- Antidote – The world has fallen into a state of apocalyptical chaos and it is the player’s job to develop, distribute, and administer the antidote to as many zombified humans as possible. Players have to be careful and stay alive or they lose the game.
- Evasion – Players are hunters in South America. But they soon find themselves being hunted by the local wildlife. The players must find their way out of the jungle alive before a jaguar, bullet ant, or any other dangerous animal catches them as prey.
- Murder Incorporated – Players are undercover agents working for the NYPD in the 1940’s. The goal is to infiltrate the Mafia in New York City and take it down. Players may have to do some questionable things if they want to complete their task.
- Plane Crash Weekend – Players must find and collect resources from their plane which has crashed. It will be 2 days before a search party comes to find them. Survive for 2 days to win.
- Regrow – Regrow is a farming game based in post-war America. Times are peaceful, but all seeds must be found and new growing systems must be developed due to the intense change of the physical landscape. When you can’t grow anything to sustain you, you lose.
Collaboration Game Ideas
- Stranded – 2 or more teams of people who have never operated a sail boat before race to get their sail boat operational and reach the other side of a lake before the other teams.
- Disasters – collaborative card game in which the players work together to manage themselves and their teammates needs/objectives and must complete a task relating to the disaster.
- RC Madness – a physically-oriented game in which the players have their own RC controller that controls only 1 part of the car, players have to navigate a course.
- 8 Ball Sinker – a pool table game where players try to maintain a streak of sinking pool balls first try in order to try to set new records
- Garbo-be-Gone – Teams work together to collect as much garbage as possible in public spaces
Rules – 1st Draft – Disasters
SETUP ————————
The deck of cards contains 4 types of cards
Disaster Cards
The disaster cards determine what disaster the players will be dealing with. Only 1 is drawn per game.
Objective Cards
Objective cards are the cards that determine what the group’s current goal is. The group is to work in a team to try to complete these tasks EX: “Find medical supplies at ground zero of the earthquake.” Objectives can change throughout the game.
Item Cards
Item cards have assigned are drawn when a dice is rolled at the beginning of each player’s turn. Every player begins with 1 item card dealt before the beginning of the game. A 6-sided-die is rolled at the beginning of each player’s turn. If the die lands 5-6, an item card can be drawn. Item cards can sometimes be harmful, though! EX: Radioactive drinking water
Lifeline Cards
Lifeline cards can be bought from various dealers depending on the disaster. Lifeline dealers have have the most coveted items and can be bought through bartering owned items.
WIN STATE —————————-
Players win as a team when 1 OBJECTIVE card is completed for EACH player present
LOSE STATE —————————-
Players lose together as a team if the objectives are not completed
Week 2 Questions
- What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer?
There would have to be different ways to move around, depending on the size of the board. If the board is very large in comparison to the character, then some transportation options should be present to allow for movement. Maybe teleporting, plane ride, car, etc. But those could be allowed through the drawing of cards or a rolling of dice.
- Who are you making games for?
I’m making games that I would like to play. It is slightly selfish but as someone who hasn’t ever been very interested in card games/board games, I would like something that I consider fun to play
- Who will be your play testers outside of class?
My play testers will be my friend group and roommates. Together there’s a solid group of about 8 of us that could cycle through and play test, which is particularly important so that I can sit out and take notes.
- Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?
Uno. But Uno always has some variation in the rules depending on who you’re playing with and how they learned how to play. (ex: stacking +2 cards)
- How do you define what a game is?
A game is a game if it has a set of constraints or rules and a desired outcome to win. There are of course many variations within this definition, however.
- What features can make your games more intuitive?
Using features that other popular games already have, but adopt them to fit the needs of your game. If people are already comfortable with familiar game systems, it will be easier to learn.
- What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?
My gateway game was Minecraft. My interest in video games grew exponentially from there and have even built more than 5 computers specifically for the purposes of gaming. I introduce people to the Little Nightmares series when I try to get people to play games because it has a clear left-to-right progression system, allows for structured but free movement, and it’s control system isn’t difficult to learn.
- What features do gateway games share?
The rules are easy enough for anyone to follow
- What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?
- Kingmaker’s noblesse oblige
- BattleTech’s heat
- Set’s set-making
- Magic’s card tapping
- Battle Cattle’s cow tipping rule
- xXxenophile’s popping
- Bohnanza’s hand order rule
- Mississippi Queen’s paddlewheels
- Times up! Communication breakdown
- Dominions constant shuffling
In our own games we should aim to emulate the success of the above listed mechanics, and use parts of these to develop our own new mechanics that work specifically for our games.
- How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?
Luck introduces a level playing field to either ensure that all players have an equal chance at winning or at the very least, finishing well. It can also make players feel as though they have had a number of small victories in a game even if they didn’t win. While luck is introduced by the game, it is on the player to utilize their luck and decide how they will strategize. It’s a lot of times entirely possible to win without strategizing, but it of course helps
Week 2 – 5 Game Ideas involving cards
- “Hey, look who it is” – can be played while walking around campus, Pittsburgh, or anywhere you are that may have other people walking around that you know/recognize. The goal is to say “Hey, look who it is,” and the others around would have to guess who you’re referring to. A deck of game-specific cards reveal whether a point is gained, lost, or stolen from another player to add a little bit of randomness into the game.
- A card has a portion of a guitar, bass, drum, etc tab-style note layout on it with no lyrics, only a tempo and you have to play it and guess what song it is for the point.
- Cards have silhouettes of different poses. A group of people flip a community card and everyone has to strike the pose as quickly as possible. The last person to strike the pose is out. (Optional life counts to extend game time)
- Cards have Netflix TV show and movie descriptions on them. Teams compete to match another set of cards with the movie titles on them, with the descriptions. The team to have the most correct after a certain amount of time win.
- Whoever can dig the deepest hole with a playing card in x-amount of minutes wins
Week 1 – Reading Discussion
- In your opinion what should every game have? Why do you like your favorite game?
I think every game should have a set of rules that have been workshopped to focus on the ability to teach and understand. A game needs to be able to be taught to new players in a quick and timely manner, because if it proves to be too difficult or time-consuming, I personally will lose interest. My favorite card game is Poker because it doesn’t take very long to understand and it can be explained without huge paragraphs of text.
- List the games you’ve played and currently play.
Sea of Thieves, Grand Theft Auto 4/5, RDR2, RDR, Counter-Strike: Global offensive, Minecraft, Little Nightmares, Little Nightmares 2, Limbo, Sims 3/4, Simulation games, Ready Or Not, Mount and Blade Warband & Bannerlord, etc
- Can you apply the three act structure to your favorite game? What is it’s pacing and how long do you find yourself in each act?
My favorite game is Red Dead Redemption 2. In that game there is a very definite three act structure, but what makes it interesting is that there are incredible amounts of side missions and freedom. Players can decide to follow just the main story, or follow the new, smaller stories that pop up along the way, as well as any story they decide to create on their own.
- When coming up with ideas where do you find you start, with the metaphor or the mechanic?
I personally start with the metaphor and develop that along-side the mechanics. The metaphor is what will be remembered, so it should take priority when possible.
- Over the course of this semester, who would you like to collaborate with and why?
I would like to collaborate with Ethan, Clay, Max, and Frankie because we all seem to have similar motivations and think in a similar way. I also am very familiar with all of them, which would remove a level of stress when trying to think creatively.
Week 1 – Game Ideas
- A race around RMU’s campus to find Tucci could be played where players are required to stay in any paved surface to navigate campus. Doing this would reward those who know the campus more than others.
- The challenge of the second game would be to see who can make the most expensive ROMO’s item. The one rule though, is that the player cannot go back and use trial-and-error to complete the task.
Single Page Site – Site Review 2
For my single-page site review, I chose a site that is particularly impressive to me:
https://fictional-typeface.com/?ref=onepagelove
The site immediately pulls the viewer in with a fantastic use of color and type. Granted, the site is literally used to promote a typeface, but the interactivity of all the page elements is where it becomes even more interesting. The more you explore and play with the elements of the site, you unlock new abilities, like being able to edit any and all text on the page with whatever you want. There are clickable menus, sliders, and other elements that bring the page together so that it works together cohesively. The slider bar that changes the text is really interesting too as it has animations between each style of the typeface for a smooth transition. The site also isn’t very long, so after only briefly scrolling you are prompted to click out of the site to go buy the typeface. I don’t even need the typeface but just the experience of playing with it makes me want buy it.
Overall, the site really appeals to me in its use of color, simple shapes, animations, and overall unity and simplicity. It makes me wish I knew more.
Ecommerce Site Review
For the ecommerce site review, I chose to take a look at H&M retail website. I frequently use the app and the website to buy a large majority of my clothes and I don’t believe that I have ever had to stop and think about the checkout process. However, when going to the website now with this review in mind, I did get tripped up trying to add a pair of pants to my cart because I forgot to choose a size. The problem was that I was rushing and after hitting the “add to bag” button, nothing happened. No animation or any indication that my request had been complete caught my attention, and nothing changed color. I had to scour the page before I realized that I did not choose a size for the pants. When I got it to work, though, it was a very smooth and intuitive experience. It does a good job in adhering to the expectations of where buttons and information are displayed.
Week 7 – Chapter 6
I think that one of the most important things that I learned while reading chapter six was that it is super important to recognize societal rules that dictate our behavior in daily life. These rules can include talking loudly on a bus, in a library, hospital waiting room, or even walking up the down escalator. It’s important to keep those in mind because when designing, if something you create makes someone break these rules and they fall victim to the repercussions of those actions, then inevitably it is your fault.
All of this is essentially to point out that as a designer you have a responsibility to take part in ethical design, as what you create has a lot of weight socially and could possibly influence people to do things you didn’t originally intend for.
Week 6 Reading Questions
What information can ethnographic tools give you to improve the interactivity of an online banking website?
Ethnographic tools can give loads of data that allow the designer to determine how to design specifically for the users of particular ethnic and geographic groups. This is beneficial because it reduces the risk of offending people in a particular group, which would be bad for business as you would be losing part of your intended users. With that said, things like symbols, colors, words, among other things can play a huge role in how a brand or product is perceived in different geographic and ethnic areas.
At what point is a design finished? What makes it a success? What is its purpose?
A design is never truly finished because things can always be improved. There is a point at which the designer needs to make a decision to either continue working, or consider it “finished.” In terms of dubbing it a success, it can be considered as such when it has solved the problem outlined in the beginning of the design process.
Identify a product family you use regularly (can be anything from technology to consumables except for coffee). How has its branding affected your use, relationship and experience with the product?
Even though it is extremely popular, the first thing that comes to mind is my reliance on Apple products. The integration between my phone, my laptop, my watch, and my camera all make for the perfect workflow with the products of theirs that I own, even if they aren’t the newest models. To clarify, I do not own an apple camera, besides the one on my phone of course, but apps and Bluetooth connection on the iPhone allows for easy connection and transferring of photos and other data that would be time consuming and clunky to do between different systems. Their branding has affected my use and experience with the products because it all has the same look, layout, and generally operates the same way. This makes me far more inclined to want to use Apple’s products compared to others because the seamless transition between devices. I would even go as far to say that using their devices feels more like using Apple as a company, not the device itself.
Week 1 Reading Questions
What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook?
The goals of Apple’s website is to sell their products, provide information to the consumer, and to maintain brand identity. They do this through the consistent use of font, color, and big and bright graphics that pull in the viewer. They present their product lineup with almost a “godlike” quality that puts their market above all others.
Apple addresses the needs of new users by providing links to support and ‘Learn More’ sections of the website near the top in the main menu bar or right near the name of the product on the screen, making it easy for anyone to find and navigate.
What are the functional specifications of your preferred social media’s home page? If you are not on social media what are the specs for google?
A functional spec of Instagram would be something along the lines of, “Only show unfollowed accounts to user if attention time, likes, and shares are growing 20% more than an average post.” What this means is that Instagram is using an algorithm in their system to make sure that all the followed content is shown to the user. However, IG wants to show new content to users if they think they will like it. They can use metric data from previous posts on a particular account and compare them to others to see if they should promote the post outside of the followers’ circle.
What are four architectural approaches to information design and organization? Find one example of each.
Hierarchal: Global Links nonprofit website
Matrix: Amazon or Ebay’s product listings
Organic: Wikipedia
Sequential: any checkout section of a commerce website (Best Buy)
What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy?
Huff Post has a very index, navigation-heavy page when you land in the website. The only content available are the headlines and photos that go with the article. However, that changes once you decide what you want to read. Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy, however, while being very different kinds of websites, all have very content-heavy pages.
How does http://landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important?
Initially it pulls the user in with the use of yellow as the main color on the page. Making everything one single color pulls the depth out of the photo and directs the eye to the text, which is the first thing they want the users to read and notice. The color is reintroduced after the header has been read and the rest of the browsing experience can begin.
Week 5 Readings – Ch. 1 & 2
What makes up interaction design and what are some of the industry’s challenges?
Interaction design in made up entirely by the people who do it. Their ideas, research, intuition, eye for design, connections with people, experiences, education etc. All of these make up the inspiration for which a UX designer create a tool or product that will (ideally) flawlessly work the way it was intended to be used. However, it’s very rare that that happens the first time. This brings in the challenges. It is nearly impossible to think of every possible issue that could occur with a new product that has been designed. With that being said, one of the challenges in the industry is the constant evolution and testing loop that needs to occur to finish a product. Accompany that challenge with deadlines and you have a lot of pressure to produce quality work.
What is interaction design, how its evolving. What fields does it draw knowledge from?
Interaction design in a relatively new field, introducing elements from many different disciplines and industries. Some of the first and most obvious fields are graphic design and web design, but it also pulls from psychology and most importantly, the users. The users’ thoughts and insight are the most important when it comes to development in the interaction design field.