An Initial Semantic Architecture

Last week I read the first three chapters of Values at Play. I've also worked on a tool to help me tweak variables and make instances of classes faster. If I wanted to make 30 different Person instances, for example, I can use the tool to generate the list instead of typing it out by hand. I can also edit the Person class by adding or removing variables, like "disposition" or "irritability" to play around with what factors work best. I feel investing in making this tool will be worthwhile and will make testing and tweaking easier later down the road.

I wanted to look over the fifteen elements of semantic architecture covered in Ch. 3. I feel this will help clarify the direction I will be going with this game, as well as prompt thought in aspects of design I may have otherwise overlooked. I definitely don't expect the game's construction to match the following notes perfectly, and for many elements to shift and get tweaked later on, so I will probably redo this exercise sometime later, when there is an explorable alpha to play with.


1. Narrative
There is no concrete literary plot narrative I have in mind at the moment. There is a very specific message that I do wish to send with the game though. As my main message relates to the limits on a person's realization of innate potential social labels inherently place, I feel that the best way to enable the main point to be illustrated is to allow, in this universe, a kind of duplicity and donning of false identities. By allowing exploration of different identities the player can then see the kinds of abilities and disabilities certain labels confer. I am thinking of placing the main player (or players) initially in identities that are disadvantageous. As they progress in skill and resources they may then craft identities for themselves conducive to more interesting goals. I do not have a particular story premise in mind, but I believe that one that all characters in the game are universally interested in would be ideal (laying claim to a throne, becoming the richest, being the one who finally gains access to an ultimate wish, etc.)

2. Character
In this game the player character is on equal footing with other characters, in that all are cast into their initial identity by the whims of the machine. The way the world perceives certain labels, the actions available and their levels of effectiveness, are all things that though variant for each individual are determined by identity for everyone. To help emphasize the main message, the NPCs will not have the means to shift the labels associated with their identity. They are in contrast to you, (and other players), who are able to try out the effects of various labels. You can see how those trapped in their identity are affected in contrast to yourself.

3. Action
This crosses a bit with element 5 (interaction w/players). The main mechanics of the game revolve mainly around conversation between players. Using the gestures and dialogue options available to one at the moment, the player can obtain valuable information, coerce another into performing a favor, pick up cues and features that construct a particular social label and gain access to more places or people. The Sims (without the environment traversal) and the Phoenix Wright series hold examples of the kinds of actions I would like the main gameplay to consist of. Both have a well-realized system for interacting with other characters through a dynamic menu of choices that change based on previous choices.

4. Player Choice
The actions available to the player is a direct consequence of the current identity they are donning and the identity their conversant is donning. I want to implement something called a 'script' that controls what interactions are possible between the two. What script can be called depends upon the labels consisting each character's identity. By relying on a more favorable label-pair the script can be changed to one more conducive to the player's goals. For example, say the game is set in a land prejudiced against pink bunnies, but highly intolerant of stealers of candy from babies. If the player was a pink bunny asking a blue giraffe admissions officer to let her in, the blue giraffe officer might initially scoff and use a derisive, dismissive script where the pink bunny is placed in a submissive, powerless state. If the pink bunny had dirt on the officer and knew he had a nighttime hobby of snatching dum-dums from unattended cradles, the bunny could then twist the script to one where the officer is in a dangerous, lower position based on their morality.

5. Interaction with Others
Because I want to stress the natural unequal distribution of power and abilities in life, I want to place all players in the game, both NPC and human-controlled, on equal footing. The interaction mechanic applies equally to everyone. Because of the stress upon a single universal goal there is an element of competition that will invariably be involved. I am hoping though that through the oppression, erasure, unfairness inherent in the game and the presence of others with like labels that a sense of alliance and camaraderie will naturally emerge.

6. Interaction with Environment
There won't be much attention placed upon environment, since I am interested in illustrating a social phenomena. There will be no sauntering through exquisitely rendered fields of lush greens and exotic wildflowers. I may implement space in a similar manner to Phoenix Wright, where the player simply chooses a location from a list of options and is transported to a scene with different people against a new backdrop. I may implement goods to allow for bribery/negotiation/blackmail.

7. Point of View
The game will be third person so that the shifts in identity the player character undergoes can be observed. During conversation both characters will display upon the screen with equal weight. Both will be visible, and the countenance/expressions upon both will vary based upon the labels currently upon them. As focus is on their expressions/reactions, the game will be focused mostly on the upper torso with little regard for their full portrait. The face will almost always be visible.

8. Hardware
Conversation is the most important element of the game. I am more interested in utilizing a menu of set options, but perhaps the PC with its keyboard really is the best fit hardware for the game, as it is most conducive to text. One of the features that I found lacking in Animal Crossing was the mail system. As much as I enjoyed the game it was tedious to write letters to the other residents because the hardware is not naturally suited to generating text.

9. Interface
The majority of the screen will be taken up by the characters. During conversation, the characters will be dominant, with conversation choices listed below. When not in conversation, the player could pan the room and hover over characters with the mouse to read known info on them and gauge via their expression how receptive they'll be to the player. Mousing over a door in the room turns the cursor to an arrow, and the player can click to exit. There are probably better ways to set up the interface but for now I am proceeding with this. It will probably feel like a point-and-click adventure game (except with an extremely lame uninteractive environment).

10. Software
As the game is text-heavy and low in needs of an environment, I feel an engine like Starling could be used. Technically I could even make the game an interactive fiction and use something like Inform 7, though I would like to illustrate the impacts of each player's conversation choices more immediately via graphics. For now I will prototype using Starling. I plan on doing research on what engines best suit a text-heavy program.

11. Context of Play
The game is a direct response to the effects I've both experienced and observed social labels induce. I have seen the effects my physical traits, personality, history and abilities directly affect my treatment in various scenarios, and on the other side, I have had moments where I grew aware of preconceptions ranging from benign to destructive that I held about others. Notably I feel as if I have my feet on multiple sides of fences, with friends of a variety of leanings. I have friends whose minds sparkle with beautiful conceptions and are highly liberal. I have family that worked their way up from nothing with stunning resolve and bear more conservative Christian values. There are numerous moments where I see moments of astounding opacity from both sides, where preconceptions of a side they find antithetical leads them to paint the offender in a single note of color. Regardless of the stances of people around me, I feel that the most important value to be defended on this planet is diversity, whether that be biodiversity or racial diversity or diversity of expressed religions. There are still so many entrenched in outdated, simplified and polarized ideals of sex, gender roles and race. Such beliefs are so deeply ingrained in everyday media, customs, ideals that many are blind to their very presence. And so in the context of a time where the complexity of sexual and gender identities are just starting to become acknowledged and the remnants of past gender and racial inequality still lay entrenched here and there I find the concept for this game to arise naturally. I wish to make the labels and their effects not only on one's attitudes towards others but on one's attitudes towards themselves to become more transparent  by making it a visible, interactive construct one can play and experiment with.

12. Rewards
Reward will come in the form of greater social mobility and access to places, favors, interactions that come with an expanded repertoire of available identities; the joy of increasing freedom + the joys of collection. Rewards will also be present during conversation. A successful conversion of a hostile stranger to friend or the successful shift of script will let the player view rare facial expressions and reactions from the conversation partner, and may also trigger a characteristic success tune.

13. Strategies
Strategy will lie in the way scripts and identities are manipulated. Preferably the best strategies will be those that involve finding common ground in a character in terms of values or past experiences and appealing to them, or finding a more open friend of the character who can appeal on your behalf. The ability to sense the presence of similar values, beliefs or experiences will lie both in the variety of people you've successfully conversed with and the number of identities you've tried out.

14. Game Maps
I interpreted game maps to stand for subquests/subunits in a game. I think with this game the closest thing would be the identities that players gain throughout play. Each time they gain access to an identity they gain access to a whole new area of gameplay and possible actions. Past characters and scenarios will show different dialogue and reactions and will be worth revisiting as well. Certain quests will also prove to be either more difficult or easier.

15. Aesthetics
Because the game is character heavy much work would go into creating character work. Expressiveness is also an important factor. Because of the importance of the expressiveness I may in fact utilize 3D software like Unity to allow use of expressive 3D models (which I would then place into a 2D game). I may also utilize the approach used by games like Fire Emblem and Phoenix Wright, though the generative aspect of this game worries me regarding how scalable that particular method is. Thanks to the work (as well as the expressiveness) involved I wish to use a more stylized cartoony aesthetic. I feel it will lighten the mood and, thanks to the exaggerative nature of cartoons, help players better understand and feel how a conversation is going. Giant eyes squinting into half-moons in disgust with a literal tight line for the mouth effectively gets across displeasure quickly and effectively. Sound will also help accentuate the general direction of a conversation. With that displeased squint could come an irritated 'mmm' or 'meeeh.' A highlight of Phoenix Wright is the signature song that begins to play the moment the true culprit is about to be exposed. The titular character will yell 'Objection!' and there will be silence, as the character lists the exposing evidence. As the lies begin to crumble around the offender's ears the tune begins to play. Similarly a particular tune signifying success/ turnover towards your favor in unfavorable circumstances could be implemented.


Based on this exercise I have a clearer idea of the features I wish to include, how to approach implementation as well as the social climate that informed the initial idea to make the game. I am still not completely clear on precisely what conversation actions will be available nor the premise of the game's story. I know that I want the game to take place in an alternate world, like one populated by bunnies and giraffes. The people I would like to gain the most from the game are the ones who would probably reset the game if they rolled a disabled or minority character, if they don't completely dismiss the game first. I want the player to see via experience that the labels that consist an identity do not merely disable or empower. I want them to feel that the general perception currently held towards a label strongly impacts the way you end up feeling about yourself. By encoding the main message into other areas of the game I hope to impart the values of tolerance and empathy gently to the player.

I hope to post a review sometime later this week examining Phoenix Wright, since I referred to it frequently in this one. This week I hope to finally finish the tool I was working on and work out in finer detail the conversation mechanic. I also hope to draw out ideas for this alternate world and the labels that currently define its social climate!

Awareness of Values at Play

For a directed study has this new blog sprung forth into fresh existence, and until summer dawns will it weekly extend. In more serious terms, I plan on updating this blog weekly with posts regarding progress on a prototype throughout this semester. I will be applying the concepts of Dr. Flanagan's Values at Play in the construction of a game, and I also hope to cover additional overviews and thoughts on related papers, books and games as well.

I feel as if I repeat myself, and I know I'm not well-read enough to elaborate with greater subtlety, but in an expression of the wibbly-wobbly feelings I have about game design, I would liken it to the great maelstrom of stardust that swirls about after the birth of a new star. A star being a medium in this context. Like that newly-present star, there is an exciting restless energy emanating from the game medium, one that seeks to be taken and twisted into an insatiable variety of expressions and experiences. This energy has informed the creation of more experimental games and has been able to explode as the availability of resources to a broader range of developers continues to grow with a healthy and highly lauded indie scene. And yet still this restlessness doesn't settle, but rather stirs a greater appetite for even broader depth and range, in a seeking of the realization of its great expressive and plastic potential.

I feel by taking the ideals expressed in Values of Play, in the conscientious examination of the values that can potentially emerge, that the medium's quest towards this realization can be greatly furthered. We can see the values that are incorporated commonly, mindlessly at the moment and then introduce new veins of games that will keep the flow fresh and balanced. We can take difficult, touchy subjects or underrepresented viewpoints and implement their essence into a vehicle of understanding. In examination of values a better understanding of targeted values themselves may also emerge, and from that greater clarity regarding the messages embedded in culture, media and one's own personal thoughts and life. From this clarity an ability to weave expressive games with greater subtlety, depth, deliberation and the feeling of 'realness' Jenova Chen speaks of can emerge.

The issue of tolerance and diversity is one that has always been of high interest to me, and I am interested in capturing the effects that social labels and stations have upon the bearer's psyche and abilities. I am thinking of creating a card game that uses a conversation mechanic and a bartering system. The details are still murky, but the general premise emerged while musing on a way to take the elements of the value 'tactfulness.' A simple conversation game with some overarching goal like 'solve a mystery' or 'barter and negotiate to get a target object' was my initial idea, but the reality of tact is that it is a tool that grows in use based on one's station in life, on how much power one has. A king has little use for it compared to the peasant who must grovel. I plan on drawing up basic gameplay designs and getting myself to finally understand the way card games like Magic work. I'll also be looking into, or reviewing games I know of that revolve around negotiation or inequality.

I'm excited to see what I come up with in the end, and I hope that in the end that the game I create imparts the feelings and messages I have regarding the inherent inequality surrounding tact, labels and society. For now I aim to post every Monday.