Spatial Video Game Design

RotB

Teresa Lourie

Rot8 is a simple game that involves clicking pieces of a game map to rotate them and change the map.   The player uses arrow keys to navigate the avatar through the ever-changing map to the endpoint.

The atmosphere of the game is designed to be ethereal, clear, and bright. The physical game and the feeling of playing it go hand in hand in the way the map is set up is in the shape of an 8, or an infinity sign. I think this is a reflection of the fact that you can traverse the map around and around and change it every time, and also the wide open setting of the sky.

processs

Louie Adamian
1 / 9

The Brief - Writing Assignment

Andrew Todd Marcus

Hi All! Just a reminder! 

This writing assignment is due TUESDAY morning BEFORE 9. Please have COMPLETE draft done. Obviously, you canadjust what you are talking about based on our studio scope, but the idea is the same. Tell the WHOLE story about the game, about space, about inside and outside, about rules.

This text will be edited by the NuVu writing coach. You will have the opportunity to revise this text before the final presentation.
You should post your writing in the Writing tab of your project. Feel free to use your own style or voice in The Brief.

Title the post "Brief".

The Brief should have a strong narrative that ties together the Why, How and What of your project through clear, cogent writing. Tell the story of how your idea was born, developed, and manifest. 

Create 1 post titled “The Brief” with text that includes the following 2 items:

  1. A 1-2 sentence project description for your transcript. This will serve as the basis of the Project Description that appears in your transcript. This description should not include the name of the project and should be written in the third person. On Thursday you and your teammates will add this under project settings.
    examples:
     Night Light Blankie: A child's sensory blanket that provides comfort and privacy in the high stress environment of the hospital using weight, textures, and light. The blanket transforms into a mini light up fort over a child’s head.
    Cocoon is a shroud that explores human spirituality and the concept of life after death through the use of repetitive religious iconography. Composed of over 300 pieces of laser cut balsa wood lined with space tape, the icons are arranged using a mathematical strange attractor.
  2. A 1-2 paragraph brief for your project based on the description below. The primary purpose of The Brief is to explain, entice, and convince the reader that your project is amazing and important. Imagine your project on display in the Museum of Modern Art. The Brief is hanging on the wall next to your work. In 1-2 paragraphs, a viewer should understand what your project is, why it exists, and how you made it. More importantly, the viewer should be interested and care. You will draw them into your project through a compelling narrative.

    Things to think about:
    • The what is a clear statement of the thesis or problem+solution.
    • The why explains how your project changes the world. It is the reason your project exists – what social issue is it engaging, who is your project helping, how does the project change the world, and what important social, intellectual, or technical questions does it raise? The scope of the why can vary widely.
    • The how briefly explains what technical prowess, innovative methods, or cool materials you used in your solution.
    • Think of the reader - it is good to imagine that a college admissions officer AND a potential employer in the field of your design should both be able to understand and be excited by the project based on your writing.
    • Write in the Third person in an explanatory fashion. Resist using I, WE, OUR and focus on describing the work.

      Here is an example from Penelope the Pain-O-Monster:

      Pediatricians and other doctors find it challenging to collect accurate self reported information from children about their level of pain due to lack of communication skills, fear, anxiety, and discomfort. Traditional 1-10 pain scales do not fully address these issues, often leading to uncomfortable children and inaccurate symptom information. Penelope the Pain-O-Monster is a cute plush toy that uses integrated pressure sensors to allow children to express their source and level of pain through play.    

      Our previous project, The EmoOwl, helped children with autism to express themselves by translating motion into color. As we sought to expand our children’s health menagerie, we thought about making a different stuffed animal to help kids in hospitals. We quickly realized that the pain charts that patients used to express their pain could be made more interactive and easier for a child to use. We read that playing with stuffed animals can take the children’s mind off the pain so we created an additional “Fun” mode to distraction from pain and anxiety. The handcrafted stuffed animal uses force sensors in different body parts that light up from blue to red depending on how hard they are pushed to show the child’s pain level. It is our hope that Penelope will help sick children feel safer while providing more useful information to care providers. We anticipate that Penelope and the EmOwl will soon have many more friends to help improve healthcare for kids.