Future Directions for Computer Games

1. Future Directions for Computer Games Foundations of Interactive Game Design Professor Jim Whitehead March 14, 2008 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

2. Game Demo Night • Tonight • March 14, 5pm-9pm • E2 180 (Simularium) • Come to this event if you want to demo your game • Bring laptop and/or game on CDROM/USB Drive • RPG Maker and C#/XNA: best if you can bring your own laptop

3. Final Class Game Demonstrations • The best 6-7 student games created this quarter will demo their games in front of the entire class • Monday, March 17, normal class time • Judges from the games industry will be present • Selected teams will have 5 minutes each to demo their game • The best game team will win a Nintendo DS for each team member (limit 2) • A fun, intense event • Participating teams will be informed late today

4. Final Exam • Wednesday, March 19, 4pm-7pm • In Media Theater • Before exam • Create a non-computer game • Board game • Puzzle game • Role playing game • Children’s game • Card game • Bring typed, printed rules to exam, plus everything needed to play the game • During exam • Play the game with others in exam • Write essay reflecting on the design of your game

5. Final Exam – Game Details • The game must have a name • The rules must be typed, and fit on no more that 3 pages (10pt or larger, multi-column is OK) • Game elements (game pieces, boards, cards, dice, etc.) are not part of the 2 pages • No restrictions on game media (cardboard, plastic, leather, latex, it's all OK) • The game must be playable inside the Media Theater while many other students are also playing their games • A complete game should take less than 30 minutes • The game must not be a drinking game. • Game must be original. No minor variants on existing games. Major variants of existing games are OK. • Game play must not involve breaking laws or campus regulations (the "Don't get your professor in trouble" rule) • No flames, uncontrolled liquids, knives, swords, whips, or functional weapons of any kind

6. Game Testers • Seniors in the game design major work in teams all year long to produce working games • Fall quarter: focus on design • Winter quarter: focus on implementation • Spring quarter: user testing, level design • Their games are now almost ready for people to play test them • We’re looking for volunteers to play test these games! • Signup sheet at front if interested

7. Types of Game Design Programs • Nationwide, there are three kinds of computer game design degree programs • Technically focused • Strong core of computer science • Additional depth courses in game design and artistic aspects • Interdisciplinary • More even mix of computer science and game design • Not as strong in computer science: unclear job potential • Art focused • Strong core in artistic methods, tools, and productiontechniques • Only a few courses in computer science • UC Santa Cruz Computer Game Designdegree is technically focused

8. Curriculum Highlights • Senior Game Design Studio • Work as a member of a team for an entire year to develop a substantial computer game. • Freshman Game Design Experience • Introduction to game design, and a game project in first year • Solid grounding in Computer Science • 3 course sequence in graphics • Includes 3D game engine design • 3 course sequence in AI • Includes game AI, and narrative AI • Built on top of proven CS fundamentals curriculum • Digital Media • 2 digital media electives ping.exeCyberspace exploration game by UCSC student Nicholas Kent Contact Prof. Whitehead if interested in learning more about this major! ejw@cs.ucsc.edu

9. The Future of Computer Games

10. Some media form academic disciplines • Fiction • English Literature • Newspapers & magazines • Journalism, Communications • Movies • Film Studies, Cinematic Arts • Television • Television Studies, Cinema-Television • Hypertext/Web • Web Engineering, Web Conference, ACM Hypertext By hans_s, Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/archeon/17009869/

11. Other media do not • Telegraph, Telex, Fax • Telephone, cell phones • Citizen’s Band radio • Instant messaging • Email • Board games • These have all been the focus of substantial academic study… • … but have not led to the formation of focused academicdisciplines • Why? By get directly down, Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/65172294@N00/147205810//

12. Understanding ourselves • Media that create academic disciplines: • Are mass media • Tell stories (fiction and nonfiction) that allow us to reflect on the human condition • Help us understand ourselves • Are deeply embedded in culture • Are modes of cultural production • Computer games share these traits Persuasive Games, 2008 http://www.persuasivegames.com/games/game.aspx?game=fatworld//

13. What is unique about computer games? • Computer games are a form of computational media • A broad term covering forms of media that have computers deeply embedded within them • Computational media can be • Deeply interactive. Have rich interaction with a human, and react to what they have done. • Highly algorithmic. The presentation the media makes to a human can depend on the execution of a computational process. • Non-computational media lack these two elements • Books, movies, newspapers: all static, non-interactive media

14. Games for Learning • One aspect that makes games interesting is that they are learning experiences • Often games teach knowledge that is not useful outside the game domain • Play patterns in platform games • Avoiding bullets in shmups • Perhaps games could be created to teach useful skills… • Substantial interest in this topic • Games are interesting and engaging • Could they make learning fun?

15. Adapting Existing Games for Learning • CivWorld site • civworld.gameslearningsociety.org/curriculum.php • Use of Civilization III for teaching history & geography

16. Creating New Educational Games • Creation of games for K-12 education • Example: Revolution game • www.educationarcade.org/revolution • Allows players to experienceAmerican revolution in colonialWilliamsburg from several perspectives • Creation of games for government and corporate training • Serious Games movement • www.seriousgames.org

17. Key issues in game education research • How to teach all subjects, not just ones well suited to games • English composition and argumentation • Calculus • How to embed teaching deeply into the game, rather than “skill and drill” type games • Making games that understand reactions of players to the material • Can a game system figure out you’re bored, and adapt the presentation to be more interesting? • Cameras, brain wave detectors? • How to assess that games are teaching as well as existing techniques. Maybe games do worse?

18. Key problems in game based education • Technology is moving quickly • Games are expensive to create • Games are created, then become obsolete within just a few years • Economics are bad, as a result. Too little time to recoup investment. • Need to find a way to create compelling games that will be technically stable over 5-15 years • E.g., the life of a textbook

19. Frontiers in storytelling • One direction for games is ever richer interactive storytelling • Requires • Better models of story • Use these to construct stories that deeply adapt to what the player has done so far • Richer interactive characters • Characters that can react to a wide range of input • Produce a wide range of dialog • Have complex interactions with other characters • Are animated in realistic ways that convey character traits • All of these are complex artificial intelligence problems • Are doing some of this research here at UCSC

20. Frontiers in content creation • Creation of gameworld content is increasingly expensive • Interactive stories need gameworlds created in real time to adapt to player actions • Current research on automatic creation of game levels • UCSC project on automatic creation of platformer levels • Charbitat project at Georgia Tech: creating quests in a procedurally generated 3D world • Scalable City: UCSD project creating gameworld cities

21. Charbitat

22. Scalable City

23. Scalable City

24. Frontiers in gameplay • New gameplay mechanics • Portal mechanic in Portal • 2D/3D switching in Fez, Super Paper Mario • New game controllers • Wiimote • Accelerometers, pressure-sensitive resistors are cheap • Relatively easy to make custom USB controllers now • New visual appearances • Most IGF finalist games did not have photo-realistic graphic style • Can be more expressive when not aiming for realism