A little update on what I've been up to...
Hey everyone! Sorry for taking such a long to make a new post, things have gotten very busy around here these past couple of months.
Last week I finished my 4th class of my program titled Game Design, and it was the best class I've had so far in the program. In the class we got to design three different games and create physical prototypes to demonstrate the general mechanics of the game.
For the first week my group and I created an American Sign Language (ASL) learning game for mobile called "Hands On". In this game, you play as a deaf child who is learning how to communicate in ASL from a "counselor". The "counselor" teaches you the signs for objects and you match the correct movement with the correct picture. You are also given the object and have to move an interactive hand to create the correct hand gesture for that word. After each session with the "counselor" you would go home and "teach" your parents the new signs you have learned by interacting with the environment in a "point and click" style game.
The second game we designed is "A Cell's Life" in which you are a scientist who is observing the behavior of microorganisms in a petri dish. You start the game out "observing" an amoeba as it moves, eats, and reproduces. Although you are the scientist, you actually play as the amoeba and you get to move around, eat food, eat other cells, and escape from other cells who are trying to eat you. We took a lot of inspiration for this game's mechanics and design from Spore, Agar.io and Flow. After eating enough food and reproducing other copies of yourself, you would move onto the next stage of the game where you would play as a different kind of organism.
The cool thing we came up for the game was that depending on what food you have eaten you would start "evolving" different physical and internal traits and abilities. For example, if you ate only food, you would become a herbivorous organism and gain abilities that would help in foraging and escaping from enemies. Our vision for the game was that depending on the strategy and path you took with your eating habits, you would move up the phylogenetic tree and "evolve" into different kinds of organisms.
The third game we designed is called "The Light of the Pharoah" which is a 2D puzzle platformer. In this game you play as the architect for the Pharaoh's pyramid when you are suddenly called in the middle of the night to resolve an "emergency" in the inner sanctum. Unluckily for you it was a trap, and you are locked inside the pyramid with no escape. In order to escape the tomb, you must use a "light stone" and mirrors to reflect beams of light into a gemstone to open the path to the next room while traversing obstacles and avoiding capture by mummies.
Although I had a great time doing all these designs, it took a lot of time, and I barely had time to relax since I was also shadowing in the User Experience (UX) lab here at Full Sail.
Speaking of the UX lab, I was accepted to work in the lab full time as part of my capstone! In case you don't know what UX work for video games is like, we basically test games that companies bring in and compile reports on user feedback. As much as I'd like to tell you some of the games we are testing, I am under NDA so I can't really say anything or else I'd get expelled and sued. However, I can say that the lab has tested The Witcher 3 in the past, so we do get pretty big games sometimes.
Oh I almost forgot to mention, I am also working on a thesis paper, so I am reaaaaally short for time nowadays. The paper is about psychological Presence, and Immersion in video games, why it's beneficial and what features in games lead to them.
The class I am currently isn't nearly as tedious as this last class so I will have time to write more, play more and relax more, so keep on the lookout for a new post. It should be done by the end of the next week or so, I hope...
Last week I finished my 4th class of my program titled Game Design, and it was the best class I've had so far in the program. In the class we got to design three different games and create physical prototypes to demonstrate the general mechanics of the game.
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| Our logo,. Credit to Brandon Outterson |
The second game we designed is "A Cell's Life" in which you are a scientist who is observing the behavior of microorganisms in a petri dish. You start the game out "observing" an amoeba as it moves, eats, and reproduces. Although you are the scientist, you actually play as the amoeba and you get to move around, eat food, eat other cells, and escape from other cells who are trying to eat you. We took a lot of inspiration for this game's mechanics and design from Spore, Agar.io and Flow. After eating enough food and reproducing other copies of yourself, you would move onto the next stage of the game where you would play as a different kind of organism.
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| A mock-up of the in-game screen for "A Cell's Life" . Credit to Timothy Fitzgerald |
The third game we designed is called "The Light of the Pharoah" which is a 2D puzzle platformer. In this game you play as the architect for the Pharaoh's pyramid when you are suddenly called in the middle of the night to resolve an "emergency" in the inner sanctum. Unluckily for you it was a trap, and you are locked inside the pyramid with no escape. In order to escape the tomb, you must use a "light stone" and mirrors to reflect beams of light into a gemstone to open the path to the next room while traversing obstacles and avoiding capture by mummies.
 |
| A mock-up of the in-game screen for the first level of "The Light of the Pharoah". Credit to Timothy Fitzgerald |
Speaking of the UX lab, I was accepted to work in the lab full time as part of my capstone! In case you don't know what UX work for video games is like, we basically test games that companies bring in and compile reports on user feedback. As much as I'd like to tell you some of the games we are testing, I am under NDA so I can't really say anything or else I'd get expelled and sued. However, I can say that the lab has tested The Witcher 3 in the past, so we do get pretty big games sometimes.
Oh I almost forgot to mention, I am also working on a thesis paper, so I am reaaaaally short for time nowadays. The paper is about psychological Presence, and Immersion in video games, why it's beneficial and what features in games lead to them.
The class I am currently isn't nearly as tedious as this last class so I will have time to write more, play more and relax more, so keep on the lookout for a new post. It should be done by the end of the next week or so, I hope...
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