Week 02 - Reflection

The design process for our folk game went through so many revisions that our original concept might as well be lost to space and time.  We started browsing through a website that showcased a bunch of folk games and within the website, several caught our intention. An identity game, ultimate rock paper scissors, and a chain game were our primary sources. Within these games, we saw the potential to incorporate several key features from these folk games into something that can be easily accessible to everyone.  We started with some playful ideas of guessing someone's identity as well as linking in pairs. While this sounded good in concept, we ran into a couple of roadblocks. As Koven would state, "being playful as it is about your being aware of playfulness; your own playfulness, of wherever you see manifestations of playfulness." As a team, we're unaware of unfun the game was when we put it into practice. The linking of the pairs didn't make sense and the identity factor created too much ambiguity. Needless to say, revisions were needed. 

We took into account what made games fun and why would someone want to play this game. Even with people "not feeling very playful, and don't even want to play", we had to revise our game so that it would be fun for the uninterested. In response, we revised our game to be an icebreaker between pairs of people in which you play a psychological game of tug of war. Before, I believe our path was too narrow and kept us "from going off into what appears to be chaos or oblivions or endless boredom". We widen our path and created a scenario that was more fun yet didn't restrict our creativity. It was taking our pre-existing concept and asking ourselves, do we really need this idea? We questioned every step of the process and created an environment in which everything could be reiterated on. 

One of the concepts our team was proud of is that our game can be as small or big as needed. You can play this game at a desk or take it to the extreme by creating an unreasonable amount of distance.  We wanted our game to reflect a path that was "many-branched, multi-dimensional, where you could leap from here to anywhere and never lose your way". It was in this path that our group actually experienced fun playing our game. Our ideas and creativity were sparked in which we created a game that we can imagine others playing. Of course, the game is without its flaws and still a work in progress. Nevertheless, it was amazing to see the lightbulbs go off in our heads regarding all the possibilities and fun people could have with our game.  

Thanks for reading! I hope everyone looks forward to our game!