Project - Computer Science - Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Contents
1. Diablo 1 2 PC Action Controls Doom 3 PC FPS On screen Help Dungeon Siege 1 2 PC Action Tutorial Fallout 1 2 PC RPG Tutorial Final Fantasy I thru IX PSI RPG On screen Help Final Fantasy X and X 2 PS2 RPG On screen Help Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles GC RPG Tutorial Frequency PS2 Music Tutorial Fuzion Frenzy Xbox Party Controls God of War PS2 Action On screen Help GTA 1 PC Arcade Controls Gunbound PC Strategy None Half Life 1 2 PC FPS Tutorial 36 Hunter The Reckoning Xbox Action On screen Help Jazz Jackrabbit 1 2 PC Platform On screen Help Jet Set Radio Future Xbox Sports Tutorial KoToR 1 2 Xbox RPG On screen Help Legend of Zelda GC Action On screen Help LotR The Third Age Xbox RPG On screen Help Mechassault Xbox Action Controls Meteos DS Puzzle Tutorial Metroid Prime GC FPS Unlocked Abilities Metroid Prime 2 Echoes GC FPS Unlocked Abilities Myst 1 4 PC Adventure None Neverwinter Nights PC RPG Tutorial Ninja Gaiden Xbox Action On screen Help Oddworld Munch s Oddysee Xbox Puzzle Controls Phantom Dust Xbox Action Unlocked Abilities Prince of Persia 1 2 Xbox Puzzle On screen Help Project Eden PS2 Puzzle On screen Help Psychonauts Xbox Puzzle Tutorial Sega GT Xbox Racing Controls Soul Calibur2. 2 GC Fighting On screen Help Spider man 2 Xbox Action On screen Help Splinter Cell Chaos Theory PC Stealth Tutorial Star Wars Jedi Starfighter Xbox Arcade Tutorial Star Wars The Clone Wars Xbox Action Controls Syberia 1 2 PC Adventure None Tales of Symphonia GC RPG On screen Help Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Xbox Action Controls Tetris Worlds Xbox Puzzle None Wreckless Xbox Racing Controls X Men Legends GC Action Tutorial 37 38
3. as an argument client cs Initializes the layer and group constants Also executes all the script files for the game The order that they are initialized is important because datablocks must be created before they can be used Also contains code that handles what happens when the game ends specifically the writing to the log datablocks cs Like the audio datablocks these create the references to all images that are used in the game Datablocks in mode full use the entire image but those in mode cell are divided up into frames to be used as animations DoubleVisionScreen gui The main GUI for the game It can be edited here or through the built in GUI editor in T2D exe npc cs Creates the NPC and places him on the screen Each individual NPC is created in sprites cs where the image size position and chat are specified for each player cs The largest body of script this is where the majority of commands are called Player cs contains all actions associated with the player such as all the controls scheme interaction with NPCs moving the player when he reaches a boundary and collisions with other objects Also here s where much of the learning tool related code is written such as creating all the help on screen controls map popup help audio and logging the help to a file 27 prefs cs Torque 2D preferences These are all set to default setting
4. to become the sole provider to the masses of these amazing technological breakthroughs Corporations vying for government grants are sabotaging one another The world is either on the brink of transcendence or on the brink of destruction In Double Vision you play as Dr Wysooki a renowned neurological surgeon who has been working with the GeoComm Corporation for 30 years He s been working in a classified section of the Brain Research wing for over a decade and is on the verge ofa breakthrough One night as his wife is once again complaining of how rarely the children see him he decides to bring the whole family in to work They wouldn t be allowed in the restricted area but he s been with the organization long enough that they let him do just about whatever he pleases That very next day as the Wysooki family relaxes in the waiting area GeoComm comes under attack and the entire facility is set ablaze Dr Wysooki barely saves himself as an explosion rocks the building and levels it to the 31 ground As he crawls from the wreckage Dr Wysooki vows to find out who destroyed his work and his family Items Apples Sweet fruit that can help restore one s health allowing them to continue fighting Taste particularly good in pies Can be eaten whether you re hungry or not Nanomachines These helpful robots are found in small single use quantities When swallowed they search out imperfections in the body such as viruses brok
5. to learn and script with The script syntax and semantics were reminiscent of CZ which made editing and using naming conventions straightforward 4 4 Learning Tools An empirical analysis was done on a range of games to create a list of common methods for game learning which can be seen in Appendix E The most common methods on screen help and controls map were implemented as well as one we had not seen audio cues By providing this method researchers may be able to compare the prevalent methods with one that is seldom used One method that was not included was a tutorial which was found in 16 of the 57 games This decision was made because the creation of a tutorial requires significant additional development of the game world as well as new user interfaces Additionally tutorials provide a sample of all the game s mechanics some of which may not be implemented by the end of this project 13 5 Evaluation and Testing The Double Vision tool provides a foundation for future projects to expand on The tool was created with this in mind so some of the functionality of the game is primitive For instance the artwork and level design were not thoroughly expanded since gathering or creating those materials is very time consuming Instead since this project may expand in many directions the tool was created to be strong programmatically in terms of the game the user plays the learning tools and the data gathering Because there i
6. MEMAKER Although it seemed feasible to cut down on development time by using a pre built game making tool such as Game Maker or RPGMaker these tools could not provide the level of control we required We felt that using a 3 party pre built engine meaning an engine that is ready to use and available for purchase despite requiring extra time to produce art and design levels would make the tool itself easier to make We looked at several game engines but quickly realized that most options exceeded our budget The complexity of these engines was also much more than we needed and the learning curve was far steeper We chose T2D because we already had some experience programming and developing with it the source was available as a development tool through the WPI Game Development Club and although all of our code was done on the scripting level the source code was available for editing T2D is a game engine developed by GarageGames that provides rigid body physics a particle effects editor sprite based animations TorqueScript static and animated tiles and a collision detection system GG1 T2D was developed as a subset of GarageGames flagship product the Torque Game Engine TGE T2D provides a platform to make sprite based games using only a scripting language It has a built in GUI editor and a 12 tilemap editor which allows developers to immediately see the changes they make The scripting language itself is relatively easy
7. Project DXF 0662 Video Game Learning and Tutorials A Major Qualifying Project Report submitted to the Faculty of the WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science by Andrew Bangs Christopher St Pierre Approved Professor David X Finkel Advisor Professor Robert W Lindeman Advisor Abstract Since video games have become more complicated requiring more comprehensive in game help our project s goal was to provide a tool to fulfill the need to study in game help Our tool is built on a custom game and utilizes different types of help in different instances of the game records time spent using help and is fully extensible By providing a video game tool that collects empirical data of learning habits researchers can analyze the effectiveness of in game teaching methods Table of Contents Ll DntFOQUCtlOts o acuta neasa aM usb dee esb lcu D dtd spe Ls ue di 1 27 Purpose ot the FOOL e e variat E E O a E a E Pau rE 3 3 Backerourd and Research uei rerit eb e en as Ra iE 7 T 3bools and LIC SION eei De DEN Er ub esas EEE Dr ha M es ends 9 4 1 Game GENTE NNUS E m T TS 9 42 Tortoise SVN a5 au pp mE DEED IAS ARIA FATUA RN D aOR 10 T OPUS AD Lco emet den etd pP MTM RM aed kalten Em odi e Hp Mad TUS uns 11 dA Learning LOGS codi a n e iaa f adio soa ed PE dd 13 5 Evaluation and Testings oo reae rtibr iple bae pleb EE ELEME ENER EU Me taped Eit oerte
8. betta Feed 14 6 F t re WOK roate a EE ecmselere deriva qud tee tetuer TAPA UIS 16 FSI IMMER 18 Se REFETENCES RM NE 20 9 Art IR CSOURCES RN EM EU S 21 Appendix A Manual for Use of Double Vision esssssseeeeeeeenerenn 22 A T Usine the Fool ettet een n en eb br ve EE ere tee eM 22 A32 Changing and Adding Tools 45 eoi tendit eive tie petes veto a eite ln tue xl weston 24 A3 Bxpauding ihe Game use oat n e a ala Pra ER ARN eT EHE ER 25 Appendix B Manual for Expansion of Double Vision eere 26 Bal Create SN SW Maps us sia qur iu Goo que add uve isse a P Len GU MIU GU poU sna Tos 29 Appendix C Player s Manual for Double Vision ssseeeeeeenreens 31 Appendix D Sample Log Quip ceaseless aiid net EE Ponti eere tea n OE dd RR 34 Appendix B Video Game List reer saprast etch es eth Ge ce e ve eerie 36 1 Introduction As the video game industry has grown over the past years a lot of attention has been paid to the marketing of games for their aesthetics and complexity Consequently games have become more complex and more difficult to learn Such an explosion in the sales of games and the overall success of the video game industry in the past few years has warranted research into more ways to attract players and keep players attention throughout game play Our project was to create a video game tool that could be used to research the learning habits of video game players with regards to v
9. cs files in this directory should not need to be edited as one sets preferences and the other calls the startup scripts In the mqp client directory are all of the script files that should need to be edited Mqp client effects contain particle effects held over from the previous game this was built on and are not used in Double Vision These files remain to provide future groups with examples of graphical effects that could be added to the game Mqp client help contain help files that can be accessed through the Torque2D engine Future groups may wish to take advantage of this built in help but it was not helpful to us Mqp client images contain many of the game images as well as some that are not used in the game Most of these images were taken from freely 26 available libraries which are listed in section 8 while some of the images were made by us However all of the files in mqp client images custom were created by us Mqp client maps contain all the tilemap files for the game as well as some others that were created during the development process Mqp client sounds are all sound files for the game with appropriate sources listed in Audio Sources txt The following is a rundown of the included files in mqp client audioDatablocks cs Creates the datablocks for all the audio files used in the game More can be freely added by following the examples given Voiceover help can then be called using doVoice passing a datablock
10. d DV controls_audio bat Starts the game with both the controls map and audio tools DV none bat Starts the game with no learning tools enabled DV popups bat Starts the game with only on screen help enabled The user can be given knowledge of which learning tools will be available or it may be kept a secret You should however let them be aware that pressing 9 or whichever button you may change it to will bring up any and all help that is available to them The 22 exception to this is if the Controls Map is available to the user We have chosen to have this learning tool bound to a separate key Backspace since the Controls Map overlays everything potentially skewing the time spent looking at Pop Up Help Therefore if the Controls Map is available let the user know the key to which it is bound default is backspace Pressing Esc will end the session however premature termination by the user will likely invalidate any data gathering methods you have set up This functionality may be removed or the control key may be changed if the research group wishes to do so You might also consider giving the user the Player Manual included in Appendix C This contains background story as well as a list of items in the game and some enemies This is meant to be a supplement to the user to give them a feel for the game before they play it We have intentionally left the list of controls out of the docum
11. e were unable to include either of them we feel they are important to consider 17 T Conclusion We developed this project because there is a lack of consensus in the game development industry regarding the best method for teaching players how to play games There are many ways to teach game concepts to a player but development time can limit which methods are implemented Therefore it is necessary to understand the quickest most enjoyable and most effective methods of learning how to play while ensuring the knowledge is retained during gameplay One potential problem is that different game genres might require different methods of learning the game For example pop up help could be too distracting for racing games and video tutorials might give away too much information in puzzle games Our tool could be used to determine which learning methods are best for each genre by creating a different game in a different genre and testing which learning method works best Our plan was to create the framework for an application that could be used to empirically determine the best way that people learn to play games We first decided to make the tool as self contained as possible so that the tool could be used immediately without requiring any additions by the research group Our second objective was to create a tool that could be changed and adapted to fit the needs of the research group that would use it To accomplish the first goal we present
12. ed the tool as a complete game one that contains thorough logging of player requested help Our game does not have a pre determined end state but otherwise fulfills our first goal The second goal was achieved by writing the scripting code in a modular manner such that additions or modifications to the script files could be done logically For example we encapsulated as much of the code that deals 18 with the combat system within the script file combat cs Additionally we have provided several guides to expanding the tool which can be found in the appendices With these factors in mind we feel that we succeeded in our initial plan and have provided the groundwork for future groups to extend 19 8 References GAME INSTRUCTIONS Chen Jessie Y C Utility of Game Instructions United States Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences April 2003 GG1 Garage Games Torque 2D Game Builder Available http www garagegames com products 62 March 8 2006 LIBERTY Oliver Martin Pelletier Caroline The things we learned on Liberty Island designing games to help people become competent game players London Knowledge Lab Institute of Education University of London 2005 GAMEMAKER Overmars Mark GameMaker Available http www gamemaker nl March 3 2006 TORTOISE Tortoise SVN Available http tortoisesvn sourceforge net January 15 2006 SVN S
13. elp describe the need for this video game tool as well as explain the development process we followed throughout the project 2 Purpose of the Tool The Double Vision video game tool was designed specifically for use in a research environment Before the gameplay begins testing players should have access to the user s manual as they would if the game were a normal off the shelf purchase They should not be given any information about the data collection processes in the game other than the knowledge that what they are doing will be recorded and analyzed However how much information is revealed to the test subjects is left up to the research group To gather data on the learning habits of players the person administering a test the proctor using our game tool can choose from many different help functions available Double Vision includes the following learning tools as part of the executable e Audio Help The information gathered on audio help is the number of times that the player requested the audio help Controls Maps The information gathered on the controls map is the number of times that the player requested the controls map to be displayed as well as how long the player left the controls map on the screen An example of a controls map is seen in Figure 1 Figure 1 An Example of a Controls Map Popup Help The information gathered on the popup help is the
14. en bones and even wounds Fully restores a person to their maximum potential Nitroglycerin Nitro Found in small portable vials this dangerous substance can cause a horrifying explosion or can be used to decrease blood pressure Cell Phone Dr Wysooki always used it to keep in touch with his family so he doesn t have much use for it anymore Still it may come in handy Enemies Bears The mighty grizzly Ursus arctos horribilis should be avoided at all costs Should one be encountered play dead If the creature still persists only then should it be attacked Wolves A frightening creature wolves often hunt in packs They are a formidable opponent until you acquire a weapon Renegades Sometimes found in cities these opponents lie in wait until a victim walks by Renegades are brutal and cunning and dealing with one is often life threatening 32 Getting Help Press 9 to bring up any available context sensitive help This can be done at any time 33 Appendix D Sample Log Output The following is what the log might look like after the game is run once User Help Statistics Controls Map seen for ms 200 General Popup seen for ms 2400 General Audio heard Controls Map seen for ms 1500 General Popup seen for ms 900 General Audio heard Controls Map seen for ms 500 General Popup seen for ms 1100 General Audio heard Controls Map seen f
15. ent because we felt that providing the user with the controls ahead of time may skew the use of the learning tools in game Additionally it is impossible to record how often or how long a user refers to the Player Manual with our tool Once the user understands how the game operates and where they can get help the player will be on their own The game has no defined end state but once the player confronts the final enemy located at the water fountain at the end of the second level the game will provide no new experiences and at that point the game can be assumed to be over If the player defeats the enemy he ll be returned to the game at which time you should take control of the system again Press Esc and the game will automatically end The game then displays the game over screen and writes any gathered information to the 23 log file If the player s character dies at any point the game will immediately end Once at the game over screen you should then manually close the program out The logged information can be examined at any time The log is located in mqp output txt located in the in the directory that the tool was installed Assuming the tool is terminated by pressing Esc rather than by a program or system crash each running of the game will produce a new section of data that is appended to the end of the log As delivered the log outputs which help tools were called for and for how long if appropriate fol
16. games These experiments studied behavioral patterns in players in order to find out whether or not video game playing had any impact on social behavior as well as reaction time focus and other mental and motor skills GAME INSTRUCTIONS Using these findings the United States Army found that they could design and build their own video games or simulations in order to train soldiers The idea was that using the tools they found to be most effective in the learning processes of players they could create a simulation game effective in properly training soldiers how to think and react in situations the military can control GAME INSTRUCTIONS Although all of this research did prove to be effective for the United States Army in aiding their simulation designs it did not effectively describe how it could be practically used to create more effective video game learning tools Another document we examined before beginning our tool was a record of the results of a study done by London Knowledge Lab Institute of Education at the University of London Their study looked into how to make video game players better learners but only in the context of video games themselves They focused on such things as how much people remembered after specific tutorial types and learning methods They also recorded how much better at the game the people became based on the learning tools that they implemented into the gameplay LIBERTY Although this information
17. gave us some insight into the types of learning methods we could possibly insert into our tool it was not exactly the type of study we would be designing our tool for It did help to learn about what types of skills people acquire as they play games but just as the United States Army research it did not give insight into what types of learning worked best These were our primary sources before beginning our own coding and analysis Further research did not yield any other resources that indicated the type of tool we wanted to create had been attempted or created in the past We therefore decided the endeavor was worthwhile and began organizing our efforts to begin planning the development of our game and tool simultaneously 4 Tools and Design 4 1 Game Genre Using a game as the base for a learning tool imposed a difficult decision what is the best genre for the task Creating an effective tool meant designing a game that would be challenging to learn to play without the use of the built in learning methods Therefore a genre had to be selected that as few people as possible would be able to fully understand and master from the start There were also time constraints involved in creating the game Since both the game and the learning tools needed to be created little development time could be allocated to for example creating a large amount of artwork or developing a complicated strategy game The choices were narrowed down to two an ac
18. h easier There are several opportunities to expand Double Vision to make it a stronger tool The first thing would be to make it more visually appealing Currently about half of the art and sounds were made by us and half of them were taken from freely available sources Unfortunately this practice resulted in stark style differences between the pieces While the focus of the tool is tracking the learning process and the aesthetics of the game updating the visual and auditory qualities would make for a more familiar gaming environment for the user Another option which may tie in with the first would be to extend the length of the game Since art tiles can be substituted freely a half dozen more levels could be added to the game using temporary art When art becomes available give the new files the same name as the old ones and place them in the appropriate directory T2D will automatically resize the files if they do not have the same dimensions Additionally the game itself could be made more challenging by providing more enemies item pickups more challenging fights and so on 16 Finally an extension of the tool itself is a possibility Expansion of the current types of learning tools is possible such as providing various pop up boxes with different visual appeal Also new learning tools entirely could be added Our hope was to include a tutorial or a non interactive video that would be used to demonstrate gameplay While w
19. iculty of learning one of these games would be worthy of analysis 4 2 Tortoise SVN To facilitate content control we used freeware known as Tortoise SVN Tortoise SVN is a concurrent versioning system CVS we had installed on the WPI Game Development Club s GDC s main server in Fuller Laboratories at WPI It utilizes a Windows context menu interface and offers all of the CVS functions necessary for our project TORTOISE Although we researched many different tools to use for our project Tortoise SVN was the first CVS software we looked at and used Tortoise SVN is readily available on the GDC main server and integrates well with the GDC project server which runs Subversion Control SVN Since it offered a shell based context menu system there was no reason to choose any other version control software 10 4 3 Torque 2D For our project we chose Torque 2D T2D as the development engine Before we began our own development process we looked at examples of games produced with T2D that were similar to the game we were expecting to produce We examined the scripts used to make and run these games and decided that the codebase was complex enough to provide a good starting point and work well with our time constraints Since we had previously determined that our tool and game were going to be 2D T2D became one of our primary development tools to assess GG1 The key aspect of our game was that it be challenging to lear
20. ideo games themselves Using such a tool research and statisticians could easily pinpoint the most effective learning methods incorporated in games today The development of the game and tool was divided into three broad but important steps to insure the creation of an effective final product First we created a custom game to build the data gathering tool on The biggest challenge here was quickly designing a short custom and robust game with the ability to utilize multiple learning tools Although the first part of the project was only to incorporate the design process and no actual game development it still involved story development game design art collection and other design elements After the design of the game was finalized and the development process was started we would then move on to deciding on the types of learning tools that would be implemented in the tool itself Using a list of games we compiled and the learning tools they incorporate we decided on the best tools to implement We would then use our development platform to build these tools into the game Finally throughout the entire development process we would need to develop a way to record the number of times specific types of help were utilized as well as the length of time they were used by the player With this final piece of the tool implemented we would have a final product that is ready for use in learning research This MQP report was designed to h
21. itScreen gui Displays the game over screen Any click will then close the program t2d launchMenu DoubleVision gui Displays the title screen Any click will start the game tools cs Initializes the learning tools Also creates and removes the popup help boxes plays the audio help and has a timer function town cs Creates the town sprite 28 An interesting fact about scripting with Torque2D is that variables and functions can be called from any of the scripts that are executed at runtime in c ient cs This means that functions can be placed in whichever script file most logically would use them B 1 Creating New Maps To create a new map for Double Vision first load up the game and gain control of the character This loads T2D exe with all the appropriate paths and datablocks for the game Now enter the tile editor by pressing F12 Create a new map with two tile layers each 32 tiles wide by 24 tiles high and 40 by 40 pixels Larger maps are possible as long as the programmer keeps track of where the camera position should be when the player moves to a different area Go to layer 0 and select a tile from the Image Library pull down menu Tiles on layer 0 are assumed to be the background so the player will be able to walk on them Then select layer 1 It helps to select View gt Up to Current Layer when you re editing so you can see what the final image will be When you re placi
22. lowed by a summary of how much each type of help was used then which tools were enabled and how much health the player had at the end of the game This information may not be what is most relevant to your project so we encourage you to look at the logHelp function in player cs Refer to Appendix D for a sample log file A 2 Changing and Adding Tools To create a version of the game with a combination of learning tools available create a batch file containing T2D exe mod mqp and add as many of the following flags to the end of the string Flag Help Option s Enabled DVpopup Popup tooltips DVaudio Voiceover help DVControls Controls map DVall All To add additional types of learning tools such as a tutorial or video of gameplay would likely require intensive additions to the code structure If you wish to pursue this course please read the Developer s document However adding more occurrences of currently 24 existing tools is much easier To do so look in the getHelp function in player cs and add or change the popup or audio calls A 3 Expanding the Game All the artwork used in the game is located in the file mqp client datablocks cs To change any of the art in the game find the corresponding png file located in the mqp client images directory and replace it with the new art Torque 2D is good at scaling images but you will get the best result if you use images of the same dimension
23. n Gameplay elements such as aesthetics and story were secondary goals Therefore a game engine that was simple to learn and easy to use was favored over others Before deciding to use T2D we first examined the feasibility of using pre built game making tools including RPG Maker and Game Maker RPG Maker is a closed source RPG development tool that uses a large system of menus to produce games Although the tool would have been adequate for producing just a game without our learning tools implemented it was not feasible for use in our project Since the software was closed source there was no way of manipulating the engine in such a way to keep track of the statistics we would need This lack of a tracking ability would have defeated the purpose of the project and we therefore decided not to use RPG Maker as an option RPG Game Maker is a closed source game development tool similar to RPG Maker The difference between RPG Maker and Game Maker is that the types of games that can be produced with Game Maker are in a much broader category than RPG Maker Game 11 Maker also had a higher level of programmer control Unfortunately since Game Maker s engine is also closed source we ran into the same problem we ran into with RPG Maker we were unable to track the statistics we needed for use with the tools we were planning on implementing in the game We then decided that Game Maker was not going to work as our development tool either GA
24. ng objects in layer 1 they will appear above layer 0 but will only be collided with if you ve checked the box next to the pull down menu before you added the tiles To bring up more information about a tile CTRL click on the tile and you can set collisions active or change the collision polygon Right clicking will remove the tile When you re completed save the tilemap with a name and a map extension Then move the map from tileeditor client maps to mqp client maps Now you can add a town from an existing map and link it to your new map Make sure to move the camera to the 29 correct area 0 0 if the new area is the top left corner 0 640 if it is one screen to the right of the top left 480 0 if it is one screen down from the top left etc 30 Appendix C Player s Manual for Double Vision Welcome to Double Vision a game whose story takes you to the very heart of human corruption whose puzzles will strain the mind and whose fierce battles will rattle the very core of your being You will enter a world of the near future in a land not far from here where science is advancing faster than humanity is ready to accept it Cloning has become cheap and efficient despite government regulations preventing it Nanomachines are able to restore the human body to optimum health Scientists are able to extract a person s thoughts and memories through minimally invasive brain surgery Pharmaceutical companies are fighting
25. number of times that the player requested the controls map to be displayed as well as how long the player left the popup help on the screen An example of popup help is seen in Figure 2 Walking Around Figure 2 An Example of Popup Help The proctor can begin the experiment by running any one of the batch files provided By executing the proper batch file they are able to utilize each of the different learning tools all learning tools or no learning tools for the player to use in the game Each learning method has different logging events associated with it that will be recorded into a log file in a format suitable for the data being saved Therefore such data as times in menus number of key presses which help was used most often during gameplay and any other data that the proctor deems relevant to their study can be collected By providing the ability to separate the use of the various learning tools into different batch files and therefore different instances of playing the game we created the ability to record many different combinations of statistical data 3 Background and Research Before we began we first examined the possibility of other organizations utilizing video games as a teaching tool The first recognized organization we found to use games to teach was the United States Army The United States Army Research Institute for the Behavioral Sciences performed many different experiments using PC based computer
26. or ms 2000 General Popup seen for ms 1400 General Audio heard Controls Map seen for ms 2900 NPC Popup seen for ms 2900 Controls Map seen for ms 800 General Popup seen for ms 200 General Audio heard Controls Map seen for ms 1600 General Popup seen for ms 1000 General Audio heard Controls Map seen for ms 2700 NPC Popup seen for ms 2700 Controls Map seen for ms 1800 NPC Popup seen for ms 1800 Controls Map seen for ms 200 General Popup seen for ms 600 General Audio heard Controls Map seen for ms 2400 General Popup seen for ms 1800 General Audio heard Total combat popups seen 0 for a total of ms O0 Total NPC popups seen 3 for a total of ms 7400 Total general popups seen 8 for a total of ms 9400 Total popups 11 seen for ms 16800 Controls Map seen 11 times for a total of ms 16600 Audio clips heard 8 times All tools on 1 Popup tools on 0 Audio tools on 0 Controls map on 0 Player health ended at 100 Each time the game is run a sequence of information such as the sample log above will be appended to the end of output txt located in the mqp directory The first set of information is a list of the types of help the user requested listed in the order that the user 34 called them Where applicable the length of time that the user looked at each piece of help is also indicated The next section is a summary of the popup help tools Curren
27. s Scene cs Sets the camera size and position as well as which map to draw Objects on tile layer 0 are assumed to be walked on while those on tile layer 1 are assumed by be collidable Collisions MUST be set to ACTIVE on EACH TILE Also contains the fading to and from black code splashScreen gui Displays GarageGame s logo before our game s logo By agreeing to the EULA for Torque2D this must remain in any game made with the T2D engine sprites cs Creates all the sprites for each map A sprite is either a combat an NPC or some transition called a Town Combats must first be checked if they ve already been encountered so that the same battle does not appear twice Then they must be given a position which enemy is to be fought what the tilemap will be the name of the fight and the area that the fight will be located in NPCs are given a position a name an image map what they ll say delimited by and what they will say after their chat lines have been exhausted A town is given a position a position where the player will be transported to a name the camera coordinates where the player will move to and the name of the map the player will be in This is done so a town will be able to move a player within the same map or to a new map like between the woods and the city Reset the size of town immediately after making the town to make a larger area the player can collide with t2d ex
28. s a strong technical base the tool can grow in many ways furthering the development of the game to make it more enjoyable or challenging expanding on the tool providing more opportunities to teach the user how to play or artistically by creating new graphics levels and story It was important to create a game that a user would be able to play without encountering disruptive elements such as gameplay bugs flaws in the levels or program instability Eliminating bugs in the gameplay was done during playtesting That is for each new feature added that feature would be repeatedly tested At the same time testing was done on existing capabilities to ensure this new element did not adversely affect any other features So the entire tool was tested each time a feature was added Having done this a user should not encounter anything that was not planned Level design flaws were eliminated by repeated testing and by good level making strategies such as placing all the same objects at once and putting collidable objects on their own layer By using an established pre built game engine no program or system crashes were encountered while testing the tool 14 Data management is a critical element of the learning tools themselves so it was important to have a reliable logging system in place so that future groups can easily deal with the information gathered by the tool This was done by developing the current logging system which output
29. s as the originals If you change any character images that consist of character maps you must either maintain the same image ratio or change the cell width height in datablocks cs Adding additional maps requires a little more work Since a licensed copy of Torque 2D is necessary for the creation and implementation of maps further information can be found in the Developer s Document Appendix B 25 Appendix B Manual for Expansion of Double Vision This document provides an overview of the technical aspect of the Double Vision tool It explains the purpose of all script files for the game as well as a stronger explanation of how to create additional tilemaps for the game The later is provided because at the time of writing there exists no thorough tutorial for the built in Tile Editor This document assumes the reader has a valid developer s license to Torque 2D and a working knowledge of TorqueScript including having gone through the tutorials and looked at the reference documentation Once you have your account for GarageGames and have purchased Torque 2D the download link can be found at http www garagegames com myA ccount These files are included in the SDK bundled with Torque 2D The GarageGames developer forums are also very useful and can be found at http www garagegames com mg forums result area php The first thing that should be done is to look at all the cs files contained within the mqp directory The two
30. s statistical information in a human readable format This provides future groups with an explicit definition of what each variable in the log represents If a different format such as the Comma Separated Value file format would be easier when processing the data the group only needs to modify the strings that are sent to the log output Testing of the tool was done each time a new feature was added to ensure the usability of each component Creating a strong feature set was important to the tool more so than the overall cohesiveness of the game This is the reason why testing was done modularly during development rather than on the entire tool upon completion The result is a tool with strong individual elements such as session logging combat and help screens but has shortcomings with regards to the game contained therein little story easy gameplay no replayability These problematic aspects however were not part of the initial project goals and can be corrected by a future project group 15 6 Future Work Double Vision was designed to be a tool that could easily be extended by future groups Therefore we tried to build the tool as a core piece of software We believe that most of the critical elements have been implemented Standards for things like player controls help logging and level design have all been established The format and examples will all be available to a follow up group which should make their tasks muc
31. tion shooter game or a role playing game The shooter game was initially a strong choice because many action games have simple controls low artistic requirements would be easy to create and can be picked up and quickly enjoyed by many people The problem with using an action game for this project would come as a result of the ease of playability Creating an action game with purposely difficult controls would not be a useful endeavor because then the player s greatest challenge would be figuring out which buttons correspond to which actions Alternatively the game could be more strategic for example each enemy could only be defeated in one way However these challenges would have felt contrived rather than arising as a natural part of playing the game This artificiality could confuse potential test subjects and disrupt any conclusions that might be drawn from the study Role Playing games RPGs are commonly accepted to contain elements of character building a strong narrative and a combat system Contrary to action games RPGs have a lot of information available to the player have huge worlds requiring a great amount of art development and have a steep learning curve Players need to understand what each statistic does gather information and solve puzzles from non player characters NPCs and be able to understand and master the combat system It was this learning curve that gave the strongest case for RPGs since the inherent diff
32. tly there are three categories of popup help determined by when they appear to the player during combat while speaking with a non player character NPC and any other time The total number of requests for each type of popup is listed as well as the total time they appeared on screen The next two sections of the log summarize the controls map and audio tips in the same manner Finally the help types that were enabled are listed as well as the final player health This last item is the player s ending health an example of what a research group could use to test how well the player understood how to play the game Other information that might be gathered here is total time played character level or enemies defeated 35 Appendix E Video Game List Title Platform Genre Learning Method Abuse PC Action On screen Help Amplitude PS2 Music Tutorial Anarchy Online PC MMORPG Tutorial Avernum PC RPG On screen Help Baiten Kaitos GC RPG On screen Help Betrayal at Krondor PC RPG None Beyond Good and Evil Xbox Action On screen Help BreakQuest PC Arcade None Bridge Builder PC Puzzle None Burnout 3 Xbox Sports Video Castle of the Winds 1 2 PC RPG None DDR Xbox Music Tutorial Dead or Alive 3 Xbox Fighting Tutorial Devil May Cry 1 thru 3 PS2 Action On screen Help
33. ubversion Control Available http subversion tigris org March 8 2006 RPG The RPG Maker Resource Kit Available http www crankeye com index php February 2 2006 20 9 Art Resources Artwork was borrowed from the following websites Either permission was given by the original author or the artwork was provided for free use http olls impressur com battle charset html http www rmxp net resources rmxp Graphics http www gamingw net 21 Appendix A Manual for Use of Double Vision Expanding upon the Double Vision tool is very straightforward once a few things have been established Without greatly modifying any prewritten script the two things that can be edited are the learning methods implemented and the game itself A 1 Using the Tool Double Vision has been packaged such that it is ready to use to test how people learn to play video games As presented the tool needs only be extracted to a directory on the target machine Development was done exclusively on Windows but it should run on Linux and Mac From here any of the batch files can be run Each of these starts the game with a different set of learning tools activated The following is a list of those batch files Filename What it does DV all bat Starts the game with all learning tools enabled DV audio bat Starts the game with only audio tools enabled DV controls bat Starts the game with only the controls map enable
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