Leah's Game Design

 I've been thinking a lot about the game world of Garden Mania  lately and have some ideas for providing players with an opportunity to create the perfect front yard and backyard landscapes while learning practical guidelines for starting their own garden. The game will be set in the United States and will begin with a map and a back-story: You have started a new job as a landscaper and it's your first day on the job. You have been hired to make over your client's yard using information you've learned about hardiness zones, pests, climate, and more. Choose an available jobsite and begin your garden makeover! Once the player chooses their jobsite from the map, the screen will zoom into a garden that will look similar to the game The Sims . However, the player will interact directly with the game world instead of controlling an avatar. Also, instead of seeing inside the home, the game world will consist of an illustrated front or backyard with realistic features such as f...

Generally, learning scaffolds are support given to students according to their needs to help them meet and achieve learning goals. Just like in education, my video game, Garden Mania , will attempt to tailor the experience to the needs or ability level of the player. After the tutorial, the player will have the option to choose their difficulty level. The easy level will have fewer objectives and complications for gardening. The easy level will also provide prompts when faced with a new challenge, a hint if the player fails to complete an objective, or give the player some sort of agency with regards to the level of difficulty. These prompts will not repeat themselves or show up after the first time they are presented to the player. It will be assumed that the player has learned whatever the game was teaching them. In case the player did not quite learn or get it well enough the first time, this information will be stored in the pause menu and can be accessed at any time. The moderate ...

Below are some sketches I created of what the play actions for my game, Garden Mania , might look like. My plan is to show players a map of the US with the color coded hardiness zones and allow them to pick which state they want to work in. (The outline of the states will be there, I just couldn't draw them all.) They will then be brought to a screen where they can pick a gardening job they would like to be hired for. It'll show the location and type of job.    Once they are in their garden, they will be able to access the menu, inventory, and facts about the hardiness zone using the bar at the bottom of the screen. They will be able to navigate and rotate the garden view by moving their mouse to the edge of the screen, using the arrows on their keyboard, and clicking and dragging. Once they find a spot they would like to plant a tree or some other plant, they can click on the spot on the ground, choose the "plant" icon, and the inventory will pop up. I'm imaginin...

"Players naturally need to know what's happening in the game world, but they also need to know what they should do next, and most critically, they need information about whether their efforts are succeeding or failing, taking them closer to victory, or closer to defeat" (Adams, 2014) There are many questions I must address as the game designer of Garden Mania: Where am I?   I plan to provide the player with an aerial view of the game world. There will be a map of the United States where the player is then able to click on a specific area they would like to build a garden in. Once they pick their location, they will get a close up view of their garden. I also plan to provide ambient sounds that tell the player about their environment. What am I actually doing right now?  To tell the player what they are doing, I will show them their garden and plants so they can see them. The game will use first-person perspective, so there won't be an avatar. Instead, there will be so...