Today, we completed a first draft of the three classes that are currently in our game, and I'd like to tell something about the process that went into designing them thus far. We'll be testing these as soon as we can to do some iterations.
We currently have three classes, aptly named Offense, Defense and Support. We generally want there to be a division (not all players can do the same thing, and so on) so we're defaulting to a standard archetype for now.
In building up the classes, we were considering what we wanted the classes to do exactly, and particularly how much. Games like Dragon Age and World and Warcraft have classes with a lot of abilities (around forty to fifty), where games like League of Legends have classes with around three to four. While incorporating a lot of abilities can add a great deal of depth and complexity, a well-balanced mix of a few can do the exact same.
Since we'll likely make the game controlled by an Xbox360-controller, we can't have more than three-ish abilities before youll run out of buttons. It also means that we can't use mouse targeting.
We decided on the following outline for all classes:
1. A main attack with a very short cooldown (under 3 seconds).
2. An ability that's useful in a lot of situations, on a moderate cooldown (around 10 seconds).
3. An uber-ability that can be saved for the right moment, with a longer cooldown (around 60)
4. An ability that's always active, like an aura, passive, or constant effect.
Also, we further defined the flavour for the three classes:
Offense: the guy who deals the damage. Enemies are scared of how effectively this guy is at killing things.
Defense: the guy to assist the sphere carrier or defend the base. Enemies are scared of how they are disabled.
Support: in charge of flag carrying and scouting. Enemies are worried of how fast this guy is.
I'll post again tomorrow with the exact abilities and why they are what they are. Stay tuned :)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Small map update
I just made a few map changes:
- front and back lanes are wider to create more moving space
- added a backdoor to the based + connected lanes
- bases are reduce to half their size
- player now spawn in front of their lane instead of inside
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Prototype newsflash
It’s been almost a week since we posted or last message, but we have not stood still at all. Last weeks prototype contained not much more then basic character navigation and the ability to collect orbs. Off course we added some mechanics in the meantime. Core mechanics are in place and working, the game has a win/lose condition. Overall, the game is playable and mostly enjoyable. So we are now mainly playtesting and iterating on what we have, focussing heavily on character class abilities,balance, and the level design obviously.
That’s all for now.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Pretty Little Game Jam
A few days ago I came up with this crazy idea to do a 48 hour game jam session to come up with a suitable game concept for both our projects.
We started this game jam yesterday and have now come up with the most original and epic multiplayer concept ever (sarcasm).
Lets say we took the harassment mechanics from League of Legends, the tiberium collecting from Command & Conquer 4 and de control set from Fat princes and put them in a giant blender to create sort of crossbreed. So it’s not a totally original concept, but it is going to be fun fun fun.
So how does it work? Well, there are two sides or factions or teams (it doesn’t really matter now what you call it) that compete against each other to gain these still unnamed orbs. The goal of the game is to gather these orbs and to mount them in the predetermined sockets in the player’s base. The team that has gathered and mounted all four orbs wins the game.
Note: orbs can be stolen back from the base. Collecting orbs isn’t as easy as it sound though because the orbs position gets shown on the mini map while it is carried. Another downside is the limited field of view, you may run into an unexpected ambush.
To give the combat (yes there is combat) a bit of depth we added three classes that will encourage the player to make use of a certain play style. The available classes are: Offence, Defence and Support. The class abilities will be defined later on.
Tom is working on a gameplay prototype in the good old Warcraft 3 editor ad I’m doing not that much (yet). I guest I will be working on the level design when most of the mechanics are in place, and off course there will be a lot of testing later on.
So, what’s next? Complete the prototype, level design, testing testing testing.
We’ll keep you posted.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Articles and Video on Game Sound
Below, you'll find several summaries of articles dedicated to the function of sound in games, and what kinds of audio there can be in a game. Each article offers a different model on how to map the kinds of sounds in any game.
The past few week, I've been mostly gathering and summarising articles (the result of which can be found below this post), playing and recording more games with which to make more mock-up videos.
One mockup is already done and can be found here: UT-CTF1.wmv (warning: large file - ~400 MB)
I'll explain. What I've done in the mockup is use fragments of a single song from The Dark Knight soundtrack, and paste them under a Capture the Flag battle in Unreal Tournament 2004. The music changes based on a few parameters:
- whether a flag is taken (visible in the center at the top of the screen)
- where the flag carrier is. If the guy carrying the enemy flag is in our base, naturally that's more intense than if he's just picked it up, and vice versa.
- whether you're near a flag carrier. If you're walking next to a flag carrier (friendly or enemy), you're doing something more important than just walking around.
- where you are in the map, if no flags have been taken.
There are probably some more rules I followed and as you can see this is still a bit all over the place, but it's an indication of what kind of thing I want my end product to be / to do. I'll be making more mockups with more specific rulesets in the coming week(s) to explore further.
The past few week, I've been mostly gathering and summarising articles (the result of which can be found below this post), playing and recording more games with which to make more mock-up videos.
One mockup is already done and can be found here: UT-CTF1.wmv (warning: large file - ~400 MB)
I'll explain. What I've done in the mockup is use fragments of a single song from The Dark Knight soundtrack, and paste them under a Capture the Flag battle in Unreal Tournament 2004. The music changes based on a few parameters:
- whether a flag is taken (visible in the center at the top of the screen)
- where the flag carrier is. If the guy carrying the enemy flag is in our base, naturally that's more intense than if he's just picked it up, and vice versa.
- whether you're near a flag carrier. If you're walking next to a flag carrier (friendly or enemy), you're doing something more important than just walking around.
- where you are in the map, if no flags have been taken.
There are probably some more rules I followed and as you can see this is still a bit all over the place, but it's an indication of what kind of thing I want my end product to be / to do. I'll be making more mockups with more specific rulesets in the coming week(s) to explore further.
Summary - An Introduction to the Participatory and Non-Linear Aspects of Video Games Audio
Karen Collins
An Introduction to the Participatory and Non-Linear Aspects of Video Games Audio
(retrieved from http://gamessound.com/texts/interactive.pdf, 2010)
Audio in games is different from audio in movies. Movies are linear; games are generally not. Games are less predictable in what audio will be played at what time. This property of games creates new possible roles for audio, as well as providing problems when designing it and handling it in the game. The article constructs a theoretical framework that includes degree of interactivity, articulates problems that can occur both during design and when playing the game, and offers a list of possibilities roles for game audio that it can fulfill beside its traditional role in film.
Read the full, lengthier summary right here.
An Introduction to the Participatory and Non-Linear Aspects of Video Games Audio
(retrieved from http://gamessound.com/texts/interactive.pdf, 2010)
Audio in games is different from audio in movies. Movies are linear; games are generally not. Games are less predictable in what audio will be played at what time. This property of games creates new possible roles for audio, as well as providing problems when designing it and handling it in the game. The article constructs a theoretical framework that includes degree of interactivity, articulates problems that can occur both during design and when playing the game, and offers a list of possibilities roles for game audio that it can fulfill beside its traditional role in film.
Read the full, lengthier summary right here.
Summary - What Makes Great Game Sound?
George Spanos
What Makes Great Game Sound?
(retrieved from http://www.gamesounddesign.com/WhatMakesGreatGameSound.html)
Sound is generally recognised as an important part of games. But on what scale can you measure that quality?
Obviously, composing techniques are important in enhancing your sound files to a certain level of quality. But at the heart of good game sound stands a good idea, a central theme, in the way that all forms of entertainment each have a central theme. Without this theme, game audio can only be so much.
A technique to support this central theme is by breaking situations in a game down into separate, very specific, cues, and then support those cues as well as possible with sound, and leaving out everything that does not directly support that cue at the time. This focuses the player on the events you deem important as a game designer, and that can keep the player aware of the essence of what is happening at any time in the game.
Besides greatly focusing on the supportive role of audio, this has some other advantages. By reducing the number of sound files heard at once, memory is saved in both file size and RAM load. More importantly however, is that by supporting important game cues, it is easier to attain a higher degree of adaptivity, since the cues are all the game system would care about when determining what sound to play.
What Makes Great Game Sound?
(retrieved from http://www.gamesounddesign.com/WhatMakesGreatGameSound.html)
Sound is generally recognised as an important part of games. But on what scale can you measure that quality?
Obviously, composing techniques are important in enhancing your sound files to a certain level of quality. But at the heart of good game sound stands a good idea, a central theme, in the way that all forms of entertainment each have a central theme. Without this theme, game audio can only be so much.
A technique to support this central theme is by breaking situations in a game down into separate, very specific, cues, and then support those cues as well as possible with sound, and leaving out everything that does not directly support that cue at the time. This focuses the player on the events you deem important as a game designer, and that can keep the player aware of the essence of what is happening at any time in the game.
Besides greatly focusing on the supportive role of audio, this has some other advantages. By reducing the number of sound files heard at once, memory is saved in both file size and RAM load. More importantly however, is that by supporting important game cues, it is easier to attain a higher degree of adaptivity, since the cues are all the game system would care about when determining what sound to play.
Summary - IEZA: A Framework For Game Audio
Sander Huibrechts, Richard van Tol
IEZA: A Framework For Game Audio
(retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3509/ieza_a_framework_for_game_audio.php)
The article attempts to define a clear definition of different kinds of game audio.
Quite a number of definitions have already been offered, usually originating from film sound, or some from how sound assets are handled in the game code, or where a sound originates from in the game.
The article offers a model based on what triggers the sound, and whether it can be heard in the game world or not.
The horizontal axis confers what triggers the sound. Activity means that a sound is triggered because something happens; be it in the game, by the player or by the game itself, or by an action in the interface. Setting indicates that no specific action has triggered the sound or a more general one such as being in the level. Sound in this region is there to enhance the feel of the game.
The vertical axis is one of diegesis: whether the sound takes place within the game world (can the game characters hear the sound?). Non-diegetic sounds are all sounds that do not come from the game world, such as music or interface clicks.
Combining these two axes leads to four zones of sound, which are combinations of the two properties. These are Interface, Effect, Zone and Affect (IEZA). Interface sounds are Non-Diegetic sounds linked to activity, Effect sounds are diegetic. Affect sounds are Non-Diegetic sounds linked to setting, Zone sounds are diegetic.
This model is mainly a model for designers to determine what kinds of sound are in the game. It also provides some information on what kind of sound to make to get a certain effect.
IEZA: A Framework For Game Audio
(retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3509/ieza_a_framework_for_game_audio.php)
The article attempts to define a clear definition of different kinds of game audio.
Quite a number of definitions have already been offered, usually originating from film sound, or some from how sound assets are handled in the game code, or where a sound originates from in the game.
The article offers a model based on what triggers the sound, and whether it can be heard in the game world or not.
The horizontal axis confers what triggers the sound. Activity means that a sound is triggered because something happens; be it in the game, by the player or by the game itself, or by an action in the interface. Setting indicates that no specific action has triggered the sound or a more general one such as being in the level. Sound in this region is there to enhance the feel of the game.
The vertical axis is one of diegesis: whether the sound takes place within the game world (can the game characters hear the sound?). Non-diegetic sounds are all sounds that do not come from the game world, such as music or interface clicks.
Combining these two axes leads to four zones of sound, which are combinations of the two properties. These are Interface, Effect, Zone and Affect (IEZA). Interface sounds are Non-Diegetic sounds linked to activity, Effect sounds are diegetic. Affect sounds are Non-Diegetic sounds linked to setting, Zone sounds are diegetic.
This model is mainly a model for designers to determine what kinds of sound are in the game. It also provides some information on what kind of sound to make to get a certain effect.
Summary - The Sound of the Early Warner Bros. Cartoons
Scott Curtis
The Sound of the Early Warner Bros. Cartoons
Traditionally, sound and image have always been pretty closely synced in cartoons. At first, this was for economical reasons as music in cartoons was usually an adaptation of compositions that Warner Bros wanted to sell or show off. Technical issues also played a part: it was not possible early on to pre-record separate tracks for music, sound and dialogue, so the orchestra doing the music would also need to create sound effects and whatever else was needed.
The result is that very often, the animation in cartoons syncs to the music and vice versa. The music itself is not diegetic (doesn’t come from inside the world), but characters respond to it anyway. The article therefore suggests another way to describe sound; based on how it relates to the images: isomorphic and iconic.
Isomorphic sound is audio that matches the rhythm of the action and images. If a character walks quickly, the music is quick. If he pauses, the music stops.
Iconic sound is audio based on an analogy with the action. Iconic sound provides feedback on an action, but does with sound that only has some relation to the action, not all. For instance, a cymbal crash can accompany someone being smacked in the face. While a cymbal crash does have matching components such as volume, shock and so on, its sound is still a symbol for what is happening.
These definitions are not mutually exclusive; a particular sound can be both. Where the line of diegesis is blurred, this can be a useful model to define audio. Isomorphic and iconic sounds do not just occur in cartoons, but in other forms of entertainment as well.
The Sound of the Early Warner Bros. Cartoons
Traditionally, sound and image have always been pretty closely synced in cartoons. At first, this was for economical reasons as music in cartoons was usually an adaptation of compositions that Warner Bros wanted to sell or show off. Technical issues also played a part: it was not possible early on to pre-record separate tracks for music, sound and dialogue, so the orchestra doing the music would also need to create sound effects and whatever else was needed.
The result is that very often, the animation in cartoons syncs to the music and vice versa. The music itself is not diegetic (doesn’t come from inside the world), but characters respond to it anyway. The article therefore suggests another way to describe sound; based on how it relates to the images: isomorphic and iconic.
Isomorphic sound is audio that matches the rhythm of the action and images. If a character walks quickly, the music is quick. If he pauses, the music stops.
Iconic sound is audio based on an analogy with the action. Iconic sound provides feedback on an action, but does with sound that only has some relation to the action, not all. For instance, a cymbal crash can accompany someone being smacked in the face. While a cymbal crash does have matching components such as volume, shock and so on, its sound is still a symbol for what is happening.
These definitions are not mutually exclusive; a particular sound can be both. Where the line of diegesis is blurred, this can be a useful model to define audio. Isomorphic and iconic sounds do not just occur in cartoons, but in other forms of entertainment as well.
Summary - The Function of Sound in Games
Paul Arnold, Andrew Barnabas
The Function of Sound in Games
(retrieved from http://www.bobandbarn.com/articles/index.php?page=soundgames)
The article briefly describes the different areas of sound in games and its subregions. Generally, audio in games can be divided into:
- Music
o Linear
o Non-linear
o Source Music
- Sound Effects
o Spot Effects
o Ambience
o Foley
- Dialogue
o In-game
o Non-linear
Music
Music generally enhances the mood and atmosphere, and can help the pace. Linear music is used for things such as ambient music, in cutscenes, or any other place where the music doesn’t have to change. Interactive music is reasonably unexplored because music is linear in nature. This is either negated by trying to establish the general mood of a scene and scoring that, or writing specific cues for specific situations, like in film music. However, due to the vast number of situations possible in a game, this poses issues in terms of development time and budget.
A final variant of music in games is source music, which is music that characters in the game can hear or respond to, whether the actual source of the sound within the world is clear or not.
Sound Effects
Sound FX generally reinforce the current actions. Spot Effects account for most of the effects synchronised with entities in the game. Ambience sounds include all diegetic continuous sounds in the background. Foley sounds are all sounds that don’t convey important gameplay information, but instead are small sounds that can greatly enhance the sense of realism in the game.
Dialogue
Dialogue brings characters to life and can convey more complex and specific information, as well as create emotional bindings with characters. Linear dialogue is text that does not need to take into account the various possibilities of a game, for instance during cutscenes and events that will always occur. In-game dialogue however can depend on how a player has played the game thus far and will have to take into account many situations.
The Function of Sound in Games
(retrieved from http://www.bobandbarn.com/articles/index.php?page=soundgames)
The article briefly describes the different areas of sound in games and its subregions. Generally, audio in games can be divided into:
- Music
o Linear
o Non-linear
o Source Music
- Sound Effects
o Spot Effects
o Ambience
o Foley
- Dialogue
o In-game
o Non-linear
Music
Music generally enhances the mood and atmosphere, and can help the pace. Linear music is used for things such as ambient music, in cutscenes, or any other place where the music doesn’t have to change. Interactive music is reasonably unexplored because music is linear in nature. This is either negated by trying to establish the general mood of a scene and scoring that, or writing specific cues for specific situations, like in film music. However, due to the vast number of situations possible in a game, this poses issues in terms of development time and budget.
A final variant of music in games is source music, which is music that characters in the game can hear or respond to, whether the actual source of the sound within the world is clear or not.
Sound Effects
Sound FX generally reinforce the current actions. Spot Effects account for most of the effects synchronised with entities in the game. Ambience sounds include all diegetic continuous sounds in the background. Foley sounds are all sounds that don’t convey important gameplay information, but instead are small sounds that can greatly enhance the sense of realism in the game.
Dialogue
Dialogue brings characters to life and can convey more complex and specific information, as well as create emotional bindings with characters. Linear dialogue is text that does not need to take into account the various possibilities of a game, for instance during cutscenes and events that will always occur. In-game dialogue however can depend on how a player has played the game thus far and will have to take into account many situations.
Monday, April 12, 2010
My first impression to online matchmaking
The last few days I have been busy playing most of the games from the list I posted before. I didn’t have the time to play them all yet, so let me start with the genre I had the most difficulties with. Namely RTS(Real Time Strategy)Although I’m not unfamiliar with RTS,(It’s actually one of my favourite genres in pc gaming) I have to admit that playing online isn’t one of my strong points. I normally enjoy myself by building op a defensive base or a huge army before engaging the enemy. This is considered “turteling” by experienced online gamers, because it takes quite some time to establish this. The trick in most online RTS games is that offence is the best defence, and you need to be quick about it. So spam as much units as possible as soon as possible and attack your antagonists before they attack you.
Starcraft 2
Last Friday I received an emailed notification by Blizzard that I have been invited to participate the Beta test of Starcraft 2. I originally wanted to use Warcraft 3 as a case study but since Starcraft 2 is a more recent title and it’s as conventional as RTS games get, I choose to use Starcraft 2 instead.
The first thing I noticed after creating a profile was the ability to indicate a skill level:
- New player - little rts experience
- Experienced – played rts in the past
- Veteran – you played rts for competitively years
Although I don’t really know what the consequence of this choice is, I presume it predetermines a rank. During my test u choose the experience option what plces me in the copper league, which should be one of the lower leagues in the games ladder system. Since the game doesn’t provide in depth information about its ranking system, I looked up it on Blizzard Battle.net page and its supporting forums.
The system should work like this:
Starcraft 2 places its players in a ladder system with ranks and leagues. Each league represents a certain skill level and each rank represent the player’s position within that league. Winning matches raises ranks and should eventually raise leagues. Unfortunately it’s unknown what specific statistics are needed to climb up a league. Losing matches Obviously does the opposite of winning the players ranks.
Rob Pardo (Executive Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard Entertainment) even claims that Starcraft’s matchmaking is to good, which result into exhausting matches. A form of randomness is added to create more diversity.
Encouraged by this system I started up the game full with hope and promise, to soon find out that I’m not by far up to the task to defeat its current players. I quit the game after five humiliating defeats, and I would have deleted the game of my hard drive if it weren’t for the optional A.I. opponent.
Luckily there is still hope, Starcraft 2 is still in beta and is not working in optimal conditions. I can only hope that the final product will be more friendly to less experienced online gamers .
Lets move on to another game
Dawn of War 2 (+expansion)
As some of you might know, Dawn of War 2 took a step away from the conventional RTS style of gameplay by taking away base management. There is no base building at all. Instead the game focuses more abilities of the units itself and on character progression trough a RPG system. Note: the RPG system is available in the single player component. This system is replaces in the multiplayer component by optional gear and a tech tree.
The first thing I found out after starting up a multiplayer game is that Dawn of War uses TrueSkill, a ranking system that is also used for xbox live matchmaking. TrueSkill is developed by Microsoft Research. From what I understand, TrueSkill distinguishes itself from other ranking system by keeping track of not one but two values. Average skill and the degree of uncertainty. The system then compares these values with that of the other players to make a match. TrueSkill players that are most likely to draw each other. Off course there is complex underlying mathematic system that is used to make these comparisons, but that’s not the point of interest to my research. 
What is important to know is that is system like this works best when there is a low level of uncertainty. The only way to gain is to have a lot of data on the player. In other words, the players needs to player as many ranked matches as possible to get a good match. And that’s where the system flaws, at least to the appeal of new players.
To test the system I played an online ranked matches of Dawn of War 2. I’m still a level 1 player en got teamed with a level 3 players. The level of my opponents on the other hand where dangerously high, 37 and 48. Obviously the game ended up in a big humiliating defeat. The other matches that I played where very similar to this one and also ended up lost. Note: being defeated like this does not encourage to play another game is not a warm welcome.
The flaw is that new players or not likely to continue after being defeated in a game in which they have no chance of winning. By this the matchmaking system never gets a change to get enough data.
.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Introduction to Tom's research
Right, high time to put my info on this blog:
I'm Tom van Kruijsbergen, Django's team mate in creating what will hopefully become a great game, as well as fellow student at the Utrecht School of the Arts. I tend to be drawn towards the systems behind games, and how they can be used to create an experience for its players.
My "skills" lie in areas such as game prototyping, designing, tweaking, and thinking about stuff™. I enjoy testing out a game in small concepts, and watching it grow into something bigger and better over time. I strive to get my games playable as soon as possible, because I believe that this core experience is ultimately what it's all about.
My research, then, is about game sound, and music in particular. Game audio is a field that is becoming more and more interesting as of late, and particularly because I think more and more developers are starting to see its potential.
Generally, sound in a game serves to support what is happening in a game; roughly, music articulates setting and story, ambient music enriches the environment, sound effects bring small events to life, and dialogue communicates all sorts of other things (multiple models exist for this division, examples to follow. This is obviously a very rough outline).
So sound generally supports game events. The problem lies in what is actually being supported. The impact of any piece of art on you as a viewer is very great if all the source's elements work together in communicating its meaning as precisely as possible. If a painter wants a painting to make you feel happy, he will make sure he uses the right colour and lighting in his painting. If a film maker wants you to feel sad when the main character's sidekick's aunt dies, he'll use different colours, lighting and camera angles. There'll be a sad sound playing to further prove to you that this is definitely a sad scene, and so on.
In games, however, this is harder to achieve. This is because you can't know when a character will die, or if he even dies at all! You also can only vaguely estimate what is going to be happening in the next five minutes; it's up to the player to make the next five minutes happen. Because of this uncertainty, it has traditionally been hard to closely score events. Cutscenes are very often used for this purpose, because you as a designer do know what will happen in the cutscene, or games are designed with the idea that the level will lead up to defeating the dragon anyway.
But what if that outcome is more uncertain? What if you're playing a game where it's not sure whether you'll win or lose at the end? How can you make sound support a game, if what happens during that game is unknown at the start?
That, in a (pretty long) nutshell, is what my research is going to be about. I'm going to be looking more closely at that problem and particularly solutions, and then incorporate the solution into a game.
I'm Tom van Kruijsbergen, Django's team mate in creating what will hopefully become a great game, as well as fellow student at the Utrecht School of the Arts. I tend to be drawn towards the systems behind games, and how they can be used to create an experience for its players.
My "skills" lie in areas such as game prototyping, designing, tweaking, and thinking about stuff™. I enjoy testing out a game in small concepts, and watching it grow into something bigger and better over time. I strive to get my games playable as soon as possible, because I believe that this core experience is ultimately what it's all about.
My research, then, is about game sound, and music in particular. Game audio is a field that is becoming more and more interesting as of late, and particularly because I think more and more developers are starting to see its potential.
Generally, sound in a game serves to support what is happening in a game; roughly, music articulates setting and story, ambient music enriches the environment, sound effects bring small events to life, and dialogue communicates all sorts of other things (multiple models exist for this division, examples to follow. This is obviously a very rough outline).
So sound generally supports game events. The problem lies in what is actually being supported. The impact of any piece of art on you as a viewer is very great if all the source's elements work together in communicating its meaning as precisely as possible. If a painter wants a painting to make you feel happy, he will make sure he uses the right colour and lighting in his painting. If a film maker wants you to feel sad when the main character's sidekick's aunt dies, he'll use different colours, lighting and camera angles. There'll be a sad sound playing to further prove to you that this is definitely a sad scene, and so on.
In games, however, this is harder to achieve. This is because you can't know when a character will die, or if he even dies at all! You also can only vaguely estimate what is going to be happening in the next five minutes; it's up to the player to make the next five minutes happen. Because of this uncertainty, it has traditionally been hard to closely score events. Cutscenes are very often used for this purpose, because you as a designer do know what will happen in the cutscene, or games are designed with the idea that the level will lead up to defeating the dragon anyway.
But what if that outcome is more uncertain? What if you're playing a game where it's not sure whether you'll win or lose at the end? How can you make sound support a game, if what happens during that game is unknown at the start?
That, in a (pretty long) nutshell, is what my research is going to be about. I'm going to be looking more closely at that problem and particularly solutions, and then incorporate the solution into a game.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Blizzard.net Matchmaking
Just found out about Blizzards new matchmaking system.Check it out: http://eu.battle.net/matchmaking.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)