This is an excerpt of a codepiece “The Soul of The Sims” written by Will Wright in 1997. You can find the entire code on Don Hopkins’ site here.
Hopkins wrote: “This code is an interesting example of game design, programming and prototyping techniques”
- enum {
mHappyLife =0,
mHappyWeek =1,
mHappyDay =2,
mHappyNow =3,mPhysical=4,
mEnergy=5,
mComfort=6,
mHunger=7,
mHygiene=8,
mBladder=9,mMental=10,
mAlertness=11,
mStress=12,
mEnvironment=13,
mSocial=14,
mEntertainment=15,
};
I post this code because it gives a good impression about my further design approach. These lines are used as variables to describe the behavioural patterns of the Sims. Besides the semantic and syntactic meanings of the code you are able to recognize that some basic game mechanics usually represented by graphical feedback are also representable with simple notations such as numbers.
Here you can see another way numbers are used to describe complex game events:
The conclusion is to simulate the game events and game mechanics used in the presented high end games like TheSims or SimCity etc. with numbers or with simple graphical feedback.
MDA Framework
Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek developed a framework called MDA: “MDA is a formal approach to understanding games - one which attempts to bridge the gap between game design and development, game criticism, and technical game research.”
Link
In this paper three game design components are shown by the author:
- 1. Mechanics - the Rules
2. Dynamics - the System
3. Aesthetics - Fun
The aesthetics are “(…) the resulting experience form the players engageing with the system”.
These component is important for my prototyping.
By interacting with the physical world the resulting experience is so high that you actually don’t need complex graphical feedback. The player achive a high level of fun through the use of a mobile device in the physical world.