Crafting a Dekonstruer

I have decided to discuss the game atoms of Greg Hasting's Paintball. This game is a paintball simulator for multiple platforms.


Players

This game offers a single player campaign as well as a versus mode. With this, the player can play against the AI or other players and they then have the choice to do it locally or online. There is cooperative versus AI as well since you can add AI to the versus games.

Objectives

There are different game modes that each give different game objectives. The game modes are the same for both the single player campaign and the online experience. The game modes available consist of  elimination, capture the flag, and center flag. These were the only game modes in the first game, when Greg Hastings Paintball 2 came out they added extra objectives such as Point Capture, Assault, and Sniper & Recon.

Rules

The standard rules that are associated with this game reflect the rules from in the actual paintball sport since they tried to simulate the sport into a video game as closely as possible. These rules would be the boundaries of play, the objective at hand must be completed to win, establish the time of play per rounds, determine teams for the match, set the start point for teams, understand when a player has a solid nickel sized mark anywhere on the body or equipment that they are out, players can call paint check if they aren't sure that they are out, anyone who is out must raise their hand and exit the play area. Also follow all safety rules like wearing a mask at all times etc. The rules of play are very flexible depending on where you play and what game type you play.

Resources

There are two resources that the player needs to manage during play and that is their paint or ammo, and the compressed air they use to fire the paint. The paint can be reloaded at any point but they only have a certain amount they can reload in a match. The player's can't reload their air tanks during a round so they need to pick a tank that can last them the match and fire the amount of paint they can carry during a round.

Game States

There are only a few noticeable game states when playing. There is active in the round or shot out. If the game were to be saved at any point in the game, some information that would need to be saved would start with if the player is in or out, then if they're in the info needed for a save would be position, orientation, stance, amount of paint, amount of paint refills, and amount of compressed air. The same info would be needed for each AI in the round. Lastly, objective information would also be needed such as how many flags have been captured or how many players are out.  

Information

Most of the gamestate information for others in the round is not visible to you. You are only given your own information and then your teammate's positions. This is done because the opponent is trying to shoot you, so you want to conceal as much information about yourself as possible. The opponent will try to do the same thing because you have the same goal as your opponent which is to shoot him.

Sequencing

\When it comes to the sequencing of play for Greg Hastings Paintball, the start of a speedball match can be frantic since you are exposed initially. The game is hot, fast paced, and intense from start to finish but there is a moment of what feels like silence once each player is in their spot. The real time  play allows for the gameplay to be quick and thrilling.  

Player Interaction

So there are two different ways players can interact in this game. The players on your team can share information with you about where the opponents are and the opponents have a direct conflict with you.

Theme/Setting

The theme of the game for Greg Hastings Paintball is authenticity. They tried to simulate replicate settings seen in the actual sport such as professional speed ball tournaments with professional and rookie AI's all named after actual players. The tournament setup is similar to real life and so is the way each arena layout is designed. Even the weapons and accessories are all authentic replicas of their real life counterpart.

To conclude, I really like what the development team did when making this game. They did a great job pulling off the authentic paintball experience for only the price of the game. Anyone who knows paintball knows the price, pain, and problems that come from playing paintball, so the development of this game has turned the sport into an enjoyable experience for all. I remember when I played on my team the viewers had a hard time spectating games especially when we played in the woods.