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Genre analysis
As part of an exercise, I had to analyse the Hack'n'slash genre. After a first phase of research, I realized that this genre was divided into two main sub-genres: Diablo-likes and dynasty warriors-like (or Musou).
I decided to concentrate my efforts on Diablo-likes by data-mining a corpus of 18 games through a series of questions. The idea was to get statistics on which design choices were really important to the genre.
The general idea is that you have an avatar with skills that often cost mana, who kills enemies that come in droves to collect equipment that mostly appears randomly. This equipment then goes into the inventory which is limited in place.
The outcome was a power point presentation that concluded with the analysis of a concrete case. I chose to analyze the place of Minecraft Dungeons in the genre. Indeed, it is quite debated because the game does not have a limited inventory, one of the key elements of Diablo-likes, nor mana. I tried to understand via the example of Path of Exile why these elements were important: it's the notion of short-term choices that have a long-term influence. Then I deconstructed the elements of Minecraft Dungeons to point out that it still has a notion of choice that has been lightened to allow beginners (and Minecraft players) to discover the genre and do more testing to find out what they like.
To conclude, I really enjoyed this exercise and I plan to do it again with other genres I'd like to work on like MMORPG.