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Summary
- I will be analyzing a game on itch.io called MINDUSTRY and it is a mix of factory-building and tower defense. I chose it because I have been playing it on and off for 5-ish years.
Game Play Analysis
| Formal Elements | |
| The Basics | |
| Name of the game | MINDUSTRY |
| The platform | windows, linux, mobile, mac. |
| Time played (should be at least 30 minutes) | 300 hours |
| If you could work on this game (change it), what would you change and why? | I would try and make the controls a bit clearer, and make it easy to key-bind |
| Players | NOTES |
| How many players are supported? | depends on the server but around 30~60 players |
| Does it need to be an exact number? | it can’t go above 60 |
| How does this affect play? | if you have a lot of players doing something it will make the game laggy. and most of the multiplayer modes are different than the single player campaign |
| Some types of player frameworks:Single Player – like Solitare.Head-to-head – 1 vs. 1, Chess.PvE – Player vs. Environment, or multiple players vs. the game. Common in MMOs like World of Warcraft.One against Many – Single-player vs. multiple (obvy).Free-for-all – Every man for himself (1 vs. 1 vs. 1 vs. 1..). Most common for multiplayer games, from Monopoly to Modern Warfare.Individuals Against the System – Like Blackjack, where the Dealer is playing against multiple players, but those players have no effect on each other.Team Competition – Multiple vs. multiple, i.e. sports.Predator-prey – Players form a circle and everyone’s goal is to attack the player on their left and defend themselves from the player on their right.Five-pointed Star – Eliminate both players who are not on either side of you. | there are different modes that fit within mindustry. some examples include: campaign single-player, attack-everyone for themselves, team battles can be 2v2 to 30v30, survival which is a random map and you survive the waves of enemies with the people who are on the server. both single and multiplayer sandbox. where you and anyone else can build anything. |
| Objectives/Goals | NOTES |
| What are the players trying to do? | in the single-player campaign you are trying to capture sectors in the world you are on, either Serpluo which has 271 sectors to capture. and Erekir has 91 sectors to capture. |
| Some common objectives include:Capture/Destroy – Eliminate all your opponents pieces (Chess).Territorial Acquisition – Control as much territory as you can, not necessarily harming other players (RISK).Collection – Collect a certain number of objects throughout the game (Pokemon).Solve – Solve a puzzle or crime (Clue).Chase/race/escape – Anything where you are running towards or away from something (playground game Tag).Spatial Alignment – Anything involving the positioning of elements (Tetris or Tic-Tac-Toe or that game at Cracker Barrel).Build – Advance your characters or build your resources to a certain point (The Sims).Negation of another goal – The game ends if you perform an act that is forbidden by the rules (Jenga or Twister). | the campaign has two different objectives depending on the sector you are on. there is attack where there is a pre-built enemy base that spawns units to attack your base and you have to make your own units to fight back. and the other, survive in which there is a certain amount of waves you have to survive, each wave gets harder and harder and you have to defend by collecting resources and using those to make turrets and ammo for the turrets to shoot. |
| Rules/Mechanics | |
| There are three categories of (what the book Rules of Play calls) operational rules:Setup – the things you do at the beginning of a game.Progression of Play – what happens during the game.Resolution – How an outcome is determined based on the game state. | you get extra time at the beginning of the sector where you have time to setup buildings before waves start to send enemies. you progress the sector by surviving the enemies sent. and you win once all the waves have been sent. |
| Controls | NOTES |
| What controls are used? | move X-axis: A/D Move Y-Axis: S/W boost: Left-Shift Command mode: Right-shift respawn: V Select/Shoot: mouse Left Deselect: mouse right break block: mouse right select all units: G Select all unit Factories: H pickup cargo: [ drop cargo: ] clear building: Q Pause/Resume building: E Rotate: scroll-wheel Rotate Existing (Hold):R rebuild region: B Select region: F Flip schematic X-axis: z Flip schematic Y-axis: x Schematic menu: T Previous category: ‘ Next category: . Zoom: scroll-wheel menu: Escape toggle fullscreen: ` Pause: Space-bar Mini-map: M Research: J Planet Map: N Block info: F1 toggle menus: C toggle power lasers: F5 toggle block statuses: F6 Player list: tab-button Chat: Enter Chat history-previous: UP-arrow Chat history-next: Down-arrow Chat scroll: Scroll-wheel Change chat mode: Tab-button Console: F8 |
| Was there a clear introductory tutorial? | the tutorial is only for the VERY basics, everything else you have to search up yourself. |
| Were they easy to understand or did you find yourself spamming the controller? | I found myself spamming the keyboard multiple times to find the right button to do what I wanted and I had to google the controls multiple times. |
| Resources & Resource Management | NOTES |
| What kinds of resources do players control? | players control resources and more. there are raw resources that you can mine straight from the ground, those are; copper, lead, Scrap, Sand, Coal, Titanium, Thorium, and spore pods, and there are synthesized items that you make from factories that you build. which include; Graphite, Silicon, Metaglass, Plastanium, Phase fabric, Surge alloy, pyratite, and blast compound, there are also 4 liquids, two of them are raw and 2 or synthesized, water, oil, slag, and cryofluid. |
| How are they maintained during play? | you can mine the raw resources and you get an infinite source of them from the ground. but the synthesized resources can only be fabricated in specialized factories so you have to build them and have to judge when, where and how to make those resources. |
| What is their role? | the harder the resource is to get the better it is at creating defenses and units. so your goal to protect yourself is to make as many hard to get resources so that you can protect your base better. |
| A resource is everything under the control of a single player. Could be the money in Monopoly or health in WoW. Other examples are:Territory in RISK The number of questions remaining in 20 Questions Objects picked up during videogames (guns, health packs, etc.)Time (game time, real-time, or both)Known information (like suspects in Clue) | |
| Game State | NOTES |
| How much information in the game state is visible to the player? | some information is hidden in other sectors but there are a couple sectors where you can get or fabricate every single resource, but you still have to build so that you can get a constant stream of items, |
| A snapshot of the game at a single point is the game state. The resources you have, the un-owned properties in Monopoly, your opponent’s Archery skill all count towards the game state. Some example information structures are:Total Information – Nothing is hidden, like Chess.Info per player – Your hand of cards is only visible to you.One player has privileged info – Like a Dungeon Master.The game hides info from all players – Like Clue, where no one knows the victory condition.Fog of War – In video games, where certain sections of the map are concealed if you do not have a unit in sight range of that area. You also cannot see other players’ screens, so each player is unaware of the other’s information. | |
| Sequencing | NOTES |
| In what order do players take their actions? | there is no order, you can defend or attack or only collect resources at the beginning, you can’t do specific thing that will ensure you win. its all about real time strategy |
| How does play flow from one action to another? | real-time strategy |
| Some structures include:Turn-based – Standard board game technique.Turn-based with simultaneous play – where everyone takes their turn at the same time (like writing something down or putting a card down in War).Real-time – Actions happen as fast as players can make them. Action-based video games.Turn-based and time limits – You have this long to take your turn. | |
| Player Interaction | if you play multiplayer then most of the time you have to coordinate with teammates to defend with efficiency so that you don’t get overrun from enemies. |
| Some examples:Direct Conflict – I attack you.Negotiation – If you support me here, I’ll help you there.Trading – I’ll give you this for that.Information Sharing – If you go there, I’m warning you, a trap will go off. | |
| Theme & Narrative | NOTES |
| Does it have an actual story structure? | there is some story and lore sprinkled thought the campaign but it is hard to figure it out yourself. so most people just google it like me. |
| Is it based on a historical event (or similar)? | no it is pure sci-fi |
| Does the theme or narrative help you know how to play? | the theme doesn’t help you understand how to play and there is little to no narrative other than survive. |
| Does it have emotional impacts? | no |
| Also, look for en media res (does it start in the middle of the game)? | well in terms of the story you start the game at the end of the story. so I don’t know what you call that. |
| The Elements in Motion | NOTES |
| How do the different elements interact? | every resource and every building does something niche or broad, defense buildings defend really well, factories make plenty of resources, mining buildings mine really well, and units can do anything from minding to defending and attacking but they do worse than the buildings who specialize in it. |
| What is the gameplay like? | it’s hard to explain but its if Factorio focused way more on tower defense and had a less gloomy art style. |
| Is it effective? | I would say it’s pretty effective but I haven’t had any other opinions put on it. |
| Are there any points where the design choices break down? | probably the tutorial is the most frustrating part because it does not get in depth about what you can do. |
| Design Critique | NOTES |
| Why did the designer make these particular choices? | not sure, the creator of the game doesn’t talk that much online or at least I haven’t seem him talk that much. |
| Why this set of resources? | most of these resources focus on the tower-defense real-time strategy aspect of the game. |
| What if they made different decisions? | I think the game is fine as it is other than the tutorial. |
| Does the design break down at any point? | early in the game which makes you have to do a lot of searching up for yourself. |
| Graphics & Sound | NOTES |
| Does the game art pair well with the mechanics? | I would like to think so, the art style hides the fact that you are mining a planet that has long since perished and that you are killing its last living inhabitants. I like that the art style and the story don’t fit in terms of mood. |
| Did you find any bugs or glitches? | as of version 141.2 there isn’t any bugs that I could find. early on I did but that was 5-ish years ago. |
| What about sound? | sound design is great. I actually want to produce sound similar to it. it has a sort of gloomy and lonely feeling despite the graphics saying so. |
| Can you spot any technical shortcuts? | not really. |
| Various Stages of the Game | NOTES |
| To wrap up, some things to keep in mind (as if there aren’t enough already) as you play: | if you get confused by the controls or the coding inside the game that is called logic. there are a couple of tutorials for those types of things but since this game isn’t that well known you might have to figure somethings out for yourself |
| What challenges do you face, and how do you overcome them? | resource management and keeping track of enemies are usually the main challenges you have to over come in every sector of the game and since every sector has a different map its always fun having to think quickly and do as few errors as you can. |
| Is the game fair? | I would say that the game is a little on the easier side since you can take a good chunk of items from one sector to the one you are going to. which makes collecting resources somewhat less of a challenge. |
| Is it replayable? Are there multiple paths to victory or optional rules that can change the experience? | both the multiplayer and single-player are extremely repayable. the single-player because of the sheer amount of levels there are and multiplayer because each server does their own little thing and you can join which ever one you want. |
| What is the intended audience? | on average the intended audience has to be a little older since you do have to know how to manage resources well or else you get no mercy. but it’s easy enough to were I would say 14 is the intended audience. |
| What is the core, the one thing you do over and over, and is it fun? | the core of it all is that it’s a tower defense game with little other types of gameplay sprinkled in and I think it does a really good job at meshing it all together to create a comfy game that you can both get a little frustrated at and take it easy at the same time. |
This analysis form was adapted from https://notlaura.com/a-template-for-analyzing-game-design/
Resources
- Playing Like a Designer – I: Examine Your Experiences by Extra Credits
- Playing Like a Designer – II: How to Analyze Game Design by Extra Credits
- Game Analysis Guidelines by MIT
- Level 3.2: Critical Analysis of Games at learn.canvas.net
Books
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
- Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers
- Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Katie Salen