Game Design: Interactivity(4190.420 Computer Game)

Jehee Lee

Seoul National University

Interactivity

• Interactivity is the most important factor of games– “Fun factor” might be equally important, but difficult to

formalize

• Computers gave gaming a big boost– The real power of computers lies in its interactivity

What is interactivity

• The essence of interactivity can be observed in conversation– Listen– Think– Speak back

• A cyclic process in which two active agents alternately (and metaphorically) listen, think, and speak.

How Do We Measure Interactivity ?

• Good experience with conversation requires– Listen well

• A conversation with people who do not listen to what you are saying

– Think well• A conversation with people who listen well, but

cannot understand the context– Speak well

• A conversation with people who listen and think well, but cannot express themselves

Interactivity in Games

• How much of what the player might desire to say/do does the game permit the player to actually say/do ?

• How well does the game think/process about the player’s inputs ?

• How well does the game express its reactions ?

Styles of Conversation

• Rugby style– There is no turns. Everybody speaks simultaneously

• Basketball style– There is a token; One person speaks at a time– The token is passed or intercepted frequently

• Baseball style– There is a token; One person speaks at a time– The token is turning around and rarely intercepted.

Degrees of Interactivity

• Speed– Is fast turnaround better than slow turnaround ?– Eg) Shooting games versus Board games– Eg) VisiCalc versus Mainframe spreadsheet– Eg) BASIC versus compliers

• Depth– The overall quality of an interaction depends on its de

pth as well as its speed– “Deeper” means “Penetrating closer to what makes yo

u human”– Hand-eye coordinate, puzzle-solving, spatial reasonin

g, social reasoning

Degrees of Interactivity

• Choice– Interactivity depends on the choices available to the

user

• The “richness” of choices– Functional significance of each choice

• Some games offer the player the opportunity to wander all over a huge region—but nothing interesting happens in the huge region

– Perceived completeness• The number of choices in relation to the number of

possibilities the user can imagine

Low-Interactivity Games

• Little Computer People– A small family moving around their dollhouse in the co

urse of their daily activities– The player watch them– The sims is similar, but offers more interactivity

• VCR games– Myst, The 7th guest– It is like watching movie occasionally pushing buttons

to make decisions– Good visual and sound, but weak game play

Low-Interactivity Games

• Games for young children are usually less interactive

• Low-interactivity games usually requires less decision-makings and workload than high-interactivity games

• The player’s workload is not proportional to the quantity of decision-making– The workload of learning the rules is substantial– Eg) minimal-interactivity murder mystery game

Creativity

• The industry have reached a peak of creativity in game design during 80s and 90s

• Nowadays, game design is a coldly mechanical process requiring little in the way of creativity

Tightly defined genres

• First-person shooter– The player blast bad guts as he navigates a complex

3D environment– He collects weapons and ammunition, sometimes

solve puzzles

• Platform games– Space Panic in 1981, Apple Panic, Donkey Kong– A series of “Mario” games are still selling and

successful

Tightly defined genres

• Role-playing games– Dungeons & Dragons in the mid-1970’s– Moria, Wizardry, Ultima I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, so on

• Only small changes have been made for the decades

Where Does Creativity Come From?

• How can “ordinary” people be creative ?– We don’t want to talk about a few geniuses

• One idea is just as good as another (?)

• Creativity is serious business– You don’t attain high levels of creativity by random

daydreaming

Association and Analogy

• Our minds are associative– Many concepts in our minds are associated like a web– New ideas are generated by combining old ideas in

novel ways– This combining process is not a simple additive one

• New ideas are often attained by observing analogical patterns in the web of associations

How to “Get Creative”

• Reading– Stuff your head full of concepts and all their associations– More concepts and associations yield better possibilities

• Wondering– An exercise in tightening up the web of associations

Brainstorm

• What is a brainstorm ?– Drive the problem deep into your subconscious– Spend days and nights– The solution will leap out at you

• Great geniuses described their brainstorm experiences– A phase of intense emotional involvement– A quiescent period– The entire solution leaps upon them with suddenness