Experimental Game Design

Month: March 2015

Intervention: Minecraft Infrastructure

by | Mar 17, 2015 | , ,

Statement:

I decided to download a pre-made Minecraft map that contained a city, change my character to look like an engineer, and then go through the city and inspect its infrastructure, culminating in me granting it a grade.  The infrastructure I inspected was mostly things like highways and transit systems; as the map, understandably, did not include structures like a water treatment facility or dam.

Some intentions of this work were to highlight the suspension of disbelief inherent in Minecraft, as well as to bring up a topic which is often outside of the spotlight in reality, and largely non-existent in the game: the maintenance and inspection of infrastructure.  A common assumption in Minecraft is that what you, the player, build will basically remain a monolith untouched by the passage of time; one of my goals in this work was to challenge that assumption.

Documentation:

Bridge

The bridge can be seen here.  Due to numerous broken suspension cables, it has received a grade: F, and has been deemed unsafe for use.

 

Rail

The rails are shown here.  Due to their sturdy construction, decent maintenance, and lack of protective railings, they have received grade: B.

 

Road

The roads are shown here.  Due to their quality construction and flawless maintenance they have received grade: A.

 

Waterway

The waterway is illustrated here.  Because of its lack of pollution and the absence of much flood prevention measures,it has received grade: B.

 

Transit

The transit system is depicted here.  Due to the sturdy building materials, decent maintenance, and exposed wiring, it has received grade: B.

 

Park

The park is shown here.  Due to its small size, lack of public facilities, and poor lighting at night (possibly reducing safety), it has received grade: C.

 

Report

This is the infrastructure report card, illustrating the various grades given to the different parts of the city.

New Intervention Proposal

by | Mar 14, 2015 | ,

Thinking about the last assignment (the Appropriation), which I really enjoyed the final product of, I decided to extend the theme of that into the next project and make the Appropriation into an Intervention as well.

Which brings us to the return of Dinglehopper.

I have designed a poster that I can hang up on various items around the Northeastern campus, stating that the object it is attached to is “not used for _______”. I will fill in the item’s actual purpose in that blank, and then leave it with the instructions for readers to take a picture and Tweet the result using a specific hashtag (#dinglehopperNU). I have set up a Twitter account and Tumblr to track the Tweets, and will post what I think is the “best of the day” each day next week on the Tumblr. I am hoping this will add a little more imagination to students’ days, and maybe drum up some interest in the original card game as well, eventually. I still plan on pursuing that one independently this summer, so more awareness is always good.

I am thinking of a list of places to put the posters right now; interesting places may include dining halls, janitorial closets, random classrooms, and more. For documentation, I will have the Twitter record of #dinglehopperNU, as well as the Tumblr account. I may try to run some analysis to see if the game grows more popular each day, and may even try getting other schools involved (#dinglehopperBU, for example, could be fun).

Current poster design is Here.
The Tumblr page is Here.
The Twitter page is Here.

PlayArt Web Site

by | Mar 11, 2015 |

Hi all:

Bernie DeKoven, author of The Well-Played Game, and my personal play guru, posted this article about a web site devoted to art that engages with play. http://www.aplayfulpath.com/playart/ Many of the artists and movements featured in this class can be seen here.

Intervention Proposal

by | Mar 7, 2015 |

For my proposal, I intend to do an intervention with Dota 2.

Dota 2 is a popular free to play game on Steam that evolved from the original DotA on the Warcraft 3 engine. In this game, players play 5 on 5 matches that has each player pick a specific hero with their own abilities. Each hero plays a unique role in the team, and the team must work together to win the game.

Heroes in Dota 2 are traditionally pigeon-holed into roles, like tank, support, carry, etc. Playing heroes outside their respective roles tends to lead to failure, and subsequently, intense ridicule and disdain from your teammates. I intend to play 5 separate matches playing heroes outside of their designated roles, while still trying to win the game.

Procedure:

1. Choose a hero

2. Pick a role opposite the normal role (i.e. Carry => support, tank => carry, etc)

3. Observe responses from teammates.

4. Observe responses after success competing using hero in a different role.

intervention; a taste of the future

by | Mar 6, 2015 |

for my intervention project, i want to do something for our future,

materials

marker pen

large paper sign

multiple items that can be functions as a container ;etc hat, cup, shoe

 

procedure

write with marker pen on several paper; “in case everything goes down”

put the sign near each major academic building. ext, school of business, school of art, school of computor science, within the NEU campus

put a item that is relative to the building’s teaching object under the sign. example; next to school of computor science, put a broken monitor underneath the sign

put some spare change and coin in each of the container.

 

 

The Great Sign Hunt

by | Mar 6, 2015 | ,

For the intervention I would like to set up a treasure hunt of signs put up around campus for people passing by to take part if they wish. Each sign would direct to a different sign somewhere on campus where they can sign the poster and move on to the next location if they want! The game could be picked up from any sign and dropped whenever the participants grow tired of it.

Proposal

by | Mar 6, 2015 | ,

My proposal would involve entering a grocery store, and finding all the products that claim to “Vegetarian,” but are really not. The players travel in a group, with one player holding a pack of post-it notes. When players find an edible product that claims to be vegetarian, but is not, the player that finds it writes the non-vegetarian ingredients of the food on a post it note and pastes it beneath the item’s shelf tag.

This would create a lot of interesting dialogue between the players, as there are numerous facets to vegetarianism, and any different forms. I think it would be interesting to see how this would work in a setting where people are constantly moving.

Intervention Proposal

by | Mar 6, 2015 | ,

I intend to download a Minecraft map someone has made that looks like a city and change my character to look like an engineer, ideally a civil engineer; although, civil engineers don’t have any particularly iconic attire as far as I am aware.  I will then go through the city and basically pretend to inspect its infrastructure, after which I will give it a grade.  I expect the infrastructure to mostly be things like highways and sewers, but maybe the map will come with a dam or maybe I could make one, it largely depends on whether I feel it’s necessary at the time.

Alternative:

I could grade people’s stuff on a multiplayer server, though this would be a bit more difficult to adequately record any would rely on their cooperation somewhat.

 

 

Intervention Proposal

by | Mar 6, 2015 | ,

I will be walking around the show floor, and surrounding area, of PAX East taking pictures of anyone I see holding, or playing on a 3DS console. I will then upload those photos to a Twitter account I have created for the expressed purpose of presenting photos of people on their 3DS game consoles. As I am walking around the show floor I will too have a 3DS which will be on and using the “Streetpass” feature of the system to send messages to other people’s 3DS consoles, informing them of the Twitter page, and its content.

The Twitter page can be found here: https://twitter.com/On3DSatPAX

igf game showcase; a sailor’s song

by | Mar 4, 2015 |

a sailor’s song is a game by simogo, the same company that made the interactive novel “device 6” and the thrilling puzzle adventure game “year walk”. a sailors song is very much like a product between those two, somewhere between a interactive novel and a puzzle game. is a game about exploring the different island, gathering different stories and listening to its relaxed and refreshing music.

unlike device 6, which is a interactive novel, a sailor’s song contains much less words and readings, but having more visual elements and animations like “year walk”. which is a reason why it got honorable mention for best visual on igf.

a sailor’s song is a very arty game, the mechanic being scrolling around with your finger to travel through locations and clicking for most interactions. rather than playing a game, i find playing a sailor’s song more as a kind of experience, and it has given me some pleasant times to spent with.