Phoenix Puppy: A new concept for the interactive pet simulation game Ji-Young HO and Ruck THAWONMAS http://www.ice.ritsumei.ac.jp Intelligent Computer Entertainment Laboratory Department of Computer Science, Ritsumeikan University Abstract: This paper describes a conceptual method to make strong mental sympathy between players and virtual pets in mobile pet simulation games. After the development of Tamagochi, which created a sensation all over the world in 1997, many pet simulation games have been made. Through raising virtual pets, players feel the satisfaction similar to raising real pets. However, sometimes games become more boring and the players can t set their affection on the virtual pets as much as real pets. This is because no effort is needed to raise such virtual pets except for pressing buttons and spending time. To solve these problems, we propose a new concept combining a pet simulation game with another type of game. The proposal concept has more dynamic interesting and offers strong metal connection with the virtual pets. We then implement a mobile pet simulation game based on this new concept, and compare this game with other pet simulation games, especially those developed in Korea. 1. Introduction A mobile pet simulation game is a special type of game in which virtual pets are raised on mobile devices. Regarding contents, it is a pet simulation game which should simulate the real world sufficiently well so that a player feels like raising a real pet by feeding, talking, playing and so on. Regarding devices, it is a mobile game [1] that bases on cellular phones or PCS (Personal Communication Service) phones. Over the last few years, the market of mobile games [2], e.g., in Korea, is exponentially increasing along with spread of cellular phones and PCS phones. As a result, mobile games has a merit on convenience that there is no necessary to carry particular game devices and thus players can enjoy playing games at anytime and anywhere. However, though mobile games are a hot topic, up till now they have been simple and thus are not so interesting. With industrialization and the subsequent increase in nuclear families, single households, no kids, door-key children and dual income families, pets have become a sort of substitute for human affection. According to this trend and popularity of Tamagochi [3], pet simulation games have come into wide use because of mental satisfaction and simplicity. However, they also have some weaknesses on dynamic amusement owing to insipid play rules that only need buttons to be pressed within decided time. In this paper, we propose a new concept that overcomes each weakness of either mobile games or pet simulation games, and has synergy effects due to a combination of a mobile pet simulation game and another type of game. These synergy effects give more exciting interest and stronger soul connection, which are due to difficulties and efforts in order to get something in the counter-part game for raising a virtual pet. In our implementation, we combine a pet simulation game with a typical adventure game in which a player has to get feed items for a virtual pet. Thereby, the player can experience enjoyments of adventure and identical relationship through the
efforts for raising the pet. Our game is implemented for n-top [4] service of SK Telecom[5], the biggest telecommunication company in Korea. We use mobile C [6], a language for developing mobile games, with GVM (General Virtual Machine) [6] that is a middle-ware platform solution developed by SINJISOFT [7]. 2. Architecture The architecture is composed of four parts, i.e., an interface module, an adventure game module called Dungeon, a pet simulation game module called Lair and a database. Fig.1 illustrates the detail structure of the game system. The interface module gets inputs from the player and sends processed data to the Dungeon and Lair modules. This module also gives to the player visual information on the playing results of both Dungeon and Lair modules. The Dungeon module deals with transaction data for the adventure game and saves information to the feed database. The Lair module handles player s interaction requests from the interface module and information from the feed database. It then saves information on pet s personalities to the bird database. The database in our system is composed of the feed database and the bird database. The feed database is especially related to Dungeon game and the bird database has information which decides the character and appearance of each bird. As stated before this information is sent to the interface module in order to response to the player s interaction requests. 3. Description of game 3.1 Overview The specialty of this game is that of adding an adventure game to a pet simulation game. So a player has to get feed items though playing the Dungeon game and raises each bird with interactive actions for example feeding, talking and playing at the Lair. Such interactive actions affect the bird s emotions and personalities that are the main factor to determine the appearance and response of each bird. If the player could successfully raise a selected baby bird to a targeted adult one, the game is end. More precisely, the aim of this game is to make a bird to a phoenix. 3.2 DUNGEON The Dungeon is a typical adventure game in which a player is faced by terrible obstacles like barriers and monsters. If the player overcomes those obstacles, he or she gets treasures. In our implementation, a player can see only a portion of the map surrounding him or her and those portions the player has passed. So this constraint makes a situation that the player might come across the monster. Also there are too many walls that can not be passed. If the player gets a key,
(a) START DUNGEON Player can see only the surrounding area (b) MOVE Player can see also the passed areas (c) FIND A KEY Player finds and gets a key (d) OPEN THE DOOR Player can open the door with the key (e) FIND THE TREASURE Player finds the treasure (f) GET THE TREASURE Player gets the treasure (g) FIND THE MONSTER Player comes across the monster and fights (h) KILL THE MONSTER Player wins over the monster (i) GO TO THE START POINT Player gets out of Dungeon (j) GET A FEED ITEM Player gets a feed item for through the start point a selected bird FIG. 2 DUNGEON ADVENTURE GAME
FIG. 3 THE INTERACTION PROCESS FIG. 4 INTERACTION WITH THE VIRTUAL PET however, he or she can open the door between the walls. If the player gets the treasure and then returns back to the start point, he or she can get a feed item for a selected bird. (see Fig.2) 3.3 LAIR This is the main part of Phoenix Puppy for raising each bird with interactive actions. Fig.3 shows interactions between the player and a bird using each module: interaction, emotion, personality and appearance. For instance, if the player talks to a selected bird, the emotion module decides the bird s feeling whether the bird wants to talk or not. Then this emotion has influences on the personalities of bird and on the appearance module. After that a response is displayed at the screen to the player. In this section, an interaction means a certain action to grow a selected bird, such as, talking, feeding, washing, etc. An interaction might change the emotions or personalities of the bird either well or badly according to situations. As we can see, most interactions change the pet s emotions, except for those changing directly personalities with feed items. Each bird has many emotions for every situation as much as real bird. In this paper, we implement some kinds of interaction functions (feeding, talking, playing) and response emotions (understanding, happy, ignoring). (see Fig.4) If the player feeds the bird, its personalities are changed directly by the rule shown in Fig 5. Regarding the bird s personalities, there are four principle elements -fire( 火 ), earth( 土 ), wind( 風 ) and water( 水 ). As the player does many interactions, the bird gets some points for the personalities and the level that represents the growth condition is increasing. Through the appearance module, the appearance of the bird at the screen is decided by the combination of the four personalities, each having ten levels. Fig. 6 shows how the bird evolutes with those four properties.
FIG. 5 PRINCIPLE ELEMENTS OF THE PERSONALITIES AND THEIR RELATIONS WHITH THE TEN FEED ITEMS FIG. 6 EVOLUTION OF THE BIRD ACCORDING TO ITS PERSONALITIES
Identity Affection Sympathy Thrill Responsibility Specialty Cute Hamster Χ Χ Χ Χ Tamagochi Χ Handy Monster Χ Nory Phoenix Puppy FIG. 7 MENTAL EFFECTS ( : STRONG, : NORMAL, Χ: WEAK) 4. Comparisons with other games In this section, we show the effects of our concept in pet simulation games through comparing our game with other games. Before that, we define mental attributes used in comparisons as follows: Identity means representation of the player through the virtual pet, similar to an avatar representing it user. It is the most important characteristic for distinguishing pet simulation games with other games. Affection means attraction or tendering feeling toward the virtual pet. Sympathy means mutual understanding from relationship or affinity between the virtual pet and the player in which one correspondingly affects the other. Thrill is a source or cause of excitement or emotion. Responsibility means the quality, state or fact of being responsible. Therefore it shows how much the player feels a sense of duty. Specialty means satisfaction of the results through contributions. So the player can get a penalty for failure and a satisfaction for success through it. Also it shows how much the virtual pet depends on the player. Except for Tamagochi, Cute Hamster [8], Handy Monster [9], Nory [10] and Phoenix Puppy are mobile pet simulation games in which each player can raise a hamster, a monster and a bird, respectively. As we mention before, Tamagochi needs just simple efforts such as pressing buttons for feeding, talking, sleeping and so forth. So the player of Tamagochi feels less deep affection, sympathy, responsibility and specialty, compared with the player of Phoenix Puppy. Besides, Tamagochi has no thrill. Cute Hamster is concentrated on the communication with other players and fortune telling service rather then raising the virtual pet. Therefore the player can not even feel affection. Regarding Handy Monster, there are more functions for raising the pet. So the player of Handy Monster feels slightly more responsibility, compared with the player of Cute Hamster and Tamagochi, because he or she must take care of their pet in various ways. Nory is very similar with our game. It is also a combination of a pet simulation game with other simple games, and the player can have interaction with his or her bird. However there are obvious differences in the role of the player in the added game, and on the player s contribution to the personality of the virtual bird. Namely, in Nory the player directly operates the bird so as to have it, say, participate in an added game such as a hurdle race. In our game, the player operates another character in the added adventure game in order to get some feed for the bird. Regarding the player s contribution to the personality of the virtual bird, the personalities of the bird in Nory is decided and fixed at the starting time with the degree of growth being increased continuously. However the personalities of the bird in
Phoenix Puppy change according to the player s feeding decisions. In addition, the appearance of the bird also changes according to its personalities. As a result, the player of Phoenix Puppy feels stronger affection, and sympathy, responsibility, thrill and specialty. 5. Conclusions and future work In this paper we have proposed a concept for making strong mental identity between players and virtual pets in mobile pet simulation games. By adding another kind of game, especially an adventure game in our implementation, and adapting mobile platforms, we could get more powerful conveniences, satisfactions and amusements from the games based on the proposal concept. Furthermore, various emotions of a virtual pet support a good mental connection because a player feels like the game is real. As our future work, we will continue to develop virtual pets having more detail personalities and emotions, more powerful graphic engines which can design the appearance of the virtual pets automatically according to these personalities and emotions. We will verify the effects of our concept with real experiment asking players to compare our game with others. Also we will research about new pet simulation games being efficient for mental gratification through adding a various kind of games. Acknowledgements The first author would like to thank her former colleagues, Chul-min Park, Eun-ju Choi, Bora Kim for their partial contributions to designing and implementing the game. The first author also was supported in part by Samsung and Nexon. She is now being awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Sciences and Technology, Japan. The second author is supported in part by the Ritsumeikan University s Kyoto Art and Entertainment Innovation Research, a 21 st Century Center of Excellence program, funded by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science. References [1] BANDAI - http://www.bandai.co.jp/bandai_e/index_e.html [2] The Mobile Games Interoperability Forum (MGIF) - http://www.mgif.org/ [3] Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) - http://www.openmobilealliance.org/ [4] n.top changed to NATE. - http://www.nate.com/ [5] SK Telecom - http://www.sktelecom.com/ [6] Mobile C and GVM (General Virtual Machine) - http://www.gvmclub.com [7] SINJISOFT corporation - http://www.sinjisoft.com/sinjieng/index.html [8] Cute Hamster- http://www.asiaamuse.com/game/hamster/main.htm [9] Handy Monster - http://www.gamevil.com/ [10] Nory - http://nory.montech.co.kr/index.html