Jon Blow on 'The Truth in Game Design' making heavy use of fractals

[kram1032]

Have fun
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/185765/Video_Jon_Blow_on_The_Truth_in_Game_Design.php#.UQsGeSc0V8E

[Tglad]

Jon Blow was the editor to an article I published once.

Unfortunately I don't find that his games show anything like the emergence that you see in Mandelbrot set and game-of-life, but good on him for trying (even if the talk came across as a shameless plug).

[hobold]

His games are not fractal. But he does describe the process of designing his games as an exploration rather than a construction. And what he explores is emergent behaviour arising from simple rules.

I can relate to that. It is very common among mathematicians to feel a sense of discovery when they come up with new theories, new constructions. They don't usually feel like creators, but like explorers of something that was already there before they first saw it.

[kram1032]

Oh sorry, I guess the title was missleading. I meant that his talk made use of fractals, not his games.
He uses them as metaphor.
Basically, what he is saying is that he starts off with a basic framework (like z=z²+c) that he then plays around with to come across patterns he likes and wants to amplify (the Mandelbrot set)

Though if you take random data out of a game environment, you'll surely end up with power-laws in form of player behavior and success, etc. In the end you could probably define a lot of different fractals within that. Just not ones you can see as easily.