Translating Research into Kickass Games

The Story of Dark Dot

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Hoo Jia Ling (Associate Producer)

Wong Yi (Lead Programmer)

Roland Kie (Game/Level Designer)

The Storytellers

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Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab

• Singapore + MIT Research Initiative

• Addresses important challenges faced by global digital game community and industry

• Multi-disciplinary approach for solving Research problems

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• Flocking Based Shoot em Up• Can draw and manipulate

shapes.

Dark Dot

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Dark Dot

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Dark Dot

Play Trailer

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So how did we start? What’s the research about?

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Our Timeline

1 mth 4 mths 3 mths 1 mth

Brainstorm Concept + Pre Pro Production Launch

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• Flocking Animation and Modelling Environment by Dr. Ong Yew Soon, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

• Realistic real-time shape constrained flocking

• http://c2inet.sce.ntu.edu.sg/fame/

The Research

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What must the game have to show the research?

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• They are our first level ‘customers’

• Players of our game are our second level customers.

• Find out what they want to show through their research.

• Find out what we need from them to do it.

Figure out what we need from each other

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Key Features of FAME

• Shape Constrained Flocking

• Shape Morphing

• Obstacle Avoidance

• Natural Movement

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What kind of game would have these features?

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• Real time action puzzler

• RTS-like, eg: Total War

• Uses melee conversion as main mechanic

Prototyping designs Brainstorm

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Feedback Loop

Programmer

DesignerResearcher

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• Wanted a draw-centric game to show the Shape morphing capability of FAME.

• iPad chosen as the platform because of intuitiveness of touch screen for shape manipulation.

Tech Prototype : Melee Game Concept + Pre Pro

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Tech Prototype : Prototyping

Main

Prototype branch

Last stable

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What did we discover?

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• Was initially “Draw only”.

• Found out players like to both draw and manipulate.

Melee : The Fun Stuff

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• Was not deterministic enough due to 'Natural Flocking Behavior'.

• Tried many ways to mitigate any frustration.– Different Battle Mechanics– Different Unit Characteristics.

• Could not eliminate potential frustration.

Melee : The not so fun stuff

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So we went back to the drawing board…

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• Keep the good stuff– Drawing and Manipulation of

the shape

Re-thinking the mechanics

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• Throw away the bad stuff– Replaced frustrating melee

mechanic with shooter mechanic where lack of precision is forgiven

Re-thinking the mechanics

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• Shooter!- Overcame lack of precision via Bullets- Aiming is One Dimensional!

And Dark Dot was born! Production

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When do we decide that enough of the research is in the game?

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• We had the fun, we had the game, we had most of the research.

• Had different ways to show it, none optimal.

• We pushed ourselves further, to make the drawing even more evident.

Making shape morphing more evident

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Making shape more evident

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Making shape more evident

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Making shape more evident

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Making shape more evident

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Where do you draw the line?

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In the end…

• Took the simplest way and made it a supplement to main gameplay.

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Was it kickass?

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What we learned along the way…

1. Communication!2. Rapid Prototyping!3. Focus!4. Don’t be greedy!

We need a volunteer…

Time to play!

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Q & A