Aaron Bloomfield
BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY SYSTEM GAME
1
INTRODUCTION
2
Overall Goal
To allow people to understand
the concepts involved in energy
production as well as the
trade-offs involved through
the use of a fun game
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Inspiration (image from here)
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Inspiration (image from here)
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Architectural Requirements
The architecture of the game was defined by two
major precepts:
1.
2.
We wanted to be able to log everything the
players did for later analysis
We wanted to be able to make frequent changes
to the various game settings
This meant that the players played a network game,
where their every move required the network to make
the move and determine the results
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Architecture
The game consists of four main components:
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The graphical client (Windows, Mac), which is the
only parts a player sees
The web service, which contains the methods that
the client calls (such as set_game_settings(),
start_game(), etc.)
The simulation, which was written in C++ to allow
for fast execution
The web client, which allowed the game
developers to quickly modify the settings
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Game Overview
After selecting the map and/or scenario, play begins.
The game is turn-based; on each turn:
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The player makes any moves s/he desires
The player clicks “end turn”, and the game map is
updated with the results
The player is notified if s/he reaches any of the
game goals
Repeat
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MAKING GAMES FUN
9
What is Fun?
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Dictionary: A source of enjoyment, amusement, or
pleasure
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But that doesn’t help us design games…
Important to consider underlying reasons
“Funativity” – thinking about fun in terms of
measurable cause and effect
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Evolutionary Roots
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We must look to our distant evolutionary past
Young mammals play to learn basic survival skills
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Games are organized play
Human entertainment is also at its heart about
learning how to survive
Mating and social rules also critical to us
Life is all either work, rest, or fun
Fun is about practicing or learning new survival
skills in a relatively safe setting
People who didn’t enjoy that practice were less
likely to survive to become our ancestors
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Hunting and Gathering
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For most of our species’ history we were tribal
hunter/gatherers
Current popular games reflect this
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Shooters, wargames = hunting
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Powerups, resources = gathering
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Sims, MMO = social, tribal interaction
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Natural Funativity Theory
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The basic concept of funativity is that all fun
derives from practicing survival and social skills
Key skills relate to early human context (from the
previous slide), but often in a modern guise
Three overlapping categories
 Physical, Social, and Mental
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Physical Fun
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Sports generally enhance our strength, stamina,
coordination skills
Exploration is fun
 Both of local area and knowledge of exotic
places
Hand/eye coordination and tool use are often parts
of fun activities – crafts
Dancing, sort-based, and activity-based games
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Wii sports, for example
Physical aspect to gathering “stuff”
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Social Fun
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Storytelling is a social activity
 A way to learn important survival and social
lessons from others
Gossip, sharing information with friends is popular
Flirting, showing off, finding mates is a key interest
in social fun
Language has become paramount
Sims, MMORPGs, interactions in single-player
games, team-based games
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Mental Fun
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Our large brains make humans unique
Pure abstract reasoning practice is fun
Pattern matching and generation
 Music, art, and puzzles are all pattern based
Gathering also has mental aspect, categorizing and
identifying patterns
Examples: tetris, chess, go, etc.
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Multipurpose Fun
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Many fun activities have physical, social and
mental aspects in combination
Games that mix these aspects tend to be very
popular
Incorporate ways to practice these skills to
increase the popularity of games
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Definition of a Great Game
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A great game is a “series of interesting and
meaningful choices made by the player in pursuit
of a clear and compelling goal”
Must have choice, or it is not interactive
Must be a series of choices or it is too simple to be
a game
Must have a goal or it is a software toy
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Some games, such as the Sim/Sims lines, the
players may bring their own goals
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Interesting and Meaningful Choices | Clear and Compelling
Goal
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Choices may be dull and uninteresting because it
was easy to code that way
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Or it may be the reflection of a lazy designer
Meaningful choices are perceived by the player as
having significant consequences
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May not have actual consequences…
Clear goals, as it is not fun to flounder aimlessly
Avoid the “protagonist with amnesia” cliché
Compelling goals are goals that follow the
concepts in Natural Funativity
Survival is always a compelling goal
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ENERGY GAME CONCEPTS
20
Scenarios
A scenario allows the user to have a goal in the game
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Given an existing population with power
generation, “upgrade” it in some way (convert to
green, eliminate one type of power, etc.)
Given a “colony” (one square of population), guide
it’s development and population growth
Given a large population and no power, find the
“best” way to power that area, given various
constraints
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Commodities
A commodity is a “thing” in the game
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Fossil fuels: coal, gas, or oil
Nuclear products: uranium ore, refined uranium,
spent fuel rods
Energy: sunlight, AC power (of various voltages),
DC power
Waste products: ash, trash,
Pollution: CO2, NOx, SO2
Water: tides, water flow
Naturally occurring: O2, uranium seam, coal seam
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Processes
A process converts one (or more) commodities into
one (or more) other commodities
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Coal combustion converts oxygen and coal into
heat, CO2, Nox, SO2, particulates, and ash
Nuclear fission converts enriched uranium into
spent fuel rods, electrical energy, and heat
Steam turbine power conversion converts heat into
electrical energy and (yet more) heat
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Stations
A station allows one or process to occur
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A coal mine allows for coal extraction
A coal plant with water evaporation cooling allows
for (1) coal combustion, (2) cooling via water
evaporation, and (3) steam turbine power
conversion
A nuclear power plant allows for (1) nuclear fusion
and (2) steam turbine power conversion
A garbage dump allows for disposal (storage) of
ash
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Sources and sinks
Some stations and processes are sources, in that they
only produce a commodity. Examples: solar power
collector
Other stations and processes are sinks, in that they
only consume a commodity.
Examples: garbage
dump, uranium storage facility
Most stations convert one (or more) commodities into
one (or more) other commodities
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Coal Energy Production
To generate energy via coal:
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Find a coal seam, and build a coal mine on it
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Build a coal plant
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This allows for conversion of the coal seam to coal
The coal from the coal mine, magically transported, is
burned to produce energy
The energy is magically transported to the
population that needs it
Profit!
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Magical transportation?
One of the eventual goals was to allow for commodity
transportation:
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Power lines transport electrical energy
Transport lines and vehicles transport physical
commodities (coal, etc.)
The intent is to require these to be built, and their
capacity can limit how much a coal plant can
produce
They are not implemented yet…
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Uranium Production
To generate energy via uranium:
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Find a uranium seam; build a uranium mine there
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Build a uranium refinery
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Converts uranium ore to enriched uranium
Build a nuclear power plant
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Converts uranium seam to uranium ore
Converts enriched uranium to spent fuel rods, energy,
and heat
Potentially find where to store the spent fuel rods
Profit!
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Game flexibility
Many of the values in the game are provided to the
client each time it starts up
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The list of commodities, and their prices
The list of processes, and how much they consume
and produce
The list of stations, and what processes they allow
This allows easy changing of these values
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GAME MAPS
30
Map Generation: Random Maps
The goal was to allow for randomly generated maps
that approximate a real world (image source)
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Map Generation
Random map generation is surprisingly hard!
And it turns out that many people want to play with
known maps. Which leads us to preset maps
Preset maps allow the user to choose a known area to
work in
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
An actual screenshot of the client…
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
This is a
visualization of the
map, not what the
client shows
The different
colors are the
different terrains;
only terrain is
shown in this map
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
The map is
squashed,
left to
right, due
to the fact
that this
was a
square
map that
was
generated
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
Where is this?
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
Where is this?
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
Where is this?
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
Where is this?
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Map Generation: Complications
Random map generation is hard!
Energy production requires other map values,
generating these adds additional complications.
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Wind speed
Average temperature
Average cloudiness
These are called layers in the map; a typical map will
have 30 (or so) layers
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Map
Generation:
Layers
This view is
meant for
the game
developers,
not
the
players…
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Map Generation: Layers
In addition to terrain, this shows 4 more layers
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Map Generation: Preset Maps
This shows 8 more of the layers
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Map Layers
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Terrain
Rivers
Resources
Temperature
Precipitation
Altitude
Population
Improvements
Cloudiness
Power demand
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Power supply
Wind (direction and
speed)
Seasons
(other layers exist, but
are not all that
relevant right now)
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Icons
We hired a digital artist to
create icons for the game
These icons are the various
things you see in the map
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Maps: Tiles
Power lines, railroad tracks, and roads
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Maps: Tiles
Forests, plains, and hills
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Maps: Tiles
Mountains, rivers, lakes, other terrain types
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Maps: Tiles
Improvements and buildings
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GRAPHICAL CLIENT
50
Client
The goal of the client was to allow playing on multiple
platforms; currently only Mac and Windows are
supported
The design was done in such a way to eventually
allow for mobile based games
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Client screenshot
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Client screenshot
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Client screenshot
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Client screenshot
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Client screenshot
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Client screenshot
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Client screenshot
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OTHER SYSTEM
COMPONENTS
59
Web service
The client is “dumb” – it doesn’t make many decisions
by itself
Instead, it contacts the web service, which then
records the data and makes the decisions
It’s written in Java, and runs on the Apache Tomcat
server
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Sample web service methods
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registerAnonymousGame()
getRuleSet()
setGameSettings()
getMap()
startGame()
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getMap(), again
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getHistory()
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sendChanges()
endTurn()
endGame()
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Simulation
The simulation runs after each turn, and is written in
C++ for speed
For each run of the simulation, each station runs to
capacity, which can be limited by supply as well as
how much it can “burn”
After effects, such as pollution and depleted
resources, are computed as well, and the map is
appropriately updated
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Web client
The web client is an
interface for the
game maintainers to
add and edit the
game settings
Examples: stations,
processes, vehicles,
commodities, etc.
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Artificial Intelligence
The ability for a computer algorithm to play the game
This aids in testing as well as load balancing
This is a new development (this semester), and is
expected to be up and running next semester
Can you beat Skynet?
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CONCLUSIONS
65
Features to be added
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Transportation routes (power lines, train tracks,
etc.) and vehicles
Government interactions
Popularity (powered citizens are happy)
More accurate layer generation
Random map generation
Ability to “store” power in some fashion
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Features we probably won’t add
Too much government interaction!
Power plant construction, especially nuclear plant
construction, details with a HUGE amount of
governmental red tape
Nobody likes dealing with this in the real world, so
why do this in the game?
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Complications
We ran into a number of problems developing the
game
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The technology chosen for the webservice was
very unstable, and caused many issues
The complication of having the game always
contact the network added a lot of additional
complexity
The framework used for the client was, in
hindsight, not the best choice
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Current Status
The game is almost playable; just a few bugs to work
out.
Then there is a lot of game balancing to perform
There are two students working on it during the
spring, so we expect to have this version working
soon.
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Questions?
Ask away!
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm
Credits / Acknowledgements
Some materials used in this class were developed under a National Science Foundation "Research
Initiation Grant in Engineering Education" (RIGEE).
Other materials, including the "UVA Virtual Lab" science education website, were developed under even
earlier NSF "Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement" (CCLI) and "Nanoscience Undergraduate
Education" (NUE) awards.
This set of notes was authored by John C. Bean who also created all figures not explicitly credited above.
Copyright Aaron Bloomfield (2015)
(However, permission is granted for use by individual instructors in non-profit academic institutions)
An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm