WEBVTT 00:00:00.090 --> 00:00:02.490 The following content is provided under a Creative 00:00:02.490 --> 00:00:04.030 Commons license. 00:00:04.030 --> 00:00:06.330 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:10.690 continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. 00:00:10.690 --> 00:00:13.320 To make a donation or view additional materials 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:17.280 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:20.070 at ocw.mit.edu. 00:00:20.070 --> 00:00:22.140 Some content in this audio lecture 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:25.740 is not covered under our Creative Commons license. 00:00:25.740 --> 00:00:29.040 Please listen to the end credits for more information. 00:00:29.040 --> 00:00:30.315 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:00:30.315 --> 00:00:31.590 All right. 00:00:31.590 --> 00:00:35.410 So today's reading was the "MDA" paper 00:00:35.410 --> 00:00:40.400 by Robin Hunicke, Robert Zubek, and Marc LeBlanc. 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:43.230 I hope you found it pretty light reading because it was intended 00:00:43.230 --> 00:00:44.160 to be pretty light. 00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:46.980 And the whole point of it was that we 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:49.380 will be getting through this pretty quickly 00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:52.020 today so that you have time to sit with your teams, 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:55.406 talk about your project, work on it a little bit. 00:00:55.406 --> 00:00:57.530 All the prototyping materials that are in front I'm 00:00:57.530 --> 00:01:01.920 going to be putting the boxes on the tables. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:04.260 Are you more or less seated with your teams right now? 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:04.819 More or less? 00:01:04.819 --> 00:01:06.150 OK. 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:08.700 Every team represented-- let's see. 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:11.060 You are the building team. 00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:12.050 You guys are the-- 00:01:12.050 --> 00:01:12.706 which? 00:01:12.706 --> 00:01:13.830 AUDIENCE: I'm also builder. 00:01:13.830 --> 00:01:15.603 PROFESSOR: The different building team. 00:01:15.603 --> 00:01:16.700 AUDIENCE: The LEGOs, yeah. 00:01:16.700 --> 00:01:17.408 PROFESSOR: Right. 00:01:17.408 --> 00:01:18.590 The LEGO building team, OK. 00:01:18.590 --> 00:01:20.070 Which team is that? 00:01:20.070 --> 00:01:21.467 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:01:21.467 --> 00:01:22.361 PROFESSOR: The what? 00:01:22.361 --> 00:01:23.300 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:01:23.300 --> 00:01:25.150 PROFESSOR: The head of the information team. 00:01:25.150 --> 00:01:26.127 AUDIENCE: Thievery. 00:01:26.127 --> 00:01:29.214 PROFESSOR: The thievery, stealing stuff? 00:01:29.214 --> 00:01:30.560 AUDIENCE: The pap building. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:31.600 Pap building. 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:32.480 PROFESSOR: Oh, you're the pap building. 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:32.760 OK. 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:33.260 All right. 00:01:33.260 --> 00:01:35.160 So, all right, cool. 00:01:35.160 --> 00:01:36.717 I'll type it here, great. 00:01:36.717 --> 00:01:39.050 Hopefully we'll be able to make a little bit of progress 00:01:39.050 --> 00:01:42.980 on your teams on your projects. 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:49.676 So who managed to play a little bit more of the games, 00:01:49.676 --> 00:01:52.050 whether it was the prototype that you played on Wednesday 00:01:52.050 --> 00:01:54.720 or whether it was something else you developed along the way. 00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:56.970 Who managed to get some playtime? 00:01:56.970 --> 00:01:59.130 OK, a few people. 00:01:59.130 --> 00:02:01.544 Who did you play it with? 00:02:01.544 --> 00:02:03.460 AUDIENCE: So we went back to the drawing board 00:02:03.460 --> 00:02:05.369 and redid new games. 00:02:05.369 --> 00:02:05.910 PROFESSOR: OK 00:02:05.910 --> 00:02:06.757 AUDIENCE: Exploring. 00:02:06.757 --> 00:02:08.220 So we just played them amongst ourselves. 00:02:08.220 --> 00:02:08.880 PROFESSOR: Among yourselves? 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:09.830 OK. 00:02:09.830 --> 00:02:10.889 Who did you play with? 00:02:10.889 --> 00:02:12.680 AUDIENCE: Just different people in my dorm. 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:14.220 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:02:14.220 --> 00:02:16.756 [INAUDIBLE] basically, right? 00:02:16.756 --> 00:02:18.240 Anyone else? 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:19.460 Did anyone else do? 00:02:19.460 --> 00:02:19.960 Yep. 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:21.709 AUDIENCE: I mean, we went through a couple 00:02:21.709 --> 00:02:22.480 more iterations-- 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:23.390 PROFESSOR: Just within your team? 00:02:23.390 --> 00:02:23.690 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 00:02:23.690 --> 00:02:24.030 PROFESSOR Yeah. 00:02:24.030 --> 00:02:24.530 OK. 00:02:30.050 --> 00:02:33.480 Did you play an iteration that you didn't develop yourself? 00:02:33.480 --> 00:02:34.890 Did anyone? 00:02:34.890 --> 00:02:39.470 It's like, if you played within your team, obviously-- 00:02:39.470 --> 00:02:40.407 OK. 00:02:40.407 --> 00:02:42.990 So if you played a version that you hadn't developed yourself, 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:46.350 or if you played it with other people who were developing 00:02:46.350 --> 00:02:49.530 the game with you, how do you-- 00:02:49.530 --> 00:02:56.700 what were some of the things that you felt about the game? 00:02:56.700 --> 00:02:59.640 Or what did people say about your game 00:02:59.640 --> 00:03:01.670 once the game was done? 00:03:01.670 --> 00:03:06.245 What did people seem to like or not like about it? 00:03:06.245 --> 00:03:08.370 What were some of the things that they were saying. 00:03:08.370 --> 00:03:09.076 AUDIENCE: It didn't end. 00:03:09.076 --> 00:03:10.230 PROFESSOR: It didn't end. 00:03:10.230 --> 00:03:12.960 OK, all right. 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.000 What else? 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:16.620 It could have been negative feedback. 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:19.535 It could have been, wow, this is terrible because, blah. 00:03:19.535 --> 00:03:20.677 What was the blah? 00:03:24.271 --> 00:03:25.770 Or it could have been, wow, that was 00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:27.230 kind of cool because of blah. 00:03:31.730 --> 00:03:33.580 Nothing? 00:03:33.580 --> 00:03:34.950 Nobody gave you any feedback? 00:03:34.950 --> 00:03:37.350 They just kind of sat there, passively, 00:03:37.350 --> 00:03:39.090 while you're making them play this? 00:03:39.090 --> 00:03:41.617 [LAUGHTER] 00:03:41.617 --> 00:03:47.640 OK, well, I was hoping that that was a segue into a little talk 00:03:47.640 --> 00:03:50.870 about aesthetics, actually. 00:03:50.870 --> 00:03:55.925 Maybe what I'll do then is, I'm gonna make you play a game. 00:03:55.925 --> 00:03:57.140 A shot game. 00:03:57.140 --> 00:03:59.010 The game that you will see-- 00:03:59.010 --> 00:03:59.975 who's played it before? 00:03:59.975 --> 00:04:01.350 AUDIENCE: The game on the screen? 00:04:01.350 --> 00:04:03.390 PROFESSOR: Yeah, Oasis. 00:04:03.390 --> 00:04:06.865 Also note it's Defense of the Oasis, which is easily confused 00:04:06.865 --> 00:04:11.480 with DOTA, but it is not DOTA. 00:04:11.480 --> 00:04:13.212 All right. 00:04:13.212 --> 00:04:14.670 If somebody would like to volunteer 00:04:14.670 --> 00:04:19.079 to play through an early easy level while there's a lot-- 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:20.447 you know what? 00:04:20.447 --> 00:04:22.530 You all get a chance to play it through one round, 00:04:22.530 --> 00:04:24.460 because each round's pretty fast. 00:04:24.460 --> 00:04:27.190 So we'll start with you and then we'll go on then, OK? 00:04:27.190 --> 00:04:28.980 And then, everybody else pay attention 00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:34.410 because I guess he's pretty much playing the tutorial level. 00:04:34.410 --> 00:04:38.040 So this was only designed for the PC. 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:41.400 It was actually one of the-- 00:04:41.400 --> 00:04:42.990 came out roughly-- you could just 00:04:42.990 --> 00:04:44.865 go ahead and play-- it came out roughly about 00:04:44.865 --> 00:04:48.390 the same time as casual games, downloadable, casual games, 00:04:48.390 --> 00:04:53.910 picking up on the market. 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:56.520 I don't think it was ever sold as a boxed product, 00:04:56.520 --> 00:04:59.580 or if it was, that really wasn't the point 00:04:59.580 --> 00:05:00.666 of its business model. 00:05:00.666 --> 00:05:04.195 AUDIENCE: There were people following me. 00:05:04.195 --> 00:05:06.140 PROFESSOR: So you click around. 00:05:06.140 --> 00:05:07.640 AUDIENCE: I can probably figure out. 00:05:07.640 --> 00:05:11.915 Oh, this is really the point of figuring it out. 00:05:11.915 --> 00:05:14.290 That one. 00:05:14.290 --> 00:05:15.452 That happened. 00:05:15.452 --> 00:05:17.356 [LAUGHTER] 00:05:17.356 --> 00:05:18.893 AUDIENCE: I just keep walking. 00:05:18.893 --> 00:05:19.740 151. 00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:20.880 AUDIENCE: Already searched. 00:05:20.880 --> 00:05:23.180 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:27.200 AUDIENCE: Oh, it happened again Already searched. 00:05:27.200 --> 00:05:29.620 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:05:29.620 --> 00:05:32.040 AUDIENCE: You should do something clever. 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:34.460 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:05:37.430 --> 00:05:40.820 PROFESSOR: So notice the trends are going down. 00:05:40.820 --> 00:05:41.820 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 00:05:41.820 --> 00:05:43.215 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:05:43.215 --> 00:05:44.145 AUDIENCE: Water. 00:05:44.145 --> 00:05:46.237 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:05:46.237 --> 00:05:48.232 AUDIENCE: They like music, don't they? 00:05:48.232 --> 00:05:50.449 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:05:50.449 --> 00:05:50.990 AUDIENCE: OK. 00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:52.201 PROFESSOR: Big shiny thing. 00:05:52.201 --> 00:05:53.867 AUDIENCE: How do we increase population? 00:05:53.867 --> 00:05:56.352 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:05:57.757 --> 00:05:58.340 AUDIENCE: Yay. 00:05:58.340 --> 00:06:00.825 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:06:00.825 --> 00:06:03.320 AUDIENCE: Throw that towel. 00:06:03.320 --> 00:06:07.873 PROFESSOR: Look, notice this guy is down there. 00:06:07.873 --> 00:06:09.757 AUDIENCE: I am watching you. 00:06:09.757 --> 00:06:11.641 Oh, hey, hello people. 00:06:11.641 --> 00:06:13.980 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:06:14.279 --> 00:06:15.820 PROFESSOR: So this actually turns out 00:06:15.820 --> 00:06:17.290 not to be the tutorial level. 00:06:17.290 --> 00:06:20.944 This just turns out to be the first level. 00:06:20.944 --> 00:06:22.444 AUDIENCE: The way most people play-- 00:06:22.444 --> 00:06:23.080 why don't you use the tutorial? 00:06:23.080 --> 00:06:24.329 PROFESSOR: That's true. 00:06:24.329 --> 00:06:26.370 People don't like playing tutorials, that's true. 00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:31.170 AUDIENCE: So we find these four technologies. 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:32.169 The barbarians are here? 00:06:32.169 --> 00:06:33.640 Why are they-- no, they're not. 00:06:33.640 --> 00:06:38.740 PROFESSOR: You have 22 turns and about two barbarian hordes 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:40.080 are arriving. 00:06:40.080 --> 00:06:42.640 AUDIENCE: So basically, movements is turn, 00:06:42.640 --> 00:06:44.035 and I'm just walking. 00:06:44.035 --> 00:06:44.701 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 00:06:44.701 --> 00:06:47.650 AUDIENCE: So people-- I should walk to an area I've already 00:06:47.650 --> 00:06:50.961 discovered? 00:06:50.961 --> 00:06:53.326 Over here. 00:06:53.326 --> 00:06:55.166 Oh, I did something clever! 00:06:55.166 --> 00:06:56.520 I don't know what I did. 00:06:56.520 --> 00:06:58.520 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:06:58.520 --> 00:06:59.454 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:06:59.454 --> 00:07:00.870 AUDIENCE: I don't know what to do. 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:02.965 I'll just walk here and watch things go bad. 00:07:02.965 --> 00:07:04.340 PROFESSOR: Barbarians are coming. 00:07:04.340 --> 00:07:05.415 Capture the city. 00:07:05.415 --> 00:07:06.650 Move troops there. 00:07:06.650 --> 00:07:07.980 AUDIENCE: Move here. 00:07:07.980 --> 00:07:11.030 Yay, 94 people. 00:07:11.030 --> 00:07:12.710 Can I move other people? 00:07:12.710 --> 00:07:13.399 AUDIENCE: Try. 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:14.024 PROFESSOR: Try. 00:07:14.024 --> 00:07:14.900 AUDIENCE: No more troops. 00:07:14.900 --> 00:07:15.610 No more troops. 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:17.490 No more troops. 00:07:17.490 --> 00:07:19.490 We're all going to die. 00:07:19.490 --> 00:07:19.990 333. 00:07:19.990 --> 00:07:22.085 [LAUGHTER] 00:07:22.284 --> 00:07:23.992 AUDIENCE: Oh, I thought this was supposed 00:07:23.992 --> 00:07:27.089 to be me learning how to play. 00:07:27.089 --> 00:07:28.740 AUDIENCE: Yeah, learning. 00:07:28.740 --> 00:07:30.030 Feel the learning. 00:07:30.030 --> 00:07:32.530 [LAUGHTER] 00:07:33.196 --> 00:07:35.010 AUDIENCE: You have to use your technology. 00:07:35.010 --> 00:07:36.940 AUDIENCE: Yeah, can you use any? 00:07:36.940 --> 00:07:38.440 AUDIENCE: I'm tapping on technology. 00:07:38.440 --> 00:07:39.420 I'm tapping Hannibal. 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:42.029 I'm tapping spear. 00:07:42.029 --> 00:07:44.320 I'm giving it all my love, and it's not doing anything. 00:07:44.320 --> 00:07:46.770 [CRASHING AND YELLING] 00:07:46.770 --> 00:07:49.220 AUDIENCE: I think I won. 00:07:49.220 --> 00:07:51.599 [LAUGHTER] 00:07:51.599 --> 00:07:53.140 AUDIENCE: Come on, man, you got this. 00:07:53.140 --> 00:07:55.590 Kill her. 00:07:55.590 --> 00:07:56.570 AUDIENCE: Whoa. 00:07:56.570 --> 00:07:57.570 What did they do? 00:07:57.570 --> 00:07:59.464 AUDIENCE: Oh, snap. 00:07:59.464 --> 00:08:00.627 [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:08:00.627 --> 00:08:01.252 AUDIENCE: What? 00:08:02.687 --> 00:08:03.270 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:08:03.270 --> 00:08:05.690 So you did, in fact, complete the level. 00:08:05.690 --> 00:08:10.020 But you're probably [INAUDIBLE] about what happened here. 00:08:10.020 --> 00:08:15.742 How do you feel at the end of that level right now? 00:08:15.742 --> 00:08:17.575 AUDIENCE: Like I'm good at touching squares, 00:08:17.575 --> 00:08:19.040 but that doesn't mean much. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:22.025 Like all I knew was if I found cities I'd tap them again 00:08:22.025 --> 00:08:23.157 and I could search. 00:08:23.157 --> 00:08:23.740 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:08:23.740 --> 00:08:25.700 AUDIENCE: That's all I found. 00:08:25.700 --> 00:08:27.490 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:08:27.490 --> 00:08:29.650 That's what you figured out about the rules, 00:08:29.650 --> 00:08:33.280 but how do you personally feel about this game right now? 00:08:33.280 --> 00:08:36.600 I mean, you only played one level, 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:38.404 and clearly the game goes on. 00:08:38.404 --> 00:08:40.320 AUDIENCE: I feel like it's somewhat impossible 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.980 to control the ending situation because I 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:45.910 have no way of determining or upgrading my population. 00:08:45.910 --> 00:08:46.640 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:08:46.640 --> 00:08:47.690 All right. 00:08:47.690 --> 00:08:51.485 So [INAUDIBLE] control right now. 00:08:51.485 --> 00:08:52.110 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 00:08:52.110 --> 00:08:55.480 Or like I have no influence, so I'm just one dude 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:56.587 exploring the map. 00:08:56.587 --> 00:08:57.170 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:08:57.170 --> 00:09:03.660 So lack of influence maybe. 00:09:03.660 --> 00:09:08.740 Lack of influence, or possibly lack of control, 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:09.920 something like that. 00:09:09.920 --> 00:09:12.719 All right, so next person. 00:09:12.719 --> 00:09:14.010 We're going from right to left. 00:09:14.010 --> 00:09:15.700 So you're next. 00:09:15.700 --> 00:09:18.641 You're going to play level two, taking in everything 00:09:18.641 --> 00:09:19.640 that you've seen so far. 00:09:19.640 --> 00:09:21.940 AUDIENCE: Oh, crap. 00:09:21.940 --> 00:09:25.280 AUDIENCE: Like you saw, you can tap on purple areas that are-- 00:09:25.280 --> 00:09:27.668 AUDIENCE: Purple area to explore-- so I tap that. 00:09:27.668 --> 00:09:28.995 OK. 00:09:28.995 --> 00:09:30.370 PROFESSOR: Anyone has-- any ideas 00:09:30.370 --> 00:09:32.884 about what he should be doing, go ahead and say so. 00:09:32.884 --> 00:09:34.550 He doesn't have to play this on his own. 00:09:34.550 --> 00:09:35.883 AUDIENCE: So the question mark-- 00:09:35.883 --> 00:09:37.204 AUDIENCE: I'm doing this. 00:09:37.204 --> 00:09:38.822 I want to discover every square. 00:09:38.822 --> 00:09:40.506 AUDIENCE: Just go to the-- 00:09:40.506 --> 00:09:42.850 AUDIENCE: Now that you know-- double-tap cities. 00:09:42.850 --> 00:09:43.780 AUDIENCE: Oh, double tap cities? 00:09:43.780 --> 00:09:45.844 AUDIENCE: Yeah just tap them again, you'll search them. 00:09:45.844 --> 00:09:46.344 Ta-da! 00:09:46.344 --> 00:09:47.305 AUDIENCE: Oh, you got-- 00:09:47.305 --> 00:09:49.084 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:09:49.084 --> 00:09:50.375 AUDIENCE: That's probably good. 00:09:50.375 --> 00:09:51.980 I don't know if you asked him. 00:09:51.980 --> 00:09:53.837 AUDIENCE: Go to the question mark! 00:09:53.837 --> 00:09:54.920 AUDIENCE: He'll get there. 00:09:54.920 --> 00:09:56.298 He'll get there. 00:09:56.298 --> 00:09:58.620 AUDIENCE: Should I go save the question mark? 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:00.428 AUDIENCE: Yes. 00:10:00.428 --> 00:10:02.292 AUDIENCE: But then I'm gonna [INAUDIBLE] 00:10:02.292 --> 00:10:03.570 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:10:03.570 --> 00:10:05.300 AUDIENCE: Every movement is one turn 00:10:05.300 --> 00:10:07.680 no matter how far apart it is. 00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:08.510 AUDIENCE: Oh. 00:10:08.510 --> 00:10:09.734 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:10:09.734 --> 00:10:11.150 AUDIENCE: --do it in one straight. 00:10:11.150 --> 00:10:12.887 You have to go one purple square at a time. 00:10:12.887 --> 00:10:15.220 AUDIENCE: Yeah, but say I wanted to skip all the squares 00:10:15.220 --> 00:10:16.116 [INAUDIBLE] 00:10:16.116 --> 00:10:19.250 AUDIENCE: You're gonna wait one turn where you discover it 00:10:19.250 --> 00:10:19.750 anyway. 00:10:19.750 --> 00:10:21.209 AUDIENCE: Yeah, it doesn't matter. 00:10:21.209 --> 00:10:21.750 AUDIENCE: Oh. 00:10:21.750 --> 00:10:24.126 AUDIENCE: You don't use a turn if you're not discovering? 00:10:24.126 --> 00:10:26.416 AUDIENCE: Oh, look at that-- discover right beneath it. 00:10:26.416 --> 00:10:27.690 That mountain does something. 00:10:27.690 --> 00:10:29.940 I don't know what it does but it gives you ten people. 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.780 PROFESSOR: What do people think that does, 00:10:32.780 --> 00:10:35.870 where he put 20 people? 00:10:35.870 --> 00:10:38.360 When you click on the mountain, what do you think happened? 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:40.510 AUDIENCE: It's not about 20 people. 00:10:40.510 --> 00:10:43.180 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:10:43.180 --> 00:10:44.390 AUDIENCE: --technology. 00:10:44.390 --> 00:10:46.650 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:10:46.650 --> 00:10:47.780 Go right ahead. 00:10:47.780 --> 00:10:48.785 Do whatever-- 00:10:48.785 --> 00:10:49.970 AUDIENCE: You can put in a lot of people. 00:10:49.970 --> 00:10:51.890 PROFESSOR: I don't know if that's good or bad. 00:10:51.890 --> 00:10:53.234 I wait turns. 00:10:53.234 --> 00:10:55.504 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:10:57.252 --> 00:10:59.460 AUDIENCE: We're not seeing people form at this stage. 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:01.268 AUDIENCE: Keep running around. 00:11:01.268 --> 00:11:01.892 AUDIENCE: Whoa. 00:11:01.892 --> 00:11:02.536 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 00:11:02.536 --> 00:11:03.035 See, look. 00:11:03.035 --> 00:11:04.916 Now I'm still one turn. 00:11:04.916 --> 00:11:07.040 AUDIENCE: Wait, do I lose followers when I do that? 00:11:07.040 --> 00:11:07.874 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:11:07.874 --> 00:11:09.123 AUDIENCE: We're investigating. 00:11:09.123 --> 00:11:10.300 AUDIENCE: Yeah, I do. 00:11:10.300 --> 00:11:10.530 AUDIENCE: Oh! 00:11:10.530 --> 00:11:11.363 But I got something. 00:11:11.363 --> 00:11:11.970 I got archers. 00:11:11.970 --> 00:11:12.726 I like archers. 00:11:12.726 --> 00:11:14.220 AUDIENCE: Clearly because you have enough people. 00:11:14.220 --> 00:11:16.178 Bows increase your chances of afflicting damage 00:11:16.178 --> 00:11:16.930 on the barbarians. 00:11:16.930 --> 00:11:17.942 Good. 00:11:17.942 --> 00:11:19.180 Keep doing that stuff. 00:11:21.834 --> 00:11:23.250 I wonder-- it looks like there's-- 00:11:23.250 --> 00:11:25.720 AUDIENCE: Whoa, I'm huge. 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:27.620 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:11:29.345 --> 00:11:30.470 AUDIENCE: Oh, look at that! 00:11:30.470 --> 00:11:32.940 I don't know that means but you found another technology. 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:34.230 PROFESSOR: Looks like-- 00:11:34.230 --> 00:11:35.510 I have no idea what that-- 00:11:35.510 --> 00:11:36.010 oh, helmet! 00:11:36.010 --> 00:11:37.190 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:39.090 AUDIENCE: Oh, another city. 00:11:39.090 --> 00:11:40.512 Greetings. 00:11:40.512 --> 00:11:43.151 [INAUDIBLE] I'll join your cause. 00:11:43.151 --> 00:11:45.192 That means this is supposed to be a campaign game 00:11:45.192 --> 00:11:47.173 and last over a long period of time. 00:11:47.173 --> 00:11:49.430 AUDIENCE: What's that thing right there? 00:11:49.430 --> 00:11:50.600 PROFESSOR: What thing? 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:52.017 AUDIENCE: The tent looking thing. 00:11:52.017 --> 00:11:52.850 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:11:52.850 --> 00:11:54.290 AUDIENCE: Yeah, you can't double click it so you just wait-- 00:11:54.290 --> 00:11:54.800 PROFESSOR: Over there? 00:11:54.800 --> 00:11:55.840 AUDIENCE: --until the end of the turn. 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:56.726 AUDIENCE: Damage. 00:11:56.726 --> 00:11:59.365 Dude, good, another city. 00:11:59.365 --> 00:12:00.240 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:03.000 AUDIENCE: How do you add people? 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.942 AUDIENCE: I should have searched more. 00:12:05.942 --> 00:12:08.305 AUDIENCE: Kevin, what else is falling apart? 00:12:08.305 --> 00:12:10.666 AUDIENCE: Oh, look that's the animation that [INAUDIBLE] 00:12:10.666 --> 00:12:13.150 AUDIENCE: Oh, you got more technology than I did. 00:12:13.150 --> 00:12:13.650 Very nice. 00:12:13.650 --> 00:12:15.070 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:12:15.070 --> 00:12:18.000 AUDIENCE: Predict routes in the city. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.828 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:12:20.828 --> 00:12:22.740 AUDIENCE: --half that they're going to say? 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:26.490 AUDIENCE: Two [INAUDIBLE] 00:12:26.490 --> 00:12:34.070 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:12:34.070 --> 00:12:34.880 AUDIENCE: Oh. 00:12:34.880 --> 00:12:35.880 AUDIENCE: They survived. 00:12:39.102 --> 00:12:40.560 AUDIENCE: Helmet for falling rocks. 00:12:40.560 --> 00:12:41.893 AUDIENCE: All right, here we go. 00:12:41.893 --> 00:12:42.597 Let's do it! 00:12:42.597 --> 00:12:44.094 Go, go, go! 00:12:44.094 --> 00:12:46.589 Aw. 00:12:46.589 --> 00:12:48.150 AUDIENCE: Boo! 00:12:48.150 --> 00:12:51.085 AUDIENCE: You should not put so many people on the line. 00:12:51.085 --> 00:12:53.460 AUDIENCE: Oh! 00:12:53.460 --> 00:12:54.426 Barely survived. 00:12:54.426 --> 00:12:55.392 AUDIENCE: I won? 00:12:55.392 --> 00:12:56.841 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 00:12:56.841 --> 00:12:59.739 PROFESSOR: So how do you feel about that? 00:12:59.739 --> 00:13:02.462 AUDIENCE: I feel awesome, but I have no idea what happened. 00:13:02.462 --> 00:13:03.045 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:13:03.045 --> 00:13:04.020 AUDIENCE: The greater the number of cities 00:13:04.020 --> 00:13:05.561 that are connected together by roads, 00:13:05.561 --> 00:13:06.890 the faster they all grow. 00:13:06.890 --> 00:13:09.506 That dude built roads, and we don't know how. 00:13:09.506 --> 00:13:10.400 AUDIENCE: Maybe he-- 00:13:10.400 --> 00:13:11.840 AUDIENCE: Wait, did he actually? 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:12.800 AUDIENCE: Yeah, he had roads before. 00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:13.435 AUDIENCE: Did he? 00:13:13.435 --> 00:13:15.410 AUDIENCE: Yeah, you saw him light up and connect. 00:13:15.410 --> 00:13:16.920 All those things were basically roads. 00:13:16.920 --> 00:13:18.336 You had the dudes moving along it. 00:13:18.336 --> 00:13:20.514 It's population increased in size. 00:13:20.514 --> 00:13:23.104 Our population has yet to increase in size. 00:13:23.104 --> 00:13:24.520 PROFESSOR: I think you [INAUDIBLE] 00:13:24.520 --> 00:13:25.765 before class about it. 00:13:25.765 --> 00:13:27.787 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 00:13:27.787 --> 00:13:28.370 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:13:28.370 --> 00:13:30.579 So you feel awesome, but you're still not sure what-- 00:13:30.579 --> 00:13:32.453 AUDIENCE: I still don't know what's going on. 00:13:32.453 --> 00:13:34.570 I do know that exploring is very good. 00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:35.215 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:13:35.215 --> 00:13:36.590 AUDIENCE: I figured that one out. 00:13:36.590 --> 00:13:38.720 PROFESSOR: So there's some sort of exploring. 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:43.850 It's good for something. 00:13:43.850 --> 00:13:45.195 AUDIENCE: I got zero points. 00:13:45.195 --> 00:13:47.402 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:13:47.402 --> 00:13:47.985 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:13:47.985 --> 00:13:50.401 AUDIENCE: And I got zero, too, but mine went from negative 00:13:50.401 --> 00:13:52.310 above. 00:13:52.310 --> 00:13:55.040 PROFESSOR: There's still a lot of confusion going on, OK. 00:13:55.040 --> 00:13:55.600 All right. 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:59.600 [SIDE CONVERSATION] 00:21:20.499 --> 00:21:23.040 PROFESSOR: I think it's showing you how the points are added. 00:21:23.040 --> 00:21:26.540 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:21:26.540 --> 00:21:27.950 PROFESSOR: So how was that round? 00:21:27.950 --> 00:21:29.390 AUDIENCE: It was fun. 00:21:29.390 --> 00:21:30.544 I wish that I could see-- 00:21:30.544 --> 00:21:32.460 I think there was a way to see which city they 00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:34.138 were going to attack first. 00:21:34.138 --> 00:21:35.471 I didn't know what it was. 00:21:35.471 --> 00:21:35.970 I forgot. 00:21:35.970 --> 00:21:38.430 Also, I feel like it's sort of pointless 00:21:38.430 --> 00:21:41.340 that you have to click on a city again to explore it. 00:21:41.340 --> 00:21:43.827 I always want to explore it, as far as I can tell. 00:21:43.827 --> 00:21:44.410 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:21:44.410 --> 00:21:45.780 All right. 00:21:45.780 --> 00:21:49.112 So you feel that there is some redundancy going on? 00:21:49.112 --> 00:21:49.820 AUDIENCE: Oh yes. 00:21:49.820 --> 00:21:50.670 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:21:50.670 --> 00:21:52.680 All right. 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:53.940 All right, cool. 00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:55.740 Thank you very much. 00:21:55.740 --> 00:22:01.280 So these are kind of the things that, as players, you know, 00:22:01.280 --> 00:22:02.520 the sensations that you get. 00:22:02.520 --> 00:22:04.290 Right? 00:22:04.290 --> 00:22:07.770 You get kind of the joy of exploring, finding out 00:22:07.770 --> 00:22:10.600 new things, pushing back the fog. 00:22:10.600 --> 00:22:12.840 And the beginning of learning again, 00:22:12.840 --> 00:22:14.610 this confusion, this befuddlement. 00:22:14.610 --> 00:22:19.140 You don't actually know how your actions are changing things. 00:22:19.140 --> 00:22:21.220 But if you play a lot of games, you 00:22:21.220 --> 00:22:25.070 are usually sort of primed to accept a little bit of that. 00:22:25.070 --> 00:22:27.360 And sometimes it's balanced well enough 00:22:27.360 --> 00:22:31.357 that it sort of intrigues you rather than puts you off. 00:22:31.357 --> 00:22:32.815 But sometimes it just puts you off. 00:22:35.700 --> 00:22:38.385 Someone said that it felt good to save people. 00:22:43.230 --> 00:22:47.420 You described it as feeling kind of fun. 00:22:47.420 --> 00:22:49.410 In the paper there are some different ways 00:22:49.410 --> 00:22:51.445 how we can describe fun. 00:22:51.445 --> 00:22:55.440 It's just eight different types, but even in the paper 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:58.140 it states it isn't meant to be a comprehensive list. 00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:00.660 It isn't meant to be a list that's exhausting 00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:03.930 every single option out there. 00:23:03.930 --> 00:23:07.380 It's just to show that there are different kinds of fun 00:23:07.380 --> 00:23:11.550 when you play a game-- like exploring things, or inhabiting 00:23:11.550 --> 00:23:15.750 a role, or overcoming a challenge, 00:23:15.750 --> 00:23:23.346 or just passing time in a way to alleviate boredom. 00:23:26.390 --> 00:23:28.990 Sorry, I have a bit of cold so my speech 00:23:28.990 --> 00:23:31.080 is a little bit stunted today. 00:23:33.660 --> 00:23:36.920 There are a number of game mechanics in here 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.680 that generate some of these sensations. 00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:43.560 I want to put aside about confusion and lack 00:23:43.560 --> 00:23:47.260 of other influence right now, because some of that's 00:23:47.260 --> 00:23:49.140 addressed in the tutorial. 00:23:49.140 --> 00:23:50.830 If you went through the tutorial, 00:23:50.830 --> 00:23:53.580 it explains to you what all of the actions were. 00:23:53.580 --> 00:23:56.100 You probably wouldn't feel quite so confused 00:23:56.100 --> 00:23:58.410 about what you could do. 00:23:58.410 --> 00:24:02.490 However, I think it's reasonable to address the lack of control 00:24:02.490 --> 00:24:06.504 that you might feel, even after knowing what you could do. 00:24:06.504 --> 00:24:07.003 Right? 00:24:11.610 --> 00:24:14.550 These are the things that people would describe as aesthetics. 00:24:14.550 --> 00:24:17.380 The thing that the player feels. 00:24:17.380 --> 00:24:22.980 The paper describes them as desirable experiences. 00:24:22.980 --> 00:24:24.640 That's not necessarily always the case. 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:25.850 It's not always desirable. 00:24:25.850 --> 00:24:29.640 I'm pretty sure that confusion was not 00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:33.900 a desired experience that the designer of this game 00:24:33.900 --> 00:24:34.920 wanted you to have. 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:37.895 By the way, one of the designers of that game 00:24:37.895 --> 00:24:40.020 is actually one of the writers of this paper, which 00:24:40.020 --> 00:24:42.640 is why we're playing this game in particular. 00:24:45.610 --> 00:24:47.417 So these are aesthetics. 00:24:47.417 --> 00:24:49.500 Let's talk about some of the mechanics of the game 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:50.010 execution. 00:24:50.010 --> 00:24:54.045 Hit the screen and bring it up. 00:24:54.045 --> 00:24:56.970 So let's talk about some of the mechanics of this game. 00:24:56.970 --> 00:24:58.260 Someone describe it. 00:25:01.576 --> 00:25:03.010 AUDIENCE: [? Turn waits. ?] 00:25:03.010 --> 00:25:09.339 PROFESSOR: OK, so [? turn waits. ?] 00:25:09.339 --> 00:25:11.380 The game waits for you until you make a decision. 00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:13.240 It's not real time. 00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:16.715 Is it not real time? 00:25:16.715 --> 00:25:17.990 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:25:17.990 --> 00:25:18.615 PROFESSOR: Huh? 00:25:18.615 --> 00:25:19.290 AUDIENCE: It waits. 00:25:19.290 --> 00:25:19.960 PROFESSOR: It waits? 00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:21.800 AUDIENCE: Except for when you run into barbarians, right? 00:25:21.800 --> 00:25:23.910 Don't you have 10 seconds or something to-- 00:25:23.910 --> 00:25:26.470 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:25:29.974 --> 00:25:33.816 AUDIENCE: 10 seconds is actually [INAUDIBLE] and collect more. 00:25:33.816 --> 00:25:35.941 AUDIENCE: They do that over the course of the game. 00:25:35.941 --> 00:25:37.524 AUDIENCE: Yeah, but like the countdown 00:25:37.524 --> 00:25:39.310 doesn't start until you send your troops. 00:25:39.310 --> 00:25:39.893 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:25:39.893 --> 00:25:44.080 All right, so the truth is until you 00:25:44.080 --> 00:25:47.070 make your final move, right? 00:25:47.070 --> 00:25:50.990 And then the 10 seconds where it counts down 00:25:50.990 --> 00:25:55.860 and you see things continue to happen. 00:25:55.860 --> 00:25:57.170 OK, all right. 00:25:57.170 --> 00:25:58.540 AUDIENCE: There's combat. 00:25:58.540 --> 00:26:00.813 PROFESSOR: There's combat as a mechanism. 00:26:00.813 --> 00:26:03.270 There's some sort of AI combat. 00:26:03.270 --> 00:26:04.910 Right? 00:26:04.910 --> 00:26:09.510 You don't actually directly tell your troops to attack. 00:26:09.510 --> 00:26:11.296 You just place them ahead of time, 00:26:11.296 --> 00:26:13.480 and then they just wail at each other, 00:26:13.480 --> 00:26:18.570 using some sort of algorithm, some sort of computation on how 00:26:18.570 --> 00:26:23.170 that number, of how that addition works. 00:26:23.170 --> 00:26:25.504 What else is in the game? 00:26:25.504 --> 00:26:27.190 AUDIENCE: Exploration. 00:26:27.190 --> 00:26:29.748 PROFESSOR: Exploration? 00:26:29.748 --> 00:26:30.656 Go ahead. 00:26:30.656 --> 00:26:37.590 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] how you prepare for the attack. 00:26:37.590 --> 00:26:40.430 PROFESSOR: So how do you find cities? 00:26:40.430 --> 00:26:41.535 How do you find cities? 00:26:41.535 --> 00:26:43.410 AUDIENCE: You just have to walk on top of it. 00:26:43.410 --> 00:26:43.993 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:26:43.993 --> 00:26:47.497 So you click on the purple squares. 00:26:47.497 --> 00:26:50.080 And then that shows you what is underneath the purple squares. 00:26:50.080 --> 00:26:50.690 It will defog. 00:26:55.130 --> 00:26:57.840 It's not full of war, exactly, but they have a sort 00:26:57.840 --> 00:27:01.850 of unexplored fog, right? 00:27:07.610 --> 00:27:10.620 Which you have to disappear. 00:27:10.620 --> 00:27:13.338 Is that the only clue about how to find a city? 00:27:13.338 --> 00:27:15.480 AUDIENCE: Question mark. 00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:19.090 PROFESSOR: Sometimes you get the question hint. 00:27:19.090 --> 00:27:20.170 Right? 00:27:20.170 --> 00:27:22.004 And there's something there. 00:27:22.004 --> 00:27:24.600 AUDIENCE: There's like lush terrain around cities usually. 00:27:24.600 --> 00:27:26.940 PROFESSOR: Farms actually. 00:27:26.940 --> 00:27:33.294 It's hard to tell on the screen, but on the iPad. 00:27:33.294 --> 00:27:37.160 Do the farms-- all make the cities. 00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:39.240 So if you step on something green, you realize, 00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:41.198 wait a minute, there's a city somewhere nearby. 00:27:41.198 --> 00:27:44.780 It's kind of Minesweeper-esque in that way. 00:27:44.780 --> 00:27:45.530 What else? 00:27:45.530 --> 00:27:47.840 AUDIENCE: The oasis? 00:27:47.840 --> 00:27:49.437 PROFESSOR: What was that? 00:27:49.437 --> 00:27:50.270 AUDIENCE: The oasis. 00:27:50.270 --> 00:27:50.853 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:27:50.853 --> 00:27:52.990 So what about the oasis? 00:27:52.990 --> 00:27:55.980 AUDIENCE: You're also looking for it. 00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:58.835 As soon as you hit one of the squares of the oasis, 00:27:58.835 --> 00:28:02.000 you can more or less figure out where the other ones are. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:03.937 PROFESSOR: OK, because? 00:28:03.937 --> 00:28:07.910 AUDIENCE: It seems to always be in the same 3 by 4 rectangle. 00:28:07.910 --> 00:28:11.315 PROFESSOR: So the oasis-- 00:28:11.315 --> 00:28:13.579 AUDIENCE: You see like a corner of the river, 00:28:13.579 --> 00:28:16.120 then you know it's flowing this way and then that way, right? 00:28:16.120 --> 00:28:16.830 PROFESSOR: Yes. 00:28:16.830 --> 00:28:19.860 Well, the oasis is always a rectangle. 00:28:19.860 --> 00:28:21.456 So if you find a corner, yeah, you 00:28:21.456 --> 00:28:23.792 know that if you follow those things then-- 00:28:23.792 --> 00:28:24.625 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:28:24.625 --> 00:28:28.286 AUDIENCE: You know it's grass on this side, water on this side. 00:28:28.286 --> 00:28:29.590 So it's always inside. 00:28:29.590 --> 00:28:31.000 PROFESSOR: Right. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:34.200 So if the grid was like that, the moment you find one corner, 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:36.110 then you know which way to explore. 00:28:36.110 --> 00:28:38.960 So the oasis gives you clues. 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:40.877 The title of your oasis alone gives you clues. 00:28:40.877 --> 00:28:42.626 It is the same way that the farms give you 00:28:42.626 --> 00:28:43.900 clues about the cities. 00:28:43.900 --> 00:28:49.711 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] because we were 00:28:49.711 --> 00:28:53.506 trying to decide whether or not we should use technology, 00:28:53.506 --> 00:28:57.360 or to build roads, or outfit the cities with defense, 00:28:57.360 --> 00:28:58.913 or whatever. 00:28:58.913 --> 00:29:01.246 PROFESSOR: How do you all take resources with this game? 00:29:01.246 --> 00:29:04.080 AUDIENCE: You just have it, I guess. 00:29:04.080 --> 00:29:06.870 PROFESSOR: You just have it, and what happens when you attack? 00:29:06.870 --> 00:29:16.250 AUDIENCE: Certain actions [INAUDIBLE] 00:29:16.250 --> 00:29:19.850 PROFESSOR: So you have a limited number of followers, 00:29:19.850 --> 00:29:23.630 and tapping assigns them to spend them, basically, 00:29:23.630 --> 00:29:29.290 to get them to follow some sort of task. 00:29:29.290 --> 00:29:42.160 So limited followers, tapping assigns. 00:29:48.830 --> 00:29:49.810 Assigns the followers. 00:29:49.810 --> 00:29:51.954 OK. 00:29:51.954 --> 00:29:52.896 Other ones? 00:29:57.140 --> 00:29:59.200 AUDIENCE: There's the scoring at the end? 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:00.450 PROFESSOR: Scoring at the end. 00:30:00.450 --> 00:30:04.164 AUDIENCE: Which is a summary in some sense. 00:30:04.164 --> 00:30:09.564 It seems to be different from what actually-- like when you 00:30:09.564 --> 00:30:13.170 end the level, you get a feeling of, did you do well 00:30:13.170 --> 00:30:14.450 or did you do not well. 00:30:14.450 --> 00:30:17.668 And then it didn't always correspond with the score. 00:30:17.668 --> 00:30:18.376 PROFESSOR: Right. 00:30:18.376 --> 00:30:19.420 The score is unnecessary. 00:30:19.420 --> 00:30:31.600 So the score is kind of different from what 00:30:31.600 --> 00:30:33.982 the game is immediately giving you feedback on. 00:30:33.982 --> 00:30:36.190 The score is kind of like a completely different kind 00:30:36.190 --> 00:30:38.020 of feedback. 00:30:38.020 --> 00:30:43.470 AUDIENCE: I actually disagree that the score was like that. 00:30:43.470 --> 00:30:48.460 So I was very confused when we won the first level, 00:30:48.460 --> 00:30:51.440 because everyone died. 00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:54.653 But we got a score of zero, which kind of makes sense. 00:30:54.653 --> 00:30:56.085 And when I went a bunch of people 00:30:56.085 --> 00:30:57.960 died, but I still passed the level. 00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:00.440 And that made sense because I had two cities left. 00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:03.750 And I still got a score of zero because I lost tons of people. 00:31:03.750 --> 00:31:06.250 Then when we made it so we didn't lose a single city, 00:31:06.250 --> 00:31:08.470 we got a score of 1,000 or something 00:31:08.470 --> 00:31:11.616 We didn't lose a single city and we had a lot of people. 00:31:11.616 --> 00:31:14.265 I thought the score made sense, maybe the level progression 00:31:14.265 --> 00:31:15.118 didn't. 00:31:15.118 --> 00:31:16.492 AUDIENCE: Nathan lost some cities 00:31:16.492 --> 00:31:19.670 and still had a score of about a thousand or so. 00:31:19.670 --> 00:31:20.570 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:31:20.570 --> 00:31:22.528 AUDIENCE: You lost-- you didn't get any points, 00:31:22.528 --> 00:31:25.372 and you didn't discover anything. 00:31:25.372 --> 00:31:26.330 AUDIENCE: There you go. 00:31:26.330 --> 00:31:27.525 So the score makes sense. 00:31:27.525 --> 00:31:28.900 AUDIENCE: Also I was going to say 00:31:28.900 --> 00:31:31.108 that he said that the score was possibly accumulative 00:31:31.108 --> 00:31:32.810 over all the phases done. 00:31:32.810 --> 00:31:38.050 And the score [INAUDIBLE] 00:31:38.050 --> 00:31:45.079 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:46.620 AUDIENCE: There was another mechanic. 00:31:46.620 --> 00:31:48.120 We didn't really get to discover it. 00:31:48.120 --> 00:31:50.622 But it was like glowing, O-A-I-S-I-S. 00:31:50.622 --> 00:31:51.330 PROFESSOR: Right. 00:31:55.150 --> 00:32:00.140 Clearly leading to something we haven't figured out yet. 00:32:00.140 --> 00:32:00.780 OK. 00:32:00.780 --> 00:32:01.680 AUDIENCE: There was a special follower 00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:03.860 that we got that kind of like stalked us. 00:32:03.860 --> 00:32:05.874 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:32:05.874 --> 00:32:08.165 I think they call them experts or advisors or something 00:32:08.165 --> 00:32:10.722 of that nature. 00:32:10.722 --> 00:32:13.225 What was the advantage of doing that? 00:32:13.225 --> 00:32:14.250 Having followers return? 00:32:14.250 --> 00:32:17.060 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:32:19.429 --> 00:32:21.220 PROFESSOR: So she started and you had more. 00:32:21.220 --> 00:32:22.610 All right? 00:32:22.610 --> 00:32:24.498 AUDIENCE: Here's a question. 00:32:24.498 --> 00:32:30.560 Every level that we [INAUDIBLE] We had two of them 00:32:30.560 --> 00:32:31.760 along the side. 00:32:31.760 --> 00:32:35.190 [INAUDIBLE] 00:32:35.190 --> 00:32:39.227 AUDIENCE: It said that in one of the tutorials [INAUDIBLE] 00:32:39.227 --> 00:32:39.810 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:32:39.810 --> 00:32:46.220 So there's some sort of [INAUDIBLE] with [? wind, ?] 00:32:46.220 --> 00:32:47.024 you know? 00:32:47.024 --> 00:32:49.130 [INAUDIBLE] Right? 00:32:49.130 --> 00:32:51.130 AUDIENCE: There were also these little blue orbs 00:32:51.130 --> 00:32:54.240 that got transported into the artwork. 00:32:54.240 --> 00:32:55.146 PROFESSOR: Right. 00:32:55.146 --> 00:32:56.250 AUDIENCE: And I have no idea what that does. 00:32:56.250 --> 00:32:58.560 PROFESSOR: So where did those blue orbs appear? 00:32:58.560 --> 00:32:59.310 Did anyone notice? 00:32:59.310 --> 00:33:00.726 AUDIENCE: When you were uncovering 00:33:00.726 --> 00:33:01.875 the tiles I want to say. 00:33:01.875 --> 00:33:02.820 AUDIENCE: But when you searched, if you didn't 00:33:02.820 --> 00:33:04.130 get one of those technologies at the top, 00:33:04.130 --> 00:33:05.963 you usually got a blue orb that would go up. 00:33:05.963 --> 00:33:08.230 Otherwise, I do not know what that blue orb does. 00:33:08.230 --> 00:33:10.195 He got lot of blue orbs. 00:33:10.195 --> 00:33:11.820 PROFESSOR: When you pick up the oasis-- 00:33:11.820 --> 00:33:14.350 when you walk over the oasis, you get blue orbs. 00:33:14.350 --> 00:33:19.660 So the oasis also gives you blue-- 00:33:19.660 --> 00:33:20.582 which makes sense. 00:33:20.582 --> 00:33:22.290 It's like the bluest thing on the screen, 00:33:22.290 --> 00:33:25.140 and then when you click on it, blue things move. 00:33:25.140 --> 00:33:27.610 So there's some sort of color coordination thing. 00:33:27.610 --> 00:33:32.640 AUDIENCE: The barbarians steal your blue. 00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:35.077 PROFESSOR: I know where this meme is going. 00:33:35.077 --> 00:33:36.910 AUDIENCE: Oh, I was thinking that the blue-- 00:33:36.910 --> 00:33:38.400 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:39.845 PROFESSOR: Oh, yes, yes, blue. 00:33:39.845 --> 00:33:42.136 AUDIENCE: The one time they got to the oasis, something 00:33:42.136 --> 00:33:44.350 happened where everyone-- all the blue 00:33:44.350 --> 00:33:45.430 went to the barbarians. 00:33:45.430 --> 00:33:47.948 AUDIENCE: It looks like it was a last line of defense. 00:33:47.948 --> 00:33:50.962 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:33:50.962 --> 00:33:52.420 PROFESSOR: So either the barbarians 00:33:52.420 --> 00:33:54.360 are taking away your blue, or you're using your blue 00:33:54.360 --> 00:33:55.560 to smite the barbarians. 00:33:55.560 --> 00:33:58.871 Either way you end up with no barbarians and less blue. 00:33:58.871 --> 00:33:59.370 Right. 00:34:03.220 --> 00:34:05.340 AUDIENCE: Do you think if that happened, 00:34:05.340 --> 00:34:08.570 we got down to zero blue, we would lose the game? 00:34:08.570 --> 00:34:10.370 AUDIENCE: Yes. 00:34:10.370 --> 00:34:11.545 AUDIENCE: That was my guess. 00:34:11.545 --> 00:34:12.920 There had to be some way to lose, 00:34:12.920 --> 00:34:14.350 but we couldn't figure out how. 00:34:14.350 --> 00:34:17.612 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:34:17.612 --> 00:34:20.920 PROFESSOR: You were at level four on like 15. 00:34:20.920 --> 00:34:23.210 AUDIENCE: 13, I think. 00:34:23.210 --> 00:34:26.627 PROFESSOR: I can tell you one of the things 00:34:26.627 --> 00:34:28.210 that this particular game designer has 00:34:28.210 --> 00:34:30.489 told me is that he doesn't believe in game balance. 00:34:30.489 --> 00:34:33.460 He just believes in making a game start so ridiculously easy 00:34:33.460 --> 00:34:36.400 and end at an almost impossible level. 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:39.070 So somewhere along the way you meet the level 00:34:39.070 --> 00:34:42.724 that you're good at, and that's a balanced game. 00:34:42.724 --> 00:34:46.150 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 00:34:46.150 --> 00:34:49.270 PROFESSOR: That's one way of looking at it. 00:34:49.270 --> 00:34:51.429 So we've identified a bunch of games mechanisms. 00:34:51.429 --> 00:34:53.595 We didn't go into things like roads and technologies 00:34:53.595 --> 00:34:54.845 and mines and stuff like that. 00:34:54.845 --> 00:34:56.609 There's a ton of game mechanics in here. 00:34:56.609 --> 00:34:58.275 These are the kind of things that a game 00:34:58.275 --> 00:34:59.400 designer can design, right? 00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:00.750 These are rules. 00:35:00.750 --> 00:35:03.770 Things as simple as the oasis is always in a rectangle. 00:35:03.770 --> 00:35:05.080 There's no reason for that. 00:35:05.080 --> 00:35:07.382 It could have been a river. 00:35:07.382 --> 00:35:08.090 But you're right. 00:35:08.090 --> 00:35:09.631 There is actually a rule in the game. 00:35:09.631 --> 00:35:11.200 Every time you find an oasis, it's 00:35:11.200 --> 00:35:14.720 always going to be of a rectangular shape. 00:35:14.720 --> 00:35:19.720 These are the things that a designer designs, 00:35:19.720 --> 00:35:24.970 and you get dynamics out of a bunch of these mechanics 00:35:24.970 --> 00:35:28.160 interacting with each other. 00:35:28.160 --> 00:35:33.940 So I'm going to give one example of a dynamic. 00:35:33.940 --> 00:35:37.780 One of the dynamics is that as you reveal information 00:35:37.780 --> 00:35:39.940 about the stuff that is underneath the fog, 00:35:39.940 --> 00:35:42.790 you start having more decisions to make. 00:35:42.790 --> 00:35:44.407 What's your next step going to be. 00:35:44.407 --> 00:35:46.990 Because you could click on the thing that you just discovered. 00:35:46.990 --> 00:35:49.910 Like if you find a city, one of the things 00:35:49.910 --> 00:35:52.090 that people were telling everybody-- search it right 00:35:52.090 --> 00:35:52.589 now! 00:35:52.589 --> 00:35:54.200 Right? 00:35:54.200 --> 00:35:57.120 But then you can also find a mine, 00:35:57.120 --> 00:35:59.350 and you're going to find followers into it. 00:35:59.350 --> 00:36:01.720 You could build a road, and some people I think 00:36:01.720 --> 00:36:03.904 might have noticed what road is this. 00:36:03.904 --> 00:36:05.320 Did people find out about anything 00:36:05.320 --> 00:36:06.223 about what road is this? 00:36:06.223 --> 00:36:07.740 AUDIENCE: They gave you more people, I think. 00:36:07.740 --> 00:36:08.195 PROFESSOR: Yes. 00:36:08.195 --> 00:36:09.340 AUDIENCE: I think one of the pop-ups said. 00:36:09.340 --> 00:36:10.881 PROFESSOR: Your cities start actually 00:36:10.881 --> 00:36:14.580 growing in number when you connect them on the roads. 00:36:14.580 --> 00:36:17.120 And of course that helps with defense in the long run. 00:36:17.120 --> 00:36:21.145 So one of the dynamics in this game is that the further 00:36:21.145 --> 00:36:24.580 that you play in a level, the more kinds of decisions 00:36:24.580 --> 00:36:26.000 you're going to make. 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:28.240 At the beginning of the game, you 00:36:28.240 --> 00:36:31.870 can make no decisions besides which one of these two squares 00:36:31.870 --> 00:36:33.250 am I going to start searching. 00:36:33.250 --> 00:36:34.650 Up or left. 00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:37.110 I think you always start in one of the corners, 00:36:37.110 --> 00:36:41.170 so there are only two directions that you possibly search. 00:36:41.170 --> 00:36:42.790 What other dynamics are there? 00:36:42.790 --> 00:36:45.950 These are things that arise out of a combination 00:36:45.950 --> 00:36:48.288 of these mechanics. 00:36:48.288 --> 00:36:52.650 AUDIENCE: Would one be huge kind of pre-perform a set 00:36:52.650 --> 00:36:54.320 of actions, like your exploration, 00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:55.570 you're searching and whatever. 00:36:55.570 --> 00:36:58.210 And then, after that, you just kind of let it go, 00:36:58.210 --> 00:37:01.217 and the barbarians come and do their bidding? 00:37:01.217 --> 00:37:01.800 PROFESSOR: OK. 00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:04.640 So one of the things is you set up 00:37:04.640 --> 00:37:10.150 initial conditions for, hopefully, things to work out, 00:37:10.150 --> 00:37:15.150 for sort of the systems to emerge in the behavior, 00:37:15.150 --> 00:37:16.630 in the long-term behavior. 00:37:16.630 --> 00:37:18.590 OK. 00:37:18.590 --> 00:37:20.350 What else? 00:37:20.350 --> 00:37:22.985 That's actually a dynamic, in this case. 00:37:22.985 --> 00:37:26.730 That's something you set up even before all your turns are over. 00:37:26.730 --> 00:37:29.560 Like you said, people in a mine-- the miners just 00:37:29.560 --> 00:37:31.540 keep digging each turn. 00:37:31.540 --> 00:37:33.270 You don't have to babysit them. 00:37:33.270 --> 00:37:34.780 They'll keep digging. 00:37:34.780 --> 00:37:36.610 And they'll find stuff without you 00:37:36.610 --> 00:37:40.350 telling them to do anything. 00:37:40.350 --> 00:37:42.190 What else? 00:37:42.190 --> 00:37:47.110 What else fits this kind of description of something 00:37:47.110 --> 00:37:50.760 that arises still kind of mechanically out 00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:54.205 of a combination of all of these dynamics? 00:37:58.420 --> 00:37:59.960 Let's say combat, for instance. 00:37:59.960 --> 00:38:04.730 When the red forces and your blue forces start, 00:38:04.730 --> 00:38:09.170 you know, like little ants start facing off against each other. 00:38:09.170 --> 00:38:10.712 What happens? 00:38:10.712 --> 00:38:12.128 AUDIENCE: Like really snowballing. 00:38:12.128 --> 00:38:14.016 Like really snowballing. 00:38:14.016 --> 00:38:14.682 PROFESSOR: Right 00:38:14.682 --> 00:38:17.030 AUDIENCE: It would start off kind of even or so. 00:38:17.030 --> 00:38:18.659 And then all of a sudden one force 00:38:18.659 --> 00:38:19.784 would just take a nosedive. 00:38:19.784 --> 00:38:20.760 PROFESSOR: Uh-huh? 00:38:20.760 --> 00:38:21.520 AUDIENCE: At one point, the two forces were even, 00:38:21.520 --> 00:38:23.433 and then one got up to like 90, and one just 00:38:23.433 --> 00:38:24.683 started dropping and dropping. 00:38:24.683 --> 00:38:26.220 And this one just stayed at 90. 00:38:26.220 --> 00:38:28.691 You can see that too with the really small cities 00:38:28.691 --> 00:38:30.232 that have like 20 people or something 00:38:30.232 --> 00:38:31.440 that get like squashed. 00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:33.350 PROFESSOR: Squashed, right? 00:38:33.350 --> 00:38:37.150 So it has this interesting curve. 00:38:37.150 --> 00:38:40.620 On like a successful defense, the barbarians 00:38:40.620 --> 00:38:43.750 are usually here, and the followers-- 00:38:43.750 --> 00:38:45.682 you usually have a slightly lower number, 00:38:45.682 --> 00:38:47.140 because a huge number of barbarians 00:38:47.140 --> 00:38:49.085 that show up all of a sudden-- 00:38:49.085 --> 00:38:50.460 AUDIENCE: But we have technology. 00:38:50.460 --> 00:38:51.380 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 00:38:51.380 --> 00:38:55.925 But often what happens is that you've got a number like that, 00:38:55.925 --> 00:39:00.290 and it kind of goes like that. 00:39:00.290 --> 00:39:00.790 Right? 00:39:00.790 --> 00:39:02.840 It starts off kind of like the barbarians still 00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:05.423 maintain your numbers, then all of a sudden it just collapses. 00:39:05.423 --> 00:39:07.730 This is what a successful defense in that game 00:39:07.730 --> 00:39:08.790 looks like. 00:39:08.790 --> 00:39:10.990 AUDIENCE: But you can also flip that curve. 00:39:10.990 --> 00:39:13.240 Not necessarily flip it, but the followers can also 00:39:13.240 --> 00:39:14.010 take that kind of curve. 00:39:14.010 --> 00:39:14.510 PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah. 00:39:14.510 --> 00:39:15.910 AUDIENCE: Instead of just below the barbarians. 00:39:15.910 --> 00:39:17.000 PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah. 00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:17.941 Totally. 00:39:17.941 --> 00:39:19.690 That would be what an unsuccessful defense 00:39:19.690 --> 00:39:22.940 looks like. 00:39:22.940 --> 00:39:29.280 That will look more like that, and then it's like bleh. 00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:29.780 Right? 00:39:29.780 --> 00:39:34.160 There's usually more barbarians than there are people. 00:39:34.160 --> 00:39:36.910 So this is all arising out of the game mechanics. 00:39:36.910 --> 00:39:37.640 Right? 00:39:37.640 --> 00:39:42.290 This is not an aesthetic experience all by itself. 00:39:42.290 --> 00:39:46.010 This is just how the numbers, if you plotted 00:39:46.010 --> 00:39:49.830 by a fraction of a second by a fraction of a second, 00:39:49.830 --> 00:39:51.070 you'll get a graph. 00:39:51.070 --> 00:39:54.290 This is just the algorithm doing its thing. 00:39:54.290 --> 00:39:55.460 All right. 00:39:55.460 --> 00:39:58.310 What does this kind of-- 00:39:58.310 --> 00:40:04.100 I'm going to go back to a successful defense. 00:40:04.100 --> 00:40:07.790 So this arises out of the mechanics of the game. 00:40:07.790 --> 00:40:11.600 Everything that you do in the game to get salt, 00:40:11.600 --> 00:40:13.790 get followers into a city, get them 00:40:13.790 --> 00:40:18.230 technologies, mine stuff, search cities. 00:40:18.230 --> 00:40:20.870 Make sure there are enough followers by connecting 00:40:20.870 --> 00:40:22.090 the cities up with roads. 00:40:22.090 --> 00:40:23.840 The other thing that roads allow you to do 00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:26.000 is redistribute followers between cities 00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:27.071 that are reconnected. 00:40:27.071 --> 00:40:29.570 That's the thing that you get to do in those last 10 seconds 00:40:29.570 --> 00:40:32.300 is that you don't just assign everybody that you've got. 00:40:32.300 --> 00:40:34.190 All the people, go into this one city. 00:40:34.190 --> 00:40:37.754 You can actually do that and connect them up with roads. 00:40:37.754 --> 00:40:39.045 You have 10 seconds to do that. 00:40:41.930 --> 00:40:46.360 So everything leads up to how many followers you've 00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:48.766 got in a city that the barbarians 00:40:48.766 --> 00:40:49.890 are going to attack, right? 00:40:49.890 --> 00:40:52.130 You know there's this interaction that 00:40:52.130 --> 00:40:55.060 keeps going on until all the barbarians are destroyed. 00:40:55.060 --> 00:40:57.323 Then you get this curve. 00:40:57.323 --> 00:40:59.406 And what part of the aesthetic does this generate? 00:41:02.810 --> 00:41:06.347 What does the player hopefully experience because of that? 00:41:06.347 --> 00:41:08.236 AUDIENCE: You cheer for your forces-- 00:41:08.236 --> 00:41:08.902 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 00:41:08.902 --> 00:41:10.568 AUDIENCE: And then you feel disappointed 00:41:10.568 --> 00:41:14.380 when things start going bad, and you kind of feel for them. 00:41:14.380 --> 00:41:15.280 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:17.995 And then when they pull out of it, because they're not like, 00:41:17.995 --> 00:41:19.000 yeah! 00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:20.800 At this point it's like we are both kind 00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:22.090 of in the same trajectory. 00:41:22.090 --> 00:41:24.800 Sure they're dropping, but we're dropping too. 00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:30.000 Things aren't going so well, and then all of a sudden your folks 00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:31.640 come through, right? 00:41:31.640 --> 00:41:32.520 We were cheering. 00:41:32.520 --> 00:41:37.400 We were shouting our heads off, as if our cheers had 00:41:37.400 --> 00:41:41.840 any influence on the outcome. 00:41:41.840 --> 00:41:44.920 I'm not quite sure how to describe that aesthetic, 00:41:44.920 --> 00:41:48.770 but that's what the player takes away from this game, right? 00:41:48.770 --> 00:41:51.430 There's this tiny little moment of the game. 00:41:51.430 --> 00:41:53.800 It's actually very finely tuned to generate 00:41:53.800 --> 00:41:56.620 exactly that experience. 00:41:56.620 --> 00:41:58.870 You're not quite sure what the outcome of this battle 00:41:58.870 --> 00:41:59.495 is going to be. 00:41:59.495 --> 00:42:01.896 I like to play the game for hours and hours and hours, 00:42:01.896 --> 00:42:03.520 and then you can kind of predict what's 00:42:03.520 --> 00:42:05.395 going to happen the moment the battle starts, 00:42:05.395 --> 00:42:07.867 because you already know what each technology agent does. 00:42:07.867 --> 00:42:10.450 But at this point in time when you're still learning the game, 00:42:10.450 --> 00:42:11.740 you don't know what each technology does. 00:42:11.740 --> 00:42:13.630 You don't know how the battles are going to turn out. 00:42:13.630 --> 00:42:15.080 It gets really, really exciting. 00:42:15.080 --> 00:42:16.246 So maybe there's a kind of-- 00:42:19.570 --> 00:42:23.300 how Marc LeBlanc, the designer of this game, described 00:42:23.300 --> 00:42:24.460 it was dramatic tension. 00:42:24.460 --> 00:42:28.720 I'm not quite sure if he's using that term exactly how it would 00:42:28.720 --> 00:42:30.730 be used in literary convention. 00:42:30.730 --> 00:42:32.980 But in this view it does feel tense, 00:42:32.980 --> 00:42:35.950 because there's an uncertain outcome about who's 00:42:35.950 --> 00:42:38.860 going to come out ahead, and then 00:42:38.860 --> 00:42:43.100 when it resolves in your favor, you feel great. 00:42:43.100 --> 00:42:48.430 That's basically one dissection using the MDA framework 00:42:48.430 --> 00:42:50.040 that we just went through. 00:42:50.040 --> 00:42:52.306 There's a whole bunch of mechanics 00:42:52.306 --> 00:42:55.020 that create a dynamic that creates 00:42:55.020 --> 00:42:56.231 an aesthetic experience. 00:42:56.231 --> 00:42:58.480 Which is the thing that you want your players to have. 00:42:58.480 --> 00:43:00.880 In this particular case, this is explicitly 00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:03.720 what Marc LeBlanc wanted his players to experience. 00:43:03.720 --> 00:43:06.820 He wanted them to cheer for the followers, 00:43:06.820 --> 00:43:09.820 even though that has no impact on the final result 00:43:09.820 --> 00:43:10.462 of the fight. 00:43:13.120 --> 00:43:16.960 So when you look at your games, I 00:43:16.960 --> 00:43:19.960 want you to be asking your play testers what 00:43:19.960 --> 00:43:21.580 they're feeling about the game. 00:43:21.580 --> 00:43:23.000 Usually after they're done. 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:26.446 Say how do you feel about that, what 00:43:26.446 --> 00:43:27.820 did you like about the game, what 00:43:27.820 --> 00:43:29.340 didn't you like about the game. 00:43:29.340 --> 00:43:33.310 Both are aesthetic experiences that come out 00:43:33.310 --> 00:43:34.690 from the play of the game. 00:43:34.690 --> 00:43:37.290 This is much easier to do with people who are actually 00:43:37.290 --> 00:43:39.190 not in this class, because you're all 00:43:39.190 --> 00:43:41.860 thinking about the games from the rules level. 00:43:41.860 --> 00:43:45.257 If you go to somebody who plays games but doesn't really 00:43:45.257 --> 00:43:47.590 make games or isn't in the process of learning about how 00:43:47.590 --> 00:43:49.890 to make games, it's a lot easier for them 00:43:49.890 --> 00:43:52.330 to just think about well, I kind of 00:43:52.330 --> 00:43:53.800 felt crappy, because I didn't feel 00:43:53.800 --> 00:43:56.535 there was any way for me to come back in this game, you know. 00:43:56.535 --> 00:43:58.660 Or, yeah, I felt like I was [? roleplay ?] stomping 00:43:58.660 --> 00:44:00.750 everybody. [? Roleplay stomp ?] is an aesthetic. 00:44:03.890 --> 00:44:06.865 Those are things that you can sort of take that 00:44:06.865 --> 00:44:10.390 to game designers, give you clues on whether your game is 00:44:10.390 --> 00:44:12.640 doing what you want it to do, for the mechanics 00:44:12.640 --> 00:44:14.800 that you're designing, whether the game is not 00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:17.740 doing what you want it to do, because maybe the mechanics are 00:44:17.740 --> 00:44:20.230 interacting in a way that creates a dynamic that you 00:44:20.230 --> 00:44:24.640 didn't want, or maybe the game is really not 00:44:24.640 --> 00:44:28.060 what you wanted to do and it's actually pretty cool. 00:44:28.060 --> 00:44:30.910 There's always the accidental discovery 00:44:30.910 --> 00:44:32.620 of your mechanics doing something 00:44:32.620 --> 00:44:34.330 that you didn't quite expect. 00:44:34.330 --> 00:44:37.660 Maybe you expected something to be 00:44:37.660 --> 00:44:40.750 kind of like cool and strategic and detached, 00:44:40.750 --> 00:44:44.510 but then your players end up feeling really tense 00:44:44.510 --> 00:44:46.600 and feeling that everything is on the line 00:44:46.600 --> 00:44:51.520 and everything could go wrong at any moment and they like that. 00:44:51.520 --> 00:44:52.120 OK. 00:44:52.120 --> 00:44:52.680 All right. 00:44:52.680 --> 00:44:54.790 That's something you can work with. 00:44:54.790 --> 00:44:56.374 But you may not necessarily understand 00:44:56.374 --> 00:44:58.206 that's what your game is doing if you're not 00:44:58.206 --> 00:45:00.580 asking your players what's the sensation that they're 00:45:00.580 --> 00:45:02.540 getting out of the game purely from the rules. 00:45:02.540 --> 00:45:04.790 When you're working with the prototypes in particular, 00:45:04.790 --> 00:45:07.570 it's very easy for you to make this connection back 00:45:07.570 --> 00:45:12.910 to your mechanics, because they can be experiencing 00:45:12.910 --> 00:45:15.860 terribly much from your artwork or from the sound effects, 00:45:15.860 --> 00:45:16.360 right? 00:45:16.360 --> 00:45:17.610 Unless you make your sound effects 00:45:17.610 --> 00:45:19.110 like a mouse, or something, and then 00:45:19.110 --> 00:45:21.220 it probably sounds pretty goofy. 00:45:21.220 --> 00:45:24.730 But they can only really get the aesthetic experience out 00:45:24.730 --> 00:45:27.100 of your rules. 00:45:27.100 --> 00:45:29.020 Obviously this is not the only way 00:45:29.020 --> 00:45:31.970 that you can convey an aesthetic experience. 00:45:31.970 --> 00:45:35.500 You can do things through art, sound, storytelling, 00:45:35.500 --> 00:45:37.060 characters, plot, and everything. 00:45:37.060 --> 00:45:41.141 We'll go into that a little bit more before assignment two, 00:45:41.141 --> 00:45:42.640 because you're going to be exploring 00:45:42.640 --> 00:45:44.081 that with assignment two. 00:45:44.081 --> 00:45:45.580 But there's this one particular kind 00:45:45.580 --> 00:45:50.290 of aesthetic, which I will refer to it in this class, 00:45:50.290 --> 00:45:52.020 as system aesthetics. 00:45:52.020 --> 00:45:53.890 The aesthetics that come out from the system 00:45:53.890 --> 00:45:56.990 of all of your mechanics working together. 00:45:56.990 --> 00:46:00.800 And, in this project, this first assignment, 00:46:00.800 --> 00:46:03.360 you don't have to worry about hitting the design aesthetic. 00:46:03.360 --> 00:46:04.470 You don't really have to. 00:46:04.470 --> 00:46:05.969 That's not the goal of this project. 00:46:05.969 --> 00:46:07.470 I want you to figure out everything 00:46:07.470 --> 00:46:09.510 that your game mechanic can do. 00:46:09.510 --> 00:46:11.250 And by the way, there was a question 00:46:11.250 --> 00:46:13.140 at the beginning of class, what if we wanted 00:46:13.140 --> 00:46:15.480 to change the mechanic because you discovered something 00:46:15.480 --> 00:46:16.450 along the way. 00:46:16.450 --> 00:46:17.020 That's fine. 00:46:17.020 --> 00:46:18.510 But whatever you change it to, make 00:46:18.510 --> 00:46:20.880 sure that you're going deep into that thing. 00:46:20.880 --> 00:46:22.660 Make sure that you're not just running 00:46:22.660 --> 00:46:24.520 with what you stumbled with, and then not 00:46:24.520 --> 00:46:25.820 developing it any further. 00:46:25.820 --> 00:46:31.590 Try to really, really explore what you eventually will 00:46:31.590 --> 00:46:34.470 declare that you're looking at. 00:46:34.470 --> 00:46:36.080 The reason for that is I want you all 00:46:36.080 --> 00:46:39.450 to have the experience of going really deep into mechanics 00:46:39.450 --> 00:46:41.550 and figuring out all the different things that one 00:46:41.550 --> 00:46:42.420 mechanic can do. 00:46:42.420 --> 00:46:45.110 So that later on when you all mix and match, and form them 00:46:45.110 --> 00:46:47.190 into assignment two and assignment three teams, 00:46:47.190 --> 00:46:48.782 you've got like a pool of knowledge 00:46:48.782 --> 00:46:50.490 and more importantly a pool of experience 00:46:50.490 --> 00:46:52.920 in sort of exploring what a mechanic can do. 00:46:52.920 --> 00:46:54.460 So you can take on new mechanics, 00:46:54.460 --> 00:46:56.400 you can share information with each other 00:46:56.400 --> 00:46:58.800 and use that later to generate interesting aesthetic 00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:00.024 experiences. 00:47:00.024 --> 00:47:02.440 Because in the end, this is what the players are here for. 00:47:02.440 --> 00:47:06.090 They don't care about the amount of work that you put into here. 00:47:06.090 --> 00:47:07.800 They only care about whether the game 00:47:07.800 --> 00:47:09.175 makes them feel the way that they 00:47:09.175 --> 00:47:11.070 want to feel right now while you're 00:47:11.070 --> 00:47:13.570 they're playing your game. 00:47:13.570 --> 00:47:17.697 So any questions? 00:47:21.625 --> 00:47:22.607 Nope. 00:47:22.607 --> 00:47:24.090 OK. 00:47:24.090 --> 00:47:25.980 Well we'll probably go a little bit more 00:47:25.980 --> 00:47:30.270 into things about mechanics later this month, 00:47:30.270 --> 00:47:33.270 but right now the rest of the class is actually time for you 00:47:33.270 --> 00:47:34.110 to work as a team. 00:47:34.110 --> 00:47:37.967 Some of you probably haven't seen each other since Wednesday 00:47:37.967 --> 00:47:40.050 and may not necessarily have talked to each other. 00:47:40.050 --> 00:47:41.190 So that's fine. 00:47:41.190 --> 00:47:42.200 Take time now. 00:47:42.200 --> 00:47:45.686 If you've got something that you need tested, 00:47:45.686 --> 00:47:46.560 you have two options. 00:47:46.560 --> 00:47:48.500 One, you can grab Rick and I. Or two, 00:47:48.500 --> 00:47:52.037 you can grab other people in the classroom 00:47:52.037 --> 00:47:54.120 who may not necessarily have saved their game out. 00:47:54.120 --> 00:47:55.494 Suggest asking people who haven't 00:47:55.494 --> 00:47:58.980 played a game for two tests. 00:47:58.980 --> 00:48:02.640 But tomorrow is actually the formal play test. 00:48:02.640 --> 00:48:05.850 So what you absolutely have to have Friday end of this class 00:48:05.850 --> 00:48:10.900 or what you have to have by the beginning of tomorrow 00:48:10.900 --> 00:48:13.980 towards that is something that can be played as a big class. 00:48:13.980 --> 00:48:16.100 Today there's no required play test. 00:48:16.100 --> 00:48:17.240 Tomorrow there is. 00:48:17.240 --> 00:48:20.224 All right? 00:48:20.224 --> 00:48:21.640 There's also reading for tomorrow, 00:48:21.640 --> 00:48:23.400 but it's not that bad. 00:48:23.400 --> 00:48:26.056 I think the total number is-- 00:48:26.056 --> 00:48:29.920 let me just make sure of that. 00:48:29.920 --> 00:48:31.240 Oh no, it's only part of it. 00:48:31.240 --> 00:48:31.740 Yeah. 00:48:31.740 --> 00:48:34.000 It's going to be just looking at one thing, which 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:37.960 is the randomizing and add a functional dice in games. 00:48:37.960 --> 00:48:40.250 So, OK. 00:48:40.250 --> 00:48:41.900 Work in your teams. 00:48:41.900 --> 00:48:44.550 And all the materials right here we'll put it on the table. 00:48:44.550 --> 00:48:46.480 Contents from the following sources 00:48:46.480 --> 00:48:49.150 is copyright of the respective holders. 00:48:49.150 --> 00:48:50.560 All rights reserved. 00:48:50.560 --> 00:48:54.070 Excluded from our Creative Commons license. 00:48:54.070 --> 00:49:00.170 For more information, see ocw.mit.edu/fairuse. 00:49:00.170 --> 00:49:01.410 Oasis. 00:49:01.410 --> 00:49:02.320 PlayFirst. 00:49:02.320 --> 00:49:02.820 2005. 00:49:02.820 --> 00:49:04.670 Video game.