INCORPOREAL CARDGAME GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT 1

HIGH CONCEPT I interact, therefore I exist This cooperative cardgame, with a printed and a digital version, seeks to symbolically simulate relational strategies through different kinds of narrative relationships. The game will be a part of set of analogical and digital games that make the Incorporeal Platform of Ludonarrives (http://historias.interativas.nom.br/incorporaisrpg/) and will be adapted to all settings of this platform through its unifying concept: Incorporeal According to Emile Brehier, Incorporeals are all the conceptual conditions that alter us at a relational level without altering us physically. The incorporeal relations are reflected upon the social types presented by the individuals, which change the way they relate to the world without changing the individuals physically. These relations (incorporeal) constitute a web that is continuing altering and being altered by the individuals (bodies), and from this ciclic action concept continually emerge, concepts that ignore hierarchies and calcifications. To alter these incorporeal relations in a non usual way causes an impact and an out of place sensation that generates a rupture with the identity principle. The term “Incorporeal” here is being used with three main references:

● stoic concept: “the stoics stated that that only bodies exist (even the soul was corporeal, being a sutil and invisible breath, the pneuma). They also stated that there are certain things that don't properly exist, but rather subist through other things, being incorporeal. Among the incorporeals they put the epressable, that is, language or discourse, and they put the study of discourse or of the logi in a special philosophical discipline, logic. “ (CHAUÍ, 2001: 192) See also: (http://www.iep.utm.edu/stoicism/);

● The definition of immaterial, available in (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/incorporeal); ● the act of incorporating, like joining, mixing, making part of, available in

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/incorporate). Based on this concept we intend to design a game mechanic that is flexible enough to work in all the settings of the platform and with different graphic interfaces, thus preserving the aesthetic style of each setting. One feature of the Incorporeal Platform that we would like to point out is the character creation process that the players go through by playing a gamebook in the “choose your own adventure” style. This Player Character (PC) or protagonist will become part of the Characters Card Set and could be used as a Non Player Character (NPC) by other players in their own games. The players will also be able to create their own item cards and action cards that can be incorporated into the dects of Action Cards and Item Cards. Once the character is created, the cardgame begins the Relationship Diagram of the Incorporeals Platform, where the relationships between the PC and NPCs are defined or randomly selected using the characters from the NPC card deck. The NPCs will have goals to help or hinder the PC. Later, the group of players randomly select the relationships between their PC characters, these could be positive or negative relations, like the relationships with the NPCs. In the digital version, the event cards can be randomly selected using the QRCode system, building a narrative sequence with challenges that can be solved by the PC group working together taking into consideration the relationships between them. Once the challenges imposed by the program are finished, the protagonists win experience points to improve their competencies and level up, based on their ethical and relational decisions. The quantitative aspects of the relationships can be modified. The same can happen with the qualitative aspects that can change from positive to negative and vice-versa.

INCORPOREAL CARDGAME GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT 2

Therefore, the main objective of the game is to give the players a ludic simulation of the advantages of cooperative work, even between people that don't like each other or have different agendas. Target audience of the Project Persons between 16 and 29 years of age, in high school or undergraduate, mainly in teacher training and recently licensed to teach, that have an interest in games that deal with social issues. With our game we wish to contribute to the following goals:

● teaching centered in student learning; ● acceptance and nurturing of diversity; ● exercise of activities of cultural enrichment; ● improvement of research practices; ● elaboration and execution of projects to develop curricular content; ● the use of information and communication technologies and of methods and strategies to create

innovative learning materials; ● development of habits of collaboration and teamwork;

We understand that a narrative game in any support has, by the combination of its ludo poetic characteristics has the potential to promote a gathering of several forms of Knowledge that are permeated by a feeling of “make believe”, thus activating pre existing fantasies. This gathering of knowledge is permeated by different flavors, as proposed by Roland Barthes (1977). The pre existing fantasies generate interest, identification and emotional connection (even if not necessarily a pleasant one). This combination allows these fantasies to transform into Fantasy as proposed by J.R.R; Tolkien (1966), the human ability to represent, through art, that which does not exist in the “primary world”, the everyday world, thus creating “secondary worlds” that are so narratively consistent they become believable; This potential facilitates the realization of an autonomous, multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary teaching-learning activity as proposed by Paulo Freire (1996) that is so necessary and so seldom used in contemporary training of educational mediators. ________________________________ BARTHES, Roland. Aula. Tradução e Posfácio: Leyla Perrone- Moisés. São Paulo: Editora Cultrix, 1977. FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogia da Autonomia: saberes necessários à prática educativa. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1996. TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Tolkien Reader. New York: Ballantine Books, 1966. GAMEPLAY AND MECHANICS The game begins with the gamebook at the site of the setting that interests the player. The gamebook is used for character creation by the rules of the Incorporeal System of Ludonarratives (http://historias.interativas.nom.br/incorporaisrpg). These gamebooks have the objective of presenting the setting and the rules. They are based on a Google form with quantitative and qualitative parameters that can be manually transferred to a card, currently in the PNG format, for printing. Our goal is to create a digital version with a programming that imports the data from the Google form and configures said data in CSS and Javascript, generating a digital card with the the character ́s parameters and that allows the sending of images. This card will then be imported by the card game program using these parameters to calculate the results and confer experience points to develop the character. The card game begins with the Relationships Diagram. The NPCs of the deck are characters created by members of the production team using the same gamebook process. The narrative relations are based on the narrative functions proposed by Vladimir Propp(http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/propp.pdf ). The

INCORPOREAL CARDGAME GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT 3

first digital version of the Relationships Diagram was built based on the printed version of the generic Incorporeal System using RPG Maker VR: http://www.historias.interativas.nom.br/incorporais/sorteadores/relacionamentos The relationship mechanic will take into consideration the quantitative parameters VALUE, STATUS and CHARACTERISTIC Social Relations of the character. The challenge mechanic will be used in the two modes of the cardgame:

● ADVENTURE MODE: this mode focus on overcoming obstacles, determined by the NUMERALS cards and their elements, through teamwork. The NUMERALS cards will determine the events from the specific SETTING deck (places, items, actions and characters). In this mode, the characters leave for a mission and their goal is to come back alive and with the mission accomplished.

● EPIC MODE: this mode focus on narrative and creativity, requesting that the players interpret random events from the SETTING deck (places, items, actions and characters) based on random selection of NUMERAL cards. In this mode, the characters are in a tavern, pub or any other social gathering place, telling their most recent adventure. They compete to see who was the most epic hero and their goal is to gain as much glory as possible for their adventures. In the digital version we will use a social network as the gathering place.

Example of the elements of a NUMERAL card: event, COMPLICITY, aspect MATTER, EARTH element, DIAMONDS suit. This indicates that the narrative must contain a key element involving COMPLICITY of MATERIAL aspect. The element and the suit indicate other kinds of decks (Tarot, generic games etc). The events are explained in the MISSION diagram: ttp://historias.interativas.nom.br/incorporaisrpg/diagrama-de-missao-individual/

NARRATIVE AND SETTING AND CHARACTER PROFILE The Character Profile is determined by the setting, following the rules of the Incorporeal System of Ludonarratives (http://historias.interativas.nom.br/incorporaisrpg ) that determines the parameters CONCEPT and VALUE, as well as its respective forms of KNOWLEDGE. It is up to the player to choose the parameter PROFILE (competitive, cooperative, isolationist or rebel), which will determine the basic numerical values of the COMPETENCIES (physical, intellectual, magical and social), that will be used to solve actions. The same character can be used in the videogame, the cardgame, the boardgame and the tabletop RPG. Besides that, the character published at the game website will become a part of the characters deck that is used on the cardgame and of the repertoire of NPCs of the “ready to play” adventures RPG supplements. It is also possible to use the cardgame to create settings that interest the players. In this case, it is necessary to use the generic rules for character creation with the parameter VALUE to be determined by the players in accordance with the setting they have chosen or created. TECHNICAL ASPECTS We intend the resources to be available online for free, in responsive platforms for any operating system, like WordPress, so they can be played on average PCs, tablets and smartphones using the accessibility devices of their own browsers. We will also have a database with a login screen for players to create and store their own characters. All these resources will be housed at the proprietary domain historias.interativas.nom.br.

INCORPOREAL CARDGAME GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT 4

For the production we will evaluate the viability of the languages HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP, WordPress platform and MySql, Renpy, Game Maker, RPG Maker and others that are available for free. GAME ART The model of the character card will depend upon the setting chosen: Age of Choosing, Living Colors, Mythological Flavors

New Earth::

Witchcraft Tales:

INCORPOREAL CARDGAME GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT 5

On the other hand, the cards that are common to all settings will follow the model of Incorporeal System: Relationships:

Numerals:

GAME ACCESSIBILITY The digital cardgame will have the following items of accessibility:

1. Language configuration: dubbing in Portuguese, Spanish and English 2. Language configuration: subtitles in Portuguese, Spanish and English

These items can be added to the printed version through QRCode Expected results We expect to create ludical products with an educational potential for application in our extension course Narrative Games of the research group Interactive Stories (http://historias.interativas.nom.br/incorporaispesquisa/) and on the PIBID-Artes UFJF. These products will also constitute a repertoire of ludic-educational materials for the Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Languages. A repertoire that will be available for all the courses of the university and for the educational community. For printed productions we intend to establish partnerships with game publishing companies to produce on demand, like, for example, Game Maker Editora (https://www.facebook.com/GamemakerEditora/).