Rock, Talk, and Concoct

Starting the week off, the final team for the Socially Conscious games presented their game.  The game was called "Life on the Rocks".  It involved one person playing against the clock (which in this instance was a makeshift hourglass that used water).  The objective of the game was to gather as much water as possible for the hourglass (in effect adding more time), and in the end of things have as much water in the hourglass as possible.

The mason jars of water were stowed away within bags strewn about the hillside.  There were also bags that contained rocks, resulting in rocks being attached to the harness the player wears.

The intention was that with enough rocks on the players harness, they would not be able to gather all of the water in the game.  The player that we had, however, managed to get all of the water along with all of the rocks.  He commented that it was less of a game, and more of a training exercise.  (Having been in football myself, I can understand this).  Spectators felt that the game was a pessimistic view of life, while others felt it was a good representation of being in debt.

After the playtest and follow-up discussion, the class proceeded to the classroom, where we had a guest speaker.  His name was Alexei, and he was quite intrigued with the games we were producing.  After introducing himself and his work in game design, he began discussing Alternate Reality Games (ARGs).  These games provide an experience for the player even though they are really just playing as themselves.  He talked about his ARG, Mystery Party, and noted that while it was successful, it would have been more successful if the game brought in people by itself, instead of him bringing players in.

The rest of the day and the rest of the week were dedicated to developing the big game/games we would be developing for play at Open Studio.  Initially the plan was to make one game that the whole class could work on.  The class ended up breaking into two groups by the end of Monday.  One group wanted to work on a game that involved racing with big wheels, and the other wanted a social game.  By the end of the week, there were four groups.