Blog Navigation

Research
(info and precedents for our project)

Ideating
(brainstorming and such)

Game development
(behind the scenes stuff)

Prototyping
(testing set up and getting feedback)

Reports
(write ups of the markets)

Survey Responses

Abandon Materials ....

Decorations ....

Immaterial Labours (Our Market Reflection)

Immaterial labours is the concept of exchanging work or experience without exchanging physical goods. For the overall market, our class decided on having no currency exchanged, and emphasising experience over handing out products. For our stall specifically, we went with an "exchange of information and knowledges", as defined by Michael Hardt (1999). Our stall was an interactive story designed to give the player an assessment of their personality as well as entertaining them. The stall also included mini games to make the player physically interact for the ending they wanted. In return, we asked players to fill out a survey and tell us what they thought we were like based on how we presented ourselves at the stall.

The game ran rather smoothly, with one person behind the computer controlling the choices and one upfront narrating and running the games. We had buttons that let the controller quickly know the choices and click links accordingly. Lots of people were happy to get invested in the story and fill out the survey afterwards. Having two set ups allowed us to let more people play without having to wait around or us having to hurry them. It did mean that we needed all 4 of us at the stall at all times, so we didn’t get to experience the rest of the market.

We did have a few technical issues on the day; the monitors the organizational group gave to us were stuck in place on the table and did not come with the correct wires, and there were some missed typos in our script. However, we managed to get the monitors working for us and participants were understanding of our other small issues. 

If we did this again, it would be good to test the game more with people outside the group to get more feedback about the choices and story direction. Some of the mini games we had set aside never got used at all simply because no one made the choices that led to them. Our set up was solid, but it would have been helpful to know more about how people would interact with the story so we could make the experience more fitting.

We also could have made the games and story more interwoven than they were. Trying to split the work of writing one story between multiple people proved challenging in itself, especially when having to keep track of multiple pathways. Working relevant mini games into this process added another step of difficulty to the process.

Abandoned Materials - Participant Analysis

As participants of the Abandoned Materials Market, our understanding of this concept overall was us as consumers being educated about means of conservation and the alternative use of abandoned things such as general house waste.  

The initial atmosphere and pace of the market was very friendly and controlled with accompanied music playing at the markets entrance and each booth displaying great aesthetics. One aspect that really stood out was how tangible all of the market booths were; everything required us to engage.

Another theme that stood out throughout most of the stalls was the message of the market as a cohesive whole. Most of the markets were set up so that the market runners would give every participant a quick rundown of their booth and voice their awareness for waste and means to manage and utilize this daily as consumers.  

Regarding the system of exchange, every group executed a very physical approach to providing the participants with something to take away for their individual markets. Examples of this were, recycled seeds, wallets made of paper and fresh juices made from scraps.  

Overall the Market addressed the theme of abandoned materials to a very articulate degree by educating the participants as to how to deal with waste with conservation in mind.

Market Day

Our Final Story

Above is the structure of out story,  the structure involves some set up at the start, and as the choices flow downwards, we start introducing mini games.

There are multiple endings regarding fighting the giant creature at the end, which all link to the stat points section at the end which lets the player know their dominant traits.

The ending links to our market in a clever way in which when the player is handed a card in the story, we hand them are card during the market also.

Last prototyping and practice

We all got together again to get everything together and do some final texts before the market tomorrow. We didn't get to pre-set up our stall as the room was still quite busy even as we left, but our set up is fairly simple and we'll be arriving early to get it sorted.

I ran the cards and survey by everyone else, then printed and cut them.

We timed and tested some of the mini games.

• The memory cards need to be backed on card or similar to make them easier to flip and also ensure they don't get messed up from so many people using them.
• The exact number of points/time needed for the ball bounce.
• The method used for the final target game (we're going by ammo rather than time given.)
• Also timed out the story overall to make sure we didn't need to trim it down. (It should take roughly 5 minutes, which is a good length.)

We also did a quick run through of the story with Sam as the player to see if this was all fair. We'll probably do a couple more of these tomorrow morning with the full set up if there's time.

More decorations from Kajal:

Story Files

Story (Kezia side finished)

Story (Michael side finished)

I finished up my part, then Michael gave me his, which I spell checked, coded, and made other small changes to, then I sent it back to him so he can touch up his side some more.

Final story file

Mini Games

Here are the final mini games for our story:

Memory Game (Kezia):

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Maze (Kajal):

Ball Bounce (Sam):

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Target Shooting (Michael and Kezia):

[Illustration by Kezia; guns provided by Michael]

Test Set Up

We got together outside of class to do a better test set up of our stall.

Original set up plan: cellophane on table, buttons on either side. Laptop and display screen will go back to back. (Also a divider made by Michael so the two players won't get distracted by each other.)

Testing it again, we're now looking at having the cellophane draping down the front. This lets us have a smooth, solid surface for mini games, and also hides the table feet, making things look a bit more put together. Downside is that the buttons make a loud clack on the bare table, but the market will likely be loud anyway, or we could find something else to put under them. Also gets a bit in the way of the legs, but people shouldn't be sitting for long enough for this to be too much of a bother.

Half draped; looks nice, but ends up only covering the one part of the table we actually /need/ for mini games, so probably a no go.

Memory mini game (paper needs to be thicker/backed by something; cards are see through currently which breaks the game!)

We'll be meeting up again on Tuesday for our final prep and testing. Looking on track for now!