"Designing a better Pokemon Go"

[AndrewGrayGames]

Improving on Pokemon GO - Making Better Augmented Reality Games - Extra Credits

I find this an interesting video, not because of the content per se, but the process of Speculative Design. Take some game in a space, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, and design a fundamentally new game that expresses improvements on the source game. This seems like a good thought-exercise for a designer to do every once in a blue moon.

So, thoughts in mind - what would your redesign of Pokemon Go be?

[BackwoodsGaming]

Awesome video! I started working on a Pokemon GO style game a couple weeks ago. Mine includes a Farmville/city builder type scene where my plan is to require the player to build infrastructure to support their recruits they find in the Pokemon Go style scene before granting them access to the p-go type game play. Funny the video mentioned quests. I decided a couple of days ago to incorporate a quest system for certain amount of captures/recruits as well as building/production quests. Also have plans for nurseries for caring for creature eggs and hatchlings.

I like how they turned the pokestops into treasure stops. I have been trying to think of good ideas for the Pokestop/Gym replacements. And I also like the idea of walking quests and opening up more content based on distances walked. A lot of interesting ideas presented in the video.

One of the things I didn’t see addressed that I had a conversation about with a fellow game developer was the real world issues that are coming up because of Pokemon GO. The trespassing on private property and stuff like that. That is something I want to try to figure out before actually releasing this type of game. Try to figure out ways to try to prevent/discourage that. Just not sure how to do it.

Thanks for sharing the video! I subscribe to them but lately, I’ve been avoiding my YouTube subscriptions in order to try to spend limited energy on focus before fatigue hits me. Glad you posted this and I noticed the thread!

[AndrewGrayGames]

For once, a YouTube Comment is helpful. While I praise the video linked in the OP, this quote from YouTube user “Splotchy Ink” is also interesting:

@Splotchy Ink

This is a very interesting design, and it would no question be very fun, but I’m afraid that the added complexity that your adding to it might end up detracting from it, not enhancing it.

Pulling up an example, I actually got my mom into playing Pokemon Go, and she is ‘not’ a gamer by any stretch of the imagination. She only knows that Pokemon is a ‘thing’ with cute creatures. Now, the minigame is super approachable because despite what others might think, throwing a pokeball is much easier to teach than say, an RPG mechanism (unless it’s like something akin to the ‘tap to attack’ cookie clicker method).

Problem with adding more ‘game’ to the game is that, if I wasn’t there to teach my mom how to play and how gyms worked and such, she’d probably figure it out on her own, if there was more stuff than that, she’d probably get frustrated and not play. And that’s not a thing an ARG can survive with, as it needs to get ‘everyone’ playing. It needs a community, and that’s more important than gameplay.

I mean, I love the idea of a crafting system and differing loot and all that, but I think all the depth of a game should be super approachable and easy to understand. For game mechanics to work, I need to be able to have my mom, who’s never really played games in her life, to be able to pick it up and have fun with it, while giving her an excuse to walk around the park.

Though, this is just my armchair theory on the subject. I don’t have as much experience in the game industry as you do. Also, Pokemon Go isn’t perfect, and a good portion of it’s popularity is probably because of the Pokemon name, but the fact that my mom is playing that instead of Candy Crush. (Though after thinking about it, an ARG Candy Crush might be an interesting concept)

[Apparaten]

@AndrewGrayGames

For once, a YouTube Comment is helpful. While I praise the video linked in the OP, this quote from YouTube user “Splotchy Ink” is also interesting:

Im not playing pokemon go myself but i can totally agree with what Splotchy is saying. I have seen so many parents walking around town with their childs, I actually talked to one of them the other day and she said that it is amazing that a game can make her childs want to go out more often.
And yes, she was also playing, and seemed to enjoyed it too.

[dbbgba]

Well the video does bring up a lot of interesting designs. Some of them I think they can be enjoyed by moms too. Some of them seem to me like they can be optional as well, so maybe mom is not interested in going through the wall of flames, fine she doesn’t have to accept the mission. Heck imagine if you get the steps based mission while walking inside a theater? I wouldn’t accept it either. But PKMN Go is definitely a broken half baked game. Hopefully once they are confident with their infrastructure they will add some more interesting game mechanics. I do like some mechanic for when you can’t move and walk around the town all the time (or maybe you don’t have enough battery to do that).

[tedthebug]

Ride the Pokemon Go money train - design & sell players a pouch to hold their phone that they can attach safely to their dog’s collar when they let it out in the yard to run around so they can reach the step goals quicker.

[Kiwasi]

I’m with splotchy on this one. A game that has more game would be inherently more complex, and would appeal to a much smaller audience.

Its certainly possible, but it will be niche. How many people had heard of Ingress before Pokemon Go was released?