Choice

First page of the Choice game

A fun interface about 'potentially familiar' events in the life of a school child, where the player is encouraged to take the initiative, to learn about the consequences of actions or choices, particularly in relation to interactions with others.

The player's aim is to gain points. At the outset the player knows that 100 points is the maximum.

A maximum no one could ever reach, because no one is perfect.

Another goal is to show that the world around is not as static as it might seem. If you notice more, in this game, you have more choices.

These "choice" moments occur when you move towards signs, animations or other people. You get a message above or a menu pops down on the right.

Then you need to make a choice by clicking on one option to proceed.
The timer pauses while in this 'choice' mode, so consideration or delibration is not penalised. Teachers could use these moments for a group discussion.

A mouseclick then causes the window to shrink upwards, the timer restarts, and mouse movement is enabled.

As you see on the left, it is possible to die. Here there are random possibilites if you wander onto the street, ranging from death, serious to minor injury, to just losing a point as there was no traffic.

Later in the game it is not possible for the avatar to just walk onto the road, because in order to get that far either the player has indicated that they now can see (has developed eyes) or, for example at the stoplight, the environment prevents this from happening.

We are still working on the final form of the avatar (what you lead around with the mouse) which changes constantly as you move.

In the beginning of the game it is relatively formless. In response to the choices made, the form will evolve, beginning with a head and then limbs.

As you move the mouse, the environment moves with you, and there is the freedom to move forwards and backwards along the street, but a consequence of this is having less time before school for more interactions.

The need to hurry to get to school will be indicated at various points along the way, if the player takes longer than a certain time.

Another indicator is a small light blue form to the right of the word "points" in the purple bar. Its progress towards the right indicates how far the player has progressed in the day. And as the player chooses good and intelligent behaviour, this form changes to a more human shape. Ideally when the form reaches the right end of the blue bar it will be in a human form.  

As you see on the left, some questions relate specifically to the environment. Becoming more human means also being observant of your environment.

Here the player has missed noticing a bee sitting on a post.

"Choice" events, indicated by the dropdown menu are only activated if the player moves close to the item, indicating they noticed something. Missing a possibility isn't necessarily a bad thing as it means there is more time later for other interactions. The main aim here is to create the sense of a variable interactive environment.

Options appear if you move close enough and are not always the same.
For example, the person who follows the player from the street corner could be a girl, a boy, a woman, a woman and child, a man and child or a man, and the choices vary. In the case of the girl here, two of the options will give points, whereas if the stranger was an unkown adult, then the responses encourage less social interaction.

The traffic light runs on a timer, and only allows the player to cross the street when it is on green. Here you lose points for choosing the wrong answer.
After crossing the street there are more interactions with others also walking to school as well as with others standing at the school gate.

When you reach the school gate you receive a message indicating whether you are early, on time or late for school. If you are early then you are allowed a certain number of "choice" encounters in the playground before school starts.

Some are games, some are interactions with others and some are observations or interactions with the environment in the playground.

While in class at your desk, time is continuous. We may insert a clock for schooltime. Here exercises still involve initiative and points can be gained in response. For example clicking on the globe could call up a menu on themes related to culture and countries, while the sketchbook has a building game. The player might play the game or scribble on the desk, but they won't get any points. The magnifying glass relates to themes about science and nature.

We intend to add a symbol for exercises and videos that relate to the arts and the world on the street. For example the still here shows an artist making paper boats on the street. Questions such as: What is it about?, or What are the shoppers doing? with choices such as, She is making the shoppers laugh, She is there to surprise the shoppers, The paper boats symbolize: a. b. c., etc. As with some of the other choices in this game, a number of answers could be correct, to stimulate players to see various perspectives.

However the major part of the game will be the interactions between children in the playground, before school and during the school breaks. Here dilemmas such as whether to be nice or rude or fair or reasonable come to the fore. Also issues such as when playing becomes too rough and turns into fighting. Interpretation of others' feelings is another issue that arises in these interactions. After all, learning how to relate to others is what it is all about in becoming human, or in some cases superhuman!