Tate Game Part Two

After the previous idea we tried to think of another idea that would a piece of software. We ended up with some thing that would be a very different experience.
The idea is a Facebook or web game where user will be given a customizable avatar and gallery where they will be able to display works of art that will attract computer controlled visitors gaining the user an in game currency that can be spent on new artwork that will attract more visitors. The users will also be able to interact with there friends in each others gallery's trading art and instant messaging.
I fell this would work as an idea as these kind of Facebook games are very popular at the moment especially with the demographic we are targeting.

Tate Game Part One

In groups we were asked to create a product that could be sold at Tate shops around the country. As game design student we opted to create a game.
After a few false starts with some ideas that could not be developed we eventually came up with a board game idea that has potential. The idea came to the group when we started to think about are target demographic, social young males and females that have a disposable income and an active interest in art. The idea is that each player has to collect and trade famous pieces of art that will be placed inside each player’s gallery to attract visitors. The first player to reach a finite number of visitors is the winner.
Each piece of Art will be represented on a card, which will have a picture of the artwork as well as the artist, the genre (i.e. modern, classical) and the amount of visitors it will attract. If the player has three cards that incorporate the same genre or artist the player get a bonus to the amount of visitors they attract.
For a card to attract visitors it has to be placed into one of the six slots in the player’s gallery. In a single turn the player can decide to pick up a new card at random, place a card into the gallery or trade cards with other players.
This is the basic concept of the game and I feel with more time to further develop ideas it could create a very compelling experience.

The post-its of life

I feel the reason most people play video games is to escape from their own mundane reality. When in groups we were asked to think of ideas of games that where based in our own mundane reality, everyone in my group where initially stumped.

The task was for each of us to think of five aspects of our own lives that we felt could be translated into a video game and write them on post-its. The five i came up with where:

• Driving somewhere new

• Walking the Dog

• Relationships

• Cooking pasta

• Train travel

As you can see none of the above where particularly inspiring (it was really hard!), but I do fell that a couple could be developed (particularly driving somewhere new and relationships). We then put all of the groups post-its together and as a group we had:

• Mountain climbing

• Paint balling

• Air Soft

• Drawing

• University

• Running the 'Bleep' test in P.E

• swimming

• Boxing

• Cooking at a barbecue

• travailing to America

• getting drunk

• music Rock

• getting lost and finding the way home

Again Some of these are not so workable but there are some definite activity's that could be worked with. Once we had brought all of are ideas together we decided to put them together in ways that could be made in to a structured video game.

Two ideas came out of this proses the first is a game of social interaction and exploration, where the player is placed in the shoes of a tourist travelling to modern day America and the interactions with people he has whilst he is there kind of like Shemue set in America with much more emphasis on charter interaction and less on combat.

The other idea to come out of this and one that as a group we preferred is a action adventure game where the player has to guide him self and his dog home down a mountain protecting them selves from the wild animals that live on the mountain.

This task was rewarding as it mad me think of ideas that I would normal dismiss, it also should how inspiration for Game mechanics can be found in the most mundane of tasks.