by Annie | Nov 5, 2010 | Game Design
How does virtuality differ from reality? In reality, we may or may not remember everything that happens. In the virtual world, we can track, record, and measure every single action, choice, and event and thus reward players appropriately to effectively manipulate future actions, choices, and events. In his TED talk, Tom Chatfield outlines 7 ways games engage the brain, which can be applied to every field from education to the business world. Take a...
by Annie | Nov 4, 2010 | Game Design
The first time I heard of a game designer working on enemy AI, I thought, pfft, how hard could it be? Throw some enemies in, make them go places, and have them shoot things. However, in reality, the process is turning out to be much more complex than I’d originally anticipated. It turns out that enemies are pretty dumb. Essentially, they’re pieces of furniture in a game that can move around and do stuff. Only, they don’t inherently know how to do anything. Without a brain, they need every action, every behavior, every simulated choice to be explicitly programmed into them. Want an enemy to move around? Well, where should they start? Where exactly should they go? How fast should they move? What if they run into something or someone along the way? Should they continue running in the same loop, or should some action cause them to change their movement? The more questions that are asked and answered about an enemy, the more seemingly sophisticated he’ll be. Here are some of the enemy AI components I’ve been fiddling around with in my latest level: Movement This involves placing specific path nodes to tell each enemy exactly where to go, when to go there, how quickly to get there, in what order to move to the path nodes, and how long to continue in this pattern. Basically, path nodes serve as enemy bait, meaning each enemy needs several path nodes to keep them busy and make them appear like they have half a brain. Firing patterns Each enemy needs a weapon and specific directions on how to use it....
by Annie | Nov 3, 2010 | Game Design
The Entertainment Software Association of Canada recently released a report of trends in the Canadian game industry and habits of Canadian gamers in 2010. Here are some facts worth noting: Over 95% of Canadian households own a computer, and nearly half of all Canadian households own at least one video game console. This makes for quite a large market of people eager for fun and innovative game experiences, opening up opportunities for both large companies and small startups. The split between male and female gamers is roughly 60:40, about the same as in the U.S. The report shows that female gamers enjoy puzzle, arcade, and word games and play games primarily using computers. With my 2+ decades of experience as a female and a gamer, I mostly agree, though more research needs to be done to tap into the specific gaming habits of the growing female gaming population. The number of gamers who use a mobile device most often to play games has almost doubled since 2009. As someone who has my iPhone on my person at all times, I definitely count myself in this category and predict that this number will continue to grow rampantly in the coming years. After all, who needs a video game console when you can carry dozens of games in your pocket? Canada is the third most successful video game industry in the world and grew by 30% in 2009. The gaming industry contributes billions of dollars annually to the Canadian economy, meaning games are serious business here, so it seems that I’m in the right place. Take a look at the report...
