So there was this idea posted over here about averaging gameplay. The basic idea is too take a variety of runs of a video game, like completing World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros, played by a bunch of people, and merging the results to get some sort of median gameplay. To see "how people, on average, react to that first goomba" as the author puts it.
It struck me as an interesting concept... but complicated and with many pitfalls.
But after some thought I considered a simple solution - layer a bunch of gameplay videos right onto of each other. As long as the stage was always timed the same, like the auto-scrolling nature of Gradius, it would sync perfectly! The most common moves would sorta layer on each other and the mostly translucent layers would brighten and solidify. And as a bonus you would see the ghosts of the less traveled.
And that is exactly what I did.. Each 'track' is a tinted a separate color (a great suggestion, thanks dark steve), but the colors are set up so that when the layers sync up together they still add up to a great white blast.
Although, ideally with more versions (that's 10) and a bunch of people playing each their own way (instead of me playing 10 different ways).
Visually the 'average gameplay' is represented pretty well, as the each of the Vic Vipers collide and sum up, producing brighter and brighter whites.
I dig the results. There's a feeling of randomness and pattern creation at the same time -- Mr Turner likened it to a sort of "interactive fractal."
Here's some screenshots, for the curious that may not wish to download the video:
Filled under:
#1 hobbie Dec 20, 2005 05:35am
DO MARIO!
#2 Otherland Dec 20, 2005 06:23am
Even with just one player multiple times it's interesting to see the variation in strategy to adapt to things learned in previous run-throughs.
Though I suspect you varied it more than you usually would to simulate more people than just yourself playing.
#3 SirMuffinMan Dec 20, 2005 06:41am
Works pretty nicely for games where the field of vision is constant, but in ones like Super Mario, as you suggested, the pacing can be completely random, and it makes it more difficult. I know this is basically just a variation on the 'ghost' concept used in racing games, and it does work in that sort of genre, but I have a feeling it wouldn't really translate as smoothly in others because there is generally more variability in the gameplay for other genres. Some people may fly through and finish 1-1 in SMB in a minute or so, other may explore certain parts or they might die or any other combination of game states, so which player do you keep focus on?
I mean, it would be interesting to see, but it just wouldn't be as smooth to watch as it is in genres in which it's already employed, but maybe that's because those genres utilise a much simple version than what's planned in this.
#4 hobbie Dec 20, 2005 07:14am
I could see someone doing SMB but only after having hundreds of 'takes' to go through. While some players might do 'odd' things, the majority would play in a similar fashion.
#5 R. LeFeuvre Dec 20, 2005 02:22pm
For something to be viewed in this manor the stage needs to be constant, as SMM remarks. I mean, what happens if someone goes down a warp pipe and the rest don't? Where does the video go?
If you had a way to view the whole stage at once, and then watch all the different versions run simultaniously, then you could do it no prob. But that requires either a lot of extra video editing or a special emulator or something of that sort. Bleh.
There are auto-scrolling stages in Mario 3 though. The huge tank and ship in World 8, for example. Could be nifty.
#6 D. Riley Dec 20, 2005 03:01pm
Damn you Divx! Now I can't watch this at work. :/
Shoot. Gradius and fractals are like, my two favorite things!
Ronn, you never cease to amaze me. How do you come up with such silly ideas?
#7 R. LeFeuvre Dec 20, 2005 03:09pm
Sonava bitch! Of all people that can't view this....
I wanted you to see this :(
I assume you have DivX at home? If not I will fucking recompress this thing!
Also - my ideas come from a mixture of 'thinking out of the box' (ooo what an atypical answer) and pushing my nostrils deep into any abnoxiously strong smelling chemical I come across.
#8 Dublyner Dec 20, 2005 03:10pm
I think you could make a really amazing video out of that floating box level from the first world in Mario 3, or any of the scripted levels of Super Mario World. If you gave me instructions on what you needed, I'd be willing to log some time playing the level through a dozen times.
Personally, I'd composite a few dozen people piloting Mario, with each one dropping out at intervals in the game, until only one surviving Mario clears the ghost ship or whatever. You could call it "Highlander."
:o
#9 bloodomen Dec 20, 2005 03:19pm
cool man, yah do mario i would love that! :twisted: you are good at this thx!!
#10 Cypher Dec 20, 2005 04:46pm
If you're able to get Ikaruga for either DC or GCN, that'd be perfect for this sort of thing.
#11 SirMuffinMan Dec 20, 2005 07:30pm
Yeah, that would easily work. Mind, I'm not suggesting that a stage has to be absolutely constant for it to work, my example before using racing games doesn't use constant stages, and users can go at ther own pace, but the problem with multiple video layers in that genre is deciding how to progress through the stage. Do you follow a specific player or move through a portion of the stage where you can view the most people. Maybe it would work better in the style of Gran Turismo replays with fixed cameras recording the race.
#12 Max Walrus Dec 20, 2005 08:47pm
That was awesome. I wish it was longer.
It gets really great when lots of enemies start to appear on the screen, and the different ghosts begin to weave in and out of them.
#13 Dublyner Dec 21, 2005 12:03am
I am rocking out to the Gradius theme.
#14 Grimson Jan 1, 2006 09:03pm
I too wish it was longer. It's really interesting how the mind adapts or changes over several run throughs. It would be interesting to see how a boss fight is handled. And of course, this could only be accomplished with a game that has constants, like gradius.
#15 D. Riley Jan 1, 2006 09:43pm
http://www.thenewgamer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1127
Now it can be!
#16 Grimson Jan 2, 2006 12:06am
Why it's the magic of SCIENCE!
#17 hobbie Jan 2, 2006 12:12am
Science RULES!
/hums theme song