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research_report_groworld_dave [2010-02-03 15:03] – 82.181.215.205research_report_groworld_dave [2010-02-03 15:23] – 82.181.215.205
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 Foam were working on this project with two other groups, [[http://www.tale-of-tales.com|Tale of Tales]] and [[http://www.sixtostart.com/|SixToStart]]. Both of whom have experience working on projects which use games technology to explore specific experiences and situations.  Foam were working on this project with two other groups, [[http://www.tale-of-tales.com|Tale of Tales]] and [[http://www.sixtostart.com/|SixToStart]]. Both of whom have experience working on projects which use games technology to explore specific experiences and situations. 
  
-And as a game project, we were sometimes explicitly, at other times implicitly tackling these issues:+And as a game project, we were sometimes explicitly, at other times implicitly tackling issues such as these:
  
   * What is the depiction of plants and growth within existing games?   * What is the depiction of plants and growth within existing games?
   * Should this be a scientific simulation, if not how do we avoid this?   * Should this be a scientific simulation, if not how do we avoid this?
-  * What is an art game? Are we making one?+  * What is an art game? Are we making one, or a 'normal' game?
      
 ==== Problem/Aim ==== ==== Problem/Aim ====
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 This was a really ambitious project. Even with a very clear design agreed from the start we would have been seriously pushed to complete a game project with the resources and time we had. Looking back I am pleased that we covered so many of the aims, even if we failed to bring them together into a single product.  This was a really ambitious project. Even with a very clear design agreed from the start we would have been seriously pushed to complete a game project with the resources and time we had. Looking back I am pleased that we covered so many of the aims, even if we failed to bring them together into a single product. 
 +
 +These are the things I would like to look at changing if we were to undertake a similar project:
 +
 +  * More use of computer-less prototyping, board games, lego, drawings
 +  * Less 'open debate' and more focused with post-its, drawings, etc - even taking notes, it was difficult to record all the decisions and remember them between meetings, leading to a certain amount of retreading old ground 
 +  * More restrictions, earlier on - I felt there was a constant re-widening of the possibilities, when we needed to be making decisions 
 +  * Doing the user stories at the start of the project - we didn't talk about our audience much at all until this point
  
 The plant eyes prototype I worked on formed an end result I was pleased with, but it never really felt like it could stand alone as a game. The main reason for this is that it remained a test of a game mechanic, a way of growing into space and a achieving a disorientating feeling of becoming another life form with different restrictions and abilities. To make into a game it would take surrounding this growth mechanic with a richer world, problems to solve and ideally, other human players to interact with.  The plant eyes prototype I worked on formed an end result I was pleased with, but it never really felt like it could stand alone as a game. The main reason for this is that it remained a test of a game mechanic, a way of growing into space and a achieving a disorientating feeling of becoming another life form with different restrictions and abilities. To make into a game it would take surrounding this growth mechanic with a richer world, problems to solve and ideally, other human players to interact with. 
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 Most game projects only attempt one or two new things on top of existing well used and understood game mechanics. We could not get away with such a strategy here, as it became clear that we needed to invent a whole new set of mechanics and problems relating to plants in order to achieve the feeling of being the plant, not just managing one. This seemed central to the idea of the groworld project. Most game projects only attempt one or two new things on top of existing well used and understood game mechanics. We could not get away with such a strategy here, as it became clear that we needed to invent a whole new set of mechanics and problems relating to plants in order to achieve the feeling of being the plant, not just managing one. This seemed central to the idea of the groworld project.
  
-I certainly feel like we approached the project in the right way. I fell into a process of prototyping each next biggest problem that I faced. Sometimes these were technical, e.g. networking, at other times gameplay problems e.g. trying the a cellular approach out. The alternative is to have a grand plan at the start and only find out what the problems when it's too late to fix them in the best way. This also means when discussing the project with others often the answer to their questions is: "we tried that, and found this..." rather than, "we didn't have time to try that...". +I certainly feel like we approached the project in the right way. I fell into a process of prototyping each next biggest problem that I faced. Sometimes these were technical, e.g. networking, at other times gameplay problems e.g. trying to grow a plant a cell at a time. The alternative is to have a rigid grand plan at the start and only find out what the problems when it's too late to fix them in the best way. This also means when discussing the project with others often the answer to their questions is: "we tried that, and found this..." rather than, "we didn't have time to try that...". 
  
 On balance I am very pleased at what we have achieved, when discussing and showing groworld at talks at Futuresonic, Kitchen Budapest, Dorkbot London and OpenLab London there is a huge amount of interest in this area and a lot of excitement over what we have made. In conjunction with the wider groworld project the game prototypes represent very original ideas. On balance I am very pleased at what we have achieved, when discussing and showing groworld at talks at Futuresonic, Kitchen Budapest, Dorkbot London and OpenLab London there is a huge amount of interest in this area and a lot of excitement over what we have made. In conjunction with the wider groworld project the game prototypes represent very original ideas.
  • research_report_groworld_dave.txt
  • Last modified: 2010-02-22 14:41
  • by davegriffiths