Bad Fucking Apples
produced by: Tammu Do
Introduction
Not another alt controller?! Yes. I love the idea of a
stretching rubber cord controller, and I already sense
so many gameful opportunities with this cord. I want
to discover ways to play with this cord. I decided
making a mini game to contextualize the controller
and allowing two players to play without explicit
rules could offer new insights on how the controller
could be used by players, and therefore offer new
game mecahnics.
The Game: BAD FUCKING APPLES:
A game that simulates what it’s like trying to keep up with the depressing and overwhelming news, especially when you not only have to read, but also have to filter out trolls and disseminate information. This game idea came from an iterative process of simply making mundane weekly games. I decided I wanted to pick a game for which I could discover and play with emergent qualities via this rubber controller. Fucking bad apples seemed like a good enough microcosm that simulates a real world problem just enough in a way that doesn’t need a complex multilevel design. Short yet interesting enough for research.
Future plans will look like this: Spawning news objects will include liberal and conservative oriented graphics.
I am curious to see what/how partners will play together, and how they might cooperate or each have their own agenda for consuming certain news.
Research Goals
I am interested in creating a controller for a game, specifically the conductive rubber cord.
I am interested in the affordances of its stretching properties that could be appropriated into a game mechanic
for two players. The game idea is not as solid as I would like, and so I sought out to research first how users
would respond to stretching the cord at different areas of a specific length of the cord, and secondly what
associations and ideas they would come up with when asked what games they would think this cord would work for?
Key Responses:
/ users prefer holding the rubber cord near towards the ends
(after I had cut the cord to the length of less than 12 inches
/equal amount of players like holding the alligator clips to
pull and stretch the cord
/when asked what games users can imagine if this cord was
the main controller, many initially proposed competitive
games/scenarios. When prompted with the idea of co-op situations,
users said a range from things like "I would be careful with
Most users automatically assumed that the
output that would be necessary for the game
would be a continuous one, and that these
changes would continuously change levels/
impact the score/players in real time.
Many assumed releasing and the velocity
of the cord would be part of the key game
mechanic as well.
the cord with the other player" to "There would be tension..."
(see image: notesDuringUserTest.jpg)
Cold Runs
Cold Runs are my favorite. This design practice is basically blind user testing cycles where you give users the tools/system with no complimentary information on how it works and see how they respond. Emergent qualities about your system may shine a light on new possible interactions, and design challenges and opportunities.
When asked the question, how do you think this controller (conductive rubber) will be used individually and then with another person, people mentioned things like: tension and competition, aggression and polarity, cooperation and communication, lead and submit, and etc (mapped out on next page: key responses).
After these runs, I decided on trying the controller with a mini game in which I could test and see how people would respond and find therefore find maybe new potential game mechanics.
Future development
I hope to do more user research, game development, and play tests in order to more ways to carry the message of news dissemination and its chaos.
Self evaluation
I look forward to polishing up my game, run more playtests, and hopefully find more gameful opportunities for playful interventions in public discourse and news dissemination. I also am interested in finding playful opportunities in which polarized parties can engage in debate in a meaningful, yet playful and hopefully more approachable way.
References
Bond, Jeremy Gibson. Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C#. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley, 2018.
Raskob, Evan. “Basic_scaling_linear_smoothing · Master · Physical Computing / Basic-data-analysis.” GitLab. Accessed March 26, 2019. https://gitlab.doc.gold.ac.uk/physical-computing/basic-data-analysis/tree/master/basic_scaling_linear_smoothing.
Bond, Jeremy Gibson. Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C#. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley, 2018.
Pas, Juliette Van Der. “Measuring Stretch Forces With A Conductive Rubber Cord.” Hackster.io. May 02, 2018. Accessed March 10, 2019. https://www.hackster.io/Juliette/measuring-stretch-forces-with-a-conductive-rubber-cord-d1528e.
