Grumpy Snomwen: Brief Post Mortem

Late 2011 through January 2012, I was offered an opportunity to work in Michigan State University's Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab on a light-hearted, holiday Angry Birds parody called Grumpy Snowmen.  I was asked to come on board as a 2D artist on a team that included William Jeffrey (Game Designer), Eric Musser (3D Artist), Dan Sosnowski (Programmer), Jon Moore (Programmer), and Professor Brian Winn (Producer/Game Designer).

Described as "a video game that features Michigan State University mascot Sparty taking on up-to-no-good snowmen", Grumpy Snowmen has been a fun ride, and out over 9,000 downloads in the App Store suggest that Spartans agree.  The game is available in the App Store as well as in a web-player.

Of course, I think you should play it!

Flora Concept Art

I had the opportunity to pitch a game this semester, and although it wasn't chosen in my class to develop I got some good practice combining traditional sketches with my new toy, a Wacom Intuos Tablet.  The whole process was less than a week, and I had to share my time with other concepts we pitched as a group. Overall, this was good experience in rapid character development.  I'll have to take my wild, flash character development runs for practice.

This is Flora, a mischievous and joyous wood sprite.  She enjoys wreaking havoc by accident.

Post Mortem for Wave: A Rhapsody in Cantando

You are a jellyfish, an outsider to your tribe. Sunken ruins call to you with a haunting song. You alone wonder what could lie waiting in this place of music.

You cannot understand why others of your tribe cannot hear its need. You feel compelled to return it to its glory. Therefore you leave your tribe in search of the city that pulls your spirit. What awaits you, you can only imagine.

I was the 2D artist (among other roles within a four person team) for this ambitious, experience driven game project in Brian Winn's TC455 class.  This was my first opportunity to push the limits of what my 2D skills could accomplish in a 3D game engine.

Read more to find out my game art and design lessons from Version 1 of one of the most ambitious game projects I've tackled yet at Michigan State.  Better yet, play WaRiC!

2010-2011, Achievements and Goals

 From my 2010-11 MSU Progress Report

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Over the past year, I have attacked the goals set in my initial goals statement with zeal.  Due to gaps in my skills and theoretical knowledge of game design, I have pursued each course taken as an opportunity to build my knowledge in these deficit areas.  Due to the excellent instructional methods of Dr. Wei Peng and Dr. Carrie Heeter, I am confident in my background in design research and theories of serious games. I also am able to reach out into other disciplines in order to substantiate research and design.  In addition, I have had the opportunity collaborate with other students in the design of two substantial serious games, “Shades of Shakespeare” and “Pardon of the Sun”.  Each game was a lesson in game design and content design, that demonstrated the challenges inherent in creating games with meaningful play.

Final Submission for Autism Connects: Keeper

Keeper is an SCI based tablet game for the practice of emotions in context in 9-15 year olds with ASDs.

What is it?
 
  Keeper is an Social Competence Intervention based tablet game for the intervention and practice of emotions in context, a component of mentalization,  in 9-15 year olds with Asperger Syndrome, PDD-NOS, and High Functioning Autism.  Since children and adolescents with ASDs demonstrate higher levels of engagement with interactive media a digital game is a great place for practice and intervention (Mineo et al, 2009). 

View a Vimeo of the paper prototype of a main level here.


Why is this an important design?
 
   Individuals with ASDs are often impaired in their ability mentalize. They struggle to interpret “ nonverbal … socially salient information from face, gesture, and body positions,”  causing atypical social responses leading to social anxiety and social isolation (David et al, 2009; Kuusikko et al, 2009). 

Keeper: Updated Digest Concept/Design

This is my entry of the design for Core77's Autism Connects Challenge.

     Individuals with ASDs are often impaired in their ability mentalize. They struggle to interpret “ nonverbal … socially salient information from face, gesture, and body positions,”  causing atypical social responses leading to social anxiety and social isolation (David et al, 2009; Kuusikko et al, 2009).  I propose a tablet game, Keeper, for the … read morepractice of mentalization, focusing on expression recognition in context, in 9-15 year olds with Asperger Syndrome, PDD-NOS, and High Functioning Autism.

Digital Game Based Learning: Defining a Road Map to In Game Achievement

In a world of “Digital Natives” Digital Games Based Learning is becoming a desired instructional strategy in different educational environments. However, there is much trepidation in the community about the promising demonstrations of effectiveness, due to Shavian reversals in the “edutainment industry” where early attempts at creating learning environments from games resulting in the worst instructional practices combines with the most boring game formats (Van Eck, 2006). As confidence builds due to the growing numbers of studies demonstrating games are effective learning tools and environments, it is important to create a design framework to ensure games continue to be a successful media for instruction, rather than reverting to prior failed mergers.

So Games Can Be Effective, Now What?

Researchers agree that there is plentiful research supporting the effectiveness of games. However, most of these evaluations answer the simple “yes” “no” question of “Is Digital Game Based Learning effective?” (Van Eck, 2006). It is agreed that games are largely effective due to a combination of engagement and interactivity (Prenksy, 2001). Although the question of “why are games effective?” still needs further empirical study, there are many theories and suggestions as to why games work for instruction in skills, such as creative problem solving and creativity, that are notoriously difficult to measure (Van Eck, 2006). Games provide a meaningful learning context and allow a continue construction of cognitive disequilibrium where the learning actively participates in hypothesis making (Van Eck, 2006). Prenksy cites work by Ahlers and Garris that suggests games 1) provide chances for success, 2) curiosity, 3) simulated danger, and 4) social reinforcement. This still leaves us with the other question, how do we construct effective and engaging Digital Game Based Learning?

In Somnia: Negating a Potential Insurmountable Obstacle

So I've decided when thinking about my “in Somnia” that once Orphe has begun a cycle of sleep debt it is altogether too easy for it to spiral down to the Erebus “reset” scenario (I think especially for less skilled players). This could provide a lot of frustration for a player who would then see no way to beat the game, as clearly the obstacles to a good night's sleep are too much. This would also, admittedly, negate any positive effects the game could have on their sleep choices as it would increase the “perceived barriers”.  Hints about potions being bad aren't going to do much good when it requires a potion for Orphe to be able to avoid monsters or fight one because he is so tired and slow otherwise.

So instead of going back to the story (which I am dying to do), I instead feel I should balance the game further so that it is more fun. I think what is largely missing is the system of positive rewards.

in Somnia: The Snooze Button Mechanic.

I have to say, this was a challenging assignment, as a result of the language of systems dynamics.  Developing a solution to this design problem felt natural visually, I just hope that I am able here to articulate everything in the correct terms.

Enter Phobetor:  God of Nightmares

In order to make the "Snooze Button" make sense in the representation I have added a new character:  Phobetor.  Phobetor is Morpheus's brother and the god of nightmares.  Yes, he's Orphe's uncle.  Don't you love family dynamics?  This means Phobetor's overarching responsibility is to call Orphe on all the sleep mistakes he has made in Vigil while he is in Somnia, making sure he is ready to meet Morpheus.  As such Phobetor has multiple jobs:

1)  To ring the bell for each potion Orphe drinks (up to 4 different bells).

2)  To turn into nightmares for each stress threshold Orphe meets (up to 4 monsters). (I am not focusing on this Job of Phobetor, but am trying to decide whether Orphe faces these seperately or together).

[Note there is a limit, as you only spend 8 hours in Somnia).

Keeper: A game for older kids and teens with ASDs

“Keeper” (Soul Keeper, Heart Keeper, Heart and Soul:  Still defining the best title).  This game is designed for intervention and practice of Theory of Mind related skills in older children (9+) and teens with Asperger Syndrome and “High Functioning” Autism.  Theory of Mind includes the skills:  understanding personal feelings and the feelings of others, “False Belief” understanding, perspective-taking, etc.

Serious Goals:

To improve facial expression recognition (aka mind reading skills) and body language recognition necessary for social competence in 9-15 year olds with AS and other ASDs.

in Somnia: A Serious Game Idea

Health Issue:

Sleep Deprivation is a serious problem for students, who are attempting to balance study, social life, and sometimes a job. The average adult needs 8 hours of sleep per night, with some young adults needing up to 10 hours of sleep in order to lead a healthy, active life.  Negative effects of sleep deprivation include learning and memory issues, weight gain, safety problems, negative health effects, moodiness and irritability, and weak immune system.

Target Objective: 
Increase student awareness of the problems associated with Sleep Deprivation and benefits of a proper night's sleep.

The Construction of a Health Behavior Change Game

Outside of the process of design, there are several key features of the construction of a game for health behavior change. Created a game with serious content is a complex process involving game designers, content experts, funders, and other parties, who are often in conflict as to the direction of a game (Tate et al, 2009). However, with appropriate negotiation of different elements of the game design, significant, fun, and effective games can be created. Today I will address two of these: Team Expertise and Before, During, and After Gaming Content.

Narrative, Storytelling, and Games for Behavior Change

In serious games, much attention is put on game mechanics, and with good reason. The rules that define a game are ultimately what is often used to cause the desired outcomes or “phenomenon of interest” (Briggs, 2006). However, there is clear room to explore the effect of premise and within that, narrative or storytelling as a tool used as a layer of the game (Winn, 2006). In fact, a key take away from this week's reading is that more research is needed on the optimal use of stories and fantasy within games for health behavior change (Baronowski et al, 2008).

In fact, research makes it a point to show that in games with the objective of increasing physical activity, whether the game had a narrative component or no narrative component made a difference in whether the game sustained positive outcomes for more than a few weeks (Baranowski et al, 2008).

From my experience, storytelling adds a very specific element that is desirable in game play.

Myopia Racing Game?

So, driving in the car last night I was really getting irritated at the way my eyeglasses refract the light.  Unless you have a high enough prescription for "flares" you don't realize how difficult night and rain driving can be.  I thought, well wouldn't it be useful for folks learning to driving with this kind of issue to be able to play a game where they could encounter some of the distracting light factors that come into play when driving at night with myopia or astigmatism.  I think it could be a ridiculously fun racing game.  It could start out normal at night, but your prescription gets higher as you play, making the lights more and more distracting.

Yeah, its I admit, it is kind of like Need for Speed meets Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

I dream of ... Board Games?

I guess, although I was tired today, my brain was feeling creative when I went to nap.  Instead of having the typical creative dreams, I dreamed I was designing a board game based around ideas of characterization and storytelling.

In the dream, the players create a character using a kind of character trait matrix.  Traits are lumped into larger categories so that the traits can effect the outcomes of different moves in the game.  Players can also design or pick a picture of avatar to represent their character.  You could choose multiple paths on the game board, some making it a shorter game and some longer.  As you played, the story developed out of a series of cards you drew from when landing on squares.  The cards were coded with different outcomes based on character traits from different categories.  So by the end of the game, you and the other players have created a story.

Yeah, I think that came from an activity I used to do in class.  I had sets of cards coded with different colors.  Each kid picked out a character want, setting, occupation, and conflict (what gets in the way of want).  Then, they were challenged to write a story based on those cards.  The special challenge was to randomly pick each card, instead of choosing them with a purpose.