Basic prompt:
Use Twine to make a playable text game that responds to the “operating systems of a different order” we have been discussing. Your subject matter can be anything (games and gaming, life at UMD, high school, internet culture, a fictional world). Explain your game in an accompanying blog post. This is an individual project.
Project goals:
1. for you to get a sense of the process of game design via tools that people are using to create DIY, independent games that are not subject to the restrictions caused by the huge resources required for mainstream game development; and
2. for you to make connections between the class and your own experiences and interests, finding your voice as a “Videogame Zinester.”
Project requirements:
- Design. Your project will have to include:
• A concept (what’s it about?)
• A character (who is your player going to be?)
• A setting (where are things happening?)
• A goal (how do you win / what ways can the story end?)
• Possibilities and constraints (What possibilities, constraints, frustrations, and pleasures do you want the person playing your game to remember?)
I should be able to figure out what all of these are by playing your game! In your reflection on process, though, you should explain what you were trying to achieve in these areas.
- Practicalities
• Twine games work by having users move between “passages,” which are pieces of text (you can also include images) that link to one another. Your project must include at least 20 passages.
• Along with the link to your online game, include the Twine Archive file of your source code. We’ll discuss how to share the links and archives in class on February 11.
• I am not setting any word minimums or maximums for your passages. They can be as short or as long as you like. Evocative, thoughtful writing will make your player’s experience much more interesting and your game more effective, however, and your attention to these will be rewarded in your grade.
• Twine has a default visual format that you can change by editing CSS. You can also include images, video, and sound by using HTML. I am very happy for your game to appear in the default style, and there will be no penalty for that! However, design elements like colors, fonts, and images can have important impact on your player’s experience. If you take the time to work with these in a way that enhances the effectiveness of your game, this will be rewarded in your grade.
• When you post with the link to your game and its source, include a reflection on your process. In 400-500 words, answer the following questions: What were you trying to achieve when you made this game? How does it connect to readings and discussions from class? How well do you think you succeeded?
General project grading guidelines (always the same): what I am looking for, in rough order of importance.
1. Thoughtful engagement with course concepts and assignment. Are you following the assignment directions? How vividly can I see the influence of readings and discussions in your work?
2. Nuance and complexity of ideas explored. How deeply are you reckoning with the challenges and contradictions that surround race, gender, and labor in the digital world? Are you pushing beyond what we have covered in class and engaging with these ideas on your own terms?
3. Evidence of effort exerted. Have you put substantial time and energy into this work, researching beyond class material and seeking help with conceptual and technical difficulties as they arose?
4. Originality and imagination. How fresh and exciting are the concept and execution? Is there scope for further development beyond this class?
5. Technical proficiency. How effectively are you making use of the methods you have chosen? This doesn’t necessarily mean that your project will be technically elaborate, but that you understand the affordances of the method you are using and are taking advantage of them.