• Think of the computer not as a tool, but as a medium.

Computer is a medium in a way that it is used to represent tools. For example, in our group project which is a desktop game,  it is a medium for us designers to visualize our idea,  a medium for players to interact with. If something is used as a tool in designing the game, it would be Unity, because Unity is the tool for carry out constructing the game that is invisible to players as players don’t need to know how the inner mechanism works to get through the game. Medium is representational, a “representer of a virtual world or system” as Laurel puts, and when players is trying not to get lost in the virtual maze we designed, they are seeing and interacting with the representation of our game, the visualized final outcome. Computer as a new medium is different from conventional medium due to its level of interactivity, which enables interactors to consume the content in a more autonomous way. The content here is our game, and the action of game playing is the outcome of interacting with the computer. Newspaper as a conventional medium does not encompass the interactivity required by using computer because to consume certain content, computer required input. To consume our game,  key press, mouse press, and mouse movement are the input, which results in images, videos, sounds, and text as output. The input and output altogether complete the interaction.

• Focus on designing the action. The design of objects, environments, and characters must all serve this grand strategic goal.

The dramatic shape can also be applied to game design in which the design of objects, environments, and characters all contribute to the larger map of the game. In our game OVERLOAD: The Maze, all the objects inside the game scene is the representational and mimetic form of physical objects.However, they do not serve the function as the object itself is supposed to function without context. For example, there are many 3d models like TVs, arcades, laptops, cellphones, but players can easily tell that they are they don’t function as they should, that they are there as barrier and distraction, by the disproportion and displacement of the virtual objects in the 3D environment, which is our intent to set a series of intervention. Upon entering the game, players will realize that it is a first person game, which triggers willing suspension of disbelief in the player to create a level of engagement, because we want player to have the feeling or sensory overload, which can only be achieved by first person view, so that they know they are in control of the virtual journey. The ringing sound and instruction text in the first scene, the bedroom, informs players that they are in a “real” world because the representation of the environment all suggest a level of realness that connects them to the a real world space. Action in the first scene serves as introduction and inciting incident, giving the player a context and the goal the game to collect 5 pages. However, after they follow the instruction to go the second scene, the maze, a new world opens to them. All the turns and twist, seemingly randomly arrangement of objects, lighting of the environment, triggering of video and sounds, countdown timer and other elements in user interface all serve as intervention that prompts players to explore, discover, and be surprised. Depending on how the player navigate the maze, there will be rising action which may be collecting one or two pages. Crisis could be getting lost. The climax may be the moment when time is almost up or when 5 pages have been collected in time.

• Learn about your audience to gain insights that will help guide you in design.
• Examine your assumptions and biases. Everybody has some.

Understanding audiences is one of the most important thing for designers and it also serves as a creative constraints because when designers design with audiences or users in mind, the compulsion of designing for themselves would be alleviate. Throughout my study at Design and Technology we are constantly asked “who is your audience”. In the case of game design, just like what is mentioned in this chapter, a game without player is not a game. Therefore, when we are designing OVERLOAD, we make assumptions of what players would do in the environment. It is important to introduce the probability of what could happen but we don’t know what could go off until we examine our assumptions. When I designed the interaction, I assumed that everyone who plays computer game before who not need extra explanation. And we also thought that people know what “collect pages” means. We did not get the chance to do play testing before the final showcase. It turned out that we need to explain what it means to collect pages. I put instruction of how to control the game in the menu screen, which is not obvious and most people don’t read instruction at all. Some of my friends got confused because they are not used to the way the player control. The maze is complicated for many players and people hardly finish the game.