As part of the initial brainstormings, we have came up with the following initial ideas to achieve our overarching goal:
- Multiplayer Game
The idea is to build a multiplayer game with several missions. The missions are such that they require different roles and these roles are divided into the different STEAM disciplines.
This can help to give the players a sense of being in a STEAM role and we hope that it can serve as an inspiration to take up a career in that discipline. However, we dont want the missions to require too strong a knowledge as to discourage the players.
Pros :
- Choosing roles can be fun to play with
- Scoring and competing can be motivative
Cons:
- Designing co-op intelligently is a challenge
- Work from making it extrinsic (puzzles are completely different from what is actually the role) to intrinsic
2. Location Based Experience at CMU
We came up with this idea based on Damola’s son Wole’s experiences at CMU and his experience with STEAM education. We are looking to utilize AR interaction based on a mobile phone or tablet. The player can explore the CMU campus while learning about the different STEAM disciplines and get a first hand look at how to get into them.
We want to gamify this experience in such a way that there are several important buildings across CMU and the player gets to do tasks at each building. Finishing the task would award them with a ‘degree’ based on that building’s discipline.
Pros:
- Provide a strong feeling of belonging of CMU
- Can take inspiration from client’s own experience
Cons:
- Works best for people in Pittsburgh
- Wole started college at 15 and may not be the typical student
3. Interactive Graphic Novel
The basic premise is that we want to build an interactive graphic novel based on our client’s father and son story.
We want the platform to be a smartphone or a tablet and the interactions would be simple combined with music and visuals to keep the players involved.
The best reference that we could find is Florence (2018).
Background Music: we can add the music provided by the client into the game as background music or music for some puzzles if it’s fit (rhythm game style puzzle).
Interactions: The interactions can be as simple as moving an object, drawing on a foggy window, and opening a box, or as complex as solving a puzzle.
Pros:
- Can be played anywhere
- Successful prior example that we can learn from and improve on
- Effective at telling the an inspirational story in a fun way
Cons:
- Might put pressure on 2D artists
- Requires really good writing skills
- We are not familiar with our skill sets yet