The slides from an Ignite-style talk given at G4C 2010. Wherever you read anything about a ghost story, you may safely assume that you are hearing a ghost story. The simulation in question is available for download/forking here: http://github.com/ardubs/fish/

1. Hello.
Rob Dubbin at talkingpet.org
@robdubbin

2. Hello.
Rob Dubbin at talkingpet.org
@robdubbin

3. I. A Ghost Story

4. I. A Ghost Story

5. I. A Ghost Story

6. II. The Real Story
I decided to build a
simulation.

7. III. The Simulation
“Give a man a fish, you have
fed him for a day. Teach a
man to fish, you have fed
him for a lifetime.”
-- Lao Tze

8. III. The Simulation
Aphorism = constraint on
reality.
Game design = constraint on
reality.

9. III. The Simulation
Aphorism = constraint on
reality.
Game design = constraint on
reality.

10. III. The Simulation
manJobs = [‘civilian’,
‘fisherman’, ‘teacher’]
locations = [‘home’, ‘ocean’,
‘market’, ‘graveyard’]

11. III. The Simulation
1 town, 100 citizens, 100
days, 35 trials
[61, 83, 77, 72, 85, 82, 78,
76, 81, 86, 73, 79, 64...]

13. IV. Success!
(% survival
fishermen
after 100
teachers
days)
(% of initial pop.)

14. IV. Success!
(% survival
fishermen
after 100
teachers
days)
(% of initial pop.)

15. IV. Success?
(125,000 dead)

16. V. Conclusions
Any aphorism can suggest a
game design.
Elegance yields complexity
if you poke at it enough.

17. V. Conclusions
Simulate something! It will
find ways to surprise you.
Story is failure-agnostic.

18. VI. Failure?
(ghost story)

19. VII. Give A Person A Sim
Fork my (poorly documented)
simulation here:
http://github.com/ardubs/
fish/

20. Thanks:
Omar Wasow, Riley Crane,
Adam Parrish, Joe Mariglio,
The Colbert Report, Jeff
Dubbin, Cailin Goldberg-
Meehan, and you.