While reading Chapters 1-3 of Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton, I have completed the following exercises as part of my journey toward creating a digital game for ETEC565D Digital Games and Learning. Exercises and their descriptions have been posted below.
Exercise 1 .2: D .O .A .
Take one game that you’ve played that was D.O.A. By D.O.A., I mean “dead on arrival” (i.e., a game that’s no fun to play). Write down what you don’t like about it. What did the designers miss? How could the game be improved?
I recently played a game on Twine that was tweeted by @gabrielcornish and tagged @twinethreads, which is how I came upon it. It's a Beautiful Day by yllogique is described as a self-care game, so I was excited to see what it was like. The game starts when you wake up, and then you make a decision on what to do first: brush your teeth, make your bed, have tea, or take a shower. I chose to have tea, and I could click through options on what kind of tea I wanted, and just reading the descriptions put me at ease - because I could almost smell them all. I then went about my day and after looking out the window and wanted to go outside. When you choose go outside, the game tells you there are no doors. I became pretty frantic to try to figure out how to go outside, but I couldn’t figure it out. Every time I tried to go outside, I couldn’t. It was extremely frustrating, and so the game had the opposite effect I thought it would.
I went back to Twitter to ask the creator if there was a way to go outside, and they informed me that the option to go outside will open up after the player has made a certain number of other choices within the game. I was relieved, but it wasn’t enough to make me replay the game to see if this changed how I felt about it. The damage had already been done.
Exercise 1 .5: Your Childhood List ten games you played as a child, for example, hide and seek, four square, and tag. Briefly describe what was compelling about each of those games.
1. Pine Cone Wars - Outdoors play with teammates playing against other teams. We had to gather materials, construct bases and communicate our strategy. 2. Hide and Seek - Outdoors play, the thrill of the chase or hiding. 3. Basketball - Aspects of communication and teamwork, physical activity, athleticism and skills involved. 4. Monopoly - Strategy and communicating with other players for side deals, to create alliances or manipulate and then turn on other players. Monopoly amongst my friends always resulted in feelings being hurt. 5. Yahtzee - Random rolls of dice - excitement and a bit of rowdiness. I played a lot with other kids and adults, so it was a game for everyone. 6. Duke Nukem - This is one of the first PC games I ever played. My mom was really into it, and I started playing, too. 7-11. Sim games - Farm, Ant, City, Earth, the Sims - I absolutely loved the concept and simulation aspect of all of these games and being able to play the games over and over again while tweaking my gameplay to change the outcomes. As a child, I was entranced by Sim Farm, Sim Earth and the first Sim City game. As an adolescent, a newer version of Sim City was released, and by my 20s it was the Sims. 12. Super Mario Bros. series - Although they were single/two player, there was a massive amount of family and friend time spent around beating these games. 13. Legend of Zelda - Same for above, but this game was more of an open world experience.
Exercise 2.3: Objectives List five games, and in one sentence per game, describe the objective in each game.
1. Fortnite (MMOBRG - battle royale game) - There are various modes of play with different objectives, but in Solo/Duo/Squad modes, the goal is to stay alive and eliminate other players. 2. World of Warcraft (MMORPG) - Complete missions, earn gold, join parties and raids to fight epic monsters for epic loot. 3. Escapists 2 (sandbox game) - Talk to NPCs, gather materials, avoid guard detection, and complete missions to escape from prison. 4. Lifeline (text-based adventure game) - Help Taylor make decisions to survive on an alien moon. 5. Risk - Achieve world domination by strategically placing your army, conquering geographies, and eliminating your opponents.
Exercise 2.8: Story Have any stories within a game ever gripped you, moved you emotionally, or sparked your imagination? If so, why? If not, why not?
As an avid reader and person who loves storytelling in all forms, I do not know why I find stories secondary to my enjoyment of playing digital games and choose to mostly ignore them in favor of completing objectives, collecting resources, and gaining achievements. Even in games like World of Warcraft where the story adds depth, value and engagement for many players, I pay either very little or no attention to it. I have never given this much thought or consideration, but as a person who is often moved by narratives, it is odd to me that I enjoy playing games and ignore a part of them that I would thoroughly enjoy if I paid more attention.
An exception to this would be in text-adventure games where the story and making choices drives the narrative forward. I recently played Lifeline, a text-based game with the objective of helping Taylor, a high school student whose spaceship has crashed on an unknown moon, survive and find a way off the moon. I did find myself engaged with the story and I was concerned for the wellbeing of Taylor, and I worried about whether or not my suggestions would help or harm him/her.
Exercise 3.6: Rules Restricting Actions There are many types of rules that restrict action. Here is a list of games: Twister, Pictionary, Scrabble, Operation, and Pong. What rules within these games restrict player actions?
In Twister, once you move to place a body part on a coloured circle, you can’t move it or fall or crumple into a pile.
In Pictionary, you can only draw to give clues, and you cannot speak.
In Scrabble, you can only place letters on the board and attach them to other letters (unless you are the first player, and then you must place letters over the star in the middle of the board. You can only place letters horizontally or vertically but not diagonally. Once you place letters, you must grab the same amount of letters you just placed onto the board to replenish letters in your hand. If you are playing with serious players, all words must follow rules and be in the Scrabble dictionary.
In Operation, you must carefully and precisely remove items from the body without disturbing or touching the outside edge of the area, which requires precision and dexterity. If you touch the edge of the area around the piece you are trying to remove, you hear a sound that indicates this, and you lose a turn.
In Pong, you move a paddle in 2D, either left or right to hit a ball, like ping pong, but your move is limited to left and right instead of at an angle or forward or backward.
References
Fullerton, T. (2014). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, NY: Taylor & Francis (CRS Press)/ Chapters 1-3.