2.2 GAME PROPOSAL
2.3 TARGET GROUP
The game proposal was initially to unify “game + book The HYPRIONS project has a wide range target group. + web 2.0”
in a product to be used for educational The target is not limited by gender or nationality and it
purposes. The book proposal was removed from the is recommended to 14+ years old players. The group had scope of the project, which changed to a game with the challenge of developing a global language in order educational purposes only. Nevertheless it is acceptable to communicate to all of the instances of its consumers. to say that the fact that we are delivering real content to the public through the gameplay it could be interpreted The team members had decided on delivering the as a “book designed as a game”. The web 2.0 was achieved content based on irony and sarcasm mood. The player by the implementation of the Pulse explained in depth in will learn destroying the planet earth and not actually further chapters.
“saving it”. The reverse psychology tone must be the first differential of the HYPRIONS game.
The scope of the project was decided after a number of debates within the group during the first meetings in march and april 2011.
2.4 NAME [>Hector Baide]
A single book content will not be found in the game as a mirror or in an immediate way. However, the game will The name HYPRIONS was voted after a selection of certainly deliver consistent educational content. It was names offered by the Concept Group in July 2011. decided by the group in the first month of work that the content should be on environmental issues caused by The name Hyprions comes from the combination of two human intervention, more specifically was chosen the words: Hyper which indicates that something is above energy management topic.
and beyond another from its class and Prions, which are infectious agents composed of proteins that infect
Many discussions were made on how to deliver the mammals and cause terminal brain diseases. The idea content of the game. The first step was to state that was to relate the influence of the alien on the humans the game should not educate or display content as “an to an advanced biological technology, which reveals the electronic encyclopedia”. It was one of the first goals stealthy ways on which the race of our protagonist acts. established: “The importance of producing a fun game Therefore, a Hyprion would be a highly developed strain above all the laws”. Many studies prove this point. If the of artificially designed prions which engulfs its victims game is educational but massively “polluted” with texts and makes them act in ways that benefit the attacker. or spoken content it will turn into a boring acivity to the This touches multiple references to doomsday scenarios, player, particularly for children and teenagers. If the such as a killer virus or the uncontrolled development game is not enjoyable, it will be immediately discarded and propagation of malfunctioning nanotechnology. by its players. They will lose their interest and motivation as soon as a screen full of words pops up. The action and It was also created to avoid direct allusions to ecological fun aspects were the main challenge for this team! disasters and environmentalism, to keep the game set in a neutral tone and to make the procedure of manipulating minds explainable in an approximately scientifically plausible way. [Hector Baide<]
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author: Fernanda Dias