An Analysis of The Binding of Isaac PDF

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An Analysis of The Binding of Isaac

IAT 210 July 13, 2017

Question 1: Bibliographical Reference McMillen, E., & Himsl, F. The Binding of Isaac [Video Game]. Düren, Germany: Headup Games. 2011. Question 2: Definition of a Game Chris Crawford, in his book The Art of Computer Game Design, defines games as having four common qualities, these are representation, interaction, conflict, and safety (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003, p. 88-89). The Binding of Isaac is no exception, it contains all four components of a game. The representation quality is defined as a game’s “closed formal system that subjectively represents a subset of reality” (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003, p. 89). The Binding of Isaac fits the closed formal system definition because the game is complete and playable on its own, it has operational, constitutional, and implicit rules that allow objects in the game to interact with each other, without requiring outside agents. This system with the aid of its constitutional rules simplifies the representation of reality so that the game is playable. For example, characters in this game shoot tears from their eyes to damage enemies, this is obviously a subjective representation that is specific to the game because it is impossible for tears can launch such incredible distances due to gravity. This is the game’s representation of a subset of reality to make the game mechanics playable. The second quality is interaction, this is defined as the cause and effect mechanism that the players must explore in the game. The Binding of Isaac has several cause and effect mechanisms, one being opening locked doors. If I walked towards a locked door without a key, I would not be able to enter the room, however, if I collected a key beforehand and walked towards the door, the door would automatically open and use up the key. The third quality is conflict, this arises from obstacles that attempt to prevent the player from achieving the goal of the game. In The Binding of Isaac, the conflict is direct and violent; enemies and bosses are the obstacles in the game because they deal damage in an attempt to kill the player. The player must kill these monsters in order to achieve the goal, defeating the “Mother” boss to win the game. The final quality of games is safety, which is defined as the game provides “psychological experiences of conflict and danger” without the real life consequences (Salen & Zimmerman, p 89). In The Binding of Isaac, players must avoid dying to beat the game, however, if they were to die in the game, they would be able to start again from the beginning. The game is separated from ordinary life, therefore the death in the game would not kill the physical player, only the digital representation of him.

Question 3: Goals and Rules The goal in each game is to defeat the final boss, typically this is the boss called Mom’s Heart, however, depending on the player’s progression and choices it could vary. After defeating this boss, players can choose to have alternate endings by continuing to other stages, these other stages may appear randomly (devil stages) or may only appear within the specific playthrough if the player beat Mom’s Heart under 30 minutes. Upon defeating the final boss, a thematic ending will take place and new maps, bosses, modes or equipment will unlock for subsequent playthroughs of the game depending on how many times the player has beaten the boss.

The first rule that makes the game challenging is that items during your current game playthrough will not carry on to subsequent games. This means that if the player defeats the Mom’s Heart and play another game, they will have to start at the very beginning with no items. Secondly, depending on the number of times the player has beaten the final boss, the game can permanently contain much stronger enemies and new and more powerful bosses, making the game more replayable, but also more challenging. Finally, the rule that I believe makes the game most challenging is that if I die in the game, I have to start again from the very beginning without any items. The consequences of death are much higher in this game than most other video games, therefore, different strategies must be applied when approaching this game. For example, in my playthrough of the game, I would restart the game after the first stage rewards if the items were not good enough (such as the boss reward being Mom’s heel, an item that adds range when my character’s range is already very high) because I could mentally calculate that it would be very unlikely for me to beat the next level with the given rewards for that floor.

Question 4: Resource Management The manageable resources in The Binding of Isaac are health containers, coins, bombs, and keys. All of these items can be dropped by game objects (such as the monsters, items, bosses, obstacles) from the game. My favorite game object in this game is the “tinted rocks” in the game. These rocks are obstacles, but are different from regular rocks because they are rather a different shade of color, or they have an ‘x’ marked on the rock. When I use a bomb to break a tinted rock, the attribute involved is that it has a guaranteed possibility of dropping rather heath containers or treasure chests (which can given even more coins, bombs and keys). I always pay close attention to the environment of the game, looking for these rocks because they are an important way to obtain resources. Notably, health containers are viewed as a resource in this game because one can use health to buy items from the devil room. Health containers differ from healing hearts because if the player’s heart containers are full, they cannot pick up any more healing hearts. It is much rarer to receive heart containers in comparison to healing hearts because heart containers can only be obtained from items in the treasure room or boss rewards, while healing hearts can be dropped by enemies. The devil room has a chance to appear at the end of every stage and all items in the devil room cost heart containers instead of coins. These game objects can make a significant impact in the progression of the game, however, it may be difficult to decide to keep one’s health or getting the items. For example, in my playthrough, I only had 2 heart containers when I entered the devil room, so I decided I would only take items from the devil room at that time, if I know that the item is extremely powerful, otherwise, I would not take it because it would be too difficult to beat other stages with only 1 heart container.

Question 5: Screen Interface The on-screen interface reflects the simplicity of the game. All of the player’s resources such as health, keys, bombs and coins are indicated as numbers on the left-hand side of the screen. The resource interface is made clear and easily readable throughout the playthrough of the game. The game designed all times that uses these resources to be also be very clear to the player. When players gets hit by an enemy, he loses health. When health is lost, the health bar flashes and the lost portion of the health turns from red to black. Furthermore, implicit rules can easily indicate which objects in the game uses what

resources. When I see a locked door or locked chest, I know that if I walk towards it, it will use one of my keys. Likewise, some doors have 2 locks on them at the same time, so I know that this particular door would use 2 of my keys to open. The stores (devil room and the shop) clearly shows how much each item cost, which is indicated as a number for the shop, and image of the number of hearts required for the devil room. When I use any of these items, the value of the currency I used is automatically deducted from the interface on the left-hand side, showing the current amount of the resource I have after I used the item. The design of the screen interface clearly describes the designer’s intention of the user’s experience. The designer oversimplified the resource management interface to allow players focus the most on the action intense part of fighting enemies. The interface is used as a compliment to gameplay, it is a simplistic and easy to read system so that players are not overwhelmed with thinking about resource management when they are in combat.

Question 6: Player Representation The player is represented as the character in the game. All actions on the keyboard inputted by the player will affect the character on the screen. Players can move their character, shoot tears, plant bombs, or activate their item special attack/utility. As this game is mainly reflex based, the player uses his actions to dodge projectiles from enemies, while shooting them in an attempt to eliminate them. In my playthrough of the game, I had to fight the same boss over and over again to understand the attack patterns, in order to predict its movements and avoid taking damage. The consequence of not moving enough or remaining stationary is increased likelihood of taking damage, while the consequence of focusing too much on movement is a poor aim.

Question 7: Lindsey Grace’s Game Types Lindsey describe action games as games that offers action intensity to attract players with the primary involved skill being reflex response. The Binding of Isaac best fits the description of the action category. This game can be compared to the action shooter Doom, which emphasizes on explosions, violence, and gore to catch the attention of players. Likewise, while The Binding of Isaac, does not have such intense graphics, the game is also filled with blood and guts. Most notably, when I kill any boss in the game, they would explode and blood would fill the room. Secondly, Doom requires precise timing and reflex to dodge and avoid incoming enemies. Similarly, The Binding of Isaac tests the skill of players as they must dodge the projectile, while shooting room after room of enemies. Thirdly, both games emphasize on loud or disruptive noises, such as monsters making loud grunts or shouts and the constant sounds of explosions and projectiles firing. All of these factors benefit the user’s experience of intensity, this stimulates the player attentiveness to the game which activates more attention to the reflex response of the given player.

Question 8: Game Platform I played this game on the PC, however, the requirements of the game are minimal in technical game affordances. The game has indie styled graphics with very little memory requirement, allowing modern PCs to easily process this game. The controls are also very simplistic, ‘wasd’ arrow keys to move,

spacebar to activate items, E to plant bombs, Q to use items, and arrow keys to shoot. With such simple controls and minimal memory and video processing, the game even has a compatible mobile phone version. The game controls itself has mirrored many other keyboard platformers, shooting, and rogue-like game control schemes, making the controls very user friendly. The controls were implicitly defined, which allowed me to play the game right away without needing a tutorial, I could understand the basic controls as soon as I entering the game as a quick note on the first floor showed the useable controls.

Question 9: Game Persona The target audience for this game is teens and young adults. The gore, violence, and crude religious symbolism may be too dark for audiences for children and pre-teens. Yet, older audiences may find this game underwhelming due to the lack of graphics and visual aesthetics. The cheap price tag and the low hardware requirements make this game perfect for young gamers on a budget while providing them with action, a unique atmosphere, and several hours of entertainment. A persona that fits this target audience is Dan. Dan is a 16 year-old student that studies at Killarney Secondary School. He enjoys playing video games on the computer after school, playing hockey with his friends on the weekends, and attends Sunday school every week. Dan loves platformer and shooter games. He enjoys games that keep the players constantly in action, creating an adrenaline rush as he must reactively progress through the stages. He prefers to play game sessions of around 2 to 3 hours long. Dan would enjoy The Binding of Isaac because he enjoys reflex-based skills of an action game, he does not mind only being able to play in single player, and he is capable of understanding many of the religious symbols in this game.

Question 10: Game Story The Binding of Isaac uses the enacting stories method to set the narrative. The enacting stories method uses broadly defined conflicts and localized incidents to explain the game’s story (Jenkins, 2004, p. 124) The game uses micro-narrative cut-scenes to explain the backstory and game endings. When the game starts, a short cut-scene plays that explains the backstory of Isaac being in the dungeon. His mother heard a commandment from God to kill Isaac, but as her mother approaches his room, Isaac finds a trap door and jumps down. This short backstory already shows the broad conflict of the game which is Isaac must escape his mother. As the game progresses, some monsters that Isaac would commonly see is her mother’s hand or feet suddenly falling down from the sky in attempt to kill Isaac, this indicates that Isaac must kill his mother to win the game. Finally, when Isaac reaches the final boss, “Mom”, and kills her, another micro-narrative cut-scene plays that shows a Bible falling down on Isaac’s mom’s head, killing her and saving Isaac.

Works Cited Bell, Timothy. Doom [Video Game]. Mesquite, Texas: id Software. 2016. Funk. Introduction to Game Studies. 1st ed. Vancouver: Simon Fraser U, 2015. Print. McMillen, E., & Himsl, F. The Binding of Isaac [Video Game]. Düren, Germany: Headup Games. 2011.

Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 2003. Print....