Click on the link below to see the schedule. There are two tabs in the spreadsheet, one is the weekly schedule, the other lists the prototypes.

Schedule: Open file

Scaling The World

I am creating an experience that explores how scale may be applied inside of a game to better utilize the world that the player immerses himself or herself in.

Through acquisition and accomplishment during game play, player will continue game at a larger scale.

Player begins game as a small bit of energy inside of a world devoid of energy. Player moves around and through some mechanic, collects energy. Player distributes this energy to objects in the world, essentially giving them life. When player has given enough energy to the current surroundings, scale increases.

Ideally (because the player is energy) the player will feel as if they are the life that they gave to the system. When the player continues to give energy at the larger scales, they essentially are becoming the currently scaled object. Thus, developmental achievement can be considered successful if player feels as if they become these scaled objects.

The game is a 2D, side scrolling, action platformer. As of now, I envision 5-8 scales, each scale lasting approximately 2-3 minutes.

Relevant Works

Powers of Ten – Regarding change of scale. http://powersof10.com
Civ games – Scale increases when player becomes more powerful, but they manage the larger scale.
Ratchet and Clank, Jak & Daxter – Action platforming.
Spore – It’s more about evolution and the game plays differently at different scopes.
Katamari – Player absorbs other objects, but does not give life back to the environment.
Fl0w – Starts as small creature, eats others to become bigger and stronger.
Masters of Orion – Galactic scale management.

PowerPoint Presentation

Here:Open file

Click on the link below to see the schedule. There are two tabs in the spreadsheet, one is the weekly schedule, the other lists the prototypes.

Schedule: Open file

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Week 8: Midterm Presentation
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Scaling The World

I am creating an experience that explores how scale may be applied inside of a game to better utilize the world that the player immerses himself or herself in.

Through acquisition and accomplishment during game play, player will continue game at a larger scale.

Player begins game as a small bit of energy inside of a world devoid of energy. Player moves around and through some mechanic, collects energy. Player distributes this energy to objects in the world, essentially giving them life. When player has given enough energy to the current surroundings, scale increases.

Ideally (because the player is energy) the player will feel as if they are the life that they gave to the system. When the player continues to give energy at the larger scales, they essentially are becoming the currently scaled object. Thus, developmental achievement can be considered successful if player feels as if they become these scaled objects.

The game is a 2D, side scrolling, action platformer. As of now, I envision 5-8 scales, each scale lasting approximately 2-3 minutes.

Relevant Works

Powers of Ten – Regarding change of scale. http://powersof10.com
Civ games – Scale increases when player becomes more powerful, but they manage the larger scale.
Ratchet and Clank, Jak & Daxter – Action platforming.
Spore – It’s more about evolution and the game plays differently at different scopes.
Katamari – Player absorbs other objects, but does not give life back to the environment.
Fl0w – Starts as small creature, eats others to become bigger and stronger.
Masters of Orion – Galactic scale management.

PowerPoint Presentation

Here:Open file

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Week 7: Midterm Ideation
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The Bigger the Weapon

I am making an action platformer where the player embarks on a journey. The journey will feature a system of growth, celestial entities, and ridiculously awesome weapons that will take shape in the form of a game using a game engine.

Motivation stems from myself loving these types of systems and knowing the others out in the gaming world would love to interact in a successful new combination of systems. Prior games include the Ratchet and Clank series, the powers-of-ten video, and the mapping of entities in the Master’s of Orion series.

How can growth be shown? Does combining simple systems lead to a new experience, or is a genre only considered new if it is completely and individually a new system? This game will combine platforming with growth.

Platforming will be achieved through the player controlling the avatar, moving, jumping, and performing actions.

Growth will be achieved by scaling the world appropriately. As the player acquires power, player’s action item will continue game on a larger scale.

Rough Storyboard

On game launch, title screen appears.

On game start, player now controls avatar. Player collects items/defeat enemies/whatever in order to acquire experience/power/economy. With enough acquisition, player’s power grows and scope/scale change. Beginning scale includes a normal person performing actions. As the view scale increases, so does the item in which acquisition is accomplished.

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Week 6: Advisors and Audience
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Outside Advisors

Richard Lemarchand – Game Director, Naughty Dog, Santa Monica – Platforms, weapons, and a journey encompass the Jak and Daxter series, which he has been instrumental in creating for years.

Ted Price – President, Insomniac Games, Burbank – Insomniac makes Ratchet and Clank. The systems described in the previous weeks, exist in this game.

Bing Gordon – CCO, EA, All over – Would be helpful in steering the economic implementation if I choose to go that direction. And my thesis advisor would be Bing!

Audience

Target audience includes current gamers who want enjoy popular fun games but want to try a new feature(s) in an existing genre that has not been try or has not been implemented well. Players are the type that enjoys one quality system over a quantity of systems. Players prefer to perfect one aspect of interactivity rather than be forced to do tons of different actions.

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Week 5: Weapons in Platformers
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The Bigger the Weapon, the Better…Is the Answer Really That Easy

Why in the world is it fun to upgrade a Rocket Launcher, to a Super Rocket Launcher, to a Ridiculous Rocket Launcher? Is it the primal male fantasy? Is it enjoyable to blow everything up in less shots? Is it power? The answer…I’m not really sure. But people love it. I would love to explore why so many enjoy this type of interaction. I wonder if players were given the Ridiculous Rocket Launcher first, would blowing everything away in just a few shots be as enjoyable. Which begs the question, is it power, or is it accomplishment?

When embarking on a journey, a player may start out with everything, or nothing. Even if a player started out with everything, there is no sense of exploration accomplishment, no feeling of acquisition, and certainly nothing discovered. If a preexisting game combat mechanic existed, how would implementing a journey help this experience?

The Platformer

My favorite genre of game is an action platformer, with awesome weapons. What is it about the platformer that brings life and enjoyment to simply an adventure game? Initial thoughts include more player movement control and the creation of platforms allows tangible understanding of a 3D space since the player must navigate platforms to move in either x, y, or z direction.

My favorite game, Ratchet and Clank, pick any in the series, is my perfect action platformer. With awesome weapons, fun player control, a compelling journey by traveling through space, and upgradeable items through economic acquisition, this experience is one I’d like to hone in on. Can I build this, no. Can I make one part of this better, maybe? Would I love to try, certainly? Is it worthy of thesis recognition, I believe so. Now to decide what to do. The narrowing process needs to begin.

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Week 5: Madlibs
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The Game, The System, The Possibility

I am creating a journey experience inside of a game to determine what systems players in the game world enjoy interacting with given a limited amount of choice systems.

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Week 4: The Permutation
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Dimensional Augmentation

The nice thing about permutations is that by using a small number of elements a large amount of things can be made. Take for example three basic shapes and four different colors. Tabling these elements would yield twelve different possibilities. Add a third dimension of just two possibilities. For example, each colored shape may have a logo stamped on it or not would now yield 24 possibilities.

I compare this idea with a stock market. People may own many types of stock or just one. Some claim that diversification creates an advantage in portfolio position because if one stock tanks, the others will still hold and the person’s position will still be in decent shape, just with a minor loss. The idea of the permutation comes into play since stocks may be classified with many attributes: growth, sector, cap, etc. A stockowner may position himself by purchasing conservative growth, technical sector, and mid-cap stocks.

Comparing the permutation with gaming weaponry yields the same idea. First dimension is the weapon. From here on, any amount of dimensional spans may be created i.e. durability, elemental attribute, quality, magical property, etc. Using the five dimensions stated, let’s say that each dimension has 6 elements. Thus, there exists 65=7,776 possibilities; yet the developer need manufacture only 6*5=30 items/attributes.

By giving the player control of their position in either of these scenarios, I wonder if this control in an interactive medium leads to better immersion or more enjoyable experience. However, I also see concern that the permutation by itself in any setting may be too narrow of a focus. Even though the permutation is mathematic, the output can be analyzed in much more artistic formats.

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Week 4 Class: Metawords
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Theme: Journey

Method: Travel
Exploration
Acquisition
Collection

Ritual: Discovery
Growth

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Week 3: An Economic Spin
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Auctions and Markets

One of the reasons I continued playing WoW way back in the day is because of it’s economic system. For those unfamiliar, I will try to briefly explain. There existed an auction house where people could put items up for bid. Somewhat like eBay, people could bid on the items. The highest bid will win the auction. Rare and valuable items would sell for a lot of more gold. Sometimes, I would monopolize a resource and sell bits of it for much higher prices, essentially flipping the resource for profit. There are no laws against any monopolizing, but in the world of WoW, resources regenerate, so I ran the risk of others going out and farming what I monopolized, undercutting my auction price, and thus capitalizing on my monopolizing purchase.

This system itself portrays the classic supply and demand mechanic. If a bunch of people were selling copper ore on the auction house, prices would be low. Likewise vise-versa. I assume that most people understand this concept. But where I think most people being to lose economic comprehension is when the idea of supply and demand is incorporated with a stock exchange. How great would it be if WoW allowed corporations that were public within the server? It would be an entirely new experience.

The reality is that most people in their twenties understand nothing about the stock market, and for the most part, most of the general population understands little. And there are reasons. One: money is needed. People can play all the paper stock games in the world, but using real money is completely different. Two: a broker or trader is needed. A broker can be assigned to someone’s account and they can try to make that person money. It’s funny because nobody has ever come to me and said, “G, I have the greatest broker in the world. He/she has made me multi millions of dollars. I bought a beach house on the cliff and I drive a Ferrari during the day and a Lamborghini at night. You should use my broker”. That’s because they don’t exist. They make money off commission by simply trading with said person’s account. It doesn’t matter if they make the client a dime. Three: The newbie can trade on his/her own. But let’s be practical, if they are going to do this, they have to be able to read financials and a lot more to have a chance at turning a profit. Otherwise it’s a shot in the dark. Since there are many more losers than winners in the market, probability says that in the end, account value = 0.

Can a game capture a market experience? Yes. But, much like real money, something earned has to be at stake. Players must go out and capture some sort of resource by spending time earning. Also, there must be a bunch of players to drive the prices of the markets, who similarly stake their earnings. But nobody is going to play if gaining resources is boring, thus, the capturing of resources has to be enjoyable, and ideally, a completely different system and experience. I equate this to an average working person. Through the person’s job, they earn money. Money can be invested in the market to earn more money.

What’s a 10Q? What’s the max I can put into my ROTH this year? A ROTH, what’s that? OTCBB, can you explain? I am invested in Blackwater City Mining Corporation and it just filed for chapter 7…is that a good thing? Orxon oil just reported record earnings for its fiscal year yet the stock price is declining…what’s going on?

Stock Market 101…and 507

Young dudes and dudettes need to learn about the consequences of economic ignorance. Would creating a gaming system that incorporated these mechanics be beneficial? Yes, it has the potential to teach many people about the governing powers of economics, but only if it’s fun to play.

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Week 2: A 2nd Look
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The Big Journey

Continuing with the notion of “big” things and introduce that with “the journey”, what better place to explore than the galaxy. Would it be fun/interesting/exciting to explore and learn about space? It’s been done in television, movies and gaming, but I’ve still yet to learn about what a black hole truly is and why they exist. What makes a neutron star different than the Sun? Exploring these ideas are limiting and for most people boring. Recently, I took the Myers Briggs test. I am an ISTJ. Who cares right? The importance of my score is not the lettering, but the idea that I relate to a larger chunk of the population. Much like I teach calculus, I try to relate to the person rather than bore them with the material. What I would like to do with the thesis is provide a learning experience that relates a wider audience. I don’t care about developing a niche and/or innovative mechanic; I want my audience to tell me that I provided them with either a valuable, an informative, or an enjoyable experience. I believe I can achieve this by building an interactive/gaming experience. Without question my target is a large group of players.

What if a player plays as a huge celestial object? Case A: Player is a planet. Let’s abandon literati for a moment. Player cruises through galaxy exploring aspects of space that are unknown to most people. Player picks up moons, rings, etc. on journey. Player becomes stronger through acquisition of celestial objects and may journey to more difficult areas. Case B: Player is a neutron star, or something to that effect, and explores galaxy with those properties. Case C: Player is a planet and acts like one in a solar system. Player performs actions that change gravity, orbit, etc.

Stepping Back

The more I think about a journey, there are times when a person explores and a time when a person visits the familiar. An area of interest may be the comparison and contrast of exploration vs. staying in the familiar. People learn differently. Repetition plays a role in learning. Some people need more iterations of something before they are comfortable with it. I’ve noticed that for my favorite games, I’ll play them over again, instead of playing something new. I increase the level of difficulty my own way, if it’s not an option, or I have beaten the game at its highest toughest level. I recently played Ratchet: Deadlocked. I had already beaten the game on the hardest difficultly, so what I did this time not allow myself to acquire any armor and play it on the hardest difficulty. I still beat it, but it was fun and challenging.

This concept of repetition with difficultly scaling is active in community groups, but game designers do not develop this at any level of greater depth. I don’t know why, since this allows for the game to have more appeal with little cost and product development. This concept is something I’m mulling over.

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Week 1: 3 Item Initial Analyses
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The Whale

I’m staring at my childhood item right now. I slept on him last night. A giant killer whale, an item I’ve cherished since age five, has journeyed with me ever since my mom bought him for me. His name is Bubber. In his twenty-two years, he’s lost an eye, his white underbelly is anything but white, and he’s required two small surgeries to repair stuffing leakage at cracked seams. The item is clearly nostalgic. I always enjoy telling the story of purchasing this whale in Florida’s Cyprus Gardens. My family went to the Gardens on day three of a seven-day vacation. My mom needed to get something at the gift shop before we toured the Gardens. So we went in there first. Mistake. That’s when I saw the killer whale. At the time its size dominated me. “Mom, can we get the whale, Mom, can we get the whale”. I can remember saying this to her at least 100 times. She says that it’s more like 500. She succumbed to the pressure. I only remember two things about the Gardens: The water-skiers falling in the water after failing to perform their tricks, and the whale. Epcot Center, Disney World…no recollection whatsoever.

At first, I look at this beast and I say that I like big things. True. But after stepping back, I realize that the story is the journey. I traveled across the country, found my inanimate life partner, brought him back home, and from there stories would be made. He would be used in many adolescent bash-your-friend games. He would be used as a shield in this tile game I used to play with my friend. I could go on forever with these stories, but the phenomenon of the whale lies in the journeys that we’ve shared.

Mark Cuban

My idol. Well, not really, I don’t have any idols. But I respect what he accomplished so far in life and the means, which he used to obtain his holdings. A guy from a blue-collar family, he went through school like most of us do. He went to college, like some people do. He sold garbage bags, not many people do. But that is where he started. He would later attempt to run a small computer tech/repair store, but it went under (Cuban was in charge of the store and its sales). Did he quit? Of course not. He would later go on to found a small company that would become Broadcast.com which he would later sell to Yahoo for $5B in the dot com bubble. Now, he spends his time yelling at NBA referees as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

After stepping back, it’s becoming clearer. It’s has nothing to do with the person. Well, that’s not true. If he were a prick, I wouldn’t be writing this. The emphasis is on the journey. The paragraph above (I could write ten pages on this) embodies perseverance. Journeys are filled with peaks and valleys. In order to obtain one’s zenith, one has to overcome the myriad of obstacles that block the path to that destination.

Calculus World

I’ve always struggled with the question as to whether I have true artistic ability or not. This project proved it to me. In all seriousness, this project released that fear. The more I step back from Calculus World, the more I appreciate it. I don’t see it as math; I don’t see it as calculus. I see it as art. Pure art. I completed my life-best artistic project last December.

In calculus, I no longer care about solving problems. I don’t care about getting the right answer, relatively speaking. The essence of calculus is encompassed by the theory and what the various theories stand for. Calculus World expresses this essence through its artistic structure.

The creation of this artwork was difficult. My initial ideas were cliché and mathematical. They would all be scrapped. After much thought, consideration, struggle, and learning, the final version of Calculus World now stands. Its creation was a journey, filled with struggle, frustration and in the end, pure satisfaction. I could draw a map of the peaks and valleys while building this piece, somewhat like a rectilinear plot, though it’s not necessary…but it might be fun. This project taught me more about my philosophy and myself more than anything else.

The Far View

I don’t think I need to say it, but it’s clear. It’s about the journey. It’s about persevering through the struggles. In the end, it’s about accomplishment. A week ago, this was all transparent.

About my process experience:

First I began with the concept of calculus and how it related to the other mathematical subjects. The concept included the great mathematicians of the past who are illustrated as the figure heads of a specific subject, such as Pythagoras :: Geometry. I wanted to world to communicate to all levels of people, whether they were novices or experts with math. After some concept sketches, a few historical background checks, some architectural research and some preliminary world layout, I came up with the first itteration.

It was trashed, all of it.

Focusing specifically on calculus and ignoring my original broad target audience lifted the constraint that I had burden myself with. After reading A Tour of Calculus, by David Berlinski, I eliminated my tunnel vision of how this world could be built.

Using some concept sketches I solved some of the issued involved with world relation...but not nearly all of them. I would figure out other issues by writing communications involving several of the world population objects. This forced me to think about how an object communicates, why it exists where it does, why is there an encounter that requires communication, and what prompted the encounter. Because Calculus World is more abstract that most others, these issues were critical to overcome, otherwise world issues such as placement, existence, communication, movement, etc. would not be flushed out.

There still remained other issues, mostly having to do with physical existence, world orientation, and object placement. By constructing a physical model, these questions were answered. In short, sketches solved some issues, written communication (and other written exercises) solved others, and a physical model solved most of the rest.

I got to the point where I had more content concerning world issues than I could fit in the atlas; unforunately, some stuff did not make it in due to scope and time. Below is a link to the atlas (last updated December 4th). It is meant to be viewed like an open book.

Calculus World Atlas

hope you enjoy.

Calculus World at sunset

Aside from game development, one subject that has intrigued me throughout the years is the subject of mathematics. Academically, this was always my favorite subject. I enjoyed the material to the point where I found a job in which I tutor high school and college students in various math subjects, but predominantly calculus. I find it difficult to explain why I have such an interest in mastering mathematical logic. The more I dive into the subject, the more I realize that there is no limit (or is there) to what the subject can explain and represent.

Which brings me to this world idea. At first I thought about creating the world of calculus. There is no doubt that this world contains enough material to build something for the scope of this class. At the same time, calculus by itself seems limiting. The reason being, the understanding of calculus requires the knowledge of prerequisite subjects, such as arithmetic, algebra, trig, and so forth. Thus, this world needs to encompass these prerequisites and illustrate them as building blocks for higher mathematics.

There are various possibilities in the way the world could be constructed. One is a tower where the lower levels of the tower represent the introductory mathematical subjects. The medium levels are the subjects that require the knowledge of the lower subjects. High levels are supported by everything underneath and so forth. Another possibility is a continent system where various levels of mathematical evolution can be seen as one journeys from one direction to another. Let’s say that evolution spread from east to west. The eastern continents would represent the lower subjects and would appear as less developed. As knowledge spread west, the islands and continents would appear more advanced.

With the world being that of mathematics, it needs a population. The populace would be that of people, where mathematical greats (like Pythagoras) would be featured in their corresponding area. These great people would be the leaders of their areas. Their contribution to mathematics could hopefully be visually evident. It could even be as easy as spelling out their theorem, etc.

This world will not be just a historical representation. Culture is a large part of any society. Building culture usually requires populace interaction. Fictional plays, movies, and such can be created to display the interaction of these great people. The play might represent how one great person’s solution to a proof may have inspired another great person to solve the seemingly impossible. These media creations will be fictional though based on historical truth. Keep in mind that great mathematicians came from all different parts of the globe so the content of these medias can explain ancestry.

Beyond making a world that is content-wise correct, I want people to understand what they are looking at. For many, math is intimidating. I want to dissolve this fear as much as possible. What I would like in the end is for someone to look at the world and say, “I’m not a math person, but this is very interesting”, and then they begin to play with the world. For those who have an inkling for this subject matter, all the better.

Jullian's library post should be enough for this five week period, but those who want something tactile to refer to might consider this. I have a copy for anyone who wants to check it out.