{"id":862,"date":"2023-01-13T01:58:59","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T01:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/?page_id=862"},"modified":"2025-04-08T12:08:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T12:08:05","slug":"project-alteroid","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mycours.es\/egd\/project-alteroid\/","title":{"rendered":"Project: Alteroid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Assignment: Make an experimental variant of the classic arcade game Asteroid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an exercise in incremental design innovation: don’t mod the provided code into a completely different game. Designing novel games is hard, almost all games are build on the top of proven genre, features, and gameplay concepts.<\/p>\n

Think of it as:
\nAsteroids except [one feature is different]
\nAsteroids plus [another game or genre]
\nAsteroid with [another feature found in another game]<\/p>\n

The space theme can change if the new gameplay doesn’t make sense for it. Don’t start from a new theme.<\/p>\n

Graphics should be done after the gameplay is established.
\nKeep it minimalistic and iconic like the original: us bright lines on dark background, or use flat colors and simple shapes unless you have specific reasons to *not* do so.
\nOn the visual side this is an exercise in making game art that conveys information and makes the game readable.<\/p>\n

Agency<\/b><\/h1>\n

Games are based on action so one way to talk and think about games is through verbs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are the verbs used in asteroids?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m talking about the actions. Basically: what does the player do? That is referred as Agency (the freedom of action within the world)<\/p>\n

What are the nouns, the things you see?<\/strong>
\nIf you were to break it into pieces, into assets.<\/p>\n

Agency:<\/strong> the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices.<\/p>\n

“Every expressive medium has its own unique patterns of desire; its own way of giving pleasure, of creating beauty, of capturing what we feel to be true about life; its own aesthetic.”
\nJanet Murray \u2013 Hamlet on the Holodeck 1997<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meaningful action means that your action affects the world.
\nOr at least does something aesthetically.<\/p>\n