games
Ce217 – Computer Game design
17th January, 2017
Prof. Richard A. Bartle
introduction
• Assuming the timetable hasn’t lied to me,
this is the first ce217 of the year
• It’s also the first games-specific
lecture you’ve had, unless someone
sneaked one in earlier and didn’t tell me
• This means I’m going to have to start
with the basics
• First, though, i have to do some boring
meta-lecture stuff
– But hey, you’re not awake yet anyway, right?
Meta-stuff
• so, a few words on how this module is
organised
• It’s done over the course of one term
• You get 10 2-hour lectures and 10 3hour clasSes
• Class Attendance is compulsory, but The
classes won’t usually last 3 hours
• However, they will start promptly
– Don’t roll up late and expect to join in
– You can’t join a game after it starts...
assignment
• You’re given one assignment (next week)
that takes alL term to complete
– Worth 30%, due week 25 (Weds 22nd march)
• You’ll be writing a partial design doc
• It has a CREATIVE aspect that’s FUN
• The rest of it is not fun though, so I’ll
give you a bit of it each week to
spread the pain
– Or you can wait until week 25 and panic
– Remarkably, Some people do do this
• They tend not to repeat the decision at the resit...
Speaking of which...
• Warning: if you need to resit this
assignment, you have to redo it alL from
scratch
– You can’t just revamp what you submitted
in week 25
• Reminder: To reach the 3rd year, you
have to pass alL your modules and get
at least 30% of both the assignment
and exam marks per module
– Why do they make the rules for uncomplicated
people so complicated?
expectation
• Essex university is a high-ranking,
research-led institution
– We expect our students to have reasonable
background knowledge in their subjects
• This module is about computer games
– A fast-moving field
• What this means is that I shall teach in
the full expectation that you will
FolLow games news and play games
• If i mention a game you haven’t heard
of, it’s down to you to find out about it
Further expectation
• Question 1 from summer 2013 resit exam:
• (a) Outline the main topics that can legitimately be considered in a
critical computer game review.
[12%]
(b) Apply your answer to part 1(a) to a commercial computer game
released in January 2012 or later.
[8%]
– Note: I talk about game criticism in lecture 9
• A student formalLy complained that i
hadn’t taught what games had been
released in the previous 18 months
• Do not be that student!
– Even my (non-gamer) wife could think of
football manager 2013...
Technical term
• One last thing before I actually start
lecturing…
• There is a technical term we use in
game development, which you must learn
to spell
• This is the word lose
• It is not spelled loOse
• It’s spelled lose
• If you spell it lOose in the assignment
or examination, you will lose marks
games
• So, the title of this module is computer
game design
• Computer games, though, are just a
particular kind of game
• There are many types of game
– Board games, Word games, Card games, Quiz
games, Team sports, Fantasy sports, LARP,
gambling games, ...
– There are Even games played for religious
or legal purposes
Fortunately…
• At its purest level, Game design is the
same whatever the platform
– The best computer game designers regard
themselves as game designers, not as
computer game designers particularly
• Yet what is a game?
• What’s the difFerence between “playing”
and “playing a game”?
– A child plays with a ball
– A child plays a game with a ball
definitions
• There are no widely-accepted definitions of
what a game is
• Here’s a well-received 1994 definition:
• “a game is a form of ART in which
participants, termed players, make
decisions in order to manage
resources through game tokens in
the pursuit of a goal”
– Greg Costikyan
• PersonalLy, I disagree at “resources”
Because..?
• Costikyan derived this definition by looking
at what games aren’t:
• They’re not puZzles
– Puzzles are static, games are interactive
• They’re not toys
– toys are interactive, but games have goals
• They’re not stories
– Stories are linear, games are non-linear
• They demand participation
however...
• Some people think this is too inclusive
• is politics a game?
– It’s weakest on the ART criterion
• Is making model aircraft a game?
– It’s weakest on the decision criterion
• Is dancing a game
– It’s weakest on the resources criterion
• Is movie-making a game?
– It’s weakest on the connection between
tokens and resources
• You manage resources, but not through tokens
Then again…
• Yet Some people think it’s too specific
• Is noughts & croSses a game?
– It’s 100% predictable – except to 6-year-olds
• Is snakes & laDders a game?
– You can’t interact with other players
– It’s 100% random – unless you believe in luck
• Is dungeons & dragons a game?
– You can’t win, so what’s your goal?
• Is mafia/werewolf a game?
– What are the game tokens?
• Is the sims a game?
– no.
Is this a game?
• Write down the numbers 1 to 9
• two Players take it in turn to croSs
ofF numbers that haven’t already been
crossed-off
• When exactly thrEe of the numbers
you’ve crossed off add up to 15, you win!
• Is this a game?
How about now?
• 4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6
Now is it a game?
• is noughts and crosses a game?
• What I’ve just described is noughts and
crosses
• noW is it a game?
More definitions
• “a game is a context with rules
among adversaries trying to win
objectives”
– Clark C. Abt
• “games are an exercise of voluntary
control systems, in which there is a
contest between powers, confined by
rules in order to produce a
disequilibrial outcome”
– Elliot avedon & brian sutton-smith
A composite
• Derived from looking at the 3 definitions
I’ve just listed, along with 5 others from
equalLy important sources:
• “a game is a system in which
players engage in artificial
conflict, defined by rules, that results
in quantifiable outcome”
– Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman, 2003
• So that’s that sorted, then!
– Except … Are crossword puzzles games?
So…
• Pinning down what games are is hard
• Salen & zimmerman ducked out and
concentrated instead on game design
– “the goal of successful game design is
meaningful play”
• How about this, though?
– “the goal of successful game design is
making money”
• Or even this:
– “Games are what you can buy in a games
store”
puzzles
• A quick digression slide on puZzles...
• A puzzle is a fixed problem with one or
more fixed solutions and no randomness
• it’s single-player only
– Although you can co-operatively solve one
• Examples: crossword puzzles, sudoku,
jigsaw puzzles
• So that’s not just jigsaw puzzles
– although 20% of the students doing last year’s
exam seemed to think it was...
Let’s play a game!
• I’m going to need two players
– Don’t worry, you won’t be humiliated … much
• 1: players take it in turn to say words
– if you say a word that ends in Y or M you lose
• 2: players take it in turn to say words from
the same topic (say, animals)
– if you say a word that ends in Y or M you lose
• 3: players take it in turn to say words from
the same topic (say, city names) and each word
must start with the letter that ended the
previous word, no repetitions
– if you say a word that ends in Y or M you lose
What this shows
• Games involve adding just enough
restrictions to fire players’ imaginations
• The 3rd game you played was identical
to the first except with more rules
– You could have said the same words under
the first set of rules – it’s compatible
• Yet the third game was FUN and the
first and second were NO FUN
• This paradox is at the heart of why
games are so interesting
The basics
• Games have a set of rules that players
wilLingly obey together, in order to
gain some perceived benefit (eg. FUN!)
• While all players folLow these rules,
you have a game
• This “social contract” is called the magic
circle
– Johan huizinga, 1938
• Breaking the contract is cheating
– Or it means the end of the game
Two games
• Here are two games that, together,
demonstrate the magic circle
• Nomic (peter suber) was created to
illustrate a flaw of self-amending
systems
– Eg. the us constitution
• Mornington crescent (originally finchley
central) is a traditional folk game
– It works as a parody of snobbish games
such as cheSs and bridge
nomic
• players take turns in clockwise order
• In your turn, you propose a change in
rules that all the other players vote on
• You then roll a die to determine the
number of points you add to your score
– First to 100 points wins
• If your proposed change is pasSed, it
comes into immediate efFect
• any rule can be changed
– including this one!
Mornington crescent
• Players take it in turns to name
LONDON UNDERGROUND stations
• The first to say “mornington
crescent” wins
extremes
• Nomic can become any other game at all
– Including mornington crescent
• however, if its rules change such that it
is never able to become Mornington
crescent, that’s when it either stops
being a game Or has crystalLised as
some other game
• Why? Because mornington crescent is the
magic circle incarnate
• No magic circle, no game
My definition
• 1) Play is what happens when you
freEly and knowingly bound your
behaviour according to a set of rules in
the hope of gaining some benefit
• 2) a Game is any form of play at
which you can win or lose (or both)
• “you” here is either one player or one
group of co-operative players
• So Is Snakes and laDders a game?
– Are you hoping for a benefit from playing it?
Toy games
• Most of the games designers write
aren’t for people to play
• They’re experimental
• You create the game then make
changes to it and see what hapPens
– To demonstrate your ideas/hypotheses or
discover new ones
• Such games are called toy games
• Games can not only be played, they can
be played with..!
Play, puzzle, game
• There are differences between play, puzzles
and games depending on how they end:
– Play only ends when you give up
– Puzzles only end when you give up or win
– Games only end when you give up, win or lose
• This means:
– If you can lose, it’s a game
– If you can win, it might be a game, might
be a puzzle
– If you can give up, it might be any of them
Mid-way
• this module concerns just one, fairly
minor type of game – the kind you play
on a computer
– Or phone, console, tablet, hand-held, web site, …
• Maybe “computer games” are simply what
you can buy in a “computer games store”?
– Including app stores and web sites
– I guess the sims also sneaks in...
• The rest of Today’s lecture is about the
history of these “computer games”
history
• I’m only going to give a very brief
overview of game history here
• Reason 1: a fuLl history would take aLl
the lectures and stiLl fall short
• Reason 2: if you’ve any interest in
computer games at alL then you should
already know much of this stuff
– If you have no interest, you maybe ought to
question why you’re doing this module...
• Reason 3: “Good artists copy, great
artists steal” – pablo Picasso
Categories 1
• Let’s start with the different categories
(aka genres) of computer game
– Note: there is no standard terminology!
• Shooter [FPS, TPS]
– Half life, Doom, unreal, halo, call of duty
• Simulation [flight, racing]
– ms flight simulator, a-train, gran turismo,
need for speed
• Arcade [collection, platform, beat-em-up]
– Pac man, Mario 64, rayman, soul calibur,
tekken, WWE smackdown
Categories 2
• Strategy [RTS, TBS]
– Starcraft, civilization, total war
• God game
– Populous, B&W, The sims, farmville
• Rpg [arcade adventure, MMORPG]
– Zelda, ff, kotor, skyrim, dragon age, wow
• Sport [sims, management]
– Fifa <year>, FM <year>, madden <year>
• other [if, puzzle, ARG, dance]
Categories by sales
Categorising
• Having categories doesn’t make
categorisation easy
• How about grand theft auto V?
– Shooter, simulation, arcade, strategy, god
game, rpg, sport?
• It has simulation, strategy, rpG
and shoOter elements
– I’d go with simulation, although it’s not
exactly real-life accurate…
• Or Call it a sandbox game?
Did you know?
• Golf was invented in china
• the dong 1xuan 1 LU 4 (東軒錄) relates that a
game called chui 2wan 2 (捶丸 “hitting ball”)
was played as early as 945
• the autumn
banquet
– Ming dynasty
Did you know?
• Golf was invented in france
• Here’s an illustration from Les Heures de
la Duchesse de Bourgogne, circa 1500
– a month-by month prayerbook
• In particular September
Did you know?
• Golf was invented in ancient egypt
• From the tomb of kheti at beni-hasan, 2600bc
• This rock tomb’s walls are covered in
paintings of ancient egyptian sports
Did you know?
• Golf was invented in ancient greece
• Athens national museum, 1300bc
• Golf was also invented in ancient
rome (paganica ), England (cambuca ),
Ireland (camanachd ) and the
netherlands (kolf )
The point at last…
• The thing is, the modern game is
entirely the product of scotland
• Follow the audit trail from the us
masters back in time: scotland is
where it ends
– Scotland’s golf is the progenitor of
today’s golf
• Hitting a ball into a hole with a stick is a
fairly obvious idea
• The same applies to playing games
on computers
The start
• So, do we care that the first “video
game” was written circa 1946?
– shooting pretend missiles on a CRT
• Or that the first “computer game”
was written in 1952 on cambridge
university’s Edsac?
– Called Oxo, it was just noughts and crosses
• Or that the first two-player video
game was shown in 1958?
– Tennis for two on an oscilLoscope
Well…
• Well, it’s interesting trivia, but computer
games were always going to happen
• No games were derived from or inspired
by these early ones that I’ve mentioned just now
• The first game that did seed others is
spacewar!
– 1961, steve “slug” russell, mit, on a pdp1
• Spacewar! ’s descendents also bore fruit, and
ultimately led to most of today’s computer
games industry
– Spacewar! Is a progenitor of computer games
Spacwar!
• Here’s what spacewar! Looked like:
• Yes, it’s asteroids
– Except 2-player and no asteroids…
Arcade games
• Spacewar! Was made into a coin-op game
by nolan bushnell (entrepreneur) and
ted dabney (engineer)
– Called Computer space, it was not a great
success
• In 1972, bushnell & dabney formed atari
• Atari kick-started the whole arcade
game revolution with the game
phenomenon that was … gueSs what?
Pong, 1972
• Even back then, we didn’t think the
graphics were all that great…
Home video consoles
• In 1975, Atari brought out pong on a
“home video console”
• It was not the first home video console
• That was 1972’s magnavox odySsey,
designed in the 1960s by ralph baer
• Baer had used a ping-pong game to demo
a prototype of it several years earlier
– He’d kept a guest book signed by its
players, which included nolan bushnell
– Magnavox sued … Atari lost
Space invaders, 1978
• Arcade games realLy took off with the
arrival of taito’s space invaders
– B&w screen – colour came from tinted strips
– Star wars had come out a year earlier
Pac man, 1979
• Namco’s pac man used a colour display
• It Brought computer games to the
mainstream
– Originally called puck man, heh heh
consoles
• First-generation consoles were hardwired to play only one game
• 1n 1976, fairchild released its secondgeneration, cartridge-based chanNel F
• In 1977, atari created the atari vcs
– “video computer system”, the atari 2600
• Intellivision, colecovision etc. did likewise
– Atari led the market as it had most games
• This Led to a boom, followed by the
bust of 1983 that reduced sales by a
factor of 30
meanwhile
• Back in academia, games were still being
made just for FUN
• Two main networks: Plato and decus
• Plato was a video system, way ahead
of its time
• It Was influential but patchily so
– some precursors, some progenitors
– Lotus notes, freecell, Macpaint, MS flight
simulator and battlezone all began life on
plato
Avatar, 1979
• plato’s most
popular game
was avatar
decus
• Plato was something of an island
• Sadly, Today’s games industry owes very
litTle to it
– Despite what plato enthusiasts would like
you to believe…
• The other way that games gained
currency in academia was through the dec
user group – decus
• Today’s Adventure games, rpgs and
mmorpgs all have their roots in 1970s
games written for dec computers
computers
• Consoles have a closed architecture
– You can’t sell games for them without the
manufacturers’ say-so
• Home computers have an open one
– Go ahead and program!
• The 1980s witnessed an explosion in
home computer use
– Commodore pet, APple ii
– Atari st, commodore 64 and amiga
– bBc model b, zx spectrum
Uk influence
• The BeEb and the spectrum introduced
many youngsters to computer games
– We Saw a flowering of the industry here
• Because of this, today the uk is fourth
worldwide in computer games development
– behind us and japan and (as of 2007, in
terms of people employed) canada
– China and south korea are closing fast
• That’s why this course is being taught
here and not in france
– France merely owns the publishers…
More consoles
• In 1985, the third-generation, 8-bit
nintendo entertainment system (NES) was
released and saved the industry
– The nes came bundled with super mario bros
• It introduced the gamepad
– now standard for consoles
• Fourth generation consoles were 16-bit
– Sega mega drive (or genesis), 1988
– SNES ultimately won the vicious console war
• Fifth generation were 32-bit
– Sega saturn, sony playstation, 1994
platforms
• Games in Arcades declined in the 1990s
– consoles could reproduce their experience
• Pc games suffered because of
instalLation issues and poor graphics
– Plug & play addressed the installation issues
– 1996 vOodoO chip gave it the graphics
• 6th gen Consoles went 128-bit in 1999
– Sega dreamcast
• Ps2 won the console war (units sold)
– Ps2 153.6m, xbox 24m, gamecube 22m, dreamcast 10.6m
Up to date
• 7th gen consoles introduced new input
methods (kinect, wii)
– Not entirely successfully...
• They also introduced DVD and blu-ray to
try to establish the console as a
multimedia box
– Not entirely successfully...
• The 8th generation (wii u, ps4, xbox one)
is the curRent one
– Pretty much 7th-gen but more powerful
nowadays
• AAA Pc games are written in use C++
– compilers can optimise it very well now
– Also, the established libraries are just about
standard across platforms
• And for smartphones, also languages
• Console development is also aLl in C++
– Because that way games will run on
later versions of the console
• Access to Sdks is STRICTLY controlled
– Indeed, it’s ilLegal to use unlicensed versions
• But see ce318...
paradigms
• By the mid-1990s, the main computer
game paradigms had been established by
key, breakthrough products:
– Rts (dune ii, 1992)
– FPS (Wolfenstein 3d, 1992; doom, 1993)
– Adventures (king’s quest, 1984; monkey
island, 1990)
– God games (sim city, 1989; populous, 1989)
– Tbs (Civilization, 1991)
• Oh, and one last thing: mmorpgs…
wildstar
• wildstar, carbine, 2014:
World of warcraft
• world of warcraft, blizzard, 2004:
everquest
• Everquest, sony online entertainment, 1999
dikumud
• Dikumud, copenhagen university, 1990
abermud
• Abermud, alan cox, 1987
mud
• Mud, Roy trubshaw & richard bartle, 1978
Narrow road between lands.
You are stood on a narrow road between The Land and whence you came.
To the north and south are the small foothills of a pair of majestic
mountains, with a large wall running round. To the west the road
continues, where in the distance you can see a thatched cottage
opposite an ancient cemetery. The way out is to the east, where a
shroud of mist covers the secret pass by which you entered The
Land. It is raining.
*w
Narrow road.
You are on a narrow east-west road with a forest to the north and
Gorse scrub to the south. It is raining. A splendid necklace lies
on the ground.
*
• MUD didn’t come from anything
• This is why I get to give this lecture and
you don’t
One last thing
• the uk computer games industry
directly employs 10,000 people
– And another 15,000 indirectly
• uk universities produce 3,000 graduates
with computer game degrees every year
• Competition is therefore tough!
• Merely having a games degree – even from
essex – does not entitle you to a job
• When employers say they want people with
a paSsion for games, they mean it!
finally
• Some web sites to check out!
• Initial Rules for nomic
– http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/nomic.htm#initial%20set
• A description of mornington crescent
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_%28game%29
• The bust of 1983
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983
• History of Computer Games in general
– http://www.thedoteaters.com/?page_id=6
• History of Virtual worlds in particular
– http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/mudtimeline.shtml