Emergent gameplay paper

just stumbled on this Game Developers Conference presentation that discusses how to create emergent gameplay in a game. Written by some of the fellows who are working on Thief 3 and Deus Ex: Invisible War.

www.ionstorm.com/gdc2004/

(The Harvey and Randy Smith paper)

There is a power point viewer download at that site, if you don't have one.


[Edit]

Some thoughts on this paper. The basic presented idea is to link together little game mechanics, so the player can invent cool new strategies. I can see a few immediate examples from Iwar:

1. Cargo pods can be carried by player
2. Cargo pods can be undocked in mid flight
3. Objects in motion remain in motion....
4. Items can be destroyed by collision
5. Pods of antimatter explode.

None of these little rules explicitly creates a game of tossing antimatter pods at mega freighters, but together they make for a world of fun! If any of them were left out (say pods didn't coast) then you couldn't do it.

Another is hunting cargo ships by piling cargo pods in front of Lpoints. A strategy that comes from interactions the same simple rules above.

Another is sitting behind the lpoint and blasting the unshielded tails of ships as they fly in. They cannot see you right away, they have forward speed, they do not turn.

Using freighters as giant battering rams - via REM link, is another emergent gameplay idea.

Someone reported killing a cruiser by getting it to fire on a station (and letting the station take it out with reactive fire).

Any thoughts on other "mechanics" that would make interesting emergent game play in EoC?

Having those tanker ships explode? (using them to take out stations, or damage ships needing refule).

REM hacking cargo pods and stealing them as they emerge from the station? Driving cargo pods around?

Shooting ships causes them to signal for distress. Distress causes ship to leave station. Unguarded station is open to attack.


-Gtrout

where can i get a megatransporter?[?][?][?]

You can't. There are only 5 player ships. The largest is the corvette.

-Gtrout

Do you want 3 Gattling gun with ammo for a corvette?

I've always supported emergent gameplay (I just didn't know there was a word for it ). Open up the game rules and stick to simulation... then the player can use his/her personal experience and creativity to form methods and tactics which achieve the mission.

When heavily outnumbered by an enemy (read: getting my butt kicked), I often get real close to a neutral freighter. A bolt from my attackers almost always hits the freighter and it's escorts become my allies.

I always liked the idea of removing the engines of cargo pods and having the player have to chase them down (when ejected by the freighter) before they drop off the scan and are lost forever. Puts a limit on the player and moderates the amount of pods he can collect in a trip. Adds some urgency.

However, this would mess up the pods loading and unloading at stations, so I never went any further.

<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

removing the engines of cargo pods and having the player have to chase them down

One idea from the paper is to focus on building tight groups of interacting rules. Otherwise each rule is kind of special purpose built for one situation. With this "groups of rules" thought in mind:

The player could be given a grapple feature for catching drifting pods. By adding things into the game the player can use this feature on, aside from the intended cargo pods, the game gets much richer. The grapple feature could also grapple ships. Or asteroids. Or pieces of debris. Then it could be used for rescue of drifting life pods, disabled ships, asteroids heading for collision with the station. Or used to put asteroids on a collision course.

The ideas in the paper are interesting to think about. It is always a question of "Where do I invest the limited development time". And this offers some practical guidance.

-Gtrout