These are all entries bearing the tag thesis-log.

  • Thesis Log: Constrain yourself
    Posted on December 27 2007 — thesis-log — 1 comments

    Brain dump time. A new system is being put into place which I am finding to be very promising, based around the idea of constraints. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. First, let's talk about what we want for a story.

  • Holy Crap What; A long overdue recap
    Posted on December 16 2007 — thesis-log — 1 comments

    Okay, it's been way too long since I updated this. For those wondering about it, no, the project hasn't stopped. I've just been monumentally busy both working on this as well as re-taking the Control Theory (“Reglerteknik” for the Swedes) course that's been vexing me for so long. So, time for a long overdue status update.

  • Thesis Log: Story, story, story
    Posted on October 23 2007 — thesis-log — 1 comments

    Staffan suggested in our meeting yesterday that I draw up a more detailed game world, or setting, and get it down on paper. His reasoning made a lot of sense, so... here I am now, fleshing out the game world with lots and lots of detail. I'm not really interested in showing it all quite yet... I'd prefer it to be more complete first. Anyway.

  • Thesis Log: Code, code, code
    Posted on October 19 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    This is just to say sorry for not updating in the last few days, but it doesn't really matter; all I've really done is tinker with Pyro. It has static maps now, and friendly NPCs that you can talk to, and very rudimentary faction support. It's not proper factions yet; I still need to work on that, but it's getting there. Oh yes, as per Staffan's advice, I've also begun to create the (for now) static setting that the demonstration takes place in. The rationale for having a static setting instead of a generated one is simple... it saves time and creates an invariant to measure the performance of our system against, so that we know that if something is weird, it's because of our system and not the setting generator gone bonkers.

    I also tried to slog through Craig Lindley's The Semiotics of Time Structure in Ludic Space As a Foundation for Analysis and Design, and argh, I think it melted my brain after just a few sentences. Nevertheless, it contains a few nuggets that I find useful; for instance, confirmation that I'm on the right track with the conflict structure mentioned earlier. Lindley compares it to the classic three act play structure, and I get the impression that this is pretty standard fare. All the more reason to think it'll work, then.

  • Thesis Log: Regearing?
    Posted on October 16 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    Over the last couple of days (suspiciously updateless), I've had growing concerns that I'm not quite heading in the right direction and need to re-evaluate just what I'm trying to do. The contents of yesterday's meeting (during which I admit I wasn't feeling very well—sorry, Staffan) only increased my concerns, while at the same time making me think of something that may solve it.

  • Thesis Log: Time Flies
    Posted on October 11 2007 — thesis-log — 1 comments

    Today went past almost in a blur, it did. Mostly I spent more time tinkering with Pyro, paving the way for NPCs that will actually talk to the player instead of immediately beating him to a pulp, like most monsters do. It's not really very challenging, and thus not interesting to write about... it's just time-consuming, especially when you need to pause and think about certain details. Anyway, there's a more interesting half to today, too.

  • Thesis Log: Yesterday
    Posted on October 11 2007 — thesis-log — 2 comments

    I just realized I forgot to make a post about what I did yesterday... and now a new day has begun, so here are my notes for yesterday. I think they might be interesting. The topic is creating quests from NPC needs motivated by... what?

  • Thesis Log: I can't brain today, I have the dumb
    Posted on October 9 2007 — thesis-log, crazy rant — 1 comments

    Mongo brain not in head. Mongo go to school, not think properly. Mongo write code, make NPCs that make more sense, preparing for conversations. Mongo head start hurt, Mongo having trouble focus. Mongo go home early. Mongo worried might be coming down with something.

  • Thesis Log: Meeting, renewed direction
    Posted on October 8 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    The highlight of today was the scheduled meeting with my supervisor, which went quite well, as per usual. In addition to exchanging ideas on the topic, the result of the meeting was that I've decided to adjust the flow of work a little, on Staffan's advice. In particular, I should try to focus less on “width” and more on “depth” for a while, and more on closer personal NPC interaction than worldwide variety.

  • Thesis Log: Belated
    Posted on October 5 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    Monkeyblah was down yesterday when I was supposed to write a thesis log update, so I'm doing it now instead. (Un)fortunately, there isn't a whole lot to write, since an especially gruesome bug ate most of yesterday.

  • Thesis Log: Oblivion
    Posted on October 3 2007 — thesis-log — 2 comments

    I continue my efforts to understand how story has been realized in other games, today by looking at The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I note that it has a structure quite different from the ones I've looked at earlier, with a single “quest” being equivalent to what I have up to now thought of as a “quest chain”, instead having each quest divided into “stages”—equivalent to individual “quests” in my current notes. Confusing? Yes, but it's mostly an issue of terminology and nothing fundamentally different.

  • Thesis Log: Making Magic & Quests
    Posted on October 2 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    Today was spent on two different tasks: Tinkering with Pyro in an effort to understand it fully and to get it to a state where the things I want to do are even possible, and characterization of quests as employed in other games.

  • Thesis Log: Half-day
    Posted on October 1 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    Well, my day was interrupted by a lack of a suitable laundry slot, meaning I had to go earlier. No matter, I spent the day reading articles by Ernest Adams on interactive storytelling and videogame narratives. I am increasingly convinced that this project should be geared less towards classical storytelling and more towards providing a world for the player to live in and things for him to do. Unlike a classical story, we can't prescribe a storyline and force the reader/player along it; there are too many problems. Instead we should let the player do as he wishes in our world, and provide a narrative structure he can follow at his own pace, when and if he chooses.

    Not much to say today... I'll try to make up for lost time later tonight.

  • Thesis Log: Narrative categories II: Electric Boogaloo
    Posted on September 28 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    Last time I wrote down what I was thinking about narrative categories and how I'd chosen to divide them into three categories (trunk, branch, ad-hoc), and elaborating on the third variant. The other two follow.

  • Thesis Log: The game engine and ad-hoc narratives
    Posted on September 27 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    This day has largely been spent reading further articles on Gamasutra about narratives and open worlds. In addition, I've familiarised myself further with Pyro, and despite finding areas that are clearly unfinished, I have a good feeling about what it can do for the project. As a matter of fact, I believe the fact that it is indeed unfinished is a boon, rather than a curse.

  • Thesis Log: Productivity soars
    Posted on September 26 2007 — thesis-log — 2 comments

    I actually spent most of today at Chalmers, which while tiring probably helped my productivity.

    I have been looking at various games that employ quests in general, trying to discern what components those quests are usually made up of, and how they are completed. Lists have been made of objectives that can be called “generic”, that is, occur often and are potential candidates for automatic generation, and “unique” objectives, that are of a more hand-crafted nature, often involving scripted sequences, that are less likely to be generatable with any degree of quality. They are specialized and often have some particular kind of point to them.

  • Thesis Log: Books and articles
    Posted on September 25 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    The books I ordered arrived today:

    • Propp, V., Morphology of the Folktale, a book about deconstructing Russian folk tales. Some hints on how one can decompose narratives can be gleaned from this, no doubt.
    • Campbell, J., The Hero With a Thousand Faces, a well-known book about shared characteristics of compelling myths, and what people are likely to be captivated by. Hopefully I'll learn something about how to make the generated narratives be compelling and engaging from this.

    This talk on narratives in games would've been interesting, but it's a few years old and doesn't appear to be available on GDCTV anymore. If anyone knows where else to get it, let me know.

    I should also look at existing games today, and how they propel the player forwards through the game. We must remember that we're not only generating some random narrative, but we want to create gameplay from it that the player will enjoy.

  • Thesis Log: Get a grip!
    Posted on September 24 2007 — thesis-log — 0 comments

    Okay. As already established, not enough work is getting done. First off, I really ought to be working at school, not here. The temptation of and tendency for things to drift off is far too great. That being said, the work currently being done is pretty unstimulating as it is.