What is needed:
- First 3 floors of the library
- 3-piece token
- Timer
How to play:
The objective of the game is to find the 3 token pieces and complete the puzzle. Each of the token pieces has been given to random strangers on each floor of the library. You will need to retrieve these pieces from these strangers by asking around and saying a secret passcode. The library is structured so that the first floor is an open work space with no noise restrictions and the third floor is a silent floor so the difficulty increases as you move up the levels. The goal is to complete the puzzle in the fastest time. In my play test, the secret code was “do you have the stuff?” If the stranger has the token he will give you a piece of the puzzle.
The token:
Observations:
Level 1:
The first floor of the library was the easiest. There was absolutely no distinction between the outside world and the first floor of the library due to the fact that there was no restrictions to noise.
Level 2:
As we progressed to the second floor, you could tell that the social norms in the library started to impact the player as he did not breeze through the level and tried to stay quiet when approaching people asking about the passcode.
Level 3:
The third floor was the hardest. Everyone on the third floor was quiet and the player did not want to continue. But after much deliberation he continued with the game when I told him that I will go around the floor with him.
Authors Note:
I was inspired by the in-class discussion and movie about “The Jejune Institute” where much of the game depended on the environment and immersing players into the world, burring the notions of reality. As the players get more involved with the environment the game becomes a reality for them as they are fully immersed in the environment. I wanted to flip this idea and push the boundaries of how social norms in an environment will effect players playing a game. Ultimately I found out that when you, as a player, do not care about anything, especially about how others view you, then you become invincible and this game will be a breeze. For more self-conscious players social norms it becomes incredibly difficult to break social norms. When we got to the third floor, the player did not want to approach students that had headphones on and ask them the passcode because it was not normal. Overall this game pushed the limits of what a game could be transformed to in the context of another environment. If I just played this game in Curry it would be a totally different game because of the social norms in the environment.