This is just a small idea for a multiplayer game not involving computers or a board.
The game is called FACE PLANT. The objective of the game is to run to the opposing teams side of the field. The teams can consist of as many players as you wish as long as its more than one (hence multiplayer) and preferably the teams are even. The teams will line up facing each other and you will play the game with the person facing you on the other team.
Once play commences you will run full speed at each other and at the point of collision you will decide and shout loudly either side, jump or duck and the objective is to side step or jump over the other player so that you have a clean path to the other side of the playing field.
working combinations for example are
both players side step the same way i.e. left to dodge each other
one player jumps and the other ducks
if a collision occurs both players lose and are out of play until the next round starts. The rounds end when there is only one player on each side and they are the winning pair.
Preferably the pairs are of people the same height or the extremities of tall and short to make it easier.
ENJOY FACEPLANT!!!!
Friday 25 November 2011
Wednesday 23 November 2011
Xeodesign: Why we play games: Four keys to more emotion without story
The Player Experience:
"How many emotions can a game create?"
"What makes failing 80% of the time fun?"
"Do people play to feel emotions as well as challenge?"
"Where do they come from?"
"Is it possible to build emotions into games by adding emotion - producing objects or actions rather than cut scenes?"
"To what extent are game designers already doing this?"
Hal Barwood "The joy of figuring it out"
Overview of Four keys to emotion without story:
"Criteria for four keys:
1. What players like most about playing.
2. Create unique emotion without story.
3. Already present in Ultra popular games.
4. Supported by psychology theory and other larger studies"
Emotions from meaningful challenges, strategies and puzzles
1. Hard Fun
"For many players overcoming obstacles is why they play. Hard Fun creates emotion by
structuring experience towards the pursuit of a goal. The challenge focuses attention and
rewards progress to create emotions such as Frustration and Fiero (an Italian word for
personal triumph)"
"Players who enjoy the Hard Fun of
Challenge say they like:
• Playing to see how good I really am
• Playing to beat the game
• Having multiple objectives
• Requiring strategy rather than luck"
Grab attention from Ambiguity, Incompleteness and detail
2. Easy Fun
"Other players focus on the sheer enjoyment of experiencing the game activities. Easy Fun
maintains focus with player attention rather than a winning condition"
It awakes the curiosity in the player, to discover and find out more about the game world.
"The sensations of Wonder, Awe, and Mystery can be very intense"
Players who enjoy this type of play say they like:
"• Exploring new worlds with intriguing people
• Excitement and adventure
• Wanting to figure it out
• Seeing what happens in the story, even if I have to use a walk through
• Feeling like me and my character are one
• Liking the sound of cards shuffling
• Growing dragons"
Generate emotion with perception, thought, behaviour, and other people
3. Altered States
"Players report that how a game makes them feel inside is one of the major reasons why they
play, or “games as therapy."
"Players whose enjoyment focuses on their internal sate say they like:
• Clearing my mind by clearing a level
• Feeling better about myself
• Avoiding boredom
• Being better at something that matter"
Create opportunities for player competition, cooperation, performance and spectacle
4. The People Factor
"Many player comments centre on the enjoyment from playing with others inside or outside the
game"
"Wisecracks and rivalries run hot as players compete."
"Dominant emotions include Amusement, Schadenfreude, and Naches"
"Players whose enjoyment came from interaction with other people say
that:
• It’s the people that are addictive not the game.
• I want an excuse to invite my friends over.
• I don’t like playing games, but it’s a fun way to spend time with my friends.
• I don’t play, but it’s fun to watch."
People No Longer Play
"I won’t play his games, because someone has to take care of the kids!” –Wife of a Hard Core Gamer
"The onset of job responsibilities and raising families reduces game play turning some hard core gamers into
non-players"
Adults tend not to play games, others reject them because of graphics, content and themes or in players that used to play a lot they don't play now because they are "too addictive"
Emotions During Play
Conclusion of emotional responses from xeodesign research
"1. Hard fun: Players like the opportunities for challenge, strategy and problem solving
2. Easy fun: Players enjoy intrigue and curiosity
3.Altered Stater: Players treasure the enjoyment from their internal experiences in reaction to the visceral, behaviour, cognitive and social properties.
4.The People Factor: Players use games as mechanisms for social experiences"
"For the game designer, the Four Keys to unlocking emotion in moment to moment game
play offers new opportunities for generating emotion through player choice."
"How many emotions can a game create?"
"What makes failing 80% of the time fun?"
"Do people play to feel emotions as well as challenge?"
"Where do they come from?"
"Is it possible to build emotions into games by adding emotion - producing objects or actions rather than cut scenes?"
"To what extent are game designers already doing this?"
Hal Barwood "The joy of figuring it out"
Overview of Four keys to emotion without story:
"Criteria for four keys:
1. What players like most about playing.
2. Create unique emotion without story.
3. Already present in Ultra popular games.
4. Supported by psychology theory and other larger studies"
Emotions from meaningful challenges, strategies and puzzles
1. Hard Fun
"For many players overcoming obstacles is why they play. Hard Fun creates emotion by
structuring experience towards the pursuit of a goal. The challenge focuses attention and
rewards progress to create emotions such as Frustration and Fiero (an Italian word for
personal triumph)"
"Players who enjoy the Hard Fun of
Challenge say they like:
• Playing to see how good I really am
• Playing to beat the game
• Having multiple objectives
• Requiring strategy rather than luck"
Grab attention from Ambiguity, Incompleteness and detail
2. Easy Fun
"Other players focus on the sheer enjoyment of experiencing the game activities. Easy Fun
maintains focus with player attention rather than a winning condition"
It awakes the curiosity in the player, to discover and find out more about the game world.
"The sensations of Wonder, Awe, and Mystery can be very intense"
Players who enjoy this type of play say they like:
"• Exploring new worlds with intriguing people
• Excitement and adventure
• Wanting to figure it out
• Seeing what happens in the story, even if I have to use a walk through
• Feeling like me and my character are one
• Liking the sound of cards shuffling
• Growing dragons"
Generate emotion with perception, thought, behaviour, and other people
3. Altered States
"Players report that how a game makes them feel inside is one of the major reasons why they
play, or “games as therapy."
"Players whose enjoyment focuses on their internal sate say they like:
• Clearing my mind by clearing a level
• Feeling better about myself
• Avoiding boredom
• Being better at something that matter"
Create opportunities for player competition, cooperation, performance and spectacle
4. The People Factor
"Many player comments centre on the enjoyment from playing with others inside or outside the
game"
"Wisecracks and rivalries run hot as players compete."
"Dominant emotions include Amusement, Schadenfreude, and Naches"
"Players whose enjoyment came from interaction with other people say
that:
• It’s the people that are addictive not the game.
• I want an excuse to invite my friends over.
• I don’t like playing games, but it’s a fun way to spend time with my friends.
• I don’t play, but it’s fun to watch."
People No Longer Play
"I won’t play his games, because someone has to take care of the kids!” –Wife of a Hard Core Gamer
"The onset of job responsibilities and raising families reduces game play turning some hard core gamers into
non-players"
Adults tend not to play games, others reject them because of graphics, content and themes or in players that used to play a lot they don't play now because they are "too addictive"
Emotions During Play
Conclusion of emotional responses from xeodesign research
"1. Hard fun: Players like the opportunities for challenge, strategy and problem solving
2. Easy fun: Players enjoy intrigue and curiosity
3.Altered Stater: Players treasure the enjoyment from their internal experiences in reaction to the visceral, behaviour, cognitive and social properties.
4.The People Factor: Players use games as mechanisms for social experiences"
"For the game designer, the Four Keys to unlocking emotion in moment to moment game
play offers new opportunities for generating emotion through player choice."
Xeodesign - Why we play games: Natural Funativity
Natural Funativity -
Dictionary Definition of "fun" - "as a source of amusement or enjoyment"
"We may not be able to describe fun, but we know it when we have it"
"What is the Funativity Quotient?" This is what was asked by Steve Arnold when making games - means where does the fun/entertainment come from?
Palaeolithic Pastimes:
"Refined Sugar Syndrome" - basically the change from hunter gatherer ancestors seeking rich ripe fruit for a sweet tooth which was actually good for them compared to modern day where sweet tooth's are beaten by processed sugars attempting to make the taste of a healthy, fruit alternative. This theory (RSS) is also used within a modern game industry "as the technology behind them has in fact made possible a concentrated, particularly potent play experience that is both very new in its expression and very old in it's origins."
"The drive to play is fundamental to humanity"
"Anyone who thinks there is a difference between education and entertainment doesn't know a thing about either" - Marshall McLuhan, communications theorist.
"Our modern fast-changing global culture has put even more emphasis on the ability to keep learning."
Type A Personalities - "People who are driven to work at survival tasks every moment available"
alternative to above are people who appreciate and feel the need to rest more than others and enjoy resting compared to "hunting"
"We must do a few things to survive. Everything else is entertainment" Marvin Minsky, AI expert.
The Natural Funativity theory: (Combination of Natural selection from Darwin and Steve Arnold's theory of Funativity Quotient)
Physical Fun:
Our primary instinct is survival and that is why most games and forms of entertainment focus mostly on survival to capture their audiences attention and survival instincts.
RSS Example - "The desire to gain skill in quickly escaping possible predators, animals or human, or chasing down prey has become abstracted into high-speed racing not only on foot but on bicycles, motorcycles, cars, sail boats, speedboats and pretty much any other conveyance."
We didn't inherit from our ancestors to build extremely fast cars, bikes etc. but we inherited the primal erge to move faster by any means.
"Casinos packed with slot machines recreate berry-picking, abstracted and refined into an RSS-related compulsion."
"Improving ones knowledge of immediate surroundings is a survival skill." As well as the use of "tools" dating back to prehistoric times and if incorporated in most modern day games whether they be weapons or tools to build or cars, flight simulators etc.
Also the use of keyboards and/or console controllers also improve our primal needs of hand eye coordination.
New software like Eye Toy/Kinect are increasing the primal social survival skills of the players who use the system with friends, neighbours, family etc.
Social Fun:
"Cell phones, instant messaging, and GPS - based games that put people in contact with each other in the real world are likely to further the social aspects of video games."
"We are tribal creatures forming groups and constantly watching and responding to each other."
"The development of language in its spoken form has added levels of indirection to our ability to learn survival skills and key information"
The use of modern technology now a day's is further aiding the basic survival skill of story telling as stories that were told and spread gave insight and taught others what to do and how to survive further, now through modern technology like films, TV, magazines, books, printers etc we are able to physically see the stories that we are told and this further aids our survival skills for example watching a documentary about child birth gives us the visual insight that would have been word of mouth millions of years ago.
The increase of tech over the years is just going to further increase the social interactivity to higher heights.
"Use the organ your using right now in games to make the game a good one without the need for a story or social interaction like Tetris which has no story or any ties to our ancestors"
Mental Fun:
"Our large brains are the answer"
"Even though we use our intelligence with physical and social fun, there is an entire set of entertainment activities including quite a few video games which focuses primarily on mental fun."
Instead of just using aspects from previous, well sold, popular games and risk adding concepts that are boring, the understanding of the games concepts is much more efficient as us as games designers can see and use what parts of a game work well and which don't.
Others on fun:
"I have yet to find any significant exceptions... to entertainment explained by natural funativity."
Future Funativity:
Dictionary Definition of "fun" - "as a source of amusement or enjoyment"
"We may not be able to describe fun, but we know it when we have it"
"What is the Funativity Quotient?" This is what was asked by Steve Arnold when making games - means where does the fun/entertainment come from?
Palaeolithic Pastimes:
"Refined Sugar Syndrome" - basically the change from hunter gatherer ancestors seeking rich ripe fruit for a sweet tooth which was actually good for them compared to modern day where sweet tooth's are beaten by processed sugars attempting to make the taste of a healthy, fruit alternative. This theory (RSS) is also used within a modern game industry "as the technology behind them has in fact made possible a concentrated, particularly potent play experience that is both very new in its expression and very old in it's origins."
"The drive to play is fundamental to humanity"
"Anyone who thinks there is a difference between education and entertainment doesn't know a thing about either" - Marshall McLuhan, communications theorist.
"Our modern fast-changing global culture has put even more emphasis on the ability to keep learning."
Type A Personalities - "People who are driven to work at survival tasks every moment available"
alternative to above are people who appreciate and feel the need to rest more than others and enjoy resting compared to "hunting"
"We must do a few things to survive. Everything else is entertainment" Marvin Minsky, AI expert.
The Natural Funativity theory: (Combination of Natural selection from Darwin and Steve Arnold's theory of Funativity Quotient)
Physical Fun:
Our primary instinct is survival and that is why most games and forms of entertainment focus mostly on survival to capture their audiences attention and survival instincts.
RSS Example - "The desire to gain skill in quickly escaping possible predators, animals or human, or chasing down prey has become abstracted into high-speed racing not only on foot but on bicycles, motorcycles, cars, sail boats, speedboats and pretty much any other conveyance."
We didn't inherit from our ancestors to build extremely fast cars, bikes etc. but we inherited the primal erge to move faster by any means.
"Casinos packed with slot machines recreate berry-picking, abstracted and refined into an RSS-related compulsion."
"Improving ones knowledge of immediate surroundings is a survival skill." As well as the use of "tools" dating back to prehistoric times and if incorporated in most modern day games whether they be weapons or tools to build or cars, flight simulators etc.
Also the use of keyboards and/or console controllers also improve our primal needs of hand eye coordination.
New software like Eye Toy/Kinect are increasing the primal social survival skills of the players who use the system with friends, neighbours, family etc.
Social Fun:
"Cell phones, instant messaging, and GPS - based games that put people in contact with each other in the real world are likely to further the social aspects of video games."
"We are tribal creatures forming groups and constantly watching and responding to each other."
"The development of language in its spoken form has added levels of indirection to our ability to learn survival skills and key information"
The use of modern technology now a day's is further aiding the basic survival skill of story telling as stories that were told and spread gave insight and taught others what to do and how to survive further, now through modern technology like films, TV, magazines, books, printers etc we are able to physically see the stories that we are told and this further aids our survival skills for example watching a documentary about child birth gives us the visual insight that would have been word of mouth millions of years ago.
The increase of tech over the years is just going to further increase the social interactivity to higher heights.
"Use the organ your using right now in games to make the game a good one without the need for a story or social interaction like Tetris which has no story or any ties to our ancestors"
Mental Fun:
"Our large brains are the answer"
"Even though we use our intelligence with physical and social fun, there is an entire set of entertainment activities including quite a few video games which focuses primarily on mental fun."
“Our intelligence, hand and tool abilities, and language all
complement each other and it is
difficult to separate out how they all developed in the
historical record. Our larger brains and
intelligence certainly made it possible for our ancestors to
make and use increasingly more complex
and varied tools and carry on more useful conversations. Our
tool use and ability to coordinate our
hunting and gathering through conversation has obviously
helped to make our ancestors more
efficient as hunters and gatherers, which in turn let them
find enough food to support their large
brains (which take a disproportionate share of our food
energy). And our language ability has let us
pass on knowledge about making tools, and has helped us
survive socially and cooperate to
compensate for some of the challenges that very large brains
have caused, like difficult childbirth and children who remain helpless much
longer than other young.”
“Although some people have aspirations to create a formula
or even a program to churn out game concepts or to exhaustively analyze and
evaluate games, I think this is an aberrant side effect of the fact that game
development is a multidisciplinary craft that includes a lot of programmers and
software engineers. Video games are software, but are also at heart very
concerned with creative and subtle psychological points, and like novels,
plays, and film I expect that people will reject any overly mechanical attempts
to codify them.”
"The essence of intelligence is the perception and manipulation of patterns" e.g. Tetris as a key example
The literal use of Tetris is obviously not helpful, to more, rotate and drop shapes but the ability drawn from it to view and act upon patterns quickly and improve our mental capacity is aiding in over survival skills such as " quickly recognizing and acting on patterns is useful"
"The survival benefit is not in the actual collecting of stamps or CD's, but in the mental fun of recognizing patterns. It is a workout for the brain."
Blended Fun: (The combination of the three types of fun stated earlier) e.g. Everquest as it incorporates; physical aspects (keyboard and mouse input), with simulated movement and combat, social aspects of teamwork, conversation etc.
Applying Natural Funativity:
"By the tying game play to these key aspects of hunting, gathering, exploration, social interaction and status, and pattern perception and we can capture the interest of large numbers of players and make games more fun."
"When a possible game feature can be measured against its ability to deliver on physical, social, or mental fun as described here"
Instead of just using aspects from previous, well sold, popular games and risk adding concepts that are boring, the understanding of the games concepts is much more efficient as us as games designers can see and use what parts of a game work well and which don't.
Others on fun:
"I have yet to find any significant exceptions... to entertainment explained by natural funativity."
Future Funativity:
"I also fully expect that we will
increasingly find common ground with other developers of all forms of
entertainment, as with genetics, once one looks beneath the surface it is
apparent we have more in common than our surface features would suggest. I certainly
expect to see the principles of Natural Funativity used increasingly to make
games more fun. And who knows - some day we may even learn how to define and
measure that elusive Funativity Quotient"
Friday 18 November 2011
Storyboard Script Final Draft
Here it is. My final formatted script for my storyboard. Enjoy!!!
BUTLER
Butler
THE PROTECTORS
DANIEL BROWN
EXT.
ALLEYWAY – NIGHT
CHRIS VOLK weaves down the alleyway holding a beer. He
is drunk.
SUDDENLY a sound.
He looks up.
At the end of an alleyway a group of THUGS in a fight
against one MAN. feeling confident he
attempts to help the lone man.
Walking closer to the fight, the man is masked and
fending off all of the 8 attackers at once without taking any hits, Chris realises
the lone man is a masked hero and not in need of help.
Thugs hear Chris drop his bottle and they stop and turn
to him.
THUG
1
Who
the hell are you?
THUG
BOSS
Get
him!
Fight erupts. Chris drunkenly puts up a good fight,
dodging blows and hitting them hard back quickly. Then the alcohol kicks in and
he is hit repeatedly by three attackers to the ground.
Hero defeats his ‘attackers’ with a powerful melee of
kicks and punches and turns to Chris’s attackers. He moves swiftly punching and striking the
attackers. They are quickly defeated. The hero picks up Chris from the floor.
Hero
(surprised
and confused)
Chris?!
what the hell are you doing here?
Chris
(Just
as Surprised)
What?
How do you know my name?
EXT. END OF ALLEYWAY – NIGHT
Thug boss turns on looking at the pair talking. Drawing
a pistol.
Thug
boss
This
is for Benz!
Hero turns as he hears exclamation. Is too slow and is
shot in chest.
The thugs run off and Chris catches the hero as he
falls back from protecting him.
Hero
I
thought you was at home training?
EXT. ALLEYWAY – NIGHT
CLOSE UP ON CHRIS AND HERO
(SHOCKED, CONFUSED)Chris holds the hero's head in
comfort and pulls down the mask uncovering his face.
Chris
Dad?! What are you doing here? Why are you in a costume
fighting thugs and muggers?
Dad
Take this, it will explain everything, I love you son
Chris
I love you too
The hero passes to his son a golden, odd looking key on
a chain neckless. As he accepts the key the hero's eyes close.
FADE TO BLACK
Chris(V/O)
I
spent all of my time growing up with my dad, my mum was killed in a car crash,
INT. CAR – HIGHWAY - NIGHT
BABY CHRIS in back of car. MUM driving. Car coming
towards them and crashes into them.
Chris
(V/O)
The
driver of the on coming car was drunk, I was in the back and luckily completely
UN harmed.
My dad raised me, trained me in all kinds of fighting
styles, kung fu, karate and tai chi are my favorite as well as using weapons
like stick fighting.
INT. FATHERS DO JO – DAY
Montage of YOUNG DAD
and YOUNG CHRIS training.
Chris
(V/O)
He
also home schooled me, I love science, and so does my dad being a scientist and
all as well as a archaeologist.
INT. FATHERS LAB – DAY
Montage of Chris and dad working with chemicals and
test tubes.
INT. FATHERS LIBRARY
- NIGHT
Chris reading with piles of book next to him.
Chris
(V/O)
My
dad keeps me busy but more recently I realised he’s kept me busy to distract me
from the fact that I am being kept away from everyone.
INT. CHRIS’S ROOM – DAY
Chris looking on at others of his age playing talking
and joking outside his house.
Chris
(V/O)
I
only really get to talk to our butler and people I meet when collecting our
shopping. It seems though when I do talk to others I seem to be massive in body
size and intellect, maybe its the home schooling and martial arts?
INT. KITCHEN – DAY
INT. SHOPPING CENTRE - DAY
Chris shopping and towering in height and muscle mass
over others in the store.
Chris bumps into attractive GIRL. They pair fall for
each other instantly, through their long glances at each other, blushing cheeks
and flirty behaviour.
Chris
I'm so sorry, my minds on other
things.
Girl pears into basket of nutritious food and muscle
supplements.
Girl
I
bet, that stuff looks boring what you got in there!
Chris
ha
I'm on a sort of strict diet, my dads very strict on what I do and eat.
Girl
Sounds
fun to be you.
Sarcastically flirting with Chris.
Chris
I'm
Chris by the way....
Chris extends his massive hand. The girl accepts the
gesture and shakes is giant hand compared to hers
Girl
Nice
to meet you Chris.
Chris
You not going to tell me your
name?
Flirting back to the sarcastic comments earlier.
Girl
Yes
I will, if you come to my party in two weeks? The 6Th of June?
Chris
Erm
I can’t its my birthday and I'm not allowed out too late or any alcohol, Dads
orders.
Girl
Its
your birthday, your not allowed out or any alcohol, WHAT!Come on sneak out
how old are you? You a man or a mouse? Come I wanna tell you my name.
Chris is extremely intrigued by this offer.
Chris
Well
I’ll be 21, and do I really look like a mouse?
Shocked at the realisation of his age compared to his
physique
Girl
Jees!
your 21? and your not allowed drink or to be out late? Right your coming I
don't care what you say, where do u live I’ll get you at 7:30 in two weeks.
Chris
erm
do you know Volk House?
Girl
What
the massive mansion on the river?
Chris
Yeah that's me.
Girl
Cute
and a millionaire, nice. See you at 7:30.
FADE TO BLACK
EXT. OUTSIDE VOLK HOUSE – NIGHT
Girl waiting. Over hearing mumbles of an argument
between Chris and his Dad.
After argument ends Chris appears at his window,jumps
down and front flips over the gate in one very fast fluid motion.
Girl
Wo!!
How’d you do that?
Chris
What
that? That’s nothing just basic acrobatics.
Girl
Well
acrobat we’re late
FADES AS THE PAIR WALK OFF.
INT. PARTY AT GIRLS HOUSE - NIGHT
Chris is laughing and joking, towering over other
guests. He’s very drunk, slurring his words and falling around, knocking things
and people over accidental.
Girl
Hey?
How you feeling? Please don’t fall on me no one will be able to carry you home.
Chris
I’mmm
alllrightt I thinks.HEY you’ve never told me that thing? Your name?
Girl
I
guess you have earned it. Its Silvia, don’t mock me. I kept my word, you got my
name and your having a good time obviously.
Shouting loudly to the whole room
Silvia
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!
The room goes into an uproar. Everyone cheers and sings
happy birthday to Chris.
FADE TO BLACK
EXT ALLEYWAY – NIGHT
Chris
V/O
And
that’s how I got here. How I caused my own Dads death.
CAMERA FOCUSED ON CHRIS HOLDING HIS DAD AND THE GOLDEN
KEY IN HIS PALM.
FADE TO BLACK
INT. MANSION LIBRARY – NIGHT
Chris places his Dads body onto the large centre table.
He begins to sob. When looking up from his body, notices a square shaped hole
next to the log burning fire with a picture of the father and son in their
training suits smiling at the camera.
Chris takes the key from around his neck and put the
key in the lock and turns.
With a massive thud and the sound of a moving mechanism
the whole fire place swings inwards from the key hole and reveals..
INT. SECRET ROOM – NIGHT
The mysterious room is windowless but is extremely
bright. Computer screens and monitors taking up a whole wall are playing
security tapes, and slideshows of convicts. The main monitor is paused on his
dads killer.
On the desk are articles and newspapers detailing
criminal activity and their apprehension by a hooded hero, his dad.
Chris turns around the room and comes across two glass
chambers. One empty and one with a 21stst birthday banner across.
Inside is a costume similar to his dads in his size.
FADES TO BLACK
CAMERA MOVES FROM CHRIS’ FEET TO HEAD.
We see Chris in the full costume except his mask.
Behind him the BUTLER
We need to sort your face out?
What are you going to do sir?
The camera turns to Chris as he turns to the butler
wearing his costume all except his mask/hood revealing his bloodied and bruised
face and costume in all its dominating glory.
Chris
Benz
killed the cities protector, now they have a new, Protector, a fitter model to
deal with, with a vengeance!!
The scene finishes with Chris putting on his mask and
hood then the scene fades to darkness.
Storyboard second draft
Below is my second draft at my story for my storyboard project.
Butler
I hope you like the story idea, this is just the introduction to the story but this is what I will be storyboarding at least partially.
Dan out x
The Protectors
My
story is going to start in a flash forward with the main character Chris Volk
walking inebriated down an alley way holding a beer.
He
oversees at the end of an alleyway a group of thugs in a fight against one man,
feeling confident he attempts to help the lone man.
As
he gets closer he realises the lone man is wearing a dark hooded costume,
covering all of his skin and a form of high tech body armour.
The
hooded character does not need Chris’ help but the thugs now move on to Chris
as the thugs have noticed him and the hooded character is outnumbered
physically but not outnumbered in skill.
Chris
is overpowered and beaten by the thugs because of his drunken state, then the
hooded character fends off all of the thugs and as he is helped up by the
faceless hero the leader of the thugs turns around and draws a pistol as the hero's back is turned
away from them.
THUG: This is from Benz!
As
he finish his exclamation the hero turns to face him just as the bullet hits
him in the chest.
The
thugs run off and Chris pulls himself up and to look at the hero. As he does so
the hero turn to look at him and exclaims in confusion.
Hero: Chris?! What are you
doing here?i thought you was at home training?
Shocked,
Chris holds the hero's head in comfort and pulls down the mask covering the
hero’s face.
Chris: Dad?! What are you
doing here? Why are you in a costume fighting thugs and muggers?
Dad: Take this, it will explain
everything, I love you son
The
hero passes to his son a golden, odd looking key on a chain neckless. As he
accepts the key the hero's eyes close and a voice over cuts in.
Chris (Voice over): I never
thought that would happen when I woke up this morning. Not the best 21st
birthday party, actually tonight was my only real party I ever had, and it was
all because of this girl.
Scene
fades out and goes back 2 weeks earlier. Chris is in a shop buying groceries
and general food when he bumps into a good looking woman who he instantly falls
for.
Chris: I'm so sorry, my
minds on other things.
Girl: I bet, that stuff
looks boring what you got in there!
Chris: ha I'm on a sort of
strict diet, my dads very strict on what I do and eat.
Girl: Sounds fun to be you.
Chris: I'm Chris by the
way....
Girl: Nice to meet you
Chris.
Chris: You not going to
tell me your name?
Girl: yes I will, if you
come to my party in two weeks? The 6Th of June?
Chris: Erm I can’t its my
birthday and I'm not allowed out too late or any alcohol, Dads orders.
Girl: its your birthday,
your not allowed out or any alcohol, WHAT!Come on sneak out how old are you?
You a man or a mouse? Come I wanna tell you my name.
Chris: well I’ll be 21, and
do I really look like a mouse?
Girl: jees your 21 and your
not allowed drink or to be out late, right your coming I don't care what you
say, where do u live I’ll get you at 8 in two weeks.
Chris: Erm do you know Volk
House?
Girl: what the massive
mansion on the river?
Chris: Yeah that's me.
Fades
to voice over.
Chris: I spent all of my
time growing up with my dad, my mum was killed in a car crash, the driver of
the on coming car going the wrong way was drunk, I was in the back and luckily
completely UN harmed. My dad raised me, trained me in all kinds of fighting
styles, kung fu, karate and tai chi are my favorite as well as using weapons
like swords but mostly stick fighting. He also home schooled me, I love
science, and so does my dad being a scientist and all as well as a
archaeologist. My dad keeps me busy but more recently I realised he’s kept me
busy as well as distracting me from the fact that I am being kept away from
everyone, I only really get to talk to our butler and people I meet when
collecting my dads shopping. It seems though when I do talk to others I seem to
be massive in body size and intellect, maybe its the home schooling and martial
arts?
With
the voice over running we are shown a montage of clips of Chris in a car crash
with is mum, followed by him training from a young age with his dad until now
in different variants of martial arts and finally showing him now and his
towering physique and mental capacity. (Through books and amounts of work he
does).
Voice overs
and montage fades to Chris after an argument following Chris asking to go out
for his birthday and his dad banning him from leaving the grounds tonight, he
disobeys and Chris sneaks out on the 6Th
June at around 7:3opm and meeting up with the mysterious girl.
Following
the story will jump to him at the party getting quite inebriated and having a
good time and the final revelation of this mysterious girls name.
Then
we flash forward to the start and Chris is holding the mysterious golden key and
decided to avenge his father and in doing so he take his fathers body home and
finds a mysterious hidden door way with a square shaped key hole, that opens up
into a hidden rooms within his dads private room.
Inside
he discovers newspaper articles and magazines about his dad as this hooded hero
and lastly turns to see a costume exactly his size in a glass container with a
21St banner around it and an open laptop but before he can view the
computer screen he is interrupted by the butler.
The
camera turns to Chris as he turns to the butler wearing his costume all except
his mask/hood revealing to the butler his bloodied and bruised face.
Chris: Benz killed the
cities protector, now they have a new, younger, fitter model to deal with, with
a vengeance.
The
scene finishes with Chris putting on his mask and hood then the scene fades to
darkness.
Thursday 17 November 2011
The Royal Game of Ur - Iterations
Royal Game of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur dates from 2600 B.C. It was discovered in the 1920s by Sir Leonard Wooley during his excavations at the city of Ur in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). In the early 1980s, Irving Finkel of the British Museum uncovered the rules of the game, long forgotten, by deciphering Sumerian cuneiform tablets.
Rules
The Royal Game of Ur is played by two players using a board consisting of 20 squares shown in Figure 1. One player has seven white stones and the other has seven black stones. Each player takes turns to throw four D4 dice (figure 2) or throwing sticks that are marked on one side and move one of their pieces according to the number indicated by the dice or sticks.
Figure 1: Royal Game of Ur board
Dice with
marks upwards
|
Count
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
The goal is to move each stone along the 14-square path from the start square to the end and remove the stone from the board. The winner is the player who removes all their stones from the board first.
If a stone lands on a square marked with a star the player may roll again and if they are left on a star square they are protected from being destroyed by the opponent for as long as they are on that square. After rolling the dice the player moves the stone forward the number of squares shown by the dice roll. When starting a stone the first count is onto the start square. A player may have more than one stone on the board at a time. If the stone of one player lands on a square occupied by the stone of the opponent while on the center row, the opponent’s stone is removed from the board and must start again." Information and images quoted from http://www.boardgamesoftheworld.com/ur.html and then alterations added by me.
Figure 2: D4 dice image taken from http://www.google.co.uk/images
The D4 dice shown above is a modern day D4 so is different from the table and relative counts, the D4 that would have been used originally would have been used by dotting two points on each of the four dice used and when thrown if the point facing upwards had a dot on that would count as one then the total of all four D4's would equal the amount the player could move.
New Board of Ur:
Below is an image of the new type of board that we also played on after we tried the original board game. After we played on this type of board we then added our iterations.
Figure 3: a new iteration of the original board game space
My Royal Game of Ur Iterations:
After this we decided to add the iteration that if the player can move they have to even if that meant moving from the safety of the star squares.
After a play through with these rules we decided on two iterations, the first was to determine who goes first, as arguing occurred, the first person to three in a game of rock-paper-scissors went first, then we decided that if a player jumps over and/or lands on an opponents square they are taken excluding the star squares.
Following another run through we decided to iterate a positive feedback loop which meant that if a player took a piece or multiple pieces they had an extra go, but only one go even if they took more than one piece, this was also a sort of negative feedback loop as well as the player who was behind could luckily take the others players piece and land on a star square afterwards meaning they could combine their movements to move quicker up the board in one go.
Our last iteration after playing through this we decided another negative feedback loop which meant, because of the rule of having to move if it is possible, through the introduction of a death square on the second to last board space, which meant for example, if the player in the lead had one piece left near the end and rolled the perfect number to land on the 'Death square' they had to land on it unless they had other pieces, which meant giving the loser the advantage as the winner has been sent back to that start.
Figure 4: Our iteration of the board space
I hope you have enjoyed this post and if you like you can make your own board and have a go at the original game, my iterations and also make your own iterations. Enjoy the Royal Game Of Ur.
Dan Out x
Friday 11 November 2011
My Initial script for my Storyboard
Storyboard first draft
Beginning:
The start of the story starts with a drunken character
walking down an alleyway and attempts to help a hooded figure in a fight against
a group of thugs, the character gets beaten up and the hooded figure saves him
but as the group runs away the hooded figure is shoot by one of the thugs and
the figure falls into the main characters arms.
Then it fades to the introduction to the main character (through
a flashback) that from a young age has been trained by his scientist father in
all variants of martial arts and trained to his physical peek. As well as this
he is home schooled and taught by his single parent dad again to his mental
peek as well as his butler so that he is tuned and adapted to his peek of
mental and physical capabilities.
The introduction is a jump straight into an action scene
followed by a flashback which explains the initial action scene, then a brief
run through of his life from a young age until just before his 21st
birthday where he has stuck to his training and is a god amongst normal men and
then catches back up to the start of the story. It is also established that his
father is getting older and sticking to the training but becoming in superior
to his sons abilities.
Body of the story:
The week before his birthday whilst out and around town he
is doing he usual shopping and meets a woman who he instantly falls for and who
tempts him to disobey his dad and escape the night of his birthday as, after
explaining that he is not getting a party or a big celebration she tells him
they should meet up because it is his 21st birthday so should
celebrate properly.
After escaping for his birthday he returns home and takes a
shortcut through an alleyway (the flashback goes back to the start of the
story) and sees a hooded, costumed figure in a fight with a group of men.
As he is trained to his physical peek and a bit over
confident but quite drunk as he has never experience alcohol before he sticks
up for the hooded figure and gets beaten up by the attackers. The hooded figure
saves our hero and once the attackers are finished with and are running away
one turns around and draws a pistol and shoots the hooded figure as he is
helping our hero of the floor.
The hooded figure dies in the alley with him and just before
he dies he reveals that it is his dad and that he was beaten because he is
getting too old, not because of him but our hero blames himself for his fathers
death.
At his funeral he receives all of his dad’s possessions
including his house and cars etc and is lastly given a golden key on a chain by
his butler and told that his father wanted him to have it and that he would
know where to use it. Attached is a letter telling him that his uncle may be
able to give extra help if his butler couldn’t answer any of his questions he
might.
Later it is found that his uncle is a mole and is actually
working for/ leader of the enemy’s, which his father didn’t know about.
The death of his father makes our hero determined to carry
on his training and take his place as the hooded figure and avenge his death even though he knows his
dad doesn’t want him to follow in his footsteps because his training was to
defend himself from the threat of others in the world, but he ignores this fact
and decides he must have been training him for a better purpose and to replace
him because why else was he being trained to the level he is at and he wishes
to avenge his death as it was “his” fault he is dead.
End:
After overcoming some challenges both mentally and physically
the hero finds the attacker that killed his father and takes him down and
converts or kills his uncle due to him being a mole in the organisation as well
as the mob boss that is in charge of the criminals of the city. And obviously gets the girl and becomes a
well known and well feared and respected hero of the city.
Dan out x
Thursday 10 November 2011
pop cap games case study notes
Pop Cap Games Case Study - Marcus Venturelli, Kranio Studio
Intro:
First time since around 1970 that words like "accessibility" and "family friendly" have been used so frequently. This was greatly established when the realisation that Space War was too complex for a general audience and wasn't as successful than its main competitor because of this.
Casual games - games that can be picked up and player by anyone.
"Casual game design really does borrow several elements from games past - but a quick Peggle session after playing the classic version of Tetris shows that there is, indeed, a lot to be learned."
"Pop Cap leads PC Casual gaming market."
Related work:
-John Rose (2008) - How the space of possibility related to player experience.
-William Willing (2006) wrote series of articles on an online blog about casual game design.
"Casual games are not necessarily of smaller complexity" e.g. Plants VS Zombies is very complex, very quickly.
For this article casual forms is based on the notion of "Pick Up and Play"
"Through a complex iteration of smaller objects in the system that the casual game builds its own kind of "Complexity.""
Pacing is a key focus when creating casual games.
Pop Cap's success is due to:
Superb pacing, fun and polished mechanics, impeccable interface design, good balancing, great attention to detail and "a process of Q and A and iterative design that is visibly well-established after almost 10 years of maturing and is applied to all their products"
Peggle included a 9 month development process of playing and testing, then 1 year of production then finally another 9 months of polishing.
"Pacing is a concept related to the overall rhythm of the game... by indirectly crafting the player experience - through mechanics, aesthetics and dynamics - to create relaxation, tension and repetition, the designer "Paces the game"".
Four Concepts involved in Pacing: (Davies 2009)
*Movement Impetus *Tension * Threat *Tempo
These happen in the lower arcs of pacing (see below)
"Conflict as a contest of powers"
Threat and Tension:
"For the purpose of this work, "Tension" is perceived danger that a player might become the weakest side on the conflict, while "threat" is the actual power of the opposing forces on the conflict a concept directly related to game balance. Aesthetic resources such as graphics and sound can be used to increase or decrease tension, but not threat."
Movement Impetus:
"The will or desire of a player to move forward through a level but in this work is is not limited to its application in level design."
The key is making the player wanting to advance by using "advancement decisions."
Tempo:
"Intensity of play. It is the time between each significant decision made by the player."
"Lower tempo represents more frantic decision making by the player" and higher tempo is opposite.
Designing a space possibility:
"Designing a game is designing a space possibility".
Space as possibility and player experience:
"When playing a game, the player is trying to figure out patterns."
"The destiny of games is to become boring not to be fun. Those of us who want games to be fun are fighting a losing battle against the human brain because fun is a process and routine is its destination (...) all of this happens because the human mind is goal driven."
"It's not safe to assume that simply making a game with more patterns will turn it into a good experience." This is because the player will get frustrated and annoyed so will give up. When designing games it's the balance of the amount of difficulty and patterns is key to a successful game.
"Simple put giving players more things to choose from increase the tempo of the game".
Increasing difficulty as the game progresses makes a game more appealing and not boring so keeps players challenged and wanting to finish the challenges set to them.
"All games are destined to have their patterns completely absorbed by the player and, after that, become boring. On the other hand, if the patterns cannot be absorbed, the player becomes frustrated and the experience will still come to an end."
Ways to keep players interested is to completely change the patterns in a game through the mechanics e.g. every 5 levels there is a mini game making the player want to reach the next mini game more. "This keeps tempo low and movement frantic and fluid".
"The mechanics are replaced and new patterns arise, hopefully before boredom takes place, breaking the seduction and ending the experience. When such a marvellous thing happens, Player Impetus is kept constant throughout the upper arch, thus providing the sensation that the game is "impossible to stop playing""
"The quality of an entertainment experience can be measured by the extent to which its unfolding sequence of events is able to hold a guests interest" (Schell 2008)
Intro:
First time since around 1970 that words like "accessibility" and "family friendly" have been used so frequently. This was greatly established when the realisation that Space War was too complex for a general audience and wasn't as successful than its main competitor because of this.
Casual games - games that can be picked up and player by anyone.
"Casual game design really does borrow several elements from games past - but a quick Peggle session after playing the classic version of Tetris shows that there is, indeed, a lot to be learned."
"Pop Cap leads PC Casual gaming market."
Related work:
-John Rose (2008) - How the space of possibility related to player experience.
-William Willing (2006) wrote series of articles on an online blog about casual game design.
"Casual games are not necessarily of smaller complexity" e.g. Plants VS Zombies is very complex, very quickly.
For this article casual forms is based on the notion of "Pick Up and Play"
"Through a complex iteration of smaller objects in the system that the casual game builds its own kind of "Complexity.""
Pacing is a key focus when creating casual games.
Pop Cap's success is due to:
Superb pacing, fun and polished mechanics, impeccable interface design, good balancing, great attention to detail and "a process of Q and A and iterative design that is visibly well-established after almost 10 years of maturing and is applied to all their products"
Peggle included a 9 month development process of playing and testing, then 1 year of production then finally another 9 months of polishing.
"Pacing is a concept related to the overall rhythm of the game... by indirectly crafting the player experience - through mechanics, aesthetics and dynamics - to create relaxation, tension and repetition, the designer "Paces the game"".
Four Concepts involved in Pacing: (Davies 2009)
*Movement Impetus *Tension * Threat *Tempo
These happen in the lower arcs of pacing (see below)
"Conflict as a contest of powers"
Threat and Tension:
"For the purpose of this work, "Tension" is perceived danger that a player might become the weakest side on the conflict, while "threat" is the actual power of the opposing forces on the conflict a concept directly related to game balance. Aesthetic resources such as graphics and sound can be used to increase or decrease tension, but not threat."
Movement Impetus:
"The will or desire of a player to move forward through a level but in this work is is not limited to its application in level design."
The key is making the player wanting to advance by using "advancement decisions."
Tempo:
"Intensity of play. It is the time between each significant decision made by the player."
"Lower tempo represents more frantic decision making by the player" and higher tempo is opposite.
Designing a space possibility:
"Designing a game is designing a space possibility".
Space as possibility and player experience:
"When playing a game, the player is trying to figure out patterns."
"The destiny of games is to become boring not to be fun. Those of us who want games to be fun are fighting a losing battle against the human brain because fun is a process and routine is its destination (...) all of this happens because the human mind is goal driven."
"It's not safe to assume that simply making a game with more patterns will turn it into a good experience." This is because the player will get frustrated and annoyed so will give up. When designing games it's the balance of the amount of difficulty and patterns is key to a successful game.
"Simple put giving players more things to choose from increase the tempo of the game".
Increasing difficulty as the game progresses makes a game more appealing and not boring so keeps players challenged and wanting to finish the challenges set to them.
"All games are destined to have their patterns completely absorbed by the player and, after that, become boring. On the other hand, if the patterns cannot be absorbed, the player becomes frustrated and the experience will still come to an end."
Ways to keep players interested is to completely change the patterns in a game through the mechanics e.g. every 5 levels there is a mini game making the player want to reach the next mini game more. "This keeps tempo low and movement frantic and fluid".
"The mechanics are replaced and new patterns arise, hopefully before boredom takes place, breaking the seduction and ending the experience. When such a marvellous thing happens, Player Impetus is kept constant throughout the upper arch, thus providing the sensation that the game is "impossible to stop playing""
"The quality of an entertainment experience can be measured by the extent to which its unfolding sequence of events is able to hold a guests interest" (Schell 2008)
Sunday 6 November 2011
Brenda Braithwaite: Chance & Skill: Elements of chance
Chance & Skill - Elements of Chance:
Delaying or Preventing Solvability:
"A game is "solvable" if the entire possibility space is known ahead of time and can be exploited such that a specific player, playing correctly, can always win (or draw)."
"Solvable games are not automatically bad. Chess is solvable, but the possibility of space is to large that it continues to entertain."
Games with small possibility spaces need an extra something to keep the game fresh, such as adding a "random" element.
Making play "competitive" for all players:
"Random elements that occasionally allow a less experienced player to win (or at lest offer an advantage) keep these players interested for longer in two ways. First, there is always the chance of victory. Secondly, the sting of defeat is lessened when a player can blame her own bad luck"
Random elements can cause a game to be more fair is the players aren't of equal skill levels.
Increasing Variety:
"Adding random elements in the right ways can increase the variety of a player's experience, thus increasing the replay value" Meaning if chance or an element of chance is added games do not become tedious or repetitive.
Creating Dramatic Moments:
"The level of excitement or tension created by chance increases in direct proportion to how much one has riding on the results" Meaning chance is a great tool for creating drama in games especially when a lot is on the line depending on chance i.e. die roll or spin of a roulette wheel.
Enhancing Decision Making:
"When random elements exist in a game, there is no longer strategy that is always right. Some moves might have a high chance of failure but also a big potential pay off, making them a risky choice, other moves might be safe but with a small gain."
"Since there are unknown elements, the decisions become more complicated and thus more compelling."
Mechanics of Chance:
When creating games there are a lot of ways to add randomness to it. Here are a few examples.
Dice:
Depending on the number of dice and dice faces increases the degree of randomness. I.e. rolling a six sided dice you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting a 2 for example. If you have 2, 6 sided dice the chance is increased.
"The more dice involved, the more heavily the result skews towards the centre (Thus randomness is decreased). The greater the number of faces on each die, the greater the range (Thus randomness is increased)"
Gamblers often ignore the fact that say if a 5 is rolled there is an equal chance a 5 will be rolled on the next throw on a 6 sided dice as well as all of the other numbers. This is a "Fallacy game designers cannot afford to make"
Cards:
Cards have multiple ways of making games more and more random, for example they can be shuffled, randomising their order. They can be played face down on the table, making their information hidden from all players. They can also be dealt to players who can only look at their own cards and no one else's, giving each player privileged information. "All of these are great on their own as well as combined altogether making it very random but with this, a there are a set number of cards, upon each reveal of cards the probability and chance decreases as the players know where that card is e.g.if a card is picked up/revealed to the whole table the probability of players choice of cards is decreased from 1 out of 52 to 1 out of 51 as well as reducing the cards in their hand."
Pseudo - Random Number Generators:
Pseudo-random number computers are not able to truly generate random numbers but Pseudo-random numbers are essentially algorithms of which are near enough random and will work well within computer games. "It is technically not random, but that it is close enough for the purpose of most games."
Pseudo-random numbers can be applied to every game type imaginable "Making them extremely versatile if a designer wants to include defined amounts of chance to a game"
Hidden Information:
"When non-random information is concealed from the players, it is still random from the players perspective. For example, in the children's card game Go Fish, a player must ask another player for a card of a chosen type." This appears random but isn't in the opponents perspective as they know their own hands and what the other player needs and doesn't have.
Fog of War:
Fog of war is another example where nothing is altered only the players visibility and from this each player is responding to what they cannot see, only what they think their opponent is doing creating random dynamics.
When incorporating random elements the "players should be able to understand the consequences of their actions and be able to form some degree of strategy that takes into account the random elements of the game." If they do not understand the systems because they are hidden "Their task of understanding the game is much more difficult.
Other Game Bits:
Spinners - behave like dice
Flipping a coin - same randomness as rolling a two sided dice 50/50.
Dreidel - same as four sided die
Cardboard tiles in a bad - Similar to a deck of cards
All randomness is not created equal:
"Is poker a game of luck or a game of skill?" What is meant by this is the fact that the lower the amount of players there is more of a chance of a player to get more winning hands compared to the others. Whereas if the amount of players increases the amount of winning hands dealt out is more even and then depends on player skill I.e. if they bet high at a key point or don't risk it. "Each individual hand (or die roll or spin of the wheel) may be random, but with a sufficiently large number of them, the randomness is decreased."
Completely Random Games:
Most games, with some exceptions, have at least a small amount of skill involved even if the game is purely chance based.
Generally speaking their are only two types of games that are just random, children's games and gambling games, not saying all of them are random as some include skills but games that are purely random will most likely be a child's game or a gambling game.
Children's games:
In most games for children, who have not yet grown enough to develop skill within games, the game tells them what to do by the random outcomes produced by the game.
Most kids games incorporate a lot of tension and drama normally caused by a random event. For example random changes in fortune "such as the special spaces in Chutes and Ladders that cause a player to advance or full back suddenly."
"These games allow possibility of always coming from behind and winning so that the end result is never certain."
This is key in Chutes and Ladders/ Snakes and Ladders where the player has to land on the last space exactly which causes a high amount of tension as the person is in the lead but after each throw the loser/s are getting closer and closer, unless they land on another random event, a chute/snake making the gap wider. Tension is key and crucial in these games.
Gambling Games:
"The defining mechanic of gambling games is that real money is won or lost in the process. Without money at stake, pure-luck gambling games lose their appeal."
"The game may still be completely random, but the element of choice (amount of coins, how much to bet, what to bet on etc.) gives the players the illusion of control, since different choices lead to different outcomes"
Delaying or Preventing Solvability:
"A game is "solvable" if the entire possibility space is known ahead of time and can be exploited such that a specific player, playing correctly, can always win (or draw)."
"Solvable games are not automatically bad. Chess is solvable, but the possibility of space is to large that it continues to entertain."
Games with small possibility spaces need an extra something to keep the game fresh, such as adding a "random" element.
Making play "competitive" for all players:
"Random elements that occasionally allow a less experienced player to win (or at lest offer an advantage) keep these players interested for longer in two ways. First, there is always the chance of victory. Secondly, the sting of defeat is lessened when a player can blame her own bad luck"
Random elements can cause a game to be more fair is the players aren't of equal skill levels.
Increasing Variety:
"Adding random elements in the right ways can increase the variety of a player's experience, thus increasing the replay value" Meaning if chance or an element of chance is added games do not become tedious or repetitive.
Creating Dramatic Moments:
"The level of excitement or tension created by chance increases in direct proportion to how much one has riding on the results" Meaning chance is a great tool for creating drama in games especially when a lot is on the line depending on chance i.e. die roll or spin of a roulette wheel.
Enhancing Decision Making:
"When random elements exist in a game, there is no longer strategy that is always right. Some moves might have a high chance of failure but also a big potential pay off, making them a risky choice, other moves might be safe but with a small gain."
"Since there are unknown elements, the decisions become more complicated and thus more compelling."
Mechanics of Chance:
When creating games there are a lot of ways to add randomness to it. Here are a few examples.
Dice:
Depending on the number of dice and dice faces increases the degree of randomness. I.e. rolling a six sided dice you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting a 2 for example. If you have 2, 6 sided dice the chance is increased.
"The more dice involved, the more heavily the result skews towards the centre (Thus randomness is decreased). The greater the number of faces on each die, the greater the range (Thus randomness is increased)"
Gamblers often ignore the fact that say if a 5 is rolled there is an equal chance a 5 will be rolled on the next throw on a 6 sided dice as well as all of the other numbers. This is a "Fallacy game designers cannot afford to make"
Cards:
Cards have multiple ways of making games more and more random, for example they can be shuffled, randomising their order. They can be played face down on the table, making their information hidden from all players. They can also be dealt to players who can only look at their own cards and no one else's, giving each player privileged information. "All of these are great on their own as well as combined altogether making it very random but with this, a there are a set number of cards, upon each reveal of cards the probability and chance decreases as the players know where that card is e.g.if a card is picked up/revealed to the whole table the probability of players choice of cards is decreased from 1 out of 52 to 1 out of 51 as well as reducing the cards in their hand."
Pseudo - Random Number Generators:
Pseudo-random number computers are not able to truly generate random numbers but Pseudo-random numbers are essentially algorithms of which are near enough random and will work well within computer games. "It is technically not random, but that it is close enough for the purpose of most games."
Pseudo-random numbers can be applied to every game type imaginable "Making them extremely versatile if a designer wants to include defined amounts of chance to a game"
Hidden Information:
"When non-random information is concealed from the players, it is still random from the players perspective. For example, in the children's card game Go Fish, a player must ask another player for a card of a chosen type." This appears random but isn't in the opponents perspective as they know their own hands and what the other player needs and doesn't have.
Fog of War:
Fog of war is another example where nothing is altered only the players visibility and from this each player is responding to what they cannot see, only what they think their opponent is doing creating random dynamics.
When incorporating random elements the "players should be able to understand the consequences of their actions and be able to form some degree of strategy that takes into account the random elements of the game." If they do not understand the systems because they are hidden "Their task of understanding the game is much more difficult.
Other Game Bits:
Spinners - behave like dice
Flipping a coin - same randomness as rolling a two sided dice 50/50.
Dreidel - same as four sided die
Cardboard tiles in a bad - Similar to a deck of cards
All randomness is not created equal:
"Is poker a game of luck or a game of skill?" What is meant by this is the fact that the lower the amount of players there is more of a chance of a player to get more winning hands compared to the others. Whereas if the amount of players increases the amount of winning hands dealt out is more even and then depends on player skill I.e. if they bet high at a key point or don't risk it. "Each individual hand (or die roll or spin of the wheel) may be random, but with a sufficiently large number of them, the randomness is decreased."
Completely Random Games:
Most games, with some exceptions, have at least a small amount of skill involved even if the game is purely chance based.
Generally speaking their are only two types of games that are just random, children's games and gambling games, not saying all of them are random as some include skills but games that are purely random will most likely be a child's game or a gambling game.
Children's games:
In most games for children, who have not yet grown enough to develop skill within games, the game tells them what to do by the random outcomes produced by the game.
Most kids games incorporate a lot of tension and drama normally caused by a random event. For example random changes in fortune "such as the special spaces in Chutes and Ladders that cause a player to advance or full back suddenly."
"These games allow possibility of always coming from behind and winning so that the end result is never certain."
This is key in Chutes and Ladders/ Snakes and Ladders where the player has to land on the last space exactly which causes a high amount of tension as the person is in the lead but after each throw the loser/s are getting closer and closer, unless they land on another random event, a chute/snake making the gap wider. Tension is key and crucial in these games.
Gambling Games:
"The defining mechanic of gambling games is that real money is won or lost in the process. Without money at stake, pure-luck gambling games lose their appeal."
"The game may still be completely random, but the element of choice (amount of coins, how much to bet, what to bet on etc.) gives the players the illusion of control, since different choices lead to different outcomes"
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