CIG 2012 Keynote Gillian Smith September 13, 2012 gillian@ccs.neu.edu
Graphics-Driven Game Design
Graphics-Driven Game Design
Graphics-Driven Game Design
Graphics-Driven Game Design
Graphics-Driven Game Design
Advancing the “Fiction” of Games More immersive More detailed More complex Jesper Juul (2005). Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds .
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 .
Game Innovation through Technology Foursquare, 2009 Kinect Star Wars, 2012 World of Goo, 2008 Flower, 2009
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.
AI-Driven Game Design What are the design implications of our work?
Asking Design Questions How can we provide Super Mario players with more content that they enjoy?
Asking Design Questions How can we provide Super Mario players with more content that they enjoy?
Asking Design Questions What is a game that has meaningful personalization? How does that impact story? Shared player experiences?
Computer Science ≠ Games
Computer Science ≠ Games
Computer Science ≠ Games
Computer Science ≠ Games
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 .
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 .
Procedural Content Generation Design Control Content
Procedural Content Generation Design Control Content
Procedural Content Generation Design Control Content
Aspects of Control Type Extent Knowledge Indirect Representation Compositional Parameterized Experiential Indirect Direct
Aspects of Control Type Extent Knowledge Indirect Representation Compositional Parameterized Experiential Indirect Direct Martin, A., Lim, A., Colton, S. and Browne, C. 2010. Evolving 3d buildings for the prototype video game subversion. Proceedings of the 2010 international conference on Applications of Evolutionary Computation (Barcelona, Spain, 2010)
Aspects of Control Type Extent Knowledge Indirect Representation Compositional Parameterized Experiential Indirect Direct Smelik, R.M., Tutenel, T., de Kraker, K.J. and Bidarra, R. 2011. A declarative approach to procedural modeling of virtual worlds. Computers & Graphics . 35, 2 (Apr. 2011), 352 – 363.
Aspects of Control Type Extent Knowledge Indirect Representation Compositional Parameterized Experiential Indirect Direct
Fun = ? 2 3 0 fun * frustratio n 2 . 3
Fun = ? 2 3 0 fun * frustratio n 2 . 3 no!
Experiential Control Level pacing Quest flow Challenge progression Gameplay constraints
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 .
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 .
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
A Mixed-Initiative Approach Human poses constraints suggests content Taking turns designing a level with the computer 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.
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
Tanagra - Video
Intelligent Assistance for Level Design Removing the “blank slate” Refocusing testing efforts Meta level edit operations “The Tea Party”, by boum (DeviantArt)
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 .
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)
The Power of PCG Design Control Designing a game that maximizes the impact of procedural content generation. Content
Building Polished Experiences Understanding and evaluating a content generator by using it to create a new playable experience.
Kinds of PCG Use Data compression Elite, 1984 Replayability Diablo III, 2012 Enabling exploration Terraria, 2011
Extent of PCG Use Robot Unicorn Attack, 2010 Civilization IV, 2005 non PCG-based PCG-based
Co-Design of PCG and Game
Launchpad Rhythm-based Control type Parameterized Control extent Compositional Experiential
Endless Web Player explores the Dream to find and rescue six dreamers trapped in their nightmares.
Themes: Exploration and Creation Players navigate physical space while exploring generative space Choices lead the player to newly generated terrain with different generation parameters
Guiding the Player Goal-driven exploration of generative space
Dividing Control over the Generator Designer: experiential control Pacing Player: compositional and experiential control Content appearance Content difficulty
Endless Web - Video
PCG in Endless Web Level segments
PCG in Endless Web Art selection
PCG in Endless Web Looping in music
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 .
Shopping Around… Design Control Design Control Design Control Content Content Content
Launchpad’s Expressivity >75 levels 1 level
Linearity
Linearity
Leniency
Leniency
Exploring Expressiveness
new research directions CLOSING THOUGHTS
Mixed-Initiative Design
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
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
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
AI-Based Game Design
Signposting in a Procedural World Changing art style Music as a “fingerprint” of generative space configuration Automatically generating signposts?
Keeping PCG Visible to the Player Player choices must be meaningful Subtle reveal of PCG vs. making the PCG system obvious
Building Support for Art Design for variable-size art assets Control over level appearance as well as structure
Analyzing Expressivity
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
Computer Science ≠ Games
What is the Future of Games? Designing new game technologies that can support mechanics as playable as combat.
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