Journal Week 12

First game was not very fun! haha. Foraging for water. I kept getting raped and killed! It does deliver the message of how difficult it is for the people to survive in such situations, IF that is what the game’s message is.

Second game, trying to beat my score of quickest parking was fun! It tries to show how to behave safely with a car. I mean, theres no point. Driving safety can’t be learnt from a game.

Third game is disgusting and disturbing. Althought it reminds me of pokemon.

Fourth game is about money and resource and how greedy people can become! I think its message is clear.

Overall, I don’t enjoy serious games.

Journal Week 10

Be fun to play with.

Naturally! No one wants to play if it ain’t fun!

Serve the narrative

Not sure, I mean it could be just a number of random stories put together? However, having a narrative limits what players can say.

Make your partner look good

Yup definitly, as seen in the video clip, it mentions “Blocking”. This is something you don’t want to do to your partner, it will deny the reality they are trying to create, provide negative atmosphere, prevents the future story to develop and possiblities.

Design Idea Week 12

Egyptian Hierogyphs!

To people who can’t decipher the language will pretty much treat these as symbols.

When I see symbols I think of those games where you have lots and lots of cards flipped over, and you have to find matching pairs, turning only two cards each turn.

What I have come up with is a multiplayer game. Players are provided a “dictionary” of the meaning of each symbol. A bundle of cards with hieroglyphics on them. Players must flip two cards each turn and find a matching pair. However, after finding a matching pair, the player must explain what the symbol means. If the player is incorrect, the player must put those cards back, and the entire deck is re-shuffled. If correct, the player keeps the cards.

Player with most cards WINS!

Design Idea Week 10

I was thinking along the lines of “inkball” avaliable on windows. Inkball’s aim is to sink the respective coloured balls into their holes. The player is allowed to use the mouse and draw out figures/lines to change the movement of these balls. Once a ball has touched a figure/line, it will dissapear.

My game is similar.

My game audience is for musicians. Ranging from beginners to experts.

The player will be given a line of music, it will play through, and the player is expected to memorise the melody and notes. The game begins after this, another clone of this line of music will be played once again, however, this time with missing notes or extra notes. The player will use the mouse to draw in notes or scrub out notes. All this is done in real-time. Therefore, if you miss drawing in a note or scrubbing out a note, the music will sound off.

Journal Week 9

Not enjoyable. I didn’t particularly like any one of those games, but that’s just my opinion. I get bored very quickly.

I believe these text games base their “fun” components from discovery/adventure and possible fantasy. Therefore, if you are a gamer that has no interest in those elements, text-based games just isn’t for you.

There are some elements in the game that did keep my “re-trying”. As there are many possible things you can type in to receive a response that may lead you to the next stage of the game, it keeps me thinking of which path is correct etc. Façade had images as well as the text component that did increase the fun level. However, in saying this, it is very likely because I have adapted to the games in today’s selection, being all 3D graphics and full on.

Design Idea Week 9

Fairy tale game.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

A game based on the fairytale. It’ll be one of those children games, where there is a main screen which is cut into different sections; each section is based on each dwarf. Each dwarf will have their own mini-game which will teach snow white about each dwarf and give a clue on how to defend against the mother. Once all the mini-games are satisfactory complete, snow white will encounter the witch. This is where the child will be tested of their memory from previous mini-games on how to defend. If the player plays this correctly, she will be proposed to by the knight. The End.

Design Idea Week 8

A social facebook game.

Possibly a game of elimination. Everyday, everyone is randomly put into a big pool. A question that will compare two objects/film/people. Each person will choose a side, conversations/conflicts will begin. Majority wins. Majority stay alive until the next days question. This game continues until there are 10 people left.

Minority will automatically be put into a new pool the next day.

The 10 people will realise they have similar taste etc and may possibly become facebook friends!

Journal Week 8

Mafia is a social game of deception.

Mafia uses analysis to a certain degree. I believe analysis works with people you are familiar with. E.g. if you were put into a game of mafia with total strangers, you may find there is a very quiet person in the game, you may suspect that player to be either police officer or mafia. However in real life, that person may just be quiet in general.

Mafia works due to the lack of information.

Depending on a person(s) aim of this game, several strategies can be used. For example, if the police officer and mafia work together, they are basically unstoppable.

This game could possibly be an online game. However, it would be hard to analyse player behaviour online. Even through the use of chat history between players, it would be difficult to extract information.

Design Idea Week 6

First thing that came to mind was piano. BUT how boring that would be! Just play on real piano

Second thing that came to mind was guitar hero. Why not change the way guitar hero is played? 5 buttons, a flick and a whammy fixed on a piece of plastic that takes the shape of a guitar? How about using the pair of sensored-gloves to actually play like a real guitar? But then again, why not just buy a real guitar and play that instead.

Journal Week 6

There is no right or wrong in player-centered designs. It’s a question of will it be a fun/sell-out game.

It would be ideal to make every player right. However, players can’t always be right. There are only so many players that a designer can satisfy. It just isn’t possible to make every player right.

It would be of good interest for game designers to take in account feedback from play players, and from these positive/negative feedbacks, modify the current game. This is beginning to sound like HCI talk! By re-iterating this process for x times, this game will, at the same time, be entertaining for the players but also remain an expression of the designers initial thoughts.