Main Idea:
The idea of the game is to present a story-line of a character to the player and allow the players to control the character’s life. The main aim of the game is to allow the character to follow his passion despite the challenges and the pressure of the society he might face. The reason why this game can be useful is because it can help us reflect on our daily decision and take actions when we fell that we are drifting away from our passion and interests.
The methodology of the game starts by letting the player choose which stage to edit in the character life ( 10 years old, 16 years old, 35 years old and 70 years old). Each age stage has its own set of challenges that follows these keywords: desires, money, career, future and risk. The player then either win or lose the game and when the player win the game, he achieves a mini game ( which reflect the joyfulness feel we have when we follow our passion).
Game Link:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NHkdgdMAM0RIdGTMwa2yH5Q0QJcCh-9_-nyzDMyLl90/edit?usp=sharing
Reflection regarding the process:
When I took feedback from my instructor and my colleges there was a common comment about how the game was short and seems disconnected . I think this happened due to the fact that I divided the game into 4 pathways for each age stage, but because I wanted the players to choose which age to go through, I didn’t want to remove this option. However, I then connected it with adding the option of continuing from one stage to the other (meaning if you won in stage one you can continue to stage 2). Another thing that affected the length of the game was the narrative itself which made me realize that I have to take a step back and focus on the main narrative of every age stage and try to connect between those narrative. I tried to have different sub-narrative throughout the game and then I re-did the paths and added the thought process of the narrative at the end as a reference.
If I had more time in the game, I would definitely add more scenarios that capture scientific data because it was really hard to find good sources with scientific analysis and data regarding an topic such as passion. I would have done more surveys and interviews myself to have a better and an un-biased opinion regarding the topic and it would have been also more useful than the online data because all the data that I found were based on people from different cultures. I really think that culture plays a huge role in the idea of following passion especially in Egypt.
The process was definitely challenging and informative for various reasons as each process helped in learning a different aspect from picking a concept to finding resources to building a narrative and make the game engaging visually and content wise. Choosing a concept was hard because I felt that game need to be specific because with specific games comes a specific goal and this is something that I found really interesting when I was reflecting on other games before designing the game. As for finding resources, I learned that if you cannot find enough resources, it is always a good idea to do surveys yourself. I did two interviews at the beginning for the research but after going through the design of the game, I figured out that a survey would have aided me more. Regarding the narrative, I felt that it is the fundamental aspect in any game meaning that if you have a good narrative the game would just build itself. As I mentioned before, I struggled a little bit in the narrative but after trails, I am satisfied with the results and building a narrative is something that will be easier with practice. Finally, the engagement part of the game was really important for me because I felt that a game doesn’t go without an engagement aspect. This is when I came up with the idea of a mini-game that can act like a challenge so that the users become more eager to finish the game. Overall, the experience was very different than any other assignment and I learned a lot about the technicalities of creating a game using digital tool and also about how to create a narrative and a story to your game.
References:
“EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE NOT PURSUING THEIR PASSIONS.” What Next , 11 Aug. 2016, www.whatcareerlive.co.uk/advice/eightyfour-percent-of-young-people-not-pursuing-their-passions.
Hess, Abigail. “Stanford Researchers: ‘Follow Your Passion’ Advice Could Make You Less Successful.” CNBC, 26 June 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/stanford-researchers-following-your-passion-makes-you-less-successful.html.
