Introduction to Games with a Purpose design and Playtesting

AN INTRODUCTION TO

GAME DESIGN,PLAYTESTING AND

GAMES WITH A PURPOSE

LUCA GALLI POLITECNICO DI MILANO

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ABOUT MYSELF

LUCA GALLIPh.D. Student - Politecnico di Milano

http://www.lucagalli.me

[email protected]

• RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND INTERESTS• Robotics & AI• Game Design• Crowdsourcing and Human Computation

6th Qualinet General Meeting

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AGENDA


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AGENDA• Play vs Games• Pointers to Game Design• Introduction to Games with a

Purpose • Gameplay validation through

playtesting• A Classic Example: Big Rigs



Something really bad is going to happen…


Or not?

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WHAT IS PLAY?


Autonomy: play is a voluntary activity.

Safety: during play there are radically reduced serious consequences in what we do

Exploration: the possibility to experiment and try out new things

Mastery: the will to improve one’s own skills

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GAMES VS PLAY


Games are distinguished from play– Play is free-form

– Games are rule-basedA game is a closed, formal system that· Engages players in structured conflict and· Resolves its uncertainty in an unequal outcome.

Fullerton, T.; Swain, C. & Hoffman, S.Game Design Workshop: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, 2008


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FLASH INTRODUCTION TO GAME DESIGN



Mancala, 7th century AD

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Unreal Tournament 3, Epic Games, 2007



Turn based boardgame vs Real time action shooter

Handmade physical board vs Personal Computer

Public domain rules vs Copyrighted

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1 - PLAYERS


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2 - OBJECTIVES


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OBJECTIVES: EXAMPLES


Solution: solve a problem or puzzle before (or more accurately) than the competition or following certain constraints

Connect Four, Milton Bradley, 1974

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Level-5, 2011

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3 - PROCEDURES


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3 – PROCEDURES: EXAMPLE


Starting action: Choose a player to go first. Each player chooses a color: red or yellow.

Progression of action: On each turn, a player drops one colored checker down any of the slots in the top of the grid.

Resolving actions: The play alternates until one of the players gets four checkers of one color in a row. The row can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.

Connect Four

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4 - RULES• Define Objects• Restrict Actions• Determine Effects (ECA rules)

Chess: A player cannot move her king into check.

Poker: A straight is five consecutively rankedcards; a straight flush is five consecutively ranked cards of the same suit.

WarCraft II: To create knight units, a player must have upgraded to a keep and built a stable.


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5 – RESOURCES: EXAMPLE

Card Hunter, Blue Manchu Pty Ltd, TBR

Time

Points

Actions


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6 - OUTCOME


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GAMES WITH A PURPOSE


Games with a Purpose (GWAPs) are digital games that generate useful data as a by-product of play. [vA06,LvA09]

The design of a GWAP requires to create a game so that its structure encourages computation, correctness of the output and players retention.

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EXAMPLE:INGRESS


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EXAMPLE: INGRESS


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EXAMPLE: AUSTRALIA COVERED


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CASE STUDY: FASHION TREND MINING


Problem statement: segment fashion images for mining trends based on visual features of garments (e.g. color and texture)

Use case: identifying trends in collections of images of people and garmentsApplications: retrieving similar garments, inspect clothing trends in image collections, analyzing trends change in the years

Color descriptors

Texture descriptors

coarse(sub-)image similarity

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THE FASHION TREND MINING PIPELINE


Male, 24 Female, 22Female?, ??

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REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION


Task Description: Recognize if a particular garment is present within a picture or define a new one and outline its contours.

Input Objects: A fashion image, an optional tag defining the garment to identify.

Aggregation Strategy: assign a value of 0 to each pixel outside the contour and 1 to each pixel contained within the contour, sum all the contribution and apply a threshold based on the number of players.

Output Data: For each submitted task the game has to provide the contour of the garment within the image (Polyline) and a tag defining the garment that has been segmented

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Solution Mechanics: Pattern Recognition

Established genre: Draw and Guess

Inversion Problem Mechanic

PLAYERS:Number >=2Multilateral CompetitionTwo different roles:Sketcher: has to draw the contours of the stated garmentGuesser: has to guess the garment drawn by the sketcher

SKETCHNESS


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PLAYER ROLE: SKETCHER● The only player to see the

low confidence image● “May” be asked to provide a

tag for the image● Is asked to draw the contour

of the object for which the tag is provided within theallotted time

● Goal of the Sketcher is to let the other players guessthe tag within a time slotwithout providingany other hints than thecontour

Low Confidence

Image

Tag of the target object

Contour provided

by the user


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PLAYER ROLE: GUESSER

● Any other player in the game● His/Her goal is to guess the

object for which the Sketcherhas provided the contour

● Not allowed to draw on the whiteboard, just to typein the chat box the probableanswer as fast as possible

● Scoring: ● Sketcher: 10 pts + 1 for each guesser● Guesser: 10 pts to the first, then

decreasing down to five

Contour of the garment provided by the Sketcher


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RESULTS:


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RESULTS:

Sketchness Aggregator

Kota Yamaguchi, M Hadi Kiapour, Luis E Ortiz, Tamara L Berg, "Parsing Clothing in

Fashion Photographs", CVPR 2012


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TASK TO GAME MECHANICS MATCHING

Does a game with game mechanics similar to the task exist?

If so, integrate the task within the existing game

If not, a custom game with custom game mechanics has to be implemented...


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HOW TO EVALUATE A GAME?


The Goal is a fun game…… but also to solve a task!Game designs are hypothesesPlaytests are experimentsEvaluate designs off playtest resultsRepeat

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REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION

uTaskTask Description

Input Objects

Output Objects

Execution Interface

Operations Output Validation


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HOW TO IMPROVE GAME DESIGN


We want to make informed decisions:• Get data early, get data often• Iterate constantly• We don’t know what’s best (players do)• Create a feedback loop between design and playtest


TRADITIONAL METHODSDIRECT OBSERVATION


TRADITIONAL METHODSVERBAL REPORTS

I don’t know what I am

supposed to do...

I am bad at drawing...


TRADITIONAL METHODSQ&A/SURVEYS


TRADITIONAL METHODSISSUES

Artificial gameplay sessions– Many potential biases– Distorted data (interpreted behavior)– Lack of empiricism– Missing elements of objectivity– Sometimes difficult to establish emotions,baselines, and independence


TECHNICAL APPROACHESSTAT COLLECTION


TECHNICAL APPROACHESSTAT COLLECTION


TECHNICAL APPROACHESPHYSIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENTS

Heartrate

Skin Conductance Level

Eye Tracking

Face Recording

EEG


A CLASSIC EXAMPLE: Just how bad is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing? It's as bad as yourmind will allow you to comprehend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f3HDsgLV68




CONCLUSIONS•Play is a universal need•Games and videogames are entertaining and controlled means to satisfy it•We can exploit players to accomplish astonishing results...•...if we design a good and tailored gaming experience•Technological improvements cannot fix a gameplay mined by bad design choices

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THE CUBRIK PROJECT

● CUbRIK is a research project financed by the European Union

● Goals:● Advance the architecture

of multimedia search● Exploit the human

contribution in multimedia search

● Use open-source components provided by the community

● Start up a search business ecosystem

● http://www.cubrikproject.eu/6th Qualinet General Meeting

Education

Introduction to Games with a Purpose design and Playtesting