Happy (Belated) New Year

Is there such thing as a belated welcoming into the new year? Anyhoo, since this is the first post for the year, “happy new year!”

Although my course work for which this blog was initially set up for has completed (late last year) I have been very lazy and stopped updating it. However, this shall all change hopefully, with this blog being turned into a place for me to rant ideas and what not.

Being a person who can’t really seem to stay focused on one thing (unless I really have to… which can be bad thing for self gratification) there’s sooo many things I wanna try and do – especially in the realms of AI and games.

As such, my first project, where ideas were actually initially formed mid last year, is a Warcraft 3 custom map. The core theme is a tower defence. “but there’s billions of them out there” i hear people cry. “how are you going to make yours different??“. Well, it’ll simply be one which is extremely difficult to complete (but possible). “that’s not fair, I don’t want to play your game then. it’ll be too frustrating~” – But what if I made it seem winnable at every stage but just when you think you’re on a winning streak, you somehow got caught up in the moment and slowly, lives were stolen, leading to your demise? “evil…” yes, so evil that you’ll soon see the beauty of nature and evolution…

For those that don’t know, a tower defence is a type of game where the player builds various towers to defend their base against a horde of enemies (creeps) which come in groups (waves). The game typically ends when the player fails to kill a certain amount of enemies (leaks) or when some life resource is depleted.

Idea: Creeps follow the rules of ‘Natural Selection’. That is, if a creep is killed, this evolution step is a failure and as such must be changed in order to survive (just a bit longer). If it survives, then it is a good evolution and shouldn’t change.

Concept: A weighted statistical model might suffice for this. We count how many times a particular creep was killed (and by what type of tower*). Doing this for EACH CREEP, we then generate a creep which has the highest chance of survival against the statistics (slightly weighted towards the most recent tower type which it was killed by). Thus, we have creeps which should eventually always be able to overrun the player as they’ll be constantly changing – always seems winnable but, for a long enough duration, not XD (for those confused, think genetic algorithms!)

Implementation: I’ve got most of it patted down ready to go for an alpha testing (just gotta do a bit more tweaking to make it actually winnable… lol). Shouldn’t be too long into the future (before the end of the month definitely!)

Name: ‘EvolutionTD‘… nice and simple isnt it? look forward to it ^_^

Note: I’m not a pro at using the world editor so its all gonna be GUI’ed. But it’s the proof in concept we’re testing right? =P (map-makers would know what i’m talking bout)

*In warcraft, units have different attack and defence types, each with their own strength and weaknesses. For example, Magic attacks are good against Heavy armour.

Design Idea Wk8: A social game

“Design a social game that makes interesting use of the facebook friendship network. Base it on one of the game-theoretic games we discussed in class.“

The game I will present is similar to a japanese game called ‘shiritori‘. It can be played by one person or many but it will definately involve many people.

• The game begins by some game moderator (or game system) presenting the player with a word and a person’s (generally from a list of friends) name.
• The player then has to either, find person in their friends list (or in the list of other players in the game), who’s name starts with the last letter of the given word or given name. If no person could be found, the given name is used.
• The player then has to do some action to that person related to the word presented.
• Some proof of action is required at this stage such as a foto or video
• Once successful in the endeavour, the next word is presented (either by the player or moderator) which starts with the last letter of given word. The player also presents a name (either from a list or at random)

Example:

• Moderator gives: Chicken Paul
• Player choose ‘Nick’ (as it matches the last letter of chicken)
• Player whacks Nick with a chicken
• Photo taken to commemorate the event
• Player presents ‘Nasty Clare’
• etc… we’ll leave the remainder of game play to your imagination =P

As we can see, the game is really only limited to the player’s imagination (and willingness to encounter other people to achieve the goal). It can also be used as a way to get people to interact and meet new people under some common goal – two people could be playing different instances of the game but happen to require the other person due to their name.

Unlike the Japanese version, this game would have no technical end, as every word in English can be made from a letter. If we keep with the ‘no repeat words’ rule, then i guess it would end on some letters like X, Y or Z where there are much less common words (using scientific words would be stupid imo).

Anyway, that’s my idea. It seemed fun when I thought of the idea =P

Journal Wk8: Mafia

Mafia works by people interacting and spreading ‘words of wisdom’ (truth or lies). There is an element of secrecy and the players can only make their judgement on what has happened between turns, and the information presented to them by others. It is up to them to decide whether they want to collaborate with their friends or go solo.

It is interesting to note that playing mafia can bring about different personalities within people depending on which role they take (which can also be a huge give-a-way). For example, a person may be quiet in the discussions whilst a civillian (not caring) but quite active as a mafia in order to defend/protect their status. Picking out these people is one strategy for players to watch out for (and not do). Of course, good players can fool others by doing the reverse or switching between them. Balance is the key.

As an online game.. Hmm.. I think much of the core aspects of mafia comes from the interpersonal cues given off by people such as eye contact, tone of voice, expression in their opinions etc… As such, online, particularly in a chat/text-based world, does not lend it ways very easily. Players can take their time in thinking of the ‘perfect’ argument/response, you can’t tell if a person is being ’shifty’ as you cannot look at them etc…

Hook up a webcam and microphone and you could possibly achieve a similar effect to the real game (obviously some tweaks are required so no-one can cheat). For example, in the game, every player can see everyone else and talk to each other as if they were face to face. They do their discussing etc.. Then the game ‘blocks’ all means of communication between players (except the mafia). The mafia then make their decisions and the players whom are killed as notified (big black screen with red letters ‘you have died’… lol). The game ‘unblocks’ the communication channels and now the killed players are ‘observers’ in the game unable to communicate with the rest of the players. And the game repeats. The end result would be something very simialr to the real world….

That said, it doesn’t really take advantage of the online aspect of things. How about placing it into a RPG world where players have characters which have faces and such and can perform different types of expressions.. (still sounds lame to me though)…

Finding Paths

Most modern games which involve an intelligent AI which needs to interact (i.e. navigate) with its environment, require some sort of path finding strategy. I encountered such a problem today with my own AI wandering around a 2d-tile map. The search strategy was simple enough – BFS was implemented, but when it comes to resolving squares which are shared by multiple units, the real problem began.

Problem:

• All units had their movement paths generated prior to commencement of movement.
• Then all units executed their generated paths
• Upon resolution, some units ended up moving into the same square or should be deadlocked.

My initial solution was to regenerate the path when the units would collide, but even this could backfire with two units falling into the ‘(i think) he’s moving right so i’ll move right. *walks for a bit* crap, why did he walk left?? we’re still stuck… ok, ill move left then, and he’ll keep moving left, etc…’ cycle which many people themselves fall into when walking into someone else (aside – walk left as a general rule of thumb, at least in aust. the left side is used for general flow of traffic).

So I was stuck =( And started to look around for resources to help solve my problem (though i think the solutions would be far beyond what we actually need=P)

http://www.ai-blog.net/archives/000152.html contained some useful information on how to NOT use waypoints and instead use a navigation mesh (for 3D games). This is good and all, but for a 2D game, i think it might be overkill…  And from what i can see atm, impractical. I do have to agree with his reasoning however =P

http://www.cokeandcode.com/collisiontilemaps and http://www.cokeandcode.com/pathfinding provided some interesting insight for other game but may be a useful resource.

http://www.metanetsoftware.com/technique/tutorialB.html is similar to the previous one but explains it much better (diagrams are easier to understand). Given that, i think this could be the solution to my problem. As well as allowing me to eliminate the ’tiled’ movement behaviour which is currently happening, which could result in smoother unit movements. ^^

http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/GameProgramming/MovingObstacles.html is exactly what i’ve been looking for. Splicing of paths. A suboptimal path is generated to the destination, with the next few steps recalculated at some interval. This interval could be a trigger/event, every 5 ’steps’ or some timed evernt, etc…

Also stumbled across http://stackoverflow.com/questions/874875/basic-pathfinding-with-obstacle-avoidance-in-a-continuous-2d-space which lead to http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-antigrav/ The ‘anti-gravity’ technique seems very useful in a continuous world and objects would seemingly ‘mould around’ the obstacles (towards its destination) with no real path-planning. The only issue with this is that the resultant path isn’t optimal and sometimes stupid, not to mention that with our game, units are able to destroy their obstacles.

Actually.. this anti-gravity solution might just work nicely. Cos the unit is draw to its destination, its obstacle repels it which leads to a ‘bouncing’ effect around the obstacle. This ‘bounce’ could be an ‘attack’ *hmm…..*

For those struggling with word

Although a slightly old article (‘06) this was indeed quite an interesting find (though I’m sure many have found similar articles before). Anyway, the most useful point of interest was the automatic numbering and cross-referencing of figures, and tables which I knew it had, but had no idea how to use. For those using word (and can’t be bothered with LaTeX) this is definitely one way to improve your productivity time.

http://generaldisarray.wordpress.com/2006/04/14/ten-things-every-microsoft-word-user-should-know/

Design Idea wk5: Mechanic driven

A game based on fluid dynamics aye? How bout the player is the ‘water god’ and their mission is to help a ship get from A to B through the manipulation of the waves. Given the new generation of gaming devices have some sort of touch input mechanism this adds to our design.

A range of things the player should be able to do is create whirlpools (by drawing circles around a location). These whirlpools have the intuitive effect where nearby objects begin to circle and move towards the centre.

Another thing might be the creation of waves or rifts to make an object move in a particular direction (though this doesn’t sound so interesting now that i look at it).

Finally, rain – to cancel or reduce the creation of the former two. This could be made by tapping on an area lightly (cos we don’t want to break our devices). Rain could also slow a ship down.

The goal i guess would be to make the ship go from somewhere in the ocean back to shore through these gestures. The challenge would be in obstacles placed around the ocean such as giant killer squids (moving tentacles), pirate ships (moves around and shoots), dangerous rocks (stationary and destroys the ship on impact), islands (just an obstacle) etc… Perhaps other things such as making the ‘happiness level’ of the crew on the ship important, so, for example, too many whirlpools might cause seasickness reducing happiness. Rain causes panic and confusion amongst the crew especially if too frequent.

A challenge aspect could be to make the player do ALL the actions BEFORE hand. But i think that’ll kill the game more than making it fun to play…

Below is a crappy concept design.. Whirls are whirlpools used to get the ship to turn. Streaks of lines are to make the ship move in that direction. Spiky looking things are the rocks which are impassable etc… The goal is to reach the port.

Concept Design

Fun aspect? *shrugs* it was the first idea which came to mind. I guess trying to move the ship around obstacles. It’ll probably be a game to kill time more than anything… Maybe the quirky graphics like my ‘giant killer squid’ could add to the fun =P

Creativity and Play

Why are people creative? How come children are able to explore a seemingly infinite number of avenues but adults can only see a few? Tim talks about the effects of ‘editing’ and how various ’social factors’ affect our creativity. Quite an interesting watch and completely relevant to this course.

http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play.html

Assignment 1 – Game analysis

What genre of game is it? What are the characteristics of this genre? How does this game relate to others in the genre?

• Family Board Game
• Physical pieces – board, houses, cards, money
• Multiple players
• Lots of interaction between people AND pieces
• Potentially endless (if players are very even and have long endurance)
• Similar to ‘Game Of Life’ – players move around the board based on some randomness.

Who is the target audience for this game? How does it try to appeal to that particular audience?

• Family, friends, casual gamers, people who need something to kill time at home
• Creates interactions to ‘get to know other people’
• Rules are simple and straightforward (no exceptions)
• Average to long game length

What are the gameplay modes? How does play transition between them?

• Buying property
• Collecting single groups of property
• Building houses
• Building hotels
• Transition is seamless and often determined by the overall pace of the game and how the players are in relation to each other

What are the challenges in the game? Is there a hierarchy of challenges? Are they sequential or simultaneous? What are the atomic challenges?

• To send opposing players bankrupt (i.e stop them from playing the game)
• Hierarchy of challenges (collect good property, collect whole groups, build houses, build hotels)
• Technically simultaneous but generally sequential as the game moves from one challenge to the next as players circle round the board.
• Atomic challenges were explained in the hierarchy but also include collecting money (from GO and other players)

What are the actions provided to the player? How is feedback provided on player actions?

• Roll the dice (feedback – movement around the board)
• Buy property or pay rent (feedback – gain of property and/or loss of money)
• Pick up a (chance or community chest) card (feedback – reward or penalty)
• Trade (feedback – interaction and exchange of property)
• Buy houses or hotels (feedback – green houses or red hotels => giving more dominance and perhaps inducing a threat to opponents)

What choices do they provide? Are those choices consequential, balanced, informed and dramatic?

• Management of resources (money)
• Consequential choices as not purchasing a property gives another player the option to do so and increase their control of the board. However, purchasing requires money so one cannot over purchase too early otherwise one would not be able to to purchase the more valuable properties.

What is the player structure? Is it single-player or multiplayer? (If there is an AI acting as an opponent in a similar role to the player, you may want to count this as multiplayer. Use your judgement.) Are the players cooperating, competing or in direct conflict? Are the players roles symmetric or asymmetric?

• Multiplayer
• Competing and sometimes cooperating depending on game modes or fellowship created amongst players
• Symmetric roles

What are the resources in the game? What makes them valuable? How does the economy of resources function? What keeps resources scarce?

• Money – Given at certain points in the game
• Property – Only obtained through trade or purchase
• Houses and Hotels – Only obtained through purchase and only if an entire property group is owned.

What role does information play in the game? Is there any information hidden from the player? How can it be discovered? Is there information known only to the player and not to others? How is it useful?

• Player states are completely open.
• Board state is 90% open (chance and community chest cards are closed)
• Knowing location of player (and probable future location) leads to strategy where one can make a probabilistically informed decision about whether to purchase houses/hotels or not.

What is the role of randomness in the game? How much does it affect the outcome of the game? What is the relationship between skilful play and random events?

• Added drama – Saves players when they need it. Kills players when they can’t afford the rent
• Randomness is the core of the game
• One can be very skilful in determining probabilistically the location of where pieces will move to and thus build houses accordingly.
• Game can be indefinitely prolonged due to ‘good’ dice rolls

What are the rewards and punishments provided by the game? When do they occur?

• Gaining $200 every complete circuit
• Occasionally gaining money from chance and community chest cards
• Occasionally losing money from chance and community chest cards
• High gains from buying houses and hotels when opponents land on them.
• Contrasted by high ‘tax’ for owning too many (via chance or community chest cards)
• Moving too quickly (triple double rolls) moves the player to jail (for ’speeding’)

What is the pacing of the game? How is it controlled?

• Random. Generally, slow to average (games last ~1-2hrs).
• Controlled by chance and community chest cards to ‘teleport’ players around the board

How is the difficulty of the game modulated? Does it get easier or harder?

• Game gets harder and reaches equilibrium faster in proportion to the number of players. (see below)
• Harder for a losing player to win. Harder for a winning player to lose

Is the game balanced or unbalanced?

• Balanced in most cases.
• But some areas are better than others (so mathematicians have discovered)
• Attempts to make the game balanced exist by making low probability areas have higher rewards and vice versa.
• Cheap properties in early game often result in cheap gains late game

Is the game unfair on the players in any way?

• Some areas are better than others (so mathematicians have discovered)
• First player has ‘first pick’ of properties
• Players with money AND property always have the advantage
• Players which continually ‘teleport’ around the board get more money and in late games, this is advantageous.

Does the game contain any positive or negative feedback mechanisms?

• Once there exists a strong player, all other players start suffering and continue to suffer making it harder and harder for weak players to win. Losing players are generally ’stuck’ in this ‘losing state’ for several turns until the game ends (or they concede).
• Similarly for the winner, they just keep winning cos no-one else can stop them

Learn to Multitask =P

For all those guys out there, this is the perfect way to train yourselves to show those girls that you CAN multi-task. I only played it once, but I found it to be quite intriguing;A game which is a combination of simple games played simultaneously. It started off simple with a balancing game, but as the game progressed, more and more games get added, adding to the complexity. So, not only do you have to control things, you also have to keep shift your eye’s focus in order to maintain the goals. Anyway, the link is below

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/506546

Design idea wk 4 – Games for Mum

My mum is a casual gamer (and more of an outdoors social-type of person) so something which could be used to kill some time and take her mind off work would be a definate winner.

That said, I decided to look at the types of games she plays and the types of activities she participates in to get a better idea of something to suit her;

Games – Bejewelled, Wii Sports, Mahjong, Board Games, Tennis

Activities – Movies, Reading, Eating, Cooking, Sitting and drinking coffee with friends.

Hmm… they seem very broad and not really related to each other…  One common thing with all the games is that they are simple and have intuitive rules and interactions. Perhaps a game using the wii-mote which allows the user to ‘paint pictures’, save them and print them off afterwards. The wii-mote becomes a paint brush, the screen (or wall) the canvas and the nunchuck the palette. This would allow her to create her own works of art and print them off to show to her friends (or hang on the walls to decorate the house). With an intuitive control system and something to kill time (painting a picture can also be a form of stress release), I think she’ll have no troubles picking it up once in a while.

Incidentally, I found this WiiSpray though I’m not sure she’ll like the idea of spray painting *shrugs*