Prototype - Phase 2

The team has established the following goals for this week:

Development
Create Flash prototype with the following functionality:

• basic matching mechanic (>2 cards with bonus scoring)
  
• new row falls at some time interval
• all cards are shown at the beginning of the game
• "bomb" bonus that will match all cards of same type
• "rainbow" bonus that will show all cards for a few seconds
• level timer - bonus points added for any remaining time

Interactive
Continue discussions of how avatar is to fit in with the game play.

Art
Research fashion and tastes of our target audience. Consider color, typography and possible treatments for match items and the avatar(s).

Sound
Sound affects will be developed in parallel to the coding and integrated as we get closer to Thursday.

Process pictures

Here are the pics from our 1st paper prototype...

Next steps for prototype

Now that we've delivered the game design document, I think we need to consider these issues:

• Joy's idea of bonus score to leftover time (kind of like Super Mario Bros, right Joy?) is a great idea, but in our doc, timer is tied to when the rows drop. I actually do think the timer should be related to the round and not when a new row is added. For the most part, the user will be focused on the cards and not on the right side. I think sound would be better feedback for when a row is dropping in. Then we can add that notion of time for a level and have that timer on the right. I felt that this was a big change, so I did not want to change the doc at this point without everyone's input.
• Austin mentioned that customizing an avatar could be a lot of extra production and coding work and may not add that much unless it was used directly for scoring. Since we spent a lot of time on scoring and levels, I think this involves further discussion. Perhaps we should get Austin's input again.
• Is the title and target audience of our game still fit because we have switched from people coming out of the closet to recognizable images, such as fruit?

We should keep in mind that NYC High School playtesters are available on 10/28 to playtest, but that does require us to sign-up. I hope to get a flash prototype working soon, but I'm not sure how feasible that will be come class next Thursday.

Something coolz

I just was playing sushi king and I noticed they had this card that was a bomb. If you selected the bomb it allowed you to pick another card, and what ever that card was it took out all the rest of the cards on the board.

Example: I click on a bomb. I then select and apple card. All the apple cards are now destroyed. I get a heap of points.

O_O! what do you think?

Here is what I was thinking about as I wrote the info for the design doc.

I noticed that we discussed when we met that the game should be based on getting a certain amount of points to go to the next level.

After writing this and playing a little of sushi king, I realize that this has a certain flaw.

1. If we have an avatar, how can players better theirs more than the next if they will always have the same amount of points.

2. Also chaining becomes pointless, other then ending the round quicker, and if you end the round quicker you have less opportunity to get a higher score then someone else.

So for example: This level needs 90 points to move to level 2. I have 50 points at the moment I just selected a bonus pair, I get another 50 points. Game ends I win because I met the quota. But what about all the additional bonuses I could have had if I had saw all the cards.

So I feel like we should have a timer on top of the quota, so if you make the quota yes you pass on to the next round. But also you have the opportunity if you make the quota quickly to gain extra points.

This is how diner dash functions, and I think if our game functions in a similar way it would make more sense an give more opportunities to the player.

What do you guys think?

Play tester 1

We play tested our game with an undergraduate female student named Sonny. After explaining the rules of the game to her we gave her a practice round and then began the game. She seemed a little nervous about playing the game but did get the hang of it pretty quick.

Through her playing we discovered another way someone may want to play the game. In our game as is now, when you get two matches you can look to see if you can get another match of that same color and shape.

As Sonny was playing we noticed that she would pick two matches, pick a third match that wasn't the same and then choose another trying to match the current picture. Example: I picked two oranges on the board, I then selected another card which is an apple. Instead of that turn ending I now look to see if I can get another apple.

Sonny was not playing the game as we intended, where for example: you get two oranges and if you select another orange you can continue to choose another card. If in your next turn you pick anything other then an orange, like an apple, your turn ends.

This was very interesting because we didn't anticipate someone trying to play that way. When she did attempt to play this way of course we corrected her but when we did ask her if she felt one way of play was better than the other she said she didn't even realize she had done that.

The most important feed back we got from Sonny was that she felt the bonus round should not allow you to choose different cards but just be a way to get a quick glimpse at all the cards and then go back to normal play.

Sonny also did not have a problem with new rows being added after a certain interval of time, she felt that it allowed her to get more matches since cards would always be on the board. Also she found the option of being able to choose another card after a match for a combo, a good addition to the game.

Sonny said it gave her a feeling of satisfaction when she got an extra match and also she said she felt a feeling of satisfaction when she achieved a bonus round.

Prototype Game Rules

This is my understanding of the rules after meeting tonight and some rounds of user testing.

Mechanic
1.) Normal Play
Hidden cards are placed in a grid. The player tries to match 2 or more cards. The turn is over as soon as the player turns over a card that is not the same as the first card. If a successful match of two or more cards is made, those cards are removed from the grid. Any cards above the matched cards will fall down one space to fill in the gap.

2.) Bonus Play
One type of card is of the bonus type. Matching a pair of bonus cards will reveal all the cards to the player for a limited time (5-6 seconds).

• bonus option a - the player may try to select as many cards that match as possible (more than one type is allowed)
• bonus option b - the player may not select any cards when all the cards are revealed (the bonus just provides a memory hint)

We should decide which option is preferred. Option b seemed to be the preference of our two playtesters tonight.

3.) Timer
One new "row" of cards will fall from the top of the grid at a specific interval. If a row consists of 4 cards, that means 4 cards will fall from the top.


Scoring
A match could be awarded with 10 points. Matches greater than 2 could be scored in the following way:

• 3 cards = 10 + 20 = 30 points
• 4 cards = 10 + 40 = 50 points
• 5 cards = 10 + 80 = 90 points
• 6 cards = 10 + 160 = 170 points
• just double and add to 10 for every additional card

Matching two bonus cards = 50 points.

Levels
A level is completed based on reaching a target score. The target scores for each level have yet to be determined. Difficulty may be increased in the following way:

• the number of different types that may be matched
• the interval at which new rows are added (maybe this could even decrease over the course of given level like Tetris)

some thoughts and suggestions

After Austin's feedback I got the idea that we really need to refine our ideas.

We need to make a clear decision on the mechanics ( doors sliding down? doors closing quickly? how many in a row? etc)
We really have to think about the visuals, I haven't had time so far to work on any 3d characters, but I promess I will tonight or tomorrow. Pixelated, 3d or photorealistic? Hmm...

Today we could maybe map out all the options with paper prototypes. I'm hoping this is going to help us a lot in terms of understanding the difficulty of the game.

Some of my suggesyions are:

+Visual: 2d or 3d characters but very rich in color and detail. We need this quality for differentiating all the different clothes, accessories as well as the resemblance of the characters to match.

+Game Mechanic: To leave the idea of extra lines of doors coming down, makes it too similar to bookworm and switcharoo i think. However the speed of the doors closing I think is an interesting detail to work on. I also like the idea of the bonus matches which open all the closet doors for a few seconds.

This is what comes to mind for the mo.
I'll bring some presentation cards and colored pens with me for prototyping.


See you at 5 today!

Tasty Cakes : Presentation 2

By Tasty Cakes:

……Albert…… Alis…… Aniela…… Ivan…… Joy…… Kwon…… Naomi……



Concept: To create a game for logo tv, a channel that targets a majority of gay audience. To make it appealing, fun, intuitive and easy to use.

Inspiration: Our group meeting helped us to identify types of games we enjoyed and those we found to be appealing for most age groups.We discussed what types of games and why.

Types of games:
+Trivias
+Puzzles
+Competitive games where you can mess around with the play of others.
+Mazes
+Memory games

Examples of games:
+switcharoo
+the beat matching game we played in class
+grow
+Sudoku
+IQ test related games


The game:
Introduction: We took the expression “coming out of the closet” and used it as the main theme and narrative of a matching game for a gay target audience. The more you match the more points you earn to dress your avatar up thus you gain recognition by other players.

1-) Game Mechanics:
For a given board or level, there will be a specific number of types to match.  For example, in level one, there may be three types of items to match.  As the levels increase in difficulty, there may be more types to match.  At the start of a level, a random count is assigned to each type such that the total count is less than 36 (for 6 x 6 grid) with an even count for each type (pairs).   Lower levels will start with a lower count total and harder levels will have a higher count total.  The distribution of the count is to be randomized.  The items will be divided into 6 groups (columns of grid).  The count will increase the count by 6 every ten seconds (the interval may change later), where each group is incremented by one (add one to each column).  In addition, the 6 new items must be distributed so that the count for each type continues to be an even number (always add in pairs).  The game is over when one group exceeds an item count of 6 (column goes off the board).  The player may decrease the count by matching pairs of types, which will increase his/her score.  He/she may advance to the next level once a target score is reached.  The target score may increase with higher levels. Wildcards may affect the system.  One wildcard will pair with any other item, and then allow for additional matches (see Joy's description), which would result in bonus scoring.  Another wildcard would remove all items of the same type, also resulting in bonus scoring.



2-) Game Dynamic:
The types are hidden from the player and laid out in a grid pattern.  A player may reduce the count of a particular type by matching two items on the screen, and any items directly above the two matches items will descend onto the items beneath them.  To attempt a match, the player must click on two items in the grid.  When the timer increases the counts, a new row of items are added to the grid (i.e., one new item added to the top of each column).  Wildcards will be hidden like the other items.  If the items in a column exceed the height of the grid, the game is over.Behaviors that emerge from this dynamic are memory and quick motor skills.  Strategy favors balancing the delay of time for bonus scoring against the items increasing and the risk of the game ending.



3-) Game Aesthetic:
The items to be matched are different people who want to "come out of the closet."  A match allows them to do so. The visual treatments should vary and cross-sample the general population of the BGLTT demographic of Logo TV.  Wildcards could be represented by a rainbow or the word "Pride."  Scoring could be represented by money.  Money could be used to shape, dress, and accessorize an avatar between levels.  At the end of the game, the avatars could feed back into the community.  This could be accomplished in a couple of ways.  One way would be to list a board of highscores that also features the avatars with those high scores.  Another way would be to use the user-created avatars in the game itself for future games.  Perhaps players could also leave descriptions or tags with their game avatar.  Perhaps the player could play again with the same avatar.

Dynamic

I believe this is part of the dynamic. I created an image of what I thought would be a cool addition to the game, the chain combos. I hope this makes it a little more clear if it wasn't before.

The image is showing how when you get a match, you have an option of getting extra matches. The more extra matches you get, the longer your chain combo, which then doubles the amount of money you recieve for every extra one.

So as you can see you get your first match, you get 10 dollars.... but then you remember you saw another of the same pic in the left. You flip that card you now get 20 dollars, you remember you saw another at the top. You flip that card you now get 40 dollars, this keeps on doubling until your chain ends which is when you flip a card that is not a match.

Lastly, the player is rewarded by the display of encouraging words like fabulous or fierce, making them want to play and get longer chains, also giving them more money in order to better their avatar.

SUMMARY: Meeting No:2

Here's a list of things we talked about.

Types of games we like:
+Trivias
+Puzzles
+Competitive games where you can mess around with the play of others.
+mazes


Some examples of games we liked were:
+switcharoo
+the beat game we played in class
+the narraive game we played in class
+Sudoku
+IQ test based games

We like in general games where we can collect things, different bonuses---> gratification aspect

We had 5 categories of themes for games that we voted for, regardless of any specific channel.

1- A doctor/patient game. Playing with the idea of cosmetic surgery, messed up figures.Playing god.

2-An urban survival game in different cities with quirky details particular to each city as challenges.

3-A food theme, similar to diner dash.Something that suited our group name "tasty cakes". A bakery where you would have to catch the cakes before they fall etc.

4- A life simulation game like sims.

5- A game for logo tv: using the expression "coming out of the closet". A bit like switcharoo, you have to match gay people and bonuses coming out of the closet.


Surprisingly the highest vote went to the closet game.

I'm going to put down what we have so far and you guys can add on any suggestions you may have. I can't post any sketches because i'm not invited.

+ you match the people who come out of teh closets.
+each closet closes after revealing it's content. --> memory game

+if you catch the people who are in rows of 2+... you get a bonus.

+if you find the match for a rainbow flag you also get bonus points.

+we were also interested in seeing changes on screen on the avatar. you can choose your avatar and dress him up with the points you get. ( we kind of used the idea that gay people may be interested in fashion )

+ Another thing we thought about was making your avatar famous, that is, your avatar appears in other people's games ( in the closets ) if you manage to dress him up well enough. ( this we need to elaborate on )