Comment: game design vs game mechanics

This is a comment I posted on an old topic. There was a misunderstanding between the author of an article and some one who commented. I just felt like clearing it out, though it will probably never be read by either of these 2 people.

While I was writing this comment I defined my interpretation of the difference between game design and game mechanics.

Here's the link to the article : http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/zarathustran-analytics-in-video-games-part-2-the-role-of-depth/

Here's my comment :

I know this is old, but I still feel like making this comment clears something up. The comment by Christopher J. Rock saying it's strange to divide games in player input, story and game design is definitely right. Though, I think that's not what the author of this article meant.

"player input, story and game mechanics"

That would be a better word choice. I would describe a game design as the description of how a game works, which elements are in it, etc. That includes story and takes user input in account.

Game mechanics though are the rules of how a game work. In that light, story and user input only are the citizens following the rules.

The game is the country, which consists of citizens and rules. The design is the description of that country. The user input and story are citizens. The game mechanics are the rules. --- Note that this is my interpretation. But I think this is where a misunderstanding came to life.

CeasterTrade is open!

You are all welcome to join and play:

http://www.ceastertrade.com/mg/

Pre-Alpha : 08 / 5 / 2009

We are open for registration on the fifth of August, 10 o'clock, standard time (GMT). CeasterTrade is opening in 2 days!

Pre-Alpha

I called it a preview, I said it was for testing. Now I'm calling it a "pre-alpha". Now, what does that mean?

It means that I'm putting the game online, open for registrations. That the game can be and must be played. The game will has to be tested, bugs have to be found, values have to be balanced, ... But it's also an opportunity to show the game, which is long before finished, to the world. It means I have to gather feedback. Testing the basic elements of this game in several ways.

TODO in Pre-Alpha: For players and developers

• Bugs have to be found and fixed, so when you find one, post it on the forum.
• Fun: Is this game fun? How come?
• Security: I haven't really payed very much attention to security, so maybe some one will hack this game for me. That's the easiest way to learn, I guess.
• Balancing: This is very important.
• Wikia: A good manual has to be made, the wikia has to be extended.

Wikia

I have created a wikia for CeasterTrade: http://ceastertrade.wikia.com/

I really hope testers will be enthusiastic enough to write a manual, 'cuz I suck at it ;). Otherwise I'll give it a try.

The manual is pretty important though, because I don't think CeasterTrade is an easy-to-learn game, at least not at this stage. I will be online to help people getting started on the ingame chat, but a manual would be a LOT better.

What I expect

I really don't expect anything. I don't have any experience with beta testing, putting a game online or running a game. So what would I know? I'm just putting this game online, and I'll see what happens.

I have certain assumptions, but I wouldn't know these are true.

You're all invited!

Please come and register an account! You're all invited to take a look or play the game. If you have feedback, post it on the forum, talk to me on the chat, or post a comment here.

See you on Wednesday!

CeasterTrade online?

Hey everyone

Like I said before, the core of CeasterTrade is ready, but it needs a lot of improvement. But fact is, I'm not motivated. I'm still addicted to the project, but I just want to move on to more intresting stuff...

I want CeasterTrade online.

That way I can gather feedback and I'm more motivated to keep improving it. So I decided I won't work on it until it can be put online.

My dad has to do some stuff first before I can put it online, so I will putting some pressure on him. It's acctually big news:

If things go as planned CeasterTrade will be online, as preview, in less than 2 weeks!

There is absolutely no certainty things will go as planned, but hey, who cares?

From ProtoFlow to ImageFlow

Since my last post I haven't been working on CeasterTrade that much. Mostly I was trying to addapt ProtoFlow to fit all my needs.

I am still not very skilled in javascript so I took it as a chance to improve. I learned a lot, but the challenge was to big. I had to go looking for something else.

ProtoFlow uses the Prototype library and scriptaculous to imitate the CoverFlow effect. Now, ImageFlow does the same but uses the jQuery library.

The reason I went with jQuery after all is that it is well documented (ProtoFlow is not) , has more options and you can give the script some variables to display it the way you want.

I think the "Town Center" should be fine now.

The next few days I hope I can code:

• Starter Kits (when you built a new workshop you get a free tool, so you can start right away)
• Fix bugs that will certainly appear (this happens all the time ;)
• Perhaps more UI stuff (make things clearer)
• Other stuff I think about

When I'm done with that I can evaluate and see where I stand. Maybe I'll be ready for some basic testing (with friends, before I put it online) , maybe there's some other stuff I need to do.

But I'll keep you updated, remember you can follow me on twitter for faster updates.

Town Center Screenshot:

ProtoFlow

Hello everyone!

What's going on?

My exams are over (getting results today) and I've had some time to code again. I've done some rewrites of bad code. Cities have a simple coordinate system, created for a linear map. I also extended the admin panel again with some extra fields here and there.

The rest of this post works towards “ProtoFlow”. Hope it can help you in one way or another.

The explanation of the coordinate system copied from the script (as comment) :

CeasterTrade uses a linear map system, which looks like this:

(Hongkong) <- 10 min -> (Brussels) <- 20 min -> (Capital) <- 15 min -> (Washington DC) <- 6 min -> (Rio De Janeiro)

The Capital is in the middle, and the distance to a next city is given. You can calculate the distance to another city by making the sum of the distance to each city in between.

For example: Distance from Brussels to Rio = (Brussels -> Capital) + (Capital -> DC) + (DC -> Rio) = 20 min + 15 min + 6 min = 41 min

The order of the cities and the distance between them is important.

We go out from the Capital, which has CO = 0. Every number in a CO stands for 1 minute. When the CO is positive, it's right from the Capital. When the CO is negative, it's left from the Capital.

So when: CO = -60, that means that city lies on 60 minutes to the left of the Capital.

Then we can easily find the order by arranging them in descending order.

Back to the example, each above city would have these coordinates:

(Hongkong, CO=-30) <-> (Brussels, CO=-20) <-> (Capital, CO=0) <-> (Rio De Janeiro, ) <-> (Washington DC, CO=+15) <-> (Rio De Janeiro, CO=+21)

Polishing

I’m very happy with where my game is right now. I have a descent framework, with some good basic features. It’s playable. The only thing is, I don’t think it’s fun, and it doesn’t look fun. Honestly, for me, it doesn’t necessarily have to be fun. This is an experiment and a journey. But, I think there is potential in the basics I’ve laid. Now I will have to polish it into a good game.

UI is needed to show the potential

To make good use of the basics, I need a good UI. At first I didn’t think it was important for a preview / ALPHA, but I started thinking…

“I think there is potential in this game.”

For other people to see this potential, I’ll need to give them guidance. From the start on I had the UI in mind, and acknowledged its importance. This thought moved to the background while creating a working prototype, and partly because of my lack of experience with javascript.

An innovating and interactive 2.0 game interface

I like to design an UI, and my dream is “an innovating and interactive 2.0 game interface”. I expect it to be less romantic to implement it in reality. Many of my ideas for a good interface are from the period before I started coding. And I still like ‘em. So I can just start working!

Browsing

The browsing through shops has been important since the beginning of this game’s design. I decided I would use a “linear map” and chose the same for cities.

The only thing what was bothering me was how to fit it in the UI in a decent and pretty way.

Somewhere down the road I had an idea for a cool way of showing the shops, on a “linear map” without all that annoying scrolling. I only didn’t know how to look for it (I didn’t have the right vocabulary).

Advanced javascript UI

Yesterday I decided I would explore the world of advanced javascript and cool interfaces. So I just googled “advanced javascript UI”. The result was some interesting sites and… CoverFlow!

This was what I was looking for… the magic ingredient for my shops. To some of my readers this may look dumb to not know this (I wouldn’t know) but to me it is new.

This is what CoverFlow is: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_Flow (now I remember where I got my idea from, safari and apple)

ProtoFlow

Now I had something to work with! I needed CoverFlow, I needed it to be javascript, and it would be cool if it used Prototype (the javascript library I’m working with). A quick search on google showed me ProtoFlow. Now I hope I can rework it to a feature of my game-with-potential.

http://www.deensoft.com/lab/protoflow/

Twitter

I know I have promised you some posts and that I would post more often, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to accomplish that. But, for faster updates, follow me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/jannesiera

I suggest you download twhirl (http://www.twhirl.org/)

See you later!

PS Don’t be surprised if I’ve changed my mind about the UI the next time you hear me, I do that sometimes ;).

Hiatus

I like that word. Sounds like a cool title, but maybe a little over the top, since I mean a 2 weeks break. But I didn't do much the past weeks either.

My exams start next week, so I won't be able to do anything. But I hope I can start with renewed energy after that!

As from the 24th I'll have lots of time. (that doesn't mean I'm going to work on my game full time, though)

I also made a new (temporary) header for the prototype. Didn't took me long, but I kinda like it for now.