Here's some "design development" stuff - meaning photos from our design sessions. Tables of possible object interactions, and their effects on mood stats: http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nwatson7/dys/interactions_table_left.jpg http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nwatson7/dys/interactions_table_right.jpg http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nwatson7/dys/interactions_table_top.jpg A diagram of the relationships between a set of objects (how the presence of one object can affect the interactions available with another object): http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nwatson7/dys/interaction_rels.jpg An early map of the house http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nwatson7/dys/map.jpg Table of the objects we'd wanted to include, and the default starting mood stats http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nwatson7/dys/objs_and_defaultstats.jpg Continue reading

The final prototype of Dysphoria implemented our core game mechanic, more or less the way we’d specified it in our original design document. Whether we achieved our other design goals in terms of theme, aesthetics, representation and narrative appeal… well, that’s another story. Our very first design constraint to be committed to paper was, “Manipulate the world, not the character.” Our second constraint was to use some kind of surreal aesthetic. Rotoscoping was a nice choice because it reflected our theme of insomnia and neurosis (our third design constraint), and also because the constant fluctuation of rotoscopic graphics helped to... Continue reading

Virtual worlds, especially those of the 1990s, have historically been classified as either social worlds or adventure/game worlds (see Reid 1999; Watson 2008: 1), the former focusing on space, creativity, socialization and emergent behaviour while the latter has the character of a competitive, multiplayer video game with structured goals and stats. The same distinction applies to modern graphical VWs, with World of Warcraft and EVE Online being classified as MMOGs while Second Life and There.com are counted among the social virtual worlds (i.e. don’t call them games, at least not where any of their users can hear you, or you’ll... Continue reading

It may be a mistake to try to do any serious analysis of Overlord II (2009), a game that aims to be a caricature of role-playing games and of the whole epic-fantasy genre, a game that is self-conscious parody from start to finish. It makes not the slightest effort to take itself seriously, and is completely unapologetic in its crassness, which is part of why it’s so much fun. Nevertheless, it’s not what one would call “socially progressive” in terms of its game mechanic and representation of gender! O2 takes place in a magical fantasy realm full of elves, gnomes,... Continue reading

LCC 8823/4725 Concept Pitch Vignesh Pro Studios presents: Dysphoria Team Members: Vignesh Swaminathan Nicholas Watson David Wick Samer Ead Game Concept: Dysphoria is a simulation game with a dysfunctional insomniac as its central subject and character. However, the character is not controlled directly by the player. Instead, the player has control over the environment (the subject’s house), with the ability to add, remove or alter objects in the setting. The character has his/her own goals, intentions and behavioural patterns, but the player can alter these by modifying the environment. The character, who is jobless, unmotivated and a bit anti-social, wakes... Continue reading

Spacewar and the Hacker Movement Spacewar itself was already an “alternative game” from the beginning, because it was the first video game, a type of thing that had never been seen before in terms of representation and mechanics. It was, therefore, not so much a subversion as it was a complete departure from traditional game concepts: · Representation: traditional board games often make use of images and icon-like game pieces to depict a setting of some kind on the board. Spacewar replaces the static gameboard with a dynamic, auto-responsive screen, which attempts to create a more realistic graphic representation of... Continue reading

The Elements of Gameplay: Zork II Early text-based adventure games such as Infocom’s Zork II (published in 1981) form a crucial part of an historical evolution of adventure/role-playing games, from table-top RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons (first published in 1974), right up to modern-day MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. The Zork series is one of the founding works in two closely-related genres, Interactive Fiction (IF) and puzzle-adventure games. The former focuses on interactive narrative that unfolds through the player’s actions, while the latter refers to games in which a player embarks on some kind of quest or adventure, and overcomes... Continue reading

The Culture of Chess in Medieval England and France: A Game for Everyone, a Mirror for Anything In Western Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, as elsewhere, chess served as a cultural mirror and metaphor, an instructive allegory, a marker of status, and a delineator of different domains of social life, as well as a plain old entertaining diversion. An examination of chess in French and English society reveals that they continued many of the same patterns established elsewhere in Europe with respect to understandings of, use of, and discourse about chess. Here I consider the cultural role of... Continue reading