Fri 4/29 Design Practice Questions

1. What entities and resources will be in the game? Which resources are made up
of individual entities (such as a resource of airplanes consisting of individual planes
that the computer can track separately) and which are described by mass nouns
(such as water, which cannot be separated into discrete objects)?

2. What unique entities will be in the game?

3. Which entities will actually include other entities as part of their defi nition?
(Remember that an avatar may have an inventory, and an inventory contains
objects.)

4. What attributes describe each of the entities that you have identifi ed? Which
attributes are numeric and which are symbolic?

5. Which entities and resources will be tangible, and which will be intangible?
Will any of them change from one state to another, like the resources in Age of
Empires?

6. What mechanics govern the relationships among the entities? Remember that
any symbolic entity requires mechanics that determine how it can get into each of
its possible states and how other entities interact with each possible state.

7. Are there any global mechanics in the game? What mechanic governs the way
the game changes from mode to mode?

8. For each entity and resource, does it come into the game world at a source, or
does it start off in a game world that does not provide a source for additional entities or resources? If it does come in at a source, what mechanics control the
production rate of the source?

9. For each entity and resource, does it go out of the game world at a drain, or does
it all remain in the game world and never leave? If it does go out at a drain, what
conditions cause it to drain?

10. What conversion processes exist in your world? What trader processes exist? Do
any feedback loops or mutual dependencies exist? What means have you provided
to break or prevent deadlocks?

11. Can your game get into a state of equilibrium, static or dynamic? Does it include
any form of decay or entropy that prevents states of equilibrium from forming?

12. How do mechanics create active challenges? Do you need to establish any
mechanics to detect if a challenge has been surmounted?

13. How do mechanics implement actions? For each action that may arrive from the
user interface, how do the core mechanics react?

14. For autonomous entities such as nonplayer characters, what mechanics control
their behavior? What mechanics defi ne their AI?

Fri 4/29 Chapter 10 Exercise

4. Define a mechanic for a trap that harms a character when it detects the character’s
presence and then must wait for a period before it can detect another
character. Document the condition that triggers the trap (the nature of the sensing
mechanism), the character attribute(s) that change when the trap is triggered, and
the length of the reset wait period. Incorporate one or more nonuniform random
numbers to determine the amount of damage done and explain how they are computed.
Indicate what states the trap may be in and what causes it to change from state to state.
Include a vulnerability in the sensing mechanism that could either
(a) set off the trap without harming a character or (b) allow a character to move
within range of the trap’s sensor mechanism without setting it off. (For example, a
pressure-sensor in the fl oor would not go off if the character weighed less than a
certain amount.) Propose a means by which a clever player could exploit this vulnerability to avoid the trap.

The trap is a Magnetic trap. The magnetic trap detects any metals within 7yards or 21ft. Once within range the trap triggers its powerful magnetic field to strip the person of all metal objects including weapons. Once the trap picks up an object it resets leaving a 5sec window before it completely resets. The magnetic force of the trap will inflict 

15% of the players health. The damage is only inflicted if an object is stripped from the player. 15% Damage per item taken away. A huge rise in temperature can cause a malfunction with the trap completely disabling the trap. The temperatures will need to exceed 125 degrees. The outer ring in the picture is the detection range of the magnetic trap. The inner ring is the range in which the magnet can strip you of your weapon and inflict damage. 
(Ignore the labels that say radiation)
The character could just toss a metal device into the detection range to trigger the trap and leaves the player a 5sec window to get past the trap. He/she could also use an item that exceeds 125 degrees to cause a malfunction in the magnetic trap completely disabling it. There is no way to avoid the trigger or the trap once within range. The player can only trick and force a trigger to get by it or disable it all together with something really hot. 

4/22 King of Kong

1.)Extreme competitive behavior. Individualistic.

2.)Most core gamers have a low self-esteem to compensate for lacking in an aspect of their personal life.

3.)Not very valid for establishing world records.

4.)Yes. The nature of the competition was clearly captured in this film.

5.)The Twin Galaxies serves as a way to validate scores giving more value to the records being broken. The gaming communities could easily exist without such organizations.

6.)Music tends to give me a boost while playing games online. The beats of the music tend to energize me and normally get me to perform better.

7.)Gordon means that he's always playing mind games and controlling people. He creates this image of himself and how he wants people to see him.

8.)Its more of a good vs evil. Mitchell plays the bad guy always finding ways to avoid stepping up to face Wiebe. Wiebe on the other hand is always trying to do the right thing and prove himself.

9.)Played it maybe once and lost interest rather quickly

4/8/11 Types of Sounds for Games

This is mixture of different sounds affects.
Click Link For Access To Audio