Weather the Weather in Action

Video Footage from Imagine RIT, and RIT Spring Fest. Edited by Dan.

1. Is if fun to play?

2. Is there a reward at the end of the game or along the way?

3. Is the game a challenge to play? Is there a learning curve that allows you to get better each time you play?

4. Is the game non-frustrating?

5. Does the game have immediate repeat play value and long-term repeat play value?

6. (Optional) Is there something “magical” about the game? Usually, in a board game, that would involve color-changing ink, magnets, clever use of electronics, 3-D viewers, etc.

When I evaluated games at Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers from inventors and from inside game designers, only games that had all of the first five attributes would be considered for the line. Sometimes skill-and-action games could get away with just four of the five because they were more ‘toys with rules’ than real games.

This week the designers have been working on wireframes for this game. It was refreshing to see that we were all pretty much on the same page.

Andrea:

Linzi:

Andy:

Ira:

Most of our brainstorming to date has revolved around trying to figure out how to create an entertaining game for the user. At our last meeting with Adam we determined that our goal was to make an entertaining game that is FLAWLESS – hence last week’s mutilation of our idea, and the process of regathering and rebuilding that we’re involved in now.

All our research and conversations with Adam seem to have led us to one basic idea – the best way to create a new game is to use an old, familiar, and already knownt to be fun one as a base. Something as simple as hot potato or breakout can be used as a jumping off point, dressed, added to, changed, etc, to create something seemingly new and exciting. Adam describes the process in 3 levels:

1. Skin the game - dressing an old and familiar game in nice graphics so well that the user doesn’t necessarily see past the skin of the game to the very basic and familiar concept, i.e. hot potato, breakout, etc. In something like breakout, which usually involves a ball that breaks blocks, this could mean that instead of a ball it is a small creature being launched at a collection of stuff that it has to gather while it is up there, etc. Same basic principle – different skin.
2. Advanced Game Play – this one means skinning the game, then taking the basic gameplay and changing it a little to add a new element. Taking the example of hot potato, may be instead of just tossing the object around, every time you throw it you have to rotate it a certain way to make it fit through a certain shape in the middle of the screen on its way to the other person. Adding this elements fundamentally changes the game and adds challenge, but the basic idea is the same – catch and throw, and don’t hold on to stuff or it will burn or otherwise deface you.
3. Deeper Meaning – this is the third and final level of the game design process. Not every game needs to be tied to some universal problem or cause to be fun and entertaining, but there are some out there that actually work really well for raising awareness of global issues. Weaving in a deeper meaning like that into the game allows players to make better connections with the game play and to care about the outcome of the game

We went through and identified some elements pertaining to each level of depth:

Then we identified some elements particularly applicable to our game:

And created a flowchart of the game play we outline in our conversation:

We knew we had to simplify whatever game we do to its bare essentials, but the more we thought about breaking the Human Machine game down, the more it seemed, well, too simple. After another long brainstorming session we decided that instead of doing one large game or one small simple game, we could do a game that is made up of many mini games.

There are several advantages to the mini game option. First of all, whatever game we do will need to be able to support a lot of people going through it quickly. We want to allow as many people as possible to play the game and have access to the exhibit, so that nobody has to wait for a long time for one round to finish in order to jump in. This means that the rounds will need to be very quick – a minute tops. Otherwise the wait period may become too long and people will wander away before getting a chance to try the game. Having a series of very short mini games will allow us to push large quantities of people through the exhibit at a fairly quick rate, while keeping the games interesting and the players fresh and new.

The other advantage to this solution is that the games will need to be super super simple, based upon a universally well-known concept, and therefore intuitive and well tested in their quality of fun. Our list of basic games to take as the basis of our interpretations went a little something like this:

• The Human Machine (make stuff out of body parts)
• Tetherball
• Pick & Throw @ Target
• Hot Potato
• Fit Into This (fit into certain shape with body)
• Falling Objects (catching game)
• Simon Says
• Don’t Break the Ice
• Rope Pull
• Digging (dig something out)
• Don’t Wake Daddy
• Whack-a-Mole

From there, we each came up with 2 detailed games based on these simple concepts and the following criteria:

Important things that ALL games should have: – group/team interaction (working together to complete a task) there can be versus games, but in those games, the game itself should show a sense of communal “good deed” – good use of 3D space (being able to move forward and back, side to side, using your whole body) – problem solving – around 30 secs to a minute long (minute long games for memorization or taking turns games) – be witty, have a sense of humor, the graphics are as enjoyable as the action of playing the game (it can still be beautiful, Little Big Planet does an excellent job of blending “sense of humor” and “beauty,” Wario Ware makes excellent use of the mini game concept)

The games we came up with were these:

1. Human Machine

Story: The machine has broken and you must fix the circuitry by using your
team of nano robots.

Players: 2 or 4

Objective: Two teams try and connect their start and end point before the
other.

Style 1: Twister / Tuba-Ruba Flow Style

Players are divided into two separate, equal teams. When the game starts,
two different pairs of colored points are placed on the game playing field.
Each team has 2 colors to signify their start and end points. The players
must position themselves in such a way as to define the path the electricity
will take using glow sticks or the like. When the electricity beam begins to
flow the players must adjust their path to avoid obstacles and the other
teams path.

Style 2: Block / Break style

Players are divided into two separate, equal teams. When the game starts,
two different pairs of colored points are placed on the game playing field.
Each team has 2 colors to signify their start and end points. A countdown
timer will count down from 3 and at 0 the players begin game play. The
players must position themselves in such a way as to define the path the
electricity will take using glow sticks or the like . The countdown repeats
until a circuit is connected in a turn based style. Players can block the
others path like in snake, you cannot cut into a path. There would be
barriers, bombs, dead spaces and other obstacles to avoid.

2. Electric Team Tetherball

Players: 2 or 4

Objective: Wind the electric rope attached to the electric ball completely
around the electric pole

Players are divided into two equal opposing teams. The setup is each team is
in front of a display that shows an avatar representation of each players
position around a tetherball pole. The players will have glowsticks to track
their arm movements. The two teams stand on opposite sides of the pole. Each
team tries to hit the ball one way; one clockwise, and one counterclockwise.
The game ends when one team manages to wind the ball all the way around the
pole so that it is stopped by the rope. One player can hit the ball around,
but if a player manages to hit it in such a way that their teammate can hit
it as well then the ball will achieve Super Shot Status and thusly have to
be countered by both teammates or it will keep swinging in favor of the
other team.

3. Team Pong

Players: 2 – 4

Objective: Score 5 points against the opposing team by hitting the ball into
their play area

Players are divided into two equal opposing teams. Their glow sticks help
define their paddles. Players can bounce the ball against their teammate up
to 3 hits per side before returning but never against themselves.

4. Don’t Hatch the Egg!

Game round fades in from black with one of the players holding a spotted creature egg that was supposedly given to them by a lazy creature mama. The egg vibrates and shakes every once in a while, threatening to hatch at any time.

The players are instructed that they must pass the egg from one to the other by throwing it, because it is about to hatch. When it hatches, the little newborns will decide that whoever was holding the egg at the time of its hatching is their rightful mother, and will attach to that player, slowing down his or her movements through the game and putting them at a disadvantage.

There are multiple rounds to the game, which end when one player reaches a chain of 3 hatchlings attached to him or her.

The egg cannot be dropped – if it is, the creature mama will come and wreak havoc on the players, taking away a life. The reward in this game could be an extra life for the team, or a specific object/skill that could help the team in the game.

Game Play:

Users must work together to not drop the egg, and against each other not to have it hatch in their hands.

They can utilize 3D space to run around in and be of a certain proportion to the size of the egg to determine whether they are close enough to it in Z-space to successfully catch it. The catching motion will be recognized by folding the hands together a certain way to mimic catching – just contact with the silhouette is not enough and will cause the egg to slide down the side of the body and break.

5. Nom Nom Nom

Game round fades in from black and the players find themselves in a field of strange looking edible things, and strange looking poisonous things. The aim of the game is to pick up the yummy things and throw them to you partner to collect or “eat”.

The game can be played two ways.

1:
One player is the designated picker, the other the designated catcher. The picker must pick up only the edible objects and thrown them to their partner to put into their basket and have for later – depending on the amount of yummy things collected at the end of the game the players may or may not get another life or advance in the game (versus starving). If the picker throws non edible items and catcher catches them, points are subtracted, and/or the catcher become momentarily poisoned or otherwise affected, slowing down the game.

2:
Both players can pick up objects and take turns throwing them to each other to “eat”. Same deal – if someone eats a non-edible object they get sick, affected, or die, ending the game. The game is timed to speed is a factor, and the aim is to get as much as possible yummy food in the time allotted.