Game Design with Hijab - Talk at WIG SIG at IGDA Denmark

Game Design with Hijab Nevin Eronde and Linda Randazzo 13-01-2011

Intro
10 girls, 1 weekend, 5 organizers, 1 observer. What happened?
Did the girls succeed in making an awesome game?
Did they have fun during the process?

These and other questions will (maybe), be answered in the following slides!

What happened?
10 girls from the 8th grade at Den Islamisk Arabiske Private School participated in a game workshop
Brainstorming process on the theme of 'HOME' and build a story around the theme
4 different tools: Game Maker, Aviary, SFXR and Paint.net
Prototyping on pen and paper and then working in Game Maker

Why for girls only?
We had lots of questions regarding this specific target group:
The target group is:
Girls only
Middle Eastern culture
Not the typical 'gamer'
Can they tell new stories?
Do they play games at all?

What did we want to achieve with this?
To get more women interested in technology - technology can be fun!
Creating a game combines many skills such as mathematics, physics, design and creative thinking
Can girls tell different stories - if girls made a shooter game - would the game be different?
Could this kind of participatory game design be a way of exploring new game content for the Middle Eastern Market?

Considerations - Graphic artist
It was great to have a professional graphic artist in the team.
Use scanner and Paint. net for importing assets
Use right sizes (ex. 32x32 pixel graphics)
Asset work flow and time management
Communicate with software developers and prioritize tasks

Considerations - Sound Design
Music and copyright issues
Think about audio cues and user interaction in the game
Musical approach about how the sound environment was going to be in the game – they were thinking in moods

Considerations, programming and teens
It was sometimes hard to teach teens how to make a game, ex:
Coordinate system (local VS global coords)
Boolean expressions
Sprite VS Game Object
First things girls need to learn in programming are:
Trial and error (it is OK to make mistakes!)
Yes, it can be hard, but it is a lot of fun!
Make your story fit into a game genre (ex. Maze Game), if pressed in time

Play time
Games produced:
Darbie Går Amok

Movie Night

Darbie Går Amok
6 girls:
3-4 programmers
1-2 gfx artists
1 sound artist

The Story: A Darbie doll gets dumped into the trash, from a jealous friend who is sick of seing the Darbie owner always play with her doll. In the game you are Darbie, who has to try find the way home, going through dumps filled with danger, angry dogs, poison and other perils.

The Game: Maze game with funny characters such as "Leypres Wisel" (Elvis Presley), and "Steinein".

Movie Night
4 girls:
2 gfx artists
1 programmer
1 sound artist
The Story: Jasmine gets an appointment at the cinema with the "handsome boy" of the school, so she runs home all excited to ask her dad permission to go out. But her dad wants her to do her duties (i.e. wash dishes), before she is allowed to go out. Will she manage to finish her duties and get out on time?
The Game:
More an interactive story than a game (impossible to die)
Ambitious game, girls had to do compromises (game production is sometimes hard, e.g. "Kill your darlings")

Considerations About Participatory Game Design
The girls came up with good game design ideas... BUT:
Theme was interpreted in a gender stereotyped way
The need to set expectations before the event - i.e. our ground rules for participation and random visitors
The location has an influence on expectations, ownership, and content

Considerations About Brainstorming Process - 1

Considerations About Brainstorming Process - 2

Conclusion:
The groups succeeded in making 2 awesome games (considering age and time frame).
Inspired the girls into game development:
Some of them installed Game Maker at home
Parents said kids were enthusiastic
We did make a difference :)
Everyone - independently of nation/religion/gender - has the right of expressing their creativity, e.g. with games production.
Games for change!

Game Design with Hijab - Talk at WIG SIG at IGDA Denmark

by Nevin Eronde on Mar 06, 2011

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Game Design with Hijab - Talk at WIG SIG at IGDA Denmark — Presentation Transcript