January 27, 2021

AVCE2 - Types of Prototypes & Designing for Spatial Expansion

We can think of this whole thing like focusing a camera image; prototypes answer questions through playtesting.

There are lots of different types of prototypes.

Paper Prototypes
Physical Prototypes
Playable / Core Prototypes
Complete Game Prototypes
Art and Sound Prototypes
Interface Prototypes
Code / Tech Prototypes

Games in Physical Spaces

Discovery and Changing Perceptions

blur and expose social norms
transform the way we understand space
re-contextual known behaviors around architecture
Any object be in or out of the game based on the rules of the game

Local Politics and History as Design Tools

Authentic physical space and physical game content, take the world as is and make use of this context, and can lead people to areas to raise awareness of issues like homelessness.

Playing in Prepared Locations

Pervasive games exist inside space embedded with other contexts. Designers can leverage multiple layers of context:

Location free (take a photo of yourself on any bench)
Site Specific (depending on location elements)
Site adaptable (played in a moving car, or a hotel)

Playing on The Move

Tools: waiting and moving at specific times to specific spaces; playing while moving; repurpose one form of moving for another form (riding the MTA in NYC like surfing)

Global Gaming

Tools: using virtual / online systems to connect millions of players; hiding clues around the globe players must collect and share; leveraging existing systems such as reddit or twitter to overlay a physical space. (Google maps hunts, MIT’s games)

Urban Expansion

Tools: exploring a rarely visited area (a trash dump, a beach shore); using social networks to pass hidden environmental clues.

Exergaming

whole body play, that can be physically challenging and demanding, can redefine how your body moves in space in a built environment, and can use sensory information in new and unexpected ways.

Designing for Temporal Expansion

Dormant Games

Player must remain peripherally aware of their game states; game can force you to have to become suddenly very active at any time, can react to changes in the world.

Temporally Ambient Games

The opposite of dormant games, these games become active only when the player wants them to be active. Features pull not push interactions. You can add the game world into your day when you wish and how you choose; like ambient music, you can bring it in and out of the foreground of your awareness.

Temporally Seamless Games

Completely integrating ordinary life with the game participation; if you do not know if your actions are relevant to the game, you end up acting like you are constantly in the game. Game must alwats respond in a diegetic way to players. These are a serious challenge to create.

MAGNET ADVENTURE ！

Game Background

Two abandoned magnets🧲 meet in the waste dump; in order to change the fate of being destroyed, they work together to escape the waste recycling station.

Goals

🎯Players cooperate to solve the puzzles in the game and pass all the cards.

Rules

Elements in the scene can have many attributes, can be destroyed, can move autonomously, can also be magnetic, can also be electromagnetic induction…

Falling out of the scene or being destroyed will be judged as a failure, and the current level will be restarted.

Actions

Players can control left⬅️ and right➡️ movement, jump🆙, and flip🔄 the magnet.

Magnets🧲 can repel and attract each other, providing extra thrust.

Objects

🕹Scene trigger (platform lifting, opening and closing doors, portals, creating new scene elements, electromagnets, etc.), obstacles, reward elements (points/achievement items), booster items (protection from environmental effects), traps, interactive NPCs and many more.