Hi Everyone,

For this week’s game I chose the game called The Sweatshop by LittleLoud. This game provides players  with an understanding of  how  the sweatshop works. In order for this game to function you  need workers of all groups including children and woman. The game starts off very simple and easy. You have to set up your avatars  around the conveyorbelt. Each avatar  has a certain skill they specialize in  such as shoe maker or hat maker. As items move down the conveyor belt  the avatar has to process the goods and package them up.  You earn points for every item  you complete however if you fail to complete the packaging on an item it counts against you. If you fail more than a certain amount then  you must start that round over again. As the game progress you get more avatars with special skills including children.  All of them work at a different speed so the player must strategically decide where  they want to place the characters in  order to be most effective. In addition to new avatars the game also provides things  to make the workers happy and productive such as water, radios, and fans.  if the workers get tired they stop working which  results in increased amount of  fails.The difficulties in this game is to manage the work environment for the workers as they get  tired quickly and to ensure the work gets done.  The more completed items you hve the more money you get. the money allows you to buy more workers and items to make them happy so strategy is important in this game.This game has only one possible way to get the final destination so for this reason  the narrative is linear. Overall, this game is fun to play and  keeps the player engaged because  the desire to win keeps growing with each round.

For this week’s game I decided to play the game called Save the Park created by Schell Games. This game can be found at Games for Change at http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/save-the-park/.The purpose of this game is to teach players about pollution that happens in various national parks across the country. This game is designed to approach this very serious issue in a fun informative way. The players can choose between four different avatars that each possess different skills and duties. They are   also given the option to choose between four different backgrounds or playing field such as forest and deserts. Although this game is a single player game it requires skills that would typically be found in a two player game. The player needs to control two avatars simultaneously by switching between one of four lanes. To switch lanes the player must use both hands to either swipe up or down the screen. In each lane there are items that need to either be collected or avoided. Items that need to be collected are things like canned goods, empty food containers and power ups as these items help the players score points. If the player runs into items such as tree stumps, puddles of water, and animals they automatically lose their ability to score points. In order to complete each round the player must first achieve a certain number of points as well as a certain number of comboS. Combos happen when each avatar collects the desirable items at the same time as they are both moving at different speeds. The more condos that are collected the quicker the round is complete. Each avatar has a specific task or skills that need to be completed at each designated location. Once all for avatars have completed their task in each of the four parks then the game is complete. This game uses a linear narrative because there is only one way to get to the final destination. Although the characters have the ability to move up and down the screen the game constantly propels you forward and for this reason it limits your control. Overall this game has the ability to keep its players engaged because as the game progresses anticipation builds up. The player has an increased desire to do better each round especially when getting very close to the desired score. However, this game does require the player to be alert at all times and to master the somewhat difficult skill of controlling two avatars simultaneously while still following the rules of the game.