Design Lab 5: Game Media   [ Monday 6pm - Rm 908]

instructor: Jonah Warren
email: jonah AT feedtank DOT com
url: http://www.playfulsystems.com/teaching/2006/gamemedia


Homework 3: Abstracting Action / Core Mechanics
(September 25th, 2006)

  1. For next week, you are going to develop a core mechanic in Flash. You will show your progress next week in class.

    I am looking for simplicity and originality. These should not be games. They should be a simple interaction that could potentially be built into a functioning game.

    THE ACTION (get a concept):
    • Think of a real world action, verb or game that is interesting to you (verbs: avoid, catch, hide, distribute, search, hit, pile, run, organize, kill, stun, clear, destroy, clean...). Try to choose an action that you wouldn't ordinarily associate with a video game, if you can. To think of interesting actions, try thinking about physical or mental activities that you enjoy and how you would represent them. If you are having trouble, you may use actions we discussed in class when discussing core mechanics.

    THE TRANSLATION (write a paragraph):
    • Now that you have an action (core mechanic) to base your interaction on, you are now going to translate this action into the video game world. Think about subactions make up your chosen action. What is essential to your action? What part of that action should you represent? Write a short paragraph discussing these issues. Post this on your site.

    BUILDING A CORE MECHANIC (make a simple interaction in GameMaker):
    • You are going to be limited by your Flash and Actionscript expertise. However, you should be able to implement a number of interactions by simply, moving objects, detecting collisions, and using keyboard and mouse input.
    • I want you thinking about interaction, not graphics. Limit yourself to blocks as graphics.
    • Post the FLA and SWF.
    • (If you are having problems with implementing your idea, write another paragraph explaining more fully explaining your game, as well as a detailed list of the technical challenges you had trouble with.)