Design 12 – Art Driven Game

I want to create a game that uses Cubism a style that Pablo Picasson made famous. The following is from Wikipedia;

In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism’s distinct characteristics.

Possibly an exploration game where the player investigates items is represented as something from Cubism, and hte player must work out what it is then use this item appropriately. This is still a work in progress…

The game could have two views, a normal view and a Cubism view. The player could be a spy or soemthing like that and switch to Cubism view which will allow the player to see different viewpoints of what they are seeing, but this also has negative effects that it may look confusing and they lose some viewpoints. For example if the player is looking at a house, and then switches to Cubism view, then he will be able to see another view of hte house which may not be visible in the normal view. With this technique, the player must then complete some missions…possibly an art thief to keep with the theme

Journal 12 – Serious Games

Dafur Is Dying is about the crisis in Dafur. Innocent people are getting murdered and there is a lack of resources in Dafur. Innocent people risk their lives everyday to get water from a well for their farms, to cook, to clean and to drink. The game does this by the texts in the game and the choice of avatars. When choosing the avatar, the game recommends that you choose a child because they are more able to hide from the rebels. The message is also conveyed through the graphics, like when the avatar runs between hiding spots. Also when one of the avatars gets caught, the chosen avatar becomes unplayable.

Driver Seat is about the issue of senior drivers. This game provides a context for the game and each level and activity. The game provides different levels which will impair the player as if they were a senior citizen. Some of the controls are a little delayed, or not as responsive which force the player to take care and slow down when playing the game. This conveys the message well because whilst playing I had to slow down, just like senior drivers do on the roads.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG does not convey a message, but tries to give the player an insight into what Eric and Dylan were thinking. However the accuracy of the events and thoughts are questionable. This game goes through all the events that occured on the day of hte Columbine Massacre. There are speech bubbles, interactive items and conversation between Eric and Dylan and some of the NPCs which give an insight to what they were thinking and what caused them to do such an act.

Oiligarchy is about oil drilling and the effects on the inhabitants of the places being oiled. The message is conveyed through the behaviour of the NPCs. When oil rigs are built or when the land is explored, the animals move away and disappear and the inhabitants rebelled against me and destroy the oil rigs that I built. I had to bribe politicians and rebels, ignore environmental issues to succeed in this game. A war is even started when I went looking for oil in Iraq.

Design 10 – Art Game

The following game will be played by teams of pairs, where each pair will be given a word or topic and each member of the team would have to draw 5 pictures related to this topic. Then when the time is up, the team will compare their pictures and for every picture that both members of the team draw, they will score a point. For example, if a topic is beach, and both the team members draw water, then they will score a point.

This game does not discriminate against those who can or cannot draw. It is more of a cooperation game, I have thought of having some taboo items that can’t be drawn or whether the team members can communicate their ideas.

Journal 10 – Improv

Improv is described as a process of c0-creation between all the improvisers. This is also extended to a self expression game that involves more than one player. The players must work together and express themselves and possibly create their world, like in the game Little Big Planet.

The wikipedia article says that improv is usually a cooperative activity, where all hte members participating in the improv do not “block” each others ideas, instead accept what everyone offers. If the players of a self expression game were constantly blocking each other, then the game would not be enjoyable for everyone and the self expression of players will be limited, thus not fulfilling the aim of the game.

Participaters in an improv are encouraged to keep the validity of and props or items introduced. The rules of a self expression game should prevent the player from this, but if a player was able to have some “magical” power that makes them immortal, it is not going to be a very interesting game.

Improvisers usually only adopt one personality (sex, gestures, physicality, accents, etc) and they do not change from this personality. In a self expression game, if there is no goal then the game will be pointless.

Design 9 – Fairytale

This game is based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

The player will control the 7 dwarves. The player must collect the diamonds from the mines as well as protect Snow White from the wicked witch.

The dwarves need to collect the diamonds to maintain their current lifestyle, i.e. food, water, etc. However, while the dwarves are out working, the wicked witch will make visits to the home of Snow White and the dwarves. When this happens, the animals will notify the dwarves and they must go to the aid of Snow White.

The player could assign some dwarves to defend Snow White, but less diamonds will be gathered, or have all the dwarves collecting diamonds but it will take longer to be at the side of Snow White when she is attacked.

Journal 9 – Interactive Fiction

I found it difficult to play the games. The only game that I did play through was Facade. I found that the interaction between the player and the game were very limited. In Galatea and Aisle, I could only use some words to interact with the NPCs in the game. I found it difficult to play these games because I did not know what were the available commands and what the goals of hte game was. The game does not lead me into any direction which allows me to direct the game down different paths, but I did not know what to do at the beginning.

I found the games boring and uninteresting. In Facade, I was only interested in trying to hook up with the wife. I did not find the game to have an interesting back story, and again, the possible responses I could have were limited. I did not want to play the game for the second time.

Design 8 – A Social Game

This game is very similar to mafia. Where someone is a murderer and is able to kill off one of their friends a day. You must find the murderer, because whenever that person murders someone, they will leave a bit of a clue behind. This clue could be something some information from their profile, part of a photo, etc. However, you can only see the clues left at the scene of ONLY your friends murders. So to possibly more gain clues, you must make more friends. You will be notified when you friend is a murder. You can accuse a non friend of being the murderer too because you may not be friends of the murderer but have mutual friends

Journal 8 – Mafia

The game mafia is fun to play because there is the challenge of trying to find and kill the mafia. But you have limited information about the other players (if you are just a villager). There are also other notable characters that add a new dimension to the game. The undercover cop is able to ask about the other players to see if they are mafia or not, but they must be able to communicate what they find without revealing that they are the undercover cop. The vigilante has the choice of killing anyone so they can choose to kill mafia, villager or undercover cop, which adds a little to think about.

In mafia, the players have to think, communicate and convince the others playing, so alliances or enemies are made. There is also the drama during the night to see who was killed, or who was lynched if you were correct or not. All combining to make a fun game.

It is difficult to have a good strategy in this game.

As a villager you must be very alert during the night, like listening for any sounds or be aware of any movements to try and locate the mafia. However when you are a villager, you must somehow convince others that you are not the mafia, which is very difficult, the only way is to accuse someone else and convince those convicting you that the other player should be lynched. Some strategies were pretending you were someone important…like the undercover cop, but this possibly means that the mafia will kill you the following night.

As mafia you can work together to kill of the people that speak the most or are accusing the mafia. However this means that if the person who was accusing someone was killed, it could mean that he/she was right. The mafia can sit back and listen to what the others are saying or they can get involved and point the finger at someone else (which worked well in the game played in class)

As the undercover cop, you must try to find the mafia, when you have identified one, you must convince others to lynch him/her by accusing them early. Because most people agree with the first accusatoin because they do not know who to accuse.

As vigilante, I believe it is similar to a villager except you get to kill people during the night. So it depends whether the vigilante wants to choose to side with the villagers, mafia or just kill randomly.

There is a lot to consider when thinking of a good strategy in this game.

This game can only work as an online game if all the players can see and hear each other, but even then i do not think it will work. Because all the sense come to play in the game and playing online against others removes the need for the players to come together, thus you lose the ability to use senses.

Design wk 6 – Hardware Driven Game

The game i propose is one where you are a puppet master. You must control your character and perform his every movement much like a puppet master would have to do for their puppet. Moving your index finger could move one leg so as the player you must concentrate very hard to even make your character walk.

What the player must get his character to do is not decided. It could be a combat game where the player must fight or it could be one where the player navigates obstacles like climbing a wall, jumping over a creek, etc.

Alternatively, one could create a wizard game where different finger formations will create different incantations. Pretty cool idea i think. Its very simple, run around fighting/finding stuff and performing magic

Journal Wk 6: Player-centred design

The player is not always right!! Though this does not mean their opinions, raves or criticisms are worthless. I believe player centred design is a game focused on the player, not necessarily to make the player feel good. As the designer if you wish to make the player cringe with fear as he/she navigates around your map then you are focussing your game around the player, whilst not necessarily making the player enjoy (though some would enjoy this).
Ernest and Adams’ idea of philosophy only applies to those designers who are aiming to only please their players, like in industry, their opinions would be very correct. Creating a game for the players’ entertainment will improve sales thus bringing in more money. However if you take away the aspect of making money and pleasing the player, then i believe Koster’s definition of player centred design is more correct.