http://ambocc.blogspot.com/
Friday, May 29, 2009
Class 7: design principles
Well done on the second set of project presentations!
You have also learned about different types of parallel and non-parallel play and the implications and opportunities for you as designers.
Homework:
Please post your project URLs as separate blog entries and allow for comments.
Read the papers for next week.
Comment on today's lecture here.
Grade each project you have seen in its respective blog entry's comments. Use F, C, P, ...
Provide an explanation if you feel comfortable and think it is helpful.
You have also learned about different types of parallel and non-parallel play and the implications and opportunities for you as designers.
Homework:
Please post your project URLs as separate blog entries and allow for comments.
Read the papers for next week.
Comment on today's lecture here.
Grade each project you have seen in its respective blog entry's comments. Use F, C, P, ...
Provide an explanation if you feel comfortable and think it is helpful.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Game teaching you how you make decisions
http://www.predictablyirrational.com/?page_id=117
he also has some great mac vs pc videos on the page....
he also has some great mac vs pc videos on the page....
Presence
Some of you mentioned presence, here is a nicely illustrated overview of presence research that came out. Can you see the difference to a bodily-centric view?
http://issuu.com/keho/docs/presenceforeveryone/39
http://issuu.com/keho/docs/presenceforeveryone/39
Monday, May 25, 2009
iAwards Wednesday
Apparently there was also an entertainment entry...and it's free for students!
http://www.aiia.com.au/event_details.aspx?ID=6f948f57-7d39-de11-be6e-001b78cbf152
http://www.aiia.com.au/event_details.aspx?ID=6f948f57-7d39-de11-be6e-001b78cbf152
More Arduino
Jonathan Oxer from Melbourne (who has implanted an RFID chip in his arm) is writing a book on Arduino with lots of examples on his blogs.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Birds and brains and mind and body.
A few films about the topics we've been talking about recently.
1. The intelligence of crows.
2. Catalyst, the ABC's science show, on how the mind-body loop can be easily broken.
3. On why games might be a good idea for animals:
Rest here.
Zoos spend millions of dollars on keeping animals entertained, and bored animals may become depressed, aggressive or sick. Animals with active minds and bodies are happier and healthier. Zoos already use puzzle games as a substitute for predators' hunting instinct, such as this otter with his fish-flavoured ice-cream:
or use toys to keep them active, like these cats and their pumpkins:
TIGERS LEOPARDS Vs Pumpkins! - The best video clips are right here
So games for animals may actually save zoos money and help conservation efforts.
4. Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs.
1. The intelligence of crows.
2. Catalyst, the ABC's science show, on how the mind-body loop can be easily broken.
3. On why games might be a good idea for animals:
A 137 pound orang-utan with a history of mischief short-circuited an electric barrier, then built a makeshift ladder to escape from her enclosure, forcing Adelaide Zoo to be evacuated on one of its busiest days of the year.
Karta, a 27-year-old female, jammed a stick into wires connected to the barrier, then piled up shrubs, roots and debris to create a platform. Using it as a stepladder, she climbed up onto the concrete and glass wall surrounding her enclosure, where she was spotted by a member of the public who raised the alarm.
Rest here.
Zoos spend millions of dollars on keeping animals entertained, and bored animals may become depressed, aggressive or sick. Animals with active minds and bodies are happier and healthier. Zoos already use puzzle games as a substitute for predators' hunting instinct, such as this otter with his fish-flavoured ice-cream:
TIGERS LEOPARDS Vs Pumpkins! - The best video clips are right here
So games for animals may actually save zoos money and help conservation efforts.
4. Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs.
Push! Dodge! Balance!
Hell yeah, pushing.epicgame.diaryland.com
We are Team E, consisting of:
Rachel Shi,
Jesse Holtham,
Rory Sampson,
John Gregg
and Anh-Tu Tran
Thank you for your time and mercy.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Class 6: Social Play
Well done on the first set of project presentations!
You have also learned about social play and the social ritual of play.
The presentations touched on some very interesting aspects, and I did not want to interrupt, but sorry that I did: because of Rob's great comment, I had to quickly mention the difference between parallel and non-parallel play; thanks to the last group who let me 'use' them to explain the concept.
I would like to dig a little bit deeper here, to help clarify if you have some questions about it (I am only figuring it out slowly myself):
Think of 3 activities: (Note: they are all competitive)
400m
This is a parallel game, or 'race', as the player have no 'direct' way of influencing the other player's physical performance. There is no 'offense' or 'defense'. The players face the same direction. The players' spaces are physically separated (by a white line).
Aussie Rules
This is a non-parallel game, or 'match'. The player has a 'direct' way of influencing the other player's physical performance (you can chose to kick goals or prevent goals, the defenders in American football are an extreme example: their only job is to defend, they will never score). There is 'offense' and 'defense'. The players face each other (especially at the start). A player can only be as good as the other opponent allows him to be. The players share a space. The players experience bodily feedback from opponents.
Tennis
Different to traditional sports such as Aussie Rules above, but it is still a non-parallel game: The players face each other, but they do NOT share a space, (the net separates them). However, they share a ball: this allows for 'offense' and 'defense'. The players still experience bodily feedback from opponents, but 'through' the ball as proxy.
Social implications
So does that mean that only Aussie Rules is social? No, as Rob will hopefully confirm, a 400m game is also social: I predict that his personal best was probably achieved in a race with others, possibly amongst a large crowd: the social presence of others affects your physical performance (can be negative, too, see stage fright), so it was a social experience.
But these sports experiences are also not the same socially. We can only conclude that they are social, and different. But what we can do is acknowledging these differences, and considering them in our designs.
How? (Mark might ask)
By realizing that there are 2 spaces in exergames (at least in most of the ones we play):
1. The exertion space: this is the space in which we exert our body.
This space can be social, for example when playing with others in the same room, but the experience is (so far) pretty much always parallel: we never physically interfere with the other player. You can imagine a 400m-line drawn between each Wii player, and you get the idea.
2. The virtual space: this is what happens in the virtual world, displayed on the screen.
This space can also be parallel (see 400m Wii Olympics: parallel in both exertion and virtual space), mimicking the parallel exertion activity in the exertion space.
OR: you, as the designer, can change this, and make it non-parallel: for example, your Wii Olympics avatars can run into each other and push each other over to win. OR: Wii tennis: the shared ball is virtual. Or Wii Aussie Rules: the virtual space is shared.
With these examples you can see why Wii tennis is easier to design than Wii Aussie Rules in terms of input control: in Wii tennis, you only have to accept that there is no physical feedback from the virtual ball (the feedback transcends from the virtual back into the exertion space), in Wii Aussie Rules, the physical feedback that is missing is from the ball and the other players, and accomodating that is harder.
And this is why we have to know about this, as we need to consider these social aspects of different sports experiences in our designs:
For example, by knowing that parallel exertion play turns into non-parallel virtual play, we can accommodate for its shortcomings:
Conclusion
Technology does allow accommodating people with different preferences (parallel or non-parallel sportspeople), but also to mix these different sports styles to allow for new experiences, such as turning a 400m race into a 'match', allowing people with different physical capabilities to play together, play over a distance, ...
and these are the opportunities for you as designers!
So grab them!
Did I get this right Rob?
See also as example:
Homework:
Please post your project URLs as separate blog entries and allow for comments.
Read the papers for next week.
Comment on today's lecture here.
Grade each project you have seen in its respective blog entry's comments. (You should know by now what makes a great game, so use that knowledge and its terminology)
Provide an explanation if you feel comfortable and think it is helpful.
You have also learned about social play and the social ritual of play.
The presentations touched on some very interesting aspects, and I did not want to interrupt, but sorry that I did: because of Rob's great comment, I had to quickly mention the difference between parallel and non-parallel play; thanks to the last group who let me 'use' them to explain the concept.
I would like to dig a little bit deeper here, to help clarify if you have some questions about it (I am only figuring it out slowly myself):
Think of 3 activities: (Note: they are all competitive)
400m
This is a parallel game, or 'race', as the player have no 'direct' way of influencing the other player's physical performance. There is no 'offense' or 'defense'. The players face the same direction. The players' spaces are physically separated (by a white line).
Aussie Rules
This is a non-parallel game, or 'match'. The player has a 'direct' way of influencing the other player's physical performance (you can chose to kick goals or prevent goals, the defenders in American football are an extreme example: their only job is to defend, they will never score). There is 'offense' and 'defense'. The players face each other (especially at the start). A player can only be as good as the other opponent allows him to be. The players share a space. The players experience bodily feedback from opponents.
Tennis
Different to traditional sports such as Aussie Rules above, but it is still a non-parallel game: The players face each other, but they do NOT share a space, (the net separates them). However, they share a ball: this allows for 'offense' and 'defense'. The players still experience bodily feedback from opponents, but 'through' the ball as proxy.
Social implications
So does that mean that only Aussie Rules is social? No, as Rob will hopefully confirm, a 400m game is also social: I predict that his personal best was probably achieved in a race with others, possibly amongst a large crowd: the social presence of others affects your physical performance (can be negative, too, see stage fright), so it was a social experience.
But these sports experiences are also not the same socially. We can only conclude that they are social, and different. But what we can do is acknowledging these differences, and considering them in our designs.
How? (Mark might ask)
By realizing that there are 2 spaces in exergames (at least in most of the ones we play):
1. The exertion space: this is the space in which we exert our body.
This space can be social, for example when playing with others in the same room, but the experience is (so far) pretty much always parallel: we never physically interfere with the other player. You can imagine a 400m-line drawn between each Wii player, and you get the idea.
2. The virtual space: this is what happens in the virtual world, displayed on the screen.
This space can also be parallel (see 400m Wii Olympics: parallel in both exertion and virtual space), mimicking the parallel exertion activity in the exertion space.
OR: you, as the designer, can change this, and make it non-parallel: for example, your Wii Olympics avatars can run into each other and push each other over to win. OR: Wii tennis: the shared ball is virtual. Or Wii Aussie Rules: the virtual space is shared.
With these examples you can see why Wii tennis is easier to design than Wii Aussie Rules in terms of input control: in Wii tennis, you only have to accept that there is no physical feedback from the virtual ball (the feedback transcends from the virtual back into the exertion space), in Wii Aussie Rules, the physical feedback that is missing is from the ball and the other players, and accomodating that is harder.
And this is why we have to know about this, as we need to consider these social aspects of different sports experiences in our designs:
For example, by knowing that parallel exertion play turns into non-parallel virtual play, we can accommodate for its shortcomings:
- we need to think how to compensate for the lack of physical feedback
- but also the fact that the players do not face each other anymore while thinking about
- how they can still experience offense and defense
- ...
Conclusion
Technology does allow accommodating people with different preferences (parallel or non-parallel sportspeople), but also to mix these different sports styles to allow for new experiences, such as turning a 400m race into a 'match', allowing people with different physical capabilities to play together, play over a distance, ...
and these are the opportunities for you as designers!
So grab them!
Did I get this right Rob?
See also as example:
Homework:
Please post your project URLs as separate blog entries and allow for comments.
Read the papers for next week.
Comment on today's lecture here.
Grade each project you have seen in its respective blog entry's comments. (You should know by now what makes a great game, so use that knowledge and its terminology)
Provide an explanation if you feel comfortable and think it is helpful.
Help! Still looking to join a group...
Hello everyone, It's Vicky.
Sorry for the inconvenience and the hassle but I'm still struggling to find a group to join, so if anyone is kind enough to let me join a group, I'll be more than happy to accept the invitation.
My mobile number is here for contact: 0412478559
Also feel free to send an e-mail instead if you want: s3135111@student.rmit.edu.au
Cheers
Vicky.
Sorry for the inconvenience and the hassle but I'm still struggling to find a group to join, so if anyone is kind enough to let me join a group, I'll be more than happy to accept the invitation.
My mobile number is here for contact: 0412478559
Also feel free to send an e-mail instead if you want: s3135111@student.rmit.edu.au
Cheers
Vicky.
Your projects go here
Your project's website needs to be entered here, on the main page, as a new, separate blog entry. You are all admins, so you can just log in and create a new blog entry.
If you do not want to create a new webpage, you can also document your project with the blog entry, of course.
If you do not want to create a new webpage, you can also document your project with the blog entry, of course.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Coding for Mario
** IFIP ENTERTAINMENT COMPUTING NEWS SERVICE
** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/listinfo/icec
** Send all news to: icec@listserver.tue.nl
****************************************************
** NOTE: Please reply to article's originator,
** not this IFIP EC News Service
****************************************************
Call for Participation in the Mario Competition
IEEE Games Innovation Conference (ICE-GIC 09)
Organized by Sergey Karakovskiy and Julian Togelius, in association with
the IEEE Games Innovation Conference 2009, this competition is about
learning, or otherwise developing, the best controller (agent) for a
version of Super Mario Bros, defined as the controller that wins as many
levels (of increasing difficulty) as possible.
One of the main purposes of this competition is to be able to compare
different controller development methodologies against each other, both
those based on learning techniques such as artificial evolution and those
that are completely hand-coded. We hope to attract leading experts on
various learning methods and controller architectures to test their
techniques on this challenging problem. But we also encourage using the
competition and its associated software for student projects and
assignments.
The competition software is in Java and designed to be as simple as
possible to get started with, with no external dependencies. Submissions
in Java are encouraged, but any programming language can be used thanks to
a TCP client/server interface (example Python client provided). The
organization of the competition is similar to the simulated car racing
competitions held in conjunction with recent IEEE conferences: submission
will be by email, and the source code of all submitted entries will be
published on the competition web page.
Deadline for submitting controllers: 18 August, a week before ICE-GIC in
London.
URL: http://julian.togelius.com/mariocompetition2009/
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/mariocompetition (please join
this group if you plan to participate in the competition - all technical
discussion will take part in this group)
Competitors will be invited to give short presentations of their
controllers at ICE-GIC, and a prize will be awarded for the best
controller. Attendance at the conference is not mandatory for
participating in the competition.****************************************************
** To send and receive IFIP-EC-NEWS, go to
** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/listinfo/icec
** and subscribe directly
****************************************************
** News archives:
** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/private/icec/
****************************************************
** To join the IFIP ENTERTAINMENT COMPUTING Group
** contact: g.w.m.rauterberg@tue.nl
****************************************************
** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/listinfo/icec
** Send all news to: icec@listserver.tue.nl
****************************************************
** NOTE: Please reply to article's originator,
** not this IFIP EC News Service
****************************************************
Call for Participation in the Mario Competition
IEEE Games Innovation Conference (ICE-GIC 09)
Organized by Sergey Karakovskiy and Julian Togelius, in association with
the IEEE Games Innovation Conference 2009, this competition is about
learning, or otherwise developing, the best controller (agent) for a
version of Super Mario Bros, defined as the controller that wins as many
levels (of increasing difficulty) as possible.
One of the main purposes of this competition is to be able to compare
different controller development methodologies against each other, both
those based on learning techniques such as artificial evolution and those
that are completely hand-coded. We hope to attract leading experts on
various learning methods and controller architectures to test their
techniques on this challenging problem. But we also encourage using the
competition and its associated software for student projects and
assignments.
The competition software is in Java and designed to be as simple as
possible to get started with, with no external dependencies. Submissions
in Java are encouraged, but any programming language can be used thanks to
a TCP client/server interface (example Python client provided). The
organization of the competition is similar to the simulated car racing
competitions held in conjunction with recent IEEE conferences: submission
will be by email, and the source code of all submitted entries will be
published on the competition web page.
Deadline for submitting controllers: 18 August, a week before ICE-GIC in
London.
URL: http://julian.togelius.com/mariocompetition2009/
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/mariocompetition (please join
this group if you plan to participate in the competition - all technical
discussion will take part in this group)
Competitors will be invited to give short presentations of their
controllers at ICE-GIC, and a prize will be awarded for the best
controller. Attendance at the conference is not mandatory for
participating in the competition.****************************************************
** To send and receive IFIP-EC-NEWS, go to
** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/listinfo/icec
** and subscribe directly
****************************************************
** News archives:
** http://listserver.tue.nl/mailman/private/icec/
****************************************************
** To join the IFIP ENTERTAINMENT COMPUTING Group
** contact: g.w.m.rauterberg@tue.nl
****************************************************
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