In the last round of prototypes I spent time fleshing out some of my old ideas. These projects were represented by topics that arose out of the original semantic games posted in earlier entries. With those ideas addressed I began this week with a fresh ideation session. Created a new list of interests and topics and fed it into the Semantic game. See below:
Game
Community
interface
interaction
Players
Actors
Actions
meaning
syntax
language
ecosystem
Cellular Automata
Langton's loop
Game of life
synthetic
simulated
interdependent
software
hardware
organisms
Environment
Sustainability
Charity
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The idea of creating the complexity of an ecosystem in a simple computer program is compelling to me. It came from a game I had design a while back. I wanted to create a game that went beyond simple entertainment. I came up with the Masses at the games heart is a simulated ecosystem.
Imagined cycles for ecosystem.
The game takes the form of a massively multiplayer game. The central goal of the game is to build a civilization with other players in a collaborative environment. Each player is reliant on the ecosystem for success while at the same time everything a player does effects the ecosystem on some level. This is where the games conflict and tension exist.
game concept art.
The players want to use resources to build and expand their community however if resources are used to aggressively it could take a negative toll on the environment. The Masses seeks to advocate: sustainable development, collaboration, and creativity.
click here to see a full explanation of the game
I found that even though I was making interesting headway with the Semantic game, my true interests were in "the Masses[UP LOAD THE MASSES LINK HERE]" Particularly with the ecosystem the game is built on. I have always seen this as the crucial component; one that would make or break the game. At the time of creating the documentation I did not have the skills necessary to explore it (I had never even considered learning how to code). I wanted the ecosystem to be simple, so the users could grasp what was happening. I began with three materials, red, green, and blue. These three materials would exist in an interdependent constantly shifting dance. After playing with combinations and rule sets I decided to add a fourth and fifth element: the sun and gas (atmosphere). These would change in direct correlation to one another, if the amount of gas in the atmosphere went up, the amount of sun that hits the ground goes down. Changes in the gas level is determined by changes in the material cycles, and so we have an interconnected system with dynamic elements. I planed all this without the ability to test my thoughts. Though the system looks like it might work on paper there is really no way to know without building it. I am at the point now where I can write code without the syntax getting in the way of my creativity. Now I am able to tackle this topic.
The Processing book has a chapter title "Simulate: Biology" and I began playing with the examples. Though I didn't fully understand the code at first, I made small changes and tried to figure out what was going on. I started with Wolframs Cellular Automata model as it is the simplest.
Stephen Wolfram's Cellular Automata from "Processing"
It grows in one dimension, each line of pixels drawn to the screen is determined by the pixel states in the previous row. I did some rule set planning with an image editor to get an idea of how I should set up the rules of my game:
I tried to make my own with the interdependencies of the three materials and struggled with it for a while. I couldn't get the dynamic results I was seeing from the Wolfram example. The best I could do was this example:
John Conway's Game of Life from "Processing"
it only repeats the same pattern in a straight line, not very complex, however it is based on the programing techniques of the Wolfram model, each row printed is determined by the row above.
I spent a lot of time scribbling rules down in my note book. The two dimensional examples were still a bit daunting. When I first started the pursuit I didn't understand the code well enough to dive in. Once I had a rule set that I thought might work I decided the best way to get comfortable with the code was to tinker with it. I started by building a grid of rectangles. I used Perlin Noise to simulate the sun and gas interaction. My goal is to layer this rectangle grid over another grid that reacts to rules. This grid would simulate the atmosphere and the rules grid would react to it. I set out to add the second grid but still didn't really know what I was doing.
My first attempt at implementing a grid system. This acts as a simulation of a simple weather system.
I again turned to the processing book's biology chapter, and this time began working with the code from Conway's Game of Life:
John Conway's game of life. from "processing."
In this program each pixel is either on (pixel = 1) or off (pixel = 0). It begins by randomly populating the grid with on pixels and then executes the rule set on those initial random pixels. The rule applied is determined by the state of the current pixel and the state of it's neighboring pixels. Conway's game of life has three rules, two turning pixels off and one turning pixels on and a default that leaves the pixels as they are. I started playing with the conditions that determined the rule applied and was pleasantly surprised. I was able to get interesting effects by merely changing the conditions. I was still having trouble understanding exactly what was happening but I was getting some interesting results.
life v. 2
life v. 3
life v. 4
life v. 5
I was excited to see the results of these experiments, they were behaving much like I was imagining the materials to behave. I composited a few screen shots to communicate how I thought a final result may look.
In my next round of prototypes I would like to get a rule set for each material working
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