Game Mechanics
What are attributes?
Category of information about objects in the game
What is the card suit that is associated with a Socialiser?
Heart
What are the 3 parts of a game according to Kevin Maroney?
Structure, Goals, and Play
Dependent and Independent Probability: Explain the difference between dependent and independent events with an example relevant to gaming.
Independent events are those whose outcomes do not affect each other, like rolling a die multiple times. Dependent events are those where the outcome of one event affects the other, like drawing cards from a deck without replacement.
UI Text Boxes: How do you create a UI text box in Unity and what is its primary use?
To create a UI text box in Unity, right-click in the Hierarchy, select UI > Text, and then adjust its properties in the Inspector. Its primary use is to display text on the screen, like instructions, player scores, or narrative elements.
What are the three types of rules in gaming?
Operational, Constitutive, and Implicit
Name the 4 player types according to Bartle
Killers, Achievers, Socialisers, Explorers
What are Lazarro’s 4 Keys to Fun?
Easy, Hard, People, and Serious
Conjunction Fallacy: What is the conjunction fallacy, and how might it affect a player's decision-making in games?
The conjunction fallacy occurs when people incorrectly assume that specific conditions are more probable than a single general one - Lisa bank teller analogy from lecture.
Scene Management: Explain how to create a new scene and switch to it.
Create a new scene via File > New Scene. To switch scenes, use SceneManager.LoadScene("SceneName"), where "SceneName" is the name of the new scene. This method loads the specified scene.
Name 3 qualities of rules
Limit player action, explicit & unambiguous, shared by all players, fixed, binding, and repeatable
Which type of player would enjoy acting in the environment to be successful?
Achievers
“A game is a problem solving activity, approached with a playful attitude” is a quote by who?
Jesse Schnell
Gambler’s Fallacy and Law of Small Numbers: Explain the Gambler’s Fallacy and the belief in the law of small numbers in the context of gaming.
The Gambler’s Fallacy is the mistaken belief that past random events affect future ones, like believing a coin is "due" to land on heads after several tails. The law of small numbers is overgeneralizing results from a small sample, like assuming a slot machine is 'lucky' based on a few wins.
Adding Scenes to Build Settings: Why do you need to add scenes to the build settings, and how is it done?
Adding scenes to build settings is necessary for them to be included in the final game build. Do this by opening File > Build Settings and dragging scenes into the 'Scenes In Build' section.
What are the benefits of using a negative feedback loop?
To maintain balance or stability among players, like rubberbanding/catch up.
What are the 5 types of players defined by their relationship with rules?
Standard, Dedicated, Unsportsmanlike, Cheat, Spoilsport
Name all 8 kinds of fun according to Marc LeBlanc
Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression, Submission
Representativeness Heuristic: How does the representativeness heuristic influence players' perception of randomness in games?
The representativeness heuristic leads players to judge the likelihood of an event by how much it resembles their existing stereotypes, potentially misjudging the actual randomness of game outcomes.
UI Buttons and OnClick Method: Describe how to create a button in Unity and assign an action to it using the OnClick() method.
Create a UI button by right-clicking in the Hierarchy and selecting UI > Button. In the Inspector, under the OnClick() event, you can assign actions by dragging in an object and selecting a function from its attached scripts to be called when the button is clicked.
Define implicit rules
Rules that are not written/given but is generally expected from players
Which 2 types of players in relation to the rules are the most likely to exploit degenerative strategies in games to win?
Dedicated and Unsportsmanlike
What is a game according to Chris Crawford’s definition?
A game is an interactive, goal-oriented activity, with active agents to play against, in which players can interfere with each other.
Bayes’ Theorem, Loss Aversion, and Expected Value: Discuss how Bayes’ Theorem, along with the concepts of loss aversion and expected value, can be applied in advanced game theory and decision-making.
Bayes’ Theorem helps update probabilities as more information becomes available, refining strategic decisions. Loss aversion, where players are more sensitive to losses than gains, can significantly impact risk-taking behavior. Expected value is the average outcome of a probabilistic event, guiding optimal decision-making in uncertain scenarios. Together, these concepts shape complex decision-making processes in games, from betting strategies to resource management.
Describe how to use PlayerPrefs to store and retrieve high scores in a Unity game.
In Unity, PlayerPrefs can be used for high score management by saving the score at the end of a game session and retrieving it when the game starts again. For example, when a player achieves a new high score, it is saved using PlayerPrefs.SetInt("HighScore", newHighScore). Upon starting or restarting the game, the high score can be retrieved with PlayerPrefs.GetInt("HighScore", 0), where 0 serves as a default value if no high score has been set yet. This method provides a straightforward way to keep track of the highest score achieved by the player across game sessions.