I do stuff I guess?

I'm a slave to digital games. The blog of a Malteser reading an M.Sc in Digital Games, sharing all his thoughts and rants of what he does during the course.

[kamadake]

Seeing people play a game with bugs is hillarious!

Yep, the most amusing thing I've had done through this whole project is showing the game to other people and hearing them try and attempt the game. Now these people might be swearing because I neglected in making better controls but still ended up being amusing.

Now what I'm trying to say here is that I'm taking feedback with a pinch of salt, take the critique well and that's it. It's from people playing games did I learn how to further the process of the game and how it should work. In all I had 3 prototypes and my previous blog post spoke about the 1st prototype so I'm going to talk about the other two.

In my second prototype, I had a more refined version of the game. It consisted of a veryyyy basic level that had a beginning and an end. I wanted to use this to show off the main mechanic, being the different flowers that could be used to get past obstacles which is the primary premise of the game. I showed the prototype to my Muse and to a good friend of mine who is skilled in video games. With two different people, I got two different sorts of feedback.

Muse: I watched my Muse play the game over Google Hangouts and realised that she couldn't understand how the spells work. There is a spell for example that produces a long vine that works as a ladder. I noticed her trying to build this ladder tile-by-tile when it just makes one long ladder from top to bottom. The more I saw her play, the more I realised I needed work on the interface.

Skilled Friend: With my friend it was more technical feedback, telling me how he found some spells not as useful as the others and he recommended a stage that I could work with that may show off some of the other "spells". Through his feedback, I decided to work on extending the level.

The third prototype had a better interface and a longer level. The character changed to the actual sprite I wanted to use that to me is in resemblance to my Muse, a little bit of her in the game. The flower on her hair is bigger which is easier to see that you're changing flower and the skills indicate what's being casted. This time though I did not restrict the game to a few people but this time to the public so I posted a link on my Facebook and Twitter hoping people will try the game and leave feedback online and from the time I'm writing this so far seems to be going ok.

Though the magic was when I was online on a voice chat program with 4 friends of mine who were trying the game, the moment was bliss. Hearing them finding bugs and attempting one of the stages of the level because they actually found it challenging was really satisfying to hear. One of the main feedback I'm getting is that there are people who want Keyboard and Mouse control and not just keyboard control, and I do see that working. Initially I wished I did this with a controller but not everyone would have one available so I just went with Keyboard.

I wouldn't have thought of making this game if it weren't for the Muse process so I can see the use of it. Though we wouldn't always use someone that we know so makes me wonder, how would I ask the general public for inspiration of a game? The internet is quite a dark and desolate place to look in but I guess it could also be a valuable golden pile of information just itching to be heard.

Regarding the game being made in Unity3d? I still think it's a pain to make 2D games in Unity but once I had the general code in there, it was easy to continue on adding features and I don't know how I would have achieved working on a nice light system with the light spell if it weren't for Unity for example and also the fact that I made a web build where people could try the game easily with just a web browser.

The game can be played here: http://goo.gl/QVBIlG

[kamadake]

First Show-Off of Muse Game

I'm gonna get this out off my chest, Unity is bloody hell to prototype certain games. If the game were 3D then it would have been brilliant since it has a lot of features that caters for that sort of environment but for 2D, sucks. I ended up having to code my own sort of "Physics" to get the platformer feel and be able to control things in my own comfortable way.

I wanted to go 3D in the beginning but then I had gotten this line that told me that I neglected my muse and went my own preference without consulting her:

"Given the success of your video prototype and the fact your muse liked it, should you be changing tools/aesthetics for the final game?"

That statement was clear that I shot myself in the foot. I showed her a comparison between how it might potentially look in 3D and a screen from the video prototype I made with RPG Maker. Result...she instantly went with the 2D look. I wanted to go 3D since it would have been easier to prototype in Unity and also to find assets in 3D. I chose my comfort insetad of my Muse's preferences, as if I threw away all the research I did previously.

After loads of swearing coding, I finally managed to make a base of the game that I could show to the muse. The result was positive. She liked the scenery and she liked the cute pink monster, making it definite that that is the art style that she loves. I explained to her the mechanics of the flower which is dumbed down in the prototype:

All flowers can be selected in the prototype, no picking or finding just for the sake of demonstrating what they could do (If all of them are coded in)

The targetting mechanic where you choose what gets the effect. Also having the enemies stop to aim helps with the ease of the game.

The build I have only has what water could do and she liked how magic is a dependency. With that, we discussed together what could be done for the other flowers and that was really fun. For example I wanted to associate a purple flower to Psychic abilities, so she suggested the ability of telekinesis on objects for moving around and the other is reading a monsters thoughts so you'd get a message such as: "I want to eat a sandwich" or "I will kill your entire family" (Yes, we came up with these). She tried as much as possible also matching the colours and their abilities to an Anime that she loved watching as a child which perhaps means that she wanted the ability to be those characters when in real life she cannot.

I learned like this how to continue (or potentially continue) with a clear direction thanks to my muse's feedback. Involving her in the process was essential to see how the game could go on.

Below is a video of the build I had showed her which is in very early stages but pretty happy with it (because of the insane code I had to put in for this T-T)

[kamadake]

Admitting Humility

When I was making my first Unity game which was a side-scroller shoot em up, I felt I was capable to do even better with the next game. Somehow this project managed to make me feel the exact opposite, you end up discovering your weaknesses and you try to essentially fix your methodology of making games. The reason why the last game I made went well was because it was well scoped. Here I thought I had a pretty good idea and now I feel I hit more roadblocks than I usually would. I had to force myself down many a time on pen and paper before I could proceed.

What this project also showed me was how much I am capable of doing something but then how much I might need others for something else. I can easily provide a mechanical prototype and something narrative on the side but I cannot provide something aesthetic I feel which is the main aspect I wished to focus on after the muse research sessions. I don't feel it was about lack of planning but more like an inability to provide that to her and since I know my muse very well, it makes me feel guilty that I cannot provide that to her myself unless I depend on someone else.

I need to continue pushing forward in order to improve, but I also need to improve on my humility and admit that I need other's help in order to achieve what I really want.

[kamadake]

Oppositional Creation

With this week's session of Experience Design, we talked about an Analytical Tool that our lecturer Pippin Barr introduced to us called Oppositional Play. Oppositional Play works by playing a game against the intended "values" that the game supposedly exhibits and with it, analysts are able to understand how much the game promotes that intended "value" or how important it is for that game to follow. So if I grab the San Andreas and Fable examples that Pippin used, he shows how unproductive it is to play against the original values they impose. San Andreas is based on criminality so if you play as a character who abides to the laws of the city, nothing much really happens. To perform a productive task, criminality is always involved because even to do the police missions, you have to steal a police car from somewhere. In Fable, the value it exhibits is Social Recognition and if you happen to punch someone in this town, another town on the other side of the game world will know also so he tried to play on the basis of Anonymity where he found it hard to do so. When you start as a boy, you are immediately recognised.

Now in the beginning, when I read about this first time, what came to my head was: "But if I buy San Andreas, why would I play in a way that the game is not intended?" If I bought San Andreas, then I know I'll be acting as a criminal causing mayhem and would probably be a decision factor for making the purchase in the first place. But then I didn't think like an analyst. It's about the probable in a game world and how much is that value being imposed on me as a player. There it started to become interesting because if I were to bring this up for Dungeons and Dragons Table-Top, the value perhaps is too broad to identify unlike the narrow criteria of San Andreas but I can act in anyway I wish. I could go as far to say that I create my own values and others could influence my decision. In fact it makes me think, what if I play as a Travel Merchant instead who travelled with a group of adventurers? It would change the game for me but perhaps might not be as exciting, like in the above examples.

So with the above, we had an exercise in class where as groups of 2 we had to discuss about the same potential oppositional play in our games that we're making for our muses. My partner and I somehow went in a different direction which was Oppositional Themes. My game is meant to be a relaxing and calm game and my partner said what if it was dark, unsafe and horror. A pixel-based Slender sort of... Another idea that came to mind was for example, any person or creature that the girl would have killed using skills from a specific flower, somehow their souls would be trapped in the flower. Their ghosts would be seen moving around sometimes and you can bring a list of who was killed with that flower. Everything just flipped to a gruesome theme. Even for my partner's game, his game is meant to be a relaxing game about being a diver taking photos of the beauty found under the sea. We managed to change it to a First-Person fish game where you swim as fast possible while divers are hunting you down with their harpoons.

Perhaps the above happened because of the simplicity of our games. Pippin tried this with Space Invaders and there isn't much you can do there, either kill or be killed. So our minds just opened up to what else we could think about for our games which I think ended up being pretty impressive. Get a game and think of what it is not. In fact that's why I'm looking forward to seeing what the game "This War of Mine" because it is the total opposite of games that we are usually exposed too like Call of Duty and Battlefield. So my overall comment about this Tool would be that it helps open our eyes and move us away from the usual play styles. What if there was a game like Fable but instead you do have to maintain anonymity. Definitely an interesting concept to me.

[kamadake]

Designing with others feels so much better

Today we had this group exercise where we grouped up and collaborated with each other to work on interface and mechanic ideas for the games that we're designing for our muse. This exercise made me realise how tedious it is to design a game on your own. For example I may have a monotonous mindset, always think of the same idea and end up not being able to let go of it. When you work with others, those limitations break. Discussing with each other and helping out how we could make the game feels like that we could find that initial stepping stone before starting work on the game itself.

Seriously, I really wish we had this exercise before the holidays. Doing the video prototype first before this exercise was a must since I am the one collecting information from my muse and I should have that vague idea of what my muse likes. But once that's done and you show your concept to your friends, together you can help each other to make something great. Makes me wish that this could have been a group assignment but this has to be a challenge to ourselves also. But the challenge is more about being capable to do something considering the weaknesses you have which I really hate because when I bump into a problem because I'm not competent in doing that, then it makes me feel down and you end up slouching on your chair hoping to find a solution.

Meh anyway, enough of my ranting, I'm off to sleep!

[idg5202]

Going to jump on the Vesper.5 wagon

So since everyone here started mentioning Vesper 5, I’ve decided to hop on and tell my experience of the game.

I started playing this game when we started our 2nd semester as soon as our lecturer Pippin Barr told us to start playing it beforehand since it’s a lengthly game. I found the game files, double clicked on the executable and I see some buddhist monk like figure in the middle of what seemed to be an alien space ship to me. I see these gaps right beneath me that I thought I could move to so I pressed down. The monk hovers to the direction I told him to go to and the word “tomorrow” prompts up. Seems I can’t make a move until the next day…

A couple of days pass since I started. Each day seeing my monk move from the initial starting point and traverses through the moves I told the game in the prior days. I did not make a move everyday because Vesper 5 wasn’t always on my mind, I wasn’t pulled in with curiousity at all. Anyway, I reached the gap that I mentioned anddddddddddddddddd it’s a wall. I wasted all those moves to just bump into a wall *sigh*. What made me swear inside is the fact that I had to stay seeing this initial reptitive process and I’ve just made it longer by moving there.

Go back up and enter the corridor on my right and I finally start seeing the camera moving, about time! I notice this sort of plant-like figure in a gap and I start to approach it. And before reaching this plant, I did a reinstallation of my Windows installation and lost my progress, huurah -_-! I forgot to backup the save file (Just goes to show how important this game felt to me).

After my initial reaction I wasn’t keen on starting over again so I went onto youtube and found a playthrough of Vesper 5. I was shocked to see the video title: “Vesper.5 - 169 Days in A Minute and A Half ”. What??? Vesper 5 lasts that long? I fired the video and started to see what Vesper 5 really gave. At the end of the video, I was left with this massive question mark on top of my head. I just couldn’t really see the point of this. Now probably I ruined the entire experience witnessing someone else playing the game. This felt more like a simulated ritual which to me did not make sense.

Probably I’m just spoiled by all the games I’ve played since I was young or maybe I don’t have any sort of appreciation for art, donno. Though I’m looking forward to see what others have to say about this game.

Hopefully this weekend, I’ll post my thoughts about: “How to speak Atlantean”. My overall reaction so far: WTF did I just read? I need LSD.

[kamadake]

Overview of the Cultural Probe

It's been a while since I wrote something about my muse. I need to slap myself and get back on my feet with this blog for sure. Before I talk about the cultural probe, I just want to talk a bit about the digital prototype.

I've already saw a change from what I showed to the class compared to what I started now. The main change being that the game from a 2d game with a pixel look has now changed to 3D. I still want to maintain a certain style of aesthetics but the reason of my change is really due to my lack of producing content. I'm at this roadblock of, I'm a programmer, I really want to do this but in reality I cannot becuase in terms of art or any sort of graphics, I'm an idiot. I can easily code a function where something happens, but to make it look nice...nopeeeeeeee. So currently that's what's holding me back and I'll be taking advice that I got from someone I know on Facebook and that is to work with greyboxes first. In the end, it's a digital prototype, not a full game. I'll keep looking at what content I can grab but for now I should just code how the game works. I've wasted too much time already looking around the web trying to find what I can do.

Now back to the cultural probe. Using pinterest was definitely great because it was pretty straight forward to use. As a reminder, I gave my muse a PDF that I made personally for her and that she loved the look.

I had assigned to her 4 tasks that we should together which were:

Dream Journal - Write about what was dreamt

Nice & Ugly Photos - Take photos of things that you like and do not like

Feeling after Episode - Write down adjectives of how you feel after watching an episode

Escape Sketch - Draw something that you'd like to escape to after a long day

The results though weren't powerful but still were of use. The problem was that the last 2 weren't done and then ended up being an on and off moment because unfortunately my muse was very busy with her thesis which I can really understand. Dreams ended up being negative which goes to show how badly the thesis affected her, but one of the good dreams she had which she liked was one involving snow so here, her appreciation to beauty or aesthetics cropped up. The photos were the ones we kept going with the most and proved to be interesting. We stayed putting up things that we liked and then the other can show that they liked the photo and can also comment about it. For others working on Digital Cultural Probe's, Pinterest is great for pinning photos to a location on a map so if someone wanted to do an exercise about putting a photo based on a specific country or location then with Pinterest it's possible.

Pinterest is definitely great to work with but unfortunately due to other circumstances, we couldn't enjoy the cultural probe as much as I hoped. Hopefully the game that I end up working on will cheer her up!

[kamadake]

Just something extra from my head

This is something that's in my head that I'm starting to experience I just want to get it out. I've been in talks with a friend of mine that I haven't spoken to in such a long time (which is great!) and we started showing each other some of the stuff that we've done so far in our new courses.

With this exchange going on, I started to realise how much we need to be prepared for criticism. In the unit IDG5202, we've been analysing other games but in my mind I started thinking, what will happen when people start to criticise us? It's kind of a scary experience in my head because I know the wild people that exist in the deep reaches of the internet but f*** it. If I want to participate in this sort of thing, I have to be ready for this. To do that, I'm just going to throw a video of the first digital game I've done so far in this course which was for the Game Engines unit we had in the previous semester.

The reason I brought up the issue of criticism is because when I'm making the game for my muse, she's going to tell me what she likes and doesn't like about the game. Those will be facts that I have to accept and use that feedback in order to get better. We're designing for player experience, but designing in itself is an experience for us.

[kamadake]

The Video Prototype

And after much stuff and things and more things to do, we've finally arrived to the video prototype. After all these sessions that I've had with my wonderful girlfriend and then talking to her casually about what she might like, I ended up coming up with a game about a girl who was born from a flower who can cast magic from specific flowers and their colours. The idea of a flower girl is mainly my muse's but I guess together we'll be building this up and see what our protagonist is able to do.

Today was actually fun, everyone has something different in mind and everyone discovered something new about their muse, even though they knew the person for so long, the same for me with mine. My muse never told me in the past that she played Doremi or a mobile game of the Powerpuff Girls. She never told me about her fantasies of escaping into a world of magic which is what the game's focus is meant to be. I think we can agree that one way or another we've gotten somewhat closer with our muse just by knowing new stuff about them.

Anyway without further ado, I present to you the basic concept of Magical Flower.

[idg5202]

Games are great storytellers

"If designers had truly fascinating stories to tell, they would write novels and film scripts rather than games" - Ryan, Marie-Laurie.  Avatars of Story, Chapter 8 (181-204)

Says who might I ask? 

I agree that there exist different kinds of narratives such as the normal text of novels, the mimetic actions of drama and interactivity of games but that above quote is something that got me somehow furious.

Now as some of my colleagues already covered here there are digital games that have crappy ways of portraying a story and the ones that I liked here are Diablo 3 and Titanfall. Diablo 3 has a fantastic lore but the way that it is “narrated” is horrible and is hidden by the killing and looting players would prefer doing. Titanfall’s campaign? That is a terrible attempt of a story. It manipulates the incredible multiplayer gameplay it offers and tries to add a little story with it but with all the commotion going on, you don’t even care about the story. The only time you try to hear about the story is through the timer that you’re forced in for waiting before going into a game.

From what I’ve read, based on narrative being about the past, Final Fantasy 13 could be said to be both a game and a narrative. Why? Through its bad methods of telling the player what’s happening around her. All of a sudden you take on the role of Lightning and they started mentioning this fal’cie they want to kill and about this place called Gran Pulse. Explain to me what they are please Square Enix? If you want to know what they are, read the tons of lore the game has in the sort of encyclopaedia it has in its menu. You’ll spend more time reading than doing the game’s “tutorial”…and that’s saying something.

But games with great narrative methods? Off course! For me there’s Telltale’s “The Walking Dead” and Full Bright Company’s “Gone Home”. So The Walking Dead is popular from the TV Series and Comic that were released before already but the way the game has this set story already and is then modified by you really makes it incredible. It’s a simple point-and-click adventure game but the conversations that you have with the characters and what happens around you makes a good story. This goes with the deep, rich characters theory to have a good narrative but then there’s Gone Home. Gone Home has characters but you don’t interact with them, you interact with the items associated with them. So you have all these pieces of a story which you need to put together yourself mentally in order to build that story you’re looking for.

One line that I totally agree with from what I read: “…they can be machines for generating stories”. Go look at the wiki of Gone Home, the plot is literally what you do in the game but is written perfectly as a story. So what you do in a game is another potential story. Back to Diablo 3, it’s true the lore isn’t explained properly due to the fantastic gameplay it has (much biased opinion…wow), but the stories of your actions that you end up telling others aren’t. To me, games have more narrative potential than novels but I’m a guy who’s not really a fan of books.

[idg5202]

Since Sony announced Project Morpheus (more than) a week ago, I’ve been dragged into some serious VR discussions. My friends were curious to hear some anecdote from my brief Oculus experience, and I was curious to hear their perspective (as gamers) on the topic; long story short, we agreed that such a technology could find many applications in entertainment, but mainly on cinema, social networking, and (seriously speaking) pornography too.

Then earlier today I learned that Facebook acquired Oculus Rift, and I’ve seen reactions that go from “Meh” to “What’s wrong in this world OMG please report Zuckenberg!” – most of the people is confused, or skeptical, and someone even sees Microsoft behind all this.

Honestly I think that it is irrelevant who decided to buy it, but is interesting to understand why. In my opinion Facebook made a smooth move for both social media perspectives, and future expansion on other fields (such as home entertaining, for example).

tl;dr - brace yourselves, stereoscopical Candy Crush invitations are coming.

[kamadake]

I had to put this in my blog space since I'm basically spamming but I had to...

Oh my god at Candy Crush VR, best game ever. Who needs Diablo?

[kamadake]

How can I observe someone who's so far away?

It's been a while since I've posted about this! Which is a shame because it's quite the challenge to talk about. Unfortunately it hasn't been easy to work this project since my muse is going through a hard-time with her thesis and I really feel bad about using some of her time. So first of all I'd like to say how grateful I am to her for sparing some of her time to work with me when she's got a deadline two weeks from now.

So as the title says, my challenge is observing someone who's not near you. I've seen a lot of posts saying that they made their muse play this game and they saw how that person played and took note. In my case, that's impossible since my muse is in England and I'm here in Malta. I took this exercise more as a "How To" rather than about the data I could gather because there's so much emphasis about muse-related design when the person is in the same location that I don't think I've seen much effort about someone who's far away. Now it could be I'm wrong and Dr. Rilla Khaled could simply punch me in the face the next time she sees me but that's the impression I'm getting.

Anyway, I decided to pick a game that's not heavy for my muse since she also has to work in a hospital for 8 hours and after much consideration, the winner was:

The playthroughs wereseparated into two parts since there's so much you can do in the game. The first part was just about explaining the mechanics and controls of the game to my muse. She did quite well in this playthrough because she got the hang of harvesting resources quickly and also helping out with building the house. The other major challenge for her was the constant dying we went through because we just couldn't avoid being massacred by the constant barrage of Zombies, Creepers and Spiders. Afterwards I gave her a quick interview related to the game and see what she thought about the game which I'll explain another time.

In this session I took the video by having my screen as the primary and then putting her face on the bottom right. The result was just me playing and her eating late-night pasta. I was thinking about maybe I'd see her expression whilst playing but that didn't really work out. A screenshot of the video can be found below but her face has been blurred out.

The second playthrough which occurred yesterday was about mining and further harvesting. I was hoping we'd come across a dungeon but we still weren't settled with resources. In this session what was interesting was how her preference to aesthetics emerged. For example I told her we should make the house stone because it's stronger to have, but she's like no she doesn't want that because it would look plain, boring and cold. Another moment was making a small field with water so that we could grow some crops. While working on the plot she's like: "Ahh, it's like a swimming poll" or "I want to have a garden over here". So the dynamics that Minecraft started to get to her which is great.

Here I decided to record what she's seeing within the game rather than her face. This helped a lot for when I had to explain to her certain stuff and also make sure that we're on the same page when I explain to her.

With something like this when you can't be near your muse, the best option would be to do these recordings but don't look back to them for annotation. Do your notes while you are playing. If you want to refresh your memory about a certain point in the game, then look back at the videos. The videos are valuable since you don't remember everything, but I don't think you can use them for data gathering after the observation.

Now some people might say, this is an observation but you were playing also. True, but she's far away and I don't want to make her feel like a guinea pig so we're in this together. Same as the cultural probe where I'm posting photos too, not just her, but that I'll talk about it soon since I need some other photos up on our Pinterest board.

[idg5202]

[idg5202]

This is a great place to bring up an argument I had once with Jean-Luc about diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in video games. Last time we were seeing someone playing Outlast and there is a scene where you open a door a human carcass appears in front of you. Now such a visual scene is horrifying on its own already but they had to add a high-pitch ambient sound that amplified the fear of the scene. Was that sound necessary? We don’t know what the designers’ intentions were but that sound did make the scene worse.

[thefragmagnet]

Stop copying me.

PS: If you’re reading this, Pippin, I swear to god we wrote our comments at the same time, without discussing it beforehand.

[kamadake]

I'm sorry too Pippin!

[thefragmagnet]

[kamadake]

The pressure is intense but you’re definitely not going to make a perfect game in such a short time but as a brainstorming session it really works well.

[thefragmagnet]

I never said that we should always strive for perfection; only that we should at least be able to work on something properly as a group. There are times when I have felt communication break down to the extent where different games are being developed by individual people in the same team.

Lack of communication is what I have issues with. It can happen even when you have the simplest idea, and all the time in the world, and it is extremely hazardous.

I honestly think that is a fact, but on a more personal level, being misunderstood and/or confused are easily two of the most irritating things to me. And you know me well enough—that’s saying something.

[kamadake]

Yeah on that basis I know what you mean, sorry about the misunderstanding. I have already been in that similar situation regardless of time pressure where you come up with a rule for example and all of a sudden there is like 3 different mindsets of that rule. With the time pressure we had then doesn't really help clarify whether everyone is on the same page or not but you just keep pushing on till the time limit.

[thefragmagnet]

Wherein Pressure can Make Diamonds, or Explosions.

Developing under pressure, in the form of intense time constraints, is increasingly becoming one of my preferred ways of developing games or, at the very least, developing game concepts.

While I might sing its praises, it unfortunately has some drawbacks which, as an unfettered perfectionist—and I don’t mean that as a good thing—play to many of my weaknesses.

Basically, the long and short of what I’ve learned through experience is the value of measured moderation. While the factor of time constraints helps force you to focus your efforts on what really matters in your design process, there is a limit to how much value this process can provide before it begins to subtract it.

As I’ve said, focusing on the essentials is beneficial, usually; what I find is far more important, though, is having the time to communicate.

Designing a game as a group, when you don’t even have time to communicate your ideas clearly enough, is exactly the same as trying to navigate a race through an unfamiliar town—while you’re all using different maps. You might coincidentally manage to synch up with your planned routes, but the chances are that you will agree on entirely different things altogether; especially if you have differing ideas on how the game should progress.

Always keeping focused on your important goals is indeed valuable; but for the sake of your work, you should never do so at the expense of communication and clarification.

[kamadake]

The pressure is intense but you're definitely not going to make a perfect game in such a short time but as a brainstorming session it really works well. I don't know, that time pressure triggers an effect in my head to be more efficient or think better. In that exercise we came up another game that we thought of was a sort of "Pirate Achievement Hunter" game, where pirates would have to do objectives in the Caribbean to become the most notorious pirate. But we couldn't come with something functioning in the short period available so for actually constructing something I agree it's tough but for brainstorming I think it helps.

I liked our Wolf game idea and I also liked your groups narrative game but we're not going to make perfect games in an hour or two but I'm sure afterwards they could be polished to be some great games.

- William 

[kamadake]

Cultural Probe Part 1

And the Cultural Probe is under preparation!

So the cultural probe is a technique used "to inspire ideas in a design process. It serves as a means of gathering inspirational data about people's lives, values and thoughts." (Wikipedia) These probes come in a nicely presented package and given to the people participating in the thought process. In theory this sounds great for trying to make a game that my muse should like since I get to see things in her point of view.

My problem was, I can't give a physical package to my muse due to our distance problem. Most of my colleagues are making these great packages and presented in person where I couldn't do so. My only resort was a digital cultural probe. I had some ideas in mind and did a bit of research on this but I asked Dr. Rilla Khaled for some suggestions and if she'd ever seen digital probes before and in fact she has. With her the idea of Pinterest came up as the repository between my muse and I which is great because we don't have to have a definite blog account like when you register on Tumblr on Wordpress. So between my muse and I we'll have shared a private board where we can post pictures and comment on what we put up. We'll have a set of tasks to work on which I will state what they are in a later blog post once the cultural probe is over. Most of the tasks though involve photos and drawing so a lot will be done through mobile upload probably.

Another of my usual worrying is asking her to participate in this exercise, I had to find a way to ask her to help without being so "experimental" and be more social...be how I would be with my girlfriend hence continuing my "natural flow" which I stated already in a previous post. Dr. Rilla Khaled told me that I should participate in the exercises also which is great, like that my muse won't feel like it's only her but it's a team effort, which in the end is what it should be.

I know what my some of my muse's tastes are so I had an advantage and I went on to make an invitation designed with the look that would catch her eye. After some hammering on Illustrator, I came up with the below theme. I prepared a PDF with this design and instructions for the cultural probe.

Her reaction? From a tired face at 12am after a stressful day, changed to the most beautiful smile a guy could ever receive from a girl. I admit this sounds mushy but this response for me was totally unexpected. I explained to her what we'll be doing and what she needs to have for the exercise like a notepad and an account on Pinterest. Once that's sorted, we'll get down to doing this over a week period. I'm really looking forward to see what we can come up with and I'm curious to see how the results will help with the idea process for our game.

[kamadake]

MineCraft Observation

So last night I did some game observation together with my muse. I wanted to introduce something that is not heavy but yet very creative gameplay wise. The choice I had in mind was Minecraft, the popular sandbox game by Mojang.

At first I was weary about going through this game with her but that’s my usual nervous reaction to everything and her initial reaction was received quite well actually. I gave her a run through of how to use her character and how to harvest some resources which is the primary scope of the game. After that we went to do our first task, find a good spot to build a house. Though that had a small interruption when the attraction to cute cows took over her senses.

We spotted a forest and water near its trees so we decided to try and settle there. Emphasis on TRY since we were getting massacred by the zombies and spiders of the game since we didn’t build a house immediately on the first day. Here I started to get pretty worried about my muse’s experience since it was becoming tough to survive but she didn’t complain so we pressed on. 

At the end of the session we finally managed to get the house done when we gathered enough wood to build the place. Here I also showed her some of the objects that you can craft such as chests, signs and torches. I told her that people playing the game are frequently referring to the wiki but some of the common items you’ll learn by heart.

Once that session was done, I wanted her to tell me her experience (retrospective think-aloud) and her comments were surprising. She found the game relaxing but she wouldn’t play this game on her own. She enjoyed the killing and the animal environment that the outskirts have.

Since there is more to do in Minecraft I plan to hold another session of this game. In the mean time I’m also working on the design of the digital cultural probe that my muse and I will be participating in.

The whole session was recorded on video using Open Broadcaster Software. I used that program because it helped with merging my muse's video conversation and the gameplay video together whilst recording. Though I agreed with my muse that I'd only show the video to my lecturers.

- William