Game Metadata

Name: Viewport - The Game

Designer/Developer: DimArea Games

Goal: Viewport is a story-driven mobile puzzle game. It has unique viewport puzzles inspired by viewport feature of 3D software. Using your spatial ability to the best, you have to map put the top, front and side view of a 3D object.

🎮 Play it here! (Google Play Store) or here (App Store)

Learning Objectives

This game has taken inspiration from the viewport feature of 3D software and woven it with an immersive story-line to create a puzzle game with increasing difficulty.

The aim of this game is basically to represent an object with three various points of the given 3D object, observed from top, left, and front angles. The spatial ability and visualization skills are put to test here.

The player is given a 3D object and is required to draw the 2D planes with a fixed amount of given elements.

Opportunities of transfer of knowledge

Seeing something different points of view is a skill in itself. Given the game mechanics, that is what the player is doing with increasing difficulty.

I would consider this is a more of a soft skill than a hard skill. To see to a matter holistically is only possible when all angles are considered. It helps on finding blindspots in decision making.

Game Elements

Mechanics and systems:

The premise of the game is fairly simple. It has been woven with an interesting narrative to keep the players engaged -

“You, Subject 002, take part in an unknown experiment.

You wake up and find yourself in an experiment, but you don't remember what the purpose of this experiment is, who's in charge of conducting it, and not even your own identity.

All you can do is solve the puzzles that are given to you and read the messages that the overseer of the experiment displays in the screen in front of you.

Everything seemed smooth until one day, you receive a mysterious message from an unknown person.

Every midnight, this unknown person sends new messages that lead you to the hidden truth.”

The messages are often progress related but sometimes talk about how this experiment can be seen in multiple areas science and art related fields.

New structures are introduced with an understanding of how to interpret them. For example, what would a slope/pyramid look like when seen form different planes - the “pre-training” helps in solving the level.

Game vocab:

Nouns: Experiment, Subject, test, viewport, front, side, top.

Verbs: Place, scale, overlap, intersect

Gameplay:

The core loop requires the player to see a 3D object and recreate it's surfaces using a set of existing elements.

These elements are numbered and can be scaled in two different ways, proportionately and in directionally (horizontal and vertical).

Basic loop: Finish the daily mission and move on the next mission.

Secondary Loop: Get introduced to new shapes and understand how the edges of each shape can be formed by overlapping different shape.

Player Experience:

• The story line is what draws the player in. Minimal hints provided in the form of immediate feedback helps in figuring out if the player is headed in the right direction.
• The neon visuals along with the typewriter and code aesthetics tie into the game very well. It makes it more engaging and script is encouraging (and a little spooky at times).
• There is enough freedom in that small 4-port view to adjust and move around. A player is able to zoom in, move around, change the window pane sizes very smoothly.

Learning Mechanisms

• Variability: Through the levels for the first two weeks, there were enough variations and complexity in the 3D models.
• Pre-training: Before a anew complex object is put forward, the player is given an introductory guide on how the edges would look like. It’s not really an answer but a view that allows for 2D mapping of slopes, protrusions, etc.
• Feedback: There are two ways feedback is built in this game.
  • The moment the player gets one of the faces correctly, all the outlines turn green. This helps in building out the other two faces.
  • The other is a very subtle use of the “glitch” effect. Once one of the views is locked in and something in the other view is wrong, the screen glitches slightly to let the player know - this one is a form of immediate feedback.
• Scaffolding: In terms of difficulty and complexity, the game scales pretty well. It starts off by explaining what exactly to do - visually and then then has hints when the player is likely stuck.

Will these work?

Yes. Between the feedback and variability, the game tends to get harder and the player has to think creatively to build out sides by given components. The text prompt on the (where the communication with the subject takes place) also often gives prompts for starting out.

Final Rating

🟡 🟡 🟡 ⚫ ⚫ (3/5)

Elements that I loved:

• The glitch effect and the storyline. The visuals are over all quite well done and allow for smooth navigation despite fitting 4 views into the screen.
• The challenge it poses for me as a player. Having had some experience with 3D modeling softwares, there is always an urge to getting it right at the first .

Not-so-great elements:

• The game has immense potential to build in more “educational” stuff. It does not leverage any side loops for visualizing exercises that could help with evaluation of the learning that takes place.