Deguiyu
Director, Game Designer, Co-Writer, Software Engineer
2008 — 2009
Description
Deguiyu is an alternate reality game for Xbox Live’s Community Games platform. The core gameplay mechanic involves sharing information across virtual worlds and spaces that have become commonplace in our everyday lives. A major theme that ties both the gameplay and narrative together is that of digital information and our questionable relationship with it.
Deguiyu's corporate logo
The first quest players are sent on explores one way that digital information is represented and manipulated – HTML and Javascript. Players must search through Deguiyu’s website source code to find a code associated with a character’s login information. A later quest brings awareness to the text messaging phenomenon. Players are required to text a message to an unknown service in order to receive their next clue. A third quest explores how players publically represent themselves on Xbox Live by forcing them to change their gamer motto to a specific phrase in order to continue. Our ability to quickly process information is called into question through another quest where players must watch over twenty news tickers simultaneously in search of a small piece of information.
Roles and Responsibilities
Deguiyu was developed by an interdisciplinary team of three. I served as the lead game designer. I directed the entirety of the Xbox experience and designed all the gameplay interactions players engage in. This included developing custom interfaces for each of our virtual spaces, such as fake websites to browse and news outlets to explore. I also contributed a significant amount of writing to support the narrative across these spaces.
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Technologies
Deguiyu was developed using a variety of tools and technologies. The Xbox 360 game was the central component; it was written in C# on top of Microsoft's XNA framework. In addition to the Xbox application, a website was developed using standard XHTML and CSS. SMS service provider Tagga.com was used for the puzzle involving text messaging. A tumblelog was created on Tumblr.com. Adobe Photoshop was used to create the small amount of graphics used in the game.
Downloads
Unfortunately, due to the limitations of Xbox Live's Community Games peer review process, Deguiyu is unable to be sold on the Marketplace. But that doesn't mean I can't post it here for download. Except, in order to play it, you have to be a Creator's Club member. Sigh.
See Also
Feel free to check out Deguiyu's official website – one of the main artifacts used in the game.