As I began to design the final game of the semester, I listened to some great advice from our last Zoom meeting: follow the format. Our format is Construct 3 and following our play through of two different tutorials in the last few weeks, I've chosen - for the moment - to design a platformer game.
VocabulArt Heist is a single-player vocabulary-builder game intended for a middle school art student. The player is, themselves, an art student visiting a Great Museum, hoping someday to become a Curator. While wandering the halls, they encounter a Master Thief who has stolen all of the vocabulary necessary to describe the works of art. By navigating galleries dedicated to painting, sculpture and architecture, the Student Hero gathers appropriate vocabulary associated with the different mediums so that the great works can be described once again! The end goal is to successfully gather correct vocabulary terms on each level so that artworks in the level galleries and final gallery can be described and the Master Thief defeated. What will players do during the game? Players will run/jump/hit/avoid vocabulary term icons that are thrown at them by the Master Thief. Each correct vocabulary term gathered (9 per level) will be added to their student satchel. The player will then use the vocabulary terms to describe a work of art in the gallery on each level. If, during play, they gather an incorrect vocabulary term, they must return to the start of the level. At the final gallery, they will have three works of art to describe - each work of art will have three associated vocabulary terms. The characters and other elements. Players will have the choice to name their character and choose an "art outfit" of black turtleneck, pashmina, chunky jewelry, and/or beret. Vocabulary icons will be placed within miniature ornate frames. The Master Thief will have a Snidely Whiplash appearance. Gameplay takes place in a gallery-type Great Museum that remains "still" in the background layer while the player navigates the screen from left to right. Basic interactions during gameplay. This will be a platformer game with the added presence of the Master Thief throwing the vocabulary terms at the Player. Players encounter vocabulary terms and must identify correct terms by jumping on top of them. They must avoid incorrect terms by jumping over them. Correct vocabulary terms will be applied within a descriptive sentence at the "boss" match at the end of each level. The Big Boss final gallery will require the player to identify one work from each medium in order to defeat the Mater Thief. Learning objectives. Upon completing game play, students will have recognized correct vocabulary terms associated with different artistic mediums. Players then apply knowledge by correctly using the vocabulary terms to describe works of art. The game is intended to reinforce classroom learning and likely requires prior encounter with the terms. Suggested player level: middle school. This could also be a quick and silly addition to a high school or college-level course instead of a quiz. What are the achievements within the game? At the successful completion of each level (including the gathering of nine correct vocabulary terms and then correctly applying the terms to artworks), players will be awarded medals from the Museum Director (Jr. Curator, Curator, Chief Curator). The Master Thief will be ultimately captured upon the completion upon the completion of three successful levels at which point the Student becomes a Chief Curator. A score board can provide the player with feedback on time of play, of success/error percentages in capturing the vocabulary and success/error percentages in description. How do these achievements relate to assessment of learning objectives? The game can be replayed until correct answers are achieved. The game replaces basic quizzing/matching for vocabulary acquisition. Successful achievement of the Chief Curator medal indicates a successful understanding of the vocabulary terms. Concerns about the design. I have conceived of a design that relies heavily on an aesthetic dynamic that will likely be under-realized through the development of the first prototype. Regardless, my strongest concern revolves around the platformer's reliance on manual dexterity and quick visual recognition as the chief game mechanics. I wouldn't want to discourage students for whom these are not easy skills. Likewise, I'm concerned that the level of the game (art vocabulary) is more typically appropriate for an AP/High School or College level and I'm not sure that a platformer/vocabulary builder is age and experience appropriate. It is possible that I need to design in a glossary function at some point, but I haven't figured out how/whether to do that.
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Construct is an online video game making software. On this venue, game developers can create simple versions of their games for quick play and, more importantly, early play tests. Over the course of just a few hours, I played five different games, ranging from Mario-esque jump & collect games (Key & Shield, Kiwi Story) to gorgeously evolved interactive narrative games (Revenge of the Dog) to a Doom/Hexen throwback (Demonoire), and to the most evolved: a hybrid of narrative/jump & collect/find the hidden mystery game (Guitar Hero). I spent the most time with two of the games, but chose Guitar Hero - I'll explain the misleading name below - for my playtest. The Play Matrix The Play Matrix presented by the Game Design Workshop (https://flylib.com/books/en/2.489.1/) chapter 8 has the premise that playtesters need a context in which to consider the game critique process. This simple tool puts a continuum of Mental Calculation and Physical Dexterity on the vertical axis; Skill and Chance are the continuum on the horizontal. Among the games I played, Guitar Hero involved the most complicated mechanics and play style. Ultimately, I believe it falls well into the Skill arena, but relies marginally more on Mental Calculation than the Physical Dexterity. Guitar Hero was designed by Manguía in response to a challenge from the Constructor2 Deception Jam. At first, I thought only the title of the game was the deception: obviously Guitar Hero is a well-known interactive game that has nothing to do with a flying yellow anthropomorphized guitar. In this game our hero has the job of finding the missing record for the old record player. The hero happily hops through a few rooms searching for keys and rewards that will lead to the record. The player has to use some manual dexterity to navigate the cartoon-like rooms in a Mario-esque timed jump system; however, the mental calculation comes into play with the search for keys, through darkened rooms and over obstacles. The real deception doesn't happen until the last room and then, the player doesn't even know that a deception is to be had. An experienced player will know that the sleeping safe with snoring Zs overhead needs to be moved. How to do that is the deception. In the description of the game, the designer tells a player to use the arrow keys for navigation and the X key to enter rooms. No other keys are mentioned. Of course, those Zs overhead are the clue. There is another key that the player can use - the Z key can push/pull the safe out of the way and the record is found! I thought at one point that this game would be just another jumping game like Key & Shield or Kiwi Story and I think it would be easy to move the game into the Physical (I'm interpreting this as Manual) Dexterity quadrant; however, what makes the game unique (beyond the absolutely charming graphics and musical score) is the need to search the rooms for the clues to move you forward toward the real deception. I don't consider Chance to be really a part of this game; however, if I'm honest, it was pretty much Chance and not really skilled extrapolation of the scene that led me to using the Z key to move the safe.
I'll end this post with a link to each of the games that I played. I can highly recommend Revenge of the Dog, which not only had the most sophisticated and beautiful graphics, but also had a wonderfully simple story to tell. Guitar Hero by Manguía: https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/guitar-hero-169/play Key & Shield: https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/key-shield-184/play?via=mh Kiwi Story: https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/kiwis-adventure-1/play Revenge of the Dog: https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/revenge-dog-2378/play?via=c5 Demonoire: https://www.construct.net/en/free-online-games/demonoire-2/play |
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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