thoughts...
news on what's going on in my head
Jul 08
Jul 06
May 03
DishWhere Lite
DishWhere Lite is projected to launch in the iPhone app store in June 2009. The light version will be available for free and will focus on establishments in New York City’s lower east side. I was hesitant to release the game with out the community integration, because with out the community much of the player motivation is lost. But in the end I think the feedback gained from a single player experience will be more valuable. I’m thinking it may be wise to frame it as a tool rather than a game though. By framing it as a tool people don’t have expectations of a game system being in place with a proper win state and motivation.
CHINA!
Looks like DishWhere is going to have an opportunity to be tested in China this summer while I’m co-teaching a four week course in Beijing and Shanghai with Parsons. The curriculum is focused on an input, process, output model of creation and collabortion. DishWhere will be used as a media collection tool for a larger project, culminating as an installation in the EArts Shanghai arts festival.
Mar 05
Mar 03
Civilian playtest #1
We tested Civilian as a paper prototype today. (dave.parsons.edu/courses/course/view.php?id=5) Feedback:
Mar 02
Feb 27
challenge matrix
A link to the challenge matrix for ChowLocate. Still very early in development
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=ptV8flik9DGEpqP9DZl9hOg
Game Doc v1
Off The Menu – Game Document
• Game is played on an iPhone with an application that must be downloaded.
• There is no time limit on the game.
• Players earn points by visiting Hot Spots, which are designated restaurants and food establishments, and completing challenges, interviews, and questions. Point values vary based on difficulty.
• Players can also earn points by creating new Hot Spots and accompanying challenges
• The players have a map of the Hot Spots on their phone, but will also receive alert messages, similar to a text message, when they are near a Hot Spot. This allows players to play deliberately or unintentionally (casually.)
• Intended to be a single person game, but could be played by a group of people acting as a team.
Learning Goals
• Level 1: Awareness of location and significance of restaurants/establishments. GPS triggered brief history or intro when a challenge is accepted on-site.
• Level 2: Engagement. Interaction through challenges, on-site learning from the people and place. Techniques for approaching unfamiliar people. New ways to explore an environment.
• Level 3: The role of the restaurants/establishments in the neighborhood, thus a better understanding of the neighborhood. When challenge is complete suggest Hot Spots that are near-by or related.
• Level 4: Player as designer. Through the user generated content of Hot Spots players take another level of learning through the creation and feedback.
Website
• Media collected from challenges is archived online
• Players can blog about specific experiences and interviews
• Showcase leader boards of overall game
• Show Hot Spot ownership
• Players can decided if they want their stats to be public or private
• Players can check their progress in the game and the progress of others
• Create new Hot Spots through a form like interface, precedents whrrl.com, wikibivouac.org
User Experience – Unintentional, push
• The application is always running in the background of their phone.
• The user is reliant on GPS to receive updates at unanticipated times of the day.
• As the player travels about the city they receive a message when they are near a Hot Spot
• The player can choose to ignore the message and ask to be remind at a later time or accept it and seek out a challenge
• If challenges are completed the user can upload or blog results on the spot or wait until later, possibly at a computer terminal
• Possibly used by tourists to point out significant establishments while traversing the city
User Experience – Intentional, pull
• The application map is used to seek out Hot Spots in a specific area.
• Possibly played when the player has a few minutes of free time, maybe waiting for someone, or when the player is deliberately looking for a place to eat
• The GPS is still used to verify that the user has visited the Hot Spot, but the user is not reliant on it to find them.
• The user can manually request challenges or wait for the application to suggest based on location
• If challenges are completed the user can upload or blog results on the spot or wait until later, possibly at a computer terminal
• Can see this scenario of the game being played by multiple people acting together
• Possibly used by tourists as guided food tour
Creating New Hot Spots
• Roughly based on a Parking Wars mechanic of owning a spot and putting time limit on ownership
• To help populate the database with Hot Spots, players can earn points by creating spots, when a player creates a new spot (i.e. is the first at the location) they own the spot
• Spots can only be owned for 30 days, after 30 days, option 1: the owner needs to change the challenges associated with the spot to retain ownership, option 2: the spot becomes open for someone else to grab
• The owner of a spot receives points for each visitor to their spot, thus making it more valuable to own more popular places and create enjoyable challenges at the site
• Need a feedback model to encourage good challenges and learning on both sides
Challenges (method of archiving/proving)
• Challenges would vary from 5 – 15 minutes challenges and points would be awarded accordingly
• Try the food (photo)
• Interview (blog post summarizing the exchange)
• Find the answer to a question in a physical place (photo, fill-in-the-blank)
• Find the answer to a question from a person (blog)
• Collection (photo)
what’s in a name?
What to name my app. After reading a very useful article on Mashable (http://mashable.com/2009/02/21/how-to-build-an-iphone-app/) on mobile development, I’ve been thinking more about the name of my game. I’m currently using “Off the Menu” but I’m not in love with it. Here’s my simple criteria for naming:
1. one or two words
2. have some blantant reference to food
3. like the idea that it can be made into a verb (i.e. googling.)
(4. open domain name, though not a priority at this point)
Here’s some brainstorming on the topic, PS - I am not good at naming things:
Off The Menu
dishWhere
chewtopia
eat@, eat.at
Grub Hub
Urban Fork (not serious)
Fooducate (not sure if I want to reference learning)
GPSavory (good play on words, but not catchy)
Food Finds (blah)
The Wondering Foodie (I like the sentiment, not a good name, good blog name maybe)
Edible Adventure (kind of reminds me of edible underwear)
City Eats
Sidewalk Foodie
Curious Cuisine
Chow Locate
Chow Challenge
Curb Appeal
Oregano Trail
Top Banana
Quick Bites
