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The Second
Annual Game Design Think Tank
Project Horseshoe 2007
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
by The Fat Man, George A. Sanger
Hello, Sailor.
Well, evidently Game Design still has problems well worthy of our attention. I suppose that’s bad, but it gave us what fighter pilots call a “target-rich environment” in which to exercise our problem-solving skills and methods.
Four particularly outstanding speakers prepared the group for their adventure, the adventure was had, and here’s how it fell out:
The Word’s Most Dangerous Chefs explored the possibilities of developing games without using fear and aggression as motivations for the gamer. A list of alternative emotions led to thirteen or so outlines of game designs based on such motivators as guilt/nurturing, sadism, hope/despair, embarrassment, etc. This suite of game ideas convincingly proved the group’s concept, and appears to have spawned some game business ventures as well. Some of the games will be developed by the members of the group. All game ideas not picked by members of the group for development within a year will be released to the Internet as public domain.
Rising Tide took on the idea of professionalism as it relates to Game Design. They sought to answer various questions about the definitions and practices of the field, and developed some ideas for encouraging the best in game design.
The United Rogue Emirates took a look at Interactive Natural Language Artistic Experiences (that which used to be called Text Adventures). They started by looking at the challenges that were specific to issues related to the participants’ current or future projects. Given the nature of the participants, this led to a focus on a return to the text-parser genre. Approaching the genre from the point of view of professionals and amateurs, a number of excellent ideas were floated that would support and nurture the development of such games as author-driven works of passion, and ideally works of Art.
Story Bored attacked a very wide range of issues related to storytelling in games. Their solutions revolved around implementation of a website (FabulaRasa.org) dedicated to the Creation of Meaningful, mediated experiences. Among the features of the site will be blogs by a select group of game design types who research, track and share tools. Intended as a site for brainstorming and inspiration, it is hoped that significant good will arise from what can be done through FabulaRasa.
Well, that’s another year down, and I’ve been asked not to gush, so, at least on the outside, I’m not so much gushing. The work will speak for itself. But inside? Gushy gushy gushy.
Emoticon
:)
-THANKS! ---FAT
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