Mick Derevnin's Blog

Serious Games

mickderevnin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:31:48 +0000

Playing the mentioned games, an immediate connection was made to the issues they portrayed. In each, the issue was something that the designers did not intend to mask in any way, and wanted their players to feel, and understand first hand some of the issues that most people are still unaware of, in all cases doing so while providing an educational, yet challenging or fun game.

Darfur is Dying conveys the hardships suffered by the village people due to the war in Darfur. The visuals are drawn with a comic style, but remains true to the conditions, and feel of a refugee camp in Darfur. The game send the message to the player by inviting the player to control a character that lives in the conditions of the war infested lands, and complete tasks that many people of the western world would find trivial (such as fetch water). Each step of the way, messages are shown describing the condition of the people.

DriverSeat allows us to step into the shoes and understand facts, the feeling of being an elderly driver, in an attempt to educate us. Much like Darfur is Dying, DriverSeat also attempts to convey this through simple everyday tasks that many elderly drivers might do. Facts are provided through means of challenging quizes, and puzzles.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG i only watched the trailer for, but as depicted, the game was based on a tragic school murder spree, where you play as the murderers. The game itself has caused much controversy, allowing players to reenact the murderous acts, putting context onto the same violent behavior found in many other games, which are deemed ok.

Oiligarchy represents the world changing, where a company is able to manipulate in order to make profit. It depicts the destruction of natural wildlife reserves, bribery, pollution on a mass scale, and various other topics that green supporters would choke over. It achieves this by putting the user in control over the worlds oil extraction, being able to make money through controversial means, swaying people away from the matter.

Original Article

Art Game

mickderevnin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:08:17 +0000

A game to encourage art. One type game that i have not really noticed is a game where people create and express sounds as a group. This idea is similar to the game where people take turns writing a sentence each in a group, however, each player would plays 3 sounds instead.

In the end, the players would of created a whole “story” out of sounds. Like this, people would be less worried about performing a whole song of their own to others, how the song sounds and how they might be judged on it, and instead be encouraged to have fun, be themselves and just play.

Original Article

Improv

mickderevnin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:23:40 +0000

From the experiences I’ve had from games, especially cooperation and multi-player games, what many people enjoyed was being a part of a group. Where they can freely contribute, and receive instant gratification from others, grow as a whole, and progress as a whole.

This idea of providing for a group/guild/clan/etc, even if it is a one off group randomly organised every time you open the game, is similar in nature to how improvisational theatre works. When your partner play along, all player’s experiences become drastically more satisfying, and players find each other more entertaining to play with. Adopting this style as a player helps you get accepted into such groups, emphasizing the social aspects of games.

As a designer, this behaviour is a very powerful tool that can be used to simulate, and improve the players experiences of joy, satisfaction, acceptance and immersion by designing simple, and easy to use social features, and features that require people to cooperate. Improvisational theatre concentrates on techniques which help bring people to cooperate in this manner, placing their mindset in that direction. Yes, definitely these techniques can be considered and adopted to promote this behaviour.

Original Article

Fairytale Reinterpretation

mickderevnin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:24:13 +0000

The fairytale I decided to create a twist upon is the story of the three little pigs. Every time the story has been told, the wolf, gets punished in the end for his actions. But is the wolf so different to us humans?

In my game, you play as a man/woman, lost and starving. Your goal is simply to find food, and survive. You come across an animals nest, where you find an easy hunting target. Of course, the animal is reluctant to be eaten, so flees into a neighbouring nest.

You go after it again, and the same thing happens. However the next nest that you check in, happens to home something dangerous, which greatly hurts you. Eventually, causing your dead.

The moral of what I’m trying to get at is, in a way, in the story of the three little pigs, the wolf kind of represents man, breaking down other animal’s habitats, and salvaging.

Original Artile

Social Game driven by Facebook

mickderevnin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:46:02 +0000

I’ve never been a fan of facebook, or most social networking sites, so I’ve really been putting this post off!

Had some time to think about it, and i think the idea of finding words in other people’s pages or people with certain name, etc for points would be an interesting idea.

I see a lot of potential in the idea, and maybe it does already exists, but for it to survive, it would need to be somehow moderated, or have a system preventing abuse. Maybe one way would be to limiting how many times you can find something on someone’s page to 1, so each time you’ll need to keep finding others.

Adding a social aspect to this would make it intently more interesting. Most people would play the game just to meet more people.

Original Article

Mafia

mickderevnin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:54:37 +0000

Mafia has been a well enjoyed, social game, which does not require anything but the people playing. It works by emphasising on the team aspect of the game, requiring people to socialise, and work together to win the game. However, this same aspect of the game that is required for one team to win, is also what is used by the enemy to manipulate, and to conceal themselves to win. It also builds on peoples ability to process what other people say, and decide whether it is real or a lie. You can only trust yourself completely! As turns pass, inconsistencies in stories, and human expressions play a deeper role, creating dramatic points both during the day and night.

As an online game, many key dynamics of the game cannot be used. People can no longer see/hear how the other players are talking. There are however, many versions of mafia that are created for online play. Some forum versions take 12 hours for both a day and a night. This decreases the dramatic climaxes of the game. However, since its main dynamic of manipulating others through information is still there, the game is still very feasible.

Original Article

Hardware driven game

mickderevnin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:33:39 +0000

An interesting idea that popped into my head was to have a lemmings-like game, where players could then use their hand and fingers to control the flow of the lemmings by pushing, pulling, and break/change the environment they move on (maybe even being able to spin the whole around).

With such a hardware device, most game concepts that already have been done would be greatly improved if redone with this technology in mind.

Original Article

Player-centred Design

mickderevnin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:57:10 +0000

Game designers should always have the target audience in mind when designing a game. That is imperative. If it is a recreational video game, it is most important that the player has fun. Freedom to self-expression in designing a game is still a vital aspect, but most not conflict with the end player having fun.

Of course, if your target audience enjoys artistic expression, then by all means, express yourself artistically. If your target audience enjoys mindless shooting, then that’s what you should work with. This is not to say that all teenage boys enjoy shooting games, and thus designers should only design to that, but if your design is not to appeal to your target audience, then it won’t be fun, and thus you are failing at game design.

Design for your target audience to have fun, after all, a game isn’t a game without it’s “fun factor”.

Original Article

Is that all there is?

mickderevnin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:08:15 +0000

The idea that games are at a standstill, and new games are being created with no artistic expression, or no regard for societies serious issues seems to be something that everyone is ranting about. Yes, some of what’s been said is creditable, but most is just plain bull. One thing i believe is that games need to be fun, something that people will find worth the time playing. Regardless of the design used, whether it be with big guns with big explosions, or moving flower peddles, singing, cooking, whatever, it needs to be fun.

It’s definitely not that people aren’t thinking about the more serious issues, it’s that most these issues aren’t easy to be made into a fun, worthwhile game. Big companies want to make money, that’s true. Does that mean they’ll reject an idea if its fun, and doesn’t involve guns? No.

There is no reason why fun, invoking, serious issues can’t be made in unison with one another. However, it is definitely a lot harder to design it right. Will it be made into a game if it was designed right? Of course.

That’s my 50c.

Original Article

Design a toy your mum would play

mickderevnin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:48:48 +0000

Not trying to be sexist here, but from observing my mum, she does most of the household chores.

A game i think would interest her would be something that builds around that idea. A game where she could delegate chores out fairly, or unfairly, based on a game, which everyone could participate in (and thus lower the amount of chores you get). The specifics of it i haven’t been able to concrete yet, but the general idea to think upon is there.

Original Article