1P30, Adobe Flash: Waka-Wookie

Waka-Wookie Flash

My 3rd Flash project was to make a Waka-Mole game. I chose to make a Star Wars styled game called Waka-Wookie. Required little timeline control, more action-script 2 code.

1P30, Adobe Flash: Worms

Worms Flash Vid

My 2nd Flash Project was another 30s or so movie. I chose to make a replica of an old worms game trailer. This project required a lot of timeline control and editing, and little Action-Script 2 code.

IP10 Final Assignment, SketchUp: Castle

For my IP10, Introduction to Media Tools class final project I used SketchUp to create a 3D castle model. I also used Photoshop to edit certain images and them applied them as layers on the 3D model. I made this model into an interactive game, by using the programs scene editor.

1P10, Google SketchUp: House

For this assignment, I had to create a 3D model of a house, by using the Google SketchUp program. We were given the house 2D layouts and then had to model it ourselves. The house model is my own, but the items inside are from the SketchUp Warehouse.

1P10, Adobe Flash: Titanic

Titanic Flash Vid

This was my first flash project, in which we had to make a short 30 second flash movie. It could be based on anything, as long as it covered the required specific flash elements. I chose to make a movie based on the Titanic.

1P10, Illustrator: Monopoly City

      This is my second project in 1P10, done with Adobe Illustrator. For the assignment we were tasked with using Illustrator to draw a fictional map from a birds eye view. I chose to base my map on the board game Monopoly, and depicted it like it would be in a real city. 

1P10, Photoshop

      This is a picture of my first assignment in the IASC program. For this assignment we students were tasked with taking the 3 people above from separate images, and photoshopping them together to the best of our ability. 

Michael Ferguson                                                                                                                                                           

1F00 Game Review

Game: Stronghold Crusader (2002)

            

       Welcome my liege to my interactive arts and science video game review. This review will focus on the second instalment to the classic Stronghold series, Stronghold Crusader. Stronghold Crusader was created by Firefly Studios in 2002, and was the successful follow-up to its predecessor Stronghold. It managed to nab reviews from sources like ign.com and gamespot.com of 8.0 – 8.5 out of 10. While those reviews done in 2002 focused on all aspects of the game, for this review now done in 2011, I will examine all aspects as well as focus in on the games gameplay in particular to make my assessment.  

            

        To begin Stronghold Crusader is a game set in the medieval period around 1100 AD. It is considered a real-time-strategy game, but plays more like a castle-simulator in general. To succeed players must build their castles, gather resources, defend against other lord’s attacks, train troops and, eventually siege their opponents to claim victory.  Unlike the original game’s setting of the European landscape, Crusader sends you off to the Middle East, where you are forced into the holy crusades against the Islamic forces of Saladin and other Arabian lords. These experiences are showcased in the games main campaign, where you go through historical battles, learning the basics of all aspects of the gameplay. After that a player may choose to construct the castle of his/her dreams, without worries of enemy attacks in the games free-builder mode. Along with this to keep players interested up to 8 player skirmish modes and multiplayer are included, and more importantly another campaign of sorts, called the Crusader-trail. The trail is a 50 mission campaign in which the player is pitted against all sorts of computer lords. The beginning battles are not overly difficult, but the player soon competes against more and more battle hardened opponents, along with the odds stacked against them. However the player is not always alone, as some missions are completed alongside computer allies of various sources. Speaking of computer lords, the games AI is antiquate to meet the challenge of most casual players; however veteran players can find it predicable and easy to beat.  While not the smartest AI, the game does give its 8 computer lords a different play style, which keeps the game fresh and interesting. However, one aspect not to fresh is the games out-dated visuals. Created in 2002, Crusader began showing its age many years ago, and compared to today’s games is laughable, but considering the time it was made the games graphics did suffice. Also, the games sound base is a superb addition from the original Stronghold, and adds in new musical themes from the middle-east, which gives the game a lovely sound to accompany its sandy desert. However, again since the game is so old there is near to no multiplayer of any kind, and therefore Crusader is now basically a single-player game. Altogether, this review’s focus is apart from visual graphics and online experience and takes into account the age of the game.

In following, the main reason to play Stronghold Crusader is for its stellar gameplay. The developers at Firefly Studios took everything good about Stronghold 1 and added many new and exotic features to create an outstanding sequel and stand-alone expansion. Crusader’s new highlights include the Arabian landscape, new Arabian mercenary units, strategic resource gathering, and many of the standard features reworked or tuned for a better play experience. Like the original, Crusader is split between managing a castle and defeating your enemies. However, to achieve victory in this game is not always quick and easy. First, the economic side of crusader has the player gather resources in order to construct buildings, weapons, and castle defences. The resources include food, wood, stone, iron, pitch, and ale. Food comes in many different forms and is accessed through the construction of farms or bakeries. Interestingly the different food suppliers vary in the level of production. While an apple farm may make quick apples early on, they take up much room and do not provide enough latter on in the game. A bakery on the other hand, takes a while to get started, but once going produces a steady stream of bread, and takes up little space, but requires grain and flour to operate. This type of choice is an example of how something as simple as food collection is so well thought out in this game. Also, because the games location is mainly the desert, almost all the food buildings must be placed upon fertile oases, and with few to find on many maps, this adds an extra layer of complexity and strategy to the gameplay.

-          -  Oasis’s are valuable plots of fertile land where certain food production buildings can be placed.

Wood and stone are the basic necessities in creating castle buildings and more importantly walls to keep invaders out. Iron is used to craft weapons that are required to train troops, and pitch is used as a defence mechanism, burning enemy troops in the field. Lastly, ale is collected from hops farms and used to supply your castle’s inhabitants with alcohol and good times. Altogether, these resources are used to put the player closer to his/her goal of keeping up their popularity with their citizens. Popularity is the most important aspect of the gameplay in Crusader. A meter out of 100 is located onscreen and showcases how happy the people are with a players rule. If allowed to drop below 50, peasants will cease coming to your castle and your buildings will be left empty and void of work. This loss of labour will result in zero resource gathering and food supply, and eventually diminish your castle. Without a good popularity, it is extremely difficult to succeed at Stronghold Crusader. A high popularity can be increased by building inns to supply peasants with ale, churches to provide religion, or low taxes. However, money is required to purchase extra goods from a marketplace, or more likely, soldiers. The best way to get money is to raise taxes, but this in turn decreases your popularity. Therefore, a player must provide either the ale or religion to supplement the decrease in happiness. Also a player can construct fear factor buildings, which either increase or decrease the peasant’s happiness. Good buildings, like fountains and gardens aid in pleasing the general population and give a combat bonus to your troops, but in an added twist to the gameplay, make your workers lazy and less productive. Cruel buildings, like gallows and the stretching rack decrease your castles popularity and troops combat, but increase your workers efficiency. Therefore it can be seen how complex a castle can get, whether you want to focus on having efficient labourers, but a poor military, or lazy workers and a good army. A player may choose to supply ale to increase his popularity, in order to offset his cruel buildings, which aid in his production, so he may then sell his many goods in order to get more money to train more troops. There are many possibilities and strategies in this game.

            

        Along with the economic gameplay, Crusader does not disappoint with its military aspect of gameplay. In Crusader there are 2 types of units, the standard European troops, and the Arabian mercenary troops. The mercenary troops are a new addition to Crusader and give the game a more strategic approach to fighting. In general the mercenary units are just weaker standard units, but are purchased through gold, not goods, and have many unique abilities. These include the slaves burning fire ability, that can reduce castle infrastructure to ash in minutes, the mobile horse archer who is difficult to hit, or the stealthy assassin who can scale walls and open gates secretly. The addition of the mercenary units provides a welcomed flare and strategic option for the games military aspect. Since they require only gold, a mercenary army can be quickly assembled for an early defence or rush tactic if preferred. Aside from the new units, the same standard European troops are also available in this game. These troops are better quality than the mercenaries, but require many goods and weapons to be produced. They include the light armoured archer and spearmen, the medium armoured maceman and crossbowman, and the heavily armoured pikeman, swordsman, and knight. These units require much more time and resources to produce but are stronger than their Arabian counterparts.

            

         Altogether, these military units are trained and used for one purpose, war. The act of war in Crusader consists of defending one’s castle or sieging an enemy’s. In order to be successful in Crusader a player must be effective at both methods of play, while maintaining his/her economy and popularity. Defence encompasses building castle walls and battlements, which hold archers and mounted siege defenses, like the ballista.

-         - The mounted ballista (left) provides valuable long range defence against encroaching siege machines.

By creating a castle full of towers, gatehouses, and walls, and filling them with archers and siege machines, a player makes a standard defence. To add to their defences a player can also construct moats, killing pits, pitch ditches, caged war hounds, and even pots of boiling oil. A player who uses all of these methods of defense creates an almost impenetrable castle, or at least from the games AI’s. A real player on the other hand, who is skilled in the art of siege warfare, may still be able to tear down your fortifications. By using siege machines, created and manned by engineers a player can construct catapults, trebuchets, battering rams, siege towers, and more. Requiring only gold and a little stone, a force comprised of these machines and backed up by an army can quickly overrun the strongest defences and achieve victory for the attacker. Also, there is no finer sight, or end to the awesome gameplay in Crusader, than flinging a dead cow over an opponent’s walls in order to bring disease and death upon his/her citizens.

            To sum up, Stronghold Crusader is a great game, although out-dated and in desperate need of a graphical update, it displays great depth in gameplay, through new additions like mercenary units, strategic resources and siege warfare. Crusader also improves upon the standard features of Stronghold gameplay, by putting more focus on popularity, and providing new ways to create and sustain your own castle. Altogether Crusader is a fun, strategic, complex game that is a great addition to any RTS fans collection. Overall I would evaluate Stronghold Crusader at 7.0 out of 10.

Review:

Gameplay – 5/5

Graphics – 2/5

Audio – 4/5

AI – 3/5

Strength: Great gameplay, new features, and music.

Weakness: Dated visuals, weak AI at times, non-existent multiplayer.