How to get information across? (19/1/2014)

* Over the weekend I was asked to come up with some example methods of getting information about fire safety across to our players.

Luckily I was struck with some inspiration this morning when I woke up and remembered a way that I used to learn things willingly without feeling as if I was forced to, through playing cards!

As a child I clearly remember card games being hugely popular in the playground leading all the way up to year 6. If we perhaps rewarded our players with in-game cards for competing set goals (defeat X amount of fires or build X amount of turrets etc) e.g. just like trophies on the PlayStation Network which despite being worthless are very addictive to collect.
I thought of two card types the information could be shown in the style of.

• Pokemon cards: With an image on the top and information below. We could use the popularity of monster cards in order for our young audience of players to get excited about collecting them all. Having the art for each thing on the card would also add greatly to this.

• Baseball cards: Focusing on far more information and bigger pictures. This card format, although unfamiliar to most kids would be the best way to get as much information across without it looking too text heavy.

* Maybe instead of cards we could use trophies as seen in the 'Super Smash Bros' series or on the PlayStation Network as mentioned before. That way they would still be visible rewards, but wouldn't just be cards either.

* If at all possible we could perhaps allow our players the opportunity to print a fire safety certificate for completing the game which was something featured in many safety awareness games I used to play in the past.
Personally I feel that this would be a great feature to include as it would be a physical reward for the player and could look similar to the example below...

If something like the above is possible then we should also allow players to print all the cards on paper for them to then play with in real life. This could then get them learning outside of the game and still be fun if we had numbers / statistics on them used for playing against one another e.g. similar to the card game Top Trumps.   

* Another way I thought of getting information across without breaking the flow of game play, was through a trivia box that could appear at the top of the screen. Players would only see it after completing a round or by defeating a certain number of enemies. As for the trivia itself it would come up with something like "Did you know?" with something either historic or safety related next to it.
This could even be presented as a news bulletin if we wanted to avoid breaking players immersion.
I recon this would be a good idea, as it would give something for the players to read during the unavoidable slower sections of a tower defence game.

 
* On another note, I know I wasn't asked to come up with a menu, but I just felt I had to get it down whilst I remembered it.
The menu for the game could be the interior of a fire station in which players can play the game, learn how to play and maybe even look at their card / trophy collection.
If we could give the player the option to drag their mouse over objects in the menu screen to select what to do, it would be another nice feature as I found out when playing 'Bloons Tower Defense 5' a few days ago.

Some examples on how the menu could look can be seen below...

* Finally, I looked up some information on fires and decided to write an example description of what the information (regardless of what it is presented as) could look like.


Education focused:

• The biggest cause of fire related injuries at home, chip pan fires, can occur whenever someone decides to fry chips without using the correct cooking equipment, thus resulting in the oil used igniting from over heating. 
• Around 12,000 chip pan fires occur every year with 1,100 of them considered to be serious! Making it a class K fire hazard.
• Class B fire extinguishers are considered ineffective against chip pan fires, only a class F fire extinguisher can be used as it uses saponification to put out chip pan fires. The alkaline solution sprayed from the fire extinguisher reacts with the fat and turns it into a non-flammable soap. 
• NEVER USE WATER! The water will cause the oil to expel violently from the container you are cooking with.  
• Cooking chips at home is fine, just make sure to only use an electric deep fryer as its design features circuity that help prevent the oil from over heating and thus igniting. 

I also found information relating to the injuries and deaths that can be caused from such fires that I decided not to include, as I felt they could perhaps be too dark to feature. Obviously, if my team leader feels that it should be included then I will, but I just feel that that could be just a bit too much information for those who are younger than year 6 that decide to play the game.

* Originally I was also thinking of writing a description that would be humorous and/or light hearted. However, when looking up information for the above serious fire hazard I felt that by trying to make jokes out of it would be insensitive, especially since just this one type of fire causes 4,600 injuries and 50 deaths a year!
I am now fully aware why my team leader was hesitant about my comedic approaches to the game and therefore feel that I will be able to write for it with far more respect.
Granted, I still feel that it shouldn't all be doom and gloom and where we can we should include some fun things in order to not completely depress our audience. Thus the trivia idea of mine could be used for this purpose if we couldn't find another place for it.  

Harvard Referencing:  

• Unknown (2009) Department News - City of Gatesville [Online Image] Available at: http://www.ci.gatesville.tx.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={32F0EEB7-CA4C-431E-B53E-6DF245E8AB12} (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (2010) 2010 Dodgers Online Baseball Cards (with no stick bubblegum) [Online Image] Available at: http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/dodger-thoughts/post/_/id/8772/cards-2 (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) How to Organize Pokemon Cards [Online Image] Available at: http://www.wikihow.com/Organize-Pokemon-Cards (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Trophies Gallery - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Metroid Recon) [Online Image] Available at: http://metroid.retropixel.net/ssbb/trophies/ (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Ohio Fire Extinguisher Training [Online Image] Available at: http://county-fire.com/training (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) My Top Trumps Collection [Online Image] Available at: http://www.freewebs.com/chrissmith9179/supertoptrumps.htm (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) How to Plan a New Year's Trivia Party [Online Image] Available at: http://www.punchbowl.com/p/how-to-plan-a-new-years-trivia-party (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) City of Atlanta Fire Department [Online Image] Available at: http://www.slgreshamcompany.com/?_escaped_fragment_=city-of-atlanta-fire-department/zoom/mainPage/image21wn (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Chip pan - Wikipedia (Fire Hazard) [Online Image] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_pan#Fire_hazard (Accessed: 19/1/2014).