|
After playing SiSSYFiGHT 3000, students were given a 90 second brainstorming session to come up with a new setting for the game. These new settings had to capture the original’s aesthetics (MDA game design framework), which were identified as:
Fellowship: Negotiation, Cooperation, Betrayal
Challenge: Tactics, Problem Solving
Narrative: Drama
Students were then divided into groups and had two hours to chose a brainstormed setting, and make a playable variation on SiSSYFiGHT. Our team created a survival-horror variant of the original game called “O2 – Last Breath.”
O2 – Last Breath
(Sissy fight variant)
Setting:
You and your friends are space-pirates.. in space.. on a spaceship. There is a leak in the hull of the ship, leaving you with no air except for the limited supply of the emergency oxygen tanks. You have activated the emergency beacon, and help is on the way. However, you realize there’s not enough oxygen for all of you, and now you are forced to turn your thieving ways on your companions.
Rules:
Everyone starts with 10 oxygen tanks (chips).
The goal of the game is to survive for 11 days (rounds).
Each player loses 1 oxygen tank per day, due to consumption.
Each round the players choose one action card and one target card (unless they play the defense card).
Each turn the players have one minute to discuss and decide upon their actions. All discussion must be visible and audible to everyone (no whispering!). At the end of the minute, players place their cards face up on the table displaying their chosen actions for that turn.
You can perform 3 types of actions: Solo attack, team attack and defend.
Solo attack: Attempt to steal one oxygen tank from another player. If that player performs the defend action, then the attack is ineffective.
Team attack: Attempt to gang up on another player. If more then one player performs this attack on another player, that player loses two oxygen tanks per player performing the team attack. If the target plays the defend card, he loses one tank per attacker.
Defend: If one or more solo attacks were made against you this turn, you do not lose a tank. If a group attack was made against you this turn, you only lose one tank per attacker. (Note: every player still loses one tank per turn due to regular breathing consumption, regardless of defending.)
Note:
If a player is overkilled (that is, if he loses more oxygen tanks then he has available, all tanks are destroyed and the attackers receive none)
After testing and reconvening with the class, each group was then presented with a “memo” from the Evil Publisher, BigAss Games, who demanded some last-minute “tweaks” be made to their game. Our group’s memo read:
Memo:
Wanted to let you guys know: the latest audience research numbers came in, and it doesn’t have enough appeal with tweens (boys and girls 8-13). It’s skewing to old and to male, so the current projections have our missing our sales numbers.
The research reports show kids think the game is fun, but the rules are a little to complicated for tweens. And girls were kind of alienated by how mean everyone always gets.
Maybe this will help: retrotech toys are the hot trend for tweens, apparently. Virtual pets and furby are back this Christmas, if you can believe it. We want to get on that bandwagon.
Can you simplify and redesign the game to include robots, somehow, without alienating the girls?
My wife thought robot ponies would be cool, but its your game. Tell your designers we have to hit tween boys and girls to hit our numbers.
In order to facilitate the demands made by BigAss Games, our group made the following changes to O2 (dubbed Patch 1.1):
Now the player get to choose from a variety of robot ponies (sold separately) that range in appearance from tougher and more metallic, to more colourful and friendly looking.
The pony is a representation of the player.
Chips are now represented by accessories that attach to the ponies.
This makes it easier for the players to keep track of and visualise how much oxygen they have left.
Also, we have removed the time limit.
We added an option to defend a teammate. If you choose to defend a teammate, he or she will lose no batteries that round (except for the usual one per turn).
New scenario:
You and your friends love your mechanical robot horses. Unfortunately your generator has broken down. You are now running on batteries. You have called the repairman, but he needs 11 hours to arrive.
Bully your friends into submission in order to keep your horse alive (with their batteries).
Click to download the playing cards as a pdf!
 
About Dee Majek
2014 Programming
|
