I think sensor gloves are best coupled with some form of VR as you need some other sort of feedback since tactile feedback is not available.
A god game would be good. Similar to the game Black and White, except you now can literally pick your people up, seperate the waters, do other godly things. It’s taking an existing game and modifying it, but being able to use your hands instead of a cursor will bring a new level of fun to it.
This game would best be on a wii or iphone, something with tilt/motion sensing capabilities.
Have a maze filled with items that have different densities. Your character is wearing scuba gear and is very mobile underwater, however your gear is so heavy you can’t swim. You can walk and jump though. You are able to control taps that will release certain liquids into the maze (liquids of different densities) as well as to release the water.
To get through the maze you will need an understanding of which objects float and sink in what liquid. Eg, to raise a heavy platfrom to where you are, you can release just enough mercury that would be dense enough to lift the platform to you. Then you can pour in a lighter liquid like glycerine to raise another platform further, so you can jump onto the new platform. You are able to drain liquids at any time, as well as control the amount to drain. The objects will float and sink correspondingly.
My own mum enjoys puzzle games, but I would like to step aside since there are plenty of puzzle games out there already.
Given that i’m targetting Mums of the 50+ years old age group, I would say that generally they don’t particularly enjoy fast paced gaming and extreme violence. Therefore FPS and RTS games would naturally be out of the question.
I think a picture book style game would be a good idea for the Mum generation. Think of an RPG with more pictures and cutscenes, and occasional mini games. The story could be lifted from famous novels such as Pride and Prejudice or even Harry Potter. Minimal action, maximum story.
My toy would be pretty lights. The user interface would be various things such as heat sensitivity, sound and touch. Each of these would cause changes in the light pattern – eg a colder room would result in cool blue light but holding the device in your (comparatively) warm hands would result in warmer glows. The lights would react to sound (eg when you talk, or if other people talk around you) and you are able to touch and mould it.
Ideally the toy would be made of plasticine type material to make it malleable. It would really make a nice mood-egg type house decoration 
My idea is to have 4 corner pong with 8 balls. The board is shaped a diamond and then each side will have a paddle. Scoring involves making someone not return the ball in time, much like pong. Everytime a ball is lost, a lost tally is added for the player who lost the ball and the ball is recreated in his area to return the ball to play.
The gamestyle is an elimination system. The first person to lose 10 balls is eliminated from play, and the board is rearranged into an equilateral triangle. Then after the 2nd player is eliminated the board goes back to the familiar pong layout. The last player standing wins.
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This survival style game retains the competitiveness of the original ball game we play in class. 2 or more players can combine forces to target a single player – but they would have to fight it out later.
Personally I think this game would be more interesting as an air hockey style physical game, but the board changing might be a little hard to manage
Games are things that provide entertainment, so regardless of platform, a game is still a game. However why is it that the same game played on a different platform can provide such a different experience?
Taking a sports game for example, lets say, soccer. Soccer can naturally be played in the traditional sense, with 11 players on each side on a massive field. Soccer can also be played in a miniturised version in form of table soccer, or foosball. Then soccer can be played in the computer game version, usually a game called FIFA something or rather.
(Personally i refer to soccer as football since the foot actually plays a big part in the game, unlike some other footballs… However i shall be considerate of my target audience and politely refer to it as “soccer” for this blog entry)
As a soccer player, one would expect to be fit enough to run around the field chasing a little ball for like 1.5 hrs. In fact one would also like to be physically skilled, in order to contribute to the team and gameplay. With 11 people per side, soccer is a very team based game, and as such, very social. You develope camaradarie with your teammates, and there is a sense of belonging. However, you are but one person on the field, and you do not have as much control over the game as a single.
Foosball shrinks the teamsize to something between 1-3. Here the social element is retained, albeit to a much smaller scale. You belong to a team, and you have an opponent you can see and interact with. A different skillset is needed – more reflex with the hands and less body stamina. The game is also faster, as the “field” has also shrunk. You do have a lot more control over the game, as you control, at the very least, a kebab of mini players as opposed to just one.
Then comes the computer game version. Here, I would say that the social element can very easily be removed altogether by playing against AI. However you have most control over gameplay, and you hardly need an ounce of physical strength. Instead of having superb hand skills, you now only need superb finger skills. You choose where to run to, who to pass the ball to, when to try for a goal, all with a few mouse and keyboard clicks. Granted there can still be some minor form of social element if you are playing against an opponent online, but there is quite a difference in being able to see your opponent and not.
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So there you have it, football, ahem i mean soccer, in 3 different flavours. Essentially the same game, but the skills required for each game is considerably different.
As a designer, the changes to the game change the target audience significantly. I would argue that the move towards computer games broadens the market. Only a fraction of the population are fit enough to play real football, but by lowering the physical requirement more and more people are able to play. By shrinking the field, the game is now much faster (I would be surprised if a game of foosball went on for 1.5 hrs) so more people can allocate the time to play it. The game has now been simplified, so other challenges have to be raised to balance out the game. In foosball it would be having fixed kebabs of foosmen unable to move forwards or backwards. In computerised soccer you do not have full control over all the members of your team – they would have to be controlled by AI except for the one that your cursor has selected. Opponent AI can be increased for greater challenge. Faster gameplay calls for faster reflexes.
I believe that all these forms of soccer have their own loyal fans, and that people are having the same amount of fun playing the games. A different kind of fun maybe, but fun nonetheless.
Given that I am quite partial to educational (yes, indeed) games, I came up with a word game idea inspired from Scrabble. Word games are brilliant for the dogma because there is no need for elves and fairies pretty graphics.
The game would be similar to scrabble in that you have tiles of letters worth different points. You are given a board whose shape is not fixed. The board could be shaped like a cross, or some other shape that is not a quadrangle. You are able to form words on the board in a crossword puzzle style, much like Scrabble. The challenge is to form words using the limited tiles that add up to at least X points in Y amount of time. Everytime a words is formed, the game would tell you what it meant. The different board shape is important because you have to decide where and how to place your words for maximum points.
The game would have levels. Early levels would have a smaller board, more generous tiles, more time and less points needed. Later levels would have those variables adjusted. You would be able to ask for a certain number of hints, which can help you when you get stuck.
This game would be able to run on any computer with a keyboard and mouse, as all you need to do is to drag/type the tiles into position.
Journal Wk 1: Why are you here?
I have to say it is a combination of a few different things.
One of them would be wanting to do a subject because i’m interested in it, as opposed to “i think it’s important to learn this” *coughnetworksdatabasesalgosetc*. It is (hopefully) my final semester at uni so I really would like to do something fun and different to all the past subjects I’ve done.
Also, I like games – I just don’t have the time to play as much as I’d like to. I think it would be hard to find a comp student who does not enjoy some form of game. Thirdly I’ve heard lots of good things about this subject from past students, and I have a lot of friends doing this course right now with me, which adds to the fun factor.
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The thing that interests me about games, to be honest I haven’t really thought much about it prior to this. I guess first and foremost I am a sucker for pretty pictures and nice stories, which explains the bulk of games I play and enjoy. Just rambling a few off the top of my head here: the Final Fantasy series, the Zelda series, Team Fortress 2, Valkyrie Chronicles, Okami and most recently Aion.
Apart from pretty pictures, I also enjoy pretty music. Hearing a nice piece of OST from somewhere is enough to make me go find out about the game. I think that a good soundtrack can make the difference in getting you immersed in the game or not.
Pretty things aside, I enjoy wit and humour. So that’s why even though I just got around to playing Monkey Island last year, I loved it. Other bizarre things I’ve done include finishing the Encarta 95 Quiz as a kid – how many hours of going room after room after room answering questions i don’t exactly remember. Ooh yes, and Portal. Glados was awesome!
I like the social factor of games too. Games such as Little Big Planet, Gauntlet Legends are fun because of the co-op factor. I enjoy TF2 because even though it is a first person shooter and I can’t aim to save my life (actually I’m getting better, really.) it is fun playing with friends and the violence is amusing as opposed to being horrifying. I enjoy MMOs as well, most recently playing Aion, a game I shall plug as having beautiful graphics, immersive world, epic soundtrack, good story, and is challenging and social.
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So somehow that turned into a section of me talking about games I like.
Games I would like to play right now would be the NA release of Aion, which as mentioned above, contains most of the things i look for in a game. I’d also like to continue playing Valkyrie Chronicles one day, as I am too poor to afford a PS3 right now.
As for a game i’d like to make, I’d like to take a simple concept and make it an addictive game. Something like 3d Logic or the little flash games at Orisinal. What that concept is, I don’t know just yet. I hope to learn about different types of games and to give them a go.
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Guns and games.
Guns don’t particularly appeal to me – I much prefer martial arts/medieval/fantasy weapons. That aside, I think that the reason why so many people like guns in games is because runing around with a cool gun and shooting people with it is something that is somewhat possible to be done in real life (compared to say, casting a Fireball spell or obtaining a real lightsaber) but you’d get in massive trouble for if you actually went and did it. Having guns in game gives normal people the chance to fulfil this fantasy without being arrested/killed.
So i am now a proud owner of a Samsung NC10 netbook.
Actually bought and paid for it on Easter Friday, which explains the delay in processing, but it finally arrived on Monday this week. And i love it!
Bought it over ebay because Samsung no longer sells laptops in Australia, and the UK version has the funky keyboard layout which i prefer not to have. After some scouting and lots of thinking i made the plunge and bought it over ebay for a relatively cheap price of $660AUD including shipping.
It’s metallic blue, which is pretty but the glossy finish is a fingerprint magnet. Keyboard is wonderful, battery life is SUPERB. There is almost no need for me to bring the power adapter – after uninstaling and installing programs, and performing not one, but 2 backup images after that, my little sammy reported over 5 hrs at 75% or so batts. Waiting on a screen protector and neoprene case for it! Hurry up HK Post!
Will most likely pick up a 2gb ram stick for it – it does show signs of lagging. Granted it has your standard netbook specs so performance isn’t going to be up there, but it’s good enough for my needs atm.
Bought a little retractable mouse for it today – the usb cable is self contained inside the mouse, which is great! No dangling cables ftw.
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So tired and sleepy and not feeling like doing any work tonight…
Or in English, soy sauce eggs 
Today i would like to celebrate the first time i perfectly boiled eggs. The egg whites were fully cooked, while the yolks were moist and deliciously gooey!
I boiled a pot of water, and dropped it down to a simmer before putting 2 room temperature eggs in for about 8 minutes or so. Then i transferred the eggs to cool in a bowl of cold water. (This is mainly for my own reference in the future, since i’ve never successfully boiled eggs like this before, always end up overcooking them and the yolk becomes fully cooked…)
Afterwards i decided to make the shoyu tamago they serve with ramen. Following the simple “recipe” from justbento i heated some soy sauce and rolled the eggs around in it for a while.
mmm…
Don’t think i’ll be doing the shoyu tamago this style too often. As simple as it is, it’s still an extra effort that i reserve for special occasions or novelty. Usually i just split the boiled eggs in half and put a little bit of soy sauce on the yolk – that’s the way i’ve eaten hard boil eggs growing up (mum used to boil me an egg each morning at one stage). With the yolks this gooey, it’s bound to be tasty!
On a side note:
I’ve actually been keeping up with my bento bringing, though they’re usually nothing spectacular as i don’t really have time during weeknights. Examples include potato gems and chicken strips, japanese curry and fried rice. However last Sunday i went and made smoked salmon avocado maki sushi – an old favourite!
I use smoked salmon usually because i’m not game enough to use plain raw salmon. Considering i make things the night before and don’t eat it til noon the next day… better safe than sorry!
