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Shepherding
Game Designer & Programmer
Sheridan College
Team of 4
Unity, ScreenPlay
The goal of this project was to produce a children's idle game for use in Holland Bloorview' Hospital's waiting room, all in 1 week. For us, that meant having an enjoyable state of low-engagement, no win or loss conditions, and a visually appealing attract mode.
Designing for Presence-As-Input
The jam's goal was to use ScreenPlay, a controller technology provided by Holland Bloorview Children's Hospital. ScreenPlay uses a grid of pressure sensitive plates (or a Kinect) as input, allowing children of all ability to play using only 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.
Nice to Watch
In order to attract waiting room patients, an attract mode is launched when no players are detected on the grid for some time.
The attract mode serves to stir up sheep herds for an audience to watch as well as learn how to play.

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