Game-o-matic: Generating videogames that represent ideas

Mike Treanor; Bryan Blackford; Michael Mateas; Ian Bogost

Game-o-matic: Generating videogames that represent ideas

Mike Treanor, Bryan Blackford, Michael Mateas, Ian Bogost

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

Abstract

In this paper, we describe Game-O-Matic, a videogame authoring tool and generator that creates games that represent ideas. Through using a simple concept map input system, networks of nouns connected by verbs, Game-O-Matic is able to assemble simple arcade style game mechanics into videogames that represent the ideas represented in the concept map. Inspired by a view that videogames convey messages through their mechanics, Game-O-Matic makes use of the rhetorical affordances of explicitly defined abstract gameplay patterns, which we call micro-rhetorics. This paper explains how Game-O-Matic uses the concept map input to select appropriate abstract patterns of gameplay and then how these mash ups of patterns are shaped into coherent playable games that can be said to represent the user's intent.

Original language	English
Pages	70-77
Number of pages	8
State	Published - 2012
Event	3rd Workshop on Procedural Content Generation in Games, PCG 2012, Organized in Conjunction with the Foundations of Digital Games Conference, FDG 2012 - Raleigh, NC, United States Duration: May 29 2012 → Jun 1 2012

Conference

Conference	3rd Workshop on Procedural Content Generation in Games, PCG 2012, Organized in Conjunction with the Foundations of Digital Games Conference, FDG 2012
Country/Territory	United States
City	Raleigh, NC
Period	05/29/12 → 06/1/12

Keywords

Game design
Game generation
Procedural content generation
Procedural rhetoric

Cite this

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abstract = "In this paper, we describe Game-O-Matic, a videogame authoring tool and generator that creates games that represent ideas. Through using a simple concept map input system, networks of nouns connected by verbs, Game-O-Matic is able to assemble simple arcade style game mechanics into videogames that represent the ideas represented in the concept map. Inspired by a view that videogames convey messages through their mechanics, Game-O-Matic makes use of the rhetorical affordances of explicitly defined abstract gameplay patterns, which we call micro-rhetorics. This paper explains how Game-O-Matic uses the concept map input to select appropriate abstract patterns of gameplay and then how these mash ups of patterns are shaped into coherent playable games that can be said to represent the user's intent.",

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author = "Mike Treanor and Bryan Blackford and Michael Mateas and Ian Bogost",

year = "2012",

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Game-o-matic: Generating videogames that represent ideas. / Treanor, Mike; Blackford, Bryan; Mateas, Michael et al.
2012. 70-77 Paper presented at 3rd Workshop on Procedural Content Generation in Games, PCG 2012, Organized in Conjunction with the Foundations of Digital Games Conference, FDG 2012, Raleigh, NC, United States.

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

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KW - Procedural content generation

KW - Procedural rhetoric

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Game-o-matic: Generating videogames that represent ideas

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Conference

Keywords

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