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Suddenly, the music changes, taking on an ominous tone, and the player’s eye is drawn to
new creatures in the area: a group of large hostile ants have wandered close to the anthill. When
one of the player’s ants encounters the hostile ants, they battle, and the player’s worker ant is
killed. In reaction, the player selects all of his outside ants and gives them a strong urge to go
inside. In fact, the ants nearest to the hostile ants associate this urge with the strangers’ smell, and
will remember this lesson (a key point, since such accidental learning by reinforcement will
continue to influence the player’s interaction with the ants). After the hostile ants have left, the
player tells his underground ants to go outside again.
Eventually, the colony is booming, like a swarming factory. The music has become busy
and celebratory, in keeping with the colony’s growth. The player has achieve all of the goals with
which he has been presented, and a message appears to congratulate him. The title, “Leafcutters,”
fades into the foreground, with his bustling colony as its backdrop. The player may continue to
play, and when he chooses to leave, the screen fades slowly to black, eventually resetting for the
next player.
Aesthetic Treatment
The look and feel of Leafcutters is rooted in realism and specificity. The ants are
modeled and animated as accurately as possible after Atta cephalotes, a species of leafcutting ant,
with bright orange coloration, lanky legs, and enormous jaws for cutting leaves. They are not the
ants an American would find in her back yard. Rather, they are alien, but also related to
ubiquitous ants. The environment art is similarly alien but familiar, a rainforest scene with deep
green tree roots and thick grassy underbrush.
The game is built in the Unity 3D engine, using 3D models for the creatures and
environment. The 3D perspective view creates a sense of physical depth, particularly
highlighting the contrast of the flat space of the underground nest with the deep space of the
rainforest exterior.
15
Object Description
| Title | Leafcutters: life simulation gameplay designed to evoke engagement with real-world subject matter |
| Author | Graner, William B. |
| Author email | granerw@gmail.com; bill@bgraner.com |
| Degree | Master of Fine Arts |
| Document type | Thesis |
| Degree program | Interactive Media |
| School | School of Cinematic Arts |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-05-05 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-05-05 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Gibson, Jeremy |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Fullerton, Tracy Anderson, Steven F. |
| Abstract | Leafcutters is a life simulation game about leafcutting ants which is designed to evoke engagement with real world subject matter. In this game, players shape the behaviors of a colony of ants in order to establish complex behaviors such as foraging and fungus farming. The game system in Leafcutters is adapted from existing biological research on ants, with an emphasis on the accurate adaptation of a natural system into a game system. This project draws on previous works in artificial life, life simulation games, swarm games, virtual pets, and virtual ants. Leafcutters is a work of expressive AI, an evocative knowledge object, and an educational game. |
| Keyword | simulation game; evocative knowledge object; educational game; video game |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3919 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Graner, William B. |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Graner-4578 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-Graner-4578.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 20 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | Suddenly, the music changes, taking on an ominous tone, and the player’s eye is drawn to new creatures in the area: a group of large hostile ants have wandered close to the anthill. When one of the player’s ants encounters the hostile ants, they battle, and the player’s worker ant is killed. In reaction, the player selects all of his outside ants and gives them a strong urge to go inside. In fact, the ants nearest to the hostile ants associate this urge with the strangers’ smell, and will remember this lesson (a key point, since such accidental learning by reinforcement will continue to influence the player’s interaction with the ants). After the hostile ants have left, the player tells his underground ants to go outside again. Eventually, the colony is booming, like a swarming factory. The music has become busy and celebratory, in keeping with the colony’s growth. The player has achieve all of the goals with which he has been presented, and a message appears to congratulate him. The title, “Leafcutters,” fades into the foreground, with his bustling colony as its backdrop. The player may continue to play, and when he chooses to leave, the screen fades slowly to black, eventually resetting for the next player. Aesthetic Treatment The look and feel of Leafcutters is rooted in realism and specificity. The ants are modeled and animated as accurately as possible after Atta cephalotes, a species of leafcutting ant, with bright orange coloration, lanky legs, and enormous jaws for cutting leaves. They are not the ants an American would find in her back yard. Rather, they are alien, but also related to ubiquitous ants. The environment art is similarly alien but familiar, a rainforest scene with deep green tree roots and thick grassy underbrush. The game is built in the Unity 3D engine, using 3D models for the creatures and environment. The 3D perspective view creates a sense of physical depth, particularly highlighting the contrast of the flat space of the underground nest with the deep space of the rainforest exterior. 15 |
