Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blunder1983]

Have any of you played the game "In Memoriam"?

It was a really cool idea, you had been entrusted in solving a kidnapping, by a murderer, the only clue he'd left was a CD which was in turn intrusted to you. The game itself was puzzle based, but the majority of it was online the answers or hints to the puzzles were found on the internet. Also you had to be connected tothe inet even if you werent surfing, meaning after completing certain sections you'd recieve emails from fellow investigators, or the police or sometimes the kidnapper himself.

Now I think the game was a spectacular idea, but too kooky to gain widespread interest. I also think the mechanisms used would be fantastic at motivating self study in students, especially in Korea where computer games are REALLY popular.

I'm wondering if anyone is interested in helping me create an ESL version of this sort of game. Basically a mystery (tho not one as dark as in memoriam) which challenges the students in different sections of English. Now my IT skills are low (read, non exsistant) but this is something which I think would appeal to lots of kids out there and I'm more than willing to devote a lot of time and effort into it (primarily on the story/puzzle/english teaching front). Anyone care to join me?

[dbee]

I'd love to blunder, but I'm seriously busy right now ... and I'm starting a new job in about a week.

It sounds like a really cool idea though. I didn't download the original but it seems to be done using video ... would your version be webpage based or do you want to go for a streaming video presentation ??

This is just out of curiosity though, cause it seems like a cool idea.

[blunder1983]

Woo I got some feedback. The game itself had videos which brought the story along, but didnt really use them in any other major context. As its gonna be low key I'm gonna create an email which they must send a "letter" to, in order to progress. Currently I'm thinking of the following webpage "puzzles"

Researching

Hidden text (white colour on white or similar)

Accessing someones emails (like hacking sorta)

Viewing English blogs (Designed specifically for the game)

Hidden messages in news reports (this is hard, but doable)

These puzzles all comprise of items which are easy to get:

Websites for research, hotmail for the faux emails, blogger for blogs, developing a code in the news. What I'm not 100% on is how I'm going to tie this together. Currently I'm thinking of a number of options:

Adventure Game Studio: a powerful adventure game creator which lets u do practically anything but requires actual skill to use

RPG maker: A RPG maker which is much easier to use (and benefits from the very popular Manga style gfx here)

The web: Use passwords to lock out sections of a website and have them solve the puzzles to slowly unlock it all, as this requires minimal additional skill this will most likely be my first option. It also allows the game to played anywhere with a internet connection.

Finally I've gotta come up with a decent story to tie it all together, this is actually proving quite a stumper for me, as I teach girls meaning that I'm on a different wavelength to them. I'm thinking of the first one i make (the prototype if you will) a spy based one as I can draw on puzzles from numerous countries, have a tangible story to go with it and through in a few high tech gadgets. Hey a few references to Kart-uh Ride-uh and I'll have em hooked regardless.

If you wanna help out on a purely idea views and opinions dbee I'd be most grateful. I'd love to release this concept to the ESL community as a whole but i cant do it completely solo!

[dbee]

well, blunder I tell you what ... it sounds like you more or less know what you want to do already. You could do most of the thing out on html sheets, and then add pics, password levels and puzzles at a later stage once you have the game concept and storyline in place.

I can give you a hand setting you up at the start, I can show you how to do what you want to do .. and I can lend you a hand when you get stuck on the technical bits.

The characters, plots etc... would all be up to you though. I'm sure people on this board wouldn't mind if you ran a few ideas by them from time to time, about plots, Korean culture background etc ....

PS: have you checked out the www.crimelibrary.com ?... there's a story in there about an American girl who was murdered in Seoul. It contains diagrams of the crime scene, pics and witness statements. It makes for a cracking (although rather tragic) read. You might want to check it out.