Kids and Gaming - Personal Observations

I'm going to write about my observations of something I know little about and have read even less about. Kids and gaming. First off one thing I have learned is kids move at their own pace, and if yours is ahead or behind don't worry about it! He'll catch up, even out, or has other interests he'll pick up. My son was a super late walker and behind for about the first 18 months and we worried a bit, then he has been on track roughly since.

We'll start with a bit of background, I'm a game developer and my son is nearly 3 and a half years old. I've always known I wanted him to enjoy games, but wasn't sure when to get him into them. I'd mostly use them to keep him entertained when he was visiting me at work as pictured above. I'd setup Forza Horizon 3 or more recently Rocket League and let him push buttons and watch what was on screen. His brain didn't seem to be linking the on-screen action with what his hands on the controls were doing though.

Super Mario Run came out and I was slightly amused, being in the gaming industry I try to play as many games as I can and have time for, so it was downloaded and played it a little. One day my son needed to be entertained out and about and hey Run was on my phone.

After he was hooked on the game for a while I decided to support Nintendo and dropped the $10 to unlock the game as my son had played through the starting 4-5 levels, but figured it would get to hard for him. Within a few weeks though he'd unlocked all the levels through mostly the games "easy mode" that allows unlimited time and deaths.

He was at the last level and there is no easy mode so he started asking for help. Since I hadn't played the game in a while I played the last level figured out the kick the bomb into Bowser mechanic and showed/explained it to him. For a couple days every chance he got to play he kept trying to finish this level on "normal" mode and failing continuously.

His persistence surprised me and sure enough after a week or so he'd beaten the level himself multiple times!

During this time he'd also developed a bit of an obsession with Yoshi as Blue Yoshi is the first unlockable character in the game and I'd found a wind-up walking Red Yoshi at a local comic book store. He's obsession was now "unlock Red Yoshi on daddy's phone!" This is no small task and appears to be the "you have no live" achievement for the game, so I started looking for alternatives.

Knowing the Wii U hadn't sold well and expecting games to be hard to find now that it's discontinued I have a small library of games I'd like to play "some day" for the system. In that library is Yoshi's Woolly World. This had 2 things: Yoshi, and it was the closest most accessible game to Super Mario Brothers I could think of. Super Mario Brothers was my first real post Atari 2600 gaming experience and seemed like a good next progression for my son.

Mechanically in fact it's almost identical. The only new major mechanic is yarn throwing and a there are a few smaller things like double jumps, ground slams, etc that came to the Mario series later on.

I was going to let him watch me play as we'd done with a few other games, but he immediately wanted to play himself, so I thought that was a good sign, but quickly thought this was a mistake as he couldn't move and jump a the same time, and I got an almost constant demand for "daddy help me" this went on that entire play session and the start of the next, but he never wanted to just watch, or stop playing. A few minutes into the next session I needed to leave and left him playing without help figuring it wouldn't last long, but I came back about 15 minutes later and he was still playing on his own. Progress was still very slow involving him sitting in an underworld area eating and spitting bad guys into each other for a long time, but practicing using the mechanics.

I had the entire 1-1 world memorized and it seemed he wasn't mechanically going to be able to get through it yet. He was moving and jumping though and now was having questions about how to progress... things we take for granted like down to go down pipes, up to open doors, and the level was requiring more accurate yarn throwing and assuming you would throw at an empty circle of gems to "find" the flower spawner you needed to complete the level. After a coupe days of showing him mechanics and how they are used I hear a sequel of joy quickly followed by "daddy I did it!" He'd finished the level on his own and within the next hour or less he was at the first boss having finished 4 more levels. And I watched him amazed how much better he was playing in only 3-4 days!

Both Yoshi's Woolly World and Super Mario Run have some really great "easy mode" features and considerations for kids/non gamers that I didn't have starting out, but I'm still shocked how quickly he was able to pickup and get good at both of them. While the transition wasn't fast enough for me to think it was going to work initially, looking back on it there was so much progress made in a short time!

I don't know what advantages this might have, but I'm excited to see his persistence even though it's hard at times! He's got some eye-hand coordination and incredible problem solving skills showing. He's having to prioritize what he wants to do with his limited "screen time" and hopefully this will all transfer to life skill. Who knows if he'll keep gaming, but it's cool to share something that is a big part of my life with him.

Next game? We have a vacation coming up, the Switch controllers are nice and kid sized, and they added some good driving assists to the Switch version of Mario Kart 8!

Zelda Breath of the Wild is an Example of a Games as an Art Form

Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a truly amazing game! I don't feel like it does anything new, but everything it does is done so well!

Disclaimer: Following is a spoiler for one possible way to get to a specific tower. If you've already activated the tower pictured below, that's all I'm really going to specifically talk about in this post.

Making it to the top of this tower alive is my greatest accomplishment so far!

Breath of the Wild like almost any open world game is not about the stories in game, but rather the stores you create within the game.

Initially I cleared a corner of the lake and attempted to swim across, but I had no way to defend myself from the monsters that could float above it or attack while swimming unlike myself.

So I looked around, found a high cliff simi-nearby and went to work.

I climbed to the highest point and jumped off, but ran out of grip strength just before getting to the tower and splashed down in the water and died within seconds to the monsters mentioned above.

I found a ledge that was almost as high, but about as much closer to the tower as the distance my grip went out and tried again. This time I was inches short.

One more time from the same location but laser focused on flying directly at the tower as straight as possible and my grip failed dropping me onto the lowest platform on the tower.

Those two points in stamina wheel paid off!

I wait about 2 seconds for my stamina to re-charge and start up the tower and get attacked form the monsters around the base of the tower and quickly die.

Repeat the above steps and save on the platform after resting :)

After a few failed attempts getting spotted on the way up the tower I figured out if I could jump three times quickly up the tower I would get out of ground aggro range with just enough grip strength left to make it to the next platform.

Repeat the quick triple jump and climb to the next platform to clear and I'm out of range of any of the monster floating/flying above the lake and able to activate the tower.

So let's talk about the game for a minute:

Nothing I listed above is new to games, or the action-RPG that Breath of the Wild basically fits into with an added puzzle component. It's just all done to a level of polish that I can't remember seeing in a single game before. Everything about that experience just worked together like you'd expect. Talking to a co-worker about the game, he told me his own personal story about a very long glide off a steam peak onto the back of his horse that was one of these "epic" moments he experienced playing.

I think the best thing about the game being a Switch release title might be that the game was probably delayed for the Switch launch, because it has the level of polish almost never attained and that would come by having more time than planned to work on the game.

Breath of the Wild's weakest point is probably it's combat, though even the combat feels like something from Dark Souls requiring defense and avoidance being prioritized above attacking. The tells for enemy attacks didn't seem to be easy enough to read and archers would often hit me from off screen and at 4 hearts there were still a fair number of one-shot-kills. This maybe because I was in an area beyond where I should have been, or maybe I'm not good enough with Link's combat system yet, but I was always able to prevail, it just took a few to many tries a few times in my opinion, but not a deal breaker at all. Good bow use and weapon choices help a lot, and many camps actually have an easy way to beat them if you look around for explosives or rocks or other things in the area.

/Start Edit 2017-03-12

Okay, combat is fine compared to the randomly thrown in and very poorly controllable motion control puzzles. And not to mention I'm playing with the Pro controller, so having to switch controllers is very bad UX (user experience) in the first place.

I should do a post on just Quick Time Events and Motion Controls because they are such a turn off in games, but God of War III finally got a usable QTE system. Motion Controls are held back mostly by hardware I guess, considering none of them are as responsive as they need to be for how they are used in game.

/End Edit

The two things that really impressed me most of all are just how far you can see, (That screenshot is in real time in game) and that you can climb and go anywhere you see.

The only thing that really constantly bugs me is having the stamina ring in the middle of your screen all the time, often over Link. (See the 2nd image of the glider above).

Over all the game is made up of so many very well polished systems that work together almost seamlessly. It's really a marvel of what can be accomplished. I've played other open world action-RPGs and nothing comes close to Zelda, it just feels right everywhere you go. Many other games get a system or two right and the rest are half-implemented/realized.

I didn't believe all the perfect review scores, but since a game can't actually be perfect, this is probably as close as you will ever get! I think it's spoiled these kinds of games for me for all time. It's the hit game and system seller Nintendo needed after a long drought! If you don't have a Wii U, go buy a switch and play this game, if you have one decide if you want a Switch, and if not get it for Wii U. It's so good!

I'm going to mount up on Traveler, ride off into the night and hope it's not a blood moon I see through the trees!

 

Nintendo Just Does Things Different: Wii U Gamepad Controller

I've been playing my Wii U again pretty heavily over the last week finishing Bayonetta 2 and playing more The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. I've come back to the old issue I had with the Wii U Gamepad. It is both a great idea and poor choice at the same time and mostly due to one small design choice: it's always be on if the system is on!

The big question is do I have dominion over the TV?

If the answer is yes, I'm playing on the big screen and using the pro controller and my Wii U Gamepad is sitting behind the couch out of sight, but on, draining the already short-life battery. The Gamepad is in no way a preferable option to the other controllers being to large to hold comfortably and having underwhelming (thought sadly required by some games) gimmicks of touchscreen and blowing on the controller.

If the answer is no. The Wii U Gamepad is a wonderful gift allowing me to play a full console game (well at least the Wii U version of full) while sitting next to my wife and kid while they watch whatever they are into at the moment. The awkwardly large size is still an issue, but having the screen in my hand mostly makes up for it. Some of the features are still not intuitive though. I had to Google how to swap equipped items in Twilight Princess because using the touch screen to drag and drop items onto controls didn't even register as an option.

So the reason I haven't even tried to pre-order a Switch is Nintendo continues to make choices without regard to player input or their competition. The Wii U itself is a system released horribly under powered at the time that wouldn't support engine ports from many third parties. Without the "new" gimmicks of the Wii to push sales it also didn't have the success. The things that could get me to drop pre-order money at it on launch haven't been talked about like Backwards Comparability.

The Wii U played Wii games, Wii played GameCube games, 3DS played DS games, etc. Even going back to the SNES playing GameBoy games with an add-on was great. The complete lack of Nintendo saying anything is scary. Especially with recent setbacks like requiring you to buy virtual console titles on both the Wii U and 3DS instead of sharing libraries.

Now Breath of the Wild is getting a season pass and DLC? Nintendo's online service is becoming paid? Their service already splits your friends list with a separate one for 3DS and Wii U, you can't even join them and you want money for it? Also it appears the free monthly games will ONLY be playable for that month?

Don't get me wrong Nintendo makes good choices like keeping their consoles compatible with the last generation and controllers for that matter. Their games are almost unmatched in quality, but we are almost two weeks from launch of the Switch with so many unanswered questions.

Waiting to see, hope to be pleasantly surprised! The problem now is if I am pleasantly surprised I'll have to wait for them to be back in stock!

Difficult Video Games

So I'm stuck on Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on the 9 star quest: Advanced: Whale of a Hammer. I've 3 carted at least a baker's dozen times. The interesting thing is I can (mostly) pinpoint something I did wrong to cause the carts. Because of this (I think) I keep trying the quest. I concluded melee range is very risky, so I crafted my first set of gunner armor and bow. I have the positioning and timing down of the fight, so now my only problems are terrain forcing me out of position at a bad time or a failed dung bomb attempt trapping me with both of them at the same time and something going wrong.

So it turns out Monster Hunter is actually much more difficult than Dark Souls after you get deep into the game. Like many things different monsters will be harder for different people, but you will find at least a few to give you a hard time. This is the third quest I can think of that's given me serious problems, but this one more so than the ones before. So the question is why keep playing, and why does it feel fair compared to many other games?

I've read up on this and been thinking about it a while. I think the most comprehensive insight I got was an article about speed running games. It talked about how games needed to be predictable to speed run. The controls had to be tight, and in the same situation everything had to work the same way. Then playing a Mario Maker level that you just stood there and all kinds of things happened around you for 2-3 minutes while you watched a Rube Goldberg machine type of level push you through to the end. The game functions so tightly that they can do that.

That is the way Monster Hunter works. Fighting in this case two frenzied Black Gravios' you want to stay to the left of center because centered his beam will hit you and on the right side his downward beam will hit you on the way back up at the end. 90% of the time after any beam some kind of AOE attack will come from home so you have to be out of melee range, etc... Because mostly everything happens the same you can see your mistakes and what you could have done to avoid it. So you always feel like if you'd been just a little bit better you would have won!

I think this is the key... making sure the player can see how they could have prevented the death or penalty of whatever kind happens in your game. Games that don't get this have you dying and questioning why, did the AI get a lucky roll, was there anything in my control that could have let me win? Dangling the carrot at the end of the stick and realizing if you're just a bit better you'll be able to reach it is the sweet spot.

Closing Notes: Monster Hunter does have advantages here as by 9 star quests you have sunk a lot of time into the game and understand it. The variants of the monsters means you have fought an easier version of the same monster before, preparing you for this tougher version, and before you fight multiple monsters you've fought them solo and killed them, so nothing is new except the complexity of taking on multiple at the same time. But still the game is setup to make all this happen.

Timed Progression

Ah Nintendo, you do everything a little bit different! Some times better, most of the time just stranger... Anyway, why am I blogging about Super Mario Maker and not playing it? Timed progression!

So I have only a few small problems with the game:

The first is the price point, I know it's Mario and a console release, but this is a development tool they already had laying around they decided to release as a full title. And yes I know it takes a lot of work to polish dev tools to a public release state, but still.

Second it requires the Wii U gamepad, the huge, screen one that never feels right when you're playing on it, and only for the touch screen. What you see on the tv is EXACTLY the same as what you see on the gamepad. I've never liked the controller and use a pro controller whenever I'm able, this won't matter for some people.

Those two are both minor complaints, now to the big one... The "building blocks" you use to make the level unlock over DAYS! 9 DAYS! (according to reviews) that's insane! And the controls you get out of the box don't even allow you to make world 1-1 from the original game! I feel like I should probably embrace a minimalist approach and make levels as fun as possible with the limited controls, but there was so much fun I wanted to have that I'm just disappointed... I'm hoping I don't have to play every day for the 9 days, but the tutorial kinda sounded like it. I'll pick this up in a week and two days and hope everything is working I guess... This strategy sounds okay to someone that's never played a Mario game or pretty much any other platformer, but selling this as the end all to make awesome Mario levels and then locking it down for the first 9 days is just messed up... this is the wrong kind of different. Even a tutorial progression that took an hour might be alright, but not timed with no way to bypass. /sad

Maybe I'll post an update 9 days from now about how good the game is... I really look forward to playing it!