Greg Pidgeon
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Design Exercise
Our second tutorial session we were asked to bring in a toy/game each. I brought juggling balls but after Ollie told me he had as well I thought I’d get another little something as we were in Woolworth’s anyway. Yeah Jonny and me went a little overboard as managed to get two Barbie’s, an action man, a car for them and a toy gun that shot suckers that stuck to the window ha ha ha, brilliant!
When we got in we played with the toys for a bit then got into groups and again design a toy. But this time we had to combine what we had together in the groups to make the toy.
Along with the dolls, gun and juggling balls we had play dough and a funny little drummer man. We began to think what we could use for the toy. We brainstormed some ideas and thought about previous toys for inspiration. We first thought we could maybe use the juggling balls and dolls to create some sort of bowling game. Problem with this was it wouldn’t be at all interesting because it’s all been done before and to be honest much better bowling games are about. We then focused on our target audience, thinking at aiming for an older audience we thought nudity couldn’t hurt. Using the dolls we began to think of some sort of shooting game with stripping/dressing involved. Whilst brainstorming all other ideas that were generated during this period we mainly stuck to the development of this game. We decided that just shooting them wasn’t enough so we decided to include a quiz to begin with, each correctly answered question enabled the player to remove an item of his dolls clothing. Once naked the doll was then placed a set distance away and attempts to shoot it would be made, successfully knocking over your doll won the game. We also decided to add choice and interest to have a variety of difficultness in the questions correlating to the item of clothing the player wishes to remove. We wrote up some rules and had a couple of goes. If I’m perfectly honest I should have known it wasn’t the most brilliant game when my attention during the game began to wonder, but hey it weren’t bad considering it was bodged together in an hour or so.
The game had a simple linear structure with simple rules and changeable aspects. Our goal was to create a new set of rules and theory taken from the existing toys/games. This we achieved but as for an inspirational idea or next national obsession I don’t think our game is going to change the world.
Once we finalised the details of the game each group had to present to the class. We had everything from mathematical darts to dominos with a twist. Ours was taken well I think, the sort of feedback given was interesting. It focused mainly on that fact that we, apart from the juggling balls had used toys that don’t have rules or constraints but are imagination driven. I concluded that this in my opinion is unbeatable, how can our vision appeal to everyone when with use of imagination the player could think of much more personally interesting activity to do with the toys, you just can’t compete with that. I can imagine the players boring quickly of the rules we devised and going off and playing with the toys independently.
In relation to our current toy assignment I think I need to think about its application. Can my toy be used for anything else other than what I have designed it to do, if so is this going to detract from the original game making it redundant or will it enhance the original taking it further?
Our game, yesterday.....
When we got in we played with the toys for a bit then got into groups and again design a toy. But this time we had to combine what we had together in the groups to make the toy.
Along with the dolls, gun and juggling balls we had play dough and a funny little drummer man. We began to think what we could use for the toy. We brainstormed some ideas and thought about previous toys for inspiration. We first thought we could maybe use the juggling balls and dolls to create some sort of bowling game. Problem with this was it wouldn’t be at all interesting because it’s all been done before and to be honest much better bowling games are about. We then focused on our target audience, thinking at aiming for an older audience we thought nudity couldn’t hurt. Using the dolls we began to think of some sort of shooting game with stripping/dressing involved. Whilst brainstorming all other ideas that were generated during this period we mainly stuck to the development of this game. We decided that just shooting them wasn’t enough so we decided to include a quiz to begin with, each correctly answered question enabled the player to remove an item of his dolls clothing. Once naked the doll was then placed a set distance away and attempts to shoot it would be made, successfully knocking over your doll won the game. We also decided to add choice and interest to have a variety of difficultness in the questions correlating to the item of clothing the player wishes to remove. We wrote up some rules and had a couple of goes. If I’m perfectly honest I should have known it wasn’t the most brilliant game when my attention during the game began to wonder, but hey it weren’t bad considering it was bodged together in an hour or so.
The game had a simple linear structure with simple rules and changeable aspects. Our goal was to create a new set of rules and theory taken from the existing toys/games. This we achieved but as for an inspirational idea or next national obsession I don’t think our game is going to change the world.
Once we finalised the details of the game each group had to present to the class. We had everything from mathematical darts to dominos with a twist. Ours was taken well I think, the sort of feedback given was interesting. It focused mainly on that fact that we, apart from the juggling balls had used toys that don’t have rules or constraints but are imagination driven. I concluded that this in my opinion is unbeatable, how can our vision appeal to everyone when with use of imagination the player could think of much more personally interesting activity to do with the toys, you just can’t compete with that. I can imagine the players boring quickly of the rules we devised and going off and playing with the toys independently.
In relation to our current toy assignment I think I need to think about its application. Can my toy be used for anything else other than what I have designed it to do, if so is this going to detract from the original game making it redundant or will it enhance the original taking it further?
Our game, yesterday.....
:: posted by Greg Pidgeon, 1:08 am
