matanuki

Steve Swink, a game designer at Flashbang Studios behind breakout indie titles like Raptor Safari and Jetpack Brontosaurus, lays out a unique vision in Game Feel: A Game Designer’s Guide to Virtual Sensation. The sensation that Swink is describing is not the thematic or emotional feel of a particular genre or plot. It’s the impulse that makes you lean forward when Mario makes a leap of faith. It’s the rush of defeating a difficult boss. It’s the reason some games are tight and exciting, while others are sluggish or confusing.

Approaching the subject as a blend of art and psychology, Swink splits the text into sections that identify the concept of game feel, define metrics to quantify both the hard numbers and subjective impressions of evaluating it, and finally apply that model to a handful of case studies picked from the lineage of brilliant game design.

Swink states in his introduction that his book is intended for a broad spectrum of readers, including both faculty and students of game design. In this effort he mostly succeeds, approaching some complex problems without delving too deeply into technical minutia. At worst, he occasionally repeats himself to drive a concept home. His detailing of input devices can be skipped by anyone familiar with basic electronics, but remains helpful as much of the later analysis requires a firm grasp of analog user input.

The greatest strength of Swink’s treatise on design is that it fills a gap between traditional discussions on aesthetics and usability: the former rarely touches on the practical problems of interactivity, while the latter usually aspires to a perfect and effortless model that overlooks the thrill of challenge and progression. Citing a classic philosophy that games should be easy to learn but difficult to master, Game Feel pursues the ideal of intuitive controls and captivating feedback that lead to the sweet spot of gameplay known as flow.

Game Feel is available at Amazon, get it.

Finished assembling the sculpture on Tuesday with a coat of paint on the frame. After designing some templates, I cut and stretched the fabric much more reliably, with less fraying and irregular overlap. I still need to clean up the outer edges, but otherwise this part of the project is done. Two more pictures after the jump.

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The senior show for undergraduate Time Arts majors is coming up! I finally finished the promotional materials after weeks of struggling with the limits of 3D rendering to print resolutions. This poster design, partially created in 3D, was simple enough to render out at sizes considered “large” by digital standards. However, properly converting digital designs to print requires massive files that dwarf their digital counterparts. My target was a render that would create a 24 by 36 inch poster at 600dpi. This equates to a 14,400 x 21,600 pixel image, which is apparently beyond the capabilities of even the super-powered workstations in our render lab. After consulting with my professor and dialing down some of the settings, we were able to render a 24×36 graphic at 300 dpi, which is still a high quality print resolution. We printed some posters yesterday, and put in an order today for some 36×72 vinyl banners that will be displayed at the show. I can’t wait to see them.

For more information about the show, check out NineBitsTurnNeon.com

After several failed starts, I finally have the surface material planned out in an effective way. Initially I intended to stretch the fabric over a wireframe that preserved the hard flat edges of my design, then treat it with a chemical stiffener. But after failing to get anything resembling a hard edge using tape and wire, I stumbled onto the pleasing natural curves that appear when the surface is stretched tightly. Using staples, I was able to apply the surface in an unobtrusive, non-permanent way.

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The School of Visual Arts at NIU recently acquired a 3D printer, which creates basic prototypes of digital models.  There are a number of different technologies that achieve this; our machine uses a special powder that is applied one very thin layer at a time.  A printer head moves across the powder, dispensing a glue binder in a cross-section of the model.  This way, the 3D structure is gradually built out of slices of bound powder.

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Just finished assembling the frame for the first time.  When upright it’s a little wobblier than I’d like, so I’m going see what I can do about reinforcing the armatures.  Two more pictures after the jump.

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This last week I’ve been working on the subframe that will support the surfaces of the sculpture.  I’m almost done, just need to bolt some of the pieces together and I’ll be ready to tackle the projection surface.

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Kites will be my final, senior project for my degree at Northern Illinois University. The piece will be a large, geometric sculpture that receives a mapped projection. By warping the video output of the projector, it is possible to create surreal visuals that both enhance and subvert the receiving surface, like this amazing work at the 2009 Branchage Film Festival. Inspired by the concept of cellular automata, the visualization will depict a simple cosmos and may involve an interactive element for viewers.

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I’m thrilled to say that I was just hired by Toy Studio, a video game studio based in Schaumberg, Illinois. They specialize in social and casual gaming, with a current emphasis on Flash games for the Facebook community. Their first venture is KillerToon, a quirky friend-fighter that went live last month.

The game features amazing illustration work by Jason Zielinski.

My focus will be working with other developers to continue creating new content and features for this game, ahead of other exciting releases. Of course, I won’t be able to discuss what I’m working on in detail, but stay tuned for upcoming releases and updates on my other independent projects.

My eternal gratitude goes out to Colin Godsey, my friend and colleague who connected me with this amazing opportunity. Thanks also to my new boss, Christian, for giving me this shot.

I was asked to create a state machine for an assessment that has a few simple rules, basically creating a self-determined “creature” that had a few basic abilities. Building on the initial ruleset, I decided to develop it into an automata simulation.

Check it out here.

The creatures have four attributes: thirst, hunger, fatigue, and boredom. They are capable of idling, walking, running, eating, drinking, sleeping, and with user interaction they can play. Clicking with the mouse will cause nearby creatures to react.

Each state has a transition pre-state that occurs before it. The color of the character will blend from a color representing his previous state to the color representing his new state.

- Initial values of the four attributes are generated randomly when the SWF is loaded.
- If no state is queued, it will idle. Idling causes its thirst, hunger, fatigue, and boredom to increase.
- If it gets too bored, it will either run or walk (50% chance).
- Walking increases all attributes except boredom, which decreases slightly. If it gets too thirsty, hungry, or tired it will switch to that action.
- Running increases all attributes except boredom, which decreases. If it drops below 50% boredom or above 100% fatigue, it will eat or sleep (50% chance).
- Playing causes all attributes to increase except boredom, which decreases significantly. It will not stop playing until the user releases the mouse button.
- Eating causes all attributes to decrease except thirst, which increases significantly. It will drink after eating.
- Drinking causes all attributes to decrease. It will idle after drinking.
- Sleeping causes fatigue and boredom to decrease, thirst and hunger increase. It will idle after sleeping.

I had to disable the real-time stats for the web version, otherwise it gets too choppy. But in a standalone player is runs nice and smooth. If you want the source code just shoot me an email.