Transcript turn-based game

Clima Futura @ VU
-communicating (unconvenient) science
Author: Anton Eliёns, Marek van de
Watering, etc.
Presented by Xuan Liu
Chi Zhang
Just think about it.
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Please name some environmental
problems and crisises we face today.
Actions
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Government
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Organization
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mission or accusation?
passion or implementation?
Individual
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fashion or contemplation?
Cause and Effect
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Karma: What you do is what you get
returned
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Will the Mother Nature forgive what
we’ve done?
 Borrow
the earth from our children
The Reasons
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General audience gets
confused and lose interest
on the climate issues due to
the either advocated or
criticized campaigns from
public governmental
authorities.
Take an active interest
in bringing the climate issue
to the attention of the youth
using scientific background
Focused on bringing
the logos of climate change
into the foreground.
Focus on Climate
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Paper is about designing a game on
Climate Change
 Seems
boring, isn’t it? Indeed it is an
educational game!
 Advocates active learning, even encourages
critical learning.
 Similar games focus on logos(prediction
models) and ethos(climate-correct), but this
game also involves pathos(emotional)
Game elements
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Three building blocks:
Actors constitute systems of interactions. They draw upon
Rules and Resources For Example a Soccer Game
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Involvement and more in particular emotional involvement due
to the inborn playfulness of humans
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Actors:
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Rules:
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Players(Presidents, Mayors, citizens), media,
military, scientists, students, etc…
different triggered events, the level of power
Resources:
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capital, knowledge, political power
video events, minigame, scenes, scenarios, etc…
Clima Futura Ideas
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Focus on
Climate prediction models (logos)
Challenge the player how to become climatecorrect (ethos)
Promote an understanding of the pathos surrounding
climate change
Include interactive video as an essential element in
game playing
Combine a turn-based game-play loop with a
simulation-loop based on one or more climate
reference models
Turn-based Game
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A turn-based game is a game where the game
flow is partitioned into well-defined and visible parts,
called turns or rounds.
A player of a turn-based game is allowed a period(in
this game 100 years 20 rounds, 5 years per round)
of analysis before committing to a game action,
ensuring a separation between the game flow and
the thinking process, which in turn presumably leads
to more optimal choices.
The opposite of turn-based is called real-time.
Similar to Simcity
Heroes of Might and Magic
Sangokushi
Challenges
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Conceptual design
Understanding and Communicating Form
Technical design
Game Mechanics
Platform and OS
External Code
Code Objects
Control Loop
Game Object Data … etc
The Climate Star(the conceptual toolkit)
16 points in the game
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climate strategies
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climate systems
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(9) campaign for awareness, (10) securing food and water
adaptation measures
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(6) investment in efficiency, (7) investment in green technology, (8) government rules
regional development
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(3) feedback monitoring, (4)investment in research, (5) climate response
energy and CO2
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(1) emission reduction, (2)adaptation
(11) public space, (12) water management, (13) use of natural resources
international relations
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(14) CO2 emission trade, (15) European negotiations, (16) international covenants
Climate Sensitivity
Key Parameter
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Mitigate VS Adapt
Positive VS Passive
Example: Factory Chimneys
Result Parameters
The result parameters of the climate simulation
model are for the player visible in the values for
People, Profit and Planet, which may be characterized
as:
• People – How is the policy judged by the people?
• Profit – What is the influence on the (national)
economy?
• Planet – What are the effects for the environment?
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Cause and Effect
of the game
the player starts in 2007
 the player chooses to undertake action
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For example, when the player decides to enforce
restrictions on CO2 emissions, s/he may choose option (1)
in the climate star, which can be reached through climate
strategies.
The result will then be visible, after
some period of (game) time, in either
one of the result parameters, People,
Profit, and Planet
A modular architecture
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Envisioned realization of Clima Futura
First-person perspective role-playing game
In a 3D immersive environment supported by
the Half Life 2 SDK
Problem: require far too much
Substituted Plan
Flash Video
Flax 2 SDK
Benefit: play games online, in a web
browser, moderate development effort
Flash offers a rich internet application
toolkit(RIA)
Metal Gear Solid
The Master Plan
1. climate model(s) - action script module(s)
2. game play interaction - event-handler per game event
3. video content module - video fragment(s) and interaction overlays
4. minigame(s) - flash module(s) with actionscript interface
5. Clima Futura - integration of modules 1-4, plus server-side ranking
6. adapted versions – educational, commercial
7. multi-user version –with server-side support
The Model (most important
part)
Alternative:
MERGE
Video content module
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The Vox Populi System
Can be searched by VIEW
Topic centered
Viewer centered
Speaker centered
logos
pathos
ethos
provides flexible access to the collection of video(s),
and is media driven to the extent that video-material
can be added later, with proper annotation.
Annotation facilities provided to the user.
Trailer(The Intro)
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http://www.climafutura.nl/trailer/index
2.html
Events
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(game event description format)
name of event – give a meaningful name
event-id – for administrators only
type – (generic/specific) game/model/video
cause – game play/simulation/exploration
feedback/information – give a logical description
player actions – indicate all (logical) player options
description of visuals – for feedback, information and player options
additional information – give a url with references to additional information and
visuals
relates to event(s) – give id’s or descriptions of related events
The Clima Futura Design Bible
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Simply a collection of events in the
format of G.E.D.F..
Prize
Using bonus credits for successfully
playing a mini-game
 Visual, a gallery or a movie theatre
 Probably hidden events
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Minigame description form
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Containing a field to indicate the event
that gave rise to the minigame
online hyperlinked design
document
Game event
 Minigame description format
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Storyboards
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It is the scenario
• context – general setting, situation
• problem – event(s) to occur, problem
to solve
• S-R situation(s) – stimulus/response
(one or more)
• climax – action must be taken
• resolution – find solution or result
the Clima Futura game
a turn-based game loop
 a climate-model driven simulation
 exploratory video
 and mini-games
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AIM:
to gain experience with the parameters affecting
climate change
and
to give access to climate change related research in a
playful manner
Additional Parts
a facility that allows players not only
submit their own video material, but
also to build or modify their own
minigames.
 Game Physics, relation browser, earth
component, YouTube web service
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 Probably
some interfaces, or a whole new
language like SL?
Critique
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The structure of the turn-based games is to some
extent more rigid than real time.
The game should focus more on strategy rather than
on the story.
Flash games are considered as small games. It is not
easy to do further development. Although Flash is
capable of operating vectorgraph efficiently, if we
intend to employ large amounts of bitmaps or
videos, the efficiency of remains a question for the
developers.