Week 9 Reading Notes - Natural Funativity

What makes a game fun? The dictionary defines 'fun' as a source of amusement or enjoyment, but that's not very helpful. Only recently have we started to make progress on defining fun.

What is the funativity quotient?

Paleolithic Pastimes

We share basic drives for survival and reproduction with our fellow creatures. In addition, humans, as well as other primates have a strong dependence on the social interactions that establish and maintain our place in our families and communities

We have to consider the way humans lived tens of thousands of years ago and more to see the survival significance of many of our genetic preferences, as scientists agree that our genes were mainly shaped during the time of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Refined Sugar Syndrome (RSS) describes the way humans have always had a desire for sweet things; in the past, our ancestors would always look for fruit and berries which were sweet, but in recent history that has turned against us because of the advancements in sugar-refining. That initial instinct has now turned on us and makes us desire unhealthy amounts of sugar.

RSS also applies to many other things we do for entertainment that have become less helpful in modern society. Video games is an example, technology has allowed us to create a potent play experience that is both very new in its expression and very old in its origins.

When you look at all human entertainment, you see that it is really about learning survival and reproduction skills, as well as the necessary social rules and behaviours.

We all need rest between working; it has been that way since our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Simple genetic and cultural variation ensures that some people prize rest more than others, and we have different types of personality cauterisation because of that.

The evolution theory suggests that diversity is an important survival trait in the long run, so that there will be people who prefer the mainstream, most popular approaches to survival, but also people with more obscure preferences.

The Natural Funativity Theory

Natural Funativity is mixing Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Steve Arnold’s question of “What is the Funativity Quotient?”

Physical Fun

When our survival is threatened it gets our full attention, so games and other media use this theme a lot to get attention.

Anything that involves threats to survival and the successful (or unsuccessful) attempts to counter those threats is likely to get a large audience.

The desire to gain skill in quickly escaping possible predators has stuck with us, in the form of high-speed racing not only on foot but on all sorts of vehicles.

A lot of games get surprisingly popular when they’re based around hunting, one of our oldest pastimes. Even games which involve gameplay mechanics such as catching fish get very popular on mobile devices.

In the same way relating to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, games which involve gathering also get popular. Casinos have slot machines to recreate berry-picking in an abstract way, and a lot of us make collections of different items. Ever since Pac Man started gobbling little dots, we've moved on to collecting hearts, coins, and stars.

Exploration is another popular skill which has made its way into gaming; a lot of players enjoy exploring their immediate surroundings to find out more about different aspects of the game they’re playing.

Many games are directly focused on use of tools, from the craft-oriented play of single- and multi-player roleplaying games to the ubiquitous use of hand weapons in many game types. It's interesting to note that so much of Physical Fun is tied in some way to our upright posture that freed the use of hands millions of years ago.

Social Fun

Evolution also focuses on the issue of reproduction and the associated matters of meeting and attracting mates. In the past video games weren’t associated in any way with attracting mates, but in recent years, games that are cell phone, instant messaging, and GPS-based that put people in contact in the real world are likely to help social aspects of video games.

Storytelling was our first type of virtual reality, and is now so much a part of everyday human culture that we take it for granted. The oldest surviving stories and epic poems show that matters of survival and finding and keeping mates have been of great interest for as long as stories have existed.

Mental Fun

We practice and improve our mental abilities in our leisure time just as we exercise our muscles and build social relationships. The use of language and other means of communication has always made it possible to learn to use tools and has helped us survive socially and cooperate together to overcome challenges.

Intelligence-based games and pattern recognition are good examples of mental fun. Games such as Bejeweled require a good sense for pattern recognition, and toys or pastimes like crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, or physical puzzles like Rubic's Cube also use pattern recognition. Even appreciating music is a form of mental fun, since music is patterned sound just as poetry and song are patterned words.

My Thoughts:

I think an interesting example of survival and hunting in modern games would be Minecraft, a digital indie game which has had a very surprising boom in popularity. The game has no real set 'goals', but instead the player can do what they like within the game world. They can build, hunt, explore and survive through the night with no ending to the game.

Overall I felt this article was an interesting look on the meaning of fun. I find the that relating games design and 'fun' to our ancestors is a good idea, as we need an understanding of our human genetics and pastimes to really understand where 'fun' came from.

Week 8 Reading Notes - Players who suit MUDs

MUDs (Multi-User Domain) are text-based games which combine elements of role-playing games, PVP, interactive fiction and online chat. Players would read or view descriptions of their locations and their surroundings, inlcuding other players and NPCs, and they would then perform actions in this virtual world to achieve their individual goals. MUDs were practically the predecessors to genres such as MMORPGs

Two types of playing styles:

Interaction - Focused in the players

. Players who Socialise (Socialises)

. Players who impose on others (Killers)

Action - Focused on the environment

. Players who look to achieve (Achievers)

. Players who look to explore (Explorers)

He describes these players as a set of cards:

Killers = Clubs because they club players

Socialises = Hearts because they empathise with others

Explorers = Spades because they dig around the game world

Achievers = Diamonds because they're constantly searching for goods

1) Achievements within game content

Achievers in the games are always trying to accomplish tasks and claim their rewards, they will always be focused non the task at hand, without worrying about their teammates.

2) Exploration of the game

Explorers enjoy exploring the game world and finding out new things about it, they are not as concerned with skill and levelling up but enjoy other aspects of the game.

3) Socialising with others

Socialises tend to say things like "Things aren't going well with my boyfriend", always looking for new relationships and only playing the games to hang around talking to people instead of playing.

4) Imposition upon others

PVP players tend to be very aggressive, constantly starting fights with other players to fulfil their own goals or just for fun.

Relationships

Achievers see other Achievers as competition, trying to steal their future achievements. In doing so the other players are much less important.

Killers like to have Achievers as their pray, because killing them matters a lot considering the game is so important to Achievers. It means something to kill them.

Explorers don't have as much desire to fight so they won't fight back against killers, but if they do fight back they may have an unknown skill to use against the killer; they could find strange skills which were hidden around the game world, so killers may be more cautious when attacking them.

It's different these days, as the game types have completely changed in modern multiplayer games. Killers want to kill other killers for more of a challenge, and they would find Achievers too easy to provide a sufficient challenge. It's also more important these days to mix and match with all the different gameplay styles in order to get the most out of the game.

Balance

If you have more killers in comparison to socialisers, the socialisers would then leave due to them constantly being killed when trying to talk to others.

If the game becomes too unbalanced, all of the players would start to leave the game.

These days the balancing issues are much less so, for example, World of Warcraft has become very balanced over the years, and this is probably one of the reasons for its tremendous success. There are specific places for all of the different players to play the game fairly.

My Thoughts

Though this article is interesting, the subject matter is fairly outdated and therefore a lot of elements mentioned are no longer as apparent in modern games. MUDs seemed to be a huge starting point for modern MMORPG game design, and because of them, matters such as gameplay balancing and relationships were brought to light.

It was a good article, and I'm sure that if I were to design a game which utilized any of the elements talked about then it would be very helpful.

Week 7 Notes - Space of Possibility and Pacing in Casual Game Design

• The article focuses on casual games, namely Popcap Games. The main aspects which it focuses on are all to do with 'Pacing'. Popcap Games is a master when it comes to pacing, and this is through experience and very long development and play-testing processes.

• In the past “casual gaming” was rarely used as a genre, terms like “family-friendly” and “accessibility” were practically non-existent in terms of casual gaming.

• This articles aims to not only give a better understanding of casual games, but to express a serious approach to how they are designed.

• Casual games are described by The Casual Games SIG as “games that generally involve less complicated game controls and overall complexity in terms of game-play or investment required to get through the game”. It disagrees with the concepts this article is trying to push forward.

• Casual games are games that offer the possibility of “pick up and play”, they have experiences that can be enjoyed in small bursts and interrupted without frustrating the player.

• Casual games are not necessarily of smaller complexity, their complexity is just presented to the player in a different way.

• It is through a complex interaction of smaller objects in the system that the casual game builds its own kind of “complexity”

• PopCap's success is due not only to superb Pacing, but also to offering fun and polished core mechanics, impeccable interface design, good balancing, great detail in the visual and sound feedback, and an overall process of iterative design. Peggle took nine months of prototyping, followed by one year of full-scaled production

• “Pacing” is a concept related to the overall rhythm of the game

• “Tension” can be described as perceived danger, as it's within the realm of perception using sound and other mediums to make the player feel as if they're in danger when theyr'e not.

• “Threat” is real danger, it's mechanic and generated by the direct conflict between player and system or player and opponenet.

• “Movement Impetus” is the will of a player to move forward through a level. It determines how willing the player is to make “advancement decisions”, thus representing his interest in keep playing.

• “Tempo” is the intensity of play, it's the time taken between each significant decision made by the player. A high temp in a game means the player is taking a long time to make decisions, and a lower tempo represents more frantic decision-making by the player.

• By giving more possibility to the player, it can drastically slow down the tempo of the game.

• “The destiny of games is to become boring, not to be fun. Those of us who want games to be fun are fighting a losing battle against the human brain because fun is a process and routine is its destination. All of this happens because the human mind is goal driven”.

• Our brains are constantly trying to optimize information and simply it, we create patterns throughout our lives to identify writing, speech, expressions, and everything perceived by our senses.

• If all the patterns in games have become figured out, the game becomes uninteresting (such as tic-tac-toe, with its narrow space of possibility).

• When a player is frustrated by a “hard” game, it usually means they can't figure out all of the patterns required by the system to advance the experience.

• In Bejeweled, it would have been easy to add the decision to choose diagonal jewels as well, but by doing so it would add too many possibilities for the player to choose from; he would take too long scanning the board before making a move because we, as humans, like to analyse all of our possibilities before taking a move.

• Because a casual game has to be “pick up and playable”, when designing it one must pace the experience to provide the player with time to learn and time to play. There should be little or no tutorial.

• A simple game will get boring, but a complex game will take too long to learn. This means that there must be a perfect balance or “sweet spot” between small and large spaces of possibility.

• Part of the solution is to switch focus from the lower to the upper arch of Pacing. Most games introduce layering game mechanics and raise the difficulty as they make progress; this is the most common-sense and widely used solution.

• Replacing instead of adding means that instead of gradually adding new elements to the mechanics, the idea is to replace some non-core mechanics – and even the core itself sometimes – in a perceivably constant rhythm.

• Plants Vs. Zombies has a really good system of patterns in the mechanics. Every level you complete, you unlock a new plant to use on the next level, every 5 levels you unlock a whole new game-play area, and there are also instances where the core mechanics are changed completely for mini-games.

My Thoughts

I found this article to be extremely interesting for a number of personal reasons. I have been interested in the concept of casual gaming for a long time now, because the way the games have to be designed is complex yet seemingly simple at the same time. Finding the right balance between a complex game and a "pick up and play" game seems to be a hard feat, but if done correctly, it could make a brilliant game which could keep audiences interested for years like the work of PopCap.

Improved Character Bios + Storyline

My story is told in the third-person, as I would aim it to be a children’s television show, and by being in the third person it allows a narrator and it also makes it easy to switch between two characters in distant locations.

For my storyboard, I will be telling the origin of my characters, which would (if made into a show) be during the introduction of the first episode; it could also be used as the introduction to every episode if a quicker version of it were made.

Start

Far out in space there is a planet called Somnus which is inhabited with many different plants, animals, and most importantly, there are homo-sapiens who simply refer to themselves as Hyooms. The planet is a beautiful place which is covered in forest land, spreading far beyond the eye can see. Hidden away beneath the leaves there are small villages of Hyooms, living their daily lives and slowly cutting away the forests to build new homes for the ever-expanding population.

It was a quiet night, almost too quiet. On most nights you would hear the cries and howls of the creatures in the forest, but this night was different. On this night there were no sounds around the village, only the light crackling of bonfires lit by Hyooms were echoing through the trees. Suddenly, a cloud blast was heard from above and the villagers quickly shot their gaze into the cloudy sky, only to see a large amount of light being cast down upon their planet, lighting it up with an orange glow. Just then, they saw the source of the light shooting through the clouds above, and it appeared to be a small speck of orange falling at incredible speeds towards the forest. Another loud blast was heard as it hit the ground, causing a small rumble beneath the feet of every villager, and then the orange glow faded away once more as peace was returned.

Middle

Somewhere in the middle of the forest, there was still a small tint of orange lighting up a few meters of grass. At the centre of the light, a rock no bigger than the palm of a hand was resting in the small hole it created. Around the rock the various plants began to move, their leaves branching out as they grew and shook; the plants were given new life that day.

In the middle of it all, perched over the hole created by this mysterious rock was a very small budded flower. This flower bud was a dark green, and if you were to look closely, you could see the yellow and pink petals poking through. The bud suddenly began to sprout, opening up slowly to reveal two red eyes looking out of the darkness as the flower became self-aware. It was clear from the arched, clunky movements it made as it grew, and the evil expression on its face, that this plant had no goodwill towards its surroundings. This was the day Baneslime and his evil plant army was born, and it was also the day that he proclaimed his revenge against the Hyooms for stealing his land.

End

[A few weeks later]

Buried beneath the earth, only a few short meters away from the mysterious rock lays a small and confused plant.  This plant, which looks similar to a turnip, had been slowly becoming self-aware whilst trapped under the earth, secluded from the outside world. He was lonely; he didn’t know his purpose in life and just wanted somebody or something to communicate with. He suddenly felt the ground rumble around him and sensed the presence of another being.

Above ground a young Hyoom, only 8 years old, had ventured afar from the nearby village of Kinelly to explore the forest and all of the wonderful life it grew. As he was walking he spotted the tip of a plant sticking out of the grass near him and thought that it was some sort of vegetable waiting to be plucked from the ground. The boy lent down and gently grabbed the strange plant, and then with one great yank he pulled it out from the ground, gravity pulling him backwards as he fell to the ground. To the boy’s surprise, in his hands he held a small creature, no taller than his knee.

There was an awkward silence during this surprise meeting, until the boys felt something slimy touch his foot; he turned around, only to see a very large, menacing, shadowy creature looming over him. The Baneslime’s piercing red eyes squinted as he made out the boy to be a Hyoom, and then lifted one of his 8 tentacle-like vines, preparing to strike the boy. As the vine fell towards him, the boy felt himself moving, and suddenly he was gliding along the ground at blazing speeds! Bewildered by his current situation, the boy looked down below him to see that he was being carried along by the small plant he rescued from the ground earlier, it was running at amazing speeds, weaving in and out of the trees gracefully before slowing down to a stop.

From this moment on, the boy and the plant knew that they held a great friendship with eachother after saving eachothers lives that day. The boy had found a new best friend, and the plant had found a purpose in life: protecting this boy and defeating the evil creature he’d just encountered. The two of them then ran back to the boy’s village, the plant making a small “Pip!” sound as they scurried off.

Zotero Exercise - Compiling a Bibliography

We were introduced to the library system at UCS as well as how to compile a Bibliography using software called Zotero; I used the Add-On for Firefox to make this, along with some minor tweaks.


Co, P., 2006. Level Design for Games: Creating Compelling Game Experiences 1st ed., New Riders.


Rosenzweig, G., 2011. ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University 2nd ed., QUE.


Adams, E., 2009. Fundamentals of Game Design 2nd ed., Berkeley, CA: New Riders.


Brathwaite, B., 2008. Challenges for Game Designers 1st ed., Delmar Publishing.


Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E., 2003. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, The MIT Press.


Dille, F. & Platten, J.Z., 2008. The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design, Lone Eagle.

Week 6 Reading Notes - Chance vs Skill

Chance

Chance is an important element of a lot of games, as it allows the game to have a much wider audience and makes a lot of games more fun. Chance appears in many games where we wouldn’t have even noticed it; it makes boring, mindless decisions more interesting to the players.

The Role of Chance in Games

Delaying solvability

Solvability affects how compelling a game is, because when a game is solvable easily, it means the players can see the ending; like when a player can easily see that they’re going to lose, they are much more likely to walk away from the game.

Making play competitive for all players

A lot of games need to be made equal for everybody playing, and by adding an element of chance to the game, it becomes less reliant on skill and therefore even the weakest of players stand a chance of winning.

Increasing Variety

When a game has an element of chance, the player’s choices are widened significantly by adding a larger number of situations which can come about at any time.

Creating Dynamic Moments

When waiting to see if a plan or action has succeeded or failed, it can be a very tense moment. Even without strategy, random processes playing out can be compelling as well.

Enhancing Decision Making

When there is a random element in games, there’s never a tactic which always works. Some moves in games like chess are small but safe, whereas there are others which are risky but reward greatly.

Mechanics of Chance

Dice

Rolling a single die is about as random as you can get. However, when rolling two dice, the outcome is not nearly as random. The more dice you roll at once, the less random the outcome.

Cards

Cards are very versatile game elements. They can be used in many ways; they can be shuffled, played face-down, be used as resources, or even be used to track game information.

Hidden Information

When non-random information is hidden from a player, it’s still random from their perspective. In games like Go Fish, each player knows what cards they are holding, but the opponents make wild guesses because they don’t know themselves; to them it seems random.

Other Game Bits

Lots of other forms of randomness are variants of the above. Spinners are like dice, flipping a coin is like a two-sided die, a dreidel is like a four-sided die, and cardboard tiles from a bag are like a deck of cards.

Skill

Enhances choice in games by allowing the player to know whats going to happen when they make a move

Chance can make a game feel unfair and frustrating, or boring as the player has no control over what happens. This is because chance doesn't have any interesting decision-making.

Decisions

Obvious decisions

If a decision has an obvious answer with no thought put into it, it should be automatic so as not to distract the player from more interesting decisions.

Blind decision

A decision which you have no information on, so no matter what you choose you won't be in control of the game; it’s just a random decision.

Meaningless decision

A decision with no right or wrong answer, it doesn't affect the game in any way. You could get a choice in a game, but whichever choice you choose ends in exactly the same result.

Trade-Offs

Trade-off decisions are when you pick one decision, but it means you have to lose whatever the other decision offers. This would be like getting a choice over a knife or a gun before a fight. No right or wrong answer, just tactics. Risk vs. reward trade-offs offer you higher risk and reward, or lower risk and less rewards.

You want to keep the players locked into the game by constantly making them make decisions, the more frequent their decisions, the more immersed they will become in the game.

Key mechanics of skill

Auctions

Auctions allow players an opportunity to get something for cheap, but it also means you could end up paying more for an item; they also help create tension as they reach the climax. Auctions allow you to alter supply and demand. Closed auctions are when each player takes it in turns to bid, and whoever drops out loses. Open auctions are when anybody can drop in and leave a bid for an item; both types are tense because each player may have different reasons for bidding on an item in a game, they may put up a ridiculously high price, but if they get said item they may win the game. Should you still go against them in the bid?

Abilities

Objects which give you limited opportunities so you may have to use them wisely and with the right timing. 

My Thoughts On The Chapters

After reading these chapters, I know realise the great importance chance and skill have on games. I think for a Games Designer, it's crucial to decide whether you want your game to be skill-based, chance-based or a mixture of the two early on, as it affects the gameplay in such a way that your target audience could change drastically depending on which you choose.


There are a lot of ways to utilize chance and skill whilst designing games, but it seems very hard to get a good balance between the two. I learnt this when doing our iterations on Friday's lesson; when trying to give a chance-based game an element of skill it was extremely hard, whereas giving a skill-based game an element of chance was far too easy, and we couldn't get a good balance.


Overall I enjoyed reading the chapters and I've now got a good insight into the roles of chance and skill in games, as well as the mechanics I need to implement to achieve them.