Dig Dug 1500 Word Review WIP

Introduction

Dig Dug is a 2D Pacman-esque movement based game, developed and published by Namco in 1982. The premise of the game is for the player to dig tunnels into the terrain to gain access to enemies. The player must kill all the enemies in a level, using a bicycle pump, to advance to the next level. The game ends when the player loses all of their stored lives.

Game Mechanics

Dig Dug has many different game mechanics that influence the game. Below I have listed each game mechanic, given it a description and then discussed if I think it is a positive or negative aspect of the gameplay.

Digging

Digging is the primary method of moving in Dig Dug. Whenever the player moves underground, they automatically dig. In the player can dig in 4 directions, up, down, left and right. They cannot dig diagonally.

Rocks

Each level in Dig Dug contains large rocks that can be used as weapons against the two types of enemy. If the player tunnels under a rock, it will begin to tremble, and after a few seconds will fall downwards, destroying all terrain and enemies underneath it. The player gets a score bonus when they kill enemies by using the rocks, more on this in the score section.

Enemies

In Dig Dug there are only two types of enemy, the Pooka and the Fygar.

The Pooka is the basic enemy in Dig Dug. It moves through tunnels that the player has created and attempts to kill them by running into them.

The Fygar is a green dragon-like creature. It has the ability to breath a deadly, ranged streak of fire, which passes through terrain. If the player comes into contact with the fire or touch the Fygar directly, they will perish and lose a life.

Both the Pooka and the Fygar have the interesting ability to turn into a pair of evil yellow eye ghosts and float through solid terrain. This allows the enemies to reach and attack the player, even if they haven't dug a tunnel directly to the monsters.

Bicycle Pump

The Bicycle Pump is the primary means of destroying enemies available to the player. Once the fire button is pressed, the pump will fire directly towards the direction the player is facing. If the pump hits an enemy then the player must press the fire button 4 times in quick succession to fully inflate and kill the enemy. If the player pauses during this process, the enemy will quickly deflate, regain movement, and attack the player.

Levels

Dig Dug uses a simple level structure,

Each level in Dig Dug is divided into four coloured sections. These colours represent how deep underground the player has ventured. The deeper underground the player is when they kill an enemy, the larger point bonus they receive.

The game shows both a visual and text based representation of which level the player is on.

 

Score

Dig Dug features a score system that gives the player points for; killing enemies, digging through terrain and collecting fruit pickups. The player gets additional points if they dig under a rock and use it to crush pursuing enemies.

Dig Dug uses a high score system to remember the highest score the player has reached before dying. This score is permanently stored in the games memory, and is shown on the screen at all times. This prompts the player to try and beat their best score.

Lives

Dig Dug uses a simple lives system. The player begins the game with 3 lives, and gains an additional life every time their score increases by 10000. The player loses a life if they collide with; a Pooka, Frygar, Frygar fire, or a falling rock. When the player loses all of their lives, a game over occurs, and the player is sent back to the main menu screen.

Now I have described the basic mechanics of Dig Dug, I will discuss how these mechanics shape the game.

FADT (Formal Abstract Design Tools) (Church Doug, 1999, Page 3), can be used to break a game down into tools. Church finds three useful tools when analysing Super Mario 64, intention, perceivable consequence, and story. All three of these tools can be applied to Dig Dug to analyse the game and its mechanics.

Intention

Intention is the act of the "player making an implementable plan of their own, created in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options.". (Church Doug, 1999, Page 4). When a player plays Dig Dug they must create a plan of action if they hope to achieve victory over each individually level in the game. This plan of action will change depending on: how many lives the player has remaining, the position and number of enemies on the screen and the pathway of tunnels dug through the terrain. The player must analyse all of these constantly changing game elements and make a plan to respond to the situation.

Dig Dug by its nature, is a fast, cruel game. One moment the player can be setting a new high score and have 3 lives remaining, the next, 2-3 enemies can pass through the walls and surround and kill the player.

Perceivable Consequence

Perceivable consequence is "A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player". (Church Doug, 1999, Page 4). When the player dies from touching the Fygar's fire, drops a rock onto an enemy, or begins to inflate a monster, the game gives the player a specific, clear reaction. In the case of the Fygar the player will lose a life, when dropping a rock onto an enemy it will immediately flatten it. When the player begins to inflate a monster, it will cease all movement and grow larger.

Story

Story is "The narrative thread, whether design-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward towards completion of the game". (Church Doug, 1999, Page 5).

The design-driven narrative of Dig Dug is almost non existent. The player controls Dig Dug and must venture underground and eliminate monsters. That's the entirety of the design-driven narrative, but it isn't the entire story. The story in Dig Dug is every tunnel dug, every enemy overcome, every cunningly set up rock trap, etc. The story of the game is entirely determined by the player and their actions, thus it is player-driven.

This allows a player to create their own unique story each time they play through the game if they so choose. The smallest decision, such as tunnelling to the left as opposed to the right, can have a profound effect on the story.

Score and Lives

"One Definition  of endogenous is 'caused by factors inside the organism or system'. "Just so. A games structure creates its own meanings. The meaning grows out of the structure, it is caused by the structure, it is endogenous to the structure." (Costikyan, Greg, 2002, Page 22).

Both score and lives have endogenous meaning in Dig Dug. When the player plays Dig Dug they will attempt to get the highest score possible, this is the overall objective in Dig Dug, since the player can never "win" the game. Players start the game with a stock of three lives. Since death can happen very quickly in Dig Dug, lives are extremely precious. The player needs to have lives remaining to keep racking up the score; thus the more lives the player has in stock, the more likely they are to get a higher score.

The key point here is that although score and lives are literally a matter of life and death within the game-space of Dig Dug, they are meaningless and inconsequential in the real world. As Costikyan says "It has no concrete, real-world expression and no value in any context other than the game"(Costikyan, Greg, 2002, Page 22).

Word Count - 1319

Bibliography

Costik.com - A website run by Greg Costikyan that contains academic articles on game design and game analysis that he has written.

Author: Greg Costikyan

Article Name: I have no words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games
Article Year: 2002

Address: http://www.costik.com/nowords2002.pdf

Checked: 2nd December

Gamasutra.com - A website that contains both gaming news and many academic pieces on designing and analysing video games.

Author: Doug Church

Article Name: Formal Abstract Design Tools
Article Year:  1999

Address: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal_abstract_design_tools.php

Checked: 2nd December

To reinforce what I said above, I'm not at all sure I'm on the right track with the review so far.

I would greatly appreciate feedback on what I've done right, and what I've done wrong and need to change.

If I've completely missed the point of the assignment then I still have time to re-write it from a different perspective.

Thanks for reading my WIP review, hopefully I'm on the right track.