Games Pointers @ TECFA
See also Emotions, affect, affective computing, flow, creativity.
At Tecfa there are some people who play games. Some are very interested in
design principles that can be used to build educational software, in
particular truly interactive educational multi-user "worlds".
This is no general games page. Only games and technology that are installed here or that
attract our conceptual and technical interest are listed. In addition, this
page was a quick & dirty effort in order to have something. It's not my
area and updates happen only sporadically :)
Documentation
For specific games see below in the Games section (if you are lucky).
Games engines are in the software section. Resource sites are in the
links section at the end ! Here you get articles and FAQs (basically).
General
See also the software section for more technical issues
Educational / Edutainment / simulation
... need more here ...
- Soapbox:
Learning to Play to Learn - Lessons in Educational Game Design by By Nick Fortugno
and Eric Zimmerman, @ Gamasutra, April 2005
- Serious Games: Improving Public Policy through Game-Based Learning and Simulation. Whitepater, The "Virtual U" game and more.
- Seas Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation, is a business and an economic war-gaming environment developed at Purdue University in close association with the Department of Defense.
- The Game of Diplomacy (made 20 years ago)
- Robocode, A game to learn programming in Java
- "Cyber-games make children brighter", UK Sunday Times artile, by J. Leake (July 22 2001). See related Slashdot discussion
- "Edutainment" : les raisons d'un succès InterFace article by Mendelsohn et Jermann, TECFA :)
- Möglichkeiten des computergestützten Sprachlernens im Rahmen
des Erwerbs der englischen Sprache von Jörg Salzmann, 1998, Technical University, Berlin
- E-GEMS Electronic Games for Education in Math and Science. A team doing R&D in this area. See articles and links !!
- Beyond Edutainment and Technotainmentarticle by Jamie McKenzie
- 10th Floor: Technology and Learning Testimony to the US Congress, House of Representatives
Joint Hearing on Educational Technology in the 21st Century
by Chris Dede, George Mason University (has a paragraph on cyberspace edutainment). See also his The Transformation of Distance Education to Distributed Learning
- Definitions: Definitionby Aleta McCallum-Fournier - Edutainment ? short statement by M.Nilsen
- That's Edutainment short article by John Houston on a Adventure Games portal
- An Analysis of Narrative-based Educational Software: A Work In Progress by David Noah, Univ. of Georgia (abstract)
- Gamers get into 'The Zone', BBC article, see also slashdot discussion of this.
Interactive Fiction:
See also Muds, MOOs and such which are not covered here
Rogue Like Games
A long time ago, on a computer system far, far, away, there was Rogue. Players
wandered a dungeon, hacking and slashing at monsters, gaining treasures, becoming
more powerful, and living their D&D nightmares.
Multi-user Dungeons (MUDs) and related
A MUD (Multiple User Dimension, Multiple User Dungeon, or Multiple User Dialogue) is a computer program which users can
log into and explore. Each user takes control of a computerized persona/avatar/incarnation/character. You can walk around,
chat with other characters, explore dangerous monster-infested areas, solve puzzles, and even create your very own rooms,
descriptions and items.
MMORPGs
The more "modern version" of MUDs. Needs more articles ...
Strategy / Simulation
Arcade Games
Some Games
Focus on either free (for source code) or Internet games (for multi-user
design aspects). For cheats, walkthroughs etc. you can also consult
general game portals or specialized sites likegamefaqs.com.
Rogue-like Games
Rogue-like games are grid AND character/tiles based (the grid is typically the
size of an old terminal).
Interactive Fiction
This is totally incomplete.
- GLIDE (provisional testbed, a IF story under construction made with Flash (3/2001)
- Chroma (needs very latest Shockwave)
- Girlfriend Construction Set Girlfriend Construction Set is designed especially for all pencil neck computer geeks who can't get a date. Free / Shareware
Strategy Games
RPG, Quest and Mystery games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)
Mostly commercial, generally needs a low priced client + monthly connection fees. However, there are an increasing amount of free systems out there (2004), some still in alpha/beta but usable.
- RuneScape is a Java-based MMOG that can be played for free (but for $5/month one can access more features). [tested 2004]
- GuildWars is a free system in alpha (2003/4), first beta announced for october 2004, release in early 2005.
- Eternal Lands Eternal Lands is a free mmorpg (massive multiplay online role playing game) currently under development. The game is now in Beta stage (Aug 2004) but can be used. Later, there may be a paid version.
- Carnage Blender Browser-based game, fee (not tested, Aug 2004)
- ATITD is a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, A Tale in the Desert, produced by egenesis is a "social game" (no combat). Tale2 is in beta on aug 2004, Commercial (first month free ?).
- SecondLife, commercial MMORPG. Quote: " Second Life is an online digital world, built, shaped, and owned by its participants. Create a shared reality in a world full of people, activities, adventure, and fun. If you are a designer, programmer, or inventor you will be blown away by the variety of opportunities Second Life provides." Supports LSL (Linden Scripting Language). See also: SLUniverse and LSL Wiki. [2004, this is quite close to what could be done in a MOO)]
- Ultima OnLine The known grandmother of Online RP Games (needs purchase of client and monthly fee).
- Everquest, Ultima Online like (but more sophisticated)
- Entropia, free client and connection, but you probably have to spend real dollars to buy play dollers.
- Lineage, Ultima like, probably one of the largest community online
- Review of Anarchy Online (Futurist RPG, state of the art Massive Multi Player in 2002)
- Star Wars Galaxy (Sony/Lucas state of the art 2002 MMORPG)
- Dark Age of Camelot. See also a gamespot review of Dark Ages of Camelot. Probably the most sophisticated on-line game in fall 2001.
- (Announcement) for World of Warcraft 2001, scheduled for 2004 (?)
- EVE Online. Release for 2003 ??
- Second Life commercial online digital world, built, shaped, and owned by its participants.
- The Lord of the Rings: Middle-Earth Online (MEO). Commercial, set for release in 2005, by Turbine and is being published by Vivendi Universal Games.
Various on-line many-player strategy & RPG games
A lot can be played with a web client.
- Games > Internet INDEX at Google directory
- DragonRealms is probably one of the most succesful graphical & commercial MUD games: Home Page
There are other games at
Simutronics
- Mimesis, an other new one (7/2001)
- Avalon An other famous Mud-like multiplayer GameWorld. Special Java or mud clients
- GameSpot's Guide to UO
- WinBolo (PC client game)
- StarShipTraders
- Tradewars Index and
TWGS Tradewards and
TradeWars 2
(pre-Internet Classic)
- Merchant Empires: Multiplayer, web-based game of space exploration and economic competition. It is a game of strategy, role-playing, combat, and diplomacy. Merchant Empires is loosely based on both Trade Wars and Space Merchant.
- ArchMage (web-based strategy game)
- BlackNova Traders, strategy game, loosely based on the old BBS games of Tradewars,
Galactic Warzone, and Ultimate Universe
- Earth 2025 and
Utopia
(web-based strategy games)
- Space Pirate
- LegendMud is a simple, but well done MUD
- Eternal City (ColdX based MUD)
- Egoboo is a 3D MUD
- Urban Dominion, MMOG First Person Shooter with Parallel Distributed Management System (PDMS) technology. Engine is Quake 2 like. Game is GPL, PDMS is closed source. (3/2003). Not yet released.
Various games to sort out
Video Games
Video Games online
(e.g Flash, Java made stuff)
Software
This is for people who want to write games ...
General resources for Developers
Text Interactive Fiction engines
There are big three: Hugo, Inform and TADS.
- TADS TADS is a freeware programming system that can help you create high-quality interactive fiction. This site is devoted to news and information about TADS. See also Neil's TADS Site
- Cloak of Darkness article by Roger Firth testing the same game with different systems
- Infocom's Z-Machine as an applet: Revenge of the Z-Machine. You can see a nice example with
at the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by now gone Douglas Adam.
- JACL, Adventure Creation Language (Web/Html forms interface with an Apache/FastCGI Server). Tested @ Tecfa, worked at some point (not updated since 2002 ?), Local user guide
- Cycon Online Gaming Engine, "aimed at simplifying the creation of online
video games. Users can make their own video games with no programming experience
necessary, with a target audience ranging from children to gurus. Games can be played in a
web brower (no software installation necessary!), and native ports are planned for
Linux/GTK, Windows, PalmOS, and PocketLinux" (not updated since 2002 ?)
- Quest, complete single-player and multi-player text adventure game system, with easy-to-use visual editor. Free version and Pro Version $19.99 (not tested 7/2002)
- StoryHarp, Audioventure Authoring System adds the dimension of voice to interactive fiction development (not tested, 7/2002)
2D Interactive Fiction /RPG engines
Just the ones I looked at ... (see indexes for more)
- Indiana Java Simple 2D graphic adventure games. Written Java. Freely available but no source code.
See also: this site
Tested: works fine
- Amoeba is based on Mozilla's XUL. Interesting project for tile-based RPG games. Early prototypes on 1/2001.
- See also:Building a Game with Mozilla (2 parts O'Reilly article). Shows how to implement a PacMan
- Sarien - A Sierra AGI resource interpreter engine
- Adventure Maker
claims to be "one of the fastest, most powerful, and less expensive toolkits to create games and multimedia software" ($29 to $149 - 7/2002, not tested)
- RPG Maker 2000 (RM2K)
- mad adventure game engine. Mad is a powerful open-source adventure game engine and interpreter, ideally suited for old (non-parser) Sierra-style (King's
Quest, Hero's Quest, Space Quest, etc...) adventures, but can be
adjusted to other tastes as well.
- Inform (one of the classic engines)
- Inform en français ! Voir aussi Interactive Fiction (anamnese).
- Agast Adventure Game Authoring System for Sierra-like (free for non-profit)
- AGE, Adventure Game Engine from Twilight Software.
- ScummVM is a 'virtual machine' for several classic graphical point-and-click adventure games.
- Arianne is a multiplayer online engine to develop turn based and real time games providing a simple way of creating games using Python for games description. Marauroa, our server, uses Java, MySQL, UDP and Python for hosting dozens of players.
2D Video Games Creation
3D Games Creation Systems
- For 3D engines see the 3D Engines List. For free engines, search through sourceforge.net
- 3DEngindes Database at DevMaster.net has a very good list (including free ones)
- The 3D Gamemaker (system for building shooting games). Windows, $50, good value/price
- 3D GameStudio
3D GameStudio is a commercial authoring system for
creating computer games with either (a) click together,
(b) a javascript-style language or (c) C++. It combines a high-end 3D engine, a 2D engine, a physics engine, a map and model editor, a script compiler and huge libraries of 3D objects, artwork and pre-made games.
- Genesis 3D Engine (open source) . See also Jet3D (successor)
-
WildTangent (Genesis over the Web, for Win machines only, Scriping API for several languages, including JavaScript )
See also lesson 118 at webreference.com.
- Unreality
- Quake II source from idsoftis available under GPL
- Criterion Software sells RenderWare3
- EGGG Extensible
Graphical Game Generator (MIT PhD project, dead project ?)
- Blender 3D Creation Software, complete 3d game animation suite. SGI, Sun, Linux, BeOS, Windows (openGL based). Blender.nl went out of buisiness BUT it has been GPLed in oct/2002 :). There is an X3D exporter (i.e. you can use Blender as modeler).
Il existe un site pour francophones.
- Nevrax has the "NEL" GPLd platform for persistent worlds at http://www.nevrax.org/ (server and client !). C++
- FreeCraft free cross-platform real-time engine. (beta on 7/01). See also http://freecraft.org/
- OpenRPG OpenRPG is an Internet application that allows people to play Role Playing Games in real-time over the Internet (alpha on 7/01)
- Nevrax wants to build the finest platform for digital environments (Masively Multi-user)
- Pie in the Sky Game Creation System is a set of software tools which enable people to create 3D action games with no programming ($70 base version, not tested 7/2002)
- Adventure Game Studio (AGS for short) allows you to create your own
point-and-click adventure games, similar to the early 90's Sierra and Lucasarts
adventures.
- Sphere
- Verge
Game programming with Java, C or C++
Story Board writing
(mostly commerical software not just for games, also for films and text, more at the Writer's Store)
Multi-Player
Most
MUD/MOO/etc resources are excluded here because I have some other resource pages with these.
Other stuff
mostly articles
Links/indexes
This section contains pointers to general portals, efficient index sites
and specialized index and portal sites.
Big Portals for Users
All can be useful, some use tiny Krosoft fonts or have other annoying features.
General Designer Indexes
see also the software section
Various Indexes
fast things and basically links
Educational / Edutainment
- Serious Games The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy.
- Simulation & Games for Education a Insead/CALT index page
- A related issue is media education and literacy, SEE: Media Awareness Network edia education and media issues (also in French!) -
Center for Media Literacy -
The Media Literacy Online Project -
Center for Media Education
- Lucas Learning A company by guess who ...
- Simon and Schuster Interactive, a company
- Missing: Kutoka, Scholastic, Borderbund, Humongous, Disney, Tivola
- Educational Games at DMOZ (just a few games)
- E-GEMS Electronic Games for Education in Math and Science. A team doing R&D in this area. See articles and links !! (yet another frame-based site)
Interactive Fiction:
Rogue Like Games
Multi-user Dungeons and related
3D Game servers and pro gaming
Game research, academic issues
- Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is a non-profit, international association of academics and practitioners whose work focuses on digital games and associated activities.
- Game Culture : central information resource for academics, developers, gamers and other interested in the significance of computer games as a cultural phenomenon.
- Game Research : this site also attempts to bring information about the art, science and business of computer games.
Last modified: Tue Apr 12 13:31:22 MEST 2005
D.K.S.