Designing to Promote Intentional Play [email protected].

Designing to Promote

Intentional [email protected]

a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader.


Designer Machine PlayerCreator Mediator Creator

Creator Machine ViewerFatter

Player Intention is the ability of the player to devise his own meaningful goals through his understanding of the game dynamics and to formulate meaningful plans to achieve them using the information and resources provided by the game.

Intentionality

C:\Documents and Settings\ClintH\My Documents\Creative\Conferences_Presentations\GDC\My_GDC_Presentations\06_Intentionality\Presentation Materials\DoorTrap.mpeg


Most jokes contain two components: joke setup (for example, "A man walks into a bar...") and a punchline, which, when juxtaposed with the setup, provides the necessary irony to elicit laughter from the audience.

Player Intent

To cause John to bash down a door, which has been trapped with a wall-mine, in order to blast John down an open elevator shaft while on fire, after making a cocky remark about how he’s not an amateur.

Pan and Zoom

Thermal Vision

Night Vision

Distraction

Persistent

Sticky Camera

Wall Mine

Adhesive

Sticks to Doors

Directional

Back-blast effect

NPC

State> Default> Aware> Alert

Distraction Sound

Input BehaviorSearch

NPC

State> Default> Aware> Alert

Whistle

2nd Input BehaviorSearch

ResultSearch Fails

-Stressed

BehaviorDoorBash

NPC

Class> Rookie

> Elite> Soldier

Distraction Sound

Input Bark“I heard

something.”

NPC

> Rookie> Soldier> EliteWhistle

2nd Input Bark“I heard

something.”

ResultSearch Fails

Bark“A trap? Who does this guy think he's dealing

with? Amateurs?”

combined with state change to Aware-Stressed

Class

Explosive Hilarity

NPC

> Rookie> Soldier> Elite

Whistle

2nd Input Bark“I heard

something.”

ResultSearch Fails

Bark“Holy crap! … Guess I'm a little jumpy…”

combined with state change to Aware-Stressed

ffftt… pop

State

Class

Behavior

BarksSticky

Camera

Wall Mines

Doors

Whistle CameraSound

NPCRelated

ObjectRelated

Inputs

936

www.planarity.net

GDC 2004

Smith, H Smith, R

Emergent Gameplay

http://www.roningamedeveloper.com/Materials/RandySmithAndHarveySmith_GDC_2004.ppt

Player takes a jump

Car flips and lands upside down

Car explodes

Nearby pedestrians are injured by explosion

Pedestrians begin to attack player

Smith and Smith Emergence in GTA 3


Player takes a jump


Car explodes



www.planarity.net

easy to verify harder to solve

Smith and Smith Emergence in DX:IW


Player reaches locked door

Player dominates Spiderbot

Spiderbot EMP’d when domination ends

Player shoots EMP’d bot

Spiderbot explodes

Explosion destroys door

Spider Bot

Doors

DamageBot

Domination

ObjectRelated

Inputs

5EMP

12

Player’s Primary Intent: Get Through Locked Door

Player deploys Spiderbot

Player Dominates Spiderbot

Player allows Spiderbot to time out beside locked door

Player damages Spiderbot because he knows explosion will destroy locked door

Because he knows that he can Dominate it

Because he knows when Domination times out, the bot will be EMP’d

Because he knows that EMP’d bots explode when damaged

Player fulfills intent by crossing through doorway

Emergence and Intentionality [disambiguation]

Arises from interconnections between systems

Emergence

Arises from player comprehension of the interconnection between systems

Intentionality

Spider Bot

Doors

DamageBot

Domination

5EMP

12

State

Class

Behavior

BarksSticky

Camera

Wall Mines

Doors

Whistle CameraSound

936

www.planarity.net

Britney:

hey! 24f Cali here, 5’10”, 135, blonde, blue… u?

Player takes a jump


Car explodes



Smith and Smith Emergence in GTA 3


Player takes a jump


Car explodes



C:\Documents and Settings\ClintH\My Documents\Creative\Conferences_Presentations\GDC\My_GDC_Presentations\06_Intentionality\Presentation Materials\HL2_Barrel_DivX.avi

C:\Documents and Settings\ClintH\My Documents\Creative\Conferences_Presentations\GDC\My_GDC_Presentations\06_Intentionality\Presentation Materials\HL2_Cart_DivX.avi

An object (or system) has affordance if it displays obvious indicators of its properties.

Affordance

Cart Properties:

•Metal•Bulletproof•Dimensions (shield)•Magnets•Wheeled•Can’t burn•Mass•Low center of mass•Etc•Etc

Explosive Barrel Properties:

•Metal•Contains explosive fuel•Can ignite, burn, explode•Magnets•Mass and shape•Flat and round•Can be rolled•higher center of mass•Etc•Etc

www.planarity.net

easy to verify harder to solve

Highly Intentional play enables the player to become a creative participant in the play experience. I believe this is important.

Highly intentional play – the kind of play I’m suggesting we attempt to promote – takes place in robustly interconnected systems.

Helping the player comprehend these sorts of systems can be done in three ways: by requiring comprehension to progress, by offering a safe environment in which the player can experiment, and/or by directly rewarding the player by for experimenting with the systems.

There is a risk that in deciphering systems, the player can ‘See the Matrix’ and thereby lose appreciation or immersion in the fictional frame of the game world. I believe this is undesirable.

Finally – especially when dealing with messy systems – affordance is critical to enabling the player to gain a high degree of comprehension rapidly and responsively.

Conclusions

Do players really want to be an active creative participant??

In Closing

Designing to Promote

Intentional [email protected]

Designing to Promote Intentional Play [email protected].

Documents

Transcript of Designing to Promote Intentional Play [email protected].