game design thingy

Task 1:

Jak 2 is an action adventure game developed by naughty dog in 2003 for the ps2. It’s the 2^nd game in a series of games starring jak and Daxter. It was critically acclaimed for its difficulty and substituting a family friendly story for something more complex and serious. The game is notorious for being harder than most ps2 games on the market at the time. The storytelling improvements from Jak II marked a huge turning point in Naughty Dog, as they incorporated these elements into future games such as Uncharted and The Last of Us. IGN named Jak II the #8 hardest PlayStation 2 game, citing its combat, platforming, city navigation, and instant death scenarios. The player can use all sorts of weapons with their respective mods that enhance gameplay. Jak II began development in 2001. Naughty Dog began work on a new game shortly after the release of the sixth generation of consoles. Only two programmers were originally allocated to the project, as the rest of the department was still developing Crash Team Racing. They began by building a new graphics engine that would be capable of rendering a seamlessly connected, open world environment. They then developed a fully articulated character to examine the engine's efficiency, before presenting the idea to Sony Computer Entertainment following the completion of Crash Team Racing. The aim of their new title was to break away from the linear approach taken in the Crash Bandicoot series, with minimal story and character development, and individually loaded levels. In a behind-the-scenes special by Naughty Dog it was revealed that a new blend animation had been utilized for the game, allowing for a smoother frame rate and animation process.

 

What held the game back technology wise?

• The game has a semi open world feel, using gates in the city to separate the hub area from the levels,
• It was almost impossible to see in the night-time if the player had a low lit tv screen.
• the trailer Gunfire particles were replaced for the final game, probably due to the ps2s hardware.
• Draw distance was rather low, stuff loaded in right next to the player
• 480p.
• it utilized a programming language, called GOAL, made specifically for jak and daxter, this would've required new hires to learn the language before attempting to work on it.

 Task 2: target market & culture

jak 2 changed the target audience for the series, adopting more adult themes, and adding a complex story.  the previous game. the rest of the gamesJak and daxter the precursor legacy, was family friendly and features less mature themes, they also featured jak who had no voice at the time. 

jak in jak and daxter: the precursor legacy:

with the precursor legacy being for more younger audiences, the sequel made jak and Daxter appeal to young adults as well as teenagers. this game was notorious for being hard, something games back in the day were not, the main criticism of this game was because of the difficulty. the design became more gritty. the colors were dimmer. there was clear wealth divide, judging by the houses and buildings. this game also changed naughty dogs approach towards games with story, if this game didn't release, we probably wouldn't have the last of us and uncharted. this would've shaped culture significantly, as some peoples favorite games and some of the highest rated games are from naughty dog.

jak in jak 2:

Task 3: critical analysis

this game was incredible, it felt very well made, one of naughty dogs more finer games and influential for the future of the company, but it definitely makes mistakes on the way. to start off, from personal experience, there is barely any checkpoints. the game is filled with long levels and expansive areas. if you die, it sends to straight back to the start of the level. this was most of the difficulty within the game, as it was rather easy to die. you are punished very hard for making simple mistakes. this could frustrate the player which could cause them to rage quit, me included. loading into new levels, especially on the ps2 took a rather long time. especially with todays consoles and pcs, the game could feel much more open with the almost instant loading. the movement can feel clunky sometimes, especially when operating in smaller areas. the shooting feels outdated compared to common trends within today's gaming. the animation looks dated by todays standards and definitely deserves a refresh. the models are low in polys, to cater towards ps2s hardware. the camera can be a bit more awkward at times, slow turning and clipping through geometry.  the voice acting is incredibly good, especially for a game of its time, but the dialogue between characters seems pretty soulless, especially jak. he is very one dimensional, allowing daxter to take the spotlight in most conversations.

Task 4: Game update

for the game update, i want to aim for a ratchet and clank-esque reboot. i want to keep it as close to the original as possible to please old fans, but change enough so it isn't identical  to start off, ill fix the most glaring problem that plagues the emulated versions of the ps4/ps5 games:

• the gameplay
• the HUD
• graphics/engine work (resolution upscaling (1080 to 4k))
• bugs (visual, out of bounds glitches)
• resolution upscaling (1080 to 4k)

to start off: the gameplay. the gameplay will relatively stay the same, except maybe for a couple quality of life changes. no new moves will be added, but they need their animations updating. difficulty wont be toned down, as this gave the game its notoriety, however checkpoints will be added to make it less hard for the sake of being hard. 

the hud is really low quality on the ps4 versions, as the hud wasn't upscaled. the first thing i would update is rework the UI to fit todays standards. that means scaling the hud to fit different resolutions. the fonts are unnecessarily large i would also remake the menus ever so slightly to be more player intuitive. next thing i would change is the settings screen. jak 2 needs more settings to fit with todays standards of accessibility.

the next section is graphics/engine work. te engine powering jak 2 isnt going to be good enough for the upgrades i want to make, so an update the ps2 version of jak 2 looks good for today standards, but most definitely a fresh if we was to remake it for ps5, it would require 1080p/120hz and 4k/60 versions. this would require extra optimization for jak 2. as this is a ps2 game, the old models deserve a refresh, but not changing what made them unique in the games, rather making them higher fidelity.  i would add new VFX like weapons muzzle flashes, akin to the old ps2 trailer version.