Becker Video Game Design

Comparison of mobile gaming with traditional console games and industry figures

Includes GameUp, free online games for curriculum

game based science learning, science and health games linked in sidebar

Argues that stereotypes of gamers as young and male and women avoiding technology careers are not accurate, and encourages girls and women to seek out careers in gaming industry

Abstract: "Procedural content generation and design patterns could potentially be combined in several dierent ways in game design. This paper discusses how to combine the two, using automatic platform game level design as an example. The paper also present work towards a pattern-based level generator for Super Mario Bros, namely an analysis of the levels of the original Super Mario Bros game into 23 dierent patterns."

"A data game is a game that allows the player(s) to explore data that is derived from outside the game, by transforming the data into something that can be played with. In other words, games as a form of interactive data visualisation."

Abstract: "Game Artificial Intelligence (Game AI) is a subdiscipline of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) that explores the ways in which AI and ML can augment player experiences in computer games. Storytelling is an integral part of many modern computer games; within games stories create context, motivate the player, and move the action forward. Interactive Narrative is the use of AI to create and manage stories within games, creating the perception that the player is a character in a dynamically unfolding and responsive story. This paper introduces Game AI and focuses on the open research problems of Interactive Narrative."

Abstract: "Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative, stating (in one for- mulation) that one ought to always act according to a maxim that can be made universal law, is tempting to procedural- ize, in the form of a game that literally turns actions into universal laws. This paper explores diculties that initially arise in translating that idea to a game design: some of which been covered in the philosophy literature, and others of which relate to the diculties in dening what constitutes a proper rule induction. Then, it discusses several much less lofty, but ppractical, prototypes that explore what I take to be the formal game mechanics underpinning the idea: re ex- ive game mechanics where breaking a rule implies the free breaking of that rule for the rest of the game. By analyzing these prototypes, I attempt to determine if these prototypes result in either an interesting game mechanics (taken on its own) on the one hand, or a compelling representation of Kantian morality on the other hand, reaching mixed con- clusions."

Abstract: "The aim of this paper is to address imaginative experiences of emotions by drawing Kendall Walton's theory of make-believe. Moreover, we use a design case as means for investigating how a child's felt emotions towards a hospital situation relates to his or her imaginative experiences of emotions towards a !ctive character in a computer game simulating the real-world situation. In so doing, we contribute with new insights to existing theories of emotions in design, which tend to focus narrowly on felt and measurable emotions."

"This paper explores the idea of learning from video games, a subject which has earned increased attention over the past several years in the academic community, yet remains an area in need of even further exploration."

Multiplayer game design enabling observation of peer interactions among youths

"In the first two parts i and ii of this series, I put together an initial model for node.js multiplayer tic-tac-toe game then bolted in a backbone.js controller framework, which allows clients to Backbone.Model.sync model states to backing server. This post completes the game implementation by adding asynchronous plumbing for synchronizing game state amongst game clients."

"A WOMAN from Aylesbury has won a top competition to design a video game for the iPhone. Catherine Forsyth's team won the first ever UK competition to set up, make and design their own computer games, held at the Gadget Show Live at Birmingham's NEC."

"Meeting new friends through the world of massively multiplayer games is all well and good, but Sony seems to think MMO players need a little bit of help interacting with each other in the real world. They're so concerned about it, in fact, that they've patented a method for "coordinating real-world gatherings to promote online community.""

"In Metal Gear Solid 4, an advanced battlefield control network called "Sons of the Patriots" monitors and enhances the performance of soldiers deployed in combat via nanomachines injected in their body. Octo-camo, a form of smart camouflage, can replicate both the pattern and texture of any surface it comes in contact with."

Collaboration among researchers at Duke, UChicago and University of Waterloo on an online alternate reality game with economic crisis as the subject, invitation to join the game community

From the abstract :"The Vikings! is an asynchronous multiplayer social game that adapts Viking Age (700s-1000s C.E.) social practices and structures in the hopes of producing a synthetic Viking society. Players manage Viking households, sail the open seas, raid Viking and foreigner households, and develop economic and political relationships with other players to ensure their own survival and prosperity. To successfully prosecute this project, the author came to devise: a semi-formal method for adapting historical situations to interactive simulations; a set of criteria for evaluating the quality, internal consistency, and historical fidelity of such simulations; and a technique for constraining the scope of adaptation to only what is necessary for the player's enjoyment and the designer's aesthetic goals."

Abstract: "This thesis is a presentation of the design and development of a novel computational artifact: the educational videogame Desperate Fishwives, which harnesses the idea of procedural rhetoric to instruct players on aspects of early modern (cc. 17th century) English life. Herein is detailed the validity of using games as rhetorical and educational devices and the process of designing a game to reflect a particular client's pedagogical style and interpretation of history. This thesis, using the ideas of procedural rhetoric, procedural literacy, and expressive processing, seeks to bridge the gaps between humanities, rhetoric, and software development."

Abstract: "Despite the continuous and abundant growth of the game market the uptake of games in education has been hampered by the general impression that games require complex technologies and that games are difficult to organise and to embed in education curriculums. This paper explores to what extent a simple serious game scenario that can be easily adopted and adapted by individual teachers and that only uses a common, relatively simple technology can leverage the adoption of serious games. It discusses the design of such a game, Argument, based on a Wiki and its use in a 6 weeks trial by students of a Master of Learning Sciences Programme. The results indicate that, even though a Wiki has clear limitations, it is a useful instrument to build game alike educational activities, to gain experience with and as a first step to use (more) complex serious games."