Prototyping and Pitching Playfully Serious Games
10 Dec 2019 DHdownunder workshop 9.12.2019 Newcastle Australia

1. Prototyping and Pitching Playfully Serious Games
10 Dec 2019 DHdownunder workshop
Erik Champion, Curtin University erik.champion@curtin.edu.au twitter @nzerik

2. Instructions
1/2 day workshop: the simulation of places, events and cultures
through computer game interaction.
1. We begin with introductions and inspirations: are there
particular ideas you would like to see in more playful form?
2. Short talk on game types, game mechanics, how games can be
used in the humanities, simple tools and software.
3. Work in groups of 2-4 on a simple game level prototype.
4. Pitch your idea to class using physical or digital media.
5. Please bring a laptop if possible, pen and paper.

3. 2019 DHD Programme 9-12.30
Intros (20 minutes): YOU: name, research topic,
game you liked+why, idea for project?
9:00:00 9:20:00
Overview: games, prototyping (40 minutes) 9:20:00 10:00:00
Group suggest ideas (10 minutes) 10:00:00 10:10:00
Short break/questions (20 minutes) 10:10:00 10:30:00
Selection of teams (10 minutes) 10:30:00 10:40:00
WORK on game prototypes, playtest solutions
OR describe gamification of simulations
10:40:00 12:10:00
Present prototypes in class (20 minutes) 12:10:00 12:30:00

4. DONE DIRT CHEAP-Collect glyphs to develop power-Morrowind Mod 2005

5. WHY Digital games??
PROs
• easy to change, simple IDE
• easy to involve students
• online forums help biggest
• active modding community
• inbuilt performance eval.
• interaction more intuitive
• Different ways of learning
CONs
• fast-moving technology (?)
• less coding flexibility (?)
• looked down upon
• no pro support
• artistic skill vs hist. accuracy
• evaluating without disturbing
• genre baggage

6. Serious Games For Prototyping?
“Playing games? It’s a serious way to win community backing for change “
https://theconversation.com/playing-games-its-a-serious-way-to-win-
community-backing-for-change-116171 and https://www.audrc.org/

7. History through game engines
• Resource management
• Learn social behaviour (chat,
observation, mimicry)
• Visualise scale, landscape or
climate
• Depict levels of uncertainty
• Filter, reconfigure, reconstruct
• Immersion in excitement of
the times
• Select correct objects or
appearance to move about the
‘world’, trade, advance social
role or period of time
• Decipher codes, language,
avoid traps
• Online walkthrough by teacher
or inhabitant
• Collaborative storytelling (in-
world role-playing, film-making)

8. 1.communicate cultural
significance
2.manage technical change
3.demonstrate archaeological
method & principle
4.convey inhabitants’ viewpoints
5.link scholarly or intangible data
6.help communities convey
traditions
Not clear how to

9. Defining Games: engaging challenge?
• 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. (Juul 2003, para 15).
• A system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a
quantifiable outcome. (Salen and Zimmerman, 2004).
• Possibility of temporary or permanent tactical resolution without conflict (mimesis,
vertigo, chance?)
• Discounts games that may never have a final outcome (e.g. cricket)
• No mention of the importance of strategy.
• An engaging challenge that offers up non-harmful outcomes to the real world situation of the
participant (Champion, 2006).

10. Example: bust a cup
• Engaging challenge
• Feedback + reward system
• Easy to learn, hard to master
• It needs 2 players
• Some element of danger
• Anyone can build one
• Games and prototypes don’t
have to be digital
https://shakethatbutton.com/bust-a-cup/
Stuff used :
– pieces of wood
– hammers
– locks and
chains
– coffee cups
Created by : Brian Shrank & Brian Gabor Jr.

11. Defining Gamification
1. Addition to websites and learning environments of
quantifiable actions, can be ranked and processed (info
stored), immediate & vastly exaggerated feedback &
graphically designed in idiom of games.
2. Game-based rules structures & interfaces by corps “to
manage and control brand-communities and to create
value”, attraction of gamification to business and derision it
has received (Fuchs 2013).
3. Goal in mind the player works to achieve; systematic or
emergent rules; considered a form of play or competition
• Critics! (Bogost 2011; Deterding et al. 2011; Fuchs 2014).

12. “Gamification Is Bullshit” (Ian Bogost)
• BUT http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/10/
can-we-use-game-mechanics-for.html
1. Games inherently fun, vs
gamification makes (tries to
make) things fun.
2. Games: space, action,
movement, verbs.
3. Gamify: actions are tasks duties
or work.
4. Can’t directly apply game
mechanics to gamification.
Inherent game play and discovery
goes beyond gamification?
University of Trondheim: Renaissance books, hands on alchemy

13. Games have desirable goals

14. Roger Caillois: forms of play?
challenge modes Engages because you Archaeology Examples Pros/Cons
Competition Agon
(competition /
strategy)
Compete against people,
long-term decision making
Civilization? All those build
empire games..
-Means to end
+Strategic
+ Engaging
Chance Alea
Handle unpredictability,
humour
Could Spore be an
archaeology game?
-No causality
+ Engaging
Vertigo Ilinx
Mastery of commitment,
mental focus, multi-tasking
The extreme parkour of
Assassin’s creed?
-Distracts
+Ergodic
appreciation
+ Engaging
Mimicry mimesis
Observation, control and
humour and roleplaying
Maybe if Sims 4 was used
as anthropological
machinima?
-Difficult for interfaces
+Build empathy
+ Engaging

15. Mechanics: evade definitions
1. Action constrained by gameplay-Sicart 2008
2. “..tools, techniques, and widgets for gamifying a website or application.”
Badgevillle
3. “constructs of rules or methods designed for interaction with the game
state..” Wiki
4. "..any major chunk of gameplay in a video game..” Michael Stout,
5. Fixed and unchanging subsystem-Al Nelson, Quora
6. How you interact with the game dynamic, the generic gameplay methods-
Ryan Allen
7. Methods by which the game moves forward, BGDF
8. Describes the game components at level of data representation and
algorithms. (Hunicke et al)

16. 4-5 Types of Mechanics
1. Game progression mechanics (progress the player through the game)
2. Performance mechanics / Rewards and skills mastery mechanics (encourage
player to improve + extend their range of skills and judgement)
3. Narrative mechanics (progress /unfold or bring together apparent story
threads in relation to game play). Are dramatic mechanics a subset?
4. Behavioural and Role assimilation mechanics (mechanics which become habit
through repeated game play, and accustom players to see things in certain
ways)
5. Insight and reversal mechanics (disrupt the in-game or real-world expectations
+ presumptions of the player acquired previously or during game to reveal
viewpoint taken for granted, or supplant a view created by game play.

17. Reversing Game Mechanics
• In Space invaders you
normally shoot down
aliens.
• What if you were an alien
refugee feeling destruction
and tried to land
peacefully on earth?
• Video: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=oSDd_ytw4T4
Games can reverse stereotypes
e.g. Space Refugees (Zach Whalen)

18. Never alone
Website http://neveralonegame.com/
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM_80zVzwpI
Shapeshifters roam the tundra in many Alaska Native stories.
Shapeshifters roam the tundra in many Alaska Native stories.
When was the last time a video game told you about a whole other culture? Took you somewhere remote you'd only heard about in passing, and let the people
who've lived there speak to you in a generations-old voice? Never Alone does that all-too-rare thing and does it very well.

19. https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/3/17800798/this-land-is-my-land-
preview-native-american-western-stealth-game
This Land is My Land takes a different view of the Wild West than Red Dead Redemption
This Land is My Land takes a different view of the Wild West than Red Dead Redemption

20. Some persuasive (?) games
• Ian Bogost (2007) defined procedural rhetoric as ‘a practice of using processes persuasively.’
http://bogost.com/books/persuasive_games/
• Description https://ahatter.wordpress.com/serious-video-games/procedurality-and-
september-12/
• Game http://www.newsgaming.com/games/index12.htm download windows version

21. Ian Bogost (2007) defined procedural rhetoric as ‘a
practice of using processes persuasively.’
1. What is success, defined by whom?
2. Too formalist? Better OR just for serious games?
3. How does PR work with agency, freedom of a player to
choose?
4. Is Rhetoric empty argument? How does PR differ to
Gamification?
5. Traditional rhetoric (speech +writing + oratory) also
spatial? Can sequentially experienced art be PR?
Karnak, Acropolis?
6. Rhetoric depends on memory, does it work for people
with different cognitive load, with different strategies/
game-play, learning modalities?
7. Players often distort or misunderstand the rules!
8. Too similar to gamification?

22. Design Stage

23. Designing a Game Not A Walkthrough
• What is the goal? Why try to achieve it?
• Why is it an engaging challenge? Does it involve
competition/mastery, chance, imitation, controlling
vertigo/rush of movement/flight?
• What is the feedback system, affordances and
constraints, rewards and punishments?
• Does it level up/use mechanics to advance?
• How does it offer different strategies, options?
• What is learnt during or after the experience?

24. Designing a Prototype
1. How would your game provide an engaging challenge?
2. What is the core game play?
3. How is the player given feedback and how are they rewarded?
4. How would you create game balance, not too hard or too easy
(unlike most software, games are easy to learn and hard to master)
5. How will mechanics advance the stages or levels of the game?
6. Does your prototype convey the above simply, effectively, in a fun
way?
7. How will your prototype convey the fun AND catch any problems?
8. Will you ask friends or colleagues to test the prototype?

25. Questions to Ask When Designing
1. What should be experienced & interacted with, as specifically
as possible.
2. Why create a specific experience in a game? (Our objectives?)
3. Where will it be played? (Environment, imaginative setting?)
4. How to convey the experience of the site, artefact or model?
1. Systems, methods, or findings leading to engaging learning experiences?
2. Reveal what is unknown or debated (how knowledge is established or
contested)?
3. Interpretative systems or to test, demo, pose / test a scholarly argument?
5. When will the player receive suitable feedback?

26. 6 Steps
1. Determine cultural, historical or archaeological facts and interpretations of the site or model
that are significant, hidden, or otherwise appropriate, engaging or transformative to
explore.
2. Consider the environment it will be played in, not just the type of audience, together, alone,
on a bus, in a lecture theatre, at a museum?
3. Design a game rather than a virtual environment: choose a challenge (Caillois’ modes of
game experience or some other theory), and how core game play affects and is affected by
the modality of experience. #2 and #3 also give us an idea of a setting and theme.
4. Define the core gameplay, what does the player typically do? Does the game scale,
changing in effectiveness and complexity over time? Increasing complexity keeps interest.
5. Develop a reward and punishment system; how do the rewards and punishments interact
with the core gameplay and move the game along (i.e. trigger its mechanics)?
6. End meaningfully. What is the end state? How will the game mechanics help us get there?
Does reaching the end state create an intentional specific reflection, knowledge
development, interpretation, experience or other feeling in the player?

27. Cultural
Significance,
Hidden
features,
uniqueness
Place/context
Move,
Compete,
Chance, Mimic
Engaging Challenge
What does the
player
typically do?
Core game play
Changes
game
state,
Feedback
to player
Mechanics
Reward,
Punishment,
Hierarchical?
Free?
GOALS
Methods; Facts;
Tools;
Techniques,
Strategies
Abilities: Spatial
coordination;
Reflexes;
Observations;
Memory; timing.
What is Learnt?

28. Cultural
Significance,
Hidden
features,
uniqueness
Place/context
Move,
Compete,
Chance, Mimic
Engaging Challenge
What does the
player
typically do?
Core game play
Changes
game
state,
Feedback
to player
Mechanics
Reward,
Punishment,
Hierarchical?
Free?
GOALS
Methods; Facts;
Tools;
Techniques,
Strategies
Abilities: Spatial
coordination;
Reflexes;
Observations;
Memory; timing.
What is Learnt?

30. Miguel Escobar, Heritage Interfaces 2016, NUS Singapore
Consider THEMATIC interfaces
Miguel Escobar

31. You need to challenge and build on each others ideas!
(3 groups from 2018)

32. Draw with movement!
(3 groups from 2019)

33. Exercise: Rapid prototyping (groups)
https://www.iamnotmypixels.com/how-to-use-crazy-8s-to-generate-design-ideas/
• Gather together your UX supplies, including A4 paper, markers and sticky dots
• Give each person an A4 sheet of paper and ask them to draw eight boxes on it. Or, for even
more ease, simply use my free downloadable Crazy 8’s template!
• Set a timer for 8 minutes and ask the group to sketch 8 quick ideas each in 8 minutes
• When the timer pings, everyone stops sketching
• At this point (time-dependent) you can either:
– Ask people to present their top three ideas to the group
– Ask people pick their three favourite ideas. Give them 6 more minutes to sketch out
these three ideas further. Then ask them to present them to the group.
• Give everyone 2 sticky dots, vote on their favourite ideas out of the whole group
– NB UX sketching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oakzPi2urR8
– https://www.tandemseven.com/experience-design/ux-agile-run-product-design-sprint/
– https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/40-hours-to-prototype/)
https://www.iamnotmypixels.com/how-to-use-
crazy-8s-to-generate-design-ideas/

34. Designing interactions..
• Download and read chapter
10 People and Prototypes
http://
www.designinginteractions.c
om/download plus tribute
to Bill Moggridge (optional)
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=PWkk9sr_GOs
• How prototypes helped
Apple https://
www.cultofmac.com/
488008/jony-ive-book-
excerpt-iphone/

35. Examples in Augmented Reality
• AR prototype with cartoon https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYFk25OQJ_8
(effects: SPARK AR Studio https://
sparkar.facebook.com/ar-studio/
• AR Creator Cartoon https://
apps.apple.com/au/app/ar-creator-
cartoon/id1374011229)
• WebXR tutorial https://
codelabs.developers.google.com/
codelabs/ar-with-webxr/#0
Building an augmented reality (AR)
application using the WebXR Device API

36. Twine: to prototype games
http://www.sibylmoon.com/twine-as-a-
prototyping-tool/
1. User flows.
2. Code architecture.
3. Branching narratives.
4. Other branching game structures.
https://
rmcphersonnarrativedesign.wordpress.c
om/2015/03/30/to-live-using-twine-as-a-
prototyping-tool/
With sugar cube https://
opensource.com/article/18/2/twine-
gaming
Explanation, interactive fiction examples
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/
LizEngland/20150313/238709/
What_is_Twine_For_Developers.php
https://www.christytuckerlearning.com/
branching-scenario-prototype-in-twine/
• Venus Meets Venus by
kaleidofish, Twine (2014). Free
http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?
id=fbvvkywbvcovbinl
• the uncle who works for
nintendo by Michael Lutz
(2014), Twine. Free http://
ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?
id=dwgm9le9d8uh2ibq
[https://ztul.itch.io/the-uncle-
who-works-for-nintendo] horror
Some twine stories

37. Twine examples
• https://www.mcvuk.com/development/a-guide-to-twine (many examples)
• https://www.mcvuk.com/development/developer-guide-what-is-twine
• http://www.sfwa.org/creating-interactive-fiction-guide-using-twine/
• https://jennaherdman.gitbooks.io/a-digital-humanities-primer-for-english-students/
content/Twine%20Tool%20Tutorial.html
• Twine wiki
• TwineHub
• Free twine hosting http://philome.la/allieisanant/merry-wanderer play free game http://
philome.la/allieisanant/merry-wanderer/play
• https://jennaherdman.gitbooks.io/a-digital-humanities-primer-for-english-students/
content/Digital%20Mapping.html Digital Mapping Tool Tutorial
• https://jennaherdman.gitbooks.io/a-digital-humanities-primer-for-english-students/
content/Twine%20Tool%20Tutorial.html

38. Ink/inkle
https://www.inklestudios.com/blog/ OR https://www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter/
Play demo the intercept https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/theintercept/
Code https://github.com/inkle/the-intercept/blob/master/Assets/Ink/TheIntercept.ink
Heaven’s Vault

39. Storyboarding
https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/storyboarding-vs-prototyping-when-to-use-each--
cms-28707

40. • “Storyboards and Sketch Prototypes for Rapid Interface Visualization
– “Describe the task with a series of images, showing the user, the environment, and
the computer.” OR
– “Describe the interface with a series of screen images, indicating the user’s
representation and the computer’s response.” [“what happens next?”]
• Storyboarding vs. Prototyping: When to Use Each
• https://Create Storyboards for your web comics
– What event or user interaction causes which things to animate
– How said things animate
– Why the animation improves the interaction
• How to storyboard your game tools i.e. Canv
Storyboard tips

41. Storyboard tools
• https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator free
trial
• https://schools.pixton.com/schools/overview free trial
• https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/top-10-storyboard-
software-of-2016-free-storyboard-templates/ not all free
nb https://www.shotprofessional.com/

42. Game card prototypes
• https://streamlinedgaming.com/how-to-make-a-board-game-prototype/
(nanDECK for windows)
• How to design a board or card game: 10 prototyping tips
• http://www.storybench.org/classroom-card-game-teach-digital-
storytelling-skills/ (download cards http://storybench.org/docs/
storydeck.pdf)
• Card editor https://bitbucket.org/mattsinger/card-editor free (https://
www.npmjs.com/package/card-game-generator)
• http://www.CardsAgainstHumanity.com Ask a question from a Black Card,
everyone else answers with funniest White Card. […] download PDF here
• https://www.patreon.com/paperize (beta) download video or Github
• https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/991506/resources-card-game-makers

43. Using presentation software
•Using Powerpoint to prototype your UI:
•http://boxesandarrows.com/interactive-prototypes-with-
powerpoint/
•https://medium.com/berlin-lean-prototyping/5-tips-to-convert-your-
powerpoint-into-prototyping-tool-e02d96728efe
Apple keynote
•https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/08/animating-in-
keynote/
•https://keynotopia.com/guides/
•For iPhone https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-demo-
an-ios-prototype-in-keynote--cms-22279

44. 2D games
• https://www.pcgamer.com/the-
secret-history-of-underdog-
game-engine-rpg-maker-and-
how-it-got-its-bad-reputation//
• http://superpowers-html5.com/
index.en.html
• https://gdevelop-app.com/
• https://www.defold.com/ 2D
games
http://www.crayonphysics.com http://42bytes.rocks/two
http://www.drawastickman.com

45. Create Guided WebXR landscape tours?
https://sketchfab.com/

46. Scan the World
https://www.myminifactory.com/
scantheworld

47. Virtual Theater District of Pompeii
http://publicvr.org/html/pro_pompeii.html OR http://publicvr.org/
PompeiiVRML/ OR http://publicvr.org/images/UnrealPompeiiShots/
index.html

48. • draw with VR
• Export to Unity from TiltVR/HTC Vive-Oculus
Rebecca Kerr, Curtin https://rebeccaknotebook.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/interactive-
Draw 3D in VR (Tilt brush)

49. Photogrammetry: free
• https://alicevision.github.io/ tutorials at https://
www.blendernation.com/2018/08/26/how-to-photoscan-
easy-and-free-meshroom-and-blender/
– Meshlab + Sketchfab+ Regard3D (a free and open source
structure-from-motion program.)

50. Other tools
• GIMP
• BLENDER
• INKSCAPE (a professional vector graphics
editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux - free
and open source) https://inkscape.org/en/
• https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/ new beta
version

51. Prototype with AR
https://developers.google.com/ar/
discover/
https://developer.apple.com/augmented-
reality/
•http://argonjs.io/
•Magic book AR
•Apple ARKit or Google ARCore
•Six Top Tools to Build Augmented Reality Mobile Apps

52. AR VR
• https://skarredghost.com/2018/03/03/create-webvr-
experience-using-unity/
• https://medium.com/@stew_rtsmith/space-rocks-technical-
deep-dive-9bf67fb8a467
• https://www.pcmag.com/feature/362057/how-unity-is-
building-its-future-on-ar-vr-and-ai
• https://aframe.io/ Make WebVR with HTML for Vive, Rift,
Daydream, GearVR, desktop
• Design tool for AR and VR
• Storyboard AR free but windows/HTC Vive only

53. SENSORY urban history?
Bodily Experiences-smell Indirect Biofed Environments
http://www.dead-mens-eyes.org/
Champion and Dekker, Biofeedback and Virtual Environments, IJAC 2011 or. http://
papers.cumincad.org/data/works/att/caadria2011_023.content.pdf
The ARtefactKit - Stu Eve

54. http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2018/02/23/189-
gaming-the-past-with-jeremiah-mccall/ audio

55. The End?
https://medium.com/seed-digital/
how-to-business-model-canvas-
explained-ad3676b6fe4a