jorisdormans.nl

The idea that military simulations provide training for soldiers is familiar; what The Sims does is provide civilian simulator training for yuppies.

- Kline, Dyer-Witheford & De Peuter

Welcome to jorisdormans.nl. This site serves as a portfolio for my games research, gaming hobby and programming endeavors. Here you can find several articles I wrote about games, reviews of games and books on games, gaming projects, software I created and more. Feel free to look around.

New & updated

project
Engineering Emergence
My PhD dissertation (pdf, 18MB) is finished! It sets out to develop formal tools for the hard task of designing games. Games, as rule based systems, often display emergent behavior. One of the core aspects of games, gameplay is often...
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article
Simulating Mechanics to Study Emergence in Games
This paper presents the latest version of the Machinations framework. This framework uses diagrams to represent the flow of tangible and abstract resources through a game. This flow represents the mechanics that make up a game’s internal economy and has a large impact on the emergent...
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article
Integrating Emergence and Progression
This paper investigates how structures of emergence and progression in games might be integrated. By leveraging the formalism of Machination diagrams, the shape of the mechanics that typically control progression in games are exposed. Two strategies to create mechanics that control progression...
>>>go there>>>

article
Level Design as Model Transformation
This paper frames the process of designing a level in a game as a series of model transformations. The transformations correspond to the application of particular design principles, such as the use of locks and keys to transform a linear mission into a branching space. It shows that...
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book review
Everyone Plays at the Libary
These days libraries are so much more than just a dusty collection of books. They are growing into media and social hubs sharing information and social experiences alike. For some it is obvious that games are part of this development. After all, games are a medium, and can be used to convey...
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project
Flix 2
Flix 2 is a comical, but challenging, platformer where you play Flix: half blob, half spider. You can jump, roll up steep hills, stick to ceilings, and use your grappling arm to swing through the levels of this skill based game. Collect stars to open the exit to the next level while avoiding...
>>>go there>>>

Site Info

This site was last updated on January 19th, 2012
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For more info feel free to contact me at jd@jorisdormans.nl