Transcript Game Design Staffan Björk

Game Design
http://www.cs.chalmers.se/idc/ituniv/kurser/10/gameplaydesign/
Staffan Björk
Some General Points
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Teacher
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Staffan Björk ([email protected])
Locations
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Lectures at SV 118, floor 1, house Svea
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Exercises start in Torg 3, house Patricia
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13.00-15.00 Tuesdays and Fridays
Supervision, , floor 4, house Svea
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10.00-12.00 Tuesdays and Fridays
13.00-15.00 Tuesdays and Fridays when there are no
exercises
Optional board game nights, Wednesdays 16.00+
Learning Objectives
After successfully completing the course you should be able to:
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Understand the role of a game designer within a game design
project
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Motivate different perspectives on games and use of games,
both from practical and ethical aspects
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Discuss game design features explicitly using both de facto
industry concepts and academic frameworks
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Pitch game design concepts for an audience
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Relate current game designs to earlier examples, from the
direct predecessors to the first recorded examples
Learning Objectives, cont.
Further, after the course you should also be able to:
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Plan game design projects according to best practice
descriptions
Develop a game design concept from initial idea to a full game
design concept, using iterative design processes and
prototyping
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Specify target audiences and develop game design concepts
for these
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Analyze different game design using analytical tools to be
able to
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Suggest design changes and
Compare different game designs
Aims of the course
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Focus on Game Design
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Not Implementation
Not Graphics
Not Sound
Not Project Management
Not Business Models
Not IPR
Gameplay Design
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Interaction Design
Game Design
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All types of games not only
computer games
Aims of the course, cont.
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Counter-part to Simulation Engines
Game Designer is the natural step
from Lead Programmer
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But also an area with strong aspects
of interaction design
Working efficiently as programmer
requires understanding of game
design
Some relevant games
Some relevant games, cont.
Some relevant games, cont.
Some relevant games, cont.
General Structure
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Mandatory assignments
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2 individual
2 in groups
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2 Elective assignments
Three exercises
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Activities
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Analyzing
Training in pitching
Low Fidelity Play Testing
A lot of writing
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Train communication & argumentation
Seek & use references
Expected to play & discuss games
Supervision is to help with projects
and with writing
But no exam
General Structure, cont.
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Parts of the Course
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History of Games
Famous Game Designers
Analyzing Games
Narratives & Games
Designing Games
Communicating Design Ideas
Games & Education
The Book
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Use chapters
Use exercises during lectures
Why is Gameplay important?
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The core of a game
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Still underdeveloped area
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Interaction Design
Improve game industry
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Current knowledge
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Licenses
Sequels
Work from good game designers
A Word about Simulations
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Course Focus on Games
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Interaction Design most
distinguishable in that area
Applicable in many other areas
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Encouraging behaviors
Balancing users
Steering activities
Adjusting activity to player
actions
Formal Requirements
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Assignments
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1 What is a game? [10 pts, Tuesday 20100126]
2 Game Analysis [10 pts, Thursday 20100209]
3A Game Idea[5 pts, Friday 20100212]
3B Playtest [10 pts, Friday 20100219]
3C Oral presentation of project [10 pts, Tuesday 20100223]
3D Project report [15 pts, Friday 20100226]
4 Personal report [40 pts, Friday 20100305]
Elective Assignments
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E1 Kudo game [10 pts, before Friday 20100226]
E2 Game Jam [20 pts, Friday 20100129 - Sunday 20100131]
Formal Requirements, cont.
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Grading
Score
-49
50-69 3 | G
70-89 4 | G
90+
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5 | VG
Course Evaluators
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Grade
Fail
Volunteers?
Reporting
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By email
Send to [email protected]
Have [Gameplay Design 10: Assignment] in the signature
Having the attachments names using the format "[Last Name],[First Name]
Assignment [x]"
The Role of Game Designers
Related texts: Chapter 1
Responsibilities of Game
Designers
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An Advocate for the
Player
 Have clear vision of
target group
Providing good gameplay
 Creating ideas
 Ensuring quality
Making sure that
intended gameplay is
achieved
Project Leader
Skills Required by Game
Designers
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Communication
Writing
Speaking
Compromising
Finding Ideas &
Inspiration
Extensive knowledge
of games
Extensive knowledge
of gameplay
A Player-Oriented Design Process
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Involve players
 No, not yourselves
Iterative Design
 Setting an initial goal
 Stepwise developing
and refining
 Evaluating against
initial design goal
See Human-Computer
Interaction & Interaction
Design for more details
and specific methods
Generate Ideas
Identify Target Group
Evaluate
Playtest
Formalize Ideas
Create Specification
Test Ideas
Implement
Game Exercise: First to 12
Game: first to 12
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The winning condition is to be the player
that makes the shared value reaches 12
The two players take turns increasing the
value by 1 or 2
The shared value begins at 0
Break
Is “First to 12” a game?
Book Exercise: 1.2 D.O.A
What is a Game?
Definitions of Games
D. Parlett
Game historian with focus on board games, word games, and
card games.
Distinguishes between informal and formal games.
puppies play
”playing around”
sandbox play
means & ends
Has a winner
“every game is
its rules”
Parlett, D. The
Oxford History
of Board Games,
1999.
C. C. Abt
”...a game is an activity
among two or more
independent decisionmakers seeking to
achieve their
objectives in some
limiting context.”
Abt, C. C. Serious
Games, 1970
J. Huizinga
”[Play is] a free activity standing quite
consciously outside ”ordinary” life as
being ”not serious”, but at the same time
absorbing the player intensely and
utterly. It is an activity connected with no
material interest, and no profit can be
gained by it. It proceeds within its own
proper boundaries of time and space
according to fixed rules and in an orderly
manner. It promotes the formation of
social groupings, which tend to surround
themselves with secrecy and to stress
their difference from the common world
by disguise or other means.”
“Magic Circle”
Huizinga, J. Homo
Ludens, 1938
R. Caillois
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Free
Separate in time and space
Uncertain
Unproductive – creates no goods or wealth
Governed by rules
Categories
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Competition [Agôn]
Chance [Alea]
Make-Believe [Mimicry]
Vertigo [Ilinx]
Callois, R. Man, Play
and Games, 2001
C. Crawford
“A closed formal system that
subjectively represents a
subset of reality.”
”Interactive representation”
(the cause-effect
relationship)
”Conflict” (obstacles that
challenge the goal pursuit)
”Safety” (psychological
experience of danger,
without the physical
realization thereof)
Crawford, C. The Art of
Computer Game Design
B. Suits
”To play a game is to engage in activity
directed towards bringing about a specific
state of affairs, using only means permitted
by rules, where rules prohibit more efficient
in favour of less efficent means and where
such rules are accepted just because they
make possible such activity.”
or
“playing a game is the voluntary effort to
overcome unnecessary obstacles.”
Grasshopper: Games,
Life, and Utopia, 1990
G. Costikyan
”A game is a form of art in which
participants, named players,
make decisions in order to
manage resources through
game tokens in the pursuit of a
goal.”
From: Costikyan, G. I Have no
Words and I Must Design
E. Avedon & B. Sutton-Smith
”Games are an exercise of voluntary control systems, in which
there is a contest between powers, confined by rules in order
to produce a disequilibrial outcome.”
From: Avedon, E. & Sutton-Smith, B. The Study of Games
K. Salen & E. Zimmerman
”A game is a system in which
players engage in an
artificial conflict, defined by
rules, that results in a
quantifiable outcome.”
”Game design is the process
by which a game designer
creates a game, to be
encountered by a player,
from which meaningful play
emerges.”
From: Salen, C. & Zimmerman,
E. Rules of Play
J. Juul
1.
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3.
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5.
6.
Rules
Variable, quantifiable outcome
Value assigned to possible outcomes (+ -)
Player effort
Player attached to outcome (game contract)
Negotiable consequences
” A game is a rule-based formal system with a variable and
quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned
different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence
the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and
the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable. “
http://www.jesperjuul.dk/text/gameplayerworld/
J. Juul, cont.
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Transmedial
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Games not bound to a
specific media
Some games are
implemented on
several different media
J. von Neumann & O. Morgenstern
”Theory of rational behavior for interactive
decision problems. In a game, several
agents strive to maximize their
(expected) utility index by choosing
particular courses of action, and each
agent's final utility payoffs depend on
the profile of courses of action chosen
by all agents. The interactive situation,
specified by the set of participants, the
possible courses of action of each agent,
and the set of all possible utility
payoffs, is called a game; the agents
'playing' a game are called the players.”
From: Von Neumann, J. & Morgenstern, O.
Theory of Games and Economic
Behavior
T. Fullerton, C. Swain & S. Hoffman
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A closed formal system
Engages players in
structured conflict
Resolves in an unequal
outcome
From: Fullerton, T., Swain, C. & Hoffman, S.
Game Design Workshop
Assignment 1
What is a Game?
Assignment 1
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What is a Game?
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1400-2000 word argumentation for your personal
definition of what games are.
An individual assignment due in 1 week!
Learning outcomes
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Reflect on your personal view on what a game is, and
how others may differ in their opinion
Write argumentative texts where you take one position
with motivations and argue against possible objections
Compare games that belong to different categorizes to
analyze the common features and differences between
genres and mediums of games
Assignment 1, cont.
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Requirements
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One sentence definition
Comparison to the definitions presented today
Answer the following questions
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Is weight lifting a game?
Is Sudoku a game?
Is all forms of gambling games?
Is a game played if two computer programs met each other in Chess
over the net?
Examples & counter-examples of things that fit the definition
(besides weight lifting, Sudoku & Roulette)
Reflect on how your definition of games affects the role of a game
designer (e.g. what must be emphasized)
Thank you!
Questions?