It seems that you can just about anything a game.
In some cases this can help, such as getting the kids to clean up their room so at least a chore becomes more bearable and less mundane.
But in business?
That just seems awkward. And it gives the idea that these people have no idea what a game even is to begin with and this is just some stratagem to pad the wallets of the executives out there by making a sale as easy as possible.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
My Role Play Self
Roleplay Self
Name: Ducky
Name: Ducky
Height: 5 ft.
Hair: brown, short
Eyes: brown
Outfit: green t-shirt, black jacket, blue jeans, sneakers,
baseball cap, and backpack.
Special Abilities: Super Sneak
Strengths: Speed and stealth
Weakness: Can’t hold her own against heavy hitters
Personality: Stubborn and impulsive
Equipment: Cell phone, camera, and frying pan.
Special Ability: Hide
Level Up: EUREKA!
How I became a spy:
I was an ordinary girl living in San Francisco going to school in San Jose and going back home on weekends day in and day out. Nothing extraordinary happened to me. Until the day I climbed into the dumpster where I found a dead body. I climbed back out and was chased by a Templar who i assumed killed the guy. I bumped into a guy wearing a white hoodie and then was inducted into the Assassin's Order to spy on the Templars operating under the call sign: "Ducky" armed with my trusty frying pan and awesome hiding skills as an initiate.
Level Up: EUREKA!
How I became a spy:
I was an ordinary girl living in San Francisco going to school in San Jose and going back home on weekends day in and day out. Nothing extraordinary happened to me. Until the day I climbed into the dumpster where I found a dead body. I climbed back out and was chased by a Templar who i assumed killed the guy. I bumped into a guy wearing a white hoodie and then was inducted into the Assassin's Order to spy on the Templars operating under the call sign: "Ducky" armed with my trusty frying pan and awesome hiding skills as an initiate.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
My Alter Ego
My RPG character self is known ad Chocobo on the internet. She looks just like me, albeit a little more in shape and has the magical ability to bring all the characters she creates to life which she calls Avatars.
In an alternate reality game you are known as a "writer" and you will receive a prompt to go somewhere from the game master ex: the park or nearest Starbucks and when you are there you create a character based on a customer or an object you find then create that character for use in the internet portion of the game.
In an alternate reality game you are known as a "writer" and you will receive a prompt to go somewhere from the game master ex: the park or nearest Starbucks and when you are there you create a character based on a customer or an object you find then create that character for use in the internet portion of the game.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Tombed- Playing as a desginer
I have played games for almost fourteen years now starting with Poke'mon and Super Mario. But iw as always playing as a player and only recently have I started thinking things such as "Hmm...how would I have made this level?" or if I hated the game "How would I make this better?"
This was the mindset I put myself in for Tombed :http://www.auntiepixelante.com/tombed/play.html
The game was very similar to other digger flash games I'e played on the internet so I was able to grasp the controls almost right away. The game was very fast paced and quickly got my adreniline pumping as the spiked cieling came bearing down on my character as I frantically dug my way down to safety.
The spiked ceiling was just as effective as a countdown timer, in fact it was more effective. If I had 300 seconds and no spikes I would ahve taken more time for exploring but with spikes I'm thinking: "I need to haul ass outta here!". Taking that into consideration having a timer would have made Tombed a totally different game that would have been about exploring rather than survival.
After a few runs on Tombed I began to think of how this game could be an exploration game witht he exact same control scheme and enviroment. The mian difference would be no spikes and there would be powerups and treasure and you have until the clock runs out to reach the bottom with each stage becoming increasingly difficult to include puzzle game elements as well.
This was the mindset I put myself in for Tombed :http://www.auntiepixelante.com/tombed/play.html
The game was very similar to other digger flash games I'e played on the internet so I was able to grasp the controls almost right away. The game was very fast paced and quickly got my adreniline pumping as the spiked cieling came bearing down on my character as I frantically dug my way down to safety.
The spiked ceiling was just as effective as a countdown timer, in fact it was more effective. If I had 300 seconds and no spikes I would ahve taken more time for exploring but with spikes I'm thinking: "I need to haul ass outta here!". Taking that into consideration having a timer would have made Tombed a totally different game that would have been about exploring rather than survival.
After a few runs on Tombed I began to think of how this game could be an exploration game witht he exact same control scheme and enviroment. The mian difference would be no spikes and there would be powerups and treasure and you have until the clock runs out to reach the bottom with each stage becoming increasingly difficult to include puzzle game elements as well.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
"X-Marks the Spot" Or the Pirate themed post
Nottice: I am feeling very piratey today and as such will be in character for this post.
Arrrrghhh mateys are ye bold enough to brave the seas to find the treasure? Then ye must play me game "X-Marks the Spot" a race to the island where the treasure be burried.
The rules be very simple even for ye land lubbers and even simpler for a pirate.
The first pass went fairly well and through play testing I was able to polish the rules and was a little less sadistic with the effect spaces and proved more normal spaces for players to land on and changed the rules to allow for quicker gameplay.
Since it was a paper prototype I was more concerned about gameplay than how it looked. In fact the color was added in at almost the very last second just to "brighten" it up a smidge. If I go back to this game it most likely will undergo another total makeover and this board might get wadded up and recycled-or not.
Arrrrghhh mateys are ye bold enough to brave the seas to find the treasure? Then ye must play me game "X-Marks the Spot" a race to the island where the treasure be burried.
The rules be very simple even for ye land lubbers and even simpler for a pirate.
X-Marks the spot game rules
1.
Roll a die to move ahead.
2.
Each player starts with as many map tokens as
there are players. (ex.: 4 players=4 map tokens each)
3.
At the start of the game each player rolls the
die highest number goes first then goes around clockwise.
4.
You can skip your turn if you want, but you must
take your next turn.
5.
When you land on a space with another player a
duel must commence.
6.
To duel each player rolls the die, highest
number wins. In the event of a tie just
roll again.
a.
Loser must forfeit one map piece.
b.
Winner takes one map piece from the loser.
7.
The first player to reach the Goal Island is the
winner.
a.
You must have at least your starting number of
map tokens to get to goal.
8.
You cannot move backwards.
a.
You can’t move backwards in or out of the fog.
9.
Each space has a different effect except for
blank spaces which are ordinary spaces.
a.
Got Lost space: go back to the nearest blank
space.
b.
Ride the ride space: Ride the tide in the
indicated direction.
c.
Troublemaker space: send any player back to
nearest cove.
d.
Storm: Lose a turn.
e.
Doubloon: Get an extra turn.
f.
Navy Attacks space: roll a die and go back that
many spaces.
g.
Whirlpool: Swap places with any player.
h.
Cove: safe spot, while you are in that space you
cannot be dueled, switched, or sent back to start.
10.
While in the fog if you do not have enough map
pieces you must circle through the fog until you have at least your starting
number.
Now we shall resume normalcy.
Designing the game at the start was much harder than I thought. I had so many ideas they got stuck and started bottlenecking on the way out. It was mainly a matter of getting the idea from my head out onto paper but after a few hours of throwing ideas at the wall and recalling my childhood faveorites: "Candyland" and "Chutes and Ladders" I was able to at least scribble an idea out. My idea was a "race to the finish" game with a little twist barrowing from my earlier tooth fairy game.
The main requirment as stated in the above rules is that you need at least your starting number of map peices and if you don't you have to circle around in the fog until you do.
The first pass went fairly well and through play testing I was able to polish the rules and was a little less sadistic with the effect spaces and proved more normal spaces for players to land on and changed the rules to allow for quicker gameplay.
Since it was a paper prototype I was more concerned about gameplay than how it looked. In fact the color was added in at almost the very last second just to "brighten" it up a smidge. If I go back to this game it most likely will undergo another total makeover and this board might get wadded up and recycled-or not.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Paper Prototype Game Rules
Paper Prototype of: X-Marks the Spot
Rules:
Rules:
1.
Roll a die to move ahead.
2.
Each player starts with as many map tokens as
there are players. (ex.: 4 players=4 map tokens each)
3.
At the start of the game each player rolls the
die highest number goes first then goes around clockwise.
4.
You can skip your turn if you want, but you must
take your next turn.
5.
When you land on a space with another player a
duel must commence.
6.
To duel each player rolls the die, highest
number wins. In the event of a tie just
roll again.
a.
Loser must go to Recovery Island and forfeit one
map piece.
b.
Winner stays where they are and takes one map piece
from the loser.
7.
The first player to reach the Goal Island is the
winner.
a.
You must have at least your starting number of
map tokens to get to goal.
8.
You cannot move backwards into the goal area or
recovery island.
a.
You cannot go to Recovery Island from the start
spaces.
9.
Each space has a different effect except for
blank spaces which are ordinary spaces.
a.
Got Lost space: go back to the nearest blank
space.
b.
Ride the ride space: Ride the tide in the
indicated direction.
c.
Duel space: pick any player to duel.
d.
Troublemaker space: send any player back to
start.
e.
Storm: Lose a turn.
f.
Doubloon: Get an extra turn.
g.
Navy Attacks space: roll a die and go back that
many spaces.
h.
Whirlpool: Swap places with any player.
i.
Cove: safe spot, while you are in that space you
cannot be dueled, switched, or sent back to start.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Game/Lesson Number One Is...
Most people tend to think that you can't learn anything from games and that in fact they rot your brain. They couldn't be furthur fromt he truth. Games have been a way to learn since prehistoric times. In fact the phrase "It's just a game" often implies that the "Game" is just practice for the real thing. For example back in the stone age a game of tag might help children ready themselves for hunting.
Puzzle games are a good example of how you can learn from playing games, they often teach you logic and critical thinking. In Tetris you have to think quickly to be able to place the blocks accordingly to fill the empty space and when I play Professor Layton I have to pull out my entire mental capabilities to solve the puzzles I ecounter from math to slider puzzles.
Playing a game or a simulation allows us to experience a particular situation in a safe manner such as the Red Flag Missions used by the U.S Air Force to provide the first ten missions for new pilots in a realistic simulation. In a simulation you can "die" as many times as needed and still come back armed with the knowledge of your previous mistakes. In the real world if you lose, that's it you're dead.
Games may not teach you math or philosophy but they do teach you some basic skills and then give you a problem in which you figure out how you use those skills in a variety of ways from aiming atraight in a FPS game or rescuing the princess in an adventure game. Games have been a way of teaching life skills for all species since the dawn of time.
Puzzle games are a good example of how you can learn from playing games, they often teach you logic and critical thinking. In Tetris you have to think quickly to be able to place the blocks accordingly to fill the empty space and when I play Professor Layton I have to pull out my entire mental capabilities to solve the puzzles I ecounter from math to slider puzzles.
Playing a game or a simulation allows us to experience a particular situation in a safe manner such as the Red Flag Missions used by the U.S Air Force to provide the first ten missions for new pilots in a realistic simulation. In a simulation you can "die" as many times as needed and still come back armed with the knowledge of your previous mistakes. In the real world if you lose, that's it you're dead.
Games may not teach you math or philosophy but they do teach you some basic skills and then give you a problem in which you figure out how you use those skills in a variety of ways from aiming atraight in a FPS game or rescuing the princess in an adventure game. Games have been a way of teaching life skills for all species since the dawn of time.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Game session, Wendsday Jan 30
Sorry!
Sorry! A board game we've all played before which ensued into a night of alliances and cutthroat revenges and sabatoge. While the game is fun and engaging, the rules can be quite confusing at times and the conditions on the movement cards can either cripple some players or give them a slightly unfair advantage over the others. The rules rgarding teams were the most confusing and during my gameplay session we often spiraled down into a free for all and ever one for themself. So while we did have our fun, we had to refer back to the rules a little too often for our liking which led to our gameplay taking too long.
Fluxx!
This was my first time playing Fluxx! And it was one of the most enjoyable card games I had ever played. The game begins with a set if basic rules but once gameplay begins, those rules go right out the window in favor of new rules that pop up with the cards and the goals kept changing as well. The most amusing being that if we had been playing in a public place and someone came along to ask what we were playing we all had to draw fromt he deck. Though at times gameplay did get confusing it was very enjoyable. The strangest card that came up was the "Radioactive potato" which prevented a player form winning which made me wonder if the inventor of the game had come up with Fluxx! at four in the morning on some insane impulse. Gameplay didn't take as long as Sorry! did largely becasue the rules made more sense and we had them at the ready in case we forgot after a rule change card was played.
Overall,a game can be as fun as it comes but sometimes it's the rules that can make or break it. If the rules of play don't make sense or don't provide a level field of play at the start, the game won't be as much fun for everyone. In addition how long a game can take can affect this as well. Some games are fun when they take a long time because they are meant to take a long time, but most board games usually take about less than an hour, any longer than that and the game will start to feel rather tiring.
Sorry! A board game we've all played before which ensued into a night of alliances and cutthroat revenges and sabatoge. While the game is fun and engaging, the rules can be quite confusing at times and the conditions on the movement cards can either cripple some players or give them a slightly unfair advantage over the others. The rules rgarding teams were the most confusing and during my gameplay session we often spiraled down into a free for all and ever one for themself. So while we did have our fun, we had to refer back to the rules a little too often for our liking which led to our gameplay taking too long.
Fluxx!
This was my first time playing Fluxx! And it was one of the most enjoyable card games I had ever played. The game begins with a set if basic rules but once gameplay begins, those rules go right out the window in favor of new rules that pop up with the cards and the goals kept changing as well. The most amusing being that if we had been playing in a public place and someone came along to ask what we were playing we all had to draw fromt he deck. Though at times gameplay did get confusing it was very enjoyable. The strangest card that came up was the "Radioactive potato" which prevented a player form winning which made me wonder if the inventor of the game had come up with Fluxx! at four in the morning on some insane impulse. Gameplay didn't take as long as Sorry! did largely becasue the rules made more sense and we had them at the ready in case we forgot after a rule change card was played.
Overall,a game can be as fun as it comes but sometimes it's the rules that can make or break it. If the rules of play don't make sense or don't provide a level field of play at the start, the game won't be as much fun for everyone. In addition how long a game can take can affect this as well. Some games are fun when they take a long time because they are meant to take a long time, but most board games usually take about less than an hour, any longer than that and the game will start to feel rather tiring.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Serious Play and Tooth Fairy Board Game
Reading Response
After reading "Nature and Signifigance of Play as a cultural Phenomenon" by Johan Huizinga I found that I had always wondered why do we Humans play? I used to think that it was part of the earliest forms of story telling when hunters would regal the tribe with the story of their hunt and act it out. Turns out I was partially right. Play has been part of forming Human culture but not in the sense where "play" became "ritual" rather, play being somehow important to an individual such as a brief mild distraction from the mundane world. While play is fun, it is also very serious, for example when playing Poker you have to keep your "poker face" or when playing "Dungeons and Dragons" you and your party have to form strategies on the fly to make it through the Dungeon Master's booby traps. Essentially, when you play you are leaving one reality and entering a different one with its own set of rules that must be followed just like in the "real" world, the main difference in play is that the rules provide a framework and make play more interesting and challenging.
Making a Board Game for the First Time
I never made a board game before, but it was much harder than I thought it would be. Not only did Tram and I have to decide on what the game would even be, we had to come up with what the objective was, how players could achieve it, and then how to make it harder and interesting.
I always liked playing with office supplies and I finally got to really play with them by using staples as the peices!
After reading "Nature and Signifigance of Play as a cultural Phenomenon" by Johan Huizinga I found that I had always wondered why do we Humans play? I used to think that it was part of the earliest forms of story telling when hunters would regal the tribe with the story of their hunt and act it out. Turns out I was partially right. Play has been part of forming Human culture but not in the sense where "play" became "ritual" rather, play being somehow important to an individual such as a brief mild distraction from the mundane world. While play is fun, it is also very serious, for example when playing Poker you have to keep your "poker face" or when playing "Dungeons and Dragons" you and your party have to form strategies on the fly to make it through the Dungeon Master's booby traps. Essentially, when you play you are leaving one reality and entering a different one with its own set of rules that must be followed just like in the "real" world, the main difference in play is that the rules provide a framework and make play more interesting and challenging.
Making a Board Game for the First Time
I had the ideas in my head, the hard part was getting them out onto a peice of paper and lacking some materials we had to get creative on some parts such as game pecies and a spinner.
Figuring out the rules was the hardest part. Tram and I were going for a Candyland meets monopoly sort of thing on collecting teeth and what space you landed on affected your over all tooth collection and progress, for example if you landed on a cavity, you had to return to your original space and if you landed on a toothbrush you collected a tooth.
I always liked playing with office supplies and I finally got to really play with them by using staples as the peices!
As for the feedback, our beta suggested that there should also be a space that allowed the players to steal teeth from eachother too and that everyone starts off with two teeth.
Even though designing the game was pretty nerve wracking and I was rather worn out, I was happy and worn out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)