Week 1 – Exploring Territory

Jan 10 – 16

I think the team will agree with me when I say the first week was a bit of a quandary. The reason was quite simple, we were not privy to the social issue we were to tackle. And so, we began to explore our possibility space without a map or a lens to view it. Regardless, some interesting information came out of the first week’s exercises .

In our first meeting with faculty advisors, we enumerated information that we needed to solicit, both from the client and other sources. Being a location based crowd game, the eventual design for the game is bound by interesting constraints :

  • State of audience when game begins : Will the game be initiated with the entire auditorium seated, or will guests pass through the auditorium later?
  • Technology Constraints : Device types, Internet availability
  • Sound Levels : What are the admissible audio levels for the experience? Is the auditorium equipped with speakers? Is there a possibility of background noise interfering with the experience?

We spoke with past G4C project team designer Julian Toker, who had valuable insights on approaching the subject :

  • Emphasis on a designing a rising sequence of events leading up to a single moment which stands out in guest’s mind.
  • Most of the audience are non-gamers, primarily activists. Hence, the effect of a detailed game design might be lost on the audience.
  • Emphasis on simplicity and intuitive gameplay.
  • Request Jesse to mention the game during his talk for advertisement value!
  • Print small map highlighting location of game in the conference.
  • Use transformational goals as a litmus test for design decisions.
  • Absolutely no wait time for crowds.

And finally, through a workshop held by Mike Christel we developed project metrics such as :

Needs :

  • Player Needs – The game will be competing with several other items for guests’ attention. Therefore, experience needs to be relatively short, easy and intuitive and have minimal waiting time. Furthermore, player’s need to be able to navigate to the area where
  • Design Team Needs – Playtesting spaces, availability of tech, location information, access for dry run.

Player Experience Goals :

  • To create a powerful experience which stays in the player’s minds long after they leave.
  • To impart an understanding of the issue at hand.
  • To provide a cause for introspection to how they might be contributing to the problem.
  • To provide a cause for introspection on how they can be a part of the solution.