A few months ago, I was approached by the organizers of GDC China to speak at their conference in September in Shanghai. They have asked me to re-give my well-received lecture from last October’s GDC Online in Austin, “Psychology vs. Structure, the Power of Numbers in Game Design“. I am honored that they asked me to join them (and that they are paying for a good chunk of the travel).
From the site description of the lecture:
Numbers, visible or not, are often at the core of game design. They are the expression of the designer’s vision of “how the world works.” There are considerations that go beyond simply balancing an equation, however. Through the selection of numbers such as scores, abilities, damage ranges, and even prices, we are often crafting what a player perceives, believes, and even feels. Through extensive use of (often amusing) examples, this lecture will demonstrate what our numbers may be conveying and explore ways that we can leverage the psychology of numbers to build more engaging games.
I will be bringing my wife/VP/CEO Laurie Reynolds along on the trip — it promises to be a grand adventure! Hope to see you there!
After taking a year off from the annual Game Developers Conference Online in Austin, Dave is once again speaking this October. This year’s lecture is, as with his 2010 lecture, a game design lecture rather than one on artificial intelligence. Here is the title and description as submitted to GDC…
Psychology vs. Structure: The Power of Numbers in Game Design
Numbers, visible or not, are often at the core of game design. They are the expression of the designer’s vision of “how the world works.” There are considerations that go beyond simply balancing an equation, however. Through the selection of numbers such as scores, abilities, damage ranges, and even prices, we are often crafting what a player perceives, believes, and even feels. Through extensive use of (often amusing) examples, this lecture will demonstrate what our numbers may be conveying and explore ways that we can leverage the psychology of numbers to build more engaging games.
Attendees will see concrete examples of how perception, belief, and emotion can be swayed or even manipulated by numbers selection as well as given ideas about how to apply these techniques in their own game designs.
While the lecture is intended primarily for game designers of all experience levels, it will be informative and beneficial to all disciplines including programming, production, art, and executive (e.g. setting prices!).
GDC Online is October 9-11 in Austin, TX. Hope to see you there!
One again, Dave is an advisor for the GDC AI Summit in March. He is also speaking, this time on using psychology in AI and on how we can improve AI through mathematical modeling of behavior. See more about the two lectures at the AI Game Programmers Guild site.
I will be speaking at the 2010 GDC Online conference in Austin again this year. GDC Online is October 5th – 8th at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX.
Here is the tentative description of his session proposal as accepted by the GDC Online Advisory Board:
Session Description
Many areas of game design and programming benefit from very simple premises found in the 50-year old discipline of game theory. When games go awry, it is often due to not applying one or more of these ideas. Online competitive games in particular are prone to tipping precariously out of balance. By comparing staple online games such as World of Warcraft, Team Fortress 2, and Starcraft to classic game theory examples such as Rock-Paper-Scissors and Prisoner’s Dilemma, this lecture offers practical tips on how game theory methodologies can be used to craft well-balanced games—and potentially avert disaster!
Session Takeaway
The attendee will see some of the classic example problems of game theory in action, how their concepts can be applied to the design of online competitive games, and how those applications can create richer gameplay.
This will be my second appearance at GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) and my 4th overall participation at GDC events. My 2009 GDC Austin lecture, “Cover Me! Promoting MMO Player Interaction through Advanced AI” garnered a attendee rating of 4.9 (out of 5) compared to the conference average of 4.29. This included a 4.9 score on the item, “Would you recommend this session to a colleague?”
My thanks to the GDC Online advisory board and the wonderful conference staff, Jen Steele and Kara Foley, for the opportunity once again. A special nod to board member Raph Koster whose excellent “Games Are Math” session from last year gave me a reminder of how relevant this topic is.
Hope to see you all there!
(To download lecture slides from any of my past conference lectures, visit our “media” page.)
Lost in all my annoyance at the old blog issues, I never mentioned that I have created a page to hold the slides from my lectures in the past. These include:
2009 GDC AI Summit
Breaking the Cookie-Cutter: Modeling Individual Personality, Mood, and Emotion in Characters
2009 GDC Austin
Cover Me!: Promoting MMO Player Interaction through Advanced AI
2009 GameX Industry Summit
The Art of Game AI: Sculpting Behavior with Data, Formulas, and Finesse
2010 GDC AI Summit
Improving AI Decision Modeling Through Utility Theory
AI Devs Rant!
Some of these were joint lectures but only contain my content. The exceptions are the GameX one and the Utility Theory lecture. Both of those were joint with Kevin Dill. I have permission to use his content (as he does with mine).
I will continue to update that page as I do other lectures in the future.
Once again, Dave is heading to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and once again he will be helping run the AI Summit as a presentation of the AI Game Programmers Guild.
Dave’s sessions for the 2010 GDCAI Summit have been posted. In addition to being one of the two Summit Advisors this year (along with Steve Rabin), Dave will be giving a joint lecture with Kevin Dill, participating in a panel, and giving a 5-minute “rant”. The session details are below.
Session Description The ‘if/then’ statement has been the workhorse of decision modeling longer than digital computing. Unfortunately, the harsh transition from yes to no often expresses itself through behavior in ways that are just as harsh. Utility theory has roots in areas such as psychology, economics, sociology, and classical game theory. By applying the science of utility theory with algorithmic techniques such as response curves, population distributions, and weighted randoms, we can improve the modeling of the underlying brain of our agents, broaden the potential decision space, and even manage edge cases that other decision systems stumble over.
Idea Takeaway This lecture explains the underpinnings of utility theory, and shows concrete examples of how to leverage it using the power of other algorithmic techniques regardless of the overall structure being used for the agent AI.
Session Description Often one of the most important issues an AI programmer needs to address is the decision of which architecture to use. This choice lays the foundation for the rest of the project both enabling and limiting choices down the road. With myriad (and even conflicting) pro and con arguments for all the major AI architectures, it can be difficult to determine which one is right for a given project. This panel approaches this issue from a unique perspective. With one person acting as an advocate for each of the popular AI architectures, the panel will be presented with hypothetical game examples and asked to explain why their method is the right tool for the job and why others are not.
Idea Takeaway While this session is likely to get playfully adversarial, the attendee will be given not only a better understanding of the pros and cons of each of the types, but witness some of the thought processes that must occur when deciding on an AI architecture.
Microtalks – AI Devs Rant! Speaker: Borut Pfeifer (Freelance Game Programmer/Designer, Plush Apocalypse Productions), Dave Mark (President and Lead Designer, Intrinsic Algorithm), Adam Russell(Games Studio Manager and Lecturer, University of Derby), Kevin Dill (Software Engineer, Lockheed Martin), Steve Rabin (Principal Software Engineer, Nintendo of America), John Funge (Head of Game Platforms, Netflix) Date/Time: TBD Experience Level: Intermediate Summit: AI Summit Format: 60-minute Lecture
Session Description Sometimes things just need to be said. Saying them out loud in a room filled with (hopefully) like-minded people just makes it all the more interesting and cathartic. Seven AI developers from all corners of the industry will deliver quick, to-the-point rants about what’s on their mind. Topics include AI design and programming, working with other portions of the dev team, working with academia, the perception of game AI by the public, scripting languages, and even those scary floating point numbers! Whoever said AI programmers only sit with their heads down over their keyboards?
Idea Takeaway Find out what’s on the minds of AI developers in a fast-paced, fun, yet hopefully not controversy-rife session!
The GDC folks have put up the main page for the AI Summit at the 2010 GDC. This year, I am listed as a Summit Advisor alongside Steve Rabin. While I helped out a lot last year, I wasn’t listed as an official advisor. That makes for a wonderful honor. I’m so pleased to be working with all the great people in the AI Game Programmers Guild to put this event on.
As a speaker at GDC Austin, I was invited by Level 3 to sit on their “Red Couch” for a video interview. Because they are an internet backbone provider, their whole take is how connectivity over the net enables “stuff”. I tweaked my spiel accordingly. It’s only about 5 minutes long.
The GDC folks have put up the main page for the 
