Reflections on The Gaming Presentation

I think that our gaming presentation was good but there were definitely some points that did not “come across” to our audience. Our game is called “OU, Oh No!” and it is a take on a typical Saturday night in an OU’s student’s life. The final goal is to make it home safely at the end of the night.

The first point that did not completely come across to our audience was the map of our game. We only showed what the main part of the game would like which was Court Street but we didn’t show how specific levels would work. The specific levels would be the different tests that the player would encounter such as, dodging police, getting into a fight, trying to find your out-of-town friend, and making it down Jeff Hill. We didn’t display the specific levels, which made it confusing for our audience, and they didn’t completely understand how the game would work.

Another point that did not come across clearly to our audience was our in-game sounds. We wanted the sounds to be constant throughout the game, such as a noisy street with different distractions coming in and out. Instead, our sounds were just distractions coming in and out. This also made it confusing for our audience and they did not completely understand what was going on.

My group could have made our presentation stronger by being clearer with our ideas and maybe changing the way we explained ideas so that it could be more understandable to our audience. We also could have reviewed our ideas and attempted to fix them and make them better before even presenting our game design to our audience.

I do think that our presentation had its strong points. We made a few jokes during our presentation that the audience really enjoyed and it kept them engaged. In addition, the designs that we made for our two players were very creative and the audience seemed to want to play the game because they could be one of the players we had created.

I think that the most difficult concept to discuss with others is the objectives of the game. I think that objectives, elements that the designer has put into the game that funnel the player through different tasks, is difficult to discuss with others because you see this image in your head but then it is difficult to actually put on the table. It is hard to put your creation into someone else’s head. The objectives of the game are one of the more creative items. As you are explaining your creative ideas, you are also asking the other people to conform, agree, and understand, what you are trying to explain. It is very difficult to get someone else to understand what is going on in your head. Once everyone understands your ideas, the process becomes simple.

I think the easiest concept to discuss with others is the mechanics of the game. I think that mechanics, way the game works, is easy to discuss because on a console there are only so many options for controls. It could also be said that in many game designs, a lot of the mechanics are similar to ones we have seen in many other common games. Mechanics is a good common ground to discuss because choosing what controls will do what and what actions will do what is simple and usually easy to agree on. Normally, there isn’t a lot of creativity that goes into the mechanics, which means there will be less for a group to disagree on.

All in all, I think our gaming presentation had its flaws but it came together in the end and our audience understood what we were talking about. It may have taken them a few minutes to absorb all the unclear information, but eventually they got the idea and enjoyed it!