Gillian Smith.

Transcription

1 Gillian Smith CIG 2012 Keynote September 13, 2012

2 Graphics-Driven Game Design

3 Graphics-Driven Game Design

4 Graphics-Driven Game Design

5 Graphics-Driven Game Design

6 Graphics-Driven Game Design

7 Advancing the Fiction of Games More immersive More detailed More complex Jesper Juul (2005). Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds.

8 Advancing the Rules of Games? Characters with varying combat statistics Explore scripted world Fight monsters, collect treasure Jesper Juul (2005). Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds.

9 Game Innovation through Technology Foursquare, 2009 Kinect Star Wars, 2012 World of Goo, 2008 Flower, 2009

10 Technology-Driven Game Design The technology is essentially the medium in which the aesthetics take place, in which the mechanics will occur, and through which the story will be told. Tennis for Two, 1958 Jesse Schell (2008). The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.

11 AI-Driven Game Design What are the design implications of our work?

12 Asking Design Questions How can we provide Super Mario players with more content that they enjoy?

13 Asking Design Questions How can we provide Super Mario players with more content that they enjoy?

14 Asking Design Questions What is a game that has meaningful personalization? How does that impact story? Shared player experiences?

15 Computer Science Games

16 Computer Science Games

17 Computer Science Games

18 Computer Science Games

19 Expressive Design Tools Systems imbued with an understanding of a game s design that are sufficiently controllable and expressive for use in the design process.

20 Expressive Design Tools Systems imbued with an understanding of a game s design that are sufficiently controllable and expressive for use in the design process.

21 Procedural Content Generation Design Control Content

22 Procedural Content Generation Design Control Content

23 Procedural Content Generation Design Control Content

24 Aspects of Control Type Knowledge Representation Parameterized Indirect Direct Extent Indirect Compositional Experiential

25 Aspects of Control Type Knowledge Representation Parameterized Indirect Direct Extent Indirect Compositional Experiential Martin, A., Lim, A., Colton, S. and Browne, C Evolving 3d buildings for the prototype video game subversion. Proceedings of the 2010 international conference on Applications of Evolutionary Computation (Barcelona, Spain, 2010)

26 Aspects of Control Type Knowledge Representation Parameterized Indirect Direct Extent Indirect Compositional Experiential Smelik, R.M., Tutenel, T., de Kraker, K.J. and Bidarra, R A declarative approach to procedural modeling of virtual worlds. Computers & Graphics. 35, 2 (Apr. 2011),

27 Aspects of Control Type Knowledge Representation Parameterized Indirect Direct Extent Indirect Compositional Experiential

28 Fun =? 0 2 fun * frustration

29 Fun =? 0 2 fun * frustration no!

30 Experiential Control Level pacing Quest flow Challenge progression Gameplay constraints

31 Expressive Design Tools Systems imbued with an understanding of a game s design that are sufficiently controllable and expressive for use in the design process.

32 Expressive Design Tools Systems imbued with an understanding of a game s design that are sufficiently controllable and expressive for use in the design process.

33 Current Level Design Tools Can create unplayable levels No automation Hard to prototype Start from a blank screen Torque 2D Level Editor N level editor

34 suggests content A Mixed-Initiative Approach Human Taking turns designing a level with the computer poses constraints Computer David G. Novick and Stephen Sutton (1997). What is Mixed-Initiative Interaction? Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Computational Models for Mixed Initiative Interaction.

35 A Mixed-Initiative Approach Benefits of procedural content generator Rapid variant viewing Generate content within designer constraints Enforce level playability Directly model pacing of the level Strengths of the novice human designer Sense of aesthetics Creative judgment Understanding of difficulty Know what they want when they see it

36 Tanagra - Video

37 Intelligent Assistance for Level Design Removing the blank slate Refocusing testing efforts Meta level edit operations The Tea Party, by boum (DeviantArt)

38 Expressive Design Tools Systems imbued with an understanding of a game s design that are sufficiently controllable and expressive for use in the design process.

39 PCG-Based Game Design A PCG-based game is a game in which the underlying PCG system is so inextricably tied to the mechanics of the game, and has so greatly influenced the aesthetics of the game, that the dynamics revolve around it. Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek (2004). MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research. Proceedings of the 2004 AAAI Workshop on Challenges in Game Artificial Intelligence (San Jose, California, July 2004)

40 The Power of PCG Design Control Designing a game that maximizes the impact of procedural content generation. Content

41 Building Polished Experiences Understanding and evaluating a content generator by using it to create a new playable experience.

42 Terraria, 2011 Diablo III, 2012 Elite, 1984 Kinds of PCG Use Data compression Replayability Enabling exploration

43 Extent of PCG Use Civilization IV, 2005 Robot Unicorn Attack, 2010 non PCG-based PCG-based

44 Co-Design of PCG and Game

45 Launchpad Rhythm-based Control type Parameterized Control extent Compositional Experiential

46 Endless Web Player explores the Dream to find and rescue six dreamers trapped in their nightmares.

47 Themes: Exploration and Creation Players navigate physical space while exploring generative space Choices lead the player to newly generated terrain with different generation parameters

48 Guiding the Player Goal-driven exploration of generative space

49 Dividing Control over the Generator Designer: experiential control Pacing Player: compositional and experiential control Content appearance Content difficulty

50 Endless Web - Video

51 PCG in Endless Web Level segments

52 PCG in Endless Web Art selection

53 PCG in Endless Web Looping in music

54 Expressive Design Tools Systems imbued with an understanding of a game s design that are sufficiently controllable and expressive for use in the design process.

55 Shopping Around Design Control Design Control Design Control Content Content Content

56 Launchpad s Expressivity >75 levels 1 level

57 Linearity

58 Linearity

59 Leniency

60 Leniency

61 Exploring Expressiveness

62 new research directions CLOSING THOUGHTS

63 Mixed-Initiative Design

64 Negotiating High-Level Design Goals Awareness of additional constraints Present different opinions on design High-level understanding leads to better communication Example: properties of a game level based on current level progression

65 Overriding Human Decisions but for a good, and well-explained, reason! Early decisions can become less important (Novice) designers struggle with undoing work they have already done Example: removing a previously agreed-upon game mechanic due to a change in the story

66 Moving Away from Turn-Taking Computer can work independently Computer is no longer purely reactive, must be proactive in conversation Both parties may interrupt each other or pause to think Example: interrupt a designer with a new idea for a level during brainstorming

67 AI-Based Game Design

68 Signposting in a Procedural World Changing art style Music as a fingerprint of generative space configuration Automatically generating signposts?

69 Keeping PCG Visible to the Player Player choices must be meaningful Subtle reveal of PCG vs. making the PCG system obvious

70 Building Support for Art Design for variable-size art assets Control over level appearance as well as structure

71 Analyzing Expressivity

72 Future Work New metrics for levels Difficulty Suitability for artists Models of player behavior Comparing to different generation techniques Online content selection Evolving content New visualization methods

73 Computer Science Games

74 What is the Future of Games? Designing new game technologies that can support mechanics as playable as combat.

75 Questions Thank you! Gillian Smith