Designing to Promote
Intentional Play
[email protected]
a short story or short series of words spoken or
communicated with the intent of being laughed at or
found humorous by the listener or reader.
Designer
Creator
Machine
Mediator
Player
Creator
Creator
Machine
Viewer
Fatter
Intentionality
Player Intention is the ability of the player
to devise his own meaningful goals
through his understanding of the game
dynamics and to formulate meaningful
plans to achieve them using the
information and resources provided by
the game.
a short story or short series of words spoken or
communicated with the intent of being laughed at or
found humorous by the listener or reader.
Most jokes contain two components: joke setup (for
example, "A man walks into a bar...") and a punchline,
which, when juxtaposed with the setup, provides the
necessary irony to elicit laughter from the audience.
Player Intent
To cause John to bash down a door, which has been
trapped with a wall-mine, in order to blast John down
an open elevator shaft while on fire, after making a
cocky remark about how he’s not an amateur.
Sticky Camera
Pan and Zoom
Thermal Vision
Night Vision
Distraction
Persistent
Wall Mine
Adhesive
Sticks to Doors
Directional
Back-blast effect
NPC
Input
Distraction
Sound
State
> Default
> Aware
> Alert
Behavior
Search
NPC
2nd Input
Whistle
State
> Default
> Aware-Stressed
> Alert
Behavior
Search
Door
Bash
Result
Search
Fails
NPC
Class
Input
Distraction
Sound
> Rookie
> Soldier
> Elite
Bark
“I heard
something.”
NPC
combined with
state change to
Aware-Stressed
Class
2nd
Input
Whistle
> Rookie
> Soldier
> Elite
Bark
“A trap?“IWho
does this
heard
guysomething.”
think he's dealing
with? Amateurs?”
Result
Explosive
Hilarity
Search
Fails
NPC
2nd Input
Whistle
> Rookie
> Soldier
> Elite
combined with
state change to
Aware-Stressed
Bark
heard
“Holy “I
crap!
… Guess
I'msomething.”
a little jumpy…”
Result
ffftt… pop
Search
Fails
Object
Related
NPC
Related
Barks
Sticky
Camera
Wall
Mines
Behavior
36
9
Doors
State
Class
Whistle
Camera
Sound
Inputs
www.planarity.net
www.planarity.net
www.planarity.net
GDC 2004
Smith, H
Smith, R
Emergent
Gameplay
http://www.roningamedeveloper.com/Materials/RandySmithAndHarveySmith_GDC_2004.ppt
Emergent
Gameplay
http://www.roningamedeveloper.com/Materials/RandySmithAndHarveySmith_GDC_2004.ppt
Emergent
Gameplay
http://www.roningamedeveloper.com/Materials/RandySmithAndHarveySmith_GDC_2004.ppt
Smith and Smith
Emergence in GTA 3
Player takes a jump
Car flips and lands
upside down
Car explodes
Nearby pedestrians are
injured by explosion
Pedestrians begin to
attack player
http://www.roningamedeveloper.com/Materials/RandySmithAndHarveySmith_GDC_2004.ppt
www.planarity.net
easy to verify harder to solve
Smith and Smith
Emergence in DX:IW
Player reaches locked door
Player dominates Spiderbot
Spiderbot EMP’d when
domination ends
Player shoots EMP’d bot
Spiderbot explodes
Explosion destroys door
http://www.roningamedeveloper.com/Materials/RandySmithAndHarveySmith_GDC_2004.ppt
Object
Related
Doors
Spider
Bot
12
5
Damage
EMP
Bot
Domination
Inputs
Player’s Primary Intent: Get Through Locked Door
Player deploys Spiderbot
Because he knows that he
can Dominate it
Player Dominates Spiderbot
Because he knows when
Domination times out, the bot
will be EMP’d
Player allows Spiderbot to
time out beside locked door
Because he knows that
EMP’d bots explode when
damaged
Player damages Spiderbot
because he knows explosion
will destroy locked door
Player fulfills intent by
crossing through doorway
Emergence and Intentionality [disambiguation]
Emergence
Arises from interconnections
between systems
Intentionality
Arises from player comprehension
of the interconnection between
systems
Spider
Bot
Doors
12
5
Damage
EMP
Bot
Domination
Barks
Sticky
Camera
Wall
Mines
Behavior
36
9
Doors
State
Class
Whistle
Camera
Sound
14
28
96
www.planarity.net
Britney: hey! 24f Cali here, 5’10”,
135, blonde, blue… u?
Smith and Smith
Emergence in GTA 3
Player takes a jump
Car flips and lands
upside down
Car explodes
Nearby pedestrians are
injured by explosion
Pedestrians begin to
attack player
http://www.roningamedeveloper.com/Materials/RandySmithAndHarveySmith_GDC_2004.ppt
Affordance
An object (or system) has affordance if it
displays obvious indicators of its
properties.
Cart Properties:
•Metal
•Bulletproof
•Dimensions (shield)
•Magnets
•Wheeled
•Can’t burn
•Mass
•Low center of mass
•Etc
•Etc
Explosive Barrel Properties:
•Metal
•Contains explosive fuel
•Can ignite, burn, explode
•Magnets
•Mass and shape
•Flat and round
•Can be rolled
•higher center of mass
•Etc
•Etc
www.planarity.net
easy to verify
harder to solve
Conclusions
Highly Intentional play enables the player to become a creative
participant in the play experience. I believe this is important.
Highly intentional play – the kind of play I’m suggesting we attempt to
promote – takes place in robustly interconnected systems.
Helping the player comprehend these sorts of systems can be done in
three ways: by requiring comprehension to progress, by offering a safe
environment in which the player can experiment, and/or by directly
rewarding the player by for experimenting with the systems.
There is a risk that in deciphering systems, the player can ‘See the
Matrix’ and thereby lose appreciation or immersion in the fictional frame
of the game world. I believe this is undesirable.
Finally – especially when dealing with messy systems – affordance is
critical to enabling the player to gain a high degree of comprehension
rapidly and responsively.
In Closing
Do players really want to be an active creative
participant??
Designing to Promote
Intentional Play
[email protected]