#tech up

[beyondthepunchlines]

Is The Gaming Industry A Blooming Career Opportunity?

Is The Gaming Industry A Blooming Career Opportunity?

Gaming is not simply perceived as a pastime anymore, but it is increasingly being seen as a career choice and is becoming a part of greater cultural conversations about treating stress, skill development, and social connections. People are embracing gaming in new ways. It is not simply constrained as a pastime anymore, as it is increasingly being viewed as a career choice as the gaming business…

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[gradschoolperspectives]

Use graduate school to tech up. You’ll have time to learn how save the world later, when you’re actually in it. Learn all of the theoretical, statistical and other difficult-to-acquire skills you can while in grad school, because you won’t have the time later on. You, your cause, and your job prospects will be well-served by the technical skills you build.

How to Get a Ph.D. and Save The World

[gcharlesrogers-blog]

Kumar Pallana's Life Lessons

[jtgamedesign-blog]

http://littlealchemy.com/

This browser-based puzzle game inspired the “Tech Up” concept.  It represents the fundamental idea of combining resources together to get new resources.  For example:

Water + Earth = Mud

Mud + Fire = Brick

The problem with this game is that certain combinations aren’t realistic.

E.g. Brick + Brick = House (A house made out of two bricks…?)

The idea behind Tech Up is to make combining items realistic (a house made out of 500 bricks), and separate the combinations into tiers in the form of a tech tree.

[jtgamedesign-blog]

Concept 3: Tech Up

This concept focuses on progression through a “Tech Tree” – similar to those found in strategy games.  Jordie explained that the idea was to combine resources together to progress from the Stone Age to the Space Age.  Another game designer – Corey – is also interested in this project.  Together we will be taking the feedback from Jordie’s presentation and using it to refine his concept for another presentation next week.

[jtgamedesign-blog]

Week 2 Summary & Feedback

After pitching my developed idea for Reverse Engineering, I got mixed feedback from a panel of senior game designers.  Although my underlying concept (taking something away from the player) gained approval, it appears the game I created around it needs re-thinking.  The panel is not convinced RE’s gameplay is engaging, and the outcome of choices would be too random.  As I was already aware, they noted that this game needs to be driven by a strong narrative, while refining player interaction and resolving issues with ambiguous stats (vitality, sanity, faith).

At the end of the week, I noticed another idea pitched by a friend of mine – Jordie – which focused on player progression through a tech tree.  I intend to find out more about his concept and help him develop ideas in place of my own.