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UNIVERSITATEA NAȚIONALĂ DE ARTĂ TEATRALĂ ȘI CINEMATOGRAFICĂ “I.L. CARAGIALE” BUCUREȘTI FACULTATEA DE FILM STUDII UNIVERSITARE DE MASTERAT DOMENIUL: CINEMATOGRAFIE ȘI MEDIA PROGRAMUL DE STUDII: ARTA JOCURILOR VIDEO LUCRARE DE DISERTAȚIE Coordonator: conf.univ.dr. Alexandru Berceanu lect.univ.dr. Diana Vasile Absolvent: Păun Liviu Andrei IUNIE 2020 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THEATRICAL ARTS AND CINEMATOGRAPHY ”I.L.CARAGIALE” BUCHAREST FACULTY OF FILM MASTERS OF GAME DESIGN EXPANDING HUMAN PERCEPTION THROUGH PUZZLES IN VIDEO GAMES Coordinator: conf.univ.dr. Alexandru Berceanu lect.univ.dr. Diana Vasile Student: Păun Liviu Andrei JUNE 2020 Structure Abstract……….………………………………………………………………………………..………2 Chapter I Interaction in game design 1.1 What defines a game..……….…………………………………………………………...…3 1.2 Game Design …..……………………………………………………………………..……7 1.3 Puzzles in games ……………………………………………………………………..……9 Chapter II Optical illusions 2.1 Perception and illusion……………………………………………………………………13 2.2 Illusion in art………………………………………………………………………………16 2.3 Case studies ………………………………………………………………………………21 Chapter III Game implementation: 3.1 Game concept……………………………………………………………………….……26 3.2 Galerist game design………………………………………………………………..……28 3.3 Galerist game development………………………………………………………………37 Chapter IV Testing and conclusions 4.1 Questionnaire…………………………………………………………………………..…44 4.2 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………………48 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..……50 Annex -Game design document……………………………..………………………….……………52 -Gallerist Gantt chart……………………………………………………………….………...61 1 Abstract The thesis aims to answer the following question: How can we design a game that can change the player's visual perspective? And how can we understand the space around us in a different way? I attempt to achieve this by finding the right development pipeline for this game. I admire the visual style of M.C.Escher's paintings which served as the base concept of the virtual space I want to create with the goal to experiment and bring these optical illusions to life in an immersive medium, through gameplay. In Chapter One I will talk about artists that inspired me in the creation of my game, what puzzle games are where the perception is formed, and how. In order to develop an experience that interacts with the player and create a meaningful experience in Chapter Two I presented the concept of game design followed by several case studies from this genre, in order to analyze both positive and negative aspects, and how other designers applied mechanics in video games to give the change of perspective feel. I will argue my theory with a questionnaire in order to answer what the users enjoy in this game and whether they had a meaningful experience or not. In the final chapter, I will describe the development process based on the knowledge acquired in the first two chapters, the difficulties, feedback from the players, and future goals. As well as a conclusion to the question at hand. Method of research: case studies, questionnaires, feedback from players, practical video game Keywords: perspective, illusion, deformation, interaction, engagement, puzzle, game, logic, intuition, abstract. 2 Chapter I - Interaction In Game Design 1. 1. What defines a game In this chapter, I will take into account, what defines a game and what are they exactly, what game design is, and the role in a puzzle game. How do we understand and immerse ourselves in these mediums, what makes a game fun to play, and where does this information form, as well as going through where the perception is formed in the human brain, why, and how can we influence this perception in generating emotion? The first question I am trying to answer is what exactly is a game? There are different ways from which you can answer this. Chris Crawford describes them as being a “closed formal system that represents a subset of reality”1 in this sense he defines a closed system as being complete, having a structure, and being fully described. He describes formal as in having a very specific ruleset, and system for all the interconnected parts in all of their complexity. Another definition comes from the authors of The study of games, Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith “Games are an exercise of voluntary control systems, in which there is a contest between powers, confined by rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome.”2. With this approach, I agree with the fact that you enter them voluntarily and that you give some kind of consent upon entering the game. Here as well are described the rules, and a new idea, is introduced, the one of a contest which I am not in complete accord because of the nature of cooperative games in which the players work together to a common goal not competing one with the other. Although incomplete I admire the simplicity in which Jesse Schell describes “A game is a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude.”3 Here I find the first description of a game where the idea of playfulness comes in. This expresses that a game should give some sort of amusement, or pleasure from it because in itself humans, have been playing from all our existence. With the goal of pleasuring and amusing ourselves in our day by day activities. 1 Chris Crawford - The Art of Computer Game Design, Reflections of A Master Game Designer, McGraw-Hill 1984, U.S. page 7 2 Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith, The study of games, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 197, page 405 3 Jesse Schell - The art of game design a book of lenses, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Burlington 2008. page 37 3 A game is formed from rules, a system, the wish to interact with it, and extend this in a pleasurable activity to us. I think of games as opportunities for us to emerge ourselves into a different world with interesting puzzles to resolve while learning on the fly about the world and ourselves as well. Ernest Adams in the book Fundamentals of Game Design defines a game by being “A game is a type of play activity, conducted in the context of a pretended reality, in which the participant(s) try to achieve at least one arbitrary, nontrivial goal by acting in accordance with rules.”4 Here we see the notion of pretending coming up where in order to engage in the game our player must pretend in being someone or something else. In order to understand what a game is we first need to find out what are the essential elements in a game, and from the definitions before we can extract, a goal, rules, play and pretending. Pretending similar to acting in this context is a conscious creation of an alternative reality in one’s mind. Dutch historian Johan Huizinga defined this form of reality created by impersonation is the magic circle in his book Homo Ludens5 . The magic circle is strongly associated with the world of imagination, in which each of us embarks when engaging with a work of fiction. Also connected to spiritual, ceremonial, and other types of activities that require some kind of ritual, he defines a type of boundary that separates the rules, ideas, and concepts of the real world from those in the magic circle. Also dividing the reality from the factious Figure 9 In games, this structure follows for example in a single-player Figure 1 Magic Circle game the user enters the magic circle at the point where he makes the choice to play. In multiplayer games, a convention is established and they all must agree upon it. For board games is the same case, all players agree to the rules, and pretend to be someone else, in a sense the player leaves his former self at the border with reality and 4 Ernest Adams, Fundamentals of Game Design, second edition, New Riders, Berkeley,2010 page 3 5 Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture Beacon Press, Boston, 1955. 4 immerses himself into the magic circle where everyone follows the specific rules, goals, and ideas. Goals are a big part of games, of course, there are sandbox games where things are not as well defined and no specific goal is given by the game, although similar to a toy, the player is left to play with the game in what way he wants, leaving him to decide at what to do in the environment. For all the other games out there a goal is what moves the player from one place to the other, this can give momentum through the gameplay and finally after fulfilling the goal, the player receives a form of satisfaction, being Experience Points (used to award the player in video games, often used to level up your character skills), gold or an awesome sword to prepare him for the next encounter in the game. Goals can be specific or ambiguous, for example, a quest has a very specific goal set to it “in order to complete this quest you must defeat the dragon from the top mountain” and in order to do that you must find the mountain, slay the dragon and get back to collect your reward. A more ambiguous goal is set in the form of puzzle games, where you know what you need to achieve in general but you are not given specific instructions on how to achieve this goal, the reward a player gets from solving a puzzle consist in having the satisfaction you have outsmarted yourself and completed the challenge. The rules are instructions and definitions that the player needs in order to participate in a game. Rules have several purposes for a game they define the goal of the game and how to reach it, while at the same time creating the context in which the game is set in. Rules specify to what extend can players do certain actions and those that are forbidden, a ruleset should define the following: “■ The semiotics of the game are the meanings and relationships of the various symbols that the game employs.