Journal Assign2
Vision
The original vision of the project is to create a fun and smart social game of detective theme using an interactive multiplayer mode and reaching entirely new audience on Facebook. The vision hasn’t changed much during this semester. The only thing I worried about is this vision will be too ambitious to fulfill.
It is difficult to turn this vision into reality, currently my plan is to create a Gam Design Document, a few wirefames and some character design before the end of this semester. My strategy is to keep things easy at this stage and do whatever necessary to convey my original concept.
Problem
What is not working is my original idea to combine Mafia, the famous party game, with Habbo Hotel, the virtual world of social network. In other word, in Habbo Hotel, strangers can actually walk around the hotel and do whatever they want, which is not working in the same way as in a detective game. If I want to keep more narrative elements of a detective story in the game, I have to limit the freedom of users. Thus the game will have some sort of social network, users can have conversations with each other but they still need to follow the game instructions or rules.
Solutions
So what I plan to do is to build a flow chart breaking down the game structure. This chart and some graphic wirefames will be used in the user testing to find out whether users comprehend my ideas and what are their feedbacks. Another solution is to have scoring design in the game. It is helpful to separate advanced and junior game players by setting different game levels. For higher levels, players will have more freedom and control over the game; while for lower levels, players will receive more guidance in the game.