A short timeline of five important games in Corwin Emory's past.
Created by cemory on Mar 3, 2011
Last updated: 03/05/11 at 12:58 PM
Tags: Personal Game History Full Sail Corwin Emory
Question 1: Why was this game important to you? This game served as the initial lure for me into a world that Blizzard created in an effort to relieve my wallet of money. I never played the game multiplayer, but I would constantly play against the computer, either as the alliance and using armies of Elven archers or as the horde and amass as many dragons as I could. It was also the first game I owned for my family's new Windows 95 machine, everything before it had been almost strictly console games. Question 2: From a designer’s perspective, what skills was the game trying to teach? And how did the game try to teach these skills? Yet another in a series of games that required resource management; it did also teach spatial relations, pack mentality and power projection. The player was taught to always keep control of a gold mine and to have plenty of workers handling tree chopping. It was also important for units to move together as groups when attacking, sending a single soldier would always result in their death before they really accomplished anything. Clearing space for buildings and placing them in just the right spaces would solidify the player's defenses. But in the end it was all about amassing a mighty army to wash over the opponent and into victory.
Question 1: Why was this game important to you? Magic was a daily activity at school for me and I would be found playing it at lunch or whenever there was a free period. It was what helped me form friendships in the awkward years of middle school and also the end result of my squandered allowance. I've been known to revisit it every few years as the creativity and strategy involved in the game always seduces me once more. Question 2: From a designer’s perspective, what skills was the game trying to teach? And how did the game try to teach these skills? Magic demanded many skills to be built upon including: resource management, creativity, projecting power and understanding probability. As a player you were required to assemble your own deck of cards for use in battle, limited only by the player's collection of cards. A careful balance was required of resources during creation and knowing the basics of probability would be necessary in construction as well in order to prevent desired cards from never being seen during play. The game is almost always about spreading your influence to your opponents side of the play field, destroying his life force or preventing his action, playing timid will only lead to failure.
Question 1: Why was this game important to you? My love affair with Sonic began with this game; while I did play the first game this one really emphasized the speed and control that grabbed my attention. The incorporation of a second player really helped as well. I would play the game almost every day after school with a neighbor, starting a tradition that would continue on into the third installment. Question 2: From a designer’s perspective, what skills was the game trying to teach? And how did the game try to teach these skills? Hand-eye coordination is the staple skill of this game although thorough collection was also rewarded. This game would solidify reaction time by forcing the player to experience the levels at intense speeds. Gathering rings would earn bonus lives to extend playtime and also grant attempts to collect the precious chaos emeralds, which unlocked the ability to transform into Super Sonic.
Question 1: Why was this game important to you? This game was the real stepping-stone that lead to my eventual obsession with the tabletop form of Dungeons & Dragons. My father would always play the dungeon master and I would get to play as the team of heroes. The danger lurking around every corner was always so exciting although looking back I'm sure my father was always going easy on me. Question 2: From a designer’s perspective, what skills was the game trying to teach? And how did the game try to teach these skills? Communication, exploration and risk assessment were the important skills for this game. The game intends each person plays a separate hero and they will need to coordinate their actions to complete each challenge. Searching every room will reward the heroes with bonus treasure and equipment and deciding when to retreat or charge in is an important key to survival.
Question 1: Why was this game important to you? This is the first game I ever played and I still play it even now. I enjoyed learning the game while watching my father play it and I've always taken pride in the fact that it belonged to a generation of games that most of my peers never encountered. Question 2: From a designer’s perspective, what skills was the game trying to teach? And how did the game try to teach these skills? This game boasts a variety of skills required to complete it, most predominant are spatial awareness, counting, memorization, resource management and exploration. Thrown into a twelve by twelve maze the player was forced to recognize landmarks in order to determine position as well as keep track where had or had not been explored. The game also forced the player to keep count of how much food and ammunition was held, which would need to be used carefully to prevent depletion.
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