Gamer Stress - Week 2 Of 2
- Alejandro L. Ruata
- Apr 16, 2018
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 17, 2020
Date: 04/16/18
The next to last project of the semester and this one is quite special. A game brief for a graduate Becker student looking to to test the effects purposely stressful games cause on the minds of players. This game seeks to frustrate players in as short a time frame as possible (while remaining fair), allowing for graduate Becker Student to facilitate de-stressing techniques. Patients are then assigned to play the same game again to see if the de-stressing techniques work on players - ideally, this experiment will yield interesting results on the relationship between player moods and games.
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Entity for Project 5
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Game Title
“Wire Loop” - A Game Brief
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Member Blog Links
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General and Specific Information
Genre: Platformer & Puzzle
Audience: This will be a limited audience - only willing participants of Nicholas Dill’s (Becker College Mental Health Counseling Graduate Student) will be exposed to this game. These participants are individuals looking to try and control their stress levels in stressful situations (like playing a frustrating video game for instance) by knowingly raising stress upon exposure to infuriating gameplay and de-facilitating their stress through Dill’s practices after the fact. At this point they’d ideally be able to beat the game with a clearer mind, or at least not stress upon further defeat.
Primary Objective: As stated earlier, the primary goal of “Wire Loop”, is to frustrate gamers in as short a time span as possible (5 minute increments) so they may practice de-facilitating stress and trying to play the same frustrating instance of gameplay with a clearer head. Through simplistic gameplay (discussed in greater detail below) that can be picked up and played by anyone, we hope to increase the stress levels of players with timed maze challenges that can be beaten by going fast, and lost at the slightest mistake made.
The combination of the speed and precision required to beat these mazes will result in players losing often (through player fault; we don’t want to make a game with surprise traps like a kaizo game), resulting in increased stress after a period of just a few minutes. Following a short interval where players will work directly with Nicholas Dill practicing using specific methods to de-facilitate stress levels, they will be able to return to play and try again with a calmer mindset (the game rewards patience and practice - two things you won’t have when stressed out). Ideally another session or two of gameplay will result in player victory… or at the very least more controllable stress levels compared to before.
We think this will work with the entity because gameplay is so simple, and player deaths are purely the result of player input. Careful maneuvering only to die so close to the end will discourage players (game will have no checkpoints, unless the overseer - Dill - activates checkpoints through the Overseer Panel, a feature we will discuss in greater detail below), stress them out, and as a result they will begin to die more often in less time.
Introduction to Game: There isn’t a story to the game or its gameplay. The game itself is simple. The player must guide a stick through obstacles and maze layouts without touching the outside. This kind of simplistic gameplay makes it very easy to alter to become frustrating in a moment’s notice. This is achieved through alterations of level layouts and using the player’s own mouse sensitivity to our advantage in frustrating the player, due to the stick being used to maneuver through the levels via the computer mouse.
Game Control
PC
Player Controls:
Move - Done through the computer’s mouse movements.
Overseer - Dill - Options:
Create Checkpoints - Put in checkpoints in preset areas of the level/levels, most likely before harder parts or just before them.
Difficulty Select - A change in difficulty where the overall challenge and frustration of the level is decreased.
Timer options - Adjustments of the level’s timer in order to give the player more time to cool their head and navigate through the level.
Score/Objective/Winning/Losing/Competition
Objective - The player will complete a course of wire structure maze without touching the wire.
Losing - When the wire loop touch the wire or other untouchable surrounding, the player will be forced to restart the level. Or, if Dill’s checkpoints are on, be sent back to the previous checkpoint.
Interface/Information
Player:
The interface of the game should only have a setting button at the corner of the top right of the screen. This button should allow the player to adjust the volume, and a exit button that could end the game.
Overseer:
The overseer has the same interface as the player where he or she could adjust the setting for the player in case when the player is in middle of the gameplay.
Main User Mechanics/Actions: The main action of the game is guiding the player’s wire loop through a course of wire maze without touching anything. Although the player could move the loop back and forth, but the screen will constantly moving horizontal similar to “flappy bird”. This stops the player from standing still and taking their time doing the obstacle.
Levels/Environment: We want the level or environment design to be simple as possible. Basically we want to use the game, Wire, as a reference to the level design. Although the design will be different, however, we will use the same color design as the game. We would most likely use the color red because the color red gives the player the feeling aggressive and active.
Obstacles, interactive elements, enemies, collectibles, NPC’s, etc: Complex wire structure - the design for the wire maze will be more complex and nonlinear.
Sixty seconds of play: The player will navigate the stick through a maze of wire structures. At first, the gameplay will start out leaving the player a decent amount of space around them, winding through a few curves now and again. As the player goes, the design of the wire structure around them will get gradually tighter and more complex before suddenly escalating and becoming stricter and more confined. This will happen a few times throughout the gameplay in order to frustrate the player.
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WHY OUR IDEA WORKs
The simplistic gameplay allows for easily modifiable level design in order to accommodate to the objective of frustration. This is taking into account the fact that the game will utilize knowledge of difficulty spikes and disruption of cognitive flow within the gameplay in order to frustrate the player.
Through the use of the computer mouse for movement, the player’s frustration will cause them to make mistakes based on the sensitivity of the mouse. Subtle differences in hand movements, how high or low the mouse sensitivity is; it all will add up to make a game that can be fun to play from how simple it is, yet frustrating based solely on the design of levels themselves.
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Reference
Link to video of similar gameplay
*Irritating Stick is a game where the player tries to maneuver metal rod through a metal maze without touching the border. Otherwise, it will make an irritating sound of buzzer.
Link to video/Uploaded images of similar look/style
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Production
Estimated number of Developers/Designers:
Producer: 1
Designers: 2
Programmers: 3
Artist: 1
Audio: 1
Any special licensing, expertise, or permissions needed:
Plastic SCM
Estimated length of time for development in 3 phases:
Concept: 1 month
Pre-production: 3 months
Production: 2 months
Estimated cost for software/hardware:
Total: $0
Estimated cost for phase 1 (Concept) production:
Total: $0
Estimated cost for phase 2 (Pre-Production) production:
Total: $0
Estimated cost for release and maintenance:
Total: $0
Plan for post release: If the game proves an acceptable format to challenge patients stress levels, then we will expand production, create more levels for more parties interested in incorporating this game into their sessions. We may possibly expand to multiplayer or even a full release to the general public.
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