For the past three and a half weeks, we have been using Canvas for our online learning during quarintine. I find Canvas can be both very helpful and also very annoying for both teachers and students. The upside of using Canvas is that is allows for everything to be in one place and has different categories for work, announcements, grades and even just the home page. Canvas puts everything we need for school into one place that shows all of our classes. Along with this, it has a calendar that puts every assignment by due date. This is very helpful for keeping all my work in order and allows me to see what I need to do for the day or the week. While Canvas can be very helpful, it also makes other things harder. I frequently run into the issue that there are assignments that I have but I am unable to open them. This is because some of my teachers are less experienced with technology and it is very hard for them to figure out how Canvas works. Another thing that I dislike about Canvas is that if the assignment doesn't have a date, it doesn't show up in the calendar and it can be hard to find if you don't know that the assignment is required. Going off of that, when a teacher sends out an announcement, it always shows up in my to do list but never goes away until the day is over. This causes my to do list to become full and I cannot always see it fully. This is a small thing but it is something that annoys me a lot. On the teacher end, I have found that many of my teachers are unable to use links correctly because they don't know how Canvas works fully. This causes me to miss some time in zoom to figure out how it is all going to work instead of doing the work for myself. Overall I find that the negatives of Canvas outweigh the positives and I find that it is very hard to navigate and find everything I need to get through the school day and complete all my work.
Conclusion
0 Comments
Among Us is a mafia style game where players take control of astronaut characters. A select amount of these characters are known as imposters. These imposters are trying to sabotage the ship or kill all the other players in order to win. The crew mates on the other hand are trying to finish all their tasks to win while also stopping all of the sabotages. The other way to win as a crew mate is to vote all the imposters off the ship. This game is a great party game to play with friends and is 5 dollars on steam and free on mobile. It also allows for cross-platform so you are able to ply with friends on Steam and mobile. Each game is also fairly short and it is common to play multiple times within a session. This game has a lot of replay value because of new strategies people can acquire and also the fact that each round is different.
Gameplay The gameplay in this game is fairly simple but that is something common in mafia style games where you are constantly trying to figure out who is evil. The main gameplay is when crew mates do their tasks. On each map there are many different tasks that require varying amounts of time from five seconds to thirty seconds. Every task is different and multiple players can have the same task. This part of the gameplay is vital as it is one of the ways the crew mates can win and also how they can tell who the imposters are. Almost all the tasks do not require much skill and are very interesting when you first learn them. As you play the game the tasks can get boring but thy are vital to the success of the game. The rest of the gameplay is found through the imposters eyes. The imposters can sabotage different points on the map and it forces the crew mates to fix them or they lose the game. Along with this, there are vents across the map where only imposters can go. These vents allow imposters to hide and travel across the map very quickly. Overall the gameplay is very logical and makes sense but at times can be boring if played for too long. Visual The visuals in this game fit very well for the style the developers were going for. The visuals are fairly simple but make the game have a great overall feel and you can tell easily what everything is. As for the characters, they are astronauts with different colored space suits. You can easily tell that these characters don't look like normal humans due to their body shape but that is done on purpose to make this game more kid friendly. The visuals tie the game together really well and the environments that the characters are in look like they could be real but the game developers chose to make it look more animated. The animations in the game are very good besides some minor visual bugs from time to time. The only real animations we do get to see are the animation when someone dies, a door is opened, someone jumps in a vent, or animations in tasks. Overall while the visuals are very simplistic, they help the game stand out and is a really good fit for the concept as the main focus is on figuring out who the imposters are and not as much on the visuals. Audio In the game, there is almost no music besides the menu music which is mainly just ambient noise. The other audio is very well designed and implemented in just the right way. The sound of your character running down a hallway is just how it should and almost every task has audio ques or audio for when it is completed. Just like the visuals, the audio is fairly simple but it is executed in a way that feels natural and is pleasing on the ears. This is somewhat due to the fact that there is not much focus on music but rather the sound effects when different actions are preformed. The most useful part of the audio is that whenever you complete a task it gives you an audio piece that lets you know the task is finished and you can move on. This is a very simple thing but it helps by not just using visuals but audio as well for the tasks. Interface The interface in the game is very simplistic which fits the style of the game. There are not many things on the home menu and every option can be chosen by the click of the mouse. When you are playing the game, each item whether that be a task, the map, or even the sabotage button is able to be controlled by the mouse and shows clearly what options are available by highlighting them. Another thing is that the map shows you what your tasks or fake tasks are and where they are located on the ship. This is very helpful and it is one of the most important pieces of the interface. There is a section to adjust the audio but you are not able to change the controls which is a downside. Overall the menu system fits the style of the game and the in game map is very useful as it explains where things are and where your tasks are located. Another interface that they did well is when you are voting a player out, the cast vote option is very simple and easy to understand and they give you a big check mark or an x so you can verify your choice. Accessibility The one feature that this game does not have is a colorblind mode. Because everyone has a different color, it is easier to remember which color you saw instead of the name that is displayed. This means that if you are colorblind, you can still read the name of the person but it may be harder to remember and is therefore a disadvantage. While this is the case, there are many extra colors that can solve the problem of colorblindness and let them play the game completely. As for all the text, it is grammatically correct and everything is spelled correctly and is easy to read. The only main drawback is that there is no colorblind mode. Technical The only technical piece I have to add is that the servers are not very good. There are many times when people are kicked from lobbies or are unable to join lobbies and are forced to restart the game. While this doesn't happen all the time, I usually find that at least one person has a connection issue during a session we are playing. Conclusion Overall I have so much fun playing this game and I have played countless hours over the past month. I would give this game a 4.5/5 and I would say that unless you really want to play on the computer, the mobile version works just as well and is free compared to spending five dollars. Overall I recommend this to anyone who has a group of friends to play with as it is one of my favorite party games to play. |
AuthorHi, my name is Nick Bayer and I will be posting blogs about every 1-2 weeks in the 2020-21 school year. I am doing this for my Advanced Game Design class at Durham School of the Arts(DSA). The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Categories
All
Archives
May 2021
|