1 00:00:00,090 --> 00:00:02,490 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,490 --> 00:00:04,030 Commons license. 3 00:00:04,030 --> 00:00:06,330 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 4 00:00:06,330 --> 00:00:10,690 continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,690 --> 00:00:13,320 To make a donation or view additional materials 6 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,280 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 7 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:20,070 at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:20,070 --> 00:00:22,140 Some content in this audio lecture 9 00:00:22,140 --> 00:00:25,740 is not covered under our Creative Commons license. 10 00:00:25,740 --> 00:00:29,040 Please listen to the end credits for more information. 11 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:30,315 PROFESSOR: OK. 12 00:00:30,315 --> 00:00:31,590 All right. 13 00:00:31,590 --> 00:00:35,410 So today's reading was the "MDA" paper 14 00:00:35,410 --> 00:00:40,400 by Robin Hunicke, Robert Zubek, and Marc LeBlanc. 15 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:43,230 I hope you found it pretty light reading because it was intended 16 00:00:43,230 --> 00:00:44,160 to be pretty light. 17 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:46,980 And the whole point of it was that we 18 00:00:46,980 --> 00:00:49,380 will be getting through this pretty quickly 19 00:00:49,380 --> 00:00:52,020 today so that you have time to sit with your teams, 20 00:00:52,020 --> 00:00:55,406 talk about your project, work on it a little bit. 21 00:00:55,406 --> 00:00:57,530 All the prototyping materials that are in front I'm 22 00:00:57,530 --> 00:01:01,920 going to be putting the boxes on the tables. 23 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:04,260 Are you more or less seated with your teams right now? 24 00:01:04,260 --> 00:01:04,819 More or less? 25 00:01:04,819 --> 00:01:06,150 OK. 26 00:01:06,150 --> 00:01:08,700 Every team represented-- let's see. 27 00:01:08,700 --> 00:01:11,060 You are the building team. 28 00:01:11,060 --> 00:01:12,050 You guys are the-- 29 00:01:12,050 --> 00:01:12,706 which? 30 00:01:12,706 --> 00:01:13,830 AUDIENCE: I'm also builder. 31 00:01:13,830 --> 00:01:15,603 PROFESSOR: The different building team. 32 00:01:15,603 --> 00:01:16,700 AUDIENCE: The LEGOs, yeah. 33 00:01:16,700 --> 00:01:17,408 PROFESSOR: Right. 34 00:01:17,408 --> 00:01:18,590 The LEGO building team, OK. 35 00:01:18,590 --> 00:01:20,070 Which team is that? 36 00:01:20,070 --> 00:01:21,467 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 37 00:01:21,467 --> 00:01:22,361 PROFESSOR: The what? 38 00:01:22,361 --> 00:01:23,300 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 39 00:01:23,300 --> 00:01:25,150 PROFESSOR: The head of the information team. 40 00:01:25,150 --> 00:01:26,127 AUDIENCE: Thievery. 41 00:01:26,127 --> 00:01:29,214 PROFESSOR: The thievery, stealing stuff? 42 00:01:29,214 --> 00:01:30,560 AUDIENCE: The pap building. 43 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:31,600 Pap building. 44 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:32,480 PROFESSOR: Oh, you're the pap building. 45 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:32,760 OK. 46 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:33,260 All right. 47 00:01:33,260 --> 00:01:35,160 So, all right, cool. 48 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:36,717 I'll type it here, great. 49 00:01:36,717 --> 00:01:39,050 Hopefully we'll be able to make a little bit of progress 50 00:01:39,050 --> 00:01:42,980 on your teams on your projects. 51 00:01:42,980 --> 00:01:49,676 So who managed to play a little bit more of the games, 52 00:01:49,676 --> 00:01:52,050 whether it was the prototype that you played on Wednesday 53 00:01:52,050 --> 00:01:54,720 or whether it was something else you developed along the way. 54 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:56,970 Who managed to get some playtime? 55 00:01:56,970 --> 00:01:59,130 OK, a few people. 56 00:01:59,130 --> 00:02:01,544 Who did you play it with? 57 00:02:01,544 --> 00:02:03,460 AUDIENCE: So we went back to the drawing board 58 00:02:03,460 --> 00:02:05,369 and redid new games. 59 00:02:05,369 --> 00:02:05,910 PROFESSOR: OK 60 00:02:05,910 --> 00:02:06,757 AUDIENCE: Exploring. 61 00:02:06,757 --> 00:02:08,220 So we just played them amongst ourselves. 62 00:02:08,220 --> 00:02:08,880 PROFESSOR: Among yourselves? 63 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:09,830 OK. 64 00:02:09,830 --> 00:02:10,889 Who did you play with? 65 00:02:10,889 --> 00:02:12,680 AUDIENCE: Just different people in my dorm. 66 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,220 PROFESSOR: OK. 67 00:02:14,220 --> 00:02:16,756 [INAUDIBLE] basically, right? 68 00:02:16,756 --> 00:02:18,240 Anyone else? 69 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:19,460 Did anyone else do? 70 00:02:19,460 --> 00:02:19,960 Yep. 71 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:21,709 AUDIENCE: I mean, we went through a couple 72 00:02:21,709 --> 00:02:22,480 more iterations-- 73 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:23,390 PROFESSOR: Just within your team? 74 00:02:23,390 --> 00:02:23,690 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 75 00:02:23,690 --> 00:02:24,030 PROFESSOR Yeah. 76 00:02:24,030 --> 00:02:24,530 OK. 77 00:02:30,050 --> 00:02:33,480 Did you play an iteration that you didn't develop yourself? 78 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:34,890 Did anyone? 79 00:02:34,890 --> 00:02:39,470 It's like, if you played within your team, obviously-- 80 00:02:39,470 --> 00:02:40,407 OK. 81 00:02:40,407 --> 00:02:42,990 So if you played a version that you hadn't developed yourself, 82 00:02:42,990 --> 00:02:46,350 or if you played it with other people who were developing 83 00:02:46,350 --> 00:02:49,530 the game with you, how do you-- 84 00:02:49,530 --> 00:02:56,700 what were some of the things that you felt about the game? 85 00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:59,640 Or what did people say about your game 86 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:01,670 once the game was done? 87 00:03:01,670 --> 00:03:06,245 What did people seem to like or not like about it? 88 00:03:06,245 --> 00:03:08,370 What were some of the things that they were saying. 89 00:03:08,370 --> 00:03:09,076 AUDIENCE: It didn't end. 90 00:03:09,076 --> 00:03:10,230 PROFESSOR: It didn't end. 91 00:03:10,230 --> 00:03:12,960 OK, all right. 92 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,000 What else? 93 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:16,620 It could have been negative feedback. 94 00:03:16,620 --> 00:03:19,535 It could have been, wow, this is terrible because, blah. 95 00:03:19,535 --> 00:03:20,677 What was the blah? 96 00:03:24,271 --> 00:03:25,770 Or it could have been, wow, that was 97 00:03:25,770 --> 00:03:27,230 kind of cool because of blah. 98 00:03:31,730 --> 00:03:33,580 Nothing? 99 00:03:33,580 --> 00:03:34,950 Nobody gave you any feedback? 100 00:03:34,950 --> 00:03:37,350 They just kind of sat there, passively, 101 00:03:37,350 --> 00:03:39,090 while you're making them play this? 102 00:03:39,090 --> 00:03:41,617 [LAUGHTER] 103 00:03:41,617 --> 00:03:47,640 OK, well, I was hoping that that was a segue into a little talk 104 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,870 about aesthetics, actually. 105 00:03:50,870 --> 00:03:55,925 Maybe what I'll do then is, I'm gonna make you play a game. 106 00:03:55,925 --> 00:03:57,140 A shot game. 107 00:03:57,140 --> 00:03:59,010 The game that you will see-- 108 00:03:59,010 --> 00:03:59,975 who's played it before? 109 00:03:59,975 --> 00:04:01,350 AUDIENCE: The game on the screen? 110 00:04:01,350 --> 00:04:03,390 PROFESSOR: Yeah, Oasis. 111 00:04:03,390 --> 00:04:06,865 Also note it's Defense of the Oasis, which is easily confused 112 00:04:06,865 --> 00:04:11,480 with DOTA, but it is not DOTA. 113 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:13,212 All right. 114 00:04:13,212 --> 00:04:14,670 If somebody would like to volunteer 115 00:04:14,670 --> 00:04:19,079 to play through an early easy level while there's a lot-- 116 00:04:19,079 --> 00:04:20,447 you know what? 117 00:04:20,447 --> 00:04:22,530 You all get a chance to play it through one round, 118 00:04:22,530 --> 00:04:24,460 because each round's pretty fast. 119 00:04:24,460 --> 00:04:27,190 So we'll start with you and then we'll go on then, OK? 120 00:04:27,190 --> 00:04:28,980 And then, everybody else pay attention 121 00:04:28,980 --> 00:04:34,410 because I guess he's pretty much playing the tutorial level. 122 00:04:34,410 --> 00:04:38,040 So this was only designed for the PC. 123 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,400 It was actually one of the-- 124 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:42,990 came out roughly-- you could just 125 00:04:42,990 --> 00:04:44,865 go ahead and play-- it came out roughly about 126 00:04:44,865 --> 00:04:48,390 the same time as casual games, downloadable, casual games, 127 00:04:48,390 --> 00:04:53,910 picking up on the market. 128 00:04:53,910 --> 00:04:56,520 I don't think it was ever sold as a boxed product, 129 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:59,580 or if it was, that really wasn't the point 130 00:04:59,580 --> 00:05:00,666 of its business model. 131 00:05:00,666 --> 00:05:04,195 AUDIENCE: There were people following me. 132 00:05:04,195 --> 00:05:06,140 PROFESSOR: So you click around. 133 00:05:06,140 --> 00:05:07,640 AUDIENCE: I can probably figure out. 134 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:11,915 Oh, this is really the point of figuring it out. 135 00:05:11,915 --> 00:05:14,290 That one. 136 00:05:14,290 --> 00:05:15,452 That happened. 137 00:05:15,452 --> 00:05:17,356 [LAUGHTER] 138 00:05:17,356 --> 00:05:18,893 AUDIENCE: I just keep walking. 139 00:05:18,893 --> 00:05:19,740 151. 140 00:05:19,740 --> 00:05:20,880 AUDIENCE: Already searched. 141 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:23,180 [MUSIC PLAYING] 142 00:05:23,180 --> 00:05:27,200 AUDIENCE: Oh, it happened again Already searched. 143 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:29,620 [MUSIC PLAYING] 144 00:05:29,620 --> 00:05:32,040 AUDIENCE: You should do something clever. 145 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,460 [MUSIC PLAYING] 146 00:05:37,430 --> 00:05:40,820 PROFESSOR: So notice the trends are going down. 147 00:05:40,820 --> 00:05:41,820 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 148 00:05:41,820 --> 00:05:43,215 [MUSIC PLAYING] 149 00:05:43,215 --> 00:05:44,145 AUDIENCE: Water. 150 00:05:44,145 --> 00:05:46,237 [MUSIC PLAYING] 151 00:05:46,237 --> 00:05:48,232 AUDIENCE: They like music, don't they? 152 00:05:48,232 --> 00:05:50,449 [MUSIC PLAYING] 153 00:05:50,449 --> 00:05:50,990 AUDIENCE: OK. 154 00:05:50,990 --> 00:05:52,201 PROFESSOR: Big shiny thing. 155 00:05:52,201 --> 00:05:53,867 AUDIENCE: How do we increase population? 156 00:05:53,867 --> 00:05:56,352 [MUSIC PLAYING] 157 00:05:57,757 --> 00:05:58,340 AUDIENCE: Yay. 158 00:05:58,340 --> 00:06:00,825 [MUSIC PLAYING] 159 00:06:00,825 --> 00:06:03,320 AUDIENCE: Throw that towel. 160 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:07,873 PROFESSOR: Look, notice this guy is down there. 161 00:06:07,873 --> 00:06:09,757 AUDIENCE: I am watching you. 162 00:06:09,757 --> 00:06:11,641 Oh, hey, hello people. 163 00:06:11,641 --> 00:06:13,980 [MUSIC PLAYING] 164 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:15,820 PROFESSOR: So this actually turns out 165 00:06:15,820 --> 00:06:17,290 not to be the tutorial level. 166 00:06:17,290 --> 00:06:20,944 This just turns out to be the first level. 167 00:06:20,944 --> 00:06:22,444 AUDIENCE: The way most people play-- 168 00:06:22,444 --> 00:06:23,080 why don't you use the tutorial? 169 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:24,329 PROFESSOR: That's true. 170 00:06:24,329 --> 00:06:26,370 People don't like playing tutorials, that's true. 171 00:06:29,180 --> 00:06:31,170 AUDIENCE: So we find these four technologies. 172 00:06:31,170 --> 00:06:32,169 The barbarians are here? 173 00:06:32,169 --> 00:06:33,640 Why are they-- no, they're not. 174 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:38,740 PROFESSOR: You have 22 turns and about two barbarian hordes 175 00:06:38,740 --> 00:06:40,080 are arriving. 176 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:42,640 AUDIENCE: So basically, movements is turn, 177 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,035 and I'm just walking. 178 00:06:44,035 --> 00:06:44,701 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 179 00:06:44,701 --> 00:06:47,650 AUDIENCE: So people-- I should walk to an area I've already 180 00:06:47,650 --> 00:06:50,961 discovered? 181 00:06:50,961 --> 00:06:53,326 Over here. 182 00:06:53,326 --> 00:06:55,166 Oh, I did something clever! 183 00:06:55,166 --> 00:06:56,520 I don't know what I did. 184 00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:58,520 [MUSIC PLAYING] 185 00:06:58,520 --> 00:06:59,454 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 186 00:06:59,454 --> 00:07:00,870 AUDIENCE: I don't know what to do. 187 00:07:00,870 --> 00:07:02,965 I'll just walk here and watch things go bad. 188 00:07:02,965 --> 00:07:04,340 PROFESSOR: Barbarians are coming. 189 00:07:04,340 --> 00:07:05,415 Capture the city. 190 00:07:05,415 --> 00:07:06,650 Move troops there. 191 00:07:06,650 --> 00:07:07,980 AUDIENCE: Move here. 192 00:07:07,980 --> 00:07:11,030 Yay, 94 people. 193 00:07:11,030 --> 00:07:12,710 Can I move other people? 194 00:07:12,710 --> 00:07:13,399 AUDIENCE: Try. 195 00:07:13,399 --> 00:07:14,024 PROFESSOR: Try. 196 00:07:14,024 --> 00:07:14,900 AUDIENCE: No more troops. 197 00:07:14,900 --> 00:07:15,610 No more troops. 198 00:07:15,610 --> 00:07:17,490 No more troops. 199 00:07:17,490 --> 00:07:19,490 We're all going to die. 200 00:07:19,490 --> 00:07:19,990 333. 201 00:07:19,990 --> 00:07:22,085 [LAUGHTER] 202 00:07:22,284 --> 00:07:23,992 AUDIENCE: Oh, I thought this was supposed 203 00:07:23,992 --> 00:07:27,089 to be me learning how to play. 204 00:07:27,089 --> 00:07:28,740 AUDIENCE: Yeah, learning. 205 00:07:28,740 --> 00:07:30,030 Feel the learning. 206 00:07:30,030 --> 00:07:32,530 [LAUGHTER] 207 00:07:33,196 --> 00:07:35,010 AUDIENCE: You have to use your technology. 208 00:07:35,010 --> 00:07:36,940 AUDIENCE: Yeah, can you use any? 209 00:07:36,940 --> 00:07:38,440 AUDIENCE: I'm tapping on technology. 210 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:39,420 I'm tapping Hannibal. 211 00:07:39,420 --> 00:07:42,029 I'm tapping spear. 212 00:07:42,029 --> 00:07:44,320 I'm giving it all my love, and it's not doing anything. 213 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:46,770 [CRASHING AND YELLING] 214 00:07:46,770 --> 00:07:49,220 AUDIENCE: I think I won. 215 00:07:49,220 --> 00:07:51,599 [LAUGHTER] 216 00:07:51,599 --> 00:07:53,140 AUDIENCE: Come on, man, you got this. 217 00:07:53,140 --> 00:07:55,590 Kill her. 218 00:07:55,590 --> 00:07:56,570 AUDIENCE: Whoa. 219 00:07:56,570 --> 00:07:57,570 What did they do? 220 00:07:57,570 --> 00:07:59,464 AUDIENCE: Oh, snap. 221 00:07:59,464 --> 00:08:00,627 [MUSIC PLAYING] 222 00:08:00,627 --> 00:08:01,252 AUDIENCE: What? 223 00:08:02,687 --> 00:08:03,270 PROFESSOR: OK. 224 00:08:03,270 --> 00:08:05,690 So you did, in fact, complete the level. 225 00:08:05,690 --> 00:08:10,020 But you're probably [INAUDIBLE] about what happened here. 226 00:08:10,020 --> 00:08:15,742 How do you feel at the end of that level right now? 227 00:08:15,742 --> 00:08:17,575 AUDIENCE: Like I'm good at touching squares, 228 00:08:17,575 --> 00:08:19,040 but that doesn't mean much. 229 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:22,025 Like all I knew was if I found cities I'd tap them again 230 00:08:22,025 --> 00:08:23,157 and I could search. 231 00:08:23,157 --> 00:08:23,740 PROFESSOR: OK. 232 00:08:23,740 --> 00:08:25,700 AUDIENCE: That's all I found. 233 00:08:25,700 --> 00:08:27,490 PROFESSOR: OK. 234 00:08:27,490 --> 00:08:29,650 That's what you figured out about the rules, 235 00:08:29,650 --> 00:08:33,280 but how do you personally feel about this game right now? 236 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:36,600 I mean, you only played one level, 237 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:38,404 and clearly the game goes on. 238 00:08:38,404 --> 00:08:40,320 AUDIENCE: I feel like it's somewhat impossible 239 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:42,980 to control the ending situation because I 240 00:08:42,980 --> 00:08:45,910 have no way of determining or upgrading my population. 241 00:08:45,910 --> 00:08:46,640 PROFESSOR: OK. 242 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:47,690 All right. 243 00:08:47,690 --> 00:08:51,485 So [INAUDIBLE] control right now. 244 00:08:51,485 --> 00:08:52,110 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 245 00:08:52,110 --> 00:08:55,480 Or like I have no influence, so I'm just one dude 246 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:56,587 exploring the map. 247 00:08:56,587 --> 00:08:57,170 PROFESSOR: OK. 248 00:08:57,170 --> 00:09:03,660 So lack of influence maybe. 249 00:09:03,660 --> 00:09:08,740 Lack of influence, or possibly lack of control, 250 00:09:08,740 --> 00:09:09,920 something like that. 251 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,719 All right, so next person. 252 00:09:12,719 --> 00:09:14,010 We're going from right to left. 253 00:09:14,010 --> 00:09:15,700 So you're next. 254 00:09:15,700 --> 00:09:18,641 You're going to play level two, taking in everything 255 00:09:18,641 --> 00:09:19,640 that you've seen so far. 256 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:21,940 AUDIENCE: Oh, crap. 257 00:09:21,940 --> 00:09:25,280 AUDIENCE: Like you saw, you can tap on purple areas that are-- 258 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:27,668 AUDIENCE: Purple area to explore-- so I tap that. 259 00:09:27,668 --> 00:09:28,995 OK. 260 00:09:28,995 --> 00:09:30,370 PROFESSOR: Anyone has-- any ideas 261 00:09:30,370 --> 00:09:32,884 about what he should be doing, go ahead and say so. 262 00:09:32,884 --> 00:09:34,550 He doesn't have to play this on his own. 263 00:09:34,550 --> 00:09:35,883 AUDIENCE: So the question mark-- 264 00:09:35,883 --> 00:09:37,204 AUDIENCE: I'm doing this. 265 00:09:37,204 --> 00:09:38,822 I want to discover every square. 266 00:09:38,822 --> 00:09:40,506 AUDIENCE: Just go to the-- 267 00:09:40,506 --> 00:09:42,850 AUDIENCE: Now that you know-- double-tap cities. 268 00:09:42,850 --> 00:09:43,780 AUDIENCE: Oh, double tap cities? 269 00:09:43,780 --> 00:09:45,844 AUDIENCE: Yeah just tap them again, you'll search them. 270 00:09:45,844 --> 00:09:46,344 Ta-da! 271 00:09:46,344 --> 00:09:47,305 AUDIENCE: Oh, you got-- 272 00:09:47,305 --> 00:09:49,084 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 273 00:09:49,084 --> 00:09:50,375 AUDIENCE: That's probably good. 274 00:09:50,375 --> 00:09:51,980 I don't know if you asked him. 275 00:09:51,980 --> 00:09:53,837 AUDIENCE: Go to the question mark! 276 00:09:53,837 --> 00:09:54,920 AUDIENCE: He'll get there. 277 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:56,298 He'll get there. 278 00:09:56,298 --> 00:09:58,620 AUDIENCE: Should I go save the question mark? 279 00:09:58,620 --> 00:10:00,428 AUDIENCE: Yes. 280 00:10:00,428 --> 00:10:02,292 AUDIENCE: But then I'm gonna [INAUDIBLE] 281 00:10:02,292 --> 00:10:03,570 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 282 00:10:03,570 --> 00:10:05,300 AUDIENCE: Every movement is one turn 283 00:10:05,300 --> 00:10:07,680 no matter how far apart it is. 284 00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:08,510 AUDIENCE: Oh. 285 00:10:08,510 --> 00:10:09,734 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 286 00:10:09,734 --> 00:10:11,150 AUDIENCE: --do it in one straight. 287 00:10:11,150 --> 00:10:12,887 You have to go one purple square at a time. 288 00:10:12,887 --> 00:10:15,220 AUDIENCE: Yeah, but say I wanted to skip all the squares 289 00:10:15,220 --> 00:10:16,116 [INAUDIBLE] 290 00:10:16,116 --> 00:10:19,250 AUDIENCE: You're gonna wait one turn where you discover it 291 00:10:19,250 --> 00:10:19,750 anyway. 292 00:10:19,750 --> 00:10:21,209 AUDIENCE: Yeah, it doesn't matter. 293 00:10:21,209 --> 00:10:21,750 AUDIENCE: Oh. 294 00:10:21,750 --> 00:10:24,126 AUDIENCE: You don't use a turn if you're not discovering? 295 00:10:24,126 --> 00:10:26,416 AUDIENCE: Oh, look at that-- discover right beneath it. 296 00:10:26,416 --> 00:10:27,690 That mountain does something. 297 00:10:27,690 --> 00:10:29,940 I don't know what it does but it gives you ten people. 298 00:10:29,940 --> 00:10:32,780 PROFESSOR: What do people think that does, 299 00:10:32,780 --> 00:10:35,870 where he put 20 people? 300 00:10:35,870 --> 00:10:38,360 When you click on the mountain, what do you think happened? 301 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:40,510 AUDIENCE: It's not about 20 people. 302 00:10:40,510 --> 00:10:43,180 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 303 00:10:43,180 --> 00:10:44,390 AUDIENCE: --technology. 304 00:10:44,390 --> 00:10:46,650 PROFESSOR: OK. 305 00:10:46,650 --> 00:10:47,780 Go right ahead. 306 00:10:47,780 --> 00:10:48,785 Do whatever-- 307 00:10:48,785 --> 00:10:49,970 AUDIENCE: You can put in a lot of people. 308 00:10:49,970 --> 00:10:51,890 PROFESSOR: I don't know if that's good or bad. 309 00:10:51,890 --> 00:10:53,234 I wait turns. 310 00:10:53,234 --> 00:10:55,504 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 311 00:10:57,252 --> 00:10:59,460 AUDIENCE: We're not seeing people form at this stage. 312 00:10:59,460 --> 00:11:01,268 AUDIENCE: Keep running around. 313 00:11:01,268 --> 00:11:01,892 AUDIENCE: Whoa. 314 00:11:01,892 --> 00:11:02,536 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 315 00:11:02,536 --> 00:11:03,035 See, look. 316 00:11:03,035 --> 00:11:04,916 Now I'm still one turn. 317 00:11:04,916 --> 00:11:07,040 AUDIENCE: Wait, do I lose followers when I do that? 318 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:07,874 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 319 00:11:07,874 --> 00:11:09,123 AUDIENCE: We're investigating. 320 00:11:09,123 --> 00:11:10,300 AUDIENCE: Yeah, I do. 321 00:11:10,300 --> 00:11:10,530 AUDIENCE: Oh! 322 00:11:10,530 --> 00:11:11,363 But I got something. 323 00:11:11,363 --> 00:11:11,970 I got archers. 324 00:11:11,970 --> 00:11:12,726 I like archers. 325 00:11:12,726 --> 00:11:14,220 AUDIENCE: Clearly because you have enough people. 326 00:11:14,220 --> 00:11:16,178 Bows increase your chances of afflicting damage 327 00:11:16,178 --> 00:11:16,930 on the barbarians. 328 00:11:16,930 --> 00:11:17,942 Good. 329 00:11:17,942 --> 00:11:19,180 Keep doing that stuff. 330 00:11:21,834 --> 00:11:23,250 I wonder-- it looks like there's-- 331 00:11:23,250 --> 00:11:25,720 AUDIENCE: Whoa, I'm huge. 332 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:27,620 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 333 00:11:29,345 --> 00:11:30,470 AUDIENCE: Oh, look at that! 334 00:11:30,470 --> 00:11:32,940 I don't know that means but you found another technology. 335 00:11:32,940 --> 00:11:34,230 PROFESSOR: Looks like-- 336 00:11:34,230 --> 00:11:35,510 I have no idea what that-- 337 00:11:35,510 --> 00:11:36,010 oh, helmet! 338 00:11:36,010 --> 00:11:37,190 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 339 00:11:37,190 --> 00:11:39,090 AUDIENCE: Oh, another city. 340 00:11:39,090 --> 00:11:40,512 Greetings. 341 00:11:40,512 --> 00:11:43,151 [INAUDIBLE] I'll join your cause. 342 00:11:43,151 --> 00:11:45,192 That means this is supposed to be a campaign game 343 00:11:45,192 --> 00:11:47,173 and last over a long period of time. 344 00:11:47,173 --> 00:11:49,430 AUDIENCE: What's that thing right there? 345 00:11:49,430 --> 00:11:50,600 PROFESSOR: What thing? 346 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:52,017 AUDIENCE: The tent looking thing. 347 00:11:52,017 --> 00:11:52,850 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 348 00:11:52,850 --> 00:11:54,290 AUDIENCE: Yeah, you can't double click it so you just wait-- 349 00:11:54,290 --> 00:11:54,800 PROFESSOR: Over there? 350 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:55,840 AUDIENCE: --until the end of the turn. 351 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:56,726 AUDIENCE: Damage. 352 00:11:56,726 --> 00:11:59,365 Dude, good, another city. 353 00:11:59,365 --> 00:12:00,240 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 354 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:03,000 AUDIENCE: How do you add people? 355 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,942 AUDIENCE: I should have searched more. 356 00:12:05,942 --> 00:12:08,305 AUDIENCE: Kevin, what else is falling apart? 357 00:12:08,305 --> 00:12:10,666 AUDIENCE: Oh, look that's the animation that [INAUDIBLE] 358 00:12:10,666 --> 00:12:13,150 AUDIENCE: Oh, you got more technology than I did. 359 00:12:13,150 --> 00:12:13,650 Very nice. 360 00:12:13,650 --> 00:12:15,070 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 361 00:12:15,070 --> 00:12:18,000 AUDIENCE: Predict routes in the city. 362 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,828 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 363 00:12:20,828 --> 00:12:22,740 AUDIENCE: --half that they're going to say? 364 00:12:22,740 --> 00:12:26,490 AUDIENCE: Two [INAUDIBLE] 365 00:12:26,490 --> 00:12:34,070 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 366 00:12:34,070 --> 00:12:34,880 AUDIENCE: Oh. 367 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:35,880 AUDIENCE: They survived. 368 00:12:39,102 --> 00:12:40,560 AUDIENCE: Helmet for falling rocks. 369 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:41,893 AUDIENCE: All right, here we go. 370 00:12:41,893 --> 00:12:42,597 Let's do it! 371 00:12:42,597 --> 00:12:44,094 Go, go, go! 372 00:12:44,094 --> 00:12:46,589 Aw. 373 00:12:46,589 --> 00:12:48,150 AUDIENCE: Boo! 374 00:12:48,150 --> 00:12:51,085 AUDIENCE: You should not put so many people on the line. 375 00:12:51,085 --> 00:12:53,460 AUDIENCE: Oh! 376 00:12:53,460 --> 00:12:54,426 Barely survived. 377 00:12:54,426 --> 00:12:55,392 AUDIENCE: I won? 378 00:12:55,392 --> 00:12:56,841 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 379 00:12:56,841 --> 00:12:59,739 PROFESSOR: So how do you feel about that? 380 00:12:59,739 --> 00:13:02,462 AUDIENCE: I feel awesome, but I have no idea what happened. 381 00:13:02,462 --> 00:13:03,045 PROFESSOR: OK. 382 00:13:03,045 --> 00:13:04,020 AUDIENCE: The greater the number of cities 383 00:13:04,020 --> 00:13:05,561 that are connected together by roads, 384 00:13:05,561 --> 00:13:06,890 the faster they all grow. 385 00:13:06,890 --> 00:13:09,506 That dude built roads, and we don't know how. 386 00:13:09,506 --> 00:13:10,400 AUDIENCE: Maybe he-- 387 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:11,840 AUDIENCE: Wait, did he actually? 388 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:12,800 AUDIENCE: Yeah, he had roads before. 389 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:13,435 AUDIENCE: Did he? 390 00:13:13,435 --> 00:13:15,410 AUDIENCE: Yeah, you saw him light up and connect. 391 00:13:15,410 --> 00:13:16,920 All those things were basically roads. 392 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:18,336 You had the dudes moving along it. 393 00:13:18,336 --> 00:13:20,514 It's population increased in size. 394 00:13:20,514 --> 00:13:23,104 Our population has yet to increase in size. 395 00:13:23,104 --> 00:13:24,520 PROFESSOR: I think you [INAUDIBLE] 396 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:25,765 before class about it. 397 00:13:25,765 --> 00:13:27,787 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 398 00:13:27,787 --> 00:13:28,370 PROFESSOR: OK. 399 00:13:28,370 --> 00:13:30,579 So you feel awesome, but you're still not sure what-- 400 00:13:30,579 --> 00:13:32,453 AUDIENCE: I still don't know what's going on. 401 00:13:32,453 --> 00:13:34,570 I do know that exploring is very good. 402 00:13:34,570 --> 00:13:35,215 PROFESSOR: OK. 403 00:13:35,215 --> 00:13:36,590 AUDIENCE: I figured that one out. 404 00:13:36,590 --> 00:13:38,720 PROFESSOR: So there's some sort of exploring. 405 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:43,850 It's good for something. 406 00:13:43,850 --> 00:13:45,195 AUDIENCE: I got zero points. 407 00:13:45,195 --> 00:13:47,402 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 408 00:13:47,402 --> 00:13:47,985 PROFESSOR: OK. 409 00:13:47,985 --> 00:13:50,401 AUDIENCE: And I got zero, too, but mine went from negative 410 00:13:50,401 --> 00:13:52,310 above. 411 00:13:52,310 --> 00:13:55,040 PROFESSOR: There's still a lot of confusion going on, OK. 412 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:55,600 All right. 413 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:59,600 [SIDE CONVERSATION] 414 00:21:20,499 --> 00:21:23,040 PROFESSOR: I think it's showing you how the points are added. 415 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,540 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 416 00:21:26,540 --> 00:21:27,950 PROFESSOR: So how was that round? 417 00:21:27,950 --> 00:21:29,390 AUDIENCE: It was fun. 418 00:21:29,390 --> 00:21:30,544 I wish that I could see-- 419 00:21:30,544 --> 00:21:32,460 I think there was a way to see which city they 420 00:21:32,460 --> 00:21:34,138 were going to attack first. 421 00:21:34,138 --> 00:21:35,471 I didn't know what it was. 422 00:21:35,471 --> 00:21:35,970 I forgot. 423 00:21:35,970 --> 00:21:38,430 Also, I feel like it's sort of pointless 424 00:21:38,430 --> 00:21:41,340 that you have to click on a city again to explore it. 425 00:21:41,340 --> 00:21:43,827 I always want to explore it, as far as I can tell. 426 00:21:43,827 --> 00:21:44,410 PROFESSOR: OK. 427 00:21:44,410 --> 00:21:45,780 All right. 428 00:21:45,780 --> 00:21:49,112 So you feel that there is some redundancy going on? 429 00:21:49,112 --> 00:21:49,820 AUDIENCE: Oh yes. 430 00:21:49,820 --> 00:21:50,670 PROFESSOR: OK. 431 00:21:50,670 --> 00:21:52,680 All right. 432 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:53,940 All right, cool. 433 00:21:53,940 --> 00:21:55,740 Thank you very much. 434 00:21:55,740 --> 00:22:01,280 So these are kind of the things that, as players, you know, 435 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:02,520 the sensations that you get. 436 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:04,290 Right? 437 00:22:04,290 --> 00:22:07,770 You get kind of the joy of exploring, finding out 438 00:22:07,770 --> 00:22:10,600 new things, pushing back the fog. 439 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:12,840 And the beginning of learning again, 440 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:14,610 this confusion, this befuddlement. 441 00:22:14,610 --> 00:22:19,140 You don't actually know how your actions are changing things. 442 00:22:19,140 --> 00:22:21,220 But if you play a lot of games, you 443 00:22:21,220 --> 00:22:25,070 are usually sort of primed to accept a little bit of that. 444 00:22:25,070 --> 00:22:27,360 And sometimes it's balanced well enough 445 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:31,357 that it sort of intrigues you rather than puts you off. 446 00:22:31,357 --> 00:22:32,815 But sometimes it just puts you off. 447 00:22:35,700 --> 00:22:38,385 Someone said that it felt good to save people. 448 00:22:43,230 --> 00:22:47,420 You described it as feeling kind of fun. 449 00:22:47,420 --> 00:22:49,410 In the paper there are some different ways 450 00:22:49,410 --> 00:22:51,445 how we can describe fun. 451 00:22:51,445 --> 00:22:55,440 It's just eight different types, but even in the paper 452 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:58,140 it states it isn't meant to be a comprehensive list. 453 00:22:58,140 --> 00:23:00,660 It isn't meant to be a list that's exhausting 454 00:23:00,660 --> 00:23:03,930 every single option out there. 455 00:23:03,930 --> 00:23:07,380 It's just to show that there are different kinds of fun 456 00:23:07,380 --> 00:23:11,550 when you play a game-- like exploring things, or inhabiting 457 00:23:11,550 --> 00:23:15,750 a role, or overcoming a challenge, 458 00:23:15,750 --> 00:23:23,346 or just passing time in a way to alleviate boredom. 459 00:23:26,390 --> 00:23:28,990 Sorry, I have a bit of cold so my speech 460 00:23:28,990 --> 00:23:31,080 is a little bit stunted today. 461 00:23:33,660 --> 00:23:36,920 There are a number of game mechanics in here 462 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,680 that generate some of these sensations. 463 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,560 I want to put aside about confusion and lack 464 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:47,260 of other influence right now, because some of that's 465 00:23:47,260 --> 00:23:49,140 addressed in the tutorial. 466 00:23:49,140 --> 00:23:50,830 If you went through the tutorial, 467 00:23:50,830 --> 00:23:53,580 it explains to you what all of the actions were. 468 00:23:53,580 --> 00:23:56,100 You probably wouldn't feel quite so confused 469 00:23:56,100 --> 00:23:58,410 about what you could do. 470 00:23:58,410 --> 00:24:02,490 However, I think it's reasonable to address the lack of control 471 00:24:02,490 --> 00:24:06,504 that you might feel, even after knowing what you could do. 472 00:24:06,504 --> 00:24:07,003 Right? 473 00:24:11,610 --> 00:24:14,550 These are the things that people would describe as aesthetics. 474 00:24:14,550 --> 00:24:17,380 The thing that the player feels. 475 00:24:17,380 --> 00:24:22,980 The paper describes them as desirable experiences. 476 00:24:22,980 --> 00:24:24,640 That's not necessarily always the case. 477 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:25,850 It's not always desirable. 478 00:24:25,850 --> 00:24:29,640 I'm pretty sure that confusion was not 479 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:33,900 a desired experience that the designer of this game 480 00:24:33,900 --> 00:24:34,920 wanted you to have. 481 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,895 By the way, one of the designers of that game 482 00:24:37,895 --> 00:24:40,020 is actually one of the writers of this paper, which 483 00:24:40,020 --> 00:24:42,640 is why we're playing this game in particular. 484 00:24:45,610 --> 00:24:47,417 So these are aesthetics. 485 00:24:47,417 --> 00:24:49,500 Let's talk about some of the mechanics of the game 486 00:24:49,500 --> 00:24:50,010 execution. 487 00:24:50,010 --> 00:24:54,045 Hit the screen and bring it up. 488 00:24:54,045 --> 00:24:56,970 So let's talk about some of the mechanics of this game. 489 00:24:56,970 --> 00:24:58,260 Someone describe it. 490 00:25:01,576 --> 00:25:03,010 AUDIENCE: [? Turn waits. ?] 491 00:25:03,010 --> 00:25:09,339 PROFESSOR: OK, so [? turn waits. ?] 492 00:25:09,339 --> 00:25:11,380 The game waits for you until you make a decision. 493 00:25:11,380 --> 00:25:13,240 It's not real time. 494 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,715 Is it not real time? 495 00:25:16,715 --> 00:25:17,990 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 496 00:25:17,990 --> 00:25:18,615 PROFESSOR: Huh? 497 00:25:18,615 --> 00:25:19,290 AUDIENCE: It waits. 498 00:25:19,290 --> 00:25:19,960 PROFESSOR: It waits? 499 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:21,800 AUDIENCE: Except for when you run into barbarians, right? 500 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:23,910 Don't you have 10 seconds or something to-- 501 00:25:23,910 --> 00:25:26,470 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 502 00:25:29,974 --> 00:25:33,816 AUDIENCE: 10 seconds is actually [INAUDIBLE] and collect more. 503 00:25:33,816 --> 00:25:35,941 AUDIENCE: They do that over the course of the game. 504 00:25:35,941 --> 00:25:37,524 AUDIENCE: Yeah, but like the countdown 505 00:25:37,524 --> 00:25:39,310 doesn't start until you send your troops. 506 00:25:39,310 --> 00:25:39,893 PROFESSOR: OK. 507 00:25:39,893 --> 00:25:44,080 All right, so the truth is until you 508 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,070 make your final move, right? 509 00:25:47,070 --> 00:25:50,990 And then the 10 seconds where it counts down 510 00:25:50,990 --> 00:25:55,860 and you see things continue to happen. 511 00:25:55,860 --> 00:25:57,170 OK, all right. 512 00:25:57,170 --> 00:25:58,540 AUDIENCE: There's combat. 513 00:25:58,540 --> 00:26:00,813 PROFESSOR: There's combat as a mechanism. 514 00:26:00,813 --> 00:26:03,270 There's some sort of AI combat. 515 00:26:03,270 --> 00:26:04,910 Right? 516 00:26:04,910 --> 00:26:09,510 You don't actually directly tell your troops to attack. 517 00:26:09,510 --> 00:26:11,296 You just place them ahead of time, 518 00:26:11,296 --> 00:26:13,480 and then they just wail at each other, 519 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:18,570 using some sort of algorithm, some sort of computation on how 520 00:26:18,570 --> 00:26:23,170 that number, of how that addition works. 521 00:26:23,170 --> 00:26:25,504 What else is in the game? 522 00:26:25,504 --> 00:26:27,190 AUDIENCE: Exploration. 523 00:26:27,190 --> 00:26:29,748 PROFESSOR: Exploration? 524 00:26:29,748 --> 00:26:30,656 Go ahead. 525 00:26:30,656 --> 00:26:37,590 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] how you prepare for the attack. 526 00:26:37,590 --> 00:26:40,430 PROFESSOR: So how do you find cities? 527 00:26:40,430 --> 00:26:41,535 How do you find cities? 528 00:26:41,535 --> 00:26:43,410 AUDIENCE: You just have to walk on top of it. 529 00:26:43,410 --> 00:26:43,993 PROFESSOR: OK. 530 00:26:43,993 --> 00:26:47,497 So you click on the purple squares. 531 00:26:47,497 --> 00:26:50,080 And then that shows you what is underneath the purple squares. 532 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:50,690 It will defog. 533 00:26:55,130 --> 00:26:57,840 It's not full of war, exactly, but they have a sort 534 00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:01,850 of unexplored fog, right? 535 00:27:07,610 --> 00:27:10,620 Which you have to disappear. 536 00:27:10,620 --> 00:27:13,338 Is that the only clue about how to find a city? 537 00:27:13,338 --> 00:27:15,480 AUDIENCE: Question mark. 538 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:19,090 PROFESSOR: Sometimes you get the question hint. 539 00:27:19,090 --> 00:27:20,170 Right? 540 00:27:20,170 --> 00:27:22,004 And there's something there. 541 00:27:22,004 --> 00:27:24,600 AUDIENCE: There's like lush terrain around cities usually. 542 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:26,940 PROFESSOR: Farms actually. 543 00:27:26,940 --> 00:27:33,294 It's hard to tell on the screen, but on the iPad. 544 00:27:33,294 --> 00:27:37,160 Do the farms-- all make the cities. 545 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,240 So if you step on something green, you realize, 546 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,198 wait a minute, there's a city somewhere nearby. 547 00:27:41,198 --> 00:27:44,780 It's kind of Minesweeper-esque in that way. 548 00:27:44,780 --> 00:27:45,530 What else? 549 00:27:45,530 --> 00:27:47,840 AUDIENCE: The oasis? 550 00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:49,437 PROFESSOR: What was that? 551 00:27:49,437 --> 00:27:50,270 AUDIENCE: The oasis. 552 00:27:50,270 --> 00:27:50,853 PROFESSOR: OK. 553 00:27:50,853 --> 00:27:52,990 So what about the oasis? 554 00:27:52,990 --> 00:27:55,980 AUDIENCE: You're also looking for it. 555 00:27:55,980 --> 00:27:58,835 As soon as you hit one of the squares of the oasis, 556 00:27:58,835 --> 00:28:02,000 you can more or less figure out where the other ones are. 557 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:03,937 PROFESSOR: OK, because? 558 00:28:03,937 --> 00:28:07,910 AUDIENCE: It seems to always be in the same 3 by 4 rectangle. 559 00:28:07,910 --> 00:28:11,315 PROFESSOR: So the oasis-- 560 00:28:11,315 --> 00:28:13,579 AUDIENCE: You see like a corner of the river, 561 00:28:13,579 --> 00:28:16,120 then you know it's flowing this way and then that way, right? 562 00:28:16,120 --> 00:28:16,830 PROFESSOR: Yes. 563 00:28:16,830 --> 00:28:19,860 Well, the oasis is always a rectangle. 564 00:28:19,860 --> 00:28:21,456 So if you find a corner, yeah, you 565 00:28:21,456 --> 00:28:23,792 know that if you follow those things then-- 566 00:28:23,792 --> 00:28:24,625 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 567 00:28:24,625 --> 00:28:28,286 AUDIENCE: You know it's grass on this side, water on this side. 568 00:28:28,286 --> 00:28:29,590 So it's always inside. 569 00:28:29,590 --> 00:28:31,000 PROFESSOR: Right. 570 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,200 So if the grid was like that, the moment you find one corner, 571 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,110 then you know which way to explore. 572 00:28:36,110 --> 00:28:38,960 So the oasis gives you clues. 573 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:40,877 The title of your oasis alone gives you clues. 574 00:28:40,877 --> 00:28:42,626 It is the same way that the farms give you 575 00:28:42,626 --> 00:28:43,900 clues about the cities. 576 00:28:43,900 --> 00:28:49,711 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] because we were 577 00:28:49,711 --> 00:28:53,506 trying to decide whether or not we should use technology, 578 00:28:53,506 --> 00:28:57,360 or to build roads, or outfit the cities with defense, 579 00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:58,913 or whatever. 580 00:28:58,913 --> 00:29:01,246 PROFESSOR: How do you all take resources with this game? 581 00:29:01,246 --> 00:29:04,080 AUDIENCE: You just have it, I guess. 582 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,870 PROFESSOR: You just have it, and what happens when you attack? 583 00:29:06,870 --> 00:29:16,250 AUDIENCE: Certain actions [INAUDIBLE] 584 00:29:16,250 --> 00:29:19,850 PROFESSOR: So you have a limited number of followers, 585 00:29:19,850 --> 00:29:23,630 and tapping assigns them to spend them, basically, 586 00:29:23,630 --> 00:29:29,290 to get them to follow some sort of task. 587 00:29:29,290 --> 00:29:42,160 So limited followers, tapping assigns. 588 00:29:48,830 --> 00:29:49,810 Assigns the followers. 589 00:29:49,810 --> 00:29:51,954 OK. 590 00:29:51,954 --> 00:29:52,896 Other ones? 591 00:29:57,140 --> 00:29:59,200 AUDIENCE: There's the scoring at the end? 592 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:00,450 PROFESSOR: Scoring at the end. 593 00:30:00,450 --> 00:30:04,164 AUDIENCE: Which is a summary in some sense. 594 00:30:04,164 --> 00:30:09,564 It seems to be different from what actually-- like when you 595 00:30:09,564 --> 00:30:13,170 end the level, you get a feeling of, did you do well 596 00:30:13,170 --> 00:30:14,450 or did you do not well. 597 00:30:14,450 --> 00:30:17,668 And then it didn't always correspond with the score. 598 00:30:17,668 --> 00:30:18,376 PROFESSOR: Right. 599 00:30:18,376 --> 00:30:19,420 The score is unnecessary. 600 00:30:19,420 --> 00:30:31,600 So the score is kind of different from what 601 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:33,982 the game is immediately giving you feedback on. 602 00:30:33,982 --> 00:30:36,190 The score is kind of like a completely different kind 603 00:30:36,190 --> 00:30:38,020 of feedback. 604 00:30:38,020 --> 00:30:43,470 AUDIENCE: I actually disagree that the score was like that. 605 00:30:43,470 --> 00:30:48,460 So I was very confused when we won the first level, 606 00:30:48,460 --> 00:30:51,440 because everyone died. 607 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,653 But we got a score of zero, which kind of makes sense. 608 00:30:54,653 --> 00:30:56,085 And when I went a bunch of people 609 00:30:56,085 --> 00:30:57,960 died, but I still passed the level. 610 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:00,440 And that made sense because I had two cities left. 611 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:03,750 And I still got a score of zero because I lost tons of people. 612 00:31:03,750 --> 00:31:06,250 Then when we made it so we didn't lose a single city, 613 00:31:06,250 --> 00:31:08,470 we got a score of 1,000 or something 614 00:31:08,470 --> 00:31:11,616 We didn't lose a single city and we had a lot of people. 615 00:31:11,616 --> 00:31:14,265 I thought the score made sense, maybe the level progression 616 00:31:14,265 --> 00:31:15,118 didn't. 617 00:31:15,118 --> 00:31:16,492 AUDIENCE: Nathan lost some cities 618 00:31:16,492 --> 00:31:19,670 and still had a score of about a thousand or so. 619 00:31:19,670 --> 00:31:20,570 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 620 00:31:20,570 --> 00:31:22,528 AUDIENCE: You lost-- you didn't get any points, 621 00:31:22,528 --> 00:31:25,372 and you didn't discover anything. 622 00:31:25,372 --> 00:31:26,330 AUDIENCE: There you go. 623 00:31:26,330 --> 00:31:27,525 So the score makes sense. 624 00:31:27,525 --> 00:31:28,900 AUDIENCE: Also I was going to say 625 00:31:28,900 --> 00:31:31,108 that he said that the score was possibly accumulative 626 00:31:31,108 --> 00:31:32,810 over all the phases done. 627 00:31:32,810 --> 00:31:38,050 And the score [INAUDIBLE] 628 00:31:38,050 --> 00:31:45,079 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 629 00:31:45,079 --> 00:31:46,620 AUDIENCE: There was another mechanic. 630 00:31:46,620 --> 00:31:48,120 We didn't really get to discover it. 631 00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,622 But it was like glowing, O-A-I-S-I-S. 632 00:31:50,622 --> 00:31:51,330 PROFESSOR: Right. 633 00:31:55,150 --> 00:32:00,140 Clearly leading to something we haven't figured out yet. 634 00:32:00,140 --> 00:32:00,780 OK. 635 00:32:00,780 --> 00:32:01,680 AUDIENCE: There was a special follower 636 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:03,860 that we got that kind of like stalked us. 637 00:32:03,860 --> 00:32:05,874 PROFESSOR: OK. 638 00:32:05,874 --> 00:32:08,165 I think they call them experts or advisors or something 639 00:32:08,165 --> 00:32:10,722 of that nature. 640 00:32:10,722 --> 00:32:13,225 What was the advantage of doing that? 641 00:32:13,225 --> 00:32:14,250 Having followers return? 642 00:32:14,250 --> 00:32:17,060 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 643 00:32:19,429 --> 00:32:21,220 PROFESSOR: So she started and you had more. 644 00:32:21,220 --> 00:32:22,610 All right? 645 00:32:22,610 --> 00:32:24,498 AUDIENCE: Here's a question. 646 00:32:24,498 --> 00:32:30,560 Every level that we [INAUDIBLE] We had two of them 647 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:31,760 along the side. 648 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:35,190 [INAUDIBLE] 649 00:32:35,190 --> 00:32:39,227 AUDIENCE: It said that in one of the tutorials [INAUDIBLE] 650 00:32:39,227 --> 00:32:39,810 PROFESSOR: OK. 651 00:32:39,810 --> 00:32:46,220 So there's some sort of [INAUDIBLE] with [? wind, ?] 652 00:32:46,220 --> 00:32:47,024 you know? 653 00:32:47,024 --> 00:32:49,130 [INAUDIBLE] Right? 654 00:32:49,130 --> 00:32:51,130 AUDIENCE: There were also these little blue orbs 655 00:32:51,130 --> 00:32:54,240 that got transported into the artwork. 656 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:55,146 PROFESSOR: Right. 657 00:32:55,146 --> 00:32:56,250 AUDIENCE: And I have no idea what that does. 658 00:32:56,250 --> 00:32:58,560 PROFESSOR: So where did those blue orbs appear? 659 00:32:58,560 --> 00:32:59,310 Did anyone notice? 660 00:32:59,310 --> 00:33:00,726 AUDIENCE: When you were uncovering 661 00:33:00,726 --> 00:33:01,875 the tiles I want to say. 662 00:33:01,875 --> 00:33:02,820 AUDIENCE: But when you searched, if you didn't 663 00:33:02,820 --> 00:33:04,130 get one of those technologies at the top, 664 00:33:04,130 --> 00:33:05,963 you usually got a blue orb that would go up. 665 00:33:05,963 --> 00:33:08,230 Otherwise, I do not know what that blue orb does. 666 00:33:08,230 --> 00:33:10,195 He got lot of blue orbs. 667 00:33:10,195 --> 00:33:11,820 PROFESSOR: When you pick up the oasis-- 668 00:33:11,820 --> 00:33:14,350 when you walk over the oasis, you get blue orbs. 669 00:33:14,350 --> 00:33:19,660 So the oasis also gives you blue-- 670 00:33:19,660 --> 00:33:20,582 which makes sense. 671 00:33:20,582 --> 00:33:22,290 It's like the bluest thing on the screen, 672 00:33:22,290 --> 00:33:25,140 and then when you click on it, blue things move. 673 00:33:25,140 --> 00:33:27,610 So there's some sort of color coordination thing. 674 00:33:27,610 --> 00:33:32,640 AUDIENCE: The barbarians steal your blue. 675 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,077 PROFESSOR: I know where this meme is going. 676 00:33:35,077 --> 00:33:36,910 AUDIENCE: Oh, I was thinking that the blue-- 677 00:33:36,910 --> 00:33:38,400 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 678 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:39,845 PROFESSOR: Oh, yes, yes, blue. 679 00:33:39,845 --> 00:33:42,136 AUDIENCE: The one time they got to the oasis, something 680 00:33:42,136 --> 00:33:44,350 happened where everyone-- all the blue 681 00:33:44,350 --> 00:33:45,430 went to the barbarians. 682 00:33:45,430 --> 00:33:47,948 AUDIENCE: It looks like it was a last line of defense. 683 00:33:47,948 --> 00:33:50,962 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 684 00:33:50,962 --> 00:33:52,420 PROFESSOR: So either the barbarians 685 00:33:52,420 --> 00:33:54,360 are taking away your blue, or you're using your blue 686 00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:55,560 to smite the barbarians. 687 00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,871 Either way you end up with no barbarians and less blue. 688 00:33:58,871 --> 00:33:59,370 Right. 689 00:34:03,220 --> 00:34:05,340 AUDIENCE: Do you think if that happened, 690 00:34:05,340 --> 00:34:08,570 we got down to zero blue, we would lose the game? 691 00:34:08,570 --> 00:34:10,370 AUDIENCE: Yes. 692 00:34:10,370 --> 00:34:11,545 AUDIENCE: That was my guess. 693 00:34:11,545 --> 00:34:12,920 There had to be some way to lose, 694 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:14,350 but we couldn't figure out how. 695 00:34:14,350 --> 00:34:17,612 [INTERPOSING VOICES] 696 00:34:17,612 --> 00:34:20,920 PROFESSOR: You were at level four on like 15. 697 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:23,210 AUDIENCE: 13, I think. 698 00:34:23,210 --> 00:34:26,627 PROFESSOR: I can tell you one of the things 699 00:34:26,627 --> 00:34:28,210 that this particular game designer has 700 00:34:28,210 --> 00:34:30,489 told me is that he doesn't believe in game balance. 701 00:34:30,489 --> 00:34:33,460 He just believes in making a game start so ridiculously easy 702 00:34:33,460 --> 00:34:36,400 and end at an almost impossible level. 703 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,070 So somewhere along the way you meet the level 704 00:34:39,070 --> 00:34:42,724 that you're good at, and that's a balanced game. 705 00:34:42,724 --> 00:34:46,150 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 706 00:34:46,150 --> 00:34:49,270 PROFESSOR: That's one way of looking at it. 707 00:34:49,270 --> 00:34:51,429 So we've identified a bunch of games mechanisms. 708 00:34:51,429 --> 00:34:53,595 We didn't go into things like roads and technologies 709 00:34:53,595 --> 00:34:54,845 and mines and stuff like that. 710 00:34:54,845 --> 00:34:56,609 There's a ton of game mechanics in here. 711 00:34:56,609 --> 00:34:58,275 These are the kind of things that a game 712 00:34:58,275 --> 00:34:59,400 designer can design, right? 713 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:00,750 These are rules. 714 00:35:00,750 --> 00:35:03,770 Things as simple as the oasis is always in a rectangle. 715 00:35:03,770 --> 00:35:05,080 There's no reason for that. 716 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:07,382 It could have been a river. 717 00:35:07,382 --> 00:35:08,090 But you're right. 718 00:35:08,090 --> 00:35:09,631 There is actually a rule in the game. 719 00:35:09,631 --> 00:35:11,200 Every time you find an oasis, it's 720 00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,720 always going to be of a rectangular shape. 721 00:35:14,720 --> 00:35:19,720 These are the things that a designer designs, 722 00:35:19,720 --> 00:35:24,970 and you get dynamics out of a bunch of these mechanics 723 00:35:24,970 --> 00:35:28,160 interacting with each other. 724 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:33,940 So I'm going to give one example of a dynamic. 725 00:35:33,940 --> 00:35:37,780 One of the dynamics is that as you reveal information 726 00:35:37,780 --> 00:35:39,940 about the stuff that is underneath the fog, 727 00:35:39,940 --> 00:35:42,790 you start having more decisions to make. 728 00:35:42,790 --> 00:35:44,407 What's your next step going to be. 729 00:35:44,407 --> 00:35:46,990 Because you could click on the thing that you just discovered. 730 00:35:46,990 --> 00:35:49,910 Like if you find a city, one of the things 731 00:35:49,910 --> 00:35:52,090 that people were telling everybody-- search it right 732 00:35:52,090 --> 00:35:52,589 now! 733 00:35:52,589 --> 00:35:54,200 Right? 734 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,120 But then you can also find a mine, 735 00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,350 and you're going to find followers into it. 736 00:35:59,350 --> 00:36:01,720 You could build a road, and some people I think 737 00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:03,904 might have noticed what road is this. 738 00:36:03,904 --> 00:36:05,320 Did people find out about anything 739 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:06,223 about what road is this? 740 00:36:06,223 --> 00:36:07,740 AUDIENCE: They gave you more people, I think. 741 00:36:07,740 --> 00:36:08,195 PROFESSOR: Yes. 742 00:36:08,195 --> 00:36:09,340 AUDIENCE: I think one of the pop-ups said. 743 00:36:09,340 --> 00:36:10,881 PROFESSOR: Your cities start actually 744 00:36:10,881 --> 00:36:14,580 growing in number when you connect them on the roads. 745 00:36:14,580 --> 00:36:17,120 And of course that helps with defense in the long run. 746 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:21,145 So one of the dynamics in this game is that the further 747 00:36:21,145 --> 00:36:24,580 that you play in a level, the more kinds of decisions 748 00:36:24,580 --> 00:36:26,000 you're going to make. 749 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,240 At the beginning of the game, you 750 00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:31,870 can make no decisions besides which one of these two squares 751 00:36:31,870 --> 00:36:33,250 am I going to start searching. 752 00:36:33,250 --> 00:36:34,650 Up or left. 753 00:36:34,650 --> 00:36:37,110 I think you always start in one of the corners, 754 00:36:37,110 --> 00:36:41,170 so there are only two directions that you possibly search. 755 00:36:41,170 --> 00:36:42,790 What other dynamics are there? 756 00:36:42,790 --> 00:36:45,950 These are things that arise out of a combination 757 00:36:45,950 --> 00:36:48,288 of these mechanics. 758 00:36:48,288 --> 00:36:52,650 AUDIENCE: Would one be huge kind of pre-perform a set 759 00:36:52,650 --> 00:36:54,320 of actions, like your exploration, 760 00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:55,570 you're searching and whatever. 761 00:36:55,570 --> 00:36:58,210 And then, after that, you just kind of let it go, 762 00:36:58,210 --> 00:37:01,217 and the barbarians come and do their bidding? 763 00:37:01,217 --> 00:37:01,800 PROFESSOR: OK. 764 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,640 So one of the things is you set up 765 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:10,150 initial conditions for, hopefully, things to work out, 766 00:37:10,150 --> 00:37:15,150 for sort of the systems to emerge in the behavior, 767 00:37:15,150 --> 00:37:16,630 in the long-term behavior. 768 00:37:16,630 --> 00:37:18,590 OK. 769 00:37:18,590 --> 00:37:20,350 What else? 770 00:37:20,350 --> 00:37:22,985 That's actually a dynamic, in this case. 771 00:37:22,985 --> 00:37:26,730 That's something you set up even before all your turns are over. 772 00:37:26,730 --> 00:37:29,560 Like you said, people in a mine-- the miners just 773 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:31,540 keep digging each turn. 774 00:37:31,540 --> 00:37:33,270 You don't have to babysit them. 775 00:37:33,270 --> 00:37:34,780 They'll keep digging. 776 00:37:34,780 --> 00:37:36,610 And they'll find stuff without you 777 00:37:36,610 --> 00:37:40,350 telling them to do anything. 778 00:37:40,350 --> 00:37:42,190 What else? 779 00:37:42,190 --> 00:37:47,110 What else fits this kind of description of something 780 00:37:47,110 --> 00:37:50,760 that arises still kind of mechanically out 781 00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:54,205 of a combination of all of these dynamics? 782 00:37:58,420 --> 00:37:59,960 Let's say combat, for instance. 783 00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:04,730 When the red forces and your blue forces start, 784 00:38:04,730 --> 00:38:09,170 you know, like little ants start facing off against each other. 785 00:38:09,170 --> 00:38:10,712 What happens? 786 00:38:10,712 --> 00:38:12,128 AUDIENCE: Like really snowballing. 787 00:38:12,128 --> 00:38:14,016 Like really snowballing. 788 00:38:14,016 --> 00:38:14,682 PROFESSOR: Right 789 00:38:14,682 --> 00:38:17,030 AUDIENCE: It would start off kind of even or so. 790 00:38:17,030 --> 00:38:18,659 And then all of a sudden one force 791 00:38:18,659 --> 00:38:19,784 would just take a nosedive. 792 00:38:19,784 --> 00:38:20,760 PROFESSOR: Uh-huh? 793 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:21,520 AUDIENCE: At one point, the two forces were even, 794 00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:23,433 and then one got up to like 90, and one just 795 00:38:23,433 --> 00:38:24,683 started dropping and dropping. 796 00:38:24,683 --> 00:38:26,220 And this one just stayed at 90. 797 00:38:26,220 --> 00:38:28,691 You can see that too with the really small cities 798 00:38:28,691 --> 00:38:30,232 that have like 20 people or something 799 00:38:30,232 --> 00:38:31,440 that get like squashed. 800 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:33,350 PROFESSOR: Squashed, right? 801 00:38:33,350 --> 00:38:37,150 So it has this interesting curve. 802 00:38:37,150 --> 00:38:40,620 On like a successful defense, the barbarians 803 00:38:40,620 --> 00:38:43,750 are usually here, and the followers-- 804 00:38:43,750 --> 00:38:45,682 you usually have a slightly lower number, 805 00:38:45,682 --> 00:38:47,140 because a huge number of barbarians 806 00:38:47,140 --> 00:38:49,085 that show up all of a sudden-- 807 00:38:49,085 --> 00:38:50,460 AUDIENCE: But we have technology. 808 00:38:50,460 --> 00:38:51,380 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 809 00:38:51,380 --> 00:38:55,925 But often what happens is that you've got a number like that, 810 00:38:55,925 --> 00:39:00,290 and it kind of goes like that. 811 00:39:00,290 --> 00:39:00,790 Right? 812 00:39:00,790 --> 00:39:02,840 It starts off kind of like the barbarians still 813 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,423 maintain your numbers, then all of a sudden it just collapses. 814 00:39:05,423 --> 00:39:07,730 This is what a successful defense in that game 815 00:39:07,730 --> 00:39:08,790 looks like. 816 00:39:08,790 --> 00:39:10,990 AUDIENCE: But you can also flip that curve. 817 00:39:10,990 --> 00:39:13,240 Not necessarily flip it, but the followers can also 818 00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:14,010 take that kind of curve. 819 00:39:14,010 --> 00:39:14,510 PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah. 820 00:39:14,510 --> 00:39:15,910 AUDIENCE: Instead of just below the barbarians. 821 00:39:15,910 --> 00:39:17,000 PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah. 822 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:17,941 Totally. 823 00:39:17,941 --> 00:39:19,690 That would be what an unsuccessful defense 824 00:39:19,690 --> 00:39:22,940 looks like. 825 00:39:22,940 --> 00:39:29,280 That will look more like that, and then it's like bleh. 826 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:29,780 Right? 827 00:39:29,780 --> 00:39:34,160 There's usually more barbarians than there are people. 828 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:36,910 So this is all arising out of the game mechanics. 829 00:39:36,910 --> 00:39:37,640 Right? 830 00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:42,290 This is not an aesthetic experience all by itself. 831 00:39:42,290 --> 00:39:46,010 This is just how the numbers, if you plotted 832 00:39:46,010 --> 00:39:49,830 by a fraction of a second by a fraction of a second, 833 00:39:49,830 --> 00:39:51,070 you'll get a graph. 834 00:39:51,070 --> 00:39:54,290 This is just the algorithm doing its thing. 835 00:39:54,290 --> 00:39:55,460 All right. 836 00:39:55,460 --> 00:39:58,310 What does this kind of-- 837 00:39:58,310 --> 00:40:04,100 I'm going to go back to a successful defense. 838 00:40:04,100 --> 00:40:07,790 So this arises out of the mechanics of the game. 839 00:40:07,790 --> 00:40:11,600 Everything that you do in the game to get salt, 840 00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:13,790 get followers into a city, get them 841 00:40:13,790 --> 00:40:18,230 technologies, mine stuff, search cities. 842 00:40:18,230 --> 00:40:20,870 Make sure there are enough followers by connecting 843 00:40:20,870 --> 00:40:22,090 the cities up with roads. 844 00:40:22,090 --> 00:40:23,840 The other thing that roads allow you to do 845 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,000 is redistribute followers between cities 846 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:27,071 that are reconnected. 847 00:40:27,071 --> 00:40:29,570 That's the thing that you get to do in those last 10 seconds 848 00:40:29,570 --> 00:40:32,300 is that you don't just assign everybody that you've got. 849 00:40:32,300 --> 00:40:34,190 All the people, go into this one city. 850 00:40:34,190 --> 00:40:37,754 You can actually do that and connect them up with roads. 851 00:40:37,754 --> 00:40:39,045 You have 10 seconds to do that. 852 00:40:41,930 --> 00:40:46,360 So everything leads up to how many followers you've 853 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,766 got in a city that the barbarians 854 00:40:48,766 --> 00:40:49,890 are going to attack, right? 855 00:40:49,890 --> 00:40:52,130 You know there's this interaction that 856 00:40:52,130 --> 00:40:55,060 keeps going on until all the barbarians are destroyed. 857 00:40:55,060 --> 00:40:57,323 Then you get this curve. 858 00:40:57,323 --> 00:40:59,406 And what part of the aesthetic does this generate? 859 00:41:02,810 --> 00:41:06,347 What does the player hopefully experience because of that? 860 00:41:06,347 --> 00:41:08,236 AUDIENCE: You cheer for your forces-- 861 00:41:08,236 --> 00:41:08,902 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 862 00:41:08,902 --> 00:41:10,568 AUDIENCE: And then you feel disappointed 863 00:41:10,568 --> 00:41:14,380 when things start going bad, and you kind of feel for them. 864 00:41:14,380 --> 00:41:15,280 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 865 00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:17,995 And then when they pull out of it, because they're not like, 866 00:41:17,995 --> 00:41:19,000 yeah! 867 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:20,800 At this point it's like we are both kind 868 00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:22,090 of in the same trajectory. 869 00:41:22,090 --> 00:41:24,800 Sure they're dropping, but we're dropping too. 870 00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:30,000 Things aren't going so well, and then all of a sudden your folks 871 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:31,640 come through, right? 872 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:32,520 We were cheering. 873 00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:37,400 We were shouting our heads off, as if our cheers had 874 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:41,840 any influence on the outcome. 875 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,920 I'm not quite sure how to describe that aesthetic, 876 00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:48,770 but that's what the player takes away from this game, right? 877 00:41:48,770 --> 00:41:51,430 There's this tiny little moment of the game. 878 00:41:51,430 --> 00:41:53,800 It's actually very finely tuned to generate 879 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,620 exactly that experience. 880 00:41:56,620 --> 00:41:58,870 You're not quite sure what the outcome of this battle 881 00:41:58,870 --> 00:41:59,495 is going to be. 882 00:41:59,495 --> 00:42:01,896 I like to play the game for hours and hours and hours, 883 00:42:01,896 --> 00:42:03,520 and then you can kind of predict what's 884 00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:05,395 going to happen the moment the battle starts, 885 00:42:05,395 --> 00:42:07,867 because you already know what each technology agent does. 886 00:42:07,867 --> 00:42:10,450 But at this point in time when you're still learning the game, 887 00:42:10,450 --> 00:42:11,740 you don't know what each technology does. 888 00:42:11,740 --> 00:42:13,630 You don't know how the battles are going to turn out. 889 00:42:13,630 --> 00:42:15,080 It gets really, really exciting. 890 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:16,246 So maybe there's a kind of-- 891 00:42:19,570 --> 00:42:23,300 how Marc LeBlanc, the designer of this game, described 892 00:42:23,300 --> 00:42:24,460 it was dramatic tension. 893 00:42:24,460 --> 00:42:28,720 I'm not quite sure if he's using that term exactly how it would 894 00:42:28,720 --> 00:42:30,730 be used in literary convention. 895 00:42:30,730 --> 00:42:32,980 But in this view it does feel tense, 896 00:42:32,980 --> 00:42:35,950 because there's an uncertain outcome about who's 897 00:42:35,950 --> 00:42:38,860 going to come out ahead, and then 898 00:42:38,860 --> 00:42:43,100 when it resolves in your favor, you feel great. 899 00:42:43,100 --> 00:42:48,430 That's basically one dissection using the MDA framework 900 00:42:48,430 --> 00:42:50,040 that we just went through. 901 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:52,306 There's a whole bunch of mechanics 902 00:42:52,306 --> 00:42:55,020 that create a dynamic that creates 903 00:42:55,020 --> 00:42:56,231 an aesthetic experience. 904 00:42:56,231 --> 00:42:58,480 Which is the thing that you want your players to have. 905 00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:00,880 In this particular case, this is explicitly 906 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:03,720 what Marc LeBlanc wanted his players to experience. 907 00:43:03,720 --> 00:43:06,820 He wanted them to cheer for the followers, 908 00:43:06,820 --> 00:43:09,820 even though that has no impact on the final result 909 00:43:09,820 --> 00:43:10,462 of the fight. 910 00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:16,960 So when you look at your games, I 911 00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:19,960 want you to be asking your play testers what 912 00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:21,580 they're feeling about the game. 913 00:43:21,580 --> 00:43:23,000 Usually after they're done. 914 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:26,446 Say how do you feel about that, what 915 00:43:26,446 --> 00:43:27,820 did you like about the game, what 916 00:43:27,820 --> 00:43:29,340 didn't you like about the game. 917 00:43:29,340 --> 00:43:33,310 Both are aesthetic experiences that come out 918 00:43:33,310 --> 00:43:34,690 from the play of the game. 919 00:43:34,690 --> 00:43:37,290 This is much easier to do with people who are actually 920 00:43:37,290 --> 00:43:39,190 not in this class, because you're all 921 00:43:39,190 --> 00:43:41,860 thinking about the games from the rules level. 922 00:43:41,860 --> 00:43:45,257 If you go to somebody who plays games but doesn't really 923 00:43:45,257 --> 00:43:47,590 make games or isn't in the process of learning about how 924 00:43:47,590 --> 00:43:49,890 to make games, it's a lot easier for them 925 00:43:49,890 --> 00:43:52,330 to just think about well, I kind of 926 00:43:52,330 --> 00:43:53,800 felt crappy, because I didn't feel 927 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,535 there was any way for me to come back in this game, you know. 928 00:43:56,535 --> 00:43:58,660 Or, yeah, I felt like I was [? roleplay ?] stomping 929 00:43:58,660 --> 00:44:00,750 everybody. [? Roleplay stomp ?] is an aesthetic. 930 00:44:03,890 --> 00:44:06,865 Those are things that you can sort of take that 931 00:44:06,865 --> 00:44:10,390 to game designers, give you clues on whether your game is 932 00:44:10,390 --> 00:44:12,640 doing what you want it to do, for the mechanics 933 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,800 that you're designing, whether the game is not 934 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,740 doing what you want it to do, because maybe the mechanics are 935 00:44:17,740 --> 00:44:20,230 interacting in a way that creates a dynamic that you 936 00:44:20,230 --> 00:44:24,640 didn't want, or maybe the game is really not 937 00:44:24,640 --> 00:44:28,060 what you wanted to do and it's actually pretty cool. 938 00:44:28,060 --> 00:44:30,910 There's always the accidental discovery 939 00:44:30,910 --> 00:44:32,620 of your mechanics doing something 940 00:44:32,620 --> 00:44:34,330 that you didn't quite expect. 941 00:44:34,330 --> 00:44:37,660 Maybe you expected something to be 942 00:44:37,660 --> 00:44:40,750 kind of like cool and strategic and detached, 943 00:44:40,750 --> 00:44:44,510 but then your players end up feeling really tense 944 00:44:44,510 --> 00:44:46,600 and feeling that everything is on the line 945 00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:51,520 and everything could go wrong at any moment and they like that. 946 00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:52,120 OK. 947 00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:52,680 All right. 948 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:54,790 That's something you can work with. 949 00:44:54,790 --> 00:44:56,374 But you may not necessarily understand 950 00:44:56,374 --> 00:44:58,206 that's what your game is doing if you're not 951 00:44:58,206 --> 00:45:00,580 asking your players what's the sensation that they're 952 00:45:00,580 --> 00:45:02,540 getting out of the game purely from the rules. 953 00:45:02,540 --> 00:45:04,790 When you're working with the prototypes in particular, 954 00:45:04,790 --> 00:45:07,570 it's very easy for you to make this connection back 955 00:45:07,570 --> 00:45:12,910 to your mechanics, because they can be experiencing 956 00:45:12,910 --> 00:45:15,860 terribly much from your artwork or from the sound effects, 957 00:45:15,860 --> 00:45:16,360 right? 958 00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:17,610 Unless you make your sound effects 959 00:45:17,610 --> 00:45:19,110 like a mouse, or something, and then 960 00:45:19,110 --> 00:45:21,220 it probably sounds pretty goofy. 961 00:45:21,220 --> 00:45:24,730 But they can only really get the aesthetic experience out 962 00:45:24,730 --> 00:45:27,100 of your rules. 963 00:45:27,100 --> 00:45:29,020 Obviously this is not the only way 964 00:45:29,020 --> 00:45:31,970 that you can convey an aesthetic experience. 965 00:45:31,970 --> 00:45:35,500 You can do things through art, sound, storytelling, 966 00:45:35,500 --> 00:45:37,060 characters, plot, and everything. 967 00:45:37,060 --> 00:45:41,141 We'll go into that a little bit more before assignment two, 968 00:45:41,141 --> 00:45:42,640 because you're going to be exploring 969 00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:44,081 that with assignment two. 970 00:45:44,081 --> 00:45:45,580 But there's this one particular kind 971 00:45:45,580 --> 00:45:50,290 of aesthetic, which I will refer to it in this class, 972 00:45:50,290 --> 00:45:52,020 as system aesthetics. 973 00:45:52,020 --> 00:45:53,890 The aesthetics that come out from the system 974 00:45:53,890 --> 00:45:56,990 of all of your mechanics working together. 975 00:45:56,990 --> 00:46:00,800 And, in this project, this first assignment, 976 00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:03,360 you don't have to worry about hitting the design aesthetic. 977 00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:04,470 You don't really have to. 978 00:46:04,470 --> 00:46:05,969 That's not the goal of this project. 979 00:46:05,969 --> 00:46:07,470 I want you to figure out everything 980 00:46:07,470 --> 00:46:09,510 that your game mechanic can do. 981 00:46:09,510 --> 00:46:11,250 And by the way, there was a question 982 00:46:11,250 --> 00:46:13,140 at the beginning of class, what if we wanted 983 00:46:13,140 --> 00:46:15,480 to change the mechanic because you discovered something 984 00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:16,450 along the way. 985 00:46:16,450 --> 00:46:17,020 That's fine. 986 00:46:17,020 --> 00:46:18,510 But whatever you change it to, make 987 00:46:18,510 --> 00:46:20,880 sure that you're going deep into that thing. 988 00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:22,660 Make sure that you're not just running 989 00:46:22,660 --> 00:46:24,520 with what you stumbled with, and then not 990 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:25,820 developing it any further. 991 00:46:25,820 --> 00:46:31,590 Try to really, really explore what you eventually will 992 00:46:31,590 --> 00:46:34,470 declare that you're looking at. 993 00:46:34,470 --> 00:46:36,080 The reason for that is I want you all 994 00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:39,450 to have the experience of going really deep into mechanics 995 00:46:39,450 --> 00:46:41,550 and figuring out all the different things that one 996 00:46:41,550 --> 00:46:42,420 mechanic can do. 997 00:46:42,420 --> 00:46:45,110 So that later on when you all mix and match, and form them 998 00:46:45,110 --> 00:46:47,190 into assignment two and assignment three teams, 999 00:46:47,190 --> 00:46:48,782 you've got like a pool of knowledge 1000 00:46:48,782 --> 00:46:50,490 and more importantly a pool of experience 1001 00:46:50,490 --> 00:46:52,920 in sort of exploring what a mechanic can do. 1002 00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:54,460 So you can take on new mechanics, 1003 00:46:54,460 --> 00:46:56,400 you can share information with each other 1004 00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:58,800 and use that later to generate interesting aesthetic 1005 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:00,024 experiences. 1006 00:47:00,024 --> 00:47:02,440 Because in the end, this is what the players are here for. 1007 00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:06,090 They don't care about the amount of work that you put into here. 1008 00:47:06,090 --> 00:47:07,800 They only care about whether the game 1009 00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:09,175 makes them feel the way that they 1010 00:47:09,175 --> 00:47:11,070 want to feel right now while you're 1011 00:47:11,070 --> 00:47:13,570 they're playing your game. 1012 00:47:13,570 --> 00:47:17,697 So any questions? 1013 00:47:21,625 --> 00:47:22,607 Nope. 1014 00:47:22,607 --> 00:47:24,090 OK. 1015 00:47:24,090 --> 00:47:25,980 Well we'll probably go a little bit more 1016 00:47:25,980 --> 00:47:30,270 into things about mechanics later this month, 1017 00:47:30,270 --> 00:47:33,270 but right now the rest of the class is actually time for you 1018 00:47:33,270 --> 00:47:34,110 to work as a team. 1019 00:47:34,110 --> 00:47:37,967 Some of you probably haven't seen each other since Wednesday 1020 00:47:37,967 --> 00:47:40,050 and may not necessarily have talked to each other. 1021 00:47:40,050 --> 00:47:41,190 So that's fine. 1022 00:47:41,190 --> 00:47:42,200 Take time now. 1023 00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:45,686 If you've got something that you need tested, 1024 00:47:45,686 --> 00:47:46,560 you have two options. 1025 00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:48,500 One, you can grab Rick and I. Or two, 1026 00:47:48,500 --> 00:47:52,037 you can grab other people in the classroom 1027 00:47:52,037 --> 00:47:54,120 who may not necessarily have saved their game out. 1028 00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:55,494 Suggest asking people who haven't 1029 00:47:55,494 --> 00:47:58,980 played a game for two tests. 1030 00:47:58,980 --> 00:48:02,640 But tomorrow is actually the formal play test. 1031 00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:05,850 So what you absolutely have to have Friday end of this class 1032 00:48:05,850 --> 00:48:10,900 or what you have to have by the beginning of tomorrow 1033 00:48:10,900 --> 00:48:13,980 towards that is something that can be played as a big class. 1034 00:48:13,980 --> 00:48:16,100 Today there's no required play test. 1035 00:48:16,100 --> 00:48:17,240 Tomorrow there is. 1036 00:48:17,240 --> 00:48:20,224 All right? 1037 00:48:20,224 --> 00:48:21,640 There's also reading for tomorrow, 1038 00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:23,400 but it's not that bad. 1039 00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:26,056 I think the total number is-- 1040 00:48:26,056 --> 00:48:29,920 let me just make sure of that. 1041 00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:31,240 Oh no, it's only part of it. 1042 00:48:31,240 --> 00:48:31,740 Yeah. 1043 00:48:31,740 --> 00:48:34,000 It's going to be just looking at one thing, which 1044 00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:37,960 is the randomizing and add a functional dice in games. 1045 00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:40,250 So, OK. 1046 00:48:40,250 --> 00:48:41,900 Work in your teams. 1047 00:48:41,900 --> 00:48:44,550 And all the materials right here we'll put it on the table. 1048 00:48:44,550 --> 00:48:46,480 Contents from the following sources 1049 00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:49,150 is copyright of the respective holders. 1050 00:48:49,150 --> 00:48:50,560 All rights reserved. 1051 00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:54,070 Excluded from our Creative Commons license. 1052 00:48:54,070 --> 00:49:00,170 For more information, see ocw.mit.edu/fairuse. 1053 00:49:00,170 --> 00:49:01,410 Oasis. 1054 00:49:01,410 --> 00:49:02,320 PlayFirst. 1055 00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:02,820 2005. 1056 00:49:02,820 --> 00:49:04,670 Video game.