PixelJunk Monsters and Geometry Wars are two recent games that have a really nice palette and the character design, animation, and movement patterns all work together. Media Mogul's design could be in the middle of these two games: shiny and geometric but ominously cute.
Lemmings is one of the first games about indirectly controlling non-player characters, which is the key mechanic of Media Mogul. This is a early version on Amiga, but it has a had version on many platforms. Adapting Media Mogul to various complexities and scale is a key consideration.
Pixel Junk Monsters
Geometry Wars
Lemmings
Another cool upcoming game, Multiwinia.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Media Mogul Play-Thru Part 1
Changes made to paper prototype after preliminary playtests:
- Start with 1000 Ratings Credits instead of 500 Ratings Points.
- Citizens stop in a matching Television Viewing Area at any point in that turn's move.
- Citizens stop in a non-matching Television Viewing Area only if it is the last point on that turn's move.
- Citizens move around obstacles in the directions of the next Middle or End Point.
- Citizens have no specific End or Middle Point, they all seek the closest and unoccupied.
- When Citizens reach a Middle Point, they don't move for one turn.
Setup
- Map is made of 209 hexagons (hex[0-208]), vertically arranged 11 x 19.
- Place Blue Citizens Start Points:
BC[0] on hex[0] BC[1] on hex[2] BC[3] on hex[23] BC[4] on hex[25]
- Place Yellow Citizen Start Points:
YC[0] on hex[8] YC[1] on hex[19] YC[2] on hex[20] YC[3] on hex[30] YC[4] on hex[31]
- Place Blue Citizen Middle Points:
BCMP[0] on hex[87] BCMP[1] on hex[99] BCMP[3] on hex[131] BCMP[4] on hex[153]
- Place Yellow Citizen Middle Points:
YCMP[0] on hex[88] YCMP[1] on hex[99] YCMP[2] on hex[100] YCMP[3] on hex[110] YCMP[4] on hex[111]
- Place Blue Citizen End Points:
- BCEP[0] on hex[177]
- BCEP[1] on hex[187]
- BCEP[2] on hex[190]
- BCEP[3] on hex[199]
- Place Yellow Citizen End Points:
GameplayYCEP[0] on hex[196] YCEP[1] on hex[197] YCEP[2] on hex[206] YCEP[3] on hex[207] YCEP[4] on hex[208]
- Start with 1000 Ratings Credits.
- Build Blue Satellite on hex[115] with Broadcasting Area on hex[81, 82, 91, 92, 93, 103, 104, 115]
- Build Blue Television on hex[81] with Viewable area on hex[69,70]
- Build Yellow Satellite on hex[96] with Broadcasting Area on hex[62, 63, 72, 73, 74, 84, 85]
- Build Yellow Television on hex[62] with Viewable area on hex[50,51]
- 275 Ratings Credits total.
- Move Citizens:
- BC[0] from hex[0] to hex[23]
- BC[1] from hex[2] to hex[35]
- BC[2] from hex[23] to hex[69]
- BC[3] from hex[25] to hex[60]
- YC[0] from hex[8] to hex[40]
- YC[1] from hex[19] to hex[50] - add 100 Ratings Points
- YC[2] from hex[20] to hex[51] - add 100 Ratings Points
- YC[3] from hex[30] to hex[61]
- YC[4] from hex[31] to hex[62]
- 475 Ratings Credits total.
- End first round.
1. Develop a spreadsheet or html table to handle the data that is being generated and begin to
2. Develop naming conventions and pseudo-code to make a flash version.
Future Features for Paper Prototype
1. An objective-based level requiring the player make a certain number of Citizens watch a specific sequence of programs before the level ends.
2. Multiplayer (co-op or competitive) for objective-based and high-score playing.
3. Create more complex routes using numbered Middle Points.
4. Increase Citizen classes, distinguished by movement patterns, behavior, and point values.
2. Multiplayer (co-op or competitive) for objective-based and high-score playing.
3. Create more complex routes using numbered Middle Points.
4. Increase Citizen classes, distinguished by movement patterns, behavior, and point values.
Paper Prototype Rules and Pictures
Setup
1. Five yellow Citizens, 4 Blue Citizens.
2. Middle and End Points.
3. Player starts with 1000 Ratings Points to build with.
Equipment Costs
1. Yellow Satellites cost 175 Ratings Points.
2. Blue Satellites cost 250 Ratings Points.
3. All Televisions cost 150 Ratings Points.
4. Rotating a Satellite degrees cost 50 Ratings Points.
Every television in range cost 10 Ratings Points to move along in the same relative position.
5. Rotating or moving a Television within Broadcasting Range cost 20 points.
6. Moving a Satellite 1 place in any direction cost 75 Ratings Points.
Scoring
1. Blue Citizen viewing Blue Television Programming are worth 150 Ratings Points.
2. Blue Citizens viewing Yellow Television Programming are worth 50 Ratings Points.
3. Yellow Citizens viewing Yellow Programming are worth 100 Ratings Points.
4. Yellow Citizens viewing Blue Programming are worth 25 Ratings Points.
Citizen Behavior
1. Citizens move in a straight line over 3 adjacent spaces toward either Middle Points or End Points each round.
2. Yellow Citizens move closer together (at least one adjacent edge.) Yellow Citizens will move one or two extra spaces to stay adjacent.
3. Blue Citizens move spaced out (no adjacent edges.) Blue Citizens will stop short one or two spaces to maintain distance.
End Condition and Final Score
1. Game ends and Ratings Points are added up when all Citizens reach End Points. Equipment still on the board is worth half of what is cost to put it down.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Media Mogul 1.0 Protoype
The player's goal as a Media Mogul is to gain Ratings Points. Ratings Points are granted by Citizens viewing television programming provided by the players. Citizens move between home, work, shopping, and the voting booth while Media Moguls setup mobile Televisions and Satellites hoping to influence buying and political decisions. This gameplay is intended for a paper prototype and then a Flash demo.
1. Setup City, Citizens, and set Citizen Path Markers (Start, Middle, and, End).
2. Players point and click to place one Satellite of any color and one Television of a matching color within Broadcasting Range anywhere on the board except end and middle markers.
3. Players try to position the Television Viewing Range where NPC citizens will pass.
1. Setup City, Citizens, and set Citizen Path Markers (Start, Middle, and, End).
2. Players point and click to place one Satellite of any color and one Television of a matching color within Broadcasting Range anywhere on the board except end and middle markers.
3. Players try to position the Television Viewing Range where NPC citizens will pass.
4. A successful view will add Ratings Points to the Player’s score.
5. Ratings Points can be used to buy or move Satellites or Televisions.
5. Ratings Points can be used to buy or move Satellites or Televisions.
6. The game ends when all the Citizens have reached their end markers.
7. At the end of the game, Satellites and Televisions remaining on the board are worth half the Ratings Points they cost to purchase.
Click to enlarge the flowchart.
7. At the end of the game, Satellites and Televisions remaining on the board are worth half the Ratings Points they cost to purchase.
Click to enlarge the flowchart.
Back to Work
Big gap in updates, but this blog is active. I just graduated, got married, and moved into a new apartment. Physical prototypes and updated design documents upcoming.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Media Mogul as a Half Life 2 Mod
The modding tools found in many first-person shooters are well suited for rapidly prototyping my current ideas. Specifically, the the Half Life 2 Source engine's system of planning and triggering squad-based assaults is very adaptable to the key feature of the game: indirectly manipulating different demographics of NPCs as they go about their daily business on the timed levels and scenarios to create certain political outcomes. The game will not always be a Half Life mod, but it should provide a useful framework for playtests, demos, and concept video.
Friday, May 2, 2008
My Original Media Mogul Proposal (June 2007)
Media Mogul Simulator(MMS) is a single player game of managing a media company with holdings in several type of media. The game traces the influence of media tycoons and corporations such as Rupert Murdoch, Mike Bloomberg, Viacom, and General Electric that mediate the democratic process for the public in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. The methods media companies and politicians use to manage their roles in a capitalist democracy is the subject matter of the game.
The game starts with the beginning of legislative elections and focuses on advertising, news coverage, and corporate partisanship. The second level is composed of judicial proceedings determined by the outcome of the legislative branch. The presidential election level that follows is different in that Media Mogul Player become more directly involved in the political process. Choices made up to this level determine if the player will be a presidential candidate of one party or the other, an exiled dissident covering the election in hiding, a vice president, or a part of the military industrial complex. The game ends with a regime change and an opportunity to try again.
The game is designed to promote media literacy among gamers. A dialogue about the centralized control of media by corporations is important for voters who receive the majority of their political information from corporate-controlled sources. The game should be taught and played as part of larger program that emphasizes DIY media production and literacy.
In order to guide the narrative and outcomes, MMS uses four scores. Scores represent current stock price, the amount of favor you have gained from both political parties, and a list of your corporate holdings(newspapers, television channels, Internet firms, etc.) The stock price represents your negotiating power and value to politicians. The amount of favor you have gained from each party will determine your relationship with ruling party, opposition party, and the people who vote for them. Your holdings also determine what kind of relationships the politicians pursue with the company.
Level 1: Creating Your Company
The game starts with a limited budget to form your media conglomerate. Your choice of specific newspapers, television channels, websites, video game companies, movie companies, and magazines will determine your initial scores. All the media holdings the player can choose influences the first level starting score. For example, owning a video game company that specializes in war games makes you more valuable to a right wing candidate, while a liberal news website would increase your favor with the left wing party.
Level 2: Legislative Branch
The legislative level deals with solicitation of campaign money and favorable coverage. You are given the choice of supporting one, both, neither of the parties and the degree you will support them. The scores are updated after the election. A merger and acquisitions round determines if you can buy or sell media divisions, depending on the your stock price and current holdings. This level deals with the corporate ownership of media, the profit motive, and the power they hold in an election. Your scores are updated after mergers and acquisitions.
Level 3: Judicial Branch
This level will examine the legal ramifications of the mergers and acquisitions round of level 1. If your stock price and favorability are high with the ruling party, you can try to get laws changed in your favor: tax breaks, expanded markets, or sue a competitor. If stock prices and favorability are low, anti-trust hearing, corruption charges, and exile are potential outcomes.
Level 4: Executive Branch
A high stock price and favorability with a party would allow you to run as a candidate with that party. Other outcomes of the judicial hearings could have you covering the election from another country, using fake news to get one candidate elected, exposing scandals, or demonizing a candidate.
As part of a comprehensive media literacy program, Media Mogul informs voters on the danger to the democratic process posed by unsupervised corporate media control. It should be part of a program that emphasizes individual or small scale media creation (blogging, citizen journalism, documentary making) as a balance to those forces.
Narrative and Gameplay
The game starts with the beginning of legislative elections and focuses on advertising, news coverage, and corporate partisanship. The second level is composed of judicial proceedings determined by the outcome of the legislative branch. The presidential election level that follows is different in that Media Mogul Player become more directly involved in the political process. Choices made up to this level determine if the player will be a presidential candidate of one party or the other, an exiled dissident covering the election in hiding, a vice president, or a part of the military industrial complex. The game ends with a regime change and an opportunity to try again.
The game is designed to promote media literacy among gamers. A dialogue about the centralized control of media by corporations is important for voters who receive the majority of their political information from corporate-controlled sources. The game should be taught and played as part of larger program that emphasizes DIY media production and literacy.
In order to guide the narrative and outcomes, MMS uses four scores. Scores represent current stock price, the amount of favor you have gained from both political parties, and a list of your corporate holdings(newspapers, television channels, Internet firms, etc.) The stock price represents your negotiating power and value to politicians. The amount of favor you have gained from each party will determine your relationship with ruling party, opposition party, and the people who vote for them. Your holdings also determine what kind of relationships the politicians pursue with the company.
Level 1: Creating Your Company
The game starts with a limited budget to form your media conglomerate. Your choice of specific newspapers, television channels, websites, video game companies, movie companies, and magazines will determine your initial scores. All the media holdings the player can choose influences the first level starting score. For example, owning a video game company that specializes in war games makes you more valuable to a right wing candidate, while a liberal news website would increase your favor with the left wing party.
Level 2: Legislative Branch
The legislative level deals with solicitation of campaign money and favorable coverage. You are given the choice of supporting one, both, neither of the parties and the degree you will support them. The scores are updated after the election. A merger and acquisitions round determines if you can buy or sell media divisions, depending on the your stock price and current holdings. This level deals with the corporate ownership of media, the profit motive, and the power they hold in an election. Your scores are updated after mergers and acquisitions.
Level 3: Judicial Branch
This level will examine the legal ramifications of the mergers and acquisitions round of level 1. If your stock price and favorability are high with the ruling party, you can try to get laws changed in your favor: tax breaks, expanded markets, or sue a competitor. If stock prices and favorability are low, anti-trust hearing, corruption charges, and exile are potential outcomes.
Level 4: Executive Branch
A high stock price and favorability with a party would allow you to run as a candidate with that party. Other outcomes of the judicial hearings could have you covering the election from another country, using fake news to get one candidate elected, exposing scandals, or demonizing a candidate.
Media Literacy
As part of a comprehensive media literacy program, Media Mogul informs voters on the danger to the democratic process posed by unsupervised corporate media control. It should be part of a program that emphasizes individual or small scale media creation (blogging, citizen journalism, documentary making) as a balance to those forces.
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