It turns out that as part of the brainstorming process, I spend a lot of time staring blankly into the distance. I kept scanning the room, hoping for inspiration. I kept hitting up my pile of books and the game design books, in particular, were staring back at me accusingly. Homo Ludens, right? Right! As part of a project to come up with a narrative game to play on Twine, I sat down to think about potential stories. I chose the Rapid Fire & Refinement process primarily because I didn't have enough colored index cards to work through idea cards - I might follow up with that, though, as I start to work on an actual narrative. There's something compelling about spreading out words on a table or white board and it feels very IDEO-inspired. For someone who studies visual art for a career, I know that I am remarkably awful at mind-mapping, so the idea trees didn't seem the right path for me. I didn't spend time with it, but the "What if..." scenario might actually end up informing what I do. I'd definitely need to work more with this process, though, as you'll see. So, Rapid Fire. Possibly because I've been playing Pre-Dynastic Egypt, the first thing I wrote down was "Djoser builds a tomb." We (my brain and I) went from there. I basically starting writing down every pre-modern tomb monument that I regularly teach about. I admit that I had to wrack my brain a bit for a few of the names - Puabi isn't always at the top of my mind, but her funerary objects are wonderful! After hitting Mausoleus, I started to wonder if I was going to come up with the GOAT mausoleum game - but after a hearty minute of blank staring (followed by a brief "What if Mausoleus walked into a bar and found Shihuangdi, Djoser, Queen Puabi and Lord Pakal chatting about their burial choices over their choice of beverage?") ... Gutzom Borglum popped into my head. I figure if my mind is set on dead people monuments, I might as well head to South Dakota. I grew up in South Dakota, so I know this monument well and that's probably why I haven't yet come up with anything for this as a game. How did Borglum come to South Dakota? How did he access the Hill? In today's world there's a recognition of the loss to the Native America inhabitants of the Black Hills - so why wasn't there then? I think that there are a lot of ways to get to something interesting and informative with this topic, but I'm not there yet. Instead, my head went to the first VERY hot night I spent several years ago in Florence, Italy. I arrived very late one evening after a series of awful delays (is it awful to delay in Belgium, then in Germany? - awful might not be the right word), without suitcases and ready to drop into an air conditioned hostel dorm. When, gloriously THIS was across the street from my stay. At around 10 pm, I stood across from the Palazzo Pitti listening to an open air opera. There were people sitting on the piazza enjoying a glass of wine. But, it was hot. And it turns out I know exactly how the next train of thought happened: I saw my fan. I have a fan sitting right next to my desk (a tragic mid-summer AC event is the cause of this proximity). It's not the same fan that helped me through my evening in Florence, but I learned after living in Europe that summers = fans. So my mind went here, "The only fan in a room full of hot, sweaty opera singers." Huh. Originally my mind was focused on the cooling object, but then I thought about the play on words, perhaps there is only one fan(atic) in a room full of sweaty opera singers. I took my way through the process to consider how a game might come out of this one.
How does the Fan choose which singer to give the fan? Is there an interview? Are the singers actually opera characters? Perhaps the interview is of Pagliacci or Aida or Brunhilde? The mechanics are a bit of a loss to me at the moment. It would possibly play well to set up a sort of To Tell the Truth type of narrative. This would allow a player, who probably has little knowledge of opera, to follow a knowledge path, even if an early question was answered incorrectly - there would be ways forward to a decision. I'm not sure, though, whether this kind of "what if" scenario is speculative. In returning to my first "five ancient rulers walk into a bar" scenario, at least I know what Mausoleus ultimately decided - a mishmash of Egyptian, Greek and Persian influences (actually I probably need to get Darius or Xerxes in the mix). I don't know yet what my hypothetical opera fan might wish to do. In both of these potential narratives, a player could learn more about a topic: ancient tombs or opera characters. I definitely see the potential for Twine, but I'll need to keep the brainstorm going to flesh out a narrative.
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It is always nice to get confirmation that, in the tradition of the Oracle at Delphi, I somewhat "know myself." It turns out that the Quantic Foundry Gamer Motivation Profile machine thinks I like long, immersive games in which I can go find (steal) a bunch of hidden treasures while blowing up and/or killing as few NPCs and main characters as the game will possibly allow. This interesting engine provides players with a sort of abbreviated Myers-Briggs personality test for gamers. Instead of telling you whether you are more inclined toward Thinking or Feeling, Quantic helps you figure out if you're inclined toward ... thinking or feeling, after a fashion. Do you like the quest for hidden treasure like I do? Then you're likely someone who appreciates "completion" as an achievement. The list of games that Quantic provides for this, my highest percentage of happiness, includes games I've played or have always wanted to like Assassin's Creed (making my way through all of them), Elder Scrolls (I hit Morrowind pretty hard back in my grad school/dissertation avoidance days, but haven't managed Skyrim due to the unfortunate state of being employed). I keep hearing about Animal Crossing, but lack the system to play it just yet. Plus, as with Skyrim, I kind of fear the time crunch should I become deeply involved. I LIKE to world-wander. I LIKE to interact with the Joe Schmoes of large worlds. I LIKE to look behind rocks to find secret passages and to engage with the small puzzles (or magnificent parcour challenges) found there. Taking my likes into consideration, Quantic Foundry says that I would enjoy Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain, developed by Quantic Dream (connection to Quantic Foundry?), was the top game recommendation for me at a match of 7.5/10. igdb.com describes the game as a "cinematic thriller ... revolv[ing] around a sophisticated plot and strong narrative threads that explore a complex moral proportions. You assume the role of multiple characters with very different backgrounds, motivations and skills in a world where each player decision affects what will follow." www.igdb.com/games/heavy-rain
Available on PC (Steam), PS4 and PS3, I haven't played the game, which came out in 2010. On Amazon, reviewers from 2020 are still reporting on the game. Reviewer Steve Wood describes the game as "[m]ore of an interactive movie than a video game...." Reviewer Queen mentioned that they were kept busy during quarantine, which sounds like the type of thing that I could enjoy. The description of this game gives me a bit of pause, since it seems to be founded in fairly deep serial killer themes, but I am definitely curious about the "cinematic" interactive narrative that is described. I often talk to my students in my Visual Narrative/Visual Storytelling class that the new interactivity of videogames is not so dissimilar from the old interactivity of medieval illuminated manuscripts. Maybe I'll push myself to see if that is true with this game. If I think about my player type: Calm, Spontaneous, Driven, Independent, Deeply Immersed, Practical... I know that Quantic has my number. I've been playing Pre-Dynastic Egypt without reference or concern for finishing on time, I just want to keep playing. I want to build up the world on my own time, so the turn-based play doesn't really motivate me. The open world is the world for me. Karl Kapp's The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Chapter 2 discusses the significant elements found in a game. Predynastic Egypt is an empire-building simulation game that seems directed toward an audience interested in learning about Egypt in the age before the pyramids - so ... me. While it is an engaging game for those of us who get a thrill contemplating the cultivation of papyrus, I wouldn't call it a particularly exciting game. Still, it has all of the elements of a successful game. It's got really obvious goals for victory... but I have to admit that I don't really anticipate A) achieving the victory conditions in 220 turns or B) getting that upset about it. Right up front it says that you can keep playing past the 220. The motivation of achieving the 220 is not made clear - what do you get? what do you NOT get if you don't achieve the goal in the turns allotted? Conflict, another game element, is most obvious according to Kapp "To win a challenge, the player must actively defeat an opponent." In Egypt, the player - actually an entire tribe of settler/farmer/warrior/trader/priests - encounters challenges such as the breath of Seth blowing in the sands of the Sahara or a military threat from a neighboring tribe. The first can be approach through fortuitous use of religious appeasement - burning incense - and the second can be met head on through battle or avoided through ... avoidance. The player is given options of how to proceed in any point of conflict. Do you attack, frighten or flee from a pack of jackals? Conflict in Egypt is exceptionally low stakes if you don't fear the consequence. Without the strong motivation of caring about overall victory goals in 220 turns, conflict takes on lower impact. If the jackals run away after frightening them, great! If they attack your flocks, then what? You add more turns to your play. Again, since it's not clear what the point of the 220 might be, it's hard to rally around that. The Aesthetics of this game are first rate. As someone who is no expert, but who has taught sections on ancient Egyptian art and architecture for close to 20 years, I have to give kudos to the art team. The spirit of ancient decorative architecture and the stylization of the figural images of humans and animals is spot on. Even the images of the jackals above wouldn't be entirely out of place on a wall painting. Granted, the anachronistic use of a more New Kingdom-esque type of imagery in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages stands out, but that isn't really the point of the game and is only fodder for a good old fashioned petty quibble. I enjoy navigating especially through the Discoveries board, which is where the designers have done well with creative narrative images. I'm curious if the hieroglyphs in the background are accurate or fantastic interpretations. I suppose I should mention that the last paragraph is why it's taking me so darn long to make it through this game. I just really don't care if I play past the 220 turns, since I'm enjoying the art and the historic info bytes that are the real rewards from my perspective.
If I think about how these particular game elements might be used in learning, I'd tend to default to the goals and conflict. One thing that I talk to my students about all the time is that they have to identify THEIR goal in the course - it might not always coincide with what the professor states right up front on the syllabus. Can they see a professor as a course designer? The goals are stated up front - or at least they should be - but can a student see their way through the conflicts (assignments? assessments?) to the end game? Can a course be gamified from the very start by redefining the syllabus as a leveled-up learning environment? I know that classes can function this way, but I would be curious how to start with the syllabus - the rule book, if you will. I'm sure Google will give me hundreds of examples if I type in "gamify your syllabus," but I'm planning to give this some more significant thought. |
Maureen the Gamer
Professor. Administrator. Gamer. Cat Lady. Not necessarily in that order. Blogging the game design process since 2020. Archives
January 2024
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