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Exploring the Design Space of Social Physics Engines in Games

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Interactive Storytelling (ICIDS 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13762))

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Abstract

Social simulation in video games approximates believable social behavior between characters. Game franchises like Crusader Kings, The Sims, and Dwarf Fortress became famous for using social simulation for emergent storytelling. Despite the success of using social simulation as a core aspect of gameplay, there is a seeming lack of publicly available tools for helping game developers create these types of experiences. To help encourage the development of open-source social simulation tools, we further explore the concept of social physics engines—self-contained solutions for modeling dynamic social relationships between non-player characters and players. We propose a design space for constructing social physics systems. It is inspired by rigid-body physics engines and is informed by a design space analysis using commercial and academic social simulation games and systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sims 4 subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims4/.

  2. 2.

    Crusader Kings subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/.

  3. 3.

    Dwarf Fortress subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/.

  4. 4.

    https://pybullet.org/wordpress/.

  5. 5.

    https://box2d.org/.

  6. 6.

    https://developer.nvidia.com/physx-sdk.

  7. 7.

    https://www.havok.com/.

  8. 8.

    The simulation of bodies under the influence of external forces with the assumption that all bodies are solid/non-deformable.

  9. 9.

    The simulation of realistic deformable objects like cloth, hair, and plants.

  10. 10.

    The realistic simulation of fluids like water and smoke.

  11. 11.

    Mario stats taken from fan wiki: https://characterprofile.fandom.com/wiki/Mario.

  12. 12.

    https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Moodlets_(The_Sims_4)/Life_Status.

  13. 13.

    https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Personality_trait.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA

    Shi Johnson-Bey & Michael Mateas

  2. American University, Washington D.C., 20016, USA

    Mark J. Nelson

Authors
  1. Shi Johnson-Bey
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  2. Mark J. Nelson
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  3. Michael Mateas
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Correspondence to Shi Johnson-Bey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mirjam Vosmeer

  2. University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden

    Lissa Holloway-Attaway

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Johnson-Bey, S., Nelson, M.J., Mateas, M. (2022). Exploring the Design Space of Social Physics Engines in Games. In: Vosmeer, M., Holloway-Attaway, L. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13762. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_36

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-22298-6

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