Sep 12

Women In games Visual Notes

Surviving a crazy game idea

Speakers- 

Catharina Bohler – Co-founder and CEO and Creative producer, Sarepta Studios.

Elin Festøy- Creative Producer, Teknopolit AS

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/479910968?t=00h33m12s

Age of the Heroine Panel Discussion

Speaker- Sharon Tolaini-Sag, Lecturer of Games design and Art, Norwich University

Panel Members-

Kate ParkinsonCo- Founder, Also Known As

Lucy Kyriakidou- Freelance 2D Artist

Jasmine Idun Isdrake- CEO & Exec Creative Director, Playcentric Studios

Claire BoissiereGames Producer/Writer | Vice-Chair, BGI Trustees

https%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitch.tv%2Fvideos%2F479925943%3Ft%3D00h03m14s

Continues in the link below.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/479935508

Playing With Purpose

Jude Ower- Founder and CEO of Playmob

https%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitch.tv%2Fvideos%2F479935508%3Ft%3D01h38m22s

Sep 10

Research on Bees

I started research for my Idea involving assigning bees tasks within a hive. I researched bees and found out some interesting things. the first thing important to note is that there are only three classes of bees within a hive.

Queens- There is only one in a hive and her job is to lay eggs providing drones and workers for the hive. She is the largest and lives the longest.

Drones- All male usually only a few hundred of them. Drones do not gather pollen. Their only job is to mate with an unfertilised queen.

Workers- All female usually in the thousands. Their job is gather pollen, create honey and feed the young larvae. They also build the hive and perform all other duties. Workers are infertile and do not lay eggs.

On average bees will fly within a mile radius of their hive for food but it has been noted on occasion that bees can fly up to five miles. They gather nearly 20 mg of pollen each trip and amass nearly 20 kg of honey in a single year. Bees use the sun to navigate and some studies have shown they are sensitive to the earth electromagnetic field.

Research

During my research I found quite a few website that showed bees in a negative light. I found this strange as in the UK we are often told how essential bees are to the natural economy.

Bees are an extremely useful species. They are the most successful insect pollinators due to the sheer amount of pollen they carry. We depend on bees to pollinate useful and nourishing plants. Plants such as apple, pear, almond, vanilla and even cotton all depend on bees as a pollinator.

I think it is important that any game design reflects this importance and does not infer any connotation of pest to these insects. A game designed with insects in mind could be used to supplement the KS2 curriculum for science and could help children learn more about the Eco-system and biology.

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”
― Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee

Aug 27

Ideas continued – Final 5 & 6

These ideas are the final selection from my ideas. The first came about through the idea that language helps to create a more sustained education and ability to retain information. The second is based on organisational skills and the idea that objects still exist out of sight. It also focuses on similarities and differences between objects.

Stimulation through language

  1. A word builder using randomly generated word. Every word guessed grows the plant a little more each time.
  2. Pictures will appear on the screen and the player will need to type the activity, theme or connections these images share.
  3. Typing words will cause that thing to appear on the screen. Some unique possibilities are possible. Would be presented like a felt picture.
  4. Typing the answer to a question to generate electricity. Points will be awarded for how much power the player generates.
  5. The player will need to type in the names of the chemicals in the test tube to combine them properly and in the right order.
  6. The player will have a limited list of words they can type in order to maintain an aquarium.
  1. The player will need to drop items in the corresponding chutes. Points are awarded for speed.
  2. The player will need to reconfigure items on conveyor belts making sure the items match the end destination. (Time based puzzle)
  3. Organising a suit case for a holiday. The player will need to make a judgement depending on the destinations. (Cold, Hot, Wet and Dry)
  4. Sorting by shapes and colours. Simple for a naive player base.
  5. Organising shapes by there edges, vertices or faces. 
  6. Dragging objects to the appropriate room in a house. The player will also be able to customise the house and earn and income from a successful move. Houses get larger and more complicated as the player becomes a more famous (house mover).

These ideas are great and I am super happy I was able to explore them in more detail. I am now going to review my favourite ideas and begin some research into the various aspects of the design. I am going to focus on visuals, accuracy and player base. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, it means so much.

“New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!“
– Arthur C. Clarke

Aug 22

Idea Exploration 3 & 4

Idea 1- Communication through notes

  1. Letters received through the mailbox and the player needs to pick a response to the letter from four written responses. The replying letter will indicate how appropriate the response is.
  2. Picking notes on a board and then writing a note back to replace the one taken down. This idea could be used for working in teams or just as a compliment board where people take the advice they feel they need that day.
  3. The player works in a paper plane delivery service and must read the letters to guess where they need to go. They then send the letter to the destination.
  4. This is a similar version to mailbox idea but it uses a UI that resembles a computer and uses email instead.
  5. The player would play as a Morse code operative and have to translate from the roman alphabet to Morse code and visa versa.
  6. A simple anagram solver with a world building style reward.

I think these ideas work well for making people use abstract thought and linking words to objects, situations and people. My favourite out of these ideas so far either the Morse code game or the paper plane game.

  1. The player needs to pick the word of the ingredient they want to put in. This game would promote childhood reading.
  2. A similar concept to idea one but the player would be plating plants and need to type the names of plants in order to pick them.
  3. The player gets a restaurant order in a picture format and must type in the ingredients to plate it up.
  4. They player has to write how many of an item they need to make the balance equal.
  5. Build a burger using words. There will be images to press to see the spelling.
  6. Same concept as 5 but with a smoothie instead. I thought this would promote healthier eating a little better.

This idea snuffled out very quickly. I couldn’t find anything that seemed to be fun without being too educational. These ideas became more concept ideas then actual games and I am happy to leave them here and not move forward with them.

Overall I am really pleased with this process and I am looking forward to posting the third and final instalment of these sprout ideas.

“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” 
― Marie Curie

Aug 19

Idea Exploration 1 & 2

I have begun to expand upon my ideas. I have chosen six of the ideas that grew from the word seeds and now I am thumb-nailing six game ideas based upon those seedling ideas. ( I don’t know why I chose six, it just seemed like a good number) I am not focusing on mechanics at the moment more of an overlay of play.

Interview people for the right jobs

  1. This idea involved a line of people outside an employment agency. Someone will enter and sit down and provide a brief synopsis of their skills. There will be a simplified view for younger children involving stars out of five. The player will then have to pick the most appropriate job out of four displayed on the front of the desk. Afterwards their manager will pop up and give them a score out of 5 depending on their choices.
  2. This is a similar thumbnail as idea 1 but instead uses bees and assigning them to their roles: Worker, Drone, Warrior, Builder and queen.
  3. Idea three is the same as 2 but with ants. Instead of text descriptions the ants will be carrying items and must b sent to the appropriate.
  4. This idea is meant for younger children and relies on appearance to send people to the right places.
  5. This is a similar idea to four except the player gives them directions based upon what the person is thinking.
  6. This idea involves the sending of cells to different organs in the human body. I would need to research exactly what part of the curriculum it supports as it may be too childish for the key stage children learn this.

Growing plants using maths

  1. The player will type a number into the box and then click a direction the plant will then grow in that direction that many squares. There will be obstacles that the plant must avoid. Eventually there would be moving obstacles such as planes and birds to grow past.
  2. The player would type a number into the box to determine the number of branches the tree would make. The idea would be to keep the tree balanced in different conditions. If the wind is strong the player would have to build heavier in that direction.
  3. The player will have to type in the number of vegetables needed to meet a percentage. The words quarter, half and three quarters will be used intermittently with 25%, 50%, 75%. This is to solidify the association of written English with numerical value. as the difficulty increases the variety of of vegetables increases. The player will be rewarded with gold that can be used to make the garden centre more beautiful.
  4. This idea is similar to idea one except the player writes the angle they wish the plant to grow and the plant grows in a predetermined length. I think this allows the player a little more control over the plant.
  5. The player controls a dandelion seed floating through the air. They should use the number keys to pick a direction. Eventually the numbers will change to maths puzzles and the player must type in an answer in the direction they would like to go.
  6. This involves guessing the height a tree will need to be without the tree colliding into an object. There will be some fractional questions to hint at the number such as 1/3 of 30 or 1/4 of 40. Eventually the questions will turn into decimal numbers and there may even be an angular denomination to the answer.

Two ideas down!

So two ideas of six idealised and thumb-nailed another four more to go. The next blog post should be on Wednesday as this gives me a day for each idea. I am really enjoying this process so far and I am loving some of the ideas already! Thank you so much for reading and I hoped you enjoyed some of these ideas.

“No Idea Is So Outlandish That It Should Not Be Considered With A Searching But At The Same Time A Steady Eye.”

-Winston Churchill