How do game designers make us feel like we are actually playing?
Do you remember the first time you rode a roller coaster? That wild sensation of speed, centrifugal force, ascent and descent that is both fun and terrifying? For the last few decades, game developers have tried to figure out how these sensations can be simulated visually, and rather than simply being a passenger along for the ride, players experience the realistic sensation of controlling the motion.
First Person Perspective. Gamers are able to simulate action by recreating the perspective in first person. Rather than the little cartoon guy on the screen jumping over stuff à la Super Mario Brothers*, gamers put the player in the driver’s seat by designing the vantage point around what we, as the character in the story, might actually see.
Realistic Graphics. CGI has advanced so far that sometimes it is hard to tell if something is real or not. With games that require so much visual information, it is impressive what designers have been able to achieve in the last 10 years. Fluid animation and saturated colors work to reinvent a hyperawareness.
Fast-paced Twitch. From the beginning, video games realized gameplay that elicited a learning response provided an immediate hook for the player. Part of the thrill with gaming is the feeling that you are improving, that the game is teaching you how to accomplish its higher levels. Studies on gaming suggest that those who play experience reduced reaction times and that is uniquely satisfying. 1
One of the games on the market that illustrates these relatively new techniques in the gaming world is Unpossible by Acceleroto. This endless runner is a sci-fi test of reflexes that is both frustrating and completely addictive. Gamers rocket along a tube peppered with sharp obstacles, rotating in 360 degrees at alarming speeds. Sequences repeat and teach the user how to avoid collision, utilizing tilt sensitivity. It’s a heart-pounding alternate reality that engulfs the player in a captivating and unruly world.
Combing these techniques with beautifully drawn imagery, original music and life-like sound effects, the game developers at Acceleroto are able to draw users in. Designers work with imaginative spaces, and the combination of novelty and familiarity is only becoming more elaborate and interesting.
The Unpossible app is now enabled for Android* tablets powered by Intel® Atom™ processors. For more information on this innovative game, visit the Google Play store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acceleroto.unpossible
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