tower defense generator: a tool for supporting game design education
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
TOWER DEFENSE GENERATORA TOOL FOR SUPPORTING GAME DESIGN EDUCATION
Jose Zagal & Pitchatarn Lertudomtana
![Page 2: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Supporting Game Design Education How to help students better learn and
practice game design?
Should be easy! Expert players Passionate about games Have lots of game ideas
![Page 3: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Easy but…. (most) Students
Expert play does not (necessarily) lead to design skills
Can’t articulate design goals and intentions Have trouble coming up with innovative ideas
E.g. Want to make Halo 5!
How to leverage prior knowledge, yet allow for meaningful creativity?
See also: Zagal, J.P., Bruckman, A. (2009) "Novices, Gamers, and Scholars: Exploring the Challenges of Teaching About Games", Game Studies 8:2
![Page 4: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Tools For Supporting Game Design
Black Box White Box
Avoid overwhelming with ALL the details (white box)
Avoid inaccessibility and lack of agency (black box)
Let people create in powerful and meaningful ways
(but with interesting constraints)
Grey Box Tools
![Page 5: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Tower Defense Game Generator Tower Defense Game?
Players must Build/Position “Towers” (Static Defenses) Decide when to upgrade them
Towers automatically attack enemies (creeps) that advance towards an endpoint
![Page 6: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Tower Defense Games
Desktop Tower Defense (Preece 2007)Plants vs Zombies (PopCap Games 2009)
Simple to play, hard to understand deeply Deep and rich design space to explore
![Page 7: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Tower Defense Generator (TDG) Tool for Designing Tower Defense Games
Currently consists of: Map Generator Map Editor XML specification for towers, enemies &
waves Game Engine (for playtesting)
![Page 8: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Inspirations Constructional Design “a type of meta-design: [that] involves
the design of new tools and activities to support students in their own design activities” (Resnick et al., 1996)
Mixed-Initiative Design Computational Intelligence to Support
DesignersResnick, M., Bruckman, A., & Martin, F. (1996). Pianos Not Stereos: Creating Computational Construction Kits. Interactions, 3(5), 41-50.Smith, G., Whitehead, J., & Mateas, M. (2010). Tanagra: A Mixed-Initiative Level Design Tool. Paper presented at the FDG ’10: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.
![Page 9: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
“Intelligence” in the tool
Computational
Tool
Content(levels,
Provides Input
Designer
Generates, Filters,
and Outputs
Evaluates(tests, plays, edits)
Rapid Iteration
![Page 10: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Learn to Explore a Design Space
Several spawn pointsUnusual Dimensions
What makes a “good” map?
How are they different?
Pacing?
Decisions?
![Page 11: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Map Generator Baseline
Parameters E.g. Dimensions
Multiple Map Generation Heuristics Random Branching Cellular
Automata
![Page 12: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Enemies appear from here(yellow flag)
Enemies want to go here(checkered flag)
This is the path they’ll (currently) follow
(purple)
![Page 13: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Player can build anywhere that has a
“white box”
Enemies can’t walk through “brown”
border tiles
Enemies can walk over
anything with green borders
![Page 14: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Exploring Design Space Different heuristics generate different
“looking” maps
![Page 15: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Map Editor Support for “tweaking” maps
Maps that are “almost” there
![Page 16: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Game Engine Playtest maps
generated
Simple AI pathfinding
See what happens
![Page 17: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Helping Learners Reflect Heuristics for Map Generation
Flashlights that illuminate part of the design space
Allow for rapid iteration Refine parameters Identify “not-quite-there” maps LOTS of maps
“Just enough” agency
![Page 18: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Helping Learners Reflect
Focus on one of the “pillars” of a Tower Defense game while the
others are invariant
Terrain Towers
Enemies
![Page 19: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Current (and future) Work Formative assessment in formal
educational setting
Design/development of new features Allow designers to annotate with design
intentions/goals Develop new heuristics (map generation) Develop techniques for even faster
playtesting (game balancing)
![Page 20: Tower Defense Generator: A Tool for Supporting Game Design Education](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022021813/58847ae31a28ab5e248b6d0b/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Thank you for your time!(“Pre-Alpha”) Available : https://www.dropbox.com/s/xw2inqa18nl2mal/TowerD
efenseProject.exe PC Only (requires .NET and XNA) Warning: Pre-Alpha means “may not work
or have issues on your machine”
Jose [email protected]
http://facsrv.cdm.depaul.edu/~jzagal