Week 4 - Sport Analysis

   For this devlog, the sport I’m going to analyze is bowling. Bowling is a sport that many people play casually, but you can develop more advanced techniques the longer you play. The overall concept of the game is simple: roll a ball over a distance to knock over pins. However, the difficulty or challenge arises from the variability of different things that can happen as the ball rolls from your hand to the pins. To better explain this, it’s best to look at it from the perspective of direct and indirect actions as described by Macklin and Sharp. Direct actions can be defined as, “those in which the player has immediate interaction with objects and the playspace.” (Macklin & Sharp, Chapter 2) Direct actions in bowling are basically limited to the short amount of time the ball spends in your hand. You can choose whether you want the ball to veer more to the left or right, go straight down the middle, and how fast the ball will move. However, everything that happens from that point forward becomes an indirect action. Indirect actions can be defined as, “those that occur without direct contact by the player or the primary objects they use while playing.” (Macklin & Sharp, Chapter 2) Examples of indirect actions in bowling are how the ball may move while heading towards the pins, which pins get knocked down, and so on. The interesting thing about bowling is that direct and indirect actions can partially intertwine. You may aim for the ball to go a certain way (direct action), but the ball will end up accidentally swerving and going either a slightly or completely different direction (indirect action). Precision and practice are vital for bowling.

   Bowling, like other sports, is a play-to-win game. You get ten rounds, called frames, to try and get the highest score. To get the highest score is the main goal of the game, thus giving bowling, “a shape and purpose to what the players are trying to achieve while playing.” (Macklin & Sharp, Chapter 2) With multiple players, the structure of ten frames makes for exciting and competitive gameplay. Having multiple rounds gives every player a fair chance to get the highest score, with the possibility of placements varying from round to round. To get the highest score, you have to knock down as many pins as possible each frame. There are usually ten pins arranged in a triangular order. The best possible outcome is called a strike, which is when you knock down all the pins with just one roll of the ball: this will award the most points. Otherwise, you could get a spare (knocking down all pins between two rolls), or knock down as many pins as you can between the two rolls in a frame. The varying outcomes of how many pins you’re able to knock down determine how many points you get, and thus the outcome of the game.

   The main draw of bowling is the uncertainty. Uncertainty is a powerful tool in any game because it keeps the game exciting and keeps players engaged due to, “unpredictable events in a game.” (Macklin & Sharp, Chapter 2) You can practice different techniques and strategies, but even the slightest movement in your hand can greatly affect how the ball will roll down the lane. Since the ball is so heavy and it’s able to move so fast, it can get difficult to predict exactly where the ball will go. Bowling would be boring without a sense of uncertainty. If you could bowl a perfect strike every single time, the game would get boring rather quickly. It’s due to the fact that you don’t know for certain exactly where the ball will roll that keeps the game interesting and fun. The main lesson to be learned from bowling that can be applied to game design is the value of unpredictability. Allowing room for player error and other unknowns to pop up allows for ever-changing, dynamic, interesting gameplay.