=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2451/paper-12
|storemode=property
|title=Knowledge-based Development of Games Using Design Patterns Ontology
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2451/paper-12.pdf
|volume=Vol-2451
|authors=Barbara Giżycka,Grzegorz J. Nalepa,Krzysztof Kutt
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/i-semantics/GizyckaNK19
}}
==Knowledge-based Development of Games Using Design Patterns Ontology==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2451/paper-12.pdf
Knowledge-based Development
of Games Using Design Patterns Ontology?
Barbara Giżycka[0000−0001−7540−3662],
[0000−0001−5453−9763]
Krzysztof Kutt , and Grzegorz J. Nalepa[0000−0002−8182−4225]
AGH University of Science and Technology
{bgizycka,kkutt,gjn}@agh.edu.pl
Abstract. Tools for automatization of knowledge on game mechanics and
their interrelationships are still lacking. Game design patterns, as proposed
by Björk and Holopainen, seem promising in this area, as they can be rep-
resented formally as an ontology. This paper presents our proposal of such a
representation, developed using OWL2. We discuss the design of the ontology,
and demonstrate how it can be used to conceptualize the design of a classic
video game. In the future, the ontology will provide a knowledge base for a
new tool for game developers, in order to enable more complex, interesting
and emergent game design.
Keywords: ontologies · knowledge-based automation · design process · game
design · design patterns
1 Introduction
Modern game designers have a multitude of tools for game design and development at
their disposal. Nevertheless, a proper and consistent way of capturing their knowledge
on game mechanics has not been established yet. Nowadays, there is a persistent
need for formally (or at least semi-formally) defined knowledge base for game design.
A partial solution has already been suggested by S. Björk and J. Holopainen [2] in
the form of game design patterns (GDPs).
A pattern is defined as a description of a part of the interaction that is possible in
the game. The idea refers to the patterns in software engineering [4]. In game design,
a pattern can be a description of a design solution, but also of game mechanics, game
elements, or general game design approaches. Two important features of the game
design patterns are that (1) they form hierarchies, and (2) they are connected within
a complex web of interrelationships. Patterns organized in a hierarchy help to reflect
various aspects of the game play, while different relationships mirror complex depen-
dencies between game elements. The structure of patterns closely resembles a structure
of an ontology, as understood from the viewpoint of knowledge engineering [7].
This paper provides a description of the GDPs’ ontology, developed as a basis for
a future ontology-based tool for game design and development. The GDPs are more
thoroughly described in Sec. 2. The description of the ontology itself is provided in
?
Supported by the AGH UST grant.
Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
2 B. Giżycka et al.
Sec. 3. To demonstrate how such a tool would work, a design of a classic video game
is described in terms of the patterns in Sec. 4, and a sample use case is provided in
Sec. 5. Related works are discussed in Sec. 6 and the paper is concluded in Sec. 7.
2 Game Design Patterns
The Game Design Patterns constitute a framework developed by [2]. Each pattern
describes an aspect or element of game play. Each of the patterns is linked with at
least several others by means of 3 forms of specified relationships.
In this framework, Instantiating means that one pattern is referring to an area
of game play that is more general or abstract to the other: for example, a pattern
Score, which refers to the numerical representation of player’s performance, often
might instantiate Collecting – as it is an action of acquiring game elements that
add points to the score. Modulating describes a reverse, in a sense, situation, where a
“sub-pattern” fine-tunes the more abstract one – a pattern Privileged Movements
modulates a pattern Movement. Potentially conflicting patterns are ones that pos-
sibly form a contradiction. For example, a pattern Perfect Information, where
the player is provided with complete information about the game state, potentially
conflicts with Randomness.
There is a demand for a representation of knowledge more structured than a
loose collection provided by [2]. Knowledge-based tools developed thanks to these
representations could simplify the design process. In order to reflect the concept of
game design patterns, it seems that ontologies provide a promising solution.
3 Knowledge representation for game design – ontology
The ontology1 consists of a one global GDP class, 38 subclasses and 296 instances.
The subclasses are all disjoint. Each subclass comprises of a group of patterns that are
related to a certain area of game play. The patterns themselves are instances in the
ontology. Each pattern possesses three string-type annotations: a label, a comment
with a brief description of the pattern, and an example of a specific application of it (see
Fig. 1). Fig. 2 provides a glimpse of a small fragment of the visualization of the ontology.
The relationships between the patterns are described as object properties. Instanti-
ates and Instantiated by as well as Modulates and Modulated by are properties inverse
one of another. These pairings have 3026 and 2864 uses in the ontology, respectively.
The Potentially conflicting with relation is symmetrical. 1036 uses (potential conflicts
between patterns) are specified in the ontology. For all of the object properties, the
domain and range are provided by the global GDP class.
4 Pattern-based design conceptualization of a video game
The game design patterns were developed with two main purposes in mind: for game
designing, but also for game analysis. Setting out from a single pattern, and following
1
The full ontology is available on request at author’s website, see: https:
//www.affcai.eu/doku.php?id=sci:ontology.
Knowledge-based Development of Games Using Design Patterns Ontology 3
Fig. 1. An example of a pattern instance, as presented by Protégé interface.
Fig. 2. A zoom on the fragment of the GDP ontology.
the suggested relationships, one is able to describe each aspect of the game play. This
section provides an exemplary analysis of a classic arcade game, Pac-Man (see Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. A screenshot of Pac-Man remake by Neave Games from 2016.
Briefly speaking, Pac-Man is a game where the player navigates through a maze
and collects pills. The goal of the game is to ‘eat’ all of the pills on the level. The
player is impeded by four ghosts that chase the player’s avatar. For collecting the
pills and fruits, the player is rewarded with points that are added to their score.
In this basic description of the game, one can already identify numerous design
patterns. Patterns Movement and Collecting reflect the core of the Pac-Man’s
4 B. Giżycka et al.
game play. Score instantiates Collecting, which is instantiated by, i.e., Pick-Ups
that can be collected. On the other hand, Collecting modulates Character Devel-
opment. For a short duration, eating power pills in Pac-Man enables eating ghosts,
which can be perceived as a temporary development of the character. Score in
Pac-Man will stand in opposition to Save-Load Cycles – the player cannot create
save points for any game states to load them later. For a graphical aid of Pac-Man’s
pattern relations, refer to Fig. 2.
5 Practical application – example use cases
The Game Design Patterns Ontology was prepared using the OWL 2 Web Ontology
Language, and as such can be further processed, e.g. with the use of SPARQL. This
allows (semi-)automatic processing of the developed game project. To provide an
intuition on how the design process can be improved by the proposed ontology, a
sample query is presented in this section (see Listing 1.1). The use case relates to a
situation when a game designer wants to check for potential conflicts in the prepared
game design.
1 PREFIX rdf: < http :// www . w3 . org /1999/02/22 - rdf - syntax - ns # >
2 PREFIX owl: < http :// www . w3 . org /2002/07/ owl # >
3 PREFIX rdfs: < http :// www . w3 . org /2000/01/ rdf - schema # >
4 PREFIX xsd: < http :// www . w3 . org /2001/ XMLSchema # >
5 PREFIX gdp: < https :// geist . re / gdp # >
6 ASK {
7 ?subject gdp:p o t e n t i a l l y _ c o n f l i c t i n g _ w i t h ?object .
8 FILTER (?subject IN (gdp:score , gdp:collecting , gdp:save - load_cycles ) )
9 FILTER (?object IN (gdp:score , gdp:collecting , gdp:save - load_cycles ) )
10 }
Listing 1.1. Check if there are any conflicts in a given set.
The query in 1.1 will check if, in a given set of patterns (here Score, Collecting,
and Save-Load Cycles), any two of them are in a Potentially conflicting relation-
ship, either as a subject or an object (mind the symmetry of the relation). In this
case, the query will return TRUE (see Sec. 4 for explanation).
6 Discussion and Related Works
Several similar works regarding ontologies were selected and discussed in the light of the
one proposed in this paper. For starters, MOUDIL [3] is a framework for building pat-
terns in Human-Computer Interaction. The authors provide a tool for pattern edition,
as well as building a pattern ontology. Appropriate visualization of the ontology might
be beneficial in terms of gaining an understanding by the ontology user [8]. In [5], it is
suggested that ontology-based tools have to be subjected to utility assessment. A more
systematic approach to ontology-based tools development, using user-centered scenar-
ios is proposed. A need for consideration of guidelines developed in the area of Human-
Computer Interaction, as well as for more automation of the design process [11] is
expressed. In the area of video games, The Video Game Ontology is proposed [1]. How-
ever, compared to GDP ontology, it is focused on structural elements of games, game
events and player behavior, and lacks insight into the mechanics and design solutions.
Knowledge-based Development of Games Using Design Patterns Ontology 5
7 Conclusion and Future Plans
In this paper, a new ontology for game design patterns has been described. Following
the explanation of the underlying concept of patterns in game design, an exemplary
analysis of a classic arcade game has been provided. Finally, a detailed characterization
of the ontology has been presented.
In order to bring the ontology to the developers, future works include creating
an ontology-based tool. Our main focus are complex adaptive systems, with a special
emphasis on engaging the user’s emotion to be the motor of the adaptation. For
a designer of such affective video games, an ontology extended with information
on emotional change’s caused by pattern implementation could help to develop an
emotion model of either the player, or the game world itself [6]. As such, the designer
would be aided in modeling the emotion that he intends to evoke in the player, by using
specific patterns to, i.e., raise the player’s arousal level [10]. We recognize possibility
to use other ontologies [9,1]. Processing the ontology and improving the game design,
as presented in the article, will therefore not only concern the mechanics itself, but
also emotions, which will definitely form a new approach towards video game design.
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