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UB SURVIVAL

OUR TECHNOLOGY

01 / APP BUILD

We are using App Furnace to structure and build our mobile application.

02 / DESIGN

We use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to design the graphics used in our game.

03 / VIDEO

In order to create realistic "hacker" videos, we are using Adobe Premiere Pro video editing software as well as Adobe Audition for voice elements. 

*Visit our README.txt for a detailed description on the gameplay

Product

University at Buffalo's

"TOur guide app"

Focus

Statement.

Our game "UB Survival Game App" is an exploration-based game that can be played as a single player to 4,5 multiplayer. It is both single, multiplayer versus game and team competition at the same time. It is highly concentrated on storytelling.

As a new UB Student, you are excited to start school, however, you have no idea about what is really going on around campus.  As an introduction to the UB life, all students are requested to download an app that provides a virtual tour around campus.  Using QR codes, you can gain information about key buildings on campus.  However, as you start this tour and walk around UB, you start realizing things are not what they seem.

The overall objective of our game is not to win or lose but survive throughout the game and find all the answers to the riddles.

PROTOTYPES & PLAYTESTING

We conducted weekly playtesting sessions using outside testers who provided useful feedback during each game iteration.  

 

  • Playtesting was slightly unconventional because it was of its kinesthetic and exploratory nature.  Rather than testing traditional play mechanics of those found in a board game, we sought a need to qualify how players experienced the geospatial aspects of our game.

 

  • Equipped with test devices with the UB Tour Guide App installed, players walked around campus to test the experience we created.  The act of walking is an essential part of our game and we argue that this is a crucial mechanic that contributes to overall user experience.  

Playtesting

Abbie and Shuey, UB Students

 

Feedback:

 

Bugs:

Typos in 2 spots, fix exit location on lockwood, times

decremented prematurely

 

How many people would you say should play this

game at a time?

Answer: 1-4

 

Can this be a team game?

Yes

Shuey: Use the whole campus

 

Most fun part?

Hacked part.

 

What do you think should happen once the timer goes off?

Abbie: go to new branch in the story

 

What would you change?:

Technical stuff.. Clues were good. Since its freshman they can be easier.

Say what goes on in the building, not history of building.

 

Notes from team for today’s playtest:

-Main priority at this point is to make more clues

Thinking of implementing points system, teams compete head to head and whoever has the most points at the end, wins

-this system should be told to players while they still mistakenly think they’re in a real campus tour.  That way they can see this as a competitive game early on.

Group Discussion 11/16: Resource implementation: possibly going through each building to acquire a resource.  Acquiring all the resources by the end of the game helps you win.  

-idea on this:  combine all the clues to figure out a message.

-At the end of the game a text entry pops up and you have to enter the exact message to win.

Katie, family member

 

Feedback:

 

Bugs:

Various typos, "lock + wood" clue is unclear.

 

How many people would you say should play this game at a time?

Answer: 2 or 3. Clues can be somewhat difficult and combining brainpower to solve riddles is key to progressing through the game. 

 

Can this be a team game?

Yes

 

Most fun part?

Being fooled into thinking this was a Tour Guide app at first.  I literally thought this was a tour app that my brother had coded, but when the hacker event happens in the app, I was genuinely surprised.

 

What would you change?:

It is difficult because I am not a UB Student, so I don't know exactly where I should be going.  For example, I figured out the "Lockwood" clue but needed to consult an outside source (a student passerby) to tell me where Lockwood was.  I would either change the target audience, or change the clues so they are accessible to any citizen.

 

Notes from team for today’s playtest:

 

-Main priority at this point is to keep making more clues

-Thinking about differentiating paths between hacker and a more "positive" role model--game will become more about choosing between good and evil rather than winning.  

-We shouldn't place QR codes in books anymore in case the books are checked out.  Need a better place to put them, and change app clue accordingly (code used to be the book's call number.)

 

About

Research

Each of us researched a form of media relevant to our project. Our evaluations are below.

Evaluation 1: Pokemon Go, by Tyler Lynch

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android device. It was released on July 6, 2016, and rapidly gained popularity due to its accessibility (Available for iOs and Android) and its use of augmented reality. Our app has similarities to Pokemon Go, in the sense that they are both location based and landmark driven. Pokemon Go uses special landmarks as “PokeStops” or Gyms in their app, and we use ours as locations that players must visit to trigger some sort of advancement in the game. Pokemon Go is a single player adventure, with the indirect ability to “team up” with someone else to defeat a gym.  In our app, it's recommended to play with 2-4 players, but can be played with 1+. UB Tour App is a game with predefined outcomes, giving players freedom to choose specific branches to reach these outcomes. Pokemon Go has less of structure in terms of narrative gameplay, and is continuously popular because there is technically no ending or total completion (besides completing your Pokedex, but even then you can still keep playing).  In Pokemon Go, the uncertainty lies with the the unknown factor of which Pokemon will appear, if the player will be able to catch a pokemon, the randomness of Gym battles, etc. In UB Tour App, the player experiences uncertainty when deciding which path to follow, and not knowing which path will lead to the best result. Aslo, the riddles may stump some more than others, which ties into our game requiring more skill than chance. From a developer's perspective, we have “hard coded” this uncertainty, and mechanic of requiring more skill, which generally doesn’t work for game design, but does in our case considering we are okay with limited replayability. With that being said, the skill level/type requirement should be pretty low among all players. It’s designed for students new to UB, so extensive experience with the campus is not necessary, but will definitely help if you’re a whiz at navigating the campus. Pokemon Go has a very unique interface, because it relies heavily on its augmented reality. This is where you see unreal objects through a real lens or screen. In Pokemon Go’s case, you can see real Pokemon standing on the ground in front of you. Virtually all actions you perform in Pokemon Go happen in this augmented reality space. Our app more or less just relies on the location, rather than utilizing the visual aspect of these places.

Evaluation 2: Ingress, by Dave Mawer

Ingress is a massively multiplayer, augmented reality online game developed by Niantic.  It is available on Android and iOS devices.  Its Android release date was November 15, 2012, and it was later released for iOS on July 14, 2014.  Ingress is sci-fi themed and is classified as a geospatial game, in that it requires players to move about the physical world to progress through the game.Ingress’ focus statement is as follows:  

Life seems “normal” but your world is being infiltrated. A mysterious energy has been unearthed by a team of scientists in Europe. The origin and purpose of this force is unknown, but some researchers believe it is influencing the way we think. We must control it or it will control us.

Our struggle is being played out globally, and the future is at stake. You must choose a side, there are two factions:

“The Enlightened” seek to embrace the power that this energy may bestow upon us.

“The Resistance” struggle to defend, and protect what’s left of our humanity.

Ingress is a primarily 2D game.  Every interactable feature within the game exists on a flat plane corresponding to the Earth.  Since the game tracks the player’s position in physical space, a player could feasibly jump up or walk up a flight of stairs and the game would position its avatar accordingly, however there are no significant elements in the game that require a player to be at a higher elevation, therefore Ingress is, for all intents and purposes, a 2D game.  Again, since this game depends on a player’s physical location in space, the boundaries are the Earth itself.  

One could argue that boundaries end where the equipment cannot receive GPS or cellular service, however I am sure the game has been mapped over the entire Earth.  I reached out to Niantic on whether or not there are interactable elements in Antarctica, but I have yet to receive a response.  

Ingress has the player choose an opposing “faction” at the beginning of the game.  These teams indirectly compete against each other.  The main goal of Ingress is to capture portals that exist in physical space and linking them together to form triangles.  Depending on what faction the player has chosen, his or her faction is represented by a specific color on the map.  The larger the faction’s linked triangles are, the more points the faction earns.  Players can attack their opposing faction’s portals to dismantle these triangles and gain points back.  However, no direct conflicts arise between players.  Interaction transpires indirectly and occurs between a player and in-game, inanimate totems.  However, players can work together to take down portals.  This game requires multiple players to function, however on a session basis, only one player needs to open the app to experience Ingress.  

Exotic matter (XM) is the primary resource available in Ingress.  The game’s narrative explains that after the discovery of the Higgs Boson, an alien race has descended upon Earth and in its wake, exotic matter now exists around the world.  Exotic matter can be found in various spots in the game, especially near portals.  XM enables the player to commit certain in-game actions such as attacking portals.  As the player progresses through the game, he or she earns Action Points (AP) that make his or her player stronger.  This is similar to many role-playing games and keeps players engaged in the game longer.   

There are a lot of overlapping elements between our UB Tour Guide app and Ingress.  First, both games recruit multimedia elements to create a robust narrative.  Niantic has uploaded videos to YouTube that portray a mock scientist finding exotic matter around the world and showing the player where to look to progress through the game.  Our own “hacker” videos were inspired by these elements, and our team feels that incorporating external multimedia files can both boost a game’s narrative and deeply ensconce the player into the game.

Evaluation 3: Create Your Own Adventure Books, by Chris Doubek

Evaluation 4: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, by ChaeYoung Oh

     The Game <Unknown’s Battle Grounds> is the latest hugely successful game which is a multiplayer online battle game which had sold over twenty million copies in few months, before the full release on the platform. It is released by Steam and designed by PUBG Corporation through Windows, Xbox one and PlayStation4 Platform games at Mar 23, 2017 and the full release date was December 10, 2017. Battlegrounds is a player versus player game where up to one hundred random players fight in a massive 8x8 km battle royale until last team or last player survives and they get to have chicken for dinner.

     The background story is that Erangel is a fictional island in the black sea abandoned near Russia where a military occupation was controlling it. The military occupation tested chemical and biological experiments on the island's population but the island was abandoned after that. This basic narrative linear story connects with weapons such as magnetic fields or some medicines and drugs from 1950s biological experiments. However, there is no concrete storyline why 100 people are killing each other at an abandoned island and why they get chicken for dinner if they win, so it is up to players to fill rest of the story with their imagination.

      Basic objectives of Unknown’s Battle Grounds are capture, race, exploration, rescue/escape and survive. The space of this game is a very concrete 3D area, which is an island known as “Eragel” with many terrain features. The map is very well designed which allows players to have many strategies and play unique game styles. Players start with no gear so that they have to search buildings and houses to find weapons, vehicles, and clothing for future combat. The game encourages players to utilize the area and get right weapons and gears across the map and make strategic decisions. In every few minutes, the play area shrinks down to a random location where safe zone decreases. Randomly a plane will fly above and drop some packages that will be useful for players which increases the chance for encounter and confrontation between players. Most of the time different kinds of weapons from guns to pans are available. Items such as vehicles, armor, clothing and other equipment are resources. Better equipment is placed in high risk areas. Players can choose to play from the first person or third person perspective.

     Another resource is an in-game currency which is based on how long they survived or how many players they have killed or damage they had to other players, players gain certain amounts of money. It can be used later for items or character developing tools. Battle grounds is both online versus multiplayer and also between players interaction game with their own split screen.

What makes this game so popular and fun is uncertainty. Players can decide where they can land from an airplane when they parachute onto an island at the beginning of the game but after they land there is no single guarantee or script about what kind of weapon you will get or who you will meet. Up to 100 random people’s decision all come into one game so biggest uncertainty is player unpredictability. In terms of chance or skill, the game requires both. It is well balanced that players may have random chance of finding weapon at random houses but at the same time those resources require high skills for better use. Also, the weather of Erangel island changed each time you play which will effect your shooting, visibility and tactics. The weather itself is a luck and but your adaptive skills change results. Another interesting part of this game is that it requires not only mental skills but also social skills as well. Players can talk to and hear each other through mic when their character goes near other characters. In many cases, players can negotiate or give some information to other players using their social skills. Deceiving or helping are both common.

Research

Playtesting 

Brainstorming

Jeff Kim, UB Student

 

Feedback: It reminded me of playing Pokemon Go

game. I think it has great potential to become an

actual game that people play.

However, there needs to be a motivation for people

to play this game or some kind of familiar theme like

how other popular games are like.

 

There definitely needs to be a motivation for people

to move on from one building to another. Of course winning the game would motivate them. I would say that allowing people to find treasure or allowing them to leave their trace behind for other people can be fun.

 

First I did not want to further beyond Tim Hortons part because it seemed like a boring tour guide app. I would suggest putting some fun facts or humorous tour tip would be nice. I suggest writing "Timbits here are very delicious! Try them."

 

 

How many people would you say should play this game at a time?

Max 4. I think over 5 people wouldn't be fun. I thought playing it by myself would make it more fun. 

 

 

Can this be a team game?

Yes, it can be a race game.

 

Most fun part?

Clues were very mysterious at first. I liked how the letters were bloody. It seemed like Pokemon go at first but as I saw the first bloody clue, I had very different feelings than playing pokemon go. I like how the game is little scary and survival.

 

What would you change?:

 

I would add more nonsense game than numbers. 

-> Notes & Changes from team for today’s playtest:

- Added more nonsense games towards the end of the game

- Restructured some parts of the narrative story for more mysterious vibes

- changed some designs of the game

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formal in-class playtesting session

 

Playtest session 2

Playtest session 3

Prototypes

Digital Prototype

+ outsystems

+Jira Software

 

 

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