Ted Talks

I recently got into a few ted talks about gaming, one was suggested to me.

David Perry on videogames

David Perry -Producer of some older titles like Aladdin and Earthworm Jim, then the more recent title "The Matrix", which is probably hands down the best title made off of a movie because of the project merging the movie industry and game industry as opposed to an exchange of licensing.

His talk was primarily about the overall progress of video games, he showed a montage of video game graphics to display how crazy gaming will get in 10 years. But the best part was a video put together by one of his students which talked about his development as a human because of his nonstop interaction with video games. He shed some light on what it means to be a gamer, to pursue goals on a nonstop basis, and to imagine things constantly.

Hillel Cooperman: Legos for grownups

This talk was primarily to display how lego's, although perceived as a children's toy, can also even by a sculpture medium because of the robust support from community and tools provided by enthusiasts and the company. But my favorite part of this entire speech was one sentence:

"So umm, these are the Dark Ages, and the Dark Ages are the time between when you put away the Lego for the last time as a kid and you decide as an adult that it is OK to play with a kids toy."

This statement is absolutely stunning to me because I witness it in action everyday and after having a couple of classes centered around play I can spot out a person who lacks playful engagement in their everyday life. Now this isn't to say that you must sit down everyday and essentially "play" a game or a system in order to lead a happy life, but being "playful" is something which we as a society do to take the edge off or even to learn in groups.

My uncle has recently had 2 kids, and I know him to be a very playful guy, having tons of things as a kid from comics to toys. I recall him telling me he can't wait for his kids to be old enough for an Xbox so that he can play it as well. I guess what I'm trying to say is that its a shame that kids are needed at an older age to validate certain activities and overcome the "Dark Ages".

Jesse Schell: When games invade real life

This one wasn't technically a TED talk because he went on for 30 minutes, but never the less, Jesse Schell went over the sudden and recent phenomenon of facebook games and the effect of social networks on video games, how most of these games utilize some psychological aspect of human behavior to become successful.

He also went on to talk about how there is a game in everything, from frequent flyer mile points, to credit cards, to social networking statistics. He then went on to talk about how our lives could essentially become one big game with the introduction of sensors everywhere which reward you for participating in things to give you a "good person score".

This lead me to think about the reverse of this idea. If our lives can be turned into a game, then what kind of life does a game provide to a gamer. What role do you fill in specific games.

I've been thinking about Monopoly, Risk, and other common board games because they essentially simulate a rough experience of being an investor, or a ruler respectively.

This thought has definitely given me new perspective on the simple aspects and concepts behind my game, which will hopefully lead to better communication about my project.

Here are the talks

Coastal 3

The Ocean is finally finished for now. Its properties work well with the system I am conceiving at the moment, and its change will only be a requirement if there are future problems with other land types (mountains, forests, plains).

The Yellow borders represent coastal properties, these are land nodes influenced directly by the ocean.

At this point I plan on hitting Mountains and Forests next, then perhaps I will return to intricate water bodies like rivers and lakes.

http://vimeo.com/14190347

Coastal 2

Here's a video I did a bit ago showing the variance in coastal properties. I have been coding this segment to be flexible so although it shows random generations, there are parameters which can be edited later for user input.

In this example I control the number of sides in which the continent is covered in Ocean. This will enable players to choose if it is an island, peninsula, coastal, or land locked.

I got the code to restrict the ocean limits so that the ocean exists in one section of the map, and not broken up everywhere. This way bodies of water bleeding off the map in random places do not suggest a broken continent.

http://vimeo.com/14002555

Coastline 1

This Video Shows my first experiment with a variable coast line. It contains limits of creation in the center (based around a circle) and random numbers determining whether the ocean is more towards the center, or towards the edge.

My next step would be to unify the ocean more so that it comes from only 1 side.

http://vimeo.com/13655226

Report: 7/18/10

These first steps I have been taking while programming are to discover ways to generate maps for players to imagine these global transactions. The technical goal is to make the maps display varying degrees of plains, mountains, forests, and an ocean coast with very random and semi realistic continental coastlines. These types of geography should also have the ability to be referenced (not merely a generated image but a selectable node of information). Conceptually the magnitude of the map should grant several illusions which can suggest that the map is large and epic, while not seeming too large to the point where the player questions where all of this land is coming from. The representations in the maps will be of a suggestive nature to make things appear above a local map, and below a world map.

Step 1: The matrix
I have been working in a matrix of squares which determine local settings on the map. For instance should I select some square, it will take me to a mountain scene, or a forest scene. This breakdown also quantifies the random elements to a much smaller number.
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<---- On the left here is the first thing I made, an array in an array which creates rows and columns of squares to represent nodes, the shades of grays are randomized, so I have control in between each creation of square, and the blue squiggle below is a creation from a mouse click and drag function, so mouse actions are linked to this grid as well. I later added more values to the creation, editing hue, saturation, and brightness. These values will later be used to represent the different land masses, to draft up a finished map.

The difference between this picture, and the one just above, is that now all of the nodes are drawing themselves several times a second, this refresh makes “erasing” possible. Before it was like drawing on a chalk board, and drawing over things making it close to impossible to undo something, where now everything is almost getting animated on the screen several times, making it more flexible. Constantly animating, even static scenes allows for elements to appear to enter and exit the scene.

For example if you look carefully at the first picture above, there is a white node about in the middle of the upper right quadrant. This white square is programed to come up when you click on that square (like a selection). I coded it so if I click somewhere else, it lights that square up, and no longer lights up the one which was previously lit up. The picture directly to the left has a white square selected in direct center, this is because it refreshed all of the squares, without randomizing all the colors.

Step 2: Boundaries
For my next step I felt adamant to be able to generate the coastline (most likely the toughest challenge). For starters I wanted to generate a limit, which makes it impossible for the ocean to creep into the land any more. At first I came up with this simple diamond generation. After some thought though I felt its rigid construction might reflect on the continent making things far too angular. So I quickly went to attempt the creation of a circle in the center.


This is harder then it seems because having constrained myself to the matrix, I cant use any of the built in circle shapes or any of the such because it doest relate to the grid (and there are no overlap functions which I know of, and to create on might slow up the program). So I racked my brain and tried to conjure up my lost learnings of High school math. After several sketches I figured out a way to use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the number of blue green squared needed to be drawn at each line in the center in order to make it seem flowing.




Math stuff: The 2 constants I had were the radius of the circle (a random number), and which row I was in. Then I just pulled off the reverse Pythagorean, B squared = C squared - A squared. This new value is the distance across the circle at any relative row. (The diagram on the bottom is something I made for me as a reference.)

MOVING FORWARD: I’m working on my approach for how to generate water, I am now thinking of ways perhaps where water is negative space, and land is positive space (meaning I program the land spreading out, as opposed to the water spreading in. I will be lucky if I can get peninsulas to form and gulfs, which are tough to form in a linear creation pattern.

Room Concept map:

This map lays out all of the building potentials for the different "classes" of structure. For instance

Upper Left - Magic - These room spaces provide research quarters for excelling in the intricate and arcane art magic would be, observetories to examine the stars, and magical chambers which can carry out tangeble actions through what can be described as spell or ritual practices.

Upper Right - Militancy - These rooms support a well established military, a animal husbandry, and improved blacksmithing and forging abilities. A society with a heavy amount of these rooms would resemble a war driven Sparta.

Lower Left - Faith - These rooms allow for warship of a demigod, a deity, an all ruling god, or the universe in general (panthiesm). These structures imply that your people are all looking towards the same goals, beleive strongly in the same things, and strive to refine a moral existence.

Lower Right - Syndicate - Syndicate structures revolve around commerce and professions using their talents in other then ordinary ways in order for the player to succeed over their adversaries. For instance a print house can provide news to its people, while controlling the perspective of a leader.


You are not allowed to build all of these structures, not only would some of them be redundant, but also their is too high a volume of rooms at that point. The player, instead of having to build to their limits, has a smaller limit, and is forced to refine their building structures, making it more about strategy and less about speed of building. 100 % is the max, investing in every structure of one tree gives you 100%.

Thesis Statement

My thesis project is a video game which allows for players to compete in a game of global competition, while granting them the ability to build the primary establishment to their empire, which determines the tools for their success and the image of their society.