Thursday, February 16, 2017

Day 91: FotLC through the 113 lenses from The Art of Game Design

Day 91 - Lens 26: The Lens of Functional Space
To use this lens, think about the space in which your game really takes place when all surface elements are stripped away. Ask yourself these questions:

Is the space of this game discrete or continuous?
Yes. Ok, that's a little confusing. My game features both discrete and continuous spaces. I seem to have broken all the rules when making this game. The playfield was once a set of discrete hex's but now it is a more complex hybrid. You can place your paths anywhere and position matters, so it's continuous. But, it is divided up into seven areas and whether your bases are in one area or another matters, so in that way it is discreet. The same is true for paths. They are discreet as being on a path makes you adjacent to other paths but it does not matter where on the path you are. But it is also continuous because if there is another player on the same path then they can block you, so position matters.

How many dimensions does it have?
Two. There is some stacking of pieces, but for the purpose of game play it's really just two.

What are the boundaries of the space?
The boundaries are marked on the board or are the edge of the pieces, but the board boundaries are loose and enforced by the scoring rules rather than by rules strictly defining them.

Are there sub-spaces? How are they connected?
Yes! Each path and base is a sub-space. And since the players can place and move these the play space is dynamic. It is defined in one way by the areas of the map which are static, but the movement of the pawn happens within the sub-space of the placed paths, bases and warriors. Sub spaces connect and disconnect as the players move paths and bases.

Is there more than one useful way to abstractly model the space of this game?
I think I want to draw out some diagrams of the connected points model and see if it shows anything about the game. I'll attach the sketches below after I finish them.

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