Role Models
Play Role Models
(Opens as a Java browser applet)
Description
Role Models is a game prototype created as a solo project for Heather Kelley's class, "Poetics of Gameplay", taught at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Art during the Spring 2007 semester. It was created within two weeks.
Use the arrow keys to move the large square around the screen. Use the large square to move the smaller square (the one with the black border) by bumping in to it. Try to help it grow with good (blue) influences.
Design / Concept
Role Models is a prototype that abstracts the relationship of a parent and child through generations. You control the larger of the two avatar squares to move the smaller one around by colliding in to it. Good (blue) and bad (red) Influences float around the screen. Your objective is to make your child grow under good Influences.
As you collect the Influences, you and your child avatar's color change towards that influence particle's color. However, the smaller one will not grow unless it collects the Influences itself. To do this, you must push the smaller avatar towards the influences, but control over the small avatar is not easy.
When the child is small, its color changes at an identical rate as you when you collect influences, but as it gets bigger, your effect on the child's color changes lessens.
Finally, when the child grows to your avatar's size, it takes your place as the controlable avatar and spawns a new child of the same color as itself. And the game continues a new cycle.
Acknowledgement
This prototype was presented during The Art of Play conference of 2007 held at Carnegie Mellon University.
