Ethan Kennerly

At the Game Innovation Conference, I was impressed by a level in Unreal to demonstrate sound design, computer adaptation of Mario levels, speculating skill of Chess players from 1850 to 2006, a masterful Mario AI, pathfinding failures, analyzing thought-behavior, and a music improvisation prototype.

To demonstrate principles of designing sounds for games, Richard Stevens and Dave Raybould, from Leeds Metropolitan University, explored a level in Unreal. It was a virtual method of loci. Each room covered a topic. Videos were embedded into the wall. He had videos from several games, each of which illustrated a good or bad example of a principle. Example effects were embedded into the rooms. For more, see the blog.

From IT University of Copenhagen, Julian Togelius and Georgios Yannakakis research into evaluating player satisfaction. Using the public domain Infinite Mario Bros, in their experiment they evaluated challenge, frustration, boredom, and anxiety.

From Microsoft Research, Thore Graepel presented Halo 3 TrueSkill, which improved matchmaking between players. Using TrueSkill, he speculated on the relative skill of Chess masters from 1850 to 2006.

Julian also hosted a Mario competition, which Robin Baumgarten, from the Imperial College, won with an A* search of simulated physics of Mario's position. In an impressive video, Mario even saves himself from a pit by wall-jumping out of it.

From University of Utrecht, Ioannis Karamouzas presented excellent movies illustrating failures of pathfinding in Unreal, Empire Total War, and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Although, moving boxes is as exciting as it gets in Army logistics, William Fisher from Quicksilver Software, showed dedication to training by extensive interviewing experts on their problems and how they solved them.

From Institute for Digital Media Technology, Sascha Grollsmich, Christian Dittmar, and Gabriel Gatzsche increased player entertainment by letting the player play freely during some portion of a led rhythm game. They were awarded best student paper.

From University of Southern California, I presented a videogame whose rules of play embody the language of Korea. I was happy that Runesinger received 2nd best paper and a bursary.

I also presented a prototype of Andreas Witzel, from University of Amsterdam, that would modify Thief: The Dark Project. The guard considers the beliefs of the thief. Audience encouraged us to follow-up and implement levels with multiple guards who also consider the beliefs of other guards.

Runesinger is a PC prototype of a serious game to practice speaking and spelling Korean. What's particularly innovative, is that the rules of the game embody the rules of language. Likewise, the animation and Andrea Chang's delightful music maps the Korean phonics.

This demo has been on tour to conferences around the world: New York, Amsterdam, Singapore, and the final stop at the end of this month, in London. These conferences hosted this educational game: TCETC, INTETAIN, ISAGA, and IEEE-GIC. In September, check back to download the demo.

July 30, I am moving to Amsterdam for a few months, and do not want to ship or store anything.

Here is the list of computer, furniture, software, books, and more:

http://finegamedesign.com/sell

Check back for more. Come near USC to pick it up.

My Civ4 mod (a directed research with Peter Brinson) appeared at a conference "Games for Change" and a workshop "Logic and the Simulation of Interaction and Reasoning." Thank you, Tracy, for inviting me to demo at Games for Change. It's refreshing to meet fellow humanitarian developers!

About the mod: The original Civilization IV rewards imperialism through scoring the glory of the empire. I reprogrammed the game to score the health and happiness of the citizens. By adapting John Broome's extended quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and responding to Derek Parfit's repugnant conclusions, I designed an ethical calculus that rewards restraint, diplomacy and art in Civilization IV. See the presentation and play the mod.

Several smart theoreticians associated with artificial intelligence (and me, a designer) will be presenting papers.

Hear about:
How AI of Thief could be modified to incorporate belief about other people's beliefs.
How Civilization 4 was modified to score citizen health and happiness.

July 12, in Pasadena

Workshop: "Logic and the Simulation of Interaction and Reasoning 2"

09.05-09.15 Opening
09.15-10.00 Michael Young: "The Representational Challenges of Fictional
Worlds"
10.00-10.30 COFFEE BREAK
10.30-10.50 Amitabha Mukerjee: "Discovering symbols from interactions
- easier than explaining interactions via symbols?"
10.50-11.10 Nadine Guiraud, Andreas Herzig, Emiliano Lorini: "Speech
acts as announcements"
11.10-11.30 Break
11.30-12.15 Lenhart Schubert: "From generic sentences to scripts"
12.15-14.40 Lunch Break
14.40-15.00 Jos Uiterwijk, Kevin Moesker: "Mathematical Modelling in TwixT"
15.00-15.30 COFFEE BREAK
15.30-15.50 Rafael Pérez y Pérez: "Emotions in Plot Generation"
15.50-16.10 Ethan Kennerly: "Computing Quality of Life in a Social
Management Game"
16.10-16.30 Ethan Kennerly, Andreas Witzel, Jonathan Zvesper: "Thief's
Beliefs"
16.30-16.50 Break
16.50-17.10 Martin Magnusson, David Landén, Patrick Doherty: "Logical
Agents that Plan, Execute, and Monitor Communication"
17.10-17.55 Leora Morgenstern: "Traveling Through Time and Logical AI:
Toward a Formal Theory of Time Travel"

http://www.illc.uva.nl/GLoRiClass/index.php?page=8_2

If you're interested, for better rates, register by June 12, 2009 at http://ijcai-09.org/

Alexei Othenin-Girard, game designer and fan of Japanese culture, discusses design at the Pacific Asian Museum during their Samurai Re-imagined series.

Saturday, March 21, 2-5pm. It's in Pasadena, four blocks from the gold line.

What makes a storyline interesting? What makes a reaction natural? What role do emotions play in game decisions?

These are some of the motivations behind the second workshop of Logic and the Simulation of Interaction and Reasoning (LSIR2). On July 12, this is part of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in Pasadena. IJCAI is sponsored in part by USC's Institute for Creative Technology (ICT) and Information Sciences Institute (ISI).

Have a well-articulated opinion? This July, want to speak in Pasadena? Submit your abstract by April 3.

Robin Hunicke, Malcolm Ryan, and Ben Smith are hosting a design workshop. In it, Marc LeBlanc's mechanics-dynamics-aesthetic's (MDA) framework is applied to a practical (and fun) design challenge. Essentially, MDA relates rules to play, and play to feelings. Being keen on this framework, I'm assisting the workshop, and we would be happy to help you there: GDC, Tuesday at 10 in Room 2002, West hall. See details.

And for those of you that rehearsed one of the exercises, thank you!

A post for an anti-valentine's party reminded me of my character in our global game jam, "heartbreaker": the anti-cupid.

Have an idea? Want to prototype it in 4 hours?

In this workshop, you and a partner learn to program Python, the playful way. We will explore unfamiliar software, the lazy way. We will experiment with rules and user interfaces, the interactive way. Bring your own idea (or your homework). In just one workshop, you'll make a new prototype, and you'll make a new friend.

No programming experience (or partner) necessary.

Monday, February 9, 1pm to 5pm
Zemeckis Media Lab (RZC 201)
Please RSVP kennerly (AT) usc - edu

Last night, Eric Zimmerman suggested that we live in the "Ludic Century," that games are a model for "literacy" for future generations. Years ago, Greg Costikyan has also suggested that games will be one of the Seven Lively Arts of the Twenty-first Century. In 1991, I was a hobbyist RPG designer when Civilization was released. When I saw "history" play out on screen, I swallowed this belief and convinced myself to see the precursors to systems based learning in Civilization and SimCity. Having devoted my career to it, I drank enough of this kool-aid to see the human condition in Go, Chess, Spades, and Poker.

From playing games with others, I've learned a lot about psychology, ethics, and politics. Game playing has permanently erased from my mind the viability of impartial advice or impartial information. Whenever I hear something, I ask "who benefits?" I don't believe political ideologies or predictions about education in the twenty-first century are immune (no matter how much my survival instincts infect my consciousness). To paraphrase, Timothy Leary, even idealism implies: What's your stake in the game? (The irony of this in relation to this article has not escaped me.)

So after Eric Zimmerman's lecture to a roomful of mostly interactive designers and students, some of us say, "Okay, we're on your side! Now, how can we do it?" The daydream is easier to puff out in white clouds, but how do those dreams tether back to the Earth we stand on?

I don't know. As Zimmerman relayed Salen's suggestion, I agree that an understanding of mathematics is a start, especially discrete mathematics. In "Dynamics for Designers," Will Wright lectured (and his work expressed) the study of complex adaptive systems, such as system dynamics. He introduced designers to dynamic topologies of agents, networks (or discrete mathematical graphs), layers (especially cellular automata). SimCity and The Sims (among other Sim games) neatly put those principles into practice. A year ago Don Hopkins, the programmer of SimCity, published the source code, so an inspection of the code alongside the lecture may be a practical and free introduction.

One way to refine the question is to answer: Which games teach systems? And: What systems are they teaching? My experience playing games doesn't touch the tip of the iceberg, but here's a few of my opinions:

• Go (-2000?) (圍棋, 바둑, 囲碁): Planning. A group survives only by liberty, efficiency, and foresight.
  
• Poker (1810): Psychology of American business. I believe you're bluffing that you believe that I'm bluffing that I believe ...
  
• Spades (1938): Psychology of American labor; cooperate and do not excel.
  
• Diplomacy (1956): International politics; alliances are never permanent.
  
• Risk (1959): Mobilization of armaments lead to conquest, and only one will win.
  
• Starflight (1986): Our planet is just one of the potential configurations of life in the universe.
  
• SimCity (1989): Urban planning and environmental engineering. A city needs a good architect.
  
• Civilization (1991): History. Religion and science are different technologies to expand one's dominion.
  
• I'm the Boss (1994): Psychology of negotiation. You need me to win, right?
  
• For Sale (1997): Real estate. Spread your bids just above the rest of the market.
  
• Lost Cities (1999): Entrepeneurship. Risking a new project requires knowing yourself, your team, and your competition.
  
• The Sims (2000): Environmental psychology; happiness comes from consumption.
  
• Diner Dash (2003): Psychology of food service; stall the customers for just a few seconds longer.
  
• Democracy (2005): politics; divvy up the loot to those who will support you.
  
• September 12th (2005?): Retaliation begets terrorists.
  
• Ayiti: The Cost of Life (2006?): A poor Haitian family can hardly survive four years without help.
  
• KarmaTycoon (2007?): To get a grant, spend money on anything and apply for every grant.
  
• PeaceMaker (2007): Israel and Palestine are in a dysfunctional feud.
  
• The Redistricting Game (2007): Gerrymandering a border influences an election.
  
• Stop Disasters (2008?): Civil engineering. The End is near, are you prepared?
  

1. Which games taught you a system?
   
2. And, what lesson did it teach?
   

Jesse Schell, game design professor at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote an introductory book that was published in August, titled "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses." The back overleaf quotes Will Wright saying, "Easily the most comprehensive, practical book I've ever seen on game design." I will try to briefly state why I agree and offer details to help you decide if this book is for you.

Each chapter of the book adds a node to a network of relationships between the designer, the game, and the player. Throughout, Schell boxes 100 tips, with questions that induce a novel perspective on the design. He calls these lenses. I applaud the volume of diverse traditions, such as: psychology, storytelling, engineering, business, and management. They are so diverse as to change not only perspective, but also target. "The Lens of the Puzzle" looks at the mechanisms of the game; whereas, "The Lens of the Team" looks at the developers of the game. This is an eclectic approach that distills many abstract tips on what to consider when designing. Some experience and diligence with most of the 100 lenses would almost guarantee the reader is a competent designer.

Most lenses seemed crystal clear and provoked thoughts. Oftentimes, Schell deploys the wheels that others have invented. Many lenses refer to prior literature, such as Barry Boehm's spiral model of development (82), Scott Kim's thoughts on puzzles (209).

Furthermore, Schell gives us some original gems on the psychology of games that expanded my mind. He touches on the tactile aesthetics of the Rubik's cube (213), the learning curve of a jigsaw puzzle (215). He has some tips on personal communication that, upon reflection, exposed mistakes I have made, and would be more likely to continue to make had I not read Schell's advice. For example, in "Coping with Bad Suggestions," rather than agree or disagree, he advises to "understand why the client is making the suggestion" (417). He gives similarly important advice for playtesting (389).

Perhaps the inevitable danger of writing a comprehensive book is that one's own rough facets become apparent when placed side-by-side with one's brilliance. In a few spots, I would like to see wheels being reused rather than reinvented, such as mathematical graphs (132), epistemics of players (139), military tactics (141), risk and return (181), interface affordances (212), models of human-computer interaction (225), and plotting interest (247). I don't disagree with what Schell wrote there, but would rather dive deeper by leveraging prior literature (as he did in other lenses).

The book is well-presented with modest illustrations and easy to read from beginning to end. On an editorial note, although I affirm Schell's eclectic approach to game design, after reading the book, I wish it were easier to find the information I wanted to refer to. The table of lenses at the front of the book was not enough for me. The lens titles are not always evocative and distinct.

To summarize:
* What you will find in this book: informal habits of a professional game designer.
* What you will not find in this book: details or examples of designs and their implementation.

Game Developer magazine nominated The Art of Game Design for the Book of the Year. It got my vote.

Four years ago, I wrote an instructor's manual on interface design for videogames. Around that time, I was also scribbling critical studies articles about text, graphics, and idioms. Many are part of discussions on MUD-Dev. If you want to listen to a few of these far out, opinionated articles, Ryan Wiancko reads these user interface articles and many more by other designers.

In the last two weeks, while listening to a lecture by Jeffrey Kaplan and another by Ethan Levy, I realized the principles of analyzing how players use your game will remain relevant for years to come. Ryan Wiancko reads aloud an article on analyzing gameplay metrics from an online game. This spoken article and other designers' are free to download at Industry Broadcast.

Ryan Wiancko reads aloud, "Fun is Fine: Toward a Philosophy of Game Design", which inspired my research into serious uses of games. Ryan's serious voice is particularly appropriate for this topic: Some games are important cultural experiences that portray the human condition and elevate the minds of their players. You may listen to this and other lucid designers, free to download at Industry Broadcast.

(The author's introduction causes me to chuckle and blush, because 2003 was before World of Warcraft and many newer MMOs.) The article grew out of a dialogue on MUD-Dev, so I'd be happy to hear your opinion on the topic.

While no lawyer, I've worked on a few videogame contracts, full-time positions, and written briefly about IP for negotiating a contract. So I find Jim Charne's conclusions reassuringly counter to the rumors that sometimes surface in the labs about a school, especially to whom we pay a high premium, owning our work. If anything, rather than asking if a student owns his labor for which he paid the privilege of sharing it with others, since we are paying the school, the more fair question is: Who owns the teachers' and administrators' work? Do the students (or their financiers), the collective clients that the school serves?

And yet it would be mean-spirited to ask such. No less mean-spirited is the question that the school snatch up the work from those who are sharing their ideas in its halls. I have heard in the cinema school there might be a case in which the school is investing heavily into a project, but unless there is equitable compensation, transferal of ownership seems like double payment (first in collecting the fees from us and second in taking the freedom to use).

Pascal Luban predicts evolution of casual games and educational games.

Okay... my worst title mashup ever, but the best of Gamasutra's articles this week:

Ian Bogost writes about a different mashup, which has been in the back of my head for years, games that comment on the dynamics of politics.

Paul Benjamin and Rodney Gibbs write about a designer leveraging GameMaker to get the idea of Hulk smashable.

For AIIDE, Andreas Witzel, Jonathan Zvesper, and myself wrote an article on social reasoning, in which artificial agents model the beliefs of other agents. We aim to enhance the user's enjoyment through exploiting these models. In our article, "Explicit Knowledge Programming for Computer Games," I hypothetically enhanced a common scenario in Assassin's Creed. Pseudocode describes a guard's social reasoning, for the player exploit.

I found this interview with the game writer Susan O'Connor refreshingly frank, reflective of my own problems in design.

I'm actually going to put an ad in Craigslist, because I live near campus, like "Wanted, Dude or Dudette who blazes through games. I will provide console and titles. Come over." And pot. [laughs] Just come over.