Group avatar

GAMEFUL CHALLENGE #8: Making the Invisible Visible: Part 1: Game Pitches

Public Group, active 2 weeks, 2 days ago

THIS CHALLENGE IS CLOSED. YOU HAVE UNTIL MARCH 9TH TO PICK WHICH IDEA YOU’D LIKE TO SEE CREATED THE MOST. VOTE HERE This is part one of a two-part challenge related [...]

full description

THIS CHALLENGE IS CLOSED. YOU HAVE UNTIL MARCH 9TH TO PICK WHICH IDEA YOU’D LIKE TO SEE CREATED THE MOST. VOTE HERE

This is part one of a two-part challenge related to Making Good (http://makinggood.org/) a book and a project that has the goal of helping hundreds of thousands of people find jobs that make money and change the world.

In every community in every workplace there is a power structure in place–that structure determines how things are done. There is the one that we hear about that we are taught but simultaneously, quietly, there is another parallel structure. It is this secret parallel structure that really makes things happen. But how do you figure out what it is and how do we make the invisible visible? Is it really the president or the celeb you see on TV that has the power? Or is it their VP, assistant or possibly even their mother?

We all are taught the visible power structures. But what of the invisible ones, the one that will actually help you get a job, the person that actually has the power to change your company’s buying policy or to give you the five thousand dollars you need to launch your project? Who are they and what kind of game could both uncover their identities and share them with the world? Who are the unexpected powerbrokers in the world that don’t show up on the Forbes and Fast Company lists?

How can we out them all? How can we enable more people to gain access, to learn and uncover the invisible structures that are governing their own world? Whether we are uncovering the art world in New York, the world of international development or the fast paced world of cantaloupe growers — who is the boss? And who is the real boss?

The challenge: is to create a game that both uncovers the invisible power structure of an office place, a community or an entire world and then makes it visible for all.

How can we teach people the skills to do this?

Prize:
- The winner, as selected by our judges, gets an expense-paid trip to Toronto for the MakingGood Launch or a plane ticket of equivalent value;
- 2 community favorites get to become judges for the 2nd part of the challenge
- The top three contestants as picked by judges will get to present their pitch to a well known famous designer for feedback
- The top 5 community picked games will get a signed copy of Making Good (http://makinggood.org/)

Rules:
• For this half of the challenge the submissions must be fully detailed game design documents
• ALL genres are eligible whether or not they use technology
• Original games only, please. (Please don’t submit a game you made last year. Make a new one!)
* All team members must be Gameful members!

Extra points if:
-The game is easily transferable and applicable between different workplace or community environments
-The players can gain more information from replaying the game more than once
-The knowledge/skills learned are reinforced through gameplay

To Play:
1. Join the Making the Invisible Visible Group.
2. Discuss what you’re up to.
3. When you’re ready, but BEFORE February 20th, start a new forum topic for YOUR entry. (The forum topic is the easiest way for judges and contestants to see all entries in one place.) Describe what you’ve created. Include a link to your game, or a way to download it, so we can play it.
4. When you’re ready to officially submit your game, fill out this form.
5. Await game-tastic feedback from your fellow Gameful monsters.
6. Winners will be announced by the end of February.

Tags: challenge
excerpt
Group Admin
  • Avatar Image

Infomancer: He (or she!) who controls the information controls the universe!! (8 posts)

← More Topics in This Group
|
  • Avatar Image Drew Crow, a level 7 monster with 46 posts — 2 months, 4 weeks ago:

    Rui (@rui342) and I have teamed up for this one and it’s been so much fun collaborating with another monster! We had quite different perspectives on the challenge starting out, but I think we’ve successfully forged a concept together which is original and meets the challenge head on – but that’s for you guys to decide ;)

    The game concept goes like this:

    Infomancer is a fusion of RPG and online ARG which aims to teach players the skills to operate in a reality where information is power. The game is built on a novel engine which centers around the Twitter API and uses Twitter together with a custom web portal as the main interface to the game.

    So our thinking was that in today’s world, information is power, and in fact it is mastery over the flow of information which allows one to be powerful as an individual. This consists of determining which information is trustworthy and how to generate new, reliable information, and deciding which channels will be the most effective in spreading that information. You only have to look at worldwide events of the last 6 months to realise that the information revolution has taken the power out of the hands of the few and is beginning to hand it back to the masses.
    We decided to use one of the most pivotal tools of the information age as the interface to the game – Twitter. The game operates through a back end system which monitors the tweets of players and distributes them to other players using the Twitter API. Overall, the game aims to develop in players the skills needed to orchestrate the flow of information in the real world using fictional events in an alternate reality.
    As such, the game will be a sort of hybrid ARG / RPG which is largely text based, though stimuli will be provided in the form of mini-games and visual tasks. These visual elements will serve as initiators from which new information will radiate through the network of players, and will also serve to reinforce the narrative of the game’s alternate reality. I hope that gives you a sense of how the game is structured – if you’re interested in more details regarding the mechanics and technology which will enable it, we have a game design document in development which I’ll post a link to just as soon as we’re happy that it does the project justice! :)

    | #
  • Avatar Image Drew Crow, a level 7 monster with 46 posts — 2 months, 3 weeks ago:

    OK, so we have a design document ready to rock:
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1obirCPldyYjkoQEOGT42Iw7TLPci5–lV-vcq4yhjmI/edit
    Please feel free to comment! :)

    EDIT: seem to be having a few issues with the link for some reason – watch this space!

    EDIT: Infuriatingly, Google docs is insisting that the document doesn’t exist, so in the interim, here’s a link to a pdf which will hopefully work better but won’t allow commenting obviously: http://www.grokbox.co.uk/InfomancerDesignDocument.pdf Any comments, just leave them here instead ;)

    • Avatar Image
      Katie · 2 months, 3 weeks ago

      The game concept sounds so interesting, but I can’t get to your link!

      • Avatar Image
        Drew Crow · 2 months, 3 weeks ago

        Hi Katie, I’ve added a link to a pdf instead, which should work (see edit above) :)

    | #
  • Avatar Image Rui, a level 1 monster with 9 posts — 2 months, 3 weeks ago:

    Katie give me an email address to share so that you can read it, if you can’t open the link.
    Cheers!

    | #
  • Avatar Image Cary M, a level 0 monster with 11 posts — 2 months, 3 weeks ago:

    I was able to open the pdf. Thanks Drew and Rui!

    | #
  • Avatar Image Emily Byrtus, a level 7 monster with 15 posts — 2 months, 2 weeks ago:

    *I meant to get to do a post like this (a con with suggestion and a pro) on each entry earlier, but my schedule caught up with me a tad…. Sorry! On with the post.*

    I really enjoy the integration of Twitter into this design… the process of spreading secret information is such a neat contrast to the seemingly uber-public persona of a tweet.

    CON: The main thing I think that is missing is the macro view of the game. With all the detail you have already put into developing its world, all of the performance metrics you have listed are very individual based. There doesn’t seem to be a feature to track the overall success of each side (since it is set in a world struggling between two groups) – never underestimate the power of those working for their side to hold more of the pie chart. Also, consider adding in a “grouping” feature – imagine friends working together to uncover a major secret (only to have one betray them all).

    PRO: Pretty sure your proposed art style and theme would catch the eye of anybody – who wouldn’t want to be a secret information agent in a retro-futurist setting? Seriously, I love the idea of using information as currency/a collection mechanic, and games with a measure of deceit can be extremely entertaining.

    • Avatar Image
      Drew Crow · 2 months, 2 weeks ago

      Thank you so much for your feedback :D You’re totally right – I think there does need to be some overview of perfomance of the two sides, although it’s hard to decide upon an easy way of doing that as there’s so many possibilities. Part of me wonders whether this side of the system might begin to emerge more readily once the narrative is more developed (we’re working on that! ;) ) because I think any measure of overall success of one side or the other would porbably end up being tied to the events around which the game centers (which are yet to be determined).
      Thanks for the positive feedback too – it’s comforting to know that we’ve conveyed our vision of what the game could become lucidly enough for someone else to recognise that they would find it exciting to play in the ways we indended them to when designing it. Wow – that was a long sentence… :P

      • Avatar Image
        Jack Fraust · 2 months, 1 week ago

        perhaps think of doing it like a moral meter from an online FPS the more trustworthy information one side has (or thinks they have) and the more they uncover the larger there chunck of the bar

        • Avatar Image
          Drew Crow · 2 months, 1 week ago

          I love this idea as a way of visualising the struggle between the two sides. In terms of working out which side is winning, I thought today it might work just to look at the average security clearance level of players who are part of that side and compare them. That way, the only thing we have to calcuate still is each player’s security clearance level, which is still tough but simplifies the technical side of things somewhat.

    | #
  • Avatar Image Jack Fraust, a level 2 monster with 2 posts — 2 months, 1 week ago:

    sounds fun ill have to make a twitter and join in when it gets started, best of luck.

    | #
  • Avatar Image Jack Fraust, a level 2 monster with 2 posts — 2 months, 1 week ago:

    sounds fun ill have to make a twitter and join in when it gets started, best of luck.

    | #
  • Avatar Image ChristopherMKelm, a level 2 monster with 5 posts — 2 months, 1 week ago:

    Reading the Game Design Document I have to say I was initially frightened.

    Currently I am developing a game along the same lines as ‘Information is Power’ and there are some similarities but vast differences. So here are my opinions. Take them as is…

    I love the back-story of the setting as well as the general premise.

    What are the ‘Win’ Conditions? This kind of confuses me. Passing along the information as is or manipulating it to the higher/lower/equal statuses… that seems really fun…. but I feel there needs to be a driving mission. Not only individual purpose but group purpose.

    How does one lose?
    How does one use these pieces of information in this manner to manifest an end goal to protect/destroy the other side?

    While there does need to be an infinite frame of reference for something like this what is the end point… or am I missing it?

    I think-overall-that this is a brilliant idea and in a world full of tweety birds has the capability to rapidly expand from person to person.

    -Christopher

    • Avatar Image
      Drew Crow · 2 months, 1 week ago

      Thanks for your feedback, Christopher – it’s so invaluable to get as many people’s opinions on the concept as possible, so thanks for taking the time to do it :)
      In terms of the ’win’ state I think you’re right – it is kind of hazy at the moment. However, this has a lot to do with the ARG-like qualitites of the concept insomuch as most ARGs puposefully begin with at least partially indeterminate win conditions. This is mainly because the win state is tied quite intimately to the narrative and is guided to a great extent by the directions the game is taken in by the players themselves. You could say that the overarching ’goal’ is either to free humanity or enslave them (depending on which side they choose) – how that manifests itself is heavily dependent on the narrative.
      Because of this fluidity, there is currently no defined end point to the game, although doubtless one or more ’waypoints’ would present themsleves or be imposed by the narrative as it develops during the game. There is one sure-fire way to ’lose’ (although this is not a permanent state) which arises out of the core mechanics – one could pass on badly disguised misinformation or pass on misinformation which has been generated by others unwittingly due to poor evidence gathering to such an extent that one becomes totally untrustworthy and essentially makes their own involvement pointless.
      The intent in terms of how the information is used is that evidence and information gathering of players will centre around the activities and agendas of the opposing side and allow one side or the other to gain an advantage in minigames or to accumulate virtual tools / passwords / clues which will provide an advantage in upcoming tasks. This allows them to gain more information or more reliable information, or provides them with coroborating evidence which will help validate existing information.
      As with any conflict, the aim is ultimately to attempt to strike at the seat of power in order to destabilise the opposing side, but in order to do this players must collaboratively uncover the power structure which governs each side. In this game, they do it by gathering and passing on information.
      I hope that this all makes sense – it makes perfect sense to me, but that’s not really saying a lot :P

    | #