User Guide - MakahikiKTUH/makahiki-ktuh GitHub Wiki

Welcome to the user guide! This page that documents gameplay, game design and game mechanics, whether or not they are already implemented in the system, currently under development. Check it out:

The KTUH Pledge-a-Thon is the name of the game.

The game includes challenges and competition, risks and rewards, an immersive graphical environment, interactivity, game rules and mechanics, and a sprinkling of a story line.

Players are split into two classes, DJs and Listeners. The DJs have been the main focus of development so far, and there are plans for future versions that include listener games.

• Action: Land at the landing page and choose “I am a KTUH volunteer.”
• Reward: Thank you for your volunteership, and welcome to the KTUH Pledge-a-Thon!
• Action: Watch introductory video
• Action: Answer a question about the video
• Reward: First badge awarded: KTUH Volunteer Badge
• Join (register). Upon which we ask for:

1. DJ name and an email address
2. Profile picture
3. Social media links

Upon registration, the game opens to the Kukui Cup’s landing page. The player chooses “KTUH Volunteer” (rather than “I stumbled onto this site somehow”). The onboarding plays out as outlined above. A selection of mini-games is available, but to prevent feelings of information overload, the games open one at a time, and each begins with a walkthrough, which is facilitated by the Makahiki framework.

We have devised a good number of quests with the students in mind. For the specifics, please visit the Game Content page.

The Smart Grid Game is the heart of the Pledge-a-Thon. The Kukui Cup docs explain the premise:

The Smart Grid Game is designed with KTUH volunteers in mind. [...] You can use its grid interface to find out about "actions" they can perform. Successful completion of an action earns the player a variable number of points depending upon the difficulty of the action. There are five types of actions: activities, commitments, events, excursions, and creative.

A few words about those types of activities:

• Activities are the most basic action available in the Smart Grid. In order to get points for an activity, a player must provide a response to the administrators. These responses can be a short textual answer or an uploaded picture. Administrators access a special admin section of the web application to approve or deny submissions. If a submission is approved, the player will receive the points for their submission. Otherwise, a player will be sent a website notification informing them that their submission was not approved, and a textual description by an administrator of why it was rejected. The player can change and resubmit their response and still earn the full point value for that task.
  
• Creative actions enable players to exercise their artistic talents in a KTUH-related way. These are worth a variable number of points, depending upon the effort made by the player and the quality of the outcome (as judged by administrators). Creative activities include: produce a promotional spot or sweeper, write a blog post to the site, write a song, or create a photo blog. 
• Commitments are pledges that the player will carry out a specific action for a period of five days. Daily examples include: checking their email, listening to a show, or volunteering some time at the station; continual examples include keeping the doors closed in air conditioned rooms, and switching off lights whenever they leave a room. Because these commitments are not verifiable, they are worth fewer points than activities. Furthermore, a player can only have up to five active commitments at any given time. After the five day period is up, the player can then declare that they completed the commitment and immediately earn their points. They can then sign up for another commitment, including the one they just completed.
• Events and excursions are actions tied to real world meetings. Events are held in or near the station while excursions take place elsewhere. Seating is limited, so players are asked to sign up for events and excursions they wish to attend. Players that do so are provided with a 2 point signup bonus. Players can also set up a reminder that is sent to their email and/or their mobile phone before the meeting takes place. At the meeting, an administrator hands out attendance codes printed on slips of paper that can be entered by the player while logged into the website. These attendance codes are generated by Makahiki and can only be used once. To discourage players from signing up and not attending, a 2 point penalty is assessed to players who do not submit an attendance code. If the player submits an attendance code for the event after receiving this penalty, the penalty is reversed.