The abstract nature of this drawing tool and the controls made it feel as if I was playing, as I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I clicked on each one and couldn't get too attached to the outcome of what my painting really looked like. I was able to experiment with each of the brushes to see how the different color, size, and brush shape options all interacted. One way that I played with the tool in was trying to get the shape brushes to look like straight lines. The double brush could appear as a single line when it was set at the largest stroke, and the other two shape brushes could appear as a single line if you drew in a straight vertical line. I didn't really set any goals for myself in terms of creating a final product and I thought it was interesting that there was no reset button for the canvas, so once again, I really couldn't get too attached. What I ended up with was sort of a messy canvas with differently shaped, sized, and colored stokes all over it. An interesting way to play with this tool was also in trying to create words and more concrete images, and the shapes of the brush interfered with this in a certain way but made it more unique. I also thought that the third brush setting/shape was really interesting as it appeared to change between circles and longer lines as you drew in different ways, so that was something I else I played with.
Prompt 4: Describe when and how the game feels uncertain.
Throughout playing this game, I found myself mainly trying to discover how to use the tools that were within the interface. More specifically, I was trying to understand what meant what since there were no labels and sort of misleading depictions of what each tool did. In the end, I have to say I was somewhat surprised with what tools are represented by what in the interface, but also not as surprised with others. For example, the red, blue, and green boxes clearly seemed to depict colors considering that the base color is black; however, once figuring this out, I was confused as to why the yellow box did not change the color to yellow. This was easily fixed, though, upon realizing that clicking the yellow box changes the tool from a smooth brush to a sort of line brush where vertical lines are drawn when you click and hold. Another example would be brush size, where the left black squares that are of increasing size seemed simply intuitive when it came to predicting that this meant a bigger box means a bigger brush; however, once again, the two small black boxes between the green and yellow squares at the top left me very confused. Clicking either of these black boxes seems to change the brush from one line to a double line where two lines are drawn, one above the other, when you draw on the canvas. To my knowledge, you can click either of the boxes and it changes to the double lines, and if you click either of them again, it changes your brush to the previous brush you were using. Altogether, I was very surprised and confused about the yellow and double black boxes, especially because of the ambiguity in clicking the double black boxes. On the other hand, I feel like I was also trying to figure out what to create. The double black lines and limitation on colors to red, green, blue, and black along with the vertical line brush made me think of a child’s drawing of a roller coaster for some reason, so I ended up drawing some sort of roller coaster at a theme park. I have to say, it looked pretty similar to what I thought in my head, and my expectations for the double line tool were exceeded through using it to draw the coaster. I also have to say that the only skill that it took to actually do this though was to ensure that the vertical lines were of the right height and actually looked vertical as I tended to move the mouse side to side when drawing. Altogether, I felt like the main mystery and sort of “randomness” lied in the experience of using the tools for the first time and trying to understand what everything does; however, once you understand this, you understand that this is simply a system of code that is actually consistent but is working in a way that is different than the interface may first appear to work.
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Prompt 3: Describe how you played with the game.
The abstract nature of this drawing tool and the controls made it feel as if I was playing, as I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I clicked on each one and couldn't get too attached to the outcome of what my painting really looked like. I was able to experiment with each of the brushes to see how the different color, size, and brush shape options all interacted. One way that I played with the tool in was trying to get the shape brushes to look like straight lines. The double brush could appear as a single line when it was set at the largest stroke, and the other two shape brushes could appear as a single line if you drew in a straight vertical line. I didn't really set any goals for myself in terms of creating a final product and I thought it was interesting that there was no reset button for the canvas, so once again, I really couldn't get too attached. What I ended up with was sort of a messy canvas with differently shaped, sized, and colored stokes all over it. An interesting way to play with this tool was also in trying to create words and more concrete images, and the shapes of the brush interfered with this in a certain way but made it more unique. I also thought that the third brush setting/shape was really interesting as it appeared to change between circles and longer lines as you drew in different ways, so that was something I else I played with.
Prompt 4: Describe when and how the game feels uncertain.
Throughout playing this game, I found myself mainly trying to discover how to use the tools that were within the interface. More specifically, I was trying to understand what meant what since there were no labels and sort of misleading depictions of what each tool did. In the end, I have to say I was somewhat surprised with what tools are represented by what in the interface, but also not as surprised with others. For example, the red, blue, and green boxes clearly seemed to depict colors considering that the base color is black; however, once figuring this out, I was confused as to why the yellow box did not change the color to yellow. This was easily fixed, though, upon realizing that clicking the yellow box changes the tool from a smooth brush to a sort of line brush where vertical lines are drawn when you click and hold. Another example would be brush size, where the left black squares that are of increasing size seemed simply intuitive when it came to predicting that this meant a bigger box means a bigger brush; however, once again, the two small black boxes between the green and yellow squares at the top left me very confused. Clicking either of these black boxes seems to change the brush from one line to a double line where two lines are drawn, one above the other, when you draw on the canvas. To my knowledge, you can click either of the boxes and it changes to the double lines, and if you click either of them again, it changes your brush to the previous brush you were using. Altogether, I was very surprised and confused about the yellow and double black boxes, especially because of the ambiguity in clicking the double black boxes. On the other hand, I feel like I was also trying to figure out what to create. The double black lines and limitation on colors to red, green, blue, and black along with the vertical line brush made me think of a child’s drawing of a roller coaster for some reason, so I ended up drawing some sort of roller coaster at a theme park. I have to say, it looked pretty similar to what I thought in my head, and my expectations for the double line tool were exceeded through using it to draw the coaster. I also have to say that the only skill that it took to actually do this though was to ensure that the vertical lines were of the right height and actually looked vertical as I tended to move the mouse side to side when drawing. Altogether, I felt like the main mystery and sort of “randomness” lied in the experience of using the tools for the first time and trying to understand what everything does; however, once you understand this, you understand that this is simply a system of code that is actually consistent but is working in a way that is different than the interface may first appear to work.