Classification of Games for Computer Science Education

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Classification of Games for Computer Science Education

Classiﬁcation of Games for Computer Science Education Peter Drake Lewis & Clark College Overview Major Categories Issues in the CS Classroom Resources Major Categories Classical Abstract Games Children’s Games Family Games Simulation Games Eurogames (”German Games”) Classical Abstract Games Simple rules Often deep strategy Backgammon, Bridge, Checkers, Chess, Go, Hex, Mancala, Nine Men’s Morris, Tic-Tac-Toe Children’s Games Simple rules Decisions are easy and rare Candyland, Cootie, Go Fish, Snakes and Ladders, War Family Games Moderately complex rules Often a high luck factor Battleship, Careers, Clue, Game of Life, Risk, Scrabble, Sorry, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Yahtzee Simulation Games Extremely complex rules Theme is usually war or sports Blood Bowl, Panzer Blitz, Star Fleet Battles, Strat-o-Matic Baseball, Twilight Imperium, Wizard Kings Eurogames (”German Games”) Complexity comparable to family games Somewhat deeper strategy Carcassonne, El Grande, Puerto Rico, Ra, Samurai, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride Issues in the CS Classroom Game mechanics Programming issues Cultural and thematic issues Games for particular topics Game Mechanics Time to play Number of players Number of piece types Board morphology Determinism Programming Issues Detecting or enumerating legal moves Hidden information Artiﬁcially intelligent opponent Testing Proprietary games Cultural and Thematic Issues Students may be engaged by games from their own culture Theme may attract or repel various students Religious objections A small number of students just don’t like games Games for Particular Topics Quantitative reasoning: play some games! Stacks and queues: solitaire card games Sets: word games Graphs: complicated boards OOP: dice, cards, simulations Networking: hidden information, multiplayer games AI: classical abstract games Resources http://www.boardgamegeek.com http://www.funagain.com International Computer Games Association, http://www.cs.unimaas.nl/ icga/.

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Ludopor – Platform for Creating Word Educational Games
LudoPor Word Games Creation Platform Samuel José Raposo Vieira Mira March of 2009 Acknowledgements While I have done a lot of work on this project, it would not have been possible without the help of many great people. I would like to thank my mother and my wonderful girlfriend who have encouraged me in everything I have ever done. I also owe a great amount to my thesis supervisor, Rui Prada whose advice and criticism has been critical in this project. Next I would like to thank the Ciberdúvidas community, especially Ana Martins, for having the time and will to try and experiment my prototypes. A special thanks is owed to my good friend António Leonardo and all the users that helped in this project especially the ones in the weekly meetings. 2 Abstract This thesis presents an approach for creating Word Games. We researched word games as Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble and more to establish reasons for their success. After this research we proposed a conceptual model using key concepts present in many of those games. The model defines the Game World with concepts such as the World Representation, Player, Challenges, Links, Goals and Performance Indicators. Then we created LudoPor - a prototype of a platform using some of the referred concepts. The prototype was made using an iterative design starting from paper prototypes to high fidelity prototypes using user evaluation tests to help define the right path. In this task we had the help of many users including persons of Ciberdúvidas (a Portuguese language community). Another objective of LudoPor was to create games for Ciberdúvidas that would be shown in their website.
[Show full text]
The Poetics of Reflection in Digital Games
© Copyright 2019 Terrence E. Schenold The Poetics of Reflection in Digital Games Terrence E. Schenold A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2019 Reading Committee: Brian M. Reed, Chair Leroy F. Searle Phillip S. Thurtle Program Authorized to Offer Degree: English University of Washington Abstract The Poetics of Reflection in Digital Games Terrence E. Schenold Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Brian Reed, Professor English The Poetics of Reflection in Digital Games explores the complex relationship between digital games and the activity of reflection in the context of the contemporary media ecology. The general aim of the project is to create a critical perspective on digital games that recovers aesthetic concerns for game studies, thereby enabling new discussions of their significance as mediations of thought and perception. The arguments advanced about digital games draw on philosophical aesthetics, media theory, and game studies to develop a critical perspective on gameplay as an aesthetic experience, enabling analysis of how particular games strategically educe and organize reflective modes of thought and perception by design, and do so for the purposes of generating meaning and supporting expressive or artistic goals beyond amusement. The project also provides critical discussion of two important contexts relevant to understanding the significance of this poetic strategy in the field of digital games: the dynamics of the contemporary media ecology, and the technological and cultural forces informing game design thinking in the ludic century. The project begins with a critique of limiting conceptions of gameplay in game studies grounded in a close reading of Bethesda's Morrowind, arguing for a new a "phaneroscopical perspective" that accounts for the significance of a "noematic" layer in the gameplay experience that accounts for dynamics of player reflection on diegetic information and its integral relation to ergodic activity.
[Show full text]
A Trivial Pursuit: Scrabbling for a Board Game Copyright Rationale
HALES_TRIVIAL PURSUIT 3/7/2013 1:15 PM A TRIVIAL PURSUIT: SCRABBLING FOR A BOARD GAME COPYRIGHT RATIONALE Kevin P. Hales* INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 242 I:HISTORICAL LACK OF PROTECTION FOR BOARD GAMES ......... 245 II.ARGUMENTS FAVORING COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR BOARD GAMES ................................................................. 248 A. Board Games as Creative Works Versus Practical Ones .......................................................... 248 B. Copyright Protection for Comparable Works ......... 250 1. Plays and Similar Dramatic Works ................... 250 2. Sheet Music ......................................................... 252 3. Video games ........................................................ 254 4. Computer software. ............................................. 255 5. Sui Generis Protection for Architectural Works. .................................................................. 256 C. Substantial Similarity and the “Heart” of a Work . 257 D. Benefits of Copyright ............................................... 259 1. Incentivizing Creation of Board Games ............. 259 III.LACK OF PRESSURE FOR COPYRIGHT IN BOARD GAMES ....... 262 A. Legal Hurdles........................................................... 263 B. Board Game Industry Dynamics ............................. 264 IV.ARGUMENTS AGAINST COPYRIGHT IN BOARD GAMES .......... 265 CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 268 * J.D., 2011, University
[Show full text]
Learning Board Game Rules from an Instruction Manual Chad Mills A
Learning Board Game Rules from an Instruction Manual Chad Mills A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science University of Washington 2013 Committee: Gina-Anne Levow Fei Xia Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Linguistics – Computational Linguistics ©Copyright 2013 Chad Mills University of Washington Abstract Learning Board Game Rules from an Instruction Manual Chad Mills Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Gina-Anne Levow Department of Linguistics Board game rulebooks offer a convenient scenario for extracting a systematic logical structure from a passage of text since the mechanisms by which board game pieces interact must be fully specified in the rulebook and outside world knowledge is irrelevant to gameplay. A representation was proposed for representing a game’s rules with a tree structure of logically-connected rules, and this problem was shown to be one of a generalized class of problems in mapping text to a hierarchical, logical structure. Then a keyword-based entity- and relation-extraction system was proposed for mapping rulebook text into the corresponding logical representation, which achieved an f-measure of 11% with a high recall but very low precision, due in part to many statements in the rulebook offering strategic advice or elaboration and causing spurious rules to be proposed based on keyword matches. The keyword-based approach was compared to a machine learning approach, and the former dominated with nearly twenty times better precision at the same level of recall. This was due to the large number of rule classes to extract and the relatively small data set given this is a new problem area and all data had to be manually annotated.
[Show full text]
Games and Rules
Requirements for a General Game Mechanics Framework Imre Hofmann In this article I will apply a meta-theoretical approach to the question of how a game mechanics framework has to be designed in order to fulfil its task of ade- quately depicting or modeling the reality of game mechanics. I had two aims in mind when starting my research. I studied existing game theories and three game mechanics theories in particular in order to evaluate the state of the art of game mechanics theory. (Descriptive aim) The second aim followed on from these studies. With the results of my research I wanted to define the attributes a com- prehensive and general game mechanics theory might or – rather – needed to have. What are the general properties that such a theory should display? (Norma- tive aim) In my opinion the underlying mechanics of a game may be regarded in some way as its centerpiece. The reasons for this shall become clear over the course of this article. To begin with, I would like to make two terminological clarifications. First, I am not going to examine different game mechanics and typologies or categories of game mechanics. Instead, I will take a theoretical step backwards, so to speak, on the meta-level by analyzing and comparing different theories of game me- chanics (which themselves suggest categories and typologies). Secondly, I will use the expressions “game mechanics theory” “(game mechanics) framework” and “(game mechanics) model” synonymously. In my research I focused mainly on the following three key theories of game mechanics: 1. Carlo Fabricatore’s Gameplay and Game Mechanics Design (2007) 2.
[Show full text]
Week 3 Day 1: Designing Games with Conditionals
INTRODUCTION | CYBER ARCADE: PROGRAMMING AND MAKING WITH MICRO:BIT 3-1 | ELEMENTARY WEEK 3 DAY 1: DESIGNING GAMES WITH CONDITIONALS INTRODUCTION This week makers continue to use the Micro:bit microcontroller and begin coding and designing interactive games and art. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS • How can we use code and math to create a fun game? • What is a conditional statement? • How do artists, engineers, and makers solve problems when they’re working? LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. Learn how to use code and conditionals to create a game. 2. Engage in project-based learning through problem-solving and troubleshooting by creating a game using a Micro:bit microcontroller and code. TEACHERLESSON | RESOURCE CYBER ARCADE: | CYBER PROGRAMMING ARCADE: PROGRAMMING AND MAKING AND WITH MAKING MICRO:BIT WITH MICRO:BIT 3-23-2 | | ELEMENTARY ELEMENTARY VOCABULARY Conditional: Set of rules performed if a certain condition is met Game mechanics: Basic actions, processes, visuals, and control mechanisms that are used to make a game Game designer: Person responsible for designing game storylines, plots, objectives, scenarios, the degree of difficulty, and character development Game engineer: Specialized software engineers who design and program video games Troubleshooting: Using resources to solve issues as they arise TEACHERLESSON | RESOURCE CYBER ARCADE: | CYBER PROGRAMMING ARCADE: PROGRAMMING AND MAKING AND WITH MAKING MICRO:BIT WITH MICRO:BIT 3-33-3 | | ELEMENTARY ELEMENTARY MATERIALS LIST EACH PAIR OF MAKERS NEEDS: • Micro:bit microcontroller • Laptop with internet connection • USB to micro-USB cord • USB flash drive • External battery pack • AAA batteries (2) • Notebook TEACHER RESOURCE | CYBER ARCADE: PROGRAMMING AND MAKING WITH MICRO:BIT 3-4 | ELEMENTARY They can also use the Troubleshooting Tips, search the internet for help, TEACHER PREP WORK or use the tutorial page on the MakeCode website.
[Show full text]
Computer Game Flow Design, ACM Computers in Entertainment, 4, 1
LJMU Research Online Taylor, MJ, Baskett, M, Reilly, D and Ravindran, S Game theory for computer games design http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/7332/ Article Citation (please note it is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from this work) Taylor, MJ, Baskett, M, Reilly, D and Ravindran, S (2017) Game theory for computer games design. Games and Culture, 14 (7-8). pp. 843-855. ISSN 1555-4139 LJMU has developed LJMU Research Online for users to access the research output of the University more effectively. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LJMU Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. For more information please contact [email protected] http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/ Game theory for computer games design Abstract Designing and developing computer games can be a complex activity that may involve professionals from a variety of disciplines. In this article, we examine the use of game theory for supporting the design of game play within the different sections of a computer game, and demonstrate its application in practice via adapted high-level decision trees for modelling the flow in game play and payoff matrices for modelling skill or challenge levels.
[Show full text]
Hasbro and Discovery Communications Announce Joint
Hasbro and Discovery Communications Announce Joint Venture to Create Television Network Dedicated to High-Quality Children's and Family Entertainment and Educational Content April 30, 2009 - Multi-Platform Initiative Planned to Premiere in Late 2010; TV Network to Reach Approximately 60 Million Nielsen Households in the U.S. Served by Discovery Kids Channel - - Joint Media Call with Hasbro CEO and Discovery CEO at 8:15 AM Eastern Today; Hasbro Investor Call with Hasbro CEO and Hasbro CFO & COO at 8:45 AM Eastern Today; See Dial-in and Webcast Details at End of Release - PAWTUCKET, R.I. and SILVER SPRING, Md., April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS) and Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) today announced an agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture, including a television network and website, dedicated to high-quality children's and family entertainment and educational programming built around some of the most well-known and beloved brands in the world. As part of the transaction, the joint venture also will receive a minority interest in the U.S. version of Hasbro.com. Both the network and the venture's online component will feature content from Hasbro's rich portfolio of entertainment and educational properties built over the past 90 years, including original programming for animation, game shows, and live-action series and specials. New programming will be based on brands such as ROMPER ROOM, TRIVIAL PURSUIT, SCRABBLE, CRANIUM, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, GAME OF LIFE, TONKA and TRANSFORMERS, among many others. The TV network and online presence also will include content from Discovery's extensive library of award- winning children's educational programming, such as BINDI THE JUNGLE GIRL, ENDURANCE, TUTENSTEIN, HI-5, FLIGHT 29 DOWN and PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD, as well as programming from third-party producers.
[Show full text]
Major Developments in the Evolution of Tabletop Game Design
Major Developments in the Evolution of Tabletop Game Design Frederick Reiber Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences University of California Irvine Irvine, USA [email protected] Abstract—Tabletop game design is very much an incremental these same concepts can and have been used in video game art. Designers build upon the ideas of previous games, often design. improving and combining already defined game mechanics. In Although some of these breakthroughs might be already this work, we look at a collection of the most impactful tabletop game designs, or games that have caused a significant shift in known by long time game designers, it is important to formally the tabletop game design space. This work seeks to record those document these developments. By doing so, we can not only shifts, and does so with the aid of empirical analysis. For each bridge the gap between experienced and novice game design- game, a brief description of the game’s history and mechanics ers, but we can also begin to facilitate scholarly discussion on is given, followed by a discussion on its impact within tabletop the evolution of games. Furthermore, this research is of interest game design. to those within the tabletop game industry as it provides Index Terms—Game Design, Mechanics, Impact. analysis on major developments in the field. It is also our belief that this work can be useful to academics, specifically I. INTRODUCTION those in the fields of game design, game analytics, and game There are many elements that go into creating a successful generation AI. tabletop game.
[Show full text]
Monte Carlo Methods for the Game Kingdomino
Monte Carlo Methods for the Game Kingdomino Magnus Gedda, Mikael Z. Lagerkvist, and Martin Butler Tomologic AB Stockholm, Sweden Email: fi[email protected] Abstract—Kingdomino is introduced as an interesting game for enhancements have been presented for MCTS, both general studying game playing: the game is multiplayer (4 independent and domain-dependent, increasing its performance even further players per game); it has a limited game depth (13 moves per for various games [14], [15], [16], [17], [18]. For shallow game player); and it has limited but not insignificant interaction among players. trees it is still unclear which Monte Carlo method performs Several strategies based on locally greedy players, Monte Carlo best since available recommendations only concern games Evaluation (MCE), and Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) are with deep trees. presented with variants. We examine a variation of UCT called Kingdomino [19] is a new board game which won the progressive win bias and a playout policy (Player-greedy) focused prestigious Spiel des Jahres award 2017. Like many other on selecting good moves for the player. A thorough evaluation is done showing how the strategies perform and how to choose eurogames it has a high branching factor but differs from parameters given specific time constraints. The evaluation shows the general eurogame with its shallow game tree (only 13 that surprisingly MCE is stronger than MCTS for a game like rounds). It has frequent elements of nondeterminism and Kingdomino. differs from zero sum games in that the choices a player makes All experiments use a cloud-native design, with a game server generally have limited effect on its opponents.
[Show full text]
Games and Rules
Games as a Special Zone Motivation Mechanics of Games René Bauer PLAY AS POSSIBILITY SPACE In games, sheep might speak, mountains fly, spaces move, moons disappear and faces morph; men can shrink, avatars can be moved, time rewound or frogs blown up. What would be regarded as delusional laws, imaginations and crazy ideas in other areas, as described for example in Dr. Daniel Schreber’s 1903 book “Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken” (Memories of a Neuropath), is a tangible and interactive reality in many games. It is the special zone in which games operate that makes these divergent rules and laws culturally possible. Huizinga identified a number of playful special zones such as arenas, card tables, “Magic Circles”, stages or temples. They are all playgrounds. “The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are tempo- rary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.” (Huizinga 1955: 5) Thus, games (temporarily) position themselves against the ‘analog’ world with its fixed continuous rules that are based on atoms and their properties. The ana- log space surrounding us is bijective and continuous. It comes with three spatial dimensions, a continuous time and various resulting ‘laws’. The same applies to social and cultural conditions, which can also override or subvert games. This analog space and its rules become a complex, special set of rules in the much 36 | René Bauer more powerful possibility space of the games – or in other words: the analog space turns into another one of many game systems.
[Show full text]
Trivial Pursuit Team Is Played in Four Rounds. During Each Round of Play, Six Question Cards Will Be Dealt Face Down Alongside the Board
Adults & Teens Trivial Pursuit Team is played in four rounds. During each round of play, six question cards will be dealt face down alongside the board. Teams take turns choosing a question card, answering and trying to score as many points as possible. The team with the most points, once all question cards have been played, wins. Gameboard, 2 movers, card holder with stand, Contents: ), 30 customizable cards. 12 game packs (360 cards Object of the Game Round One Move the farthest along the path by earning 1. Draw the first card and read it aloud. It contains the rules for Round One. points for answering questions correctly. 2. Draw the next six cards and place them face down on the table. Get Ready 1. Set out the gameboard and place the two movers on the START space. 2. Choose a deck of cards and unwrap it. Be sure NOT to shuffle the cards – it’s important that they stay in order. Remove the rules card (the top one) and the scorecard (the bottom one) and place them on the table for reference. Place the cards face down in the card holder. NOTE: To open the card holder, locate the small bumps on the side and pop the lid up. Deck 1 3. The team going first selects a card from the table and the opposing team reads it to them. 4. If your team is successful, move ahead the number of points you earned. 5. Place the card in a discard pile. 6. Now it’s the next team’s turn.
[Show full text]