The web site of grousesite

1. about virtual worlds

Any computer as a whole is a virtual world. On startup, the computer boots up the operating system, where objects are arranged in some specific form of organization. New objects can be created and objects can be rearranged. There are some things in the operating system that are load bearing, and resist being rearranged. Moving or deleting some of these objects breaks the world. But this is neither here nor there. The meaning of a virtual world to me is some kind of digital environment. Through an operating system, programs can be accessed, in windows, which are each their own sort of world, but these windows all live inside the overarching world of the operating system. There are of course programs which exist in more than one operating system, but each variation of these programs is built specifically for that operating system, and have subtle differences, which is why, the operating system is the most influential type of virtual world. It is interesting that there are three types of popular operating systems, (Mac, Windows, Linux) which have varying degrees of complexity and customizability. The type of operating system which is being used has an effect on what type of thing is eventually made with the machine, as what can be done and what files can be opened (and how easily they can be opened) using each operating system differs. The operating system is a type of medium which is hardly ever taken note of.

2. map

I like the idea of drawing out a bare framework and then messing with the skin of it to achieve different results in game. For instance if this were a physical map of a tunnel system, with levers to open secret passageways (the dotted lines) which lead to other passageways, and the endings were physical rooms, this map would have a very different effect than if the different paths were something like different timelines, with the endings being different results. I think that a physical tunnel system is more appealing to me in relation to this map specifically because I like the shape of it and I think it should exist in physical space. The events I imagine to be creatures which could be reasoned with or maybe battled. In this way, the different routes are both spatial and temporal, because the route you end up on would relate to your decisions/characterization as well as the path traveled.

I am making a prototype of this here -- currently broken I was spending too much time on it so I stopped working and left it in a broken state lol

4. solitaire / sierpinski's triangle

Had the idea to make spider solitaire, so I made the image below in unity.

Started like this but then realized I wanted to make it a completely different way, also need to know more C#, I think. So I messed around with unity for a couple hours, didn't really succeed at anything. I am going to do a few more tutorials but I haven't really had the chance to do that yet.

In the meantime I also made some javascript scripts (I am more proficient in javascript) that generate seirpinski's triangle type fractals. Started because I wanted to find out what would happen if a seirpinski's triangle was drawn with 3 potential spokes coming out of each point except two; the ruleset:

if a point is connected to the row above by 3 spokes, no spokes come out of the point.
if a point is connected to the row above by 2 spokes, 2 spokes come out of the point.
if a point is connected to the row above by 1 spoke, 3 spokes come out of the point.

^ here's the result of drawing that and coloring it in according to how big the open spaces are, but I wanted to make them with javascript because drawing is too slow and it wasn't clear what the pattern looks like without a drawing bigger than I care to spend time on... so here are the pages containing my triangles:

This one uses the ruleset above.

Alternate rules where 0 spokes -> 1 spoke

Here's an animated verion where after the first triangle is generated, the next frame is generated using the same rules but bottom to top, so that there is fresh information with which to make new patterns. Uses the first ruleset.

These are all made using nothing but monospace type and javascript

There is definitley more room to explore here, and I'd like to make it interactive in some way (like being able to change the amount of spokes/the rules/the colors/whatever yourself w/ a dropdown menu). I also want to make a better animated version, one that is more clear about how it works (maybe by generating a line at a time), as I'm not so satisfied with the impression of random generation it's presenting itself as now.
Broader than that, though, although these generations are maybe not very interesting to anyone but me.... I do really like the monospace type format. I was inspired by a browser game I love called a dark room and it would be cool to maybe make something similar. I wonder if I could use the fractals I generated as a sort of landscape in which generated things could occur?
To conclude, I'm just sort of messing around right now and haven't settled on an idea for a project yet.

bonus (5 spokes)

5. wizard game

This week I stopped fooling around and made a really simple game where you collect 1 orb for a wizard. It is simple but it works... I should have just done this from the beginning instead of thinking of my other silly ideas because now I am definitley behind, have made something simple, and am having a hard time connecting this to the topic of the lecture last week (see below). But that is ok. Maybe I can still integrate my previous ideas into this kind of game somehow.

Images:

about control:

Not sure what to say. A game is a closed environment where the only option is to comply with its rules or exit. That's how a game coerces the player in a way where the player thinks they are uncoerced. We just read the Deleuze essay about societies of control in my new media class, coincidentally. It's not like this wizard game is anything special but it is true that there is nothing that can be done in it except pick up the wizard's orb. He is also standing right next to it, which means he is coercing you into doing an easily accomplished menial task for him. Of course the game doesn't offer you anything in return except an experience, which is different from monetary/social coercion like social media conglomerates, for instance, utilize.

6. wizard game additions

Here's a link to a complete playthrough of my game so far.

I'm pretty worried about the fact that it doesn't look like I did much, but I also spent a stupidly long time on dead ends. I coded the animation where he flies into the sky, and for some reason figuring out how to get it to work the way I wanted was really difficult, especially since I forgot about needing to specify that the transform coordinates were related to the world coordinates and not the object, so I spent a very long time trying to code something to cancel out the spinning so he didn't just fly in a circle, which was stupid! But I feel like I have a much better grip on the way unity works now. You can see I added that red telephone, and I have a plan for what will happen next in the game, which involves it.

7. Idea for final game (midterm)

The above image is some expository text for what I am planning on making. Probably, it will start like this.

Basically, what's interesting to me about virtual worlds is the simulation aspect - that is, simulation without buying into the idea that the simulation is unequivically representational of something else sensible. I like mathematics without meaning, but I also like mathematics that seem to have meaning. I like when meaning is applied to some simulation and that meaning leaks back out and affects the world, making it more like the simulation. This is great because although the simulation is then still accurate to the world, its status as something objective, truthful, and predictive, is deflated. Then the simulation gains some autonomy - it's no longer a scientific predictive tool but instead its own causal agent.

That autonomy isn't specific to things which are supposed to imitate the physical. Simulations, strictly tied to physical laws or not, also have a sort of sensation of touch tied to them, which interests me. An example of this is the way a body is extended into a video game character, but it's broader than that. Really, the sensation of touch I'm talking about is a characteristic of formulas, which of course make up simulations and video games. This -> That. A formula is something which can be applied to any data to convert it according to itself, which is what makes it so similar to a sense organ. Really, a sense organ is a formula, and a formula is a sense organ.

I started working on this game today. I wrote a shader script (with the help of some tutorials) that translates depth into value, and applied it to the camera.

^ This is the view with no shader

^ The shader does this.

^ I made this in photoshop, it is what I actually want the game to look like. I am working on doing this. Might need help.

The reason I want the graphics to be binary + dithered is that I think it has more of a sensory/formulaic/mathematical/abstract (lol) implication than grayscale does. Also thinking about the emmision theory of vision where it was theorized that vision worked via rays that extended from the eye.I think the player character's vision works something like this.

^ image from wikipedia

You may have noticed that there is definitley perspective present here, although the exposition says the player character doesn't sense perspective. Not sure what to do about this. I may just leave it as I want the layout of the world to be legible to the actual human player. Also may design my models to minimize the sense of perspective. Or maybe make the camera orthographic, as seen below. Leaning toward this.

Gameplay-wise, my ideas are vague. I know that there will be a lot of tunnels involved. Also I am interested in forks in tunnels. Any road with two options that look identical is cool, because the player has to use their gut to decide which way to go, instead of any sense of purpose, goal, etc. But forks get tiring quickly, especially if you are trying to experience everything in a game. So i'm not sure what the gameplay will mostly be. Fortunatley I think the visuals + setting will be interesting and confusing enough on their own that I can keep the gameplay rather simple. It will definitley be controlled via point and click, but with some 3d environments.

^This is a map I made earlier in the semester that I liked and think I will probably make use of somehow

I'm going to end with a few links of refrences to go through, most to least influential.

Club Penguin secret mission 8: mysterious tremors cave [1] [2]. This is actually a big influence, especially the control scheme of the seret missions.

nutty putty cave video (classic)

ted the caver, a bigger classic, but not to me

what earth would be like with no moon

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