This is a draft for the content of my pitch proposal. In the definite version of the pitch document visuals will play and important role in bringing things to life and adding understanding and clarity. Still from the text below one should be able to understand what the game is about. Hypothetically I will be pitching to the Educational Board in Canada hoping to get them to buy this game for schools across Canada. In reality it is for my MA Games Design…
The final version of the Planet Protectors pitch can be downoaded as a pdf.
Save the Planet
The world is threatened by global warming. Your task is to get the seed for a new kind of tree that will help change this (“save the world”)” to a secret greenhouse hidden in the Arctic regions where it can grow and spread. The quest will take place in the expanses of Canada where it is your knowledge of what lives and grows there and how they are connected that will move you towards your goal. You must do this in 6 steps or less by using the principles of “6 degrees of separation“. The winner is the one who gets the strongest seed to the destination first. Danger lurks everywhere. Your lack of knowledge may be your own worst enemy.
Who’s it for?
This is a web-based adventure game of exploration and knowledge building for kids from 10-13 in classroom situation. It is designed to play a role in learning about the ecosystem of Canada. Understanding how plants and animals live and how they are inter-connected to each other in a living network is the key to playing the game successfully. Classroom learning, online research and media proficiency will give them the skills they need to play. Facts grow into knowledge and insight that in turn can be applied strategically to play the game with success.
Setting the Scene
Map of Canada: Canada is one of the last wilderness countries with huge tracts of forest and animal habitat. This is the playing field.
The Seed: A new kind of tree has been created that absorbs huge amounts of CO2 and help save the planet from the devastating effects of global warming. During the game there are threats to its survival. It can grow stronger or weaker along the way. It can even be destroyed. It is the Protector’s job to make sure that it arrives at the greenhouse in the best possible shape. His or her knowledge of the environment is the key to its health.
The Greenhouse: There is climate-controlled greenhouse that is hidden in the Canadian Arctic where only the most hardy of animals can survive, the so-called Greenhouse Guardians. Only these animals have access to the Greenhouse. There is a Circle of Protection surrounding it, riddled with booby traps to keep lurking danger at bay.
A database of cards of indigenous animals:: Mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and insects are available for each chosen location. Each card contains information about habitat, migratory routes, mobility range, food sources, enemies and threats.
Wildcards: The quest is riddled with possible setbacks and disasters that can weaken your seed or lose you a turn.
“Dice”: These are used to establish turns.
The Protectors:These are the players, which are no more than 6 individuals or 6 teams.
The Game
Connecting
“Save the Planet”is based on the idea of “Six degrees of separation”: everyone is approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth through a connecting chain of “a friend of a friend”. The Protectors must each create a chain of connected animals to bring theSeedsafely to the greenhouse in 6 steps or less. They must also protect the Seed from imminent danger along the way that can weaken and destroy it. The winner is the first one to reach the destination with the strongest seed. Knowledge of the environment and the animals and making the best strategic choices is the key to success.
A Protector can connect from one animal to the next for a number of reasons: they share a food source, they are prey or predator, and they share a habitat in some way. They could also be linked by being endangered or of the same specie. The connections may criss-cross throughout the country but ultimately they need to move the Seed northwards.
Circle of Protection
The Circle of Protection surrounds the Greenhouse. Within the Circle live only the hardy Arctic animals that are theGreenhouse Guardians. They are the only ones with direct access to the Greenhouse and they are the last connection point for all coming into the Circle. Have knowledge about them and they will bring the Seed to its destination. Beware as it is also riddled with booby traps that can blast a big hole in your progress and send you way back.
How does it Work
The Rounds
At the beginning of the game each player is designated a location. In each round each player is presented with a number of cards placed face down. The order of play of each round is decided by the throwing of Dice. The player may choose one card. These are the possibilities.
Some cards are animals relevant to the location.
1. If they can link to another animal successfully they move forward to the next round and to a new location, closer to the goal. If they can connect a second animal they can also win a bonus point. Bonus points make the Seed grow stronger.
2. If they can’t connect to the next animal successfully they can choose to stay put, possibly slowing your progress down or choose to lose a point. Losing points will allow a player to move forward but it will make the Seed grow weaker.
Or they draw the Wildcard. Disaster rears its ugly head in a number of possible ways, all of which will seriously impede the journey: you can loose a turn, loose points, or even be sent back.
Moving Forward
Throughout the rounds players will be scattered across the country depending on the animal connections. The journey will not necessarily be linear; the connections are not necessarily adjacent. Each new location will be a limited area within the habitat of the chosen animal. Each round will give the possible game play sketched above.
Last 2 Rounds
At the latest by Round 5 you must have connected to an Arctic animal within the Circle of Protection without landing on a booby trap. Give relevant information about this Greenhouse Guardian and it will bring the Seed to the Greenhouse in what must be no more than Round 6. It will be no surprise that if you don’t know anything about this animal you will stay put.
The Winner
If you don’t get to the Greenhouse within 6 steps you are out of the game.
The winner is the one who gets there first. If there is a tie, the one with the strongest seed will prevail.
What makes it Unique?
• It stimulates learning and exploration on different levels, combining the intimacy of the classroom situation with the vast knowledge base of the Internet in way that will appeal to kids of the 21st century.
• Facts are transformed into meaningful knowledge in a fun and exciting way. It can be harnessed to make children aware and involved in the living beings we share our world with, in the classroom and out.
• It gives the teacher control and flexibility in how to connect it to the curriculum and to the student development.
• It offers the possibility of working in teams or individually.
• It is easy to learn but can be scalable in the degrees of difficulty.
• On the website players can buy and win artefacts: maps, photographs, toys using points won in games for discounts and specials.
• There are possibilities to extend the game to other platforms, to other countries or to other locations making it very extendable and future-oriented.
This is the comment, insightful as always, from my course leader that was posted with an earlier post that I am taking off line. For that reason I am placing it here.
Jim Thompson says,
“Right we have a much clearer view of the flow of game play in this description, and coupled with the examples in the earlier document we can see how this game will play. I think the struggle to define the game has worked and as an ‘outsider’ I can see how the game might play and how it will present challenges to the players i.e. give them a good game experience. The underlying theme of degrees of separation it tied in nicely as it is through the understanding and exploration of these links that we can successfully play the game. This post essentially lists the contents of the pitch document for this game and in my opinion you could do worse than use it for a guide.
The last piece of hard work is to bring this together into a scintillating document! You’ve got the initial sell and you have the conclusions indicating how this game might be developed in the future. The last elusive piece is to illustrate/describe the game play so that somebody reading this for the first time will get a sense of the scope of the game. Returning to the earlier document you have already outlined game play for this game, I would suggest returning to this and using something similar to present the game in your final pitch.
Undoubtedly this game is a ‘serious game’ in that it is meant to educate and in a lot of respects they can be very difficult to design as opposed to a fun and frivolous game. In closing I suppose if I was reading this as a member of the Canadian Educational establishment looking to sponsor development I would like to know how this activity would enable learning. Doesn’t have to be overly serious, after all it is a game, but some little detail about the knowledge developed might help.
It has been a bit of a struggle to define this idea, but I think the hard work has paid off and I can see where you have answered my awkward questions!”