Climate Game Meeting Notes,
Present: Pier Vellinga,
Merlijn Draaisma, Winoe Bhikharie, Anton Eliëns, Frans Berkhout, Alex Halsema,
Haroen Lemmers, Charlotte Spliethof, Hugo Huurdemans and Marek van de Watering (please correct/add!)
Notes and transcription by Marek van de Watering.
Discussion
of work done
In short, what everyone has been doing on project
since last meeting.
Anton Eliens:
-
Facilitating
student projects (i.e. Interactive video by Hugo, Weather conditions in
Half-Life 2 by two other students, etc., see website)
-
Contacted
“Beeld en Geluid Instituus” (Audiovisual center) in
-
Organizing
a possibility for showing and discussing material created this far in the
Visual Design class held on 7th of March (
-
Contact
with possible commercial partners: best option, based on background (young,
work for VPRO, interest in “serious/knowledge gaming”), credibility and feeling
is ExMachina. Its focus would be more intermediary (management, organization,
distribution), not on pure (and all) development/implementation. Other
candidates are Ijsfontein, Mediarepublic and Little Chicken (console games).
As for the costst and timeline: it is too early for
such companies to provide a cost overview. Anton Eliëns has the impression that
after the 1st of May (final proposal deadline), implementation in
cooperation with a partner will be typically 6 months. But keep in mind that we
do not yet know what we want!
ExMachina are most interested (based on development
costs) in a multi-user web based game, with possible quiz-elements.
The idea is for a Geo student (Haroen Lemmers) to transcribe
a scenario/plan of action for the game, which Hugo will elaborate in
Flash.
Merlijn Draaisma notes that there are rumors of
possible change in the Akademische Jaarprijs jury/commission.
Charlotte Spliethof had a meeting with students 2 weeks ago, for generating initial ideas. These were in part the basis for the proposal by Haroen Lemmers. Based on this, Haroen has been working on plot and plan of action/scenario for the game, and initial visualization (will send this through email), which he will send to the other project members in digital format. The thoughts derived from this meeting were on starting points and end points for the game and possible interaction.
Main starting point for the game would be the choice
of a group of countries (with accompanying introduction, for example a short
movie) and a IPCC report. Based on this and decisions made, the player
progresses bottom-up through a political hierarchy (i.e. from local politician
to “God mode”), in which the level of difficulty differs from country to
country, and by the players participating. This would be in a turn-based,
multiplayer mode of play.
One could also imagine the player drawing a card at
the beginning of the game (as in the “Risk” boardgame) which states the goal.
Throughout the game, movies (possibly interactive)
could illustrate points in time at which decisions have to be made, and provide
a basis for education on the topics involved. In general: events would
“randomly” pop up, asking the player to make certain decisions.
Game over points could be: land totaly immersed in
water, destruction due to natural disasters, a predefined countdown, shortage
in food, biodiversity or water. “Positive” game over points could be reaching
consensus with other players, a certain level of points (calculated from a set
ozf parameters, see next section)
Players, each representing different groups of countries, should be able to interact with eachother through chat sessions to share information, and to initialize negotiations and/or trade resources.
Haroen could contact terra-preta.nl for possibly
low-cost Flash and project website development. Anton Eliëns notes on the
importance of “online presence” of the project.
Hugo Huurdeman: new in group, Msc student Multimedia
& Culture. Worked on Interactive Flash Videos project, and the proposal is
to use this in the Climate Game (prototype), then being his Msc Project.
Marek van de Watering: new in group, Msc student
Multimedia & Culture. Working on Msc Project and Thesis on design theory
and organization (i.e identifying key points in design projects, how to
translate requirements/ideas into visualizations). Merlijn Draaisma adds it
might be good to add Multimedia research to the Climate Game project
(scientific basis & multi-disciplinarity).
Frans Berkhout asked his son about the idea of a
climate game, who was positive about it. Also, friends could test a prototype
of the game.
Pier Vellinga:
-
Document
with research topics and publications on climate, from the VU. This could be
used for inspiration and to identify themes and to contact related
persons.
-
Will
look further into a 1.2 million Euro fund for knowledge sharing with games in
high schools. Contact person is Margreet van der Berg. Watch out for “strings
attached”, but still good as partner for increasing scope and interest.
Target group for the game: 16 – 25 years old. First goal, apart
from “winning”, in practice would be to appeal to students (either high school
or university) and to promote the VU.
Discussion
on game structure
Focus of further discussion/proposals: structure of
the game (and underlying model)!
Wrap-up
of the game concept:
The player chooses a group of countries (the world
divided into 5 groups of countries, with different starting characteristics). First,
the player should manage his own area internally in a successful manner (i.e.
mitigation – adaptation in “sandbox”). In a second step, the multiplayer aspect
comes into play, which will allow different players (on one world-map) to
interact with each other (negotiate, trade resources, form pacts, etc.). These
steps are divided in rounds of 5 years, summing up to a total of 100 years (20
rounds). Each round, the player gets a IPCC report with which to review past
choices and on which to base present/future decisions. Triggered (i.e. by
treshholds in parameters) or random events (i.e. an industrial coup by another
country/region) will add to the choices that have to be made. The “knowledge
part” could be implemented as “quiz”-elements, possibly hosted as “press
conferences” and the building of schools that allow for the testing of
knowledge.
In short:
-
Turnbased,
webbased, multiplayer play,
throughout a set of scenario’s (5 or 6), in which a player first
-
has to
maintain him/herself in the local setting, then
-
interact
with other players within a global setting
-
with
random and triggered events asking for decisionmaking, and
-
education
by using quiz-elements for testing/shaping knowledge, and
-
Difficulty
based on chosen climate sensitivity (see below).
Proposals done for underlying factors/parameters:
-
The
underlying parameters being:
o
Resources
o
Environment
o
Money,
and
o
Social
-
The
underlying parameters being:
o
Money
o
Knowledge
(with possible social impact)
o
Power
These parameters, possibly with attached weighting values, could be summed up to a single score which determines if a player is succesful or not (and step-wise decide on the next actions to be taken). Focusing on money/capital only and omitting knowledge/education, for example, could sum up to the player “losing”. Basic relationships (scientifically founded) between these variables could be implemented. Note: when forming pacts with other regions, these parameters could interloc!
The knowledge aspect could be in:
-
Overall
ingame decision making (i.e. focus on R&D, agriculture, etc.)
-
Quiz
element (basic questions on certain issues)
Ideas on this are “press conferences” the player gives
(in fact, a quiz), a possible “advisor function”, and the building of schools
which provide quizzes.
The IPCC report provided in every turn should be
simplified (no large texts for onscreen reading), and give a prediction on
future changes (but these might be wrong!).
Other notes/proposals:
-
On
ingame language: decided on this to be English language, but for Dutch audience,
keeping in mind the target group. If chosen for further development, a
bilingual version could be made. In any case, we have to show that we are aware
of this issue.
-
On time
of play: webbased, so games not being too lengthy.
-
On
access/availability: should be able to log-in to continue game (i.e.
load/save). In multiplayer games, this would be done by replacing open player
slots (before or during the game) with AI (Artificial Intelligent)
bots/players.
-
A online
Hall of Fame, with best players/scores (motivational factor)
-
Fossil
energy and biomass as possible treshholds.
-
Introduce
(CO2?) concentration as a global variable, to make negotiations with and
investments in other regions more interesting/necessary.
-
Consider
cheating/penalties/punishments
-
Regarding
negotiations: blind or not (know status of other players)? Allow for feedback?
Keep in mind differences between big countries and smaller countries.
Frans Berkhout: scientific element should be
considered:
-
Importance
of: mitigation – adaptation (per turn, decisions projected on agriculture,
water, biodiversity, sealevel, health)
-
Climate
sensitivity:
o
Make it
(partly) random, or
o
Slider
that allows player to choose: increased sensitivity is higher level of
difficulty.
Basic global model:
Goals for prototype
Prototype of the game for final proposal, deadline on
01/05 (correct if wrong!).
Goals/characteristics:
-
Focus on
presentation, not on interaction
-
Written
gameplay as backup
-
Partial
showcase of functionlity: i.e. one scenario, one quiz, one random event, region
choice, etc.
-
Possibly
as “trailer” video showing visuals and explaining/showing gameplay
-
Mix of
“trailer of” and “introduction to”
-
Documentation,
official proposal
-
Website
to host all product versions, documentation, etc. Ask number of people if
willing to make such a website, and see who responds.
Notes:
-
Partnercompany
to implement game, we to provide:
o
Data/material
o
Ideas
o
Scenarios
-
Our
proposal should consist of:
o
What we
want
o
Elaborate
this in a detailed version
o
Make the
underlying model explicit (i.e. as image/diagram)
o
Incorporate
VU identity (proposed: “klimaatster”)
o
A name
Additionally, a brief overview of the “competition”
should be made: how can we improve/differentiate!
Practicalities/organization
Need for 2-3 student advisors, preferably from this
group:
-
One
Multimedia student for prototyping/implementation (2 days a week): Hugo
Huurdemans
-
One Geo
student for storyline, scenario’s, “knowledge” (2 days a week): Haroen Lemmers
-
One student
or external company (dependent on availability and resources): for creating a
project website.
Els Hunfeld should be contacted for
contract/paperwork.
Meetings/schedule:
-
26/02
-
07/03
-
15/03
-
26/03
-
12/04
-
Rest of
dates to be determined
-
01/05:
deadline for final proposal, followed by presentation of this proposal.