project story softskills for projectmanagers

8/10/2019 Project Story Softskills for Projectmanagers

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RESEARCH DRIVEN

SOFT SKILLS

TRAINING

PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

GRENDEL GAMES | JANJAAP SEVERS

+31 0 6 50 50 24 88 | [email protected]

MENGAGED | BERTRAND WEEGENAAR

+31 0 6 83 80 17 09 | [email protected]


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PROJECT STORY

GRENDEL GAMES

VERSION 1.1

20141117

RESEARCH DRIVEN SOFT SKILLS TRAINING


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GRENDEL GAMES | MENGAGED


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

INTRODUCTIONIn this document the process of researching and

building the pilot for the Soft Skills project is written.

This project was quite divers and this document will

try to guide you through different areas in a clear way.

It will start with the background of what the project

is and what the original goals are. It then gives an

overview of the Game Design.

The main body of the document is about the research

and production that has taken place and the lessons

learned from this process. The earlier paragraphs in

the process chapter will be mainly concerning the

research and the latter about production, but there is

not a strict division between them.

The references that are included here are from exter-

nal research where possible. When internal technical

documentation is referenced, this document will often

contain external research, or our own reasoning for

having made this choice. These technical documents

contain the details about the process. This document

tries to tie all the lessons together in a coherent

whole.

Opposite page: render of the control room


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LEADINGCOMPETITIVE

FOLLOWINGWITHDRAWN

OFFENSIVE HELPING

REBELLIOUS COOPERATIVE

DOMINANCE

AFFILIATIONHOSTILE

SUBMISSION


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

BACKGROUNDWe set out to make a project in which we can teach

people soft skills[1]like social graces, communication,

personal habits, emotions, feelings, relationships and

insight. To teach people these soft skills we wanted

to make a realistic virtual world, with realistic virtual

characters in it. In this world the player would be able

to interact with the other characters and train their soft

skills.

We defined our own goals for this project, based on

our expectations of the domain and our experience

with the target market. To make this project both

valuable to train the soft skills and appealing to the

audience we set out to create a very realistic world at

a very high quality.

The assumption was that to train people at soft skills

it is important to be able to read emotions from thefacial expressions and body movements of the virtual

characters. To get this close to reality, we decided

to use full body motion capturing and facial motion

capturing. With these technique it is possible to

closely record the movements and expressions of an

actor and translate them to a virtual character.

To engage the player we decided to create a fictional

setting in the near future on a space station. In this

setting it made sense that while the player is a novice

in management, he carries a lot of responsibility and

is without direct communication with more seasoned

managers. It also allowed us to integrate the feed-

back mechanism for the player into the game world.

This is explained by two sensors in the personnel on

board of the space station that measure hormones

related to interpersonal relations(oxytocin) en stress.

To get a model for the behaviour of the virtual charac-

ters we looked towards the Rose of Leary. This model

plots an expression on an agentic and communal axis

and predicts that this expression elicits a reaction at a

specific place in this model.

Opposite page: Rose of Leary


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ORIGINAL

GOALSThe original goal for this project was to create a game

to use as an environment for the training of soft skills

for project managers. Advanced facial animations will

be integrated in the 3D environment[2].

The goal of the game is for project managers to test

and improve their soft skills in a friendly and playful

manor. To this end they will be challenged to achieve

tasks that increase in complexity. These tasks are

aimed at improving soft skills that are hard to measure.

How would you measure if a manager supported

an employee correctly, when faced with a personal

drama? The development of these soft skills is based

on the correct use of hard project managers skills.

These are skills that are easier to teach and measure

and can lead to better mastery of soft skills, therefore

these hard skills will also be implemented in the game.

It should be possible to use the game as a preparation

for the certifying process for PMI and IPMA.


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

GAME DESIGNTo place this document in perspective an overview

of the Game Design will be given here[3].

The game takes place on one of the first space

stations. The space station is not fully operational

yet and only a small crew is present. As player you

take on the role Aaron Graham. Aaron is a project

manager trying to achieve good results aboard the

space station.

In the beginning of the game problems arise which

need to be solved. Aaron is responsible for making

sure these problems are fixed, but cant do it all

alone. He needs to make sure his team do the work

required. To achieve this he must not only order the

crew what to do, but also make sure his relationship

with them keeps being positive and that there are no

tensions in the team.

Aaron cant rely on help from Earth. Contact with

Earth is limited and can only be established at

certain times. These moments are used in the game

to give the player feedback on how they solved

problems. This takes the form of a report that is send

from Earth to Aaron. This includes mistakes that have

been made and pointers to keep in mind for future

interactions.

Direct feedback is very important for the learning

experience of the player. Thats why the game

includes a monitor for the stress and oxytocin of the

other characters. When the player talks to characters

he can monitor these values in the HUD. In the game

world it is explained that all personnel their vitals are

being monitored. When the player says something

which affects the interpersonal relationship the

oxytocin is altered. Stress is modified due to the way

the player motivates the character to act. This can be

viewed during each conversation, this way the player

can see the effect of his choice, but is only informed

about why this effect happened in the status report

from earth.

A large portion of the game is about conversations.

In a conversation the camera is focussed on the

character with which the player is talking. In a


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conversation the player can make conversation

choices. These choices affect how the game plays

out. These choices should be made based on the

required management skills. The player has access

to the personal files of the characters and can see

the behaviour of the characters. This behaviour can

be a change in posture, facial expressions, hand

gestures, tone of voice, or as simple as what is said.

Based on this information the player must make

his choice, for instance if he knows that a person is

submissive he should take charge, with a dominant

person the player should be more cooperative.

Difference between personality and behaviour could

mean there is something going on and he should

respond to that.

Except for the conversations, the gameplay is

divided in navigating the space station and solving

small puzzles in the form of mini-games. These mini-

games serve as a break from the serious gameplay.

These mini-games are integrated into the world. An

example of a mini-games could be draining water

from a cooling system by turning pipes in place.


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

PROJECT

MANAGEMENTDuring the project the team worked together withproject management specialists from the Project

Management Institute Chapter Netherlands. PMI

has a long tradition of certifying project managers

using the PMBOK, the Project Management Body of

Knowledge[4]. The main focus in the PMBOK is on hard

skills. Soft skills, according to the PMBOK, include

different skills generally defined as Communication,

Leadership etc.

Hard skills are easier to measure and are an easier

subject of examination. By applying gamification

techniques using a well defined set of characteristics

(see below) soft skills can also be validated.

The PMI also has a set of core principles which

applies to all activities of PMI certified Project and

Program Managers. They are: Responsibility, Respect,

Fairness and Honesty.

From the PMBOK the following elements are

translated to the script, the gameplay and the visual

presentation:

A way to self-reflect and learn administrative

lessons.

The possible use and accessibility of information

on your team members.

Delegate task to your team.

To add value to the Soft Skills game these principles

were translated in the feedback and scoring mech-

anism of the game. As a player responding to the

actions of your team by respectfully handling protests

in a given situation is rewarded. Using visual and

audio game elements, feedback can be asked and

givenduring the game to the player.


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PROCESS

BUSINESSCASEA group of MBA students, under the name TopGun,

from IBO did a five month research on the business

potential for the game under the title Starstuck (2012).

This produced a business and marketing plan. Italso uncovered a large potential market of project

managers and customers. In the Netherlands alone

there are 130.000 professional project managers,

certified experts and 450.000 employees fulfilling

project managers roles and responsibilities in a

project environment. The survey was conducted

by Managementbureau BoerCroon together with

managementboek.nl.

MODELFOR COMMUNICATIONResearch into the Rose of Leary showed that the Rose

of Leary has never been empirically proven. Especiallythe hypothesis that certain behaviour directly elicits

other behaviour on the Rose has never been shown.

Further research into similar models has lead to an

updated model that has been empirically proven[5].

In collaboration with several psychologist, most notably

Pamela Kato and Leonard Horowitz, the project

started using the Circumplex Model of Interpersonal

Interaction[5](based on the slightly older Circumplex

Model of Affect from Russels[6]).

The Circumplex Model of Interpersonal Interaction is

closely related to the Rose of Leary. It also has two


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

axes, one agentic and one communal. These axes

serve a slightly different purpose though. The agentic

axis describes a personality between unassured/

submissive to assured/dominant. The communal axis

describes a trait between cold/distant and warm/

agreeable.

The model places a personality in this circumplex.

For instance, a very warm agreeable person who is

quite shy would be placed high on the communal

axis, but low on the agentic axis. The model predicts

how this person would react to certain behaviour, that

he will react agreeable to behaviour that matches

the personality on the communal axis, but mirrors thevalues on the agentic axis.

This model allows us to create scenarios where

the player has to be aware of the situation and the

personality traits of another. For example, if a serious

personal problem arises, a high communal person is

more likely to appreciate a persons attention given

to the situation. While a person who is more distant

(low on the communal scale) might just want to be left

alone and focus on work.

By getting to know the characters in the game, from

background information and interactions in the game,

the player needs to choose how to react. This will

influence how the other characters will feel towards

the player. The closer the match to the desired

behaviour the more favourable the characters will feel

towards the player.

Due to the two axis system the player can make

choices to trade between a good relation and

45O EXTRAVERTED -

GREGARIOUS

315O AGREEABLE -

TRUSTING

INTROVERTED - 225O

INHIBITED

DISAGREEABLE - 135O

MISTRUSTING

COLD - 180O

UNFRIENDLY

0O WARM -

FRIENDLY

DOMINANT - ASSURED

90O

270O

SUBMISSIVE - UNASSURED

DOMINANCE

AFFILIATION

Above: Circumplex Model of Interpersonal Interaction


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motivating a character to act. For instance, the player

can react more warmly, to increase the interpersonal

relationship, but sacrificing the possibility that the

character will do something for the player. Conversely,

the player could also react more colder and sterner

so that the character will execute a task, but feel less

favourable towards the player.

In the game the player will be informed about the

immediate effect of his choices. This immediate

feedback mechanism is important to achieve efficient

learning. In the game world we have introduced a

system with which the player can read the stress and

oxytocin hormones of other characters. The stresshormones signal to which degree the character feels

the need to act, oxytocin is the measure for how

favourable the character feels towards the player.

READINGOF EMOTION

FROM FACIALEXPRESSIONSAt the start of this project it was assumed that high

quality realistic graphics were needed to convey to

the player the emotions on an virtual face. Research

was conducted to determine to which degree a

person can detect an emotion on a virtual face andwhich factors impact the distinctness and the natural-

ness of the expression[7].

The main results were that the use of animation greatly

increases the distinctness of the expression and

increases the recognition rates[8]. The use of textures

increases the overall recognition of the emotion[9].

Fear and surprise are hard to make distinct from each

other when using facial expressions only.

Several tested virtual heads (Talking Head, Baldi and

Miralab) showed that artificial facial expressions can

Above: Miralab, Untextured Talking Head,

Textured Talking Head


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

convey the six basic emotions almost as convincingly

as an actor. Also, increasing the abstraction level

does not decrease the distinction of the emotion

significantly, but impacts the naturalness.

This leads to the conclusion that humans can read

emotions from virtual faces even when they are not

realistic or when rendered at low quality.[8][9]

CHANNELSOF COMMUNICATION

The first iteration of the project focussed on one

main channel of non-verbal communication, the facial

expressions. From further research it was learned that

the facial expressions are not as important as initially

thought. Research tried to measure which of the three

main non-verbal channels are more important, gestures,

body language or facial expressions. The results of these

experiments were that they each contributed equally to

the communication.

Except for non-verbal channels there also some less

obvious verbal channels. The choice of words can add

more meaning to a sentence than what is actually said.

For instance the difference between: She bought a car

and She bought a car from Bert. The second sentence

implies that there is something noteworthy about the

person she bought the car from, not just that she bought

the car. Placing emphasis on Bert will add to this effect.

All these channels usually communicate the same

message, which is about what is said and the current

emotional state of the person. When writing the script

these channels should be taken into consideration.

Questions that could be asked are:

What is the location of the character in the room?

Which posture does the character take?

What does he do with his hands?

Where does he look towards?

How long does he keep eye contact?

What is his facial expression?

Does he make gestures when he talks?

At which tone of voice does the character talk?

At which volume does the player talk?

A great deal of research was gathered in support of

these conclusion, which can be found in [10].


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TECHNICALREALISATION

OF STYLE,QUALITY,MODELAND RIG

The basis of the visible character is the model. This is

the physical representation of the character in the game

world. The techniques to light and animate the character

all depend on this basis.

The aim of the project was to create a hyper realistic

character. To achieve this result a base model with a high

vertex count was needed. During the project this led to

problems in the production pipeline. The targeted quality,to bring hyper realistic character convincingly to the

screen, could not be achieved in the time allotted. This

would break the style that was aimed for. This, together

with the high cost of continuing to try to achieve this high

quality led to a redefinition of the style of the game.

The new style is a slightly stylised look, which comes

across more convincingly at lower quality. The characters

from Grand Theft Auto 5 became the target style and

quality.

Instead of placing all the detail of facial expressions in

the geometry of the model, this detail would be carried

more by the normal maps. This allows us to use between

5,000 and 10,000 polygons for the face. This will be

supported with animated normal maps (wrinkle maps).

For the body model a budget of between 15,000 and

20,000 polygons is available. For the body the hands are

quite important. A lot of expression power comes fromthe hands and hand gestures.

Within the more stylised look the textures contain less

detail. Details like pores will not be included. This means

that it will be easier to draw attention to other parts of the

face, like bags under the eyes.

Certain details deserve some special attention to get

the animations right. The eyelids will be assigned a

single bone, this allows the eyelids to follow the looking

direction. The pupil wont dilate, this is not a necessity in

this style.


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

Instead of using a hierarchical skeleton set up, in which

all bones are parented at a fixed distance, dummy

bones will be used, that can freely move in the face. This

allows for movements like the bulging of cheeks and the

forward motion of the jaw.

The tongue is a very flexible organ, however it is only

visible through the mouth. In GTA 5 the tip of the tongue

moves around, with the right skinning this can be

achieved with a single bone. The total bone count in the

face will be 35. The remaining bone placement is based

on the muscle movements and edge flow of the model. It

will use the following image as reference.

Besides the body and the face models separate models

for the teeth, the tongue and the eyes will be delivered,

with respectively 1000, 100 and 1000 polygons. [11]

Left: Character of Grand Theft Auto 5 Rockstar Games


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

CLOTHINGAND HAIRRealistic clothing and hair are a problem in real time

environments. Both are flexible object that can freely

move based on movement of the character. For instance,long hair that falls over the shoulders when the head

is turned. These systems work by simulating a spring

between each vertex. When these simulations function

correctly it can look very good. Unfortunately it is nearly

impossible to get consistently nice results. This technique

also comes at a very high computing cost.

The research focussed on a pseudo solution, building

a low detail rig and skinning a high detail model to this.

This makes the simulation much more stable and less

computational intensive.

An alternative solution to this techniques, which became

more viable after the switch from hyper realistic to

stylised, is to use tight fitting clothes and short hair. Tight

fitting clothes is not at odds with the science fiction

setting of the game. Short hair moves very little with the

movements of the head. [12]

Opposite page: Bone placement in the human face to allow for

realistic animation.

Upper left: The jacket rig on top of the regular game skeleton from

Alan Wake.

Lower left: The mesh of the jacket that will be transformed by the

jacket rig from Alan Wake.

Middle: The simulated jacket of Alan Wake in action.

Alan Wake Remedy Entertainment and Microsoft Game Studios.

Source Gamasutra.


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REALISTICCHARACTERSHADINGTo achieve a high level of realism it is important to look

at advanced shading techniques. Classical shading

techniques usually result in a flat and unconvincing look.

To get to a high level of quality several techniques exist

to make faces more realistic.

Ambient Occlusion is a technique to make ambient light

a little more realistic. Ambient light is light that is omni-

directional, because it bounced off surfaces many times.

In games this is simulated by lighting the whole scene

with the same intensity light, usually a very dim light.

Ambient light however is less prominent in corners and

ridges. Ambient Occlusion is the effect of reducing the

amount of ambient light in certain places.[13]

Diffuse lighting is scattered light from a surface. This

lighting is usually added to a small amount of ambient

lighting and is often responsible for the majority of the

lighting in the scene. This lighting model is a gross

simplification of the path that light actually travels. In

surfaces like skin a part of the light bounces of, but some

light also travels through the upper layers of the skin and

is emitted slightly further than where it entered. [13]

OILY LAYER

LIGHT

SPECULAR LIGHT

(SOME DIFFUSE)

MILDLY

SCATTERED

LIGHT

HEAVILY

SCATTERED

LIGHT

EPIDERMIS

BLOODY DERMIS

Above: A comparison of screen space ambient occlusion. Left part

of the image is without SSAO, right part of the image is with SSAO.

Crytek

Upper right: The principle of subsurface scattering.


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

In narrower parts of the body some of the light can also

travel through the body and be emitted at the other side.

This effect is called subsurface scattering. The effect of

subsurface scattering on surfaces like skin usually gives a

softer look, which appears more realistic.

After the shift in style direction these techniques became

less important. Ambient Occlusion still adds a lot to the

over al feel, but can be baked in with the characters

diffuse texture.

FACIALANIMATION

To bring emotion across convincingly and make them

recognisable and distinct it is necessary to animate the

face of the characters in the game. There are several

techniques to animate a face. Most often faces are

animated using bone animations. To have more control

over the exact position of each individual vertex in the

face blend shapes can be used. A blend shape is an

animation between two deformations of a model, in this

case the head. This gives 100% control of the shape of

the head at the beginning or the end of an animation,

during an animation the shape of the model is blended

between these two extremes. The main disadvantages

of blend shapes is the performance drag. A blend shape

is stored as a point cache, which contains all the vertices

of the face. When playing blend shape animation each

shape needs to be blended, which is a high drag on

performance [14].

To get an anatomically correct face with animations

a muscles system can be created. This system is a

simulation of the muscles in a human face. If done

correctly this would theoretically lead to 100% match

with a human face. Some 3D packages have a muscles

system available, but there isnt anyway to simulate this inreal time in a game environment. The only viable way to

get this in a game is to use point-caches, due to the large

amount of facial animations needed in this project this

technique was dropped[14].

The three previously mentioned techniques all deform

the face based on vertex information. This limits the detail

to the amount of vertices placed in the head. The higher

this count, the more difficult the face is to animate and the

worse the real-time performance. The face can also be

animated on a pixel level by using wrinkle maps. These

maps animate some of the texture maps on the face. By

animating the normal maps the illusion of a deforming face


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can be created at high detail. This techniques does not

allow for actual movement in the geometric data. Due to

this limitation extreme deformations cant be made and it

cant change the profile of a shape[14].

To achieve the desired effect a combination of bone

animations and wrinkle maps are used. The wrinkle

maps are used to accentuate certain specific emotions in

certain regions of the face. These regions are based on

the book Stop Staring[15][16].

ENVIRONMENTThe environment that the game takes place in needs

to fit with the style and quality of the characters and

setting. The game is made in a retro science fiction

style, inspired by movies from the 70s [17]. This style is

defined by light environment, with a lot of curves and

repetition.

The colour scheme needs to fit this theme. A choice

is made for white and broken white colours for the

ceiling and walls. The floor are more grey. Accents

are full black.

The equipment on the space station has simple

geometric shapes and simple on/off functionality.

These buttons are covered by transparent caps and

only light up when they are active.

Due to the repetition in the environment modular

building can be employed. Modular building means

that the level is constructed from basic building blocks.

This increases the speed at which an environment

can be built and makes it easier to keep the style

consistent. This does require some planning, making

sure all the pieces fit together.

Top: A comparison of wrinkle maps. Left part of the image is

without wrinkle maps, right part of the image is with wrinkle maps.

Lee Perry-Smith / IR

Above: Wrinkle map placement on our actress.


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

Above: reference image for the retro look of the equipment.

Upper left: a collection of reference images to describe the shape

language of the project.

Lower left: a summary of the shape language, patterns, use of

color, contrast and repetition used for art direction.


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LIGHTINGTo bring the world to life lighting is essential. Light

determines how we actually see colours and materials.

Some techniques, like normal mapping, also require

lighting to bring the effect to the foreground. Traditional

lighting model divide light into three categories, ambient,

diffuse and specular. Specular is important for normal

mapping, this is the effect that is often compared with

shininess. In a newer lighting technique, Physically Based

Rendering, specular has been replaced by reflection[18].

Physically Based Rendering is a fixed set of rules to

get a lighting model that is based more on how lighting

works in the real world. Material properties are divided

in separate maps, these maps can be combined into

new materials. One of the most significant differences is

how reflectivity is handled. The reflectivity map together

with the micro-surface map handles the shininess and

reflectivity of the material. Because this use of reflectivity

all models should have an environment map associated

with them. Fortunately the game takes place inside an

enclosed space, the space station, so this is quite easy to

realise.

Instead of calculating light each frame, lights can also be

pre-baked in light maps. This gives a more realistic result

when the lights are static and also gives a performance

boost[19].

Instead of calculating the lighting during the render pass

it can also be calculated in a post processing stage

with a technique called deferred rendering. Deferred

rendering is a screen-space shading technique with the

great advantage that it can add many more lights to the

scene without a performance hit. For the style of the

game, this is a great advantage, however this technique

also has a couple of disadvantages. It does not support

hard anti-aliasing, it requires more memory bandwidth

and it cannot handle alpha blending without a separate

rendering pass[19].

RECORDINGPIPELINE

To get realistic virtual characters in the game a combi-

nation of full body motion capturing and facial motion

capturing was used. This is a long process involving

several important steps to get from a script to in game

animations[20].


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

Based on the setting that is described in the game

design a script was written. This script is divided in

scenes. Each scene includes a description, the action of

the actors, the dialogue between characters, transitions

to other scenes and the type of shot (e.g. close-up or

long shot).

This script is usually divided into small visual frames to

form the basis for the storyboard. A storyboard conveys

more information about the shot and can include

character performance, timing, staging and sound.

An optional step in this process is making an animatic.

An animatic includes timing information and movements

which can not be conveyed in the storyboard. Due to

time constraints, which were caused by last minute

changes, a storyboard could not be made.

The recordings are based on a shot list, which is usually

based on the storyboard or animatic, but in this case on

the script. These are the final recordings that are made

in the studio. The recordings were made in Gameship,

which has most of the equipment needed, only for the

facial motion capturing a custom head mounted camera

was made.

For the full body motion capture specialised cameras

track the position of markers on a body over time. The

head mounted camera makes a video recording of the

face. Together with the audio this results in three types of

recording.

All three recordings need t o be processed and cleaned.

This is a straight forward process for the audio, cutting it

up and removing artefacts.

The body motion capture data needs to be cut and

cleaned. In this process the markers are named, missing

data is filled up and spikes are removed from the data.

After the cleaning the data of the markers are placed

on a skeleton. The skeleton is the basis for bone driven

animations in computer simulations and games. After

this process the results can be viewed on the character.

When needed the animations can be tweaked.

The facial recordings also need to be cut and cleaned,

before it can be analysed. This data is a video recording,

the cleaning involves removing flickers and noise. After

cleaning the footage can be exported to an acceptable

format and get analysed by Faceware. The resulting data

can be applied on a face rig to drive the bone animations

in the face. There was a problem with the head rig. LED

Light were installed on it and dimmed for the recording.

Top: custom made helmet rig for capturing facial animations.

Above left and right: captures from the helmet rig from two

different facial expressions


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This dimming caused a flickering in the footage. In the

cleaning stage this flickering could be removed. To avoid

this problem the LEDs shouldnt be dimmed.

To go through this process once on this scale results in

knowing all the steps and problems that can be encoun-

tered. There is only a limited amount of time in which the

recordings can be made, therefore it is of paramount

importance to have the preparation done right. Even

with good preparation unexpected problems can be

encountered. After the recordings analyses was made for

what went wrong and what went right and documented

this. Making it possible to streamline the process for the

next time.

To make this process go stream lined everything needs

to be known upfront. Most of the problems were due

to last minute changes. Only at the very last minute the

script was finalised, because certain information was

provided late in the process but recording date could not

be changed. This also led to the need to find a qualified

actor late in the process. Which caused problems with

the motion capturing suits.

During the recording several technical difficulties were

encountered. The first, flickering in the LED lights, was

easily avoidable if it was known this would be a problem,

by not dimming the lights. The second, a tick in the audio

recording, looked like a serious problem and caused the

recording to be halted several times, but it turned out this

could be filtered out later.

Another non-technical problem was encountered during

the first test with an actor. In which the actor tended

to overact which made the video images over the top

and therefore unbelievable in a game setting. This

feedback was given by a psychologist trained in human

interactions.

INTERACTIONDESIGN

A significant part of the Game Design is the interaction

design[21]. This is the collection of data that drives the

main part of the game. The simpler the interaction

design is formulated, the easier it is to design game-

play with it and keep an overview about what is going

to happen when the player goes down a certain path.

On the other hand, the design needs to be compli-

cated enough to support the games design.Above: our actress in a motion capture suit. The red-yellow figure

shows the digital representation of the skeletal data captured.


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The interaction design can be divided into separate

parts. The world states determine the state of

properties that are shared by the world. These can be

simple things, for instance if a door is locked or not,

but also the amount of leadership qualities the player

possesses. If somebody changes a world state, this

world state is changed for everybody. A world state

has a description, possible states it can be in and the

current state it is in.

Characters also have a state. The characters are the

virtual people on the space ship with which the player

can interact. The characters personality is defined by

two fixed values the agentic and communal values,

which refers to their position on the Circumplex Model

of Interpersonal Interaction. The characters have

two other values which change due to actions of the

player, one to keep track of how close the players

interaction with the character matches the communal

axis, this value is called oxytocin. The other value is

for the match on the agentic axis called stress.

A conversation is a collection of conversation choices

the player can make and responses that the character

can make together with links between these two.

A conversation choice include the subtitle of what

is said, the animations that needs to be played

and game play information like the position on the

Circumplex Model of Interpersonal Interaction, the

precondition needed to be able to view this option,

if it can be used as an interruption and the change in

stress and oxytocin of a character.

The responses also include the subtitles, animation

information and an oxytocin and stress level. These

levels are used to choose the response of the

character. The character will pick the response for

which the preconditions are satisfied and has the

closest matching stress and oxytocin values to the

characters levels.

The links define for each choice to which collection,

conversation choices or responses, it will go next.


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SCRIPT

Writing the script for this kind of game involves more

than just writing a story, which is hard enough on itself.

The scriptwriter needs to be aware of the research

behind soft skills and the rules that have been laid

down in the Game Design document[3].

The main interaction in the game, besides navigating

the world, is having conversations. These conversation

dont follow a single path, but the player can make

choices influencing the flow of conversation. This

means that the player needs to be presented with

several choices and the reaction of the virtual

characters need to be written based on these choices.

The current mood of the virtual character can also

determine the reaction of the virtual character. This

leads to a collection of responses that the character

can have due to the choice the players made in

previous conversations.

The personality of each character needs to be well

defined based on our research[5]. Only when the

personality is known by the player is it possible

to see the difference in behaviour. This behaviour

needs to be described, not only in what is said, but

in non-verbal cues that the player can pick up on.

These cues can come in many forms, for instance

facial expressions, body posture, pauses in speech or

position in a room.

The players actions influence the mood of the virtual

characters[21]. This has to be taken into account when

writing the conversations. How will the players action

influence the virtual characters? These changes in

the virtual characters need to be expressed in their

behaviour.

The choices that the players makes need to be

tagged on the Circumplex Model of Interpersonal

Interaction. For each result from a conversation it

needs to be determined if it influenced the emotional

bank of the character and if it showed leadership

quality[3].


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FINAL MODELIn this process two variations of the model were

made, including the rig.

The first model was based on the first concept of

making a highly realistic character at a high quality.

This means high polygon count, detailed textured and

advanced rendering techniques. Due to the technical

difficulties, time constraints and updated knowledge

about the quality requirements a second model was

made at a lower quality.

For this second model all the steps needed to bring

the character in the game were finished. 3D Model

and texturing, skeletal animation and wrinkle maps.

This allowed for the testing of the pipeline and the

validation of the research, confirming that this style

and level of quality would be sufficient for conveying

emotions.

Above: a screen showing a project management approach to

handling a crisis situation. This information can be consulted

in-game.

Left: a final render of Ingrid.


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RESULTSGoing through the whole process, from Game Design

to in-game Testing, made us robust for the next

iteration. We know the problems we are going to run

into. This gives us the unique position to plan ahead

and change the design to avoid problems. We have

documented the process and set up the pipeline

needed to bring a virtual character to life in a game.

Our initial goal for the visual quality and style turned

out to be unnecessary to bring this project to a

successful conclusion. It also raised the bar to a

standard in which the production of the product ran

into problems and the cost of realising became too

great. This made us re-examine the primary goals of

the project and what was needed to achieve those.

Due to this turn around a feasible style was deter-

mined, which was backed by research, proving that

it can satisfy the demand to bring across emotional

expressions.

It also let us to the path of exploring more and

different channels of communication. This gave us a

wider palette to express our virtual characters. For

any future script we will write this will bring depth to

the world we are creating. This research also steered

us away from a simple model of the basic six emotion,

to a more rich world.

During the project the psychological model, on which

the game design and script should be based, got

fleshed out. The project started with a model we

were advised to use, but proved insufficiently verified.

During the run of this project we got into touch with

several psychologist and researchers who steered

us toward the Circumplex Model of Interpersonal

Interaction. This model gave us the basis for the

interaction design on which the script has to be based.

A lot of problems we ran into were due to the fact that

this knowledge came late into the project. We already

had materials produced and didnt have the budget to

revisit this production.

With this model and the updated knowledge we have

now we can start a new process of writing a Game

Design and a script based on this design. Unfortu-

nately for the pilot project we did not have the time


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to do this. An interaction design was written with this

knowledge and can be re-used in a next iteration.

The design for this game needed to tie a lot of

different things together, the project management, the

psychology and the gaming elements in a feasible

and interesting way. The document that is produced

contains the solid core on which we can base any

future soft skills project. The setting and the script can

be adjusted to any specific desire.

Left: a screen capture of a conversation between the main

character Aaron and Ingrid.


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CONCLUSIONDuring the process of making the pilot we gained

all the knowledge we need to bring this project to

a successful conclusion. Unfortunately not all the

pieces fell into place at the right time. We stand now

at the point at which we have all the knowledge and

experience to make a game about soft skills.

When we started there was a lot of tension between

different aspects of the project: the psychology,

game design, project management and production.

Now these pieces fell in their place and we know

enough about all of them to correctly tackle each part

separately.

The game design principles, art style, pipeline and the

team are all ready to start this project from the ground

up and realise a project in which we create a game to

use as an environment for the training of soft skills for

project managers.

Would you like to know more about this research project or the possibilities for your business. Please contact

Jan-Jaap Severs from Grendel Games at j [email protected] +31 (0) 6 50 50 24 88 or Bertrand Weegenaar

from M-Engaged at [email protected] +31 (0) 6 83 80 17 09.

Or check out our website at www.grendel-games.com


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PROJECT SOFTSKILLS

REFERENCES1: Investopedia (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/soft-skills.asp)

2: Project Plan (201202 Projectplan Softskills 1.2.pdf)

3: Game Design (SoftSkillz_Design_document1.5.doc)

4: Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK(R) Guide (893-7485908328)

5: Nicole Shechtman and Leonard M. Horowitz, Interpersonal and Noninterpersonal Interactions, interpersonal Motives, and the Effect

Frustrated Motives (http://psp.sagepub.com/content/32/8/1126)

6: James A. Russell, A Circumplex Model of Affect (https://www2.bc.edu/~russeljm/publications/Russell1980.pdf)

7: Artificial Expression in Soft Skills (artificial expression in softskills.odt)

8: Jari Ktsyri, Human Recognition of Basic Emotions from Posed and Animated Dynamic Facial Expressions (https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/

handle/123456789/2807)

9: Jari Ktsyri, Vasily Klucharev, Michael Frydrych, Mikko Sams, Identification of Synthetic and Natural Emotional Facial Expressions (www.

isca-speech.org/archive)

10: Soft Skills: Non-Verbale Kanalen (nonverbaalMEUT.docx)

11: Technische Aanpak (Softskills_TechnischeAanpak_GTA.pdf)

12: The Secret of Cloth Simulation in Alan Wake (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4383/the_secrets_of_cloth_simulation_in_.

php?print=1)

13: Character Technical Documentation (Softskills_Research_Character.odt)

14: Softskills: Animation Research (Softskills_Research_Animation.docx)

15: Technical Implementation of Wrinkle Maps (Technical Implementation of Wrinke Maps.odt)

16: Jason Osipa, Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right (978-0-470-60990-3)

17: Style Guide (Solitude - Style guide document.pdf)

18: Physically Based Rendering, And You Can Too! (http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-practice)

19: Environment Documentation (Softskills_research_environment.odt)

20: Pipeline Guide for Motion Capture (Pipeline mocap 2.docx)

21: Soft Skills Interaction Design (Interaction Design.odt)


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project story softskills for projectmanagers

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