Communications
Aiming for Awkward? Annie鈥檚 Your Gal.
Awkward Annie is a game developed by the 小蓝视频 (小蓝视频) Game Lab Studio for the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to assess people鈥檚 abilities to understand what not to say in social situations. Bob Hone, a line designer for this project and professor in the 小蓝视频 Game Design program, discussed in detail the origins and purpose of this game.
鈥淓TS wanted to assess whether or not people knew the right things to say in social situations. The nerdy name for that is called pragmalinguistics. There is also sociopragmatics, which is 鈥榙o you know how to do the right things in social situations鈥,鈥 said Hone.
鈥淸Game Lab director] Lindsay Grace, the lead designer on the project, flipped it around and came up with the idea to find out whether people know the wrong things to say.鈥
Hone reached out to some of his contacts from the days when he used to run a design company, and was able to engage 鈥渁 really clever artist鈥 who developed a series of animations; Game Lab did all the programming. A player is only able to see the animations when he or she chooses the wrong 鈥 or most awkward 鈥 behavior. Otherwise, the image remains static.
Hone explains that a player can go through about 18 different dialogues, which are branching, so there are a total of 27 different outcomes based on what you choose to say.
ETS liked Annie and now Game Lab Studio is working on a new version focused on choosing the right things to say instead. Said Hone, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little confusing to some people. Some people from certain cultures have a really hard time choosing the wrong responses. So, now we are working on the positive version and we will compare them鈥 for effectiveness and engagement.
Hone added, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 really great is that this game has given students the opportunity to work on real projects, which is the goal of the Game Studio. And the students get paid, which is an added bonus.鈥