Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 4.7
Screenshot of the TermBlaster game interface. The player is asked to “blast” (
click
)up
to three words floating in the large area (
D
) which are related most to the task term (
B
). After the
player blasts a term, an information about the score for this term is displayed shortly (
E
) and score
counted gets updated (
C
)
The game is played in short rounds. When the player pulls a new game, he is
presented with the task term ((B), see Fig.
4.7
) and up to 20 candidate negative
search terms, represented as bubbles (D). The time counter starts and displays the
number of seconds till the game ends (A). One game round takes 30 s during which
the player has to select three of the bubbles (terms). The time stress was introduced
to increase game's dynamics [
1
,
2
]. After each selection, the player receives point
count feedback (E).
After each round, the collected points are stored and used in the ladder system.
The player can play as many rounds as he wants, with the same or with different task
terms. However, the negative search terms are always somehow different (although
they repeat after some time).
Despite the fact the interaction with the game is much more easier and the game is
more dynamic (clicking instead of typing), the finite set of choices limits the player in
comparison to the LSG (he might think about other terms but still can't select them).
It is also apparent that the purpose of the game heavily depends on the contents of
the candidate term set.
If we let the game to compose the term set randomly from the domain dictionary,
we would probably end up with terms mostly not related to the task term. This
way, there is a chance that the player would identify especially valuable “hidden”
relationships, on the other hand, he might get frustrated from low point gains.
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