topical media & game development
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

talk show tell print

print / present

part v. game development

man is a playful animal

johan huizinga

game development


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2

reading directives

 In the final two chapters of this book, we will look at game development, with an emphasis on both implementation and design. In particular, we will discuss the motivation for using game technology to develop serious application, which in summary may be characterized as the requirement to allow for immersion, understood as experiental involvement of the user.

Essential sections are 11.2, in which we describe the development of VU-Life using the Source Half-Life 2 SDK, and 12.1, which presents a semi-formal game model, that may serve as a reference for designing more complex games.

perspectives

Game development is essentially teamwork, and generally involves both artists as well as more technical developers. In addition, with to the commercial impact of games, many factors influence the design and implementation of games. As a consequence, we may look at game development from (among others) the following perspectives:

perspectives -- game development


  • artistic -- plot, narrative, style
  • technical -- choice of game engine (SDK)
  • sociological -- sharing within game communities
  • tool selection -- supporting the workflow
  • commercial -- success factors
  • management -- teamwork
It is only very recently that game development became a topic with academic credibility. From an academic perspective, game technology may be regarded as enabling technology, that is related to many areas of computer science, including graphics, computer organization, distributed systems and software engineering.

essay topics

In accordance with the variety of perspectives, an essay may focus on the commercial aspects of games, or, for example, software engineering aspects, or the design of community games. Consider writing an essay about:

  • the success of games -- criteria for comparison
  • game engine architecture -- options for extensibility
  • community games -- models for sharing information
When writing, make sure that you provide enough information about the actual history of games. And, remind that games require real-time performance, whereas the movies that may have triggered your phantasy may get away with effects that require many hours of processing. Afterall, games are about interaction!

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the artwork

  1. manuscript -- used as a desktop by my favorite student.
  2. signs -- abstract symbols,  [Signs], p. 214, 215.
  3. photographs -- Jaap Stahlie, commissioned work.

print / present / tag(s)

11

game technology for serious applications

immersion does not require illusion but involvement

learning objectives

After reading this chapter you should have an idea how to approach the development of a moderately complex game, and you should also be able to discuss the notion of immersion and argue why using game technology is relevant for serious applications.

Game playing is fundamental to human life. Not only for entertainment, but also to acquire the necessary skills for survival. Game playing can take a variety of forms, but nowadays the dominant game paradigm is undoubtedly the interactive video game, to be played on a multimedia-enhanced PC or game console. Currently, games are being (re) discovered in the academic field, another serious areas of society, as excellent means for both the transfer of knowledge and, perhaps more importantly, for attitude change.

In this chapter we will look at the various issues in developing a game, and more specifically, in section 11.2 at requirements for a promotional game for our faculty and the issues that came up when giving a masterclass game development for high school students using this game. Finally, we will sketch the history of immersive systems, in particular panoramas, in section 11.3, and we will discuss how immersion is to be realized in a game context.

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22

questions

11. game technology for serious applications

concepts


technology


projects & further reading

As a project, develop a non-violent game using the Source SDK. For example, you may develop an application that gives a community of users access their personal collections of photographs.

One interesting feature to explore is the use of narratives, that is a kind of guided tour that gives a user an overview of the collection of photographs by means of a story, taking (in other words) the user by the hand in navigating the gane space.

For further reading I suggest, apart from the manuals and learning materials that come with the Source SDK, books on game development such as  [Luna (2003)],  [Gee (2003)] and  [Klabbers (2006)].

the artwork

  1. digital beauties -- taken from  [Wiedermann (2002)].
  2. Masereel, social realist works
  3. Roy Lichtenstein, 1962
  4. Masereel, social realist works
  5. images from Samurai Romanesque, see section 1.3
  6. HalfLife 2 shader programming
  7. VU-Life 2 -- opening screen
  8. VU-Life 2 -- screenshots
  9. VU-Life 2 -- screenshots
  10. VU-Life 2 -- screenshots
  11. VU-Life 2 -- tools
  12. VU-Life 2 -- tools
  13. VU-Life 2 -- masterclass
  14. diagram AMICO core
  15. diagram AMICO applications
  16. Roy Lichtenstein, 1962, Stillives
  17. Monet, Nympheas
  18. Monet, Nympheas
  19. Monet, Nympheas
  20. Web 3Di -- diagram for Webvolution
  21. signs -- abstract,  [ van Rooijen (2003)], p. 146, 147.
The visual theme of this chapter is realism, on the one hand expressed by a choice from the work of the belgium artist Masereel, as well as in the screenshots of VU Life, which present a more or less realistic, that is recognizable rendering of our faculty. In the mean time, though, the restaurant has been rebuilt, making our virtual restaurant outdated, within a year after creating it. Also the cartooneske style of Roy Lichtenstein may considered to be strongly realistic, although in a slightly different sense. Finally, the nympheas of Monet represent a realistic epos of his famous garden, and in some sense an almost tragic attempt to express this in an artwork, which only adds to the realism of art, that is its vital role in our lives.

print / present / tag(s)

12

towards an aesthetics for interaction

experience is determined by meaning

learning objectives

After reading this chapter you should have an understanding of the model underlying game playing, and the role of narratives in interaction. Furthermore, you might have an idea of how to define aesthetic meaning in a cultural context, and apply your understanding to the creative development of meaningful interactive systems.

As in music, the meaning of interactive applications is determined, not only by its sensory appearance, but to a high extent by the structure and functionality of the application. This observation may, also, explain, why narratives become more and more important in current video games, namely in providing a meaningful context for possible user actions.

In this chapter, we take an interactive game-model extended with narrative functionality as a starting point to explore the aesthetics of interactive applications. In section 12.1, we will introduce a model for interactive video games, and in section 12.2 we will present a variety of rules for the construction of narratives in a game context. Finally, in section 12.3, we will characterize the notion of meaning from a traditional semiotics perspective, which we will then apply in the context of games and interactive multimedia applications.

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13

questions

12. towards an aesthetics for interaction

concepts


technology


projects & further reading

As a project, explore the ways narratives may be constructed from a collection of images. Deploy the various editing facilities for providing flashbacks, flashforwards, and other (temporal) relations within storytelling.

You may implement this using flash, VRML, or even try to embed such a narration facility in a game level developed with the Delta3D or the Source SDK.

For further reading I suggest you to take a look at more theoretical material from media theory, such as  [Bolter and Grusin (2000)]. Also there is a large collection of books from MIT Media Press that is of relevance for our new visual culture.

the artwork

  1. einzelganger -- walking man of Alberto Giacommeti, taken from an aanouncement of the Ives Ensemble, Amsterdam.
  2. game component framework, from  [Björk & Holopainen (2005)].
  3. diagram MIME
  4. diagram experience as meaning
  5. Roy Lichtenstein, 1962, (a) Kiss II, (b) Masterpiece, (c) Forget it, forget me.
  6. edgecodes -- showing George Lucas and his editoroid.
  7. El Lissitzky, suprematist works
  8. El Lissitzky, suprematist works
  9. Roy Lichtenstein, 1999, Still lifes with brushstrokes
  10. Les Demoisselles dAvignon, Picasso, 1908, regarded as the start of Cubism, and Le Goutier, Jean Metzinger, 1911, often referred to as the Mona Lisa of Cubism.
  11. poster for exhibition of dutch china work.
  12. signs -- abstract,  [ van Rooijen (2003)], p. 228, 229.
The walking man is one of my favorate sculptures, for over a long time. It is also associated to the motto of part iv: a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step . As an autobiographical note, the walking man, with einzelganger superposed (in translation loner), reflects the writing of topical media. In particular, the image put in sequence, reminds me of the repetitive complaints of my (former) superior at the faculty, who over and over again told me that I was always alone in my room, isolated, on an island. I must admit there is a truth in this, as I felt that the disciplines of software engineering and multimedia are widely divergent, and in that sense I was on my own. This book has undergone many rewritings, due partly to a clash between the expectations of others and my own vision on multimedia. And with a superior who emphasizes that he is "the boss", but has no intellectual authority nor any inspirational leadership whatsoever, at least not in the area of multimedia and gane development, there is really no other way than to go your own way. So I did it my way, indeed, quoting Paul Anka's song, made 'unforgettable' by Frank Sinatra.

In other words, after this brief autobiographical digression, the visual theme of this chapter on the aesthetics of interactive systems is on individual judgement, as exemplified among others by the suprematist works of El Lissitzky, the amplification of cartoons as art by Roy Lichtenstein, and the pioneers of Cubism. After all, individual judgement is what you need, when you wish to be involved in multimedia and/or game development.

[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

(C) Æliens 18/6/2009

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