Food Force 2
Food Force was one of the first "serious games" produced, describing the work of members of the World Food Program and some of the situations they experience in their work around the world. When it was released, there was an entire campaign around it, including badges and banners linking to it from other sites.
A version of the Food Force game, currently only available on Windows and Mac platforms, is being considered for the XO. Related games, such as a trading game that teaches about the importance and relative value of different foods, are also in progress.
Some ideas :
- FoodForce.doc (early design doc)
- File:.jpg (potential screenshot)
Design considerations
The original game is built in Macromedia Director and has a very large amount of video, 3D animation, and voice acting. It's too big to run on the laptop (over 200 MB download), which is why a rewrite is being considered.
Some constraints that need to be considered:
- The OLPC laptop is not fast by modern standards, but is similar to standards when FF1 first came out. However, we want to limit storage space for widely-distributed activities -- so video should be limited and reserved for situations that require it. Video could be preserved in animated slides preserving audio.
- Any language in the game must be translatable -- thus, sound and text associaed with an image or video, should be available separately for localization. A single instance of an activity need not contain material for all languages. However, an ideal game would function without speech, and with only sound effects. Speech could be available as a downlodable add-on in the target language.
- Short time frame -- delivery in early fall
- Python/Pygame development environment
Several of us at OLPC looked at the existing game with Muriel and talked about how to structure a game that we felt could be completed in the time available. It's not exactly a port, but it would reuse the same design structure, story and gameplay -- and target the same goals of educating its audience (where possible, for the core audience of the laptops; itself slightly different from the original audience).
Resources which can be reused from the existing game
text:
- Transcriptions of speeches and instructions are helpful.
code:
- Source code for sections of the game
- Formulas to calculate the scores during the missions and others formulas used in the missions like formula to manipulate the nutrients.
images:
- Faces of characters
- UI Components like: buttons, objects (helicopter, truck, ...), backgrounds, etc.
- Screens/screenshots from different points in the game, to serve as detailed backgrounds
audio:
- Sound effects, background sounds, sound effects and speeches used in the movies separately, i.e. two different audio files for each movie.
video:
- Short video clips for the start and end of the game