Over the course of the past few weeks of researching different topics and creating a blog in response to questions asked of me, I’ve learnt a great deal and had my perspective changed on quite a few issues. Looking back to the question about should emotive modelling be included for NPC’s, I realise I found myself struggling quite a lot. It wasn’t just a matter of difficulty understanding the question as it turned out to be an issue of whether or not it is suitable and how specific people would view it. I began by trying to research behaviour modelling and how that linked to emotive modelling but felt like I was getting nowhere. It was quite difficult to find information on at first as I found that I was being too specific with my searches. This is when I decided to change my research method and search for any work related to AI and emotions.

I found that the answer I gave in response to the question was pretty open about how I would personally consider emotion modelling in NPC’s for games. I found that the longer I researched into the topic the more fascinating it became and was very interested in the stories of how developers had input emotion into some characters.

By changing how I researched I found that I could get to my answer a lot easier as I was thrown down a path which led to different perceptions that I may have never even considered. This broader view on the situation really helped me to see that by changing the nature of the question slightly whilst researching, we can still come to a conclusion for our original question that was put before us. I know now that in future when i am researching, I will adopt this new method of distorting the question to gain different perspectives on how the question can be answered. So i am sure this will affect all future work.

Another example of my overall experiences with this module is how I took to completing the first question pair. I chose to look into Dieter Ram’s 10 Principles of good design because it interested me that these 10 principles still help guide creators in developing new items for consumers. It baffled me at first and I was confused on how I would visualise these principles in a relevant way. I mentioned in the blog post about how these principles don’t just apply to physical items such as radios but how they also apply to digital work such as websites. “Dieter Rams 10 principles aren’t just applied to physical objects though. Looking at a toaster you know what you’re doing, and this should be the same for a webpage.” This really fascinated me as it gave me an insight into how web developers have to consider so many different possibilities when creating a new website.

Overall I would say that through the module my research methods have slightly changed for the better and will help me to improve upon my work in the future and assist me when I’m feeling stuck on a particular topic.

Whether or not emotive modelling should be part of NPC development is a difficult question to answer currently. And i do believe that it’s not exactly a yes or no question of whether it should have a place in games with NPCs and more of a question of should it be included in certain games. Emotive modelling means that the AI by having their own emotions can decide how they interact with the player and other NPCs. Now this could have serious impact on gameplay depending on the game and could be both positive and negative for the player. Imagine the player needs to talk to an NPC but that particular NPC was killed by another for somehow upsetting the other AI. Usually without this emotive modelling the NPCs wouldn’t be able to interact in this way. A good example is from the article below:

“There was one time I was playing a murder mystery game we had designed – and there was this doctor who came to diagnose how a character was murdered,” he says. “However, the doctor was being very rude to my character and kept making dismissive remarks. Initially I thought it was a bug because I knew the doctor’s personality was mostly pleasant, and I knew I hadn’t been rude to him. I thought, oh man, why is he being such an arsehole to me?
 
“I looked through the code and it turned out that much much earlier in the game I’d been rude to a servant during dinner, and the servant had gone into the kitchen and told the people there what a jerk I’d been – one of those people was the doctor. He remembered that.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/12/video-game-characters-emotional-ai-developers

In FFXV AI are present constantly, from start to finish of the game. Some with their own personalities and traits, and others who are simply background characters. From enemy AI to friendly characters the player meets on their journey. When playing the game you’ll notice you are accompanied by 3 AI companions, each with different traits and personalities. They’re aimed at bringing something unique to the team and keeping the player immersed. They’ll follow the player wherever the player goes and they’ll traverse environments and fight in different ways. They appear to be quite intelligent AI on the surface but they do have quite a few issues.

They can notoriously get stuck on objects in the environment which means the only way to free them is to progress a large distance and the game will teleport them to you. The enemy AI in the game is relatively simple as they only have one or two attacks each with the exception of the final boss. The final boss of the game tries to mimic the player by fighting with the same weapons as them and using the same attacks, however they don’t seem to learn at all during the fight.

Example of a good UI in a game would be Final Fantasy XV. This games UI does everything it should in a simplistic way for the player to understand. The information is presented and then removed when its not needed so that it doesn’t hinder the players experience and break immersion.

In a game such as FFXV colour is used to help the player keep track of their health. For example, the player will notice that when they are on low health their screen will go red alerting them that they need to heal. This is a subtle warning using colour to indicate the players health. Colour is also used another way in combat. It serves as a guide to which form of attacks the player should use on an enemy.
This is shown where when the player attacks an enemy, it shows a damage number in one of three colours (yellow, white, purple). White damage indicates to the player they are dealing moderate damage to their foe. Yellow damage shows that they are using a weapon that is effective against the enemy resulting in a higher damage number. Purple damage indicates that the form of attack they are using is not very effective as the enemy has a resistance to something you’re using.

Health – In FFXV, The bottom right of the screen displays each character in the parties health and the playable characters MP. As each character in the game is important, displaying every party members health is a crucial aspect in a battle. This feature allows the players to see which member of their team needs help and how much damage the enemies can do. When the player is attacked their health bar goes down and the number next to it (which represents their health) drops.
It also shows the players MP bar to let them know how much Magic they have left to use. This is crucial information for the game to help the player understand the game and strategize their gameplay. The health bar is easy to understand for anyone who’s playing the game as it has a very simple format which is similar to many past games and is also easy to understand even if you’ve never played a game before.

HCI – Human Augmentation.
As technology evolves over time, so does HCI. Virtual Reality (or VR) is one of the many ways that HCI is evolving. Virtual reality has been around for a very long time but recently huge strides have been made in helping to successfully enhance the experience. Just recently it was released to the public for use in games. VR has the ability to trick the mind into believing its somewhere else and change our perceptions. Its ability to do this means that people can experience things that they may never have the chance to. Below is a good article on how it is changing our world around us and some of the people responsible for this change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36279855

Freebird games is a small independent studio consisting of very few members, put together by Kan Gao to tell stories through interactive narrative and music. In 2011 Freebird studios became well known when they released the award winning game To the Moon. To the Moon is an interactive narrative driven game that has the player using very basic controls to solve puzzles so that they can fulfil a dying mans wish. It has a simple pixel art style that gives the game beautiful scenery.

However, the main reason behind my fondness for the game and the studio is how they realise the key importance of music in games. The soundtrack for To the Moon was praised worldwide with its emotional power and how it had such a large impact on the games success. One of the key aspects of Freebird games is that they are heavily focused on how music can impact the game. They charge relatively little for their games due to being an independent studio and they keep people updated on their progression in the form of a blog and news feed. A link to their website can be found below.

http://freebirdgames.com/

Upcoming indie games:

Finding paradise – Finding paradise is the sequel to the game To the Moon, developed by Free bird studios. This game coming late 2017 is probably one of the most anticipated indie titles due to the first games incredible popularity. It’s been 6 years since the last game and the anticipation for this game is incredibly high as the player base expects another masterpiece for the long wait.

Prey for the gods – This upcoming indie title is being developed by ‘No Matter Studios’ scheduled to be released late 2017. It’s considered a harsh survival game inspired by Shadow of the colossus. In the game the player must navigate a dangerous snow covered environment in which they must craft supplies and battle monstrous sized enemies much like the enemies in Shadow of the Colossus which require you to climb them just to damage them. It has an intriguing art style and the survival aspect gives it a refreshing taste and unique feel.

Perception – Deep End Games is a team consisting of former Bioshock and Dead Space developers which have banded together to create a highly anticipated game known as perception. Perception has the player navigate around an abandoned mansion as a blind woman named Cassie Thompson. The player must solve puzzles and traverse the environment by using echolocation to determine their surroundings. This is done by using a walking stick to hit the floor and determine the location of objects. However, the player is not alone in this building and they must choose sometimes on being able to see and letting the monster see them, or traversing blind. The reason this is so highly anticipated is that the mechanics are relatively new to the games as not many games have used or successfully used echolocation as a way of navigation.

Overall it would seem that the most highly anticipated indie games are ones that either have a prequel which set a high standard, or games that take a spin on popular previous titles.

Reference:

image 1:  https://www.giantbomb.com/profile/majormitch/blog/my-journey-to-the-moon/91486/

Advantages of copyright – The most obvious advantage of copyright is its main purpose, the protection of your work being stolen by others. When work is taken by others and passed off as their own, we call it plagiarism. Copyright law was designed to give creators the security they desired so that others could not take their work and use it for their own purposes. This means that if i was to create a character for a videogame then i could protect my idea from being taken by another developer. This also means that i can’t take a popular character such as Mario and claim it as my own.

Another example of a benefit to copyright is that you can share your work with who you want and benefit accordingly. This means that if i was to design something and place it under copyright protection then i could essentially allow other benefactors to use it and earn money in their work. For example, if a company wanted to add Mario into their game they would first need to contact the company who owns the rights to Mario and ask for permission. This allows the company responsible for Mario to negotiate a deal in which they claim a certain portion of profits.

Disadvantages of copyright – One of the biggest disadvantages of copyright would be that it makes it harder to promote your work if you’re new to an industry. For example, if you are a musician, it can be hard to share your music as others wouldn’t want to share your songs for fear of copyright. Many websites that share content have had copyright issues in the past. YouTube being one of the worst for copyright issues. For a while on YouTubes platform, audio from games weren’t allowed to be shared which resulted in streamers suffering major loss to channel growth and income as their videos were being removed without their knowledge due to copyright strikes. An interesting website I discovered whilst researching highlights most of these issues.

http://copyrightkills.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/copyright-advantages-and-disadvantages.html

Is it possible to make anything new? This question itself seems a little pointless when talking on a broader spectrum. As every day every single living person creates something new, memories, bonds and even items. Narrowing it to game design in particular the answer would still be the same. Every year millions of individuals create brand new ideas, characters, environments and mechanics. Every single thing that has even been invented has had some sort of inspiration because everything we imagine is drawn from what we have perceived throughout life. Whether that be simply noticing the shape of an object and using that as material, or the sound of your environment around you. If you thought of it then it will be created in your image. No one perceives an idea the same as another. Its one of the many things that seperate us and make us unique. So yes, its as possible to make something new as it is to copy an idea.

The key concepts of interactive narrative games.

Interactive narrative games date far back, but the ones we will look at are the Fighting Fantasy books created by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. When these books came out they became an instant hit as they allowed readers to forge their own path through a fantasy world. This allure gathered a huge following. The books consisted of numbered paragraphs in which the reader would choose a path and navigate through the numbers they were told to help create their own story. The player had to navigate their way through the book whilst they may have rules to restrict them and different mechanics to challenge them. The reader has to decide on a path and accept the consequences of their choice, whether they be immediate consequences or later down the line.

The books acted as a game that the reader could play by themselves which was revolutionary at the time. By rolling a dice at the beginning of the game they could create character stats such as luck and skill which meant that the story would never be the same as they could have a different character every time. This decision made the game very popular and would later inspire other games. The link below is an interesting article on the Fighting Fantasy books and how they were created. The webpage also has numerous articles on who Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson were as well as how to obtain these books.

1. http://officialfightingfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-is-fighting-fantasy.html

A key question is whether or not Interactive narrative is still valid and used in modern games. And the answer to that is simply, yes. There are plenty of modern games that successfully nurture the interactive narrative genre. From episodic titles such as TellTales Walking Dead. This game as an example is a good example of an interactive narrative. The game has you play a character and progress through different environments by making choices which lead you down different paths and change the nature of the game. Some choices may result in you losing and some change how the game can be played and eliminate other options from the game.

This article below on the web page talks about how interactive narrative video games have been changing throughout the years and the how the change in technology has had an impact on them. It mentions games such as Colossal Cave, Zoark and Kings Quest whist talking about how they had an impact on gaming at the time. Whether or not the success of the games are clear, what is clear is that interactive narrative will continue to be a part of gamings future. This is evident by the release of upcoming titles such as Detroit – Become Human, which is an extremely anticipated game that is completely based around interactive narrative. You’ll see the player choosing between a large variety of options without knowing the outcome and having to deal with the consequences which is what interactive games are all about.

1. https://www.imore.com/colossal-cave-walking-dead-legacy-interactive-fiction

Dieter Rams 10 principles of good design can be seen in many modern day inventions, from kettles to phones. He states that good design should:

Be innovative
Make a product useful
Is aesthetic
Make a product understandable
Be unobtrusive
Be honest
Be long lasting
Be thorough down to the last detail
Be environmentally friendly
Involves as little design as possible

Cell phones when created are always pushed as being unique and are finding new ways to be innovative. When they first were released they were incredibly basic and had limited functions. However they were still innovative in the way that they were a new and unique product which drew people’s attention. When phones moved from physical buttons to touchscreen it could be considered good design as it makes the product simpler to use by removing multiple mechanical parts and making the products more aesthetically pleasing. They become more aesthetically pleasing over time with sleeker appearances and smoother edges.
These are a few of the ways that cell phone companies take Dieter Rams 10 principles and create new innovative products.

The website below (1) shows how phones evolved over time with new innovations in technology and the impact that had on the public. Dieter Rams 10 principles aren’t just applied to physical objects though. Looking at a toaster you know what you’re doing, and this should be the same for a webpage. Your webpage shouldn’t be confusing to figure out how to access it and use it properly, its should be honest and thorough. So as you can see web pages are another thing that the 10 principles could easily be applied to. The website below (2) showcases Dieter Rams 10 principles and how they take it into account when designing web pages.

1. https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/evolution-of-mobile-phones/
2. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/dieter-rams-10-timeless-commandments-for-good-design

The second part of the question would be whether these 10 principles are relevant in games design today. And i can honestly say its not going to be as simple as a yes or no answer, more of a “they can be useful” answer. Now straight away i would say that they are not relevant in modern gaming due to the complexity of games nowadays. Games such as dark souls, whilst aesthetically pleasing and innovative, is not easily understandable and involves a huge amount of design. And you can consider many games to be obtrusive today as they perform their function of entertainment yet also provide frustration and can break easily.
However, not all games share these same issues.  Games can actually use all 10 principles or at least most of them and these principles help to design these games. For example the game Magic the Gathering. A card game which utilizes the ten principles put forth by Dieter Rams. Below is a link which explains how they have been implemented into the game. In the article he talks through the different principles and how that applies to him as a card designer and how these impact the choices he makes and the way people perceive the cards.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/ten-principles-good-design-part-1-2010-05-03

Reference:

Image 1:  http://unit30distinctiond1.blogspot.co.uk/