Last week we were busy evaluating KAIGARA post-pilot information and sketching out a course to develop the final game. We received tons of player input, client input and we came up with a bunch of ideas of our own to improve the game. We’re right now busy agreeing on a coherent plan from that set that best accomplishes all of the goals for the game. The KAIGARA team got reinforced with the production skills of Dylan Nagel. Dylan got off to a solid start by schooling Kars on SCRUM best practices.
Besides doing our in-house production work, we have a parallel pipeline of consulting. FURAPPA has just wrapped up and we’re busy ramping up the following engagements (with startups and in Dutch broadcasting). Consulting is refreshingly different from what we normally do. We don’t have the luxury to be present at all stages of development, but that also gives us the freedom and creative license to focus solely on the concept and deliver interestingness. And if need be we can always back up these concepts with game design, prototypes and full development.
Kars was also present at What Design Can Do last week to participate in a closed session on social design. The session was taped and will be published (quickly, I hope).
Last week was mostly us quietly working away on our current projects, with some extracuricular activities in between. Here’s what happened:
Victory Boogie Woogie (SAKE)
We shipped some new features to Victory Boogie Woogie, most notably a swanky preview mode for players and writers and limited markup capabilities for the latter. Not exactly rocket science but something that warrants careful testing and tuning nonetheless. I’m particularly pleased with the automagic prettification of typography we’ve added with help from typogrify.
Meanwhile VBW is humming along nicely and we’re getting wonderful player submissions which really challenge the writers team’s creativity. Once again it was a pleasure for me join in on the weekly writers meeting on Friday and hear them talk about what had happened and how they plan to respond to it.
This was the second week of the Ripple Effect pilot so we were following player activity closely behind the scenes. Intercom is proving an incredibly handy tool for us to keep in touch with our player base, which is spread across the globe.
Meanwhile we continued to make plans for the second version based on the feedback we’d gotten so far. This included playing through a new physical prototype put together by Tim. Poking and prodding, tweaking and tuning, that sort of thing.
Development also started on extra features which will be needed to allow the game to be rolled out decentrally and scale to a large global audience. These are mostly peripheral to the actual game but important nonetheless.
KANT
Also this week, Alper moved his workplace from Praxis to KANT. Also on Oranienstraße, but with a different crowd in attendance, this looks like a ‘lab’ very much in tune with our own outlook.
Alper’s temporary desk at KANT. I hope they get him a bigger one soon.
Miscellanea
On Monday, I joined in on Hans de Zwart’s Understanding Media reading group and shared my thoughts on McLuhan’s perspective on games. I’m told it was recorded so look for that shortly. Update: Hans has shared the recording with us.
On Tuesday, I was interviewed about stories in applied games together with Niels ‘t Hooft at Control Gamelab. The video is up already, note that it’s in Dutch though.
On Thursday I finally got around to writing another Recess! in which I throw down the gauntlet and attempt to provoke Niels and Alper into some critical reflection on their own preferences in game playing and making.
Bring on week 195!
Niels and Kars on an inflatable couch at Control Gamelab #8.
Last week while I was still in Paris (like Kars mentioned in the previous week’s notes) we launched the pilot for Ripple Effect. That was a moment where we saw the work of the past period come to fruition and exposed real players worldwide to the game. The game has held up very nicely but we are also learning a lot that we can improve which is exactly what a pilot is for.
I spent the day in Paris working at La Cantine, a solid testament to how portable our work infrastructure has become:
Victory Boogie Woogie is seeing a steady tricle of writing and we’re planning to push out some more updates on that.
On Wednesday night, the day before UIKonf in Berlin, there were a set of lightning talks where I went and presented Beestenbende from a mobile game design perspective. I had given a brief presentation previously on the technical aspects, but I think the most interesting part is how we got people to play a fun game in a museum.
Arjen published his massive missive on the lessons he brought back with him from this year’s Knutepunkt. If you haven’t read that yet, it is well worth checking out.
And also Kars played a bit of Le Havre which is a nice and complicated eurogame and I played Grit the dueling card game by Zach Gage:
Recently I traveled to Norway. Not because they still had snow there, but because Knutepunkt 2013 was in the land of lakes, fjords and good fish. Knutepunkt is an event that is hosted every year in a different Nordic country and serves as a get-together for the Nordic larp scene, full of talks, workshops, discussions and meeting people. To show what has been made in the field last year, and to discuss what should be next.
One of the views over the majestic frozen lake at the venue.
This Knutepunkt was all about “crossing borders”, both in terms of countries and design scenes. About reaching out and sharing the knowledge. So I went to see what Knutepunkt could teach me, you, and everyone out there. I will summarize it for all of you, from larpers to art lovers, from game designers to executives. Read your personalized takeaway from Knutepunkt 2013 below.
About Nordic larp
For those of you not familiar with the term larp, it describes a genre of roleplaying games where players enact their character and actions in the physical space rather than telling other players what they are doing or using metaphors like dice or a digitally controlled avatar to do so. In a way players ‘become’ the character they role-play, because of the physical nature of most games and elements that improve immersion like costumes, scenery or entire in-game venues. This very short explanation generalizes the diversity of the genre a bit, so if you’d like to know more, Wikipedia would be a good place to start for a more thorough description.
The term Nordic larp is then used to describe the larp scene present in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, which has grown most notably in diversity over the past 20 years when compared to other larp scenes due to the active documentation of and discourse around the games made in these countries. This has resulted in a more varied scene in terms of the types of games being hosted in those countries1, some of which aim to create artistic games focusing heavily on dramatic interaction and meaningful experiences rather than making “just” a fun game. This in turn has widened the potential uses of larps in these countries, where they are now not only made for entertainment but also for education, social experiments, expressing artistic or political messages and much more. As such the Nordic larp scene is widely known as one of the most advanced larp scenes in terms of game design practice, documentation and research.
With the introduction out of the way, lets move on to my takeaways.
The non-Nordic larper
So you enjoy the occasional hitting of orcs with weaponized latex or maybe you might even be interested in some intensely dramatic games. There’s lots to be learned for all! First off, start by using these two words: game designer and larp writer. Because if we want to widen our expertise and improve our games, lets first properly recognize the people who make them. Once we’ve done that, let’s start thinking about and discussing the design of our games; document them, share them, improve upon them. I’m not saying our larps are necessarily inferior to Nordic larps, I’m saying that there is a lot to be won if we start actively thinking about the design of our games.
Many larp scenes out here often have a few solid formats copied over various events for years, with little to no variation at all. There are a lot of different types of games that we could make and host. There are lots of improvements to be made upon our existing formats if we look at our events as game designers rather than organizers. Think of encounter design, finding different approaches of presenting the plot to players, managing role-play standards in a community, creating costumes and other presentation methods, just to name a few of the things we can improve together. I’m calling upon fellow larp designers to be conscious of what it is we are creating and discuss the choices we make doing so.
Some small larps were also played during the conference.
And why do we make improving games so hard for ourselves? Why do we have to go to other events to know what they are experimenting with? Just writing a 500-word article saying ‘we hosted a larp in which we did A and it resulted in B’ can help push the scene forward. Only then can we reach out to other fields, become more than ‘those nerds with elf-ears in a forest’ to the outside world and showcase the hidden gems our scene may have. Because a bunch of photographs and heroic campfire stories are cool for those that actually visited the larp, but they keep the many people not included in that group groping in the dark.
The game designer
Role-play in games is more than a bunch of guys playing Dungeons & Dragons. As a matter of fact, as a game designer, roleplaying could be a valuable asset in your toolkit. Let players enact the character or role they take on in your game and reward them for doing so.2 To make them part of your game in such a way increases their immersion and allows you to tell the story of the game in a fashion that is more closely tied to the gameplay. This does not mean you have to necessarily make your game facilitate roleplaying for the the full 100%. Rather, use it as a tool when applicable. Design the function and place of the player in the narrative more actively, most notably in relation to other players, and give them freedom to role-play as much as your game can support.
The program at Knutepunkt offered talks, workshops, panels and small games. Audience participation was preferred, even at the talks.
Learn from the Scandinavians and use character design to tell your story, create a conflict or script an event. Character design is often one of the main aspects of creating a Nordic larp. Many of these larps facilitate the major part of their story or events through player-to-player interaction manipulated via the characters they are playing. With some insight, much of this is transferable to a lot of other game genres. Whether you assign players a character at the start of the game or slowly lead them on the path of becoming the character you have planned for them, players will be delighted to be such a strong part of the story. Forget handing the players information through non-player characters, activate a player by giving him special info before or during the game. Make them an active part of the events in your game instead of having them listen to (or read) monologue after monologue. Allow players to fill in key aspects of your story and they will become part of it and share it. And last but not least, always remember that the narrative of your game is what the player experiences, not what he reads or hears. And roleplaying is experiencing.
The gamer
What’s in it for you as a player of games, whatever the kind? Well, Knutepunkt’s mission to encourage clear discourse around the design of larps and to permeate borders of other design scenes with the obtained knowledge makes that these well-designed forms of roleplaying may be used in many more types of games soon. And why is roleplaying such a good thing for you, the player? Well, first of all, it increases your influence as a player in the game and on its content. Games that are designed to enable and reward roleplaying give the players more freedom in choosing their actions, and a stronger effect of those actions. It enables the player to become part of the game and even provide an experience for other players. Because, lets face it, you’ve always wanted to be the protagonist or antagonist in stories. There is something very satisfying about becoming part of another person’s experience, about having your actions live on in legend.
Secondly, Nordic larps are often the canvas for a far wider array of characters than most game scenes are used to. Don’t just play the hero who slays the dragon or the soldier who wins the war over and over again. Play the drug addict, the mother in a family of 8, the doctor on a federation starship, anything really. Discover new types of characters, different views on life, new experiences. Nordic larp has proven to excel at providing players with unlikely heroes and unusual experiences. Here’s to hoping game designers pick up on this.
The executive
Remember the last time your company hired some agency to give your employees a training with live actors? Good chance it wasn’t quite as effective as you’d hoped it would be. Next time, why not try to work with game designers that have learned from Knutepunkt? In the Nordic countries, larps are used for education, training, cultural engagement, or even as a tool for development. Last Knutepunkt, Norwegian minister of development Heikki Holmås even visited to give his thoughts on the matter.
Nordic larp techniques can be used to create a safe game environment for people to try out different approaches, rise above their usual thought patterns, or get out of their regular role and experience matters from another angle. Where normal trainings struggle to get people to move out of their comfort zone and actually start experimenting and learning, games provide players with permission and encouragement to do so. Roleplaying workshops before the game even starts, tried and tested strategies of design and profound knowledge of how groups of people function do the rest. And it’s just as much fun as it is beneficial.
The theatre designer
Theatre, I know you. I know how you struggle to engage with new audiences. How you work to break the fourth wall wide open and get your audience to participate in your plays. I’ve made my fair share of interactive theatre myself. I know how most people are scared to really participate. I know how hard it can be to make meaningful theatre while allowing the audience to have influence. Engaging your audience however is a bright and fascinating future for the performing arts, if done right.
Opening ceremony of the party on Saturday evening.
When I hear about some of the Nordic larps, they strongly remind me of how professional actors do roleplaying and improvisational scenes to train their acting or create material. Those larps get players to act like they never knew they could, to engage with the play that is presented.
So next time you try to tear down that fourth wall, remember to do it like they do it at Knutepunkt: give your players characters to enact. Build a safe environment and an illusory mask for them to hide behind and they will do almost anything. Engaging with the unknown as yourself is scary and you will feel looked upon. Engaging with it as a character someone told you to be is a lot less frightening. Send them on their way with a briefing beforehand, a workshop, or smart design of the play itself. No matter how you do it, give them their mask and they will take part in your adventure.
The art lover
There is something like community art, and then there is Nordic larp. Live up to any role. Experience any artistic message. Be part of the artwork itself. At Knutepunkt they show how art can be made through role-play, and how role-play can be art in itself. It’s all about setting the frameworks for a group of people to be let loose in. To experience different societies, imagined stories. Sure, an artist can show you how he would imagine a world without capitalism. Or he can let you live it. Every piece is here and now, always unique and unrepeatable, co-created and lived by its primary audience. They are still quite rare, but if you ever come across a Nordic-inspired art larp, dive in!
The opening ceremony on Thursday.
The designer who already does all of this
Then why don’t we know? The last message of Knutepunkt is to share. Document for yourself and others. Become better in designing as a community. The Nordic larp hasn’t evolved this far by pure chance. It’s done so because of the community behind it, getting together to discuss design, tackle recent issues, reflect on what has been made and become wiser. And that is a message that can be given as an advice to any new scene out there: Get together. Establish a discourse. Share cool projects. Make even more awesome projects.
The ending ceremony on Sunday.
And for me?
Knutepunkt has been a big inspiration. I have met awesome people from various countries, and learned much from the Nordic way of designing larps. It wasn’t all new material, but hearing about things you have been dealing with or thinking about from others in a clear and organized fashion helps the thought process a great deal. Plans I had for alternative larps in the Netherlands have gotten a boost and I may very well create a new game myself sooner or later.
As you can read in some of the lessons above, especially the community aspect of Knutepunkt has got me thinking. It may be time to set up a clear platform to talk about the design of larps in the Netherlands specifically. Maybe we should even expand this philosophy to other (new) fields of design. The future will tell which of these thoughts are turned into plans and where we may get with this. I know for certain though that I will be using my obtained Nordic knowledge in the designs of games to come, both larps and other genres. Because as I’ve illustrated above, the uses are plenty.
For those of you eager to find out more, take a look at this years Nordic Larp Talks, an event hosted prior to Knutepunkt yet closely linked to it in terms of subject matter and speakers.
I’m not suggesting these types of games don’t exist outside of the Nordic countries, but they are more common and accepted in the Nordic scene. [↩]
Note that the most popular use of the term roleplaying in (video) games nowadays doesn’t actually mean playing a role anymore, but refers to the availability of character customization and growth in the game. Roleplaying in this article instead refers to the original meaning of the term, being the enactment of a role or character by the player, much like in classic tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. [↩]
Last week was the last week we had to finish the Ripple Effect pilot. As I write this, the game’s been running for little over a day and has just under two weeks left before ending.
So we managed to get it out the door. The process consisted of an accelerated playthrough with the team early in the week. We made a list of final issues and subsequently fixed those. Then we deployed the game and did a trial run of initializing it. We had our contacts at the client end play through it, getting another list of issues as a result. Wefixing those as well and finally initialized the game for real. Invites were sent out to the 90+ pilot players. On Sunday just after midnight I was babysitting the game as it rolled over to liveness and I witnessed the first player actions coming in from across the globe.
The fact that we pulled this off at such a tight schedule with what is by all measures a great result is a testament to the wonderful team working on this, as well as the folks at the client end who are amazingly swift at making decisions and responding to our questions.
While I was being a dull boy this week, forgoing distractions as much as possible, Alper did manage to squeeze in some extracuricular activities, as is his peripatetic nature. He played games—amongst them the awesome Samurai Gunn—at the local multiplayer game picnic hosted by A MAZE. He also participated in the gamification workshop at CHI organized by friend of the studio Sebastian Deterding. Alper tells me he’ll blog a bit about both experiences, either here or elsewhere—probably in a Recess!.
Tomorrow I’ll be off to Paris for the Designing Gamification workshop at this year’s ACMSIGCHI event. I’m looking forward to contributing our experience as practitioners making games to the workshop. We think that it would be fantastic if efforts at gamification were led by actual game designers.
I also hope that this (along with the Gameful World book) will be something of a step in laying to rest the thing that is gamification. I have no illusions that this will be the final word. A quick twitter search shows how widespread the word has become. Reading through most interpretations of that word as well as ‘serious games’ shows a serious misunderstanding of what games are and an immense hope as to what they can do. I think we should interpret that as a mandate. Games can be fun and do interesting things. It is up to us to show how.
New Games for Extant Contexts
Our submission to the workshop is a paper called “New Games for Extant Contexts”. It draws from our experience over the past years to create games that are situated within a specific context, that take the affordances and problems of those contexts and use them to create new games.
In that paper we keep on hammering on ‘play testing’, something that is strangely missing from almost all of the others. Play testing, we believe, is an essential part of creating games and a step that should not be skimped upon. Read all about it in the paper.
The Papers
In the stack of papers there are a bunch of examples of gamification added to everyday tasks, some that try to add gamification or gameful design to existing user centered design or business processes and some that try to salvage the rhetoric in one way or another. If you want a more in depth impression, you should jump straight into the extended abstract.
Not systemic: They merely add game design elements, whereas game design approaches games as systems where experiences emerge from the dynamic interaction of users with all system components [6,11].
Reward-oriented: They focus on motivating through rewards instead of the intrinsic motivations characteristic for games, like competence [6,14].
Not user-centric: They emphasize the goals of the system owner, often neglecting or even being detrimental to the users’ goals [1,6,14].
Pattern-bound: They limit themselves to a small set of feedback interface design patterns (points, badges, leader boards), rather than affording the structural qualities of games that give rise to gameful experiences [6,14,17].
This is a good collection of issues that should be addressed, though addressing them is another issue altogether. I would recommend all of Sebastian’s writing on this topic and his presentations for the much needed clarity of thought and prose they offer.
The self-determination theory (SDT) [4] framed a motivation model for understanding what and how human behavior is initiated and regulated [4,13,14]. The SDT recognizes social and environmental conditions that affect personal volition and engagement in activities. The SDT combines both content (psychological needs) and process (cognition) motivation describing needs for autonomy,
competence, and relatedness. An individual’s motivation for action is defined along a spectrum of amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation measured by perceived locus of causality (external to internal regulation) [6]. Needs for autonomy and competence allow the “prediction of the social circumstances and task characteristics that enhance versus diminish intrinsic motivation.” [3 p. 233]
I’m looking forward to the workshop and I hope for some fruitful discussion. I hope to meet you, if you’re there.
Last week was the penultimate production week for KAIGARA during which I was present at the Utrecht studio for three days for the very essential facetime that cannot be replaced by Apple’s FaceTime even though it does come close.
Tuesday was a full day of work with the entire team at the Hubbub studio helmed by the fearless Kars:
Everything is coming together nicely and with most of the game already there, we were mostly busy adding assets and finalizing everything else. We also ran a playtest at the studio to explore some future mechanics:
Wednesday was a similar day but then with the team working off-site. Kars also got around to publishing a bunch of stuff we have been cooking up.
First the Beestenbende movie with English subtitles so we can finally share this very nice game we made with an international audience:
We also published an interview with Studio Papaver about their game on population shrinkage we helped them with. Something like ‘World Without People’ but a bit less apocalyptic. In their words:
We specifically chose for an alternate reality game (ARG), because this game type puts an extra layer on top of reality. The game isn’t only being played in the ‘virtual world’, but also in the real, physical world. The game ‘Leve de Krimp!’ (‘Let’s shrink!’) enables players to experience their daily lives in a future where nobody anticipated on the shrinkage of the population. So: play it before you live it!”
On Thursday Hubbub agent Arjen left for Knutepunkt. Kars and I have wanted to visit this Nordic Larp conference for a while now, but neither of us had the time this year to go. Arjen is a mainstay of the Dutch LARP scene so we thought he would benefit more from the experience and he agreed to be our eyes on the ground. I’ve collected his tweets over at Storify and there will be an in depth report here soon.
“The thing about Aragorn is that unless a bunch of hobbits running away from Nazgul enter the bar, he is a really boring character to play.”
On Friday I took the train back to Berlin while Kars met with De Gids about the progress of (Your Daily) Victory Boogie Woogie. The game and story are crystallizing and it is becoming clear both for players and writers how to best play.
Saturday I wrote my belayed Recess! (the tenth of that already) and Kars played a bunch of games at Joris Dormans’s boardgame weekend. I am incredibly jealous especially of this bit of El Grande:
Anne and Zineb of Studio Papaver got in touch with me towards the end of last year, asking if I would advise them on a project they were starting at the Studio for Unsolicited Architecture. They were working on the problem of population shrinkage, and they were thinking of making a game. Architects making games—as regular readers probably know I have a long-standing fascination for architecture and urban planning, so I could not refuse. Almost half a year later and Anne and Zineb are done, at least with the first stage of the project. The result is called ‘Let’s Shrink!’—a collective intelligence game for residents of regions anticipating shrinkage, which generates possible future solutions through play. I’m so impressed with what Anne and Zineb have done that I asked them a few questions. Below are their answers, which I think will give you a good understanding of what shrinkage is, why Studio Papaver decided to make a game, how they went about this and what the end result is like.
1. Can you tell us a bit about population shrinkage, what it is, how it happens, and so on?
“We are quite used to the fact that the number of residents and households are growing. It has been like that for several decades. But since a couple of years, this on-going growth has come to a stop. Instead, the numbers of inhabitants and households are declining. This phenomenon is called ‘population shrinkage’. Shrinkage is present in some border areas in the Netherlands—in Zeeuws Vlaanderen, in the northeast of Groningen and in the south of Limburg—but also in other European countries, like in some parts of Germany, France and Spain.
The fact that less people are living in certain areas isn’t directly a problem. But since all our (economical) systems are based on growth and increasing numbers, a problem arises when shrinkage appears. Therefore, the effects of shrinkage are painful. As a result of shrinkage, houses become vacant or are on sale for many years, the value of real estate declines rapidly, the critical mass for the use of facilities evaporates and areas impoverish. These effects of population shrinkage put pressure on the living conditions of the people in such areas.
Shrinkage, in combination with other demographic developments as the aging of the population is therefore one of the biggest challenges of the European future.
Many politicians, chairmen and managers realize and embrace the challenges that population shrinkage is raising. But the people who are actually living in (future) shrinking regions aren’t aware of these.”
2. Why did you decide a game would be a good way to deal with this issue?
“We wanted to create a process that makes inhabitants of shrinking regions aware of the situation that they’re in. This process would show them the possibilities that emerge when they accept the ‘shrinking-challenge’ and come into action. In this perspective, the choice for a game is quite evident. A game enables the possibility for people to engage with larger themes and phenomena that don’t seem to harm their daily lives yet. Instead of reading about shrinkage, players experience all the actions in the first person. And by using a game, players are challenged to use their creativity.
We specifically chose for an alternate reality game (ARG), because this game type puts an extra layer on top of reality. The game isn’t only being played in the ‘virtual world’, but also in the real, physical world. The game ‘Leve de Krimp!’ (‘Let’s shrink!’) enables players to experience their daily lives in a future where nobody anticipated on the shrinkage of the population. So: play it before you live it!”
3. How did you design the game, what did your process look like?
“We designed our game with help from Kars. As urban designers we are quite familiar with processes that challenge inhabitants to cooperate in (spatial) developments. But we’ve never used a game before as a guide for these type of processes. We designed the game from a positive perspective, to break through the negative connotations that often surround depopulation. Players are shown a ‘common future’ in 2039 where nobody anticipated on shrinkage and we offer them the possibility to change the daily lives of four characters in 2039, by doing actions in 2013. It’s a kind of ‘back to the future’- scenario: changing the future by acting in the present.
Our process wasn’t totally fluid, but doing a small pilot really helped us out. This pilot showed immediately which game-elements were working properly, which elements were ‘catchy’ and which aspects needed further attention. Also, the pilot turned out to provide us with good arguments in conversations about the further development of the game with possible partners.”
4. What did you learn from the pilot you ran?
“We ran the small scale pilot in the Achterhoek, a region in the east of Holland, which needs to anticipate on the depopulation it will be facing.
The pilot was played by three inhabitants during a week and a half. The players have imagined themselves living in the year 2039. The process and the results are surprising and promising. We learned that the game actually created the awareness on the effects of shrinkage, which can be a very abstract theme. We also learned that these people got extremely motivated to create ideas and solutions. One of the players has been captivated by the assignment he got within the game – looking for a new (civic) economy within an aged and depopulated society — so much that he decided to continue the research he started on 3D printing in the Achterhoek for the next 5 years.
Though the pilot was played with half fabricated elements of the game, it showed us which elements are working very well and which need to be developed more or differently. During the pilot we discovered that the characters in the year 2039 should be given a very prominent position in the storytelling. Which we did after the pilot.
We also learned it is very important to have a sense of collectivity during play, therefore we are very happy that we managed to start and end the pilot having all the players present at the same time and place. During the pilot we made sure there would be regular contact with the players by email. After the pilot we realized two strong elements of this specific alternate reality game: the excitement of changing the future from the present and the combination of physical gatherings and online communication.”
5. What’s next for the project?
“We made a bid book. This bid book is a proposition for partners which are dealing with shrinking regions and have a high interest in creating a sense of urgency and awareness for inhabitants to start to co-anticipate on the effects of depopulation.
‘Let’s Shrink!’ (‘Leve de Krimp!’) consists of a generic and a specific part. The generic part is the framework of the game which can be applied in different regions that deal with depopulation and aging as a strong demographic change. The specific part is the possibility of shaping the content of the game to the culture, mentality and relevant themes within a shrinking region. For the next stage of the project Studio Papaver would like to work with partners who have a strong interest in the generic part (such as ministries and European programs) and partners who have a strong interest in the specific part (such as local organizations and private parties). Our next step would be to play a larger pilot and then fine tune the game to play it for real.”
Thank you Anne and Zineb and best of luck with developing ‘Let’s Shrink!’ further.
Do you love some good old teamwork in your game? Hubbub is working on a new cooperative multiplayer game and we’re looking for playtesters. Come to our upcoming test session at the Subcultures game night in the Dutch Game Garden, this Thursday, April 18, between 18:00 and 21:00. Not only can you play our game, you can also play the latest boardgames and get a sneak preview of upcoming ones. As a thank you for helping out we’ll cover your game night admission fee. Send an email to tim@hubbub.eu or find us at studio 1.04 on the night itself.
Having launched Victory Boogie Woogie just before the weekend it’s only natural we had to do a few quick fixes on Monday, the first proper day of the game.
I sat down with Niels to review his narrative design for KAIGARA. He’s doing a great job of adding “just enough” theme to what is otherwise shaping up to be a rather mechanics-and-social-interaction oriented game.
On Tuesday Alper flew to Munich to present our work on FURAPPA to the client’s team. This wraps up the first stage of our work with them. We had lots of fun with this so far, so I’m hoping we’ll be able to continue and develop some of our ideas into more detail.
That same day I had Bastiaan, Niels and Tim over at the Utrecht studio for our weekly KAIGARA team day. Bastiaan put the final touches on the frontdoor while Niels and Tim worked out a lot of the details of how the theme and the mechanics of the game interconnect. We also got to play around with a first rough digital prototype.
Alper deployed the KAIGARA frontdoor on Wednesday. KAIGARA is titled Ripple Effect, and it’s a game for organizational change we’re making for Shell. The remainder of the week we mostly just continued work on the project. I had a few calls with the client to discuss our progress and logistics of the upcoming pilot.
Meanwhile Victory Boogie Woogie’s first week came to a close. We pushed small tweaks and fixes to the live site as we saw things firming up. Meanwhile some fun writing and art were submitted. Personal favorites include this essay on Mondriaan’s handwriting by Kees ‘t Hart and this animated gif of various yellow jackets by Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky. I’m really pleased with how it’s already turning out to be this kaleidoscopic storyworld that you can kind of pick your own way through, and knead by writing some yourself. I’m Kaeru there myself, by the way, and this is my first submission.
And finally we were pleased to see Hide&Seek’s Tiny Games Kickstarter make it to the finish line. Not in the least because this means I will get to design a tiny game for the app myself, too.
Week 195
Last week we were busy evaluating KAIGARA post-pilot information and sketching out a course to develop the final game. We received tons of player input, client input and we came up with a bunch of ideas of our own to improve the game. We’re right now busy agreeing on a coherent plan from that set that best accomplishes all of the goals for the game. The KAIGARA team got reinforced with the production skills of Dylan Nagel. Dylan got off to a solid start by schooling Kars on SCRUM best practices.
Victory Boogie Woogie development is reaching its apex and the game and story are hurtling towards their inevitable conclusion. Lots of interesting stuff to read there and still not too late to jump in and write.
Besides doing our in-house production work, we have a parallel pipeline of consulting. FURAPPA has just wrapped up and we’re busy ramping up the following engagements (with startups and in Dutch broadcasting). Consulting is refreshingly different from what we normally do. We don’t have the luxury to be present at all stages of development, but that also gives us the freedom and creative license to focus solely on the concept and deliver interestingness. And if need be we can always back up these concepts with game design, prototypes and full development.
I settled in over at KANT Berlin and got myself a nice little desk on wheels:
Kars was also present at What Design Can Do last week to participate in a closed session on social design. The session was taped and will be published (quickly, I hope).
Our Utrecht studio resident Sander van der Vegte launched his traffic systems generator Cty last week as well. Very nice and procedural generation of landscapes in Unity seems to be a thing at the moment (see also this write-up about Sir, You Are Being Hunted).
Another launch last week which we attended was Reus a beautiful game about a giant:
And that’s that. Back to development.