Three Gaming Interfaces To Pay Attention To

In this post, I want to discuss some gaming interfaces and user experience features in games. I will use my three favorite games for this present post, but the subject is broader and allows a bigger discussion that I intend to return to, next month.

DEAD SPACE (PS3)

In the horror-fiction game Dead Space, the interface is something to pay special attention to. The character's (Isaac Clarke) main statuses are disposed in a very strategic way: the life meter is located on his back in the shape of a spinal light, the weapon ammunition is showed as a small number when you aim the gun and, finally, the game has an interesting resource that is a luminous laser to help you easily locate the way the character must go (and it saves time in the complex scenario maze).



HERO (Atari)

This one is a relic from the beginning of the video-gaming era. HERO is an interesting case of user experience (UX) and interface with very limited constrols. Atari's joystick has only one button and one directional stick; with only two resources, HERO's designers implemented a wide range of possibilities: when you press the red button in the joystick the character uses its laser vision to kill enemies; by pressing down the control stick the character launches a dynamite do open walls and, finally, when you hold the control stick up the character flies using a jetpack. A very rich interface and UX created using minimal resources.



Entwined (PS4)

One of my favorite indie games Entwined is a great case of interface and usability. All the gameplay is based on how you can manage the two control sticks from PlayStation's joystick. During the whole experience, you must control the two mystic entities by only using circular movements; the user experience is focused on coordinating two different positions simultaneously (a challenge to your dexterity). Entwined is an incredibly created game, using only circular movements in two control sticks, a master class of game design.



On the three cases related in the post, we can clearly see the ideas of how games must strategically use concepts from the user experience field. To finish this conversation I want to share some content from the site nForm about this subject:

"The user experience is not one simple action – it is an interconnected cycle of attempting to satisfy hopes, dreams, needs and desires. This takes the shape of individuals comparing their expectations to the outcomes generated by their interaction with a system. Managing expectations then becomes key to successfully providing a satisfying "return on experience" that delights users and generates shared, sustainable value".

#GoGamers

Without Map Or Compass

In the original Legend of Zelda the Map and Compass are indispensable for surviving dungeons and reaching the boss. The map shows you the layout of the dungeon and the compass positions you in it.

In the pilgrimage of the Christian life, I think the map would be the teachings of Our Blessed Lord and saviour, preserved in the Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church that He founded- this constitutes the way to Eternal Life.

The compass I think would be the interior life, the daily life of prayer composed of mental prayer, examination of conscience and perhaps above all, the sacrament of confession. Through these powerful means we can discern where we are headed, how we stand with regards to that map, whether we are near the end of the dungeon, close to completing it, or perhaps down a dead end.

How tragic for the worldlings and for the followers of false religions, they have neither map nor compass- where will they end up? They can send Link a thousand times round the dungeon but without map or compass they have little chance of coming out alive.

Praise be Our God and Saviour Jesus Christ for providing us with the Map and Compass in His One True Church.

Ep 26: Big Fun With Little Figures Is Live!

Ep 26: Big Fun with Little Figures
I talk with Howard Whitehouse about Mad Dogs With Guns, his gangster game from Osprey Games. In a separate segment, I talk with Peter Berry of Baccus 6mm to talk about the seeming monopoly of 28mm figures and games in the glossy gaming magazines.

https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417/episode-26-big-fun-with-little-figures

The Veteran Wargamer is brought to you by Kings Hobbies and Games
http://www.Kingshobbiesandgames.com
https://www.facebook.com/Special-Artizan-Service-Miniatures-1791793644366746/

Join the conversation at https://theveteranwargamer.blogspot.com, email theveteranwargamer@gmail.com, Twitter @veteranwargamer

Segment 1
Follow Howard on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Howard.Whitehouse.Writer/?ref=br_rs
https://www.facebook.com/Pulp-Action-Library-283960595046814/

Buy Mad Dogs With Guns:
Mad Dogs With Guns - Howard Whitehouse https://ospreypublishing.com/mad-dogs-with-guns
Pulp Action Library - http://www.pulpactionlibrary.com/

Other companies we mentioned:
Copplestone Castings http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=7
Pulp Figures https://pulpfigures.com/products/category/11
Brigade Games http://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/

Paddy Whacked - T.J. English https://www.amazon.com/Paddy-Whacked-Untold-American-Gangster/dp/0060590033
The Outfit - Gus Russo https://www.amazon.com/Outfit-Gus-Russo/dp/1582342792/
True Detective - Nathan Heller Series - Max Allen Collins https://www.amazon.com/True-Detective-Nathan-Heller-Novels/

Segment 2
Follow Baccus6mm on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Baccus6mm/
Joy of Six - https://www.facebook.com/TheJoyofSix/

Peter's Opinion piece - https://www.baccus6mm.com/news/20-09-2017/Historicalgaming-'Thetimestheyareachanging'/

Other companies we mentioned:
Warlord - https://us-store.warlordgames.com/
Perry Miniatures - https://www.perry-miniatures.com/
Games Workshop - https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Home
Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy - https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/wss-mag

Music courtesy bensound.com. Recorded with zencastr.com. Edited with Audacity. Make your town beautiful; get a haircut.

Verb-noun Vs Noun-Verb

I went to the Roguelike Celebration over the weekend and enjoyed Thomas Biskup's talk about Ultimate ADOM. Among the many interface improvements they're making based on user testing is they're simplifying the controls from the traditional roguelike controls to W A S D + E F. I don't know how roguelike game players will respond to that but I'm a fan! This reminded me of two things from my past, so I thought I'd say a little about those.

Sometime in my teens I got to meet Lord British (Richard Garriott) and Iolo the Bard (David Watson). My mom was shopping, and I went to the computer aisle to browse the games I couldn't afford. Richard and Iolo were talking about Ultima 6. Nobody else was there, so I got to talk to them for half an hour! I learned about OOP, UI, testing, systems thinking, and more. Really cool!

They told me about how they coded puzzles to look for the state of the world (nouns) instead of the player actions (verbs). For example, there was a puzzle where they expected players to cast Telekinesis (ᚩᚣᛕ ORT POR YLEM) on a lever on the other side of a chasm. Instead, during playtesting, they saw that one player killed a party member, tossed the body over the chasm, cast Resurrect (ᛁᛗᚳ IN MANI CORP), then have the party member pull the lever.

Wow! That wasn't something I had ever thought of in the simple games I had written at that age.

Another thing they told me about was the simpler control scheme. Previous Ultimas had a control scheme similar to what roguelike games have. W to wear armor, I to ignite a torch, K to klimb a ladder, D to descend a ladder, B to board a ship, etc. You specify the verb such as J to jimmy a lock and then after that you can choose a noun such as the lock to jimmy.

In Ultima 6 they reversed the order so that the noun came first and then the verb. This meant the game could tell whether you were trying to J jimmy a lock or B board a ship or K klimb a ladder because the game knew that it was a lock or a ship or a ladder. And that meant they didn't need separate keys for these verbs, but instead one key, U use object. There are times when they had multiple verbs for a noun but for the most part they could get away with just one.

I haven't closely followed Ultimate ADOM but I'm guessing they're doing something similar.

The noun-verb thing comes up in another context. After I stopped making games for a living I went into programming language research. My main topic was studying how functional programming languages and object-oriented programming languages can be combined. Something I noticed at the time was that the syntax for functional languages tends to be verb then noun: f(x), whereas the syntax for object oriented languages tends to be noun then verb: x.f(). At some level these can be considered equivalent. You can express with one what you can express with the other. There's a big difference in usability though: auto-complete.

What happens when we auto-complete f(x)? First we need to know all possible f that are valid in this context. Since the programmer has just started typing in the expression, any function is valid, and that means there's a very long list to choose from. It takes many keystrokes to pick one. Second we need to know all possible x that are valid in this context. These are usually local names, so there aren't that many. Knowing the type of f narrows down the list but the list was already small, so there's not much to gain.

What happens when we auto-complete x.f()? First we need to know all possible x. The programmer has just started typing, so any local name is valid, but there aren't many. Typing just one character can narrow down the list to one or two elements. Second we need to know all possible f that are valid in this context. These are methods defined on the type of x, so there aren't that many compared to all possible functions. Knowing the type of x narrows down the list substantially, so there's a lot gained.

The two syntaxes seem equivalent in theory but they aren't in practice. I wonder if people who use regular text editors end up believing the two syntaxes are equivalent, whereas people who use IDEs prefer the object-oriented syntax, even if they're not taking advantage of object-oriented programming (inheritance, subtyping, etc.).

This asymmetry is orthogonal to whether you're using functional or object-oriented programming. It is better for programmers if they can choose from two medium length lists than to have to choose from a very long list (where a lot has to be typed before it's useful) and then a very short list (where not much is gained). You see this in other contexts too. Command line interfaces like DOS, VMS, and Unix shell typically specify a verb first and then the noun(s). GUIs such as Mac and Windows typically specify a noun first by clicking an icon, and then the verb by choosing from the right click menu. In text editors, vim's commands like d0 are verb then text selection (noun), whereas in more conventional text editors (including Emacs) you'd first select some text (the noun) and then invoke a verb like delete. Kakoune is a modal editor that uses noun-verb instead of verb-noun.

In games it seems like it'd be better for players to first choose an object from the environment and then choose from a small set of actions, than to first choose from a large set of actions and then choose from a set of objects. However I haven't surveyed enough games to see what's more common. The next time you're playing a game, look at the structure of commands to see if it's verb-noun or noun-verb.

Shining Spears And Other Euphemisms

The Falcon turrets are nearly ready for paint, in the meantime I've been working on the Shining Spears. The white and blue is finished on these guys, just the metal, gems and decals left to go.