Open Data + Video Games = Win

Slides from our presentation on using open data, mostly from government, to make video games. Presented at the Open Knowledge Miniconf at Linux.conf.au 2016, in Geelong.

Transcript

2. Hi!
3. @desplesda @parisba
4. We make games, and write books.
9. Open Data + Video Games = Win
10. The Situation
11. Governments like the idea of open data
12. Hackathons are fashionable
13. The idea:
 1. Put a bunch of nerds in a room 2. Stew for 24-48 hours 3. Extract innovation
15. Australia/New Zealand-wide 
 "open government data sources" hackathon
16. Some really great stuff gets made
18. The problem with hackathons
19. Often very oriented around producing product-like results
20. But they're almost never followed up on
21. Game jams know this
22. Game jams aim to do two things…
23. 1. Make something
24. 2. Show something cool
25. Game jam games are made quickly and abandoned immediately.
27. Game jams are for practice, and for honing skills.
28. Why games?
29. Games matter. Even in serious environments.
30. Games teach.
31. Games are engaging.
32. What We Did
33. Twisted the concept into an excuse to have a game jam
34. … without being jerks
35. Conceiving of Game Ideas
36. Anything can be a game
37. Example: 
 Global Game Jam
38. • 2009 - "As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems" • 2010 - "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" and "Deception" • 2011 - "Extinction" • 2012 - An image of Ouroboros. • 2013 - Sound of a Heartbeat • 2014 - "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." • 2015 - "What do we do now?"
39. Every one of those resulted in awesome games
40. There’s no reason “taxes” can’t be an awesome theme for a game
41. Or census info
42. Or the energy efficiency ratings of household appliances
43. That last one is what we did …
45. “Appliances all have these stats on them…”
47. … and the Department of Industry, Innovation, and Science collects the stats for every device sold in Australia. https://data.gov.au/dataset/energy-rating-for-household-appliances
48. “Why don’t we make a Pokémon style creature- battle game?”
53. “A game in which players yell at each other about whose fault the problems are”
60. Actual politicians are really good at this game
61. https://twitter.com/parisba/status/498395309089648641 A real-life politician
62. “A quiz game about how elected politicians vote on the issues.”
64. Hansard
65. TheyVoteForYou
68. Also: Hansard is AMAZING DATA
71. Creating engaging games from dry concepts
72. Games are built out of systems
73. The world is built out of systems
74. Find the similarities and play with them
75. Preserving the spirit and meaning of your games
76. Don't try to model real- world processes
77. Taking liberties is absolutely fine
78. But not so far as to make the player lose sight of the underlying theme
79. You need to engage three groups of people
80. The player
81. Fellow participants
82. Whoever deals out the prizes
83. Multiplayer is the best way to do this
84. It's much easier to be fun
85. Removes a need to create an AI player
86. Fun to show in person
87. People want to see a game between players
88. Fun to show in demo videos
89. That said, multiplayer is HARD
90. Do local multiplayer if you can
91. Don't ever try to do stuff over the Internet
92. Turn based is easier than real time
93. If you must do real time, keep it simple
94. Don't get clever
95. Make assumptions about the environment
96. Ignore latency. You have unlimited bandwidth. Poll the server.
97. Don't try to prevent cheating.
98. Trust the client.
99. Forget long term balance and replayability.
100. Your players will spend no more than 15 minutes in the game.
101. You will never return to this code.
102. Make it work at all. Forget about making it work right.
103. Staying on-message
104. You need to remain relevant to the context of the event.
105. You're subversive enough just by doing a game
106. Don't get too weird with your idea…
107. This also helps to keep your design simple
108. Cut mercilessly
109. Cut often and early
110. Cut in the direction of the theme
111. Audio is absolutely vital
112. Jam Advice
113. Time is your enemy, but not in the way you think
114. Time limits foster deadline-oriented thinking
115. "We only have 48 hours! Engage crunch mode!"
116. All nighters are deceptive
117. You will never do your best work on an all nighter
119. Go home at night
120. Get a good night's sleep
121. Arrive rested at a decent time
122. Quality of the result is better than quantity of work
123. This is also another reason for cutting mercilessly
124. Preserving meaning with games
125. … you often don’t actually need to …
126. Raising engagement in the topic, rather than going in depth, is often enough.
127. Why do any of this in the first place?
128. We get asked “how do you make games” pretty often
129. The best way to do it is to make games
130. Problem is, games are hard to make
131. Part of that problem is games are often seen as “big” projects
132. Use the external pressure to constrain yourself
133. It’s fun for you, it’s fun for players, and it’s fun for event organisers!
135. @desplesda @parisba @thesecretlab