tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46460456458589020632024-03-13T11:19:36.350-05:00Interactive Visual Gamebook Adventures :: Sipko Software :: Peter AgapovPeter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-19577310385221997432021-03-11T10:30:00.000-06:002021-03-11T10:30:56.915-06:00Testing input and performance: Attention, Memory, Knowledge and Logic
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Some time ago, I published a post on mechanics of games (<a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/05/gamebook-theory-mechanics-of-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">input - test of performance - feedback</a>),
which proved that the only valid form of player input, in the genre of
Gamebook Adventures, happens in the form of choices and decisions. Later
on, I shared with you my ideas about <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/11/gamebook-mechanics-meaningful-choices_9.html" target="_blank">Meaningful Choices</a> and the <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/12/fog-of-war-and-logical-conclusion-choice.html" target="_blank">Logical Conclusion Choice Theory</a>.
At that point of my research project, I had nothing else to say about
mechanics of gamebooks, but at the same time, I felt as if something
very important was still missing.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1k8wd2spaC2_RDFH2dn_zqlBQkDCXWuOaboh0A-PwX1DboiIvEj855SGBTRLcCL95BhKogt4j2x_vVRGqCv2_ns9GxGCNy5gfqpd_JdHJJvdk9y5YZPP7VeHpTI3DY8u7sOtSafb24YM/s1600/Atom.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="485" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1k8wd2spaC2_RDFH2dn_zqlBQkDCXWuOaboh0A-PwX1DboiIvEj855SGBTRLcCL95BhKogt4j2x_vVRGqCv2_ns9GxGCNy5gfqpd_JdHJJvdk9y5YZPP7VeHpTI3DY8u7sOtSafb24YM/s200/Atom.png" width="193" /></a>Recently,
it downed on me that I could zoom in further, just like the scientists
did when they discovered the smaller particles of the atom. The result
of this experiment was absolutely astonishing. The conclusion it led me
to, and the information it uncovered for me, were unexpected to such
extent that I was forced to entirely change my core beliefs of the whole
gamebook genre.<br />
<br />
Before I share with you exactly what I meant in the statement above, I'd
like to tell you that dissecting the structure of the Meaningful
Choice, helped me realize that, if applied properly, it gives the author
many necessary tools to test the following four reader skills:
attention, memory, knowledge and logic. <br />
<br />
<b>Attention Challenges:</b> in a world of Short Attention Span, in an
age of growing Attention Deficit Disorder and also looking into a future
of extremely impatient people, this is a very good choice of skill to
undergo testing in any game. After all, even the great Stuart Lloyd
openly admitted that he is
used to "quick scan the text for the outcome and for the next choice".<br />
<br />
Mechanics: the author could create a choice, which is related to
information presented earlier in the book or earlier in the same
paragraph.<br />
<br />
Example: from "Mars 2112" by Ashton Saylor, where Commander Blint warns
the protagonist about the terrorists: "They refuse to negotiate. They
already killed Bernie when he went in unarmed". Shortly after the above
information, the reader is faced with the choice to (1) go in and
negotiate with the terrorists or (2) examine the area and come up with
another plan. The danger in (1) seems obvious, but it is so, only if the
reader actually paid attention to the information that the terrorists
are refusing to negotiate and they already killed the previous
negotiator.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1gDtdQfplQmuScqVfdG_MSIenCGOM_IoFBIYEqSVNQP_wWsGS-Mcnlur7SCJKBtr-_1MwL9LWdUWi855EEwGl8f8rSh3xhA4EiP9TDR0hJJM-JHWhGy2SqnpyG0nRXhE3HHQdgOt8tI/s1600/futureWarrior.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1gDtdQfplQmuScqVfdG_MSIenCGOM_IoFBIYEqSVNQP_wWsGS-Mcnlur7SCJKBtr-_1MwL9LWdUWi855EEwGl8f8rSh3xhA4EiP9TDR0hJJM-JHWhGy2SqnpyG0nRXhE3HHQdgOt8tI/s400/futureWarrior.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">do you prefer to (1) negotiate with the artificial terrorists or (2) examine the area?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b>Short-Term Memory:</b> checking if the reader has memorized important
information, mentioned earlier in the book, creates a challenge, which
is closely associated with the Attention Skill test. After all, the
information must be noticed first, before it could be memorized. In
times when people are literally bombarded with information and given the
fact that our brains can't store it all, so they are forced to discard
most of it, this kind of choices are a great way to test the player's
performance.<br />
<br />
Mechanics: the author designs a choice, the answer to which requires
taking in consideration important information, presented in the text,
sometime earlier in the book.<br />
<br />
Example: imagine that the protagonist, while having a meal one night at
the local tavern, overhears a legend being told about the only weak spot
in the body of a fire dragon. The only way to kill the creature is to
strike it in the head, right between the eyes. This all happens in the
beginning of the gamebook. However, when facing the dragon in the final
battle of the adventure, the author gives a choice between striking the
fearsome creature (1) in the heart, (2) in the back of the scull or (3)
between the eyes.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHnT0Px457VCsY_4Bzefqnl4QiUkVvaXb2a2EGP1QcMiN4ML4LjEtWLSsAYuyK_SFlOn8Ryobs8JGlokVfV4xxo0ur114rgVWCYKjTA884FutmshxDzpkceuuHqiakSHHRXqwLkgX_d5M/s1600/DragonBattle.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="545" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHnT0Px457VCsY_4Bzefqnl4QiUkVvaXb2a2EGP1QcMiN4ML4LjEtWLSsAYuyK_SFlOn8Ryobs8JGlokVfV4xxo0ur114rgVWCYKjTA884FutmshxDzpkceuuHqiakSHHRXqwLkgX_d5M/s400/DragonBattle.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">you strike the dragon (1) in the heart, (2) in the back of the skull or (3) between the eyes?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b>General Knowledge:</b> testing the reader's general knowledge and
competence on the subject of the gamebook. This one is similar to the
short-term memory challenge explained above with the important
difference that the information needed to succeed is not present in the
book, but is expected to be known to the reader from another source,
outside of the gamebook he is currently reading.<br />
<br />
Mechanics: it requires of the player to make a decision based on his
general knowledge. This type of challenge is similar to the
multiple-choice tests in school.<br />
<br />
Example: from "Dark Side of the Earth" by Michael Mindcrime, where the
protagonist is trying to kill a sleeping Vampire Lord, by stabbing him
in the heart. The test given by the author is about the protagonist's
weapon of choice for this specific task: (1) golden arrow, (2) iron
sword or (3) wooden stake. Do you know the right answer? It is expected
that the reader would be able to make the correct decision based on the
horror movies he has seen, scary old legends he's been told or even
simple Halloween mythology he's been exposed to.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKdTJt4BhMVL4aAnqvMoA1POkZ8UqSGgLbWQ6tIMFPOQ34wlAjK-TXxIQW8BS8VuYo1YlA3-qmafC5Bw7Zs6vRNMHbAmXCz-qpJV3hXmkP_DUZmxa5rDaL8DdGp67azoBS-hrcrCgIy4/s1600/VampireQueen.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKdTJt4BhMVL4aAnqvMoA1POkZ8UqSGgLbWQ6tIMFPOQ34wlAjK-TXxIQW8BS8VuYo1YlA3-qmafC5Bw7Zs6vRNMHbAmXCz-qpJV3hXmkP_DUZmxa5rDaL8DdGp67azoBS-hrcrCgIy4/s400/VampireQueen.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">stab the Vampire Queen in the heart using (1) golden arrow, (2) iron sword or (3) wooden stake?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<b>Logical Thinking:</b> a performance test which requires critical
thinking and logic. In this kind of choice, any of the aforementioned
methods - attention, memory or knowledge - could become a logic
challenge, provided that "<a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/12/fog-of-war-and-logical-conclusion-choice.html" target="_blank">fog of war</a>"
was applied accurately to make some of the circumstances, presented to
the reader, less obvious. This kind of test requires of the player to
unveil the actual question through logic, before being able to properly
answer it. This challenge comes in the form of Logical Conclusion
Choice, Logic Riddle, Tactical Choice and others. I have a soft spot for
this kind of challenges in gamebooks, because in recent times, when
emotional decision making TRUMPs rational thinking and logic, it is of
extreme importance to force the reader to use vitally important skills
such as risk management, damage control, resource management, educated
guessing and critical thinking.<br />
<br />
Mechanics: the author must take a simple test of attention, memory or
knowledge choice, replace words and circumstances with hints, riddles
and clues, scattered throughout the book.<br />
<br />
<u>Example 1 - <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/12/fog-of-war-and-logical-conclusion-choice.html" target="_blank">Logical Conclusion Choice</a></u>:
our protagonist, an artifact hunter just like Indiana Jones, has
already obtained a strangely shaped object, which fits very well in a
mummy sarcophagus that is located by the east wall of a hidden pyramid
room. The script on the wall behind it reads "the key, when put in
place, must be illuminated by sunlight". However, there is only one way
for outside light to get into the confined space: through a small hole,
positioned right in the middle of the ceiling. What time of day does the
protagonist have to be there for the sarcophagus to open up: (1)
morning, (2) early afternoon or (3) evening? I got you thinking here,
didn't I?! Hint: take in consideration the position of the sun
throughout the day! This question distills down to: what time of day
does the sun shine from the west (the side of sunshine in a room
reverses angles). I sure hope that I don't have to explain any further.<br />
<br />
<u>Example 2 - <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/gamebook-practice-lesson-5-logic.html" target="_blank">Logic Riddle Choice</a>:</u>
three people met at a corner of a street. They all are dressed like
cops, so they don't know who the thief is. The real police officers will
always tell the truth and the thief will tell the truth too, to make
himself appear like a good cop. Given that Alex says: "Calvin is not the
thief."; Bruce adds: "One of you both is the thief"; and Calvin states:
"I am not the thief". Which one of the three would you accuse of the
crime?<br />
<br />
<u>Example 3 - <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">Tactical Choice</a></u>:
the protagonist is a superhero, who is in pursuit of the villain. The
choice given to the reader is between (1) shooting the evil antagonist
from a distance or to (2) chase him down on foot. There is no ultimately
better decision. The outcome depends on a choice the reader had to make
earlier in the gamebook. It could have been a choice between visiting
the shooting range or spending more time jogging.<br />
<br />
Before I finish talking about categories of choices in the genre of
gamebooks (attention, memory, knowledge and logic), I would like to
point out that I presented them to you in the order of difficulty,
building it up, starting from an easy and simple attention challenge,
and then ending with the more complicated and sophisticated logic
challenges. Use all of them at your own discretion, but keep in mind
that the difficulty of the adventure must grow with the progress of the
story, so create easy challenges in the beginning and keep the tougher
ones for the end.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvtFuppS3QlS9FrCfiiGbu7YlZDOy02RTZlluUawybGm9vG7LFROmFkNYh7CRjCum2gTrKkpb8omOmn7__5UiOPjk4duMUNe3IftjrzaAx4KP4LxolCViWHD-GLh-Bmtv9qw4EDVw8kX0/s1600/SuperHeroes.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="516" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvtFuppS3QlS9FrCfiiGbu7YlZDOy02RTZlluUawybGm9vG7LFROmFkNYh7CRjCum2gTrKkpb8omOmn7__5UiOPjk4duMUNe3IftjrzaAx4KP4LxolCViWHD-GLh-Bmtv9qw4EDVw8kX0/s400/SuperHeroes.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Every gamebook reader wants to be a superhero. Make them feel like one!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In conclusion, I have to be honest and admit that I have been wrong
about gamebooks, which implement flawed choices. Even a bunch of
consecutive random "<a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">which door</a>"
choices, the ones that have no value on their own, could potentially
create an enjoyable game experience, which measures the reader
performance through testing his attention skill and short-term memory.
That happens by making him to keep track of the path he's walked and
forcing him to create a map of the adventure either on paper or in his
mind, so he can avoid all the dangers and dead ends in the next attempt
to achieve success. Don't get me wrong! I still urge the authors to
avoid such mechanics at all cost and to use as many logic test choices
in their games as possible, but the conclusion of this blogpost is that
flawed adventures still test reader's performance. This came to me as a
tremendous surprise.<br />
<br />
Here is a final word of wisdom: <b>Force your readers to use their brains, not their pens!</b><br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-72173011210206247522020-09-25T13:21:00.000-05:002020-09-25T13:21:10.372-05:00"Fog of War" and Logical Conclusion Choice <h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
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Note: "<a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2015/11/interactivity-in-narrative-pt-2.html" target="_blank">Fog of War</a>"
is terminology established by Ashton Saylor in his blog on Gamebook
Theory. Unfortunately, he never came up with a specific step by step
formula on how to <b>apply the fog of war in a gamebook</b>, so I
decided to try analyzing the whole process and arrived at the theory of
the Logical Conclusion Choice. While this is, by my own account, the
greatest of my achievements in the game design theory, please look at it
as a suggestive process instead of an exact science.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that not all the steps listed below are my own invention.
On the contrary, most of them have been discussed in depth by other
authors and designers, but nobody (as far as I know) has presented them
in a form that is clearly defined and easy to apply when writing a
gamebook adventure.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_m2NC3rCsSdE4Ot1S12pygaoibFj1lB7N1kFYrtB4DxAnEUEzWFeQtfifEDvQ06STyEYUJCtxeO1YDN8wVIsx-2JXGtp6ZI2l6siyUibBnyI7NEQtDSX1OCbMLD6YbbZKnR_kwnbH4Qs/s1600/MrSpock.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_m2NC3rCsSdE4Ot1S12pygaoibFj1lB7N1kFYrtB4DxAnEUEzWFeQtfifEDvQ06STyEYUJCtxeO1YDN8wVIsx-2JXGtp6ZI2l6siyUibBnyI7NEQtDSX1OCbMLD6YbbZKnR_kwnbH4Qs/s1600/MrSpock.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I believe that the father of <b>Logical Conclusion Choice</b> is Michael
Mindcrime (a nickname of Dimitar Slaveikov). According to his own
words, he was disappointed by the arcade approach of blind decisions and
random choices in the well established series "Fighting Fantasy" and
"Choose Your Own Adventure" and started writing gamebooks back in the
1990s, implementing some innovative ideas, where the <b>choices were based on strong logic</b> and therefore positive outcome of the adventure was a <b>direct result and in direct proportion to the reader's performance quality</b>.
He quickly became the best selling author in the genre of gamebooks in
Bulgaria and some of his work reached the top of bestseller book charts
in the country.<br />
<br />
To better illustrate the process below, let me once again use the
example of a Logical Conclusion Choice I presented in my last blogpost
(this scenario is courtesy of the Bulgarian gamebook "The Master of
Darkness" by George M George - a nickname of George Mindizov). Here it
is: The protagonist is crossing a wide open field. There are mountains
in the distance to the west, with visible caves carved in them. A dark,
almost black, thunderstorm front is approaching fast from the east. The
choice is between running for the caves or seeking shelter under a
nearby tree.<br />
<br />
Lets dissect the above example!<br />
<br />
<u><b>Part 1. Hide the danger by applying the 'fog of war'</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>1. Danger.</b> Design the danger your protagonist would be facing:
being hit by a lightning. At the moment, this choice is between being
hit by a lightning or taking shelter in the caves: this is a <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">cake or death</a> (too obvious) choice and no self-respecting author would write it in this very form.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Clues and Hints.</b> Take the exact wording out of the text and
replace it with clues and hints: don't mention a lightning in the text,
but provide clues and hints by listing the conditions, under which the
danger may exist or occur: thunderstorm, wide open field, the tree is
the only tall object in the vicinity. Note: You don't have to start out
from a loss point of view. Instead, write a paragraph with a specific
gain in mind. Example: dead body with a bag of gold coins next to it.
Hide it by writing that there are vultures circling high in the air, far
away in the distance. Now, keep in mind that, this is also a warning of
a possible grave danger awaiting there, so the outcome, positive or
negative, is still a matter of chance, not the result of an informed
decision. To avoid such randomness in your gamebooks, adjust the
difficulty of the choice, using the steps listed below.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Part 2. Adjust the difficulty of the choice accordingly</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>3. Move clues and hints.</b> Move some of the clues and hints to
previous paragraphs: if you need to make the choice more difficult, move
some of the conditions to a previous paragraph. Example: mention wide
open field and the lonely tree in the same paragraph as the choice, but
move the information of the approaching thunderstorm to a previous
paragraph. This step increases the difficulty of the choice by measuring
the attention and the memory of our readers.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Inform the Reader.</b> Make the dilemma a little bit easier:
inform the reader that the tree can't provide full protection against
the forces of nature (this is a wide term that doesn't directly hint
towards a lightning) and let him guess and decide what those forces
could be and how much damage they could possibly cause. Note that
without this step, the player could be tricked into making the wrong
choice and that is something an experienced author would never do to his
readers.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Partially Reveal.</b> Make the choice harder: if we stop at the
previous step, the choice could be a little bit too easy (which could be
acceptable early in the adventure), so we may want to adjust it to more
difficult (especially later in the adventure) by forcing the reader to
choose the lesser evil from two bad outcomes. To do so, we could reveal
that if he decides to run for the caves, he will suffer the loss of 10
points of health due to exhaustion. Alternatively, we can design
paragraphs where the player chooses the greater good from two or more
positive outcomes. The dilemma is now similar to a lot of everyday
choices we face, where one of the outcomes is well defined and expected,
while the other outcome could be better or worse due to unknown or
unforeseen factors.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Adjust Further.</b> Adjust the difficulty further by mixing and
matching more of positive or negative clues in step 4 and step 5 as much
as you think is necessary. Why not adding some positive to each
negative like this: there could be provisions or gold left under the
tree by other travelers, who took shelter under it or rested there, but
at the same time, there are probably artifacts hidden in the mountain
caves. See what we did back there? "A thunderstorm is approaching fast.
There could be provisions or gold left under the tree by other
travelers, but it can't provide full protection against nature's forces.
However, if you run for the caves, you'd lose 10 points of health due
to exhaustion, but you've heard that there are artifacts hidden in the
mountain. Do you take shelter under the tree or do you run for the
caves?". Now we have a choice between the lesser of two evils and the
greater of two goods. How about mixing them in order to make the choice
less obvious? The lesser evil provides the greater good and vice-versa.
Actually, to make the above example more difficult, I would move the
information about the artifacts to an earlier paragraph, where another
person tells you a legend that there are artifacts in the mountains and I
wouldn't even mention them in the paragraph where the choice is.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Part 3. Provide deserved feedback after the choice was made</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>7. Explain Yourself to the Reader.</b> Very limited number of authors
inform their readers how and why the consequences of each choice are in
direct proportion to the performance and logic during gameplay. It
wouldn't hurt to tell the player that while he is running for the caves,
a lightning hits the tree under which he had a chance to seek shelter.
While subtle enough, that information provides necessary feedback to the
player that he chose wisely. In the opposite scenario, feel free to
openly criticize the reader extensively for choosing to go under the
tree. Inform him that he missed very important clues and tell him that
he is running the risk of being hit by a lightning. Keep the feedback
short when a good choice was made, but explain in detail why the player
is being punished for a mistake he made. This is the only way to provide
your readers the satisfaction that they are in control (the human
creatures looooove to be in control) even when they are being punished
and, and at the same time, teach them a lesson they may benefit from
sometime in the future. Teach good and valuable lessons in your games!
Being the adventure designer, you are the God of their game world. "With
great power comes great responsibility". Use it wisely!<br />
<br />
<b>8. Punish or Reward Appropriately.</b> Lets be fair, but also
realistic: a lightning can't cause partial damage, it is a total
annihilation event. Tell the reader to subtract 10 points of life due to
exhaustion, if he chose to run for the caves (you promised him that in
the previous paragraph), and also reward him with a magic sword, but
don't tell him that the tree was hit by a lightning, if he decided to
seek shelter under it, and then ask him to reduce his health points by
40 or so! That is simply not realistic. Instead, give the player some
provisions, which he apparently found under the tree and then inform him
that he made a mistake, so he will be facing the grave danger of being
totally fried up. Then apply, what I call, the rule of God's
Forgiveness.<br />
<br />
<b>9. God Forgives.</b> Most authors agree that instant death in
gamebooks should be reduced to a minimum. If the reader gets to a dead
end, it must be the result of multiple bad mistakes and unsatisfactory
performance (he dies only after he loses all points of health) or it
should be a combination of extremely bad choice and unfortunate luck
(the later approach is the God's Forgiveness approach). For the purpose
of applying this rule, I suggest that the author tells his reader that,
even though being hit by a lightning is a very likely outcome, the
chance of it is only a 1/3 or 33% and then ask him to roll a die. If the
roll is 1 or 2, the protagonist gets annihilated by a lightning in an
instant death, but if the roll is greater than 2, God (the designer of
this world) forgives the mistake and allows him to move on. I believe
that most readers would see this as a very fair mechanic.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Add a layer of emotional and moral choices:</b> Add more
implications to make the choice more interesting: having two final goals
in a gamebook instead of just one would be a great addition to the
difficulty and will add another layer of game mechanics: balancing
between two goals, which also provides a much greater replayability
value. I love it when authors add a romance plot to another well defined
ultimate goal. Let just say that the cop is not only asked to do good
in the world and get to the mafia boss in town, but is also given a
parallel plot of meeting a beautiful woman, whom he is supposed to
attract. It should be nearly impossible to achieve both during the first
read, but gaining more knowledge about the game world should allow the
player to achieve complete success in both plotlines after a couple or
three consecutive attempts. More on the subject of Emotional and Moral
Choices could be found in the blog of Ashton Saylor <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2015/11/interactivity-in-narrative-pt-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><b>Classification</b> of Hints and Clues:</u><br />
<br />
<b>General Knowledge</b> or <b>Storyline Specific</b>. <u>General Knowledge</u>
hint is a piece of information, which is assumed to be a well known
fact in the real world. Example: lightnings strike during a
thunderstorm. <u>Storyline Specific</u> clue is information received in
the course of the adventure. Example: the village elder tells you that
there are artifacts hidden in the caves up in the mountain.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMduaO4T0VSjTuv8HNPTZNdb7BPRUgyEY1R3aA7mo-xNQQY0BNxBVfzLnucppsvRKLOAfFtJ8ZLOaorkwqTZIXhpqMm0hSKaqlvWAIM4wu4N4_MZAU-Lkau6i3ETKQuKdJf_yzsZfLi90/s1600/holly1_400sq.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="400" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMduaO4T0VSjTuv8HNPTZNdb7BPRUgyEY1R3aA7mo-xNQQY0BNxBVfzLnucppsvRKLOAfFtJ8ZLOaorkwqTZIXhpqMm0hSKaqlvWAIM4wu4N4_MZAU-Lkau6i3ETKQuKdJf_yzsZfLi90/s320/holly1_400sq.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A game could be a lot of fun and very sexy if well designed</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Storyline Specific hints have two subcategories: <b>Storyline Revelation</b> and <b>Immediate Paragraph</b> <b>hint</b>. <u>Storyline Revelation</u>
is information received sometime earlier in the adventure, which could
be of help to the reader for the choice he is facing in a later
paragraph. Example: while at the tavern, you hear a legend about a magic
sword, which could be found in the cave to the left (use that
information when you get to the mountains). Application: this kind of
hint normally has a higher difficulty level and is used to measure the
attention and memory of the player. <u>Immediate Paragraph</u> clue is
information presented to the reader, directly related to the choice he
is facing in the current paragraph. Example: there is an immediate
danger of a thunderstorm front approaching very fast from the east.
Application: this kind of hint usually has a lower difficulty level and
doesn't require the use of memory, it measures only the reader's
attention instead.<br />
<br />
<b>A very good alternative </b>of Logical Conclusion Choices is<b> </b>the School Test Choice (<b>Statistical Probability Choice</b>),
which is created by finding (in your memory or in a textbook)
the correct answer to a question, modifying it to fit the gamebook
storyline, coming up with the wrong answer(s) and then designing the
outcome punishment and reward. Using this approach doesn't even require
the application of hints and clues, the author could even openly warn
his readers of the positive and negative outcomes. Example: "Our hero
must hurry to the rescue of a beautiful princess, who is held captive in
a cursed castle to the north. Should he go in the direction moss is
growing on trees or the opposite way? Is moss growing on the north side
or the south side of trees (given the adventure is taking place in
medieval Europe)"? If the reader chooses South, we punish him by
lowering his health 10 points due to being lost in the forest. If the
reader goes North, we reward him with successfully finding the dame in
distress.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNv-ODHWwCu17xtYbAadqkgJENNKUbs0jxg5-835e0AketeVVfrdys54dYlBoPmSiF9rze5X4gsJiwZ2Y2jkdOidao4edJ8N_soHfER7c92vIZDaKXTb30YjzYInusUM9HrD_IDMYzIRc/s1600/bardsTale.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="800" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNv-ODHWwCu17xtYbAadqkgJENNKUbs0jxg5-835e0AketeVVfrdys54dYlBoPmSiF9rze5X4gsJiwZ2Y2jkdOidao4edJ8N_soHfER7c92vIZDaKXTb30YjzYInusUM9HrD_IDMYzIRc/s400/bardsTale.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The most difficult choice for every gamer: <b>Save the World</b> or <b>Coin and Cleavage</b>?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At the end of this post, I'd like to point out that Logical Conclusion
Choice is one of many possible mechanics in the genre of gamebook
adventures. A book based entirely on Logical Conclusion Choices could
feel like taking a test at school, bringing back some unpleasant
memories. However, this kind of choice is one of the very limited amount
of mechanics in the genre of gamebooks that keeps the player in full
control over the outcome of the adventure. Al Toro pointed out that an
author must never cheat the player into the wrong decision by applying
false clues. He also criticized me that I didn't mention choices that
are not absolute, where the same choice could be either good or bad
depending on the current stats of the protagonist. That would be the <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2015/11/interactivity-in-narrative-pt-2.html" target="_blank">Strategic Choice</a>
approach Ashton Saylor had already talked about and I strongly
recommend reading his post on the subject. Before you go off wandering
to his blog, let me point out that Strategic (also known as Tactical)
Choices also require application of "fog of war", hints and clues,
because it should never be too obvious which way the player should go,
otherwise there is no choice, it is simple "if - then" statement.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhvsFZ9iHPyPkfVphebaXUvqxv4R4TM74D1O3PulVxiOhF8Rdt6P3YyGLpoZvIw-pv2poL4rR4Jt3lc5zp57uORKiIyKAx_VRhqKmv_WAx4kEQfc88aVyxNzQ1bJZg851vBtl3laHFJk/s1600/GamebookMap.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhvsFZ9iHPyPkfVphebaXUvqxv4R4TM74D1O3PulVxiOhF8Rdt6P3YyGLpoZvIw-pv2poL4rR4Jt3lc5zp57uORKiIyKAx_VRhqKmv_WAx4kEQfc88aVyxNzQ1bJZg851vBtl3laHFJk/s320/GamebookMap.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Adventure Map of Short Gamebook Adventure</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Here is a very <a href="http://games.sipkoamerica.com/ShortAdventurePuzzle.pdf" target="_blank">Short Gamebook Adventure</a>
designed entirely on Logical Conclusion Choice Theory. You can also
follow the step by step process of creating it at my personal blog <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2016/04/gamebook-practice-lesson-1-build.html" target="_blank">VisualGamebookAdventures.blogspot.com</a> <br />
<br />
Please remember, whatever you do, don't ever make your readers feel that
the final outcome is the unjustified result of pure chance and blind
guessing rather than a product of good performance and informed
decisions.<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-9836433029999103922020-08-26T10:20:00.000-05:002020-08-26T10:20:22.651-05:00Gamebook Mechanics: Meaningful Choices <h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
In my <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/05/gamebook-theory-mechanics-of-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">last post</a> on Gamebook Theory, I covered the basic structure of any game (<a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/05/gamebook-theory-mechanics-of-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">input - test of performance - feedback</a>) and compared the mechanics of gamebooks to the ones in the genre of video games, ultimately arriving to the conclusion that <b>choices are the only possible active gamebook input method</b>.
The rest of the input such as rolling dice, keeping track of stats,
skillchecks or even flipping pages, I insist to move to the passive
mechanics category, because they don't provide means for measuring
skills or performance and therefore they don't allow the player to
influence the outcome of the adventure one way or another (except if you
believe that you are very skilled at rolling and re-rolling dice or
keeping track of previous paragraphs, just in case you decide to change
your decisions later, but I call all that cheating).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAbh-0z-2PAk4P_yrALhNjDvvNfqw4JpgsZXXPyeiigaYNERMhA2zB5vk-jcLuXZfpgf-_iuNQQj488pCTIvhbdkco4p6jJSIa6xtdfhkOv35A1rdzrr40w3yOHUHxOtZ_21PGn6smeI/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAbh-0z-2PAk4P_yrALhNjDvvNfqw4JpgsZXXPyeiigaYNERMhA2zB5vk-jcLuXZfpgf-_iuNQQj488pCTIvhbdkco4p6jJSIa6xtdfhkOv35A1rdzrr40w3yOHUHxOtZ_21PGn6smeI/s320/maxresdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Please, don't take the controls out of the reader's hands</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
All that being said, we can summarize that <b>choices are in fact the single most important game mechanic</b>
in the genre of gamebook adventures. The writer may have a great story
to tell, but without meaningful choices in the course of the adventure,
the book is not a gamebook, it is just a book with multiple endings. Of
course, the exact opposite, bunch of choices without any story, is just
as bad, because the player isn't provided enough information through
narrative to be able to make a good educated guess about the possible
outcomes of the decisions he is going to make during the game. Just like
everything else in life, the goal here is to achieve good balance
between narrative and choices.<br />
<br />
I remember reading an article on writing gamebooks some time ago, which
was listing the struggles new authors in the genre run into. To my
surprise, I found out that most of them were having the problem of
coming up with too many possible choices (up to 10 per paragraph) their
readers had to pick from. Honestly, I've always had the opposite
problem. It's always been difficult for me to create many enough
choices, because I want every single one of them to result in meaningful
consequences and therefore to provide a positive or negative impact
over the course of the adventure.<br />
<br />
See, the choices we can make in real life situations are practically
unlimited. When standing in front of a door, a person could choose to
knock on it and wait for response, they could choose to open the door
and storm in, they could also choose to turn around and leave
(especially if this is the office of the boss and the intention was to
ask for a payraise), or they could even decide to start jumping in one
spot (it sure doesn't make any sense, but it is still an option anyway).
Of course, in a gamebook adventure, the last option wouldn't even be
presented to the player as it is meaningless, because it, first, doesn't
make any sense, and second, it doesn't change the course of the game in
any way. I tend to believe that the option to 'turn around and leave'
should also not be available to the player, because he's already made
the decision to go to the office of the boss and the only question is
'in what fashion does he want to go in'. Even if a writer prefers to
provide many choices with the intention to create the <b>illusion of freedom, consider all the additional </b>work he has to do in order to provide all the paragraphs for each outcome of those meaningless choices. That is a <b>huge waste of time and writing space</b>
- a luxury most game designers are forced to stay away from. It is also
worth mentioning that making a choice, which is changing the immediate
narrative path without affecting knowledge, stats or the final outcome
of the adventure one way or another is not a gamebook mechanic. What I
am trying to point out is that choices which are ultimately<b> neither good or bad create an interactive novel, not a game</b>. If there is no way to fail, the experience is still there, but there is no gameplay.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsx4w3JB8E8RmHThtxePFxFPk10gFF0MJVJDkWAuWDE4L4VCftHBTEdBjK1-GUeF7iaXOQtuBmEC7Wh9hfAAyvoKdsE9S4fa6vhAdx8Svi1CE2Vfl8K4bsSfSA-gW2zdJ7_vLKBHFVtEk/s1600/bossDoor.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="770" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsx4w3JB8E8RmHThtxePFxFPk10gFF0MJVJDkWAuWDE4L4VCftHBTEdBjK1-GUeF7iaXOQtuBmEC7Wh9hfAAyvoKdsE9S4fa6vhAdx8Svi1CE2Vfl8K4bsSfSA-gW2zdJ7_vLKBHFVtEk/s320/bossDoor.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The decisions people make, in real life or during a game, situations
like the one in the example above, are not related to the door itself.
They would rely on previously gained knowledge and the expected outcome
of each available choice. The action must depend on the possible
consequences of opening that door (getting a raise or being yelled at,
or fired even) and the statistical possibilities of the given outcomes
(I doubt you would ask the boss for more money if your chance of getting
the raise is only slim to none, while the possibility of being fired is
much greater).<br />
<br />
It is of extreme importance that the game designer provides <b>enough information and presents multiple clues ahead of time</b>, so the choices his players make are the product of <b>strong logic and calculated risk, not the result of blind guessing</b>.
Then and only then, the final outcome depends on the performance and
the input from the gamer instead of being the aftermath of pure luck.
For an example, if the player finds himself facing a door or multiple
doors, never mentioned before, there is no way for him to make an
educated decision, weighting in advance the possible consequences of his
actions. There is nothing meaningful in such situation.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXN8d58MrVSC9-WLMVhK-FNAFQZdyYzZ-NQVtox_Lc4pgAkCsWRITZUUpBz1cTlQRAl71zWLvhZK-wjJJ1HFW3XpbbNqDmxq3_Tcufza9kyW8Pyko0BYe_FlYRQV76gcVhec28Spqs5QI/s1600/whichDoor.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="800" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXN8d58MrVSC9-WLMVhK-FNAFQZdyYzZ-NQVtox_Lc4pgAkCsWRITZUUpBz1cTlQRAl71zWLvhZK-wjJJ1HFW3XpbbNqDmxq3_Tcufza9kyW8Pyko0BYe_FlYRQV76gcVhec28Spqs5QI/s320/whichDoor.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The main problem with meaningful choices, all authors run into, is the balance between not providing enough information (<a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">which door choice</a>) and providing too much information (<a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">cake or death choice</a>).
Here is an example of [which door choice]: "You are standing in front
of three doors. Only one of them will lead you to success. The other two
lead to certain death. Choose one!"; And here is an example of [cake or
death choice]: "You are standing in front of two doors. There is a
Deadly Demon hiding behind the left one. Behind the right door you would
find gold and glory. Choose one!"<br />
<br />
The answer to the problem above is called applying some "<a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2015/11/interactivity-in-narrative-pt-2.html" target="_blank">fog of war</a>".
The game designer must hide the possible consequences and "only have
the roughest outline spelled out", but should also leave enough clues
buried in the text, so the reader is given the opportunity to apply his
skills of observation, paying close attention, critical thinking, risk
management, memorizing important details, educated guessing, weighting
possibilities and drawing logical conclusions.<br />
<br />
When the "fog of war" is applied appropriately, the choice becomes a "Logical Conclusion Choice".<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyGo8amquAX9RsuX-BuRv7F6A-YfyjMjCFQWAMSDSDaNba10trdMxBKIvuHJPlcGR5PQ0KqQ1ETNdB-1i9HyjyzUc0y3Z3tdy5TIjzatErSzQqEDBy9CMPMlWyuSkjo3AclTEfs2mOPcw/s1600/conan-the-barbarian-4fd4767a0f27b.png"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyGo8amquAX9RsuX-BuRv7F6A-YfyjMjCFQWAMSDSDaNba10trdMxBKIvuHJPlcGR5PQ0KqQ1ETNdB-1i9HyjyzUc0y3Z3tdy5TIjzatErSzQqEDBy9CMPMlWyuSkjo3AclTEfs2mOPcw/s320/conan-the-barbarian-4fd4767a0f27b.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
My favorite <b>example of a Logical Conclusion Choice</b> is one, which I
found more than 20 years ago in the fantasy style epic hero gamebook
"The Master of Darkness" published in Bulgaria by George M George (a
nickname of George Mindizov). My protagonist found himself in the middle
of a wide open field. There were mountains with carved in caves
standing proud far to the west and there was a dark, almost completely
black, thunderstorm front approaching very fast from the east. The
choice was between <b>running for the mountains</b>, so the hero could take shelter in a cave <b>or hiding from the rain under a tree</b>
with thick crown, which was standing alone nearby. My logic was to
avoid getting soaking wet and possibly ill from the cold rain while
fleeing to the cave, so I decided to wait out for the storm to pass
under the tree. I learned a very valuable lesson: Lightnings hit the
tallest objects around and very unfortunately for my protagonist, that
was the same tree I sent him to. Needless to say, that was a gravely
mistake and it resulted in the instant death of the hero (see, no
self-respecting author will make their reader lose 50 points of health
when hit by a lightning - this is a total annihilation event) and while I
was upset about the mistake I just made and the punishment I was forced
to suffer, I felt that it was fair, justified and completely deserved.
The immediate danger of being hit by a lightning wasn't even mentioned
in the text at all, but I should have deciphered the 'fog of war' hint
in the word 'thunder' before the word 'storm'. The instant death
punishment was very logical under the existing circumstances.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZw9A8v9aogc2LJzTzoQnQ3KFFne-wYqqRzQzvHd5PNa7AeJaisRZzYjt_CH62kbmFxKV-_eGtJBP2hFm_vqR4VxT361p3MdJbm9M8eI6X4LPnXHRX3jQAdPPOvD5K1FzL18VYJkqGo6U/s1600/lightningtree.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="400" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZw9A8v9aogc2LJzTzoQnQ3KFFne-wYqqRzQzvHd5PNa7AeJaisRZzYjt_CH62kbmFxKV-_eGtJBP2hFm_vqR4VxT361p3MdJbm9M8eI6X4LPnXHRX3jQAdPPOvD5K1FzL18VYJkqGo6U/s320/lightningtree.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Annihilate your player only if he makes a gravely mistake</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Please keep in mind that not every single choice in a gamebook should be
a Logical Conclusion Choice, because that would make the readers feel
like they are taking a test in school instead of enjoying a good
compelling story of a great adventure, but there must be a good number
of Logical Conclusion Choices present throughout the book, so <b>the player is kept in full control of the final outcome</b> and ultimate victory.<br />
<br />
Remember, the author should never take away from his readers the
satisfaction of feeling that success is direct result of good
performance, not random guessing and pure luck.<br />
<br />
This is all for today, but I promise to give you a very detailed guide
of how to create Logical Conclusion Choices step by step in my next
blogpost here on LloydOfGamebook. Until then, as Stuart likes to say,
'Happy Gamebooking!'<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-26339930940865418422020-07-29T08:13:00.000-05:002020-07-29T08:13:54.954-05:00Mechanics of GAMEbooks (input - test of performance - feedback) <h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
Before
we start talking about Gamebook Mechanics, we should first recognize
the very basic elements of any game. In theory, a video game (or any
other game) consists of two major events: input and feedback. In simple
words, the player takes any action such as tilt the joystick, hit a
button or move the pawn in a board game, etc and we have an input. For
every input, there should be positive or negative feedback such as
moving the character on the screen, hearing a sound or something else
that provides the player with a clue if he or she is doing well or not.<br />
<br />
Here is the basic structure of any game: INPUT - PERFORMANCE TEST (test of the input) - FEEDBACK<br />
<br />
In my previous blogpost, I already mentioned that one of the most disturbing articles I've seen so far is the one named <a href="http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-a-game-mechanic/" target="_blank">narrative is not a game mechanic</a> by Raph Koster and based on his theory many people consider that <a href="http://blog.mysteriouspath.com/2013/03/the-problem-with-gamebooks-trilogy-part.html" target="_blank">games and story don't mix</a> coming to the wrong conclusion that it is impossible to write a book which is also a good game.<br />
<br />
Just take another look at the basic game elements! Narrative is a form of feedback, isn't it? I think that, not only <b>narrative IS a game mechanic</b>, it actually is <b>the best form of feedback</b>.
Raph Koster argues that "games can and do exist without narrative". He
is absolutely right, they do, but... Remember the old arcade games where
the gameplay was always the same except the opponents speed increased
in every consecutive level? Sure, that did make the game more
challenging, but how much closer to
the final goal did it make you feel and how much feeling of
accomplishment did that design approach provide to the players? "Kill as
many enemies as possible and move on to the
next level" was the motto of all games back then and there was no
ultimate goal for us to achieve. My personal opinion is that having some
storyline and narrative such as "<i>You just left the Old Village on
your way to the Ancient Forest. You can see the mountains standing proud
out there beyond the tall trees and you are now a step closer to
finding and killing the Dark Wizard, who has been terrorizing your
people for centuries... You won the battle against the Dark Wizard and
you are successful in your mission to free your people from evil!
Everybody in the Old Village will live happily ever after</i>"? Sure, a
good narrative limits the replayability of the
game as nobody wants to read the same paragraphs multiple times, but
how many times do you want to replay the same scenario in the countless
levels of a jump and run or a shooting game that doesn't have any
narrative? We, the human beings, like
diversity and we love having a final goal to reach, and the answer to
those challenges in the art of making games lies in providing the player
with an interesting storyline that includes diversified encounters and a
clearly defined ultimate goal. Those vitally important needs were
hardwired in our
brains by mother nature through the evolution process of our species
(you can read more
about my views on that subject in my earlier post about <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/10/psychology-of-games-and-why-they-are.html" target="_blank">psychology of games</a>).<br />
<br />
If I have to summarize, I'd say that for the purpose of reaching the
final goal of the adventure, the actual form of the feedback in games
doesn't matter all that much as long as the player is given a clear idea
if his performance is satisfactory or not. The feedback could be in the
form of a sound, movement of an object on the screen or simple
description in the form of text narrative. That being said, the real
difference in mechanics between gamebooks and all other games is found
mainly in the input methods, so next I'd like to compare for you how
overcoming an obstacle in video games drastically differs from
overcoming the same obstacle in the genre of gamebook adventures and to
do so, I am going to use as an example the all-time-favorite Super Mario
game and more specifically, how to test the player's performance when
jumping over a deep chasm.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8tVh_SbhVkn44euBG2169hVY58VuLRXS_sE9mhFCPYq-hFt1c4nSAH6XYLSStYevqYVARgoyLUGAv4M34KpwjXsJFoxuJjQE2-sOVTVYeqH-XndDALYooeIXm8WUZC27uuVqj3RM6do/s1600/Super+Mario+Numbers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK8tVh_SbhVkn44euBG2169hVY58VuLRXS_sE9mhFCPYq-hFt1c4nSAH6XYLSStYevqYVARgoyLUGAv4M34KpwjXsJFoxuJjQE2-sOVTVYeqH-XndDALYooeIXm8WUZC27uuVqj3RM6do/s400/Super+Mario+Numbers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<b>Jumping over a chasm in Video Games</b><br />
<br />
Here is the way artificial intelligence would test the gamer performance by checking his speed and coordination:<br />
<br />
1. IF the jump button is hit too
soon THEN Super Mario will fall into the chasm;<br />
<br />
2. IF the jump button was
hit too late (after Super Mario walked off the edge) THEN he is going to
fall into the chasm;<br />
<br />
3. Ideally, IF the jump button is hit at the correct time (between too
soon and too late) THEN Super Mario will make it safely to the other
side.<br />
<br />
<b>Leaping a chasm in a Gamebook Adventure</b><br />
<br />
Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of testing coordination and
speed of the player in this genre. The only input method available to
the author is the logic of the reader. Since
it would be dumb to ask the gamer if and when he would like to jump, to
make gamebook adventures dependent on the input, at this point, the
designer must test the stats of the protagonist. The same stats that
would have been built up earlier in the adventure through meaningful
choices based on strong logic.<br />
<br />
An example of such test looks like: <i>If your strength stat is greater than 10, you successfully make the jump. Otherwise you fall down to your death.</i><br />
<br />
A more complicated example would be: <i>Add the number of your Stamina
stat to your Strength skill. If the number is higher than 15, you make
it to the other end and the adventure continues. If you fall short, your
protagonist dies here.</i><br />
<br />
It is also very common to integrate some randomness: <i>Roll 2 dice and add your strength skill to the result. If the number is equal or greater than 20 then you
succeed and your adventure continues. If the number is lower than 20, you fall down in the chasm and die.</i><br />
<br />
Please note that skillchecks, dice rolls, flipping pages and so on, are
not game mechanics. All of the above examples would be completely
meaningless if the author failed to provide proper ways of <b>increasing the protagonist stats earlier in the adventure</b>.
This is where the game part of a gamebook happens. For an example,
there could have been an
option to purchase a headband of strength earlier in the adventure or
there could have been a paragraph where the reader had to choose between
eating a good meal or
picking up a fight at the tavern and the outcome turns out to be
increased strength stat from eating the meal or loss of strength points
due to the injuries suffered.<br />
<br />
<br />
See, the <b>input in Gamebooks happens in the form of choices and decisions</b>.
It is up to the author to make sure those choices and decisions are
meaningful and that they are based on strong logic rather than random dice rolls and player's blind
guessing due to lack of relevant information.<br />
<br />
I believe that there are two forms of narrative feedback in gamebook
adventures: instant and delayed. In the examples above, leaping over the
chasm is a form of <b>delayed feedback </b>(the gamer performance up to
this point would be considered satisfactory if the protagonist is
successful in the jump). A form of <b>instant feedback</b>
is the instructions to increase the character strength by 2 points after making
the choice to eat the meal instead of picking a fight at the tavern.<br />
<br />
As
I already pointed out in my previous post, I am not claiming that
Gamebooks represent the best of all game genres nor I am claiming that
they are any better than video games. All I am saying is that due to
the lack of other game mechanics, Gamebook Adventures provide the most
diverse storyline and force the player to make the most meaningful
choices, because they provoke critical thinking and force the
gamer to assess different situations and then select the
most rational action for the best possible outcome. I just wish that more of
this kind of game mechanics, providing a lot of learning and personal
improvement value to the player, would be implemented in video games.
Just imagine how much more interesting and
exciting an adventure like Diablo 2 would have been, if it was putting the
gamer in situations that require certain meaningful and important
choices altering the outcome of the story one way or another.<br />
<br />
In the next post I will talk about the most important Gamebook Mechanic: <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/11/gamebook-mechanics-meaningful-choices_9.html" target="_blank">Meaningful Choices</a>.<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-37022509127334530772020-05-01T06:10:00.000-05:002020-05-01T06:10:37.463-05:00The great potential of Gamebook Adventures and what is wrong with them <h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
The following article is an excerpt from <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Peter's Gamebook Theory blog</a>.<br />
<br />
Let me make it clear, I am not claiming that Gamebook Adventures is
the best genre of them all nor I am saying that it has the greatest
potential. I am simply stating that I have found Gamebooks to be
teaching the most meaningful lessons of all the games I've played so
far. This genre, probably for the lack of other game mechanics, puts the
character in many different situations and the player is given a
limited amount of possible actions to choose from. Making such a choice
must be based on critical thinking, educated guessing and calculating
the risk of possible negative or positive consequences for the character
on the way to achieving the final goal of the adventure.<br />
<br />
Meaningful choices haven't always been part of the Gamebook Adventures. Just take the arcade approach of the first <a href="http://www.fightingfantasy.com/" target="_blank">Fighting Fantasy</a>
books for example! They are filled with "Which Door", "Cake or Death"
and "Shell Game" choices (more on this terminology can be found in the
blog about <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">Gamebook Theory by Ashton Saylor</a>)
and the only way to get to a good ending in those books was to explore
the adventure land, filled with countless instant death chapters and way
too many battles (too much of the adventure outcome was left to pure
chance), through trial and error until the ultimate path was eventually
discovered.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjeyymrxE81pn6ieB8L0Be_05alS1lNw68bB805jXT_97qv4cFG-87w79OD1WQOnEt3iptL93lCnW8vbsZek3tHN63XFkcuk13NLAGT3Qr56PUCvEq5-HyUinbw3p9ezL4-I0ufzy39yTh/s1600/TheWarlock.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The very first Fighting Fantasy Gamebook: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjeyymrxE81pn6ieB8L0Be_05alS1lNw68bB805jXT_97qv4cFG-87w79OD1WQOnEt3iptL93lCnW8vbsZek3tHN63XFkcuk13NLAGT3Qr56PUCvEq5-HyUinbw3p9ezL4-I0ufzy39yTh/s200/TheWarlock.jpg" title="The very first Fighting Fantasy Gamebook: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" width="127" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fighting Fantasy Book 1</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Please, don't get me wrong! I have a lot
of respect for the pioneers in the genre, the legendary writers Steve
Jackson and Ian Livingstone. They laid down the basic foundation of
something that captured the hearts of millions around the globe and has
been keeping the love for adventure alive in many generations now. All I
am saying is that gamebooks have come a very long way since the dawn of
the genre back in 1982 when "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" was
released in Great Britain. I believe that the ultimate example of how
much gamebooks have improved since then, is the great work of <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/" target="_blank">Stuart Lloyd</a> presented at the <a href="http://www.arborell.com/windhammer_prize.html" target="_blank">Windhammer Competition</a> for Short Gamebook Fiction that is ultimately leading to his mobile platform game <a href="http://gamebookadventures.com/gamebooks/gamebook-adventures/asuria-awakens/" target="_blank">Asuria Awakens</a> developed by the computer and marketing geniuses Neil Rennison and Ben Britten at Tin Man Games, for <a href="http://gamebookadventures.com/">GamebookAdventures.com</a> (not to be confused with my current project Visual Gamebook Adventures).<br />
<br />
So,
what is wrong with Gamebooks? While I was doing my research on the
genre, I ran across quite a few posts that discussed the problems with
Gamebooks and how we could fix them. Some were even saying that they
can't be fixed and we should leave them in the past. Especially
disturbing is the theory that <a href="http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-a-game-mechanic/" target="_blank">narrative is not a game mechanic</a> and therefore it's impossible to create a book that is also a game. Not only narrative IS a game mechanic, it actually is<b> the best possible form of feedback</b>! (see my next post)<br />
<br />
This
is what I have to say about it: There is absolutely nothing wrong with
Gamebooks and they don't need fixing. The problem lies in the countless
amateurs, who want to write a game, without willing to put enough effort
into research and without willing to invest time in learning the
techniques of a good adventure. That is exactly what happened in Eastern
Europe in the late 90s when the whole genre there was brought to a
halt, simply because there was too much junk on the market. The
situation is the same with the mobile platform games of all genres right
now. There is way too many mobile games available and most of them are
just plain horrible, so the consumers often get lost in the huge variety
and they become disappointed with the questionable quality. The bottom
line is that the market suffers, because people quickly lose interest
after a few failed attempts to find something worth their time, but
instead they discover nothing else besides pure frustration.<br />
<br />
There
is another aspect of video games which I dislike very much nowadays.
The "free to play" games with in-app purchases are the worst thing that
has ever happened to the gamer, because winning the game is now based on
the amount of money you spend rather than on the skills and qualities
you learn and apply. These games are despicable money generating
machines that focus on the economic aspect instead of rewarding the
gamer for good performance. Put in other words, they could be "free to
play", but they are definitely not "free to win" and I am very glad that
this system can't be implemented in the genre of Gamebook Adventures.<br />
<br />
To
summarize this post, I am going to say that narrative and gameplay mix
just fine, given that we have the right author to mix them correctly.
Just take a good look at the amazing adventures written by <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/p/gamebooks.html" target="_blank">Ashton Saylor</a> and <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/p/my-bibliography.html" target="_blank">Stuart Lloyd</a>
and you'll see exactly what I mean. Both of them have excellent blogs
on Gamebook Theory that I would strongly encourage you to read if you
are planning on writing a short adventure or even a long gamebook. Their
thoughts about how to start writing an adventure, how to approach the
design process and <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/09/failure-and-death-in-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">what NOT to do</a>
to the player (such as instant death and many other bad things) are
priceless, but for some reason they don't talk in detail about the
mechanics of a good Gamebook Adventure. That is the exact subject of my
future posts as I will be trying to build on the foundation Ashton and
Stuart have already laid down for us.<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
<br />Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-71447861486916467032020-04-02T11:19:00.002-05:002020-04-02T11:19:41.335-05:00Augmented Reality Gamebook Adventures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzgm5TxrBCCiY-QXikkqqTTIT5jQHFubxZspitTsq2B0cruQc5t2V-IWjyeGpj4cARsRbbBop75xW7vULyFri-KnzC1AcjfnXEW7c7EcoC2Rn8rm1vyhAnfSwA8YbIVcS7zlQhZg5rCg/s1600/Ford-Mustang_GT_Convertible-2005-wallpaper.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzgm5TxrBCCiY-QXikkqqTTIT5jQHFubxZspitTsq2B0cruQc5t2V-IWjyeGpj4cARsRbbBop75xW7vULyFri-KnzC1AcjfnXEW7c7EcoC2Rn8rm1vyhAnfSwA8YbIVcS7zlQhZg5rCg/s400/Ford-Mustang_GT_Convertible-2005-wallpaper.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The
phrase "Augmented Reality" became very popular when Pokemon Go was
released just a few months ago, but I've liked the word "Augmented",
long before that game made it famous, because of another use apart from
computer gaming. Being an average traditional male specimen and also
very proud of it, I like women as well as cars quite a bit, but I enjoy
both of them even more when they are shown topless. That explains why I
have always liked the use of "augmented" associated with the word
"breasts" in cosmetic surgery terminology. Don't blame me for being
honest here! Have you not noticed that almost all women characters in
computer games have undergone some excessive breast enlargement
procedures? Lara Croft in Tomb Rider is the perfect, but definitely not
the only example here. There is a good reason for that, but I will
discuss it in another post later on.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2E8M3KGgP0pFVZeK4KypgMCycVlDReB79NJRz5jfFJSpHUdBTH5vlTFBVSBF3PwCvYHIIDxgRV5G_YeelfJwb5HWXV7OuYNb7IHlUiOpHQdhmRPVFK9OVq1C8u3YTnP-bFvQ_AiP_s_k/s1600/Lara+Croft.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2E8M3KGgP0pFVZeK4KypgMCycVlDReB79NJRz5jfFJSpHUdBTH5vlTFBVSBF3PwCvYHIIDxgRV5G_YeelfJwb5HWXV7OuYNb7IHlUiOpHQdhmRPVFK9OVq1C8u3YTnP-bFvQ_AiP_s_k/s400/Lara+Croft.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lara Croft in Tomb Rider is a great example of the average gamer preferences.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Actually, augmenting the world didn't start with the
first breast implants back in 1962 either. It predates this miracle of
the modern medicine by thousands of years. It has been documented that
about two millenniums ago, every fall season, the ancient Celts
celebrated the Samhian Festival. They believed that the boundary between
the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and the ghosts of
all recently deceased returned to earth. To ward off those roaming
spirits, the Celts would make frightful lanterns for their homes and put
on dead-like masks and disguises. It is widely believed that these are
the very origins of our modern Halloween parties when we decorate our
surroundings to look like a graveyard or some other scary scene of evil
descent. This is exactly what Augmented Reality is all about: converting
the real world into something else by using decorations or electronic
devices. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2yC_4ntogqrYCRBbTmu-0s3o35Wc_duBkNAviYHKbeHqL8DXHx42mAcy4qCJflsXhe1tn47xa8gll0Ze-JsvKIhDRw-Qna_UzFXQGHBtTtHfGnfuDthZ9dZUhD59HqLQ5aacNUtiWIQ/s1600/Halloween-Yard.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2yC_4ntogqrYCRBbTmu-0s3o35Wc_duBkNAviYHKbeHqL8DXHx42mAcy4qCJflsXhe1tn47xa8gll0Ze-JsvKIhDRw-Qna_UzFXQGHBtTtHfGnfuDthZ9dZUhD59HqLQ5aacNUtiWIQ/s400/Halloween-Yard.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Halloween is the perfect example of Augmented Reality</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Come to think about it, Pokemon Go is not at all what
it pretends to be. It fits the description of a location based game
much better than
Augmented Reality (for more info on this subject, see this <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/14/stop-referring-to-pokemon-go-as-augmented-reality/" target="_blank">article by Sunny Dhillon</a>),
but even if it was AR, it would still not be the first
game of this kind. My first Augmented Reality gaming experience happened
back in 2005 while I was visiting "the waterpark capital of the world":
Wisconsin Dells. I remember walking through the main entrance of <a href="http://www.wizardquest.com/" target="_blank">Wizard Quest</a>
and instantly leaving the 21 century. All of a sudden, I found myself
in the middle of a fantasy world that was beyond my belief and I fell in
love with it from first sight. No, I didn't misspell the name. The
Wizard Quest facility in Wisconsin Dells is one of a kind experience and
it has nothing to do with the <a href="http://www.magiquest.com/" target="_blank">MagiQuest franchise</a>.
Although, they both represent the genre of Augmented Reality pretty
well and they have very similar game mechanics, MagiQuest uses
two-dimensional printed walls to change the environment while Wizard
Quest is a much more believable non-computerized three-dimensional
experience which makes you feel that you just found yourself right in
the middle of the planet Pandora from the movie Avatar.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-36EGPvXi4vQwb7fI-WN_M0J6bcZs4qVGcqOFbj7e2_BqamPQG9dZrUtr72ewpywDY1CxkKCgl3WLGu6wBqQ_aKgaJLz0jReToWBUL-Q1-L2Z5M0Rn_qZQtBSQTi0t5jX_GaZ3ZAvL9k/s1600/WizardQuest02.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-36EGPvXi4vQwb7fI-WN_M0J6bcZs4qVGcqOFbj7e2_BqamPQG9dZrUtr72ewpywDY1CxkKCgl3WLGu6wBqQ_aKgaJLz0jReToWBUL-Q1-L2Z5M0Rn_qZQtBSQTi0t5jX_GaZ3ZAvL9k/s400/WizardQuest02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A real photo taken at the <a href="http://www.wizardquest.com/" target="_blank">Wizard Quest</a> facility in Wisconsin Dells, USA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But enough about history and theory of Augmented
Reality. Lets talk games now! Yes, you can create an adventure for your
family and friends fairly easy without having any programming skills.
However, you would have to be creative or be willing to spend some money
for decorations. The process will consist of three parts: creating the
environment (decorating the play area), designing the game (coming up
with adventures and tasks for the players) and, of course, playtime.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuqOlW3DMsX6T1k0XnETxYQ8Aj4DztzexiHELCx3iW6QnD5RTN1zfWBjQHLuhPOBpkvt_fOP4_HedtATKDUi1EBBSJkJXMUNoor9Yj7Pnc9H3O9Y5SZzxZPOSvyHg8gT96swREXZ8QOHk/s1600/CastleScene.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuqOlW3DMsX6T1k0XnETxYQ8Aj4DztzexiHELCx3iW6QnD5RTN1zfWBjQHLuhPOBpkvt_fOP4_HedtATKDUi1EBBSJkJXMUNoor9Yj7Pnc9H3O9Y5SZzxZPOSvyHg8gT96swREXZ8QOHk/s400/CastleScene.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Medieval Castle Scene Setter</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>1. Create a parallel world (decorate the play area)</b>:
You can set the game up in your backyard or at your home. To make it
more interesting, challenging and time consuming, I recommend using as
much room as you have. First, you would have to decide the setting and
the theme of your game. Second, you would have to create (buy cardboard
and start drawing) or purchase (find and buy online) enough decorations
to be able to augment your game area. You could order scene setters,
backdrops, playtents and cardboard cutouts that fit your theme from a
party store or on the Internet. Here is just an example of how you can
set up one of your rooms as a castle using scene setters: <a href="http://www.partycheap.com/Medieval_Scene_Setter_s/889.htm" target="_blank">Medieval Scene Setter</a>.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbobhpcntIrBuK4cfriD_ec53SdBT5PA2CVgjie8lYxmSjNfg9MwvZdJXcnyKO_VfWrdbkCacbd3iGKjUl8QMTTunaQ3rnbsRThkEsvL4o16feLRJCJnlb1-LSz8f0ybFCAhqRS2dJutc/s1600/KnightMiniatures.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbobhpcntIrBuK4cfriD_ec53SdBT5PA2CVgjie8lYxmSjNfg9MwvZdJXcnyKO_VfWrdbkCacbd3iGKjUl8QMTTunaQ3rnbsRThkEsvL4o16feLRJCJnlb1-LSz8f0ybFCAhqRS2dJutc/s200/KnightMiniatures.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knight Miniatures Scene</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Chances are that you may not be willing to spend that
much money, so as an alternative, you could use your kids miniatures to
create the game scenes on shelves or tables in different rooms. For an
example, one of your rooms could be the fairytale castle, while another
one could represent the enchanted forest and a third one can be set up
as the evil forces stronghold and so on. Just put your imagination to
work! As another alternative to scene setters and miniatures, you could
use your computer to print some paper castles, knights, evil creatures,
wizards, dragons and everything else you can possibly think of, then cut
them out and use glue or tape to create the desired scenes for your
game. Whatever you do, make sure that you have enough pieces to design a
good storyline and challenges for your game.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizP9N5JPoVjpAnn-TqWFd_s8AaJraF5kW6QD__okwV0GXSm5MhKyQMXtZwaQueZqqPmt07cY1-PGOezGEiKPsGb21Cde2B-B-ujufyRT2ic2A0VDsM0CgihN_5B8RYOKJThmE0qKpMSP4/s1600/EvilMiniatures.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizP9N5JPoVjpAnn-TqWFd_s8AaJraF5kW6QD__okwV0GXSm5MhKyQMXtZwaQueZqqPmt07cY1-PGOezGEiKPsGb21Cde2B-B-ujufyRT2ic2A0VDsM0CgihN_5B8RYOKJThmE0qKpMSP4/s400/EvilMiniatures.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Evil Forces Stronghold</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>2. Design the game and the game tasks</b><br />
2.1.
Storyline: Your scenario could be as simple as "the dark forces have
invaded the earth and you must collect specific artifacts and put an
army of creatures together to defeat the evil hordes and free your land
of darkness", but the more complex and engaging of a story you have, the
more interesting game your friends and family would experience.<br />
2.2.
Game Mechanics: Create multiple tasks that have to be completed to win
the game. Naturally, to keep the players interested for a long time, you
should make them as diverse as possible. Example: Have the kids collect
(discover) a fishtail, wing of bat and a mistflower, so they can boil a
potion of strength to be able to remove the rock blocking the entrance
to the cavern dungeon.<br />
2.2.1. Implement Treasure Hunt Mechanics:
find the following items (they would be spread out in multiple scenes
and rooms): a magic sword, cloak of invisibility and so on.<br />
2.2.2.
Include Collecting Resources: find 100 gold, 5 wood and 10 knights
(they should also be spread throughout all rooms and scenes)<br />
2.2.3.
Integrate Economics: your players should be able to spend the gold on
purchasing magic spells, equipment, healing potions, army units or other
things.<br />
2.2.4. If you have multiple players, you could include
some boardgame techniques and have them race against each other in
completing the tasks.<br />
2.2.5. To make the game even more interesting, design it as a gamebook adventure:<br />
2.2.5.1.
collecting information (example: tell the players what clues and items
the wicked witch gives them when they find her or when they help her by
completing a certain task for her)<br />
2.2.5.2. making difficult
meaningful decisions (example: would they spend resources on helping the
old farmer defend his home, would they side with the honest king or
with his sneaky brother)<br />
2.2.5.3. logic puzzles and riddles (players would gain information or items when solving them)<br />
2.2.5.4. dice battles (the outcome would depend on the items collected and skills gained during the adventure).<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRd_cMoPMsrlol4OVpvPwSJS3WG1DboPoQhuGfLY2Qnki2CrVoAY_ICo8oFZyw-sKE8hg-mBDfJRsCOb78T1xr5QD7Wje9zVT_j7ZAqkQ6iudt0maSCwZj4iJf6NGa1CVVlvmY19N6Blw/s1600/CardboardCastle.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRd_cMoPMsrlol4OVpvPwSJS3WG1DboPoQhuGfLY2Qnki2CrVoAY_ICo8oFZyw-sKE8hg-mBDfJRsCOb78T1xr5QD7Wje9zVT_j7ZAqkQ6iudt0maSCwZj4iJf6NGa1CVVlvmY19N6Blw/s320/CardboardCastle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can save a lot of money by getting creative :-)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>3. Playtime (Test of Performance)</b>: the
gameplay process in any game (computer or otherwise) is constructed of
three very basic core mechanics: input - test of performance - feedback.<br />
3.1. <b>Gamer input</b>:
It is obvious that you can't have your players wave magic wands at the
items like in the MagiQuest games, so I would suggest two other ways for
you to receive their input:<br />
3.1.1. Have your players find
codewords printed on the objects they are looking for (example: name the
goldfish 'Jewels', print the name on it and you would know that the
player discovered the goldfish if they know its name)<br />
3.1.2.
Having cellphone cameras at almost anybody's disposal nowdays, you can
have the players take a photo of the object and show it to you to prove
that they have located it.<br />
3.1.3. Combine input methods and use codewords for some items and taking photos for other encounters.<br />
3.2. <b>Test of performance</b>:
It would be the dungeon master's job (yes, that is you) to figure out
if the player has collected the necessary items or hired enough units to
complete the quest you assigned them to (example: if they give you the
codewords or show you the photos of the fishtail, wing of bat and
mistflower, you can tell them that they can find the wicked witch and
she will cook the potion of strength for them)<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfr9sLjMR6obeVPmFfzh1LWY0IdNERsD9Myg1IZqjPBkXXonulsd2x_fvkzMpb9eU9dRDSpV73skQMtx8UumtH7H1dn-53CSpPxVm819aJT3eqSREhFFZxeBwOug40phH2JDy7jo0E0Ww/s1600/Cave.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfr9sLjMR6obeVPmFfzh1LWY0IdNERsD9Myg1IZqjPBkXXonulsd2x_fvkzMpb9eU9dRDSpV73skQMtx8UumtH7H1dn-53CSpPxVm819aJT3eqSREhFFZxeBwOug40phH2JDy7jo0E0Ww/s200/Cave.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cardboard Cavern Structure</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
3.3. <b>Storyteller Feedback</b>: Give them feedback
through narrative by explaining what else they need to do in order to
succeed (negative feedback) or get them excited that they've done well
and they are advancing through the storyline (positive feedback example:
Once the player has found the wicked witch and collected all the
ingredients, you can tell them that they have enough strength to remove
the huge rock blocking the entrance to the cavern dungeon and let them
explore that area as well)<br />
<br />
Game Design Hint: It is
obvious that the core mechanic of this kind of game is the Treasure
Hunt, so have as many items scattered throughout the play area as
possible and don't make it clear right in the beginning when and how
some things would be needed. That way, you will not only provoke the
explorer instinct in your players, but you will also have implemented a
memory game mechanic, because they'll have to remember where they saw a
specific item earlier in the adventure and go back to that location to
obtain it when needed. It is a good idea to have most of the play areas
(different rooms) "sealed off" in the beginning of the game and have
your players complete certain quests in order to "open them" for
exploration. That represents the "find a key to unlock this door"
mechanic which has proven to be very successful and addicting in all
kinds of adventure games.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXctp2yjBip63aRGXLgaDM4bTnS04HSAFiBEozXdDKR6AR76R0hiwO3JH-jrmsdieYxXGNGbpA2sJgyA6_6PB7Gi64XNu5nk4J2aJWpubEcVd-9pVbye1n3VSRC2QnvWhCvFzgP20_uhM/s1600/BabyGate.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXctp2yjBip63aRGXLgaDM4bTnS04HSAFiBEozXdDKR6AR76R0hiwO3JH-jrmsdieYxXGNGbpA2sJgyA6_6PB7Gi64XNu5nk4J2aJWpubEcVd-9pVbye1n3VSRC2QnvWhCvFzgP20_uhM/s400/BabyGate.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">use Baby Gate to close off certain areas of the adventure until the players gain access to them</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The bottom line is that you must decorate well,
create a compelling story and set interesting and challenging tasks for
your players. To successfully do all of that, you don't need any
programming skills, although they could be useful if you already have
them, but rather learn how to design a good game by reading some
Gamebook Theory here: <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2011/07/how-to-write-gamebook-introduction.html" target="_blank">LloydOfGamebooks.com</a>, <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/search/label/Gamebook%20Theory" target="_blank">AshtonSaylor.com</a> or my own blog at <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/11/gamebook-theory-mechanics-of-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">Visual Gamebook Adventures</a>.<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-3832398088286275722020-03-29T15:26:00.003-05:002020-03-29T15:26:43.765-05:00You want to make games? Just do it! No programming skills required.Today I'd like to share my
theory that to be a game designer is something completely different than
being a programmer. Many kids make the mistake of assuming that in
order to make games, they have to learn computer languages. I know that
because I was one of them. Almost 30 years later, I can tell you that
most of the computer code I have written in my life was a waste of time
and I regret that I didn't use more of that time to research and learn
how to design games rather trying to code them. I thought that if I
learned how to write programs, I would most certainly be able to create
games. Well, I was completely wrong! Let's face it, even if you become
the best programmer in the world, you will most certainly not succeed in
developing the next Doom, Diablo, Heroes of Might and Magic or World of
Warcraft all by yourself. If you don't believe me, just read the
credits of each one of those games! Sure, there are a few programmers
listed there, but there are many more people involved in the process,
who never wrote a single line of sourcecode: graphic designers, special
effects, music composers and so on. The bottom line is that to produce a
game of such great scale, you need a big team of people where each one
of them is a specialist in a different area.<br />
Now, I am
not trying to tell you that you can't create good games all by yourself,
nor I am telling you that learning some programming would be a complete
waste of time. I am just pointing out that if you want to make a good
game, you should first and foremost focus on how to write a compelling
storyline and learn the principles and mechanics that make it
interesting for the players. As a matter of fact, to create a game, you
don't need to have any computer programming skills at all. If that is
your case, the game mechanics of the gamebook adventures genre come to
the rescue.<br />
<br />
Many of you will argue that gamebook
mechanics are very limited, if existing at all. Actually, gamebook
mechanics do exist and in some ways, they could be better than video
game mechanics. I wrote a whole article on the subject and I will
re-post it here on lloydofgamebooks.com in the near future. I would go
even further and I will add that, even though the advanced visual and
sound stimulation of the brain makes for a more enjoyable experience,
they are not game mechanics at all. As a matter of fact, I believe that a
lot of modern video games implement pretty 3d graphics to make up for
the lack of quality gameplay most of them suffer from.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93Cc1yI_YTrhBpIpjMpNqpfpnWwlYMAako69CbMq2Av4C-JrsAxqGha5L8MWonbyTolB2hdooxlr1Yt2zRo9hw1rGMQpfHITNjdDMaQ7VLIJboyXv243wnjBAdRVhkrI3gNmk1d3tzr0/s1600/Diablo2.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93Cc1yI_YTrhBpIpjMpNqpfpnWwlYMAako69CbMq2Av4C-JrsAxqGha5L8MWonbyTolB2hdooxlr1Yt2zRo9hw1rGMQpfHITNjdDMaQ7VLIJboyXv243wnjBAdRVhkrI3gNmk1d3tzr0/s320/Diablo2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diablo2: a gamebook adventure with graphics and sound</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Let's take a look at one of my all-time favorite
games: Diablo. If we dissect the engine this game runs on, we will find
some gorgeous graphics combined with good sound effects and not much of
game mechanics. If you really think about your input as a gamer, it is
pretty much limited to clicking the mouse button over endless hordes of
enemies, keeping your fingers over the potion keys to make sure you stay
alive and absolutely no test of performance (it doesn't matter where or
when you hit the enemy). The damage dealt is based entirely on a
formula similar or exactly the same as the calculations in the Dungeons
and Dragons tabletop RPG (using random dice rolls). Therefore, if we
removed the graphics and the sound effects, the gameplay of the Diablo
franchise is the exact same as the gameplay in any gamebook adventure.
Why do we enjoy playing that game so much? Well, because it implements
other very appealing game mechanics: Exploring a Map, Treasure Hunt and
Economics (collecting coins and buying stuff). The best thing about
those three is that they are forming the very core of any good gamebook
adventure. Actually, think how much better Diablo would have been if it
implemented more of the gamebook approach and the player was required to
solve some logic puzzles or to make some meaningful choices (I'll talk
more about those gamebook mechanics in a later post). What I am trying
to say is that Diablo is a poorly designed gamebook adventure with some
pretty graphics and pleasant sound effects garnished with horrible
narrative.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTckp2MwJUR_pOJ8YCE0qHKfo-YS0WZBBbS9RXW3HKhWVaiAAlI_fJykYQcrG8OyKyEc444ISWZmipZddTiwO9hEghMZCACf8Ww8yLkX25t3gYRYCdDpaw5upCGJwZfto1gw7D0dLFJ5I/s1600/New+Star+Soccer.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTckp2MwJUR_pOJ8YCE0qHKfo-YS0WZBBbS9RXW3HKhWVaiAAlI_fJykYQcrG8OyKyEc444ISWZmipZddTiwO9hEghMZCACf8Ww8yLkX25t3gYRYCdDpaw5upCGJwZfto1gw7D0dLFJ5I/s320/New+Star+Soccer.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NSS mobile: the simplest and most successful </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My point here is that anybody, who can write on a
piece of paper can create a game similar to, if not better (at least
from a gameplay and storyline perspective) than most games available on
the market today. Sure, the lack of graphics and sound are going to
seriously affect the enjoyment of your players, but gamebook adventures
are a great place to start for anybody who wants to become a game
designer. Once you learn how to write a compelling story and how to
correctly implement test of performance that is based on the gamer input
rather than random dice rolls, you can take a look at some programing
languages. Even then, don't make the mistake to start learning C++ just
because it is one of the most powerful computer languages out there.
Start simple! A good example that the complexity of the source code is
not relevant to the quality of the game is the New Star Soccer series
developed by one of my idols: Simon Reed. All of his games were almost
exclusively developed in Blitz Basic (a very simple to learn computer
language) starting from 2d and moving to much more advanced 3d game
engines. After 5 relatively successful versions of New Star Soccer for
PC (he admits that he had a very hard time supporting his family with
the profits from the series), Simon decided to go mobile and
experimented for the fun of it. Due to the lack of computing power of
the phone processors, he developed a game that had the simplest engine
of them all (there are no 3d graphics and the sound effects are very
limited). Surprisingly, New Star Soccer mobile is the game that made him
a millionaire. I was not at all surprised when he later released New
Star Soccer Story, a game that is ultimately a gamebook adventure. In
his own words, during all those years of developing new versions of his
game, he perfected not the code for the engine, but the principles that
made the game addictive for millions of fans worldwide.<br />
<br />
<br />
To
summarize this post, I'd like to say to you: Stop wasting time on
learning programming languages, start writing gamebook adventures and
read about gamebook mechanics! You can find a lot of useful information
on Gamebook Theory here at <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2011/07/how-to-write-gamebook-introduction.html" target="_blank">LloydOfGamebooks.com</a>, <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/search/label/Gamebook%20Theory" target="_blank">AshtonSaylor.com</a> and my own blog at <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/11/gamebook-theory-mechanics-of-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">Visual Gamebook Adventures</a>.<br />
<br />
In
my next post, I am going to talk about Augmented Reality and how you
can make a game like that for your friends or kids by using just your
imagination and no computer at all. Actually, augmented reality didn't
start with Pokemon. It has been around for more years than most of you
can even guess, but more on that subject in my next article here on
lloydofgamebooks.com<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-40156735276438485402017-05-08T18:09:00.002-05:002019-08-05T11:04:56.881-05:00Gamebook Practice Lesson 5: Logic Puzzles (or another way to keep the reader in the driver seat)Attention: since I published this post, I have discovered that what I call here a Logic Puzzle actually fits better the description of a Logic Riddle. Keep that in mind when reading this blogpost.<br />
<br />
I already explained in an <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2016/05/gamebook-practice-lesson-3-give-control.html" target="_blank">earlier post</a> that we don't have the luxury of monitoring player's speed and coordination in the genre of gamebook adventures,
so the only gamer input left available for us to measure is the <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/11/gamebook-theory-mechanics-of-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">player's logic</a>. I wrote quite a bit about giving control over the outcome into the hands of our players through Logical Conclusion Choices and I'd like to see more gamebook adventures do some of that.<br />
<br />
Now is the right time to mention another input mechanic for testing performance that I feel has been underused by game designers: Logic Puzzles. As far as I know, the first author to use it was Michael Mindcrime in his Bulgarian gamebooks back in the early 90's. He used very simple, but at the same time, very entertaining Logic Puzzles in his books and they made him quite famous among the fans in that country.<br />
<br />
As you will read in the <a href="http://games.sipkoamerica.com/ShortAdventurePuzzle.pdf" target="_blank">final version of our example Short Gamebook Adventure</a> at paragraph 19 (right after finding the secret passage to the mausoleum), the reader is given the following dilemma:<br />
<i>Scanning the insides of this old Mausoleum, your eyes suddenly stop on three levers sticking out of the dark covering the far wall. A sign above them says “One of these shuts the HellGate closed”. Naturally, the other two would let all the hell creatures enter this world and turn it into an infinite doom. As you are getting closer, you see that there are words inscribed in each one of them. The inscription on the first lever reads: “Lever 3 is lying. I am the only one to close the HellGate”. The second one says: “Lever 1 shuts the HallGate and Lever 3 statement is false”. The words on the third lever state: “I am the only one to shut the HellGate closed”. You are not sure how, but you are certain that only one of those says the truth. Which lever would you pull? Go to 21 if you choose to pull the first one. Go to 22 if you prefer to pull lever number two or turn to 23 if you decide to trust lever number three!</i><br />
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The way to break this logic puzzle is to play out each one of the possible scenarios. According to the text, it is clear that only one of the levers states the truth.<br />
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1. If the first lever statement is true, the second one would be true as well and therefore we have two of them saying the truth. This result is already in direct conflict with the main condition of the logic puzzle that only one of the lever statements can be true.<br />
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2. The same logic could be applied if we test the statement of Lever 2.<br />
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3. If Lever 3 says the truth, the other two are incorrect. That fits the logic puzzle condition of only one lever statement being true. Therefore Lever 3 is the one that shuts the HellGate closed.<br />
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That all makes sense and it looks great, right? However, before I started writing this post, I wondered for a very long time how to create a Logic Puzzle like this. It took me a long while, but it downed on me that the easiest way to write such thing is to start with all three levers having true statements such as: Lever 1: "Lever 3 shuts the gate"; Lever 2: Lever 3 shuts the gate; Lever 3: I am the only one to shut the gate. The requirement I chose to fit in this puzzle was to have only one of them stating the truth, so I had to change the statements of the first two to be false.<br />
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When creating such Logic Puzzle, it would be very easy to miscalculate and make it very confusing by having more than one possible correct answers, so make sure you double and triple check each one of the options for inaccuracies. There is nothing more frustrating to the player than to be stuck with two true lever statements without a clear way to tell which one is the correct one.<br />
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Also, keep in mind that you can use many different kinds of logic puzzles in your games. Here is another great example taken from the Michael Mindcrime book "The Dark Side of Earth": Guess which picture is covered under the hand placed over the third cube! If you decide to test your logic, check out the correct answer to this puzzle at the end of the post <br />
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I hope that you get the main idea here. Test the reader from time to time and reward them for good performance or punish them if they choose unwisely. I promise that your readers will truly appreciate the good challenge and that will give them the satisfaction of having more control over successfully reaching the ultimate ending of the adventure. <br />
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Beware! While this game mechanic is great, because it keeps the control of the outcome entirely in the player's hands, be careful to not overuse it. I'd say there should be no more than one of these logic puzzles per 50 paragraphs in the adventure. If the player finds himself trying to break similar encounters way too often, he will become distracted from the main storyline plot and he will quickly get bored, because of losing perspective over the final goal of the adventure. Ideally, I'd use this kind of mechanic at the end of the game or at some extremely important encounters during the story.<br />
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The correct answer to the logic puzzle above is 'the shovel'. <br />
I believe that this concludes your Gamebook Practice experience that focused on the challenge of keeping the player in control of the adventure through testing their logic. Next, I am going to keep working on Gamebook Theory and talk about the alternative to the <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2016/04/gamebook-practice-lesson-1-build.html" target="_blank">Diverging Diamond diagram</a>: The Disrupted Infinity Gamebook Adventure Approach.<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-21015066587864666922016-11-07T06:54:00.001-06:002019-08-05T11:04:45.316-05:00Gamebook Practice Lesson 4: A journey to the world's end and backIt has been a few months since I posted on this Gamebook Adventure Blog, but meanwhile I wrote two articles for LloydOfGamebooks.com and I am very proud that Stuart invited me to be an author there. You can check out my articles at: <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2016/09/you-want-to-make-games-just-do-it-no.html" target="_blank">You want to make games? Just do it! No programming skills required</a> and <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2016/10/augmented-reality-gamebook-adventures.html" target="_blank">Augmented Reality Gamebook Adventures</a>.<br />
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Spoiler alert: Before reading this post any further, you should download and play the new version of the <a href="http://games.sipkoamerica.com/ShortAdventureHidden.pdf" target="_blank">Short Gamebook Adventure Hidden Passage here</a> as your gameplay experience would be ruined by all the spoilers below if you read the rest of this post beforehand.<br />
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Anyhow, today I am going to talk about one of the most significant problems in the genre of Gamebook Adventures that doesn't exist anywhere else and how a game designer can work on overcoming it (at least to a certain extent).<br />
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What I mean is that most of the computer games have a very linear storyline (if any at all) and the gamer gets to experience most of the adventure just like watching a movie from start to finish. The situation is the same in the traditional fiction literature where the reader goes through the story in a linear manner from the first, all the way to the last page of the book and he/she has to read every single word the writer has put down on paper. There is absolutely no waste of the author's work time, because the reader or the gamer gets to experience everything that the game designer/writer created. Unfortunately, the genre of Gamebook Adventures doesn't have such luxury at its disposal. Due to the very limited game mechanics (I discussed those in the earlier posts), most of the time, the reader advances through the game by making choices that lead to exploring different story paths without having the opportunity to experience every single adventure or outcome laid down in the book. And since the traditional gamebook question has on average 3 possible choices, it is natural that the player would get to explore only 1/3 of the book in a single game approach. I distinctively remember that a few years ago, I read an article by a very successful and famous gamebook writer, who claimed that he considered it a success, if the player gets to experience a third of all the encounters he had created.<br />
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It is an indisputable fact that the designers of Gamebook Adventures have to put many additional hours of work to write countless possible outcomes for all the choices their fans can make and most of those never even get read due to the fact that we can't explore everything in a single game approach. Unfortunately, that shortens the gameplay time significantly and makes all that additional hard work of the gamemaker go to waste. The founders of the genre didn't see this as a real problem as they had countless instant death encounters built into their adventures and the gamer was forced to replay the story multiple times and explore the available options one by one until they found the one and only correct path to victory. Well, as I have stated multiple times before, we now live in the 21st century and our beloved interactive fiction games have come a very long way since the 80s. There is an unanimous agreement between modern gamebook writers that an instant death paragraph is one of the worst things you can make your readers go through, especially when it is not called for by the bad performance of the player.<br />
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The problem of the gamer not being able to explore more than a third of the book can be fixed in just one very simple step. A good designer of Modern Gamebook Adventures can easily overcome the aforementioned problem by inserting at least one secret passage into their game. As far as I know, this mechanic was used for the first time in the gamebook "Creature of Havoc" where you have to find a Magic Pendant which has the ability discover and open secret doors and then, when you read the same sections of text as before, every time you see the phrase "You cannot see a thing...", you add or deduct a previously specified number to the paragraph you are currently on and then you turn to that new paragraph number. I've seen the same technique used over and over in the works of Stuart Lloyd and it makes his adventures some of the best ones I've ever read. In practice, a gamebook writer, who has finished his entire adventure, can create one more evil or villain and think up a reason to bring the player all the way back to the beginning of the adventure and have them start over with the same stats and items from the first read, but with the instructions to add or deduct a specific number to a paragraph number, if they get to discover specific text in the story and then turn to the corresponding paragraph.<br />
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As an example, in the new version of the Short Gamebook Adventure, I've done that by telling the reader that after defeating the Evil Wizard, he goes back to his home, where the Village Elder tells him that a new problem exists. Before the evil villain was killed, he had opened a portal to the world of the dead and now hell creatures are taking over the hero's lands. He has to go back on the road and once he discovers an ancient Mausoleum in the text (he could even remember where it is located from the first read, but had no instructions how to access it back then), he has to do the math with the current paragraph number and move to the new paragraph. That is where the hidden passage is located and it leads to the location of the Gate to Hell, guarded by the Vampire Lord.<br />
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This twist of the story will force the player to read the exact same adventure once again, while at the same time, it allows him to explore other parts of the branching storyline he didn't have the opportunity to visit during his first approach and therefore, more encounters and artifacts would be available for the gamer to find in a single gameplay.<br />
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Be aware, though! When applying this Gamebook Mechanic, you must be very careful to not ruin the story by making the following three mistakes:<br />
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Mistake 1 is allowing the player to get stuck in an infinite loop and restart the story multiple times while, at the same time, he is able to keep his stats from the previous read and therefore could create a protagonist way too powerful. The writer must absolutely stop the game at once and punish the reader with instant death if he goes through the Secret Passage without recognizing it. Such punishment is acceptable this one time as missing such important detail is a huge mistake. In the Short Gamebook Adventure, immediately after the Mausoleum, I've told the player to turn to a new section if he's already defeated the Evil Wizard and that is an instant death paragraph (if he got this far again, that means he didn't follow the instructions for the secret passage when he found the mausoleum). Ideally, that should be done a little bit later in the adventure, so the location of the secret passage is not too obvious.<br />
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Mistake 2 is present when the Secret Passage is not accessible from some of the paths in your adventure and therefore the reader doesn't even stand a chance to find it, except in situations when a specific path is clearly a bad choice (supported by Logical Conclusion Choice hints given to the reader earlier in the story). This mistake could easily be avoided by integrating the secret passage just a few paragraphs before the first boss encounter as every player will have to get there eventually before completing their first task or quest. In my Short Gamebook Adventure, I've done this by mentioning the Mausoleum right at the end of the Wicked Graveyard as all the branching paths of the adventure merge into one single story line immediately before going into the Evil Wizard's tower.<br />
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Mistake number 3 is creating the new boss (hidden passage encounter) way too easy or too difficult to defeat. This new evil creature must be exactly twice as hard as the first one, because the player would be presented a chance to explore the adventureland two times and possibly collecting twice as many artifacts or increasing his/her stats twice as much in the two consecutive reads. Please also note that it is always a good idea to provide more than one way to overcome an obstacle. In other words, it is considered bad game designing if you punish the player with instant death just because they didn't collect the one specific artifact you had in mind. Give them an alternative to win a battle using a different set of items or have them do a skillcheck instead (even pure test of luck by rolling a specified number on the dice is a good option here). Basically, the simple rule is that having in your possession an artifact should let you automatically win a battle without any dice battles, skillchecks or lucky rolls, but not having that specific item must never be the cause of an instant death punishment.<br />
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That's all for today, folks. I hope that this post will be helpful to you when creating your next great game and I am absolutely certain that the secret passage technique will improve the genre as a whole, if more writers implement this technique. Soon I will be posting an article on the last Gamebook Mechanic that "keeps the player in the driver seat": the Logic Puzzle.<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-47085982815338146822016-05-15T11:15:00.001-05:002019-08-05T11:04:32.780-05:00Gamebook Practice Lesson 3: Give the control back to the player (intergate Logical Conclusion Choices)As mentioned earlier in an blogpost, measuring the performance in a video game has three aspects: speed, coordination and logic. Unfortunately, in the Gamebook Adventure genre, we don't have the tools to check the speed and coordination, which leaves us with the only other possible mechanic: testing the gamer logic.<br />
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So far, our example of a Gamebook Adventure is using only random mechanics (battles and treasure hunt) and the reader doesn't have any control over the final outcome just yet. The choices he had to make until now were based on random emotions (he had only the illusion of control), because he was not given enough information to be able to make any decisions based on strong logic. We can change all of that by creating a few Logical Conclusion Choices in our adventure.<br />
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I've already posted an <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2016/04/gamebook-theory-logical-conclusion.html" target="_blank">article on the Theory of Logical Conclusion Choices</a> earlier in this blog and I strongly recommend that you read it before proceeding any further with today's post. You should also give a try to the new adventure now, because the text below contains many spoilers of the game. You can download it here: <a href="http://games.sipkoamerica.com/ShortAdventureLogic.pdf" target="_blank">PDF Short Gamebook Adventure + Logic</a><br />
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We will now create three small two-path diverging diamonds, one for each one of the following main terrains: the Mountain, the Wetlands and the Forest. The difficulty of the encounters will be changing from high to low as we proceed.<br />
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<b>We may start with the Deadly Mountain</b>! I propose that we make finding the Shield a little bit more difficult and a matter of good performance rather than just a lucky guess of choosing to hike the mountain passage. The following dilemma is very challenging, because it is about choosing between bad and worse outcome.<br />
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<b>1. Naming the Challenge</b>:<b> </b>The word "Deadly" in the name of the Mountain is a hint by itself, and it is not subtle at all, as it informs the reader what could possibly happen there.<br />
<b>2. Invent the Danger</b>: following in our footsteps and the rules laid-out in the <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2016/04/gamebook-theory-logical-conclusion.html" target="_blank">logical conclusion choice theory</a>, we have to first invent the possible danger awaiting our protagonist there. I'd say that falling off the steep mountain is a great example here. <br />
<b>3. Create the Wrong Choice</b>: our player will fall to his death if he chooses to walk by the edge of the mountain trail.<br />
<b>4. Apply the fog of war</b> here by hiding the edge and use just the word mountain trail.<br />
<b>5. Give the reader a hint</b>: add the word narrow to the mountain trail. This should evoke the logical conclusion that falling off is a real possibility.<br />
<b>6. Put the Wrong Choice in wording</b>: Do you want to hike the mountain by following the narrow mountain trail or...<br />
<b>7. Create the Better Choice</b>. Note that I didn't say "the good decision"! The most interesting challenges are the ones that force you to choose the lesser of two evils or the greater of two positive outcomes. That way the better decision is never too obvious. So, the alternative to the mountain trail is going to be taking the tunnels of the abandoned mines.<br />
<b>8. To make the choice even more difficult and interesting, confuse the reader a little bit</b> by <u>partially</u> revealing the outcome of going in the tunnels: There are unknown creatures living in the abandoned mines.<br />
<b>9. Summarize to yourself, not to the reader</b>: The choice now is practically between falling off the mountain trail or fighting creatures. First one would logically lead to certain death while the second one predicts only the possibility of death due to injuries suffered in a combat. Obviously, the second one is the lesser of the two evils.<br />
<b>10. Reward the reader for choosing the lesser evil</b>: besides keeping him alive and despite of the fact that he just lost some health points in a battle, you will tell the player that he just found a Shield! Try to implement as many positive unexpected surprises as possible! We all love them. I call this "But Guess What Effect" after making a tough decision.<br />
<b>11. Apply the "God's Forgiveness" rule</b>: always try to show mercy and give a way out of certain death to your readers: make him roll 1d6 and inform him that he falls down to his death if the result is 1 through 4. This allows 33% chance of survival or close to 50% if a Blessing point is used to re-roll.<br />
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<b>Our focus is now moving onto the Wetlands. </b>The challenge difficulty here will be easier, because the reward will be given regardless of the performance, but there will be other consequences for making a bad decision.<b><br /></b><br />
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<b>1. Naming the Challenge</b>... or in this case, renaming it. I am going to change word "Forbidden" which carries a lot of danger (why would it be forbidden otherwise?) to "Forgotten" which hints that nobody has crossed it in a long time and it is unknown what could be found there, but in general, it sounds less dangerous than the first.<br />
<b>2. Invent the Danger</b>: sinking deep in a Swamp (you could come up with a better one when you write your own adventure, I am sure)<br />
<b>3. Create the Wrong Choice</b>: Walk through the Swamp<br />
<b>4. Apply "Fog of War" principle</b>: telling the reader directly that he "could walk through a swamp" makes the wrong choice too obvious, so we will hide the swamp through giving a hint by listing plants that grow in swamp areas such as Cattail Plants, Duckweed, Milkweed and others (I use Google to do my research). Now, the wrong choice is not that obvious and it looks like this: "Do you want to walk through the Cattail Plants that are growing on top of duckweed..."<br />
<b>5. Give a false hint</b>: reason why he would want to do that (note that this is not lying to the player as the reason is very valid): ".., so you are not easy to be seen". Well, technically, this is also a hint that the choice is wrong, because logically, you can't see anything either and you could easily step directly in a crocodile mouth without realizing it. That is not in our scenario, but the reader doesn't know that at the time of making the choice.<br />
<b>6. Invent the Good Choice</b>: "... or you could just carefully walk down the path that is swerving through the wetlands". Let me remind you that the player hasn't been given a reason to think that something dangerous is awaiting him here, so this should, naturally be the right choice. You could reinforce that by using another hint such as telling the player that "birds are happily chirping" in the initial description of the Forgotten Wetlands (that would suggest that there is no dangerous creatures here). Also, note that I used the words "carefully walk", not "carelessly walk" as the later one would make this choice wrong, because not being careful in an unknown situation (<u>Forgotten </u>Wetlands) would be very wrong as well.<br />
<b>7. Punish the reader for making the wrong choice</b>: "You may not have realized, but those plants grow in swamp areas, so as soon as you step in, you start sinking. Throw 1d6 to find how much energy it requires for you to get out of there and remove that number from your Health Points and then continue down the swerving path"<br />
<b>8. Give the player his reward for choosing the Forgotten Wetlands</b>: "While following the path through the wetlands, you catch a glimpse of a very rare flower. They call it MystFlower and your mother was using it for healing wounds. You take the herb and put it in your inventory. You can use it at any time (except during battle) to heal your Health back to its initial 10 points"<br />
! Note that the reward here is given regardless of making a good or a bad decision. The only consequence for bad performance is the punishment of losing Health Points.<br />
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As you can see, we are moving from difficult (the mountain provides choice between bad and worse) to normal (the wetlands provide clearly bad against good choice) and it is now time to create a dilemma that should be easy (neutral outcome against a good choice) in the Forest.<br />
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<b>So, here is our last example: The Forest. </b>Here, I would like to show how to present and teach a real life lesson in a gamebook adventure. The idea is that, if played well, during this encounter, our protagonist will meet an old monk, who is supposed to give him one Blessing point. As you can see, I am approaching it backwards now, starting with the reward and creating the encounter that protects it.<br />
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<b>1. Naming the Challenge</b>: We should rename the Cursed Forest (this name suggests too much trouble)
to the Darkwood Forest (it sounds a little bit scary, but it doesn't
hint towards a great danger)<br />
<b>2. Good outcome</b>: As already decided, we will approach this encounter backwards and we will start with the gain, which in this case will be one point for the Blessing skill. Who could bless you better than a Monastery Monk?<br />
<b>3. Bad outcome</b>: The negative consequence would be as simple as not receiving a blessing. Lets just say that the Monk could get scared and run away instead of giving you a blessing. That's the best I could come up with so far.<br />
<b>4. The good outcome is too obvious</b>: It would be stupid to ask the player if he wants to meet with a monk in the forest. According to general knowledge, a Monastery Monk would definitely be on the friendly side and anybody in their right mind would prefer to meet with one. That is exactly why we should literally hide the monk in, lets say, the nearby bushes. Tell the reader that "there is something in the bushes" and don't give him any additional information, but create the bad decision: "Do you want to attack first and use the element of surprise?"<br />
<b>5. We might have gone too far now</b>: Giving the option to attack first creates a lot of tension which is drawn from the illusion of danger, but that "false hint" could have tilted the scales too much in the wrong direction (almost cheating the reader into a trap) and we have to fix that in the next step<br />
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<b>6. Give another reasonable option</b>: While not using the advantage of attacking first could be wrong in many situations, giving the player the possibility of "drawing the sword out and waiting to see what comes out of the bushes" would make this encounter dilemma perfectly balanced due to the real world rule of "one shouldn't jump to conclusions" which translates here to "you shouldn't jump to the premature conclusion that the thing in the bushes is necessarily dangerous, before collecting enough information about it". The later is further backed up by the fact that the name of the forest is "Darkwood" instead of "The Cursed Forest", which should hint the reader that dangerous creatures could be living there.<br />
<b>7. Use a Historical Hint</b>: We could make this encounter a little bit easier if we integrate another hint earlier in the adventure. Now, that is a little bit tricky, because if we just include the following line "there are monks living in the forest", that could be a little bit too obvious and it creates a memory challenge rather than a logical conclusion hint. To avoid that problem, we could make up a story about the childhood of our protagonist and write something like this: "When our hero was young he often suffered injuries and wounds while playing "warriors" outside with the other boys from the village and his mother used a healing recipe given to her by her brother, who was one of the monks living in a monastery beyond the forest". We could also include a hint about the MystFlower located at the Wetlands by saying that "The main ingredient of the healing recipe was a flower that only grows in swamp areas". Logically, the reader should conclude that he would encounter a monk if he goes to the forest or he would find a healing herb if he chooses to explore the wetlands. Naturally, we don't have to include any further hints about the mountain besides the name "Deadly Mountain" that suggests well enough what fate could be possibly awaiting there. Also, according to the general rules of games as well as in real life, the reward given for choosing the most difficult path should be the greatest one of them all.<br />
<b>8. Create the negative outcome</b>: It would be cruel to kill the monk if our reader decides to attack him in surprise, so lets make up a different story where the monk gets scared shitless and runs away screaming. We will tell the reader that he should have not jumped to conclusions before collecting enough sufficient information (which was the other option of waiting patiently with the sword in hands) and we will leave it at that.<br />
<b>9. Create the positive outcome</b>: We should reward the reader if he makes the right choice of waiting to see what or who comes out of the bushes. That, my friends, relates directly to the real life wisdom of being patient enough to collect the minimum required information for making an educated decision before jumping to premature conclusions. These are my personal favorite encounters, the ones where the reader is forced to recognize that the given situation is an actual simulation of a real life dilemma and, if not solved as expected, it would teach him a valuable lesson that can be applied in the physical world for his future success in life.<br />
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In conclusion, I have to share with you that while reading back this blogpost, I realized that the steps I listed in the Theory of Logical Conclusion Choices don't have to be used in the same sequence nor you have to use all of them to create a good choice. As a matter of fact, you can use some of them multiple times during the creation of one encounter and you can skip other steps, if you please. Neither, the Theory nor the Practice Lesson on Logical Conclusion Choices should be seen as a strict guideline. The steps listed in both are just a suggestion and an example of how a good choice is created by hiding information and presenting it to the reader in the form of clues and hints, so he can draw the logical conclusion for himself and provide the input necessary for the game to test the quality of his performance. It is entirely up to the author's discretion to decide how exactly to approach the design process of the encounters in such a way that they are neither too obvious nor too confusing, so the general feeling of the game is that the final outcome depends entirely on the quality of the choices made by our readers rather than some random guessing of which path to follow. The bottom line here is that a writer must be able to force his readers into paying close attention to the story while looking for specific helpful clues and memorizing them for later use when making logical decisions that are a product of critical thinking and educated guessing, so the eventual success or failure is based entirely on the performance of the player and not on some lucky guesses.<br />
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I must also stress out that it is of extreme importance for the correct choice to never be too obvious, while at the same time, the available clues and hints are not cheating the player into the wrong decision. Because of the fact that Logical Conclusion Choices are arguably the best mechanic that allows measuring the reader's performance in the genre of gamebook adventures, creating encounters that are perfectly balanced should be the most important goal for each self-respecting author.<br />
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Remember that the main rule for creating Logical Conclusion Choices is that a writer should never, ever cheat the player into making the wrong decision by hiding too much valuable information while, at the same time, presenting too many despicable false hints. It is also true that in order to keep the adventure interesting, gamebooks still need to surprise the reader every now and then, but every author should make it a priority for all those surprises to be positive, because the negative ones would make any game unfair to the gamer and therefore the final product will be unpleasant to play.<br />
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P.S. I can totally imagine Ashton Saylor arguing here that having the approach of Logical Conclusion Choices and Fog of War would make any adventure boring for future re-playing. My response is that reading any book or watching any movie more than once makes up for somewhat boring experience, because we already know what to expect or what will happen. Unlike that, in a gamebook, the player is given the chance to alter the outcome by making different choices especially at places where his previous performance was unsatisfactory. Either way, a gamebook adventure shouldn't be designed to be read more than three times, because in addition to being boring, it will also become frustrating and it will be put aside along with the unpleasant feeling of failure. The rule is that an average gamer should be able to achieve victory in about three consecutive attempts.<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-81806891756341467122016-05-07T19:53:00.000-05:002019-08-05T11:04:20.916-05:00Gamebook Practice Lesson 2: Establish the Battlefield (add combats to your adventure)Before you start reading this blogpost, I urge you to download and test the <a href="http://games.sipkoamerica.com/ShortAdventureBattles.pdf" target="_blank">PDF Short Gamebook Adventure</a> that is a product of our lesson today. Everything written below explains in deep detail how it was created and therefore, this whole article is a spoiler of the new adventure that is based on the old map.<br />
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In the previous post, we built a beautiful world and now it is time to start a war there. Please note that in a gamebook adventure, any combat is ultimately a skillcheck, so when we talk about battles, keep in mind that the same principles apply to all skillchecks in the game.<br />
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<i>Before we start exploring the actual combat mechanics, I am going to shuffle things around a little bit by changing the items and their locations in the adventure we created. However, we will keep the map and the diagram exactly the same as they were shown in the last blogpost. I had intentionally placed the sword in the wetlands, because most people would look for it in the forest or in the mountain. Now, I am going to give the sword to the protagonist at the very beginning of the adventure. However, the item needed to win the final battle of the scenario would be a Crusader's Shield (along with the sword). The shield could be found near a dead soldier in one of the caves up in the mountain.</i><br />
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So, instead of adding more paths to victory or implementing lucky rolls of dice at the end of the adventure (see previous post), we can create an alternative way of accomplishing the ultimate goal by adding battles to our gamebook.<br />
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Here are some of the benefits of including fights in our adventure:<br />
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1. A good combat is an excellent form of skillcheck that can add much needed randomization to the adventure as well as measure up the player's quality of performance until that moment<br />
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2. Battles extend the playtime of the adventure tremendously and involve the reader further in the game by letting him think that he's got more control over the protagonist's success<br />
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3. This is an excellent way of making the gamebook more interesting, because fights get the adrenaline going (rollercoaster effect) and, if balanced well, they also add the illusion of danger<br />
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4. Adding battles completely changes the feel of the game and it adds
diversity to the process of flipping pages by including dice rolls,
calculations, taking notes and comparing results.<br />
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5. By implementing combats in our adventure, we create an alternative path to victory and the game becomes way more engaging and balanced (this is the most important benefit of all four)<br />
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How do we actually go about adding fights to our adventure?<br />
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First, we have to decide which combat system we will be using in our gamebook. There are many of them available, but the most popular one definitely is the Fighting Fantasy system. I am not going to explain it in detail here as it is widely available on the Internet. In my personal opinion, this is an excellent battle mechanic, because it is both, time consuming without being too complicated and it also involves enough dice rolls to create the feeling of danger and to get the blood pressure up. The problem with Fighting Fantasy, as with most more complicated combat systems, is that it is very difficult to achieve good balance and that could change the adventure difficulty to way too easy or to nearly impossible in an instant. Of course, we can also use a system that doesn't involve dice at all, we can ask the reader to simply remove a fixed number of points from his stamina or health stat in each battle. This way, we can balance the fights and the final outcome a lot easier (due to the lack of randomness), but there isn't going to be much of playtime extension nor feeling of danger or increased adrenaline using this battle mechanic.<br />
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<i>For the purpose of our short experimental adventure, I am going to propose a different kind of combat system here. Each battle would require our player to roll 1d6 and then remove the result from the Health stat of our protagonist. Lets just give our hero 15 initial points of Health and then implement a few battles in the adventure by following these steps:</i><br />
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<b>1. Mark down the locations of strategic battles (on the map or in the game diagram), but don't worry about specifying the opponents or their difficulty just yet.</b><br />
1a. Naturally, you may want to have creatures or skillchecks guarding some of the important items or passages in your adventure.<i> I am going to create a skillcheck (same as a battle) in the mountain, because the Crusaders Shield is in the caves there.</i><br />
1b. Whenever possible, you should use a battle to punish the player for making a bad decision instead of killing him instantly. <i>I am going to leave this option open for now.</i><br />
1c. Include battle encounters at places that would logically require fighting or where you think that would be appropriate, but be careful to not overdo it.<i> Naturally, there would be a battle at the graveyard, as well as one at the end of the adventure (there is always one final fight in each game).</i><br />
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<b>2. Deploy the forces of evil on the battlefield and sort them out by strength (using numbers, not names)</b>: write down the difficulty of each opponent or skillcheck next to the combat location on the map or in the diagram. Leave the opponent names out for now. Try to gradually increase the difficulty as the adventure progresses, but make sure that it is consistent with the geographic location and the reward. Naturally, a battle that takes place in a cave full of treasure (like a dragon's lair) would be more difficult than fighting a wild boar in the forest, even if the first precedes the later in the sequence of events in the book. <i>I am applying this step to our short example adventure as follows: one easy battle (1d6 skillcheck) in the mountain, one easy battle (1d6) at the day graveyard, one difficult battle (2 dice roll) at the night graveyard and a 3 dice roll battle at the very end.</i><br />
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<b>3. Calculate the difficulty of fighting your way to victory by using average numbers and actual combat testing</b><br />
3a. Calculate the minimum and the maximum number of combats a player would have to fight depending on which path he chooses during the adventure. <i>Between 4 and 6 in our example</i><br />
3b. Try to calculate or simply guess how many Health points would be lost during battles while following the most difficult or the easiest path in the game. <i>Between 12 and 18 points</i><br />
3c. Test your calculations by fighting your way out of the easiest and the most difficult path. It is a good idea to test the most common and the most average paths available in the adventure as well.<br />
3d. Keep in mind that the most difficult path to success should still be statistically possible (if enough luck is involved). Don't create a path that leads to certain death based entirely on battles. It is better to simply explain why the player is being punished for going this way instead of killing him in sequence of fights during an impossible to win scenario. <i>Our hero could, theoretically, survive 6 battles with 15 initial points of health</i><br />
3e. Under normal game conditions, the easiest adventure path should not kill the protagonist, even if he is completely out of luck. <i>4 battles of 1d6 could be a little bit too difficult to survive with 15 health points, so we'll have to make some adjustments</i><br />
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<b>4. Adjust the difficulty of all the battles to achieve a balanced game</b><br />
4a. You can easily do so by adding or removing single battles from the adventure. <i>We could increase the difficulty by adding more battles or decrease it by removing some of them. We will not use this approach right at this very moment.</i><br />
4b. If needed, simply change the initial stats of the protagonist. <i>We could increase the starting Health points to 20 or give the protagonist a Strength stat (points to deduct from each dice roll), but I have a better idea for right now (see further down at point 6).</i><br />
4c. You can also adjust the difficulty of the game through making an opponent easier or more difficult by altering their combat stats. <i>We could make the final battle 2 dice roll instead of 3d6</i><br />
4d. Re-test the game again, again and again!<br />
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<b>5. Assign a specific name to each opponent or skillcheck:</b> now that we know the difficulty of each encounter, we can safely name every one of them without worrying that a huge giant would be easier to defeat than a stupid zombie. Also, make sure that the opponent is consistent with the geographical terrain. Don't have a fight against a Giant Spider in the middle of the ocean! As a matter of fact, don't use Giant Spider battles at all. I am tired of fighting one of those in almost every adventure. Be creative and make the dangerous skillchecks and fierce opponents sound as interesting as possible! <i>For our example adventure, the skillcheck in the mountain would be a 'Snowstorm', the day battle at the graveyard would be against a 'Hungry Wolf', the difficult night opponent at the graveyard would be a 'Skeleton Warrior' and, of course, the final battle is against the 'Evil Wizard'.</i><br />
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<b>6. Change the difficulty further by creating additional encounters, items and stats</b><br />
6a. You can replenish the Health of our hero by adding healing places or creatures. <i>There will be a Healing Mystflower growing at the Wetlands and it will be protected by a skillcheck named 'swamp'. If our reader chooses that path and finds the herb, he will be able to use it at any time of the adventure (except during a battle) to heal his Health Points back to the initial amount.</i><br />
6b. Create items and encounters that will improve the combat stats of the protagonist. <i>If a sword is in his possession, one point of damage could be removed from every roll (only if he is fighting an opponent, so that wouldn't work for skillcheck when 'sinking in the swamp' or 'surviving a snowstorm up in the mountain')</i><br />
6c. Implement an additional stat which will be of help to the gamer while fighting battles. A new stat called Blessings will be given in the beginning with an initial score of 1 point. <i>When a roll of a die is not liked by the reader, he can re-roll that 1d6 at the expense of one blessing.</i><br />
6d. Test and adjust again, again and again! <i>The victory is too easy now, so we will adjust the initial health points of the protagonist down to 10.</i><br />
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Don't forget that implementing battles in the adventure requires some very fine tuning. As I already stated earlier in this post, this step alone could alter the adventure difficulty to extremely easy or to nearly impossible in an instant and therefore, you can never spend too much time testing and adjusting battles. On the contrary, it could never be enough!<br />
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Ideally, in a well balanced adventure, a good number of items found and fights won will be required to achieve success. A victory should take an average of three attempts (reading the adventure about three times by an average gamer).<br />
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Please note that I've used the Illusion of Achievement by applying a helpful item or stat point gain at each one of the three possible paths in the beginning of the adventure. It doesn't matter which way the reader is going to choose to follow. He is going to get a different experience at each one of the possible encounters, but ultimately, he will feel the satisfaction of a positive gain (and the illusion that he is performing well) either way.<br />
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Before I finish today's post, I'd like to remind you of a few rookie mistakes and how to avoid them when implementing battles in your adventure:<br />
<u>1. Don't make the player face deadly strong opponents too early in the adventure:</u> the idea is that he should be able to survive most of the battles with relative ease (he is a superhero, after all). A fatality during a combat should be the consequence of failing to find healing items or items that improve the skill of the protagonist instead of a series of unlucky dice rolls during a battle.<br />
<u>2. Do not create too many battles in your adventure (put the main focus on the story and the choices, not on fighting the way to victory)</u>: success should be the result of good balance between fighting and making good choices. Having to fight one opponent after another could prove pretty boring and the outcome would be a matter of luck rather than good input and performance.<br />
<u>3. Re-test and balance the adventure multiple times</u>, because there is nothing more upsetting than making all the right choices and still failing to succeed due to bad luck during battles.<br />
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Keep in mind that adding combats to the adventure doesn't give full control to the reader just yet. Victory is still a matter of chance as winning depends on lucky rolls during fights rather than a specific input by the player. So, in the next post, we will make success a consequence of his performance by implementing a few Logical Conclusion Choices into our adventure.<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
<i></i>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-15088483262521747422016-04-30T03:59:00.000-05:002019-08-05T11:04:05.518-05:00Gamebook Practice Lesson 1: Build a wonderful Game World (using the Magic of a Divergind Diamond)I am going to start by giving you one word: <b>Dream</b>!<br />
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"What is wrong with people today?" somebody asked the father of motivational recordings Earl Nightingale and he replied "People simply don't think". I would add that "People also don't dream or they just don't pursue their dreams". Those are two of the major problems in modern society. Don't be a "wondering generality" by waiting for things to happen to you! Become a "meaningful specific" by inventing new ways of making things happen!!! ("wondering generality" and "meaningful specific" are quotes of Zig Ziglar).<br />
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Lets build a game! <br />
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<b>First</b> and foremost, you must decide on the setting of your game. That usually depends on the sub-genre of the world your adventure is going to take place in. The two most popular are "fantasy" and "science fiction", but it could also be anything else you can dream of. The example game we are going to make is going to take place in a fantasy world setting.<br />
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<b>Second</b>, you have to set the final goal of the adventure, invent the protagonist and decide on the items needed to complete the final task of the game. Our ultimate goal, in the example game we are creating, would be defeating an evil wizard, who is terrorizing the village. Our protagonist is one of the residents of that village. The items needed to win the final battle against the wizard could be be a magic amulet (protects from the wizard's spells) and a magic sword (to be used against the wizard).<br />
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<b>Third</b>, you should dream of the natural landmarks in your world and place them on the diagram of the Diverging Diamond. It could be pretty much anything such as forests, swamps, mountains, hills, desserts, sea, ocean, etc. For our example, we are going to split the road into three separate paths and each one of them will be going through a different terrain: forest, mountain and wetlands. One of the items needed to defeat the evil wizard will be hidden in one of those landmarks.<br />
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<b>Fourth</b>, place some non-natural landmarks on your map or diagram. Example: we are going to put a graveyard on the way to our final destination, which itself will be another landmark on its own: the wizard's tower.<br />
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<b>Fifth</b>, use interesting adjectives for the landmarks to further intrigue the reader by waking up his imagination (this one has its roots in the science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming). Instead of having just a forest, a mountain and wetlands, we would add an adjective to each one of them and call them: the Cursed Forest, the Deadly Mountain and the Forbidden Wetlands. The graveyard is going to become the Wicked Graveyard and so on. This step not only makes everything sound better, it also creates certain images in the head of the reader that can further involve him in the adventure. This is a very powerful step in the process of creating a wonderful world and you should use it as often as possible.<br />
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<b>Sixth</b>, since the Diverging Diamond diagram is not just a map, we don't have to limit the encounters there just to physical locations, we can also include events there. For example: in the top Diverging Diamond, instead of having geographical landmarks, we are going to split the path into two separate ways and the reader will have the choice to travel during the daytime or to travel at night.<br />
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We have eight locations on the diagram now (not all of them geographical). To keep our first adventure as simple as possible, we are going to write one section for each one of them as follows: 1. Medieval Village; 2. Cursed Forest; 3. Deadly Mountain; 4. Forbidden Wetlands; 5 Wicked Graveyard; 6 Daytime Travel; 7 Nighttime Travel; 8 Wizard's Tower.<br />
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Note: Keep in mind that this adventure is based entirely on the Treasure Hunt game mechanic. Also, don't forget that I am keeping the writing as simple as possible (I will do another post on the writing of the story someday in the future) <br />
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1. You are a brave young hero. One of the finest in your village. An evil wizard is terrorizing your people. He lives up north, beyond the wicked graveyard that is located north of the Deadly Mountain. You want to end this terror once and for all, so you pack your bag with food and water and leave the village to find and defeat the evil wizard. Read section 2, if you want to go around the mountain through the Cursed Forest. Go to section 3, if you want to hike through the mountain; If you prefer to pass through the Forbidden Wetlands, turn to 4!<br />
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2. You are now in the Cursed Forest. It is very dark and scary. You hear all kinds of strange sounds from probably even stranger creatures, but none of them are interested in you. Please proceed to the Wicked Graveyard at section 5!<br />
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3. The mountain is really unfriendly. It is not a coincidence that it was named Deadly. Your protagonist starts having doubts about going through here, so roll one die and go to the Cursed Forest if the result is 1-3 or go to the Forbidden Wetlands if the result is 4-6!<br />
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4. The wetlands are difficult to cross, after all it is full of swamps. No wonder that they are forbidden. You hardly make it out of the mud a couple of times during your travel. However, passing through, you find a magic sword. Write that down and proceed to section 5 to explore the Wicked Graveyard!<br />
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5. The Wicked Graveyard is not welcoming at all. You have to choose now, if you want to cross it in the middle of the day (turn to 6), exposing yourself to the wizard in the tower or do you want to travel under the cover of the night when you have to face whatever undead creatures live here (turn to 7) ?<br />
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6. The graveyard is not very dangerous when the sun is out as all skeletons, vampires and zombies sleep through the day. For some reason, the evil wizard doesn't notice you or doesn't care that you are closing in on his place of living. Continue directly to the Wizard's Tower at section 8!<br />
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7. No wonder that the graveyard is called wicked. All kinds of evil creatures get up from the graves and walk around at night. You notice something glowing on top of one of the tombstones. It is a magic amulet. Take a note of that in your adventure sheet right now! The zombies, vampires and skeletons are obviously scared of your amulet and don't bother you at all. You get to the Wizard's Tower right before sunrise. Now turn to 8!<br />
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8. You get right inside the tower and take the round stairs up to the wizard's quarters. He is furious that a normal human is disturbing his day uninvited. He casts a deadly spell against you. If you have the Magic Amulet, turn to 9. Otherwise, you become the next victim of the Evil Wizard and your adventure ends here.<br />
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9. The Evil Wizard is quite surprised that his magic doesn't work on you, so he casts a strength spell on himself and his body changes its shape into a bigger masculine warrior. He grabs his wooden staff and tries to beat you to death with it. If you have a sword in your list of items, turn to 10. Otherwise, you have no way of protecting yourself and your adventure ends here.<br />
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10. YOU ARE VICTORIOUS! You defeat the evil wizard and your village is now safe for generations to come. You are well celebrated by your fellow villagers. In a sign of appreciation, they even rename the deadly mountain after you. Congratulations!<br />
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Please note that in this extremely short gamebook adventure, I have <b>implemented only random mechanics</b> such as Treasure Hunt (the whole adventure contains two consecutive Diverging Diamonds), a Dice Roll (in the mountain) and two SkillChecks (check for an amulet and for a sword at the Wizard's Tower). Even though, the feel of the game came out not too bad, the outcome depends entirely on your luck, not on your decisions, performance or input.<br />
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I also created one difficult choice at the graveyard, confusing the reader with two possible negative outcomes, but neither one of them actually happens. However, it provides the reader an illusion of danger, which creates a lot of tension and is extremely important for the further involvement of the player (creating an emotional rollercoaster in our game)<br />
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This short story provides only 25% chance of completing it at the first try (50% chance to find the sword in the first diamond and 50% chance to find the amulet in the second diamond). Considering that, shorter games should be more difficult to provide more playing time through re-runs, 25% is success rate is actually a very acceptable value. When writing longer games, keep in mind that, it could be extremely time consuming for you and very frustrating for the reader, to create a very low success rate, because re-reading a longer adventure multiple times could be horribly boring.<br />
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To extend the chance for completing the adventure up to between 30% and 50%, we can create more paths to victory. Example: if in section 3, instead of a dice roll, we tell the reader that he finds an iron spear in one of the caves and then he makes it safely through the mountains, leading him to the graveyard at section 5. At the same time we add an option in section 9 by changing the text to "if you have a sword or a spear in your list of items, turn to 10". Now, the chance to find a needed item in the first diamond increases from 1/2 up to 2/3 (or 66%) and the possible completion of the adventure at the first read just went up from 25% to 33%.<br />
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Another good tool we can use to change the odds of success is adding the possibility of winning that is based entirely on luck. We can do that by implementing dice rolls at the end of the adventure. Lets say that section 8 reads "If you have the Magic Amulet, turn to 9. If you don't have the amulet, roll one die and turn to section 9 if the result is 5 or 6. If your result is lower than 5, you become the next victim of the Evil Wizard and your adventure ends here". Remember that dice rolls create "illusion of control", but that is just an illusion, because the reader has absolutely no way of influencing the final outcome at all.<br />
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This is all for today, my friends. In the next post, we will work on adding some battles in this adventure to make the game a little bit more time consuming. Then, in the post after that, we will make some improvements by implementing the game-changing mechanic of Logical Conclusion Choices, which allows us to measure the actual performance of the player and therefore, he would have at least a partial control over the outcome for the protagonist.<br />
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And don't forget, DREAM YOUR WORLD! Think of a magic world you want to live in and go wild with it. Make it so wonderful, beautiful and appealing that it would be impossible for your readers to put the gamebook away! Suck them into your adventure and have them crave more, once the ultimate goal is achieved and the game is over. Remember the amazing planet in the movie avatar? I've heard that some people have fallen into clinical depression once the movie ended, just because they want to live there, but such place doesn't actually exit.<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-34838337503614079842016-04-27T20:07:00.001-05:002019-08-05T11:03:48.758-05:00Gamebook Theory: Treasure Hunt gamebook mechanic<div class="msg-body inner undoreset" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1461590602971_2436" role="presentation" tabindex="0">
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Definition: a <b>Treasure Hunt</b> Game is any game (computer or otherwise) that allows the player to explore multiple geographic areas, regions or places in the search for treasure (items, information. etc), implementing elements of randomization (finding the treasure is a matter of chance) and surprise (there is little, if any way at all, of telling what kind of treasure the player would find). A perfect example is the board game <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_Forest_%28game%29" target="_blank">Enchanted Forest</a> by Ravensburger.<br />
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Note that every Treasure Item or Information found during a Treasure Hunt Game is ultimately a key which is needed to open a corresponding door later in the adventure. The mechanic of "if you have [this key] item, go to [that door] section or page" is inevitable in a Gamebook Adventure.<br />
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It is a fact that all gamebooks implement a Treasure Hunt algorithm. They have come a long way since the first Fighting Fantasy book was published back in the early 1980s, but I recently realized that many of them still have similar approach and game mechanics. The old "which door choice" of "do you want to go left or right?" is now replaced by the "shell choice" question of "which area would you like to explore?", but either way, that is a Treasure Hunt algorithm.</div>
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Even though, they seem completely different on the surface, "which door" and "shell game" choices represent a very similar gamebook mechanic deep inside: the outcome is a matter of luck rather than good performance of the player. Here are the examples: "do you want to go left or right?" against "do you want to cross through the forest or do you want to explore the caves in the mountain?". In both cases you have absolutely no idea what is going to follow nor you have any valuable information to help you make the choice which will lead you to the better outcome for your protagonist. You might as well throw the dice to find out what is going to happen. However, the "shell game" choice is preferable due to its storyline value and the fact that it creates an<b> illusion of control</b>. Besides, we all love learning new things, exploring new areas and being unexpectedly surprised. What I am trying to say is that the "Treasure Hunt" has its place in the gamebook adventure genre, but way too many books rely entirely on this mechanic alone, forcing the player to read the book a few times in a search for the correct path to victory. I have to admit that having more than one way to reach the final goal of an adventure is an excellent improvement as a result of the gamebook evolution throughout the years, but the author should seek the right balance between Treasure Hunt Mechanics and Logical Conclusion Choices in every adventure, so there is enough room for meaningful input by the reader (he gets rewarded for good performance) as well as just enough randomization of the adventure (the outcome is not always predictable, providing enough excitement and surprises to the reader).<br />
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I already did a post on Logical Conclusion Choices and I will soon write a post on Logic Puzzles (another mechanic that gives the player real control over the outcome). Today I will focus on how to actually build a good Treasure Hunt for our gamebook adventure? The answer is: <b>Diverging Diamond</b>. Why not write "branching paths" or create a "straightforward story line"? Well, because creating too many branches is a waste of time for you, as an author, and also a waste of space in the book and therefore a waste of money if it ever gets published. Imagine writing 100 sections and the reader only goes through 20 of them to finish the adventure! You wrote 80 more that never got to be read and your game left the player with a feeling that it was too short, regardless of the fact that it had 100 sections. God forbid, you tried to sell it too! Can you imagine the reviews: "I paid too much money for such little satisfaction as I finished the adventure in 15 minutes. Beware, the large number of sections is just a marketing tool as this gamebook was made to look bigger than it actually is". Not so good, is it now? The other extreme, "straightforward story line", could be just as disappointing. It will be a chain of Logical Conclusion Choices without any Treasure Hunt and therefore absolutely no surprises, but you will still have to write bunch of bad outcome or instant death sections. Again, waste of time for you and very boring and upsetting for the reader. I've made that mistake a few times on my first couple attempts at writing a gamebook adventure.<br />
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The Diverging Diamond approach creates the perfect balance between the "branching paths" and the "straight forward story line" styles of writing, because it puts the control of the game in the hands of the player, but at the same time it keeps the element of surprise in the adventure.<br />
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I borrowed the name "Diverging Diamond" from the Science of Highway Engineering. However, to adapt the meaning to the terminology of games, I have to explain that a "Diverging Diamond" in Gamebook Theory would be an intersection of branching paths (each one of those paths is completely independent with its own quest or adventure) ultimately merging again to form the beginning of another diverging diamond or to lead the player to the final skillcheck of the adventure.<br />
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For an example: if we had to write a short gamebook story, where a medieval hero has to defeat an evil wizard, who is terrorizing the village, the adventure starting location would be the village (point A - top of the diamond) and the hero's final destination would be the wizard's tower (point B - bottom of the diamond). We would branch the path at point A (the village), creating a fork of different paths, but note that they all lead to the final point B (the wizard's tower). If the author decides, he can intersect those paths somewhere in the middle of the adventure and give an option to the reader to switch from one path to another. That creates a diagram that looks like a diamond. It is also possible and game designers should feel encouraged to create smaller diamonds inside the main game diamond.<br />
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To create a simple to understand example, we should take just the outline of the diamond diagram. That would give us two paths at the intersection right outside the village - left and right. Remember, that was the archaic approach of the gamebook writers back in the 1980s. As we discussed earlier, we would replace "left" with "forest" and "right" with "wetlands". Neither one of the paths leads to an instant death and both of them merge at the end of the diagram at the wizard's tower, but each one of the paths includes a different battle encounter and only one of them contains the item necessary (lets just say that it is a magical amulet protecting the protagonist from the wizard's magic) to complete the final skillcheck at the end of the adventure. If you create a very diverse path structure, it would be a good idea to have more than one way to finish the adventure, so it is not too difficult. I think the magic number here is 'three': an average gamer should be able to successfully finish the gamebook in three attempts at the most (33% chance of success at each try).<br />
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No, I am not saying that this is the way to write a gamebook! I am just giving an example of what a "Diverging Diamond" looks like and I am explaining the basic principles of the "Treasure Hunt" approach. Later on, we will talk about how to mix this technique with the Logical Conclusion Choices in order to create a compelling gamebook adventure for our readers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNEd2Kyo0ZaNDrFStDI17FzWWTzCQBaf6pw6DeH74JtgYS7X77YOnTNfJFatvebytmgaiGPEsPQKWTZxNbv3Ez8yaYFhFcwXkLcXrJbitqsG_mgJACqLyVOVVXFd3yrUb1PLPgeAuHiORO/s1600/ForestOfDoom_Snapseed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNEd2Kyo0ZaNDrFStDI17FzWWTzCQBaf6pw6DeH74JtgYS7X77YOnTNfJFatvebytmgaiGPEsPQKWTZxNbv3Ez8yaYFhFcwXkLcXrJbitqsG_mgJACqLyVOVVXFd3yrUb1PLPgeAuHiORO/s200/ForestOfDoom_Snapseed.jpg" width="132" /></a>Some of you may ask "Why not call the diagram a simple grid, just like it is in most games?" and they could show me the map of "The Forest of Doom". I must point out that they are correct and the map of the game looks just like a grid, but the truth is that movement in the gamebooks is rarely horizontal. Most of the time, even if you simply choose between "left or right (east or west)", once you make a decision, you move one step closer to the end of the book and it is (almost always) impossible to go back and explore the other direction and therefore the move on the map could have been horizontal, in the sections diagram of the adventure the move is also vertical. When you combine horizontal and vertical movement, the result is actually a diagonal move, just like it is in the "Diverging Diamond" diagram. The conclusion is that the map looks like a simple grid, but the actual diagram of the adventure is still in the form of diamond with a lot of diagonal movement.<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a></div>
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Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-49072521287901866702016-04-24T17:54:00.004-05:002019-08-05T11:03:34.632-05:00Make your game even more interesting: Emotional and Moral ChoicesTwo posts ago, we discussed the mechanism of creating a Logical Conclusion Choice step by step. Today I'd like tell you how to add another layer of involvement for the reader through attacking his emotions or his moral.<br />
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Before I give you the details of step 8 of the Logical Conclusion Choice process, I would like to remind you once again that in order to create truly interesting choices, all of the options given to the reader should have mixed positive and negative consequences just like it is in real life: gain one thing at the expense of another. Example: To avoid being hit by a lightning in the fast approaching thunderstorm, you decide to run for the caves in the distant giant cliff structure. You lose 10 points of health due to exhaustion and the fact that you get soaking wet before you are able to take cover. However, you find an artifact. A magic sword with special abilities, for an example.<br />
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<b>Step 8: Involve the player even further through adding a layer of emotional or moral reasons or consequences.</b><br />
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<b>Example of Emotional Layer</b>: in my Visual Gamebook Adventure that takes place in the Star Wars universe, you are told at the beginning of the story that as a little kid you witnessed the death of your parents by the hands of the imperial stormtroopers. Later in the adventure, you are given the choice to kill as many of them as possible to get revenge for your family's suffering. Of course, you want to kill them! After all, they murdered your family. However, given the circumstances at the moment, that is not the best choice, because you kill 10 of them and your blaster runs out of battery, so you have no choice but to retreat. That choice provides you the satisfaction of revenge at the expense of your laser gun, but it also gives you an advantage if you follow a certain path in the middle of the adventure.<br />
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<b>Example of Moral Layer:</b> I am going to quote Aston Saylor again here: "Consider this: The orcs have taken your friend hostage, and will kill
him if you attack. But taking this step constitutes an act of war, and
they must be punished. Will you attack (utilizing your combat skills)
knowing they will kill your friend, but determined to crush the orcs
once and for all and claim their valuable treasure? Or will you
negotiate (using your diplomacy skills), suffering the humiliation in
order to hopefully save the life of your friend".<br />
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<b>Let me stress this out once again: Make your choices difficult with complicated consequences where you gain one thing at the expense of another! Only partially reveal the outcome before the choice is made and let the reader guess what the other consequences of his decision could be, but don't you ever cheat him into making the wrong choice! Just let the player be in the driver seat!</b><br />
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I personally love how sometimes in gamebooks the choice seems bad at the moment, because you lose something, but then later on in the adventure, that turns out for the better. Example: in the Star Wars Adventure, if you kill some of the stormtroopers, you have a bleeding fleshwound and a drop of your blood falls onto the scanner of the R2D2 robot, letting it recognize the fact that you carry the jedi gene. Another example: in the "Last Fortress" by Ashton, you lose the treasure of your people and your master blacksmith in an attempt to save as many of your people as possible in the snowstorm that comes through the mountains, but later on you are awarded much more as a result of that difficult choice. This technique creates great tension in the adventure, because you know that you made the right choice, but you still lost items and people and you are not sure if you are ever going to be rewarded for making the emotionally difficult, but morally right decision. I'll do another post on the very needed illusions of danger and achievement for every game, not only in the genre of gamebooks.<br />
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In this line of thinking, I must mention another very important idea here: <b>the moral responsibility of the game writers and creators</b>. One of my favorite slogans is "with great power comes great responsibility". Believe it or not, the media, the television and especially games install certain patterns of behavior in the kids and young adults through the process of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Check out the Power of Suggestion theory! We, the authors, have the great responsibility to make sure that we encourage the good and we punish the bad behavior. We are literally programming the mentality of our next generation, so don't encourage bad moral choices through rewarding immoral decisions in your games! If you decide to expose the reader to the emotional garbage of real life, at least make sure to clearly define the difference between good and evil in the adventure and properly reward only the morally good choices, so the message you send to the reader's mind is making him a better person. That way you are reinforcing his future success in real life and creating a better human society for generations to come.<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-87551507983754391492016-04-22T14:12:00.002-05:002019-08-05T11:03:16.857-05:00The fatal trap we all fall into and How to Cheat Death (in a gamebook)Attention! A newer revised and better version of this post is available on <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2018/09/gamebook-theory-grave-mistakes-1.html" target="_blank">LloydOfGamebooks.com</a><br />
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The previous post was about creating meaningful logical choices that put the input control mechanism in the hands of the reader and we explained how to create such choices step by step. However, the provided example included an instant death outcome and that is something that should never happen in a modern gamebook adventure. Today we will discuss the tools that can solve that problem.<br />
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A lot of authors feel that they are in a competition with the reader and try to cheat him into making the wrong decision on a regular basis. Even worse, some of the authors often kill the protagonist in instant death chapters not realizing that they kill the enthusiasm of the player instead. The only thing those writers accomplish is forcing their readers to cheat by going back to the section where they made the wrong choice (killing the satisfaction of eventual success) or if they decide to play fair by starting over from the beginning, the adventure becomes extremely boring, because they would be quick scanning the text of each section for the instructions on how to proceed, simply getting to the section of the wrong choice again (like this ever happens). In the worst case scenario, the player is going to put the book away as a result of unfair and unsatisfactory mechanics of the adventure.<br />
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Of course, in order for your choice to be meaningful, the consequences should also be in correlation with your decisions. The player should be rewarded for good performance and he should be punished for bad performance.<br />
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Lets take a look of three different bad consequence mechanics in the gamebook adventure genre:<br />
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1. Take stat points away from the player. This is the most common of the techniques and is probably the best one of them all. Example: "You fall down and hurt yourself. Lose 5 points of stamina". When you apply this mechanic, the reader wouldn't be able to successfully finish the adventure only if he's made too many mistakes. However, there are certain situations when such approach wouldn't make any sense. For an example: "The tree you are sitting under gets hit by a lightning. Your stamina goes down by 5 points". See, in the major event of being hit by a lightning, the only possible outcome is instant death and that brings us to the second approach.<br />
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2. Give the reader a way out of his certain death. Create tension by telling the player to roll a die and inform him that, if he rolls 1-3 a lightning hits the tree he is sitting under, but if he rolls 4-6 the lightning hits somewhere else (or you can ask him to test his luck in a fighting fantasy game). The stress of the possibility of killing instantly the protagonist communicates a strong message about being wrong and is a punishment enough by itself. You can even allow the player to re-roll the dice under certain conditions. For an example, you can have a stat, lets call it "blessings"! You can increase your blessings based on good performance during the adventure (if you help a monk find something he is looking for, he will most likely bless you for your good deed). If you get a bad dice roll later in the book, you can re-roll the dice at the expense of you "blessings" stat. All of a sudden, the chance of being killed instantly goes from 50% down to 25%, but it is at the expense of stat points that could be extremely important at the end of the adventure.<br />
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3. Losing an item or a good friend. A great example of losing a friend is "The Last Fortress" by Ashton Saylor where your personal guard saves your life at the expense of his own (only once in the adventure). A good example of losing an item is the "Sharkbait's Revenge" by Stuart Lloyd where you lose the "letter from the queen" if you jump in the water, because the ink just washes away.<br />
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That's all for today, folks! And remember: Don't ever kill your players instantly without giving them at least a small chance to redeem themselves from bad performance!<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-89299837723773481952016-04-15T12:52:00.000-05:002020-03-27T10:29:23.658-05:00Gamebook Theory: Logical Conclusion Choices and applying the "Fog of War"We already explained the basics of a <b>Logical Conclusion Choice</b>. For the purpose of learning how to efficiently apply the 'fog of war' principle, we should use the same example from the previous post to demonstrate how to hide the possible consequences of a choice, so it is not obvious what the outcome would be. After all, if there is no way to find hints in the text to help you correctly guess what could possibly happen, the choice will be random (trial and error choice) rather than logical.<br />
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The following example is a courtesy of the fantasy style epic hero gamebook
"The Master of Darkness" published in Bulgaria by George M George (a
nickname of George Mindizov). Here it is: So, our medieval hero is in the middle of a wide open field. To the east, he can see a big cliff with visible caves carved in it. He takes a quick look to the west and he can see a thunderstorm front coming in. A few feet away from our hero, a lonely tree stands tall with it's big branches forming a nice solid crown of green leaves. Do you want to hide under the tree to keep dry until the storm has passed? Alternatively, you could run for the cliff and take cover in one of the caves there, but you can't reach them before the storm hits.<br />
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What all that text distills down to is the sentence "there is a thunderstorm coming through and a tree is going to be hit by a lightning", but you can't write that, because it is going to be obvious that hiding under the tree is the wrong choice. Instead, the author took the real danger (the lightning) out of the text and he provided the reader the exact conditions under which a lightning occurs. Lets look at this process of <b>applying hints</b> step by step here:<br />
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<b>1. Decide what the danger is going to be: </b>a lightning<b><br /></b><br />
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<b>2. Take the exact wording of the danger out of the text:</b> don't mention a lightning in the text<b><br /></b><br />
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<b>3. Provide a few clues that are well known to be associated with this specific danger: </b>wide open field, thunderstorm, the tree is the only tall object around<b><br /></b><br />
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Again, this is the most simple form of the Logical Conclusion Choice and the principle of 'fog of war' as the clues are presented in the same section as the choice and the outcome is simply either good or bad. I do not recommend using such simplified kind of choices in your adventure, so lets make it a little bit more complicated applying some historical clues to the already existing instant hints.<br />
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We can make the choice more difficult if we move the hints to one of the previous sections. May be you will notice dark thunder clouds moving very quickly from the west shortly after you left the village. In this case, there will be no mentioning of a storm front moving in at the very section when you feel pretty tired and have to choose between resting under the nearby tree or continuing to the tall rocky cliff in the distance. To make the right choice even more difficult for the reader, we can warn him that due to his exhaustion, it will actually cost him 10 points of health if he doesn't rest under the tree. Of course, it is better to partially lose health than to suffer an instant death. However, the choice now is even more interesting, because it is not a simple good or bad outcome, but is rather about choosing the lesser of two evils. Please note that we are now at the very fine line of almost tricking the reader into making the wrong decision, so if we make the choice any more difficult by applying even more 'fog of war', we will be crossing that line, which an author should never, ever, ever do. All that being said, step number four, five and six in the above process are:<b> </b><br />
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<b>4. Move some of the clues to previous sections of the gamebook adventure: </b>inform the reader of the conditions in a conversation with another character or while he is at a different location<b><br /></b><br />
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<b>5. Partially reveal what would happen if a certain choice is selected, but present only half of the outcome: </b>tell the player that he is going to lose 10 points health if he doesn't rest (tricking him to make the wrong choice, so be careful with this one!)<b><br /></b><br />
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<b>6. Make the choice even more difficult by forcing the reader to choose between two bad outcomes: </b>losing 10 points of health or getting hit by a lightning (the choice is obvious if he deciphered all the clues)<b> </b><br />
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This is now a difficult enough choice for any gamebook. It is actually a little bit too complicated to be put in the very beginning of the adventure as the difficulty should grow from low to high as the reader makes his progress through the game.<br />
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We can once again adjust the difficulty level of this choice to make it a little bit easier by providing another clue in an earlier section. Lets just say that an elderly villager told you earlier about a legend of a hidden artifact in a cave somewhere in this land. If the reader remembers that, he should have another reason to choose going to the caves instead of resting under the tree, making the correct choice a little bit more obvious than before.<br />
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<b>7. Apply a clue related to the choice with the positive outcome if you wish to make the decision easier for the reader:</b> an artifact is hidden somewhere in the caves<b><br /></b><br />
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<b> </b>Mix and match positive and negative clues as much as needed to adjust the difficulty of this particular decision, but make sure that there are enough clues to support the better choice, so the outcome is the result of a <b>logical conclusion instead of pure luck</b>.<br />
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Of course, you can apply the 'fog of war' not only to dangers, but also to positive consequences. As a matter of fact, try to provide more of <b>choose the greater good</b> and <b>choose the lesser evil</b> encounters in your adventure, so <b>the better choice is never too obvious</b>!<br />
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At the end of this post, lets take a look at the different kinds of hints available to the authors:<br />
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Each hint is either <b>instant or historical: </b>An instant hint is a clue that is present at the very section of the choice it is related to, while a historical hint we call a clue that was given to the reader earlier in the adventure, but is related to a later choice he will eventually have to make.<br />
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Also, each hint is either a <b>storyline hint or a general knowledge hint:</b> A storyline hint is a fact that is revealed to the reader in the course of the adventure such as the information that there is a hidden artifact in the mountains while a general knowledge hint is constructed by conditions that suggest the occurrence of a well known event from the general knowledge of the average person such as the fact that during a thunderstorm, a lightning occurs and it hits the tallest object in the nearby vicinity.<br />
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There is also the separation of clues to <b>real and false hints:</b> Revealing possible consequences doesn't necessarily mean that they will happen for sure. Sometimes the application of a false clue is required to make the choice more difficult or to guide the decision of the reader in the opposite direction. However, it is <b>unacceptable to cheat the player</b> in the wrong direction by applying too many false clues. They should only be used to make the choice more difficult or simply not as obvious.<br />
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The more you mix and match hints of different kind along with clues about positive or negative consequences, the more interesting and involving the choice becomes. Don't forget that the forcing the player to choose the greater good or alternatively the lesser evil outcome, always makes the dilemma more difficult. It would be even better idea to include some moral or emotional consequences along with all the hints provided to the reader (see the post on <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2015/11/interactivity-in-narrative-pt-2.html" target="_blank">Difficult Choice</a> by Ashton Saylor). But whatever you do, don't ever make the reader feel that a negative outcome is the unjustified result of pure chance rather than good performance based on strong logical conclusions!<br />
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Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-69297874126755469292016-04-13T09:41:00.003-05:002020-03-27T10:27:32.994-05:00Gamebook Theory: The importance of Meaningful Choices and how to create themIn the last post, we covered the basic structure of a game: input - test of performance - feedback.<br />
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Choices are the only possible active gamebook mechanic. The other ones, such as flipping pages to find the next section, throwing dice to add some randomization, or adding numbers for a skillcheck, are technically a passive form of input, because they don't allow the gamer to actively influence the outcome of the adventure.<br />
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The choices, being the only active input mechanic, become the most important thing in a gamebook adventure. You can have a great story to tell, but without the proper choices presented to the player in a meaningful form that influences the outcome one way or another, your adventure is not a game, it is just a story. Of course, the exact opposite, bunch of choices without any story, is just as bad as narrative is a great way to provide feedback for rewarding or punishing the reader (we already covered that topic in the previous post).<br />
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It is easy to provide many choices to the reader. I remember reading an article that was mentioning the urge to give the player too many choices as one of the major problems of new writers. I've always had the opposite problem: It's always been difficult to me to put enough choices in each section of the game, because I want every single one of them to have a meaning and consequences that affect the adventure in some way.<br />
<br />
See, having a choice that is changing the immediate narrative path for the reader without having any consequences down the road, is not necessarily a gamebook mechanic. What I am trying to say is that a gamebook that has no good or bad choices is no longer a game, because it simply becomes an interactive novel. In order to have a game, we must have a final goal that the player is trying to achieve through overcoming bunch of other obstacles. If there is no way to fail, there is no game in the story.<br />
<br />
Speaking of good and bad choices, we must stress out that the outcome, positive or negative, should be the result of strong logic, calculated risk, educated decisions and the reader has to be given enough information to draw that logical conclusion on his own. <b>This is the tricky part. </b>Providing too much information to the gamer makes the choice too obvious (cake or death choice), but not presenting enough information forces the outcome to be a matter of luck, not a logical consequence of good or bad performance (which door choice) and therefore making this piece a story with multiple alternative endings, not a game.<br />
<br />
This is where the "<a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2015/11/interactivity-in-narrative-pt-2.html" target="_blank">fog of war</a>" (<a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">terminology by Ashton Saylor</a>) comes in place. The writer must hide the possible consequences, but should also leave enough clues in the narrative, so the reader can guess the outcome if he was paying close attention and was drawing the correct conclusions.<br />
<br />
My favorite <b>example of a Logical Conclusion Choice</b> is one, which I
found more than 20 years ago in the fantasy style epic hero gamebook
"The Master of Darkness" published in Bulgaria by George M George (a
nickname of George Mindizov). I was playing a
fantasy style hero and while on the correct path to accomplish my quest, I
was put in the middle of a wide open field during a thunderstorm. I believe
that there were two options available: 1. Hide from the rain under a tree or 2. Run for
the tall cliff with visible caves in the distance. My thinking was that I didn't want
to get soaking wet while fleeing to the caves and I decided to go under the tree. Needless to say, I
learned a very valuable lesson: lightnings hit the tallest object
around and unfortunate for my protagonist, that was the tree I was
hiding under at that moment. I was upset about that instant death, but I also felt that it was fair and justified. The "fog of war"
hint was in the word "thunder" before the word "storm". The immediate danger of a lightning was not even mentioned, but it was completely logical under the circumstances of the situation.<br />
<br />
Now, keep in mind that this is a very simple example of a "logical conclusion choice" and I believe that presented just like that, it no longer has a place in the modern gamebook adventures because the outcome is one of two extremes: life or death. Please remember that an instant death is the worst thing you can do to the reader and should almost never happen. Instead, you can punish him in a different way such as losing health points, losing an item and so on. Death in a gamebook must be the result of multiple gravely mistakes (when your health runs down to zero) or the outcome of the last battle skillcheck in the adventure. If you ever decide to break this rule, please have the instant death in the very beginning of the story before the reader has invested much time and effort, so starting over wouldn't hurt as much.<br />
<br />
However, regardless of being a bad example of a choice in a gamebook adventure, this is the perfect example for the purpose of explaining the basic principles of the "fog of war" technique, but more on that I will discuss in my next post.<br />
<br />
Before I close for today, I have to mention that while the "Logical Conclusion Choice" is arguably the best one of all narrative choices, it is not the only one and it should be used in combination with the rest. Also, when implementing this kind of choice in an adventure, it is a good idea to inform the player if he's made the right choice or not. That could be done by writing a short explanation of the author's reasoning for the punishment or the reward in the beginning of the next section.<br />
<br />
If you remember anything from this post, that is the rule that a writer should never take away from the player the satisfaction of the feeling that his achievements are a direct result of his good performance!<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
<br />
<br />Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-25497728157194510542015-11-08T21:35:00.002-06:002019-08-05T11:02:23.794-05:00Gamebook Theory: mechanics of GAMEbooks (input - test of performance - feedback)Attention: a newer revised and better version of this post is available on <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2017/05/gamebook-theory-mechanics-of-gamebooks.html">LloydOfGamebooks.com</a><br />
<br />
As I mentioned in my previous post, some people believe that there is something wrong with the genre of gamebooks and they think that it is impossible to write a good one due to the lack of game mechanics to be used. I admit that there is some truth to the limitations, but the article <a href="http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-a-game-mechanic/" target="_blank">narrative is not a game mechanic</a> is entirely wrong and in this post I will explain exactly why that is.<br />
<br />
Before we start talking about Gamebook Mechanics, we should first recognize the very basic elements of any game. In theory, a video game (or any other game) consists of two major events: input and feedback. In simple words, the player takes any action such as move the mouse, click a button, move the pawn in a board game, etc and we call that input. For every input, there should be positive or negative feedback such as moving the character on the screen, hearing a sound or something else that provides the player a clue if he or she is doing well or not.<br />
<br />
Here is the basic structure of any game: input - test of the input (performance test) - feedback<br />
<br />
I already said that one of the most disturbing articles I've seen so far is the one named <a href="http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-a-game-mechanic/" target="_blank">narrative is not a game mechanic</a> by Raph Koster and based on his theory many people consider that <a href="http://blog.mysteriouspath.com/2013/03/the-problem-with-gamebooks-trilogy-part.html" target="_blank">games and story don't mix</a> coming to the wrong conclusion that it is impossible to write a book which is also a good game.<br />
<br />
Just take another look at the basic elements of any game! Narrative is a form of feedback, isn't it? I think that, not only <b>narrative IS a game mechanic</b>, it actually is <b>the best form of feedback</b>. Raph Koster argues that "games can and do exist without narrative". He is absolutely right, they do, but... Remember the old arcade games where the game at each level is the same as the level before and the only difference is the increased difficulty due to the faster speed of the game? Sure, that does make it more challenging, but how much closer to the final goal does it make you feel? You don't have any idea how far from winning the game you are, because you have no definitive final destination set. Kill as many enemies as possible and move on to the next level! That could be fun for a short period of time, but how much feeling of achievement do you have when you die at level 10 and you have no idea what the total number of levels is? Isn't it so much better to have the narrative feedback of "<i>you just left the village and now you are in the forest. You are now one step closer to the mountains and therefore one step closer to finding and killing the evil wizard, who lives up there... Now you have overcome the wizard and you are victorious! The land is free of evil and everybody will live happily ever after</i>"? Sure, a good narrative limits the replayability of the game, because you know exactly what is going to happen next time, but how many times do you want to replay the same scenario in the countless levels of a jump and run or a shooting game that doesn't have any narrative? The answer lies in the fact that we, as humans, like diversity and the feeling of accomplishment. It is hardwired in our brains by nature through the process of evolution (you can read more about that in my earlier post: <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/10/psychology-of-games-and-why-they-are.html" target="_blank">psychology of games</a>). Just ask your mother or wife to cook your favorite meal every single day forever! Eat it morning, lunch and dinner. How long do you think you can eat the same meal, even if it is your favorite one? We like diversity and we like having a final goal to reach, and the answer to that in the art of making games lies in providing the player with a diverse storyline and a clearly defined ultimate goal.<br />
<br />
So, we have now covered the feedback mechanic in games and explained why the narrative of a gamebook is the best possible solution for providing feedback. Let's now talk about input in video games and the input mechanics of gamebooks!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qJvKuX8YDwtIZ9xMjO05zwCg4PlbIgrsdEZTWlt9NDGJ2mEjnIu7rkV_9_qpOjhRHzCBQScCC6pahnD6HiqnBOs9hZBskUqhF_dD5kKcZaKWsuhvg5w146F_opmw9VBN7LKmtmJImrVM/s1600/SuperMario-jump-and-run.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qJvKuX8YDwtIZ9xMjO05zwCg4PlbIgrsdEZTWlt9NDGJ2mEjnIu7rkV_9_qpOjhRHzCBQScCC6pahnD6HiqnBOs9hZBskUqhF_dD5kKcZaKWsuhvg5w146F_opmw9VBN7LKmtmJImrVM/s200/SuperMario-jump-and-run.jpg" width="200" /></a>For the purpose of this post, we will take an example of a jump and run video game and compare it to a similar situation in a gamebook. Imagine that the obstacle you have to overcome is a deep chasm. Negative feedback in both, videogame and gamebook, would be: the character falls into the chasm and dies. Positive feedback would be: the character makes it safely to the other side and the adventure continues. You can provide this feedback through video or through narrative, it doesn't make a difference for the outcome.<br />
<br />
<b>Leaping a chasm in a Video Game</b><br />
<br />
In order for the game to decide which one of the two possible outcomes to provide on the screen, it has to test the input of the player. An artificial intelligence test of the input in a video game would look something like this:<br />
<br />
1. if the jump button is hit too soon, Super Mario is going to jump, but will fall into the chasm before he reaches the other side;<br />
<br />
2. if the jump button was hit too late (after he walked off the edge), Super Mario is going to fall down into the chasm, because he didn't jump;<br />
<br />
3. if a wrong button was hit (such as the run button instead of the jump button), Super Mario is not going to jump at all and he will fall in the chasm.<br />
<br />
4. ideally, Super Mario is going to jump and make it to the other side if the jump button was hit somewhere between too soon and too late.<br />
<br />
<b>Leaping a chasm in a Gamebook Adventure</b><br />
<br />
Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of testing coordination (which button was hit) and speed (when was the button hit) in a Gamebook Adventure, so we replace testing those skills with the only other available option. No, we are not going to ask the player if he would like to jump!
Obviously, the character needs to jump, otherwise falling down to its
death is inevitable. Instead of asking a stupid question, we are going to test the stats of the player. Example1: roll 2 dice and add the value of your strength. If the number is equal or greater than 10 then you succeed and you continue on your adventure. If the number is lower than 10, you fall down in the chasm and die.<br />
<br />
This is where a lot of people get upset. Rolling the dice is not a fair gameplay mechanic, because the outcome seems to be a matter of luck rather than a consequence based on the skills and knowledge of the player. That would be true only if the author has done a bad job writing the game part of the book and he or she didn't give the gamer a chance to build up the strength value of the character earlier in the adventure. See, the input in this example shouldn't be the randomness of the dice roll. The input is the value of the strength skill that should have been increased earlier in the book by making a meaningful choice. Maybe there was an option to purchase a headband of strength earlier in the game or there was a section where you had to choose between eating a good meal or picking up a fight in the tavern where the outcome turns out to be increased strength stat from eating the meal or loss of strength points due to injuries suffered in the fight.<br />
<br />
See, the <b>input in Gamebooks happens in the form of choices and decisions</b>. It is up to the author to make sure those choices and decisions are meaningful and that they are based on strong logic rather than random guessing due to lack of meaningful information.<br />
<br />
There are two forms of feedback in Gamebooks: instant and delayed. In the example above, leaping over the chasm is a form of <b>delayed feedback</b>. A form of <b>instant feedback</b> is the instructions to increase your strength by 2 points after making the choice to eat the meal instead of picking a fight at the tavern.<br />
<br />
As I already pointed out in my previous post, I am not claiming that
Gamebooks represent the best of all game genres nor I am claiming that
they are any better than video games. All I am saying is that due to
the lack of other game mechanics, Gamebook Adventures provide the most
diverse storyline and force the player to make the most meaningful
choices, because they provoke critical thinking through forcing the
gamer to assess the situation he or she was put in and then select the
most rational action for the best possible outcome of the storyline and
for the eventual success of the game character. I just wish that more of
this kind of game mechanics, providing a lot of learning and personal
improvement value to the player, would be implemented in video games. Just imagine how much more interesting and
exciting an adventure like Diablo 2 would be, if it was putting the
gamer in a situations that require certain meaningful and important choices altering the outcome of the story one way or another.<br />
<br />
In the next post I will talk about the most important Gamebook Mechanic: Meaningful Choices.<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-54838621344638548322015-11-02T13:12:00.000-06:002019-08-05T11:02:12.091-05:00The great potential of Gamebook Adventures and what is wrong with themLet me make it clear, I am not claiming that Gamebook Adventures is the best genre of them all nor I am saying that it has the greatest potential. I am simply stating that I have found Gamebooks to be teaching the most meaningful lessons of all the games I've played so far. This genre, probably for the lack of other game mechanics, puts the character in many different situations and the player is given a limited amount of possible actions to choose from. Making such a choice must be based on critical thinking, educated guessing and calculating the risk of possible negative or positive consequences for the character on the way to achieving the final goal of the adventure.<br />
<br />
Meaningful choices haven't always been part of the Gamebook Adventures. Just take the arcade approach of the first <a href="http://www.fightingfantasy.com/" target="_blank">Fighting Fantasy</a> books for example! They are filled with "Which Door", "Cake or Death" and "Shell Game" choices (more on this terminology can be found in the blog about <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/02/what-makes-good-gamebook-part-two-game.html" target="_blank">Gamebook Theory by Ashton Saylor</a>) and the only way to get to a good ending in those books was to explore the adventure land, filled with countless instant death chapters and way too many battles (too much of the adventure outcome was left to pure chance), through trial and error until the ultimate path was eventually discovered.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjeyymrxE81pn6ieB8L0Be_05alS1lNw68bB805jXT_97qv4cFG-87w79OD1WQOnEt3iptL93lCnW8vbsZek3tHN63XFkcuk13NLAGT3Qr56PUCvEq5-HyUinbw3p9ezL4-I0ufzy39yTh/s1600/TheWarlock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The very first Fighting Fantasy Gamebook: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjeyymrxE81pn6ieB8L0Be_05alS1lNw68bB805jXT_97qv4cFG-87w79OD1WQOnEt3iptL93lCnW8vbsZek3tHN63XFkcuk13NLAGT3Qr56PUCvEq5-HyUinbw3p9ezL4-I0ufzy39yTh/s200/TheWarlock.jpg" title="The very first Fighting Fantasy Gamebook: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" width="127" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fighting Fantasy Book 1</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Please, don't get me wrong! I have a lot of respect for the pioneers in the genre, the legendary writers Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. They laid down the basic foundation of something that captured the hearts of millions around the globe and has been keeping the love for adventure alive in many generations now. All I am saying is that gamebooks have come a very long way since the dawn of the genre back in 1982 when "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" was released in Great Britain. I believe that the ultimate example of how much gamebooks have improved since then, is the great work of <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/" target="_blank">Stuart Lloyd</a> presented at the <a href="http://www.arborell.com/windhammer_prize.html" target="_blank">Windhammer Competition</a> for Short Gamebook Fiction that is ultimately leading to his mobile platform game <a href="http://gamebookadventures.com/gamebooks/gamebook-adventures/asuria-awakens/" target="_blank">Asuria Awakens</a> developed by the computer and marketing geniuses Neil Rennison and Ben Britten at Tin Man Games, for <a href="http://gamebookadventures.com/">GamebookAdventures.com</a> (not to be confused with my current project Visual Gamebook Adventures).<br />
<br />
So, what is wrong with Gamebooks? While I was doing my research on the genre, I ran across quite a few posts that discussed the problems with Gamebooks and how we could fix them. Some were even saying that they can't be fixed and we should leave them in the past. Especially disturbing is the theory that <a href="http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-a-game-mechanic/" target="_blank">narrative is not a game mechanic</a> and therefore it's impossible to create a book that is also a game. Not only narrative IS a game mechanic, it actually is<b> the best possible form of feedback</b>! (see my next post)<br />
<br />
This is what I have to say about it: There is absolutely nothing wrong with Gamebooks and they don't need fixing. The problem lies in the countless amateurs, who want to write a game, without willing to put enough effort into research and without willing to invest time in learning the techniques of a good adventure. That is exactly what happened in Eastern Europe in the late 90s when the whole genre there was brought to a halt, simply because there was too much junk on the market. The situation is the same with the mobile platform games of all genres right now. There is way too many mobile games available and most of them are just plain horrible, so the consumers often get lost in the huge variety and they become disappointed with the questionable quality. The bottom line is that the market suffers, because people quickly lose interest after a few failed attempts to find something worth their time, but instead they discover nothing else besides pure frustration.<br />
<br />
There is another aspect of video games which I dislike very much nowadays. The "free to play" games with in-app purchases are the worst thing that has ever happened to the gamer, because winning the game is now based on the amount of money you spend rather than on the skills and qualities you learn and apply. These games are despicable money generating machines that focus on the economic aspect instead of rewarding the gamer for good performance. Put in other words, they could be "free to play", but they are definitely not "free to win" and I am very glad that this system can't be implemented in the genre of Gamebook Adventures.<br />
<br />
To summarize this post, I am going to say that narrative and gameplay mix just fine, given that we have the right author to mix them correctly. Just take a good look at the amazing adventures written by <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/p/gamebooks.html" target="_blank">Ashton Saylor</a> and <a href="http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/p/my-bibliography.html" target="_blank">Stuart Lloyd</a> and you'll see exactly what I mean. Both of them have excellent blogs on Gamebook Theory that I would strongly encourage you to read if you are planning on writing a short adventure or even a long gamebook. Their thoughts about how to start writing an adventure, how to approach the design process and <a href="http://www.ashtonsaylor.com/2012/09/failure-and-death-in-gamebooks.html" target="_blank">what NOT to do</a> to the player (such as instant death and many other bad things) are priceless, but for some reason they don't talk in detail about the mechanics of a good Gamebook Adventure. That is the exact subject of my future posts as I will be trying to build on the foundation Ashton and Stuart have already laid down for us.<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-13226186108091876832015-10-31T19:20:00.000-05:002019-08-05T10:59:37.216-05:00A deeper look into the benefits of playing games by genreNo, I am definitely not going to talk about how the violence shown in computer games is bad. I grew up shooting and slicing creatures, animals and people in most of the games I played, but I didn't grow up a felon. Playing such games was just a way to vent out and entertain myself. Teachers or games can teach kids many things, but the core values must be thought at home, so let's stop blaming the School System, the Hollywood Movies or the Computer Games Industry for the everyday failure of parenting and for the lack of grown up attention that our modern world children are suffering from!<br />
<br />
There is much difference between game genres and their real life value for the player. Let's first take a look at the one that I believe has the lowest potential of teaching important skills: Arcade Games<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUUQOJHEEXUX0VfXFAEOehlb5DiEfYzZ66aN7HVTd8zdLsKGX0hVL6AmW2kl5FDNpe8MW-5Sv0FukbwukLO7Yxq4KF4hjyEbo7Nbje6ffqp7ITJ8LimCmYmrh20QMq7r_ZCivxl1DFZ2RC/s1600/super-mario-jump-and-run.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Super Mario: the ultimate jump and run video game" border="0" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUUQOJHEEXUX0VfXFAEOehlb5DiEfYzZ66aN7HVTd8zdLsKGX0hVL6AmW2kl5FDNpe8MW-5Sv0FukbwukLO7Yxq4KF4hjyEbo7Nbje6ffqp7ITJ8LimCmYmrh20QMq7r_ZCivxl1DFZ2RC/s200/super-mario-jump-and-run.jpg" title="Super Mario" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super Mario: the ultimate jump and run game</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I
have to admit that I am not a big fan of arcade games. Initially, they
were built to take as many coins as possible from the person playing and
they achieve that by constantly putting the main character in countless
unexpected death situations. To be able to reach the end of an arcade
game, the player must learn, through infinite trial and error sequences,
when and where all the enemies will be showing up from as well as the
timing and location of all obstacles. There isn't much value in those
games besides the provided visual and hearing experience that helps the
players by taking their mind away from everyday problems for the
duration of the game (in many cases that is until the player gets more
frustrated with the game than he is with life). However, the arcade
games still have value as they teach the following important lesson: learning from your previous
mistakes in the process of trial and error, you can achieve more,
advance further and eventually reach your final goal. That is a very valuable lesson for the kids to learn through playing those jump and
run arcade games or seek and hide shooters. However, I see a big problem with the unlimited save and load options, because real life is not like that as we can't go back and fix things every single time we make a mistake. I am not saying that save and load should be removed completely, all I am trying to say is that they should be limited to specific locations in the game and loss of life or failure shouldn't be happening as often.<br />
<br />
My personal opinion is that there is much more real world value in the Role Playing Games genre. Here we will use the example of the best one of them all during my prime as a gamer: <a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/d2/" target="_blank">Diablo 2</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbAEMqKmmfXTONOOKHFVG-i2116oT6scjs-AOiCGTaUNUvjcfbOqUMooMBgUhBlxXm_sLvbP5ycVQlzIWzpwgrygXUZeQ3KKpJc29htQP62yz0gMeCaFxjQNFJnyDaMxH00Bro-4SDqRP/s1600/Diablo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbAEMqKmmfXTONOOKHFVG-i2116oT6scjs-AOiCGTaUNUvjcfbOqUMooMBgUhBlxXm_sLvbP5ycVQlzIWzpwgrygXUZeQ3KKpJc29htQP62yz0gMeCaFxjQNFJnyDaMxH00Bro-4SDqRP/s200/Diablo2.jpg" width="200" /></a>I very much
enjoyed clicking the mouse button countless times all over the screen to
defeat the next evil creature that crossed paths with me in Diablo 2.
However, using the mouse over your enemies, in that otherwise
excellent RPG, is a neat trick which gives the player just an illusion of
control. It doesn't matter how quickly you click the mouse button nor
how hard you click it. The hit points are calculated not on the player's
actions, but on the skills and equipment gathered previously in the
game. In addition to building confidence (like in the arcade games), the RPGs teach other very important character traits such as curiosity and patience, through making you seek, combine and carefully use items while carefully preparing for the next big encounter. The battles you pick and the enemies you choose to fight, teach another very important life lesson: taking calculated risks. However,
this genre still lacks presenting the player with any meaningful choices
that would affect the outcome of the adventure and would change the
narrative one way or another. In other words, this game is almost as
linear as the arcade jump and run games we discussed above.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLhmqYlmdcox4eNjLxmhuP1MnQ8GoJtsap-YpUrgzX71jYdP2EKg7YnWaQyHM4gblTv89sj7-EeQnhrwLQ5C6G-N1sHM9V-tNOkgUM3esdSN63noGy6NX5hDWqqt4li2RdfnlEcsl7ADw/s1600/Warlords2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLhmqYlmdcox4eNjLxmhuP1MnQ8GoJtsap-YpUrgzX71jYdP2EKg7YnWaQyHM4gblTv89sj7-EeQnhrwLQ5C6G-N1sHM9V-tNOkgUM3esdSN63noGy6NX5hDWqqt4li2RdfnlEcsl7ADw/s200/Warlords2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warlords II</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have to admit that my second favorite genre is Strategy (if you haven't guessed yet, my most favorite one is the Gamebook Adventures, but more on that in the next post).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJrbJX-yb2a1_Rq6OonoJV1_BriZd4tnczRk94at29JImHkwgMg6-v0qJjc-BgwkEPe5aHz9CyIIJB0Y5spVoaanLxyg7rJ3_6PfF7pS0Ncw1I4gY4jlS0M8zKXeMOQTP7ZaZEpLGNxNm/s1600/Warcraft2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJrbJX-yb2a1_Rq6OonoJV1_BriZd4tnczRk94at29JImHkwgMg6-v0qJjc-BgwkEPe5aHz9CyIIJB0Y5spVoaanLxyg7rJ3_6PfF7pS0Ncw1I4gY4jlS0M8zKXeMOQTP7ZaZEpLGNxNm/s200/Warcraft2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warcraft II</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJIaLtGp7OxmqBt6zOv1R_Mbpzu1U2X4n8NnMf9oLHLHSNhfEtXqLtL4nxxC9zaviFm5K0_tzvo6j5xL9bP4MnduC0QDmhcZRuY7QeWFeh2t3Oyz1dV2o7Z1Ehtckxfc0wwpNIca1opORV/s1600/Heroes-of-might-and-magic-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJIaLtGp7OxmqBt6zOv1R_Mbpzu1U2X4n8NnMf9oLHLHSNhfEtXqLtL4nxxC9zaviFm5K0_tzvo6j5xL9bP4MnduC0QDmhcZRuY7QeWFeh2t3Oyz1dV2o7Z1Ehtckxfc0wwpNIca1opORV/s200/Heroes-of-might-and-magic-5.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heroes of Might and Magic V</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Just for the record, there are two kinds of Strategy Games: Real Time Strategy and Turn Based Strategy. I like both of them equally well, because they all teach the player finding, collecting, preserving and well planned investing (using) of resources. There is no linearity in this genre at all as it gives complete freedom of exploring the world through providing unlimited combinations of possible decisions on how to collect and how to use resources, what kind of structures to build, what kind of army to use, when and where to attack the enemy for the most gain. To summarize, this genre teaches the player the same skills as the arcade and role playing games: confidence and taking calculated risks, but it also adds another extremely valuable lesson: management of resources. Just to name a few of my favorite titles here, I have to mention <a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/warlords-ii/3030-16271/" target="_blank">Warlords 2</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_II:_Tides_of_Darkness" target="_blank">Warcraft 2</a> and <a href="http://might-and-magic.ubi.com/universe/en-us/games/all-games/might-and-magic-heroes-5/index.aspx" target="_blank">Heroes of Might and Magic 5</a>. Needless to say, my love to Strategy games and the resource management experience I gained through them, proved very important later on, when I was running a successful business.<br />
<br />
Before I finish this post, I feel obligated to mention another genre with a lot of potential that combines everything we discussed above and it adds another layer of real life experience. I am talking about the Computer Simulations. Their potential is great, because these games are supposed to recreate real life situations, but only a very limited number of products in this genre have achieved that to it's fullest extent. My applause here goes to Simon Read and his franchise <a href="http://www.newstarsoccer.com/" target="_blank">New Star Soccer</a>. It added a whole new dimension by showing the importance of social relationships with the boss, colleagues, friends, parents, spouse and kids, for achieving success at the ultimate goal: becoming a soccer star.<br />
<br />
In conclusion, I would like to say that, by focusing on the visual and hearing satisfaction of the player, game developers have been failing to implement a very important element in their products: critical thinking. As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL9528Gohe0" target="_blank">Earl Nightingale pointed out in his recording "The Strangest Secret"</a>, when the late Nobel prize-winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked by a reporter, "Doctor, what is wrong with men today?" the answer given was "Men simply don't think". Well, my personal opinion is that humans don't think, just because they are not thought to do so. See, games
are failing not at the diversity of narrative (it is quite alright to
have a linear story), they are failing at presenting the player with meaningful choices that would eventually affect the outcome of the adventure. This is exactly where Gamebook Adventures have always been strong at and we will discuss that in my next post:<br />
<a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-great-potential-of-gamebook.html">The great potential of Gamebook Adventures and what is wrong with them</a><br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
<br />
<br />Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-19337476874775184422015-10-28T21:33:00.003-05:002019-08-05T10:59:25.156-05:00Psychology of Games and why they are very important for kids and for adultsRegardless of the general opinion that games are a waste of time, I will prove to you that they actually are very important for adults and they are even more important for character building in kids, because they teach skills that are extremely valuable for the future success in life.<br />
<br />
According to John Gray, author of the famous book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_33?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=men+are+from+mars+women+are+from+venus&sprefix=men+are+from+mars+women+are+from+venus%2Caps%2C1063&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Amen+are+from+mars+women+are+from+venus" target="_blank">Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus</a>", in order to relax from the stress experienced in real life, men often feel the need to disengage their mind from the problems of the day. In order to get unstuck from our own problems, we tend to focus on solving other little problems, like reading the news, watching sports,<b> playing a game</b>, and so forth. I would like to argue that games are the best form of distraction as they not only help us detach from everyday stress, but also make us feel good and more confident by helping us prove to ourselves that we can still overcome different obstacles and achieve many goals, regardless of how bad we could feel at any given moment. If we don't let games become an obsession, they not only entertain us, but they can help us relax and can also contribute to improving our self-image and self-esteem.<br />
<br />
Games are even more important for kids, but for completely different reasons. Childhood is the part of life during which we get prepared for our future as adults. Games let children do that through simulating situations where the trial and error exercises don't have the same impact as failure in real life. More importantly, achieving success in games builds confidence and motivation. Those two character traits make all the difference in the world for the success of the child later on, when it becomes a grown up. You can find more on the importance of motivation and confidence in the bestseller book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=see+you+at+the+top&sprefix=see+you+at+the%2Caps%2C512&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Asee+you+at+the+top" target="_blank">See you at the top</a>" by Zig Ziglar and in the award winning audio recording "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Strangest-Secret-Earl-Nightingale/dp/B009RAMN9A/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1446736217&sr=1-1&keywords=the+strangest+secret" target="_blank">The Strangest Secret</a>" by the very famous motivational speaker Earl Nightingale.<br />
<br />
Why do people love overcoming obstacles and setting goals? Why are those so important for our success in file? The study of Evolutionary Biology has found the answers to these questions too and we will now explore this subject in the next paragraph.<br />
<br />
By default, humans are some greedy creatures. We always want more than what we already have and we are never completely satisfied. After achieving one goal, we always set another, even more demanding than the one before. This may sound very offensive to many people, but in reality it is not all that bad, because greediness is the very reason for the evolution and advancement of the human species. We need motivation to reach new heights and that motivation is driven by our strive for always wanting more and more out of life. Once motivated enough, we set a new goal and we constantly fight for it through overcoming countless obstacles until it is eventually achieved. Sure enough, sometimes we tend to give up if we start thinking that our goal is impossible to reach. Also, some people tend to give up more often than others, because they think they have failed after just a few attempts. Others keep fighting and never stop until they succeed. Failure is not an option for them. For people like that we say that "everything they touch turns to gold", but that doesn't mean that everything comes naturally easy to them. All of us, without any exception, start out like that in the very beginning of our wondrous journey through the miracle of life. It is a fact that babies don't ever give up on learning how to walk even though they fail countless times before actually walking completely on their own. The situation is exactly the same regarding the process of learning to talk. If we didn't have that strive for achieving goals genetically programmed in our genes, we would have never been able to walk, talk or do anything else that makes us different from the animal kingdom.<br />
<br />
We just explained why, from evolutionary perspective, humans enjoy setting goals and overcoming obstacles. Using the system of trial and error, given the safe conditions of no effect in the real world, games are arguably the best way to teach children some significant personal qualities such as <b>patience, persistence, motivation, critical thinking, taking calculated risks, making important choices based on educated guessing, growing strive for exploring, discovering and learning</b>. All of the above result in building healthy self-esteem image and personal confidence. We already covered the importance of those character traits for the future life success in the text above.<br />
<br />
Of course, not all games teach the same lessons and some of the game genres have more real life value than others, so in my next post we will take a closer look at some of the genres and some of the games that I have experienced myself. I will try to break them down to their real world values and highlight the subtle messages they instill in the mind of the player while teaching important skills.<br />
<br />
Follow me to <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-deeper-look-into-benefits-of-playing.html">a deeper look into the benefits of playing diffenent game genres </a><br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
<br />
<br />Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-34429508491720311072015-10-23T15:59:00.001-05:002019-08-05T10:59:12.530-05:00How my Passion for Games became the reason for my Business SuccessToday I will tell you how my passion for games became the very reason for my personal and business success, but let me first share with you a little bit more about myself.<br />
<br />
I
was born in Communist Bulgaria in 1979 and grew up in the Post
Communist Economy of the Eastern Block. I moved to the United States
right after graduating college at age of 23 and I currently live in the
Greater Chicagoland Area. I consider myself a successful businessman as I
am the President and CEO of American Limo Naperville and I proudly hold the rank
of Road Captain of <a href="http://marineone.us/" target="_blank">Marine One Limousine</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/our_team.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a>.
You can find more information about my personal story and my business success here: <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/american_limo_naperville_concept.htm" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville Concept and History</a><br />
<br />
Before
you start thinking that I became a millionaire by starting a limousine
company and to avoid any further confusion, we need to define the word "success".
To the most part, the idea of success is very relative, because of the fact
that every person has a different value system and therefore very different
goals. This is why, I believe that <a href="http://www.earlnightingale.com/Books___Audio.html" target="_blank">Earl Nightingale</a>, the pioneer
motivational speaker and father of self-improvement recordings, found the
perfect definition of success when he stated that "success is a
progressive realization of a worthy ideal" or as he simplifies it
"success is the person who is working toward a predetermined goal". I am
a success not because I have a lot of money (I make enough to pay the
bills), but because I enjoy my work and I have dreams and goals and I
constantly work to achieve them through improving myself and my business.<br />
<br />
There
is a direct correlation between my success and the games I played as a
kid, especially the Gamebooks I was exposed to at that time, but more on
that in a moment. Let me start from the very beginning...<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBmrGS1kblIMrPviy9coFzschbBPcq2ok5WezLYzCtNc3tBtZK-nrFTrbykg-AbexdXaLnbbXDfHzFe-L6eRLOFXfr61mV3smy9rOe8cOYQ595rRGZTZ1UQ4GuZJzHHP2NRb-3DdmnSaE/s1600/Apple_Clone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pravetz 8M: the communist block Apple II clone" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBmrGS1kblIMrPviy9coFzschbBPcq2ok5WezLYzCtNc3tBtZK-nrFTrbykg-AbexdXaLnbbXDfHzFe-L6eRLOFXfr61mV3smy9rOe8cOYQ595rRGZTZ1UQ4GuZJzHHP2NRb-3DdmnSaE/s200/Apple_Clone.jpg" title="Pravetz 8M" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pravetz 8M: stolen technology from Apple II</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I
was first introduced to computer games at age 7, long before any of my
friends. There were no game consoles in communist Bulgaria at the time.
The only reason I had the chance to play a video game back then is that
my father was working as an engineer at a local factory and he had a
clone of Apple II in his office. Naturally, I got addicted to the computer games and I wanted to spend more and more time at my dad's office :-)<br />
<br />
Realizing that I was hooked up, my parents decided to put my computer addiction to good use and for my 9th birthday, they got me a book on game programming for kids. The book was an introduction to the Apple II Basic Programming language. I've always been a curious person ever since I was a little kid. My parents still remind me of a toy I had broken, just to find out how it was made and what forced the toy go back to its initial position every time I tilted it :-) Given my personality trait, I was naturally very excited that I can learn how the computer games worked and how they were made. However, my little 9 year old brain had a lot of trouble comprehending all the information in the book at that time and it wasn't until I tried studying it again at age 11, when everything cleared up and I was able to start thinking in source code language. I wanted to make computer games ever since.<br />
<br />
Being bored with the limited games available on the Apple II and the fact that, to the most part I didn't like their arcade jump and run mechanics, I rediscovered my passion when the XT Personal Computers came out in the early 90's. They were still unaffordable to the average citizen, but we were able to enjoy the new games at the Computer Clubs that some entrepreneurs opened in their garages. We had limited access to those computers as they were available for rent at a relatively expensive price per the hour. To entertain myself for free, I was writing my own little games on my Apple II, based on ideas that came from my favorite games at those Computer Clubs. I just have to mention a few big names here: Warlords 2, Dune 2, Warcraft 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 2, Lands of Lore and later on Diablo 2.<br />
<br />
As already explained in the text above, my knowledge in programming languages started with Basic for Apple II, but it eventually evolved to Turbo Pascal and then Delphi. I have built many little games throughout the years for my own satisfaction, but the problem of those computer languages was that at a certain point, they were no longer compatible with the lightning fast improving computers systems. I finally discovered <a href="http://www.blitzbasic.com/" target="_blank">Blitz Basic</a> in 2006 that was very close to the languages I had worked on before, and luckily enough it is still compatible with any Windows running machine.<br />
<br />
None of the games I had created, ever made it to being released, but the knowledge I had gained in game programming finally became useful when me and my father started American Limo Naperville. Having the computer skills necessary, I built every single aspect of the software system for my company, including the modules for reservations, dispatching, accounting, keeping track of the whereabouts of the drivers and informing the customers through text messages of their limousine status and estimated time of arrival. This innovative and very unique software puts us far ahead of any competition in our service area to this day.<br />
<br />
Here and now, I should probably take a moment to tell my mother that all
the time spent in front of the computer in my teenage years was not
wasted and it is finally paying off ;-)<br />
<br />
I know for a fact, my computer programming skills that started with my love for computer games, stand behind the success of the family owned business American Limo Naperville, because the software I developed to run the daily operations makes this company different than all others and puts us so far ahead of anybody else in this industry.<br />
<br />
That is not the only aspect of computer games that helped me become a success. Playing mostly Gamebooks, Strategies and RPGs, I had gained a lot of experience in critical thinking, I learned to understand collecting, preserving and investing resources for the best possible gain and last, but not the least, I fell in the habit of always making decisions based on calculated risk.<br />
<br />
I believe that I owe my personal and professional success to the
various games I played as a kid and to the lessons I learned from them, but more on that I will discuss in the next post: <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/10/psychology-of-games-and-why-they-are.html">The Psychology Aspect of Games and why they are important for kids and adults alike</a>.<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646045645858902063.post-91453126166336674972015-10-23T11:45:00.001-05:002019-08-05T10:59:03.178-05:00What is an Interactive Visual Gamebook Adventure?Hello, Friends!<br />
<br />
I guess that the first question that comes to mind is "Why VISUAL GAMEBOOK ADVENTURES?"<br />
<br />
First, we have to define the word <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebook" target="_blank">GAMEBOOK</a>.<br />
<br />
Simply put, a gamebook is a printed book in which the reader takes control over the main character by making choices that affect the storyline and therefore the final outcome of the adventure. You "play" a gamebook by trying to guess the correct actions for your character and make him/her follow the right path to the successful ending of the story.<br />
<br />
Assuming that most of the readers of this blog are already familiar with the Gamebooks genre, I am going to continue to the second important word in the slogan: VISUAL<br />
<br />
Second, we are going to explain why the word VISUAL exists in the above sentence.<br />
<br />
To do so, I need to share with you that as a teenager, I enjoyed the Gamebook Adventures very much. However, very often I found the sections of those books filled with too much text for my liking, forcing me to quick scan the text for the possible outcome and moving right to the decision making process. There is a very fine line between telling a good story and boring the reader out with too much text.<br />
<br />
I believe that the solution to the problem of balance between telling a good story and boring the reader out with too much text is to use visual stimulation. Sure enough, a single picture can't completely replace a good sentence that will let you dive deep into the story, just like a movie is often not as good as reading the book it is based on. That is why, the balance between text and picture is very important too and there is much more room for appeal to the average consumer here.<br />
<br />
Another reason for really going forward with this idea of mine is not only that I've been thinking about it longer than 20 years, but also the fact that Gamebooks fail to completely satisfy the human senses such as sight (visual) and hearing (audio) when Video Games are focusing exclusively on the senses and reflexes, failing entirely to give the player satisfaction of making choices that can affect the outcome of the story - positive or negative. I just can't believe that the video game developers have been failing in that aspect ever since the beginning of the computer game genre.<br />
<br />
I will review more on that and on the psychology aspect of playing games in my third post.<br />
<br />
The next one will be about <a href="http://visualgamebookadventures.blogspot.com/2015/10/how-my-passion-for-games-became-reason.html" target="_blank">How my Passion for Games became the reason for my Business Success</a>. <br />
<br />
That's it for today, folks. Thank you for reading!<br />
<br />
Peter Agapov<br />
Game Designer at <a href="http://augmentedrealityadventure.com/">AugmentedRealityAdventure.com</a><br />
President and Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://americanlimonaperville.com/" target="_blank">American Limo Naperville</a><br />
Former Road Captain of <a href="https://youtu.be/cAp8hXiGqPo" target="_blank">Marine One</a> at <a href="http://welcomeyouhome.org/media.html" target="_blank">Operation "Welcome You Home"</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Peter Agapovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09226190022546988691noreply@blogger.com0