Greenwich game design Unit 2

In the middle of October our group decided to take ‘Greenwich’ as our group project. After our meeting group decided to assign each member with one type of resource for each person for better research. This was a very good idea because we didn`t have to find a time and space to meet with all nine members, which could been really difficult. Also by researching individually each member could concentrate on their resource and collect better information. However, before making the game we had to get together with the information we had gathered. After finishing our ‘Scavenger hurt’ game, a few things were regrettable. Including planning and developing the game, I had chance to talk with the group who played our game and I got feedback from the other group and it was very helpful for me to think about the project. First, cultural things were missing. We covered only the displaying of objects, like the Gallery, Museum space, Library, Green space and others. We didn’t give any chance for the other group to learn about the history and the people in this area, or how the city developed. Plus our group gave too much of the tasks aimed at fun, with the result that players didn’t get much of the meaning in this game, because the meaning of this game was to gain knowledge of “Greenwich”. The faulty task was one with the “photo booth”. We asked other members of the group to cramp inside a Photo Booth next to the entrance of the Post Office and that gave them only fun. Also there were some tasks that were impossible to solve for the other groups. One of the biggest mistakes was Museum, because of insufficiency in our thinking we didn`t think about the Museum’s closing time. The game started at 2 but the Museum was closed when they arrived there. It was a huge mistake that resulted in 3 tasks being impossible to solve. Our next mistake was in the park. We asked other members to make a human pyramid and get a stranger to take their picture. This was a similar mistake to the one made at the Museum, because it was too dark and there were no people walking around. But there were a few good things, like taking a picture on a hill, which resulted in good feedback. Also by giving players a map the other group found the next place very easily and it gave them a good image of the city.
If we have a chance to re-develop a game like this I would like to concentrate on the character of the area. Also I would think about weather, closing time, people in the area, and starting and finishing time of the game.

Bibliography :

Corporate Webteam. (2007) Libraries . Available: http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwich/Learning/Libraries/. Last accessed Oct 15 2007

Multi Map. (2007). Map of Greenwich. Available: http://www.multimap.com/maps/?title=Greenwich&hloc=GBSE10%208UP#t=l&map=51.47797,0.00801164&loc=GB:51.47464:-0.01267:16SE10%208UPSE10%208UP. Last accessed Oct 15 2007.

Mayor of London. (2007). Travelracd-Zon-Map.pdf. Available: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/Travelcard-Zones-Map.pdf. Last accessed Nov 09 2007.