The document discusses different genres of games including artificial life games, puzzle games, and games for girls. Artificial life games involve simulating biological processes and populations of organisms. A subgenre is artificial pets which focus on caring for and interacting with simulated pets. Puzzle games are primarily about puzzle solving and can incorporate puzzles into storylines. They need to be challenging but not too difficult. The document also discusses how computers allow for puzzles that would be difficult to create in the real world and enable features like automatically generating puzzles and enforcing rules. Finally, it notes that historically, few games were designed specifically for girls despite research showing differences in how girls play games.

1. THE GENRES OF GAMES
Artificial Life, Puzzle Games, and Other
Genres
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2. Lecture Objective:
To understand artificial life, puzzle games, and other
genres
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3. Artificial Life
Artificial Life
Artificial Life is a branch of computer science research, jut as artificial
intelligence is.
Artificial Life (A-Life) involves modeling biological processes, often to
simulate the life cycles of living things
A-life researchers hope to discover new ways of using computers by using
biological mechanisms
Typically, A-life games are about maintaining and growing a manageable
population of organisms, each of which is unique
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4. Artificial Life
Artificial Pets
Artificial Pets is a subcategory of A-Life. Artificial Pets is
simulated animals that live on your computer, either in a
environment of their own or on your desktop
They can be simulated to a real animals as in Petz series
developed by PF.Magic. Others example is Tamagotchi
(key chain)
Artificial Pets are almost always cute. The nature of their
Gameplay concentrates on training and maintenance, and
Petz watching them do endearing things.
They seldom reproduce or die, and the player usually
wants to interact with only one or two at once.
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5. Artificial Life
If the player is going to spend much time looking at A-Pet, then the pet
need to have quite a lot of AI – a variety of things and behaviors.
An artificial pet should have emotions/moods, playing, teasing, grooming,
fighting and so on. But the important thing is being able to learn.
An artificial pet should have emotions/moods, playing, teasing, grooming,
fighting and so on. But the important thing is being able to learn.
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6. Artificial Life
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7. Artificial Life
A-Pet is software toy rather than a game because it doesn’t have much
challenge or a victory condition.
A software toy is a term for entertainment software that you just play
around with, without trying to defeat an opponent or achieve victory.
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8. Artificial Life
Genetic A-Life Game
It is easy enough to say that CMSs are about process, but has to be a meaningfully
displayed on a computer screen, and it must fire the player’s imagination.
CMSs take place in the context of a physical space, usually a two-dimension
world in which buildings or other objects can be constructed.
Eg.
• Caesar is about building an ancient Roman town, so the setting is a landscape
near a river.
• Civilization is about exploring a world while at the same time advancing a
civilization both culturally and technology, so its setting is an entire
continent/several of them
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9. Puzzle Games
Puzzle Games
Many single-player computer games contain puzzles. Puzzle games are
games that are primarily about puzzle solving, sometimes without
incorporating the puzzles into a storyline or larger goal
To be a commercial success, a puzzle game needs to be challenging
(but not too hard), visually attractive and enjoyable to play.
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10. Puzzle Games
Scott Kim’s Eight Steps
He is a designer who creates puzzles for print media, websites and
computer games. (Step 1-4 : the process of specifying the rules,
Step 5-8 : the process of building the puzzles and the game itself :
1. Find Inspiration
• Source of inspiration is a play dynamic of some kind : flipping
switches, turning knobs, sliding objects around, or pick them up and
putting them down.
• There are more complex dynamics among object : balancing, reflection,
connection and transmission.
• Tetris was inspired by a non-computer game called Pentominoes.
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11. Puzzle Games
2. Simplify
• Simplify the controls, figure out what the essential moves are, and devise
controls that implements them with a minimum of fiddling
3. Create a Construction Set
• The only way to be sure that a puzzle concept works is to play it. You can
build a paper prototype or a simple version using Macromedia Flash to
see if it works
4. Define the rules
• This is the key part of puzzle design. Most puzzles are categorized in 4 things:
• Board : Is it a grid?, A network? Or there is no board at all?
• Pieces : How are they shaped? What pictures are on them?
• Moves : what side effects do they have?
• Goal/victory condition
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12. Puzzle Games
5. Construct the puzzles
• A puzzle challenges the player to get from a problem to a solution. Every
puzzle requires that the player make choices, some will lead to dead ends.
• In adventure game, each puzzle appears in a story context that give
meaning and solving it will related to the storyline of the game.
6. Test
• Testing tells you several things. It tells you whether the puzzle is too
easy or too hard + it’s fun.
• It helps you also to find out if there are alternate solutions that you
didn’t think of.
• It helps in discovering errors in the rules and the interface design.
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13. Puzzle Games
7. Devise a sequence
• The most obvious arrangement is a linear sequence going for easy to difficult.
But in practice, that becomes tiring and discouraging.
• A better arrangement is a saw toothshape which get difficult for a while, then
goes back to an easy puzzle over and over.
• You also need to think about transitions between puzzle, something that will
keep her moving on to the next one.
8. Pay attention to presentation.
• There are other details of game design : sound, graphical style, animation, user
interface elements, storyline and so on.
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14. Puzzle Games
What Computes Brings to Puzzles
Computer enable us to make a lot of puzzles that would be impossible or very
expensive to create in the real world.
a. Enable non-physical or awkward
• The computer can let players do things that don’t correspond to physical
actions in the real world. Eg. Changing color of something.
• You can also let the player control several things at once with just one key,
something that would be awkward to do in a physical implementation.
b. Include computation features
• You can use the computing power available to automatically generate new
puzzles, find solutions to the current puzzle or generate hints about what the
player should do next.
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15. Puzzle Games
3. Enforce the rules
• In a lot of physical puzzles, it’s up to the player to enforce the rules on
himself/herself. Some times players make mistakes and break the rules
accidentally. A computer game can make sure that never happens.
4. Undo and record moves
• This is very useful feature for games involves moving objects around in a
sequence.
5. Structure the experience.
• The computer allows you to present the experience in a particular order, if
necessary passing automatically from one phase to another
• In the real world, the player would be looking at the instructions and saying
“Lets see, what am I supposed to do next?”
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16. Puzzle Games
6. Teach
• You can include tutorial modes and step-by-step instructions to help your
player get into the game.
7. Utilize bells and whistle
• Obviously, with sound and animation, you can make a puzzle much more
aesthetically interesting on the computer than it would be as a physical
object.
8. Enable online play
• The computer lets players compete against one another, compare solutions,
and be part of a puzzle-solving community.
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17. Games For Girls
Games for Girls
The game industry has always been overwhelmingly male,
and male developers have tended to design games that they
themselves would like.
For most of the industry’s history, no one made an effort to
design games specifically for girls, or even to think much
about what kinds of games girls would like.
Purple Moon did a great deal of research to try to discover
how girls play games and what what kind of games they
Purple Moon would like. Unfortunately it didn’t sell very well, and
eventually Purple Moon got into financial trouble and was
sold to Mattel (a toy company).
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18. Games For Girls
But some people are continuing to make money with games for girls.
Don’t be mistaken girls and women. Adults women are more diverse than
children are.
But some people are continuing to make money with games for girls. Don’t
be mistaken girls and women. Adults women are more diverse than children
are.
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19. Games For Girls
Mattel’s Approach. ( Manufacturer of Barbie – single most famous toy for
girls in the world.)
If you want to make games specifically for girls, you have to ask yourself what
girls are especially interested in- and perhaps more important what they’re NOT
interested in.
Mattel has had great success developing games for girls because it understands
its target market.
Part of the reason for Barbie’s success is that it was is aimed a core age group
from 4-8 years old; after that, girls interests change. Mattel does not try for one-
sizes-fits-all approach.
Barbie Games
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20. Games For Girls
Developing Games For Girls
Jesyca Durchin is the owner of the consulting company Nena Media
which creates media content for young girls.
She is also a former executive producer for Mattel. At the 200 Game
Developer’s Conference, she gave an extremely useful summary of what
she had learned about girls.
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21. Games For Girls
1. Girls Have a Wide Variety of Interests
It is vital to identify what type of girl is interested in your type of game.
Girls are much more fragmented in their interests than boys. Girls change
more rapidly, and their emotional and intellectual growth happens
differently. A girl will have different needs in the playtime almost every
year of the childhood-loosely defining childhood to be ages 4-14
2. Girls like stuff
Stuff is what the girl can collect. Display or take away from the product.
It is incredibly important for the girl to feel there is a reason for her to
play. In some ways, collecting stuff replaces the concept of scoring in
traditional boy’s software. Collecting each one of a variety of shells, for
example is more interesting than trying to achieve a high but abstract,
numerical score.
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22. Games For Girls
3. Hinge Interactivity on Proven Play Patterns
A play pattern is a traditional and almost instinctual way a child will approach
an object or an activity to entertain her. Girls traditionally value the
following:
•· Fashion
•· Glamour play
•· Nurture play
•· Adventure play
•· Action/twitch play
•· Collection play
•· Communication/social play
As well as exercising their own imaginations, girls like to reproduce daily life
in play. Barbie is a vehicle for projecting adult activities into a child’s world.
Don’t be afraid of open-ended or non-goal-oriented play
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23. Games For Girls
4. Create Environments That Are Attractive to Girls
Girls like environments that are reality-based but either are beautiful or
make sense to the story line. Symmetry and color coherency are important to
girls. Not everything has to be pink, purple, and pretty, but each
environment should give the girl the feeling of being in another place. Girls
(and boys) are highly imaginative, and they will create alternative storylines
in their own heads. Be aware that the girl’s imagination will influence her in
view of your environment
5. Extend the Play from Existing Toys or Media into Software
Branding is becoming more and more important in the business of software.
It is doubly important in the girl’s software business because girls are still
just getting involved in viewing the computer as an entertainment tool.
Branding is important to rising above all the muck
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24. Games For Girls
6. Girls Appreciate Sensual Interfaces
Girls tend to respond more positively to sensual interface. They need
colorful, sound-driven interfaces that “feel” good. The interface needs to
feel magical. Don’t give girls a group of identical gray pushbuttons, no
matter how logically organized they may be; give them buttons that ring
and change shape and color.
7. Don’t be Ashamed of your work
If you’re embarrassed by what you’re doing, it will show. Do it whole
hearty or don’t do it at all. Girls can tell if you’re ashamed of making
games for them. If you’re uncomfortable using terms like “hair play” or
“relationship games” don’t bother.
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25. Games For Girls
A Few Misconceptions
Girls don’t like computer games because computers are technical
-not all girls
Girls don’t like violence
- what they don’t like is nonstop meaningless violence
Girls want everything to be happy and sweet
- girl sometimes capable of being hurtful.
Girls don’t like to be scared.
- girls like spooky but not scary.
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