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Should I reconsider using a video game design based on dinosaur hunting for sport as a paper prototyping example for my Quora Indie Game Development Blog?

  • I've recently started an Indie Game Development Blog here on Quora: https://superindiegamedeveloper.quora.com and have recently started a tutorial series on paper prototyping. Over the course of the series I'm going to walk through the steps of making an initial paper prototype from a complicated game design. I had planned on using a game design I've had and loved for many years, Teddy Roosevelt's Dinosaur Safari, a steam punk time travel competitive co-operative dinosaur hunting game. I have already done some work on the process and have a the next two posts ready to write and I'm ready to start actually building the paper prototype. However, as I sit here writing the first post which would pitch the game concept,I feel kind of bad about it. I've been following closely the blog https://foracause.quora.com and when I started doing visual research for the blog post most of the pictures I came across were just as terrible as the stuff that's getting posted to that blog now.  It feels insensitive to me, I'm personally appalled by the stories of poaching that Rory has been telling. Changing game designs will delay my blog by a week or two, I spent quite a few hours talking with some friends about ideas for the paper prototype of TRDS on friday. I have another game idea that I could use but it is a new one and unexplored territory. I'm willing to change it if people think it's a good idea. It's not like I'm losing the work I've already done, I suppose I can just keep it around for another time. Edit: To clarify... I'm not actually making the video game or making any money whatsoever. The purpose of the blog is simply to teach a game design technique called Paper Prototyping. Essentially I will be making a board game version of the video game as an interactive experiment.

  • Answer:

    So, let me get this straight: you're planning to overhaul your tutorial series because you're worried that using a fantasy hunting scenario as an abstract vehicle for discussing game design might somehow have unfortunate implications for real-life poaching in Africa? I'm not seeing it. In fact, I think this is a great reason to go ahead with your original idea.  Rather than running from potential controversy, you should bring it out into the open and discuss it as part of your series.  Your target audience, aspiring game designers, should be reminded that their fantasies have real-world implications, and that they should consider those implications carefully as they make and play games.  Hell, the whole gaming community could use this reminder once in a while (by which I mean 'daily'). This isn't an obstacle, it's an opportunity.  Go for it.  (And don't forget to give a shoutout to Ray Bradbury while you're at it--I read the game title and immediately thought of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_of_Thunder.)

Terry Drinkwater at Quora Visit the source

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Good question, Daniel.  It's interesting how some completely separate variable always comes into play when you want to do something, isn't it?  What was once a game and had no significant value, because dinosaurs are extinct, now just so happens to look exactly like a cause that you have come to find yourself believing in.  Great.  Now, you're stuck at a crossroads.  Sounds like my life. A.) Promote animal rights, but have a game on the market, with your name on it, with people killing dinosaurs.  B.) Change the game and delay your blog objectives. Let me ask you a very important, serious question. How many programmers are going to evolve into animal poachers in the future?  If you think the same way I do, then the answer is maybe one out of a million. The second question I need to ask you is this.  How long will it set you back to change the concept of the game?  I'm thinking six months.  Do you agree with me here?  Do you want to fall behind your personal objectives six months, because your beliefs are conflicting?   It's a hard choice to make.  Then, the third question is, how do I make the best out of a horrible situation? This is what I would do.  At the bottom of the game, I would explain that the game is strictly for educational purposes and that you condone the hunting of animals.  Instead of changing the dinosaurs out, just put in ads that say, when you pass levels or something, to click here so you can donate money to a cause to prevent this from happening in real life. You can even add in how much the game sickens you.  Then, you can ultimately raise awareness on the issue, through the game.  Maybe some other people would even be able to better understand your cause, by linking them to the real life pictures and the horrible impact it causes on society.  Actually, it sounds like a great way to raise awareness, because it directly resembles the cause you believe in.  Also, last time I checked, most programmers have expendable amounts of income that they might like to donate to a charitable cause.  Win win.  That's what I would personally do.  It completely contradicts what Ellen says, but then the choice is really up to you. Edit:  A week or two isn't a considerable amount of time at all, like six months would be.  Just redo the game.

Anonymous

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