Thanks for your questions. I updated the first post with a timeline in CDT and a note about the website.

One of the things people were talking about last time was that it'd be cool to have a bit more focus. One of those ideas was everyone prototyping different versions of the same thing. That way even if each team developed only one thing, comparing and contrasting could still be done.

So if that was the direction, what would that thing be?

I'm thinking not just an idea for a theme, but a theme with a certain direction.

The date has been set! OP updated.

[May 25th - 27th]

The second Meaningful Gameplay Game Jam will be happening May 25th - 27th.

For those who don't know what this is, it's a weekend-long game jam dedicated to creating and analyzing game/videogame elements that explore themes/emotions/ideas that are more deeply meaningful than those you usually find in videogames.

Like the last jam, finished games and their analyses will be posted at http://meaningfulgameplay.com

The jam will be held in Des Moines, IA, through the Iowa Game-Dev Friendship club, in Pittsburgh, PA, through Mindful XP at Carnegie Mellon. Remote participation is also welcome!

Timeline (all times in CDT)
Friday
6:30pm - Mingling, set up
7:30pm - Opening
8:30pm - JAM

Saturday
All day - JAM

Sunday
10am - Analysis & writing
2pm - Show & tell

For more information about the idea behind it, go here: http://www.godatplay.com/2011/07/a-meaningful-gameplay-game-jam/

Regarding 'creating and analyzing': Analyzing in this case involves (ideally) creating several versions of the element to aid in compare-and-contrast analysis. The analysis is then shared online at http://meaningfulgameplay.com so that other developers can learn from it.
Regarding 'elements': The intention is not to create a finished game, but to explore a mechanic, effect, environment, etc. through multiple versions of that element.
Regarding 'meaningful': Dictionary definitions define it as something that gives significance or purpose.

One thing I've been trying to do designing the systems in this experience is use the Ladder of Abstraction model. So I've tried as much as possible to allow for a completely deterministic system, including for animated content and conversations. I can jump to any point in time by pausing the simulation and changing the currentFrame.

What this allows me to do is change how the narrative elements are combined at some point in the simulation, and then jump right back to where I was immediately after changing. This makes changes much more immediate than having to play through the entire simulation again, which makes designing much more like sketching.

So far my solution with combining narrative elements uses the perlin-like simplex noise to choose from different possible states. I'm very new to this LoA approach, so I'm not sure exactly how it'll work yet, but here's my current direction:



The x axis is time, with the leftmost the current point. The y axis represents various narrative elements, and the 8 colors represent some state. As time passes, the states change thereby changing the mix of narrative elements. I haven't decided if each tick will be a different object and the colors represent some theme or emotional state, or if each color is an object itself. I'm not even sure what narrative elements to have.

In general, I find the idea of doing it this way far superior to simple randomization, because I have a lot of control with the input for generating noise.

But this is all very much an experiment, which means it might not even result in anything meaningful. The other thing is that I haven't even added conditionals yet, which would really throw a wrench into trying to visualize the system. I think adding conditionals (ex: some object appears after several others are all in the same state) is really where interesting things will happen.

I wish I was a better programmer, heh.

I don't like the idea of poetry, I like poetry itself. Poetry that creates itself, without anyone's involvement.

I just thought this quote captured part of the intention behind this project well.

And thanks for the compliments guys.

Thanks! There will be more stuff moving around, no worries.

That first scene is 100% 2D, it's just a texture. Sadly I don't have time to bake this next scene with a similar style, at least not for the first release.

Some pretties! This scene will not be shown from this angle, but it was nice so I figured I'd take a shot of the viewport.



Shadow volumes FTW

Maybe one way to describe how I'm trying to design it is like that of a jewel. A single experience will give you a few facets, but over several plays you get more.

But, like carving a jewel, there are facets that will be created that we did not intentionally create.

Written by Amy and Ryan Green


ME:
Do you remember when we used to walk to the bus together?

SISTER:
Yeah.

ME:
Some of those mornings it was so cold.

SISTER:
I remember the first day you held my hand, even though your friends were watching.

ME:
Well, you seemed nervous.

SISTER:
I was.

ME:
It’s weird how sometimes I remember little moments like that so clearly, they never felt special at the time, but now they’re crystal clear, and other more important moments are just gone.

SISTER:
Thanks.

ME:
For what?

SISTER:
For holding my hand like that. It was important.


SISTER:
I was trying to remember the other day what it was he always said.

ME:
He said a lot of things.

SISTER:
The thing he said about rain.

ME:
Oh umm...oh, I feel like it’s right on the tip of my tongue.

SISTER:
I know. It’s like, I remember the feel of it, but I can’t remember the words.

ME:
It will come to me, I know it’s not gone. Maybe if it starts raining.

SISTER:
Maybe.

ME:
When I remember it I’ll email you.

SISTER:
Thanks.

It is flawed, but I must move on, too much else to do...

Thank you guys, this means a lot. I'm working on a walk cycle now, and I believe at least one writer is busying writing.

A non-interactive, procedural painting. A narrative machine.

A woman, to some degree, continuously relives walks with her sister as various narrative elements come in and out.

Working on a "story machine"

I can totally relate to this.

Want to know something simple that helped me? I brought on someone to help out and he sat in the desk directly next to me. It made a huge difference, not only in feeling a level of accountability for getting work done, but also in feeling less of a burden for completing tasks.

and some older unity fuckery,

You posted this on thegamescollective or on notgames, right? I remember playing that...

I got most of the way porting the test.zip Main file to Unity and then started to go my own direction.

Pulse the spiral with the space bar and use -/+ to change the speed.  

http://www.godatplay.com/hypnotizer/
Stare at it for a while; the "blinking" starts in phase and goes more and more out of phase over the course of several minutes.

After 1 minute:


After 5 minutes:

damn, godatplay, that's beautiful!

Thanks man! Now imagine tying the control of the parameters for these visualizations and camera movement to movements and buttons on up to 7 Wii Remotes, and then controlling those to live music and customizing the colors and stuff in real-time through a VJ software-like interface, and you'll have an idea of Weiv, the project I've been working on for the last 2 years.

My strange attractors example is made up of 40,000 particles running in real-time using 2 built-in Unity particle systems. I have the ability to toggle 2D/3D, but to simplify here's just the 3D version of the code for the core calculation (C#):

Code:

for (int p = 0; p < particles.Length; p++)
{
for (int i = 0; i < attractors.Length; i++)
{
float sqrMag;

// used stored pos, way faster
distance3 = new Vector3(
attractorsPos[i].x - nextParticlesPos[p].x,
attractorsPos[i].y - nextParticlesPos[p].y,
attractorsPos[i].z - nextParticlesPos[p].z);

sqrMag = Vector3.SqrMagnitude(distance3);

// add dt'ed acceleration
particleVels3[p].x += (accelPower * distance3.x / sqrMag) * dt;
particleVels3[p].y += (accelPower * distance3.y / sqrMag) * dt;
particleVels3[p].z += (accelPower * distance3.z / sqrMag) * dt;
}


// add dt'ed velocity
nextParticlesPos[p] += particleVels3[p] * dt;

// dampen velocity
particleVels3[p] *= damp * dt;

// apply the calculated position
particles[p].position = nextParticlesPos[p];
}

Junge-style strange attractors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqlIWA7Myy0