According to Fullerton, when designing a game, it is important to think about the player’s experience and make a game that “hooks” the players attention (Fullerton, 2014). Yet, where do we start and how do we know if the game can successfully attract people? The Fullerton exercises our group had to do prior to game making had really helped us on brainstorming ideas, laying out game’s objectives, procedures, rules and even adding dramatic elements to make our game fun and entertaining. The exercise reminded us that “Games are everywhere…Everyone has goals in life and must overcome obstacles to achieve those goals.” That’s how we want to make a location-based game that’s set in our neighborhood with characters that we are familiar with. The original idea of the game was that the player takes on the role as a bear, and while the bear is roaming in the city, he must avoid being caught by the ranger or get hit by vehicles.
As the team continued to brainstorm, we realized there are other animals in the city who must overcome obstacles in order to survive in the city. That’s how we eventually settled with bees, as bees have several predators and have missions to accomplish (collecting nectars) when they roam around in the city. Also, we think that bees can serve the education purpose, as they are endangered species and we hope to evoke the public’s environmental awareness. The team researched on bee facts and bee puns to include in the game. We even discussed adding the bee trivia for the players to collect whilst they collected the flowers. Hence, the players received both the points and the knowledge. Yet, we didn’t acknowledge what Fullerton said about “compelling gaming experience”, which is the fun aspect of game. We looked at the educational aspect of game, but we didn’t put our lenses on the entertainment part. Therefore, adding the “fun” elements became a challenge for the group. We had to constantly remind ourselves “how is this element fun for the player”?
What worked well throughout the process was our teamwork. Even after we divided our work, we still met up to discuss our progress each week, giving each other critical feedback. Iteration and being open to change were a big part of our group dynamic, which is why we worked well as a team. For me, I learned a lot when playing around with character design and 3D graphics. Even when I was designing the characters, I followed the design process diagram after our group defined the characters and the story of the game. I started with 2D drawing and did multiple sketches using color pencils and markers. According to Fullerton, “characters provid[e] a way for us to empathize with the situation and live vicariously through their efforts” (Fullerton 2014). Since I am an elementary school teacher, I see my students doodling on their textbook and know what game characters they are into. Presently, they are mesmerized by the character in a game called “Among Us”. The character is simple to draw and unique which inspired me when I designed my bee character. I wanted the bee character to be simple and memorable like Pokemon. Therefore, I came up with several designs of the bee characters, as well as the flowers. Later however, I faced the problem of turning my 2D characters into 3D since I don’t have much experience in 3D graphics. My plan originally was to use an online App to convert 2D images into 3D. Fortunately, my team members suggested I could use Autocad to make my 3D images. That’s how I remembered that Autocad has another version for kids called TinkerCad. The style of the characters and objects created by Tinkercad fits perfectly with the map scheme. One challenge for me when I was creating 3D objects is that I’m used to drawing 2D images, therefore when I created 3D images, I didn’t check all angles of the object when I layered different shapes together. For example, the beehive looked normal on one angle, but when turning the beehive around, it was crooked and not layered properly. I think for our group, what we can do better next time is to add a video introduction to enhance the dramatic elements in the game. The players will have a better immersion experience. As for visuals and characters, I would pay more attention to “emotion” (Fullerton, 2014), which players develop attachment with the character. Maybe Bee-ing Around can have multiple levels and the bee can grow as it achieves the goal for each level. Giving players the option to choose their bee color or naming the bee can create emotional attachment, as the bee becomes the player’s identity. This has been a rewarding experience and a great opportunity to experiment with the game design process.
References:
Fullerton, T. (2014). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, NY: Taylor & Francis (CRS Press)
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