We’re doing some “toy hacking” this week with the Making Learning Connected MOOC, but we’re also talking about play and games, and I figured I would share this video game hack of the classic game, Frogger. This was done as part of a summer course last summer that I took part in (or shadowed) through Gamestar Mechanic. One of the tasks, like our MOOC, was to take a classic game and come up with something new with the tools in Gamestar.
I chose Frogger. Mine is called Rebuilding Frogger.
What’s interesting when you hack an existing game, as opposed to completely inventing your own, is that there are both limitations and freedom. In some ways, you want to retain the spirit and feel of the original. On the other hand, you are trying to make your own mark, and so you need to work in something different, too. Finding that balance between homage to the original and extension of creativity can be difficult, I have found.
In Gamestar, there were limitations, since the “toolbox” that you can draw from to build a game is limited. I kept the basic premise (move from bottom to top, avoiding obstacles) and then added a Gamestar feel to it. Frogger works well for this kind of activity in Gamestar, because the video site is built around top-down games (or platformer, so you could hack Mario, for example).
By the way, you can play an online version of the original Frogger, too.
Check out the original Frogger
Peace (in the game),
Kevin