WRITING to INFORM
Game Design Writing
On this page you will discover my concept design work on the educational game PowerJuggle. This work was done for a 400 level Communications course that delved into the ideas of play and technology. Throughout the course of the class two design projects were assigned: our first project was to create this educational game concept (or treatment) in order to pitch it to our clients, the Florida Institute of Sustainable Energy. The assignment and design brief from the clients can be found here.
The final project for the class was an in-depth game concept design - after hearing feedback from FISE, I decided to continue my work on PowerJuggle in the hopes that I could be listed as a consultant if my design were to be used. Below you can click through the various stages that the concept went through, from the original treatment to the proof of concept to the finished final project.
Treatment and Proof of Concept
Proof of Concept Presentation and Notes
The purpose of PowerJuggle is to simulate the current power market in a way that provides college students with a working understanding of the potential failures of the power grid. The players play from the perspective of the CEO of an energy distributor, and their main goal is to spread their influence to as many cities and towns across the game board as is possible. The game is focused on teaching students the dangers of profiteering and blackouts caused by greedy energy companies.
This is an example game screen for PowerJuggle, courtesy of my fantastic MSPaint skills. As you can see, the interface is very clean, featuring different menus with different statistics relating to energy production, sources, and citizen satisfaction. The stars represent cities and towns, and whenever a plant is developed, it will pop up in an animation onto the map. Players will be challenged to finish the game in 50 turns.
