Transcript Microsoft Certified Partner

A Brief Notion of
How to Design Games
Lewis
Pulsipher
Copyright 2006 Lewis Pulsipher
Who am I
 Designed my own games while a teenager
 Began playing commercial wargames in 1963
 Played the original Atari 2600 and have
played some PC games heavily, but rarely
play any video games these days; never
owned a game console
 Designer of six commercially-published board
wargames (most recently February ‘06)
 Active designer of board and card games
(playtesters solicited!)
 My main job is teaching networking, Internet
July 18,
2015
Tech
Two forms of game design
 Video games and non-video games
 Scale is different
– “big time” computer games are produced
by dozens of people, cost millions of
dollars
– “big time” non-computer games produced
by a few people with budgets in the
thousands
• Yet a few sell more than a million copies
July 18, 2015
Prototypes—”testing is sovereign”
 To best improve a game, you must have a playable prototype
– Firaxis’ Sid Meier-Civilization series, Pirates
– The sooner Firaxis got a playable version of Civ 4, the more they
could learn
– A playable prototype includes “artwork” or physical components,
and rules or programming
 The rules for a non-video game are the equivalent of the
programming of a video game
– Programming must be precise and is very time consuming (game
engines may help in the future)
– A playable set of rules can be much less precise, relying on the
mind(s) of the designer(s), and notes
 It’s also much easier to change the non-video prototype to test
different approaches
 It’s much easier to produce the physical prototype, than to
create the artwork for a video game
July 18, 2015
Learning to design
 So we can have a playable, testable
non-video game much more quickly
than a computer game of similar scope
or subject
 Consequently, it’s much easier to learn
game design with physical games than
with video games!
– Kevin O’Gorman’s concurrence
July 18, 2015
Art vs. Science
 As in many other creative endeavors, there
are two ways of approach
– These are often called Romantic and Classical, or
Dionysian and Apollonian
 Or: art and science
– Some people design games “from the gut”
– Others like to use system, organization, and
(when possible) calculation
 Mine is the “scientific” approach, because
that is more likely to help new designers
July 18, 2015
Who is the audience?
 A game must have an audience
– What are the game-playing preferences of
that audience
– Short or long?
– Chance or little chance?
– Lots of story or little story?
– “Ruthless” or “nice”?
– Simple or complex?
 There is no “perfect” game
July 18, 2015
What makes a game “good”?
 “Fun” is hard to design
– And not everyone plays for fun—even if we
can define what “fun” is
– Educational value (history, children,
crosswords)
– Some want laughs, not strategy (family
games)
– Games are social occasions
July 18, 2015
What makes a game “good”
 Some play to win
– Players must be able to influence the outcome of the game by their
choices amongst non-obvious alternatives–otherwise it’s not a
game (though it might be a story or a toy or a puzzle)
 “Shark” players don’t want to be
“gypped”
– Will the expert win every time?
 Romantic vs. Classical players and
games
 There are many, many points of view
July 18, 2015
Genre
 Video games are more limited by genre
than non-video games
 Most video games and many others fall
into a clear genre category
 Each genre has characteristics that
come to be “expected” by the consumer
 Much easier to market a video game
with a clear genre
July 18, 2015
Typical genres
 Video games: FPS (first person
shooter), RTS (real-time strategy), RPG
(role-playing game), action, adventure,
vehicle simulation, etc.
 Non-video: card games, board games,
role-playing games,
– Strategy, action, “Euro” style, and all the
genres of computer games
July 18, 2015
How to design games
 Limits lead to a conclusion:
– Characteristics of the audience (target
market)
• “People don’t do math any more”
– Genre limitations
– Production-imposed limitations
• “Board cannot be larger than X by Y”
– Self-imposed limitations
• “I want a one-hour trading game”
July 18, 2015
Publisher-imposed limits
 Some are publisher preference, some
are market-dictated
 For example: many publishers want
nothing that requires written records in
a game
 Another example: consumers strongly
prefer strong graphics, whether in a
video or a non-video game
July 18, 2015
Self-imposed limits
 You have your own preferences
– Don’t design a game you don’t like to play yourself
– If you don’t like it, why should anyone else?
 Limits/constraints improve and focus the
creative process
– Great art and music is much more commonly
produced in eras of constraints, rather than eras
without constraints
 Example of a limit: I want to produce a two-
player game that lasts no more than 30
minutes
July 18, 2015
The idea is not the game
 Novices tend to think the idea is the
important thing
– Ideas are “a dime a dozen”. It’s the execution,
the creation of a playable game, that’s important
 The “pyramid” of game design:
– Lots of people get ideas
– Fewer try to go from general idea to a specific
game idea
– Fewer yet try to produce a prototype
– Fewer yet produce a decently playable prototype
– Very few produce a complete game
– And very, very few produce a good complete
game
July 18, 2015
The Design Pyramid: Milestones
on the way to production
July 18, 2015
How do you get ideas?
 Ideas don’t “just come” to you
 Thomas Edison: “Success is 10% inspiration
and 90% perspiration.” Same applies to
ideas
– You have to work to get ideas
– Write everything down. It may not be used now,
but may be useful later
– I use Info Select. Microsoft OneNote might do.
Or use a word processor.
 Use a notepad when you don’t have a
computer: but transcribe religiously! Back up!
July 18, 2015
Making Use of Ideas
 "Strictly speaking, there's no such thing as
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invention, you know. It's only magnifying what
already exists.“ - Allie Fox, The Mosquito Coast
Hardly anything is new under the sun
Most of the time, associations, combining aspects of
several things, results in “new” things
Hence the more “old” games and game-related
material you know, the more you have to work with
Play games; read game rules; talk about games; read
about games; write about games
July 18, 2015
Do it!
 Too many people like to think about
designing so much, they never actually
do it
 Until you have a playable prototype,
you have nothing
– (Which is what makes video game design
so difficult)
– It doesn’t have to be beautiful, just usable
July 18, 2015
The stages of completion of a
non-video game design
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Idea
Notes about idea
Detailed notes about idea
Rough Board/layout of pieces (if any)
Detailed board/layout (if any)
Prototype (pieces/cards added)
Solo-played prototype
Prototype played by others
Full written rules (rarely done before others have played)
"Settled" game
Blind testing
"Done" (but still subject to change, especially by manufacturer)
July 18, 2015
The stages of completion of a
video game design
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Idea
Notes about idea
Detailed notes about idea
Game treatment
“Rules”
Computer Prototype (usually for show)
Playable Prototype (usually new code)
Development
Testing
“Done”
July 18, 2015
Design vs “development”
 “Development” has two meanings
– In video games, it means writing the
program
– In non-video, development (often by a
person other than the designer) sets the
finishing touches on a game, but may
include significant changes
– Development takes longer than design, in
either case
July 18, 2015
The designer’s game vs. the
game that’s published
 Video games are often overseen by the
publisher, who is paying the bills; so it
is modified to suit as it is developed
 Non-video games are often unseen by
the publisher until “done”; some
publishers then modify them, often
heavily
July 18, 2015
The fundamental structures of
any game (video or non-video)
 The idea behind this: if you’re designing
a game, you have to decide what to do
within each of these categories
 This helps you conceptualize your
game, turn it from ideas into something
of substance
 If one of these structures isn’t involved,
you probably have a toy or puzzle, not
a game
July 18, 2015
Structures:
 1. Theme/History/Story
– Games are usually, though not always, models of
a reality
 2. Objective/victory conditions
– If the game doesn’t end, or has no winner, it may
be a toy or puzzle
 3. “Data storage”. (Information Management)
– How do we represent/model the state of affairs?
– This is often a board, pieces, cards in non-video
 4. Sequencing
– Simultaneous movement? Turn based? “Realtime”?
July 18, 2015
Structures…
 5. Movement/Placement
– How are objects translated from one place to
another
 6. Information availability
– Is all information known? Fog of war?
Uncertainty?
 7. Conflict resolution/interaction of game
entities
– Can there be any conflict at all? Shooting?
Swordplay? Spells? Jumping?
July 18, 2015
Structures…
 8. "Economy" (resource acquisition)
– Many traditional games have little or none
– Money in Monopoly, “kinging” in checkers
 9. Player Interaction rules
– Negotiation?
– Trading or auctions?
– No direct interaction?
 There are many more aspects to the
structures than listed here
July 18, 2015
Example: Tic-Tac-Toe
Theme: abstract game
Victory: three in a row, can be a draw
Storage: the 3 by 3 array
Sequencing: take turns placing one piece
Movement: place one “piece” at a time
Information: all available
Conflict: cannot occupy space occupied by
opponent’s “piece”
 Economy: unlimited pieces
 Player Interaction: none special
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July 18, 2015
Example: Pac-Man
Story: not much…
Victory: get through all the levels
Storage: square array in the computer
Sequencing: simultaneous movement
Movement: your one “piece” moves to
adjacent square
 Information: all available
 Conflict: depends on timing, “death” to touch
 Economy: can earn additional “pieces” (lives)
 Player Interaction: none special
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July 18, 2015
Example: Chess
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Theme: abstract but used to represent warfare
Victory: checkmate opposing king, can be draw
Storage: the 8 by 8 array
Sequencing: take turns moving one piece
Movement: one “piece” at a time, varying movement
capabilities (and: castling and promotion)
Information: all available
Conflict: occupy opponent’s space to eliminate it
Economy: promotion only
Player Interaction: none special
July 18, 2015
Example: Doom
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Theme: Mayhem!
Victory: survive and reach a goal
Storage: some kind of array in the computer
Sequencing: real-time
Movement: More or less as a person would
Information: “Fog of War”, much uncertainty
Conflict: shooting of various types, melee
Economy: can earn additional lives
Player Interaction: none special
July 18, 2015
Example: Axis & Allies (board)
Theme: World War II worldwide
Victory: take and hold enemy capitals
Storage: area map
Sequencing: take turns
Movement: move all pieces each turn
Information: all information known
Conflict: move into enemy area, dice rolling varying
with attacker and target unit types
 Economy: use industrial points to purchase new
units, technology
 Player Interaction: none special
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July 18, 2015
Example: Civil. III (Computer)
 Theme: Growth of civilization through the ages (historical, more
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or less)
Victory: Reach the stars (technological development)
Storage: square array in the computer
Sequencing: turn based
Movement: move all your pieces/do all your actions each turn
Information: “Fog of War”, much uncertainty
Conflict: Enter enemy unit’s square, rules for firing, technology
determines units you may construct
Economy: very complex resource management, pollution, taxes,
etc.
Player Interaction: Via diplomacy rules
July 18, 2015
Example: Britannia 2
 Theme: History of Britain 44 AD-1085 AD
 Victory: Accumulate more points than anyone else, score in a
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variety of ways such as holding certain areas
Storage: board, 37 land areas, 5 seas
Sequencing: turn based by nation, not by player
Movement: move all your pieces/do all your actions each turn,
move two areas usually, overruns
Information: all information available
Conflict: Enter enemy unit’s area, dice rolling after movement
modified by terrain, leaders
Economy: Increase of forces based on number of areas held
and terrain; additional units arrive from overseas
Player Interaction: Negotiation only allowed at the table
July 18, 2015
Brief “what’s important”
 Know your audience! What do they like? No game can satisfy
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all tastes.
Know your objectives! What are you trying to achieve?
Design is “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”, especially if
you also develop the non-video game.
Writing usable rules (or doing the programming) is the hardest
part.
Write everything down (and back it up).
Playtesting is “sovereign”. No matter what you think about how
the game will work, only efficient playtesting will actually show
how it works. Without a playable prototype, you have
*nothing*! (That’s only a slight exaggeration.)
July 18, 2015
 Ideas are cheap (easy); a playable game is much harder to
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create.
Players must be able to influence the outcome of the game by
their choices amongst non-obvious alternatives–otherwise it’s
not a game (though it might be a story or a toy or a puzzle). .
Be willing to change the game again and again.
Hardly any idea is original...but ideas can be used in new ways.
And there’s almost always a new way to treat any subject
(many, many ways to do real estate–Monopoly is only one).
Games are supposed to be fun. But “fun” means different
things to different people.
Keep in mind the nine fundamental structures of games:
The road to the complete game: 1. Ideas, 2. Playable ideas, 3.
Prototypes, 4. Play solo, 5. Playtest, 6. Fully written rules, 6.
Keep experimenting. 7. “Blind” test.
July 18, 2015
The progress of a design . . .
 Design constraint: I wanted a game that primarily
used colored glass beads (“stones”)—elegant, visual
effect
– Likely to be abstract, then—not enough variety for anything
“realistic”
 But how much variety can you get with one kind of
piece (even chess has many kinds); how could I
provide variety?
– Introduce a random but somewhat controllable element
– Dice undesirable to publishers nowadays
– Why not use cards to change the rules (from Fluxx, CCG)
July 18, 2015
“Law & Chaos”
 What to change?
– Victory conditions (pattern of stones
needed)
– Capture methods
July 18, 2015
Books about game design
 Academic
– More about game analysis than about design
– Rules of Play by Salen and Zimmerman, MIT Press
 Video-game oriented
– Tends to platitudes and generalities, because it’s so hard to
create and try a video game
– Rollings and Adams on Game Design, New Riders
 Marketing oriented
– Primarily about how to get the attention of publishers
– Game Inventor’s Guidebook by Brian Tinsman
 How-to
– Well, there aren’t any!
July 18, 2015
Some Web resources
 IGDA (Game developers)
 Boardgamegeek.com
 Boardgamedesign Yahoo Group
 rec.game.design (fairly worthless)
 (developers Usenet)
 Sloperama.com
 Gamespot.com, gamewire.com
 Gamesjournal.com
July 18, 2015
Questions?
Coming up:
trying to
“design” (no
prototype!) an
educational
game