Robogeddon - A Casual Real Time Strategy Game

This report details the design, implementation, and analysis of Robogeddon, which was created as a WPI Major-Qualifying-Project for the computer science, interactive media and game development, and professional writing majors. Players in Robogeddon have the unique experience of taking on the role of an overwhelming agent of destruction, in contrast to the typical heroic archetype of many role-playing-games. Robogeddon showcases the talents of the development team through a complete game engine and playable game, dynamically generated 3D art assets as well as prefabricated ones, advanced artificial intelligence, and a supplementary graphic novel, all created and implemented by the development team over a six month development period

Player Modeling

Player modeling is the study of computational models of players in games. This includes the detection, modeling, prediction and expression of human player characteristics which are manifested through cognitive, affective and behavioral patterns. This chapter introduces a holistic view of player modeling and provides a high level taxonomy and discussion of the key components of a player\u27s model. The discussion focuses on a taxonomy of approaches for constructing a player model, the available types of data for the model\u27s input and a proposed classification for the model\u27s output. The chapter provides also a brief overview of some promising applications and a discussion of the key challenges player modeling is currently facing which are linked to the input, the output and the computational model

African Courts, International Law, and Comparative Case Law: Chimera or Emerging Human Rights Jurisprudence?

Though the potential creation of a supranational human rights court has brought international attention to the African human rights system, international law and human rights scholars rarely turn to African examples when studying the domestic application of international human rights norms. This Article seeks to fill that gap by analyzing cases from several Anglophone common law countries in sub-Saharan Africa that invoke international law and comparative case law as interpretive support in their national fundamental rights jurisprudence

Playing Smart - Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games

Abstract: With this document we will present an overview of artificial intelligence in general and artificial intelligence in the context of its use in modern computer games in particular. To this end we will firstly provide an introduction to the terminology of artificial intelligence, followed by a brief history of this field of computer science and finally we will discuss the impact which this science has had on the development of computer games. This will be further illustrated by a number of case studies, looking at how artificially intelligent behaviour has been achieved in selected games

Framing Ludens: Pawn Swapping and Game Mode Alteration in an Unreal Engine Game Level

Knight of Drones is a hybrid twin-stick top-down shooter and side-scrolling platformer that aims to bring vintage gameplay to a contemporary game engine. A single swatch of the top-down game mode and a pair of levels from the side-scrolling game mode will be presented beginning with the player characters and player pawn assets and then extending to the level design and game design assets. The game deals with the fallout effects of climate change and serves as a cautionary tale against pollution and weaponized AI. This message will appear primarily in the game\u27s atmosphere, literally in the background in some cases, as the settings and places visited by the player will be constructed of level assets that relate to these concepts. Instead of standard platformer levels (the ice level, the lava level, the jungle level), Knight of Drones features levels such as an oil slick ocean level, an abandoned copper smelter level, or a plastic dump level. While not blind to the irony of using silicon processing power to warn about the negative effects of consumer waste on the environment, there exists an undervalued opportunity to build game worlds that promote social causes. By creating a setting that engages the player through environmental instability, and by using familiar, approachable vintage mechanics, it may be possible to celebrate the history of gaming and offer the player thoughtful moral questions without diluting the core gameplay mechanics or taking agency away from the player. Hybridity of game mode is used in Knight of Drones to change up the gameplay speed and style as it affords the player more than one viewpoint or character token to control. Additional hybridity of genre should offer the players something innovative in aesthetics. Viewed from the Mechanics Design Aesthetics (MDA) framework, the goal of Knight of Drones is to offer old-school gameplay in a strange new setting that makes the player consider humanity\u27s long-term effects on the planet

Reframing Kurtz’s Painting: Colonial Legacies and Minority Rights in Ethnically Divided Societies

Minority rights constitute some of the most normatively and economically important human rights. Although the political science and legal literatures have proffered a number of constitutional and institutional design solutions to address the protection of minority rights, these solutions are characterized by a noticeable neglect of, and lack of sensitivity to, historical processes. This Article addresses that gap in the literature by developing a causal argument that explains diverging practices of minority rights protections as functions of colonial governments’ variegated institutional practices with respect to particular ethnic groups. Specifically, this Article argues that in instances where colonial governments politicize and institutionalize ethnic hegemony in the pre-independence period, an institutional legacy is created that leads to lower levels of minority rights protections. Conversely, a uniform treatment and depoliticization of ethnicity prior to independence ultimately minimizes ethnic cleavages post-independence and consequently causes higher levels of minority rights protections. Through a highly structured comparative historical analysis of Botswana and Ghana, this Article builds on a new and exciting research agenda that focuses on the role of long-term historio-structural and institutional influences on human rights performance and makes important empirical contributions by eschewing traditional methodologies that focus on single case studies that are largely descriptive in their analyses. Ultimately, this Article highlights both the strength of a historical approach to understanding current variations in minority rights protections and the varied institutional responses within a specific colonial government