2016-14 Virtual Sensation I

Virtual Sensation I
3/21/16
Scale
Time Units
1000000000
Decades
100000000
Years
10000000
Months
1000000
Weeks
100000
Days
10000
Hours
Activities/Processes
Grand Strategy
Major Strategy
1000
10 Minutes
100
Minutes
Tactics
10
10 Seconds
Minor Tactics
1
Second
0.1
100 ms
0.01
10 ms
0.001
1 ms
Social and Organizational
Psychology
Strategy
Operations
1/3 Second
World (Theory)
Interactive Routines
(Critical Path Analysis)
Bounded Rationality /
Behavioral Economics
Cognition (symbolic)
Perception and Action
Neuroscience
Biology (subsymbolic)
Scale
Time Units
1000000000
Decades
100000000
Years
10000000
Months
1000000
Weeks
100000
Days
10000
Hours
Activities/Processes
Grand Strategy
Major Strategy
1000
10 Minutes
100
Minutes
Tactics
10
10 Seconds
Minor Tactics
1
Second
0.1
100 ms
0.01
10 ms
0.001
1 ms
Social and Organizational
Psychology
Strategy
Operations
1/3 Second
World (Theory)
Interactive Routines
(Critical Path Analysis)
Bounded Rationality /
Behavioral Economics
Cognition (symbolic)
Perception and Action
Neuroscience
Biology (subsymbolic)
Scale
Time Units
1000000000
Decades
100000000
Years
10000000
Months
1000000
Weeks
100000
Days
10000
Hours
Activities/Processes
Grand Strategy
Major Strategy
1000
10 Minutes
100
Minutes
Tactics
10
10 Seconds
Minor Tactics
1
Second
0.1
100 ms
0.01
10 ms
0.001
1 ms
Social and Organizational
Psychology
Strategy
Operations
1/3 Second
World (Theory)
Interactive Routines
(Critical Path Analysis)
Bounded Rationality /
Behavioral Economics
Cognition (symbolic)
Perception and Action
Neuroscience
Biology (subsymbolic)
The Three Building
Blocks of Game Feel
• Real-Time Control
• Simulated Space
• Polish
Real-Time Control
• All interactivity is a “cyclic process in which
two active agents alternately (and
metaphorically) listen, think and
speak” (Chris Crawford)
• Real-Time Control is a specific form of
interactivity that takes place in “continuous
time”
• Starting definition: Game feel is real-time
control of virtual objects
Simulated Space
• Simulated physical interactions in virtual
space, perceived actively by the player
• Collision detection and response between
the player’s real-time-controlled avatar and
objects in the game world
• Level design!
• Updated definition: Game feel is the realtime control of virtual objects in simulated
space
Polish
• Any effect which artificially enhances
interaction without changing the underlying
simulation
• Emphasizes the physical nature of
interactions, helping the player see the
objects as real (not including collision)
Side Note: McGurk
Effect
Our Final Definition
• Game feel is real-time control of virtual
objects in a simulated space, with
interactions emphasized by polish
Experiences of Game
Feel
Experiences
Unique Physical
Reality
Flow
Extend Identity
Aesthetic
Sensation
of Control
Skill and Learning
Real-Time Control
Building Blocks
Appeal
Polish
Extend Senses
Spatial Immersion
Simulated Space
Aesthetic Sensation of
Control
• When a player refers to controls feeling
“smooth,” “floaty,” or “stiff,” they are
referring to the raw feeling of operating an
object
• There is a large palette of sensations for
designers to draw from
• How does the game respond to input? What
are the mappings between input and motion?
Skill
• In order to achieve certain results in a real-time
context, we must learn coordinated muscle
movements
• The same process goes on in sports, but with most
games the movements are smaller and more
focused
• with games you can change the properties of
the world (!)
• Skillful control is a different experience than “just”
control
Game Feel and Skill
• Sensation of control is affected by challenge:
by focusing the player on different areas of the
possibility space of motion, you can reward
exploration
• The feel of the games changes depending on
the skill of the player
• When players can translate intent to outcome
without ambiguity, they find the controls to be
intuitive
Intuitive
New Challenge
Introduced
Clumsy
Bored
Success
Failure
Frustrated
Point of Highest
Frustration
Challenge
Frustration/
Anxiety
W
O
L
F
Boredom
Skill
Extension of the Senses
Extension of Identity
A Unique Physical
Reality
A Unique Physical
Reality
A Unique Physical
Reality
Summary thus Far
• Game feel is the real-time control of virtual
objects in a simulated space, with
interactions emphasized by polish
Summary thus Far
• Five kinds of experience:
• Aesthetic sensation of control
• Pleasure of learning, practicing, and
mastering a skill
• Extension of the senses
• Extension of identity
• Interaction with a unique physical reality
within the game
The Model Human
Processor
HUMAN
1. Senses (input)
Sight
Sound
Touch
Proprioception
2. Brain
what’s going
on here?
3. Muscles (output)
Arms
Hands
COMPUTER
6. Display (output)
Screen
Speakers
Rumble Motors
Joystick “pushback”, mouse position
5. Processor
4. Controller (input)
Mouse, Wiimote
Keyboard, Joystick
~100 ms
~70 ms
~70 ms
Perceptual
Cognitive
Motor
Goal Module
Imaginal Module
Declarative Module
Goal Buffer
Retrieval Buffer
Imaginal Buffer
Audio Module
Temporal Module
(pacemaker)
Procedural Module
Aural Buffer
Pattern Matching
Temporal Buffer
(accumulator)
Production Selection
Vocal Buffer
Production Execution
Visual-Location Buffer
Speech Module
Visual Buffer
Manual Buffer
Vision Module
Motor Module
Device Module
External World
Information from
Environment
Muscles
~100 ms
~70 ms
~70 ms
Perceptual
Cognitive
Motor
Goal
Eat Chicken Tikka Mahkani
Drive to Shalimar
Hierarchy of
Intentions
Turn right onto Fulton St.
Keep Car in Lane
Comparison
(cognitive processor)
Perception
Action
World
• Provide the impression of motion – 20 fps for a
tolerable minimum, 30 fps to be safe. Assumes
good motion blur!
• Instantaneous response – 30ms. 100ms lag is
noticeable but tolerable, 200ms feels sluggish
• Continuity of response – cycle time for the
computer’s half of the interaction needs to be
50ms maximum
If the average human response time is 240
milliseconds, with a theoretical minimum of
105ms, why is 50ms the slowest we can accept
for the computer’s response?
Concurrency!
time
perceive
frame 5
perceive
process
frame 4
respond
frame 3
perceive
process
frame 3
respond
process
frame 2
respond
frame 1
Perceptual
Processor
Cognitive
Processor
Motor
Processor
Homework
(due 3/28)
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/
Homework
The Hatchlings
Sunny Day Sky
Winterbells
High Delivery
Starry Night
The Pond
Fishball
The Snowrider
What Comes Around
Bauns
Pocketfull of Stars
Snowbowling
The Three Monkeys
Swordsman
Hold the Rope
Apple Season
Homework
• Describe how each game “feels.” Did it feel right
or wrong? If wrong, why?
• Were there any games where you felt compelled
to reach the high score list? Why that particular
game? (“Because I was good at it” is not a valid
response)
• Did the “cutesy” themes enhance or detract
from the experience? Out of the Orisinal
games, would any themes/mechanics be better
if switched with another in the group?