How to Create a Successful Game.

Q:  What were the important things needed in order to create a successful game? 

A: I was very open minded about this project because I have never created a game before.  I realized that there is a lot more to creating a game then I originally thought.  There are many things in creating a game that you wouldn't normally think would need to be done.  For example, I found it really important to test the game out before sending people out there for the first time.  When we played Oakland Universe 2.0 for the first time, we realized how much things needed to changed to make things easier; especially when it came to the difficulty of the clues and the area of which the clues would be found.

When we compared creating a game to creating a work of art, I said that there is a little bit more work that goes behind the thinking process of creating a game.  That was a major understatement.  There is a ton more work in the thinking part then in the actual playing part.  When you test out the game, you have to think more on how to make it so the person playing doesn't get completely lost or lose interest.  Especially with the amount of time we had to play the game, we had to plan accordingly as to how hard the clues would be.  Walking around campus playing a game for over two hours would be way too much, depending on how the weather was.

Another thing that is important to have when creating a game is a very detailed set of rules.  Anything you can think of that might be asked when creating the game, include it in the rules.  The more vague you are about your game, the harder it will be for the person playing the game to understand.  I know when we were playing Oakland Universe 2.0 for the first time, there were a lot of unanswered questions that weren't explained int the rules the first time.  They were much more clear the second time and we didn't feel like we were sitting around for as long as we did the first time.

One of the most important thing to me that really helped when creating the game was getting the other people in the classes opinions.  They helped to add some things that you might not have thought of and gave opinions on what was successful and what wasn't.  After playing the game for the first time, people gave their feedback and that helped so much more in playing it the second time.

How is creating a game similar to art?

Q:  Identify how this project is similar and dissimilar to making an artwork in terms of process.

A:  Art can be seen as many different things.  Whether it be a painting, a photograph, a performance and even games can be considered art.  Though there are many differences between creating an art piece and creating a game, the process between the two have quite a bit of similarities.

When we were thinking of ideas for our game, whether they were for our collaboration game or the one we thought of on our own, we wrote down ideas and pieced them together until we came up with a good enough game to present to the class.  For a lot of artists, including myself, this is almost exactly the process that we follow when thinking of a art piece.  Though there are some artists who just create an art piece based off what they are thinking at that exact moment, or have already been given specific requirements.  That is one major difference between creating the game that we did and creating a piece of art.

For me, however, the process was quite similar.  I like to look online and research ideas if I am having trouble thinking of things I might like to incorporate into my art.  I am not used to having this much time to think of ideas for projects, so in this class, it is nice to have more time to create something that could have many more possibilities.  I feel that if we would have had less time to think of a game, my game would not have been able to evolve into its potential.

The one major difference between the process between this project and creating any other art work is actually following through with what it is.  With creating this game, most of the work was thinking and piecing together the ideas on how to play the game.  When creating art work, most of the time, actually creating the art piece is the most time consuming.  So the process varies with both when it involves brainstorming and creating.  Creating this game is more about the thinking process and then we will just go out and see how successful it turns out.  Where as a painting or a photograph, it takes more time to develop the photograph or paint on a canvas.

Game Idea

I researched the group known as Blast Theory and there was a game that I found particularly interesting.  It was called "Uncle Roy All Around You."  The object of the game is to try and find Uncle Roy.  My idea was that we could do a similar thing with our phones.

Name of the Game: Phone Finders

Objective:  To try and find a specific classmate/professor.

Rules:
- Allowed to have a map of OU's campus and a cell phone.
- The person hiding will stay in one place and send either a picture or message briefly describing  
  where they are.
- Can ask 2 questions to the hider to give them clues.
      - Clues will include either a picture message or just a regular text, identifying their surroundings.
      - Clue Example: A picture text of a statue or a local sign of the are the hider is in.
- The more time that passes, the more descriptive the clues get.

Why we should play it:
  It's kind of like playing Where's Waldo and it helps you look more at the details of the surroundings on campus becoming more familiar of the things around campus.  It would also get us moving around outside and it's not such a difficult game that it would take hours to complete the game.

Blast Theory

Blast Theory is a group of artists that create a new definition for the term inactive performance art.  It mixes both the artists and the audiences across the internet and gets them involved in a live game.  "The groups work explores interactivity and the social and political aspects of technology." (www.blasttheory.co)  There are three main artists that combine to form this group called Blast Theory.  Members include Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr, and Nick Tandavanitj.

There are a lot of really cool interactive games that not only involve the internet audience, but live audiences as well.  Their most recent game was called "Ulrike and Eamon Complaint", performed in 2009.  It's where you call a number and are instructed to do certain things like wearing sunglasses, for example.  Then you are given an identity and basically live the lives of these people for the day.  Other games created were "Can You See Me Now?" (2001), "Uncle Roy All Around You" (2003), and "Day of the Figurines" (2006).  "Can You See Me Now?" is where you are being chased both in the real world and in the virtual world, no matter where you are and can choose between the two.  "Uncle Roy is All Around You" is when the players are looking for Uncle Roy and they can also choose between looking in the real world or in the virtual world.  "Day of the Figurines" is where members adopt a physical figurine and live the life of that person in a fictional town for a day.