Week 2: Prac Review

In today's prac we got together in small groups and did some brainstorming for the 2 prototype challenges. 

First we came up with some examples of faux pas, awkward or embarrassing behaviours:

• Rude interruptions in conversation
• Asking (mistakenly) if someone is pregnant
• Eating habits - too noisy, with hands, mouth open
• Walking in public spaces - a large group of people taking up the whole path, standing on the right side of an escalator, stopping in the middle of a thoroughfare or the top of an escalator.
• Playing loud music on public transport
• Speaking too loudly on the phone
• Not controlling naughty children

We then had to take one of these social faux pas and generate an idea for a wearable that transformed this behaviour either in a subtle way or an obvious way.

Our idea was a small wearable device like a lapel mic, that while listening to the wearer's conversation, it can detect if something offensive is said to another person. If an embarrassing remark is spoken, the device sends an alert to the wearer's phone, prompting it to start calling in order for them to avoid any further embarrassment or confrontation. The wearer can then make a convenient escape. 

Then we chose 1 game from each column and discussed the main features of each game, and what was the most fun, challenging or interesting element from each. 

For Hangman some of the features we discussed included the challenge of choosing the best letters, process of elimination, limited "lives", the different rules players have for drawing the hangman, the fun in drawing each line one by one to form the complete picture.

For Guess Who, features included the process of eliminating characters, choosing the initial character that is hardest to guess (eg doesn't have any striking individual features that can eliminated quickly), the physical actions of flicking the tabs up and down and the noise they make.

For Lemmings we talked about the problem solving aspects of the levels, there are multiple paths/solutions, puzzle game, the cute characters, wanting to protect and guide the lemmings.

To create our Hangman/Lemmings mash up we took 1 aspect from each game to create a new game "Hanging  by a Thread". Our somewhat morbid game took the cheating death theme from Hangman (ie the relief you feel when your man doesn't get hanged), and from Lemmings, the cute characters that you form an emotional attachment with. 

Or game works like hangman where you guess the mystery word. However each wrong guess brings a guillotine blade closer to a cute kitty. Every time you guess right prolongs the kitty's time to doom, and if you get a correct answer you get some kind of time extension or the blade lifts further up. You can even get some rewards for your cat while it's waiting, like a bowl of milk or a toy :)

Today's prac exercises were really helpful in getting the ball rolling in generating concepts for the main project. Hopefully I can continue exploring some fun and creative ideas to prototype!