Slide: Storytime - Project backstory/how it started
I overheard my neighbours having this conversation with her young sons recently, it reminded me of the sort of conversations i used to have with my mother. These conversations are an opportunity to give young children a first exposure to the world of science, but my neighbors and my mother missed the opportunity to do so
Slide: target audience - Why children are our audience
Early exposure the science builds critical thinking skills and may help children get interested in the subject. Children's attitudes toward science concepts and learning are essentially shared during the early years of their education and become hard to change by the time they reach adolescence.
(karmani & aldemir, 2015, p1505)
Slide: Tangential learning - Why use this method of teaching?
Trying to improve the school system is a significant challenge. An alternative approach is to facilitate tangential learning. Tangential learning is the process by which people will self educate if a topic is exposed to them in something that they already enjoy.
Slide: Tangential learning - Introduction to Play as a solution
To maximize the effect of tangential learning, children must be enjoying themselves, which can enhanced by carefully constructed play worlds. If a child is not engaged in an activity they will develop an affinity toward it. One of the best ways to ensure children are enjoying themselves is through play. By engaging children through play, we are tapping into what is already a strong component of children's learning.
Slide: Tangential learning - Building a playworld
However if the goal is to facilitate learning rather than directly educate, entertainment and education need to combine so children don't get too bored. Being to direct with a topic may cause an aversive reaction, since the game is clearly just an educational tool, rather than a game.
When constructing play worlds with the goal of creating tangential learning, the world must be carefully constructed to ensure children can connect with it.
Slide: Tangential learning - Do’s and Dont’s
Our research lead us to a certain criteria, a list of do’s and don'ts to ensure our playworld was real enough to teach, but fun enough to engage.
- DO Base characters on real life concepts
- DON'T make things up
- DO incorporate loosely inspired scientific concepts
- DON'T require pre-existing knowledge
- DO use visual cues to advance gameplay
- DON'T use jargon
Slide: Overview of game narrative
To turn this into a gameworld we went back to the earlier conversation about germs and we decided to start with a simplistic narrative based on the immune system. Children play as white blood cells, the heroes of immunity and play to overcome a bacterial infection before the body falls sick.
Play Video (our solution)
Slide: Game Mechanics - intro
Every game has its rules, the mechanics that make it tick. The most intrinsic of which is the goal, the end game, the winning condition and of course the challenge that must be overcome.
Slide: Game Mechanics - The goal
The goal of Cell Squad is to defend the blood vessel, hold back the invading bacteria for as long as possible and prevent the body from getting sick. The mechanic here is tower defence. The player must actively guard the vessel or risk losing the game. Allowing the vessel to be reduced to 0 health will result in a lost game, running out the timer with health still on the board will result in a successful game.
Slide: Game Mechanics - The challenge
Simple as it may sound, dotted around the level are areas (sweat glands) which become ‘infected’ by stronger bacteria, and if left alone cause the number of invading bacteria to increase, and eventually overwhelm the player. The challenge is to defend the vessel, while simultaneously preventing the bacteria from spreading.
There are 5 areas that must remain cleared. If more are infected that clear - the spawn rate increases, if more are clear than infected - the spawn rate decreases. It is up to the player to decide when to leave the vessel to clear areas, and when to defend the vessel to prevent damage.
Slide: Game Mechanics - Dynamics
Infected areas operate individually to each other, each having its own chance to become infected as time goes on. This acts as a gameplay balancer. The more areas a player clears, the more areas may become reinfected. This ensures that throughout the game play is neither too hard, nor too easy and the player always feels reasonably in control of the outcome. If the player is doing really well, things may pick up again rapidly. If the player has failed to keep areas clear, a strategic loop of the map may help to turn things around. The game responds to player actions, keeping things balanced and r
Slide: Game Mechanics - boss fight
At the end of a round a boss fight occurs. the mutated Staph leader appears to deal with the player since her minions could not. Befitting of a boss fight, she is bigger, stronger and meaner. This fight plays differently. The Gameplay was designed to invite emergent and varied strateg from the player in order to win. For instance, if the player stays close and attacks to often, she will use her fist slam for melee damage, but if the player stays at a distance she will use her ranged attack, throwing one of her minions at the player. She also has the option force the player backward, preventing any possibility of attack and summon minions to disrupt the players movements.
Slide: Level Design
My biggest priority while designing the level was accessability, making sure the player can get to and from the outer areas of the map using hit and run tactics. Key to this was ensuring the infection points were all an even distance from the centre of the map, where in the blood vessel was located. This lended the level a hub and spoke playstyle. This also helped break the level into two key areas, the outer infection points and the arena area in the middle.
Alongside accessibility came the sightlines, making sure the player can observe the infection points and make decisions despite the fixed camera angle. By roaming around the centre area, the player is able to ascertain whether an area is infected or not. This is aided by the varying heights of the level, putting objectives up high to increase visibility. This also helped to create contextual and natural borders the playable area.
Slide: Level Design - Aesthetic
For our demonstration level we chose to choose the dermis of the skin (also known as the skin underlayer). The skin, being the first line of defence for our body, has many interesting biological reactions that occur so that we stay healthy. Here, our immune system and various bacteria are in a constant battle. In this case, we focused on white blood cells known as macrophages and neutrophils and invading Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (commonly known as staph… or boils!)
The design was inspired by microscopic views of this skin layer as well as scientific diagrams. The characters and these interactions are known to occur in this skin layer. We also wanted to make it recognisable as skin by adding hair follicles throughout the map.
Slide: Character design
Character design - Each character was specifically designed to match their real world counterpart. Consideration was especially made in regards to the colour palette. Fillie the neutrophil, for example, has purple bands under the microscope - we focused on the details, such as the band on her back - in biology, the band indicates the age of the neutrophil - hers indicates she’s a very young cell! This informed her playful animations.
The bad guys, Cluster and Grandma, are a bacteria species known as Staphylococcus aureus, and its mutated counterpart MRSA, respectively. Their colour palette is referenced through how these bacteria look under the microscope when stained - this species (also known as gram-negative) show as purple, which is why we kept their colour palette as such.
We want our players to link these colours to the type of species they are, similar to how Pokemon or Skylanders have element types. By using this formula, we hope that children can gain a further interest into the types of organisms out there, big or small, seen or unseen!
Slide: Character animation
Character behavior - the character attacks mimic the biological reactions that happen in the immune system. For example, Luke, being a macrophage (‘big eater’) eats invaders such as bacteria. Fillie, also a type of eater also emits chemicals that kill bacteria. For the purposes of game mechanics, we have omitted Fillie from eating bacteria (she’s vegan now!). Children will be able to associate these attacks with how their immune system works. Their bodies are a lot more interesting when viewed under a microscope!
Slide: Hud design - Lucas to fill
The hud design and visual language was inspired by biology, and the concept of using technology to look into another world, using rounded, organic shapes within a distinctly scientific layout. The touch elements, buttons and joystick remain on the screen at all times, and were designed colorless and transparent to avoid conflicting with the richly coloured background and distracting from gameplay. The other elements, player health, infection rate and area infections are all hidden from view until utilised in context during play. For instance, when a player clears an infection, the UI will appear to notify the player of their success, and show them how many are cleared, and how many are not. Similarly when the player takes damage the health bar pops in, communicating to player both that they have taken damage and how much.
Slide: Extended universe
To reinforce the theme of the virtual world being apart of our own as well as bridge the gap between the virtual and physical world, we have designed a series of toys. The toys will be used by children with their peers in their own play worlds, enabling them to use their own imaginations to extend and enhance the scenarios experienced through more structured interactions. The toys will be physical and come in a range of designs matching the microorganism characters.
The toys will come with some educational information – just enough to inspire curiosity and further exploration on the part of the child. There will be toys that will appeal to all ages, including simplified plushies for the younger children, and articulated figures for the older children.
Key to this narrative is the inclusion of the child in the story. This means that when they are playing the game and collecting micronauts, they are are actually collecting their own creatures. Similarly when the pickup a plush toy version of one of the microorganisms, they feel a sense of ownership and companionship for the character it represents. It is a constant symbol of their role in the play world and reminds them of the lessons they have learned, encouraging curiosity about the world around them.
Slide: sign off
Tangential learning is known to be a very effective method of independent learning, and if used properly could replace many current methods of independent study as a means of education children. We hope that after playing these games children will be inspired to learn more and develop an interest in science.
