Report-back Demonstration of SLP 1101 Course,
Semester 2 of the 2019-2020 academic year
Farming in Games
By Innovation & Technology Team
FROM DESIGN THINKING
TO PROJECT DEVELOPEMENT
DESIGN QUESTION (P)
How might we
support rooftop farmers who have difficulties in promoting their ideas of rooftop farming to
let more people understand the benefits of such practice by
developing a mobile game/application.
OUR PROJECT
Our project is to make a game, namely, Rooftop, that allows players to have the opportunity to experience rooftop farming practice through simulation.
GAMING MECHANICS
We would like our game to be as realistic as possible in order to create a simulation of the actual farming practice to provide the best experience to players.
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The slide show below shows the very first paper prototype we developed to present our ideas
Start the practice
Start by walking through the tutorial
Begin by ploughing soil and sowing seeds
Fine adjustments and
information of game mechanics
This part focuses on the in-game balance, in order to make the game interesting and educational, without being challenging.
On crop growth
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Crop growth in game will be scaled according to crop growth in reality. For example, corn requires 3 months to grow in reality, so in the game, it will be adjusted to 3 days.
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On scoring
Crop points are scaled with according to crop growth time, the crop that harvest in 3 days will be given 3 crop points. Crop points can also be gained from random prizes.
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On weather
Weather comes and goes, providing either benefits or disadvantages to crop growth, for example, sunny days normally enhance crop growth rate, while heavy rainstorms/typhoons will lower the crop growth rate.
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Introducing humidity
(Possible features)
Together with weather, humidity has various effects on crops in reality, so we would also like to introduce this feature to the game if possible. For example, humid weather will increase pests and lowers the crop growth rate, while dry weather implies that crops will need more irrigation.
Game time correspond to real time
(Possible features)
This feature can make the game more realistic and interesting. The crop will grow accordingly in day time with sunny weather.
INSIGHTS AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE GAME
Throughout the design and realization of our projects, we developed various features of the game and try to link it up with the ideas that we would like to express.
PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE GAME
Personal development
We would like to make the game as realistic as possible. Why? Because we would want the game to be more of a simulation for players to experience how farming could feel like.
One might experience ups and downs, good weather with bountiful harvest, or unexpected weather and ignoring pests could cost the player, so they forces the player to pay more attention and bear responsibility for their crops.
After all, games should be challenging in some ways in order to be interesting, just like life of a farmer and everyone.
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In this way, a player will not only think of the game as entertaining, but might also use the application to learn more about what a farmer will do, or the mindset and virtues of being a farmer.
Community engagement, social linkage and meaningful deeds
Inspired by the values of Rooftop Republic, while playing the game, we aim not only to make the game realistic, but also aim to make it to have connections with the reality.
When you do something in the virtual world, it is able to impact the reality.
The more points you score, the more support will be expressed to the community.
Through exchanging points in the game, crops in reality will be harvested in your name. Though it might only be a tag on the products, it will reflect be the proof of one’s meaningful actions and involvement in the community
Possible partnerships and
practical matters
With community engagement, more people will know more about not only the farming practise, but also different farming organizations in Hong Kong that are linked to such practices.
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Unique relationships and communities based on the game will emerge, further achieving indirect promotion of the practise for the organizations, such as attracting new comers to engage in the industry, and promoting the practise to different areas in Hong Kong.
TARGET GROUPS AND PROJECT AIMS
Other than the insights of the game itself, we would also like to talk about the target group and goals of the whole project, with the use of Triangle of stakeholders format, for a more thorough understanding of the project
Every project needs a goal and its target group, in this project, it is quite clear that the project aims to help the Rooftop Republic (on their promotion) directly, thus, they are the end beneficiary group.
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For target group of the game itself, originally, we took a broader perspective, like the general public or the younger generation (i.e. the teenagers), but it is rather vague and hard to decide how to show our prototype when it comes to real testing.
Then we realized, maybe we could make the target group of the game even more specific in order to have a more meaningful impact on society. So, we adjust our target group to students, including primary, secondary and tertiary education-level students.
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We believe the game can be more meaningful when it reaches the hand of students, since human tend to be more interested to discover and learn new things at a young age, this application can help them to access more about urban farming practice in Hong Kong, as well as the nature of different crops (since we will include quizzes and information of different crops in the game as shown in the prototype video) through the game.
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Therefore, in this way, we expected both the education institutes and students (players) can benefit from the project indirectly (positively affected third parties).
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We tried to consider if there are any negatively affected third parties through this project, but it seems in reality, after our evaluation, the only possible minor effects will might arise is that "This game helps promote rooftop farming and help the organization gain attention". This effect implies that other types of farming in Hong Kong, such as hydroponics gardening and traditional organic farm will be indirectly affected in terms of public attention, partnerships and competitiveness, but overall, it is not a serious problem since Rooftop Republic's main goal as an NGO is to promote the well being and practice of rooftop farming instead of focusing on economic aspects. Normally, other farming methods will not be greatly affected, from the sense of doing business.
LIMITATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT
To be honest, there are many barriers to actualizing the project despite all the ideas we have. Aside from partnerships and funding, we also lack the technical knowledge to fully utilize the gaming engine and its functions in a given period of time.
However, it is fine since one can never be at a professional level in all things, though we give up making a prototype using the gaming engine, we still end up using an alternative method for prototype presentation: Short video of animation showing the rough gameplay of what we want it to be.
Though it is a very rough prototype to what we have described, we believed the video presented some of the essences of our ideas in the project, we will keep this website updated until the end of project.
We look forward to seeing a day that this project can be actualized, or someone who will develop a similar one, for the betterment of the society and the industry.