Computational Thinking in the Context of Game Development

1. Computational Thinking in the Context of Game Development Andrew Phelps Professor & Chair Department of Interactive Games & Media College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology

2. Thank you in advance • To RIT, Google, Kodak, Xerox, David Ross, and CS4HS in general • To RIT for the past decade+ • To you for coming to the talk

3. Hi, I’m Andy, and I Make Games. Andy approximately 1978-1981.

4. Part 1: Background & Changing Stereotypes

5. Now let’s talk about games… “The best that can be said of them [ video games ] is that they may help promote eye-hand coordination in children. The worst that can be said is that they sanction, and even promote aggression and violent responses to conflict. But what can be said with much greater certainty is this: most computer games are a colossal waste of time” - Dr. Spock, 2004 ed.

6. “ALL children play violent video games” “ALL video games are violent” “THE INDUSTRY is to blame for peddling violence to children” “GAMES are co-opting American education and ruining our youth” “GAMES are the cause of childhood obesity” “couch potato” from www.pushingdaisies.com

7. That Rhymes with “P”… H1, The ‘River City’ Hypothesis. The advent of a new medium will first give rise to fears of displacement of ‘constructive’ activities and of associations with deviant behavior. H2 , The Fear Order Hypothesis. With the advent of video games, news frames involving children will occur in the following order: fears of destructive displacement of worthwhile activities (H1); fears of negative health effects; and, then, fears about the effects of content on values, attitudes and behavior. – Dmitri Williams UIUC

8. All of that is changing now • Games are continuing to expand and are better understood by our culture, and their role is changing within our society • What is not understood, generally, is the process of game development, nor the ways in which the games experience is manufactured

9. Recent stats from the ESA • 68% of American households play games • Average player is 35 and has played games for 12 years • 25% of people over 50 play • 84% of all games sold in 2008 were rated “E” for Everyone • 60% of game players are male, 40% are female

10. Part 2: A Few Bits About the Games Industry

11. My Former Students are “Out There”: Microsoft X-BOX & MGS Electronic Arts Vicarious Visions Red Eye Studios SquareSoft Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Online Entertainment Volition Blizzard Entertainment Edios Activision Big Huge Games High Moon Studios Northrup Grumman Undersea Systems United States Military Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) IBM Lockheed Martin Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) Nickelodeon Cynergy Systems Inc. Adobe

12. The Games Industry • Is a few hundred thousand people working very hard, driven by the perfection of their craft. • Most game publishers are fearful of the word “educational” in connection with commercial product, based only on what has come before and appeal to demographic.

13. Part 3: Games are A Lot of Math

14. Issues in Game Development Traditional Computing Game Engine Engineering Programming / Compilers Graphics and Display Memory Management Sound Engines Artificial Intelligence Networking Database Representation User Interface Design Custom Input Hardware Non-Traditional Challenges Dealing with Artists Dealing with Writers Dealing with Musicians Playability Marketing & Publishing Player Communities Online reputation and trust Math Related!!!

15. Part 3: How Deep is the Rabbit Hole?!! W4RN1NG !! W4RN1NG !! I am not a math teacher... I’m not even very good at math... And I don’t use it very often, except every day…

16. Vectors, Triangles N A triangle is the largest geometric entity (point-count) guaranteed to be on a single plane… This also means that it has a guaranteed normal vector in the perpendicular direction Can generate the normal vector through the cross product of any 2 sides of a triangle… Triangle ABC, with normal N and tangent T A T C B

17. Vectors, Triangles and Lights? By looking at the angle between the light vector and the triangle normal, we know how directly light is shining on the surface. So we can apply “light”… Light w/ Triangle ABC D = ObjectColor *LightColor *max(L•N, 0) Lightsource (as point) A D C B

18. Vectors, Triangles, Lights, and Realism… Build a machine to do vectors and dot products really, really fast. (thank you Sony, etc…) Add your own triangles (preferably in the shape of some game character or environment)

19. I Cheated, Realism can be hard… Sadly, no machine to do this real-time just yet… (PS4 ? XBOX 720?) GAMES vs. MOVIES Diminishing Diff…

20. Funny Story: Game Math Relies on Lines, Points, & Angles Y (vertical movement) d X (horiz movement) *If you don’t learn this, you can’t build anything that moves on screen. Makes for boring games... Rule: character can move 2 units per frame. Distance: (d = 2.828427)

21. Math: how everything touches everything in a game-world!!! Core Mechanic: Collision Detection (ray-triangle intersection) Based on S & T can do inside/outside tests (if s<0 or s>1), if ((t < 0.0 or (s + t) > 1.0)

22. S & T are not definitive… …this means we can ch34t !1!!

23. Other Odds & Ends (Math & More Math) Water (interpolated, summed sin waves) Fire (pseudorandom number generation) Animation (sin, cos, Euler angles, etc.) 3D Graphics (projection on plane) Camera systems (quaternions, polar coordinate systems) Rasterization and Pixel Effects (point-in-cube algorithms, based on planar projection) Tessellation and Level of Detail (triangle subdivision, point on segment) Auto-Landscape Generation (pseudorandom number generation, fractals, Mandlebrot sets, etc.)

24. Basically, Lots of Math, Very Quickly GeForce GTX 295 [ one of my alumni works at nVidia on the graphics team! ]

25. Part 4: Learning & Education Theory, Games as a Platform for Discovery

26. What do “games” teach us? “The player must probe the virtual world [ world interaction… ]. Based on reflection while probing and afterward, the player must form a hypothesis about what something might mean in a usefully situated way. The player re-probes the world with that hypothesis in mind, seeing what effect he or she gets. The player treats this effect as feedback from the original world and accepts or rethinks his or her original hypothesis.” -Steven Johnson re-exploring Jim Gee

27. Constructivist Theory • There is no universal truth (knowledge constructed through experiences and observations) • New information is integrated into mental model through an additive process • Process of learning must be framed through interactions with others to situate learning • Can only gain knowledge through complex and authentic experiences

28. Mapping Constructivist Theory to Gameplay and Experience • There is no universal truth (knowledge constructed through experiences and observations) • New information is integrated into mental model through an additive process • Process of learning must be framed through interactions with others to situate learning • Can only gain knowledge through complex and authentic experiences • player creating their own knowledge does not learn a game from an expert source • Player discovers rules and adds to world knowledge • Game community and tactics exchange • experiences that are analogs of real world processes and situations

29. Zone of Proximal Development • The learner as an individual is able to accomplish a certain range of tasks, and when those tasks become too difficult, the learner’s maximum ability is defined by an upper threshold which defines the maximum potential of the learner at their current state of development. • through the community (and/or through a series of “scaffolded” exercises), the learner may exceed the defined maximal bounds of the learning experience

30. The Zone as Flow • The idea of “flow” – a constant balance between challenge and reward… a continual “climb” of skill, knowledge acquisition, and focus.

31. Travel along Maximal Flow surface (Csíkszentmihályi):

32. Travel along Maximal Flow surface (Csíkszentmihályi): too hard

33. Travel along Maximal Flow surface (Csíkszentmihályi): too hard too easy

34. Travel along Maximal Flow surface (Csíkszentmihályi):

35. Flow as Game Addiction • In an irony of ironies, the element that is often misrepresented as “responsible for game addiction” is the very same element that makes games a powerful catalyst for learning, and which forms the basis for scientific inquiry • Human beings are “happy” solving challenges and feeling rewarded.

36. Constructionist Theory • learning can occur when learners construct tangible objects in the real world. • level of intrinsic motivation that is linked to the object itself. • learning through creating does not always proceed along a pre-established plan, but rather through the creator’s closeness to the object • Although constructionist theory refers to the tangible, it is appropriate to note that in games, virtual tangibles can have just as much significance as those artifacts physically constructed. • Many games, such as MMOs, allow the player to experiment by combining different materials within a rule system to create unique items

37. What is built must be motivating (to the student…)

38. Those “time sink” Role Playing Games? • Now they are online, with player communities that run statistical analysis on which “gear set” is better, what is the more productive “farm area” over time, etc. • Stats • Figures • Communities of problem solvers • Multiple variable problems • Contextual analysis

39. Students Stumbling Around • Problems with notation and multi-stage problems • Problems with conversion of theory to practice (high-brow to low-brow math) • Constant quest for the “right answer” or “right formula”…

40. Back to the Scientific Method • Games as an embodiment of the scientific method • Hypothesize -> Test -> Analyze -> Revise Hypothesis • Optimization on DISCOVERY of rule-set • GAM3R MENTALITY!! Read: Everything Bad Is Good for You by Steven Johnson

41. Scientific Method • This leads to ABSTRACTION. One of the core concepts that students struggle with in the classroom, that they do EVERY DAY when they play video games.

42. Part 5: Community, Discovery, and Energy

43. Key word a couple slides ago… • COMMUNITY • Everything we know from constructivist theory • Games are a social construct around entertainment, not a technology of isolation. • Digital games suffer this stereotype due to early limitations of the technology

44. Team Projects and Collaboration Team Sociable: Surface Computing & Interactive Application Development (including air hockey…)

45. Opportunities • We can engage students on their own terms, through their involvement with media. • Students see computers largely as communication devices, instead of extensions of the mind. (we changed how we talk about them as well, which wasn’t smart) – Example: iPad, smartphones, “desktop” analogy, etc. • Games can be educational because of max “flow” / engagment

46. What we used to say about computers • Once you’ve unlocked the power of the desk-top computer, you’ll be using Apple in ways you never dreamed of. You don’t want to be limited by the availability of pre-programmed cartridges. You’ll want a computer, like Apple, that you can also program yourself. … The more you and your students learn about computers, the more your imagination will demand. So you’ll want a computer that can grow with you as your skills and experience grow. – original Apple ][ literature, courtesy of Ian Bogost, GaTech

47. Millennial Talent • C R E A T I V E > Repetition/Optimization • Wants to have an impact • Strong sense of social responsibility • How does what they are studying help them achieve these goals? • Memorization is dead in the digital age. Just “google it”. What is learning in the digital age? What question and what process?

48. Moving Forward to Scientists of Tomorrow • Fewer problems likely to be solved through direct observation • Simulation and visualization of data will be key elements to discovery • Problems require multi-disciplinary teams/work American educational interest in the sciences at an all time low Core skills in computing are facing a national crisis, as the number of students in computing continues to trail the need of science and engineering

49. Conclusion Science is, like, real important, to society, and we need to engage youth in its importance. Players are bright, intelligent folks that are learning a whole bunch of scientific and analytic skills, but in a context very different from traditional academics. Have to find new ways to engage students of today and consistently challenge them with the relevance of what they are learning.

50. Conclusion Science at its core is curiosity, which is a core value of play. We somehow created a discourse around education where metrics and standards have replaced curiosity and play. Media engagement in America is a platform. What can we build?