(Sorry I wrote my response but didn’t realize there are two comments already)
Prompt 1:
I lost the game several times before I figured out a way to win it. The movements of the balls are definitely the uncertain element that makes me unsure of victory. There are 15 balls that roll in different directions in every try, as the player, I can’t predict which way these balls will go. Also, their speed is very fast, and it seems impossible to avoid them. I did doubt my physical skill because it is so hard to adjust to the movement/speed at the beginning. Everything happened too fast, and I didn’t have time to process what happened or think of any strategy. Later on, I found a good strategy to avoid the balls: trying to stay as still as I can on the edge. I figured out that if I am constantly moving, there’s no doubt I will get hit by the ball. However, if I stay on the edge, there’s a chance that the balls will hit the edge at an angle that doesn’t affect me. As I mentioned before, the movements of the balls are the source of randomness. I believe that it is also the source of extra complexity, and the limited “hiding” space is also an additional source of extra complexity. The movements of the balls are hard to perceive, and they move too fast to react to. Overall, I think it is a challenging game to play. Once the player gets a sense of what is going on, it is not too difficult to come up with a strategy.
Prompt 2: Describe the challenge of the game as if the designer was working to thwart you.
In this game, I cannot actually win at all since the balls are just too fast for me to dodge in a short period of time. There are so many balls and many of them move really fast, and it is easy for me to get touched by other balls in a limited space. However, I find that I can actually win this game by moving my ball really fast at the beginning to the upper right corner of the black hole, where all other balls cannot hit. I also tried the left bottom of the scene and it also worked. The enemies in the game are actually the other balls on the table. However, it is different from normal enemies. They would not get close to my avatar intentionally. But they move really fast and it leaves the players no choice but to move really quickly at the start of the game so that our avatar can stay in a safe place where no other balls can hit on. I guess the reason why the author wants players to lose is related to the title-Life Ball. If you act slowly in real life, you will be kicked out by the society and be outdated. And it is really easy to experience failures in life, which is also a normal thing in this game too.
Prompt 1: Describe the central uncertainty in the game.
plougheed's game "Life Ball" reminds me of the classic game of pool. It is set up roughly the same way where the player must push the white "cue" ball into the rest of the colored balls on a green table. However, unlike pool, the object of the game is for the player as a pink square to avoid hitting all the colored balls as they bounce around the table. There is a lot of uncertainty in "Life Ball" as the balls move very fast and seem to move randomly. I have played this game 15 times and have only won twice. Each time, I try a new strategy like moving constantly around or staying in one spot. It seems to me to be luck when I actually win. The ball's movements are random and fast. It is difficult to react to and difficult to choose a strategy without dying in the first 0.01 seconds. However, the uncertainty adds to the want to replay the game. The game keeps score of how you fare against the balls/enemies. I want to figure out the uncertainty and the randomness of how the balls move. I feel like if I can figure that out, I can better my score and beat the enemies.
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(Sorry I wrote my response but didn’t realize there are two comments already)
Prompt 1:
I lost the game several times before I figured out a way to win it. The movements of the balls are definitely the uncertain element that makes me unsure of victory. There are 15 balls that roll in different directions in every try, as the player, I can’t predict which way these balls will go. Also, their speed is very fast, and it seems impossible to avoid them. I did doubt my physical skill because it is so hard to adjust to the movement/speed at the beginning. Everything happened too fast, and I didn’t have time to process what happened or think of any strategy. Later on, I found a good strategy to avoid the balls: trying to stay as still as I can on the edge. I figured out that if I am constantly moving, there’s no doubt I will get hit by the ball. However, if I stay on the edge, there’s a chance that the balls will hit the edge at an angle that doesn’t affect me. As I mentioned before, the movements of the balls are the source of randomness. I believe that it is also the source of extra complexity, and the limited “hiding” space is also an additional source of extra complexity. The movements of the balls are hard to perceive, and they move too fast to react to. Overall, I think it is a challenging game to play. Once the player gets a sense of what is going on, it is not too difficult to come up with a strategy.
Prompt 2: Describe the challenge of the game as if the designer was working to thwart you.
In this game, I cannot actually win at all since the balls are just too fast for me to dodge in a short period of time. There are so many balls and many of them move really fast, and it is easy for me to get touched by other balls in a limited space. However, I find that I can actually win this game by moving my ball really fast at the beginning to the upper right corner of the black hole, where all other balls cannot hit. I also tried the left bottom of the scene and it also worked. The enemies in the game are actually the other balls on the table. However, it is different from normal enemies. They would not get close to my avatar intentionally. But they move really fast and it leaves the players no choice but to move really quickly at the start of the game so that our avatar can stay in a safe place where no other balls can hit on. I guess the reason why the author wants players to lose is related to the title-Life Ball. If you act slowly in real life, you will be kicked out by the society and be outdated. And it is really easy to experience failures in life, which is also a normal thing in this game too.
Prompt 1: Describe the central uncertainty in the game.
plougheed's game "Life Ball" reminds me of the classic game of pool. It is set up roughly the same way where the player must push the white "cue" ball into the rest of the colored balls on a green table. However, unlike pool, the object of the game is for the player as a pink square to avoid hitting all the colored balls as they bounce around the table. There is a lot of uncertainty in "Life Ball" as the balls move very fast and seem to move randomly. I have played this game 15 times and have only won twice. Each time, I try a new strategy like moving constantly around or staying in one spot. It seems to me to be luck when I actually win. The ball's movements are random and fast. It is difficult to react to and difficult to choose a strategy without dying in the first 0.01 seconds. However, the uncertainty adds to the want to replay the game. The game keeps score of how you fare against the balls/enemies. I want to figure out the uncertainty and the randomness of how the balls move. I feel like if I can figure that out, I can better my score and beat the enemies.