Sploder Game Types

Our assignment tasked us to watch videos by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. We were then to play a variety of game types to determine what type of game we would create using Sploder. I explored Shooter, Retro Arcade, Platformer, Physics and 3D Mission Creator games to not only gain knowledge about the games but to build necessary schema to participate in the game spaces for the EdTtech 532 classroom.

I created the following table as I made notes on the various game types:

Game	What I liked	What I disliked	Would I like to design a game like this?
Shooter Game: Trutah Survival	Pace, pursuit, weapons choice	Lack of mission clarity for me	Yes, I find these intriguing and infectious to pursue success
Retro Arcade: Haskell’s Test Game	Pace, instructions, challenges, race for coins	Lack of instructions on diving down	Yes, I think it would be fun to design a retro game
Platformer: Game1	Weapons, climbing, different obstacles, and various enemies. Radar was a plus	Having just one life and starting over @ beginning each time I was mired in the sauce	I am not sure. I liked the challenges (loved Donkey Kong as a platform) Maybe.
Physics: ShockWave	Use of angles and concussion to move box to take coin	Took a time or seven to figure out the objective was to move the box into the coin	I think I would find this an intriguing challenge to create. Not sure I have the skill set, but may give it a try.
3D Mission Creator: Countown to Detontation	Levels, choices of weapons, ability to play with a partner, mission concept	When you lost first life, scoring was disabled. Movement was challenging when firing	As much as I liked the mission concept, I am not sure I want to create a game like this. Need to sleep on it.

After watching Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s podcasts, What Is A Game, What Is a Good Game,  and exploring more good game criteria here, I created my own list for what I hope to achieve designing my game. I found irony in the good game used by Dr. Puentedura – Pitfall. One of my friends owned a video game console and I remember playing this game years ago. I hope I live up to my own expectation of game design.

Puentedura’s Good Game Requirements

• Preparation before challenges
• A sense of a game space
• A range of challenges
• A range of required abilities
• Skill in using the required abilities

My Unique List

• I want to provide information to be successful
• I want players to feel a sense of the game space
• I want to provide information to operate the character or machine
• I want player scores to count each time
• I want the game to get progressively more challenging
• I want the game time or lives to equal bonus if my players finish in less time with more lives
• I want to provide an experience for all levels of gamers

For a more complete listing of Dr. Rueben Puentedura’s free podcasts, please check this link to iTunes.