Article: Foundations of a Successful RTS

Foundations of a Successful RTS

[Tom Cadwell, 1999]

In this interesting article, Tom analyzes some aspects that RTS games should be considered when designing a RTS game.

Principles of RTS Balance:

1. As a general rule, if race A builds up a unit mix and attcks race B, there should exist a cost/effective counter for B that is available around the same time and requires slightly less time to build. Also, versatile units should be less powerful compared to specialist units.
2. Balane should take the form between unit mixes, not individual units. This is to avoid the "just build a large number of the same unit" problem.
3. Consider maximum firepower conentration. Many super long range units is bad.
4. As the range of the unit increases, the firepower should be reduced. This is unrealistic, but balances the game.
5. Map lag. Don't allow units, especially early units, to cross the map too quickly.
6. Combat formulae and the various values units have need to be very flexible to be able to fix balance if problems are discovered later on.
7. Every attack should have a risk. There should always be some opportunity for you opponent to counter your attack and destroy your resources cos effectively.
8. Endgame driving forces must be in place. Attrition is the way to go. Bigger isn't necesarily better. Avoid getting to the point of players having to control hundreds of units. Also, static defenses need a way of being cracked so a player who suffers from attrition will be unable to continue.
9. The more a unit can move, the less powerful it should be, but some units that break this rule can be in the game to avoid map specific imbalances.

Design principles

1. If it isn't fun, it should't be in a game. Avoid tedious tasks. Avoid lots of administative stuff unless your game is designed around them. And always avoid AI that acts stupid, this will 100% of the time annoy the player.
2. Gameplay over realism. The game needs to "make sense" but that doesn't mean hyper realistic mechanics. If you need to sacrifice one or the other, sacrifice realism.
3. The aspects of a game that appeal the most to the hardcore gamer should tend to be in the hidden features (hotkeys not visible on the screen, combat bonuses for cover, etc). Don't try to make the game "complex" by cluttering the screen with buttons.
4. Sound effects and visual effects are extremely useful and don't affect play balance. Use them extensively.
5. Straegic wealth should always be sought after. This is accomplished by complex unit interactions or simple but elegant resource system. Chess is a great example of simple but elegant game.
6. Give units a "purijavascript:void(0)ty of purpose". Consider what do race X needs to flesh out its combat abilities in a unique way and come up with units that fit that feel. Also avoid giving units more than one purpose and having more than one unit per race that does the same.
7. Never let a unit become obsolete. This confuses players and leads to more imbalances.

To read the complete article, go to StrategyGamingOnline.

Tom Cadwell, 1999. Foundations of a Successful RTS. Obtained in Jul 19th, 2011 from Strategy Gaming Online: http://www.strategy-gaming.com/editorials/sucessful_rts.shtml

Article: How To Design Effective Achievements

The Cake Is Not A Lie: How To Design Effective Achievements

Lucas Blair [2011]

This is a really good article about something that everyone likes to add to their games: achievements/trophies/medals.

The author gives interesting advice about what to do and what to avoid when implementing a reward system in your game (of course, this is mostly the author's opinion, which means that nothing must be taken as complete truth, but it's nice as a starters guide).

The article addresses the following topics:

• Measurement vs Completion Achievements
• Expected vs Unexpected Achievements
• Achievement Difficulty
• Achievement Notifications
• Achievement Permanence
• Negative Achievements
• Incremental and Meta-Achievements
• Competitive and Non-Competitive Achievements

I agree with most of his conclusions, like "Use measurement achievements instead of completion achievements to increase intrinsic motivation through feedback" The only one that I disagree a little bit is the negative achievement one.

He says that negative achivements like "You died 100 times, congrats!" are detrimental to the player's experience, I think that depending on the game, they can be really fun. For example, in a game like Super Meat Boy, it would make sense because you will inevitably die a few thousand times before you complete the game. Another game where I've encountered negative achievements is Amorphous+. I got the "Killed 100 times" award and the "Killed in 10 different ways" award. I didn't found those achievements as adding insult to injury, but more like a "well, at least I got something". Plus, it added a little bit of humor to the gameplay.

I don't think every game out there could pull this off, but when they do, it's really cool.

All I'm saying is that if it makes sense, including negative achievements can be fun, but they could still backfire if not handled with care for the reasons stated in the article.

Read the whole article:

Part 1: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6360/the_cake_is_not_a_lie_how_to_.php

Part 2: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6375/the_cake_is_not_a_lie_how_to_.php

Part 3: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6388/the_cake_is_not_a_lie_how_to_.php

Blair, Lucas (2011). The Cake Is Not A Lie: How To Design Effective Achievements. Accessed in 3/jun/2011 from Gamasutra.com: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6360/the_cake_is_not_a_lie_how_to_.php?page=1

Book: End to End Game Development

End to End Game Development: Creating Independent Serious Games and Simulations from Start to Finish

Nick Iuppa and Terry Borst [2010]

Buy the book from Amazon.com

ISBN: 978-0-240-81179-6

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This book is a very complete guide to the Serious Game development process. It includes everything from how to define the goals of your project to how to produce and author your game. Also, several interesting topics are included like Game Design, Instructional Design and Gameplay Design.

This book has an easy-to-read format and the authors take great care in how the information is presented to the reader. The great amount of examples, many of the taken from real life situations make it easy to see how all the topics can be applied to your own project.

End to End Game Development is a book that I would recommend to start with, as it provides knowledge from all the game development process, which can then be deepened depending on your presonal interests.

Iuppa, Nick; Borst, Terry (2010). End to End Game Development, Creating Independent Serious Games and Simulations from Start to Finish (1st ed.). Massachusetts, United States: Elseiver.

Article: Enabling Computers to Play Games Like Humans

Enabling Computers to Play Games Like Humans

Stephen McGlinchey [2004]

This article is a quick mention on how it might be possible to create an AI that behaves like a human.

McGlinchey states that AI players can be written with several different objectives. Some developers aim to develop AI players that are most likely to succeed in a game, others aim at producing players that will make the gaming experience more enjoyable and this means that the AI should behave like a human.

She says that there are two aspects of game AI that affect the gamer's experience: level of performance and style of play. This means that the AI must match the experience level of the player and that it must behave similar to how a human would play (AI players should not have superhuman reactions or be able to move in an impossible manner). Failing to correctly adjust any of those will make the experience less immersive and less enjoyable.

One way of solving this problem is a technique that is being researched called motion capture for AI. Which is basically training the AI with recorded data from human players, a process called GoCap (Game Observation Capture). The trained AI can then mimic the data that was used to train it.

The author suggests using Kohonen's Self Organising Map (SOM) in conjunction with the GoCap. In a simple game of pong, they were able to replicate some of the quirks that are present in human play, which can actually make the player believe that the opponent is intelligent and non-mechanized.

Read the article here.

McGlinchey, Stephen (2004). Enabling Computers to Play Games like Humans. In Ercim News 57(1),14 - 16

Book: AI Game Programming Wisdom

AI Game Programming Wisdom

Various Authors, edited by Steve Rabin [2002]

Get the book on Amazon.com

Visit the AI Wisdom website

ISBN: 1-58450-077-8

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This book is an amazing collection of AI related articles that focus on specific aspects of AI development. The great variety of authors and topics make this book a must have for game developers interested in improving their games thorugh AI.

The more than 70 articles contained in the book range from general purpose AI techniques to genere specific AI implementations. It also includes a cd-rom with implemented examples of the code that appears in the book.

Can the information in this book be applied in a serious game context? Probably not every single article, but depending on the type of serious game, many of them could be applied or easily modified to fit the needs of a serious game.

Book: What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy

What Videogames Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy

James Paul Gee [2003]

Get the book on Amazon.com.

ISBN: 1-4039-6538-2

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In this book, Gee explains how games can affect people and more importantly, how can they learn a great amount of stuff just by playing. Gee created a list of 36 learning principles and a thorough explanation of the cognitive processes involved in each of them, with research facts and personal experiences.

In one of the chapters of the book, Gee accurately explains how, if a game is well done, the gamer can have a special connection with his avatar representation. He uses the game Arcanum as an example. Gee says that in this game, he created a special connection with his female elf avatar so deep that that he transmitted his morals and values into his character to the point that he sometimes felt bad if things didn't turn well, feeling that he had 'let down' the character in the videogame.

This happened because there are three identities that work together when someone plays a game like this:

• A virtual identity (one's identity as a virtual character in the game's world).
• A real world identity (the non-virtual person playing the game).
• A projective identity (the projection of one's values and desires into the virtual character).

These identities interact with each other thorught the game and as an example, he says that at any point, any of them can fail:

The virtual character can fail to defeat an enemy because the character was not strong enough to beat it. The real world person can fail to use the game controls effectivly, causing the virtual character to lose a fight that, according to the game's rules, should have won. And the projective identity can fail when the real player causes the virtual player to do something in the game that the real player feels the virtual player shouldn't have done.

Gee explains that this relates to one of the learning principles in his list, the "Identity Principle". This principle says:

"Learning involves taking on and playing with identities in such a way that the learner has real choices and ample opportunity to meditate on the relationship between new identities and old ones."

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[This post will be updated if I find more interesting stuff]

Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy (1st ed.). New York, United States: Palgrave Macmillian.

Article: Do Girls Play Computer Games?

Do Girls Play Computer Games?

Anna [2009]

In this interesting post from Anna's Serious Games Interactive Blog, she discusses the importance of gender when designing a game. She also talks about the unbalanced gender representations in games.

Anna says that there is a social preconception of computer games being for boys, and while it's true that boys generally play more games than girls, that is no reason to completely forget about the female gender while designing a game.

One important aspect to consider which is often overlooked, is the gender of the avatar. While it might not seem important when compared to other elements like graphics, music and engine considerations, it can be a very important issue for female players. As an example, she talks about the game she's been developing "Playing History: The Plague" in which the main character is a non-gender specific mouse, which can be customized by the player. This means that the player can give the avatar gender specific traits, so both genders can be interested in the same avatar.

She also talks about the issue of marketing and packaging, in which she interestingly found that educational games were regarded differently from other genres. Educational games are regarded as 'good for you' games while every other game is regarded as 'fun games'. Also, girl-oriented games are shelved with the educational games, reinfocing the idea that computers are tools, while boy-oriented games are shelved in the 'fun' shelves.

Care should be taken when designing the game, as to not overlook these important aspects.

Read the article here.

Anna. (2009, April 11). Do Girls Play Computer Games? Retrieved February 25, 2011, from Serious Games Interactive: http://www.seriousgames.dk/da/node/370

Paper: Methods for Evaluating Gameplay Experience

Methods for Evaluating Gameplay Experience in a Serious Gaming Context

Lennart Nacke, Anders Drachen and Stefan Göbel [2010]

The authors of this paper make a great description of what methods are being used for measuring the user experience in digital products. From Maslow's motivational model of human needs to Fabricatore's use of the opinions of players to develop design guidelines, but the fact that there are so many different methods, is because it's quite difficult to create a framework that correctly measures the user experience regarding digital content, especially games, because there are a great number of factors that need to be taken into account, like the social context of the user or the number of times someone has used the software.

They concluded that a good user experience evaluation has to be done taking an 'inclusive' theoretical stance with focus on the game system, the player, and the context of play.

To assess the game system, regular software and traditional game testing can be used: Unit testing, stress testing, soak testing, compatibility testing, localization testing, gampelay metrics, etc.

To asses the individual player experience different kinds of testing can be used: Psychophysiological player testing (electromyography, electrodermal activity, magnetic resonance imaging, etc.), eye tracking, persona modeling, player modeling and RITE testing.

Finally, to asses the player context experience some methodologies can be used: Ethnography, cultural debugging, playability heuristics, qualitative interviews and multiplayer game metrics.

[Note: The methodologies and testing procedures are described in the paper]

These methodologies allow balancing and tuning of the game during and after game development to improve the overall experience the game can provide to its players.

Read the paper here.

Nacke, L., Drachen, A., & Göbel, S. (2010). Methods for Evaluating Gameplay Experience in a Serious Gaming Context.

Paper: Hyper-Ludicity, Contra-Ludicity, and the Digital Game

Hyper-Ludicity, Contra-Ludicity, and the Digital Game

Steven Conway [2010]

This paper focuses on the difference between ludicity, contra-ludicity and hyper-ludicity in different generes of videogames.

Ludicity is the degree to which digital games allow play (the possibility to act or have an effect upon the gameworld). When ludicity is heightened or lowered, hyper-ludicity and contra-ludicity can be created and they play an importat role in making a game FUN.

Hyper-ludicity involves granting the player with superior strength or abilites that break the rules of the game, which is usually accompanied by visual effects and audio-cues that clearly identify the start of a hyper-ludicity state. Examples of this can be obtaining the Star item in Super Mario Bros., the 'gamebreaker' mode in FIFA Street, performing a 'Final Smash' in Super Smash Bros. Brawl or eating a 'Power Pellet' in Pac-Man.

Contra-ludicity involves making the game experience harder by taking away some abilities from the player, increasing the number or strength of the enemies or limiting the possible options a player has. Examples of this can be the increasing speed of falling tetrominoes in Tetris, the lack of items/strength/abilities in the beginning of an RPG game or the increasing waves of enemies in Gears of War's 'Horde' mode.

A good example of a game that utilizes hyper-ludicity and contra-ludicity to create an amazing gaming experience is Goldeneye 007 with it's 'The Man With The Golden Gun' mode. In this mode, one of the players is lucky enough to acquire the Golden Gun, which can one-hit-kill other players. This places the holder of the golden gun in a hyper-ludic state which gives that player the pleasure of overpowering everyone else while the other players enter a contra-ludic state which forces them to team up to take down the golden gun holder, which also functions as a 'social lubricant'. The quick changes in ludicity makes this game mode interesting and a great example of ludicity balancing.

The most important thing to note when designing a game with hyper-ludicity and contra-ludicity in mind, is to be careful of having a good balance between them. Too much hyper-ludicity and the game will become stale and boring, too much contra-ludicity and the game will become frustrating and annoying.

Read the paper here

Conway, S. (2010). Hyper-Ludicity, Contra-Ludicity, and the Digital Game. Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, 135-147.