS, one person accused the DS of doing everything and me not being able to do a trick without it. Luckily I knew a normal card trick so I could get around it, but I could see where this situation could be a problem.
Design
As far as game design goes, Master of Illusion definitely has a unique concept. I don’t know of another video game that is used to perform magic tricks. Some people may argue that it isn’t really a game, but there still are traditional game elements in it, like unlocking things and raising levels. Also, I feel that to have an innovative game you often have to push the limits of what counts as a game. Either way Masters of Illusion is at least a unique and interesting piece of hardware.
One of the biggest strengths of the game is its’ use of the DS hardware and the ability for tricks to be somewhat customized. For example, many tricks involve the audience drawing a face or a hand and it is often fun for them because after they draw the necessary template they can add as much to the drawings as they wish. Also is makes good use of precision movements on the touch screen. Many tricks require the magician to touch certain specific areas or to draw things in specific order. For the most part the touch screen mechanics work well, however, there are cases in which the DS does not recognize something you have drawn and it can get very frustrating (especially in the “mirrored letters” game). The tricks also make good use of the microphone, especially in the two candles trick in which you blow into the microphone to blow out candles on screen. On the downside some of the voice commands seem too robotic and if you don’t speak loudly enough or if some other loud noise occurs during the trick, the DS can end up doing the wrong thing. Also you can customize how some tricks play out. For example by choosing how the DS will respond to certain voice commands or by choosing the message at the end of a trick. The customizable effects make the game open to different outcomes and this can increase the replay value. Overall this game would not be nearly as interesting without the DS features and the customization aspects.
Another big part of this game is the social aspect. The game argues that magic can be used as a way to socialize and because there is no technical multi player, most of the interaction is based on the assumption that you will perform the tricks for someone. When you do perform the trick it is definitely a good way to socialize, but only with people you already know. It is very fun to perform tricks for people, have people perform tricks for you, or even to take turns playing some of the shorter solitaire games, but the fact of the matter is that if you are by yourself the game does not offer nearly as much. In addition the game suggest that you can use some tricks to meet people, but I know that I would be kind of weirded out if a stranger came up to me to show me a magic trick. Ultimately this game is great fun when experienced with other people, but the success of the game may rely too heavily on this socialization aspect.
I had trouble thinking about the level design of this game until I started thinking of each trick as a level. If the tricks can indeed be considered levels then this games level design has one major flaw which is lack of variety. I say this because many of the tricks rely on essential the same gimmick. All of the tricks had different outcomes and setups on the outside, but the magician would rely on the almost the same rules to perform the trick. This makes it fun for the audience, but not very fun for the magician because once they learn one trick they have essential learned the core elements of about five other tricks, which leaves you with little to learn from the game. One possible reason that the cores of many of the tricks were similar could have been so that the cues on the top screen did not change too much, which would make the cues more obvious. For whatever reason the tricks did seem very similar; however, they were varied enough to at least be called separate tricks.
Another area of the game design that yielded mixed results was the difficulty level. The game does a good job of giving instructions and it often gives very helpful and practical tips for performing tricks, however they don’t give good strategy tips for many of the solitaire games which could be challenging if you have never played them before. The game does get progressively harder, but most tricks are not very hard in general and most contain the same core elements; this often results in some tricks seeming too easy. In opposition to this some of the solitaire games seem too hard. For example in one game you have to count to ten without using a clock and until you can get within about 0.15 seconds of ten seconds you will receive the lowest ranking. I am also not a huge fan of the reward system simply because you are only allowed to gain a certain amount of points a day. You could argue that his hooks people into the game for longer, but it often seems like a tactic to simply make a short game look longer.
The game does not offer much in graphics or sounds, but they are not horrible either. The backgrounds are generally bland, but there are some interesting effects and they do a good job of making characters look like cartoons (which adds a little charm to the game). Also it doesn’t seem like that really had two much to work with as far as graphics go because most of the tricks involve drawings by the magician or the audience and others simply use the screen to display cards or lists. The music is not bad, but there is not much variety and it gets boring fairly quickly. One part where the sound does seem good is when shuffling or flipping cards; for some reason these sounds are very satisfying, like the sound of a swish in basketball. I feel it may also have to do with the familiarity of the sound.
In general this is a unique and fun game to play with friends, but does not offer much from a single player perspective and can get boring.
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