In my four years at Tech, I have worked in groups making everything from run-of-the-mill websites to abstract digital media implementations. Yet in light of all of these projects, Daydream has been a game unlike any other product I’ve made during my CM career. There are a number of different reasons for this, mostly dealing with the design and development processes. I served as the product manager on this team, a role that I take on fairly regularly in my groups. Being a manager, I decided to take a more hands-off role in the design process. I articulated what I... Continue reading

Virtual worlds and MMOGs are two game forms which, at a superficial glance, appear very similar in their overall experiences. And in many ways, this is true; both encourage large online communities, employ complex computational frameworks, etc. But in the ultimate experience, there are actually a number of nuanced differences between the two. These differences manifest in a number of ways from gameplay, to social interactions, to expandability and the changing nature of these games. The majority of these differences can be illuminated through examining the precursors to both forms: MUDs and MOOs for virtual worlds and the archetypal video... Continue reading

Released only a few weeks ago, Gearbox Software’s new title Borderlands has already become a smash hit amongst popular video game circles. With a highly stylized, cell-shaded art style, exaggerated voice acting and a preposterous plot, Borderlands is a game which doesn’t go to any great lengths to take itself seriously. Rather, it focuses on its gameplay elements and the somewhat-casual overall experience. Borderlands is a typical product of Fron’s ‘hegemony of play’ containing classic elements of both the first-person shooter and the dungeon crawler. The game epitomizes a very male, very typical take on the modern video game with... Continue reading

Overview Daydream is a visual-oriented casual game where the player takes on the role of a bored student daydreaming in class. Throughout the course of the lecture, distractions and waking hallucinations will try to lure the player into interaction. If engaged, these 'minigames' will cause the room and its inhabitants to change, ultimately drowning out the professor and the classroom setting. At the end of gameplay, a test will be administered who's difficulty will be determined by how much attention was paid to the lecturer. Prototyping and Testing For prototyping, we chose to work with a projector and paper cutouts... Continue reading

Daydream Overview: Daydream is a visual-oriented casual game where the player takes on the role of a bored student daydreaming in class. Throughout the course of the lecture, distractions and waking hallucinations will try to lure the player into interaction. If engaged, these 'mini-games' will cause the room and its inhabitants to change, ultimately drowning out the professor and the classroom setting. At the end of the gameplay, a test will be administered who's difficulty will be determined by how much attention was paid to the lecturer. Gameplay: Daydream will not be objective based at any intrinsic level. The mini-games... Continue reading

One of the most important aspects of games over the centuries has been their ability to change. The plasticity of play allows different people and even different cultures to adopt games quicker and to greater effect. The change that games undergo is not limited to any one particular dimension; in reality, games evolve along a number of different levels. These levels are perhaps best categorized based on their superficiality, or how much we are really changing the nature of the game. Calling upon an example that we have already examined, chess saw many cosmetic changes in its trek across Europe... Continue reading

In 1997 Bullfrog Studios, under the direction of Peter Molyneux, released a real-time strategy game called Dungeon Keeper. In this game, the player takes on the role of an evil dungeon master in order to attract minions, build lairs and mazes, and cast magical spells in an effort to thwart heroic do-gooders. As someone who historically plays ‘the good guy’ in any role playing game, Dungeon Keeper proved to be a really fun excuse to break my routine and try on a different persona. The game goes to tedious lengths in order to fully immerse the player in the role... Continue reading

The game of chess has passed through numerous cultures, religions, and nations in its journey to become the game it is today. Through each group that embraces it, the game is altered (often slightly) to suit the gamers. These iterations and derivations let us glimpse into the culture of the players and examine how the customs and traditions of the time impacted play. Spain during the immediate centuries following the advent of chess in Europe serves as a good example due to the fact that it housed three major religions of the time, each taking slightly different approaches to chess... Continue reading