Week 3: Considering the game play
This week, I have kept investigating game engines and coding needed in each engine. From the readings, I’ve been thinking about the game play experience for my game. We learned that games need clear goals, stable rules, and challenge. I rethought my gameplay based on these ideas. Instead of a more open format with more free choice, I am thinking of building my game around levels where each level is a nursing shift (like one day of work.) I made a chart that shows 15 levels with a special circumstance for each shift and which skills are practiced.
This chart depicts 15 levels of play, a developing narrative of the patient’s health status, and the skills tested at each level.
The play will be in making choices and completing procedures. The reward for successful completion of each level will be points that add encouraging level-ups. The goal of the game is confidence and encouragement. This might be similar to a less text-constrained Oregon Trail. The consequence for extreme failure will be text about what they did wrong and the negative outcomes that those choices could have. Then the player will have to repeat the level. I will keep the negative consequences phrased in the hypothetical (e.g. This is what could happen to the child if you didn’t hook up oxygen.) The hope is that players will gain a sense of relief and recommitment to learning the skill. I will not portray catastrophic consequences as part of the game play—the child dying. The worst outcome will be the paramedics showing up. In addition to staying in the zone between boredom and frustration, I want to stay in the zone of confidence between a state of overwhelm and arrogance about the skills.
In terms of managing the challenge, I have created a structured narrative where the child gradually gets sick, then gets more seriously ill and then recovers. I want the level of challenge to build gradually. For most skills, I have given a practice session or two before they must be performed in an emergency situation. The patient recovers at the end and I hope that the game ends on a note of encouragement.
I plan to (for the storyboard or prototype) draw the visual assets for the game. I want the game to look more illustrated than real to help minimize the fear in the player. The game would be used in step 1 of teaching nurses or parent caregivers to perform these skills. Step 2 would be performing them on a doll. Step 3 would be observing someone perform the skill on a real patient. Step 4 would be performing the skills on a real patient. When I learned, I was started at Step 3 and I would have really loved a more gradual introduction.
