Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays readers!

whilst participating in finals and holiday festivities we are working on making the tutorial and the first three levels completely playable and then ideally aesthetically pleasing

to achieve this i have been working on the "advice" that will be displayed on the landscape in the levels. the advice tells the player attributes of the philosopher they are playing as so that in the later levels they understand how to make decisions as each philosopher.

Also I read this amazing article by Valerie Shute about stealth assessment in Newton's Playground.  I have managed to arrange a meeting with her to discuss this project! yayy!! in the meantime we are thinking about how to incorporate assessment into the game.

finally, we are working on a title, but have no ideas yet

The Fake Conference

Great Idea!

Last week my sibling and I decided to hold a fake conference so we could discuss our projects, so I created this presentation to inform her about philosophy game. (Special thanks for Ann for listening to my talk!)

Click Me

After the presentation and some discussion, I got some interesting ideas about how to deal with the problems I had been having. I am going to start the trolley car levels at the most basic scenario and work to more complicated situations, but the first one is going to be soo soo so simple. I have also decided to just make things and see how they turn out rather then obsessing over one decision, because the obsessing is not productive and it would be better if i decided and then ended up remaking something if I changed my mind. 

The last interesting-game related thing was that I went to the philosophy department at my university and got my old ethical theory professor excited about this game! It is a giant victory to have his interest! 

The Trolley Car Level 

• I read a long article that gave me some insight into the trolley car problem and how each philosopher would react 
• and how each philosopher would act to several modified versions 
• so the idea behind this level will be the very classic example of the trolley car problem 
• a trolley car going on a track that will kill 5 people, or you can make the trolley switch tracks and kill 1 person 
• I am working on the sketch of the level, trying to incorporate coins and level mechanics and things that make the game fun  
• hopefully next week we can do another of those sketch to modeled level posts 

Indecision and Lenses

This week has been all about indecision. We skipped level 2 and went straight to working on level 3, the first trolley car level(recall that every couple of levels we build a philosophical thought experiment-aka a trolley car level). but there are so many possibilities and variations for this level that it seemed impossible to decide. When I tried  to ask people they got all excited and gave me 100 new ideas, so I wasn't making much progress. At some point during the week I considered remaking the game entirely, but it was a bit extreme.
In the end we tried to figure out the micro/macro aspects of the story, but that is also difficult so there isn't much new stuff to report on this week.
A few days later we thought we had finally figured out what each philosopher would do in trolley car 1, until we stumbled across an article that threw a wrench in the whole business of the objectivist. We are taking it under consideration.

Lens 4- The Lens of Curiosity

• what questions does my game put into the player's mind?
• what is the correct thing to do in a variety of situations? 
• what would the objectivist/kantian/utilitarian do in this situation? and is that the correct thing to do?
• 
  
• what am I doing to make them care about these questions?
• their score depends on how well they understand these questions
• what can I do to make them invent more questions?
• include more puzzling situations 
• introduce more philosophers 

Lens 5- The Lens of Endogenous Value

• what is valuable to the players in my game?
• gold, minions and score
• how can i make it more valuable to them?
• in addition to getting minions for good score, the player could also lose minions for bad score 
• score is based on consistency to the philosophy 
• I am not sure how to make it more valuable, yet
• what is the relationship between value in the game and the player's motivations?
• the puzzles will be easier to complete with more minions, which the player will get from doing the earlier levels well enough to score high 
• the player will see his/her score out of the total possible score, so not wanting to feel lame is motivation  

Lens 6- The Lens of Problem Solving

• what problems does my game ask the player to solve?
• this game is full of problems to be solved (trolley car problems)
• it also asks the player to solve them from different perspectives 
• are there hidden problems to solve that arise as part of gameplay?
• yes
• as the story develops problems arise from the philosophies that the player did not choose at the beginning
• but I am not sure of what they will actually be, or how the player can overcome them yet
• how can my game generate new problems so that players keep coming back?
• there are oodles of trolley car problems and different variations that will make the player pause and reconsider what they thought they knew about each philosophy 

Models

Lately I have been working on modeling the philosopher animals. 

The models are based on sketches that I showed a couple of posts ago. 

None of them are finished, but this is how they look thus far. 

Each of them are based on an animal that in some way represents the philosophy.

I am having an issue with trying to find the balance between good modeling and the game itself. 

On the one hand I want to use this time to practice making quality models that I can texture and re-use and have in a portfolio, but on the other hand I have a lot of stuff to do for this current project and not a lot of time left to finish it and I am supposed to be highlighting the education and fun. Any thoughts on how to deal with this? 

Of the bird, lemur. otter and fox, one is extraneous- but I have yet to determine which.

 The minion
     I made this by extruding a circle until I had the main shape of the robe. The sleeves were made separately of another circle and the hood is made from a cube. This model looks a lot like the sketch and will be easy to animate since it has no legs.



The Bird 
      This bird will represent Kantianism. The original idea started out like a heron or an ibis, but along the way it started looking like the bird from Up. He fits less with the philosophy, but I like him better this way. He is the only one that deviated from the original idea. 



The dog
      This dog is the player's pet at the beginning of the game. Later it gets turned into the philosopher.
I like that this model looks a bit human and a bit dog-like. I made the whole thing out of one cube. I am pleased with the way he looks.

The fox
      This model will probably be the objectivist. Foxes are independent, which is a main characteristic of this philosophy. The model is a modified version of the dog. I particularly like the tail. The face above the snout and the ears seem a little flat, so I am still working on that. I am not sure if i like the arms, but they will do for now.  


The otter 
     Currently this is the alternate model. The body of the otter which is essentially a tube, was made from an extruded circle which was then manipulated to create the head, ears, tail and feet. The hands have about as many faces as the rest of the body. Overall i like this model, but he is a little blocky. Being blocky is an easy fix though. 

The Lemur
     The lemur will be the utilitarian because it is a group oriented philosophy and lemurs are pack animals. This model is also a modified version of the dog. I particularly like the tail and I think the way he looks stretchy is good. There is something wrong with his face though. Obviously all of the models need eyes, but there is something else wrong with the lemur face so I am still working with it.   

I would love to UV unwrap and texture all of these models, but I have to prioritize the game as a whole so we will have to see how efficiently the rest of the game comes together.

Also I will get back to Schell's lenses soon!

Mechanics

So the team sat down and had a discussion about mechanics for level 1 and for the game in general .

Scoring
the points for each level are determined in a matrix

        This is what we created for level 1. The main goal for the Kantian and the Utilitarian is to get to the minion. They are supposed to prioritize this over getting money, but there is nothing wrong with getting money so they still get points for that. The main goal for the Objectivist is to get the coins.

       We want there to be a negative penalty for time after a set amount of seconds. The penalty would be worse for the objectivist, one of the goals of the objectivist is to move quickly.
Probably wont implement this in the first level, but definitely in other levels. It is difficult to make a decision about this before playtesting of the level has happened. More on this later.
       After each level your score is evaluated and used to determine how many followers you get in the next level.

Minion Control 
In each level the player is able to control themselves and each of their minions, however the player can only control one thing at a time. If the player chooses to only control the philosopher then that is his/her prerogative.  The level ends when the philosopher goes through the goal door.

Level 1

The tutorial is mostly finished, so this week we are working on level 1.
The original sketch of level 1 looks like this  level 1 sketch
The idea behind this level is that this is how you get the first follower and you probably won't ever lose this one. In this level we also introduce the structure of the game: at the beginning of the level we give you a rule about your philosophy, probably given like a suggestion. Throughout the level you gain and lose points depending on how consistent you are with that rule. At the end we will show you your score out of the total points possible and you will have the option to do it again and try to be more consistent.

For this level you have the choice of prioritizing talking to the minion or getting all of the coins. The objectivist should prioritize getting the coins and the other two philosophers should prioritize talking to/rescuing the minion. It is not definite, but because this is the first way to get a minion we are considering having the player re-do the level if they do not score high enough to get their minion.

Next week I will go into the specifics about the mechanics for this level and for the game in general.

And as always, here is a lens from Schell's Art of Game Design   

Lens 3-  Fun
This is difficult to think about objectively and nobody has played the game yet so it is difficult to determine what is actually fun. But here is my best guess about what is fun about the game. 

• philosopher ghosts 
• animals that give philosophy advice 
• humor (once it is put in place)
• minion control/being able to control multiple units 

weekly update and some lenses

This week I am working on modeling level 1
working on the character models
and sketching further levels

I do not have new photos of content to show so I will talk about concepts and the lenses from Jesse Schell's Art of Game Design

Lens 2-Surprise (p26)

• what will surprise the players when they play the game?
• the human characteristics of animals 
• philosophy jokes (hopefully)
• animal portraits of philosophers 
• the things they learn about each philosophy 
• Does the story have surprises? 
• philosopher ghosts 
• your pet turns into other animals 
• the story isn't very developed yet, so ideally there will be more later
• Do the game rules have surprises? the artwork? the technology?
• the rules change depending on the philosophy you are following, which will be a surprise 
• the artwork is still very undecided, so it is hard to say 
• the player is able to control all of their minions (one at a time)..unless they leave you
• Do the rules gives players ways to surprise each other? 
• the rules for each philosophy allow players to surprise each other by using rules to get what they want 

Once Upon a Time...

there was a philosophy game in the making. Here is the story of that game(thus far(subject to change))

The Story

A humanoid (whose gender is currently unknown, but will be referred to as a he for now, to keep it simple) is ambling around in the mountains with his pet dog. Without warning the dog runs farther into the mountains. The humanoid follows his dog up the mountains and into a creepy temple that seemingly just appeared. The humanoid steps into the temple and does not see his dog, he does however see several ghosts arguing. The ghosts resemble philosophers which is fitting because they are arguing about philosophy. Each of the philosophers believes the fate of the world is in trouble, what they cannot agree on is which of their philosophies will save everyone. The humanoid is mystified by the temple and the arguments of the philosophers, they all spoke so convincingly. The humanoid wanted to learn more about their philosophies, but the philosopher ghosts stopped talking. They noticed the humanoid and demanded to know which of them he believed to be correct. The humanoid chooses to follow one of the philosophies and the ghost that advocates for that philosophy gives the humanoid a quest. The ghost tells the humanoid to spread the word about the philosophy and get other people excited about philosophy. Then they arrive at a problem. The humanoid does not know very much about the philosophy and the ghost cannot leave the temple. After some thought, the ghost realizes he can jump into the body of the humanoid's dog. They search the temple to find the dog and afterwards set forth on their quest.


Presumably after this more things will happen. This bit of the story is enough to get through the tutorial and the first level. I want the story to shape the levels, but I also think what I need from the levels will become clear after I finish the first one. That being said, more parts of the story as time goes. 

Also I will probably pick up with the lenses again next week.  

Tutorial Photos and Lenses from "Art of Game Design"

Tutorial Update

As of right now there is a rough model of the tutorial because we want people to play it and see if the instructions make sense.

 As you can see, they all look really similar to the sketches. I plan to change the aesthetics once we work out the major bugs. The most important thing right now is that people play test the instructions and mechanics.

We are still working on putting the ghosts in scene two and getting the information about each philosophy to show up when the player stands by each door. Initially I wanted the ghosts to look like the animal philosophers but since I have not finished the models for those yet I had to improvise, so for now the ghosts look a bit like the Pac-Man ghost. They are an amusing place holder.




As for the third scene, there is a similar one for each
of the philosophers. Once the animal models are
finished the text in the blue boxes will be replaced
with photos.

In addition to working on the game and updating this blog I have also been re-reading Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design  

It is described as a book a lenses, where each lens is a themed set of questions to consider in regards to your game. The book has 100 lenses so I thought I would go through a couple each week to get a better picture of the game . 

Lens 1- Essential Experience (pg 21)

• What experience do I want the player to have?
• solving philosophical thought experiments as different philosophers
• being introduced to different philosophies in a non-serious way 
• What is essential to that experience?
• in order for the player to handle things as different philosophers they need to know about the philosophers
• so a little bit of education is essential 
• in order for the experience to be non-serious it is essential for there to be humor throughout 
• How can my game capture that essence?  
• Because the game is a platformer we are going to utilize the scenery space and the platforms for small bits of education 
• we also used the story to set up a mentor relationship so it makes sense for someone to follow the player around and give him advice, which is really education about the philosophies 
• our game captures the non-serious essence by using things like the arguing ghosts in the tutorial and the concept of minions 
• both of these things are presented in a way that seems humorous 
• We also hope to use aesthetics and comedy to keep the mood light
• I am not sure if this is all, if not I reserve the right to change it as the game progresses. 

More lenses and such next week

Tutorial Sketches

Hello!

This week we are working on completing the tutorial so people can play it and we can make sure our game makes sense thus far. I have been having issues getting all of the textures to show up, but the other day I finally got it! Wheee! For your amusement I will provide the very rough sketches of the tutorial that I drew on some computer paper during class.

 The tutorial, as well as the following levels are intended to follow a story. In a future post I will put the entire story, but for now know that...

 the main character(the player) follows his dog up the steps and into a creepy temple.
In this scene the player learns how to walk and jump and use doors.










Inside the temple the philosopher ghosts are arguing and they ask the player which of them is correct.
In this scene the player walks to each door to learn a thing or two about each philosophy and chooses a door to walk through based on that philosophy. 

Once the player chooses a philosophy the player learns that the ghost of the philosopher she/he chose is inside his/her pet dog and will guide them on their quest.
Here the player learns that they can take advice from the animal following them around because the animal is an authority on the philosophy. The player also learns that the quest is to practice the philosophy and teach others. 



Currently we are working on the part where the player can walk past each door in the second scene and information about the philosophy will appear at the bottom of the screen. We also need to figure out how to make the philosopher ghosts because right now I am unsure of how to achieve that.
And then after figuring out those things- the models are not all finished so the tutorial will first be played with cubes and spheres-hopefully people can overlook that at the beginning.

some other miscellaneous things on my mind about the game :
The theme of the game is philosophy, cannot forget to always be reinforcing the theme.
I want to figure out the aesthetic of our game. I know it does not matter right now- but I still want to figure it out.

In the next couple of posts I will put up some pictures of the finished tutorial, write out the story and work through Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design 

More Progress and Some Issues

        I.            What’s new?

a.       The game now has a story! Which provides a frame for levels

b.      Vague concept art  for characters , levels and start up screen

        Otter ; the Kantian ; the Utilitarian ; Minions

c.       A few unfinished models

d.      A prototype for multi-character movement

  picture of the prototype!

      II.       

            What are we working on?

W

a.       Finishing touches of the prototype

b.      Completing the tutorial so people can play it, finally!

c.       Level design

d.      Character models 

    III.        

    I          Issues?

a.       Remembering to update this blog (ha)

b.      Want to design levels based on thought experiments-how to set that up in a way that fits with the game?

c.       Keep levels progressively harder, still interesting and related to the philosophies

d.      The game needs a title

e.      And we need some play testers who haven’t heard us talk about the game every day for months. Any takers?

Characters

Lately we have been designing the characters of the main philosophers. Currently the Objectivist is an otter; the Kantian is a bird and the Utilitarian is a lemur. Sketches and further explanations to follow soon.

Issues Thus Far

As with all projects, we are having some issues thinking through some things. I thought talking about them a bit might help us puzzle through them. 

1. How to teach the player in a subtle way? 
• We are aware that once people realize they are actively learning something during the game they will be significantly less interested in playing and keeping the game fun and interesting is the top priority. The educational aspects need to be subtle so that the player is overwhelmed with information, but we are not sure how to make the philosophy subtle in a way that the player still learns. 
2. The player might need to come to the game with some knowledge. 
•  One of the strategies we want to implement for the player to learn is that the player would gain and lose points depending on whether their actions were consistent with the philosophy. For that to work the player would need to have a slight idea what the philosopher would do in some situations. How can we teach the player a few things about each philosophy beforehand so that this strategy would work? Perhaps this idea just will not work out, but I would like to find a way to implement, maybe it is something for later levels?
3. Philosophy is a large field. 
• It seems unlikely that we could teach the player everything about all 4 philosophies that we have chosen. How do we decide what the most important aspects of each philosophy are? 

These are some of the things that we are trying to solve at the moment. 

mechanics and structure

Progress!

The team has had some ideas about how to handle multiple philosophers. Of course nothing is set in stone, but here is what we are thinking right now.

The game will have four main philosophers: The Utilitarian, The Objectivist, the The Confucian and The Kantian. Each will play a different role/have different abilities. 

When the game starts the player will choose one of the main philosophers and they will use that one philosopher to navigate the levels.

In addition to controlling one philosopher the player will also have the option of controlling several secondary characters.

I have created the following image to illustrate this mechanic.

In this instance the stick person is the philosopher that the player chooses at the beginning of the game. The stars represent the secondary characters. The yellow circles represent gold. The dark gray areas are platforms for the characters to walk on and the light gray areas are doorways to finish the level. 

Hopefully from this image it is clear that the player can always see the main philosopher and the secondary characters at the same time. The player will be able to control all 4 of the characters, however the player is only able to control one character at a time. The player can choose to take only the philosopher to the end of the level, or the philosopher as well as any number of the secondary characters. The player can split the gold between every character in his party or keep it all for the philosopher. These decisions should be made based on what philosopher they are playing as. 

As of right now this is the mechanic that we are working with. More updates on this idea soon.   

Progress

The list has been narrowed to four philosophers whose philosophies will star in the game:

1.  Ayn Rand/Objectivism 
2. John Stuart Mill/Utilitarianism
3. Immanuel Kant/Kantianism
4. Confucius/ Confucianism      

The team is still working on how exactly to educate the players on each philosophy. What we know for sure is that we want the education to be subtle. We are working on prototypes and discussing ways to educate the player.                    

Philosophers

I have narrowed down the list from every philosopher ever, to eleven philosophers and philosophies that could work in the game. I will take the list and create a brief summary of each and consider how they could work in the game. I will update on that progress soon.

1. Socrates
2. Aristotle
3. Descartes
4. Hume
5. Kant
6. Confucius 
7. John Stuart Mill
8. Ayn Rand
9. Alan Turing
10. Saul Kripke
11. Gettier 

In the beginning

Last semester I worked on making an educational game. The objective of creating the game was to teach simple math. The result of a semester worth of work was Chomp Chomp Yum Yum. 

My new quest is to create a game to teach people about philosophy. I was challenged to create a game to teach people about philosophy by my game design mentor Dr. Gordon Erlebacher (hold for applause.) 

Ideally I will update this regularly with all of the new things I am excited about for the game. As of right now the game is nameless and has no specifics other than it is educational. 

 Without further ado, here are some ideas that have come up thus far:

• at the beginning of the game you choose a class and each class represents a different philosophical view such as
• Objectivism  
• Consequentialism 
• Utilitarianism 
• and others!
• when you are looking at the screen to choose your class there is a 1-2 description of each class 
• then throughout the game you receive and lose points depending on whether or not your actions are consistent with those of your class 
• in order to have information about the philosophers who created these views there could be portraits of them in the game 
• or the philosopher could be your mentor

OR

• a game where you change between two different philosophers 
• each has strengths and weaknesses 
• each has a different agenda
• you dont control when you change 
• main goal of the game is to find the philosopher that is changing you back and forth 
• the game has different endings depending on which philosopher you are at the end 
• it is possible that these ideas could be fused together, so we will see 

the next set of tasks is as follows

1. pick the philosophers/philosophies that are going to be used
2. list their attributes 
3. and axioms 
4. assumptions the philosophies are based on 
5. dilemmas of each philosophy 
6. what kind of questions will each philosopher ask?
7. what do we want the player to learn?
8. what is the genre of this game?