Reading: Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics.

What are those mechanics and how do they work?

  Well, Mechanics are the necessary pieces we need to play the game, whatever that game may be, the rules, the venue, the equipment, etc.  If we think of that game as a system, the mechanics are the complete description of that system.

  So to create a dramatic game, and it's dynamics, we need something called a dramatic arc, this is the aesthetic model for drama.  This is the rising and falling of a well-told story, the central conflict of the narrative creates tension that accumulates as the story builds to a climax, and dissipates as the conflict is resolved.

  As tools for formalizing our own design objectives, aesthetic models can help us know when we have achieved them, and if we're headed in the right direction.  We give each experience/or aesthetic pleasure it's own aesthetic model. So, dramatic tension is our level of emotional investment in the story's conflict, be that the concern, apprehension or the urgency to see the story's outcome.  When using Drama as an aesthetic, the dramatic arc is the aesthetic model for stories, and how those stories convey emotional content.

  Moving on to Dramatic tension, it consists of two elements, they are Uncertainty and Inevitability.  We use Uncertainty to create the sense that the outcome of an action, or the story, is unknown.  We use Inevitability to create the sense that the resolution to the conflict is coming.  Dramatic tension relies on both of these things to work together, neither are sufficient on their own.  The game's Uncertainty and it's Inevitability are evoked by different systems and mechanics, and are use to create and ongoing sense that the game/story/contest is coming to a close.

  Another way of manipulating the player or the reader is to use Force and Illusion, we can use Force to create dynamic tension by manipulating the state of the game/story itself.  Illusion however, is used to manipulate the player's perception so the game seems closer to an end that it is.  All of these things are used to create Feedback systems, which if used in a positive or negative way can affect how a player achieves a goal or is hindered during a game.

  These systems are complex and use four functions to achieve the desired effect.  We have the Game State, Scoring Function, Controller and the Game Mechanical Bias.

- Game State  The complete of the game at any particular moment.
- Scoring Function  Sensor of the feedback system (The rules of the game, who is winning, by how much, etc).
- Mechanical Bias  The activator of the feedback system (The rule that gives contestants advantages over eachother).
- Controller  The comparator of the feedback system (The rule that chooses which player receives the Mechanic Bias, based on the Scoring Function).

  So, what types of feedback are there and how do they affect the game and/or the player?  We have Negative feedback as a source of uncertainty and Positive feedback as an aid to Denouement.

- Negative feedback (as a source of uncertainty) depends of the player's perception that the outcome is unknown, be it tied scores, etc.

- Positive feedback (as an aid to denouement) is a way to dispel any uncertainty and create finality and closure of the story.  Positive feedback systems, provide a mechanism for breaking the equilibrium (balance) and moving the game forward.

I'm going to go ahead and list a few more types of feedback, or rather, other sources of uncertainty. They are...

- Pseudo-Feedback (Creating dynamics with a negative illusion, or the perception of another feedback system).
- Escalation (A mechanic in which score changes faster and faster over the course of a game).
- Hidden Energy (Creates dynamic uncertainty by manipulating the player's incomplete understanding of the game's 'true' score).
- Fog of War (Simulates limitations of the game character's ability to perceive the world around them).
- Decelerator (An obstacle or mechanic that slows down player's late in the game to change it's pace).
- Cashing Out (The score is set to zero).

  Lastly, I'll move onto the main source of dramatic inevitability, the proverbial 'Ticking Clock', which is the drawing to an end of the story or game, whether it be by a score, laps, time left, etc.

Task: Games Britannia - Dicing With Destiny.

  I recently watched a TV programme (I know, old-school) called Games Britannia, in which the presenter Benjamin Woolley explores popular games in Britain from the Iron age to present day, and unravels the cultural and social history behind the games we play today.

  The programme starts with Woolley describing an archaeological dig where a grave was found, the body was buried on top of a pre-set game board and other ancient relics we now know as Alea Evangelii.  The body found in this grave must have been of some importance to this great find, the creator perhaps, or a means for divination?

  We then move on to the works of Dr. Irving Finkel, the Curator of the British Museum (at time of broadcast) whom goes on to talk about the possible rules of the game, which are still only speculated.  The board is 19x19 squares (as seen below) and one player will have more pieces than the other.

So, let's go into the basic premise of game play... 

- The Black Player takes the first turn of the game.
- A player must move one piece on a turn.
- If a player cannot move one piece they lose a turn.

Movement
- Pieces move orthogonally any number of intersections.
- No piece can move onto or through an occupied intersection.
- The King is the only piece that can move onto or through the Castle.
- The King is the only piece that can move onto or through the Citadels.

Capturing a basic piece:
- A piece can only be captured on the enemy's turn by the enemy piece moved on that turn.
- A piece is captured by an enemy piece when it becomes surrounded on two opposite sides by adjacent enemy pieces.
- The King cannot be one of the pieces used in the capturing of an enemy piece.

Capturing the King happens:
- If the King becomes surrounded on all four sides by enemy pieces.
- If the King becomes surrounded on three sides by enemy pieces when positioned on the edge of the game board.

End of the game:
- The Black Player wins the game if the King is captured.
- The White Player wins the game if the King sails to a corner.

  Woolley then goes on to investigate other ancient games that we know as modern games, Such as Chess, Ludo and Snakes & Ladders to name a few.  These games originally came from India and were modified in such a way to remove the spiritual aspect and lean more towards sales and feasibility.

  In all, I enjoyed learning that the games I grew up with were originally spiritual games played many moons ago, I look forward to watching another episode.

Task: Bibliography.

  After finally being introduced to the library system and how to access copious amounts of information across a number of institutes, we were set the task of creating a short bibliography, including two books, two journal articles and two contributions to books.  You'll find this below; on a similar note, Zotero is stupid when it comes to Google Chrome, so this could go drastically wrong.

Moock, C., 2007. Essential ActionScript 3.0 1st ed., Adobe Dev Library.

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

Turner, M.C., 2006. GAMES PEOPLE PLAY. Black Enterprise, 36(10), p.53.

Weinstein, A.M., 2010. Computer and Video Game Addiction—A Comparison between Game Users and Non-Game Users. American Journal of Drug & Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), pp.268-276.

Caillois, R. 2006. "The Definition of Play. The Classification of Games". Salen. K and Zimmermann.E. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. London. 122-155.

Jenkins, H. 2006. "Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Space". Salen. K and Zimmermann.E. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. London. 330-363.

I'm hoping the final two contributions are correct, took a while to fathom the procedure and find the contributions themselves.

Reading: M.D.A. Framework.

  What is it?  MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics & Aesthetics) is a formal approach to understanding games and bridges the gap between the design & development and the criticism & technical research.  There are distinct components to the MDA and they are:

- Mechanics (The components of the game, at a level of data representation and algorithms.)
- Dynamics (The run-time behaviour of the mechanics acting on player input and output.)
- Aesthetics (The desirable emotional responses in the player, when interacting with the game system.)

  When creating a game, designers must consider interdependencies carefully before implementing changes to the design, and decisions about the data, it's representation and methodology will all shape the final game play.  Interaction between the coded subsystems can create complex, dynamic and often unpredictable behaviour.

  Games are more like artefacts than media, the content of a game is it's behaviour and as a designer, the mechanics give rise to dynamic system behaviour leading to aesthetic experiences.  However, as a player, aesthetics set the tone, which is born out of the dynamics and mechanics of the game.  When working with games, we must consider the perspectives of the player and the designer, it helps observe how small changes can have a large impact and considering the player encourages experience-driven design as opposed to feature-driven design.

Aesthetics, what makes a game fun?

- Sensation (Game as Sense-pleasure)
- Fantasy (Game as Make-believe)
- Narrative (Game as Drama)
- Challenge (Game as Obstacle-course)
- Fellowship (Game as Social framework)
- Discovery (Game as Uncharted territory)
- Expression (Game as Self-discovery)
- Submission (Game as a past-time)

Games pursue multiple aesthetic goals in varying degrees.  Simple changes in the aesthetic requirements of a game will introduce mechanical changes to it's "AI" on many levels, however there are no "AI" mechanics as such, intelligence comes from the interaction of "AI" logic with game logic.

Dynamics, creating the aesthetic experience

  We design games based on how we want our player to emotionally feel when playing it, so if I wanted the game to be challenging, I would create a mechanic such as a time limit and opposition.  If I wanted to add fellowship to this, now challenging, game I have a mechanic of allowing players to exchange information and use tactics if within a team.

  Expression can come from dynamics allowing players to "leave their mark" with achievements, high scores, monetary gain, etc.

  Dramatic tension can come from dynamics that try to create or encourage a rising tension or escalating an event within the game, and the mechanics which are various actions, behaviours and control mechanisms given to the player within the game context are invoked.

To conclude, when designing a game, it is important to think about how you want your player to feel and react before setting mechanics and dynamics in stone, we must create the mechanics from the emotional responses we want the player to have.

Reading: Formal Abstract Design Tools.

"Games are not books, games are not movies, in those media, the tools used… are used to manipulate the viewers or readers, to make them feel or react exactly the way the director or author wants them to.  I believe the challenge of computer games design is that our most important tools are the ones that empower players to make their own decisions.” (Doug Church, 1999)

  After reading the article on Gamasutra, I began to think about how, in the past, the digital creations I have produced were not made the way they were supposed to be.  In reality, you don’t design a game that you want to play (as a fan), instead you design a game that will sell, cater to the audience applicable and then move on.  This hit home a little, because I’ve spent 2 years trying to create a game that will encompass all aspects that I would want to see, and I realize, this game will never be completed, because it was designed as a fan.

Church mentions that there are various disciplines involved in making a game; Design, Art, Audio, Levels, Code, etc.  He also describes that Formal Abstract Design Tools is an attempt to create a framework for a shared vocabulary that can be used to guide a development team to a final product. Let’s go through each of these individually.

Formal:  Implying precise definition and the ability to explain it to others.

Abstract:  Emphasize the focus on underlying, not specific genre constructs.

Design:  We ARE Designers.

Tools:  Form the common vocabulary we want to create.

“A design vocabulary is our toolkit to pick apart games and take the parts that resonate with us to realise our own game vision, or refine how our own games work”.

So, what are the tools?

Intention: To make an implementable plan of one’s own creations in response to the current situation in the game world and one’s understanding of the game play options.

Perceivable Consequence:  A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player.

Story:  The narrative thread, whether designer-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward completion of the game.

For those outside of the Institute that would like to read the article, it can be found at http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal_abstract_design_tools.php

Reading: I have no words & I must design.

  I have recently read a document by Greg Costikyan, where he describes that “a game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals”.

He goes into incredible detail deciphering exactly what that means; delving into the nature of games, what they consist of and how they can keep a player entertained and wanting more without that feeling of boredom that no game designer would want to be encountered.

So, what are they, and how do they apply to us?

  A game wouldn’t be a game if it wasn’t interactive in some way or another.  Interaction is key in games, without it, you’d have a lot of pixels with nothing to do, as well as the player. Would there be a player at all, without interaction itself?  Interaction is purposeful, when we interact with something, as result must occur, we are changing the state of something.

  What is Struggle?  Struggle is a way of challenging the player, giving them an experience, something to work towards, much like in Chess.  The idea being strategy, you must think two or three moves ahead of your opponent to try and win.  To give the player an experience, they must have an objective, be it getting from A to B, killing something, or even winning.

  Let’s move on to Game Structure, what does it mean?  “Game structure has to do with the means by which the game shapes player behaviour”, the game shapes the player behaviour but it does not determine it.  That’s what you are for, if you cannot determine your player’s behaviour, are you even playing a game at all?  “Structure is a complex interacting system that does not dictate outcomes but guides behaviour through the need to achieve a single goal”.

  Endogenous meaning, this is caused by factors inside the system.  Let’s talk here about Capital and Achievements, these are assets in-game that affect how your player is perceived by you or others, but unfortunately, have no meaning in the real world.  Much like trying to deposit your Monopoly money in the bank, it has no real world value, but in a game, can make or break you.

I think I’ll end here with a quote from Costikyan that I thought apt for this post.

“One of the most difficult tasks people can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games”.

Task: Defining Games.

  What is a Videogame?  A Videogame, by it's very name, is a game with a 'Video' element attached.  'Video' implies that, there is a visual component to the entertainment of the game itself.

  During our last Critical Games Studies class, our lecturer, Eddie Duggan, took us through the meanings of Videogames, Game & Play, down to the base definitions.  He begun by diverting our attention to a text by Johann Huizinga, who wrote Homo Ludens (originally published in 1938).  Homo Ludens, meaning "Playing Man" is a pun on Homo Sapiens, meaning "Knowing Man".

  Ludens says "Play is a free activity standing quite consciously outside ordinary life as being not serious, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly".  I have to say, I completely agree with this, it's so easy to immerse yourself in a game, not only on a story level, but the gameplay aspect itself.

Moving further on, and getting a bit deeper into it, Salen and Zimmerman (Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, 2004) observe that "A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome".

  One way of classifying games is by genre, Newman (Videogames, 2003) cites Beren's and Howard's 2001 typology (Rough Guide to Videogaming, 2001) which lists seven categories:

- Action and Adventure
- Driving and Racing
- First Person Shooter
- Platform and Puzzle
- Role-Playing
- Strategy and Simulation
- Sports and Beat Em' Ups

  However, genre's can be repetitive, they can be added to, changed dramatically to create some new classification, which I will not go onto list, It could be endless.  Newman also refers to the terms "Paidea" and "Ludus".  Paidea meaning a game that you play for pleasure, ie: Sandbox, Sim City, etc.  Ludus meaning a game that is constrained more by Rules and has a clear outcome, ie: Winning.

I'm going to list now a few of the games that come to mind following those rules.

Paidea
- The Sims
- Grand Theft Auto
- Sim City
- EVE: Online
- Everquest

Ludus
- Connect 4
- Chess
- Chequers
- Backgammon
- Battleships

  What's interesting about this is the outcome of said lists, my immediate thoughts for games that are "Ludus" are all board games, but why?  If you delve deeper into the types of game, you may come across terms such as Agon, Alea, Ilinx & Mimicry, which Caillois (2001) adapts from Huizinga.

Agon:  Competitive play, the struggle to win.
Alea:  Chance/Randomness, like the way Tetris plays.
Ilinx:  Style of movement, Parkour, Vertigo.
Mimicry:  Simulation, Make-believe, Role-Play.

  Some games combine these elements, Newman observed that the card game Poker combines Agon and Alea, as does Tetris.  Make of this what you will, when you really think about the definition of a game and it's play, I think this is exactly it.

Practical: 15 Minute Challenge.

I, personally, love a challenge… be it creating something I’ve never done before or pushing harder to perfect the already perfect, I, am there.

  So, that being said, we were set the task of creating a playable board game in 15 minutes, a challenge in itself, but with conditions; the board must contain no more than 50 spaces.  The first thought that came to mind was a simple Snakes & Ladders type game on a 7x7 grid, that’s 49 spaces, lovely.  Now, I needed a premise, race to the end before your opponent, why not!

  My game started quite simple, a counter to represent each player on the board and two dice to roll for each move, land on a black square and on your next move, you can only throw one die instead of two.  Look below and you’ll find the initial board, much to be done, but that’s why we have “bug” testers; and during this task, they were the other game designers.

  The game has now been played, and feedback is on it's way.  So iterations one and two are here, there was no way to determine whether a player wins or not by rolling a number higher than the amount needed to finish the game. I added the "home-straight", where the player within the said area must roll the exact number required to win and by using only one die.

  Now, for another player to come in and "bug" test my game, and what better person than Rob Kurta.  He explained that a player should be able to challenge the other, and not let the board control those challenges.  The players should also have choice, and with this choice they can challenge the opponent or take a chance to gain an advantage on the board.  So after a in-depth conversation, iteration three and four have emerged.  Instead of the board deciding that if a player were to land on a dark square, they have to forfeit a dice roll, the  player can now choose to miss a go or to use one die instead of two.

  However, there is still no advantage for players that are disadvantaged by landing on a darkened square, so the final iteration of the task was to add squares the give the upper hand so-to-speak.

  Players that now land on a green square can choose whether the opponent misses a go or roll's only one die for their next move... although this game is nowhere near perfect, I believe that the challenge was a good one. To design a game in 15 minutes is easy, it won't be perfect, and that's why it has to be tested.  You can iterate  it a few times or a hundred times before it works; and if you cant get it to work, you can scrap it.  It's only taken an hour after all, and you haven't lost millions of pounds if you were creating a AAA video game.

  To conclude, I've designed a game in 15 minutes, after one hour, it's been tested and iterated.  I believe, after playing it a few times, it's a fun game; but by no means perfect.

A valuable lesson in any case, bring on game number two.