Ludic Dreams

I feel dirty that I quoted the bush administration in this header. The bad kind of dirty.

It’s funny how, in trying to create something less complicated, my mind works it around until it is precisely the opposite of the original intention, but in the ulitmate cosmic irony, actually reinforces the first point!

Example:

In the game we be making, we are using shapes ( hence the circles from the previous post) in a fairly clever way. We are using them to avoid using a costly ( in both time and manpower) drawing interface, and to keep the game’s momentum up substantially. However, in changing so drastically, we needed a new infastructure to measure these shapes. The one we came up with is resembling that of a grid…. which is so large it encompasses the prior aspect of gameplay, but is also so much improved that the team now warrants it.

I am confused myself, april, just stick with it.

On a slightly more narcissistic note, I am the very interesting student that Doc mentions in this blog post. Feel free to mock.

-A F K

It’s amazing where inspiration hits.

I was racking my brain thinking about how the design system in Chalkboard warrior should work… how do we simulate drawing with the xbox controller? it’s not like we can make the game on the wii, nor are our developers (both of them) have the ability to do direct drawing. I was driving around my town at the time, and I looked casually to my left.

There where kids, no doubt enjoying their snow day. They where rolling balls in the snow, and then put one on top of the other… three circles, all forming one shape.

My eyes traced the outline of the three circles, and suddenly it hit me.

Of course, I also almost slid into the person in front of me. As I slammed on the breaks, the snow on the top of my car sliding onto my windshield, I turned to look at the kids beside me, my mind still racked with possibilties.

One of the little kids waved to me.

I waved back.

Chalkboard Warrior.

2007.

The Pencil is Mightier than the Sword.

-A F K

Just thought I would put this on the intertubes, although someone who wrote very fond words already beat me to it.

Love you, babe.

-A F K

Snow day!

Needless to say, the snow was fairly unique today. If I where a snow…. anything, I might say that his was “perfect” snow- it was as if the ground was covered in miniscule smooth glass pebbles. Beautful for sledding. And so, we did!

And I hurt myself .

Sean Hit me in the nose with his elbow.

I took a tumble, and fell head over heels twice. TWICE. i hit a rock on my head, and assumed I had a concussion.

I hat two fights today that took place while sliding down a hill.

The thought of Bailey Benjamin sliding down a slope, for whatever reason, is fucking fantastic.

And on ludology; A teacher asked me if I was on the cusp of a movement when she found out about this major and offered assistance.

I gotta say, I feel so good right now. If only I didn’t feel so terrible.

Happy v-day, Peach

-A F K

(this is a highly ludic post, so be warned.)

I am a staunch believer in gameplay over all. Out of any score of any review of any game, it is the game play section that I listen to most of all. The story, the sound, and the graphics can be spectacular- but without the gameplay, they are all for naught. I am a frequent teller of such theories as The Magic Circle ( this variation is my reference from “A theory of fun: for Game Design” by Raph Koster), in which the player is pulled into the game by certain elements. I am also a firm believer in the games as art movement- the knowledge to place games on the shelf next to Books, music, Movies, and other associated forms of art. When I propose my notion of Gameplay over all, I get very bad looks and some completely blank faces, particularly when I say that final fantasy VII is not a good game because of the story – I like to cut deep. As was said by a particular famous designer, ” Games telling stories is like Michael Jordan playing baseball – both could make a living at it, but their true talents lie elsewhere.”

This is not to say that every game should be storyless- no sir! The analogy that I use to win over ( so far) every nay-sayer is thus: A good game can survive a bad story, but a bad game can not be saved by a good story.

Still, the question many pose is still “Why?” Why thrust gameplay over all else?

The Answer, I believe, is as old as man.

Arguably the first art form was music. Music focused on one sense -hearing. Going to a Concert, performing the music yourself – all of this was possible. However, the primary mode of Music, the way in which we enjoyed it, was through our ears, and hearing.
Stories, which could also be argued as the first form of art, where detailed tales of all sorts that where told, and retold, and retold, untill finally print was created. Even then, as one teacher of mine said, the written word is to be experienced by saying it. Our mouths, our tounges, where the primary facilitators in our enjoyement. Again, hearing the story told or reading the book, even reading a book with pictures- all meant to be said and heard.
Pictures, by this same thinking, where meant to be seen, with the eyes.
Cooking, smelt and tasted.
Movies- seen, heard, and told!

That leaves us with games. Games allow for the final sense to be taken out of the hands of the artist and into the hands of the viewer.

Namely, your hands.

Games allow the user to feel the world in a way that no other art form has done before. They allow the player to experience this form of art in a number of different ways, but the new and exciting way is, of course, touch. The tactile exploration of an unseen world. It is for this reason that Gameplay- a new instrument that is interfaced through touch – is vaulted so high above all the other things that games do well.

And, to end with a note from nintendo, “Touching is good.”

- A F K

Aha! A review, albeit truncated;

-I get what mac users where talking about, except now it is done much better.

-The whole not worrying about drivers, complications, etc – thats awesome.

- I am stuck in an internal conflict about whether to use Stu.dicio.us or Microsoft Office OneNote 2007. ( I have decided to use OneNote, export as an XML file, and then copy-paste stu.dicio.us.)

- Fun. Fun. FUN.

-A F K