For our third Module in Major Studio, we examined game mechanics and game play. Our task was to take an existing game, study its mechanic, and repurpose that mechanic by creating a new game. I initially found this task extremely challenging. As far as I was concerned, I was supposed to skin a game and call it my own. I could not come up with an original idea, or one that sounded fun (as any game should be). In speaking with my classmates, it was suggested to me that I find a new strategy – instead of starting with a game, start with some other restraints, like materials and user group, and then apply those restraints to a game. With this strategy in mind, I popped over to the nearest Duane Reade and began ideating. I left the store with a small ball (and a bag of chips for sustenance), and then the ideas started to flow.
A good part of my life has been occupied by summer camp. I went to one every summer as a child and worked at another one for a few years during college. The experience of summer camp is filled with games, team building exercises, and even introspection. For my repurposed game, I wanted to keep these experiences in mind. So, my target user group is camp-goers, from ages 8 to 13, and the game will facilitate team building.
Once I had the ball and user group in mind, the solutions were easy to come by. Below are my ideas, documentation, and player feedback.
Team Teeter
This game is based on the HTC mobile phone game Teeter. This game uses the embedded gyroscope of a smart phone to follow the movement of the phone. A player is given a ball and must traverse a course of holes in order to reach the highlighted hole and move to the next level. Team Teeter takes the mechanic – traversing a course to reach an end goal – and translates it into physical space as a team game.
Materials needed: A ball (of any size, really) and a cut-out board (material used as the board will determine the difficulty of the game).
- Two to six players gather around the board.
- The ball is placed on one side of the board.
- Without talking, the players must roll the ball to the other end of the board
and into the furthest hole. - If the ball falls into one of the middle holes or off of the board, it must be placed in the starting postition and the group must begin again.
I got a lot of great feedback after play testing this game. First, material seems to be extremely important. It can change the difficulty of the game as well as strategy. For instance, if fabric were used, the game could involve throwing the ball to get it around obstacles. The size of the game board was also important. Perhaps having a larger board where players are further away from each other and the ball would change the strategy used. Number of players was extremely important. 2 players had an easier time completing the task than 4 players. I learned a lot through play testing and would be excited to introduce this game into a group of children.