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This site is meant to discuss general and conceptual issues concerning the development of serious games. See CTSG @ google site(s) for organizational and technical issues, and follow the tweet(s).
Blog Posts
Blog Posts
Posted by me on March 16, 2013 at 4:00pm
Posted by me on January 25, 2013 at 9:36am
although the course will very likely not result in (serious) games, it is nevertheless interesting to relate the theme(s) of Creative Technology Superpower(s) (Games) to creative ethics, or (as it is officially called) ethics for creative technology: deal(s) with issues related to the (future) professional ethics of creative technology graduates, new and emergent technology to improve the quality of life, psychological…
Posted by me on June 7, 2011 at 9:00pm
welcome to the new members: Ernst, Fabienne, Vesso, Thijs, Inéz, Michel, Christopher B., Patrick and jelle G. With (serious) game development as a central element in the new media track, Sven''s initiative to start the CreaTe Game Studios is very timely and appropriate. And, of course, your… Continue
Posted by Jan Kolkmeier on May 20, 2011 at 1:40pm
Here an update about the work Siewart and I are doing at T-Xchange. The project is to design and build an application that helps employers' motivation to do their chores. Tuesday we presented our plans for to our clients. Here a quick summary of these plans and the feedback we got so far:
Augmented Office
The chosen title already gives an idea where we're aiming at. The idea is to augment chores in the office by incorporating them into a game.
Proposal
The core principal, as introduced in our self-experiment, is inherited from the hedonic calculus. It states that every act one performs causes an amount of pain (measured in dolors) and an amount of pleasure (measured in hedons). If the pain out-weights the pleasure, as usually the case with office chores, one usually decides against doing the chore, until the mess is unbearable!Â
However, in a company, especially in one that want's to practice the new world of working, we can't only look at individual pleasure and pain. If chores aren't done, others are affected as well. Therefore, besides dolors and hedons, collectons and anti-collectons (from collective) had to be introduced as well.
Clearly our application has to compensate the occurring dolors with virtual hedons and the anti-collectons with virtual collectons.
This is an abstract concept, to help us find a more mathematical approach. It might not even be visible to the users -- the gained hedons and collectons are used to as data input for the actual game.
Chores
By doing a chore, one can earn hedons and collectons. The rewarded hedons are allways fixed for a task (as long it seems sensible to do the task at the time).
The amount of the rewarded collectons however depends on how sensible doing the chore was towards the group. If, for example, one has emptied up the dishwasher for the fifth time this week and nobody else had, doing the chore again is not optimal. Your collecton pay-off is minimal. The maximum pay-off for the "empty dishwasher" chore can be achieved if the dishwasher has been emptied in turns by everyone.
So, hopefully, by regulating the pay-off of collectons, we can steer who does which tasks and when, improving the overall content among the co-workers.
Metaphors
For the actual game a metaphor had to be found to help explaining the concept. This metaphor should fit to the identity of the company and provide space to visualize the individual and collective progress and conflict in the company, as suggested by the earning (or loss) of hedons and collectons.
We proposed two different metaphors that should meet these requirements.
The Caring Metaphor
Inspired by games such as FarmVille, The Sims or Tamagotchi, the caring metaphor gives the company a shared space (farm, garden, house, ...) that has to be fostered collectively, while every user has his own representation in the game in some form (pet, avatar, flowers, ...) that has to be taken care of as well.
Individual progress could be reflected in new items for the pet, or growths of newer, bigger flowers, depending on the chosen theme. Individual conflicts could cause atrophy of these representatives.
Collective progress would affect the world as a whole - more playground articles for all pets, better weather for the flowers, etc. Collective conflicts could cause a breakdown of the world, requiring to repair it again. Or problems/obstacles such as attacking enemies.
The Exploration Metaphor
Inspired by a German kids song, "Unsre Schule hat keine Segel", which pictures a school as a ship (without sails) where teachers and pupils explore the world (of knowledge) together. Likewise, in a company everybody sits in the same boat. There are goals to be reached that only can be reached when working together. In this metaphor the company would literally be pictured as a ship (or other transport) that discovers its own world. Users could be represented as parts of the ship or crew.
Individual progress could be the rank on the ship, or, again, personalized characters. Individual conflicts could be events such as deck fights or sea sickness.
Collective progress would be the exploration of a world, conquering continents and finding treasures/artefacts as proof of their success. The content could be related to the companies actual desires. Collective conflicts could be attacks to the ship (Pirates!) or obstacles (Hurricane!).
Technical Realization
To administrate and interact with the chore system a conventional web-application will be written, providing an API that allows other applications to interface the data.
The first application would be the game, written in Unity3D (as requested by the client). We plan to use procedural generation of assets, which seems like a technique worth exploring for this applications, since it allows providing the game with new elements without having to create them by hand.
A second application would be single value devices, which would be deployed in form of small gadgets on the desks of each user as a small, playful indicator to show who might have to catch up a little with doing his chores.
Reaction at T-Xchange
The reaction was positive, and they were excited to see us realize our plans. Some valuable remarks about our time planning were made (which wasn't really allowing an iterative progress). We were asked to work out the exploration metaphor further for this prototype, because it would fit the identity of their company better. We agreed on having a working prototype in two weeks.
CTSG main focus is to investigate playful applications of technology to emulate or support players' superpowers and social dynamics.
Forum
Forum
Started by eliens Feb 3, 2011.
Started by Jan Kolkmeier. Last reply by eliens Mar 7, 2010.
Started by eliens Apr 29, 2010.
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Ernst Kleinhuis is now a member of CTSG
Jun 6, 2011
eliens posted a blog post
I think it does! To announce a newly to be developed course, I wrote: ... serious games are more and more considered to be an effective means to bring about awareness, acquire skills, change behavior, and influence social patterns.With elementary game development technology, we will…
serious games -- does it matter?
serious games -- does it matter?
I think it does! To announce a newly to be developed course, I wrote:
... serious games are more and more considered to be an effective means to bring about awareness, acquire skills, change behavior, and influence social patterns. With elementary game development technology, we will explore the potential of serious games in a social context, using casual game mechanics, and what recently has been identified as the dynamics of gamification ...
So, both as a relatively new element of new media, as well as a topic for students, serious games seem to relevant, and interesting, also from a more technical perspective, that is allowing for real game development(s). And therefore, I accordingly updated the interpretation of the abbreviation: CTSG, which now allows for a wider interpreation of the S ..., previously representing only superpowers, but now more seriously, also social, and why not smart!
May 12, 2011
Jan Kolkmeier posted a blog post
In continuation on the efforts to pursue the field of serious gaming, two New Media Track students, Siewart and me, have started working together with T-XChange, as suggested before, to fill in our course Game Development.We were proposed to work on a project that connects to our…
Putting it into practice
Putting it into practice
Posted by Jan Kolkmeier on May 6, 2011 at 12:30pm
In continuation on the efforts to pursue the field of serious gaming, two New Media Track students, Siewart and me, have started working together with T-XChange, as suggested before, to fill in our course Game Development.
We were proposed to work on a project that connects to our previous work on gamification/rewards, here is what happened so far:
After a meeting with Thomas de Groot where we introduced ourselves, got introduced to the company, and talked about what our interests and skills are, we met again this week with Paul Porskamp to discuss the project:
Design and construct a game to be played inside a company, introducing "het nieuwe werken" (the new world of work?).
The main requirement was that it would have to be scenario driven and that the scenarios could be constructed without writing any code. It was also made clear that this would first to be tested and introduced to their own company (~15 employees).Â
Since T-XChange is currently doing the switch to Unity3D, we were asked to focus on that as main technology.
We agreed that Siewart and I will start with writing a (draft of a) design document to propose our solution for the problem. If applicable, a paper-prototype will follow (which is common practice at T-XChange). From there on playtesting and development at their location will take place in an iterative process.
At the end of the meeting we went a little around their office with Paul where he showed us some typical tasks for which motivation often lacks, here is a sample list:
Shut-down the computers
Make tape-backup of the data
Operate the dishwasher
Keep fridge in order
Clean Sandwich Toaster
Bring the paper-trash away
Water the plants
Collect Beer-bottles
Feed the shrimps / stock up if eaten
Keep the desk(s) clean
Check desk-setup (chair/monitor position)
Say "good morning" to secretary and cleaning-service
Accept telephone-calls (if secretary is not present)
Don't forget print jobs
Clean up whiteboard
Order Food on thursdays
Clean up after borrel
Can we build a game that changes the employees behaviour, improving the general work environment? I am confident that yes, we can. Further, T-XChange seems like a great place for this kind of experiment -- not only because of their size but mainly because the office and the employees have a great saturation of all kinds of technology at their disposal, just waiting to be used!
Â
Additional Resources:
Chorewars -- www.chorewars.com
Views: 60
May 6, 2011
eliens posted a blog post
In the most recent of STT Expert Meetings the audience, all experts, presumably, was given the opportunity to ask questions, to be answered by the (expert) speakers. The theme of the meeting was play or be played, which has a similar ring as the, for creative technology students now familiar, phrase:…
serious game(s) -- issues
serious game(s) -- issues
In the most recent of STT Expert Meetings the audience, all experts, presumably, was given the opportunity to ask questions, to be answered by the (expert) speakers. The theme of the meeting was play or be played, which has a similar ring as the, for creative technology students now familiar, phrase: program or be programmed.Â
One way or another, it is (I repeat) all about literacy!
To cut a long discussion short, the questions were:
how do games affect social networks?
do players need to know the purpose of the game?
where is the boundary between gameplay and serious issues?
where are we 5 years from now?
do games help to live independently?
what are the demographic(s) of gamification?
Since the speakers were rather academic, no definite answers were given to these questions, even though some members of the audience were obviously impatient to know what to invest in, preferably tomorrow.
Clearly, serious games require a more long term effort, and, in my opinion, will benefit from an interdisciplinary
endeavor in academic research.
For Creative Technology that might mean joining forces with T-XChange to bring serious games as a (serious) topic in the curriculum, and initiate (associated) research on the theme of serious games as social technology.
On a short term, for our students, this may provide an excellent opportunity to further explore the application of T-REX (Twente Reward EXperiment) in a real-life situation, in casu -- het nieuwe werken.
Views: 83
Apr 25, 2011
eliens commented on Siewart's blog post Real-life Achievements
"it is indeed a bs filter, but next blog of yours will be approved with full permission for all your future contributions"
Mar 18, 2011
Siewart commented on Siewart's blog post Real-life Achievements
"Could you disable the approve before publish setting? Or is this a mechanism you use to get a notification of a new blog post? (Or as the intended bullshit filter)"
Mar 18, 2011
Siewart posted a blog post
In the past four years a new way of making people addicted to their video-game has been growing. These, usually referred to as achievements, are mechanism that introduce additional tasks in a game that challenges the player to do more difficult tasks. These tasks are recorded on a community page for that game so others can see it. This will create a competition between players to show off what you have achieved in the game. So the best way to describe an achievement is probably a decoration or…
Mar 18, 2011
eliens liked Jan Kolkmeier's blog post Reward Structures, a self experiment?
Mar 15, 2011
eliens commented on Siewart's blog post Real-life Achievements
"nice contribution, the actual challenge though, as I see it, is to arrive at a calculus of hedons, dolors and collectons, which then may result in appropriate (context-dependent) achievemenents, suitably visualized."
Mar 15, 2011
Siewart posted a blog post
In the past four years a new way of making people addicted to their video-game has been growing. These, usually referred to as achievements, are mechanism that introduce additional tasks in a game that challenges the player to do more difficult tasks. These tasks are recorded on a community page for that game so others can see it. This will create a competition between players to show off what you have achieved in the game. So the best way to describe an achievement is probably a decoration or…
Mar 15, 2011
eliens commented on Jan Kolkmeier's blog post Social Groups, Part 1: Modelling Properties
"group properties can very likely be modeled using standard notions from graph theory, such as cliques, paths, connectedness, possibly with weights, to obtain measures of information exchange and the like, see e.g. wikipedia. Incidentally, looking…"
Mar 14, 2011
Jan Kolkmeier posted a blog post
In course of our Qarma project we explore how we can motivate people using game mechanics. One mechanic with great potential are rewards. Rewards in games are a complex topic, but the general idea is that the player gets frequent and direct feedback to his action, giving a satisfying feeling.This kind of feedback is lacking dramatically in real life. Often the work people do is rewarded only…
Mar 14, 2011
Jan Kolkmeier updated their profile photo
Mar 12, 2011
Jan Kolkmeier updated their profile
Mar 12, 2011
Jan Kolkmeier posted blog posts
Mar 10, 2011
eliens liked eliens's blog post serious games as social technology
Mar 9, 2011
eliens liked Jan Kolkmeier's blog post Introducing the Qarma Project
Mar 9, 2011
eliens commented on Jan Kolkmeier's blog post Introducing the Qarma Project
"good to see your first post on this!"
Mar 9, 2011
eliens posted a blog post
In the STT Expert Meetings on The Future of Serious Gaming, the topic of (11 February 2011) was (Serious) Gaming in a Networked Society, held at the hyves building at the Frederiksplein, Amsterdam. Although presenting an interesting variety of speakers, I felt that the central topic of serious gaming was not sufficiently articulated, and paying close…
Feb 14, 2011
eliens left a comment for Winoe
"again, hi Winoe, and do not hesitate to make some noise!"
Feb 3, 2011
eliens posted a discussion
Yesterday, I included mission statement(s) in the ximpel interactive video site,that is now being used to support the stabilization and further development of the ximpel platform. It reads:Interactive storytelling is a viable way to communicate messages, to provide information, to visualize scenarios and to support online learning. Even more so with the growing availability of high quality online video services. Since the…
mission statement(s)
mission statement(s)
Posted by eliens on February 3, 2011 at 3:02pm
Yesterday, I included mission statement(s) in the ximpel interactive video site,
that is now being used to support the stabilization and further development of the ximpel platform.
Â
 It reads:
Interactive storytelling is a viable way to communicate messages, to provide information, to visualize scenarios and to support online learning. Even more so with the growing availability of high quality online video services. Since the ximpel interactive video platform proved to be a convenient way to produce compelling interactive media, we decided to continue our support for the ximpel platform, with as a first goal to have a stable integration of youtube video, and to provide more convenient waays of styling and programmatic extensions. This renewed effort is made possible by generous support of the University of Twente, that uses the ximpel interactive video platform in the Creative Technology curriculum.
course(s)
And here I may add that, ximpel interactive video is in particular a powerful tool for the (fast) development of ISV (Interactive Scenario Visualizations), as for example used in the telemedicine project, for which unity was used, also a great tool, but more demanding wrt programming skills.Â
publication(s)
Â
[ISV] Â Jan-Willem Van 'T Klooster, Bert-Jan Van Beijnum, Anton Eliens and Hermie Hermens,
Interactive Scenario Visualisation for Homecare Technology, submitted to: PCHT'11: www.pervasivehealth.org
Feb 3, 2011
eliens left a comment for Winoe
"hi Winoe, nice to have you as a member of CTSG, in my opinion we need a (more) experienced game developer. (AE)"
Feb 3, 2011
Winoe is now a member of CTSG
Feb 3, 2011
eliens updated their profile photo
Oct 26, 2010
eliens posted a blog post
draw & walk: yesterday, I was at the Media Jaarcongress in Hilversum, where the old media display their flirts with the new media. Actually it is going beyond that. The old media need the new media in a significant way. This includes the use of physical omputing, and the great variety of screens. The theme of the conference was: eye for the screen. Screens are important, for display, and to focus attention, but what…
draw & walk -- silence does not mean absence
draw & walk -- silence does not mean absence
draw & walk: yesterday, I was at the Media Jaarcongress in Hilversum, where the old media display their flirts with the new media. Actually it is going beyond that. The old media need the new media in a significant way. This includes the use of physical omputing, and the great variety of screens. The theme of the conference was: eye for the screen. Screens are important, for display, and to focus attention, but what screens are used, how many, how screens are positioned in space, and, not the least important, how to interact with screens remain issues for further exploration. So, looking at the stage setups in the TV studios, and seeing the visual decorations made by art students, I came to the conclusion that one thing was still missing, and that one thing is the essence of: draw & walk.
Jun 10, 2010
CA Richter updated their profile
May 16, 2010
CA Richter updated their profile photo
May 16, 2010
Symplexity updated their profile
May 10, 2010
Gintautas updated their profile photo
May 7, 2010
eliens posted a video
http://poykpac.com "Mario: Game Over" was nominated for Best Comedy Video of 2007 in the Youtube Awards. (From POYKPAC-- if you like it, subscribe. You'll ...
Apr 30, 2010
eliens posted a discussion
to be honest, it is also my first effort to create a (micro) social network and as indicated by the discussion(s), we need to consider why we use such a facility. Is it for collaboration(s), or more importantly perhaps for…
imperative(s) -- let's make some noise!
imperative(s) -- let's make some noise!
Posted by eliens on April 29, 2010 at 12:25pm
to be honest, it is also my first effort to create a (micro) social network and as indicated by the discussion(s), we need to consider why we use such a facility. Is it for collaboration(s), or more importantly perhaps for promotion(s), that is giving voice to (y)our work to the outside world.
All in all this should be a common effort, and we should be serious about what problem(s) we tackle, not forgetting though that we do not always have to be original to be relevant. Anyhow, for the individual student, this also means work for the individual portfolio(s), as well as contribution(s) to this network and the common(s), to create both individual and group identity!
Our first target is to create interactive spectacle(s) for the Smart XP, to provide the missing F. And the next target is an installation at #GOGBOT, where we might explore how for we can get on the topic of singularity with the CT(..)G.
In conclusion: let's find appropriate challenge(s), inspired by Jan K.
Apr 29, 2010
eliens commented on Douwe Bart's blog post Unity Demo/Showcase
"again, great, it gave you prominence at the unity of the week!"
Apr 29, 2010
eliens commented on Douwe Bart's blog post Unity Demo/Showcase
"great, good start, keep dropping demo(s)!"
Apr 28, 2010
eliens left a comment for Symplexity
"hi reinout, after your tweet @CreaTeSG, you have been elected as administrator"
Apr 28, 2010
Jan de Geus is now a member of CTSG
Apr 26, 2010
Douwe Bart posted a blog post
I’ve been putting some of the endless features of unity together in a small demo/showcase. The (online) demo requires the unity3d plugin, which can be easily installed in less than 3 clicks.It took me about 3 hours to make this, after almost zero experience with Unity.Checkout the demoÂ
Apr 22, 2010
eliens replied to Jan Kolkmeier's discussion Technology choice? I present: google appengine!
"certainly a worthwhile approach, also looking at some of the other NM and CA courses, in particular for the development of social games, another branch of the CTSG. Also for the less technical creatives. I look forward to continuations on this…"
Mar 7, 2010
Jurgen Buisman and Jorrit joined CTSG
Mar 6, 2010
Jan Kolkmeier posted a video
This video introduces developers to building apps on Google App Engine. For more in-depth information and deep-dive technical sessions, come to Google I/O, G...
Feb 22, 2010
Jan Kolkmeier posted a discussion
I discovered the google appengine some time ago but found out about it's potential just now - and it seems just right for us:a great (offline) development environment intended to create apps collaboratively.full support for two programming languages: python and java (everybody should have basic skills in the latter, while the first one is very friendly to start with as well)platform independence (from development to…
Technology choice? I present: google appengine!
Technology choice? I present: google appengine!
Posted by Jan Kolkmeier on February 22, 2010 at 2:53pm
I discovered the google appengine some time ago but found out about it's potential just now - and it seems just right for us:
a great (offline) development environment intended to create apps collaboratively.
full support for two programming languages: python and java (everybody should have basic skills in the latter, while the first one is very friendly to start with as well)
platform independence (from development to release)
easy access to a lot of google's APIs/services (maps, mail, wave, picasa, docs, reader, calender....)
database (datastore)
User authentication with google accounts
I will definitely continue investigating GAE.
Feb 22, 2010
eliens left a comment for Gintautas
"hi Gintautas, welcome to the CTSG clan, enjoy the visual design course, and do not hesitate to submit your ideas, or for that matter to ask questions in case you encounter technical difficulties or otherwise. Anton"
Feb 10, 2010
Gintautas is now a member of CTSG
Feb 10, 2010
eliens left a comment for Martijn Bruinenberg
"hi Martijn, listening to your ideas, I think you made the right choice to join us, and (as we discussed) take it at your own pace. regards Anton"
Feb 8, 2010
eliens left a comment for Tom Heijnen
"hi Tom I am happy to have you in the group, Anton."
Feb 8, 2010
Martijn Bruinenberg and Tom Heijnen joined CTSG
Feb 8, 2010
eliens left a comment for Ineke Visser
"hi Ineke, I am happy tpo have you on board, and look forward to your personal input(s)!"
Feb 3, 2010
Ineke Visser and tiw joined CTSG
Feb 3, 2010
"I was searching for what CTSG is, and I ended up here. Now trying to figure out what I can do here :]"
Feb 3, 2010
"hi tiw, I think I know who you are, so welcome, but I also would like you to disclose more of your identity. Anton"
Feb 3, 2010
eliens left a comment for CA Richter
"hi Andre, great you're in!"
Feb 1, 2010
CA Richter is now a member of CTSG
Feb 1, 2010
eliens left a comment for Roderic Evans-Knaup
"great to have you as member of the team!"
Jan 28, 2010
Douwe Bart updated their profile
Dec 13, 2009
Douwe Bart updated their profile photo
Dec 13, 2009
eliens left a comment for Symplexity
"welcome, symplexity comes with with great skills, which we desperately need!"
Dec 8, 2009
Symplexity is now a member of CTSG
Dec 8, 2009
Herjan Treurniet updated their profile
Nov 20, 2009
eliens commented on Siewart's blog post Unreal Development Kit is now free!
"A suitable alternative might be unity3D, look at http://ria.creuna.com/2009/11/unrealengine3-and-unity3d-now-free for a comparison. Even for NM2 these might be suitable technologies, as an alternative, or next to, flex and/or processing."
Nov 18, 2009
Siewart commented on eliens's video
"Voorzover ik het spel zelf gespeelt het bind ik her erg buggy, ik denk wel dat het misschien na een paar updates een stuk beter draait. Ik wist nog niet dat er een tool set was eigenlijk, maar ik zal eens kijken."
Nov 10, 2009
eliens commented on eliens's video
"seems nice as a toolkit, potential title(s): the creative technology war(s)"
Nov 10, 2009
eliens posted videos
Nov 10, 2009
Siewart posted a video
Video about the new UDK.
Nov 9, 2009
eliens left a comment for Herjan Treurniet
"i am happy to have you on board!"
Nov 9, 2009
Herjan Treurniet is now a member of CTSG
Nov 9, 2009
eliens commented on Siewart's blog post Unreal Development Kit is now free!
"indeed, this should be one line of the work, Unreal CTSG"
Nov 9, 2009
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