"The Stone" game evaluation: one side art, the other side feelings

"In reality there is no such thing as art, only artists."

前言

According to the "History of Art Development" written by Dr. Gombrich According to the book, the indissoluble bond between mankind and art can be traced back to primitive peoples in prehistoric times. From primitive tribal paintings and statues, to Egyptian mural art, Greek and Roman sculptures and architecture, to the birth of Impressionism, Realism and Impressionism... There are many and complex traditional art forms, but even those such as "Abstract "Art, in essence, is developing towards higher skills and refinement.

▲ "History of Art Development"

Video games have been hailed as the ninth art for a long time, while the development of game art in traditional art is slightly different. The first recorded video game was born in 1952, and has flourished since then. With the innovation of the times and technology, the retro screens due to the limitations of game machines tend to be more and more high-definition. The game capacity of dozens of hundreds of gigabytes at every turn makes it realistic. But even so, retro pixel art style games are still popular today, and its popularity is probably due to the sheer nostalgia and lush memories of the previous generation. In the absence of a good screen, the player can focus more on the gameplay and the game content itself.

The game "Stone Story RPG (Stone Story)" we are talking about today is a retro and chic game. It turns the ASCII characters into the art foundation of the whole article, with one side of art and the other side feeling. It presents a simple yet heavy, pure but extremely rich game picture for players.

▲The game interface composed of characters is quite eye-catching

Retro art: ASCII code is beautiful

In a computer, all data is stored and calculated Use binary number representation. ASCII code is a set of computer coding system based on Latin alphabet issued by the American Standardization Organization. It is mainly used to display modern English and other Western European languages. It is the most common single-byte coding system today. It has defined 128 Characters, and ASCII code art is an art form that uses these characters to form images. Nowadays, the popular emojis can be regarded as commercial works born out of a simplified version of ASCII art.

▲The emoji "art" evolved from ASCII code

In the field of video games, most of the early game works consist of text and codes. The producer can deduce a game by using the most basic coding and different colors. Although the game background, character state and even the construction of the scene are simple enough, the unique expression method is not uninteresting. This kind of game content created by imagination is extremely attractive. Can you imagine how amazing it can be to create an unpredictable dungeon adventure world with pure ASCII code?

▲The dungeon exploration game "Angband"

returns to the topic. After the failure of the team project, the game producer Gabriel is determined to make a game that can be completed individually. After being inspired by "Candy Box", the master of AsciiArt web game in 2013, he completely fell in love with this style. "Games that use ASCII as animation are actually something that I really enjoy, and I can do it alone, which is what I want!" Gabriel seems to have gradually found his direction, "Stone Story RPG" The birth of this extremely creative work is the best interpretation of his hard work.

▲The game "Candy Box" developed by French designer aniway

The original art: stone is beautiful

"Stone Story RPG" whether it is on the game name, Whether it’s the protagonist or the plot, it’s all about the stoneClosely related. In a dark kingdom, people are tortured by monsters and dark energy. The protagonist, who is transformed from a stone, embarks on the major mission of finding 9 spiritual stones and recovering the light of the world. At first glance, the theme of the whole article sounds boring, but it actually contains the author's unique insight.

▲The game opens. The seemingly monotonous stone picking contains Zen

The love of stone has existed since ancient times. Mi Fu saw the strange stone and bowed down, respecting the stone as his teacher, and taking the stone as his friend; the Qing Dynasty minister Zhao Erfeng Ji Zhui Shi, once bluntly said: "The stone body is firm, not soft and pleasing, and solitary and high, gentlemen. I will be a teacher. The stone is calm and does not follow the trend. However, it is gentle and pure, a good man, I am happy and a friend." This expresses my love for stone. Literati and scholars can get the perception and resonance of art from the stone, while more people have the most primitive worship of the stone. Pangu opens the sky and everything starts with stone. Zhuangzi said in "The Theory of Equal Things", "Heaven and earth live side by side with me, and everything is one with me." Even if you are facing a small stone and being mindful of nature, you are facing yourself.

This ideological concept is placed in "Stone Story RPG", and the author puts the "eternal" charm in it. Players can continuously harvest all kinds of stones during the challenge of the level. The "Stone of Mind" reveals the essence of things, the "Stone of Star" provides level difficulty challenges, and the "Stone of Mind" provides fully automatic programming battles. The stone that raises the artistic conception is actually a prop called "the stone of ouroboros". The concept of infinite loop it brings not only puts the core gameplay of this game "placement and hook" in front of the player, expressing a kind of stone It is infinite, a symbol of eternity that goes back and forth.

▲The Stone of Ouroboros brings infinite loops and becomes the core of the on-hook game

The essence of the game: simple but not simple

It is not difficult to find from the title and introduction, "Stone Story RPG" provides players with an original RPG adventure, players are from nothing to learn to make. Holding a sword in the left hand, a shield in the right hand, and a magic wand in the waist, crossing the plateau, down the canyon, crossing the crypt, rushing into the forest, entering the mine, entering the temple... Get more weapon treasure chests and enchanted props in the process of continuous adventure, synthesis Upgrade the equipment star to strengthen yourself, challenge the stronger Boss, and finally save the world.

▲The simple title screen effect is also great

• Hang up during the battle? Not at all

The entire adventure of the game is controlled by AI fully automatic. Players only need to choose to enter a certain level, and the villain will automatically collect materials and fight against the enemy. This mode sounds very boring and lacks operability, but after the player can obtain a "utility belt" in the middle of the game, various weapons can be micro-manipulated manually. When encountering different scenes and monsters, players can switch out weapon combinations to attack, which can be regarded as an innovation in gameplay. Fully automatic on-hook games have their own pros and cons fundamentally, plus this compact design is slightly less lacking, and it has more RPG tonality.

▲Fully automatic battle and weapon quick switch

Not only that, after obtaining the "Stone of Mind" in the later period, the game was completely upgraded to "Fully automatic programming on-hook game." The author has developed a new way to hang up, and will return more possibilities to the player. The built-in simple script can already perform small operations such as low-blood medicine, weapon switching, etc. It is not a problem to perfectly beat some low-level small levels. But if you study the high-level level configuration carefully and write some battle scripts patiently according to the author's tutorial, hanging up at the highest-level instance is no longer a dream! Whether you are a programmer or not, you can experience the beauty of the program in this game, and create instructions full of infinite possibilities by yourself. Is there anything more exciting than this?

▲Automated programming is OK

• Synthesis system or become the core of the gameThe most core is the synthesis system. The ascending star mechanism uses simple rules to show the standard of “one life two, two life three, three life all things”, that is, two one-stars form two stars, two two-stars form three stars, and so on... In view of the limitation of the rules, every The material required for each level is 2 to the Nth power, so if we need to build a ten-star sword, we need 1024 ordinary swords for synthesis. Faced with such a huge demand, the only places where players can obtain materials are the treasure chests obtained each time the level is cleared and the shops that are regularly refreshed every day, so "hanging up" has become inevitable, and hanging up games are well deserved. It seems that there is no equipment that can't be obtained all night by hanging up. If there is, hang up for a few more nights~

  

  ▲The official even hangs up overnight as one of the achievements

  More advanced equipment requires players to explore and synthesize, and at first requires a little imagination. The most basic weapons in this work are swords, shields, crossbows, sticks, staffs, and runes. Swords and short crossbows can be combined into heavy crossbows, heavy crossbows and short crossbows can be converted into continuous crossbows, swords and wands can be combined into magic swords, etc. . Constantly trying new combinations makes the game full of creativity. Not only that, all synthetic items and formulas are recorded in the tool manual provided in the prop bar. A reasonable combination of resources can not only create powerful props, but weapons with different forms and attributes can obtain more special effects and affixes. Fighting is of great benefit.

  

  ▲Synthesis manual rules

  

  ▲The "enchanting" system distinguished by color

  The potion is further enhanced by this strategy. system. The stones, branches, tar and other resources collected by players in the scene are not useless. A total of 10 types of synthesizable potions of various colors are carried for different levels, which are more helpful to pass some difficult levels. Although the player can't control his own actions, it is also extremely crucial to take medicine when he takes a chance.

  

  ▲The synthesis of the potion is also the key to the later hang-up

  The shortcomings of the game

  If the game is full of imaginative unique graphics and rich gameplay content is the point of this work , Then the abrupt plot and the "original sin" of the on-hook game are unacceptable to more players.

  1. Even though the author has made many attempts and added a lot of fresh content to the gameplay content, the automatic adventure is not a type that can arouse the interest of most players. Almost all the later stages of the game are spent hanging up. Occasionally, the game will continue to hang after opening the box. The continuous playability is insufficient and it is extremely boring.
  2. The normal process of the game directly enters the "Thanks for playing" stage after obtaining all the stones, which is a bit confusing. Without the support of subsequent plots, it is difficult for people to continue to hang up and improve the quality of weapons. The
  3. weapon synthesis system has good features, but it takes too much time to split and synthesize. Even if the player knows what he wants, the operation is still cumbersome. The number of star weapons makes the backpack messy.

  

  ▲No matter how fancy it is, it will eventually return to the original sword and shield

  Conclusion

  As an independent game nominated by the 2016 "IndieCade" final , "Stone Story RPG" is very special. Although the game interface is simple, the artistic sense of black and white screen and ASCII code dot matrix is ​​quite interesting; although the fully automatic on-hook gameplay is easy to get tired, the rich synthesis system and novel easter eggs bring players a humorous RPG game. Adventure; the overall gameplay seems to be on-hook and casual, but some decisions need to be made in the battle with a specific Boss. Generally speaking, I can understand the public's mixed opinions on such a work, but as a pure game player, such an imaginative and creative "art work" is not worthy of you Can I experience it?