Organism
-EMMA Project HKU 2008-
Design document
Client
J. Holopainen, Nokia Research Center
Organism Team
Bart van Dalen
Martijn Bruckman
Kjell ‘t Hoen
Jasper Scholten
Ravian de Vries
–
–
–
–
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Music composer
Developer
Game designer
Researcher
Sound designer
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Index
Index ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Cross Connection .................................................................................................................. 4
About this Design Document................................................................................................ 4
Version Control ................................................................................................................................. 4
Executive Summary .............................................................................................................. 5
Organism ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Music .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Social Interaction and Cross Media................................................................................................. 5
Target Audience ................................................................................................................................ 5
Victory ................................................................................................................................................ 5
Opportunities and Threats ............................................................................................................... 5
Gameplay............................................................................................................................... 6
Part I Avatar Created by Music Behavior ...................................................................................... 6
Game Start & Normal Cells ........................................................................................................................... 6
Achievements ............................................................................................................................................. 6
Trade and Battle ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Genre as Input ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Change Value ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Cell output rules ............................................................................................................................................. 8
Turnarounds ............................................................................................................................................... 8
On your mobile phone ........................................................................................................................... 8
On the internet ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Concert Cells .................................................................................................................................................. 8
1) Visiting Hotspots ................................................................................................................................... 8
2) Trade and Battle..................................................................................................................................... 9
Creation of Cell Content ................................................................................................................................. 9
1) Game creators ........................................................................................................................................ 9
2) Bands ..................................................................................................................................................... 9
Synchronization .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Part II Multiplayer Organism Interaction .................................................................................... 10
On the Streets ............................................................................................................................................... 10
GPS .......................................................................................................................................................... 10
Trade & Battle Setup ............................................................................................................................... 10
Trade ........................................................................................................................................................ 11
Battle ........................................................................................................................................................ 11
Mechanics and Controls ........................................................................................................................... 12
Online ........................................................................................................................................................... 13
Trade ........................................................................................................................................................ 13
Battle ........................................................................................................................................................ 13
Asynchronous ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Creating the Challenge ........................................................................................................................ 13
Winning or Losing ............................................................................................................................... 13
Organism Changes ............................................................................................................................... 14
The List ................................................................................................................................................ 14
Mechanics and Controls ........................................................................................................................... 15
Difficulty Levels .......................................................................................................................................... 15
Easy - Medium ......................................................................................................................................... 16
Hard ......................................................................................................................................................... 17
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Tough ....................................................................................................................................................... 17
Turnaround ............................................................................................................................................... 17
Part III Using the Organism as Instrument and Linkage ........................................................... 18
Playing with the turnaround ......................................................................................................................... 18
On the Streets ............................................................................................................................................... 18
Online ........................................................................................................................................................... 18
Communities ............................................................................................................................................ 18
Visitors ................................................................................................................................................ 18
Linkage .................................................................................................................................................... 19
An network underneath a network ....................................................................................................... 19
Example ............................................................................................................................................... 20
Additional rules/ notes ......................................................................................................................... 20
Gameplay Scenarios ........................................................................................................... 21
1) Dear Diary ................................................................................................................................... 21
2) Ableton audio illustration ........................................................................................................... 23
Technological Requirements .............................................................................................. 24
Part I ................................................................................................................................................. 24
Part II ............................................................................................................................................... 24
Part III .............................................................................................................................................. 24
Game Design Patterns ........................................................................................................ 25
General ............................................................................................................................................. 25
Part I ................................................................................................................................................. 25
Part II ............................................................................................................................................... 25
Part III .............................................................................................................................................. 25
Eliminated Game Elements ................................................................................................ 26
Shielding Cells ......................................................................................................................................... 26
Core.......................................................................................................................................................... 26
Gesture Based Gameplay ......................................................................................................................... 26
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Cross Connection
The Team
Robert Beld
Martijn Bruckman
Eveline Ferwerda
Bart van Dalen
Iris Dragt
Kjell ’t Hoen
Jasper Scholten
Usama Shafiq
Maxine van Tongeren
Ravian de Vries
Supervisors
Kars Alfrink
Jeroen van Iterson
Jeroen van Mastrigt
Kees Went
About this Design Document
Some short notes about this document:
● Text in blue = an uncertain value that needs tweaking.
● Text in * gray = explanation why we made a certain decision.
● -TODO- = a part of the design that still needs to be fleshed out.
● Action: Trigger or button = control description.
Version Control
Version 6) Added deleted gameplay elements and explanation on why we deleted them. Also described the
controls.
Version 7) Added difficulty levels and changed synchronous online battle into
asynchronous battle (see Part II, Online).
Version 8) Linkage of part III and trade of part II described in a more
detailed way and added a gameplay scenario. Probably the final version as
deliverable for the project.
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Executive Summary
What this concept is about and why it hits all expectations.
Organism
It was the first evidence of existence on this planet: an organism with multiple
cells, the definition of life. In our current form of existence however, it’s not so
much your cells, as it is your music and games that divine you. Use this game
to spawn and evolve your own organism on the rhythm of your musical
preference. Come into friendly or hostile contact with other organisms and
evolve accordingly. Ultimately, the change is yours.
Music
The game is triggered by your listening behavior. The game system checks
what songs you listen to and uses this input to create your own organism
(digital avatar). It does so through Last FM: a community website already
tracking listening behavior.
Different cells represent parts of your musical preference and create a musical
output. The output is a combination of all different musical elements your
organism contains.
Social Interaction and Cross Media
With your organism you can then trade or battle with other players in order to
get your hands on their cells. This contact is the focus of the game.
Trading and battling can be done on the streets with your mobile phone and
online from behind your computer.
Target Audience
Casual gamers that have a mobile phone and have an interest in music.
Victory
Keeping in mind this target audience, the game has no ultimate victory
conditions and can be played in really short play sessions. The main goal is to
evolve your organism, get the cells you want and keep them so you can create
the nicest musical composition.
Opportunities and Threats
Opportunities
A massive on-streets multiplayer
hype.
Players might become emotionally
attached to their organisms.
Threats
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Gameplay
The game consists of three parts: the input/creation part, the interactive
battle and trade part and the online (passive) play part. Now follows a step by
step description of these three parts of the game.
Part I Avatar Created by Music Behavior
Game Start & Normal Cells
When you start the game you enter your name and create a Last FM account.
When this account is created, you are guided to an online (still empty) space
where your avatar (from now on called organism) will be. At this time you
have 0 cells. You can gain new cells by:
Achievements
They are the main things that make you gain new cells on your own.
A list of possible achievements (also contains elements from part I, II & III):
Achievement type
New cells
Part I
Number of unique tracks
Entire albums listened
New cells = 3log(Tracks listened to).
* To let it take more tracks to gain a new
cell every time this achievement is met.
New cells = Number of every 3 complete
albums you’ve listened to.
Part II
Matches/challenges won
Number of trades made
New cells = Number of every 15 battles
won or challenges solved.
New cell for every 20 unique trades made
* To not let you achieve this trading with
the same person over and over again.
Part III
Playfulness of organism
Number of organisms linked
New cells = Number of every 200 visitors
that play with your organism.
New cells = Number of ever 10 links to
your organism.
Etc.
This means, looking at the first achievement that after listening to some music
tracks your first cell(s) spawn and you can start playing with your organism.
Trade and Battle
Through trading with and battling against other players as described in part
II below (Multiplayer interaction), you can gain or lose cells.
After playing for a while, you can have a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 40
cells. This means that if you gain your 41st cell, one of your other cells is
eliminated. Concert cells (described below) are an exception on this rule. They
are never eliminated in this way. A normal cell will be discarded instead.
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Genre as Input
Every cell’s identity is divined by the genre of music you listen to. For example
after listening to rock and R&B your cells look like this:
This identity dynamically changes every time you listen to new music. After
listening to some jazz your organism looks like this:
As a ‘casual’ starting point, there are 10 main genres that cover all subgenres. For the final game though, there can be many more genres to make
creating different combinations possible.
The starting genres are:
1
Rock
6
R&B
2
Pop
7
Rap
3
Jazz & Blues
8
Funk & Soul
4
Classical
9
Electronic
5
World
10 Dance
For this functionality the Last FM site is used as a facilitator.
* Because Last FM already tracks users musical listening behavior.
Change Value
The longer the time period between now and the last time you listened to
tracks of a certain genre, the weaker the cells of that genre become. This
means that their identity is easier changed into an identity that represents
your more recent favorite genre(s).
Time between now and
Cell’s link to it’s identity, determined
last listened to genre
by the genre (change value)
1-12 hours
x10
13-24 hours
x8
2 days
x4
4 days
x2
Example: The last time you listened to rock music was 4 days ago and the last
time you listened to jazz music was 22 hours ago. Today you listen to pop
music. This means some (or all, depending on how many pop tracks you
listen) of your rock cells change into pop cells.
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Cell output rules
● Each cell’s sample represents a genre or a band (Concert cells, see below).
● Each sample represents an instrument. Instruments also have group
sections, for example drum, bass, harmony and melody.
● The sample length default is 4 seconds. This can also be 2 or 8, as long as
they are dividable by 2.
● The tempo used is 120bpm.
● All samples are in the key of C. * Different chords will disrupt the music.
● All samples are synced all the time.
Turnarounds
Every cell contains 4 different chords (A, B, C and D) that can be played. This
way you are able make chord progressions (order variations) and can also mix
different genres.
On your mobile phone
On the mobile phone there are four buttons (A, B, C and D) located just
outside your organism. These buttons change the harmony in the turnaround.
When you ‘perform’ a turnaround, this change applies for every cell to
prevent two different harmonies playing at the same time.
* Otherwise: when different chords are chosen (for example A and B) at the
same time, it will not sound good.
On the internet
When interacting with your organism on the internet, the four buttons are
located in the core of the avatar.
(See part III)
AB
CD
Concert Cells
There are ‘special’ cells that you can gather. These cells are called Concert
cells and are a different type of cells:
You can gain concert cells by:
1) Visiting Hotspots
At a concert of whatever musical genre, all visitors can receive new cells, as:
● Part of promotion for a band.
● A personal reminder of the evening.
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These cells can be instilled with a tune or loop that matches those of the band
that played. Because the number of these cells is fixed (limited addition) and
only visitors get them, this could trigger visitors to play in order to get the
entire ‘collection’ of that evening’s band cells.
2) Trade and Battle
Through trading and battling other players as described in part II (Multiplayer
interaction) below, you can gain or lose cells.
Concert cells are static and don’t change according to your listening behavior
like regular cells.
* Because they are unique and most likely have a special meaning to you, it
would be a disappointment if you would see them change into regular cells
representing your every day listening behavior.
Creation of Cell Content
For this concept a lot of content is needed to make it interesting for the
players. If there is not enough content the player might become bored after
hearing the same samples.
This is especially the case when a player listens to the same genre a lot.
To create cell content the sample-rules have to be followed to create samples
that will sound good together with others.
1) Game creators
The game makers produce the basic cells that spawn from user behavior.
2) Bands
Band can create their own cell content, which can be distributed at concerts
they give.
3) The Players * We choose not to let the players create content themselves,
because nice player content could improve the game, but bad player content
could ruin the gameplay.
Synchronization
When you listen to music on your mobile phone, this behavior is also tracked
just as if you were listening to it on your computer. When your phone is
connected to the Internet your online organism is automatically synchronized
using the Last FM ‘Internet-Scrobbler’ plug-in.
Last behavior data gathered
Synchronized
On mobile phone
Internet organism
On computer
Mobile organism
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Part II Multiplayer Organism Interaction
There are two places you can encounter other players: on the streets and
online.
On the Streets
When you are on the streets you can battle and trade with other players with
your mobile phone. You connect with others using Bluetooth.
GPS
Eventually GPS is eliminated from the core
gameplay. * Because for previous concepts a
GPS accuracy of 10 meters or less was needed.
What can still be done with the GPS technology
with regard to this new concept is the following:
You can turn on the game and signify that you
want to battle/trade. Once you do, the phone’s
GPS can start tracking other players.
Once done tracking it will display other players
not further than 3 miles away from you. You can
see in what direction every other player is and
how far away. It looks like this 
As an extra feature you might be able to send a
nearby player a text message and ‘plan’ your
route to him or her when you get a positive
reply. This will enable you to meet the other
player without searching for too long.
Trade & Battle Setup
When you are near to other players, you can signal whether you want to
battle or trade:
Player’s near you:
Denice
Invite for battle
Invite for trade
Joseph
Invite for battle
Invite for trade
Ronaldo
Invite for battle
Invite for trade
The player receiving the signal can either accept or deny the request:
‘Michael’ is near and invites you to trade.
What do you want to do?
Accept trade invitation
Invite for battle instead
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Trade
When you and another players have agreed to trade, both your and the other
player’s organism become visible, yet separated by a border. You and the
other player can offer cells in exchange for other cells. You select sells with
your selector (see mechanics and controls below). When you both have agreed
on the exchange, the cell switch is made.
Trading looks like this:
Multiple cells can also be exchanged:
Battle
Battle functions a lot like the sea battle board game, but in real time. You’ll
have to mimic your opponent’s musical composition before he or her mimics
yours. Players need at least 6 cells to create an interesting challenge.
Step by step:
1) Before battle you (player 1) set your cells in a certain direction. This will
cause the music to flow through it in a certain way (the red line).
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2) The music created by this way/order of cell directions is ‘recorded’ and
send to your opponent.
Player 1
Player 2
3) The battle starts. You see the organism of your opponent and your
opponent (player 2) sees yours. All cell directions however are turned in a
random direction. The red line is the correct path, invisible for player 2.
4) By listening to the recording of what it should be compared to what it is
currently you’ll have to rotate the cells correctly. If you have every cell in the
correct direction and the current composition matches the recording, you win.
(See prototype)
5) The winner takes one of the cells of the other player.
Mechanics and Controls
Whenever you want, you can listen to your organism:
Listen to organism: 1
Besides listening, you can also change your organism’s composition by
changing the direction. On your mobile, this is done with a ‘selector’.
This selector is in your direct control:
Move up:
2
Move left:
4
Move right:
6
Move down:
8
You also use the selector in trade mode to select the cells you wish to trade.
Select cell for trade: 5
Cancel trade:
0
You can rotate a cell when you are on top of it with the selector:
Rotate cell:
5
* We choose to make this only one button to not make players think about
rotation direction. Cells always rotate to the right.
To win a battle, you’ll have to listen to the current organism’s composition and
the original (the composition created by your opponent).
Listen to organism: 3
Listen to original:
1
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Online
Online you can encounter players on a site dedicated to the game.
Trade
Trade online works exactly the same as trade on the streets.
Battle
For online battle, you can create challenges for other players. Challenges are
puzzles created with your current organism. You can be either the creator or
the solver of these puzzles (just like battle on the streets).
Asynchronous
In contrast with battling on the streets, you do not compete against other
players directly (the one that solves the puzzle first wins) but against a fixed
time instead. This enables the game to be played asynchronous: both players
do not have to be online simultaneously to compete.
* Previously online battle worked the same as battle on the streets. We made
it asynchronous to avoid there not being players online to compete with.
Creating the Challenge
The creator creates the challenge and sets a prize and a stake.
● The prize is one or more cells the creator offers the solver if he solves the
challenge in the given time.
● The stake is what cell(s) the creator demands if the solver fails to solve the
challenge in the given time.
If the solver wants to solve a challenge he goes online and browses through
the list (see below). He then selects a challenge, puts one of his cells at stake
and tries to solve it in time and claim the prize.
Winning or Losing
● When a creator creates a
challenge he will lose the
cell(s) he has set as the
prize. When a solver has
failed to solve his puzzle he
will get back these prize
cells + the cells the solver
had put at stake when he
choose to play the
challenge.
● When a solver chooses a
challenge he will lose the
cell(s) the creator has set
as stake for the challenge.
When the solver has won
the challenge he will get
back these cells + the cells
the creator put as prize
when he created the challenge.
Creator
Solver
Challenge
Sets
Risks
Wants
Creates
Not solved
Chooses
Prize
Wants
Stake
Risks
Puzzle
Plays
Solved
Stake
Prize
Prize
Stake
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Organism Changes
● Because your organism changes according to your listening behavior, this
can not be the challenge. * You do not want your online puzzle to dynamically
change into something more or less complicated. Therefore, after the creator
created a challenge with his organism, the game will save/freeze that puzzle
online. When saved, that organism’s layout is immune to any change after
that: the online puzzle layout will stay the same even if the real organism
changes.
The List
There is a site online that lists all challenges created by players. Every now
and then, the game system can also randomly create some new challenges for
players to earn new cells. * In case players do not create enough challenges.
The list looks like this:
New slot
Prize
Stake
Puzzle
Challenge 201 Created: 14-12-2008 by: ‘Jammer85’
Prize
Stake
Puzzle
Challenge 200 Created: 10-12-2008 by: ‘Theoneandonly267’
Prize
Stake
Puzzle
Solved by ‘Jowey21’
Challenge 199 Created: 08-12-2008 by: ‘Dude’
Prize
Stake
Puzzle
After a while solved challenges (like the one solved by Jowey21) will disappear
from the list to make room for new challenges. This system also stimulates a
highscore list that features all time challenge solvers and creators.
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Mechanics and Controls
Whenever you want, you can listen to your organism:
Listen to organism: play button
Besides listening, you can also change your organism’s composition by
changing the direction. Online, this is also done with a ‘selector’.
This selector is in your direct control:
Selector position:
mouse position
You also use the selector in trade mode to select the cells you wish to trade.
You can rotate a cell when you are on top of it with the selector:
Rotate cell left:
left mouse button
Rotate cell right:
right mouse button
To win a battle, you’ll have to listen to the current organism’s composition and
the original (the composition created by your opponent).
Listen to organism: play button
Listen to original:
second play button
The interface looks like this:
Play original
Select difficulty (see below)
Play
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Difficulty Levels
There are different difficulty levels players can determine when creating a
puzzle. The more difficult, the more complex a puzzle becomes and the longer
a game will take to finish. The difference in difficulty is caused by:
● The number of organism cells incorporated in the puzzle.
● Duration of cells audio samples (if they loop and how many times).
Easy - Medium
You can decide how long your cells loop.
Cell3
Cell3
Cell2
Cell2
Cell1
Loop 0x
Cell1
Loop 1x
The maximum number of loops is 8, so if a nineth cell is activated, the audio
of cell 1 will turn off.
Cell9
Cell8
Cell7
Cell6
Cell5
Cell4
Cell3
Cell2
Cell1
Loop 8x (cell 1 is turned off because cell 9 starts playing)
Cells cannot have different loop values, because this will make the puzzles to
difficult to solve. For example, this is not possible:
Cell4
Cell3
Cell2
Cell1
Different loop values (not possible).
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Hard
Different musical elements (bass, pad, bridge, chorus and melody) change by
the same cells of another genre. Example: the pop bass cell takes over the
currently playing jazz bass initiated by a jazz cell.
Cell4 Bass Jazz
Cell3 Melody R&B
Cell2 Chorus Rock
Cell1 Bass Pop
Hard composition: jazz bass replaces the pop bass element.
This approach will limit the number of layers, but it is much more difficult to
locate a change in a layer than it is to hear another sound element being
added.
Tough
You hear the entire composition and must figure out what cells it consists of.
Here, the maximum layer is the number of different cells used in the
organism.
Cell8
Cell7
Cell6
Cell5
Cell4
Cell3
Cell2
Cell1
See the blog for examples and additional information:
http://nokiagame.hku.nl/?p=1863 (Prototyping in Ableton).
Turnaround
For part II, the system generates a random turnaround progression. * If we
also give players influence over the turnaround element in part II, the puzzle
creation becomes too complex. An example how the turnaround can be used
in a puzzle: http://nokiagame.hku.nl/?p=1877 (4.3 Incorporate Turnaround in
Gameplay).
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Part III Using the Organism as Instrument and Linkage
When not in contact with other players, you can create music with your
organism through passive play.
Playing with the turnaround
Players can play with their cells in a more musical way, using the turnaround
described in part I. An example on how it is used in this part of the game:
http://nokiagame.hku.nl/?p=1875 (3.2 Avatar as Instrument).
On the Streets
When not battling or trading with other players on the streets you can freely
change the musical pathway that flows through your organism, just as you do
while battling.
Online
Communities
Online your organism is shown on community sites like MySpace, Facebook
and Hyves (Dutch).
Visitors
Here every visitor of your personal page can interact with your organism.
Interaction is done by:
● Replacing the arrow: the point from where the
music starts flowing through the organism.

● Rotating the different cells to change the direction
of the flow inside the organism.
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Linkage
In addition to just playing with someone’s
organism and listening to the output,
organisms of different users can be linked.
This means that you select one or more of
your friends in your ‘friends’ list(s) where
the music continues when it has passed
through your entire organism. 
When that happens, not the entire page is
loaded, only the view pans to the next
organism and shows the name of its
owner.
When you and many other players have selected at least one friend where the
music automatically goes, two things can happen:
● The game can take you to any organism (a friend of a friend etc.).
● Wind up in a loop (if a group of friends have all linked each other).
An network underneath a network
With linkage, every organism will function like one cell in a greater overall
organism/ network on top of already existing community networks. Every
personal web page will function as a window through which people can view
this secondary world.
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People with the most popular organisms will be linked to most, because no
one want’s to listen to bad music, even when it’s your best friend you will not
link to. In the image above I am quite popular since 7 people linked me.
Example
I have linked Denice, William and Lillian to my organism. When I press ‘Play’
now (the gray arrow) the music will play through my organism and
continue to William:
and continue playing there:
If I change the direction of one or more of my cells (highlighted in red), the
music will flow in another direction and will wind up at
Denice:
or Lillian:
Additional rules/ notes
● This application is also cross-community as music can move from the one
website to the other while remaining on the same page.
● The number of friends you can link is equal to the
number of cells you have on the outer ring of your
organism. 
● Music can flow in multiple directions: it can enter
and leave your organism through any cell of the outer
ring.
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Gameplay Scenarios
A diary of someone playing the game for a certain period.
1) Dear Diary
4th of September 2009
Today I bought a game called Organism. It pointed me to a website called Last
FM where I needed to create an account with password. So I did and what I
saw then was a web page with an empty space right in the center filled only
with a small circle in the middle. This was, the game explained, where my
organism would be after I had listened to some music. I was surprised,
because I expected something to play with instantly, but started listen to
some music anyway.
After a few songs a message popped up, telling me I earned my first cell. I
switched back to the game’s web page and saw a green dot next to the circle
in the middle. Now there was also an arrow, pointing at the circle in the
center. I clicked it and to my surprise, sound arose from my speakers. It was
a simple loop of music and sounded like some basic strings of a guitar.
The circle in the middle had also changed and four buttons had appeared on it.
I pressed them one by one and heard the same loop, but now in different
progressions.
After playing with this for a while, the game suggested to turn on my mobile,
and visit the same web page on it. After switching to the page, my phone
asked me for my Last FM password. I entered it and after a small loading bar,
I could also see the same circles on my phone. Now my phone took over and a
pop-up message explained that listening to music on my phone would now
also expand my cell count and make my organism grow size. Interesting…
Got to get some sleep now though, it’s half past twelve already.
7th of September 2009
This morning was quite eventful, as I earned my second, third and fourth cell.
I was listening to music on my phone as the game suggested and when I
checked my organism 3 more cells were present. I listened to the music they
produced and found that by rotating the cells I could change the way music
‘moved’ through it.
This was interesting, but not so much as what happened later today. I met
Sandra and she had also bought the game! She explained that the cells
represented what music I listened too and I realized that that was why my
cells together sounded allot like a rock song.
Sarah had a lot of R&B cells, since she always listens to that music so she
suggested a trade. She showed me how I could use my phone to locate her
through GPS and how we could connect to trade. After selecting one of my
rock cells we made the trade and as of that moment I am the proud owner of
a pink R&B cell… don’t know if I’m really happy with that, but it makes my
organism sound different so I guess everything’s cool.
When I got home I visited my Last FM page with my phone again and saw how
my online organism took over the entity of my phone’s organism. I also found
that it was really easy to embed my organism on my MySpace. Sweet! Now
everyone could see my awesome organism live and play with it.
-Organism Design Document-EMMA Project HKU 2008-
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8th of September 2009
Today I experimented with my organism by listening to allot of music and
visited some other MySpace pages. I experienced that not only do I gain new
cells by doing different things: listen to entire albums, and play with other
people’s online organisms, but also that my cells change into the different cells
according to my listening behavior. I now don’t even have any rock cell
anymore!
10th of September 2009
Today I battled with Jeff. He’d heard from Sarah that I had the game so he
invited me to battle him. I agreed and after reading a line of instruction I
created a ‘puzzle’ for him. He had his puzzle already set. After creating my
puzzle the battle started and I had to solve his puzzle while he was solving
mine as quickly as possible. He won, obviously because he had more
experience, and took a cell I had just ‘achieved’ for listening to a different kind
of music. But I kind of got the hang of the battle thing, so next time I’ll beat
him for sure! A shame he had to go (the coward).
11th of September 2009
Today I visited the Organism website and found a huge list of online puzzles
called challenges that reminded me a lot of the battle with Jeff I had
yesterday. I read that I had to solve a challenge in time and compete against
a timer, instead of another player.
Everything else was the same, only now the puzzles were pre made and there
was a prize and stake involved. I found a puzzle of Jeff, but it did not look
quite the same as his organism. I wanted to try his puzzle but found I did not
have the right cell to put at stake.
I searched the challenge list and found some puzzles that demanded a cell I
had. I tried one and put one of my cells in the stake field. On that very
moment the timer started and I had to solve the puzzle. First I was too
nervous and failed. Sadly this failure cost me the cell I put at stake. After that
I tried again and won. The thrill of claiming my prize was nice. Got to get back
online first thing tomorrow to create a challenge of my own…
6th of December 2009
Today I went to a concert of After Forever. When I was waiting in line I
examined my ticked a bit closer and noticed an ‘Organism Code’ on the back. I
had to enter this code online to receive After Forever cells. With nothing to do
I went online with my phone directly and went to the After Forever website.
There I found an organism field where I could enter my code.
Directly after entering the code and number, my phone received a message
containing a cell. I listened to it and found it sounded a lot like their music. It
was only a small part though and it was only after battling some other people
in line I had a nice collection of these cells.
One of the people I battled with told me that these cells don’t change
according to my listening behavior and rare as they are, will last as long as I
don’t lose them in battle or through trade.
Oh I almost forgot: the performance was awesome also.
-Organism Design Document-EMMA Project HKU 2008-
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5th of March 2010
My birthday! But that matters little, as I lost one of my coolest cells yesterday.
Got to get it back somehow… but Jochem is simply to good at it and keeps
solving my puzzles faster than I solve his. Maybe if I try to practice my skills
on a more difficult level that I can beat him there.
6th of March 2010
Success! I created an almost impossible organism puzzle for Jochem and blew
him away. That will teach him! He did not have my cell though, but he told me
he had lost it to Sandra, so I’ll challenge her tomorrow!
20th of March 2010
Today I finally broke up with Lindsay. It was in the air a long time, but now
she went too far. She didn’t want to link her organism to me! It sounded bad,
she said. Oh well, hers sounds so much worse, so I guess I’m better off
without her anyway!
2) Ableton audio illustration
A link to an audio illustration of a possible scenario of the change of a player’s
organism during a certain period of time: http://nokiagame.hku.nl/?p=1872
(2.3 Arranging Samples & Testing Samples).
-Organism Design Document-EMMA Project HKU 2008-
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Technological Requirements
A list of all technologies used and needed for the game to function.
* We made this list to illustrate the feasibility of different parts of the game.
Part I
The internet: the Last FM website. This website can function as a facilitator for
tracking your listening behavior that will determine your cells content.
Part II
Bluetooth. This will be the way you can connect with other players when you
want to battle or trade using your mobile phones.
GPS. As a tracking device that will enable players to easily find together on the
streets.
Part III
The internet: Facebook/ Hyves/ Myspace community sites. This is where you
place your organism for the world to watch, interact with and listen to.
-Organism Design Document-EMMA Project HKU 2008-
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Game Design Patterns
A summary of the most important game design patterns present in this game.
General
Game world: the game world can be seen as a mirror world, where your
digital organism (Avatar) represents something from you in the real world. In
this game your musical preference.
Creative control: you can reconfigure your organism’s composition by
changing your cell directions. Every change in direction makes your organism
sound differently and thus you can create something new. This can than also
be shown to other players, especially in part III.
Collection: however not as a high level overall goal, but more as a goal to
expand your collection with more or extra rare cells.
Real time: in part II, but also when listening to your organism in part III.
Varied gameplay: different play options: online and on the streets.
Part I
Units: the units in this game are the cells of your organism. They can also be
seen as Lives because you can not play another session if you have no cells
left to trade or battle with.
Identification: your organism contains cells that represent your listening
behavior. They are a piece of data collection of what you do every day.
Part II
Player defined goals: you define what you want your organism to look and
sound like and achieving that is your goal.
Gain ownership: in battle or trade the goal is always to attain a cell you
want to have (player defined).
Competition: battles against other players.
Conflict: a Puzzle solving challenge that can be won by Memorizing
musical events set by Connection and then shuffled (Randomness).
Trading in combination with Bidding (when players want to trade more than
one cell for another). This can be done with Negotiation.
Part III
Re-configurable game world: the internet is the online world where your
can link your organism to other player’s organism(s).
-Organism Design Document-EMMA Project HKU 2008-
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Eliminated Game Elements
Stuff we took into and out of the design and why.
Shielding Cells
Sometimes you don’t want to lose cells, because they have a special meaning
to you. It might be cells you got at Hotspots or that contain a particular
interesting loop or tune. In order to keep these cells you can shield them.
Shielding them means no other player can win them through battle and you
can’t accidentally trade them. You can only shield up to 5 cells.
Shielding looks like this:
*We deleted this gameplay element because it did not feel right to exclude
cells from being traded or included in battle. To ‘shield’ cells you gained at
hotspots we found a new alternative: a different type of cells: Concert cells.
These cells don’t change according to your musical behavior (so they won’t be
converted into regular cells). This eliminated the need for shielding.
Core
For every organism, there is a core to
where all cells are attracted 
* This is not part of the core gameplay
anymore, because the physics gameplay we
had in mind was not strong enough during prototyping.
Gesture Based Gameplay
Activate your cells using gestures.
* In stead of actually ‘playing’ the cells, the game is now more about solving
the puzzle.