Iterating Ancient Games

Tweaking Ancient Games : Some of the oldest known games are still played while others are all but forgotten With some of those board games excavated like the royal game of Ur are over 4,500 years old, so it was about time they got some iterating, iterating games is a really good thing and it was what many tribes and people did to games who where not so familiar with the rule base, this created very localized versions of the game, but as games have rule sets attached to them this has diminished with the exception such as monopoly in which most family's have different rules for the bank and the free parking squares, this is not bad thing and is seen more as diversity in game play. something which we did with many of the older games, messing around with the amount of game pieces and enlarging the game board are all sure fire whys of swapping up the dynamics of the game, for good or bad.

British Museum : Ancient Board Games

There was allot of the Museum to do with  Ancient Board Games, we had started of the day with a specific tour of the these ancient games, including tafl the viking game, Chaupat, The Royal Game of Ur and many others. some of the games used dedicated wooden games table while some had been carved into the rock of town guard posts. in which guards would play a board game whilst working. It was really fascinating to look at some of these games and how they played, many of the games featured in he museum were the real original setup, while some were on loan to different museums around the world and had be replaced with copy's. The Museum like most days was extremely busy so we took leave and went round in smaller groups looking at the other exhibits. we had met up with another group later that day of whom had brought a tafl board game, we had then proceeded to play for several hours mixing up the game play mechanics, with for example the addition of extra players. Overall the day was interesting but very tiring.. but would definitely go again.

Bleep Bleep Bloop

Another Radio 4 program (30 minutes) this week brought another Sound discussion within the games industry and the progress of video game scores, though it was recorded in 2010, some of the stats have changed a fair bit, but just to be clear.  One of the underlining factors in the program was that game music was coming of age, even though gaming has been around a relatively small amount of time. In comparison to film, sound wasn't even in use, and was still in the silent era. It is said that around 14 hours per week per household is spend playing video games making it bigger business than film and music.
      One of the many people interviewed was a composer working on scores for games, he generally gets a set of framework from the developers giving a description of the scene/mood/atmosphere etc, it would then be up to his team to compile a soundtrack best suited to the given description, one of the examples used was a scrap yard level with a game, this composer used tools such as mood boards and the like to create a really interesting eerie and ghastly metal tinging piece for the game, he also then creates several different copies of this piece with different ones incorporating the tempo which is set by the players play style, via stealth or combat.
      Game music does have it problems, for example many pieces often seem very loud and that's because they need to create this sense of ore and excitement for the player, this is all well and good, but in isolation it can sometimes fall apart due to the soundtrack needing the game component to function correctly as imagined, In my own opinion though, I often listen to these in isolation anyway, due to fact they bring these emotions anyway, without the need for game.

      Following on to a different interview, the question lays around the fact of "Is making the score easier for the in-game stuff or for a rendered cut-scene" From the reply its easy to see why the cut-scene is the easiest to work with, this is very much like film in this regard as the composer has direct and full control of what the player should feel, giving it a sad or heroic part in the game, While with in-game work the composer cant control the player, and so has to best offer the music on which the developers framework tasks him with.

      One of the interesting pieces which i totally agreed with, was the coming together of two apparent separate groups, of which are gamers and classical concert goers. Due to the rapidly growing market of gaming, big names such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Hans Zimmer (Big Film Composer) compose and perform video game music, this brings people from behind their T.Vs and into this concert environment, were they can experience there in game moments, which is very much driven by the music, live.
      People within the orchestra however, have not always thought it was at the standard of the normal music which they might of played, from the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven to "Sonic the Hedgehog" or "Mass Effect" but their minds are wonderfully and suddenly changed when they see the thousands of  people who have evoked such passions when they hear their favorite game soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyvwODEjmXw   (A link to the Live perfomance of the above)



                          (Hans Zimmer [Below]- A few of the many scores, Superman/ Gladiator
                                               and Modern Warfare 2 (A Video Game)

Sissyfight 2000

Sissyfight 2000

                   This was the game played in Robs lecture last Friday..the game involved using a set of cards which included the likes of (Team,Defend and Solo) you also got a set of colours, of which indicated the player you wanted to attack, So one of the main mechanics, is this hidden information factor, players only know for sure when the cards are reveled on the table, any successful attacks/ defends get a set deduction from their counter pile, this tension caused by the mechanic can be changed via player engagement with each other, to either work together to eliminate another player or double bluff someone and then go attack someone else, creating a sense of backstabbing.

                 Iterating our game after the first match, brought about some changes in the way the first card turn over was played, we had it such that all players had to first use a team card, this enabled a rapid start to the game as most people targeted the one person through communicating with each other, this meant that one player would get crippled in the first round, but if played correctly can still fight on since hes a lower threat.
                Also we added a deflect card this was very much to counter the above or attacks later in the game, it could be used for maximum effect when multiple players are targeting someone, if the deflecting player gets his colour chose correct he can successfully deflect all incoming damage on to someone else, this created a real plot twist and can really turn a game around. My thoughts were, I really enjoyed the game it got everyone really involved in the game, creating new friends and enemy's if you were un-dully targeted, jokes of course.

Games Britannia “Monopolies & Mergers”

For the second part of Games Britannia, Woolley traces the surprising political and social impact that board games have had in Britain over the last 200 years, being a British idea of using the board game as an instrument of moral instruction, they had it exported it to America. Once it had arrived on the shores of America it was altered to concur with the whole American dream and philosophy, making allot of money. Woolley goes on to demonstrate this effect of money transferring hands on the board game with the best-selling game in history Monopoly - which celebrated wealth and avarice in the wake of the Great Depression. Ironically, this most capitalist of games was derived from a radical socialist game first published in Britain in 1913. He goes on to further show how a holy trinity of British family board games came about including Cluedo, Monopoly and Scrabble. These Games although of which have a very real sense and life within them. games such fantasy role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons an American invention. British games continued to play on the niche political games like War on Terror which plays on satire.

The Sound of Fear: Halloween Special

Radio 4's The Sound of Fear Broadcast last on Wed 19 Oct 2011 16:30 has been made available on the iplayer-radio app in the run up to Halloween, of which is a very interesting listen. "A door creaks, footsteps echo, someone's breathing - and we are terrified. But why? Sean Street investigates the psychology of fear" This was one of the random programs i had playing whilst doing some university work, and it got me interested enough to create a quick blog on the subject matter.. This program has some strong connections with the gaming industry as well as other forms of media, such as films and news outlets. One of the many interesting points was the universal process of hearing with our ears, but listening with our imagination, this is almost certainly true during the dark when our imaginations go crazy with suggestions as to what that creak or noise was, is someone approaching me? or was it just the house settling down?, this fear is a somewhat basic emotion of humans a point proven when a tribe deep within south america of whom had had minimal interaction with western people,  are played a recording of distress/crys of westerners, these tribes people automatically got a sense of heighten awareness as to possible danger, the experiment was repeated the other way round and when distress/crys of tribe members were played to westerners, the same response was received.

           An interesting segment on silence or the lack of sound, also played into this fear of something is going to happen.. films regularly use this as a scare tactic to suddenly spring a large bang or set-piece, causing audiences to succumb to natural reactions and jolt in there seats. it is also common for people to use radios/TV to fill the void of an empty house without the full intention to listen to it, just to feel that there not alone.
       Any sound though can be thought of as frightening given the context it was heard in, for example, footsteps are a common sound of day to day life, but within the context of being dark and say in bed, the sound can take on a whole other meaning and again our imaginations run wild with possibilities until we gain an understanding of what it was.. I recommend a listen to the program before its removed again from the service.

BattleShips

Iterating Battleships:

Our task within Robs lecture was to play the well known game of Battleships, nearly everyone had played the game before, and so we pretty much all negated the need to read the rules.. so with a quick non-iterated game to become familiar with the mechanics again, we then began a process of iterating the game with our own ideas and mechanics to produce different play styles or Aesthetics.

My own ideas began with giving the 4 or so ships that the player was given, a set of specific cards that the player could use against the opponent, for example the largest ship or "BattleShip"

that you own had an ability to carpet bomb a complete row on the board, this produced a feeling of pleasure as it was possible to completely wipe out an enemy ship, but utter frustration on the other side,

this card however was a one time use only card due to its "OPness" this gave the game a boost in game speed if you became almost bored by the constant misses on your opponent, so doing a mass revealing of information on the board, even though its still an educated guess, helped along play making it more exciting. 

The following were also used as bonus cards:

-Hospital Ship(Repairs a ship)

-A ship which could move 1 space

-A double fire shot card 

(The feeling of using a BattleShip Bonus card"