GAME PRACTICE & RESEARCH
Examples of my experiences with
designing and directing games, and conducting relevant research projects
* Projects listed in reverse-chronological order
INTERACTIVE EDUCATION
Project Background
About a year ago, I started working with the Southwest Associated University Museum * in Kunming, China on a digital narrative open course. The goal of the project is to build free, online public courses for university students.
My role was to design and direct an interactive bilingual novel game for the museum that would engage with a younger audience. After much research and discussion with the museum staff, we decided to make a game based on the life of Dr. Wu Ta-You, one of the influential founders of Chinese modern physics.
* (National) Southwest Associated University was a historical war college established between 1938 and 1946 by three of the top universities of China, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The museum is built on the original site of the war college to commemorate the university and the great scholars who made significant contributions to national education despite the difficult time.
Southwest Associated University Museum, Kunming, Yunnan, China
Pre-Development
As the main writer and designer, I tried to maintain an accurate account by basing all content on Dr. Wu's autobiography and on historical records. I designed both the Chinese and English versions of the game. There are small variations between the two versions besides the language. For instance, some "pop quiz games" featuring Chinese traditional poems had to be adapted for non-Chinese speakers. While translating the English version of the game, I paid special attention to adding footnotes explaining various terms that are specific to the culture and the era.
I was also involved in budgeting and resource management with the museum team. We picked Tianjin Hengda Wenbo Technology Co., LTD as our collaborator and began the development process in June 2023.
Initial Game Design Ideas & Writings
Design Refinement
The story is told from a first-person perspective to allow the audience to "grow" with the protagonist, "directly witnessing" how a curious little boy becomes a world-renowned physicist. To create immersion, I added interactive elements and small games within the digital narrative. The game's art and music are carefully crafted and chosen to engage with players.
Throughout the entire design phase, I worked closely with Tianjin Hengda's coding and design team. We had many meetings and discussions. We made numerous improvements to the overall design to ensure a smooth transition into the following development phase.
Interface and Game Mechanism Designs
Coding and Development
The main programming language we used was typescript on an engine called Cocos. In addition, C++ and HTML5 were also used. The game is browser-based and device-independent so that players can play freely on either their phone or computer by simply clicking on a link without having to download any extra software.
As with the design process, regular meetings with the team members were necessary. Familiarizing myself with new languages and platforms was challenging but the experience was certainly exciting and fulfilling.
Game Development Code in typescript and Cocos' engine
Playtesting
Every programmer knows that debugging and playtesting are always a must. The coding team and I spent weeks testing the game to make sure that it ran properly.
We also arranged several online meetings among ourselves to do live playtests. And then we invited people from different backgrounds, particularly those who have no gaming experiences, to play the game. Each participant filled out a short survey after their gameplay. Based on those tests, we were able to make further adjustments to ensure the final product met all parties' expectations.
Example Survey Questions
The Final Product
To access the game, please click on the link below. It is a webpage game so no additional software download is needed. Please give the page a few minutes to load. Thanks.
Life of Dr. Wu Ta-You (A Historical Figure Simulator Game)
A Screenshot from the Game Transition Page
Conclusion
This game demonstrates how digital media and gaming can be implemented for educational purposes, making learning easier and enjoyable. It is a good starting point for creating similar and more complex education-based games in the future.
DATA SCIENCE PROJECT
Project Overview
In my Introduction to Data Science class, students were given the choice to design their own research projects. I conducted a research project/experiment regarding People's Opinions on Using Video Games in Education. Because my current university does not offer a games studies program, I do my best to tailor my studies to my direction of interest.
The objective of this data science project was to make predictions about one's willingness to accept video games in school education (elementary and above) given some of their basic information.
My partner and I managed to collect 1700+ data points through online surveys from both the US and China. The source surveys were collected from Marquette University and Yunnan Normal University (China). The relevant parameters collected in this project were the following:
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Geolocation
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The OS of their device (iOS v.s. Android)
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Whether the person is a gamer or not
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Their current opinion on whether students (elementary and above) should play video games for school (The responses range from a scale of 1 through 5, 1 being "definitely not," and 5 being "very supportive.")
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Gender
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Ethnicity
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Age
The statistical methods we used included the following:
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Linear Regression
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Logistic Regression
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Ordinal Logistic Regression
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K-Nearest Neighbors
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Naive Bayes
Example of Self-Collected Data
Data Overview
Here are some summaries of the raw data we collected. Based on simple observations, we noticed no significant difference between male and female participants' opinions on using games for education. Overall, US participants show a higher tendency to accept using video games in education than Chinese participants.
"People's Opinion on Using Video Games for Education"
Data Manipulation and Interpretation
The languages we used were Python and R studio. First, we analyzed the raw data. We had to make some adjustments such as trimming to minimize the unwanted influence of outliers on the final result. We also tried simple data transformation because the age variation in the US data is quite large. Luckily, the overall data appeared normal for both data sets.
Next, we examined the correlations between parameters and the outcome (opinions on gaming and education). We excluded some parameters collected from earlier stages and only kept ones that were more informative. As we can see in the image, the parameter that had the highest correlation with opinion was whether the participant was a gamer. This was expected because according to a study published by the Pew Research Center, "game players tend to agree with more positive depictions of gaming."
Correlation Heat Map
We then split the data into 75% training data and 25% testing data. We first ran OLS regression on individual parameters. For instance, the R^2 for age vs. opinion shows a 0.822 score which indicates this parameter did contribute toward opinion.
Different methods were used to make predictions. The worst result we got in terms of prediction accuracy was from Linear Regression, where in testing data, all the predicted points fell between a middle range of 2.75-3.5. This is expected because the opinion y values are not meant to be treated as continuous values.
Linear Regression Output
Among the methods we tried, both Naive Bayes and K Nearest Neighbor gave reasonable prediction values. However, the final percentage of correctly predicted values was only about 28%. We hence conclude that the methods and data should be further improved. Specifically, we should collect more relevant parameters that will lead to more accurate predictions.
Overall, we had to conclude that the results we calculated from this project were not very promising.
Fitted Values for Linear Regression (Above)
Fitted Values for Logistic Regression (Above)
Fitted Values for K Nearest Neighbor (Above)
Conclusion and Future Improvements
We believed the contributing factor to problematic results was our choice of parameters. Not all parameters used showed strong correlations with the target feature. So, we would need to pick better features next time. Another challenge in self-collecting data was designing effective surveys since there was always a tradeoff between simple, shorter questionnaires vs longer, but more informative ones.
In conclusion, our first attempt at conducting self-guided research was not as successful as anticipated, but the learning experience was certainly valuable. It had set a foundation for future more improved studies.
Recent Update
I am taking a Linear Regression class. My group and I have agreed to revisit this project (“Predicting People's Likeliness to Accept Video Games in Education”) and make it our final. Our current plan is to design a better survey with more insightful parameters, and the goal is to collect as many data points as last time. We will be using more complex statistical models too. Ideally, this time we will yield a better result than our last attempt.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE GAME
Project Overview
Officially, this was the final project for my Twenty-First Century Literature class that I took my freshman year, but it belongs to part of a larger urban fantasy universe I have been plotting for some time. As mentioned above, I took every opportunity in class to do game-relevant projects.
This particular choose-your-own-adventure game is made with Twine, an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories. I made my own modifications to the original code such as adding conditional checks and timing mechanisms to create a more interesting gaming experience.
No Way Out
Game Screenshot
Making No Way Out wthTwine
World-Building
One of my favorite things to do in creative processes is to mix genres. This particular piece is a collage of city fantasy and science fiction, perhaps with an additional taste of cyberpunk given that it features some elements of capitalism, and the resulting large wealth gap among social classes.
I have taken some of my studio art class assignments and turned them into concept art for this Nightcity Universe. Here you will see how a group of mystical creatures, i.e. vampires, lurk beneath the human world. A small number of elite vampires dominate their secret society with supernatural powers combined with scientific technologies; meanwhile, the majority of "low-level" vampires struggle to survive the harsh environment, being forced into hard labor despite the seemingly powerful nature of such dark creatures.
Character Design, "Clause" (Reference: Cillian Murphy)
Print with Digital Modification, 2021
Character Design, "Cole"
Print with Digital Modification, 2021
Plot Summary and Game Objective
No Way Out takes place within the Nightcity Universe. This story is centered around a "blood factory" run by elite vampires where they process, extract, cultivate, package, and distribute fresh human blood. The human victims, or what the creatures would refer to as "raw materials," mainly come from people of "vulnerable backgrounds" such as those who are refugees, undocumented immigrants, or homeless individuals. Occasionally, people found half dead in accidents will be "collected for production" as well.
You, the protagonist/player, are one such individual, who, after a terrible, possibly planned car crash, find yourself drowning in a tank filled with a mysterious green solution. The goal of the player is to navigate through the environment without getting caught and eventually safely escape from this hellish factory. No Way Out is only a demo/intro chapter to a much longer interactive novel game.
Concept Art Sketches
Factory Stuff, 2021
Game Mechanism, Meaning, and Future Development
Besides conditional checks and timing mechanisms, I am hoping to develop my own software for this game and then publish it on Steam. One of the features I am looking forward to adding is to incorporate the story with the game mechanism itself. For instance, one of the abilities the player's protagonist may gain is to see into the future. There will be no built-in "save button." Instead, the players will be given limited opportunities to go back and change previous choices as part of their "clairvoyant power."
This introduces some of the more philosophical aspects I wish to incorporate into the game. Inspiring the audience to ponder on questions like: Can we preemptively blame someone for something they have never committed even though there is a large chance they will in the future? Or if one is given unlimited time, will they lose their sense of purpose and motivation? There are some other social and human rights problems I would like to address in this story given the rather extreme plot setup. In general, my goal is to explore real-life problems in creative and engaging ways. This is what I consider "serious gaming."
Conclusion
The current version of No Way Out is only a half-finished demo. However, I have learned many important lessons during the development process. For one thing, I should certainly control the number of branches I include in the story because choice branches grow exponentially when they diverge. In fact, this incomplete demo turned out to be a long plot of over 60,000 words with 1439 links, 750 passages, and 40+ story branches, quite an arduous project to work with and probably shouldn't have been designed like this in the first place. But as I mentioned, this is an important lesson learned regarding game development; only I learned it the "hard way."
A Mess One Shouldn't Have to Face in Game Dev
SECTION CONCLUSION
Despite my experiences and achievements so far, I have identified many areas for further improvement. I am driven to learn and enter the next exciting phase of my academic journey.
I understand that many projects I am currently making are starter-level. However, I always tell myself: I must start somewhere. Practice makes perfect, and I am not afraid of trying different things and making mistakes. I have been and will continue exploring gaming and its positive influence on people. The ultimate goal is to create more games that promote learning in various backgrounds.