Week 3 — 100 things
For this week, my chosen task is to complete a game for Expermental Gameplay, based on the theme of “100 Things.”
In searching for a game, I struggled to find that idea that “just fit,” and worked with the theme. 100 Red Balloons, 100 Dalmatians, 100 Lights, 100 this-that-and-the-others — nothing seemed quite right for me on this piece. Something clicked a few days ago, and my ideas poured forth for a game dealing with our “relationships.”
These days, much of our social culture exists along the cables of the internet, via social sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). We friend everybody we even met once, and eventually, have more friends than we know how to truly deal with on a regular basis. The feed of information becomes overwhelming itself, let alone actually interacting with them, even through a quick, easy to create message. What if we had to deal with just 100 of them, but they were prone to leaving us behind if we didn’t pay them attention quickly enough? How many could of these relationships could we truly deal with and manage to maintain?
Thus the idea for a somewhat more artsy game, that I’ve come to call “Envy,” was born.
Here are the first two builds of this game. Move the cursor over a box to “connect” with a person and quickly renew the relationship, but watch for failing ones, as once that friend is gone, they’re out for good. How many can you maintain in this game?
(please play before reading feedback questions below)
Questions to lead the feedback –
- Which version was more appealing, graphically?
- How many relationships could you maintain?
- Is the pace at which the icons shrink adequate?
- Does the message/commentary communicate well?
- Should the icons be smaller/larger at the start? By how much?
- Was the play session time length adequate? Should it be longer/shorter?
- Did you actively decide to leave behind any relationships? How did you decide?
- Any other thoughts?
Thanks, yet again, for any thoughts or feedback you might have!