I played this a few weeks ago and thought I would share

http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/cube/

The purpose of the game is to add all 10 of the things to the cube in the right order. You can tell if you’re on the right track by how high a level all the various elements get to.. it makes more sense after you’ve played it a few times

Enjoy!

Another submission to a GameCareerGuide.com game design challenge

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/575/gamecareerguidecoms_game_design_.php

The challenge?

“Create an original, yet simple, game that requires nothing more than a few people and spoken words. The game must be easy to play and easy to learn and teach others. Average gameplay time should last at least one minute, but up to 30 minutes.”

My first thought, since I’m only a year out of college, was a drinking game I submitted this as a slightly modified version of that since I wasn’t sure how well that would go over! Also, I wanted to call it “Who’s in Bed Together?” but changed that to make it more PG.

Here’s my submission:
Game Name: “Who’s in cahoots?”

Description: This is a game that could be played very easily by a group of people sitting around in a circle, and would be a great way to get to know other people better. One person starts and states the name of two or more other people in the group that they believe are in cahoots based on some similarity that those people share (for example, they could both be drinking lemonade, they could both love chihuahuas, they could both be game designers etc.) It’s the job of everyone else in the group to figure out what this similarity is – whoever figures it out first gets one point and it is their turn to say who they believe is in cahoots. The first to 5 points wins!

My entry to another game design challenge from Game Career Guide:

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/569/gamecareerguidecoms_game_design_.php

This time the idea is to design a game that makes the player believe she has psychic powers! (Cool idea, hard to come up with ideas for). You’re supposed to take advantage of the fact that people often perceive patterns in random data, and have a poor understanding of probability, but since I couldn’t really come up with anything along these lines I took a slightly different twist. Here’s my entry

Since my background is much stronger in psychology than in mathematics I decided to go in a slightly different direction than suggested. My game would present the player with a village asking him/her to act as their witchdoctor – their crops have been bad in the past couple of years, all of their pet guinea pigs have run off, and they need someone to turn their luck around. Before the player can do this however, she needs to prove that she can read people’s minds (clearly the most important factor in becoming a witch doctor!) 10 villagers would line up in front of the player, each thinking of a number between 1 and 10 with no repeats (meaning exactly one villager is thinking of the number 1, exactly one villager is thinking of the number 2, etc.) The player can then pick any villager and, after reading a short text blurb (either about the villager or something the villager is saying), guess what number the villager is thinking of. This text blurb is key, because that is where we would employ a psychological concept called priming, described by Wikipedia as “an experimental technique by which a stimulus is used to sensitize the subject to a later presentation of the same or similar stimulus.” An example of this is if someone reads the word “table” in a list of words, and is later prompted to complete a complete a word that starts with “tab..”, that person is more likely than they otherwise would have been to answer that with “table”. This type of priming, along with others, could be used in the text blurb and possibly the image presented to the user before they are asked to guess what number the villager is thinking of. For example, if that particular villager is thinking of the number six, the villagers name could be Sibyl, could use a few words starting with “si” when talking to the player, and she could be carrying a basket of eggs (since eggs usually come in multiples of 6 this could further trigger the player into thinking six.) Clearly this type of thing would need a lot of user testing to make sure that the priming is working! If it’s done effectively enough and subtle enough so that the player doesn’t notice, perhaps the player could be led to believe they do in fact have ESP and are qualified to become a witch doctor!

Update: Woo! One of my crates was listed (among with many others) as one of the best in the bunch, check it out (I’m the first one on the page, Jenna Hoffstein)

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/576/results_from_game_design_.php?page=3

I recently discovered that Game Career Guide has weekly game design contests and promptly put in my response to the one they had last week. Here is a link to the challenge:

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/565/gamecareerguidecoms_game_design_.php

Long story short, the challenge is to come up with 10 sci-fi alternatives for a crate (ie something that can be use for “storing, blocking, building, climbing, throwing, smashing, and more” and is “versatile, movable, stackable, and stable when situated on the floor.”

Here’s what I came up with:

1. Hover Platforms – Would take up the same cubic volume as a crate
2. Mood Cubes – Left over from early experiments in AI, can be coerced into helping you or into exploding in anger
3. Large Batteries/Power Source – Could be used in puzzles where the player needs to power something on
4. Giant Robot Pieces
5. Compacted Trash Cubes – Inspiration goes to Pixar for this one
6. Cages around Tears in the Space/Time Fabric – Created by messing around with time travel, can be busted apart and used on enemies.
7. Kryptonite – A natural substance mined into blocks that’s harmful to an enemy alien species, placed strategically to protect the city/colony/whatever
8. Interstellar Storage Container – Specially designed to protect objects in the jump to hyperspace!
9. Mined Meteorite Blocks
10. Clean Air & Water Storage Cubes – Weight would vary accordingly (and the ones containing air should float in water) and could be used in puzzles

Happy Easter!  After chowing down some chocolate bunnies this morning I was inspired to come up with an equally delicious game design

You are the owner of a fledgling chocolate store.  Your role as owner is to buy the supplies, make the chocolates, and run the store.  You start out with a base of ‘recipes’ for different chocolates.  By using different molds, different types of chocolate, different filling and different toppings users can make chocolates by following a base set of recipes they are given, or by experimenting and creating their own recipes.

The rest of the game design is somewhat predictable – users sell their chocolates and learn based on their sales what types sell the best, are responsible for buying supplies and can enlarge their inventory and number of recipes this way, and try and enlarge their store.  Ultimately players can hire other people to help run the store and to help them make chocolates.  The gameplay could be mixed up a little bit by adding in customer requests (ex: 20 of a particular type of chocolate) and holidays (red and green candy would sell better around Christmas time!)

What I love about this game design is that it allows players some creativity.  If a user wants to make a duck-shaped marshmallow-filled dark chocolate candy topped with sprinkles, go for it!  Maybe it will sell well!  By just starting players with a base set of recipes and encouraging and rewarding them for experimenting we are allowing the players to take some risks and come up with their own recipes.   Hopefully this game could walk that fine line where it provides players enough structure to build off of but also gives enough encouragement and feedback to users to express some true personality.

This game idea is one that I’ve been rolling around for a while – a Dreamworld MMO.  This is a very simple good versus evil scenario, but can be totally overdone because the only limits are the extent of the imagination.  I imagine the graphics to be somewhat cartoony (think Animal Crossing.. if it’s possible to do an MMO on the DS that would be perfect here).  The basic premise is that the two sides are fighting to take control over the dreamworld.

There are a few ways that this game would part from the stereotypical MMO.  Users do not choose a class at the beginning of the game, but are instead designated a class based on their actions across a variety of spectra (righteous vs. wicked, benevolent vs. cold-hearted, just vs. unjust etc.)  A user initially could level up on any of these spectra but would only be able to reach higher than an average level in one or two of the spectra.  An of course a user’s attributes would be reflected by their rankings across these spectra.

In addition, a user’s appearance changes based in a predictable manner based on these spectra.  I’m not sure exactly how that would apply for the good side, but there are lots of awesome ways it could apply for the bad guys – if the character rates high on ‘cold-hearted’ their appearance could change to look more like zombies, or if they rank high on ‘wicked’, they could start sprouting tentacles (wicked.. slimy.. get it?).

Another interesting way that users appearances could change is simply scale.  As users level up, their maximum size increases.  Users have control over changing their size, but when they are smaller than their maximum size their powers decrease.  This could also be an interesting way to route players through the world – bigger players simply couldn’t fit into the smaller villages that the new-comers are started in unless they decrease their size.  I would love to see a horde of players at all different scales running towards each other on a battlefield

This is a somewhat half-baked idea, I’m playing with the concept of a particular mechanic that I think could be interesting but don’t quite have the theme or story associated with it figured out.

This is a game about exploration.  The first level that you encounter is exceedingly simplistic – you are represented by a black square and maybe there are some trees that are represented by green squares and your goal is to find.. well for right now let’s just call it a crystal as I don’t actually have the story on this one figured out.  So on each level you’re looking for this crystal.  On this first level the crystal is also just a square, and the gameplay simply consists of figuring out how to move yourself and then just going over to the crystal.  Yay, first level completed!

Each level after that is made of the previous level but larger in size, with more detail.  An important concept here is that all of the graphics scale with the world except for the player.  However,  the graphics that made up the previous level only need to roughly correspond to what they represent in the next level.  So for example, a green block that represents a tree may in the next level be given more visual detail so it is now clear that it is in fact a tree next to a tree stump.  That tree stump in the level after that may be a shed.  Since the world keeps growing in size and the graphics keep scaling up, things can evolve every level while retaining a semblance of familiarity.  I probably haven’t explained this concept very clearly so maybe these images will help:

Notice how the two trees have been broken down into smaller details and revealed to be groupings of trees in the second level, how the world scales around the player, and how smaller details (like the road) can be revealed with each successive level.

What I really like about this idea is the way that it can play off of the concept of fractals – patterns within patterns within patterns.  This could come into play with both the graphics, plotline, and maybe some puzzle-solving.  Exploring these worlds would probably be one of the most important elements of gameplay, but how that intertwines itself into a storyline I don’t know.

Your role in this game is that of a junior deity. The only way that you will be promoted to full-blown godly status is to prove that you can take a small colony of creatures and help them flourish and eventually take over the small planet that you have been put in charge of. (It might be literally quite small, this would be an interesting game to do with insect-like creatures).

As a junior deity you have no direct control over the creatures, but can watch everything going on from a bird’s eye perspective. The base of this game would likely be resource-gathering. Your colony is initially extremely limited in the areas it can gather resources from and so can’t grow larger, but your role is to figure out how to gain access to other areas for your creatures so that the colony can grow. The ways in which you help your colony flourish might range from building a bridge out of driftwood over a small stream to causing lighting to knock over a tree that is impossible for your creatures to get around.

As you prove yourself worthy of godly status you earn more powers and so can help the colony in different ways. You might be able to smite creatures that threaten your colony, or be able to imbue your creatures themselves with different powers.

The winning condition is taking over the planet – how this is defined exactly I don’t know

This design takes inspiration from both Harry Potter and Super Mario 64..

You are a person in a painting that is owned by a famous painter (a magical painter of course). You have the ability to move between all of the paintings in the shop, and each painting is a microcosm that can extend beyond what is viewable from the front of the painting.

Your job is to ‘fix’ paintings that the painter is having difficulty with. To fix a painting you must enter it, figure out what the problem is, and solve it! For example, a painting of a village could be fixed by scaring off a large bear that has been terrorizing the farmers. You may need to defeat an evil bad guy, or simply rescue a kitten from a tree. The scope of this game is nearly limitless as paintings can vary in scale (painting of a bowl of apples up to painting of a city), theme (medieval village to outer space), and art style (impressionism, surrealism, realism). An interesting extra dimension to add might be players needing to assimilate themselves – people in different paintings may have different currencies, or may be frightened if they think your dress or mannerisms are too foreign.

As you fix paintings the painter acquires more, and the painter rewards the player by making the player’s own painting more cozy, or painting the player new tools that he or she can use.

Game Design #1!

The theme of this game is constellations, and the premise is simple – match groupings of stars. Ironically, it’s probably better suited to be a board game than a computer game.

The board is made up of a series of tiles layed out face-up in a grid (something like 15 x 15 might work best). There are only two types of tiles – blank sky and starts. So as you can imagine, the board looks something like a starry night sky, and ideally the board is like one of those nifty Scrabble boards that can rotate around so each player can view the board from any angle.

Each player is dealt from a deck of constellation cards. On each constellation card is a particular lay-out of stars. Constellation cards could range from two-star arrangements up to more complicated constellations that have 10 stars. Constellation cards only designate the arrangement that the stars have to be in – the grid spots in between on the board could be either stars or blank sky.

Players go in turn, and each player’s goal during a turn is to match one of their constellation cards to a corresponding layout of stars on the board. When a player makes a match they get to take all of those stars off the board, and then replace the tiles with new ones from the pile of extras (these should be chosen and layed out randomly). The player can then draw another constellation card for their hand. If a player can’t make a match they can replace one tile with a randomly-chosen extra tile.

The first player to get 50 stars wins!

I would love to actually playtest this game at some point, and I mostly just made up the numbers above so I would be interested to see how it actually plays out. I’m not a programmer so I’m always excited when I can think up games that I can actually playtest without writing any code.