Risk Analysis
I'd like to take a moment to discuss the two games that I chose for the last two sections before I begin:
For a game that I consider a less than optimal experience, I chose Halo 4. The Halo franchise is composed of several titles, and I personally feel as though the series hit its peak with Halo 3. However, the following game (Halo Reach) was significantly different from its predecessors, and took many steps in the wrong direction. And in my eyes, they have only gotten worse from there. Halo 4 in particular was the first main series Halo game to be developed by someone other than Bungie, and seemed to copy many mechanics that can be seen in games like Call of Duty. Loadouts and sprinting are two obvious examples of this. But to me, the game just didn’t live up to the potential that I know Halo has.
As for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wind, it was a game I was looking forward to at the time of writing this.
I felt that these games were the best two options for me to represent the content I wrote about.
Seaman Risk 1:
Questionable/Inappropriate Material
Market Risk
The game consisted of a lot of crude sexual humor, going so far as to include some jokes
with sexual themes, the creatures awkwardly mating while looking at the player, and naming the game extremely similar to a sexual bodily fluid. While some adults may find entertainment in it, parents would be much less likely to purchase something like this for their child.
Toning down the sexual theming, if not getting rid of it entirely, would help to mitigate this risk, as parents would be far more likely to purchase the game for their kids.
Seaman Risk 2:
Dying Console
Market Risk
Seaman was originally released for the Sega Dreamcast, Sega’s final console that had a
very short lifespan.
This was mitigated in the Japanese market by later re-releasing Seaman on the PS2 two
years later. This would help by opening the game up to a larger audience.
Seaman Risk 3:
Lacking in Meaningful Gameplay
Design Risk
There really isn’t much “playing” going on. A lot of the game is spent just passively
waiting around. And aside from talking to the creatures, the rest of the gameplay
consists of doing chores like heating the tank.
Adding some other activities could help to alleviate this risk. Doing so would give
players a reason to stick around in the game more than just a few minutes a day.
Seaman Risk 4:
Relatively Inexperienced Team
Development Risk
The team had only worked on two games prior to Seaman, both tower sim games, and
neither of those were anything like what they were trying with Seaman.
A way to help mitigate this is to instead shape the game around the idea of an aquarium
sim. This would make it more in line with the type of games they have experience with. This could also help problem 3, adding more for the player to work on.
Seaman Risk 5:
Poor Voice Recognition
Design Risk
The voice recognition frequently has trouble, making it hard to talk to the creatures.
More time should be devoted to making voice recognition user friendly, since it’s the
main selling point for Seaman. Doing so could help improve the overall experience.
Full Sail Final Project Risk 1:
Scope
Development Risk
Since portfolio projects only last a month, creating a game with too large of a scope
could cause them to not finish on time.
In order to mitigate this, they should be realistic with what they can accomplish, and
plan their time accordingly. They also shouldn’t be afraid to “kill their darlings.” Doing these things could help prevent them from not having enough time to complete it.
Full Sail Final Project Risk 2:
Balance
Design Risk
Since each colony will have their own strengths and weaknesses, balance could become
a problem. Especially if one of the colonies is overpowered or underpowered.
To prevent this from being an issue, the students will have to spend a lot of time
playtesting the game and fine-tuning the pros and cons of each ant colony. This should help to bring the colonies into an even playing field.
Full Sail Final Project Risk 3:
Team Relations
Development Risk
Because the students might not be familiar with each other before the final, they may
not understand how to best work with each other.
To mitigate this, the students should spend time discussing things like their schedules
and work styles before anything else, and keep up communication throughout the project. Doing so should help keep the project moving along smoothly by helping each member better understand each other.
Full Sail Final Project Risk 4:
Why Should Players Care About Ant Colonies?
Market Risk
People may not be interested in playing as a colony full of ants that look the same.
To keep this from being an issue, the team could make each ant unique, or make them
customizable (like the game Worms). This could help to make the players feel more connected to the ants they are playing as.
Full Sail Final Project Risk 5:
Experience
Development Risk
Some of the students on the team may be unfamiliar with this type of game.
To help, the team could research similar games in the market (both good and bad), and
find what has or hasn’t worked for other developers. This could introduce those unfamiliar with these games, and give the team a sense of direction moving forward.
Scribblenauts Risk 1:
Strict Time Schedule
Development Risk
Because the game was self-funded, the team had to keep a very strict schedule.
In order to mitigate this, it is very important to plan timelines around this schedule early
in development. This can help keep the team on track, so they don’t spend too much time on any one thing.
Scribblenauts Risk 2:
Finicky Touch-Screen Controls
Design Risk
Poor touch-screen implementation makes the game frustrating and difficult to control
accurately.
This could have been fixed if they had planned for time to work on the controls from the
outset, and if they allowed players to optionally use the D-pad and buttons to move as well. This simple addition would have made movement much more accurate and fun.
Scribblenauts Risk 3:
Localization
Development Risk
Because of the heavy emphasis on text and the game practically containing a library of
nouns, the translation part of the localization process for a game like this can prove to
be very time consuming.
The developers should have translated the words as they were adding them to the
dictionary and the hints. Additionally, they could have built levels around the hints instead of adding the hints at the end of the level design process. This would help to get the translations finished sooner.
Scribblenauts Risk 4:
Object Physics
Design Risk
Many times, objects you use will flip over the wrong way, making them unusable.
The developers took care of this by allowing players to press L or R to rotate objects
back into their upright positions, allowing players to fix the positioning of their objects if they were to mess them up.
Scribblenauts Risk 5:
Identifying Objects
Design Risk
Players may have a hard time identifying some of the many objects in the game.
To mitigate this risk, the developers allowed players to use the magnifying glass icon in
the top left of the screen to activate “identify mode.” This helps by allowing players to tap on objects to see what they are called.
Halo 4 Risk 1:
New Dev Team
Development Risk
Since Bungie quit making Halo games, 343 Industries was created to take over. This calls
their experience level into question.
To try to alleviate this, a few of the developers from Bungie that wanted to continue
working on Halo stayed behind to work on the franchise. This helped because they were familiar with how the games worked, and could convey past design ideas and philosophies to the new people on the team.
Halo 4 Risk 2:
Competition
Market Risk
Halo 4 had to compete with the rising popularity of Call of Duty.
To try to solve this, they tried copying many mechanics from Call of Duty. However, I
personally think that the way to overcome competition is to instead create something unique. Doing so will give consumers something that they can’t get anywhere else.
Halo 4 Risk 3:
Custom Loadouts
Design Risk
Custom loadouts makes the game more difficult to balance, since all starting weapons
have to be even. (This was evident at launch, where the DMR dominated)
343 patched the game to balance the weapons, helping to make the game fairer.
Halo 4 Risk 4:
Removal of De-Scoping
Design Risk
In old Halo games, you would get kicked out of scope when you were shot. 343 thought
“players don’t like this,” and simply removed it. No thought went into why it was designed that way in the first place. The removal of this caused long range weapons to become dominant.
Add it back. This would allow players to have the ability to defend themselves with non- precision weapons at long range.
Halo 4 Risk 5:
Join-In-Progress
Design Risk
Players can be placed into losing games, or games that are almost over.
Add an option to not join-in-progress. This would keep players from getting upset in
these scenarios, and others who don’t care can join a match faster.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Risk 1:
Consoles
Market Risk
The new Zelda game is set to release on the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch. However,
the Wii U is currently underperforming in terms of units sold, and the Nintendo Switch is
not guaranteed to be successful at launch.
To mitigate this, I feel as though Nintendo needs to build up as much hype as possible
for the game and the new system. The game and new console are set to release in March, but Nintendo is keeping their lips sealed on it. Talking more about them would help to get the word out and build up interest.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Risk 2:
Inexperience with Open Worlds
Development Risk
Nintendo has no experience building an open world game of the scale they are
suggesting Breath of the Wild to be. The closest they’ve come to open world in the past
is the NES Legend of Zelda.
To ease them through this, the team should research other open world games (like Elder
Scrolls), and draw from the openness of the first Legend of Zelda. This could help them understand how to properly build this type of game.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Risk 3:
Empty Space
Design Risk
One possible risk is that the world will be big but not have much in it to do.
The best way to help this would be to add plenty of side-quests and interesting content.
The more there is for the player to see and do, the better their experience will be.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Risk 4:
Console Differences
Design Risk
The Wii U version will have a map/inventory on the gamepad, but the Nintendo Switch
lacks a second screen.
Nintendo could create a map/inventory app for phones/tablets, similar to what
Bethesda did for Fallout. This would allow the players on the Switch to have the same functionality.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Risk 5:
Combat
Design Risk
There hasn’t been a 3D Zelda game without motion controls since 2002.
The team should try to do something fresh and new with the combat. That way the
game’s combat sticks out as fun and memorable to the players.
