CARING FOR NPCS - You need the ILLUSION OF LIFE, and then it's just a matter of giving opportunities for caring...
ILLUSION OF LIFE - This is "Internal Logic" + "Internal Chaos" arranged just so.
INTERNAL LOGIC - How do you create this?
INTERNAL CHAOS - I think I really need to define this one

Yes, I need some more patterns for relying on NPCs - there's illusion of life but also "RELYING ON SYSTEMS" or something like that? Hmm

Regarding Vsauce's "Do Chairs Exist?"

I wrote a basic description of my relationship to Patterns in the Tenets forum. Click on the link above to go to that thread and read about it.

The funny thing about patterns is that I haven't even read A Pattern Language, the book which seems most often cited in regard to this, yet. But I have read The Timeless Way of Building, which introduces the conceptual framework which surrounds patterns.

Quote from: i asked on twitteri'm thinking about games with 'replaceable' characters with no unique authored content that you still can get attached to over the course of a game. some games on my mind:

- X-COM
- Etrian Odyssey
- Animal Crossing (villagers)
- Pokémon
- Dwarf Fortress

got any other good examples for me?

my tweet

Load of regular clothing

-Cotton/Normal
-Tap cold
-Medium spin
-Put detergent in, let cup drip as much as possible, stick cup in machine

When done, clothes are clean and wet. Hang immediately

Heat milk to 80 c

Let cool to 42 c
At the same time, bring out yogurt (must have active cultures) to let warm
(Takes about 50-60 minutes)

Swirl in 1-2 tbsp yogurt
Instant pot 'yogurt' - leave on venting.

Mousse - would not get it again

*took Shelley 4-5 days to eat it all, very filling
*it was nice, smooth texture

EXERCISE 11: EMERGENT NARRATIVE PATTERNS

Seems ridiculous at first glance, to use this exercise about emergent narratives to explore games with massively long main quests, but it was the most obviously appropriate and... you know, in its own way, an extremely long game is absolutely a feature of an emergent narrative: that it takes a long time. It's not really unexpected, because it averages out over a long period of time. But it describes an experiential quality which emerges from the rules.

Name: I Won't Just Wait Around

Confidence: 3



Author: droqen
Design problem: It's hard to make a player partake in low-stakes activities in a game where most actions are high-stakes
Description: To get an optimization-minded player to relax and smell the roses, the designer may want to make the optimal way to play involve some downtime.

Games that use this pattern and how:

everquest. Combat in this game involves the expenditure of health and mana, resources which take time to replenish. While waiting for these resources to return, players have downtime in which many activities are still available, just not combat. In particular, the way to optimize recovery rate is the sit action, which disables certain actions and places a priority on the UI, especially socializing and inventory/character management.

starseed pilgrim. When a player runs out of seeds, and to a lesser extent when they plant certain slow-growing seeds, they must wait for their existing 'plants' to grow before continuing to act. The real-time pressure is continuous, but this affords the player significant time to take in the ambience and/or think about their situation, without feeling as though they are playing non-optimally.

regarding Christopher Alexander's The Timeless Way of Building
and Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein's A Pattern Language

Quote from: The Timeless Way of BuildingON READING THIS BOOK

What lies in this book is perhaps more important as a whole than in its details. If you only have an hour to spend on it, it makes much more sense to read the whole book roughly in that hour, than to read only the first two chapters in detail. [..] If you read the beginning and end of each chapter, and the italic headlines that lie between them, turning the pages almost as fast as you can, you will be able to get the overall structure of the book in less than an hour.

THIS IS HOW I READ BOOKS ANYWAY, THANK YOU FOR WRITING THE BOOK FOR ME OMG

~ backlinked from FIRST, DO IT ALL IN ONE HORRIBLE MESSY GO.

I spent the day playing around with mockups and compositions, but they were lacking... something. I realized that that 'something' is, first of all, game design and not art design, and I need to acknowledge that when I'm doing composition-work I can still count that as a success if I don't solve game design problems... but, that aside, I think what I was missing game design-wise was a locked door.

Maybe I should make a pattern out of this...

For now, I'll just say that in particular, a locked door represents an inviting and simple and impossible challenge: without the key, you cannot open a locked door. But you can! You can force it open, you can pick the lock, you can find another way around. You can also do some things with a locked door even if you can't open it. You can look at it and admire the outer surface. You can jiggle the handle. The space behind the door is implied but invisible -- except maybe you can peek through the keyhole to catch an unsatisfying glimpse of what's on the other side.

i can't quite ... i've been trying to figure out a name for this genre of feeling ... but i can't. maybe i need to take a look at some pattern language for game design exercises.

a game that has a real-time pressure to make decisions and engage with systems optimally, but there's some 'play', some downtime - and activities to fill that downtime with something.

Quote from: droqena game is some materials, as well as – perhaps – an invitation to play with those materials in combination with other materials

link to full comment on electrondance.com

I had just started reading Play Anything when I wrote this, so it bears some strong similarity to the content of that book, which discusses playgrounds -- magic circles circumscribed around real things, anything -- and then engaging with those playgrounds. Playing.

But to take this a step further, everything is just materials, and I suppose that an artwork is always some combination of materials and invitation to do something with them. The painting that hangs in a museum is a material (paint on canvas, canvas in frame, frame within room inside building) as well as an invitation to look at and think about those materials, what they represent, why they are here.

The first chapter in Play Anything is entitled Everywhere, Playgrounds.

I recognize this and love it, but as an artist I find myself thinking Everywhere, opportunities to make invitations.

Quote from: C. Thi Nguyen @ 19:15 ishimpossible to be intellectually autonomous.. If you still hold to the old ideal of intellectual autonomy, of everyone can understand everything, what you get is being driven to anti-vaxing, and various conspiracy theories, in which you reject trust in the sciences.

Ingredients
2 (12 oz) Ribeye or New York strip steaks (about 1 1/4-inches thick)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

Instructions

• Let steaks rest at room temperature 30 minutes.
• Heat vegetable oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat (you want to let it get hot oil should be shimmering near smoking, preheating should take about 3 minutes if using a gas stove, longer for electric).
• Dab both sides of steak dry with paper towels then season both sides with salt and pepper.
• Place steaks in skillet and using metal tongs press down over top surface of steaks to ensure the entire bottom surface is making direct contact with skillet.
• Let cook until browned on bottom, about 3 minutes.
• Flip and continue to cook until steak is about 10 degrees away from desired doneness, approximately 3 minutes longer.
• Reduce heat to medium-low, add butter, garlic and thyme.
• Using an oven mitt grasp pan and tilt pan so butter pools to one side, spoon butter over steaks and continue to cook until steaks registers desired doneness (see notes below for temps, keep in mind they'll rise about 5 more degrees of heat), about 1 minute longer.
• Transfer to plates. Let rest 5 minutes before slicing.

Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower, broken into florets
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon each cayenne pepper, curry powder and white pepper
Minced fresh parsley, optional

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine cauliflower, onion, broth and bouillon. Cover and cook over medium heat until vegetables are tender.

2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour until smooth; gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; cook and stir until thickened, 2-3 minutes. Reduce heat; stir in cheese until melted. Add seasonings. Pour into cauliflower mixture. Simmer slowly for 30 minutes (do not boil). If desired, sprinkle with parsley.

I had an interview for a job I wanted, and I met a couple people over Zoom, and in that moment, I knew I was being judged to some degree. The emotions in that moment were like those in a game of Mafia. Afterwards, even though I had the feeling I'd botched it a bit (I was nervous, and also I'm still not sure I have enough of the relevant experience to be considered a real candidate), i revelled in this lingering adrenaline rush.

Adrenaline rush.

It made me think about the way daredevils jump off buildings to feel that thrill: do I relish that feeling in social interactions? That same thrill is present when entering an unknown, but important, social environment.

Perhaps I get the same thrill out of designing & then publicly releasing super weird videogames -- they are like dares for others to judge them, and to some degree, me by extension.

I'll think more on this sometime.

I have always been interested in routine, in processes -- not just in art (as in 'creative process') but everywhere. Walking around the city, I find mundane things catch my eye as much as anything else. Who decided to put this garbage bin here, and who uses it? Does anyone ever unlock this door, and for what purpose? I want to play more games like this, games not about their systems but about the people who made those systems and the people who live in them. The thing that's very exciting about games is that the player, the person appreciating the art, is part of the art. You're living in the thing that you're called upon to appreciate.