Lecture 7: 22Apr2010 Design Dimensions for Exertion Games

Today you learned about Design Dimensions for Exertion Games, and how playing with them can (hopefully) turn a great game idea into an awesome one!

For example, you have seen how adding a line (virtual or physical) in the Bubble Popper game could have made it a game solely about "being faster than the other player". In its current form, it is about "preventing the other player from scoring" by pushing the other player out of the way, a very different play experience (all of a sudden you can play offensively or defensively)! And by having the players hit one big target together (such as killing one big monster), the game could be turned into a collaborative affair, all without changing any technology! (What you could also do is point the projector at the people's bodies: now the balloon appears on your arm, and you can decide whether you will hit your own arm, or try to move it away so that the other player cannot hit it: can you see how your game now becomes more like Karate, changing the conceptual location in the design space again?)

Design Dimensions for Exertion Games

Thanks again for joining me today and giving me such great feedback! Your time and effort is appreciated.

I will look at all your feedback diligently and take it on board! See you next week!

Homework for next week:
* Blog: How (if) the dimensions helped you
* Send me video + photo (a 1024x768 photo with game title, 1 sentence gameplay, URL, team) before Tuesday
* Email me a picture of your dots
* Start working on your game
* Report progress on your website

PS: Biker-team: did you see the pump idea from one of the other teams? You could combine your games!
PPS: I just thought of another example where "secondary performance" is rewarded by the game: in Guitar Hero, if you lift the guitar up, you get extra points: the designers wanted to make sure you 'perform' like a rock star, so they linked this "secondary performance" aspect to the score, making it more interesting for the other players and the audience, and also getting you more bodily engaged. You can do the same in any game: if your player finished, and lifts up the arms in triumph, she/he gets extra points! A loud winning chant even more points!