“Coin Runner” is a game that employs the simple mechanics of tapping or swiping, yet the randomness of the coins and bombs is what creates a sense of difficulty and uncertainty in the beginning. Coins and bombs are randomly thrown up on the screen and come back down in unpredicatble directions. In the meantime, players must try their best to collect the coins without touching the bombs or letting the coins touch the bottom of the screen. Due to the random motion, this also means that coins and bombs may overlap, making it difficult to solely click on the coins at times. However, there is a mechanic that makes the game more forgiving. My initial thought was that the bombs would automatically make the player lose as a similar game to “Coin Runner” makes players as soon as they touch the bomb. However, the game deducts points instead when players come in contact with the bombs, and it is possible to have negative points. As a player, this created a push and pull between myself and the game because while this can be considered a safety mechanism, the idea of negative points personally made me more frantic to get the points back up past 0. However after a while, this aspect seemed to remove the feeling of uncertainty because of the realization that while players would want to avoid the bombs, if the coins and bombs overlap, players can just click the bomb without fear of losing the game as the only thing they would truly want to avoid now is losing lives from letting the coins touch the bottom. All of these observations have led me to think that this game requires more strategy rather than skill as thinking ahead about how to make up the points from the bombs seemed to take over the gameplay. As such, players can anticipate and plan ahead for their next move between tapping coins and how they will make up negative points. This feeling occurs because there are no bonuses that allow for more points and counter the bombs, there is a higher incentive to prevent coins from touching the ground. Another aspect that makes the game more forgiving is the lack of enemies that really try to prevent players from winning and anticipate their next moves. However, this is not a detrimental aspect to the game as it would feel like adding too many complex elements would take away from what makes the game simple and sweet. However, it would enhance the gameplay to make the mechanics that already exist a little less forgiving to make the difference between winning and losing a bit more clear. Additions that are implemented to make the game less forgiving (within reason) may create a greater impetus for players to succeed. All in all, the game employs direct mechanisms that create a game that is easy to understand, and it is easy to understand exactly what the creator wants players to do in “Coin Runner”.
The game Coin Runner is a fun, easy to learn, arcade style game that depends mainly on the player’s own skill. The first area where the player must be skilled is with the bombs. The bombs are thrown up from the bottom of the screen and gravity causes them to fall back down. The player must try to avoid clicking on the bombs, otherwise they will have a point penalty. The second area where the player must be skilled is with the coins. Like the bombs, the coins are thrown up from the bottom of the screen and gravity causes them to fall back down and off of the screen. To do well in this area of the game the player must have a good eye and good reflexes. They must be very quick to spot and click the coins on the screen before they fall. Two things are affected by the player’s ability to click on the coins before they disappear: the number of lives the player has and the score. The player has a limited number of lives available. If the player misses a coin and it falls off the screen they lose a life. Once the player loses all of their lives, the game ends. If the player is able to click on the coin before it falls, it is removed from the screen and the player’s score increases. The goal of the game is to click on the coins and gain as many points as possible before the game ends.
Clicking the coins may be a difficult thing to do due to the small size of the coins, as it is easy to miss clicking on them. It may also be difficult if the coins overlap with a bomb. If the coin and bomb overlap, the player can risk clicking the bomb and lower their score or they can wait and risk missing the coin entirely. I found this an interesting part of the game as I was forced to make a split second decision on whether I would risk lowering my score or my number of lives. Another reason it may be difficult to click on all the coins is due to timing of when new bombs and coins are thrown up onto the screen. It is possible if the player is not quick about clicking the coins that they may have coins from a previous round of bombs and coins on the screen when a new round appears. This causes more coins to be on the screen than the player may be able to handle.
The difficulty of this game also depends on what the player uses to play this game. When I first played Coin Runner I did not have my computer mouse with me and used my laptop’s trackpad instead. Like the game description suggested, this added a whole new level of difficulty. Using the laptop trackpad I had to work a lot harder just to move the pointer to where I wanted it to go and I had to try harder to be able to click on the coins before they fell. Until I was able to use an actual mouse, I died very quickly every time I played. Once I got a chance to use my computer mouse it was a lot easier and I was able to last longer.
Coin-runner is a satisfying arcade style game with smooth gravity mechanics and lots of replay-abilityThis game reminds me of an arcade style game that would work great on mobile devices. The concepts are simple, yet very effective. Additionally, the games design easily translates to an effective arcade style scoring system. There are some very simple pieces that make this game what it is. There is the player of the game which is the mouse cursor, coins, and bombs. The goal of the game is to click the coins and not the bombs. Clicking the coins earns the player one point(score) while clicking a bomb loses the player many points. Notably, hovering over coins and bombs does nothing. Initially I thought this was how the game was going to work, particularly for bombs. I think the mechanics of the game might work more smoothly if the player had to actively avoid hovering over the bombs with the mouse, rather than just avoiding clicking them. This would increase the difficulty of the game and make the player have to use more strategy to avoid the bombs while trying to get the cursor to be over the coins. Notably, the way this game plays depends very heavily on the input device the player is using. I played with a trackpad on a laptop which I think definitely mad the game more difficult than playing with a traditional mouse. Additionally, I think that playing this game on a mobile device with a finger would be really satisfying. Especially if the player was unable to lift their finger and had to avoid touching the bombs. This variety of player input adds to the playability of the game. Another thing that adds to long term playability is the scoring system. The Score is constantly displayed as the player plays keeping them aware of how far they are. I think adding a high score or scoreboard would be effective in adding a competitiveness within the game, whether that be competition with self or others. Another thing important to mention is that when a player doesn’t click a coin and it falls below the playing field, the player loses a life. This is a different punishment to that of clicking a bomb which loses the player many points. This definitely adds difficulty and makes the player have to play quickly and efficiently. If this wasn’t implemented the game would be far too easy as the player would have all of the time in the world to carefully pick out what coins they want to click. Another interesting aspect of the game is its use of gravity, trajectories, and velocities. The trajectories of the coins and bombs all seem to be the same and the coins and bombs always come from the bottom of the playing field, peak, and fall back down. This arch makes it satisfying for the player to highpoint the coin, in that perfect moment just as it goes from rising to falling. Overall this game is simple yet effective and has a great deal opportunity around it.
Coin runner uses unique gravity mechanics that, though subtle, have the potential to add depth to the game. This game is a game that allows the player to get new scores each attempt they play. There is no high score kept on screen, but I know intrinsically what my high score is at the time of each attempt. At the beginning of each attempt of the game, a combination of bombs and coins are thrown up from the bottom of the screen with various velocities. It can be tough to play this game on a laptop, since this game requires precise movements from the mouse. However, I played on my laptop, and I didn’t find it too tough for me personally. I also have a two in one laptop, so I found out that I could use my fingers to collect the coins on the screen while avoiding bombs. However, this is not how the game was meant to be played, so I stuck to playing with a mouse with the trackpad during play. None of the other games I played for this final project group had implemented gravity, but it fits this game perfectly. This game reminds me a lot of fruit ninja, which throws a combination of fruit and bombs from the bottom of the screen. I really enjoyed playing this game, as it reminded me a lot of my childhood and playing this game from many years ago, but it adds the twist of collecting coins instead of slicing fruit. In addition to having a score, there are a couple other mechanics that are unique to games that are like this one. For starters, when destroying bombs instead of collecting coins, you lose score rather than a life. I found this change refreshing, as it allowed me to play much longer than I would have otherwise. Also, there are 5 lives instead of just three which many games of this type of implement. To lose lives, you must accidently let coins fall to the bottom of the screen rather than the combination of destroying bombs and letting coins fall to the bottom of the screen. Although this simplified the game, I found it refreshing to be able to last much longer than I would have originally if this were the case. I think adding simplicity to games of this type allows it to distinguish itself compared to games such as fruit ninja. There was still a lot of difficulty within this game, but the added simplicity of the extra lives made me enjoy this game much more and not get frustrated at all during play. Bombs do remove a lot of score though, so it’s much harder to get a high score. Personally, I would rather have a longer play time where my score may be lower than have a game where I die much faster. The joy of playing for a longer period of time allows me to focus more on the game rather than the frustrating aspects of it when losing.
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“Coin Runner” is a game that employs the simple mechanics of tapping or swiping, yet the randomness of the coins and bombs is what creates a sense of difficulty and uncertainty in the beginning. Coins and bombs are randomly thrown up on the screen and come back down in unpredicatble directions. In the meantime, players must try their best to collect the coins without touching the bombs or letting the coins touch the bottom of the screen. Due to the random motion, this also means that coins and bombs may overlap, making it difficult to solely click on the coins at times. However, there is a mechanic that makes the game more forgiving. My initial thought was that the bombs would automatically make the player lose as a similar game to “Coin Runner” makes players as soon as they touch the bomb. However, the game deducts points instead when players come in contact with the bombs, and it is possible to have negative points. As a player, this created a push and pull between myself and the game because while this can be considered a safety mechanism, the idea of negative points personally made me more frantic to get the points back up past 0. However after a while, this aspect seemed to remove the feeling of uncertainty because of the realization that while players would want to avoid the bombs, if the coins and bombs overlap, players can just click the bomb without fear of losing the game as the only thing they would truly want to avoid now is losing lives from letting the coins touch the bottom. All of these observations have led me to think that this game requires more strategy rather than skill as thinking ahead about how to make up the points from the bombs seemed to take over the gameplay. As such, players can anticipate and plan ahead for their next move between tapping coins and how they will make up negative points. This feeling occurs because there are no bonuses that allow for more points and counter the bombs, there is a higher incentive to prevent coins from touching the ground. Another aspect that makes the game more forgiving is the lack of enemies that really try to prevent players from winning and anticipate their next moves. However, this is not a detrimental aspect to the game as it would feel like adding too many complex elements would take away from what makes the game simple and sweet. However, it would enhance the gameplay to make the mechanics that already exist a little less forgiving to make the difference between winning and losing a bit more clear. Additions that are implemented to make the game less forgiving (within reason) may create a greater impetus for players to succeed. All in all, the game employs direct mechanisms that create a game that is easy to understand, and it is easy to understand exactly what the creator wants players to do in “Coin Runner”.
The game Coin Runner is a fun, easy to learn, arcade style game that depends mainly on the player’s own skill. The first area where the player must be skilled is with the bombs. The bombs are thrown up from the bottom of the screen and gravity causes them to fall back down. The player must try to avoid clicking on the bombs, otherwise they will have a point penalty. The second area where the player must be skilled is with the coins. Like the bombs, the coins are thrown up from the bottom of the screen and gravity causes them to fall back down and off of the screen. To do well in this area of the game the player must have a good eye and good reflexes. They must be very quick to spot and click the coins on the screen before they fall. Two things are affected by the player’s ability to click on the coins before they disappear: the number of lives the player has and the score. The player has a limited number of lives available. If the player misses a coin and it falls off the screen they lose a life. Once the player loses all of their lives, the game ends. If the player is able to click on the coin before it falls, it is removed from the screen and the player’s score increases. The goal of the game is to click on the coins and gain as many points as possible before the game ends.
Clicking the coins may be a difficult thing to do due to the small size of the coins, as it is easy to miss clicking on them. It may also be difficult if the coins overlap with a bomb. If the coin and bomb overlap, the player can risk clicking the bomb and lower their score or they can wait and risk missing the coin entirely. I found this an interesting part of the game as I was forced to make a split second decision on whether I would risk lowering my score or my number of lives. Another reason it may be difficult to click on all the coins is due to timing of when new bombs and coins are thrown up onto the screen. It is possible if the player is not quick about clicking the coins that they may have coins from a previous round of bombs and coins on the screen when a new round appears. This causes more coins to be on the screen than the player may be able to handle.
The difficulty of this game also depends on what the player uses to play this game. When I first played Coin Runner I did not have my computer mouse with me and used my laptop’s trackpad instead. Like the game description suggested, this added a whole new level of difficulty. Using the laptop trackpad I had to work a lot harder just to move the pointer to where I wanted it to go and I had to try harder to be able to click on the coins before they fell. Until I was able to use an actual mouse, I died very quickly every time I played. Once I got a chance to use my computer mouse it was a lot easier and I was able to last longer.
Coin-runner is a satisfying arcade style game with smooth gravity mechanics and lots of replay-abilityThis game reminds me of an arcade style game that would work great on mobile devices. The concepts are simple, yet very effective. Additionally, the games design easily translates to an effective arcade style scoring system. There are some very simple pieces that make this game what it is. There is the player of the game which is the mouse cursor, coins, and bombs. The goal of the game is to click the coins and not the bombs. Clicking the coins earns the player one point(score) while clicking a bomb loses the player many points. Notably, hovering over coins and bombs does nothing. Initially I thought this was how the game was going to work, particularly for bombs. I think the mechanics of the game might work more smoothly if the player had to actively avoid hovering over the bombs with the mouse, rather than just avoiding clicking them. This would increase the difficulty of the game and make the player have to use more strategy to avoid the bombs while trying to get the cursor to be over the coins. Notably, the way this game plays depends very heavily on the input device the player is using. I played with a trackpad on a laptop which I think definitely mad the game more difficult than playing with a traditional mouse. Additionally, I think that playing this game on a mobile device with a finger would be really satisfying. Especially if the player was unable to lift their finger and had to avoid touching the bombs. This variety of player input adds to the playability of the game. Another thing that adds to long term playability is the scoring system. The Score is constantly displayed as the player plays keeping them aware of how far they are. I think adding a high score or scoreboard would be effective in adding a competitiveness within the game, whether that be competition with self or others. Another thing important to mention is that when a player doesn’t click a coin and it falls below the playing field, the player loses a life. This is a different punishment to that of clicking a bomb which loses the player many points. This definitely adds difficulty and makes the player have to play quickly and efficiently. If this wasn’t implemented the game would be far too easy as the player would have all of the time in the world to carefully pick out what coins they want to click. Another interesting aspect of the game is its use of gravity, trajectories, and velocities. The trajectories of the coins and bombs all seem to be the same and the coins and bombs always come from the bottom of the playing field, peak, and fall back down. This arch makes it satisfying for the player to highpoint the coin, in that perfect moment just as it goes from rising to falling. Overall this game is simple yet effective and has a great deal opportunity around it.
Coin runner uses unique gravity mechanics that, though subtle, have the potential to add depth to the game. This game is a game that allows the player to get new scores each attempt they play. There is no high score kept on screen, but I know intrinsically what my high score is at the time of each attempt. At the beginning of each attempt of the game, a combination of bombs and coins are thrown up from the bottom of the screen with various velocities. It can be tough to play this game on a laptop, since this game requires precise movements from the mouse. However, I played on my laptop, and I didn’t find it too tough for me personally. I also have a two in one laptop, so I found out that I could use my fingers to collect the coins on the screen while avoiding bombs. However, this is not how the game was meant to be played, so I stuck to playing with a mouse with the trackpad during play. None of the other games I played for this final project group had implemented gravity, but it fits this game perfectly. This game reminds me a lot of fruit ninja, which throws a combination of fruit and bombs from the bottom of the screen. I really enjoyed playing this game, as it reminded me a lot of my childhood and playing this game from many years ago, but it adds the twist of collecting coins instead of slicing fruit. In addition to having a score, there are a couple other mechanics that are unique to games that are like this one. For starters, when destroying bombs instead of collecting coins, you lose score rather than a life. I found this change refreshing, as it allowed me to play much longer than I would have otherwise. Also, there are 5 lives instead of just three which many games of this type of implement. To lose lives, you must accidently let coins fall to the bottom of the screen rather than the combination of destroying bombs and letting coins fall to the bottom of the screen. Although this simplified the game, I found it refreshing to be able to last much longer than I would have originally if this were the case. I think adding simplicity to games of this type allows it to distinguish itself compared to games such as fruit ninja. There was still a lot of difficulty within this game, but the added simplicity of the extra lives made me enjoy this game much more and not get frustrated at all during play. Bombs do remove a lot of score though, so it’s much harder to get a high score. Personally, I would rather have a longer play time where my score may be lower than have a game where I die much faster. The joy of playing for a longer period of time allows me to focus more on the game rather than the frustrating aspects of it when losing.