Yibing

This is a short narrative game. I used Twine to create this.

This game is inspired by Dys4ia. When player reacts with one scene/page, system directs player to the next one. Also, there are some ‘dialogue’ in the game, which leads player understand the game without any game mechanics introduction.

There is no rules or goals for this game, player only needs to click on the button to interact with the system. Just like talking to a friend. In fact, it was designed for the player who feels bad. If player feels happy, they are not going to play this game, which means the game will just stop for them. If player feels bad, they will need to ‘choose’ the reasons that they feel bad. Then, the system will show some comforting and encouraging sentences with pictures to them.

The reason I designed this game is that, sometimes, when some people feel unhappy, they pretend to hide the emotions in their hearts instead of telling their friends, since they thought they don’t want to ruin their friends’ day. Actually, I am one of these people. I think if there’s someone could ask and comfort me will make me much more better. But it is also important for us to take the initiative to tell others our worries.

In the game, there were several options to choose for showing the reasons of ‘sad’, which they are final week, being sick, upset for no reason, and ‘don’t want to share.’ If the player chose final week, being sick, upset for no reason, 5 encouraging sentences will show up with aesthetic pictures. If the player chose ‘don’t want to share’, the system would ‘tell’ 2 jokes to the player, try to make them feel happy, even though it might be a SPEECHLESS funny.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFpe4CMaoNbHK23zlp4qYHj6Ouhhmu6m/view?usp=share_link

(Please download the link to open.)

Inspiration

Throughout the development of technology and information dissemination, it is easily for people to receive the latest news on their digital devices. However, those fragmented information also cause some anxiety and stress to the viewers. Meditation is one of the useful ways to help people release the pressure. There are two main advantages that meditation brought:

• Wipe away the day’s stress, bringing with it iner space.
• Help restore your calm and inner space.

Also, the mechanics of the game was inspired by Pac Manhanttan, which is that one designated player is trying to catch or interrupt the other players, while players have to elude that player to achieve the goal.

Rules

In the game, there will be:

• n Mediataors, 1 Interruptor
• A 15 minutes meditation audio will be played. After it is finished, the game ended.
• Meditators should close their eyes and follow the instruction until the game ended.
• Interruptor is going to interupt meditators by talking around them. (NO touching or pushing)
• If the meditator laughs or speaks or opens their eyes during the game, they are knock out.

Gameplay process

We played this game in my friend’s house. In the game, there were 5 meditators and 1 interruptor. The interruptor was really good at interrupting. He knocked 2 players out at the very beginning of the game, even though at that moment he was trying to interrupt another player. The player he was trying very hard to interrupt insisted to the end, which is the only meditator who won the game.

Video: https://youtu.be/1e6ph-whpzc

This game is called Draw Something (ART version). There are many Draw Something game you can access online, but this project is related to ART.

Inspiration: Ursonate by Raoul Hausmann.

In Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York, Paris, the author indicated the poem created by Raoul Hausmann and how did Schwitters take Hausmann’s phonemes and “arranged them in new groupings, repetitions, and variations.” Therefore, I was thinking about to make a game that players “arrange” and “recreate” the artwork.

Rules:

1. Need at least 4 players in a group. There will be 1 guesser and n-1 drawers.
2. All players should line up in a straight line and face to the other’s back.
3. The player at the begining of the link checks the picutre and starts drawing. They got 10 seconds to check the picture, and they are not allowed to draw anything until the picture is put away. They got 30 seconds to draw, because they need to draw the main point of the picture so that the drawers could try to get the information and draw on it.
4. The players in the middle of the line continue drawing and pass it to the next player. They got 15 seconds to draw.
5. When the drawing is passed to the guesser, they should guess what artwork/artist/game character it is.

 Additional Infomation:

• NO cheating
• NO written words
• NO talking
• NO drawing after time’s up.

During the class, I got 4 people for the gameplay. I chose Mona Lisa as the picture that the players need to “re-depict”. When the game started, I set up a time for 10 secons and showed the picture of Mona Lisa to Player1 who stands at the beginning of the line. When time’s up, I covered the picture, and gives them 30 seconds to draw the main point of the artwork. When time’s up, I asked them to pass the ipad to Player2. I set up the timer for 15 seconds, and they got 15 seconds to draw. When time’s up, Player3 repeated the step that Player2 have done. After Player3 finished, they passed the drawing to Player4 who is the guesser. Finally, they immediately got the right answer, which is Mona lisa. Amazing!

This is a score inspired by character generator and ‘Grapefruit’ by Ono Yoko.

There are several character generator online that you can use to generate the character. All you need to do just put in the basic information of the character, such as name, gender, and social class. Then, the system will give you the character with their detailed background. It likes the system gives you the story that you did not know before. Some authors and game designers use character generator to create the character when they lack the inspiration.

Moreover, in ‘Grapefruit’ by Ono Yoko, the author indicates the method of ‘omnibus film’, and the process is:

1. Give a print of the same film to many directors.
2. Ask each one to re-edit the print without leaving out any of the material in such a way that it will be unnoticed that the print was re-edited.
3. Show all the versions together omnibus style.

Which means, the participants are going to ‘edit’ the story randomly, and see what they got at the end. Therefore, the idea of letting the participants to make the story without letting each other knows in the process came to me.

This score is called Story Generator.

Prepare:

1. A dice
2. need 6 people in a group
3. Set the basic information of story by pulling cards: character’s pronounce, characteristic, favorite food, something hate; the journey day’s weather, the most important people to the character. (each person pulls one card)

Rules:

Each side of the dice represents its corresponding requirement.

Each player roll the dice once at the whole play round. If you get repeated number as the previous player, you roll it again.

After rolling the dice, each player should some short sentences for their own requirement. The players are not allowed to discuss the story line until everyone finished their paragraph.

Dice:

If you got 1- Please write down the destination that the character wants to reach and the reason to go to this destination.

It could be a castle, a dream island, or even their friend’s house…wherever you want it to be.

If you got 2-Please write down 2-3 difficulties that the character encountered during the journey and describe it.

It does not matter whether the character has overcome it or not, it’s up to you.

If you got 3-Please write down 1-2 tools that you think could help the character to overcome the difficulties. (you don’t know what the difficulties are) It could be also be a weapon. Whatever you want.

If you got 4-Please write down a lucky thing that the character encounters during the journey.

If you got 5-Please write down a very interesting thing that the character encounters during the journey. Just use your imagination.

If you got 6-You are the one to who decides the end of the story. Whether the character reaches the destination or not? If yes, what does the character see at the end? If not, why?

After finish writing, let’s do discussion:

• Each player read the paragraph and try to connect each them together.
• See what happened in the story.
• Is it a sad story or happy story?

*It’s very fun to make non-sense story!

We did the score in class, and there were 6 participants joined. Let’s see what story we got:

Once upon a time, there is a person named ‘the character’, which prounce as ‘he/him’. His is a optimistic person, and his favortie food is sushi. The most important person to him in his life is his good friends, and he hates monsters. One day, that was a cloudy day, he decided to go to the Mountain of tiredness. But there is the tiredness debuff at the mountain, which is need to sleep 15 hours a day. He brount an umbrella and chainsaw with him for the journey. However, he met many difficulties during the journey. He was chased by rabbid dogs, and he got lost on the way to the moutain. Also, he slipped on a wet path and injured his leg. Fortunately, he wasn’t seriously hurt, and he discovered an uneaten cake ready to eat. Delicious! After that, when he was approaching the mountain, Lady Gaga was there and performed for him, and she also signed an autograph for him. How nice she is! Finally, he reaches the Mountain of tiredness and found a freshly-baked pie to eat. He could finally get a good night’ sleep.

Work Citation

@character-generator.org.uk. (n.d.). Character generator. Character Generator. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.character-generator.org.uk/

Yoko, O., & Lennon, J. (n.d.). Grapefruit: A Book of Instruction and Drawings.