Review of the game Mission Lighting created by ZMQ
Rating: 
About Mission Lighting
Mission Lighting is a casual mobile phone game designed to educate players about eco-friendly lighting.
The object of the game is to earn as many points as you can before the timer runs out or before you lose your 5 lives. The player takes controls a plane that must collect as many CFL Bulbs and star rating symbols as possible while avoiding the incandescent light bulbs. In this game incandescent light bulbs are the enemy. The items collected must be dropped on houses that request them. The player receives points for collecting CFL bulbs and star rating symbols and for dropping the correct object on a house. The player loses points for dropping the wrong item on the wrong house and loses a life every time they smash into an incandescent light bulb. The game ends either when a timer runs out or when the plane loses all of its 5 lives – whichever comes first.
Above: Screenshot of gameplay. The house at the bottom of the picture is wanting the player to drop a CFL bulb on it. Most of the game statistics are located at the bottom of the screen.
My Opinion
So, yes, many mobile phone games have a reputation for being a bit flaky and shallow. Even still, I wasn’t really impressed with this game. I really wanted to like it but I’m afraid I didn’t. I was a little bit put off by the in-game advertising. I was a little disappointed that a game that should be solely about the environment was advertising a company that is arguably a big cause of environmental problems. Even overlooking this, I found the gameplay a little bit abrupt until I figured out what I had to do (by reading the instructions). I think there are a few things that the developers could do to improve this one.
Game Balance
Some elements of the game play give game good balance, other aspects do not. In this section, these will be explored.
The player may choose a number of victory conditions. These include:
- Keeping their plane “alive” until the timer runs out – the game ends when the timer reaches zero. If the player can manage to not collide with the CFL bulbs, more than 5 times, this victory condition can be achieved.
- Score a certain number of points or beat their previous best score
- Keeping their plane “alive” until the timer runs out and score the most points.
In a well balanced game, the skill of a player will influence the outcome of a game more than any other factor. If the player is aiming to score the most points rather than just trying to run out the timer, skill does influence the outcome of the game more than any other factor. In order to earn points, the player must firstly collect CFL bulbs and star rating symbols from the sky whilst avoiding the incandescent light bulbs. Each desirable item collected gives the player 10 points. The player loses a life each time they hit an incandescent light bulb. Secondly, the player must drop the items that they collected onto the correct house. The player receives 100 points for dropping the correct item onto the correct house and they lose 50 points for dropping an item in the incorrect place. The action that will give the player the maximum points reward is dropping the correct item onto the correct house. However, in order to be able to drop an item on a house, the player must have first collected the items from the sky. The loss of 50 points for dropping an item in the wrong place also encourages users to strategically drop the items that they have collected, not just drop them anywhere and hope for the best. The points structure of the game encourages the player to engage in all aspects of the game play: collecting items, avoiding items, dropping items onto the correct houses and avoiding incorrect drops. Thus, the points system encourages the player to develop skill and this skill will influence the outcome of the game more than any other factor. The scoring system provides good game balance.
Above: The scoring system of the game.
If the player’s aim is simply to finish the game without having lost all of their lives, then player’s skill is not necessarily the main influencer of the outcome of the game. A dominant strategy exists. If the player simply leaves their plane in its starting position at the bottom of the screen, the player will be able to play out the game’s timer. They may lose some lives but it is unlikely that all of the player’s lives will be lost. I have used this strategy twice. The first time, I lost one life and the second time I lost none – and managed to accumulate 100 points by not even touching a control. Some suggestions for combating this dominant strategy include placing more obstacles in the way of the initial starting path of the plane and having provision for a highscore leader board that players can use to gauge their progress.
Some ways that I think game balance could be improved are listed below.
Recommendation 1. Have several levels that gradually get more difficult
At the moment, the game has one level of difficulty although at times, it will suddenly speed up and then slow down later with no obvious reason for the speed up or slow down. I think it would be better if the game gradually gets faster rather than a sudden spurt of speed and then an equally as sudden slow down.
Recommendation 2. Make losing a life less disruptive to the play
When the plane hits an incandescent bulb a plane crash animation is played and the player loses a life. The plane crashing animation unnecessarily disrupts play. The crash animation that is played does not align with the information being shown on the screen before the crash and is potentially confusing, especially to new players. One way to make losing a life less disruptive to play would be to simply have the plane flash for a few seconds and, whilst the plane is flashing, it cannot collide with anything.
Above: The crash animation that plays is disconnected from the rest of the gameplay. I’m guessing its main aim is to display an eco message?
Recommendation 3. Basic instructions on key presses should be given at the start of the game
At the game startup screen, the player can choose to either read the rules or play the game. If a beginner player chooses to start the game rather than read the rules, no indications are given as to what keys to press to do different things within the game. The keys used are not intuitive, so I think the game should have a screen that a seasoned player can skip quickly through that explains the controls used in the game.
Image Attributions
All images used in this review are screenshots taken from the game Mission Lighting. These were used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of these images and wish for them to be removed, please leave a comment on this blog entry.
References
Drennan, P. 2009. INB280/INN280 Fundamentals of Game Design – Lecture 6. QUT.
Tags: game review, Mission Lighting, serious games