Attempt 2

Bibliography Post attempt number 2
Books
Braithwaite, B. and Schreiber, I. 2009, Challenges for Game Designers, Charles River Media
Ver Hague, J. Jackson, C. 2006, Flash 3D, Animation, Interactivity and Games, Focal press

Contribution to Books

Caillois, R., 1962, The Definition of Play: The Classification of Games, Salen, K., The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, pp-00

Simon Cowell, 2006 Foreword, Chris Moyles, The gospel according to Chris Moyles Ebury Press pp-01

Articles

Chun, R., 2004. Design Simple Flash Games. , Macworld, Vol. 21, Issue 4, pp-00

Finding articles and contributions to books is seeming to be harder than I imagined...

My true home....

This weekend has been a busy one for me, so much to think about and so little that I understand!

To start on Friday Sean and I built a race track for a remote control car using nothing but tape and cardboard. A lengthy task however the results were amazing! For a whole days work it seemed a good result. This wasn't for no reason however as the next day there was an event where general public gathered in a fun fair style set up to watch fireworks and pay to play the side shows in aid of the scouting movement in which I am a part of.


So the Friday evening I packed my equipment readying myself to go on camp in freezing temperatures. 3-5 layers were obtained and I was on my way to Hallowtree, I was going to where I consider, home. Or at least my home from home.
Camping has always been a joy of mine, be it the fire or the back to basics style of life, there is nothing better than sitting by a crackling fire at night, beer in hand and all your daily worries forgotten for just that moment while you are at peace.
I could dwell on this however I fear with a lack of technological input this section could become very tedious very quickly however I did find that the extra time away from my computer allowed me to read a few sections from Challenges for Game Designers (Braithwait.B, Boston, MA. 2009) and this weeks reading, 'A formal approach to Games design and Game Research' (Hunicke.R, LeBlanc.M, Zubek.R)

So I was away until Sunday, when I returned home tired and in need of a good wash. This was not however the end of my day. As me and my colleagues at work did so well last year in Mystery shopper results, we were rewarded with a night of 'magical comedy' at the Spa pavilion. Sitting amongst a crowd of young and old were our works crew, the various acts amazed the masses and rounded of a generally calm and relaxed weekend.

Now to return to working on and pitching our game, back in the real world after 2 days of escapism.

So to start, my teams game, Circuitry Absurdity (Which I believe is still a working title) is going extremely well. So far we have multiple concepts in place for characters and game board etc. So we all have an idea of how the game will eventually look and feel. With tweaks in game play mechanics last week we are honing in on how the game will eventually play.
The initial idea was to teach the student how to create circuits and what appliances could be included safely and effectively. With the added aspect of breaking a circuit with a switch.
One of the weeks tasks was to change the game concept into a working board game and with a high success rate we created a game for 2 to four players where going head to head to strategically out wit your opponent adds the extra aspect of competition to the game. We then made a decision that the board games actual game play could be ported to our final version of the game on flash.
We are still discovering and exploring how our game can become a reality and with the prospect of adding project managers in the coming week to help push our ideas, this reality is getting closer.

Another aspect of this course (along with many others) is the use of bibliographies in our essays and work
In the second paragraph are two texts that I mention however I don't think I have referenced them right mid sentence and will probably need to refine my skills in this respect.

Otherwise this is the end of a hectic weekend. Its been a good one.

Ross, Out.

Busy Times!

G'Morning!

Recently I feel that I have been cheating on this blog, a sudden increase in workload and increase in activity outside my online life has rendered this blog a second thought. Well this morning I have found a spare half hour to catch everyone up on my recent escapades!

To start, good news!
I teamed up with Sean Edwick a few weeks back to create a new game with the brief outlining to aim at key stage 1 children and to make it educational. This meant scouring the curriculum to find something that'd make an interesting game.
We settled on Science and in particular Circuitry.

Fresh in mind was Bioshock. The game has a 'hacking' system which uses a 'Pipe Dream' style of game play to move onto the next section. Using this idea I thought we could do something with this segment of the curriculum.

Bioshock hacking screen

The good part of this news is that our game has now gone to the second stage in development [or second stage in this process]
With a team of 5 of us we are now working on graphical interface and other aspects to get the game fully on its way.



So that is one revelation that has affected how much sleep I'm getting (the increase in work is very detrimental to sleep as it turns out)

In another module, 'Playtech', [the gambling games company I did work experience with in 2006...ish] came in to set the first years a task to re-skin or re-design one of their games.


With our initial pitches last week, I mocked up my idea for a Mario style re-design. Without knowledge of the actual restrictions in flash I created a game concept that would be interesting to all fans of games. [The re-design could then be re-designed to a skin for another game for example]



So all in all I have a lot of work to do...

I'm not even going to get started on how bad I am at coding!
I did however get a simple game of Pong set up. Granted you cant win, nor does the ball reset but its pong enough for me =)


I have to say I'm really enjoying this Uni malarkey, so far each task set has been interesting and fresh.
Even the reading is fun!

Ross, Out.

The meaning of life...

A great book (and not so great film) once said, the meaning of life is '42'

Well today is 10.10.10
Where's the connection? In Binary 101010 is 42...
Now I could repeat everything I just read on this website
http://www.fortytwoday.com/
But  I wont, instead you should all undergo some fourtytwo day celebrations =)

Yes I did just sit and wait for about an hour to take this screen shot...

Ross, Out.

Good and Evil...

In a gaming world it would seem there are multiple ways to progress through a story line or narrative. Two examples in which I am currently studying are:

Paidea + Ludus

Both are very simple methods to travel through a gaming environment using confusing words to add to my vocabulary.
A Paidea game can be easily described as a sandbox game which allows players to work through the game at their pace attempting various techniques to 'win' the game. The Sims or SimCity are both examples of this type of game.
A Ludus game however is one where the player is restricted by rules and regulations with clear winning conditions, a more linear style of game play. This could be described as a puzzle where to solve the puzzle you must abide by the rules.

A game which uses both of these methods of game play is Black and White.

A God/Simulation/Sandbox game where you can micromanage villages and raise a 'creature' to help wage war or aid building an empire to control the world through fear and terror or benevolence and belief respectively.

The game allows the player to work at their own pace through the game using a series of 'Gold Story Scrolls' to progress. This means the player can then build up an empire with the time they are given to manage their village or they can focus on becoming the only God in each land (level).

This is a good example of Paidea game play whereby the player is left to themselves in a sandbox mode given the opportunity and tools to do what they want, become good or evil in an alignment system which affects the way the game plays.

These two characters are the players conscience. Good and Evil. They also help push the storyline and guide when needed if the story scrolls are not selected

Although the game allows the player to play on their own making their own decisions, it also has elements of Ludus game play. With Gold story scrolls there are also Silver reward scrolls. These are little mini game/puzzles in which the player has to use different techniques to figure out the outcome and gain a reward.. The game makes the player conform to the rules and regulations to discover the solution.

With Black and White being a good example of both paidea and ludus game play, Sim City is an example of singularly Paidea.
In particular i recently installed Sim City 4.

The game allows the player to create a vast city and so the player can create their own goals e.g. profits, expansion or even 'survive a natural disaster'.

Leaving the player to interact with the game system on their own can lead to a game where the user pushes the system to its limits with the players imagining and creating their own style of play and not needing influence from missions or goals, the wining conditions are to build the biggest, most profitable city. Or as with Sim City 4, the player can create and build their city and then destroy it as they see fit using the built in God mode.

Two very different games, two similar ways of play conforming to the paidea and ludus theories.

Black and white however has always been a favourite game of mine, I expect I will be discussing this game a lot.

Ross, Out

Gaming Legends

In the gaming world there are countless charcters and personalities that could be considered true 'gaming legends'.
Mario, Spyro, Solid Snake, Crash, Link, Master Chief, Nathan Drake, Soap McTavish, Frog (from Frogger) Rayman and the countless Lemmings who gave their lives for our amusment.
However I dont want to look at them, they have been given their limelight.

Instead I have been wandering the vast interwebs and have discovered that some of the players themselves are legendary within their own rights.

Although I have never followed the Halo franchise hearing that they were to close the Halo 2 servers on April 15th 2010, brought a sad thought. Consider the countless frags that the servers must have seen, the many deaths that ensued for entertainment of all Xbox users and nothing to commemorate.
With gamers hearing the news, 'dozens' logged on and continue playing past the termination date, vowing to continue playing until either 'their Xbox consoles conk out, a power or network outage takes them offline, or Microsoft boots them'.
Halo 2's server finally shut down on the 11th May 2010 when the last player was booted.
Xbox live screen name - Apache N4SIR
The last man in an epic battle of player vs server. A true legend.

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/214933/dozens-still-playing-halo-2-on-xbox-live/

This news post got me thinking, who else out there is willing to apply their time to push the game systems to their maximum limits, or just play in extraordinary ways.

I then stumbled into this post by a guy called Andrew Reiner, he is following the story of a part time gamer currently playing Modern Warfare 2 under the screen name - 'Mr_No_Kills'.

Pushing a game to its limits can take many forms, this unlikely gamer (real name Glen) is trying to level up to 70 (highest possible level) without actually killing anything.
In this Ghandi style epic; Glen can only gather points by capturing flags and using the passive style to win games.
It takes guts to complete such a task, and patience of a saint. With my Jedi type ability to shoot on sight, I would never be able to complete such epic proportions of gaming mastery.
I believe this guy should be allowed legendary status.

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/08/24/modern-warfare-2-player-attempting-to-reach-level-70-without-killing-anyone.aspx

Pushing games to the limits, playing games to achieve greater heights than the average player. Trophies? Achievements? No. Self Actualisation is what this is about.

Ross, Out.

Back to my level

Maths was never a strong point for me, however I believe there is a game available to teach me the error of my ways and bring my education back on track...

Key stage 1 Bitesize 'Shape Lab' - Linked below
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/

Having recently examined a text by Greg Costikyan, I can break down a game into minimum of 6 basic categories or key areas to explore and write about.
-Interaction
-Goals
-Struggle
-Structure
-Endogenous Meaning
-Evaluation

To start, an analysis of Interaction between player and gamer or in this case, student.
The main interaction is through 3 buttons, each a different option for the student to make when deciding upon the answer to the question posed by 'Pablo'
With limited feedback upon the choice made and little change to the game state there is no actual teaching involved to show a student how to correct themselves in the situation.

Every game needs a Goal to create a purposeful and progressive reason to interact with the game system.
The Goal for a key stage 1 game will be very primitive and in this case, to build a robot.
Short term objectives such as selecting the correct answer and long term to create the robot and get that final sense of satisfaction.

Another category in which Greg Costikyan outlined was a Struggle. A Challenge within the game to give the player a sense of achievement when they get to the end of the game having won.
In 'Shape Lab' there is little to no challenge for a player of higher education such as myself however if I gave the game to someone of Key stage 1 age, they may 'struggle' with the 'Really Difficult' setting.

Nearly every game has a set of rules and boundaries also known as a Structure for the game.
With a very basic interface and the student having a choice of 3 buttons, there is no player freedom. Generally in a game the structure will shape how the player behaves, giving them multiple choices in where to go and how to get there. This is not an example of this structure.

The penultimate category for Endogenous Meaning is one which is simpler to explain first.
A good example in Costikyan's text is Monopoly money.
If someone in the street gave you a £100 note in monopoly money, you'd consider them crazy. But during  a game of Monopoly that £100 note would be fought over as it becomes the only thing that matters.
By 'Endogenous meaning' - In the context of the game, game components are important to the player, in the real world they are meaningless.
In this key stage 1 game there is little that can be considered important inside the game and or outside the game. The main bulk of what the user takes away is the knowledge gained.

 The final category is Evaluation. Need i explain?
Coming to the conclusion, whilst bearing in mind the game is for key stage one children, it is a relatively simple game/quiz. The structure and interactivity is quick and easy to get to grips with and the challenge can be refined to certain skill levels.
The learning aspect in this game (and the whole series of bitesize key stage 1 games), there are multiple flaws. If a wrong answer is given there is no reason or educating given to the student as to why or to help find the correct answer.

Spoiler alert!!!

Well i beleive that is a relatively in depth view on a game that was never meant to strike up such debate!
I beleive this has been a awasted experience as I still dont know how many sides a square has...

Ross, Out.

Odds and Ends

Gaming appears in many forms, from online and console to board and gambling. Now I would never consider myself to be addicted to gambling although I do enjoy the occasional dabble in profits.
Most recently the girlfriend (now known as Amy) and I visited the local Arcades with 70p each in pocket. Under the guise that we would compete to generate the most profit, we found the most interesting game in the arcade. We settled on a Pac-Man machine as seen below.

Who doesn't love Pac-Man?

(Insert coins in bottom left and right slot, coin push more coin out. Simple)
Taking a slot each we input coins 'strategically' to win the bonus' available to maximise our profits.
Now the only reason I seemed to think this was worth blogging is that although the odds are against us, we made a profit. We both walked away with £1 in pocket. Granted this is not a drastic increase but a 60pprofit is still profit.

Now the game play is simple enough, the coin input is used to push more coins over the edge and into the winning tray. The addition of bonuses available through the use of a primitive flash game; whereby if a coin lands in a square the on screen game is played. If won more coins are added. This maximises the amount of interaction from the player and gives the impression of better odds to keep the player gambling. To add another sense of interactivity, competition between Amy and I meant that although we pooled our money eventually, we were still battling to gain the most.
With this simple goal of making money, Amy and I were hooked. Using our 70p in a quick flurry of coin throws, all of our winnings were left until the end when a final count took place, revealing our win.

Such a simple gambling game where all odds are set against the player, however we achieved such successful results. For an Arcade machine I believe that in terms of interactivity and actual game play, I would return to play again (if only to lose my £1 profit)

 Yes, that is a winners receipt

I am a Winner =D

Ross, Out.