Hey ya'll, I've moved over to wordpress, and got me a domain name. Catch me at joelschroyen.co.nz/blog
:)
I won't be updating it here any more, so change your bookmarks!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Personal, or social?
Weighing the options.
A: Personal Balls - when you reach a certain level with another, they will pass something personal for the player to hold onto, a personal ball. How this ball is used reflects on the player's social considerations - which can be good, or backfire.
B: Conversation levels - At a certain social level, the visible representation of conversation changes form. Trying to interact with characters with differing conversation levels will change their reaction to the player.
Level 1: A ball - heavy, tied the ground, clunky.
Level 2: A balloon - floaty, friendly
Level 3: ??Love hearts?? - fast, embracing
Story boarding interaction of conversation levels. Also shows new system of relative social levels. All characters have a social level shared with every other character, and the player.
The relative social level system is intended to represent intelligence in the AI - they will interact with other AI differently than the player (or the same, depending on the social levels)
A: Personal Balls - when you reach a certain level with another, they will pass something personal for the player to hold onto, a personal ball. How this ball is used reflects on the player's social considerations - which can be good, or backfire.
B: Conversation levels - At a certain social level, the visible representation of conversation changes form. Trying to interact with characters with differing conversation levels will change their reaction to the player.
Level 1: A ball - heavy, tied the ground, clunky.
Level 2: A balloon - floaty, friendly
Level 3: ??Love hearts?? - fast, embracing
Story boarding interaction of conversation levels. Also shows new system of relative social levels. All characters have a social level shared with every other character, and the player.
The relative social level system is intended to represent intelligence in the AI - they will interact with other AI differently than the player (or the same, depending on the social levels)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Mungifier(tm)
I'm just fiddling with something that will create levels of pixelation on game load - so I don't have to do it in photoshop every time (although running a macro isn't that hard).
Anyways, 3 days later and I got some interesting results (3 frames of animation for each of the 6 levels):
There seems to be a threshold for good pixelation...
This last one looks fairly good, the second level is still a bit weird, but the rest are alright :)
Anyways, 3 days later and I got some interesting results (3 frames of animation for each of the 6 levels):
There seems to be a threshold for good pixelation...
This last one looks fairly good, the second level is still a bit weird, but the rest are alright :)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Some more drawings
Seasons |
Levels of detail |
Cycling through inventory of balls |
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Minimal Pixel Art
Classic pixel art, charsets, FF6 SNES style, I'm finding is too detailed.
And then I came across Minimal Pixel Art. Hazzah!
The Pixel As Minimal Art
link
Moar
Pixelscapes
pixelscapes from project landscapes on Vimeo.
And then I came across Minimal Pixel Art. Hazzah!
The Pixel As Minimal Art
link
Moar
This compounded effect or the process of adding pixels on top of pixels ... and at various sizes ... enhances the sublimity, and it also brings in other interpretations or connotations such as plurality, for example the coexistence of several worlds.
pixelscapes from project landscapes on Vimeo.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Concept sketch && notes
I think this idea for feedback is will work well - depending on the characters social level, in relation to the player, is - it will either become more defined, or pixelated. The characters actions will also reflect this, with undistinguishable blocks offering only a slow pacing, and recognisable characters displaying more interesting, and joyful actions.
This is in response to what I read somewhere, likely in Koster's A Theory of Fun, that AI in modern games (still) are dumb, but are looking more and more realistic. Their detail should reflect their intelligence.
It is also a response to what Will Wright argued in a lecture - that pride and guilt and emotions that games seem to have better influence on over non-linear media (literature, film).
Here it is your responsibility to care for the characters, and it is a direct result of your actions that allow them to come alive, or fall into dull greyness.
To further this idea of quality of detail representing the success of the game state, the over world could also have a treatment representing an average of all characters current states.
If you are failing overall, then world becomes a blur to you, you are less part of it.
Experiment game
Coming soon: More Experiments!
In the meantime, here is my most recent experiment. Codenamed Strangers
strangers011.exe
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Doodles
Interpersonal relationships
The social world of Ai. They go about their day, minding their own business until some variable goes into the negative and then they return an infinite integer and asplode.
How do they react in this world I am creating?
Good/Bad
A simple scale of the value of a character. Each character has a static value that is interpreted by other characters. Characters only interact with those that who have a greater value than their threshold allows.
An extension of this could be to have each character have their own 'impression' (value) for each and every other character they encounter based on their experiences.
This method simplifies things, but is very shallow.
Friendship levels/ranks
There is a strict level system in which characters have to work up when interacting with each other. While they have to achieve each level in secession to raise up, they can fall several depending on the severity of the disrespect.
On the face of this, this system is exactly like the one above. Simply too linear. The interesting part comes in when characters have certain preferences and certain quality dislikes. Some sections become easier to overcome, some difficult - or impossible.
This list needs to be narrowed down to 4 states max really, for simplicity sake.
While I want the game to be non-competitive, and therefore not have an obvious statistically strong dominant strategy, this system promotes this type of gameplay. Also, the game representation would have to reflect, or at least elude to this system.
How do they react in this world I am creating?
Simple social scale |
A simple scale of the value of a character. Each character has a static value that is interpreted by other characters. Characters only interact with those that who have a greater value than their threshold allows.
An extension of this could be to have each character have their own 'impression' (value) for each and every other character they encounter based on their experiences.
This method simplifies things, but is very shallow.
Friendship levels/ranks
There is a strict level system in which characters have to work up when interacting with each other. While they have to achieve each level in secession to raise up, they can fall several depending on the severity of the disrespect.
Level/Rank -> Quality
Love/Marriage -> Commitment
Relationship -> Jealousy
Friendship -> Integrity
Friendly ->Honesty
Meeting/Met -> Friendliness
Familiarity -> Consistency
Neutral -> Inactive
Dislike/avoidance -> Deceit
Hate -> Malice
Civ IV Unit properties |
This list needs to be narrowed down to 4 states max really, for simplicity sake.
While I want the game to be non-competitive, and therefore not have an obvious statistically strong dominant strategy, this system promotes this type of gameplay. Also, the game representation would have to reflect, or at least elude to this system.
Example of representation system |
Simple Art
Simplified forms allow players/viewers to apply their own meanings and experiences to the forms they see - therefore become more relevant and meaningful to them and enhancing their experience.
Jason Rohrer's games lack about as much detail as is possible before loosing the forms into obscurity. They are still quite specifically representative though.
Is it necessary to have specific references? Rod Humble's The Marriage has the most basic forms possible - squares and circles. Using colour and transparency to convey further meaning.
But what about the Fine Arts? Let's have a look at artist's ways of representing things.
Impressionism
Impressionism was a move away from realism, and used the strength of brush strokes to convey forms - arguably conveying the mood better than a realistic image.
Expressionism
"An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself... (an Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures... Impressions and mental images that pass through mental peoples soul as through a filter which rids them of all substantial accretions to produce their clear essence [...and] are assimilated and condense into more general forms, into types, which he transcribes through simple short-hand formulae and symbols." (Gordon, 1987) (From Wiki)
Abstract Art
Abstract art has the intention of abstracting forms to their most basic - while still containing their meaning. Mondrian worked with the tensions between geometric forms and bold, primary colours. Pollock succeed in taking his expression and putting it directly onto the canvas, his movements and intentions are recorded right onto the frame.
Animation/Cartoons
Cartoons are simplified forms. Originally simply because a detailed character takes too long to animate. But as Scott McLeod argues, the more simplified a face is the easier it is for people to project their own impression onto it.
Jason Rohrer's games lack about as much detail as is possible before loosing the forms into obscurity. They are still quite specifically representative though.
Is it necessary to have specific references? Rod Humble's The Marriage has the most basic forms possible - squares and circles. Using colour and transparency to convey further meaning.
But what about the Fine Arts? Let's have a look at artist's ways of representing things.
Impressionism
Impressionism was a move away from realism, and used the strength of brush strokes to convey forms - arguably conveying the mood better than a realistic image.
Expressionism
"An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself... (an Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures... Impressions and mental images that pass through mental peoples soul as through a filter which rids them of all substantial accretions to produce their clear essence [...and] are assimilated and condense into more general forms, into types, which he transcribes through simple short-hand formulae and symbols." (Gordon, 1987) (From Wiki)
Abstract Art
Abstract art has the intention of abstracting forms to their most basic - while still containing their meaning. Mondrian worked with the tensions between geometric forms and bold, primary colours. Pollock succeed in taking his expression and putting it directly onto the canvas, his movements and intentions are recorded right onto the frame.
Animation/Cartoons
Cartoons are simplified forms. Originally simply because a detailed character takes too long to animate. But as Scott McLeod argues, the more simplified a face is the easier it is for people to project their own impression onto it.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Finished The Marriage
(Click on image for animation of my game)
Finally! I figure it out! The variables are obvious if you just pay attention. There are two types of feedback here, the opacity of a square (when it goes invisible the game is over) and the size of the square (when it shrinks too small the game is over). I could go into it more, but I think I might already have..
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