topical media & game development

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11

game technology for serious applications

immersion does not require illusion but involvement

learning objectives

After reading this chapter you should have an idea how to approach the development of a moderately complex game, and you should also be able to discuss the notion of immersion and argue why using game technology is relevant for serious applications.


Game playing is fundamental to human life. Not only for entertainment, but also to acquire the necessary skills for survival. Game playing can take a variety of forms, but nowadays the dominant game paradigm is undoubtedly the interactive video game, to be played on a multimedia-enhanced PC or game console. Currently, games are being (re) discovered in the academic field, another serious areas of society, as excellent means for both the transfer of knowledge and, perhaps more importantly, for attitude change.

In this chapter we will look at the various issues in developing a game, and more specifically, in section 11.2 at requirements for a promotional game for our faculty and the issues that came up when giving a masterclass game development for high school students using this game. Finally, we will sketch the history of immersive systems, in particular panoramas, in section 11.3, and we will discuss how immersion is to be realized in a game context.

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questions

11. game technology for serious applications

concepts


technology


projects & further reading

As a project, develop a non-violent game using the Source SDK. For example, you may develop an application that gives a community of users access their personal collections of photographs.

One interesting feature to explore is the use of narratives, that is a kind of guided tour that gives a user an overview of the collection of photographs by means of a story, taking (in other words) the user by the hand in navigating the gane space.

For further reading I suggest, apart from the manuals and learning materials that come with the Source SDK, books on game development such as  [Luna (2003)],  [Gee (2003)] and  [Klabbers (2006)].

the artwork

  1. digital beauties -- taken from  [Wiedermann (2002)].
  2. Masereel, social realist works
  3. Roy Lichtenstein, 1962
  4. Masereel, social realist works
  5. images from Samurai Romanesque, see section 1.3
  6. HalfLife 2 shader programming
  7. VU-Life 2 -- opening screen
  8. VU-Life 2 -- screenshots
  9. VU-Life 2 -- screenshots
  10. VU-Life 2 -- screenshots
  11. VU-Life 2 -- tools
  12. VU-Life 2 -- tools
  13. VU-Life 2 -- masterclass
  14. diagram AMICO core
  15. diagram AMICO applications
  16. Roy Lichtenstein, 1962, Stillives
  17. Monet, Nympheas
  18. Monet, Nympheas
  19. Monet, Nympheas
  20. Web 3Di -- diagram for Webvolution
  21. signs -- abstract,  [ van Rooijen (2003)], p. 146, 147.
The visual theme of this chapter is realism, on the one hand expressed by a choice from the work of the belgium artist Masereel, as well as in the screenshots of VU Life, which present a more or less realistic, that is recognizable rendering of our faculty. In the mean time, though, the restaurant has been rebuilt, making our virtual restaurant outdated, within a year after creating it. Also the cartooneske style of Roy Lichtenstein may considered to be strongly realistic, although in a slightly different sense. Finally, the nympheas of Monet represent a realistic epos of his famous garden, and in some sense an almost tragic attempt to express this in an artwork, which only adds to the realism of art, that is its vital role in our lives.

(C) Æliens 04/09/2009

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