Radical Games - Students' works

Mimicry - A children's game to learn sounds

Mimicry

Studies show that many children in the early years of primary school don’t have verbal skills suitable for their age.^[1]  Worse, there sin’t a fitting number of toys and games that focus on verbal skills for this demographic available. So how do we help to remedy the problem? Mimicry! is a game about sound to be played with 2-8 people, aged 7 and up. Each turn a player will draw a card and using only the ‘instruments’ at hand or their voice to help the other players guess what their item was within the time limit. Basic verbal reproduction and recognition skills can translate to better language and even arithmatic skills.^[2]
http://mimicrygame.tumblr.com/ http://fyeahradicalexperiencedesign.tumblr.com/







[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

Domestic Dash - A remote-controlled toy for lonely dogs

Domestic Dash

We aim to give something that both the player and the animal partner can consider as a true game and yet give something that benefits them beyond simple gameplay. The problem we face to solve is the psychological problems that arises from the long term physical separation from the owner and the pet dog. We looked for something that dogs innately find interesting, which is hunting, and add a more personal element, the voice of the owner, to it. A short training will ensure the desired effect. The solution is an RC car with attached speaker and cameras. This provides a mean for physical, visual and audio interactions between the owner and the pet dog that is aimed to benefit both the player and the dog psychologically. This is a simple means to an end. This method can be reapplied to any other types of pets in a similar way.
http://the-exotic-antarctican-cabbage.blogspot.com.au/

Smell this - A game based on smell alone

Smell This

Through “Smell This”, we are able to invite players who are vision impaired. Although taking away a primary sense of the human body narrows down our audience, it at the same time increases accuracy of our secondary senses. The major problem we encounter is that no one likes being vision impaired for a long duration of time, even for a short duration it can be slightly frustrating. This can be a deterrent from training one’s sense of smell. As we needed an incentive, we decided to make our game competitive. Rather than doing an action on your own, the game is played with 2 people and is a race against time. 

Even when taking away a person primary sense it is still possible for a person to have fun for a duration of time provided there is a proper incentive. Our overall contribution is that games can be played with the things you smell, as opposed to things you see. While our game may not be world changing we hope people can see, from a different light, ways that people play and design games. The results from players will help improve their sense of smell, something they may not always actively pay attention too. http://bforbenzin.blogspot.com.au/

Blind Buzz - A game based on smell alone

Blind Buzz

People have become accustomed to being able to locate a sound's direction with the visual aid of eyesight. Blind people do not have the aid of visuals to guide them, they must rely on sound to guide them through everyday life. Because of this, Blind people have always had to cope with this disadvantage in life. Blind buzz introduces a radical new way to play a game where the players vision is taken away from them and blind people actually have a distinct advantage. The game requires the people be able to locate the position of each sound they hear, factoring in factors such as sound direction and distance. In order to compete with blind people, people must train their hearing to adapt to the visionless game world of blind buzz. Blind buzz isn't just about the player scoring as many points as they can by throwing a ball at different sound locations within a time limit, although that is the player's primary motivation while playing. Blind buzz is a game where people and blind people can play together and introducing a new sightless environment for the player to experience.

http://awesomedesignblog.blogspot.com.au/

Metcycle - A radical cycling game to promote Melbourne Bike Share

Metcycle

http://tikachgames.tumblr.com/

Sign Monster - A radical game to learn sign language

Sign Monster

With this game the initial idea was centered on implementing sign-language (by proxy intricate hand gestures & recognition) as an element of game play into video games. Motivating this decision was the reasons of wanting to create empathy with deaf people who sign as a means of communicating with the world & wanting to create a new experience in games via the novelty of signing. At first I had a convoluted narrative to implement the mechanic (via the use of kinect & or playstation move) but then we settled on a simple mini-game-esque design that was transparently educational yet fun. Sign Monster  is a game where the player must defeat a monster by delaying his sense by spelling out the “English” word he/she presents in Sign language in the time of 7 seconds or less (normal level of difficulty) , while delayed the player can escape from the monster. The monster will catch up with the player & have another word of higher difficulty that the player will have to spell out & so on & so on.  This game will help the player to learn while they play.
http://signmonster.tumblr.com/