Touching on touch screen gaming

When I was growing up, the idea of directly interacting with what was on the screen was amazing.  I'm not talking about using a controller like a remote control for my virtual avatar, but the idea of pointing with something to the screen (a pen, a gun, etc) and seeing that the TV knew where you were pointing and responded.  For whatever reason, that was the thing that made gaming real to me.

The "game" I remember the most was one where a maroon light pen was used to draw.  I remember my dad and brother working on other things with it (I can't quite remember exactly what, I think my dad was programming some game that tracked the pen but I'm not sure), but really the ability to paint on the black canvas of the TV was amazing to me.  Sure it had the same result as using crayons, in fact it was less effective than crayons because back in that day you couldn't even save the drawing (or if you could, the cost would be huge) but it was just fun.  I fumbled, I scribbled, I tapped on the TV too hard so my dad thought I would break the screen.  Reaching up to the screen so high above was hard for my little arms, but I loved every second of it.  I loved it so much, that even when the system was off, I loved that light pen with the curled cord and played with it.  I now know that it was little more than a photo resistor and a good timing connection, but back then it was magic.

I now look at my children and wonder what they think when they use a tablet.  I had a slight glimpse into this when, back before A was born, I was reading G one of those Little Mr books.  On the back, there are pictures of all the other Mr and Mrs characters to advertise the other books for sale.  In my youth I would look at them and imagine what their stories would be, but my daughter did something different.  She tapped a Mr and then opened the book again.  Looking confused she closed the book, looked at the back, tapped a Mr, and opened it again.  It dawned on me that she was trying to press the icon for a different story and load up new pages.  Maybe that will happen one day, but not yet, so I had to explain to my disappointed 2 year old that this was the only story and she would have to pick up another book from the shelf.

Now my 3 year old son remembers our 4 digit unlock password for our tablet after having been told it once on a car trip.  Both A and G flick and swipe Sonic through randomly generated stages.  They both drop blocks in seemingly random places in Cubify for me to print their creations in 3D.  Instead of waiting for an infomercial to stop before their favorite show comes on they have never experienced such a thing and instead flip through an endless array of shows on Netflix.  An endless stream of diversions all made infinitely more possible because of them being able to touch.

And still, every now and then, both the kids pull out an app that is just a black canvas where they can draw vibrant colors, sometimes with sound effects and rainbow lines.  They fumble, and scribble, and tap on the screen.  At those times, I think I know exactly what they are thinking.

Spreading to a new generation...

So both my kids have started to seriously play games now.  A (the 3 year old) definitely prefers classic games, with Mario and PacMan being his favorites at the moment.  My mom insists that A is better at PacMan than her, although I have not seen her play so I don't know if that is just grandmother speak for being impressed.  Frankly I am impressed that A not only dodged a few goombas, but navigated over pipes and chasams, killed a goomba or two, and managed to make it to the half way spawn point.  I really need to go through my NES collection to see if I can find something that isn't "Nintendo hard."

G (the 5 year old) on the other hand seems to prefer the 3D games.  This is odd to me, since I feel like there is a huge leap in the ability to understand using a controller when you shift from 2D to 3D.  I originally started her off way back when Skyward Sword came out, and she certainly had trouble with going where she wanted to go (in fact, both of them were shouting out the solutions to the puzzles when I was playing, sometimes faster than I could figure it out).  Fast forward to today (just two and a half years later) and G is playing Super Mario 3D World right along side me. Once she even beat my score and got the crown (which she promptly lost on the next stage).

It's awesome to see the unashamed movements when G is trying to get Peach to do her bidding.  The classic "tilt the controller to steer" that we watched our parents attempt to do is amplified in this new world where the control stick is no longer attached to the control buttons, and the Wii-mote nunchuck slowly grows closer to G's mothers face as G tries to get Peach to move a little faster to the right.  I swear she would turn backwards if her head would still be able to still face the TV.

It has been a while since I last posted, and since then we have played through Zelda: Skyward Sword, Pikmin 3, Sonic Generations, and New Super Mario Brothers Wii U (I can't wait until they make that name even longer with New Super Mario Brothers Wii U Two).  In terms of starting we are going through Super Mario 3D World (which is just as good as they say), Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (which is beautiful in art and story if not lacking a bit in gameplay), and Zelda: Windwaker HD.  Each of those is worthy of a post in itself and I hope to get into that in the coming weeks.

I will say G and A have started their own games of Pikmin 3 which they love (although they play with a different flavor).  G plays all on her own which is really impressive to see, except when there are enemies at which point she thrusts the controller into my hands and I get to save the day.  A on the other hand just loves sitting in my lap and occasionally pressing the "throw" and "call" buttons.  I can't say I mind.

They're cutting

So I am staying at Tech Shop way too late tonight, but it is worth it to get the game pieces done so I can beta test at lunch tomorrow (showing it to someone here I already found one problem with a design element that got confused for a connection point).  On the bright side everyone here thinks it's a great concept and wants to play.

Quick Update

I am chugging through card designs and wanted to put a little teaser.  There exist 3 types of traces on the pieces: Standard, Unbreakable, and Broken.  Standard looks like your typical electrical circuit, while unbreakable is a multilayer board where the traces are below.  I am still working on the unbreakable pieces but here you see two examples of standard and broken pieces (where the text is messed up and the traces are scratched).  In the final version you will see an homage to my first Dreamcast (which I killed the motherboard with using the wrong screw and making a circular gouge through several traces).  Also, the working name of my gaming company is Pittsburgh Plays Games.  Let's see if you can catch the tongue in cheek reference there (thanks to +Jill Duarte).

Making a game

So +Jill Duarte tends to make a lot of short posts to keep her blog (http://hipstrings.blogspot.com) active, so why don't I try this.  At work I discovered that my coworker +Matthew Gettemy is really into board games.  He introduced me to a ton of neat games and since a) I have access to a laser cutter, and b) the local hipster craft fairs are actively asking "Where are the Pittsburgh game makers?" I decided I would start up making some games.  This started with the idea of making a really pretty Settlers of Catan expansion, but now I am neck deep into a game I call Cirquite.  It is basically an upgrade to the Milton Bradley game Waterworks where you tried to be the first to complete a functioning plumbing system.  I loved this game as a kid because I could play it by myself (I didn't have too many friends who could come over), and there is something satisfying about creating a path (not to mention the neat mini metal wrenches that came with the game).  But no one wants to be a plumber anymore, so I have changed the theme to circuits.  I am starting out with just the same basic piece distribution, but this concept lends itself to expansions quite easily, and being an electrical engineer I hope to be able to make some extra nerdy ways to play (get a bonus if you make an LCR resonator!).  Attached are the first two pieces.  I hope to have a full set ready to cut on Sunday.

Home Improvement

As I brushoff the dust on this blog I realize how much has happened since I last posted.  Not that I had any audience to speak of, but I apologize to myself for the missed posts (and the posts that sit in by draft box that I thought went through). So we come back with the spirit of improvement and attempting to start this thing up again if only for the hope of documenting my life for my children.  On to the post.

I have been reading a book by Bruce Feiler called "The Secrets of Happy Families" which has taken industry standard practices (from all industries) and applied them to home life to see if the concepts for motivating and guiding groups of adults work for families as well.  "But Nik, what does that have to do with video games?" One word, feedback.

The concept of applying industry concepts to family life instantly resonated with me since I am currently at a transition point in my career where I am moving from directing myself to directing others...not that I wish to direct my family, but I need to find ways to motivate people to do the things they know they are supposed to do.  Here comes video games.  In any game, you are given a goal and a reward.  Today the reward tends to be an achievement, something you can tout to your friends that you completed, but those things are good for a one time goal.  How many times are you going to get 100% completion with no power ups (unless the journey is fun, but that is for another post).  That means achievements are no good for maintenance activities, like cleaning your room.

Now that both my kids are walking, playing, and all around entropy machines, the cleanliness of the house became a big stress point for my wife and I (add the fact that my wife is starting a second business and we just don't have the time our parents had to clean up after us).  When toys start breaking and my feet are encrusted with a layer of clay crumbs something had to change.  Sure I can go through and be a whirlwind of cleaning but that has left me tired, cranky, and with no time to actually spend with the family.  When the messes start again my refresh rate on the clean spell is too long and I quickly get out leveled by my mess monster opponent.  I need a team.  Not only do I need a team, I need a team who are all motivated to reach the same goal as me.

Now something about video games.

My family, particularly my wife and  2.9 year old son, are obsessed with tower defense games (Plants vs Zombies 2 and Kingdom Rush currently).  In any tower defense you must protect your base from a constant onslaught of enemies.  The base always has some ability to take damage, but in the end if you do nothing you lose.  While these games are almost always single player, they represent a team effort with each tower providing their own unique skill.  What if we applied this to room cleaning?  Enter the health bar.

On Monday night Gab and I put together some clear pouches with a set of colored cards: green, orange, red, and black.  This was the room status.  Green is great, we can be proud to show this to guests.  Orange is OK, this doesn't stress out Mommy or Daddy and we could have close friends over.  Red is bad, we need to clean at least to orange some time today.  Black is reserved for rooms that have been red for a full day and means we don't do anything until the room is better.

We went around the house as a family and placed these pockets in every room, starting everything as green (regardless of the room status).  Grading was to occur in the morning, mainly to prevent everyone from stressing about the state when they couldn't do anything about it.  Gab seemed excited.

Come morning we went around to each room and graded it as a family.  We ended up with 4 red rooms (all our bed rooms plus the garage), 9 orange rooms, and no green rooms.  I went to work (late from the added routine) and that was that.

Three things then magically happened. 

First was that after dinner, when I had suggested to Gab that we work on getting the rooms orange, she excitedly went up instead of the normal tantrum.  To put this in perspective, Gab hates to clean.  We even tried changing what we called it because she got a visceral responds against the word "clean" (we ended up calling it "pinky bopping" for some time).  Now that there was a clear marker of room cleanliness status, and a clear goal, now the task was manageable and she was excited to contribute (with some continued reminding).

Second, we got three red rooms into green and one into orange.  On a good weekend day, if I was left alone I might have gotten two rooms green, but this was a weekday afternoon all before bed time!  Shockingly enough, one of the green rooms is now the garage.  We actually even got two orange rooms into green in the morning as well (bathrooms that have normally stayed "orange" all the time.

Third, and most surprising, is that this system affected my wife arguably more than the kids.  And honestly I shouldn't be surprised.  Before the color status, my wife saw the mess but thought she was the only one who cared.   With the family grading together not only did it remove her from isolation, but it also gave her indication that the work would be appreciated, not to mention the desire to get the reward of a green status bar.  The garage would not have gone all the way to green without her help.

So the key elements of the room status:
1) Make it a family activity.  You make the cards together.  You place the cards together with decision as a group.  You grade the rooms together.  It can't come as a decree from on high with no explanation.
2) Grade in the morning but give verbal feedback during the day.  Night time grading will only lead to stress because you know you cant do anything about it but you don't want the black card. Gab went to bed last night knowing that her room would be green when she woke up because we told her and congratulated her.  Come morning she was excited to grade the rooms (and put that extra effort to pick up some dirty laundry to make her bathroom green too).
3) No punishments.  I made the mistake of saying they would get in trouble if the room got black, but then realized that if my room got black, there is no way for me to really get in trouble.  Instead my wife made it positive: black means we come together and fix the problem.

Time will tell if this works, but we are going out tonight for frozen yogurt to celebrate three rooms going from red to green.

As an aside, this whole thing makes sense from an industrial perspective too.  Fabrication plants show improved metrics when those metrics are visible by the workers.  Want to improve yield?  It doesn't help to say "stop breaking so many things!". Show them how much is breaking, and how much one matters.  When you can see solid progress, or failures, you can take action.

Level up

Well what do we have here? It can't possibly be an update. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I now can update while I drive home from work. Don't worry I'm not looking at the screen so I likely have many typos but I'm taking advantage of the new android operating system so that I can dictate my posts. Hopefully now I will be able to keep up a regular schedule of updates. Enough of the self flagellation. On to the post.

Yesterday we decided to give my daughter her own wii mote. She was having trouble with the standard version and when we saw a pink miniature wii mote the choice was made for us. Of course what was the first game that's my daughter wanted to play? Not the kid friendly Elmo's abc's, but rather the Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. From that alone I'm proud of her.

We started a new mission for her and Gab began the game on her own. She had a little trouble controlling Link in 3D but after a little bit of coaching she could move in the right direction (give or take 45 degrees). I'm sure the details are only of interest to a doting father but let me just say it was awesome. Gaming with her has the added benefit that once Gabriella has reached her tolerance for attempts in solving a new activity, she suffers the same disease as the rest of us: not wanting to stop playing. As a result she just hands the controller to me and asks me to play my game while she coaches *me* on where to go. It looks like I might finally finish a video game this year.