Month: April 2015

Cop Training Simulator 2K15

Jeff Feinberg

Tyler Kaminsky

Cop Training Simulator 2K15 is a parody target gallery game in which the player must shoot at targets that spring up from behind a wall.  When the player shoots a target with a white character on it, they lose points.  If the player shoots a target with a black character on it, points are rewarded to the player.  We chose to do this to essentially make a game commentary on the actions of many police officers in the country’s recent history.

Originally, we had an ammo limit in the game, but we took that out in an attempt to mirror situations in which people are shot multiple times by police.

The game has two end states.  The player wins when all black targets are shot and loses if all white targets are shot.  Upon shooting a black target, the player is praised, but shooting white targets is met with a stern finger wag.

CTS2K15

 

 

The Equation Group: Final Iteration

General Description:

You’re an informed individual living in a world obscured by enemies.  You can choose to fight back and see the world for what it is, try to inform others, or simply live with it.


Artist’s Statement:

The experience I wanted to provide in this game was that of feeling frustration while trying to help others, as well as a feeling that you’re being obstructed and blinded unless you take action.  I also wanted to make sure there was the option to not fight and just live with the obstruction.  I think I succeeded fairly well in crafting an appropriate experience.

I also wanted to send a message that there’s a bunch of domestic surveillance programs in the U.S. and that something should be done about them.  I tied this to the main game mechanic by having it display the names of some of these programs, hopefully leading to the player googling them or something.  I really just wanted to increase awareness about this issue as well as the issue of people not really caring that they’re being spied on.

I had also intended to make the instruction screen a bit difficult to read, making it difficult to find out what is going on and how to do something about it.  This was done in order to relate to how it is difficult to figure out what kinds of surveillance are going on and what to do about them; however, during the presentation, the projector ended up making it significantly more difficult to see that what I’d intended.

Additionally, I wanted to make the actions of fighting back and informing people simple and easy (control-wise), but still make sense, and I think that having it be one button (left-mouse button) worked out nicely.  I also think that having the core mechanic of my game be so closely tied to its message was commendable.

I think that overall I was fairly successful in getting my message across, and if nothing else I improved greatly from the play-testing sessions.

Also, I wanted the central game mechanic (hitting the eyes away/informing people) to inform the player as well if possible.  I think that I did an ok job of it by making the hit bubbles have the names of spying programs in them, and the mechanic walked a thin line between being too vague and being too cumbersome to read.


Here’s a .zip with a .app and .exe (and data folder for the .exe)

Final

Frustrition – Final

Artist’s Statement

Frustrition features a simple enough mechanic, but expresses the ease with which people can frustrate those around them, and be frustrated as well. By allowing players to utilize “kingmaking” mechanics, and by typically penalizing players more for failing trivial tasks, the goal of Frustrition is to drive the players up the wall and to each others’ throats.

The game draws its title from an amalgam of the words Frustration (n: the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something), and Attrition (n: the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure). Combined, I think they express something that many people often feel: that the world around them is out to confound them, and there is nothing they can do about it.

While my original concept was to mimic this behavior with a resource management system, I found through testing that that wasn’t as clear in its execution, and didn’t convey the emotion of frustration with the game. In fact, that original concept was incredibly boring, and often resulted in unwinnable scenarios (which, while also frustrating, is not good design). However, I now believe that this game is not only playable, winnable, and quick (a must for such a casual game), but also fun. While players may feel frustration, I don’t think it is so much in direct response to the mechanics of the game not working now.

 

The links below are to the rules document and the game’s cards, which should be printed and cut out along the black lines. Other materials required are an 8-sided die, and possibly up to 36 small counters to mark Frustration that players have accumulated.

Frustrition Rules (PDF)
Frustrition Cards (PDF)

Eyer: Iteration 2

Hey, I was about to post my play-test builds and realized that I forgot to post my second iteration, so here’s the second iteration build.  This build was bugged, but when you ran the project in Unity (the program I made it with) then it worked fine.  Unfortunately I have since overwritten those files in Unity, so the bugged build is the only authentic thing I have.  This build is only for windows.

iteration_2

 

Inevitable Failure

For my game I am using Twine to create a game that emphasizes disappointment. The main method of getting this across is by making it impossible to succeed no matter which of the many choices you make.  Each play through takes at least five minutes with nine distinct endings and numerous paths to get there.

 

The Story:

You play as a man who has had his wife’s locket stolen from him. Your quest is to travel and find the thief who stole the locket, travelling to places such as Mount Firecore, the Haunted Forest, and the Old Manor. It doesn’t matter how you get there though, because it will always end the same way.

 

The Game:

Inevitable Failure

Cop Training Sim 2K15

Jeff Feinberg

Tyler Kaminsky

 

Cop Training Simulator is a simple target shooting game in which the player must click on targets that appear on screen to shoot them.  The player is either awarded or decremented points based on the targets they hit.

 

Any time the player shoots a minority target, they gain points.  Any time a non-minority target is shot, points are taken from the player.

Below is a draft of potential art for the different in-game targets.  Also discussed was the use of photos of real people that we could find online.

Cop Sim 2015