Gameplay Journal 2

This past week, I had the pleasure of playing a very popular metroid-vania style game that gained notoriety in the indie-gaming scene dating back to its release in the year 2017 known as Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight is the tale of an ancient kingdom fallen to ruin under a plague ridden with secrets and mystery to uncover. This adventure game was created using the popular game engine known as Unity. As I played through the majority of game in the first 30 minutes to an hour it was clear to see how the games choice of engine enabled the potential of the game to be met. As noted by Henry Lowood in “Game Engine”, the core functions of an engine such as “graphics rendering, audio, physics, and artificial intelligence” (Game Engine p.203) are what enable a game to come to life. The in-game physics felt very real and solid. Common abilities found in almost any game such as running, jumping or hitting something carried weight only adding to the overall experience. This of course, worked fluidly hand in hand with the wonderful graphics. Each scene was drawn and animated seamlessly. This is also a credit to Unity’s ability to make these things work and happen. It is a very strong engine capable of almost anything so it seems. The audio input and playback was processed well and created beautifully. Without question, one of my favorite features of the game is the soundtrack behind it.

During my time enjoying this game making multiple play throughs of my own, I could see more and more how impactful Unity was to the development of the game. Unity is an engine that possess the means to power multiple titles as well as the flexibility for players to add extensions or modifications to their game to switch it up. I have seen many different mods played through in this game and after diving more into the engine of Unity can appreciate a better understanding of the games mechanics and capacity within this platform. The way the game was built under this engine is also quite astounding. This game operates within the confines of a 2D space. Unity, which can work in levels or layers almost where a scene/game being created in 2D such as Hollow Knight, can render out accordingly and provide the best gaming environment for the player to explore and progress.

Source: Lowood, Henry. “Debugging Game History: A Critical Lexicon.”

Lets Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNdJ5ozN8cU