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Technical Game Designer
Shepherding
Game Designer & Programmer
Sheridan College Sprint Week 2018
Team of 4
Unity, Visual Studio, ScreenPlay
The goal of this project as to produce a children's idle game for use in Holland Bloorview' Hospital's waiting room. For us, that meant having an enjoyable state of low-engagement, no win or loss conditions, and a visually appealing attract mode.
Screenplay Technology
The jam's goal was to use ScreenPlay, a technology provided by Holland Bloorview Children's Hospital. ScreenPlay is an alt controller using a grid of pressure sensitive plates or a Kinect as input, allowing children of all ability to play only using their presence.
To help players make the connection between the pressure plates and the game, a grid is featured, corresponding to each plate in Screenplay.
While You Wait
Another design challenge we faced was to produce something that could be played without causing too strong an urge to engage, so kids would be fine with leaving the game to go to their appointment.
No win or lose states are in the game in order to achieve this. The gameplay loop of herding sheep runs endlessly, and without score, so players don't feel too attached.
All or None
In order to attract waiting room patients, an attract mode is launched when no players are detected on the grid for some time.
When the attract mode begins, the game will spawn sheepdogs that are guided by AI rather than player presence, moving mostly to stir sheep herds for an audience to watch.
The attract mode also serves as a quick primer on how dogs interact with sheep.
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