Observations from boy's game design
I came in about half into the boy's session on game design. Jennifer was with the group as they were discussing how to incorporate the different features that should be included in their games based on the blog postings that the group did yesterday. The boys were actively discussing how to make sure the game was interesting and challenging yet not too challenging so the player just turns it off. Their overall design is set in a carnival where each level is based off typical carnival games - ring toss, water gun races, etc and that each level will increase in intensity. At the start of the game, players will have four problems and each level they will add an additional three problems. The boys also considered the age appropriateness and determined that the 3rd grade level should only have multiplication problems that have one to three numbers multiplied by a single digit (example: 12x5 and not 12x12. They discussed have each level open a clue that will help solve a final riddle when the last level is successfully completed. Additionally, the boys talked about having hints or tips and this is where they tied in other ideas from other games. For example, they mentioned the hints and instructions players are given from Nutrition Decision. They also talked about life lines from Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
At the end of this one-hour session - I could really see the better understanding that the boys had in terms of game design. They definitely realized that there was more to game design then the idea. At the end of the session Chasen said his head hurt from all the thinking. But, in all I really think they felt like they had thought out a really good game.
posted by Anonymous @ 6/22/2005 02:14:00 PM
1 Comments:
Amy's observation captures this session with the boys well. I watched them from a distance in the beginning, but saw that they were ready to call it quits after five minutes and with the idea that they would simply have a hunting game that involved lots shooting and explosions- and oh yea, math. I sat down and told we needed to fill in some of the details a bit. Importantly, part of their attitude seemed to be coming not from their lack of creative and critical thinking, but from their frustration at having to write it down. Once I became their recorder and started capturing some of their ideas, things started snowballing. As Amy said, they were really good at thinking about age appropriateness in terms of difficulty and things like violence (their original plan was to make a hunting game), as well as issues of game design. They thought about game console games, computer games like Nutrition Decision, and even things like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (they want to have a calculator lifeline and a 50/50 answer elimination). Having the list of good game characteristics they had come up with in their blogs up on the wall was a big help to our discussion because any time we got stuck I could look up there and ask something like,"Ok, does this game have different levels that you can move through?" Stephanie said this would have been helpful for working with the girls in the other room. I think a lot of good things came out of this, but three things in particular stick in my mind:
* This activity asked the kids to use their knowledge of games in a new way- being a producer is a different kind of activity than being a consumer
* The complexity of the game the boys came up with is impressive. It showed the range of knowledge that the kids have about games. Although we don't have a baseline for knowing how this has changed since they started, it is obvious to me that they are able to talk about so many more features and in a lot more depth now than they were at the beginning.
* At the end, we talked briefly about the importance of collaboration for game development and all kinds of things. Amy and I both emphasized how so much of this work gets done by groups of people and how their game would not have been nearly as good if they hadn't all contributed their ideas together. This was a really cool activity.
Post a Comment
<< Home