Real Virtuality: Game Design and Architecture

notes from the final lecture

2008-11-24T08:39:00.003-05:00

Hey guys,

I am posting this in the middle of a pile of work so I'm going to make this quick, but you have all of Thanksgiving week to work on this so I'm not too worried.

For next class, please bring your latest version of your game and your architectural space so we can discuss them. I am going to talk to Rafael about whether or not he will be coming in to speak.

Here is the homework from the previous lecture:

Journal prompt: Site-specific resistance: Create a simple game designed to be played in a certain physical context, such as a landmark, Metro car (no, the Rhode Island Challenge doesn't count), urban space, Starbuck's, etc. The game should both use elements of being in that space as part of the game (ex. people in the location), and change their contexts so they can become part of the game without having players behave too outlandishly (i.e. In a vampire game, talking to someone can equal "sucking blood", and that could ultimately lead to points.) Technology may or may not be integrated in some way. The game should be something that can be played without others knowing you are playing a game (don't get arrested). Play the game and write about it, discussing how elements of that place that you have chosen are meaningfully integrated into the game and how any technology that you have chosen to integrate is meaningful and assists or tracks progress.

Here are concepts from the lecture:

1. Augmented reality - a term in computer research that refers to a combination of real and virtual world data.

2. Augmented reality recalls the Persuasive Technology Tools of self-monitoring and surveillance.

3. Pervasive games - Games where players' real world actions take on virtual world meanings through the player's interactions with mobile technologies.

4. Alternate reality games - Games which use the real world as a medium for delivering game content through websites, e-mail, phone calls, or actual gatherings. They put players into real-world stories that are affected by their input.

5. These technologies are informing the ways the mobile technologies are used within real architecture to assist people using those buildings. An example of this is the use of Nintendo DS's to get MLB scores within Seattle's Safeco Field.

That's it! Enjoy. E-mail me with any questions.

whoops!

2008-11-13T18:43:00.002-05:00

Hey guys,

Sorry I forgot to get last week's lecture notes up...it's the fallout from last week's "hell week."

Here's your homework for last class...I don't think there will be homework for this class so you can turn it in next week.

Journal prompt: Changing the world with conceptual design: Choose an idea that you would like to inform or persuade others about. It can be political, religious, social, or fun (but please be respectful of others opinions and non-degrading) and create a concept for a game that would help you achieve your goals. You can even choose a specific candidate, event, or product to endorse as well. Begin by describing your core concept and the set of rules governing the game. How do you win the game or can you win? What is the incentive for playing? Likewise, imagine and describe a building that could inform or persuade someone about the same idea. How do the spaces in the building help inform your occupant of your idea. Please include diagrams.

Here are some of the ideas from the class:

1. Metagame - The experience of a game in the outside world

2. Metagame has 3 parts: what the player brings to the game, the effect that the game has on the player during the game, and what the player takes away from the game.

3. Procedural rhetoric - the unique ability of a video game, computer program, or any interactive media to persuade or discuss ideas through participation in cause and effect relationships and procedures.

4. Many games use procedural rhetoric to discuss political, commercial, or academic ideas.

5. Games can allow us to explore historic events or places.

6. Architecture is seen by many as a built symbol or space that is capable of using rhetoric in the same way that a game can, through it's system of formal and spatial rules.

That's all you really need to know. There are a lot of historic notes for this lecture but those are not as important. I actually wrote most of this lecture out of my thesis background materials so don't worry too much about it.

The laaaaaaaaaate notes from the 10-30 lecture

2008-11-05T08:53:00.003-05:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the extremely late post, I am in the middle of the week from hell. I also got a puppy!

Let the cuteness consume you!

Okay, so here's the stuff you need for the past week's lecture:

Journal prompt: Spatial Storytelling: Find a short story or write one on your own. Describe the plot and describe what kind of game and space it could make. For the game, give a brief description of what kinds of mechanics could be implemented to be meaningful to the narrative. For the space, design it as though it had to match the events or emotional tone of your story. What kind of spaces can you create to guide an occupant through the narrative? How could your game design and your spatial design work together to create your story?

Since I am essentially writing this the day before it's due, you can have until Sunday to send it to me, but feel free to send it earlier if you can.

Here are the concepts from this lecture:

1. Narrative is another generator for either a game design or spatial design.

2. Mechanic vs. Motif - The idea that a game can be designed starting from either the game's core mechanic; with a narrative created for presentation purposes; or the narrative and expressive parts of a game; with mechanics designed to enhance the story.

3. Games designed with story first include games from the Final Fantasy series. Frank Lloyd Wright builds some houses beginning with narrative, such as how he built Fallingwater based on the client's family stories about the site.

4. Narrative space - A space that can "shape a narrative frame and experience." There are four types of narrative space:

Evocative - Evokes preexisting narrative associations - using familiar imagery and settings
Staging - Creating a space on which events are enacted - room type created for specific story events or encounters
Embedded - Placing narrative within the scene - game world becomes an information space, or "memory palace." Parts of the space tell the story of what happened there.
Providing resources - Putting the right pieces in place for emergent narrative

5. The Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. utilizes these types of narrative space within a piece of architecture.

6. Narrative descriptors - Any component of a game that participates in a game's "system of representation", such as instructional text, in-game cinematics, interface elements, game objects, and other visual or audio elements.

7. Rules must match the story so they can both contribute to meaningful play.

8. There are two types of narrative:

Embedded narrative - A pre-written story that is programmatically shown to a player or occupant within a narrative space.
Emergent narrative - The narrative that comes from the player's interaction with a game. This is similar to thinking of a game as a book that is being written while the player plays, with the player's actions carrying out the action scenes and other parts of the story that they have control over.

9. In architecture, emergent narrative is the story of a space and how people move through them. It can also be the story of what people experience in the space based on their own personalities and prior experiences.

10. Reward of exposition - Narrative that is used as a reward or rest from intense action.

11. The hero myth is a precident for how materiality is used to tell a story. At the beginning of a story, the materiality is natural and perceived as "safe." As the hero moves to more and more dangerous territories, the materiality steadily becomes more bleak and unnatural, eventually becoming the materiality of "evil", with things such as fire, brimstone, and machines. This is embodied in stories such as The Lord of the Rings, and video games such as The Legend of Zelda, and even in Super Mario Bros. within each world.

12. The quality of a space can establish mood when used in a narrative space. Using the qualities of light, shadow, prospect and refuge, or size of spaces can set a safe or happy tone or a dark and unsafe tone based on how the qualities of these spaces are articulated.

Homework and concepts for the 10-23 lecture

2008-10-25T15:13:00.005-04:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the very late post, I have been preparing for my trip to Valve Software tomorrow and it's been quite a busy week.

I'll start by posting the homework for this week:

Journal prompt: Think about a game you have played where the manipulation of levels of information is essential during gameplay. How does the game give you information? How do visual rhetorics or other concepts we have discussed help the game give information to the player? How does the game hide information from players or cause players to hide information from one another? Think about a famous piece of architecture you have been in or learned about that also utilizes manipulations of information. How does the building hide information from occupants and how does it reveal that information? How is this manipulation used to guide people through the space? Are there visual cues or other tricks used to give visitors information relevant to their visit or convey symbolic information?

I understand that many of you have lately been playing Halo 3, Mass Effect, World of Warcraft, and others, but I would like to see some new games being discussed. For this assignment the discussion can be particularly meaningful with many non-digital games. I hope you understand that I'd like to encourage all of you to explore all different types of games, not just video games.

Here are concepts from the last lecture:

1. Symbol - Representations of objects in the real or imaginary worlds created for the game that behave and resemble what they would look like in reality.

2. Type - An architectural symbol of a certain building use. These are created by popular associations between certain building uses and forms that they are most often built with.

3. Rhetoric - The study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion.

4. Visual rhetoric - The use of symbols, illustrations, or images to convey ideas.

5. Despite many modernist opinions against ornament, ornament can be useful in architecture when used as symbols and a means of engaging in visual rhetoric. Functional ornament can inform and therefore be an important part of a building system.

6. 3 types of advertisingare used in games to inform the use of visual rhetoric:

Demonstrative - Uses direct illustration and descriptions of how something is used or how it can be beneficial to the person reading the ad.
Illustrative - Indirect, usually focusing on an image of the product in a certain setting to illustrate that product's popular "image."
Associative - Even more indirect, often not even featuring the product, but showing intangible qualities associated with the product such as "fun", "adventure", or "experience."

7. Memory Palace - A pneumonic device used to remember and organize large amounts of information. The user imagines a large palace of many rooms, each with a different architectural style. Each piece of information is assigned a "room" of the "palace" and each room is envisioned with a distinct style so that each piece of information can be uniquely remembered.

8. 4 levels of information are manipulated during games:

Information known to all players - The rules of a game, movements one can make, the board layout in a board game, a game environment in an online multiplayer game, etc.
Information known to only one player - The cards in your hand in Poker, a player's position in an online multiplayer game.
Information known to the game only - Unused cards in a Poker deck, enemy movements in a video game, whodunit in Clue.
Randomly generated information - Dice rolls, games of chance

9. These 4 levels of information create 3 levels of certainty for a player:

Certainty - A situation where the outcome is certain. Games that are certain are hardly games at all.
Uncertainty - Players have no idea about an outcome of a game; entering a situation completely blind
Risk - Players are uncertain but have an idea of the nature of uncertainty in advance. Example: The outcome of a game of Roulette is uncertain but the odds of a number coming up can be calculated.

10. An important part of game design is leading players where they don't feel comfortable or sure of an outcome, and rewarding them for taking chances. Hiding information can enhance the feeling of taking a risk, as well as the survival conditions discussed in the first two lectures.

11. Game theory - A branch of applied mathematics that looks at how players in a game process the information they receive and act accordingly to achieve the most desirable outcome for themselves.

12. Choices that players will make along the course of a game can be mapped by creating flow charts.

Homework and concepts from the October 9th class session

2008-10-10T15:14:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

I wanted to address a general tendency that I'm noticing in some of your journal entries. A lot of you are doing the entry within the hour or two before class, and ending up with some incomplete results. Also please begin discussing some more important pieces of architecture besides those in your immediate surroundings. Discuss important buildings you have been to or are familiar with through your architectural education. This is what the class is ultimately about after all. I commented on a few of your papers from last class that this should change, so I hope to see better and more complete analyses from now on, or I may need to make the assignment a bit stricter.

Don't forget, next week is the mid-review for the class, located in the Crough Center. You need two 24x24 boards, one for your building and one for your game. I will have some of my own graduate student colleagues on the jury and they're very excited, so make sure you have a good presentation.

For the journal prompt, I have 2 different options. You will get the same amount of points for each, but I just thought I'd open one up for discussion. It's more complex so feel free to address it if you are feeling brave.

Journal prompt 1: Real Virtuality: Play a game of any kind with others. Describe the game and observe the actions, reactions, and personal interactions of yourself and the other players, then document your findings (this works better for non-video games). Discuss how the rules caused you and the other players to behave the way you did and try to describe the strategies and even "player personalities" that emerged. Then, find a space either in a building or urban environment where people gather. Observe their interactions and discuss how the space facilitates their behavior. Describe their actions and/or try to name their "player personalities" as well.

Journal prompt 2: Opinion: Phenomenology is a hotly debated philosophy that, when applied to architecture, relates to "spirit of place." It is the idea that when one visits a site, urban environment, or piece of architecture they must put aside all priory knowledge and experience the physical and sensory qualities of the space wholly in and of itself. As stated in the lecture, game designers debate whether or not a game can fully immerse a player in its world or if real world influences on the player shade their experience of gamespace. As game design and architecture collide, the question arises then whether or not game design proves to be a phenomenological supplement to architectural design; due to the immersive quality of games; or if they "simulation gap" and the "immersive fallacy" ring true. What do you think?

Now that that's out of the way, here's the info from this past week's lecture:

1. Simulation gap - The idea that the interpretation of a game's events depends on an individual user.

2. The immersive fallacy - An argument against the idea of total immersion in a game based on the idea that each individual is different and will bring their own outside experiences into the game world. The term is coined by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman.

3. Game design is a second order design problem, which means that the designer is creating a formal structure that indirectly influences the experiences of those interacting with it.

4. Architecture can share this definition of design when architects take the experiences of the building occupant into account.

5. Emergence - The experience and actions that emerge from interaction with a formal system of rules such as the system of rules within a game, a mathematical algorithm, or even the structures of a building.

6. Possibility space - Spaces, created by sets of rules, that allow for different and varied experiences to occur.

7. Miniature garden aesthetic - A design aesthetic of Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto that describes a possibility space that simulates traveling through multiple natural and man-made environments, similar to a Japanese garden.

8. Overview - A method of exposing the player to the entirety of a possibility space through a fly-over or numeric tracking of progress through space. This can be helpful for showing the player the game's game state.

9. Tour - An initial encounter with a space that allows opportunities to see spaces or objects that are initially unaccessible, but will be encountered later.

10. Procedural literacy - The concept of engaging a game or other interactive program, critically analyzing the "rules" and procedures by which it operates, and learning how to interact with it.

11. Iterative design - A method of design in such a way that allows for imaginative or emergent behaviors to happen.

12. The argument over emergent or non-emergent spaces is embodied within the conflicts between urbanists such as Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses.

13. Degenerate strategies - An emergent strategy that exposes the falsehood of the game world. Also known as "cheating."

14. Some games, such as Konami's Metal Gear Solid embrace the ability to utilize the outside world to enhance in-game experiences, such as in the Psycho Mantis fight.

15. Game designers also create secrets or surprises for players to discover within the game world by establishing strict spatial rules and breaking them, such as the spaces that break the 1-screen-tall format of Super Mario Bros.

Homework and notes for the Oct. 2, 2008 class

2008-10-02T18:02:00.003-04:00

Hey guys,

I spoke with Rafael Vargas earlier this week and he committed to doing his lecture in late November, so we can look forward to hearing from him at the end of the semester.

With that being the case, we will press on in our studies this week and begin discussing the actual process of creating games.

First of all, here's the homework:

Journal Prompt: Spatial Discussion: Play a "sandbox" game and a linear game (come to me if you need examples.) Give a brief summary and/or description of each and describe the spaces within each game. Detail the experience of playing through either type of game and discuss the opportunities and spatial descriptors available to the player in each.

EXTRA CREDIT (in addition to the other prompt): Flip-flop: Describe a game that you have played or read about and give a detailed description of its core mechanic and basic rules. Then, with that description, write a different story for the game utilizing the exact opposite atmosphere (ex: bloody sci-fi epic becomes a Barbie-esque fantasy world) than it had before, but maintaining the exact same core mechanic and gameplay style/rules.

1. Core Mechanic - The most basic element of a game. It is the thing that a gamer does over and over again. Many game designers refer to designing games from a core mechanic as "designing by verb", since designers often begin from a single action.

2. Core mechanics can become analogous of analyzing the actual uses of architectural spaces then building the spaces of the building to be forms or "rules" that are expressive of that "core mechanic."

3. Rules - A set of guidelines that control the behavior of players within a game and restrict the actions and movements that the players may take. There are 3 types of rules

Operational - The written "rules of play" of a game. these are the guidelines that control player behavior and describe explicit player actions.
Constituative - The mathematical logic that exists "under the hood" of games. They contain the logic of the game but do not describe how the players should interact with this logic.
Implicit - The "unwritten rules" of a game. Includes etiquette and behavior that goes unstated when a game is played.

4. A game's rules are not the strategies that players create. Strategies are series of moves created by the player from the possible movements they can make within the game's rule system. They are developed for the purpose of gaining an advantage.

5. A games rules are also not the artwork, atmosphere, or any other narrative element that is part of the game's identity. Case in point: Super 3D Noah's Ark is a religious-themed game created by adding new artwork to the Wolfenstein 3D source code.

6. Digital games utilize programming code to assign behaviors to objects such as building parts and furniture that make them act like their real-world counterparts and limit player movement. This means that the rules of digital games are, for our purposes, structures and space.

7. Architecture is expressed in different ways through various types of games.

8. Classical gamespaces can inform the way we look at the gamespaces we create and serve as precedents for how we lay out spatial sequences.

Labyrinth - An elaborate structure that consists of a single winding path leading to a final stopping point, usually found in the center of the labyrinth. Consisting of only a single path, it is not difficult to navigate.
Maze - A tour puzzle featuring a complex branching passage that the occupant must navigate to find an exit or end condition. Often purposely confusing to navigate since they offer choices which can result in the occupant finding dead ends.
Rhizome - A structure in which every point is interconnected with every other point. The internet is described as such a space, since it is a place where any information is accessible at any given time. Has no real-world counterpart.

9. Sandbox - Games in which the action takes place in a large open world that a player is free to explore at their leasure. The player can take on different tasks and missions based on characters they interact with and odd jobs they can procure in a non-linear fashion.

10. Linear game - A game that presents players with a prescribed set of actions or gamespaces in a sequence that they must work through.

11. Sandbox games, often portrayed as urban spaces, utilize many of Kevin Lynch's principles to help a player create a cognitive map of a place and orient themselves.

12. Different qualities of spaces can help stage different events:

Cramped space - Space where an occupant feels claustrophobic and unable to act. This often makes a person feel like they cannot defend themselves. In games this is used for intense shoot-outs or places where the player is to feel cornered (the Morph Ball in Metroid)
Intimate space - A space that allows an occupant access to every part of their surroundings. This sort of space is the ideal "refuge" space. This type of space makes occupants feel that they are in control of their surroundings. This is used often in games to create the players "home base" or the first level.
Prospect space - A wide open space where occupants feel exposed and in the view of danger. This is used in games to create cinematic boss battles or large-scale conflicts.

13. In games, winning often means mastering the rules of the game. Winning in digital gamespaces and architectural spaces often translates into mastering the space, as demonstrated by various sequences from the movie, Tron.

9/25 Homework and concepts

2008-09-26T13:02:00.003-04:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the later-than-usual post, it's been a busy week. First thing's first, there is some question of when we'll do our mid-review jury. Nights and weekends are bad times for professors to come in so George and Carlos have said that the best times for them are Tuesday mornings. I've heard back from a few of you on this topic and it sounds like we may need to play around with times. Please e-mail me with any free daytime that you have open that you could have this jury. Also, I am thinking that for the jury, you should have 2 24x24 Photoshop boards, one for your architectural design and its progress, and one for the game design and its progress. I would also like you to bring your models.

For this week, the homework is:

Modification: Describe a game you have played (video or non-video, it may work better with non-video). Insert or change a rule of the game so that it integrates punishments or rewards for player actions. Describe the outcome and how your change should affect the player's behavior. Alternatively, look at a building or urban environment you regularly inhabit: how does its spatial layout encourage you or discourage you to enter certain spaces? How could the space be changed to better draw occupants towards major destinations?

Here are the concepts:

1. Operant Conditioning - The use of consequences to change or modify behavior. More specifically, it's the use of rewards or punishments to instill in a subject whether or not a behavior is right or wrong.

2. Behavior Theory - A philosophy conceived by psychologist B.F. Skinner that refers to all human actions as "behaviors" and treats them as actions that are not free, but instead derived from one's environment.

3. Positive Reinforcement - When a subject performs a positive action and are rewarded.

4. Negative Reinforcement - When a subject performs a negative action and are punished.

5. Entrainment - When rewards are applied on particular schedules, this causes the subject to strive for the next reward and expect when it is coming.

6. Long term goal - A macro-scaled goal that will be achieved far in the future. Short-term goals work toward the long-term goal. These goals are often hinted at or shown to the player throughout the course of a game.

7. Short term goal - Micro-scaled goals that are often immediately accessible to players.

8. The above concepts can and should be used in architectural or urban spaces to channel paths and initiate exploration. In Half-Life 2, for example, the early part of the game features architectural and urban structures that appear complete and have many different rooms, but only one way to proceed through the level. Instead of making disembodied closed doors, Valve designers chose to show spaces outside of the player path but block them off with encounters with dangerous enemy guards that act as architectural boundaries.

9. Flow - Emotional and psychological state of focused and engaged happiness that is brought about by a sense of achievement and accomplishment.

10. Flow channel - A channel of comfort between challenge and player skill.

11. Flow is analogous of spatial comfort levels with visual complexity and environmental conditions. Buildings should be complex enough to be visually engaging, but simple enough to be understandable.

12. Cybernetic feedback system - One that measures aspects of a system or environment, compares the measurements to a set value, and decides whether or not to take action to adjust the system or environment to fit in with the set value.

13. Positive feedback system - A system that acts cumulatively to make a system unstable.

14. Negative feedback system - Stabilizes the system and brings it back to a steady state.

15. These systems are similar to the concepts of architecture dynamically transforming to surroundings, user inputs, and environmental conditions. Some of these concepts involve kinetic structures and mechanical devices. Simpler versions of this concept exist, however, when designers plan how spaces change based on the amount of people in them, the event happening there, or even the time of day, as in the case of Notre Dame Cathedral.

9/18 lecture news

2008-09-17T13:23:00.003-04:00

Bad news guys,

Rafael Vargas has to postpone his lecture another week due to a few difficulties in the development of Fallout 3. They are developing the game for 3 platforms at once and releasing them all at the same time, so that complicates the process quite a bit.

We will, therefore, forge on with the planned class lectures, so as a result I'm going to post the homework and information from the next lecture, entitled "Not Now, I'm Busy" - Behavior Theory, Goals, Desire, and Exploration

Journal Prompt - Spatial Literacy - Describe a game that you have played that utilizes the spatial principles we discussed today to draw a player through a space. Did the game use these as clever hints or did it limit your exploration and become too linear? When you reached rewarding areas, how were you rewarded? Was the spatial layout made in a way that you became procedurally literate and began to expect when you were going to find the next reward or challenge? Next, discuss an architectural or urban space where you have found the same spatial principles in the same way you described the game, or describe a place (again in the same way as the game) where you find that they were sorely lacking and should be implemented. If you decide to make changes, use appropriate drawings or diagrams and describe exactly what changes you would make, and what kind of experience you want to create for your occupant with them.

Here are a few concepts from this lecture:

1. Coin drop - A concept that describes designing a game in such a way that the player is rewarded enough so they will strive for the next reward, but hard enough that they will need to pay to continue playing. This is the principle behind boardwalk games, slot machines, and arcade video games.

2. Reward - An item, event, or space that creates a sense of satisfaction for the player upon completing a task. The different types of rewards in gaming are:

Rewards of Glory - Have no impact on the gameplay itself but are things that will be taken away from the experience. This reward is based solely on the sense of achievement felt for overcoming challenges.
Rewards of Sustenance - Given so players can maintain their character's "status quo" and continue playing. These include things such as health and extra lives.
Rewards of Access - These have 3 features - they allow access to new locations that were previously inaccessible, they are generally used only once, and they have no value to the player once they've been used. These include keys and passwords. Another way of viewing these rewards is newfound access to new characters or experiences that were not available before.
Rewards of Facility - Enable the player's character to do things they could not before or enhance abilities they already possess. These increase the number of strategies available to the player in the game.

3. In architecture, most of the rewards that we use are rewards of access, glory, and sustenance, when we give resting spaces.

4. Denial - By withholding a reward from a player, the game designer makes earning that reward much more rewarding.

5. Typical denial methods in architecture include changes in height, views, intervening screens and foliage, partial reveals, layered walls with views, creating spaces that slow one's progress, enticing corners, and Zen views.

6. Oku - A Japanese urban design principle that describes space similar to the way an onion is structured. Spaces are laid out in a twisting, folding pattern with rewarding spaces or rest areas laid along the path. Eventually the sequence reaches an end point.

7. The 7 Persuasive Technology Tools - 7 components of computer programs, also utilized by game designers, that describe different ways that users interact with the program and vice versa. They are:

Reduction - Reducing complex behaviors to simple tasks
Tunneling - Leading users through predetermined sets of actions, step by step
Tailoring - Providing information relevant to individuals to change their attitudes or behaviors
Suggestion - Suggesting behavior at the most opportune moment
Self-monitoring - A tool that allows people to monitor their attitudes or behaviors to achieve a predetermined goal or outcome
Surveillance - Allowing people to monitor each other
Conditioning - Using principles of operant conditioning to change behavior

8. Tunneling will be treated as a primary goal for our spatial designs, as it describes how we use space to lead users through sequences.

9. Suggestion is the first tool for tunneling. It describes placing visual cues, forms, and other hints that guides a player or occupant through a space.

10. Architectural Weenies - A term coined by Walt Disney after the hot dogs that his crew used to entice dogs to run across the set in a movie. He used the same ideas in the architecture of his amusement parks to entice visitors to them and allow the person to orient themselves.

11. The concepts of Kevin Lynch are useful when describing suggestion in urban spaces. In his book, The Image of the City, he lays out 5 concepts that can be useful for describing how to move through space.

Landmarks - Identifiable objects
Paths - Channels for travel
Districts - Distinctive sub-areas with their own character
Edges - Perceived boundaries
Nodes - Focal points and intersections

12. Reduction discusses how many different activities can be simulated or designed into games, but is also useful for describing the way that gamers become so good at analyzing the logic of systems of rules.

13. Procedural Literacy - The concept of engaging a game or other interactive program, critically analyzing the "rules" and procedures by which it operates, and learning how to interact with it.

14. Montessori Method - A method of teaching that focuses on the senses as a medium for absorbing information, then having that sensory information interpreted by the intellect. Through this method, students learn to solve problems based on an evaluation of their surroundings or data presented to them and interpret an answer based on the information given.

Change of plans for the 9/11 class

2008-09-11T17:23:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, Rafael Vargas will speak next week instead of this one. Bethesda Softworks is currently finishing the development of Fallout 3 and they are doing some extra work tonight.

Don't worry though, because I have all the semester's lectures prepared, so we'll just move through onto the next section, entitled Basic Human Functions and Emotional Responses to Space in Architecture and Games. The homework assignment for this chapter is as follows:

Journal prompt – Real Virtuality: Choose and describe a game you have played that uses the prospect/refuge relationship and the idea of peril in some part of its gameplay. Describe a theoretical building structure of your own design that utilizes concepts specific to this game as though you were designing a real – world version of a level for that game. Feel free to speculate on its potential use. Use diagrams and sketches if you deem necessary.

Here are the concepts from this lecture:

1. Like shelter, food, water, and other things, "play" can be described as a basic human need. According to Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, author of Homo Ludens, play requires imagination and the interpretation of our surroundings. When this is compared with "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs", this definition of play fulfills the needs of "self-actualization" and "esteem."

2. Huizinga also argues that play is not "in culture" but "of culture", meaning that while others regard it as an escape or distraction, he believes that it serves needs outside of itself and is fundamentally important. This idea is illustrated by how the games of various cultures represent important ideas to the cultures they come from. (Chess as military strategy, the cooperative singing and work games of Civil War-era slave children that were a counter to the otherwise oppressive environment, etc.)

3. When games create play, that play creates a dialog with another basic human need, survival, to elicit emotions from players. To survive in a game is to stay in the magic circle of the game and keep playing, losing, dying, or being eliminated is tantamount to being yanked from the world of the game.

4. The Problem of the Protagonist - An element of some games where the player character begins the game in a condition of natural weakness and must upgrade themselves to remain in the game and respond to rising challenge (video games, Checkers, gaining money or tokens in games like Monopoly.)

5. Refuge - An intimate, enclosed space providing the cover of shadows and protection from external hazards, as well as the ability to view these hazards from within the refuge. Humans tend to feel safe in these spaces.

6. Prospect - A wide-open and often well-lit space that is viewable from the refuge that may or may not contain threats. In these spaces, humans often feel unsafe or ill-at-ease.

7. Secondary refuge - A refuge that lies beyond the prospect, often presented in games as a goal for the player.

8. The buildings of Le Corbusier are often cited as being mostly made of prospect spaces, both in the interior and in some of the exterior spaces. Frank Lloyd Wright on the other hand, utilizes mostly refuge spaces, with houses that are hidden among trees and a focus on the hearth as the center of the house.

9. The articulations of prospects, refuges, and secondary refuges in games are often used in games to lead players through a space. They also build varying degrees of comfort in the enemy encounters of video games, where refuges provide cover and prospects leave the player open, but also give a cinematic feel to combat. Games from the Metal Gear series are well known for using articulations of hiding places and cinematic battle areas to create a tense experience.

10. Shadow - A lack of light in a space caused by the light source being obscured by a physical object, creating a place for something to hide itself.

11. Shade - Sometimes referred to as "mystic light", is an ethereal and transcendental lighting condition that is neither completely light or dark. Commonly used in Gothic structures.

12. Shadowspace - A perceived refuge space within a larger space that is differentiated by a darker lighting condition than the other parts of the same space. This creates the perception that the darker space is a different space altogether and one where someone can hide from enemy view. This term was coined by the team who created Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

13. Shade obscures objects and gives them a ethereal look. Shade is used by game designers to both entice players into a mysterious space, or to create atmospheric ambiguity, a condition where the player is unsure of whether they are in a safe, holy area or about to be attacked. This condition is often used in games from the Zelda series.

14. While shadow and shade have been used to discuss safe conditions, moving from a light condition to a dark one makes the occupant of a space feel uncomfortable, as though they are walking into danger. Games like Half-Life 2 use areas where the player must wander from light to dark to create scary moments such as zombie and alien attacks, and also to hide surprises for the player.

15. Materiality plays a role in human safety as well. Humans feel comfortable when they are exposed to outdoor views and natural settings. This is why people in cubicles hang posters of forests or canyons on their walls. Frank Lloyd Wright understood this and laid many of his house designs in natural wooded areas, and mandated that this tree cover be featured in any perspective drawings. In classic epic literature and video games, the material quality of spaces deteriorates as the player progresses to the final villain's lair and show the hero's level of danger.

16. Height can be used for both refuge and peril. Height can be articulated to give an occupant or player the perception of being able to look out over danger without being in danger, but can also be used to instill a sense of peril from vertigo. This can create dramatic moments in both architecture and games.

17. Another paradigm shift: in architecture, we often try to make the occupant feel safe and comfortable. Game design calls for the designer to create both moments of fear and safety, with the safe spaces serving as rewards for overcoming danger.

18. Challenging space - A built space that creates in an occupant a sense of uneasiness based on varying conditions of: light vs. dark; prospect vs. refuge; height vs. vertigo, etc.

Information for the 9/11 lecture

2008-09-10T13:33:00.006-04:00

Don't forget to come to the 9/11 lecture! We will have a guest speaker.

Rafael Vargas, level designer at Bethesda Softworks and teacher of the architectural visualization courses at Catholic University, will come give a talk on his work in both fields and the tools that he uses relevant to each. He plans to display sample images of his work in games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and others.

Since we will be having a guest lecturer, there will be no journal prompt but there will still be homework due at the 9/18 lecture. The homework for the 9/18 lecture will be a one-page written proposal for your game design. It should include what kind of game you want to create (card game, board game, video game, etc.), what kinds of actions and mechanics the players will be taking part in, the goal of the game, and any other relevant information such as narrative, characters, setting, whatever. Also detail if you are working alone or in a group. For groups, since there are 5 people in the course, please create groups within reason. I hope to have at least 2 or 3 games to show the jurors.

I would also like to see at least one of the more complex games we have been discussing (video game, alternate reality game, pervasive game, etc.) from one of the groups. Part of the grade for the games will be how "daring" you are with your designs.

Concepts and journal prompt for the 9/4 class

2008-09-03T17:40:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone,

Here are some of the concepts from the second week lecture: Introduction to Game Design. I'll be posting the concepts from each lecture for your own review and designs. Many of these concepts are taken straight from the textbook, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals and will serve as the foundation of our discussions for the rest of the semester.

First thing's first though, here's this week's journal prompt:

Journal Prompt: Meaningful Play: Play a game, board or video game, and describe its rules (or in the case of a video game, what abilities or movements are allowed in the game), the narrative atmosphere it creates (setting, story, characters, etc.) and the goal of the game. Determine if all of the games elements fit into and affect one another in a meaningful way or if something could be changed or added to make the game more meaningful (example: are the rules reflective of the story of the game or are the narrative elements just a “paint job” applied to a set of rules that could create any game.) Describe any changes or additions you make and how you think they will affect the overall experience. Then think back to a building you have been to or a project you have had where an element of the building did not fit into the overall concept (this part is easier with your own projects and/or ones you have had juries on) and create the same analysis you did with the game. Describe what could have been changed to make the building more meaningful.

With that, here are the summarized versions of the concepts from this lecture:

1. Games communicate with players through 3 very important methods that can inform architecture:

Adjustment of behavior - creating conditions that get the user to act in a way that the designer wants while simultaneously setting up opportunities for unplanned behaviors.

Transmission of meaning - Using the structure of the design and symbolism to convey ideas and/or narrative.

Augmentation of space - Connecting the user to a database of information that can inform their exploration and experience of a place.

2. Game - A system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. Games are different from the concept of "play" since they are governed by a set of rules that dictate player action and control the movements they can make.

3. Meaningful play - Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernible and integrated into the larger context of the game.

4. Architectural design is usually done from a top-down point of view, therefore, we will adopt a new definition of design: Design - The process by which a designer creates a context to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges.

For architecture, this will mean that the designer is the architect, the context is the building or urban space, the participant is the occupant, and the experience the occupant has in the space is what creates meaning for our architecture.

5. Games are systems of representation, everything within them stands for something else. Games are made up of signs and abstractions of things that exist in the real world or the narrative world that is created within the game.

6. System - A set of objects with individual identities interacting to create meaningful patterns that are different from any of the individual objects, all within the environment. Systems have 4 parts which are important to this definition: the objects in the system, the attributes of those objects, internal relationships between them, and the environment that the system takes place in.

7. There are 4 types of interactivity for working through a game and an architectural space:

Cognitive - Psychological, emotional, and and intellectual participation

Functional - Functional or structural interaction (players using controllers in a game and the function of the building systems and the occupant's interactions with them in a building)

Explicit - Participation in designed choices and procedures

Beyond the object interactivity - Interaction with the culture outside the immediate system

8. The Magic Circle - The space within which the game takes place. It is a special place, marked off from our normal reality, where the rules of the game are law and carry weight.

It takes a commitment to enter the space and an openness to the experience of playing a game. This is called the lusory attitude, the willingness to immerse oneself in a gamespace.

9. Gamespace - The environment created as the setting of a game. This is not to be confused with the Magic Circle.

An element of this lecture is also a design brainstorming game called GameGame. A free copy can be found at http://gamegame.blogs.com/ It can be a useful tool for learning the game design process and coming up with ideas for your final project. It is recommended that you use sticky-backed paper to attach the card print-outs to a set of playing cards so they can be easily shuffled.

Game engines as architectural visualization tools

2008-08-30T14:03:00.006-04:00

I found this video on http://digitalurban.blogspot.com. It's a video of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater placed into Valve Software's Source engine. This is a good example of how game engines can be useful for architectural visualization. Imagine letting your client "playtest" their own house!

This has become an exciting new possibility for architects looking to help their clients visualize their own house before it is built. In a conversation with my contact from Valve Software, we discussed Valve's Source engine and their environment creator, Hammer, being used as architecture visualization tools.

Like the levels in a game, this could potentially allow architects and their clients to test their designs and change them accordingly (obviously if used during the correct phase of the design process.)

The video shows a player exploring the house as someone would the regular maps in Half-Life 2, then using the game's passcode console to initiate "noclip" mode, a mode that allows testers to freely explore the map without being limited by the structures of the gamespace, and do a fly-around of the map and see the whole house.

Notes after the 8/28 class and next week's assignment

2008-08-29T09:08:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was the first meeting of the "Game Design and Architecture" course. While that inevitably leads to some drier material, the course is off to a good start. Thank you everyone who filled out one of the class surveys, I have already gotten some great information from them! Next week's assignment is a spatial layout exercise. I am posting a .jpeg copy of the project sheet for anyone who needs it:

I am changing some of the requirements for next week's assignment:

The drawings don't need to be at 1/8" = 1', but instead at a scale will fit onto a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper. Keep your files and scale drawings for the juries later in the semester. This will help me have a bookmark of your what we'll refer to as your "before" design.

Bring your model so the class can look over it, but please hold onto it after the lecture so you can refer to it as you rethink the design. Make sure the model is of good quality and kept safe, since you will present it later in the semester.

Please write a quick 1/2 page explanation of your design and how it guides an occupant through the path you create.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'm all for helping you guys out with anything you guys want to discuss. Don't forget to think of what kinds of games you'd like to create and who you'll want to work with as well. I really encourage you to think "outside the box" on the type of game and do any research on new games, especially those that utilize space in different ways (i.e.: more daring projects may yield better grades.) I'll provide a list of possible types:

Card games

Board games

Video games

Sports

Pervasive games

Alternate reality games

Those are just a sampling so feel free to explore your own ideas. Many of the suggested readings have information on concepts like pervasive and alternate reality games. There are also helpful links on the sidebar of this blog.

I hope you are looking forward to this class as much as I am, good luck on your first project and I'll see you guys next week!

Turning the Nintendo Wii into a Powerpoint presentation device

2008-07-29T16:18:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone!

Thought I forgot about you eh? Well, I was busy writing the last several lectures, which are now complete with the exception of the lecture on Game Music (I think I can reveal the name of that lecture without giving too much away.) and am now working on the Powerpoint slideshows for the class.

But there's a twist...

One of the main problems I encountered when creating this class was how to properly demonstrate gameplay in class while simultaneously switching to slide presentations. The obvious way to do this would be to set up both a computer and a game system with the projector in whatever classroom I end up in and hit the buttons back and forth. This method, however, requires a lot of setup and involves me carrying lots of bags and cases around.

There had to be another way!

Then I remembered the Wii Photo Channel. I thought that if I could transfer all my Powerpoint slides into decently high resolution JPEGs, I might be able to display them on the Wii like a Powerpoint. This has some limitations, such as the inability to use video or animations in the presentation itself, but I could concievably get around that using the Internet Channel.

Workouts, news, weather, photo displaying, internet, and now Powerpoint slides...oh yeah...this thing plays video games too.

Once I created my first Powerpoint, I exported each slide as a JPEG. After buying a SD card from a local Radioshack, I put the pictures on the card and plugged it into the Wii. To my excitement, I was able to view the images as I would a Powerpoint, with the added bonus of using the Wii Remote like a professor would use a laser pointer. If I pick my game demonstrations very carefully I can use only the Wii and whatever I can get on the Wii Shopping Channel or through Gamecube or Wii disks. The resolution is also not as crisp as it would be on an actual Powerpoint, but it's definitely usable. With the ability to zoom in and out of the image I think I can get by.

Now to test if I can hook up the sensor bar in a college auditorium...

Now I understand why there's homework

2008-07-14T13:12:00.002-04:00

As I sit here at work between tasks, I have been writing lectures for my upcoming Game Design and Architecture class. I have been trying to overcome several challenges in coming up with course material:

1. How to make the lecture parts of the class interesting.

2. Where to give students the opportunity to discuss certain topics.

3. Where to give the students opportunities to demonstrate the concepts we discuss.

4. How to make the class interactive by doing activities.

Designing activities is probably one of the hardest parts, since there are some concepts that can be difficult to demonstrate. There is one thing that I do kind of enjoy working on...and that's the HOMEWORK.

Yes, that's right, I am paying special attention to the assignments created for the course. This sounds incredibly evil, but they may be the most important part of the class, since I don't plan on having tests or quizzes. The homework isn't much, just a journal entry that is at least 300-400 words (haven't decided yet) that has to be written every week in response to various journal prompts. I have decided to take this stance for several reasons:

1. When students take tests they memorize, regurgitate, and ultimately forget the information.

2. When students hear that they have to write papers on topics, they freak out or wait to do it until the last minute when they can't get any decent thoughts on a topic out, since they are more concerned with meeting the required length.

3. This way they will think and design instead of throwing out facts.

Another challenge was the material itself: how do I give an architectural lecture while simultaneously teaching them to design games? Luckily, the topics are very similar, but that doesn't mean that by getting lost in the discussion of how to guide someone through a game, I don't miss the opportunity to give the students practical steps by which they can design their game projects. Unfortunately, I have to go back and reevaluate each lecture to make sure I take those things into account. Following Salen and Zimmerman's "three primary schema", I am configuring the course to first discuss ideas related to "play"; to first show the students the kinds of experiences games create and establish a goal for the more formal sections on "rules" (this way the students will know what the formal chapters lead up to beforehand, my one critique of Salen and Zimmerman's book). Then I will discuss topics related to "rules", to show the formal structures that will help us create the established experiences. The last few lectures will be on various topics, such as narrative, music, technology, and games that "break the fourth wall" into our own world, with Salen and Zimmerman's third schema, "culture", sprinkled throughout the course. Hopefully, this will create a sort of "light at the end of the tunnel" for the students, since I didn't really understand game design until getting to the Play section of Rules of Play.

So like I said, the homework is proving to be one of the most valuable parts of the class: it lets me monitor their progress and get some outside perspectives on the topics while letting them learn through exercising what they've learned.

The other part that I am particularly worried about is the course sponsor's idea that I should arrange to have guest speakers. Not that this is a bad idea, it's actually a great idea, but the stress of trying to get into contact with certain people can be quite daunting: working around their busy schedules, arranging times to speak with each other, and most importantly, ironing out what exactly they will be speaking on. I plan to start making e-mails later this week, as soon as I get a rough syllabus ironed out.

So far, my thesis outline of concepts has been very helpful in providing both ideas for game design concepts to teach and architectural ideas to discuss. The book, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, has been instrumental in helping to lay out "sections" and topics while also providing interesting ideas for homework and in-class assignments.

The only thing that I haven't put too much thought in yet are class Powerpoints, but those are easy to whip together. I DO have an interesting idea for them though: since I can display images on the Wii and have to demonstrate games in the class, I may make all the Powerpoint slides into JPEGs and display them on the Photo Channel so that I'll be able to seamlessly flip back and forth between slides and games.

GET OFF YOUR @$$ AND PLAY SOME VIDEO GAMES!

2008-07-02T20:46:00.003-04:00

I have discovered a new video game addiction: exercise

That's right, I've jumped on the bandwagon and bought Wii Fit, and I couldn't be happier. Wii Fit is the latest pet project of Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, Star Fox, Donkey Kong, and world peace (okay maybe not...but he could.) The game comes packaged with the Wii Balance Board, the latest in an already long line of Wii peripheral attachments that include the Nunchuck, Classic Controller, Wii Wheel, Wii Zapper, and countless third party Wii Sports attachments. As annoying (and expensive) as it sounds, it brings a tear to my eye as I remember the days of the NES Zapper, NES Advantage (used to control the Statue of Liberty in Ghostbusters 2), NES Power Pad, R.O.B. the Robot, and the Power Glove ("it's so bad.")

Lucas: the only human to ever succeed at a game using the Power Glove

While seeming like a simple gimmick, the board is actually a well-made and very accurate weight and center-of-balance measuring device. The software itself is no joke either...it works. Sure, I still run and swim on a regular basis and it definitely won't replace a good weight set, but the exercises it does have work. It has several modes, allowing you to do a body check, keep a log of activities done during the day, and set goals for yourself. As a fitness coach it does pretty well. The little Balance Board character that talks to you is encouraging; scolding you when you skip a day and complementing you when you drop weight or earn a lower "Wii Fit Age." The yoga is fun to do, and provides some welcome stretching. I've always been curious of yoga, and this kind of helps me get into it without buying a tape set. The strength exercises are very good, for the most part, the "push ups with side planks" are hell, which is good for a complete work-out-nut-job like myself.

My favorite part has to be the fact that the game rewards you for doing the exercise right (as much as it can by only being able to monitor your balance.) The game employs classical operant conditioning in a way that makes the exercises more meaningful for your body than if you were just doing them incorrectly on your own. For example, during the push-ups, the game whistles when you are to go up and down, and there are red "target areas" on the on-screen workout monitor that show when your push-up is supposed to be happening. If you do the push-up according to the whistles and the monitor, the red bar turns yellow and a pleasant chime plays. If you hit the push-ups at the right time, the trainer not only tells you that you are doing a good job, you get a high point total at the end of the workout as well. Similarly, on the yoga workout, it shows a yellow circle which is the "optimal balance area" and challenges you to keep a red dot in the center of it.

Push ups and side planks, harder than you think...

This kind of conditioning is essential in video games, as it teaches players what the conditions for victory are and trains the player to recognize opportunities that will lead them forward in the game. Wii Fit is special in that it uses operant conditioning and reinforcement to promote health and fitness. It even allows the player to set goals for themselves. The long-term goal becomes the player's set "weight goal" while the short-term goal becomes the amount of weight shed per day or week. It further encourages these goals by allowing players to put any time doing non-Wii Fit exercise into a fitness log. There are days when I don't even do a workout on the Wii, but still take time to do my body test and log my other workouts, still reaping the benefits of the operant conditioning when the Balance Board character congratulates me.

The game tracks your progress and rewards you for achieving goals

The best part of this simple system of positive reinforcement for fitness is that it appeals to a wide audience, not just those falling into the "gamer" stereotype. My girlfriend gladly plays Wii Fit, and it has become her "gateway game" of sorts. Because of Wii Fit, I've convinced her to be my thesis guinea pig and play Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past as part of my research on operant conditioning in gamespace and games.

That, however, is another story for another time...

Dungeons and Dragons and Debt...Oh my!

2008-06-24T15:23:00.019-04:00

I realize that the preceding chart is probably very hard to read on the blog, so please take a second to click it and see the actual image. It is the Hierarchy of Nerdiness, created by the fine folks at The Brunching Shuttlecocks. I have long labored under the knowledge that I am at what could be considered the third level of this chart at the "video gamer" level and I'm perfectly fine with that. I play video games, watch movies like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, have movie posters in my apartment and have shirts with Super Mario and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on them (along with one worn by most of the Catholic University Swim Team showing my face and the the caption "wanna play with my Wii?" - long story from my time as swim team captain...) and you know what...I'm okay with that. I actually feel that there's an acceptable level of nerdiness that's just enough to add some flavor to any social group.

However...

Looking at this same chart, you may notice that just underneath the "video gamer" level lies a dark pit of insidious evil from which few have returned. While I know I am nowhere near its black depths, the mere proximity of it to my own location on this chart is enough to cast the dark shadow of fear on my heart. That's right...this place from which there is no return is ROLE PLAYING GAMING! (dun dun duuuuuun)

Now, I realize that I have until now mentioned things like ARGs in this blog. Also, in my life as a gamer I've repeatedly held reverence for games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and have even been working on a similar game for my own indie game company. But role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons are an entirely different beast completely. If you think back to high school or college, these were the kids staying in their rooms on Saturday nights while the rest of us went out, gathering around a table to talk of wizards, werewolves, and polyhedral dice while enjoying a medieval feast of Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

A feast that only the most powerful warriors can handle...

So imagine, if you will, the twist my gut endured when one of my thesis advocates suggested analyzing the game Dungeons and Dragons for my research. Was this the small push, nay, the slight breeze that would have me tumbling my way into a level of geekdom from which I'd never return? As stated before, I am admittedly a bit of a nerd, but in a fun way...there are some levels of nerdery which I dare not descend to. Unfortunately, I realized that my quest for a great thesis was going to lead me there whether I liked it or not.

I tried to find ways of denying that it would be helpful, but I just couldn't. The reason that it works so well is the Dungeon Master. For those of you who don't know, each game of D&D has players who act as the adventurers, and a referee-type person known as the Dungeon Master who describes the adventure to the other players and reads the results of their actions. It is also the Dungeon Master's responsibility to create the story setting for the game and design the dungeon layout. His or her design is usually greatly influenced by the story that he or she wishes to tell, and thus gamespace is created via narrative.

Highly recommended

One famous story of a D&D game is found in the book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Popular Culture by David Kushner (where I learned all about this Dungeon Master stuff...no I have never played.) During the design and development of the game Doom, John Carmack and John Romero played a game of D&D during which Carmack designed one of the most elaborate game worlds ever seen. The game lasted for months as they traveled through the vast landscape. One of the laws of the in this place was that the dark sword, named Daikatana, should never be claimed lest the world utterly collapse upon itself and end all existance. So in a characteristic act of mischief, Romero grabbed it. The implied gamespace became so real in the minds of the players that it completely collapsed, as stipulated by Dungeon Master Carmack, and the game abruptly ended, living on only in items named after elements of that game in future titles developed by the Two Johns. The preceding story helped a lot, but my mind still labored on how to learn about the game without playing it. Unfortunately I could not find a way to truly understand the concept of a Dungeon Master without experiencing it somehow for myself. I went to the local Borders with money in my hand, ready to accept my undeniable destiny.

Then I saw it...

The D&D display at Borders had 3 books: The Player's Handbook, The Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual, each selling for $35-40 a piece. This also did not include any of the equipment necessary to play the game, just the rules for playing different characters and knowing what monsters there were. I COULDN'T AFFORD TO BECOME A DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS PLAYER IF I WANTED TO! The publishers of the game must think that, like in a game of D&D, money and golden treasure can be found under every rock and in the remains of every dead animal (players of video game RPGs, you know what I'm talking about...why do rats need to carry purses of gold and a magic swords?). So I bought the Dungeon Master's Guide, figuring that I could get all the information I really needed from that and observe a group playing or find information online to fill in the blanks.

Poor guy...he just saw his credit card bill

Like the way that the game is sold, however, the Dungeon Master book is yet another piece of marketing genius. It really only gives you the Dungeon Master information. Many of the references in the book to how the characters play the game is very vague and often cross-references the Player's Handbook. So even as a new player who only wants to be a Dungeon Master, you would still need to buy the character book to really understand the game. Not only that, but in the Dungeon Master book it also describes how, in order to get the best experience possible, a player should buy character miniatures to keep track of character and monster locations on the dungeon map, a stand up "Dungeon Master's Screen" with printed information and quick references on game rules, and as many 4, 6, 10, 12, and 20-sided die that they can "to make attacks where you roll multiple polyhedral die go smoother." As if that wasn't enough, the last page of the book is an ad for a web service that allows you to build and track your games online, which costs a further monthly fee. With all of that, I can safely say that there is no way I can even imagine becoming a D&D player. With all the money I would have to spend, I'll stick to researching my Dungeon Master's Guide and leave the adventuring to the rich. And honestly, as many jokes as we all make about D&D players, they aren't nerds for making D&D the focus of their lives. They're just trying to make good on their ridiculous investment.

Is this enough to make my attacks go smoothly?

Oh Wizards of the Coast (company that makes D&D and all those addictive money-draining customizable card games) you are truly evil...

Riddle me this...riddle me that...

2008-06-23T20:37:00.004-04:00

Yeah yeah, I know the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight, is about the Joker, but a current advertising campaign for the new movie is more like something done in the familiar idiom of the Riddler. The Dark Knight ARG (alternate reality game) puts players in the shoes of a resident of Gotham City, guiding them through story events set in the fictional corrupt and crime-ridden city and letting them take part. While this sounds like one of those live action role-playing game events (LARPs), whose gameplay requires players to take on the roles of different personas similar to a game of Dungeons and Dragons, the Dark Knight ARG gives information to players during their day-to-day lives and allows them to take part in the game through even mundane means. If the concept of an ARG is foreign to you, unfiction.com, a website devoted to the game-style, defines it as this:

An alternate reality game is an interactive fusion of creative writing, puzzle-solving, and team-building, with a dose of role playing thrown in. It utilizes several forms of media in order to pass clues to the players, who solve puzzles in order to win pieces of the story being played out.

Clues can be passed through web pages, email, voicemail, snail mail, television advertisements, movie posters, campus billboards, newspaper classifieds… really, in any way that information can be passed.

(source: http://www.unfiction.com/history/)

The game, set in the Batman universe, allows players to interact with any number of characters from the famous comic book and movie universe. In order to be introduced to the game, all the player has to do is access one of the game's more current websites and give an e-mail address or phone number. Or go to this website, it is a Wiki that tracks the progress of the game.

"Tell me kid: you ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?"

Whoops...wrong Joker...

Yes, it's safe...

The game began in May of 2007 when a website advertising The Dark Knight went up called Ibelieveinharveydent.com. The website was a poster for Gotham District Attorney candidate Harvey Dent, played in the movie by Aaron Eckhart. Soon defaced joker cards were appearing in comic book stores with the a web address written on them: www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com. This led to a Jokerized version of the Harvey Dent campaign sign. The site later changed to an apparently blank site that revealed pages of Joker laughter and the message "see you in December" if the visitor highlighted the text on the page. The game remained stagnant until July of '07 when "Jokerized" $1 bills were handed out at the San Diego Comic-Con. These led to whysoserious.com, which was a recruiting site for the Joker's gang. It told participants to be at a certain place on a certain day. When the players arrived a phone number was written in the sky. This sent them on a scavenger hunt through whatever city they were in. When all the clues were solved, a website with the first trailer for the movie was revealed.

A "Gotham City Police" document detailing the original Joker event

Most of the game's scenarios play out similarly, some involving other characters. They usually end with a new trailer or poster being revealed. I became involved in the game in two different ways. While looking on IGN.com, I read an article following the game. I was led to two sites, one was the reactivated Ibelieveinharveydent.com, which became his campaign site. I signed up for it and occasionally receive e-mails from them about the campaign and messages to go vote in the Gotham City Elections (Dent won, the bill to have the police put "masked vigilantes" at the bottom of their priority list lost by a 1% margin.) My other introduction, however, was a little more of what an ARG is about. I found a link to a website called acmesecuritysystems.com that had a security camera feed on it. IGN reported that Joker's henchmen got a password and ID to enter in the site through other parts of the game, so I went to the site and entered that info along with my e-mail and phone number. Imagine my shock when my phone rang a second later and I was greeted with the following message:

This is Jim Gordon, major crimes, Gotham Police Department. Not the voice you were expecting...huh? We have your name. We have your number. We have your computer's IP address. So what I'm saying is, we have you. Consider yourself the Gotham Police Department's newest recruit. You see, this works one of two ways, either you're going to jail for conspiracy in a criminal enterprise, or, you'll work for me. We'll be in touch. Oh, have a great day!

Not again...I mean...what?

I then began receiving e-mails from Gordon (Batman's ally in the movies and books) with tasks. Unfortunately I missed the first one he sent out, which is a bummer because it had the players "intercepting" actual care packages sent to crooked cops. Oh if I had only gotten one of those cell phones that receive texts from the Joker...

So why am I writing about this? It's fun to see how games like this can "break the fourth wall" and seep into our world this way. Sure, people have been playing role-playing games for years, and there are the LARPs out there where people go have a role-playing game in a real urban setting, acting out different characters and even involving non-players at times, but a game like this puts the real you into the game world. You write e-mails, take phone calls, and walk around your city like you normally would, but at the end of the day you get a new part of a story revealed to you or a new promotional material, if you are playing an advertising ARG.

This is certainly not the first ARG. That distinction belongs to The Beast, played in 2001. It chronicled a murder mystery that players had to solve by visiting over 30 websites. The next was Majestic, created by Electronic Arts. These games eventually grew to be used as advertising campaigns and were involved in the campaigns for Halo 2, the movie A.I: Artificial Intelligence, and for Audi motors. With games moving away from the boards and out from behind the TV screen, this presents interesting new possibilities for game design.

There is also still one going on for the movie Cloverfield that even involved part of the DVD packaging. It gives a lot of the backstory to the monster and is even alluded to in the movie: Rob's new job is working for a Japanese company with ties to the monster (he doesn't know about it) and one of the main characters in the game is a friend of the characters in the movie and is passed out on Rob's couch during the party scene of the film. Current game events have you trying to find the whereabouts for the passed out girl's missing boyfriend, who may have been involved with an environmental group fighting Rob's new employer. The site following the Cloverfield ARG can be found at this site. Obviously, the events in these kinds of games are very pervasive and can take forms that you may not even foresee. Who knows? You may be playing a game now and not even know it.

The best deal in gaming - and thesis research

2008-06-20T08:53:00.007-04:00

One of my favorite things about my thesis is that the subject matter allows me to spend hours playing video games and actually have it count as progress. Being a rabid Nintendo fan I've been working my way through games like Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid Prime to "experience" some of my thesis points myself. Nintendo, and particularly designer Shigeru Miyamoto, have always been great at creating games that make the player want to explore every nook and cranny of a gamespace. They also lead players through spaces in incredibly accessible and easy-to-learn ways.

All of your happy childhood memories...this guy ^

So when my friends began badgering me to play Portal for the PC, I kept telling them, "no, I think I have all the games I'll need...but thanks." I staved off my curiosity until I was in Target one day with my girlfriend. As we walked past the computer game aisle I saw it on the end, in a big display as if the gods of gaming heard my friends' suggestion and forced it upon me in agreement - Portal,included with a few other games in a package called The Orange Box.

Now, while I am mostly a console gamer, I had certainly heard of The Orange Box when it came out for Christmas last year and did have a passing interest in it. I had also played the original Half-Life when it came out in 1998. The Orange Box is a package of five games, all built on the Half-Life 2's Source Engine which I thought was pretty cool. Then I saw the price tag, and it became very cool...FIFTY DOLLARS! Let's recap for those reading this who aren't regular gamers: Valve Software is one of the most acclaimed video game companies out there and their Half-Life series is their pride and joy. Their games are all very intelligent in design, and they take the utmost care to make everything very exciting and accessible to players. So having five games of ridiculously high production value and design for fifty bucks (the usual price of a single game) is quite the deal.

You need to go to confession after a steal like this

It being close to my birthday, and my girlfriend still without present ideas, I made a strong case for The Orange Box. Upon leaving the store with it in my hands I promptly went home and loaded it onto my computer, something I had not done with a game since the long-gone days of Jedi Knight. I had always thought about playing Half-Life 2, but this is the shove I needed to do it. To my surprise, when I opened the game it turned out to be EXACTLY what I needed to play for thesis. The game artfully places players in a space and directs them seamlessly from one rewarding area/encounter/vista/battle to the next in a rhythmic and engaging sequence that always leaves the player wanting more. The game does a very good job pulling at the fears of the player as well. One popular example involves the Poison Head Crab creature, whose "neurotoxin venom" causes the main character, Gordon Freeman, to lose all but one point of health points.

I hate these things...

Because of their powerful attack and their usual proximity to other powerful creatures, they have become quite feared among Half-Life players. During play testing, the testers apparently became so afraid of them that when they heard their distinctive rattlesnake-like hisses and warning sounds, they dropped whatever they were doing, even if they were being attacked, to kill the Poison Headcrab. That's a strong reaction to an enemy in a video game. The game also creates different emotions with the spaces it uses. It rewards the player with open vistas after difficult battles, pulls them into dark and unpleasant caves (often home to hoards of Headcrabs like the one pictured above) and has them navigate over vertigo-inducing pits.

If I had to choose one game that is "required playing" for my upcoming "Game Design and Architecture" course, this would be it. I even wrote a journal of my experiences playing the game and may post some of it at a later date once my course kicks off.

Luckily I found a feature called "developer commentary" that offered insights into the thoughts of the people who played the game. After playing through almost all of it I realized that they use a lot of the same ideas that I am discussing in my thesis. The first commentary piece in each game is a message from Valve founder Gabe Newell, inviting players to e-mail him with feedback. Realizing the potential for possible contacts for my thesis, I sent him this e-mail:

Dear Mr. Newell,

My name is Chris Totten. I am a graduate student at the Catholic University of America's school of architecture, concentrating in digital media (3D modeling, movie editing, that kind of stuff.) I am writing you because I am currently working on my thesis, which is on game design and architecture. The overall concept is that games use different methods with which to create meaningful interactive spaces for a player and how these concepts can be used in real architecture. I am specifically studying the ways that game designers condition and teach a player to use the game space, use spaces to convey meaning and narrative elements, and give players supplemental information in real time.

I just wanted to thank you for your games, Half-Life 2, it's additional episodes, and Portal. They have been a great help in my research and I have just finished a 28 page journal on my experiences playing these games and how their designs reinforce many of the teaching methods and psychological experiences that my project talks about. I must say, there is a great deal of content and I feel I have found a treasure trove of proof just within The Orange Box. Your developer commentary has also been a great help. I am working my way through it right now. It further reinforces some of the theories I have had about games, and it is nice to hear the developers (indirectly) helping me out. As a part of the project, I am also teaching a class on game design to architecture students to see if they can implement some of the game design ideas I have researched into their own architecture. I am an amateur game designer myself so I have done lots of research on the topic, including reading about how you rewarded the player in the original Half-Life in the book Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals.

I realize you are busy (as stated in the intro to Episode Two's commentary) and that you receive thousands of e-mails a day. So thank you for taking the time to read mine, as lengthy as it is. I realize this is a complete shot in the dark, and that many game companies have corporate policies about not being able to help students, but your insight or that of other members of your design team would be invaluable. If at all possible I would like to set up an interview or otherwise discuss some of my ideas with someone on your staff. If you are interested, please contact me at this e-mail address (ctotten87@yahoo.com) and I can send a copy of my thesis/class outline and/or my Half-Life 2 journal.

Thank you for your time, I can't wait for Episode Three!

Chris Totten

I didn't really expect much, but one day, after moving into my new apartment, I opened my e-mail to find this:

Hi Chris,

Gabe forwarded your email to me in part because prior to joining Valve, I practiced as an architect for 19 years.
I’m not much of a gamer, but like you, my interest lies in how games can be used as a tool to aid designers to make informed decisions during the design process.

I would be glad to talk to you & assist you in any way I can & if not, I can direct you to those who can.

All the best w/ your thesis project,

(Valve employee name omitted from this blog post)

A reenactment of my response to the preceding e-mail

Needless to say, I've found a Holy Grail of information in The Orange Box, and plan to squeeze every helpful ounce of content out of it. If you're a gamer looking for a great deal and haven't picked this up: do it. If you're in my class next fall and reading this: it's not "required" but highly recommended. This is a fun and very enlightening package.

Introduction

2008-06-19T15:46:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the blog!

My name is Chris Totten and I am a graduate student at The Catholic University of America's School of Architecture and Planning with a concentration in Digital Media. That's my usual intro to business letters and anything that gets sent out with a resume anyway...

I am also an amateur game designer and game design theorist. In our free time, a few friends of mine and I design and create our own independent video games under the name "Ragnarok Games." At times I have even been sort of a "freelance educator", in that I love to teach and take whatever opportunities (swim instructor, teaching assistant, lecturer on how to use Photoshop, etc.) I can get.

As a part of the curriculum for CUA's Architecture Graduate program, I have to write a thesis paper and design an appropriate building based on the ideas from that paper. Having been an architecture student and through teaching them as a TA (teaching assistant) I have noticed that a lot of students are bored with the "old school" ways that architecture is taught. They want to stop dropping white boxes from the sky and make something that is exciting for the person who is actually inside the building.

Enter Game Design

Bringing some of my own interests into the project, (If I'm spending two years on this thing I'd better make it something fun!) I've decided to do my thesis on game design. Tentatively called Game Design and Architecture, it will discuss many of the game design principles that I have found through my own reading, research, and experience with games and find ways that they can be used to inform the field of architecture.

It will look at the psychological and sociological reasons that humans find pleasure and other emotions in built space and discuss how these instincts can be drawn upon to create architecture that invites exploration, much like video games do. It will also look at a game's ability to tell a story or give other types of information to a player in real time and discover how architecture can do the same. Finally, it will look at how modern technology has been and can work together with the built environment to inform its occupants on what's happening in the real and virtual worlds around them.

So why is all this being posted on Blogger?

As I said before, I enjoy teaching, so when I looked at the problem I wanted to solve for this thesis I realized that researching, learning, and writing about these things myself was all well and good, but stands up little to someone who would wonder if it could be taught successfully to a class of students.

So I got a class >:-D

While I am developing the course, I will post my thoughts on the material in this blog, which will hopefully become a useful resource in its own right. I would invite other game designers or architects to visit to read and comment (or offer me a job? please? hey, a guy's gotta try...) whenever they wish. I'd also like students, not only my own, to come by and check this all out. In the interest of the class being an experiment (the students have a design project at the beginning of the course solely reliant on their architectural knowledge...so no game design info) I won't be posting any actual theories until the Fall, but will use the Summer to comment on the experience and progress of making the course, any game designs I come up with, or even any randomly wacky thoughts I have about happenings in the game industry.

So please, enjoy, comment, and have a good one!