The YUNG's Blog

Objective: Conceptualize a new social community platform online.

ViewTalent is a social community platform that connects people around the world through different skills, entertainment and competition. It aims to provide people the opportunity to show off their capability of doing and making things using their amazing skills. Sharing their thought on how some skills are done and challenging others to see the best of the best.

The idea came from different shows released in Hong Kong recently that focus on challenging people’s skill on something.

One of the shows is “Minute to Win It” which is released in America in 2010. The contestants participating will have a countdown of 60 seconds where they perform challenges that use objects commonly found around the house. It is like other money game shows where the participants bring prizes and money home. The show gained popularity and now it is played internationally.

Another show “The Showoff Show” premiered in Hong Kong this year. The contestant challenges on other contestant something they are talented upon and show off who has the best trick. Interesting enough, it gives audience the chance to understand the world of challenging skills these contestants provides.

Skills

Are you good at something? Show and tell! Everyone have their own skillset on making and doing things. Some people are really good at something, some people are really bad. This platform let people share their skillsets with their friends, family and the world. The world has a lot of crazy people that can do crazy stuff but they really need to show it to the world and see if anyone can beat their record. Some people don’t even know they had such skill and the platform provides ways of discover their own skills. Let people show off what they are best at doing.

Competition

People can challenge their limits of impossibility. It will become the main feature where users can challenge different people to do a particular skill. For example, stacking five eggs on top of each other in one minute will be the challenge. The user will be able to gain rewards and rankings in their profile.

How it works?

The platform will be based on a social network website featuring profiles to form different connections in the world. A list of categories of different skills will be set and organized so users can navigate easily. Users can request new categories if they find something that are particular different in a way. Under each category, there are postings of the different skills by all users. There is some options they can do like giving a comment, like it, share it or challenge the individual. The website will automatically sort which categories you like the best and updates the newest posts from friends. To post, the user can select photos or videos and organize it into different steps. This is useful if they want to teach other users something. Under the challenge category, in order for the skill to be true meaning no editing allowed, a feature on the website will record the challenge instantly and upload it to the web.

This platform will be particularly attracting to teenagers who is still finding their way in life and likes to accept challenges so they can show off to their friends.

Game Developer’s Name: Christie Yung
Date: April 15, 2013
Game Title: Act Now!
Vision: The first game to make use of a microphone as of the gameplay on the computer

Summary
 Genre: Word game
 Differentiating selling points:
o You can play a game by speaking on the microphone
o Determines who can be the master of expression
o The amount of expression and emphasis determines the word

 Concept
o Send a phrase to a friend and let them express the words with meanings

 Target audience
o Targeted to teenager between ages 14-20 of women. Women tends to be more
emotional attached to expression.

 Release date
o The game is released on June 2014 because it is summer time and kids will be
out of school at that time.

 Players
o Multiplayer, depending on the number of friends each player have

 Key innovations
o Microphone that blocks almost all environmental sounds but the quality lowers

 Game structure
o Rules:
 Create a message determined by the amount of words and emotion
 Opens a message and look at the word
 Press the microphone button once to record
 Say the word within a time frame
 Express the word in different loudness to create the meaning
 Make sure the environment is silent enough for the words to be heard
clearly
 Press the microphone again to end record
 Click on the send button
 Opens a recorded file
 Listen and rate the recorded file
 Receive total points

Game situations
Situation 1 – Messages Send and Received
 Degree of difficulty: 1 of 5
 Ranking 1 Beginner: Maximum amount of 3 words, 0 emotion
 Create 1 message and write “You are screwed” (3 words) and send
 A list of 8 messages are shown, scroll down to see more
 A message say “I hate you”
 Says the “I hate you” to the microphone
 Send the file back
o 1 star receive for saying the word correctly
o 1 star receive for using the loudness of the voice correctly

Situation 2 – Recorded Voice Received
 Degree of difficulty: 3 of 5
 Ranking 10 Super Star: Maximum amount of 20 words, 10 emotion
 Unlock character voices: 5
 A voice speaks “You are the apple of my eye”
 Rank the voice
o 1-3 points for the amount of like for the expression
o 1-3 points for expressing the emotion

Existing games based on using microphone:
 Hey You, Pikachu! From GameCube
 Mario Party 6 (mini-games) from GabeCube
 Nintendogs from NDS
 Talking Tom Cat from Iphone

Social Media Campaign:
Network Proliferation: It needs a lot of players to play in order to gain the most amounts of points. In order to gain points, you have to send a message to them and them sending back a message to you in order to play the game.
Time-based re-engagement: awaits for the player to send you a message so you can play and gain points
Accessibility + availability: The product is played on the computer through a connected microphone. Build in microphones are common on the laptop but it is easily bought in computer stores. The game is built on a website and it has connections to social networks like facebook and twitter which is easily accessible on the web. The game is not based on flash so it can also be played on Apple devices.
Shallow Escapism: It engages the players for a short amount of time because they can complete the game and gain points really fast.
Element anxiety: it increases anxiety when they are awaiting for their friends to send them a message.
Attachment to property: when they gain different amount of rankings, you get to unlock other voices that echo their voice, which makes it fun to listen and collect.
Visibility of achievement: Able to see the rankings of friends are pushes other players to get the same rankings
Law of economy: The gameplay is simple starting with very limited amount of words. It gets more interesting when more words are implemented where more emphasis and expression can be utilize in each word.
Ludology: no story and character are told through the game.

Reflective Statement
Conceptualizing such a game was pretty interesting. I explored a lot of unconventional input methods such as keyboards, voice recognition, and haptic that I found it be somewhat old. However, I am looking at its potential of being a disruptive technology. I think the microphone will be a good example of a disruptive technology because the quality of sound keeps on getting better. What if the quality becomes worst but the function is new, like it can block all the outside sounds from the surrounding environment of that person. The quality of the voice will be lowered and more robotic, more expensive and the loudness cannot be raised as loud. The sense of sound is not as well-known as the sense of sight and touch which we use almost every moment in our live. I think exploring microphone as game elements are very experimental.
I followed the concept of being a follower. Researching other microphone based games that are used through different platforms such as consoles and phones. I think using a microphone is cool for a game and communication is one of the key skills in our society. I defined a value that is similar to Draw Something but instead of drawing, the person has to speak the words the other person sends to them. I think the game will be very interactive with our voice so it is defined to be fun!

Game Developer’s Name: Christie Yung

Date: April 1, 2013

Game Title: The Washroom Revenge

Vision: A game to share with friends by being kind or taking revenge over the toilet world

Summary

• Genre: Interactive story-telling
• Differentiating selling points:
  • An interactive story-telling game that emphasis on choices
• Concept
  • Try to finish the story as much as possible by taking the correct path and obtaining three objects to understand the story behind the character
• Target audience
  • Targeted to women of ages 20-30, players can interactively play with their friends and argue to choose the correct path for the game.

• 60% of the majority of casual gamers are women
• Why? Feel satisfied by short bursts of gameplay

• Release date
  • The game is released on December 2013 because it is Christmas and women in the working class will tend to have more free time to start a new game to play.
• Players
  • Up to many players at a time
• Game structure
  • Rules:
    • The person controlling the story have two choices to interact
    • They have to read the story so they know what choices to make
    • When roll over an icon or word, a clickable pointer appears
    • Click on the icon or word to proceed
• Content
  • Simple gameplay mechanics, point and click
• Game Situations
  • To obtain the gum: You need to get a gum and stuck it on the sink
    • You went to the playground and meet a child
    • Ask if there is gum?
    • Ask: The child didn’t want to give you any gum
    • Don’t ask: The child asks you if you want any gum
    • Accept: you obtained the gum

Reflective Statement

I think this assignment is fun because it lets me think about the interaction between the user and the website. I try not to make a game as supposed to making a interesting storyline so I could focus on the storyline and how people are pressing the buttons interactively. What choices will they make and will they come to a dead end instead?

I used Dreamweaver to make the interactive storytelling. The hotspot, which is the highlighted green square, acts like a button. So when people click on it, it will go to other pages on the web.

In order to promote the storytelling, I think Facebook will be a very good platform to advertise because people like to look at stories like updating in newsfeed. The storytelling is also very accessible because it is a website. Another way to promote is by word of mouth and e-mail.

1. Network Proliferation (Invite other players to game, improving likelihood of success)
2. Competitive Gameplay
3. Time-based re-engagement (repetitive visiting multiple times a day)
4. Minimal Viable Product (MVP)
5. Accessibility + availability
6. Target: 40-50 women
7. Positioning simplified (players = marketing)
8. Shallow escapism (A short-form indulgence of distraction, often as a punctuated instance of more long-term form of escapism)
9. Element anxiety (waiting… is it ready yet?)
10. Attachment to property (Avatars, inventory…sense of ownership)
11. Longer play session
12. Visibility of achievement amongst social network
13. Cooperative (gifting)
14. Law of economy (simplicity)
15. Ludology (no story, character)

Popular Installation

1. Shark in a tank
2. Sony AR headphone
3. Banksy (anything by him)

Popular games

1. Candy Crush – 45.5 MAU (King.com 108 million MAU)
2. Farmville 1 + 2 -
3. League of Legend – 32 million MAU (1.3 billion hours of gp in 1 yr)
4. Texas Hold’em – 34.3 million MAU
5. Mario Series 227 millions
6. Monopoly (Hasbro) 250 millions sold
7. Minesweeper – 2 billion
8. Wii Sports – 81 millions
9. Chess – 285 million
10. Solitare – 2 billion
11. Insane Orb – 44 million
12. Madness Interactive – 65 million
13. Tyrant – 45 million
14. Tetris -186 millions

Popular Animation

1. Naruto – 100 million
2. Gummi Bear Song- 600 million
3. Nyan Cat – 116 million