DAD 'N ME
Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/254456

Platform: Flash Game

Brief Description: Take control of a Skull Masked monster after being dropped off by his dad as you tread your way through areas beating up the kids you bump into along the way and more. Similar to Sega's classic 'Streets of Rage'.

Genre: Side Scroll Fighter

Reference to Caillois:

AGON - This game only fits into the Agon category as the game is about beating up the enemies populating the level and making it to the end before they manage to kill you, therefore making it competitive and thus the set challenge.

Is this game fun? And why?
Dad 'n Me is a very fun and addictive game and brings me back to my childhood days where i would play 'Streets of Rage' none stop. The game careflly balances interesting and quirky graphics/music accompanied by a very simple and interesting game mechanic similar to that of 'Streets of Rage'. I think that because they took an old game mechanic and re-applied it in a cartoony style, that i tend to favour, made the game a whole lot more interesting. If this game Mechanic worked so well, back in the days of the Sega Megadrive, then why not re-use it!

How are the rules of the game portrayed? Are they clear?
The game does not have any rules in particular, you control the character using the Directional Button and then attack using the A + S Keys, you are limited to what you can attack and how far you can go on the screen, so the rules are self initiated for the game to read to supress your actions.

Is the game suitable for the platform and would it work(maybe better) on other platforms?
Dad 'n Me was created by the Creators of Alien Hominid (Link), which also used the Sidescroll Fighter engine and was even released onto the Gamecube, Playstation 2 and even the Xbox 360 not so recently. Alien Hominid was successful on all three of these consoles which leads me to believe that Dad 'n Me would easily enough work on Consoles and perhaps perform better, as Alien Hominid once proved.

As for applying this to a Board Game, it would not work. The game interprets it's own rules and restrictions and a Board Game cannot go as far to do that, therfore making it a no go. It could be attempted but everything may have to be restricted and cut down to the point where it would no longer resemble the game other than the graphics and basic flow of the game.

Where there any parts of the experience that were unintuitive and if so; how could this have been dealt with better?
For a Video Game it was pretty obvious to grasp, on the Title Screen it allows you to read the Controls before the game to cater for the knowledge you need, along with the fact that it will remove button display clutter on the screen during the game. If you were not to read the Controls i was say the movement is pretty much logical to figure out as people instantly think that the Directional Buttons control the characters movement, which is correct. Although the movement is simple i do believe the attack buttons to be a bit oddly placed, though they do contain reason. The buttons to attack are A and S, but these are represented as the kind of attack.

A = Attack, S = Super Attack.

This makes perfect sense in my opinion, it's just not all that logical straight off the bat, it seems like it was seen only from the coders perspective as they may have not thought as far to whether or not they ignored the control instructions on the Title Screen.


DAD GAME
Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/510279

Platform: Flash Game

Brief Description: Take control of Dad, an overworked father that just one day happened to snap and lose his sanity and idealism of reality, as you destroy everything in site and regurgitate a very large sword to help you kill enemies.

Genre: Platform Fighter

Reference to Caillois:

AGON - The idea of competition/challenge is played into this game on a few levels, the main idea is that the main character 'Dad' has to work his way through enemies to eventually fight against the Antagonist "Boss" the manager of Dads workplace, if you win you save the world from his Tyranny and if you don't his Tyranny ensues, therefore adding competition. As well as that, the game creates competition within your own skills as it includes a combo counter and damage percent system, therefore making you want to out do yourself everytime, setting yourself a challenge mentally.

Is this game fun? And why?
Dad Game, is definitely interesting...as it combines the absurd storyline and charateristics of the 'Dad' series(http://sakupen.newgrounds.com/flash/), of which has became very famous on the popular Flash Site Newgrounds(www.newgrounds.com) along with the basics of platforms and a simple button bashing fighting mechanic that can have you hooked for hours. To add to this, the game also contains a Combo Count and Damage Percent meter as mentioned above in Agon, which adds even more depth and relayability to the game as you strive to out do your previous attempts.

How are the rules of the game portrayed? Are they clear?
Just like most other Video Games the game itself contains it's own rules, therefore restricting you from doing certain things like running off the screen and so on. It's hard to enforce actual rules in games like these, as rules only tend to apply to real life, as it's something you must set yourself and since you're playing a Video Game in this case, it's set up for you.

Is the game suitable for the platform and would it work(maybe better) on other platforms?
Visually this game should be kept on it's Flash Platform as the graphics are too simple and lacklusting to appeal to a bigger audience, that doesn't mean it wouldn't work but in total it wouldn't do very well and would probably sell very little unless the graphics were fully done up to a reasonable level but it's in high doubt as the games based on the series which sticks to it's simplistic graphics.

Just like Dad 'n Me, this game would not work on a Board Game because it's too dynamic to be played out on something as basic as a Board Game.

Where there any parts of the experience that were unintuitive and if so; how could this have been dealt with better?
Very much like Dad 'n Me the rules for movement are very clear, as it's logic to most to use the Directional Keys but the game outdo's Dad 'n Me in the areas of interaction such as attack, special attacks and so on, as at the beginning of the game it tries to start you off on a tutorial in which it takes you through how to do each and every attack and allows you to practice in a practice room to get to grips with it, rather than just having you jump straight into it with minimal knowledge and testing privelages.

Although the game allows you to test out the system and get to grips with the controls doesn't mean that the controls are made easy, as this game even had me bothered by button placement and how many you had to use for such a simple game compared to that of Dad 'n Me. In this game you use Z to attack, X to laser, C to draw your weapon and for some reason Space Bar to throw objects around, it's because of the Space Bar that the game often suffered as it was sort of awkward for my hands to use it on my laptop. It would have been more recommended to have throw as S or V because then the button is either withing a simple row or set out in a similar formation to the Directional Keys. Other than that i thought the game was pretty straight forward in aspect to what the game may be like on another system.