Well now I am not sure if i want to make this or not because of class today, but I wanted to make a game similar to dnd on my computer. With that being playtested in class I may change my plans up and think of a new idea for a game.
Silly goose update
I ran into a little roadblock with the sizing of the cards. Right now I am trying to fix it and the game should be playable very soon. May bring in my two games at once which would be this and my clicker game. I look forward to bringing it in class.
Update on Clicker game
The game is now almost playable. I have added way more features than the original game that I had made. It should be playable by the time we get back from spring break. Mainly right now I am making sure all the code I used functions correctly. So soon I will be working on making it look more pretty.
Play test- Color Game
Whats the most frustrating moment you played. Id say it would be that you dont have a lot of time to look out for the better color combinations.
Was there anything that I wanted to do that I couldn’t? No everything was fine
If you can change or add anything what would it be? I would add more color theory thing and color combinations. I also think it would be a good addition if someone says a better color combination than the original you can steal it.
Whats the game narrative? The point of the game is to teach the players a fun way to learn color theory.
How does the game make you feel? Excited and it makes me look forward to playing it again.
Describe the game in three words? Fun, chaotic, colorful
Week 3 Game Reviews & Assigned Reading
Week 7 Questions
- What are the challenges a team faces when working on an educational game?
Teams must balance making the game fun, educational, and scientifically accurate. These goals can conflict because what is engaging for gameplay may not always support learning or accurate content. - In the case study, team members vetoed each other’s ideas. What were their issues?
The scientist rejected ideas that were scientifically inaccurate. The pedagogy expert rejected ideas that prevented students from accessing learning content. The designer rejected ideas that were not engaging or fun as a game. - What did the team learn from playtesting their prototypes?
They learned that some ideas that seemed good did not work well for players. Playtesting showed what was confusing, engaging, or effective for learning. - How does playtesting resolve conflicts among team members?
Playtesting provides real player feedback, allowing the team to make decisions based on how users actually interact with the game instead of personal opinions.
Pirates – Game Version 3
Chrystian and I decided to go ahead and create a version 3 of our Pirates game using everyone’s feedback to elevate it. We condensed the material, and we tried to make it more understandable for new players. We also decided to integrate some of the concept art to the sheets themselves to make it more presentable.
Final game documentation
- Fortune District is a simple dice game where players try to earn money. Each round, players roll a die, and the player with the highest number wins one chip ($1). The first player to reach $20 wins the game.
- I simplified the rules and removed meeples and phases. Now the game only uses dice and chips.
- One player said they did not understand phase 3 and the meeples. This helped me realize the game needed simpler rules.
- I would add a small twist to make the game more exciting and improve the instructions so they are clearer.
- .
Version 1
Version 2
Color Game
I made an educational game based on the classic card game, War. The game teaches people the basics of color theory, including complementary, analogous, and triadic colors. The game is competitive as players have to yell to claim the cards and get the most, as the person with the most cards wins.
Week 2 Game Reviews & Assigned Reading
Week 4 Question Set
- what learning games have you played? can you categorize them by the theory of learning types: behaviorism, constructivism, constructivism or social nature? if you played more than one which was the most effective?
I have played a lot of learning games – they might be my favorite type of games actually, especially when it comes to language learning these days – Duolingo, Mango, Busuu, Mavis Beacon (in middle school), kahoot, fact-matching/quizlet sort of things, I also played a lot that I can no longer remember the names of pretty much from pre-school throughout high school- I would say most games were behaviorist in nature; learning through a game-like atmosphere but still focused around the actual learning of material but a little more fun (like what Amy Bruckman was talking about – a few were social nature too I would say – I think behaviorism is the most effective in actually learning material for me at least - is gamification bullshit, what is ian bogost’s argument and do you agree? where have you encountered it outside of class and what was your experience?
Ian argues that companies often use “games”, but really just superficial game elements to different products/sights, as marketing strategies and they are really not effective, meaningful , and motivating as games can be. I think I do agree with this logic – I don’t think that every single games has to be this whole thought-out experiential and designed masterpiece, but really stupid or badly designed games shouldn’t be slapped together to gain viewership/sales, etc. I have definitely experienced these sort of “bullshit” games that really aren’t effective and make you more annoyed than engaged. In school, we used to play free games online that were often sponsored or education based and they were mostly super dumb, we played them anyways because of boredom but really they were not really effective or that fun. - What is a serious game and why aren’t they chocolate covered broccoli?
Serious games are more than serious topics disguised as fun games (or “chocolate covered broccoli”), they are generally for education, training, or raising awareness rather than simply fun and entertainment. Good serious games integrate the education into the gameplay – if the serious part is disguised users can generally tell, so incorporating it fully makes it more intentional and meaningful and if done well, it won’t taste like chocolate covered broccoli.
Week 7 Questions
Spoon Buffet
Keep Talking and No One Explodes
- I love a puzzle game and like high stakes competition games so this was something I really enjoyed, the learning curve compared to the time given seems difficult to overcome. Especially for people who have never used VR and have to get used to the mechanics, and it seems like having time to familiarize yourself with the different modules and puzzles would help immensely for this game.
- You are trying to keep yourself from exploding, so there is a countdown timer which is a fairly effective motivator for the right people, and there are also additional markers, like flashing red lights in the room, or strikes being counted on the bomb itself.
- I don’t know if it’s necessarily meant to be persuasive towards anything in particular. It feels more like an instructional, collaborative, team-building kind of game rather than persuasive. A game meant to test how you perform under pressure and take directions from others.
- To keep calm under pressure, and maybe make you more of aware of how you interact with others in a team setting, or how you react when taking directions from someone else. I haven’t really done a lot of VR gaming so a lot of the mechanics kind of stood out for me. It was a learning curve to figure out how to interact with the graphics themselves and then the objects inside the game, learning how to pick the bomb up and move it around, and then how to interact with the different modules.
- I was excited about the gameplay because I like games like that and puzzles, I wasn’t like tense or as stressed about the time limit as maybe the designers would want you to be, but I definitely still felt a sense of wanting to get the challenge done in time. I think I actually felt the most empathy for the people who had to give the instructions that seemed like the most stressful job.
- It doesn’t feel much like an activist game to me.
- Try not to blow up.
Be quick. Time is running out.
5,4,3,2,1.
5 game simulation ideas.
-Some sort of restaurant industry simulation, where you get to experience either being in the kitchen or a server, and get to deal with timed pressure scenarios, chaotic and dangerous surroundings, maybe intense authority figures, and a range of customers experiences that simulate real-life scenarios.
-A media literacy simulation where you are in charge of running a social media page, or like entertainment/news site. You are given options for things to post that could be light-hearted, humorous, feel good, real news, fake news, propaganda, or ads. So you can choose a specific vibe to curate on your site, or you could branch out and post a variety of things. But every time you post you get feedback, ratings, and an influence score from “viewers”. So it would track engagement, fact checks, and your growth.
-A game that highlights sensory issues with neurodivergence Players complete simple tasks but some players receive overwhelming instructions, some get conflicting rule, some can’t speak, or some must follow very rigid constraints. There could also be obstacles like amplified ambient sounds and noise, lights flicker, or NPC speech overlaps.
– A game that highlights how people of different genders, races, disabilities experience public spaces. Switch between perspectives within a populated city area during the day or maybe navigating city streets at night.
– A simulation that portrays either how certain people with privilege or influence can affect things. Or maybe its about the power of speaking out but when words are spoken certain avatars experience their words. Words expand into architecture, building bridges and pathways to move you forward and for other avatars words dissolve mid-air, echo but don’t land, build things much slower, or unstable architecture, make certain obstacles appear. - Fragment into static.
Cat Rush- Final Game Documentation
My game is similar to Pokémon, but if it were all cats. The goal is to attack other players and be the last cat standing. It is a mix of luck and skill to use powerups to your advantage and heal using the limited supply of food available. In version 2 of my game, I made the rules a lot more clear surrounding each character’s abilities and how the powerups work. Along with this, I also cut the amount of food cards in half. The first playtest showed me that I was too unclear on some aspects, such as being able to use the base attack by itself. The most helpful comments were about the food supply as well as questions surrounding some of the rules. For version 3, I would make everything into whole numbers and attempt to fix the health sliders again. Along with this, I would add different colored backs for the character and heart cards to keep them better separated from the deck.
Version 2:
Version 1 (I didn’t take photographs of it last week, so this is it set up without the old rule sheet.)
