Robots Reboot is an online social game powered by real world actions to save the planet.
Imagine your favorite online social game, but for the real world. You curate a piece of a new planet, and are responsible for its well-being. You gain points not just through on-screen game mechanics, but also through your real world actions – for instance, saving energy (judged through a power meter in your home). Incentives make it worthwhile to have friends who are doing the same. This is a way to socially motivate and emotionally connect people to the consequences of their actions so that they can make the transition from apathy to action.
[2 minute video pitch]
We have iterated through many prototypes by following the design process of Saturate, Synthesize, and Realize.
Saturate
- Brainstormed the question “How do we make sustainability more fun and social at the same time?” and picked the top three ideas to use as starting points
- We all played Farmville for a couple of days to understand what made the game so compelling (several of us have not stopped playing)
- Interviews with serious social gamers and serious environmentalists
- Continuous testing with our target users – “Stanford students who want a fun, informative and social connection to the environmental effects of their everyday lives”
Synthesize
- Used Google Docs to refine our Point of View, capture insights/feedback, and work out game mechanics (Brainstorming doc, Prototype doc)
Realize
- Paper sketches
- Post-it note screen mock-ups
- Looks-like renditions of final product
- Simplified working digital prototype
- Several versions of a board game to simplify and test out game mechanics
- Played and tested the game several dozen times with various players to work out the game mechanics
[Slideshow of our paper and digital prototypes]
For today’s version, we have a proof-of-concept digital simulation and the basic game mechanics have been incorporated into a board game (For Macs: download game, instructions).
[Gameplay overview]
