Week 3

LJ:

• discussion - specifically, the original Winnie the Pooh became public domain 

• made distinction between original and Disney's red-shirt depiction; when it's ok to ignore reviews ('empty barrels make the most noise')

• MDA analysis - Factorio (survival/strategy/city-building) 

  1. Mechanic - inventory; crafting; 'ghost buildings' and grid layout to aid forward planning; finite resources

  2. Dynamic - resource collection and management; base building; mitigation of negative impacts 

  3. Aesthetic - loneliness; creativeness; accomplishment; order and control; momentum

• factory games tend to illustrate the effect of capitalist expansion on the natural environment - exception Planet Crafter 

• learned about spreadsheets and their use - primarily for planning and preproduction 

• Google "PolyglotGamedev" for list of common game phrases in multiple languages [cite] 

NOTES: 

• in the EU, companies have to constantly defend their patents every time they're challenged because if they don't, they can lose the patent altogether

• bad games are still interesting to study - easier to learn what not to do than what to do 

• spreadsheets: 

  • project management 

  • designers use spreadsheets to calculate a balanced game before anything is entered into the engine 

  • translation of game dialogue 

  • importing game data directly into the engine 

Assignment 1: 

• in theory, the modification makes gameplay faster - we'll see if that's true in practice 

• can add live market - can track value of resources to monitor gameplay for patterns