868 research outputs found
Deriving Quests from Open World Mechanics
Open world games present players with more freedom than games with linear
progression structures. However, without clearly-defined objectives, they often
leave players without a sense of purpose. Most of the time, quests and
objectives are hand-authored and overlaid atop an open world's mechanics. But
what if they could be generated organically from the gameplay itself? The goal
of our project was to develop a model of the mechanics in Minecraft that could
be used to determine the ideal placement of objectives in an open world
setting. We formalized the game logic of Minecraft in terms of logical rules
that can be manipulated in two ways: they may be executed to generate graphs
representative of the player experience when playing an open world game with
little developer direction; and they may be statically analyzed to determine
dependency orderings, feedback loops, and bottlenecks. These analyses may then
be used to place achievements on gameplay actions algorithmically.Comment: To appear at Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) 201
Adapting Game Mechanics with Micro-Machinations
In early game development phases game designers adjust game rules in a rapid, iterative and flexible way. In later phases, when software prototypes are available, play testing provides more detailed feedback about player experience. More often than not, the realized and the intended gameplay emerging from game software differ. Unfortunately, adjusting it is hard because designers lack a means for efficiently defining, fine-tuning and balancing game mechanics. The language Machinations provides a graphical notation for expressing the rules of game economies that fits with a designer’s understanding and vocabulary, but is limited to design itself. Micro-Mach
Cells of adult rat heart : isolation, characterization and some aspects of fatty acid metabolism
Expert’s comment concerning Grand Rounds case entitled “Solid variant of aneurysmal bone cyst on the cervical spine of a child: case report, differential diagnosis, and treatment rationale” (by Christos Karampalis, Robert Lenthall, and Bronek Boszczyk)
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