Gameplay:
Virtual Families is played from the player looking at the game from a Birdseye view and this enables the player to have a full view of the characters home. As it is played on touch-screen devices only such as iPhone, iPad, tablets and touch-screen phones, the player can tap the screen to move around the house and press down on a character and drag them to a piece of furniture to get them to complete an action. For example you could drag one of your characters to e.g. the fridge, and this would let them cook and prepare a meal.
In my opinion the gameplay is very simple for this game and even if someone doesn’t understand it, there is a tutorial at the start of the game which shows you how to play the game.
Target audience:
The target audience for this game is targeted at young people aged 8 to 17. it is too complex for children under the age of 8, but then it is too simple and ‘childish’ for adults over 17. it is aimed at young people because of the simple language used in the game and the pure simplicity of this game.
Characters in Virtual Families Lite:
In the game virtual families lite, the game has many options of characters to chose from, as soon as you open the game, you as the player are given the option to either ‘reject’ or ‘accept’ an adult character to ‘adopt’ from a list of people. Characteristics of each character include their ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’, their age, whether they want kids, their job, what level they are on in this job and how much they earn. Each adult has different names and look different. You pick from either a male or female character.
The second character that features in this game is someone who is the opposite gender of the first character. The first person will receive a email which shows a picture of the potential partner with their name, a description of their ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’, their age, whether they want kids, their job, what level they are on in this job and how much they earn. You as the player can either reject this potential partner and wait for another to come or marry them.
If the first two characters complete the action ‘trying for a baby’, then a baby arrives and this is then another character in the game. The baby will grow to then become a toddler, child, teen and then a adult.
As the player, you can expand the family as much as you want by having more babies, or chose to have none at all. It is up to you how many people you want in your home; which is why the game is very flexible.
In addition to having babies, there is also an option for adopting a toddler. This makes the game very suitable to 2016 as not everyone in this day and age wants to have babies and like in real life, people will want to adopt.
Platforms:
You can play Virtual Families on the following platforms: PC Games, Mac Games, IPhone and IPod touch, IPad, Android, Palm OS Games, Pocket PC Games, Web Games . This shows how the game is very accessible and can be played on a variety of platforms.
Graphics:
There are some graphical issues too, such as characters who stand on a table or bed or walk through a wall or fridge. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but leads one to believe the game isn’t finished.
In addition to this, the graphics of the game are not HD or as clear as normal games on the app store, which lets it down.
Virtual Families is a human stimulation game that looks and plays similar to The Sims. Gamers ‘adopt’ a character who moves into your home. The game is played from an angled top-down (‘isometric’) view just like sims is, and as with EA’s game you can also buy items, upgrade parts of your home, have kids, adopt pets etc.
Another thing players might love or loathe, and one that will be familiar to those who’ve played LDW games, is that Virtual Families plays out in real time.
The game does offer a few things not found in The Sims, such as healing sick characters (with meds or calling a physician), giving players moral dilemmas to tackle and watching the events unfold, praising or scolding behaviour with Black and White-like hands you click over the character (to reinforce good or bad actions) and collect objects around the home, such as bugs, coins, leaves and so on.
The game does offer a few things not found in The Sims, such as healing sick characters (with meds or calling a physician), giving players moral dilemmas to tackle and watching the events unfold, praising or scolding behaviour with Black and White-like hands you click over the character (to reinforce good or bad actions) and collect objects around the home, such as bugs, coins, leaves and so on.
However, I strongly believe this game isn’t all for equality and isn’t modern. This is because it doesn’t give you the option to marry someone of the same gender, and in 2016 this is normal and modern, so therefore I don’t think this game is very modern
Graphics: 29% poor graphics throughout the game, can come across blurry, which can effect enjoyment of game.
Gameplay: 96% gameplay is very simplistic and easy to follow.
Accessibility : 100% simple to access.
Lifespan: 50% can play this game in real time for how long you want, however, it can get repetitive.
Innovation: 20%, it isn't anything new in the game industry as there are games very similar just as Sims.
Final judgement: 76%, easy to play and create families, however can get boring after playing for along time.
