master's thesis - newsgames, radpid game development in ...s thesis - newsgames, radpid game...

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Abstract Newsgames constitute an exciting potential as a medium of rhetorical expression and represents an interesting alternative usage of games. However, taking advantage of this potential requires an understanding of newsgames from both a theoretical and practical perspective. More concretely being able to answer the questions; what are newsgames and how are they developed in practice? This master’s thesis is dedicated to providing an answer to both of these questions.

The thesis is divided into two parts each dedicated to answering one of the questions above. The first part concentrates on newsgames from a theoretical perspective and conducts an investigation of the elements that constitute a newsgame. In doing so an understanding is provided of the history and tradition of newsgames as well as knowledge about its capabilities as a medium of rhetorical expression. Newsgames are further compared to news types found in conventional news coverage with the goal of understanding their potential as conveyers of news.

The second part concentrates on devising a methodology for rapidly and effectively developing newsgames in small teams. Based on personal experience and an investigation of traditional as well as more recent agile software development methodologies a suitable methodology for newsgame development is proposed.

Keywords: newsgames, development, team, flash, dr

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Preface This master’s thesis on newsgames and rapid game development in small teams is the culmination of six months of studious work. First developing a number of newsgames for The Danish Broadcasting Corporation and thereafter writing the thesis itself. This master’s thesis can be both read and understood without a high degree of game literacy. However, prior knowledge about games and development methodologies are recommended since this will help the reader to contextualize and understand the contents on a higher level.

The master’s thesis uses the APA Style (American Psychological Association) formatting guideline which has been applied where possible and meaningful.

The enclosed CD‐Rom contains playable versions of the newsgames developed. Appendix A Contents of CDRom on page 91 provides a complete description of its contents and how to run the games.

A project blog was used during development for exchanging and elaborating on ideas for newsgames. In a few places the thesis makes references to this blog and though not a requirement it can be located and studied at http://newsgamesf08.blogspot.com/.

Note: In case you have trouble reading the enclosed CD‐Rom its entire contents can be downloaded from http://www.kn9.dk/thesis.

The content of the master’s thesis is composed of approximately 140.000 characters (without spaces) which amounts to an estimated 60 A4 pages.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 9 1.1 Background ..................................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Motivation ..................................................................................................................................... 10 1.3 Goals and Objectives ................................................................................................................. 10 1.4 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 11 1.5 The Danish Broadcasting Corporation .............................................................................. 12

Chapter 2 Postmortems ................................................................................... 14 1.6 Development Team and Technology ................................................................................. 15 2.1 Puke in the Hair (Bræk i Garnet) ......................................................................................... 16

2.1.1 Game Idea and Vision ......................................................................................... 16 2.1.2 Overview of Rights and Wrongs .................................................................... 17 2.1.3 Things That Went Right ..................................................................................... 18 2.1.4 Things that went wrong .................................................................................... 20 2.1.5 Additional Information ...................................................................................... 22

2.2 City’s Burning (Byen Brænder) ............................................................................................ 23 2.2.1 Game Idea and Vision ......................................................................................... 23 2.2.2 Overview of Rights and Wrongs .................................................................... 24 2.2.3 Things That Went Right ..................................................................................... 25 2.2.4 Things That Went Wrong .................................................................................. 26 2.2.5 Additional Information ...................................................................................... 28

2.3 The Olympic Torch Game (OL i Fakkelflugt) .................................................................. 29 2.3.1 Game Idea and Vision ......................................................................................... 29 2.3.2 Overview of Rights and Wrongs .................................................................... 30 2.3.3 Things That Went Right ..................................................................................... 31 2.3.4 Things That Went Wrong .................................................................................. 32 2.3.5 Additional Information ...................................................................................... 33

2.4 Futuristic Nurse (Plejer er Død) .......................................................................................... 34 2.4.1 Game Idea and Vision ......................................................................................... 34 2.4.2 Overview of Rights and Wrongs .................................................................... 35 2.4.3 Things That Went Right ..................................................................................... 36 2.4.4 Things That Went Wrong .................................................................................. 37 2.4.5 Additional Information ...................................................................................... 37

2.5 Problematization ........................................................................................................................ 38

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Chapter 3 Understanding Newsgames ....................................................... 39 3.1 Understanding Games .............................................................................................................. 39 3.2 Understanding Serious Games ............................................................................................. 42

3.2.1 A Historical View on Serious Games ............................................................ 43 3.2.2 Simulation and Rhetorical Expression ........................................................ 48 3.2.3 Summary .................................................................................................................. 52

3.3 What Are Newsgames .............................................................................................................. 53 3.3.1 Defining News ........................................................................................................ 53 3.3.2 Defining Newsgames .......................................................................................... 55 3.3.3 Combining News With Games ......................................................................... 56 3.3.4 A Discussion of the Newsgame Label ........................................................... 61

Chapter 4 Development Methodology ........................................................ 63 3.4 The Purpose of Development Methodologies ................................................................ 63 3.5 Overview of Development Methodologies ...................................................................... 64

3.5.1 Traditional Development Processes ............................................................ 65 3.5.2 Agile Software Development Frameworks ................................................ 69

3.6 A Newsgame Development Methodology ........................................................................ 74 3.6.1 Development Team ............................................................................................. 74 3.6.2 Infrastructure and Reusability ....................................................................... 76 3.6.3 A Newsgame Development Process ............................................................. 78 3.6.4 Discussion of the Newsgame Development Methodology .................. 83

Chapter 5 Conclusions ....................................................................................... 84

References ............................................................................................................... 86 3.7 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 86

3.7.1 Books & Chapters ................................................................................................. 86 3.7.2 Articles ...................................................................................................................... 86 3.7.3 Reports ..................................................................................................................... 87 3.7.4 Websites ................................................................................................................... 87

3.8 Ludography .................................................................................................................................. 89

Appendix A Contents of CD‐Rom .................................................................. 91

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Table of Figures Figure 1 Screenshots from Puke in the Hair ........................................................................................... 17 Figure 2 Whiteboard covered with ideas ................................................................................................. 18 Figure 3 Screenshots from City's Burning ............................................................................................... 24 Figure 4 Screenshots from The Olympic Torch Game ........................................................................ 30 Figure 5 Screenshots from Futuristic Nurse ........................................................................................... 35 Figure 6 Atari Battlezone ................................................................................................................................ 44 Figure 7 Marine Doom ..................................................................................................................................... 44 Figure 8 Americas Army .................................................................................................................................. 44 Figure 9 The Atari Puffer Project ................................................................................................................. 45 Figure 10 Capitalism II ....................................................................................................................................... 46 Figure 11 The Typing of The Dead ................................................................................................................ 47 Figure 12 Typology of news. ............................................................................................................................ 55 Figure 13 Zidane Head Butt Game ................................................................................................................. 57 Figure 14 September 12th in‐game .............................................................................................................. 57 Figure 15 September 12th title screen ........................................................................................................ 58 Figure 16 September 12th introduction screen ....................................................................................... 58 Figure 17 The Prison Life: Paris ..................................................................................................................... 59 Figure 18 Running for water in Darfur Is Dying ...................................................................................... 60 Figure 19 Managing the refugee camp ......................................................................................................... 61 Figure 20 Phases in the basic development process .............................................................................. 64 Figure 21 Waterfall Model ................................................................................................................................ 65 Figure 22 Incremental Model .......................................................................................................................... 66 Figure 23 Rapid Prototyping Model .............................................................................................................. 66 Figure 24 Spiral Model ....................................................................................................................................... 67 Figure 25 Rational Unified Process (Rational Software, 2005, p. 3) ............................................... 68 Figure 26 Extreme Programming process ................................................................................................. 70 Figure 27 Scrum process ................................................................................................................................... 72 Figure 28 Project manager's effect on communication lines ............................................................. 75 Figure 29 Newsgame Development Process ............................................................................................. 78 Figure 30 Conception phase ............................................................................................................................. 79 Figure 31 Release planning and Prototyping phase ............................................................................... 80 Figure 32 Development and Playable increment phases ..................................................................... 81 Figure 33 Refinement phase ............................................................................................................................ 82

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Table of Tables Table 1 Personal estimate of team members’ competencies ......................................................... 15 Table 2 Overview of Rights and Wrongs in Puke in the Hair ......................................................... 17 Table 3 Additional information about Puke in the Hair ................................................................... 22 Table 4 Overview of Rights and Wrongs in City's Burning ............................................................. 24 Table 5 Additional information about City's Burning ....................................................................... 28 Table 6 Overview of Rights and Wrongs in The Olympic Torch Game ...................................... 30 Table 7 Additional information about The Olympic Torch Game ................................................ 33 Table 8 Overview of Rights and Wrongs in Futuristic Nurse ......................................................... 35 Table 9 Additional information about Futuristic Nurse ................................................................... 37 Table 10 A flexible newsgame development team ................................................................................ 75 Table 11 Reusable components in newsgames ...................................................................................... 77

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Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background

In fall 2007 a collaboration was initiated between the IT University of Copenhagen and The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (Danmarks Radio, also known as DR and later described in detail on page 12). In their respective buildings, literally built meters apart in Ørestaden, teacher and computer games researcher Miguel Sicart of the IT University and editor of new media and games Bo Abrahamsen of DR both saw a valuable potential in working together. The project they formed involved the development of web based newsgames for DR’s web portal. The purpose of these games would be to editorialize or otherwise deal with current and relevant news events somewhat similar to political cartoons in printed media. As an emerging field within the broader serious games these newsgames would be interesting to study from both a theoretical and practical perspective and provide good practice for game students. Further, publishing the games on DR’s web portal would serve as the perfect platform for experiencing their impact on players and nature as a news medium. For DR the newsgames would not only constitute new content for its massive 1.1 million weekly visitors, but also position DR in front as one of the first major broadcasting corporations, seriously using games as an expressive medium.

I was privileged to be on board a team of six students, who was assigned to the special project. Though the team members came with widely different backgrounds their skills complemented each other so that most elements of game development were covered i.e. game design, programming, artwork and audio. During the fall semester three complete newsgames and a number of prototypes were developed sing Adobe Flash. The three newsgames were published and were each played many thousands of times, some reaching more than 20.000 page views according to Bo Abrahamsen.

Each game gave new experiences on developing newsgames effectively and successfully. However, at the end of the project I personally felt we had only scratched the surface and that more could be learned about newsgames. Fortunately both Miguel Sicart and Bo Abrahamsen were positive towards continuing the project which enabled me to use it as the basis for writing my master’s thesis. None of the other team members, however, chose to join in for a second round of newsgames which consequently meant that a new development team had to be gathered. At project start a few month later in February 2008 a new team of four highly motivated people, including myself, was ready to continue the project.

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1.2 Motivation With a bachelor degree in media and technology (Medialogy) and professional experience as a web developer, I knew before starting at the IT University that my primary focus would be on games for the internet. While studying my master’s, of which this thesis constitutes the final project, I acquired much practical knowhow about the design, planning and implementation of games. Always having an eye on the business aspect and striving towards making quality games on the same level as their commercial equivalents.

Studying media technology and games at the IT University introduced me to the theoretical aspect of games and the emerging field of game studies. Initially I found it little motivating and even less relevant, but this view changed during the semesters. Today I find that an understanding of theory and research within the field of game studies is important for developing a useful game literacy and maturing as a game developer.

When the offer to join the project came up it was a perfect match with both my focus and interests. Newsgames pose an interesting challenge from both a theoretical and practical perspective. I find the theoretical question, how do newsgames constitute a medium of rhetorical expression interesting. Further, the challenge of how to translate real world news into meaningful newsgames in a timely manner is an equally interesting question. It is such questions that have motivated me to choose newsgames as the pivot point for this master’s thesis.

1.3 Goals and Objectives The goal of the master’s thesis is to make a contribution to the research and understanding of the emerging field of newsgames. It is my intention to achieve this by confronting newsgames from two different perspectives; a theoretical and a practical.

In my theoretical perspective I seek to answer the general question of what newsgames are and in this regard how newsgames should be understood in relation to games as a whole and as an expressive medium capable of conveying news.

In my practical perspective I seek to describe the aspects involved in developing newsgames based on my own experience and in this regard deduce a specialized methodology for rapidly and effectively developing newsgames in a small team.

When exemplifying and discussing newsgames this master’s thesis will be delimited to internet based browser games found on websites and often developed using Adobe Flash. For readability these will simply be referred to as webgames.

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1.4 Methodology Prior to beginning the writing of this master’s thesis our team worked intensely for four month. During this period four newsgames were developed in collaboration with DR. After delivery of the fourth game the remaining two months of the project were dedicated to finishing the master’s thesis.

In order to fulfill the goals and objectives the master’s thesis is structured into three main chapters.

Chapter 2 Postmortems will begin by presenting the newsgames in the form of postmortems. A postmortem represents an analytical view on the development process involved in making a particular newsgame. The chapter is intended to provide a basic insight into the development involved and experiences gained while working on each newsgame.

Chapter 3 Understanding Newsgames is dedicated to answering the first of the questions set up for the thesis i.e. what are newsgames? The question will be approached from a theoretical perspective and will be answered by splitting the term newsgame apart and reconstructing it piece by piece. Firstly, this involves separately analyzing both the news and game aspect of newsgames and secondly analyzing how newsgames function as an expressive medium for conveying news.

Chapter 4 Development Methodology elaborates on the experiences described in Chapter 2 Postmortems. The intention is to combine theory from software and game development methodologies with the practical experience acquired while producing newsgames for DR and finally propose a suitable development methodology for rapidly and effectively developing newsgames in a small team.

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1.5 The Danish Broadcasting Corporation Before describing each of the newsgames developed, this section will outline The Danish Broadcasting Corporation. A knowledge of DR is important for understanding the challenges involved in developing newsgames conforming to the special requirements associated with an independent public service corporation.

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation was founded in 1925 and has since then become the largest electronic media enterprise in Denmark. DR is today an independent, publicly financed institution employing more than 3.000 people (DR, 2007, p. 3). The main objective of DR is to engage and challenge the Danish people to actively participate in developing and promoting Danish values related to democracy and culture. DR operates on nearly all media platforms covering television, radio and new media. On a weekly basis 99% of the total population is reached by DR in some way (DR, 2008, p. 2).

DR TV covers two television channels named DR1 and DR2. While DR1 provides programs with a broad public appeal DR2 specialize in a more narrow type of programs often going more in depth with specific topics mostly related to politics and culture.

DR Radio covers four radio channels with widely different profiles. Program One or commonly referred to as P1 is an informative radio channel with focus on politics, media, environment, science, religion, history and much more. P2 focuses on Danish culture with emphasis on classical music, jazz, rhythmic music, but also on church related content. P3 is the broad public entertainment radio channel with news, sports, gossip and all the latest mainstream music. P4 provides regional news and programs from 11 regional radio stations covering all of Denmark (DR, 2008).

DR New Media is mainly providing content and services on the web portal www.dr.dk . However, they also cover platforms such as mobile phones and other portable media devices, though on a smaller scale. The web portal receives more than 1.1 million visitors each week and has the highest traffic‐rate in Denmark (DR, 2008, p. 7). Apart from providing live streaming from both television and radio, as well as numerous online digital radio channels, the website also provides podcast/streaming editions of most aired programs from the different platforms. The web portal further contains thematic sections with e.g. news, music, sports, science, culture and most relevant to this thesis online videogames. Though www.dr.dk is rich on content for nearly every interest and age, it has a special emphasis on content for children and youngsters. DR’s community for youngsters named SKUM, is one of most visited sections of www.dr.dk (DR, 2008, p. 10).

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Licence and Public Service DR is financed through a media licence. Every citizen in Denmark who owns a device capable of receiving programs or services from DR is required to pay an annual licence fee. The licence fee varies depending on the type of device which include televisions, radios, mobile phones, computers with access to the internet. Income from the licence fee is DR’s primary financial source and annually amounts to 3.3 billion Danish kroner – an amount dictated by the Danish government (DR, 2007, p. 3). In exchange DR is obligated to work in the service of the public and consequently has to fulfill the requirements of the Public Service Agreement which is negotiated with the ministry of culture every forth year (DR, 2008, p. 11). The agreement specifies exact goals for what DR must deliver each year such as annually broadcasting 560 hours of newsrelated programs between 5 p.m. and midnight (Kulturministeriet, 2007, p. 3). Further, DR must be independent of economic and political interests and defend information and freedom of speech. It must gain trustworthiness through thorough background research on subjects and an honest representation of different viewpoints in its coverage.

The fact that DR is financed by licence fees makes it independent of income from e.g. commercials. Therefore DR is not forced to focus directly on satisfying a market or alone gaining high viewer‐ratings. While still having to deliver a quality product, DR can provide an alternative and wider portfolio of programs of which some would not have been commercially viable. Further, DR strives to be politically neutral which means it gently balances its coverage of politics. If the opinions of one side are presented it means the opposing side must likewise be so too.

As will be described further in the following chapter, the demand for independence and politically neutrality became one of the main concerns in designing our newsgames.

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Chapter 2 Postmortems

This chapter presents the newsgames that were developed during the project’s four month production period. Each newsgame is presented in the form of a postmortem which is a structured and condensed method for describing the most important points about a game and its development process. The postmortems are based on an adaptation of the Postmortem Guidelines defined by Gamasutra (Gamasutra, 2003), a website and online community for game developers.

The postmortem guidelines prescribe that writers should identify five things that went right and five that went wrong in the development of each game. However, this minimum requirement has not been adopted since the postmortems should focus on relevant information and not on necessarily meeting a minimum of rights and wrongs. Further, a general description of development team and technology has been placed before the postmortems because it would be redundant to repeatedly describe this information in relation to each postmortem.

From reading the postmortems the reader will gain insight into how the newsgames were developed. This includes detailed descriptions of ideas and the many considerations and reflections that was part of developing the games. Also, what elements in the development processes worked well and what elements did not work too well.

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1.6 Development Team and Technology Learning from the previous newsgaming project it was made a central requirement that members of the new development team should be generalists rather than specialists. This was to ensure that the team could cover all the different aspects of game development i.e. game design, programming, artwork and audio. For unknown reasons, however, the project only received four applications from students wanting to participate which was considerably less than anticipated and only just enough for a small development team. Luckily the applicants were skilled in multiple fields which ensured a strong and competent development team. The table below presents an overview of team competencies based on a rough subjective estimate.

( 1 = Less skilled 2 = Skilled 3 = More skilled )

Blue indicates a member’s primary role at beginning of project

Game design Programming Artwork Sound / music

Member 1 2 3 3 3

Member 2 2 3 2

Member 3 2 2 3 3

Member 4 2 1

Table 1 Personal estimate of team members’ competencies

During development the members’ versatility provided a flexibility which made it possible to rearrange roles within the team as needed. In practice this meant an initial setup of two programmers and one artist and later a setup of one programmer, two artists and one sound/music designer. This aspect will be further described in the postmortems.

The choice of development environment and platform fell naturally on the Adobe Flash 8 or CS3 IDE (integrated development environment) aiming at playability on the internet using Flash Player 8 or later versions. For creating the artwork Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator were chosen as the primary tools due to their familiarity and close integration with the Flash IDE. For sound recording and music composition both Ableton Live and FruityLoops were likewise used due to familiarity and members’ experience. For planning development and keeping track of files the online web‐application Assembla was used. Assembla features a project plan with tasks and milestones as well as an online secure storage for project files. Further, Assembla keeps track of file versions which means that earlier versions of a specific file can easily be extracted if necessary. For communicating ideas with the teams’ supervisor (Miguel Sicart) and contact person at DR (Bo Abrahamsen) a project blog was set up at BlogSpot.com. A blog or weblog is a website that allows its members to add text, images or videos and to comment on each others posted material.

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2.1 Puke in the Hair (Bræk i Garnet) One of the main purposes of developing the first newsgame was foremost to get the new team working and to get its members up‐to‐speed with the technology and development processes involved. However, for the first newsgame the team would only consist of three members since one was away on vacation.

The newsgame was intended as a free production where the team could develop any game they wanted to while still considering its relevance for DR. Though the game did not necessarily have to be based on a news story, this seemed natural since the future games would be newsgames. Further, if the game became good enough it could potentially be adopted by a department at DR and consequently be published on www.dr.dk.

In relation to DR the newsgame should also function as a selling point for the contact person at DR in his work on finding in‐house departments interested in using newsgames.

2.1.1 Game Idea and Vision

In a broad discussion of relevant and potential news stories there were stories concerning e.g. the XFactor television show, young peoples’ deadly use of knives, military’s defect and expensive rescue choppers and many more. However, one story related to a recent increase in girl violence and a specific violent incident became a favorite from the beginning. The incident involved a girl who was assaulted by a girl gang in a public handicap toilet. During the assault the girls had burned their victim with cigarettes, cut some of her hair off, puked and even urinated on her. Unfortunately this was not an isolated incident, but one in a number of assaults where girl gangs had beaten up girls on their own age, often due to simple disagreements or even plain boredom.

The incident described above became the initial setting for Puke in the Hair (Bræk i Garnet) because it contained many elements that could be translated into game mechanics. The protagonist became the girl victim, the girl gang members the antagonists and from the news story cigarettes, scissors, puke and urine were identified as potential weapons. However, due to the strict timeframe weapons were decreased to only include puke.

In the game the protagonist’s only defense and objective is to evade puke for as long time as possible. This is achieved by moving sideways or upwards to a certain point around the middle of the screen. Over time the number of antagonists increase and makes the game more difficult. Ultimately the victim is knocked over by puke and the player is presented with statistics about how much puke was evaded, how much went in the hair and for how long time the player stood the challenge.

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implemented in detail would be addressed as development progressed and tasks came into focus.

Efficient Development Pipeline Experience from previous projects at the IT University had clearly illustrated the importance of a solid and efficient development pipeline. Because team members would be exchanging files constantly the backbone in the pipeline would be a system which could handle file exchange and control file versioning. Subversion (SVN) was the answer to such a system and conveniently came as an integrated part of Assembla. Subversion is a version control system based on a client/server architecture. Files and their previous versions are stored on a central server in a repository from where clients can retrieve or upload/commit files. Clients working on the same project are kept up‐to‐date with the latest version of project files as changes are reflected across all clients.

The integrated Subversion service in Assembla worked well for developing Puke in the Hair. Problems with file exchange and versioning did not cause any notable problems and the team could focus attention on development.

Competent Development Team During development of Puke in the Hair team the three members got to know one another a little better and got an idea of what skills each other possessed. The experience gained provided good insight into what the team would be able to achieve in future newsgame productions. It was evident that this team was both technically and artistically strong with more members being skilled in multiple fields.

Room for Change During Development Though a development plan had been made at the beginning of the development this did not constrain the team from making changes to the game design afterwards. During the development design questions surfaced in a constant stream. This was partly due to the high‐level descriptions of tasks which in many cases only specified a task name and no concrete solution. However, this also meant that decisions could be made with much more knowledge about the game since parts of it had already been developed. As the game took shape it also spun of a multitude of new ideas, which would likely not have been thought of at the beginning of development. Consequently many changes and new ideas ended up being part of the final game, and thus heightened the quality of the game.

Game Adopted by DR Ung At the end of development the game was presented to the youth department at DR (DR Ung) which is also responsible for the community SKUM. Positive towards the game they wanted to publish it online as part of an upcoming special

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theme about violence and young people. Further, it was decided that the game should feature a link to an online debate about the subject of girl violence and violence in general amongst young people.

2.1.4 Things that went wrong Idea Not Formulated in Design Document A lot of time was used on discussing game details which led to a good understanding of both aesthetics and gameplay. However, this understanding was kept informal and never formulated into any formal design document or specification other than vaguely in the high‐level development plan. Important elements of the game such as premise, visual style, start/end screen descriptions, interface, controls, etc. were never concretized in writing. Its details remained in the minds of the team members who were eager to begin developing rather than spend too much time writing and planning.

The amount of documentation necessary at the beginning of a game production is a matter of discussion. Considering the limited size of the game some may argue that the amount of documentation should be limited as well. However, from personal experience the process of formulating an idea on paper often reveals questions and details which otherwise would have been overlooked. This observation is also described by Fullerton et al:

“By conferring on the details of the document, team members have to think through the entire game, from the highest-level vision concepts, to the lowest level art specifications, the file types, and font types.” (Fullerton et al., 2004, p. 371)

A one or two page document would likely have been suitable for Puke in the Hair and would at least have served as a foundation to build upon when unresolved questions arose.

Multiple Prototypes Not Possible In the previous newsgaming project there were a greater emphasis on developing multiple prototypes before settling on one specific for full production. The general idea was to experiment with different game ideas while having a maximum of creative freedom at the beginning. Subsequently an evaluation of the prototypes would decide which one held the greatest potential and would be chosen for further development. However, being half as many as the previous team of six members meant that there were not sufficient human resources available to focus on developing more than one prototype. This prototype served as proof of concept early on and was later developed into the full game.

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Half the Team Missing During the development many design questions and problems surfaced which had to be resolved before continuing. Being able to have a spontaneous discussion and make a quick decision was paramount for finishing the game on time.

Unfortunately the member primarily responsible for the artwork could only be present Wednesday evenings and Fridays in the daytime. With one member on vacation this meant that half the team was missing most of the week which made discussions and decision making problematically slow. As a consequence the majority of game design decisions were made by the two programmers, who were physically present at the IT University most of the week.

Communication of Ideas While shaping the idea for Puke in the Hair much discussion revolved around the aesthetics of the game. As development commenced there seemed to exist an agreement and understanding of the game’s visual style; cartoonish and exaggerated visuals that would support the game as a satirical comment. However, when the artist presented the first graphics it became evident that the understanding was not as solid as initially assumed. Though whiteboard sketches and reference images from existing cartoons had been used to achieve a common understanding, what had been made clearly showed a discrepancy between the artist’s interpretation and that of the other team members. Consequently this resulted in extra time spent on agreeing on the envisioned visual style and iteratively reworking the graphics to more accurately resemble this.

Lack of Playtesting Playtesting was never integrated as a separate task in the development plan. Instead the team would do self‐testing and perform playtests on confidants (i.e. friends and family) during development. At the point where the game was finished it had gone through hours of playtesting and was considered complete and free of bugs. However, the moment the people at DR Ung began playing the game four bugs instantly revealed themselves. Though these were not serious they still existed and would likely have been caught if playtesting had been done on a few more confidants.

Members Not Updating Tasks in System The idea of entering all tasks into the online development plan at Assembla was to have a centralized and continuously updated overview of the status of development. Having it online also allowed members to access their own tasks from anywhere they might be working on the game.

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For the system to be useful, it required members to continually update the status of their tasks as they initiated or completed them. Unfortunately this procedure was not adopted by the other members besides myself. This may be because tasks were described too high‐level and as such could not provide members with the detailed information about tasks they might have found useful in keeping track of their own work. It is most likely that they did not themselves directly experience the benefits of tracking the development progress. However, the development plan was still used for managing and tracking the progress as I personally updated all its tasks and helped provide the other members with the overview they needed.

2.1.5 Additional Information

Team members assigned to game Available time frame

3 team members 14 days available in total

Publish date Actual days worked on game

Presented 22 February 2008 (bugs found)Fixed and sent 28 February 2008 Published 11 April 2008 on SKUM

Estimated 6‐7 days in total

Table 3 Additional information about Puke in the Hair

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2.2 City’s Burning (Byen Brænder) For the second production the team wanted to make a more serious newsgame than Puke in the Hair. Though DR Ung were eager to have an additional game developed the team decided to pursue the challenge of making a serious newsgame rather than pleasing DR Ung with another game aimed at the same young audience.

The team consequently began development without having a specific department at DR that would be using the game. However, later in the process both the news department (DR Nyheder) and the department responsible for the front page at www.dr.dk (DR Front page) became involved in shaping the game.


City’s Burning (Byen Brænder) comments on the recent increase of riots in Denmark. During the past few years at least three different occasions have been registered with groups of people running amok in the streets of Copenhagen. One group because their house was torn down (Ungdomshuset), another because they felt discriminated (immigrants) and yet another because their self governing community was placed under the government’s plans for normalization (Freetown Christiania). Regardless of the motives and reasons these groups had for rioting, the riots as a phenomenon were quite similar in anatomy. A riot would include a starting point followed by rioters vandalizing e.g. by setting cars on fire, breaking windows and looting. This would be combined with a fight against the police often resulting in the police dissolving the riot and arresting large numbers of people.

City’s Burning is a political newsgame that editorializes on the paradoxical nature of riots in the confrontation between rioters and the police. The game is designed as a real‐time strategy game (RTS) in which the player controls a small police force set in to stop an ongoing riot. The objective is to hold out for five minutes while preventing rioters from setting the city’s eight cars on fire simultaneously. As such the game does not have a winning condition. Instead the objective is to prevent as much damage as possible.

With control over the police force the player face a paradox. On one side the responsibility of the police is to prevent the city from being vandalized by rioters and are therefore forced to interfere. On the other side arresting and having to use brute force only escalates the situation since this makes rioters more aggressive and increase in numbers. During the game the player is continuously informed about how the public opinion is affected by the situation in the game This is done by showing the public’s vote for the usage of new means for riot control (see lower left corner in Figure 3). A growing negative public opinion

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2.2.3 Things That Went Right

Interesting and Challenging Idea The team, supervisor and contact person found the idea for City’s Burning both interesting and daring at the same time. The idea revolved around a nuanced and complex subject which would be challenging to translate into a newsgame without the risk of the game and its comment becoming too simplified and biased towards one side. Because the game was developed while there were still ongoing riots there was a risk that it would be perceived as a direct comment on a specific riot even though this was not intended. A game favoring one side over another, e.g. playing as heroic rioters in a fight against the oppressive police, would most likely never get published by DR as it would not be neutral and would become an opinion of DR once it was online.

By basing the game on the paradox described above and the overall negative spiral related to riots, it was possible to deal with the subject on a general level. Putting the player in control if the police, however, posed a slight favoring of this side, but was necessary for portraying the paradoxical situation and negative spiral. This was further emphasized by including the public opinion and its ability to force politicians into providing tougher means for riot control. Thereby the game became more nuanced since it could simulate the interconnectedness of rioters, police, the public and politicians.

Game as Tool For Conversation At the point where City’s Burning neared completion the contact at DR got the DR Front page as well as DR Nyheder interested in the game. Though people from these departments were positive about the game idea they were skeptical about how well it worked as a game and how easy it would be to understand. Someone without prior knowledge about City’s Burning and its intentions would find it difficult to play and likely not understand the causality of their actions in relation to for instance the public opinion. With such depressing reviews the future of City’s Burning was not as bright as the development team had hoped. However, during one discussion at DR a completely new idea for the usage of the game was suggested. The idea was to invite one or more representatives from the group of rioters and from the police and use the game as a common ground for discussion and conversation. While playing the game the representatives should discuss the game in relation to their own experiences. That way it would be possible to publish a news story based on City’s Burning and in this invite people to try the game online themselves.

Unfortunately the idea was never realized at the time where the game was finished. However, it is still seen as an interesting by‐product from developing City’s Burning because it suggested a new way of using newsgames at DR.

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Great Technical Achievement While creating the idea for City’s Burning it was evident that it would become more extensive than any newsgames made previously for DR. Choosing to make an RTS in itself added significantly to the workload in terms programming the AI to control and navigate rioters intelligently around the playing field. On top of this City’s Burning also had a lot of game specific logic which needed to be implemented such as controlling the police or representing the public opinion.

The development team felt confident it could develop the game within the timeframe of 14 days which seemed quite optimistic. However, with three skilled programmers who could all double as artists, musicians and sound designers as well as one dedicated artist, the team was strong.

City’s Burning was developed within the timeframe which was a great technical achievement considering the limited time available. Something the team also received recognition for by people working professionally with similar types of games. Afterwards the game required an additional week of balancing and polishing.

Complete and Working Team After having developed Puke in the Hair the team’s three members were getting used to working together. It was therefore uncertain how easy and how fast the fourth member would become an equal part of the team. Fortunately the new member was both very open and hard working which made him smoothly enter the team.

2.2.4 Things That Went Wrong

A Late Start With Half an Idea Coming up with an idea for the second newsgame turned out to be a challenge. Though several news stories for potentially newsgame existed none of these had the seriousness and complexity the team was looking for. Once the story was finally chosen creating an idea that presented the seriousness and complexity of the subject was very time‐consuming. Half of the first week was used discussing the idea and though it was not completely thought through, development had to commence in order to finish the game on time.

No Formal Documentation of Idea At the point where development begun the team was exhausted from discussing the game idea and were eager to start developing. Having a huge amount of work ahead and an idea somewhat outlined on a whiteboard, on the project blog and fresh in the minds of the developers, no one found it particularly exciting to write a design document of any size.

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While developing a much more complex game compared to Puke in the Hair it seemed that development could benefit from having a clear formal description of the game. The project blog had partly been used for elaborating and describing the game to the supervisor and contact person, but this description resembled a marketing pitch more than a design document. As the team began developing there remained a number of unresolved questions such as the game’s winning and losing conditions and how rewards should be given and for what. Further, as the development progressed even more unforeseen questions appeared as well as several unforeseen tasks related to especially the implementation of AI.

Development Plan Not Maintained As with Puke in the Hair the development tasks were identified and entered into the online project plan at Assembla. Because this activity was mainly forced upon the team by one team member, there were not a general support behind putting a lot of effort into it. The result was that the granularity of tasks in the development plan again became high‐level. Further, the team members were still not maintaining their tasks in the system and consequently the online development plan was silently put to rest.

Development of City’s Burning went fine without the formal development plan, but required more coordination of tasks and creation of temporary TODO lists each time the team gathered and worked together. Similarly the grand overview of the development status also had to be established each time based on an evaluation of the remaining tasks.

Mismatch of Artistic Resources For City’s Burning the team initially consisted of two programmers, an artist and a sound designer/musician. However, as the first in‐game graphics for the city were presented it became evident that it was unrealistic that the artist would be able to create all the required graphics in time while meeting the team’s quality standard. The graphics were rough and needed a more work. Further, since the artist was only present two times a week, where she did most of her work under much guidance by other members, the process would simply be too slow and cumbersome.

To solve this problem a member who was assigned to programming agreed to do graphics instead as he was present all week. The original artist instead became responsible for creating the graphics surrounding the game such as start screen and end screens which were less time‐sensitive and less dependant on the games central elements.

Game Not Published As the development process reached its deadline the message was not as clear as intended and the gameplay not as good as anticipated. At a meeting it was

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decided to extend the deadline a few more days to work on getting the message through and for making it more fun to play in general. The game became considerably better from the additional days of work, but it was not enough to convince the DR Front page department to use the game. The game was considered too difficult to understand as well as play for the typical visitor at www.dr.dk and would therefore likely have received much negative criticism if published.



4 team members 21 days available in total including

7 days extension of deadline


Not published Estimated 14 days in total

Table 5 Additional information about City's Burning

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2.3 The Olympic Torch Game (OL i Fakkelflugt) Though City’s Burning was never used or published by the DR Front page department they were still interested in having the team develop an additional newsgame for them. This game should be considerably smaller than the previous and for the sake of experimentation it should be playable on both mobile phones and the internet.


Ever since the International Olympic Committee awarded China with the 2008 Olympic Games, numerous demonstrations, protests and heated discussions have been reported about in the media. Among protesters’ accusations against China the violations of the international standards for human rights is the most significant. Other accusations target environmental issues, the censorship of media and the highly problematic situation regarding Tibet. In March 2008 the Olympic Torch was lit in Olympia in Greece and from here began its journey around the world. However, it was soon met with massive protests and attempts of sabotage. The icon of The Olympic Games had become a target and symbol of Chinese politics.

In The Olympic Torch Game (OL i Fakkelflugt) the player controls a running athlete carrying the Olympic Torch. The athlete symbolizes the peaceful and apolitical Olympic spirit. A group consisting of a Chinese politician, a protester, a Tibetan monk and Hitler is chasing the athlete. They all want their hands on the Olympic Torch for different reasons. The objective is to keep the athlete running by pressing the left and right arrow key in the same rhythm as the athlete’s feet hit the ground. Every now and then obstacles must be evaded by jumping over them and once the athlete arrives at the finishing line the game is won. Finally the player is presented with a time showing how long time was used to finish.

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Interesting and Challenging Idea At the first and only meeting with the DR Front page department the idea for an Olympic Torch side‐scrolling newsgame was outlined. There was a consensus about the relevance of making a newsgame about the Olympic Torch since related stories were increasingly appearing in the news media. Further, the actuality of such a newsgame would only increase in the months leading up to the actual opening of the Olympic Games in August 2008.

As with City’s Burning the question of who or what the player should control became the center of discussion. Due to the limitations set up by DR the game could not directly take a particular side e.g. letting the player control a furious Tibetan monk trying to sabotage the Olympic Torch. This would favour one interest group over another and would not express a nuanced and rightful view on such a complex situation. Instead the team decided to make the game a more generalized comment on interest groups’ political misuse of the Olympic Games. A look at history revealed that using The Olympic Games for both political and commercial purposes was far from a new concept. A notable example of this was seen at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin where the dictator Adolf Hitler used the Olympic Games for spreading German Nazi propaganda to the world (Kole, 2004).

Having the game focus on the Olympic spirit’s escape from a mob of historic and contemporary interest groups was an idea and a comment the team felt good about. Indicating that Tibetan monks, Chinese politicians, protesters and Hitler could be grouped together based on their common agenda of using the Olympic Games for promoting their own cause was both provocative and provided a different angle on the situation.

Game Developed For Two Platforms Early on in the project there was an agreement that it would be an interesting challenge to develop a newsgame for mobile phones using Flash Lite, the Flash player for mobile devices. The Olympic Torch Game was a suitable idea for experimenting with a new platform since the size of the game was relatively small. As such it was further decided that the game should also be developed in a version for the internet in line with the previous newsgames.

To make the game accessible for as large an audience as possible the mobile version had to be developed using the outdated Flash Lite 1.1. Thereby everyone with a Flash capable phone would be able to play the game. It took the team around one day to learn enough of the Flash Lite 1.1 platform to begin developing the actual game. At the end of the following day the team had a prototype with most of the game mechanics working properly.

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After the mobile version had been finished most of the graphics and code could be converted into a version for the internet. Converting from the mobile to the internet version had its clear advantages. The game would undoubtedly be performing well from the beginning due to PCs being much faster than phones and could consequently be scaled up with new graphics and additions to the gameplay.

Help With Animations From Freelancer Each version of the Olympic Torch Game had around one week for development which meant that efficiency was paramount. Further, having to learn to develop for Flash Lite 1.1 only decreased the time available for actual game development. At one point the artist had drawings created of all game characters, but would not be able to animate them all in time for the release of the mobile version. Consequently the contact person at DR offered to hire a freelancer for a day to get the animation work created in time.

Though some team members indicated their concerns about the efficiency of having someone external work on the game, this did not become a problem. The freelancer blended well into the existing development team and delivered the animated characters at the end of the day and in a satisfying quality.


Performance Issues With Mobile Version During development special emphasis was placed on optimizing performance since mobile phones only have a fraction of a PC’s processing power. By minimizing the size of image files and paying attention to performance draining mathematical operations, the result was a game that ran smoothly. However, once the team playtested the game on a real phone (the Nokia N73) performance surprisingly turned out to be around half of what had been hoped.

After optimizing and trimming away some of the game’s graphics, performance became satisfactory and the game playable, though not near as fast as intended.

Internet Version Seemed Empty Moving from the mobile version to subsequently developing the internet version meant that the core game mechanics were already present as a foundation for the internet version. The game’s dimensions was scaled up from the tiny mobile screen to better match that of a browser window. Further, new and improved graphics, sounds and music were added to the game. However, due to the relatively limited amount of time available for developing the internet version it meant that the gameplay remained almost unchanged. Though clearly improved compared to the mobile version, the internet version of The Olympic Torch Game seemed to have an empty or too simplified feel to it.

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Receiving Department Backed Out After the initial meeting about The Olympic Torch Game the team never met with DR Front page again. DR Front page obviously showed no feeling of ownership towards the game in development as they had pushed all decisions onto the DR contact person. If the game turned out good enough they might use it in some relation, otherwise not. To a degree this was a relief because it gave the team freedom to develop the game as they pleased. Conversely, not having a department with real interest in the game drained some of the team’s motivation.

Both versions of The Olympic Torch Game ended up being published in the games section of www.dr.dk since DR Front page was not going to use it. However, not having the game related to a department or presented with a particular news story made it blend in with all the other games in the games section.



4 team members + 1 freelancer for one day 14 days available in total


Mobile version published 14 Aril 2008

Internet version published 21 April 2008

Estimated 6‐7 days in total

Table 7 Additional information about The Olympic Torch Game

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2.4 Futuristic Nurse (Plejer er Død) Before beginning development on the final newsgame the team had expressed a wish for making a serious newsgame for P1, DR’s serious radio channel broadcasting news, reports and debates about the world, society, technology and science. Unfortunately the only theme proposed from DR P1 was a series of programs about sexuality and sexual archetypes which was going to be aired later in autumn.

Though the team made an honest effort at creating an idea for the theme it did not result in any convincing idea. Further, the theme was not particularly current or actual in the same way as the other newsgames and it was uncertain whether a potential game could actually be considered a newsgame.

The team therefore chose to discard its plans of developing a serious newsgame for P1 all together. Instead focus was put on current news stories and the objective of narrowing down on a good candidate for the final newsgame.


In spring 2008 multiple groups employed in the public sector initiated a national strike for higher and equal wages for men and women as part of negotiations with their employer, the municipalities. The striking groups mainly represented teachers and nurses from sectors responsible for hospital care, elder care, teaching, child care and more. One of the main arguments for striking was a discontent with the wages in the public sector being lower than the private sector for too long. The argument was further that the current and future need for more employees in these important welfare areas would only be realizable by offering more attractive wages. At the time where a news subject had to be decided for the final newsgame the national strike was without doubt the subject with the highest actuality.

The team chose to develop a satirical newsgame editorializing on how the future of nursing might look like if employees were replaced by nursing robots. Though the newsgame presents a satirical comment about the future the game is actually portraying how stressful and demanding the work of a contemporary nurse can be. This includes being short‐staffed, having little time for patients and being forced to register every little detail as part of bureaucracy. Consequently the caring and nursing of patients becomes mechanical and impersonal.

In Futuristic Nurse (Plejer er Død) the player controls a nursing robot. The robot constantly has to take care of its patients and prevent them from dying of mistreatment. Patients get hungry and need to go to the toilet in a constant cycle. Not feeding them makes them increasingly weaker and not getting to the toilet on time results in patients soiling their beds and themselves. While taking care of

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Game Designed in Detail It was decided that Futuristic Nurse should have an additional week added for development in order for this last newsgame to be more extensive and polished than the others. A total of three weeks for development. Having learned from developing the previous newsgame the team was aware that some degree of formal design documenting would be necessary to gain an overview of the entire game. Consequently a small design document was written and posted on the project blog. Though relatively high‐level the design document proved its purpose in that it forced the team members to think the game through before beginning development. More so, on the project blog it also clearly communicated the idea to the supervisor and DR contact person.

Experience With Different Types of Games Similar to the previous newsgame productions, which were partly inspired by classic games like Space Invaders (1978), Command & Conquer (1996) and Summer Games (1984), the core gameplay in Futuristic Nurse was inspired by Diner Dash (2004). In Diner Dash the player controls the girl Flo who’s objective is to earn money by running a restaurant. This implies seating customers, showing the menu, taking orders, delivering food, receiving payment and cleaning up after customers. All actions are carried out in a fast‐paced tempo that increases until it becomes too stressful for the player.

Acquiring experience in developing different kinds of games was one of the most valuable things about the entire newsgame project. Concluding by developing a Diner Dash inspired newsgame was both fun and motivating for the team.

Good Use of Team Resources Analyzing what Futuristic Nurse would require in terms of programming, artwork, sound and music meant that the development team had to consider how use of their resources should be balanced. The game would require quite a lot of artwork and animation to be done and experience had shown that the assigned artist had clear limitations to how much could be created. This meant that out of the four team members only one would be dedicated purely to programming and the others would be responsible for creating the artwork, animation and only limited programming.

This distribution and rearranging of roles within the development team proved to be a good decision. Throughout the development it generally seemed that none of the team members were overly burdened with tasks, but still had plenty to do. Having team members with talents in multiple areas of game development provided a flexibility to the team roles which were likely the main reason that Futuristic Nurse became a successful newsgame.

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Published and Presented on the Front Page Though Futuristic Nurse was not developed for a specific department at DR it had generally received good feedback from people at DR while being developed. Initially the game was published in the games section on www.dr.dk, but was shortly after adopted by DR Front page and presented on the front page of www.dr.dk.


No Formal Development Plan Though a design document was created at the beginning of development, the team did not make a formal development plan to follow and track progress. This had not been the case with the previous two newsgames either and Futuristic Nurse, though an extensive game, was no exception.

Instead the responsibilities for different parts of the game e.g. the robot avatar, the patient and the background were delegated to team members. Each member would themselves keep track of their tasks and would synchronize these with the others twice a week when the team was gathered.

Apart from requiring the creation of many temporary TODO lists and spending time on constantly planning what to do next, development of Futuristic Nurse was done without any serious problems. In terms of planning, the development process would likely have gained from a better overview of tasks from the beginning. Therefore the lack of planning is here seen as something that went wrong or at least could have helped development further if a plan had existed.



4 team members 21 days available in total


Published 30 May 2008 Estimated 12 days in total

Table 9 Additional information about Futuristic Nurse

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2.5 Problematization Each of the postmortems presented its own rights and wrongs, and whether positive or negative, the practical experiences gained while developing newsgames for DR were invaluable. Obtaining good teamwork and balancing resources, structuring a foundational workflow and retaining openness towards creative change during development were some of the challenges encountered. Further, the challenge of formally planning and documenting the newsgames became a recurring issue – at least in terms of how I personally intended the development process to work. Each newsgame became an experiment in finding the appropriate mix of initial planning, tracking progress and doing actual development e.g. programming, graphics, etc. An issue that remained unresolved even after finishing the fourth newsgame.

Another aspect of development involved finding relevant news stories and translating these into interesting ideas for newsgames. This process revealed how newsgames could be used differently i.e. as a satirical comment in The Olympic Torch Game or as a reflection on a serious situation in City’s Burning. However, not having an overview of the potential uses for newsgames as an expressive medium and lacking a thorough understanding of newsgames in general likely limited the team from exploiting the full potential of newsgames.

The issue of finding an appropriate development methodology and the issue regarding the lack of a thorough understanding of newsgames and their potential pose two essential questions:

What are newsgames?

How should newsgames be understood in relation to games as a whole and as an expressive medium capable of conveying news.

How are newsgames developed?

How should newsgames be developed rapidly and effectively within a small team while ensuring quality and meeting deadlines.

The remaining chapters of this master’s thesis will be dedicated to answering these questions.

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Chapter 3 Understanding Newsgames

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an understanding of what newsgames are. A concept that, from the word itself, seems self‐explanatory with the combination of news and games or simply games based on news. However, in order to provide an understanding of newsgames and how news translates into games, it is relevant first to examine the terms news and game separately. The following section will begin by examining what a game is since the game element constitutes the backbone in any newsgame. Defining what a game is, is in itself a huge theoretical question and therefore the following section is not intended to create or engage in any discussion of this, but merely serve as an instrumental section for understanding this relevant aspect of newsgames.

3.1 Understanding Games Games are a universal part of human culture and holds an evolutionary history that dates back at least 5.000 years. The ancient Egyptian game Senet from around 3.000 BC. is considered one of the oldest games known and is believed to be an early ancestor of the worldly popular game Backgammon (Masters, 1997). Games are an integrated part of our culture and are founded deeply in our existence from child‐ to adulthood. Most people have an understanding of what games are when they think about them, but when asked to describe games as a whole, things become problematic. The huge diversity of games and how these can be played in different ways make it difficult to deduce a single confined definition which applies to them all. To complicate matters further there exist a differentiation and complex interrelation between the terms game and play. “Play is mostly taken to be a free‐form activity, whereas game is a rule‐based activity” (Juul, 2005, p. 28). Should games be considered a form of play or should play be considered part of a game?

In their book Rules of Play, the authors Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman answer this question in the following ambiguous way:

“Play is both a larger and a smaller term than game depending on the way it is framed.” (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003, p. 72)

They support the definition with two examples. The first example views games as a subset of play and exemplifies that two dogs chasing each other playfully or a child singing a rhyme are both examples of playing without the presence of a formalized set of rules. Consequently playing a game is just one in several forms of play.

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The second example views play as a subset of games from a game design perspective. Salen & Zimmerman (2003) state “the experience of play is but one of many ways of looking at and understanding games” (p. 72). Other ways could be the experience of learning or the experience of seriousness in games.

The first of the two perspectives on play seems the most obvious when describing the relationship between play and games. It relates to play as a real world activity in which games become an instrument for facilitating play, but not vital for play to take place. The second is less obvious because it views play as an optic for looking at games and considers play as one of multiple ingredients within a game.

Many writers of game studies literature have made attempts to define games, some with emphasis on games as mechanical artifacts, such as Avedon & Sutton‐Smith and Salen & Zimmerman, others on the activity of play such as Huizinga and Caillois (Juul, 2005, p. 30). What the defining characteristics of games are is still a matter of discussion and new definitions are produced from time to time. The Dutch anthropologist Johan Huizinga, was one of the first persons to define the concept of play in his 1938 book Homo Ludens (Huizinga, 1950). His definition has since been equally applied to games since it identifies many characteristics that games hold in common. Huizinga’s definition reads:

“[…] a free activity standing quite consciously outside “ordinary” life as being “not serious,” but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other means.” (Huizinga, 1950, p. 13)

By analyzing the components of the definition the following eight characteristics can be deduced:

1. A free activity in the sense that it is voluntary. 2. Outside ordinary life in the sense of being separate from “real” life. 3. Not serious. 4. Absorbs the player as in taking up all attention. 5. Not connected with material interest or profit. 6. Proceeds or is played out within a boundary of time and space. 7. Based on formal rules. 8. Promotes social groupings.

Huizinga manages to describe both some abstract and concrete attributes which interestingly form the understanding of play and games. Unfortunately his

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definition only does so to a certain degree. Looking at today’s videogames, professional sports and the market for betting and gambling, Huizinga’s original definition cannot successfully be applied to these different types of games. Games, for instance, are not necessarily always a voluntary experience e.g. a prisoner can be forced to play a game of Russian roulette. Likewise they do not necessarily have to absorb or immerse their players to be considered games and playing Poker for money does not remove the gameness from Poker. As Salen & Zimmerman (2003) concludes “the inclusive generality of Huizinga’s definition is its greatest weakness” (p. 75).

Later writers of game studies literature, such as Roger Caillois, have both criticized and elaborated on the initial work of Huizinga which has resulted in numerous additional definitions. All of these have contributed to a deeper understanding of games, but each with a different focus on the defining characteristics which makes it difficult to emphasize one definition over another. However, in recent years Salen & Zimmerman and Jesper Juul have independently tried to combine the most notable definitions into one useful and universal definition for games in general. Salen & Zimmerman (2003) propose a definition which is quite simple, narrow and which focuses merely on demarcating the realms of games.

“A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.” (p. 80)

I believe the definition precisely comprises the core characteristics of games. Games are fundamentally systems structured by rules in which one or more players actively interact. Games are artificial in the sense that they are separate from “real” life in both time and space. Games induce a conflict in which one or more players compete or cooperate which results in some form of quantifiable outcome.

Taking a somewhat similar summarizing approach, Juul (2005) proposes a definition for games both in compact writing, in diagram form and in the form of a model he calls the classic game model. Juul’s definition reads the following:

“A game is a rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.” (p. 36)

Juul’s definition is more complex than the previous, but it also considers more aspects of games e.g. players’ emotional attachment or how outcome can be negotiable such as agreeing on playing for money.

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The definition and related model are useful tools for analyzing and describing games. However, as a working definition for understanding newsgames something less complex is more suitable. As such the previous definition of what games are by Salen & Zimmerman, will be the one serving as the basis for providing an understanding of newsgames in this master’s thesis.

3.2 Understanding Serious Games As described in the introduction to this chapter the term newsgame is a combination of the words news and game. This ambiguity seems to suggest that newsgames contain an additional purpose apart from being entertaining. They are in fact games with agendas and a subset of what has generally come to be known as serious games. This apparently self‐contradictory term denotes that games, which people often relate to experiences of unserious, leisure and fun, can also be serious. David Michael & Sande Chen (2006) propose a definition which is helpful for explaining how serous games can be understood.

“A serious game is a game in which education (in its various forms) is the primary goal, rather than entertainment.” (p. 17)

The definition contains a useful clue which is the word education. Serious games are games that serve an educational purpose as their primary goal, rather than only being entertaining. However, the word education also constitutes a problem because it does not explicitly account for the serious component in serious games. Education does not necessarily has to be related to seriousness and can at times be rather entertaining. Why not name these games educational games instead since that would be far more precise in relation to the definition by Michael & Chen? According to Ben Sawyer, co‐founder of the Serous Games Initiative, “the serious in serious games is intended to reflect the purpose of the game, why it was created, and has no bearing on the contents of the game itself” (Michael & Chen, 2006, p. 23). Thus characterizing a game as serious signifies that it was developed with some ulterior motive in mind other than being purely fun and entertaining. The Serious Games Initiative might help clarify what alternative motives exist apart from the educational. On the front page of the organization’s website the following description of serious games is provided:

“The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy.” (Serious Games Initiative, 2008)

The description states that serious games are used in relation to education, training, health, and public policy. Considering the first two, these are highly related to educative and instructional abilities denoting the transfer of

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knowledge and skills. The remaining, however, relate only to areas of application. Keeping focus on possible motives, Michael & Chen point towards an additional, yet sometimes overlooked motive for developing serious games. Games, they write, are an art form and are as such expressive in nature. “Thus serious games are games that use the artistic medium of games to deliver a message…” (Michael & Chen, 2006, p. 23). Through their visual, auditive, verbal and procedural properties serious games are capable of forming and expressing rhetorical messages. An ability that will be described in detail later and which justifies the understanding of newsgames as a subset of serious games.

3.2.1 A Historical View on Serious Games

Having gained an idea of the motives that can drive development of serious games, it will further be insightful to look at the history behind these games. Contemporary serious games can be seen as the evolutionary climax in a long history of games used for serious purposes. Learning about this history will help provide an understanding of the various different uses of serious games and help position newsgames in this tradition.

Historically Chess is among the earliest games considered having a serious purpose of simulating warfare. Speculations even point towards its Indian 4.000 years old predecessor Chaturanga as being the first warfare simulation game. However, it was not until the 17th century that variations of Chess were formally introduced into the Prussian military and later refined to reflect the complexity of military strategy of that time. These games were consequently based on extensive rulesets, including e.g. unit handling, chain of command and fog of war, and could take days to finish (Michael & Chen, 2006). In the 19th century the war game Kriegspiel (1824) proved the usefulness of simulating strategic warfare through games as it was credited the Prussian victory over the French in the FrancoPrussian war. “This becomes the first organized effort to use games for a direct educational purpose in Western culture” (Egenfeldt‐Nielsen, 2005, p. 32). Subsequently using games for simulating strategic warfare spread throughout the world.

The Link Flight Simulator marked a new era of warfare simulation. From the 1930s onto the 1960s the US military increased its use of simulators, especially flight training including spaceflight for the Apollo missions. During the 1960s and 1970s computers gradually became an inseparable part of simulators. Computers opened up for entirely new possibilities for computation and later visualization. In the 1980s networking simulators together made it possible to train teams either as cooperates or as opponents in everything from air combat to tank battles (Michael & Chen, 2006).

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As can be deduced from this historical overview, serious games is a term which spans over a huge variety of different applications of games. It is also a term that is young compared to its historic heritage that, as explained, can be traced back decades, centuries and even millennia.

3.2.2 Simulation and Rhetorical Expression

In the previous section the term simulation was extensively used when describing different serious games e.g. warfare simulation, construction and management simulation and economics simulation. Evidently, simulation is a central component of games in general and serious games in particular. However, in order to understand this rather abstract simulative component, this section will examine the term further.

Nearly every engineering, scientific, and technological discipline make use of simulation when designing new systems, analyzing existing systems, or training different types of activities. The following definition provides a way of grasping simulation:

“Simulation is the process of designing a model of a real or imagined system and conducting experiments with that model. The purpose of simulation experiments is to understand the behavior of the system or evaluate strategies for the operation of the system.” (Smith, 1998)

The definition contains a number of elements which are central to an understanding of simulation. Foremost, simulation is a process in which experimentation is conducted on a model of either a real or imagined system. The purpose being either to understand the system’s behavior or to evaluate strategies for its operation. When applying the above definition for simulation to games, it becomes evident how well simulation relates to games. Games are procedural and as such driven by processes, they allow for experimentation through interaction (keyboard, mouse, joystick, etc.) and model real or imagined systems e.g. through their representations of game worlds and integrated rulesets. The two purposes stated are also valid and play a central role in games. For example in the videogame Sim City where players have to both understand the behavior of a complex system (the dynamics of a breathing city) and constantly evaluate strategies for maintaining and expanding it.

In science and engineering the purpose of simulation is to acquire knowledge and raw data about a given system. Simulation in this regard is used to provide explanations to scientific problems or to predict the behavior of systems. In games simulation can be purely for the purpose of entertainment with emphasis on experimentation. The simulation of building a city presented in Sim City serves as a platform for players to experiment with urban dynamics. The simulation is entertaining to play with and experiencing the outcome of different approaches

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and situations makes it highly replayable. This combination of entertainment and experimentation through simulation is also something that makes games suitable for learning purposes and ties closely with the constructionist approach to learning, briefly explained in Educational Games, page 45.

Further, according to academic researcher and game designer Gonzalo Frasca, the simulative component in games is what differentiates them from other narrative media such as movies or books. Frasca (2003) states that “traditional media are representational [and] not simulational” and that “games are just a particular way of structuring simulation…” (p. 3). That is, games are simulations structured through consciously induced constraints. Frasca states that games are a simulational medium, but can all games then be considered simulations? Many games, such as Sim City or Capitalism II, are clearly simulational representing models of real or imagined systems. However, in a classic game like Tetris (1985) it becomes less obvious what exactly constitutes the source system. Does Tetris for instance simulate gravity through the representation of falling bricks? According to Salen & Zimmerman, in their book Rules of Play, this is in fact the case. They further suggest that Tetris can also be understood as a construction simulator, though a simplistic one. Salen & Zimmerman (2003) state the following about games and simulation.

“A game simulation, as any kind of game representation, can be geometrically minimal, outrageously whimsical, or even intentionally misleading. Unlike simulation designed for scientific research purposes, a game simulation is not beholden to a notion of representing empirical truth.” (p. 425)

Clearly there are cases where the notion of games as being simulations falls into a grey zone where pinpointing the exact source system becomes challenging. However, as Salen & Zimmerman explains, simulation in games can inhibit quite different forms than seen in e.g. scientific simulation, which consequently makes all games a simulation of something.

Procedural Rhetoric Gonzalo Frasca (2003) expands his notion of games as structured simulations and goes on to suggest that games are also “capable of conveying the ideas and feelings of an author” (p. 4). Because simulation differentiates itself from traditional media, Frasca propose the notion of simulation rhetoric as a field of its own in contrast to e.g. spoken or written rhetoric. Rhetoric is commonly understood as the art of persuading or influencing an audience through written or spoken language. “Simulation” Frasca (2003) states “can express messages in ways narrative [media] simply cannot, and vice versa” (p. 4). Game developers or simauthors as Frasca suggests, decide how games/simulations are structured, what rules are incorporated, and what players are encouraged to do in terms of

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winning or losing. The result of these decisions forms a subjective rhetorical message. “Rhetorically, a game where you may kill sexworkers is very different from a game where you must kill them in order to win” Frasca argues using Grand Theft Auto III (2001) as an example (Frasca, 2003, p. 10).

In his book Persuasive Games: the expressive power of videogames, videogame researcher, critic, and designer Ian Bogost propose Procedural rhetoric, a somewhat similar notion of rhetoric as Frasca’s simulation rhetoric. However, instead of simulation Bogost focuses on the underlying procedural nature of games and how arguments can be authored and expressed through processes. According to Bogost (2007)“(…) procedural rhetoric is the practice of using processes persuasively, just as verbal rhetoric is the practice of using oratory persuasively and visual rhetoric is the practice of using images persuasively” (p. 28). Procedural rhetoric uses rule‐based representation and interaction as a means for achieving persuasion and “afford a new and promising way to make claims about how things work” (Bogost, 2007, p. 29).

The basis for procedural rhetoric is the procedural representation, which is a model (simulation) of a subset of a source system (real or imagined system). The procedural representation is equal to the simulation, but Bogost emphasizes the procedural aspect as more descriptive in terms of understanding how rhetorical messages can be incorporated in videogames. “Meaning in videogames” Bogost (2007) states” is not constructed through a re‐creation of the world, but through selectively modeling appropriate elements of that world” (p. 46). Similar, possibilities of interaction with the procedural representation has to be relevant in relation to the purpose of the representation. When game developers specify the scope of their representation and the rules of behavior for processes in a game, they author arguments about the reality they are modeling. A player is exposed to these arguments through interaction with the processes of the game. The following example of procedural rhetoric will help clarify its usage.

In our newsgame Futuristic Nurse, described by the postmortem on page 33, procedural rhetoric was consciously integrated in the design of the game. The game is basically a simulation of a nursing home where the many needs of elders must be handled. On a visual and auditive level the game is a parody that exaggeratingly portrays everyday life in a nursing home. However, on the procedural level the processes constrained by the rules of the game establish a procedural rhetoric which is central to the purpose of the game as a comment. The player must bring food to the elders, pick elders up and bring them to the toilet, and clean their bed sheets when accidents happen. Each time a task is completed points are rewarded and stored in an automat. However, the automat only holds points for three tasks at a time which forces the player to constantly go to the automat and register points – otherwise points are lost.

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In Futuristic Nurse the combination of the different processes constructs the rhetoric argument. From playing the game the player experiences the stressfulness of single‐handedly nursing elders and how inconvenient and time‐consuming it is to constantly have to register the tasks. The procedural rhetoric is thereby communicated through the interaction with the game. Interaction that is constrained by the underlying processes. However, for players to relate this argument to the actual real world situation, which the game is commenting on, this requires a degree of knowledge about the situation being referenced. Without this frame of reference there is a risk that players do not understand the procedural rhetoric.

Meta‐Communication When humans communicate this happens on multiple levels. The obvious form is through spoken language where what is said constitutes the message or content of the communication. However, other levels exist on which communication about the communication itself (in this case the spoken message) is exchanged as metacommunication. An example could be the context in which the communication takes place, the tone of voice or the body language used. All of these constitute meta‐communication about how the receiver should decode and interpret the main communication.

The concept of meta‐communication also applies to videogames where messages are communicated through games to players. In this regard metacommunication constitutes “ the communication within the frame of play or fiction and the communication establishing this frame” (Thorhauge, 2003, p. 8). For instance using cartoonish visuals and humor as a means of implying that the message in the game should not be taken too seriously. In terms of newsgames the actual context in which a game is presented e.g. on www.dr.dk, should also be considered part of the meta‐communication establishing the frame of reference. Though external, the context is often paramount for understanding the intended messages in newsgames because they themselves do not explicitly recount for the background or context in which they have been developed.

Meta‐communication affords reflection on the communication itself. “Instead of focusing on the individual exchanges of a given communicational act we focus on the context within which these exchanges take place or perhaps even on the context within which this context is situated” (Thorhauge, 2003, p. 5). Returning to procedural rhetoric, processes can indeed be used to construct a rhetorical message. However, this message will always be interpreted in relation or combination with the other elements that constitute a games rhetorical forms (visual, auditive, verbal). Meta‐communication helps the player to put what is being communicated into perspective and to reflect on the communication itself.

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3.2.3 Summary

The goal of this section was to provide an understanding of serious games as a foundation for understanding the history and tradition of newsgames. At first a definition was found which stated the importance of a secondary or educational component in these games. By examining the serious component further it was found that serious games in general are used for either education or training, but also that they, as an artistic medium, have the ability to express messages. It was briefly argued that this expressive ability was utilized in newsgames and that newsgames as such could be considered a subset of serious games.

Going over the history of serious games revealed a heritage which could be traced back several millennia. First used as strategic tools for planning and simulating warfare the military later spawned a multitude of uses for videogames. Most recently and notably the highly popular videogame Americas Army (2002) which functions both as a training and recruitment tool. However, videogames were also used seriously for more peaceful purposes in education, advertising, political comments and exercising to mention some. Videogames, however, became especially popular as educational tools in schools, companies and in homes. As such videogame were recognized as a serious medium for education. It was further argued that the evolution of the internet and especially Adobe Flash recently had spawned a wave of expressive serious webgames with agendas.

Since much in the history of serious games revolved around simulations an examination of the term was conducted. It was found that simulation acts as a central component in not only serious games, but in all games. In fact, it was argued that all games could be considered a simulation of something whether of the real or imagined. It was further suggested that serious games could convey rhetorical messages through structuring the simulational component. The notion of procedural rhetoric helped explain this idea further. It was exemplified that the rule‐based structuring of the processes in Futuristic Nurse conveyed a rhetorical message to the player. One that would only be perceived from interacting with the game. Finally the notion of meta‐communication was briefly explained as it helped put theory into perspective and provided an understanding of the communication from game to player.

53

3.3 What Are Newsgames Now that the reader has an understanding of games and serious games, focus now shifts towards newsgames. First, however, the news aspect needs to be examined because some fundamental knowledge of this is required in order to understand the nature of newsgames.

3.3.1 Defining News Most people have a general idea of what news is, but in terms of identifying the defining characteristics of news it becomes less straightforward. The internet provides a number useful definition of which many are variations over the same characteristics; an event or change, something recent, current, future, relevant, useful and interesting. The writers guide on Young People’s Press, a website for young writers, propose a definition that might help clarify what news is:

“News is an account of what is happening around us. It may involve current events, public figures or ongoing projects or issues.” (Young People's Press, 2008, p. 4)

The definition is quite broad stating that news is an account of anything happening around people. A bit more specific it continues by suggesting current events, public figures and ongoing projects or issues. Individually or combined these cover almost any conceivable thing of possible newsworthiness. However, reducing the definition above to a more condensed form it simply reads; news is an account of current events. This definition is shallow, but relevantly states that news are current events accounted for by someone or through media like newspapers, television or internet. Current refers to actuality and involves events of both the near past, present or future. For the purpose of understanding newsgames this definition is considered to be sufficient.

Before continuing it is also worth noting that news in itself is mediated and constructed. It involves an editorial process of filtering out the most factual information and conveying this to the consumer (Burton, 2005, p. 91).

In terms of how news is accounted for by journalists and in the media, there exist several distinct types of news. Young People’s Press (2008) again suggests the following typology of news:

• Hard news • Soft news • Editorial • Feature

54

Hard news is the news of the day, the front stories of newspapers, the first stories in news broadcasts or the topmost stories of news websites. It is timely, factual and the account of important and serious events. Hard news is time‐sensitive because its relevance and interest value rapidly decreases over time. It is reported in a factual and objective manner and involves subjects like war, politics, business, and crime (USINFO, 2006).

In contrast soft news covers the less serious events, less important and and is therefore not as time‐bound as hard news. Soft news often includes human‐interest stories i.e. celebrity gossip, sports achievements or consumer news reported in an objective, but often more entertainment oriented manner. Soft news covers subjects like celebrities, lifestyle, consumers, art, and entertainment. (USINFO, 2006).

The editorial expresses the opinion of the editor of a newspaper or other media and is subjective, commenting and less time‐sensitive. In this relation it is important to mention the OpEd which intersects both hard and soft news. The Op‐Ed expresses the opinions of people external to e.g. a newspaper and are usually printed on the opposite side of the editorial, hence the name OpEd (opposite editorial). The editorial and Op‐Ed are often both referred to as editorials.

Features are the least time‐sensitive kind of news and objectively describe subjects in more depth and can cover more complex issues. They involve both serious and less serious subjects and are often published as a supplement to existing news stories. Features focusing on significant issues and supplementing hard news are called news features. If related to soft news stories they are called feature stories (USINFO, 2006). Since features intersect both hard and soft news they involve similar subjects as mentioned above.

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3.3.3 Combining News With Games

This section provides a discussion and an analysis of a selection of newsgames based on their relation to the types of news described earlier. It further aims at describing how these newsgames deal with their associated news content and how they utilize different forms of rhetorical expression.

Hard and Soft Newsgames Beginning with hard news, a newsgame based on this type should convey its content in a timely, factual and objective manner. The first requirement, to be timely, constitutes a fundamental challenge for games since even minor games can take days and often weeks to develop. This is further problematized as games pose artificial challenges. During during play these prevent a direct and timely reporting of news. Further, the interactive and explorative nature of games make it difficult to ensure an objective conveyance of facts since a player’s actions and individual unfolding of the news content would in itself make it subjective. Jon Burton (2005), a lecturer in online journalism, comments on this fact:

“Games are fundamentally a participatory medium where player action is of paramount importance. This makes them incompatible on many levels with the fundamental journalistic task of reporting about a news event that has already happened and cannot have its outcome affected by the player.” (p. 93)

The issues above concerning hard news coverage in newsgames suggest that games are not a medium well suited for conveying this type of news. This is further reflected by the fact that no serious newsgame examples of hard news have been identified.

In terms of conveying pure soft news the issues from above also qualifies. Though slightly less time‐sensitive and more entertainment oriented, news content of soft news still has to remain factual and objective. Finding examples of these newsgames turned out equally hard, however, the Zidane Head Butt Game (2006) is worth noting as an interesting case. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in soccer the popular French player Zinedine Zidane head‐butted an opponent in a match. The subsequent day the event was intensely covered in the media, but just as timely was a small newsgame featuring the incident. The game was minimal in its initial version and simply provided the visual and auditive setting of the soccer field and the ability to control Zidane with the mouse (see Figure 13). The objective was then to head‐butt the opponent as many times as possible within a time interval and consequently receive a red card by the judge. In terms of conveying the soft news event in a timely and somewhat limited factual manner

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editorials expressing opinions on matters, but also as features presenting complex subjects in a thorough and factual way. The latter possibly as an extension of the online interactive graphics already in use by news sites for visualizing e.g. the impact of a tsunami or the details of an oil leak at sea.

Based on experience and the insights provided in this chapter it is the authors belief that the label newsgame is viable. It describes a certain optic for perceiving a game as dealing with some current newsworthy event and reflecting one of multiple types of news coverage found in conventional media, such as in newspapers. However, newsgames are often described as being a form of political games. This notion indicates that newsgames are subordinate to the larger field of political games. In many cases this holds true i.e. most people would likely classify September 12th as a political game rather than a newsgame. However, not all newsgames are related to politics as was exemplified with The Zidane Head Butt Game and The Prison Life: Paris. Further, corporate mishaps as in DR’s Dash’n’Crash (2007) that editorializes on faulty SAS Dash 8 airplanes, are also subjects found in newsgames. Clearly newsgames deal with a broader spectrum of topics in which politics is just one.

In terms of positioning one genre over another it is the authors belief that this approach is troublesome. Political games, advergames, anti‐advergames, games for change and newsgames, to name some, all intersect in terms of their expressive characteristics and subject matters. It therefore seems meaningful to perceive each of these as different optics for looking at games and recognize that games can indeed be several of these simultaneously.

Gonzalo Frasca’s motivation to invent the term newsgame could have been driven by a perception of his own games as being more than simply political games. With newsgames the qualities and credibility of conventional news coverage could be projected onto the games. That way indicating the serious, timely and factual properties of the games and their subject matters as well as emphasizing the games’ relation to important newsworthy events and their affordances for deeper interpretation. However, the broad definition has opened the term up for games of various kinds and left it flooded with skin‐deep newsgames with little attention to such reflective affordances i.e. newsgames based on celebrity mishaps.

63

Chapter 4 Development Methodology

The purpose of this chapter is to answer the second question posed in this thesis; how are newsgames developed? The postmortem descriptions presented in themselves answers to this question, but represented an informal approach based on ad hoc techniques. By adapting elements from existing proven methodologies, described later, and building on solid personal experience this chapter will devise a formal newsgame development methodology.

3.4 The Purpose of Development Methodologies According to MerriamWebster’s Online Dictionary a methodology is “a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline” (Merriam‐Webster, 2008). This implies that a methodology for developing newsgames should foremost be systematic and structured by rules while providing appropriate methods for successful completion. There are multiple reasons for utilizing a methodical approach to developing newsgames and games in general. However, the central argument for doing so is risk reduction. Whether it be the risk of not meeting deadlines or not meeting quality standards a development methodology helps reduce risks. A methodology prescribes the steps necessary to ensure project visibility both prior to and during development. Project visibility is the continuously updated overview of the project at hand that provides the vital information necessary to foresee potential risks and take proactive measures.

The alternative to using a development methodology is employing ad hoc techniques as needed. This approach might work, but also induces a flood of potential risks and often relies heavily on good fortune (Bethke, 2003, p. 81). This approach highly resembles how the newsgames for this project were developed i.e. City’s Burning, The Olympic Torch Game and Futuristic Nurse. Though initially trying to integrate a structured methodology this was entirely replaced by ad hoc techniques such as the temporary prioritized TODO lists. Though newsgames can indeed be developed in this manner, the unstructured nature of the approach makes it difficult to evaluate and improve on. In a structured development methodology it can be precisely pinpointed where things went wrong and measures can be taken to improve the methodology for future projects.

Though a development methodology seems like the wise choice it also requires careful thinking in terms of how it is integrated in practice. The one perfect development methodology does not exist, so any methodology should always be adapted to suit the environment it is imposed on. Thereby providing an

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3.5.1 Traditional Development Processes

Waterfall Model The Waterfall Model is slightly more advanced than the basic development process above. Introduced in the 1970s it represented a significant step forward in software development as an engineering discipline. Though later expanded with the ability to iterate back between phases the model remained synonymous with the original sequential and inflexible process (Jayaswal & Patton, 2006, p. 2).

Figure 21 Waterfall Model

Like water in a waterfall the process only moves in one direction. After each phase a review verifies whether a project is proceeding according to plan and while positive it continues downstream to the next phase until the software can finally be released to the customer. The plan‐driven and sequential nature of the original model makes it decisive to understand and describe requirements for the entire system before proceeding to the second phase. After each phase extensive testing must be performed to ensure that a system conforms to all the requirements of the current phase. Further, development cannot cope well with changing requirements due to the inflexible nature of the model. Consequently the waterfall model is better suited for small projects which can be described and developed within a short timeframe.

Incremental Model The Incremental Model is a variant of the Waterfall Model which can be thought of as a multi‐waterfall process (see Figure 22). Each cycle through the model produces a new integrated level of operational functionality and gradually enhance the software from prototype stage into first release, second release and so forth. Both before and after an increment is integrated into the existing software it is thoroughly tested and once the software as a whole conforms to the project requirements it is considered finished.

Requirements

Design

Implement

Test

Release

Review

Review

Review

Review

66

Figure 22 Incremental Model

There are variations as to how the incremental model is visualized. The reason why the arrow above in Figure 22 points back to design rather than requirements is to indicate the presence of an initial analysis and planning before entering the the iterative and incremental cycle. The Incremental Model has few downsides, but does carry the risk of prolonging development due to new experiences and customer requirements being fed back into subsequent increments as visualized with the topmost arrow.

Rapid Prototyping Model The Rapid Prototyping Model emphasizes developing a software system in two variants; a throwaway version and an operational version (Jayaswal & Patton, 2006, p. 2).

Figure 23 Rapid Prototyping Model

The throwaway prototype is developed rapidly without emphasis on architecture or standards and is used for verifying e.g. design, programming language or for customer and user acceptance of a system. The prototype usually serves as a method for completing a functional specification, but can also serve as the basis

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Integrate

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Prototyping Specification

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Integrate

Test

Throw or keep prototype as basis for operational model

Test

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for the complete operational version. The operational model is developed using the Incremental Model from before.

Spiral Model

Figure 24 Spiral Model

The Spiral Model looks a little daunting at first sight, but is essentially a combination of the Waterfall, Incremental and Rapid Prototyping models with an added emphasis on risk analysis. Each revolution in the model represents an iteration and produces a software increment. Initially an increment might consist of a paper model, but soon evolves iteratively into functional software.

The model consists of four sequential task regions which internally contains multiple phases. Variations of the model exist which include from three to six regions, however, for this introduction four will suffice. The top left region is responsible for determining objectives, evaluating alternative approaches and possible constraints for the current project cycle.

The top right region evaluates the objectives and alternatives in terms of associated risks and seeks to resolve these. Prototyping can be used here as a means of reducing or eliminating potential risks.

The bottom right region is responsible for developing the software increment and resembles the Waterfall Model’s systematic and sequential approach.

The bottom left region evaluates the software increment and feedback from developers and customers. Based on the evaluation the subsequent project cycle is planned in which an appropriate development process is chosen.

The spiral model is especially useful for large and critical projects where risk management is paramount. However, the model is costly due to its many phases

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have been achieved (Rational Software, 2005, p. 3). The vertical dimension represents nine core disciplines which are performed with varying emphasis based on the current iteration and phase. Each completed iteration produces an increment which gradually moves towards a complete and functional system.

In a RUP development project so called artifacts, related to each discipline, are produced and maintained during each iteration. The artifacts are based on UML and cover documents and visual models which help describe a systems context and architecture in detail. Examples of artifacts from the first two disciplines in Figure 25 are Business and UseCase Models describing relevant actors (employees, customers, etc.) in relation to business processes or their expected interactions with the system in development.

The RUP framework provides a complex process and an immense amount of artifacts for managing, documenting and modeling every aspect involved in the development of software systems. However, the complexity of the framework also makes it inaccessible to newcomers and consequently requires expert assistance when integrated into an organization. However, once properly understood RUP can be adapted and scaled to match a developers specific process and documentation requirements.

3.5.2 Agile Software Development Frameworks

As a counter reaction to traditional plan‐driven and documentation intensive processes such as RUP, a new developer and customer centric breed of methodologies began appearing in the 1990s. These were called agile methodologies due to their focus on adaptability rather than predictability. An approach spawned from the belief that software development is unpredictable, has emerging requirements and therefore cannot successfully be controlled with a defined process (Andrews & Hayes, 2003‐2004, p. 7).

The different agile methodologies all share a number of underlying values and principles as stated in the agile manifesto (The Agile Alliance, 2001):

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation • Responding to change over following a plan

The manifesto emphasizes the human aspect of development. That developers and customers should interact and collaborate towards a common goal. It further emphasizes working software while still being able to respond to change which translates directly into an iterative and incremental approach.

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While there exist a number of agile methodologies this overview is delimited to focus on two of these. Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum have become synonymous with agile development. However, though quite similar they still constitute different approaches in terms of process management and practices.

Extreme Programming When reading about agile methodologies one could easily get the conception that these are both informal and without real structure. However, this view is misconceived since agile methodologies and in particular Extreme Programming are in fact disciplined and repeatable approaches to software development. XP emphasizes values of community, simplicity, feedback and courage by collaboration of developers and customers, targeting simple yet effective solutions, embracing change and placing responsibilities on developers (Andrews & Hayes, 2003‐2004, p. 10).

Figure 26 Extreme Programming process

The XP process shown in Figure 26 represents an iterative and incremental process composed of four phases. In the initial phase, Release planning, the development team and customer negotiate a plan for the entire project. Customer requirements are described as narratives on specialized cards or post‐its as so called user stories. The team estimates the project timeframe by considering the scope of each story (task). User stories are prioritized by the customer in agreement with the development team and results in a prioritized list of requirements constituting the release plan. This is sometimes re‐negotiated every three to six iterations.

The second phase, Iteration planning, represents the beginning of a new iteration which is 1‐2 weeks. Project velocity is a term indicating the development pace and is estimated either from previous experience or from the previous iteration within the current project. The team commits to a number of user stories in collaboration with the customer, but are not allowed to exceed the project velocity. This ensures a realistic amount of work for the new iteration and completing less or more user stories than committed for will affect the velocity accordingly the subsequent iteration.

Release planning

Acceptance tests passed

Iteration planning Development Increment release

Next iteration (commitment to new user stories)

Re‐negotiation of requirements

71

The third phase, Development, constitutes the development and testing of the user stories. Each day is initiated with a brief standup meeting where team members account for what they are working on and what problems they are facing. The meeting purely serves to provide team members with a quick overview of development, so deeper discussions between individual members take place afterwards.

The team members are physically situated in the same room for optimal communication and involvement. More radically all members are paired during programming. Pair programming ensures that knowledge is exchanged, that code is reviewed as it is written and that collective code ownership is enforced. This minimizes bottlenecks and the risk of members being dependant on one specific programmer for finishing a user story. Development further enforce a test‐first approach where an automated test has to be written for a user story before programming commences. This ensures that new functionality is continuously run through the automated test and once successful the user story is considered finished.

The fourth phase, Increment release, is initiated when the iteration timeframe ends. The increment is validated by the automated acceptance tests and further tested by the customer. Once the increment is approved it is considered an integrated part of the software project. While more user stories exist the process iterates back to the Iteration planning phase and repeats the process. Otherwise the software system is considered complete.

Before initiating a new iteration or after having completed the entire project the iteration or project as a whole is reviewed. The goal of this retrospective is to learn from experiences and to make necessary adjustments to the development process.

As described Extreme Programming is a framework consisting of a process and a number of best practices for different phases in development. XP, however, also has a steep learning curve which requires a dedicated team that are open minded towards a radically different way of doing software development. A practice such as pair programming will likely not suit all programmers though the benefits are obvious. Further, the process seems more applicable for smaller teams because practices such as the iteration planning or stand‐up meetings would be far from efficient with 30 team members having to participate in order to maintain responsibility and involvement.

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Scrum Though Scrum bears many similarities with XP it is a lightweight agile methodology in comparison. Scrum shares the agile values described earlier and is an iterative and incremental process with a limited number of core disciplines and rules. Central to Scrum is the notion of self‐organizing teams where a team is fully autonomous and defines its own practices and team roles. The argument is that self‐organization is a motivator which leads directly to increased involvement, creativity and cooperation within a team.

Figure 27 Scrum process

The Scrum process is normally visualized somewhat like Figure 27. Instead of focusing on phases in the process it is the combination of artifacts (backlogs), practices (sprints) and outcome (increment) that is emphasized. However, the processes in both Scrum and XP are fundamentally similar to the traditional Incremental Model described on page 66.

Product Backlog indicates the first artifact, activity or phase in a Scrum project. An individual is appointed the role of Product Owner and represents the customer or a market. The Product Owner is responsible for devising a vision, business plan and road map for the project and from these compiles the Product Backlog which is a prioritized list of all relevant product features. The Product Backlog is dynamic and changes as the understanding of software requirements and estimates evolve during iterations (Schwaber & Beedle, 2002, p. 33).

Once the Product Backlog contains sufficient features to initiate the first development iteration or Sprint the Product Owner calls the Scrum Team in for a Sprint planning meeting time‐boxed to four hours. The team verifies the features and time estimates in the Product Backlog and commits to the amount of work realizable in one iteration. A sprint goal is collectively defined and features for the sprint are pulled from the top of the Product Backlog to ensure maximum business value.

Next iteration

Product Backlog

Daily Scrum

Sprint Backlog Product Increment Sprint

2‐4 weeks sprint

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The Scrum Master is the team representative and responsible for shielding the team from external factors and from itself. The Scrum Master helps the team break the selected features into defined development tasks which are gathered in a Sprint Backlog. He also ensures that the team does not over‐commit itself to an unrealistic amount of work (Scrum Alliance, 2003‐2008).

A sprint varies from two to four weeks, but the exact duration of a sprint is fixed beforehand. Working towards a static deadline is a central motivator in Scrum. The team is expected to deliver a functional increment at the end of a sprint, but how this is achieved is entirely a team decision. Except for the Scrum Master there are no roles, titles or hierarchy present. The team must self‐organize and find the right balance and usage of its resources.

A daily Scrum meeting is the only practice which is prescribed by Scrum. The meeting is held every morning by the Scrum Master and lasts for 15 minutes. During the meeting each member briefly answers three questions; what did you do yesterday?, what will you do today? and are there any impediments in your way? The meeting provides the team with an overview of the project status and gives the Scrum Master vital knowledge about impediments which must be eliminated for the team to work efficiently.

Once the sprint deadline is reached a Sprint Review Meeting is held with the Stakeholders (the customer), Product Owner, Scrum Master and Scrum Team present. The increment is demonstrated and compared to the sprint goal and Backlog features to determine the amount of work achieved. The Product Backlog is re‐prioritized based on a discussion between the meeting participants and a new sprint goal is defined for the next iteration – repeating the process. During the review meeting the previous sprint is evaluated by the team. Positive and negative experiences are used to make necessary adjustments to the development process before continuing.

Scrum is based on simple principals and few practices which makes it an accessible methodology. In many ways it takes a similar approach as XP, but differs radically in its use of isolated self‐organizing teams. Though intended as a motivator self‐organization also constitutes a risk. A weak Scrum Master or an incompetent team will undoubtedly lead to chaos and failure.

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3.6 A Newsgame Development Methodology This section proposes a methodology for developing newsgames. The methodology prescribes the optimum choice of team size, technology infrastructure and development process. In doing so a number of best practices and suggestions are described which help make newsgame development become fluent.

3.6.1 Development Team

When determining the optimum number of members for a newsgame development team it is relevant to consider the type of newsgames in question. There is clearly a difference in complexity and requirements when developing a newsgame like September 12th compared to a Zidane Head‐Butt game. The latter might be developed by one or two multi‐talented individuals in which case a comprehensive development methodology would likely be impractical. The methodology proposed in this chapter is primarily aimed at developing editorializing newsgames such as September 12th which has a higher degree of complexity and requires a relatively larger development team.

According to the Scrum methodology a team should consist of seven people plus or minus two (Schwaber & Beedle, 2002, p. 36). However, a research project involving an analysis of nearly 500 software projects at QSM, a software management consultancy company, pinpointed the optimum number to be between 3‐5 members with 5‐7 members being nearly as efficient (Putnam, 2000‐2008). Less than three or four members makes a project “vulnerable to the loss of a key person” and “highly dependent on individual skills” (Ibid.). More than seven members induce communication and planning complexities and members “quickly gravitate toward the average skill set of the group” (Ibid.).

During the current and previous newsgaming project I experienced working in teams of four and six members. The team of four was more skilled in terms of content production and members were generally multi‐talented in areas of programming, artwork and audio. The team of six, however, was more motivating and carried a better sense of team spirit which made the team more dynamic. Further, the team was stronger in terms of creating interesting and innovative ideas for newsgames particularly motivated by two bright game designers.

Returning to the initial problem of determining the optimum team size for newsgames I propose a size of six members. A team of this size will be less vulnerable, more motivating, more dynamic and still have room for the individual to unfold. However, to ensure the strongest possible team it is important to consider how competences and roles are combined within the team.

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When staffing a newsgame development team it is generally advisable to choose generalists over specialists. The limited amount of team members and the need for flexibility make it preferable to choose multi‐talented rather than highly specialized people. In reality people, though multi‐talented, will always be more skilled in one area and should therefore be chosen for a primary role while still considering possible secondary or tertiary roles. In Table 10 below I propose a possible distribution of roles in a newsgame team.

Project manager Game designer Programmer Artist Musician/snd

Member 1

Member 2

Member 3

Member 4

Member 5

Member 6

Table 10 A flexible newsgame development team

The team consists of one game designer, two programmers, two artists and one musician/sound designer. Every member has a primary, secondary and tertiary role and it is relevant to note that everyone in this example are tertiary game designers except for the primary designer. As will be described later designing newsgames should be a group effort in which every member participates. However, at least one member should be particularly adept in newsgame design to ensure a driving creative force when ideas for newsgames are conceived.

Another relevant point is the presence of a project manager. The project manager should be an adaptation of the Scrum Master which means he or she functions more as a team facilitator than a team leader. The project manager is responsible for daily stand‐up or Scrum meetings and shields the team from outside interferences. Working as a kind of gatekeeper the project manager helps reduce the number of potentially distracting communication lines (see Figure 28 below). A communication line is the possible communication between two individuals and the number of lines increase exponentially as more individuals are added.

Figure 28 Project manager's effect on communication lines

Primary role Secondary role Tertiary role

The number of communication lines can be expressed:

n(n‐1)/2

With project manager shielding (visualized on right):

6 * (6‐1)/2 = 15 lines (+2 stakeholders)

Without project manager:

8 * (8‐1)/2 = 28 lines (+2 stakeholders) Team

Stakeholders

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The project manager is further responsible for tracking and updating plans and other relevant project information e.g. on Blogs or Wikis to provide the team and its stakeholders with an overview and status of development. Where the communication lines above represent one‐to‐one communication, a blog or wiki constitutes a one‐to‐many communication which helps optimize the transfer of information within a team (Rollings & Morris, 2004, s. 361).

3.6.2 Infrastructure and Reusability When developing newsgames in Flash or for any other platform it is important to have a solid infrastructure established for communicating information, sharing files and making backups.

Information transfer For making vital project information accessible to both team members and external stakeholders the internet or internal company network is the obvious choice of platform. A Wiki is useful for structuring and presenting design documents, project plans, lists of features (Backlogs) and other items primarily for internal usage. The dynamic nature of a Wiki allows for direct modification by multiple members which makes it suitable for continuous refinement of project information. A Blog is useful for discussing ideas, presenting updates, screenshots and newsgame demos to stakeholders. The dynamic and sequential nature of a Blog allows comments and replies to be posted by multiple members and stakeholders.

Version control and backup For developing newsgames it is vital to have a version control system such as Subversion or similar installed on a networked server either in‐house or externally. A version control system enables team members to work on the same set of centralized project files stored on the server. A team member can simply grab the file he or she needs to work on and put it back when done. Some systems lock files when in use to prevent members from simultaneously working on the same files, however, other systems (including Subversion) allow this and can merge changes from multiple members. A version control system enables team members to integrate new functionality directly into a newsgame and instantly test it.

Another benefit of a version control system is its ability to keep track of file versions. When a file is changed the previous version is automatically backed up for later retrieval. This enables developers to retrieve every single version of the project that ever existed. In nearly every newsgame project I have worked on there has always come a point when something breaks and no one can explain the reason why. Having the full history of versions it is easy to retrieve the previous version of a file, compare it to the broken one and find the problem.

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Reusability Though newsgames are unique productions from one game to another they contain elements that must be developed repeatedly. Reusability is an important concept for ensuring timely and more elaborate newsgames.

The idea is to identify the elements that newsgames will hold in common and develop these into reusable components. Similar to in manufacturing the reusable and pre‐built components can then quickly be assembled to suit the needs of a particular newsgame. Table 11 below lists some examples of elements that can constitute reusable components:

Loading of game parts (intro, level, end) Email features (Send game to friend)

Transitions between game parts AI (State‐machines, algorithms e.g. flocking)

Keyboard and mouse input and control Physics (gravity, jumping, bouncing)

High score and database connectivity Debugging (object and frame counters, etc.)

Table 11 Reusable components in newsgames

Reusable component require more development time the first time they are developed as they have to be general enough to suit most newsgames. However, once components have been built they can be refined during development of subsequent newsgames. The result is solid quality components that increase development speed and lets developers concentrate on the fun parts of game development.

As a last note on reusability it is advisable to define a programming and code documentation standard. This enables existing and future programmers to better read and understand the code. Likewise teams should aim at adopting the practice of collective code ownership from Extreme Programming. This prescribes that any programmer is allowed to work on any part of the codebase as it is collectively owned. This decreases the vulnerability of losing a key programmer and improves the likelihood of fixing bugs during vacations etc. (Andrews & Hayes, 2003‐2004, p. 18).

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3.6.3 A Newsgame Development Process

Having established a strong newsgame development team and a solid technical infrastructure the final thing remaining is a structured process to guide development.

The Newsgame Development Process described in this section is structured for a two week development period minus the weekends which provides a total of ten working days. Weekends are omitted because the process seeks to minimize crunch time and give team members the time to recuperate. Otherwise team members will experience crunch time too frequently if multiple newsgames are developed in a row. A consequence of this will be a demotivated and burned out development team.

The process is based on principles from the agile methodologies Scrum and Extreme Programming. The fundamental agile values (listed on page 69) are a good match for the creative and evolving nature of newsgame development in a small team. The process is also derived from personal experience and builds on the positive aspects of the rather informal approaches followed in the earlier newsgaming projects.

Introducing the Newsgame Development Process into existing organizations requires special attention to informing both management and the chosen team members about the consequences. Productivity should be expected to drop around 25% the first time the methodology is introduced because new procedures and techniques require extra time to get used to (Rollings & Morris, 2004, s. 386). This should be taken into account when planning for the first newsgame.

Figure 29 Newsgame Development Process

The Newsgame Development Process in Figure 29 above is an iterative and incremental process fundamentally inspired by the Rapid Prototyping Model. The model is an extension of the Incremental Model on which both Scrum and Extreme Programming is based (see page 66).

Conception

Next iteration

Release planning Development Playable increment Refinement

Prototyping

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The process consists of five phases with Prototyping being a parallel phase related to Release planning. The Development and Playable increment phases constitute the iterative loop and the process is concluded with a Refinement phase. In the following each phase will be described in detail.

Conception (1 day)

Figure 30 Conception phase

In the Conception phase the objective is to settle on an idea for a newsgame. Usually a customer comes with a predefined news story which can then be elaborated on by the team. However, in other situations the team might be responsible for coming up with both a news story and an interesting idea for a newsgame. In the latter case the team should establish and maintain a prioritized list of relevant news stories as well as a list of upcoming newsworthy events e.g. the Olympic Games in August. That way a potential news story can quickly be picked from the list and in less hectic times the team will be able to develop more long term newsgames that deal with upcoming events.

Though not required it is advisable to include the customer in the creative process. This ensures consensus between the customer and development team and eliminates the risk of conceiving an idea which is later turned down. Otherwise the idea is presented to the customer at the end of the day. In case the idea needs more work the Conception phase can be extended into day two, however, this may reduce time for development.

The Conception phase produces a brief design document containing idea and core gameplay, rough in‐game sketches and a flowchart of screens.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Conception Release planning First iteration and playable increment Second iteration and final increment Refinement Prototyping

Working days

80

Release planning and Prototyping (1 day)

Figure 31 Release planning and Prototyping phase

In the Release planning phase the game design is further refined by the team and subsequently broken into separate tasks each spanning around 1‐2 days. Some tasks might be less than one day, however, none should preferably be larger than 2 days, otherwise they must be divided into several intermediate tasks. This is to to minimize the risk of unforeseen tasks and to better distribute these among team members. Tasks are prioritized so those involving the most fundamental game mechanics have the highest priority. If the combined time estimate is greater than the available development time (in this case seven days) functionality must be trimmed away.

During development a better understanding of the newsgame will evolve which results in new creative ideas that change the game. It is therefore sufficient to plan for around 80% of the game because the remaining 20% is unpredictable and will be worked out during development. Consequently the time estimate should preferably be around one day less than the timeframe to accommodate for aspects in the game design which cannot be completely worked out in advance.

Once the prioritized tasks fit within the timeframe these are assigned to the first and second iteration. The objective is to have a playable demo of the core game mechanics running after the first iteration. The second iteration should contain the remaining tasks. The prioritized tasks are distributed between the individual team members who are required to examine each of their tasks in detail and confirm or change the initial time estimate. This will force members to think each task through and identify any unforeseen or hidden task. If the new estimate is too high functionality must either be simplified or trimmed away.

The Prototyping phase runs in parallel with Release planning. Based on information acquired in the Conception phase enough is known about the newsgame to begin developing a prototype. One programmer is assigned to develop a small prototype which can verify the single or two most important game mechanics. This is to make a quick proof of concept and to get a head start on development.

The Release planning phase produces a development plan with the majority of tasks identified and prioritized.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


Working days

1

81

Development and Playable increment (7 days)

Figure 32 Development and Playable increment phases

The Development phase is composed of two iterations; first playable increment and second playable increment. During the first iteration the core game mechanics, artwork and audio are developed in which functionality is continuously self‐tested by the team members. As mentioned earlier the objective is to have a rough playable version of the newsgame running after the first iteration.

On a daily basis the project manager is responsible for maintaining the development plan including tracking the status of tasks. Each morning the project manager gathers the team for a brief stand‐up meeting (similar to the Scrum meeting) which provides an overview of development and possible impediments.

Before initiating the second iteration the increment is presented to the customer. During the presentation the game is thoroughly tested and possible alterations are discussed. The development plan is reviewed to identify whether development is progressing according to plan. In case development is behind schedule, maybe due to changes or new ideas, measures must be taken to accommodate this. Either features must be simplified or else be completely removed from the plan. Otherwise team members will only be pilling up a hump of work in front of them leading directly to overtime and crunch.

The same procedure is carried out after the second increment. The final game is presented to and tested by the customer who determines the completeness of the newsgame. Even though a newsgame is thought to be finished there will almost always be minor details that require additional attention. Consequently development continues to the Refinement phase.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


Working days

1 2

Customer Presentation

Customer Presentation

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Refinement (1 day)

Figure 33 Refinement phase

The Refinement phase is a buffer dedicated to final adjustments. At the point where a newsgame is considered finished by the team there are always minor bugs or details which require fine‐tuning before an actual release. It might also be that the development plan has slipped slightly and in any case having an extra day increases the likelihood of meeting the strict deadline.

At the end of Refinement the newsgame is released to the customer.

Retrospective The following week, after having finished the newsgame, the project manager should schedule an evaluation meeting with the development team. Similar to the postmortems in this thesis, the attendees evaluate the positive an negative experiences they had during development. This can be related to process, information communication, planning, working environment and so forth. Based on a discussion of the responses the development methodology is adjusted accordingly. It is the project managers responsibility to take note of the adjustments and to follow up on these during the next newsgame production.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


Working days

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3.6.4 Discussion of the Newsgame Development Methodology

The Newsgame Development Methodology proposed in this chapter is derived from personal experiences and incorporates practices from the agile methodologies Scrum and Extreme programming. It has been the objective to make a realistic methodology with a limited amount of documentation and a maximum amount productivity and motivation for team members.

The development process might seem too detailed and micromanaging considering the short development timeframe. However, this assumption has been the pitfall in most newsgames I have worked on. Because newsgames are often small and developed within limited timeframes this does not mean they are less complex to develop. Even though some developers might argue that designing and planning for several days is a waste of time, much of this time is won back due to a more focused development of the newsgame. It is also far cheaper to correct design flaws early in development rather than later when the elements of the newsgame are intertwined and covered with detailed artwork.

The Newsgame Development Methodology acknowledges that software development differs from newsgame development. Roughly speaking software development builds tools while newsgame development builds experiences. Newsgames and games in general are dependant on great creative ideas and my experiences have taught me that some of the best ideas are conceived during development. By basing the process on an incremental approach and following the 80/20 guideline (described on page 80) while planning there has been made room for creativity and changes during development. I believe this approach motivates team members and retains the excitement of developing newsgames.

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Chapter 5 Conclusions

Newsgame development pose an interesting challenge to developers. Not only do newsgames involve short intensive timeframes, but are also highly dependant on their news subject being woven intelligently into their game designs. The contribution in this thesis constituted a clarification of newsgames as an expressive medium and further a concrete solution to the problems faced in developing newsgames within strict timeframes.

Newsgames share the same fundamental mechanical elements as all games. They are systems defined by rules in which players engage in artificial conflict resulting in a quantifiable outcome. Since newsgames have a different primary goal, than that of entertainment, they are by definition a subset of serious games. The primary goal in newsgames is the transfer of attitude understood as the positive, negative or neutral views of an object. As such they can indeed be perceived as an expressive medium.

The simulative and procedural components in newsgames differentiate them from other expressive media such as books or television. These interactive components facilitate a unique form of rhetorical expression which is woven into the core mechanical elements of newsgames and expressed through player interaction. As such newsgames can convey a combined rhetorical argument expressed through their visual, auditive, verbal and procedural properties.

In terms of conveying news in a timely and factual manner, newsgames face a fundamental problem. The interactive, explorative and emergent nature pose a conflict in ensuring a factual representation of the news. Further, the relatively lengthy development (e.g. two weeks compared to hours or days for news articles) makes timeliness a prevalent issue. As such newsgames are not suited as a primary mediator of important and timely hard news. Newsgames should instead be used as less timely supplements to news in conventional media ‐ either expressing critical opinions or providing alternative perspectives on news events.

The development methodology proposed in this thesis ensures a successful development process leading directly to quality newsgames on time. An efficient newsgame development team should consist of six multi‐talented members in order to minimize vulnerability and ensure flexibility, motivation and group dynamics. Maximizing team productivity requires an active project manager to shield outside interferences, track progress and distribute vital project information. Further, a solid technical infrastructure building on the concept of reusability is paramount for ensuring a fluent and effective development process.

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The development process proposed as part of the overall methodology provides a structured approach to developing newsgames. Building on agile development principles it emphasizes an iterative an incremental process involving both the team and customer. Acknowledging the unpredictable and evolving nature of newsgame development the process only requires planning of around 80% of the game as the remaining details are worked out during development. This notion leaves room for creative ideas and has a motivating effect on team members. Further, the incremental approach ensures customer satisfaction and enables responding to changing requirements.

The work presented in this master’s thesis enables developers to create more interesting and elaborate newsgames founded on a better understanding of the tradition and possibilities that newsgames hold as an expressive medium. As newsgames gain momentum the need for a solid development methodology will increase. The methodology proposed in this thesis has a nature which enables it to improve from newsgame to newsgame continuously delivering more elaborate and more efficiently developed newsgames.

Though the work in this thesis constitutes a notable contribution to the study of newsgames the field has by no means been fully investigated. The examination conducted of news types in newsgames could not successfully identify newsgames relating to all types. However, a more extensive and systematic analysis of newsgames could potentially prove the existence of the feature newsgame or even newsgames conveying hard or soft news.

The notion of meta‐communication was only briefly touched upon, but revealed an interesting aspect relevant for deeper understanding how players decode and interpret the rhetorical messages in newsgames. A further study of meta‐communication in relation to newsgames would be interesting for gaining a better understanding of the levels of communication in newsgame.

Lastly it would be interesting to experience the impact of the newsgame development methodology in practice. Though based on experience as well as proven agile practices, the methodology would undoubtedly gain from a practical test. This is something future newsgaming projects should consider doing instead of inventing new process variations from scratch or worse using ad hoc techniques.

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References 3.7 Bibliography 3.7.1 Books & Chapters

Bethke, E. (2003). Game Development and Production. Plano, Texas: Wordware Publishing, Inc.

Bogost, I. (2007). Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Huizinga, J. (1950). Homo Ludens. New York: Roy Publishers.

Juul, J. (2005). Chapter 2: Video Games and the Classical Game Model. In J. Juul, Half‐Real (pp. 23‐54). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Michael, D., & Chen, S. (2006). Serious Games. Games That Educate, train and inform. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology PTR.

Rollings, A., & Adams, E. (2003). On Game Design. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing.

Rollings, A., & Morris, D. (2004). Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing.

Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. London: The MIT Press.

Schwaber, K., & Beedle, M. (2002). Agile Software Development with Scrum. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Tracy Fullerton, C. S. (2004). Game Design Workshop. San Francisco: CMP Books.

3.7.2 Articles Andrews, M., & Hayes, S. (2003‐2004). An Introduction To Agile Methods. Retrieved July 23, 2008, from Wry Tradesman: http://www.wrytradesman.com/articles/IntroToAgileMethods.pdf

Burton, J. (2005). News‐Game Journalism: History, Current Use And Possible Futures. Retrieved July 8, 2008, from Academic Journals Database: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/sbs/ajets/journal/V3N2/pdf/V3N2‐3‐Burton.pdf

Egenfeldt‐Nielsen, S. (2005). Beyond Edutainment. Exploring the Educational Potential of Computer Games. Copenhagen: Unpublished PhD, IT‐University of Copenhagen.

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Frasca, G. (2003). Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology. Retrieved June 30, 2008, from Ludology.org, My Articles: http://www.ludology.org/articles/VGT_final.pdf

Thorhauge, A. M. (2003). dLuc Media|arts. Retrieved 3 July, 2008, from Plaything: www.dlux.org.au/fs03/media/anne_mette_thorhauge_web.pdf

3.7.3 Reports DR. (2007). DR ‐ Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Report 2007. Retrieved 3 July, 2008, from DR in Brief: http://www.dr.dk/NR/rdonlyres/B96D837A‐CC87‐4F49‐B7A6‐7B7FE89E1E22/815257/2007DRANNUALREPORT1.pdf

DR. (2008). Facts on DR. Retrieved July 2, 2008, from DR in Brief: http://www.dr.dk/NR/rdonlyres/~/2007FACTSONDR1.pdf

DR. (2008). Fakta om DR. Retrieved July 2, 2008, from DRs nøgletal: http://www.dr.dk/NR/rdonlyres/BD0D4278‐FDB7‐41FE‐BD12‐8D87A3FFACA6/861369/2008FAKTAOMDR1.pdf

Kulturministeriet. (2007, January 1). Public service‐kontrakt mellem DR of Kulturministeren. Retrieved July 3, 2008, from Public Service‐kontrakten: http://www.dr.dk/NR/rdonlyres/95E1E6C0‐80D8‐4DCE‐8E34‐F0A292A5D242/795880/DRPublicServicekontrakt2007medunderskrifter.pdf

3.7.4 Websites

Website addresses have been verified right before handin on 1 August 2008.

Atari Gaming Headquarters. (1995‐2002). AGH'S Atari Project Puffer Page. Retrieved June 23, 2008, from Atari Gaming Headquarters: http://www.atarihq.com/othersec/puffer/

Atarimania. (2003‐2008 ). Energy Czar . Retrieved June 23, 2008, from Atarimania: http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=1843

Enlight Software Ltd. (2003). Educational. Retrieved June 20, 2008, from Capitalism II: http://www.enlight.com/capitalism2/educational.htm

Ferguson, D. (2005, February 19). ATARI 2600 Video Computer System Legacy. Retrieved June 18, 2008, from ATARI 2600 Video Computer System Legacy: http://home.olemiss.edu/~badwf/atari2600.html

Gamasutra. (2003). Writers Guidelines. Retrieved June 4, 2008, from Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/writers_guidelines/postmortems.htm

Harr, R. (2007, December 10). Educational Games, An Introductory Lecture (PowerPoint). Retrieved June 23, 2008, from Computer Game Theory.: www.itu.dk/~arthur/MGT_ppt/edgames_introductory%20lecture_rasmus.ppt

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Jayaswal, B. K., & Patton, P. C. (2006, September 22). Software Development Methodology Today. Retrieved July 21, 2008, from InformIT: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=605374

Jung, R. A. (n.d.). The Army Battlezone Q & A. Retrieved June 18, 2008, from Electric Escape: http://www.electric‐escape.net/node/561

Jung, R. A. (Unknown). The Army Battlezone Q & A. Retrieved June 18, 2008, from Electric Escape: http://www.electric‐escape.net/node/561

Kole, W. J. (2004, August 14). Rings, torch have ties to Hitler's Nazi propaganda . Retrieved July 12, 2008, from The Enquirer: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/08/14/spt_oly1symb.html

Leupold, T. (2004, August 12). Spot On: Games get political. Retrieved June 23, 2008, from Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/08/12/news_6104371.html

Lewallen, R. (2005, July 13). Software Development Life Cycle Models. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from CodeBetter.com: http://codebetter.com/blogs/raymond.lewallen/archive/2005/07/13/129114.aspx

Masters, J. (1997). Backgammon ‐ History and Useful Information. Retrieved June 10, 2008, from The Online Guide to Traditional Games: http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Backgammon.htm

Merriam‐Webster. (2008). methodology. Retrieved July 21, 2008, from Merriam‐Webster Online Dictionary: http://www.merriam‐webster.com/dictionary/methodology

Newsgaming.com. (2003). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved July 8, 2008, from Newsgaming.com: http://www.newsgaming.com/faq.htm

Object Management Group. (2007, November 11). Introduction to OMG's Unified Modeling Language. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from Object Management Group (OMG): http://www.omg.org/gettingstarted/what_is_uml.htm

Putnam, D. (2000‐2008). Team Size Can Be the Key to a Successful Project. Retrieved July 25, 2008, from Quantitative Software Management (QSM): http://www.qsm.com/process_01.html

Rational Software. (2005, July 23). Rational Unified Process: Best Practices for Software Development Teams. Retrieved July 23, 2008, from IBM: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/253.html

Receiver. (2006, December 24). This just in. Playing the news. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from Vodafone Receiver Magazine: http://www.vodafone.com/flash/receiver/17/articles/index07.html

Scrum Alliance. (2003‐2008). Scrum Ceremonies. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from Scrum Alliance: http://www.scrumalliance.org/view/scrum_ceremonies

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Serious Games Initiative. (2008, February 2). Retrieved June 17, 2008, from Serious Games Initiative: http://www.seriousgames.org

Smith, R. D. (1998). Simulation Article. Retrieved June 30, 2008, from Encyclopedia of Computer Science: http://www.modelbenders.com/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html

The Agile Alliance. (2001). Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Retrieved July 23, 2008, from Manifesto for Agile Software Development: http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

USINFO. (2006, July). Handbook of Independent Journalism. Retrieved July 5, 2008, from International Information Programs : http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/journalism/whatis.htm

Young People's Press. (2008). Unit 1: Lesson 1.1 ‐‐ What Is News? Retrieved July 5, 2008, from Young People's Press: http://www.ypp.net/pdfs_writersguide/unit1.pdf

3.8 Ludography Each game is listed in the format: Name (platform), developer, publisher, release year.

Americas Army (PC), U.S. Army, U.S. Army, 2002.

Battlezone (Arcade game), Atari Inc., Atari Inc., 1980.

Capitalism II (PC), Enlight Software Ltd., Ubisoft Entertainment, 2001.

Chaturanga (Board game), Unknown developer.

Chess (Board game), Unknown developer.

Command & Conquer (PC), Westwood Studios, Virgin Interactive, 1996

Dash’n’Crash (PC), KathArt Interactive, The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, 2007.

Darfur Is Dying (PC), Suzana Ruiz and interFUEL, mtvU, 2006.

Diner Dash (PC), Gamelab, PlayFirst, 2004

Doom (PC), id Software, GT Interactive, 1993.

Electric Company Math Fun (Intellivision), APh Technological Consulting, Mattel Electronics, 1979.

Energy Czar (Atari 8‐bit), Atari Inc., Atari Inc., 1980.

Fast Food Tycoon (PC), Software 2000, Activision Value Publishing, Inc., 2000.

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Grand Theft Auto III (PlayStation 2), DMA Design Limited, Rockstar Games, Inc., 2001.

Kids on Keys (Atari 8‐bit, Commodore 64), Spinnaker Software Corporation, Spinnaker Software Corporation, 1983.

Kriegspiel (Board game), Lieutenant Von Reisswitz, German military, 1824.

Marine Doom (PC), id Software, modified by U.S. Marine Corps, 1996.

Oregon Trail (Multiple platforms), Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC), Brøderbund Software, 1971 – 2001.

Senet (Board game), Unknown developer.

September 12th (PC), Gonzalo Frasca, Newsgaming.com, 2003.

SimCity (Amiga), Maxis Software Inc., Maxis Software Inc., 1989.

Space Invaders (Atari 2600), Taito Corporation, Midway, 1978.

Summer Games (Commodore 64), Epyx, U.S. Gold, 1984

Tetris (Multiple platforms), Alexey Pajitnov, various, 1985.

The Prison Life Paris (PC), The Game Show Network, The Game Show Network, 2007.

Typing of the Dead (PC), Smilebit, Empire Interactive Entertainment, 2001.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego(Multiple platforms), Brøderbund Software, Brøderbund Software , 1985.

Zidane Head Butt Game (PC), Alberto Zanot, AddictingGames.com, 2006.

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Appendix A Contents of CD‐Rom

The enclosed CD‐Rom contains the following files and folders:

(Folder) Links to published games online

(Folder) Newsgames

(Folder) Bræk i Garnet

(Folder) Source Project

(Folder) Game

(File) PlayGame.html

(Folder) Byen Brænder

(Folder) Ol I Fakkelflugt

(Folder) Plejer er Død

(File) Master’s Thesis – Newsgames, Rapid Game Development In Small Teams

(PDF) (DOC) (DOCX)

Located at the root level of the CD‐Rom you will find the complete master’s thesis in a PDF version and both a DOC (Word 2003) and DOCX (Word 2007) version.

The folder Links to published games online contains shortcuts to the newsgames published at www.dr.dk. (Shortcuts last updated 11 July 2008)

The folder Newsgames contains the four newsgames. In each of their respective folders you will find a Source Project and a Game folder. The Source Project folder contains all the source files for the game while the Game folder contains the playable game itself. A game is started by clicking the PlayGame.html file in which the game is launched inside your default browser.

In case your version of Flash is older than version 8 you need to upgrade to a newer one. At the root of the Newsgames folder is a shortcut to Adobe’s website where the latest Flash Player can be downloaded. Also placed here is a link to the newsgaming project blog.

Note: In case you have trouble reading the CD‐Rom its entire contents can be downloaded from http://www.kn9.dk/thesis.

Enjoy.

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