More Research!

After the feedback i received on Friday i decided to change the layout of the "Squiggle Me" card templates and also changed the story sheets to be less chunky and more room to write down the stories. I have also managed to get hold of some of the drawings which the customers did for me in my local shop and it was great to see the different designs and different views through the squiggles. Finally I have changed to the rules around to make them even more simpler and now the use of the dice will be classed as an add depending on how people want to play the game.

new squiggle me templates ( fits more cards on now)

older customers drawings

new story sheet

Round up!

Currently at the moment I've been doing lots of different things first of all i have handed back the renders to the kids and these were made by Scott Taylor. Big Thanks the only problem was that the actual model was based on the old template so some of the designs are slightly out of line so when i need to i will ask Scott to help me with creating a new one or adjusting the previous one. Secondly I collected the "Squiggle Me" designs from the school and was great to see their enthusiasm for the project. So the next step is to go back to the school and get the class to play the "Squiggle Me" game and that is nearly on the way. It would also be great to get some feedback from a teachers perspective on "Squiggle Me" and to see what works well, what can be improved and can they see this as a learning technique in schools!

I have also been working on some story sheets and changing little bits of the "Squiggle Me" card layouts.

Here are some of the kids renders from the school for "Pixel Me" what Scott Taylor did.

This is one of the Designs that I collected from the School

Here is a printable story sheet that the users can use to write down their stories. 

Lots of playing!

After having a play around with the mechanics for the story based section for "Squiggle Me", it has turned out to have gone down really well for the first set of tests. About a week ago I used the first test with two other peers in  class and their responses were that they loved it. "Fun", "Funny" and "Creative". The only thing was to "Maybe not have a page layout to tell the story, just tell and discuss it amongst ourselves." These were a few student opinions. Overall they really enjoyed it and would defiantly play it again. However I decided to play the game on my own and see if there was anything that works better or worse. To be honest after doing this, I found that you can't really play it on your own because it can get quite boring and you don't have the same impact when your with another player or players. On the other hand you can start to design your "Squiggle Me" cards and get ready for future games.

So after lots of testing and research I believe the purpose for these games are to aspire to be creative, get better at drawing, improve literacy skills, confidence in speaking and writing and most important of all just have fun!!!

Aims:

The Rich: Always at work, never at home, so a good way of bonding with the kids in a good old traditional way. eg: being round the fire on a table with the family.

The Poor: For people who might not have as much money and need something free or very cheap and at the same time me fun and enjoyable for either the kids or the whole family.

Specific Learning Difficulties: I was diagnosed with dyslexia in the last year or so and using this could well improve again my literacy, presentation skills, grammer and punctuation and building confidence to speak out aloud.

Other Aspects:  There are other possible areas to explore such as "Squiggle Me" being used in schools to help kids benefit from a different way of learning.

. This could possibly used as team building exercises for companies and employers.

. Used as an activity for the likes of youth clubs and holiday resort activities

. This could also be used as a drinking game to get everybody involved, so overall lots of opportunity and potential.

Starting out with the genre of the story

Choosing the cards to use from the deck

coming to the final conclusions of the story

 

Story Squiggles!

After getting lots of various feedback for "Squiggle Me" and still more to come, I have decided to start creating the mechanics for the story based game around it.


Rules

Basic rules

1.      Download your “Squiggle Me” cards, design, colour and cut out

2.      Find a die (However many sides or numbers)

3.      Find a place to play – living room, in the car, train station, on the lawn

4.      Shuffle the cards

5.      Roll die to decide what genre of story you will be telling – 1: horror, 2: romance, 3: sci – fi, 4: western, 5: fantasy, 6: crime/detective

6.      First player roll die and take out the amount of cards shown on the dice – Once taken start the beginning of the story

7.      Keep adding parts of the story by rolling the die and collecting the amount of cards shown on the dice.

8.      The last player in the group will create the ending to the story.

Add as many cards as you want in the deck, decide what sided die you want – A six sided dice works well in our tests

Add more rules, Time and even teams, tell us your stories and show us your drawings and we will publish your stories and drawings for all to experience your “Squiggle Me” fun.

Currently at the moment I'm trying to get the older generation to have a go at the squiggles, so I've handed out   some templates to customers in my local shop and now just waiting on feedback and results.

Finally their are various other games that can be used with the "Squiggle Me" templates such as;

Snap

You design your own cards and just duplicate your pages and print.

Who's The?

The user will draw the scariest card for example, once you have drawn a scary character you will put them into a deck and play a sort of customized Top Trumps game.

Themes

Possible themes games such as; Batman, creating Batman characters and telling a story of the ones you have created  putting them into new scenarios.

Trading

Another possibility is to trade cards between different people to either create new stories or maybe just to collect different peoples art work

Overall i think lots of potential is here its just going about it in the right way.

Time for School!

On Tuesday i took my "Pixel Me" designs and game rules over to the school as well  as the  "Squiggle me" Templates First of all I did a small presentation of where i have been going with the "Pixel Me" franchise and how i have incorporated a game idea into it. I then started to talk about the basic website I have designed and how this is going to be the start and hopefully get the ideas out there once complete. Finally the most important thing for me was to test the squiggles on the kids and to see if they enjoy it.

After the presentation we split the kids in to two groups and got them to play "Get Steph" but this time outside in the yard and adding more rules as we went along, like we did in the classroom but this time on a slightly bigger scale, so this time instead of using fingers as measurement I got the kids to use their spare pumps, they loved and it was great to see them being really enthusiastic about it. After i decided to ask for feedback in what they would like to see and what could improve and to be honest i was really happy with the responses i got back. Every single one of them said they loved it and the only thing, was to possibly make templates for little objects and weapons to add into the games. So overall i great exercise and has gone down really well for testing and research.

Secondly i had a word with the kids about  the squiggle me this point just for drawing and the story idea set in place and again the response was positive. in fact some of the kids enjoyed the drawing of the "Squiggle Me" instead of "Pixel Me", so again it just proves i must be doing something right.

Currently at the moment Scott is doing the kids renders and i need to collect the squiggle me tests back. Back in doors I'm currently making the cardholder, Looking into a simple layout for "Squiggle Me", and working out the mechanics for the main story game.

Boys vs Girls

Using the shoe as units of measurement

What do you think and how should I improve

Workshop!

After completing the squiggle me template i have decided to go all out and get as many tests from different people as possible first of all i will be getting prints made for the 1st years and get them to have a play around with them, secondly I'm still currently waiting for confirmation for me to go over to the school but hopefully I will be going over there on Tuesday with the Renders ( Help from Scott) and another small presentation on "Squiggle Me" and the rules to "Pixel Me" so i can get the kids involved in lots of creativity for the afternoon and finally me and Scott will be taking my games to Fullwood College for a workshop day, again see what feedback I get. This will all be very helpful in getting my idea out there, So next week hopefully lots of playing and testing and the feedback will be the key to see if it works and is enjoyable.

I have spent all day re-visiting the notes on the lectures and starting to see what lectures are relevant to my techniques and methods.