Experimental Game Design

Month: November 2023

Intervention: Uncle Roy Koopa

by | Nov 7, 2023 |

My project is “Uncle Roy Koopa: All Around You,” a scavenger hunt that takes place in Mario Maker 2.

Players enter the level as normal, but will quickly realize that the only way to beat it is to enter a 5-digit code they don’t know. In a floating comment, the character “Uncle Roy Koopa” (based on the koopaling from the original Mario games) explains what’s going on. He says, “The code is at my other home. QX8-G82-2WG.” The sequence he gives is the ID for a completely different level. Players will then have to play that level, explore obscure parts of the map, and find *another* floating comment that states which level to try next. All in all, there are three levels the player has to explore before getting the final code.

The point of this game is to disrupt the way people play Mario Maker levels. In general, the community treats levels as very disposable, playing a level quickly from start to finish, and then forgetting about it. This is very unfortunate to me, since it reflects the increasingly apathetic way that people are engaging with art. Instead of being a meaningful experience that makes people think or feel, people are just consuming and moving on. I wanted to see if I could break that trend by turning a Mario Maker level into a more mysterious, longer-term experience.

The biggest inspiration for this level (probably obvious) was “Uncle Roy: All Around You.” While this game doesn’t have the social aspect of that experience, it does have the element of interacting with the world differently than we normally would. Instead of treating our cities as a simple, start-to-finish experience (go to the store–then we’re done), the game encourages people to find wonder and intrigue by exploring areas of their city they probably don’t normally visit. Because of that, I thought it was a great intervention model to follow.

This game has changed a little bit since I first came up with the idea. The biggest difference from before is that it used to be a social experience, where users would leave comments to pledge that they’d “be there for someone they don’t know.” That isn’t really practical in Mario Maker 2, since the active player base isn’t what it used to be size-wise, and so forming a lot of pairs like the original “Uncle Roy” can’t really happen.

Link to a video of the level: Link

Thoughtless Objectives

by | Nov 7, 2023 | ,

Title: Thoughtless Objectives

Inspiration:

  • Watching the video that Jen and Derek put on with the man deciding what the woman should do and what decisions they should make
  • Then thought about how I write stuff and how others influence my decisions when I’m writing

Supplies:

  1. Notebook/Journal (preferably on the cheaper side)
  2. A pencil or pen

Setup:

  1. There will be one person with a notebook(the notetaker)
  2. Next, there is at least 1 person (a person) who will get the notebook and decide what they want to change in it (They can either overwrite, erase, nothing, or be creative).
  3. There will be a neutral judge that will decide whether the objective is complete or if the objective is possible

Before Playtest:

Gameplay:

  1. The notetaker will write down what they want for two minutes while the person tries to influence their decision (by talking, moving, or anything besides physical interaction)
  2. The notetaker’s goal is to write/draw something that is beneficial for them. Without letting, the person’s influence get to them
  3. When the person gets the notebook, they have 30 seconds to do whatever they want to the notebook. (obviously not destroy the notebook or make it unusable) 
  4. The person’s goal is to either have the notetaker actively write down their influences when they are writing or make the notetaker give up.
  5. There is no end unless the person’s goal is fulfilled or the person gives up

After Playtest:

Gameplay:

  1. The person will give the notetaker an objective (it has to be something that can be written down into the journal and feasible in 2 min)
  2. The notetaker has two minutes to achieve the objective (while the person tries to influence, distract etc)
  3. If the judge decides the notetaker completed their objective then they get 1 point and the roles switch (players can choose who they want to be)
  4. If the judge decides the notetaker did not complete the objective then the person has 30 seconds to mess up whatever the notetaker wrote (they can not make the notebook unusable up to judge’s decision)
  5.  The person gets a point if the notetaker gives up
  6. The first to whatever how many points wins!

 

Objective based-goals:

write/draw everything on a gudetama poster 

Write down page 132 of the book in its entirety 

Write the exact  number of candies that are in that pile on the floor, as the pile exists right now, without removing any candies

Write down 120 words, each of character length greater than 3, and each word has to be unique. Shorthand is not permissible, and the 120 words refers not to “120 words” but rather to the action of writing down all 120 words. 

Write down the hex color code of this blanket

Poster used for one of the objectives

 

 

 

 

 Artist statement: 

The original meaning of the artwork was to mock the simple task of writing a schedule, detailing a plan of action, doodling etc by showing the power random people have seemingly over us and changing/influencing what we want even though it’s our journal. I’m exaggerating my critique on how our minds seemingly function, and questioning why we let people dictate our actions. But as the playtest went on, the meaning of the game changed. It became more of critiquing unrealistic tasks that we are given on a daily basis. Everything from school to home life, it’s all a crumpled mess because doing it all seems impossible. We work so hard to reach a goal only for our work to be rendered useless or something comes up that delays us from accomplishing that goal. The new version of “Thoughtless Objectives” is supposed to be representative of this feeling. Being the notetaker, you are under an immense time crunch, trying your hardest to finish the task while the person is actively trying to sabotage you. The person only wins by making the notetaker give up; this was intentional in order to hit home the idea that there is no real reason for making things difficult for a person besides satisfaction in a person’s misery. Although the task given is supposed to be possible, the person can dance on the line between extremely difficult and impossible. As I witnessed in my playtests, I had a person tell the notetaker to count all the candy on the floor (being over 400 candies). While the notetaker did attempt it, they ultimately failed. On a personal level, there are times where I feel like everything is just conveniently against me. With every mistake I make or extra time I take, the dumber I feel amongst my peers. The more I feel this way the more I listen to others rather than myself. Even with this project, I feel like the real intervening was the playtesters’ feedback vs my original idea.

Intervention: The Northeastern ARG

by | Nov 6, 2023 | ,

Overview:

My intervention project was a Northeastern ARG, or ‘alternate reality game.’ These typically involve using real-world locations or settings and creating a fictitious narrative for players to follow. A lot of times these games involve puzzle-solving, and thus a mysterious and intriguing element is almost tradition for these types of experiences. I decided to follow suit and create a short puzzle game that would take place on campus, with players tasked to uncover data about a supposed “Northeastern Conspiracy” that is hidden somewhere on campus using clues posted in different locations to track it down. 

Rules:

Two locations near to each other on campus were identified, and this is where the ‘clue’ pages were left. I wanted to keep the number of clues needed to solve the puzzle to an absolute minimum so that students passing by would potentially be more interested in playing the ARG as it would be over very quickly. The ‘A’ page contained a key with letters corresponding to numbers and symbols:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ! ^ $ % – * ( ) & + [
a r s g t h y l r f o m e d i n c u b k

Meanwhile, the ‘B’ page contained the location of the data itself, but encoded using this key: 

!2^$ 56% 97-%9 6188 3*4( 5&9( 9*465 1(- 6%1- 1)2^33 56% 359%%5 5^ 56% 5188 42133 12^&(- 56% 3*-% ^! +%621[*3 56% -151 *3 6*–%( *( 56% 42133

In addition to the piece of the clue, the two types of pages would each list the location of the other type of page, meaning that regardless of which page was found first a player would know where they needed to go to make their end of the puzzle work. Put together, the two clues would reveal the following sentence: “From the Ryder Hall sign, turn right and head across the street to the tall grass around the side of Behrakis. The data is hidden in the grass.” Just as the clue states, the ‘data’ (which itself was a piece of paper with text on it) was hidden outside in a weatherproof bag for players to eventually find. 

The paper itself contained an absurd description of the process of paying tuition to the school, described in a way that made it sound like criminal activity. However, it was revealed at the end that this was all a joke and part of my ARG to avoid any unintentional distress or people taking my game more seriously than it was meant. 

Artists Statement:

Certain in-class examples, such as the Barbie Liberation Organization, created scenarios where a false ‘narrative’ was created by intervening in a real-life space. In that instance, a fiction that the toys themselves were rebelling against their company was created using the setting of real stores in a manner that interacted with real people. While my ARG was more interactive than this- I was still inspired to try and use the ARG to facilitate my own fictional narrative. I wanted to create a tongue-in-cheek parody of the idea that there was a conspiracy going on at Northeastern that poked fun at some of the most common student complaints about the University. In this way, it acted as a very small form of protest while simultaneously being an absurd narrative that somehow there was an organization dedicated to uncovering the secrets that players could interact with throughout the game. 

Unfortunately, in my attempts to set it up on campus, I was stopped by student employees at Northeastern both times I tried to put up my posters at my planned locations- unfortunately preventing me from seeing the results of my intervention as I had originally intended. In hindsight, I should have planned to put them in locations that were more free for students to put up posters but I am inherently limited by what I’m allowed to do on campus- and it is possible this project wasn’t feasible given the time I would need to coordinate it with the school. I was also concerned about player participation in my game, and whether or not anyone would take the time to do it. I think had I planned a wider setup of my posters this and the previous problem could have been alleviated.

Photos:

Here are some photos of me attempting to put up the posters and hide the clue: