Refinement – This is all about reiteration and galvanizing the product after analysis. Be prepared to go back to the first step to help the product. Also get feedback where and when possible. Only through a process of re-iteration can your product go from strength to strength. Okay, now to refine my game idea a bit: A narrative-driven empathy game that explores depression and promotes … Continue reading Making a Game Part 1d: Refinement

Synthesis or Evolving – Develop mind maps for the game. Can do brainstorming sessions using the Post It Method.

Post It Method – As a group, have a time limit (such as 2 minutes) to write ideas on post it notes. One idea per post it note. Then a coordinator will collect the post it notes and link similar ideas. Rinse and repeat multiple times. Then finally spend an additional 1 minute to fill in any lacking categories. The take a picture of all the post it notes, and generate a Mind Map. The entire process shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes, so that creativity wouldn’t be stifled by boredom.

This activity is emergent and organic.

Since I’m only working on my own, I decided to use another method. I took an online class on “Crash Course on Creativity” by Tina Seeling before, and one of the activities taught was to list at least 100 ideas on a given topic. If I remember correctly, the reasoning behind generating so many ideas is similar to the Post It Method, it is meant to be emergent and organic. You will start with normal and expected ideas, and as you go on, ideas gets weirder, and more and more out of the box.

So here goes listing as many ideas as possible…

Continue reading “Making a Game Part 1c: Synthesis”

Games for Change actually has a list of games list for Art and Empathy.

Link: http://www.gamesforchange.org/game_categories/art-and-empathy/

First of all, because I only have more or less 3 months to make a game, so it’s going to be a mobile game developed using Unity. Also because of the time constraints, it’s going to be a relatively short experience. Also given my lack of full blown art skills… Yah, no elaborate and photo-realistic 3d or anything. So given those parameters, I will only be looking at relatively short games, preferably on mobile. And also nothing AAA.

So here goes…

Continue reading “Making a Game Part 1b continued: Comparative Analysis”

Research

Also known as playing games (yup, yeah for doing a Masters degree in games!).

So it’s Research/Analysis– How to you solve the problem and deal with the task at hand. Ensure that you spent a chunk of time doing research into how to effectively deal with the task.

There are different resources available such as:

• gaming knowledge and intuition of good gameplay vs bad gameplay
• creative minds from other inspirations (like for like or cross-medium)
• comparative analysis of other products (look at other products, and they don’t necessarily have to be games)
• and of course, ensure that you have reference sources at all stages of development

 

So yes, onto researching stuff in order to answer my problems.

Continue reading “Making a Game Part 1b: Research”

For the lack of a name for the game (whatever game that I will end up making), I’ll just title these series of posts: “Making a Game”.

Okay, making a game sounds easier than it looks. Oh wait, actually it doesn’t sound easy either. Anyway…

First of all, what is the game even going to be?

When designing games, consider the Triforce. The Triforce is: Core Mechanics, Interactivity, and Narrative and Storytelling.

So instead of just randomly grabbing an idea from the air to come up with the Triforce, I will try to use the Process of Design to come up with something.

So what is the Process of Design?

It is:

Problem -> Research -> Synthesis -> Refinement

First up:

Problem– What is the task at hand? Ensure that you detail every detail about the problem, and take nothing for granted. It is an iterative process, so it’s also important to bear in mind, that as the project evolves, new problems may emerge. This is where you list all the parameters to help you design your game.

So let’s identify some problems.

Continue reading “Making a Game Part 1a: Identifying the Problem”

As part of the Masters degree that I am doing in Video Game Enterprises and Production is the option of doing a solo project under the remit of ‘game’ or ‘interactive entertainment’. It’s either that or do a work placement in a company or continue working on a PS4 project with the rest of the class. And on the train back from London after attending … Continue reading I’m making a new game! (Yeah! or nay…)