Knowledge-Driven Game Design by Non-Programmers

Game extension is an entertaining activity that offers an opportunity to test new design approaches by non-programmers. The real challenge is to enable this activity by means of a suitable infrastructure. We propose a knowledge-driven approach with natural game-player concepts. These concepts, found in game ontologies, include game abstractions and rules for game moves. The approach has been implemented and tested for board games. These include tic-tac-toe as a simplest example, enabling extensions of tic-tac- toe, say to a four-by-four board and Sudoku, a single player game of a very different nature.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, reprint of paper in SKY 2013 Workshop, Vilamoura, Portugal, September 2013, SCITEPRESS Digital Librar

Non-Concept Software Subsystems: Tangible and Intangible

Concepts modified by a Non- prefix apparently denote a negation, an opposite of the concept without this prefix. But, generally the situation is rather subtle: non- implies only partial negation and the concept suggests preserved identity with some reduced quality or absent attribute. In this work tangible and intangible software subsystems based upon Non- concepts are defined and pluggable ontologies are proposed for their representation. Pluggable ontologies are a kind of nano-ontologies, which by their minimal size facilitate fast composition of new software subsystems. These ontologies are made pluggable by Design Sockets, a novel kind of class. These are abstract connectors for removed/added parts, functionalities or identities, and for subdued qualities. Design Sockets are the basis of a Design Pattern for dynamically modifiable software systems. Pragmatic implications of Non- concepts include manageable design of product lines with multiple models. Non- concepts are also relevant to the controversy whether composition is or is not identity. The resolution is not sharp. Identity is entangled with composition, and is preserved to a certain extent, until further removal causes identity breakdown.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures, Extended from KEOD'2012 Conferenc