Hey all!
Week 3 for the quarter, Robin and I set to work looking for materials to enact our in-class play prototypes. We tried to center around different ideas involving agency, alienation, and responsibility - specifically how we might be able to complement or amplify the experience of our end product. Our materials involve a DM with play ideas, paper poppers, hot glue guns, pipe cleaners, playdoh, battleships, and a ttrpg called emotional machine diagnostics.
The core questions behind our prototypes (without spoiling too much) are as follows: How will a player react if they are forced by the constraints of the game to inflict discomfort/pain on someone else indirectly? How does a player tend to deal with a system which demands a decisive decision, but without knowing the full implication of their action, or what the result will actually be? And lastly, what works when players try to indirectly affect something?
I think over the course of this week we were very interested in provocative concepts - whether our prototypes will live up to that momentum, we'll have to see. I believe a classroom environment and friendly atmosphere may lead some of our prototyping intentions askew - but also feel that adversity to the idea could make it more robust or evolve into something entirely new from what we were expecting. Overall, we're both excited and curious to see what happens and to try other prototypes as well!