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Game Development

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A collective of game development topics that may help educate anyone who is breaking into the industry or new fields within the industry itself.

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A collective of game development topics that may help educate anyone who is breaking into the industry or new fields within the industry itself.

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Your opinions on game design for cultivating social value (3 posts)

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  • Avatar Image Abraham Dover, a level 4 monster with 3 posts — 1 year ago:

    This is my first post since joining gameful months ago.

    This week I have created a game, still in it’s bare bones design, whose purpose is to help me cultivate my personal acquaintances and develop broader social value. Pretty selfish reasons, but I think it could be used by other people seeking to create a stronger network of social connections and enrich their current acquaintances.

    I’ve been trying to increase my value to my personal business and social community. I’ve run workshops, created jobs and helped welcome in new student , members of my community with a yearly orientation tour of the city. Right now I produce a couple different ongoing shows give people work semi-regularly but the social aspects of my connection to my community have been somewhat lacking. So I created a game to help change that.

    It started with an epiphany I had the other day, I could create a game that would encourage me to socialize more with my community and them to spend more time around me.

    To this end I went out and got 13 secret lucky star tattoos hidden on my person.
    None of them in an area that would require full nudity, but very few that are visible when fully clothed.

    The idea is that anyone would could find them all, and prove they had found them and not just guessing would win a secret lucky start tattoo of their own or it’s equivalent value in stickers, and I would have to get a new one as well and the game would start over.

    Over the next year or so, my friends and acquaintances would be exposed to numerous opportunities to figure out where the stars are.

    I would also set up a website that would offer periodic hints to solving the puzzle.

    I think it will be an interesting experiement and have already invested in the tattoos.
    Any opinions on your end as to how to help the game work would be greatly appreciated. It is my first time trying to design a game like this, and I’m just blindly fishing about in the dark to a degree.

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  • Avatar Image Sharon R. Hoosein, a level 2 monster with 5 posts — 1 year ago:

    So the interesting element of your idea is that it requires players to step over a personal boundary and really get to know you.

    How are they going to prove they didn’t just guess the location? More importantly, what is going to motivate players to try to find the tattoos? The impression I’m getting is basically “Get this guy to take off shirt. Receive sticker.” The only people who would be comfortable with that are those who you could probably just talk to without the help of the game.

    What makes tattoos interesting is that behind each one is a unique story. People get tattoos to honor friends who have passed away, advertise their love for their romantic partner, or just because that one time they got hilariously drunk, etc.

    So to improve this game here’s what I advise: just have one lucky star tattoo in some place easily visible, like your arm or something. The story behind that is your motivations for starting this game: think of the Lucky Star as the “tutorial” for your game. Then have the rest of the tattoos be unique and significant to you.

    When you introduce this game to your friends, tell them something along line of “I have 12 other tattoos hidden on my body. Try to guess what they are. If you guess correctly, I will tell the full story behind that tattoo. If you find them all, you will receive a lucky star of your own (sticker or tattoo). I encourage you to then get 12 stickers or tattoos that symbolize something significant to you and continue the game so other people can learn more about you.”

    Point to take away is that stories are powerful intrinsic motivators. Your game will be more effective if you integrate them into it.

    Hope this helps.

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  • Avatar Image Abraham Dover, a level 4 monster with 3 posts — 1 year ago:

    I like the idea of involving more story elements as a motivating drive, unfortunately, I already have all the star tattoos. Got them earlier this week, the same day that I came up with the idea.

    I did put one in a very visible place for the express purpose of instigating curiosity about the tattoo, and opening the door to the game.

    I have a few other tattoos that have specific points to them, but I wanted the story behind these to be the game itself.

    I’ll look at ways to incorporate more story into the game.
    A.

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