Comments on: Tune

By: kokeshi

kokeshi — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:22:52 +0000

“The point where I could alter gravity change the pogo stick into a rocket” – see, that right there is the best sales pitch evar.

Thanks for clarifying. I was really using your quote to highlight the difference between a game built for a classroom and a game built for the wider world of gamers: I hope I didn’t give the impression you disliked the game, and if I did then the fault is mine entirely.

By: Impossible

Impossible — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:52:08 +0000

The quote about the game being not that fun is mine. Just wanted to clear up that I actually do like the game, I’m just not a big fan of the pogo stick mechanic. I also wanted to see more tuning and better underlying gameplay (more interesting enemies, level designs, etc.), but I understand that the game is still pretty early in development.

Many of my other complaints about the game, like the unintuitive overly complex UI, have been fixed in the newest version. The point where I could alter gravity change the pogo stick into a rocket really convinced me of the potential of this game.

By: kokeshi

kokeshi — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 19:35:45 +0000

“What other domains are you intersted in teaching?” – anything outside game design, in short =]. Games are very good at teaching players about games: what we’re trying to work out is whether there’s any way to learn about worlds outside a game through the same mechanisms.

I’m not sure I’d have anything useful to say about any changes, but I’d love to hear about them anyway. Thank you! And thank you for the comment (will be bendng your ear more about Tune via email).

By: Steve Swink

Steve Swink — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:21:12 +0000

I’m so pleased you had this experience playing the game, definitely in the sweet spot.

“I got really lost in the pacing of the game, working out the best numbers to make it so that my pogo-stick thing fell over slowly enough for me to time my jump movements, the best way to make it possible to chain actions together, not controlling my character’s movement around the screen but nudging it now and again to direct it where I wanted”

This is basically the outline I created of ideal player experience: the enjoyable, meditative experience of tuning a game mechanic. And, of course, you clearly sponged the underlying lesson and understanding about why tuning game mechanics is difficult, what it’s like to do so, and how mechanic tunings relate to the spacing of ojbects in a game world (level design.)

I’m interested in your final comment, about how games might be good for learning about other domains. What other domains are you intersted in teaching? I’m currently wrapping up a project for Cisco systems, a game, which is intended to equip their sales staff with some very specific (and very dry) information about dealing with customers. It seems like there’s some parity there with what you’re talking about. I feel like if we can teach this dry, statistical info to a bunch of salespeople (which remains to be seen – I’ll let you know how it goes ) we can teach just about anything through a game. Drop me an email if you’d be interested in chatting about such things.

Also, I have some changes planned for Tune that I’d be interested to bounce off you, as someone who ‘got it.’

For instance, working with some different mechanics:

http://www.steveswink.com/Tune/Tune_D_01.htm

(pardon the outdated, less than stellar UI implmentation there)

Thanks for playing!

– Steve