williamssb

Official Rules:

1. Use WASD to move
2. Reach the Bed

Game Link:
https://play.unity.com/en/games/2faa68b0-3fc1-4e80-83a1-345bd5f64cd0/time-game

Description:

The game I made was a 2D puzzle game where the player tries to grab key items (Food, toothbrush) and avoid distractions(phone, friends, TVs) in order to head to bed on time.

Playtest #1:

In the early phases of the game there was only a friend and a phone as well as the bed. Because of these limiting options, there was only one level but it worked well enough as a proof of concept.

After this playtest there was a request from the playtesters for more variety of distractions and key items.

Playtest #2:

During this time there were 3 levels of varying difficulty, including key items and an added TV distraction. Player feedback was there should be a few more components as well as more challenging levels

Summary:

I initially wanted to make an art game commentary on easily it is to ruin your sleep by seemingly harmless distractions. My initial idea was a time game based around a sort of clock system. The clock would increase after each action you do and depending on the action you take it might consume more or less time.

I diverted from this idea because although it was an interesting concept, im not the biggest fan of text games and much prefer puzzle games. That is when i was inspired by a classmate’s 2D puzzle game that used direction inputs to change the puzzle. Through this inspiration, I decided to make my own 2D puzzle game and I created a (kind of) turn-based grid system puzzle game.

Instructions:

Get a group of players

The group of players will take pictures of each other during their daily life when they are doing tasks that the list considers to be considered good or bad.

When a player is caught doing something bad, they lose ‘Citizen Points’

When a player is caught doing something good, they gain ‘Citizen Points’

Players will start with ‘25 citizen points’ which is the baseline of an average citizen

Whoever has above or equal to the average level of citizen points gets insurance(they win), and whoever has the least citizen points will be ‘re-educated in a public facility’(they lose and have to go on a mile run).

Some good tasks are pictures that capture the person

• Eating fruit
• Putting trash in its respective bins
• Cooking your own food
• Greeting someone
• Giving compliments
• Praising the government

Some bad tasks are pictures that capture the person:

• Eating takeout
• Eating sugar or junk food
• Wasting energy
• Not putting trash in its respective bins
• Ignoring someone
• Putting on your left shoe
• Not being patriotic when seeing a flag
• Looking at your phone in the presence of two or more people

Each time a bad task is recorded, the recorded citizen will lose 5 Citizen Points  and the recorder will gain 1 citizen points.

Each time a good task is recorded, the recorded citizen gains 1 citizen point and the recorder will gain 2 citizen points.

At the end of the day, tally up all the photos

Playtest Notes:

During the playtest, there was some amount of tension whenever someone brought out their phone to take a photo, unfortunately, because of the short playtest duration (4 or so hours), however the playtest pointed out a flaw of the two-player design where the players felt like they werent always constantly surveilled, removing some of the tension. Thus a change was made to the rules to make it more of a group game, in order to better affect daily life.

Citizen One lost 10 points for:
1. Eating sugar or junk food

2. Eating sugar or junk food

Citizen Two who lost 15 points for:

1. putting on his left shoe
2. Eating sugar or junk food
3. Eating sugar or junk food

Summary:

This work was inspired by a lot of the real-world intervention games we saw in class such as the Men in Grey and the jejune institute which brought the game and its commentary into everyday life. 

In this way I wanted people to start noticing how much people are surveilled in public and how many cameras are pointed at people in their everyday lives. The way I decided to do this was to use the people who played the game as cameras and viewpoints into the other players’ lives. To make them more conscious of these ‘cameras’ and their actions of observing them, I assigned point values and punishments to create a feeling of tension whenever there is another player present. Of course, this game would be best played among friends to make the message impactful but not uncomfortable.

Final Game Instructions (2 Players):

Get Random Words:

• Open up on this computer https://wheelofnames.com/ to pick your words (words should already be there)
• Give both players 10-15 seconds to scan the list of possible objects before starting.

Roles:

• Choose one player to be the Director and the other to be the Builder (switch roles each round).

Gameplay:

• The Director randomly spins the wheel of names and writes down the object without showing it to the Builder.
• The Director gives instructions on how to build the object in Minecraft, but they can’t say what the object is.
  • Example: The Director can say “Build a tall wall with stone blocks” or “fill in that hole with water” but not “Build a house” or “Make a pond.”
• The Director can make 1-2 clarifications per instruction to specify how to perform the action if the builder is not performing the action as the Director envisioned.
  • Example: “Build a wall horizontally instead of vertically”
  • This does not mean you can add more actions to your instruction. For example you cannot say “Break the floor and replace it with stone”
• The Builder follows the instructions and guesses what they are building while they construct it, however, they are limited to 3 guesses for every instruction the Director gives.

Scoring:

• Count how many instructions the Director gives.
• The goal is to guess the object with the fewest instructions possible.

Switch & Repeat:

• After the round, discard the object and pick a new one.
• Switch roles and repeat the process.

End of the Game:

• The lowest amount of instructions given is your teams high score, go brag about it or something

Playtest #1 Notes:

On my first playtest, my two roommates swiftly resolved the game because initially Players created the prompt cards and thus they could easily guess what the generated words are after a very few amount of instructions as they had a hand in creating them. 

Playtest #2 Notes:

The second playtest went better as I changed the rules to allow for a randomly generated prompt that the director got through a website. However, as the game progressed it became clear that the Builder often misinterpreted the directions in unexpected ways and guessed wildly complex objects, leading to the game dragging on for a while. The players were also annoyed by the lack of a mouse, forcing them to play on a trackpad which is difficult in its own right. From this playtest I realized the following changes were necessary.

1. The director should be allowed to give instructions as a Clause, not to many clarifying questions.
2. Let both players have 10 seconds to scan the list before starting to reduce rounds taken and wildness of guesses.
3. The game should be played with a mouse.

Summary:

My work was inspired by how much Minecraft has been appropriated and turned into different games by many fans of the game. I was also inspired by pictionary, which in itself is a game that takes objects and appropriates them into an artist’s interpretation. I also wanted to take some inspiration from the Dada movements by twisting this version of Pictionary, ensuring the artist in charge of drawing is not the one in control of the direction they’re given leading to the game that was made.

   Final Rules:

1. Find a friend who you may share this experience with
2. Find a piece of paper and a chunk of charcoal
3. Draw something that comes to mind with the charcoal
4. Pass the charcoal over to your friend and have them do the same
5. Continue this cycle until the paper accidentally becomes smudged through curiosity or process

Playtest Notes:

In my first playtest my players showed me just how constraining my initial rules were and I decided it was important not to guide players on what to draw but to allow their minds to wander and have their drawing interact naturally. 

In my second playtest (photos below) the players showed me just how difficult it was to smudge a paper using pencil lead, thus I changed the wording from pencil lead to charcoal.

Summary:

Looking at all the different scores on the blogposts I decided I wanted to make a Score that commented on the way a person can wind through life’s events, both expected and unexpected. I also wanted to comment on how each event can change the meaning of another and that chance increases as more events are introduced. To reflect this i needed to create something open and relaxed while adding an element of unpredictablilty.

After looking through the blog posts and reading the Scores by Yoko Ono I decided to mirror the Scores I found abstract yet elegant, which is something I find Yoko Ono does very well. I was also inspired by Dinner Piece (link) which has a very relaxed ruleset allowing it to be a very open ended and laid back game.

However, ideally this piece would be done with paint or by erasing lines to more accurately depict the idea of how life can affect a person. However, due to lack of materials and time to playtest either of these i was unable to change