[GUEST POST] Ramuk's Adventure
Shrivathsav Hemanthkumar Gomathy
Guest Writer (TJC)
Embarking on a culinary adventure
Ramuk’s Adventure is the first game I created during my time at Gametize. As expected of anyone’s first game, it wasn’t exactly perfect, but what mattered most was the method of conceptualization and execution.
Thinking out of the box
To first come up with a game, my fellow TJC students and I needed a topic. We spent the first day mainly brainstorming and coming up with ideas and topics that we thought would best intrigue our target audience: secondary school students. Some of the ideas involved anime, food, travel, and many more. In the end, I chose food as the main topic of my game.
Gametize as a platform
After the topic and content of my game was prepared, it was time to execute what I had planned. The first task on the list was to get accustomed to the gamification platform itself, as that’s where I would be doing most of the work on. After a good while of fiddling around with the platform, and its functions I managed to create the first few drafts of my game.
Ideation Phase
The first draft was rather short, with there only being 3 topics, and 3 challenges or flashcards in those topics. This was following the rule of 3 our mentors, Kumar and Huda, had suggested for us to follow. The rule was that there should be 3 topics, each with 3 activities in them. This was the baseline for every game.
This followed the narrative of my idea for this game, as Ramuk ends up learning more about food along with the user, in his journey to the top of the culinary world. However, as my mentors pointed out, there was potential for further expansion into the story, with possibilities for me to delve deeper into the culinary cultures of the world.
In accordance with their advice, I decided to add 2 more destinations for Ramuk to travel to. This meant there were 2 more cultures the user would get to learn more about. These places were China and France. I made sure to use places with rich culinary history, to maximize the knowledge the player would earn from this game.
Each destination required its own topic, and they all had unique, little challenges present in each of them. The first draft only had text based challenges. whereas the second draft and beyond had pictures and videos accompanying the challenges and flashcards. This added an extra dimension to player involvement, making the user take on a more crucial role in Ramuk’s life.
Flow of the game
On the title screen, the player is presented with 5 topics. The game description gives them a rough sensing of the context, and there is an introductory topic to get them completely up to speed. It provides them with Ramuk’s backstory, and his motivations for the rest of the game.
In the second topic, the game takes us to the first destination in his journey, India. Here, he is presented with challenges that test the players’ knowledge on popular Indian street foods. The game then moves on to China, with the third chapter. Specifically, the Sichuan province. Sichuan cuisine is one of the 8 great cuisines present in China. There, Ramuk is tested on his knowledge of the ingredients present in Chinese cooking.
Furthermore, the player is tasked to upload a picture of a Sichuan dish to aid Ramuk in deciding what to eat.
After China, Ramuk moves on to France, in the 4th topic, where the player is again tasked with uploading a photo. This time, they had to upload a photo of their favourite French landmark, to help Ramuk decide where to go. They were also tested on French cuisine. After visiting the 3 destinations, Ramuk returns to his hometown of Singapore, to pursue proper professional cooking.
The next topic follows Ramuk as he attends a cooking academy, and the player learns even more about professional cooking this way. After that, the current chapter of Ramuk’s journey ends with him meeting Gordon Ramsay. The player helps Ramuk impress Gordon, and Gordon then takes Ramuk under his wing.
Achievements and rewards
Upon finishing the topics related to each destination, the players will get an achievement stating that you are the master of that cuisine, reflecting Ramuk’s newfound mastery of that cuisine.
For completing the last topic and becoming Gordon Ramsay’s right hand man, you earn an achievement called The New Best Chef In The World. This reflects Ramuk’s path to becoming the best chef in the world beginning at this moment. The redeemable reward for the demo was a $10 Ben and Jerry’s ice cream voucher.
Conclusion
I believe that by playing this game, players will be able to assist Ramuk in chasing his dream to be the best chef that he can ever be!