building a sustainable energy system game aaron bloomfield 1

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEM GAME

Aaron Bloomfield

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INTRODUCTION

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An Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems: www.virlab.virginia.edu/Energy_class/Energy_class.htm

Overall Goal

To allow people to understandthe concepts involved in energy

production as well as thetrade-offs involved through

the use of a fun game


Inspiration (image from here)

http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/power-grid/


Architectural Requirements

The architecture of the game was defined by two major precepts:

1. We wanted to be able to log everything the players did for later analysis

2. 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


Architecture

The game consists of four main components:

• 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


Game Overview

After selecting the map and/or scenario, play begins.

The game is turn-based; on each turn:

• 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

MAKING GAMES FUN

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What is Fun?

• Dictionary: A source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure• But that doesn’t help us design games…

• Important to consider underlying reasons• “Funativity” – thinking about fun in terms of

measurable cause and effect


Evolutionary Roots

• We must look to our distant evolutionary past

• Young mammals play to learn basic survival skills• 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


Hunting and Gathering

• For most of our species’ history we were tribal hunter/gatherers

• Current popular games reflect this• Shooters, wargames = hunting• Powerups, resources = gathering• Sims, MMO = social, tribal interaction


Natural Funativity Theory

• 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


Physical Fun

• 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• Wii sports, for example

• Physical aspect to gathering “stuff”


Social Fun

• 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


Mental Fun

• 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.


Multipurpose Fun

• 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


Definition of a Great Game

• 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

• Some games, such as the Sim/Sims lines, the players may bring their own goals


Interesting and Meaningful Choices | Clear and Compelling Goal

• Choices may be dull and uninteresting because it was easy to code that way• Or it may be the reflection of a lazy

designer• Meaningful choices are perceived by the

player as having significant consequences• 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

ENERGY GAME CONCEPTS

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Scenarios

A scenario allows the user to have a goal in the game

• 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


Commodities

A commodity is a “thing” in the game

• 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


Processes

A process converts one (or more) commodities into one (or more) other commodities

• 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


Stations

A station allows one or process to occur

• 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


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


Coal Energy Production

To generate energy via coal:

• Find a coal seam, and build a coal mine on it• This allows for conversion of the coal seam to

coal• Build a coal plant

• 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!


Magical transportation?

One of the eventual goals was to allow for commodity transportation:

• 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…


Uranium Production

To generate energy via uranium:

• Find a uranium seam; build a uranium mine there• Converts uranium seam to uranium ore

• Build a uranium refinery• Converts uranium ore to enriched uranium

• Build a nuclear power plant• Converts enriched uranium to spent fuel rods,

energy, and heat• Potentially find where to store the spent fuel

rods• Profit!


Game flexibility

Many of the values in the game are provided to the client each time it starts up

• 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

GAME MAPS

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Map Generation: Random Maps

The goal was to allow for randomly generated maps that approximate a real world (image source)

http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Generator_and_startpos?file=Gen=fractal_startpos=all_landmass=15.png


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


Map Generation: Preset Maps

An actual screenshot of the client…



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



The map is squashed, left to right, due to the fact that this was a square map that was generated



Where is this?


Map Generation: Complications

Random map generation is hard!

Energy production requires other map values, generating these adds additional complications.

• Wind speed• Average temperature• Average cloudiness

These are called layers in the map; a typical map will have 30 (or so) layers


Map Generation: Layers

This view is meant for the game developers, not the players…


Map Generation: Layers

In addition to terrain, this shows 4 more layers



This shows 8 more of the layers


Map Layers

• Terrain• Rivers• Resources• Temperature• Precipitation• Altitude• Population• Improvements• Cloudiness• Power demand

• Power supply• Wind (direction and

speed)• Seasons

(other layers exist, but are not all that relevant right now)


Icons

We hired a digital artist to create icons for the game

These icons are the various things you see in the map


Maps: Tiles

Power lines, railroad tracks, and roads


Maps: Tiles

Forests, plains, and hills


Maps: Tiles

Mountains, rivers, lakes, other terrain types


Maps: Tiles

Improvements and buildings

GRAPHICAL CLIENT

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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


Client screenshot

OTHER SYSTEM COMPONENTS

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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


Sample web service methods

• registerAnonymousGame()• getRuleSet()• setGameSettings()• getMap()• startGame()

• getMap(), again• getHistory()• sendChanges()

• endTurn()• endGame()


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


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.


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?

CONCLUSIONS

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Features to be added

• 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


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?


Complications

We ran into a number of problems developing the game

• 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


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.


Questions?

Ask away!

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)


building a sustainable energy system game aaron bloomfield 1

Documents

sustainable energy systems

energy production

game map

network game

settings7an introduction

ancestors11an introduction

results6an introduction

game developers