PROJECT DESCRIPTION

For this project my group made an analogue game called “The Liar’s Grid”. It is, in essence, a combination of two games: the board game Snakes and Ladders and the card game Bullshit. We take some elements from each game, “disrupt” the two games by bringing them together and making a whole new game out of it! The basic gameplay is similar to that of Snakes and Ladders, each player’s gets a certain number each turn that they have to move forward by in the grid. If they land on a square with a snake head, they slide down to the box where the snake’s tail ends. If they land on a box with a ladder starting, they climb up to the box where the ladder ends. The first player to reach the last box in the grid wins the game. The twist here is that instead of rolling a dice, the players use cards with a number on them. They start off with a random card given out by the game master and move on by picking up the card on their square from the second round onwards. Nobody else knows what the player’s card says. The catch is that the player can either choose to follow this number or not. The other players can call out the player if they think that they lied. If the call is correct, the player who lied moves back in the grid. If the call was wrong, the player who made the call moves back in the grid. To add another incentive for the player’s to lie, we added the rule that if you land on a box where another player was already present, you go back to the first square in the grid.

 

PROCESS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

There were several changes that were made to our game. We started off by using the game of Snakes and Ladders with a huge grid on the floor. The pieces will be replaced by the player’s themselves. They will be picking out cards that are not placed inside the grid to see the number that they have to move ahead and every other player could see this number. In addition to numbers, the cards would also include action cards like skip a turn, reverse direction, etc. to add the dimension of disruption to the traditional game of snake’s and Ladders. However, after playtesting this version, there were several problems. The game was very boring for the player’s since their only job was to pick up cards and move around a grid- they were not actively involved in the process of the game. Also it was very confusing to pick cards that were outside the grid which was a huge problem as well as it took away from the experience that we were wanting to create through the game.

 

After this playtesting session, we decided to change the game to the version that it is now. To solve the card picking problem, we added the cards to the grid. Doing so gave us the option of making the cards not visible to the other players which allowed us to include the other elements of the game which allowed every player to be actively involved in the game. If it is your turn, you think about whether you should lie or not to get to the final square and if it isn’t your turn, you think about whether the other person had a good chance of lying or not. Also, you can keep track of the numbers on each square that you’ve been on which will make it easier for you to catch someone who bluffed using that specific card.

 

These changes really improved our game. Some minor changes were pointed out such as increasing the grid size, adding some more snake’s for more incentive to cheat etc. that have now been incorporated into the game.

 

REFLECTION/EVALUATION

During the final playtesting session and at the showcase, I believe that the game sessions proved that our expectations were met. Every single.player was able to understand the game and everyone was fully engaged in the game. They did not see it as a game of Snake’s and Ladders. They saw it as a completely new game which was the intention- using a traditional game and disrupting it to create a new game. Therefore, I believe that thanks to the playtesting sessions in class, our game improved a lot and the end product was extremely good.

 

GAME AS MEANINGFUL PLAY

Through this game, we were trying to create an experience that would push people to decide whether they want to follow the honest or dishonest path to win the game or not. Even though lying did not guarantee a win, it did improve the chances of winning which was a huge incentive. We also named the game The Liar’s Grid which would prompt people to lie in the game from the very beginning itself. Also, we wanted to see how people would react to a completely different version of a very traditional and well known game. It was interesting to see that none of the player’s were uncomfortable following these new rules. Rather, they enjoyed it and appreciated the more interactive and engaging elements that had been added to the game.

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Our interpretation of the theme was twofold. I had the idea for the project much before we came up with the theme and was resourceful enough to get the class to pick the theme I wanted because it fit so perfectly. The theme was “disruption”. Our first understanding of disruption was disrupting between the physical and digital world. This was done by creating the cheat  codes, and hand-writing them on a book. The game experience was then designed around a child’s game room, which for us was very nostalgic as it took us back to our childhood’s where we’d maintain a book of our own games and cheat codes. The second part of disruption comes with the the powers that the cheat codes give you. Cheating here is the disruption. I understand it as disrupting from the norm, i.e, the norm that humans cannot fly, cannot jump higher than themselves, etc. We also wanted to use the cheat codes to create some interesting results. We decided to keep a “sin-counter”, which would be the threshold to decide whether you would be “worthy” of the treasure.

The game came through the wonders of physics in Unity. The initial idea was to create a series of puzzle games in a dungeon, but we realised soon that it just wouldn’t be possible in the time that we had. After much discussion we finally decided to make different worlds, which eventually turned into “trials”. Hatim and I decided to work on different trials and linking them with some sort of portal later on. We used an Asset called Ultimate Fantasy Creator which had some beautiful prefabs of caves, rocks, and crystals. The environment was really shaped by the quality of our assets such as this one. The main character was taken from 3rd Person Controller + Fly mode. The character came with inbuilt scripts for movement, flight, running, etc. that provided really great game mechanics. Additionally, the character was unbiased in terms of gender, expression and color, which both of us appreciated. For the second level, Hatim sourced some cloud models from Super Mario Galaxy 2. The music was mostly from different versions of Zelda games, except for the cheat code music, which corresponded to the cheat itself (superMario64 = super mario 64 music, sonicTheHedgeHog = sonic music).

An important element of the game itself was the experience that we attempted to create around it. Since most of the experience that we aimed to create was an extrapolation of our nostalgic experiences of childhood gaming, we decided to invent a kid, named “Dev” (he’s Indian, according to Hatim). Next, we had to create the kid’s notebook where he’d write down his cheat codes of the games he played. The user would be able to use this kid’s notebook to find out about the possible cheat codes to enter in the game. The next, and probably the most important aspect of the experience was actually being able to recreate a “game corner” – a kid’s desk with a computer, and some other “kid stuff”.

The level designs took a while to create since it was a lot of work to put together so many assets to get exactly what we were going for, and the result, in my opinion was worth the effort we put in. Our playtesting sessions in the IM final showcase were great. Most people gave us great feedback. It was agonizing to watch some players struggle to jump around without even realizing that there are cheat codes right beside them, but most players eventually either found them, or gave up without being able to finish. No one was able to complete both trials without cheating at least once. Later in the night, my roommate tried (for quite a while) and failed to complete both trials without the cheat codes. A lot of player didn’t notice the book of cheat codes, even after looking around the desk and appreciating the ambience. It’s possible that we over-decorated and the book didn’t stand out as much.

Overall, our game experience was really disruptive. We were lucky enough to get a corner in the IM showcase behind a curtain. A child’s game room in the middle of the show where players played a game with disruptive realities while being disrupted from the digital game to interact with the space was a pretty disruptive experience (I hope I didn’t disrupt the rules of english grammar with that long sentence). Each user had an option of various paths to take and cheats to try which created a unique experience for them. I was especially impressed by the creativity of some users in how they managed to finish some level with some combinations of cheats that I’d never considered while making these designs, and that for me was one of the biggest wins. Some users did get bummed out by how annoyingly hard it was, but everyone appreciated the graphics and the setup.

LINKS:

Download the game (unity files and executable)

Github Repo

Playtesting – 1, 2

The Liar’s Grid is an analog game that incorporates aspects of other traditional games – Snakes and Ladders and Bluff. This game is played with a minimum of 2 players and a maximum if 4. The set up of the game includes a 6×6 numbered grid that has both snakes and ladders on certain squares of the grid .When a player lands on a grid with the head of a snake in it, the player has to move down to the square that has the tail of the snake in it. For the ladders, when a player lands on a box with the bottom of the ladder in it, the player moves to the square with the top of the ladder in it. The game also has cards randomly placed on each square of the grid. There is no card on the first and last squares of the grid. The sole objective of the game is for a player to get to the 36th square before another player does.

The way the game is played is that, before the players get onto the grid, each of them is given a starting card. The cards are numbered 1 – 6, indicating the number of steps to take. Subsequently, players pick up cards from each square on the grid they land on and that dictates how many steps they are required to move, However, players are allowed secretly to move fewer or more steps than the card displays in order to move faster, to avoid snakes or to reach ladders. After each move by a player, other players have the opportunity to challenge the other player’s movement to ascertain whether he/she was being honest and moving the number of steps on the card or was dishonest and moved a wrong number of steps. Should a player be found as being dishonest on a turn, he/she moves back the number of steps he/she was required to take. On the other hand, should a player be challenged whereas he/she was honest, the challenger moves back the number of steps that the card displays.

After a series of playtesting, a few modifications were made to the game.  My team and I decided to place at least one snake and/or one ladder on each row of the grid in order to increase players’ incentives to cheat and by so doing, other players are more likely to challenge and thus making the game more fun and competitive. Also, we included a rule that stated that should any 2 players be in the same square, the second player to arrive in the square has to restart the game from the first square, This rule also increased the probability of cheating as well us prevented the game from becoming clumsy in the sense that each player could comfortably stand in a square and feel free.

 

The game was intended to reflect on the concepts of honesty and dishonesty. Often times in life people have goals which they try to attain. However, some use clean and morally upright ways while others use illegal ways to achieve it. This game, in a subtle manner, demonstrated the dilemma people go through – whether to cheat or not. The outcome of the game highlighted the reality that this world is indeed a dog-eat-dog world and the fact that people are willing to do everything within their means to succeed, whether right or wrong. This is seen in how certain players skillfully cheated their way to the end while other players who were trying to be honest got left behind.

Overall, The Liar’s Grid turned out as expected and was an awesome game to make and see people play and enjoy playing. It reflected clearly its deeper meaning and was altogether a success.

Link to pictures and videos: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wUz18WrUYOpjakZrVCL8II0J7guwtzU5

Disruption is chaos, the kind that takes a state of being and transforms it irrevocably. Recent conversations with peers revealed the natural chaos of the semester. I also recognized that this game would be played at the IM showcase and thought that the players would relate to this concept considering that it is the last week of classes.

In the beginning of the semester, we tend to be more exploratory and we hope to thrive. Somewhere along the way, slowly and then all at once, we become engulfed in this chaos where we merely hope to survive and we begin living deadline to deadline without realizing the disruption that we allow these externalities to have on our lives. Eventually, we have to find balance amidst the disruption which is what I hoped to convey through my game.

To implement this concept, I began with a runner game in which the player could move in all directions with a fixed speed, having to avoid obstacles. The runner game style appealed to me because friends have often said that the semester begins to feel like a mad sprint until the end, so I wanted to convey that feeling of constantly being on the move. From there, I decided that the player should only be able to move laterally, having no control over when the obstacles approach them, giving it a more chaotic feel. I wondered what effect hitting the obstacles should have on the game. In my first iteration, upon colliding with the obstacles, the player completely stopped and would only be able to move after hitting the spacebar several times. In this iteration, I also implemented a gray box inside the player that expanded when colliding with the obstacles. However, I realized that I wanted this gray box to expand constantly over time and that once it reached a certain size, the player would be unable to move. I wanted to reinforce the importance of self-care, so I used the action of clicking the spacebar as recharging and shrinking the size of the gray box. In the next iteration, I added the concept of moving towards your goals. I had a slider for speed and a slider for goal. The speed slider would naturally determine the player’s velocity and the goal slider would determine the number of obstacles. The sliders, however, felt very clunky and annoying, so I removed them. Instead of the speed slider, as recommended by our class presentation session, I used the up and down arrows to control speed. This more directly related to my goal for the player to determine the speed they liked best and felt more comfortable navigating the game in. I removed the goal slider and, with it, the concept of setting your own goal level. Instead, I wanted to show how in the beginning we start out with these goals, but at some point in the semester, it becomes about avoiding the obstacles rather than moving towards these more exploratory aims. Thus, I changed the number of obstacles to increase as one progresses through the game. With these various elements of speed, obstacles, goals, and recharging oneself, I hoped the player would find their own individual balance. After a few rounds of playtesting, I realized I needed more instructions, so I added instructions to the sidebar and a warning message to use the spacebar to recharge if the gray box reached a certain size. I also tried to have feedback for every player action. Thus, overlapping a small square would increase the player’s goal progression as displayed on the sidebar and change the player’s color to signify the transformative nature of those interactions. Hitting the obstacles would decrease the goal progression. I tried to add positive and negative sounds to emphasize the valence of these interactions but I found that it really decreased the performance of the game, so I deleted the sound files. I also played around with the initial speed of the player a lot. Starting it too slow made the game too easy and too high, too hard. I used an initial speed on the faster side because I wanted the player to use the up/down arrows to find the speed that works for them.

Through comments made during playtesting, I was generally satisfied with the mechanics in realizing the concept. After adding the instructions and starting the obstacles later in the game, players interacted with the small squares immediately and saw how it increased their goal progression. Most players caught on that it was impossible to reach their goal without slowing down from the high initial speed and found the pace that worked for them. After I added the warning message to recharge, players realized the concept of self-care and began using the spacebar to decrease the size of the gray box. I was a bit frustrated and disappointed in all the time I spent on implementing my original game idea, but in the end, I realize that scrapping it and implementing The Semester was a better option. I just wished I would have realized it earlier and spent more time on the graphics of the game. Though I wanted to use a geometric form to make the game more abstract, I think the game would have had a better overall feel with a nostalgic, 8 bit graphics style. In summary, I am overall happy with the concept, the mechanics, and the players’ understanding of the game elements, but wish I had developed the overall aesthetic and feel of the game more.

 

Link to game: https://simranparwani.github.io/projectFinal/finalProject.html

When Nav and I were discussing what to do for our final project, we thought about what we love the most about games, and about what kind of experience we wanted to recreate. One specific experience came up in both of our memories; playing a game, then going on the internet looking for cheat codes, noting them down on a piece of paper and rushing back to the console to try them out, whether they were codes to get a helicopter in Grand Theft Auto or more money in the Sims. With that in mind, we set out to make a game with a core disruptive mechanic: cheating.

 

 

Trial is a 3D platformer where the protagonist has to pass two levels in order to prove that they’re worthy and be able to claim a mythical treasure. The first level is a cave maze-like environment which Nav designed, and the second one is a sky level where the player has to hop between falling and moving clouds, which I designed. To travel between the levels, the player has to get through the environment until they reach a rock which makes them teleport to the next part. At the end of the game, the player is in front of a closed room, and a message appears which tells the player to use a secret code to open the doors of the room and claim the treasure to win the game, for they are worthy. However, it does not always go that way… If the player takes a moment mid-game to look around them, they will see that the computer is on a desk littered with toys, kitsch decorations, and most importantly, a book that says on the cover “DO NOT OPEN”. If the player does open the book regardless, they will find a list of cheat codes to input in the game. The codes can either customize how the player character looks, or change the game mechanics, making the game easier to win, or breaks the physics to an unplayable level (for example, using reverseGravity in the cloud level ends with an endless jump into the sky). And if the player does decide to use these codes, they will be presented with a different ending; the game knows that the challenger has been cheating, and thus, they are not worthy. “Try without cheating next time,” says the message as the screen fades to black and the game fades to black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To implement the game, we used background prefabs (rocks, trees, crystals, treasure at the end, etc.) from the Ultimate Fantasy Creator asset, which gave to the game a very nice semi-realistic dungeon atmosphere. The character is taken from 3rd Person Controller + Fly Mode. We chose this faceless because it did the job (walking, flying, jumping) and was simple enough esthetic and mechanics-wise so that it was easy to customize it when using the codes. The cloud platforms were taken from the website Models Ressource ripped from the game Super Mario Galaxy 2. As for the sounds, the music on the title screen was taken from Zelda II The Adventure of Link. The music in the first two levels was taken from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as the bell sounds that come with every message. Finally, the music at the end (finding the treasure) was taken from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Obviously, The Legend of Zelda games had a big influence on our game as we wanted to go with a similar mood. Besides the assets, nostalgia influenced the rest of our implementation process as well; the messages that appear at the beginning, as well as the title screen text, are meant to look like 8-bit text from old GameBoy games, and the cheat code text box is reminiscent of the one that appears at the top of the screen in The Sims.

 

 

 

 

As for the coding part, we wrote scripts for transitioning and/or teleporting between the levels, respawning if the character falls in the void, and of course, taking the code inputs after Ctrl+C has been pressed. Here’s a list of the possible codes and their effects:

 

 

 

-bigBoy: makes the character bigger.

-smallBoy: makes the character smaller.

-amyRose: changes the character texture to pink.

-squirtle: same as above but blue.

-reverseGravity: reverse gravity.

-superMario64: gives the player the ability to fly.

-sonicTheHedgehog: makes the character run faster.

-bigJump: increases the jump height.

-biggerJump: increases the jump height more.

-catInTheHat: gives the character an enormous hat.

-doors: opens the doors at the end of the game if the player has not cheated or only a few times.

 

 

 

 

 

Each of the cheat codes has a sin value depending on how game-breaking it is, and using them adds up to a sinCounter variable, which determines whether the player gets to access the treasure or not. Most of the codes are also named after iconic video games or characters to go with the nostalgia theme.

 

 

In my opinion, the playtesting sessions at the IM show were quite successful. While we wanted to make it possible for the game to be won without cheating (save for the doors code), we intentionally made it hard and even frustrating at times to push the players to think outside the box and not miss out on the cheating mechanics, which were the core of the game, and increased their fun and made them laugh, which is what we intended the game for. One thing however that didn’t work as much as we wish it had was finding out about the code. While we thought that the book was pretty obviously part of the game and meant to be open, a lot of the players seemed to ignore it even if they were stuck in the game until we suggested to them to look around them and think outside of the box (but trying our best not to be obvious). This may be due to the decoration of the desk, which may have been so well done that the book would stand out less from the rest and look just like another prop. Using a smaller desk lamp that only shone on the book might also have helped. As for the game themselves, we discovered during the tests a few little bugs that we couldn’t fix; for example, the player has to press enter a couple of times in the title screen to be able to play rather than only once. I also realized that the cloud level was even harder than I intended to be, and no one actually managed to complete it – although some people might have stuck around for the challenge if we had more time. Finally, the game’s controls were a bit confusing for players who weren’t very game-savvy (especially controlling the camera and moving at the same time) so we probably should have added a couple more instructions. But overall, all of the players reported to have fun using the cheat codes and were fascinated by the game’s aesthetics. Most of them also commented on how cozy or cute they found the setup, which is what we were going for.

 

 

I believe that Trial succeeds in expressing disruption. A hidden child’s room in the middle of the IM show is disruptive, and many were surprised to find us behind the curtain – even though that also meant that we got fewer people than expected, but the game was long enough so that we always had someone playing. Once the players found out about the codes, their playstyle changed completely and their fascination with the backgrounds turned to sheer fun as they enthusiastically tried each one of them. And while it may bum them out a little that they were not, after all, worthy, they all found the concept cool regardless, and were even more curious about the other ending possibilities.

 

Link to download the game.

Link to playtesting video 1

Link to playtesting video 2

The theme for our final projects was encapsulated in a single word – “disruption”. I believe this concept fits perfectly with the overall conceptual basis of our class, as games and play experience are inherently disruptive of our daily lives, environment and personal state of mind. The play experience essentially provides the individual with an opportunity to escape the default in order to express, enjoy and explore.

For this assignment, I have joined Claudia and Dogukan to create a disruptive game experience of our own design. Our final product is a 2D decision-making game of an educational purpose. We were originally inspired by Brenda Romero’s “Train” boardgame, in which players move the trains until, in the end, they realize that they have been transporting Jewish people to concentration games all throughout the process. We were inspired by this disruption of people’s expectation for what a game is conventionally perceived to be – a joyful activity, a recreational experience. We wanted to create a digital decision-making game that would similarly have a real historical event in the center of its plot that would be disrupted by own perspective on it and by the input of the player. We envisioned that the player would be forced to make different decisions for the main character that may seem rational and beneficial, but when he/she would reach the end, the story would reveal its true narrative. We wanted to focus on a real traumatizing historical event for educational purposes and also in order to raise awareness about how small innocent decisions can contribute to something more global than just an individual’s life and that may not be a positive thing at all.

Our game “The Choice” is an educational play experience that is centered around the Homestead Act of the US government in the 19th century that resulted in massive displacement of Native Americans. As Americans were offered by their government to move out west to establish and settle in new states, they have taken away the land that belonged to the native population. The consequences were devastating for the indigenous community, and we wanted to raise awareness about this issue which is often disregarded in the shadow of American Manifest Destiny.

  

  

“The Choice” is a short narrative game that offers the player an opportunity to imagine as if he/she is in control of the life of John, our main character. The story begins in John’s early childhood and introduces the player to his background. The plot unfolds into a vague biography of John as he becomes an adult and has to make some life-changing decisions. The character eventually makes the decision to take a risk of moving to the West with his significant other to start a new life in a new land full of possibilities. The innocent story of John and Sophia clashes with its historical background when John encounters “neighbors” at night who claim that he has stolen their home. The game ends with several slides that provide a lot of information on the Homestead Act and its lasting consequences.

To be honest, we have struggled for a long time as a team to agree on the idea. Initially, we have discussed completely different concepts and game experiences before we agreed on making “The Choice” game. The game-making process has forced us all to collaborate with our stronger sides and skills and to make certain sacrifices (in terms of our personal preferences) in order to collectively agree on the same story, concept, and feeling that we wanted to convey. However, sacrifices come essentially to any team-working process.

   

In terms of design and production, we chose to prioritize concept over form. The technological aspects behind the game are fairly simple. We have used Adobe Animate to code our short branching story, which eventually finishes with only one possible outcome no matter the choices that the player makes throughout the plot. Because of its simplicity, the game is very intuitive and easy to interpret. The story has been divided into small scenes in order to create a rather slow game flow for the user to take time when making decisions and to pay attention to the ending, in which we provide a lot of historical information. I have personally put a lot of time and thought into the visual aesthetics of our game. I have used Adobe Photoshop to create illustrations for the story. Although creating over 50 different illustrations was quite time-consuming, I did enjoy this creative process a lot. I tried my best to create a coherent system of design aesthetics that would cater to the effect that we originally envisioned. For the visuals, I have used museums’ and art galleries’ archives (along with some other open source collections) on 19th century America to stay as historically accurate as possible. Also, I have tried to create a design system that would have a general old book-ish feeling to it.

   

Having our classmates playtest our game has provided us with really valuable feedback. The majority of their suggestions and comments were on our minds already, however, we had to stay realistic of our capabilities and the upcoming deadline. Nevertheless, the playtesting has given us a lot of useful information to consider in the future when it comes to optimizing user experience. I personally think it would have been great to have a more extensive plot with a more complicated branching of the story. There are many other suggestions that we have received, but overall, I feel pleased with our final game because it does accomplish our main goal of educating and raising awareness. Our goal was not to make the player feel guilty of guiding the character that has mildly contributed to such a terrible event in the American history, but rather to consider how small decisions of ordinary men that can seem so insignificant may actually have a much larger impact in the long-term.

  

Earlier this semester, we have talked about how games are artifacts and I believe that our “The Choice” game fits this concept perfectly in so many ways. Not only that it is an artifact our team’s creative collaboration but also an artifact of a real-life event that reflects upon a traumatic chapter of human history. Lastly, this game is an artifact of our class, because it was the final project that symbolized the end of this semester and all the things that we had a chance to learn and discover throughout.

The link to download the game is here.

As stated by John Sharp in his “Works of Game”, games have the possibility of producing meaning and experience. In the class Games and Play, we used this idea and the theme of “disruption” to create a game for our final project. As a group, we started brainstorming on different ideas that could asses meaning through a digital or analog disruptive game. While trying to choose an idea, we thought about the concept of choice and how sometimes the choices that make rational sense do not produce ethical outcomes. As such, we decided we wanted to work with the story of the Homestead Act to create our game.

 

 

Brenda Brathwaite describes de design process of her game “The Passage” on her TED Talk “Games for a Change” and how games can save the world. Inspired by her words as well as by Brenda Romero’s “Train”, we intended to create a digital decision-making game with the Homestead Act in the center of the plot. Therefore, The Choice is a game where the player makes different decisions that seem rational and personally beneficial but when reaching the end, the player realizes that he/she was part of a devastating event in human history. I believe the game is disruptive because of the following reasons. By offering the player the opportunity to both witness and perform narrative events, we provide a framework to think about what could have happened in history if the decisions were taken in a different way. Although we give certain hints during the game, the player needs to reach the end to know the final outcome of its decisions. As such, we could ask if their actions would be different if they knew their effects from the beginning and if they would have intended to disrupt history with their decisions. In addition, the decision-making game is disrupted by the end, which provides an unexpected turn by revealing the final result of the decisions.

 

For us, choices are a way to disrupt the course of history. For that reason, we tried to convey the player with a story based on a decision-making historical game told in the third person by using simple 2D design in Adobe Animate and Adobe Illustrator. Our main challenge was to create a story that could convey our initial intentions. The story has a main character, John, who lives a difficult life yet has many dreams for the future. We wanted the player to empathize with John by giving details about his personal and love life. From the beginning, the player has to make decisions that would affect the life of the character as for instance the kind of job that he should have. That is how he meets another character, Sophia, who also struggles -specifically with the relationship with her father. The story tells that there are opportunities in the West and asks how should they both travel, what should they plant, how should they interact with the individuals they meet, etc. Therefore, the game doesn’t give the player the option to stay in the East or not, but rather focuses on the details of the characters’ trip to the West. We decided to do this because we wanted the story to end in one particular way, as in the game “Train”, in this case with the displacement of the Native Americans. Similarly, although there are various questions in the game that lead to decisions, most of these decisions do not make significant changes to the course of the story. We decided to do so for the same reason. However, we designed the game with very few hints of what was happening so that the player did not notice this aspect of our design process. The few hints that we included, as the appearance of “Dakota”, intended to conduce to an “aha moment” at the end of the game. We also decided to use different slides with a mixture of old pictures and graphs that provided an ambiguous yet pleasant aesthetic for the game. We included a soundtrack that was intended to transport the player to the epoch, and we chose to not include a melancholic song but rather one that keeps the player active and wanting to know what would happen next. We believed this decision would contribute to the game’s ambiguity. We thought that if we were to put another type of audio, we would give clear hints on our last message -especially to the ones already familiarized with the Homestead Act.

 

Throughout the process of building the final working version of the digital game “The Choice”, we faced several limitations. For instance, our initial idea was to tell the story in third person but with the name of the player. We wanted to ask the player at the beginning of the game for his/her name and with the code tailor the story and its character to have the name of the player. We thought that this would make the game feel more personal and connected to the character. However, we were not able to implement this idea because the slides were created with Illustrator rather than with code as Adobe Animate does not provide an option for aesthetic design of backgrounds. During the playtest, we were given the same idea that the one we initially thought of, yet also told that one of the strengths of our game was the graphic design. Thus we decided to keep the game in that way. One suggestion was to change the type of questions asked in the slides, by turning them from third to first person. Unfortunately, we were not able to produce this change due to time constraints and the fact that the illustrations made were personalized for each slide, however, we value the feedback and consider it for a future version of the game.

 

A player who familiarized with the Act mentioned not feeling guilty for what happened at the end. Perhaps the factor of familiarity conducted to this type of perception, but I am still satisfied with her comment. The initial intended meaning of our game was to make players understand that although daily life decisions seem perfectly rational and beneficial for ourselves, they could be affecting others and a larger group of people without us noticing it. We see these effects when the events already happen and the decisions have been made, but we are always able to learn from mistakes and try to be more conscious of our actions’ effects the next time. This is the meaning that we tried to convey. As such, it is noteworthy that although we had an intention regarding the meaning of the game, we did not want to control or determine what it means for each player. For some, it can be educational or a “review” of a history class. For others, it can be a path to discover one important event in history, a new way to reflect on the effects of daily life’s decisions, or an aesthetically pleasant escape from the decisions of “real life” by choosing things that are not normally available or socially accepted -such as taking a gun with you, traveling with a horse, or even killing an animal.

 

As stated by Sharp, “ideas” are an important component of games with meaning. Our main idea was to convey the message that it is in our hands to disrupt the course of history with our decisions and that we don’t have to wait until it is too late.

 

The Maze is a 3D first-person game where the protagonist is lost in an island environment and must find a way out of three mazes to win. To create this game, I had to use the theme of disruption as inspiration: a situation where a disturbance or problem interrupts a process. The game went through several iterations before I found a way of successfully implementing the concept. Fortunately, I came up with the idea of transforming a one player game into a multiplayer one. In order to exit all three mazes, the player must find someone else to help move the character. There is no way in which one person alone can complete the game.

 

 

To implement the concept into the game I divided the job into two different tasks: designing the level and creating the digital and physical player interactions.

 

For designing the level, I used Unity’s 3D Game Kit to import game assets such as walls, gates, cliffs, and gems. I distributed these assets throughout the environment and created three mazes. The first maze has short walls and no dead ends. Its purpose is to let the players get acquainted with the controls. The second maze is larger in size, has taller walls, has less light, and has several dead ends. The players should already be familiar with the controls and should experience more of a challenge. The third and last maze is larger than the second, has taller walls, more dead ends, and absolutely no light. This is the most challenging game and its purpose is to bring more players to participate in the experience. In addition to the maze construction, I added some gems to indicate a correct direction within them, however, I did not add a clear path to follow because I wanted the players to have some difficulty. Since each maze is supposed to increase the difficulty of the game, the latter mazes have fewer gems in them.

 

 

For the digital player interactions, I wrote and assigned scripts to objects in Unity. The first person player model needed scripts for walking, rotating, and turning on a light. The gem model needed a script for changing color when interacting with the player to show that that path had already been walked through. The third maze needed a script for diming all lights when the player entered it. I also write a script that gave instructions to the player. I also added background music and footstep sounds.

 

 

For the physical multiplayer interactions, I used the Makey Makey kit to map physical inputs directly to the computer keyboard. I designed and laser cut two acrylic boxes that served as the buttons that could make a single player rotate left or right and two players to move forward. Nonetheless, I connected the circuits in such a way that two players would need to hold the buttons and hold hands at the same time to move forward. Additionally, I created a third acrylic circular piece that when touched would turn on a light. The inputs were placed at a far enough distance that a single player could not reach all of them, thus needing another player to win the game.

 

 

I believe I was able to meet my expectations and goals in the process of building the game. My initial idea was to create a game where the player would find himself or herself in an isolated environment. However, this idea had nothing related to the concept of disruption. I am very happy that I was able to find a way that I was able to use the concept to make an intended single-player isolated game into a collaborative and communicative multiplayer one. One cannot go through the game alone.

 

When playtesting the game, some players really took a while to understand the controls, but others got the hang of it pretty quickly. Overall though, they all understood that in order to succeed, they had to properly communicate: When should someone rotate? Which direction should one rotate to? When should someone press the button? How to move forward? How to press the light in the third maze when both hands are being used to move forward? Whether the players succeeded in going through all three mazes or just played the game for two minutes, I could see that everyone was laughing and having a good time. I received a lot of positive feedback with regards to the hand holding. Many enjoyed the connection and the communication needed with someone else to win the game.

 

 

I really enjoyed the fact that I was able to create a digital game that needed some sort of physical interaction between people to be beaten. I really like the idea of transforming a first-person player into something that many people can participate in. When I tried it for the first time, the entire class was holding hands. Everyone knew that if someone let go, the player would not move forward. That is why the idea of everyone contributing, even if a little bit, to the same objective, really engaged everyone.

 

I believe that the connections created out of disruption are the true meaning of the game.

 

 

File (Windows): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rDM2Y4LHbAA1ETOugvj60xVkiw7X3W03

 

File (MAC): https://drive.google.com/file/d/19cpUaIBZDvTv9du48Ncej8adLBjPEmnX/view

 

When I think of the word disruption, I automatically think of historical events and how would these events turn out to be if decisions or actions taken were different. It is interesting that observing one of these events from 3rd person perspective when the event is over is much more different partaking it conceptually. I believe for the majority of the case, the people who helped to construct the historical events committed their actions unaware. They did not know their actions would be considered as significant blocks and the actions would be evaluated, criticized and taught in schools in a future time. In this sense, would their actions be different if they knew the results? Would they disrupt the reality shaped by the past if they were given a second chance? Would learning about similar historical events prevent the people from making the same mistakes? The game we want to build originates from these questions. The historical event we picked for the game is the Homestead Act. This game would be a single player decision-based game, branching according to the player’s responses. The story would evolve according to the actions of the player. However, the player would not have any clue about this historical event when he starts playing the game. The player would try to make logical decisions while unknowingly contributing to the virtual Homestead Act.

 

The design of the game was made with minimalistic tendencies. We did not want to confuse the player by bombarding him with information. Instead, the information was divided into several frames and was received by the player on demand without a time limit. First, an extensive story was written with several possible scenarios. These scenarios would then be divided into smaller pieces that could be conveyed through a single frame. Old paintings and photographs were edited and some text was added to create these frames. Each frame would increment the story a little bit more. Buttons would enable the player to make decisions and also continue the game whenever she wished. The scenario would be traversed according to the decisions of the player in one direction. It is important to note however that some decisions should merge into similar results to prevent the story from exponentially growing. Without such a merging, the story would be hard to manage and potentially the actual aim of the game would be difficult to achieve, which is making the player partake in the Homestead Act. The sound of the game could be the recordings of the text on the frame. Optionally, there could be a background music. The background would have a Western music that would fit the atmosphere of the game.

 

The final version of the game was satisfactory in the sense that the game looked cohesive and communicative. The final version of the game had the story, constantly, closely related to the actual aim of the game without spending time on side stories. It is arguable whether it would be a better approach to extend the game with more personal stories to bond the player with the characters. This version of the game is on point and throws the player into the middle of the Homestead Act right away. The final scenario includes romance to a great extent and considering the popularity of this genre, it is up to the players to decide if it is cliche or not. The playtesting yielded overall an adequate feedback. Some players claimed that the game was educational and that the story was fluid and kept them interested. These players admitted that they were surprised how the story got connected to an actual event. Other players voiced out the lack of connections they had with the characters. They claimed they felt like a 3rd person skimming through a slideshow of someone else’s life. Therefore, they did not feel like their decisions caused a catastrophe which means the scenario was not strong enough to make these players reevaluate themselves. This feedbacks indicates that the intended gameplay was somewhat accomplished to some extent. It highlights the fact that the shock effect was in place for some players. Overall, I conclude that there is a need to improve the story to enhance the relatability of the characters. 

 

The link to download the game is here