Mike Treanor

MFA Student

Digital Arts and New Media

University of California, Santa Cruz

micitari@ucsc.edu

 

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Overview:

This project is a game where the player is a being that has the ability to see the perspectives of other entities.  After observing an entity's movements and interests the player’s gameplay goal is to mimic the entity and to exist as it does within the virtual world.  If successful, the player gains abilities they can use to explore other areas of the virtual world where they will encounter different entities.  This often meditative experience is combined with the challenge of the observation puzzles and navigating to new areas to create a feeling of tranquil engagement.

 

 

Gameplay Description:

In most gameplay sessions the player will be exploring the game world in order to find creatures to learn from with a first person perspective.  Once he or she approaches a creature (the player is not visible to the creature) they can inhabit that creature and see what it can see (the player has no control).  The player will mentally note the creature's movement patterns and interests (things it looks at).  Once the player disengages from the creature's perspective he or she will try to mimic the movements and interests of the creature with their own perspective. 

 

If unsuccessful in mimicking the creature, nothing happens and the player will have to revisit the creature, observe more closely and try again.  If player correctly mimics the creature for 'long enough' (length of time yet to be determined) a message appears on the screen indicating that they have learned to understand that creature and have gained an ability (some examples of abilities include wall jump, crawling, glide, etc.).  The player also becomes visible to the creature from that point on and may be scared away from the player if he or she moves in an unfamiliar way.  The abilities gained are used to access new areas of the world that were previously unreachable.  For example, a ledge that was previously too high to jump on will become reachable once the player gains the ability to jump off walls.

 

The number of and degree to which an ability effects the player’s movement is limited by the number to customization points the player has earned.  To gain customization points the player will need to approach other entities (that they have already 'learned' and are now visible to) and mimic them to be part of their herd.  The longer they exist with other entities, the more points they will gain to customize the way they can move.  Abilities are equipped and the extent to which that ability effects the player’s movement is controlled in a menu.

 

 

Environment and Creatures:

The virtual world that the player explores will be an unspectacular and take place in an intentionally low polygon rendering of the world as we know it.  The goal is to make the world appear blocky, simple and reminiscent of early three dimensional video games (c. 1995).  A goal in creating the world in this purposely vague way is to allow the player to 'fill in' or 'color' the world with their own memories and imagination.  This is something that I found myself doing while playing older Nintendo 64 and early Playstation games and it is one of my goals to explore this idea deliberately.  Three environments I would like to include in this game would be a small forested area with a stream, an office building and its parking lot, and the inside of that building.

 

The creatures that inhabit this world will be abstract and thus not simulations of existing creatures.  More specific information on the creatures is yet to be determined.

 

 

Creature Perspectives:

The elements that describe and differentiate creature’s perspectives, and thus the elements that the player will be observing and attempting to mimic, are split into two categories: movement and interests.  Movement describes the way that the creature navigates through the environment and interests describe what the creature is thinking about or goals that it is pursuing.  The creature’s perspective of the creature will be comprised of one or more patterns of variation in the elements of the following list:

 

MOVEMENT:

 

INTERESTS:

 

 

Example Creature:

While the game world’s creatures will be primarily abstract entities, I am using an example of a turtle’s perspective to illustrate what a creature’s perspective might look like.

 

MOVEMENT:

 

INTERESTS:

 

A video illustration can be seen here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=m8R-MCEYALM.  The video begins showing the player approach the turtle, and then cross fades to the turtle's perspective.  This video is only to give the gist of what the perspective described above might look like and is prerendered.

 

 

Observation Puzzle Prototype:

As a rapid prototype, I created a program to test user’s reactions to observing the movement patterns of a circle in a simple 2d world and then trying to mimic it.  In doing this, I was also experimenting with authoring a gameplay experience in order to create a mood or setting.  The prototype can here found here: http://danm.ucsc.edu/~micitari/prototype/.

 

The results were satisfying in that most people would figure out the simple movement pattern even when it was obscuring by factors like acceleration and varying degree in translation.  This is important because as the patterns move into three dimensions there will be many more obscuring factors and it will be important that players will be able to determine the patterns that they must mimic.

 

 

Scope:

Because of time and resource restrictions, I will not be able to create a complete game full of creatures and large environments.  Instead, I will be focusing on creating a short experience that encapsulates all elements described in the gameplay description using 2-5 creatures and 2-3 different areas.  I do see this game as being a complete concept and has the potential to have over a hundred creatures and a vast world of different areas and environments, but without substantial aid in creating this content, the game will not be fully realized.

 

 

Genre:

This game is primarily a 3d platformer in that much of the game will be spent jumping and navigating through challenging environments to get to new areas of the world.  However, it also contains many aspects of puzzle genre games in that the player will be spending much time attempting pattern recognition in the movements of the creature's perspectives.  The customization of the player's abilities will also serve as a puzzle in that there will often be limited configurations of abilities that allow the player to get to new areas of the world.

 

This game also falls into the emerging genre of art games in that the experience of the player is intended to communicate a broader artistic message rather than merely provide entertainment.

 

 

Intended Audience:

This game will most likely appeal to the academic art game community.  More specifically, this game is will appeal to those that are interested in innovations in game design and value a meaningful experience from a game more than entertainment (similar to how art house movies can be less entertaining but in the end more fulfilling that other movies).  I am hoping, however, that this game will be entertaining and fun in the ways that most games are while providing a meaningful experience and thus has the potential to reach a more broad audience of players who enjoy platformers.

 

 

Related Work:

There are other games that focus on the exploration of environments and even inhabiting other creatures.  However, these games (such as Myst and the recent Final Fantasies) do not engage the player in the practice of appreciating or understanding the environment.  The focus of the player is either on completing a puzzle or getting through the environment as fast as they can.  Space Station Silicon Valley is a game where the player inhabits different bodies and experiences the world with their movement but the third person perspective always remains constant.  The game that I propose attempts to take the concept of embodiment and virtual exploration beyond merely a device for entertainment and to a more introspective level.

 

Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey, a team of artists that call themselves Tales of Tales, describe two types of artful games in the “Real Time Art Manifesto:” game-art and art-games.  A piece of game-art is a game in which games themselves are critiqued.  Examples of this are the experimental games created by JoDI.  Art games are pieces of art that use the tools available with video games to express meaning and personal expression while simultaneously entertaining.  The game I proposed is in the art game vein.  An example of such a game is The Enchanted Forest made the Tales of Tales themselves.  In this game, the player controls a deer-like creature and is given no goal other than to exist in a forest.  In my opinion, this game does not succeed in one of its goals of encouraged appreciation of environments because it relies on the player to motivate themselves to exist in the virtual environment in a meaningful way.  I believe that most gamers are not able to do this as they will simply run around looking for a goal as is the standard of procedure in most games.  The goal and reward structure of the game I propose is useful in that it motivates the player to be enchanted and engaged in the environment through game mechanics.

 

 

Overall Goals:

- to create a game not centered around competition or fear of losing

The goals in most video games are centered on competition.  The competition can be against other players, in game artificial intelligence as well as an in game clock.  In these circumstances, the driving force for the player is a fear of losing which makes gameplay a frantic attempt to keep their in game character alive.  This way of thinking can add needless stress to player's lives.  The misconception that all games must contain competition has greatly limited the types of games that have been made as well as the ways in which the virtual environments inside of games have been experienced.

 

- to create a game that had little to no conflict (in narrative as well as gameplay) and promotes the imagination rather than telling a grandiose story

Aside from competitive and challenging gameplay, there is usually a grandiose narrative motivating players to continue to play.  These narratives are most often cartoon-ish and formulaic.  It is likely that the makers of commercial games have relied on this mechanism to guarantee sales of their games to the young age groups that appreciates such stories.  These stories, among other factors, are stopping the general public from respecting video games as a form of art.  I hope to create a game that shows that games can contain different forms of story structure.  I particularly want to explore having very little or no formal story at all.  While playing the game, the player will be put in a situation where they will not be explicitly told stories but they can imagine stories or explanations (such as why the world is the way it is).  The reason I want to explore this is to promote the use of the player's imagination as well as to convey that all meaningful experiences don't have to be about saving the world, or major changes in one's life.

 

- to instill in the player a sense of tranquil engagement in the virtual environment while encouraging the player learn to appreciate their surroundings

By observing other entities perspectives and movements, the player will be looking at the virtual world in a different way than they are accustomed to (from a head height, running and strafing).  Because the primary game mechanic is to observe these nonconventional perspectives the player will be mentally engaged and may experience a new appreciation for the virtual environment.

 

- to create a game that explored different "feelings" of gameplay (controlling the avatar)

How the physical movements of the player's fingers on the input device affect the in game avatar in combination with the in game physics create a mood or setting that the player experiences.  As far as I know, there has been little research on this subject.  What types of gameplay creates what types of moods?  I am also interested in exploring how gameplay can convey meaning.  This game will allow for many different 'feels' and my ultimate goal will be to create taxonomy for creating moods or settings with the controls in a game.

 

 

Background:

This project is inspired by experiences I have had while playing video games that have virtual worlds that allow the player to explore.  I noticed that as I would explore I would have a feeling of tranquil engagement just from careful and slow observation of the environment and control of my character.  My imagination would also create stories that explained various aspects of the world (i.e. why objects were placed where they were, what types of events would take place in certain places, what sort of activities a resident of a house would partake in, etc.).  This feeling was a breath of fresh air from the busy pace of everyday life and the frantic and goal oriented gameplay of most games.

 

I, as well as most others, have a tendency to take the environment around us for granted as we rush from place to place.  Rather than being focused on where we are, we focus on where we are trying to go, or what we are trying to accomplish.  Learning to experience and appreciate my environment at all times would be very uplifting and beneficial practice.  When trying to recreate these feelings of tranquil engagement outside of games, I found that it was more difficult to keep my attention on my surroundings.  My mind would wander to the various activities I had to do that day, or some other distraction.  This likely happens because learning to control a game character engages the mind while controlling my body is almost automatic and perceived as uninteresting.  This leads people's minds to travel away from the present and can result in the frantic task oriented existence that most people have.

 

The purpose of this game is to discourage this sort of task oriented existence and to promote imaginative and tranquil thinking.  While seeing through an entity's perspective, the player has no control and is forced to observe the world as the entity does.  The player will be forced to focus on details of movements and the environment they inhabit.  These are aspects of reality that most typically ignore, especially in video games.