Exploring New Game Concept: Designing Spy Game Junior
A new game experience catered only for kids. Something never before done by Breakout that incorporates the best elements of Breakout Spy Game that any 4-12 year old can experience and play. They didn’t think it was possible. Yet, they knew it was a challenge that they couldn’t pass on. It was an opportunity that only shows up once, and it was something that Zaynab Zakiyah Othman (Zay) and Chiang Jing An, who are part of the Game Design Team, knew that they had to take.
A New Game Concept? For Kids?!
The overall success of Breakout Spy Game meant that it was just a matter of time till one was created for children. Of course, that task would fall onto the hands of the in-house Game Design Team. But of course, this was going to be a first for the Game Design Team, as they never had any experience doing a game specifically for kids. What was their reaction to being assigned the task?
“I took the challenge of designing Spy Game Junior with pride. It’s definitely an interesting and unique opportunity for me, as Superdough has never truly created a game experience specifically for children” said Jing An.
“How did I feel when Johnny gave me the task? My first thought was Oh no! Oh shit! Kids?!” said Zay.
To say that they were given a monumental task would be an understatement. It’s one thing to create a game experience, but to create one that is family oriented, with a completely new flow? This is uncharted territory for them! Of course, they understand it very well, as everyone knows that working with kids is difficult and that they would have a long journey ahead of them.
Where Does It Begin?
The most important part of doing any brand new game experience is to do hours upon hours of research. Unfortunately, innovation comes with risk, as being the first to create a brand new experience means that there are no alternative game experiences to learn from.
“We decided to begin our research with the most common kids activities available, which are playgrounds and children’s entertainments,” said Jing An.
Popular children’s entertainment outlets such as KidZania were top of the list for locations that could potentially inspire Spy Game Junior. Unfortunately, it seems that even with tremendous amounts of children’s experiences out there, there wasn’t an experience solely for kids, as most target everyone of all ages, or for adults only and mostly consisted of just activities that one does from room to room, rather than being immersive.
They knew that Spy Game Junior had to be the perfect blend of immersive experiences but still be enjoyable for the children and families. So, how does the team determine how the actual game concept would be?
“We knew that overly complex tech and storytelling wouldn’t interest a child, so we had to do further research. We checked out children’s expos as well as kids’ entertainment to see what would attract a child’s curiosity”.
Zay and Jing An also took inspiration from their own childhood experiences to figure out what kind of puzzles and tasks would attract a child!
“Growing up in a time without the internet, I remembered what we did to pass the time, playing games such as hide and seek, Simon Says and hopscotch,” said Zay.
Of course, not everything that comes up during the idea phase would work in the game setting. Whether an idea is too boring or too complex, the Game Design team always had to remember that Spy Game Junior must strike the balance between fun and challenging.
“Children nowadays are very smart, but that doesn’t mean we can just automatically assume that all kids are brilliant or intelligent or that they would enjoy the experience” said Jing An.
Implementing, Feedback
Interviewing parents and families, it wasn’t a huge surprise that everyone placed an importance on fun. The Game Design had to figure out where the line is, as most of their experiences came from creating puzzles for adults, not kids! The easiest way to test was to test our sample activities with actual kids and gather their “feedback”.
Jing An said “What we learned is that each child is different. Some want it easy, some want it super hard and some want it balanced”.
It wasn’t just each children’s preferences, the location of Spy Game Junior posed another potential issue. With the outlet located in Melaka, there was a possibility that the intelligence level of children there may be different compared to those located in Petaling Jaya or KL.
Eventually, the conclusion was to implement a “Difficulty Level” that each customer can choose, therefore eliminating the issue of how to create a game that is fun but still challenging for all families.
Our Hopes That Spy Game Junior is A Success!
Spy Game Junior is only 2 months away, but the Game Design team is confident they can create a superb game experience for children.
“When you look at our original idea and dream and compare it to what it is now, of course things have changed! There will always be improvements as we edge closer to it’s release” said Jing An.
As always, there will always be hurdles. Some systems and tech do not work greatly with one another, some graphics and in-game questions have to be tweaked and some ideas we thought would not work, ended up working or the opposite!
“ We thought that the hiding sections may not work, but during testing we found out the kids actually enjoyed it! ” said Jing An.
Still, at the end of the day, the project is very close to what the Game Design team originally envisioned, and more importantly, their experience with this project allows their work to evolve and be better.
It’s still quite early to tell how well-received Spy Game Junior will be, but the team have confidence it will be a resounding success! It was even an achievement for them to reformat the Melaka space that was originally going to be used for something else, to become Spy Game Junior!
All the hard work going into the research, planning and execution of the brand new Spy Game Junior will not go unnoticed, and whatever happens, the Game Design team will treat it as feedback to better improve their games and experiences for all to enjoy. Ultimately, it is a reminder that Superdough is about “Always Fun Experiences”!
Writer: Aznir
Contributor: Jing An (Senior Game Designer
Contributor: Zay (Junior Game Designer
Jo Jo
14 Nov 2023
3:49 PM
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