Gaming News & Reviews
Holy Bats & Special Thanks
Mr. FixitRick has sent in two games created with the Junior Jiffy World Maker Game Kit #1 that are truly amazing. You can find these games at GODD Gamettes
What makes these games so special is how well he managed to get totally outside the box while coloring inside the lines. Meaning he worked to the guidelines and limitations of the JJWM Game Kit #1, and yet managed to create games that were totally unexpected.
Here's a snippet from our email conversation on the games:
Rick:
And now for something REALLY different.
With thanks to EJ and Claude, this short "Gratitude Game" is for you, and all World Makers everywhere!
These 10 levels can take as little as 10 seconds to play. (One second for each level, simply by holding down the "up" arrow key ;) ...But don't miss the "fireworks" at the end!
Claude:
Very (scratch that).... extremely (yeah, that's better) creative use of the limited tools at hand. Part of me wants to give you the full engine right now. But, then if you have the full engine you might not be forced to create such amazing levels. So, we'll just go step by step and see what you have in store for us next.
Rick:
Thanks, for posting the games, and for your comments Claude.
Yeah, I don't want or need the full engine yet! Was even thinking of going backwards to less items! (i.e. What are all the ways two single points can interact??)
I enjoy the challenge of creating something from nothing. The reductionist creed seems against adding "more", until "less" has been fully explored! hehe
From The Horse's Mouth
The Making of Holy Bats!
The idea for my game "Holy Bats!"
It's a rough beginning, but I hope it will develop into a full-blown app one day!
The introduction of bats into the game was challenging and fun for myself, as both game creator and game player. The trick for the game creator is to make the confrontation of bats difficult enough to challenge the player, without them being overwhelmed. One wants to create trouble for oneself.but not too much of it!
After all, it must stay fun.
When playing Holy Bats over and over to determine the play-ability of the levels, I learned it was important that the game be enjoyable each and every time I went through. If it wasn't always fun to me, then how can I expect someone else to play it?
During this trial and error process, I found fun with the bats, but I didn't really enjoy killing them. The excessive button clicking hurts my arm, and more importantly, reinforcing the habit to kill hurts my heart.
It became more enjoyable for me, to learn how to get around the bats or push them out of the way. Sure, it means losing a life point if the bat bites, but one can survive the game ok by taking a few hits.
Then I thought, "What if it was not only possible, but desirable, to get through the whole game without killing any bats?" So, armed with that idea, I proceeded with developing levels where non-violation was not only possible, but hopefully even encouraged.
For scoring, one can get 100 points by moving through the game successfully without violating others. Kill a bat, or die, and you lose a point.
I found that by designing and playing the game in this manner, changed my behaviour.both in the game, and in the "real" world, too. It's a gentler Tai Chi or Aikido approach, where the right moves and a push, or just getting out of the way, is all that is required to disarm a "batty" situation. In the real world this behaviour change might transfer, for example, as allowing someone their opinion without having to immediately shoot them down.
So now the game becomes about alacrity, verve, clarity and deftness, rather than, "find target, aim and fire."
The world would be much nicer if humans could bump into each other and not have to shoot.
Perhaps we can learn to do so through games like this!
Rick
