Rapid Game World Creation Leveraging Geospatial Data in Game Jams: The ’Galactic Gourmet’ Post-Mortem

The gameplay loop is an adept tool in the beginning stages of the design process, as it shines a spotlight on the game's main mechanics and opens up the design for expansion [3].

Galactic Gourmet's core loop includes exploring the new surroundings, finding chefs, engaging in combat, collecting their ingredients, and navigating to the Galactic Cooking Station (GCS) where players can finally finish their gastronomical journey.

Although the game's plot implementation is yet to be fully finalized, we envision it to align with the articulation provided below.

Searching for rare and absent ingredients, an intergalactic sous-chef, Spacula is coming to Earth to avert the collapse of their esteemed culinary contest. The main character travels over uncharted territories and gathers the required ingredients by following the directions of Gordon "Rocket" Spacey, the chief chef of his planet. Under Gordon's guidance, Spacula consistently outperforms in the Cooking Competition.

However, there's a chance that the higher authorities are hiding some sinister plans behind the curtains of this cooking competition. It will be much easier for the galactic chefs to establish their domination in the cosmos if they have a thorough understanding of terrestrial cuisine. There will be moments when Spacula questions the authorities and finally discovers Gordon's malign intentions. The fate of the earth might end up depending on Spacula and choosing to oppose the galactic chefs could have dire repercussions!

The ability to creatively construct the levels is one advantage of creating the environment using pre-existing data. Level design can be further improved by adding handcrafted elements to the generated world. Instead of taking a predetermined path, players can be creative and create their own paths thanks to the environment generation. Additionally, it allows for spontaneous emergent situations that may result from a succession of actions.

We intended to incorporate modern gaming mechanics with an aesthetic reminiscent of the original DOOM [5]. We experimented with 2D sprite-based props and characters in our data-generated 3D world for this reason. Billboarding was utilized to give 2D sprites a 3D appearance. It is a technique in three-dimensional computer graphics in which a sprite is rendered perpendicular to the camera without respect to camera movement meaning that the sprite will always face the camera.

Majority of the 2D pixel-art assets were made using Aesprite and others were given a pixelated look using shaders within the Unity engine. UI assets and animations were also created within Unity.

Cesium services for Unity is used to create the environments found in each of the game's five levels. This is accomplished by manually adjusting the Cesium Georeference origin's latitude and longitude. Accuracy in inputting the positions ensured that the placement and orientation of the generated environment is always precise. The height is also tweaked to adjust the distance between the camera and the ground. The maximum screen space error can also be adjusted to alter the level of detail when rendering the tilesets.[6] presents several other approaches to creating virtual environments in game engines based on 3D geospatial data.

Photorealistic graphics can be achieved in the game's environment at the cost of higher render time. Ultimately, a fine balance between the resolution of the generated mesh and the loading time was needed to facilitate a smooth gameplay experience. Cesium was also utilized during the jam to create physics meshes that allowed for tileset collision. The pace of tile loading can be greatly increased by turning off the physics mesh generation, however, for this project, collisions between the gameplay elements and the surroundings were essential. Through trial and error, a level of world collision was found where the loading time was acceptable and it also helped prevent inadvertent gaps in the terrain from where players may fall through.

Cesium World Terrain fuses several data sources into a single quantized-mesh terrain tileset optimized for 3D map visualization and efficient streaming into 3D engines such as Unity. Cesium has also provided the accuracy data for this graph that represents the resolution of generated texture by regions across the globe. Here, if a region has a resolution of 30 meters, it means that each pixel in the image represents a 30 meter by 30 meter area on the ground. Therefore, objects smaller than 30 meters across may not be distinguishable.

This knowledge can be used to optimize games where lower level of detail (LOD) can be achieved by adjusting the maximum screen space error. A higher value will cause a coarser visual representation of the tiles, with lower performance cost for loading and rendering.

Playtesters provide the developers with an unbiased viewpoint on the game, which helps identify problematic aspects of the design. Observing testers and hearing their comments can help identify room for improvement and generate novel concepts for implementation [9].

After the game jam ended, playtesting was conducted among 5 participants [8] who were also game design students during the period. The playtest sessions were followed by semi-structured interviews exploring two primary research questions: 1. The perception of users on using geospatial data as game environment 2. How using food as a theme can enhance and develop a non-violent first-person shooter (FPS) game. Results from the interviews are as follows:

The participants provided insights based on the playthroughs and research questions. They appreciated the game's 80s sci-fi vibe, expansive world, and comedic food-related gameplay, though they noted minor frustrations with bugs and ingredient collection. They praised the use of satellite imagery for real-world immersion but highlighted its limitations and potential ethical concerns. Some participants showed appreciation towards innovation and dismissed ethical concerns about procedural generation.

Combining a food theme with FPS mechanics was considered innovative, proposing ideas such as ingredient-based ammunition. However, given the game's intention to humorously represent various cultures and their cuisines, some playtesters advised caution to avoid relying too heavily on stereotypes, which could inadvertently cause offense.

Overall, the participants found the combat flow and the overall game to be enjoyable and impressive it being a small team project made during a game jam.

Even though the game jam itself was not voted on or judged, the game's submission for an exhibition, later on, was judged. The game has received remarks for its unique blend of humorous and comedic vibe. The judges praised its "janky" look, praising how it accepted the unpleasant nature of the satellite-collected geographical data. Some noted that the game could become tedious due to the repetitive nature of the mission structure. The unique use of geospatial data was highlighted as a standout and appreciated feature. Overall, the game's creativity and innovative approach were recognized by the judges.

Based on playtesting and feedback from the judges, we have reiterated the game design to make the pacing feel less repetitive and added the outer space game mode where players need to navigate their way through obstacles and reach the Galactic Cooking Station (GCS) to cook their dishes with the collected ingredients and complete the level.

It may be feasible to refine the game's overarching design to closely align with its narrative and mechanics. While the game focuses on cooking as its primary theme, this aspect is not emphasized to its full potential. Hence, when the players’ actions are inconsistent with the plot, ludonarrative dissonance may occasionally occur.

Ludonarrative dissonance can be described as having inconsistency between the story and the gameplay elements of a game. [4] uses the critically acclaimed FPS Bioshock (2K Games, 2009) as an example — throughout gameplay, the game gives the player a choice to either harvest Little Sisters to gain power or to save them. The mechanic fits the game's theme perfectly. Conversely, the narrative is designed to steer the player only on the good path, which leads to a ludonarrative dissonance, as the player's actions are fully at odds with the game's story.

The theme-first design can be solidified by unifying the design based on the cooking theme. By emphasizing on designing a cohesive world, the overall game flow and user experience can feel more natural and acceptable. Closer adherence to the theme can set certain design constraints that can eventually make the design process easier by narrowing down the design space.

The overall design and the game loop are still a work in progress as we believe the idea has a lot of potential and room for improvement, especially when we consider the usage of geospatial data for environment generation and designing a non-violent FPS game with an approach that tries to blend two unconventional genres such as shooting and cooking.