Blog 9A

Video game Presentation!

So for our group's gaming presentation, we chose to design a game called High Life, in which a poor drug dealer tries to make his way from rags to riches through selling drugs.  We tried to keep our game as simple as possible, but found that with all the different aspects that go into creating a game, it is hard to keep it that simple.

I think that one of the areas that we struggled to convey to the audience was what the actual game play is like. I think that we didn't really go into enough detail about how the game is played, and how the gamer actually knows how to get from one point in the game to the next. We described how the player is suppose to make money by making drug deals while avoiding the police, but we didn't actually describe how the player does this. We were a little unclear as to what type of guided perception would be used in the game. We probably should have gone into more specific detail about how the player is guided from one level to the next by text boxes that pop up. If we had included more slides about this, then I think the whole concept of the game would have made a lot more sense. We also should have included slides that showed the audience what the game will actually look like when played, because we were kind of vague in this department. We told the audience that game play is similar to that of The Sims, but if a member of the audience was unfamiliar with this game, then they would be totally lost. I think that it would have been helpful to create a screen shot, so that they could gain a better sense of how the game is played.

Another area that we could have improved on is being more specific with the goals.. We told the audience about the different levels, and how you move up from selling one type of drug to another, but we failed to explain specifically how the player is to do that. In other words, we explained the objectives but left out the actual goals. I think it would have been helpful to have a more specific and more complete list of goals so that the audience could understand exactly what needs to be done to achieve each objective, and eventually win the game.

I think that goals and objectives are the most difficult to explain and discuss. My group had a hard time differentiating between the two, and I think that a lot of people feel the same way. In everyday vocabulary goals and objectives are the same thing, so when they were presented as two different concepts, it became sort of confusing. It helps me to understand the difference between goals and objectives when I think of an objective as a big achievement, and goals as the steps you take to get to that big achievement. Like if you think of it in terms of weight loss. The objective could be to lose 50 pounds. The goals could be to go the gym more, eat less, etc. In those terms, it makes more sense that goals would be more optional, whereas an objective is not. You have the option to skip a day at the gym and still potentially reach your objective.

I found rules and mechanisms to be much easier to discuss. Rules are very black and white, and less conceptual, and therefore it is fairly simple to express them. The same goes for mechanisms.