David Milam's Blog has moved...

http://protospace.wordpress.com

Playtesting- The first iteration has serious flaws...Do more with Less

It is a good thing to know - earlier is better - that your game idea has flaws. Serious flaws (it is worth repeating). I spent a few hours setting up a play test prototype in Maya.

I was almost embarrassed to show it to my fellow team mate- but it got the idea across which is a start. It should be easy to begin the tweaking process to really refine the user experience. Think of the ways it can be better. Lesson Learned: do more with less!There are many variable to consider with this prototype and I'm already convinced simplicity is best. My new favorite website is http://www.addictinggames.com/, simple fast, and great ideas- well some of them. I think there are plenty we can learn from an A.D.D. audience.

While I'm away for the next few weeks, the team *should flush out some great ideas with actual subjects. I want the subjects to be brutal.

Next week I will check in to see how we're doing.

Deep Field Selected: Games Presentation Post Mortem

My game idea was chosen!...I'm sure it was like 2 votes but still...

I was struggling to find a game concept and this proposal was actually my second idea. This is the link:
http://www.sfu.ca/~dma35/iat410/
http://www.sfu.ca/~dma35/iat410/dmilam_Deep%20Field.ppt


I dumped my earlier idea which was an attempt to create a culturally accurate game depicting 1st nation artwork and themes. I realized there were some serious validity/authenticity concerns since I have no 1st nation heritage. Oh well- Beth Dillon is all over this topic anyways.

Getting back to the idea a that was chosen (see the presentation), in playing Oasis, the inspiration for Deep Field, I realized the story (game aesthetics) is totally arbitrary. Fog of War, 85 clicks, Barbarians always invade the closest city, these are only some of the less functional story elements sacrificed to make a fun (puzzle solving/strategy) and addicting game. These themes were carried over with the Deep Field Proposal where finding a planet (lightyears away) and colonizing it all happen in 1 mouse-click. I hope the game we actually end up making enhances the user experience even further. That is the hope at least.

Lastly, I saw some great ideas during the lab presentations. I'm glad to see the foodfight game was chosen. I can tell that's a sure winner.

Games Rampage - Game Environment Visual Composition

I don't think any developer intended this course of play, but Magy and I just had a 5 hour games session looking at virtual worlds. It was rapid fire focus-group that looked at the game world visual composition: cartoon vs. stylistic vs. photorealism.

here were so of the titles we looked at:

XBOX:
The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind
Prince of Persia (I forgot which one)
Dreamfall The longest Journey
Beyond Good & Evil
Oddworld Strangers Wrath
Psychonaughts


XBOX360
Deadrising
Prey

Wii
Tennis
Zelda
Pirates of the Caribbean

a little more research

Brushing up a bit further, I found the Independent Games Festival
http://www.igf.com/index.html which has a lot of great games.
Last years wining student entry called Tablo http://toblo.csnation.net/ has a capture the flag motif...see dodgeball wasn't so far off.

Thrilled Already, early thoughts

hmm, the first project, aside from setting up this blog, is to come up with a great game idea.

This was my first sketch concept:

New SIAT student on campus- THE GAME
"just try getting to where you want to go..."

Then I realized that this wont actually be an enjoyable narrative experience for most so I dumped it.

I'm now starting to think of experiences that are exhilarating in real life- like dodge-ball, yeah!
I obviously have a lot to learn here and need to think about this a little more.