Brainstorming

I spent some time over the weekend diving into the list of games and picking out which ones I wanted to look at for a potential mash-up. I ended up with a smaller list of games which interested me and I thought would provide a lot of different mash up options.

The games I looked at were:

• Battleships
• Operation
• Hungry Hungry Hippos
• Tetris
• Space Invaders 
• Street Fighter

I chose to look at three games from arcade systems and three board games to break down into their core components and game play aspects. I choose not to look extensively at the pencil and paper games as I was not familiar with most of them and the ones that I knew (Naughts & Crosses, Hangman, Capture) did not feel particularly inspiring.

Presented below are my mind maps which came out of the brainstorming sessions around each game.

Battleships Brainstorm Results

Battleships is a game that I used to play a lot as a child so I had a good understanding of how the game played out. I feel like for this project choosing a game which you understand all the aspects of will be more important than just looking at every single game. While I have highlighted some of the key aspects I feel that the unique point about battleships is the grid system and co-ordinates that players use to call out their attacks. The turn-based style and navy themes and aesthetics (I remember playing on a board where the map was represented with a radar / sonar type look) could also be a great context to place a game into.

Operation Brainstorm Results

Operation is another game that I played as a child. However, probably not as much as Battleships, maybe because it did not have that same social or competitive aspect. Despite this it was still a fun and challenging game. I feel like the key elements to it are the ever looming Buzzer which lets you know you have injured (killed?) the patient. Additionally the way you interact with the game using tweezers to delicately pick up plastic bones and hearts to complete the operation.

Hungry Hungry Hippos Brainstorm Results

Another classic fun and silly game. Personally I feel like the whole experience of this game was far more important than if you won or lost. The mad button mashing, combined with the noise of hippo mouths snapping closed and the desperate struggle for those last few balls that got stuck in the middle at the end. Breaking it down though I think that the feeding / eating mechanism could make for an interesting game mash up and of course hippos. 

I will put my other mind maps into another blog post with more detail in another blog post as this one is already way to long.