readings:
- DTC 101 Textbook: 07 Digital Games
- Program or Be Programmed: 9. Openness
blog prompt:
Digital games (which includes video games, apps and arcade games) emerge quite naturally from digital technology, because computation (keeping score), interactivity (making play choices), narrative (story worlds), social interaction (fun with friends) and random effects (rolling dice) are all quite easy to simulate on a computer. Choose a favorite video game from your childhood and apply a brief game analysis as described in section 7.2 of the Digital Games chapter. What about the technology of the time made the game leave such an impression on you?
video lecture:
No video talk – please come to class and share about your favorite game.
creative activity (#4):
A variation of the Unit Exercise for the Digital Games chapter.
For this exercise, consider some aspect of your post-quarantine/post-pandemic life that you want to develop. Imagine that you are creating a game app for others to share in this gamification to achieve certain goals. There is an app called Zombie Run which creates imaginary zombies that chase you on a map and with sound effects, so that you maybe run faster or at least make your exercise routine fun. The question you should address for your app is: How will the app use digital gamification to achieve goals?
In a blog post, share the following.
1. State the goal you hope to achieve
2. Chunk that goal into realistic pieces, such as losing one pound a week, journal every day, etc.
3. Create “levels” based on these chunks.
4. Create rewards based on achieving these levels—what can you reward yourself with that is simple—a sticker? a badge? a treat?
5. What theme could you use to make it fun?
6. Now that you have these elements in place, write/draw/sketch an interface to the app. Use the previous steps to create levels, rewards/incentives, with an overarching theme that makes this fun.
7. Now, let’s formalize the process. Answer these questions:
What is the challenge?
What is the choice?
What is the change?
What is the chance?
What social features would you build into this?
How can the outcome of play be both fun and solve the problem?