New Website for Meaningful Gameplay, First Game Jam

I just launched a new website dedicated to creating meaningful gameplay: www.meaningfulgameplay.com. Other developers in the community seem to be interested in the idea, so I figured it deserved it’s own site. The goal is to create a resource for other game designers by developing prototypes that explore this topic and then analyze them and share that analysis.

The first post is to promote the first game jam for it. I mentioned the idea with my other Iowa Game-Dev Friendship buddies and people seemed pretty open to the idea. So our next game jam, scheduled for August 12-14, will be dedicated to meaningful gameplay. It will be held at BitMethod in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, and online at the Meaningful Gameplay website.

At the end of the jam, we’ll be submitting our prototypes and analyses to the website to begin creating a resource for the benefit of the game development community.

A Meaningful Gameplay Game Jam

In the last post I was wondering where the sense of urgency was for creating meaningful games. It even sparked some interesting discussion on whether or not one should reduce the solution to a formula. I don’t think we’re in a race, but I think there seems to be a disconnect between the number of people willing to play/calling for games that are more deeply meaningful and the number of people doing something about it.

A Definition

I shared this idea with several developers, and a few have asked “What does a meaningful game even mean?” A very fair question. Here is my own attempt at a definition of “meaningful game.”

Meaningful game: a game that has significance or provides purpose for how one lives life.

Games that are meaningful try to reach outside of themselves. They are about more then their own consumption. Maybe they give players deeper empathy, or sympathy, or comfort, or inspire an action outside of the game world. They are meant to transform, even if it’s just a little bit. A game that’s “only fun” might be nostalgic by referring to past 8-bit games, while a “meaningful game” might be nostalgic by referring to a child-parent relationship.

Earlier I linked to a video of Brandon Boyer’s GDC talk. He mentions the 3 artists he keeps praising whenever he meets people. His reason for continuing to share them was because their art was meaningful to him in this same way. Their art affected how he lived.

There are some games out there that create this effect…as a secondary, often temporary point that serves some other goal. But very few games are completely dedicated to this, and there are even fewer resources for how to make more games like that.

The Problem

So why the disconnect? I think part of the reason is that when a designer sits down to try to create meaningful gameplay, it’s simply hard to know where to begin. It’s easier to start designing a competitive fighting game dedicated to gaining coordination skills, or an RPG dedicated to managing stats well or character development in an armor-building or combative sense.

But what about a fighting game that explores the philosophy of fighting? What about an RPG dedicated to character development in an emotional or psychological sense? Let’s get real here. Do we even know it’s possible to dedicate a sizable game to something like that?

There just isn’t that much out there to build on, even for smaller games.

A Possible Solution

Therefore, we need some baby steps. I think we should hold game jams fully dedicated to meaningful gameplay. I see it as a chance for designers to help each other learn how to make more meaningful game experiences and to explore the potential for games to affect peoples’ lives.

What happens at a meaningful gameplay game jam? We each explore a game mechanic or other non-mechanic game element using prototyping tools. That means the intention is not to create an entire game, but to explore an element of a game from multiple perspectives. The challenge is for a developer to pick a mechanic or element that would result in meaningful gameplay and (1) develop several prototypes of it in the first 36-40 hours or so. The last 8-12 hours would be dedicated to (2) writing a critical analysis of the resulting prototypes in a text document and then having a (3) show & tell to share the prototypes and analysis. Then the analysis and feedback would be (4) posted on a website dedicated to meaningful gameplay to share with the game development community. That way we are providing resources for making all these meaningful games that everyone was asking for at this year’s GDC!

An Example Result

When I explain the idea to people, I keep going back to Jordan Magnuson’s Loneliness as a perfect example of this. If loneliness as a mechanic was explored at a meaningful gameplay game jam, you’d have 4 or 5 different versions of where he put his “message” or different versions of how the boxes moved around, followed by an analysis of how he thought the concept was communicated in each version.

Then later, as a developer who wanted to create a game that explored the concept of loneliness, you could go to the website, play through the prototypes, read the analysis of what the developer thought, and then start prototyping your own, maybe completely different, take on loneliness. The resources help you keep in mind something that did or did not work, or otherwise they just give you food for thought.

The collection of prototypes and analyses acts as a scientific journal of sorts for game design that other designers can then use. So you’d have something that’s not only useful for the creators, but also something useful for the game development community at large. That’s a good thing because you will then rely on that community in the future to help you improve.

A more informal version of this is already happening at sites like Experimental Gameplay Project. It’s just that there’s usually less analysis since developers are rushing to finish a game for a competition.

But What About Art?

Some developers have suggested that this sounds like I’m trying to reduce meaningful experience to something easily quantifiable, like a mathematical formula. I am very grateful to see this, because as a person who enjoys good debate, I would probably be presenting the other side as well. But that is not my intention.

I think it would be hard to disagree that there are (at least) two sides to the process of making games: the artistic side and the design side. I am pointing out a problem with the design side of games, not the artistic side. I think great progress can be made in game design through more experimentation, critical analysis, and building off of each others’ discoveries, as evidenced by science as a whole for the last 1000 years or so.

When it comes to the artistic side of games, I agree with Keita Takahashi who says that progress can made in games through game developers living a rich and varied life and taking in inspiration from many things outside of the field of games. So I’m assuming here that a game developer who wants to create meaningful games will fulfill artistic needs in a more personal way, or at least in a way that’s less relevant to a quantifiable design process. Most of us have the life experience needed to at least take games a step deeper, either through trying to communicate our own experience or through creating a “space for searching.”

In the end, this is meant to improve the craftsmanship of design and its process. Its the ability to take what needs to be communicated by the artist and successfully express it through the medium of games, or the ability to build the space for searching. That ability is something we’ll need in order to create more meaningful games, and I think this kind of game jam would help develop it.

Where is Our Sense of Urgency for Creating Meaningful Games?

I just returned from a wonderful experience at the Christian Game Developer’s Conference. The trip ended up being pretty last-minute, as we found out we had an opportunity to VJ with Weiv for the band BarlowGirl.

The Success?? of Christian?? Games

My favorite talk of the conference was the last one, a roundtable discussion that led with a question about the perceived lack of success of Christian games compared to other media. I just came across a post by John Hanan about it, which inspired this post.

To me, the panelists’ answers mostly avoided the issue by trying to challenge the question – you see this a lot in politics – with rebuttals like “What does success really mean?” and “What does a Christian game really mean?”

LAME. At that point, my passions started to stir (and they are still stirred as you can tell by my last post!). To me, exploring definitions is much less important at this point, if you look at the progress made – or lack thereof – in game design that is deeply meaningful at all, let alone that is Christian specifically.

We Need More Shotguns

Now, do I believe we’re in a golden age of videogames? Of course! But that doesn’t mean we’ve made a lot of progress in making them meaningful. The exciting part is that we’re shotgunning new game ideas due mostly to the Internet, and in part to more-open-than-console mobile platforms. But I want to make something clear: we need a hell of a lot more shotguns.

And so, just like I asked at the end of that panel, I ask it here. And just like I prefaced this question at the end of that panel, I preface it here:

I do not want any cop-out answers. I want real examples. How do we, as game designers, actually design a meaningful game? FOR REAL. Like actually design one that is actually meaningful. I am looking for resources to do this, and I have found very few. It seems to me like we should be holding 10 game jams per year trying to figure this out.

Unintentionally, I asked it rather accusingly, so what followed ended up being mildly embarassing. But I probably would have exploded had I not asked this, so it was a fair trade.

A Sense of Urgency

The answers? It seems that no one really knows at this point. And that should be a Really Big Deal™ for all game developers interested in designing games that are intended to deliver a meaningful experience. It should be our #1 priority to figure this out. We should all be running to our laptops and feverishly creating experiences that attempt to explore this issue, and then sharing the results.

And yet… I can only find a handful of other designers with a sense of urgency about this, and most of those few are not sharing results in a way that progresses game design. Including me! Shame on me. I don’t know, maybe a sense of urgency is the wrong thing to look for, but I guess that’s what tends to inspire and motivate me. I keep remembering a conversation I had with Greg Wohlwend where we likened a sense of urgency in creating something to being chased by a lion. I think it is a beautiful picture.

It scares me that I, as a wannabe videogame designer of meaningful experiences, am starved for resources on how to actually do this. The important thing is that if that’s the case for me, then it is most likely the case for many others.

My Solution: A Meaningful Gameplay Game Jam

I love game jams. At this point, I’ve been involved with roughly 9 or 10 of them since 2007, most of which I helped organize. I think they are a savior of sorts for videogames as a medium. And so naturally I turn to the game jam to solve this problem. I’m probably biased, heh.

I have a vision for a game jam dedicated to exploring meaningful gameplay. I think it can be structured in a way to help solve this problem. And I think it deserves its own post, so I’ll save that for next. Sit tight.

Trip Hawkins’ “Dark Age of Videogames” is a LIE

Through a hashtag typo by Nicole Lazzaro on twitter, I was made aware of the GamesBeat conference happening today and a story about Trip Hawkins speaking on the state of the videogames industry. As a game developer who’s actually somewhat aware of what’s happening in the games industry, reading through the article naturally resulted in outrage:

Software licensing has hurt innovation in the video game industry — with social game maker Zynga being the exception to that rule — thanks to large game companies like Nintendo, said Electronic Arts founder and social gaming company Digital Chocolate founder Trip Hawkins.

Zynga. Zynga?! You gotta be kidding me. They don’t make games, they buy game companies. Zynga is a company that consumes instead of creates. To use a food analogy, Zynga is a glutton, not a chef. The ridiculousness continues:

I think we actually had our golden age when game development was using floppy disks and it was an open free platform when we could all make games like we wanted to make

That’s a bunch of crap. That golden age has re-emerged in the last couple years and is happening TODAY. It’s called indie games. Anyone, at any point, can make the game she wants to make. And she actually does in the indie games community. That’s basically the whole ethos behind indie games.

Where has Trip Hawkins been? Is he really that oblivious? Of course he isn’t. It’s strategically disadvantageous mention the beauty, the diversity, the life of the indie games community. It’ll threaten his sales.

So don’t listen to guys like this. Videogames are alive and well. The very identity of videogames is constantly expanding and morphing. We are in a golden age. Enjoy the sunlight!

Heart containers for Japan by Ted Martens

The Master Sword from Ted Martens on Vimeo.

Friend and ally Ted Martens has released a screensaver app entitled Heart containers for Japan. 100% of the proceeds are going to relief to help those affected by the earthquake and now continued radiation.

The atmosphere is great and it is both charming and soothing. Awesome work Ted.

I’ve been reading a really amazing book about social justice and it has convicted me and made me realize how apathetic I tend to be to those in need. Not in the emotional sense, but in the actually doing something about it sense. This is a great example of someone using their unique gifts to benefit others. I am proud to call him my friend (and best man).

Less Stuff, More Meaning

This is another one of those posts that’s been sitting on my hard drive. Pity I didn’t have the motivation to release this with the other indie game-length posts, even though it’s half finished. In this case, I wrote it almost 2 years ago. I actually still agree with it, although it makes me laugh how academic and logical I am with my argument. Maybe others will find it interesting, and since I will likely not finish the second half any time soon, I’m sharing it now…

Oprah’s Game Design Wisdom

A while back, Oprah had a show about simplicity.  I don’t really watch Oprah, but as I came home to grab some food, I walked in at just the right time to clearly hear her closing remarks, which included something along the lines of “the goal for this year is less stuff, and more meaning.”

Oprah isn’t explicitly providing that as a Christian message, but having a simple and efficient life just makes sense given my experience in life so far and more importantly, it’s a biblical principle that’s mentioned in several different places. It struck me, and naturally, my next thought was “How can this be applied to videogames?” What first struck me was how similar that statement was to how Rules of Play defines good game design.  But I realized that she started with “less stuff,” and the more I thought about it, the more important the concept of “less stuff” became.

Effective Game Design is Meaningful

Rules of Play states “the goal of successful game design is the creation of meaningful play.”  This assumes several things.  Design is intentional (has a goal) and design can be measured in terms of success (how well it achieved the goal). Agreed. After that is that game design creates play – as in what you do with a game is play it. Lastly, it assumes meaning can also be measured in terms of success, with more meaning being more successful. Agreed, although meaning is difficult to measure.

So if a person is describing the value of a game, the person who says “this game has better design” would really be saying “this game creates more meaningful play to me.” That makes sense, so it seems like a sound definition. However, when you consider the concept of efficiency, there are cases where the definition creates problems.

Here’s an example. There’s a game that gives you a certain amount of meaning – let’s call that amount m – in 3 hours of play. There’s another game that gives you m meaning in 5 hours of play. Which game is better?  According to Rules of Play, neither is better. Both create meaningful play, since the definition never addresses time.

Effective Game Design is Meaningful and Efficient

If time spent on this earth wasn’t limited, then that would be ok. But time spent here is limited, so a person can only play so many games. Therefore, if a person plays a game with the same amount of meaning but in a shorter time, the person can play another game in the time that was saved. That leads to more meaning experienced over a game player’s lifetime, which, according to the assumptions, is better than less meaning. I think this makes sense, since players already do this by seeking out and playing the games that are most meaningful to them.

If all this is true, then successful game design is the creation of meaningful play in the shortest experience. And consequently, the success of a game design is measured by an average representing the amount of meaningful play per a length of experience.

Implications of Game Design Efficiency

The addition of the concept of time to the definition of effective game design, and its subsequent affect on valuing a game, has wide-ranging implications, and also describes several game-playing behaviors.

…

Aaannnnd that’s all the further I got, sorry for the cliffhanger.

New digs

As an Impromptu Studio member, I was invited to the new BitMethod office space once it was secured. I decided to follow along, especially since there’s some space to expand here and since the price was very reasonable. I was an Impromptu member since day one, and I’ve come to like working along side Zach and the BitMethod crew.  My new address is:

God at play
418 6th Ave
Suite 1210
Des Moines, IA  50309

There’s an open house November 16th from 4pm-7pm. If you’re interested, come check it out, the space has a cool set up. Here’s the sign you see when you come in, how internet-y.

More pics; moving in, some views from the offices.

Interactive Twitter friendship visualizer

My good friend Justin Wise asked me to help him out on the visual side with his BeDeviant Social Media Summit.  I figured I’d take the opportunity to create something interactive using the Weiv platform that expressed something fundamental about social media.  The end result is an interactive Twitter friendship visualizer.

The concept behind it is that it watches tweets filtered by a hashtag (I set it up to watch the summit’s #BDSMS hashtag). Every new user that tweets with that hashtag pops into the scene with a physical force, and then the visualizer looks up that person’s friends list. Like most things in infographics, the end result is larger than the sum of its parts. You understand how interconnected people are in a visual way. And (nerd alert) I use a hack for real-time ambient occlusion to shade overlapping squares. B-) The camera auto-zooms on the whole group, and you can switch to view each user individually – controlled in the crowd or on the stage with a Wii Remote, if desired.

As of right now, that’s all it can do. Future features include visualizing new tweets from the same user, and maybe displaying tweets themselves (which every other tweet-stream app does). I could also somehow visualize how active or popular a twitter user is. There are a lot of opportunities to show cool things, really.

I think this is a cool application of the Weiv platform that could be used for events like Justin’s summit, a conference, a church service, or even during the lead-up for a concert. Any time when you have a hashtag and want to visualize connections in a community, and encourage people to actively promote the event through social media. In the future I dream of creating a world through this visualization and exploring it with a character. Ahh dreams…

The Weiv software platform

So I’ve been continuing to work on my project, which I previously referred to as interactive visual worship & singing.  With the help of some other friends, we’ve begun to refine it and understand its implications as part of a large-scale societal shift.  This has led to a software platform we’re calling Weiv.

What is Weiv?

Weiv is an interactive media platform for enhancing live performances. It allows a group of people to act as a “visual band” that can play to live music. With Weiv, people move Wii Remotes to the beat of the music, creating animations or exploring a virtual scene on a projection screen.  As I’ve mentioned before, this allows people to express themselves visually the same way they do musically when singing.

Here are a few of the features:

Engage through live interactivity

Because people are involved in creating the visuals live, the entire audience is engaged. The performers create, while the rest of the audience experiences the same benefit of live visuals as they do for live music.

Group interaction

Use up to 7 Wii Remotes to allow an entire group of people to collaborate, just like a visual band.

Videogame technology & media

Weiv uses technology found in modern videogames to support advanced graphics and interaction. This medium especially connects with youth because videogames are their heart language.

More info

Looking for more information or still confused?  Head over to the Weiv pre-order page to get an idea of what the platform consists of, read about more features, and of course pre-order if you’re interested in speaking the heart language of a new generation, and/or if you’re interested in supporting independent videogame development.  I’m applying for a grant through the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and the biggest chance at getting the grant would be to get pre-orders.  Help me make this dream a reality!

TIGJam Midwest 2010

TIGJam Midwest is next weekend, June 4th-6th, 2010, at Foundry Coworking. If you’re interested, RSVP here at Eventbrite: http://tigjammidwest.eventbrite.com

Here’s the official info:

TIGJam Midwest is an indie game jam where creatives – programmers, hackers, designers, artists, or musicians – get together and make videogames in a weekend. For those who aren’t familiar with game jams, they’re similar to events like the 48 Hour Film Project or Startup Weekend. It’s called TIGJam because our group is part of the TIGSource community, which is a developer community for indie games.

Our game jams usually have a theme, and TIGJam Midwest’s theme this year is “proverbs,” proposed by Mark Doeden of 8monkey Labs.  Participants will form teams, choose a specific proverb from a culture of their choice, and develop a game based on it. There could be games based on Chinese Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Christian proverbs, or more obscure cultures or religions.

The local community is encouraged to attend the show & tell at Impromptu Studio at 3pm-8pm on Sunday, where they will experience the games and meet local game developers. These won’t be your usual space marine shooters; expect raw and barely-finished games that explore satirical, brand new, or meaningful territory.

A couple other exciting things are in the works.  Alec Holowka of Aquaria fame will be giving a keynote Friday at 7pm.  Venom is providing free energy drinks, there could be a visit from Senator Jack Hatch to express his support of creative endeavors like this, and there are rumors of drink specials next door at the Des Moines Social Club.  Finally, barring some catastrophy, there should be free catered food the whole weekend.  Expect one or two other exciting things to get finalized closer to the event.

All this free stuff is thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Iowa Department of Economic Developlemnt and the Technology Association of Iowa.  It’s exciting to think that these organizations are supporting a culture of game development here in Iowa!