You
Busy? - Image credit: DePaul University & Studio Fire
Two games developed by DePaul University and Studio Fire - You Busy? and Unboxed were
selected as finalists in the 2018
Serious Games Showcase and Challenge in the Student Category.
Studio Fire is a
Chicago based independent development studio founded by Trynn. Trynn as a
designer began with an undergraduate degree from DePaul University in Game
Development. From there, Trynn moved into the corporate world working as an IT
Project Manager for a financial firm in Chicago. It was immensely time
consuming and took away from the time that could have been spent taking her
personal game projects to the next level.
In August of 2017, Trynn left the project management job and began the
graduate program at DePaul. Within the first month, Trynn dived in to her first
project that even during early stages was already well received, mostly due to
the accessible nature of a game on a typically not-so-accessible platform
(Virtual Reality). When the project began to gain some traction, Trynn
connected with other developers from the DePaul programs who voiced their
interest in joining in on the development of Unboxed.
In September of 2017, Trynn formally established Studio Fire
with a coworker from DePaul University, Christopher Sosa. Together the two aim
to push the medium of games in new and exciting ways.
You Busy? is a
game about the various channels that people and information must flow through
in order to complete work. Whether it be finding the correct person for
assistance, receiving an approval on a task, attending a meeting, or tending to
a fiasco… there are millions of things that one must keep on their radar during
any given day.
The purpose of the game is not to criticize this structure but instead
to shed light on the beauty behind this system and illustrate just how much is
required of us to feel “productive” and how working together is the path to
success.
You
Busy? - Image credit: DePaul University & Studio Fire
A game
about working together but competing against each other and how much is required
for us to feel "productive"
You Busy? runs on
Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and requires 4 players with Xbox Controllers. Though
anyone who is able to use an Xbox controller could play, young adults and
adults will appreciate the message the most.
The idea is to get as much work done as possible as a team (but also
individually to illustrate the paradox). The game doesn't have a built in goal
of work to complete but encourages users to play again with the same group to
see if they can improve communication outside the game to get more work done.
Typically, after a team plays through once or twice they start improving more and
more every time.
You
Busy? - Image credit: DePaul University & Studio Fire
There is player feedback all over the game using color as the biggest representation.
Currently, the game is in Alpha so it is quite abstracted but the goal is to
always show where the player needs to go next and that is the main focus. You
do not know your score until the end which is intentional because the focus should
be on communicating with your fellow players.