20.11
The workshop took place on Wednesday. The first part of the workshop was a presentation on the use of smell linked to games. Unfortunately, all the examples that were discussed during this presentation could be found in the articles. And since I had read the articles yesterday, there was not too much new information.
The second half of the workshop was very interesting. We worked with smell material such as vortex cannons and scent eggs. It was quite valuable because you realised how easy it can be to come up with a game focused on smell. By adding a number of game mechanisms.
In the afternoon my team and I started thinking about what we can do for the project. The aim of this project is to convert an existing game into a game where smell is a central game mechanic. In this game it is intended that players come into contact with smell and learn from it.
During the first brainstorming session, a number of ideas quickly emerged. For example, we wanted to convert the game slander man into a game where you have to rely on scent instead of visual cues. The reason for this is because we had found research that showed that smell and danger are very closely intertwined. Smell is the first sense that can assess a dangerous situation. And since slender man is a fairly simple horror game where you have to rely on your visual senses, we thought we could use this easily. But when we started to think about a concrete prototype, we got stuck. For example, we should start programming an actual game fairly quickly. And we didn’t have enough time for this.
We focused on simpler games. And after some brainstorming, we eventually to go with quartet. This is a game that is mainly played in the Netherlands and Germany. It is a card game where the goal is to make as many quartets as possible. The game consists of 32 cards divided into 8 categories. Each category consists of four cards, which is a specification of the category. For example, the theme of the quartet game can be animals. A category can then be birds. This category of birds is then subdivided into specific birds, such as a parrot. If you have all four specific cards within a category you have a quartet.
This way of categorizing and specifying was also discussed a lot during the presentation. When identifying a smell, it is useful to first categorize it. For example, is it a plant? or a mineral. We therefore thought it would be a good choice to link this method of identifying a smell to quartet.
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