CSE1GDT Game Design Theory Paul Taylor 2009. Super Outline The History of Game Design How NOT to...

CSE1GDT

Game Design Theory

Paul Taylor

2009

Super Outline

• The History of Game Design

• How NOT to Develop

• Factors of Game Design

• The Design Process

History of Game Design

• Coin Machines– Single Reward Design

• High Score• Skill Based

• The rise of Consoles– The Atari

• 10,000 employees• In the US 1 in 4 households owned an Atari• Then came Unstuck on Pac Man and ET• Plus the Release of the Commodore

• Games were originally developed by a single person, who managed all of the aspects of the game

• It usually took days, or possibly weeks to create a game– Nowadays the cycle for most games is rarely under

18months, and involving hundreds, or 1000’s of people

• With Atari fading away, Nintendo brought in the NES– Nintendo Seal of Quality

• Avoided the Cartridge flood which reduced profitability

• At the same time, many keen gamers were starting to develop games on their Home Computers

• The computing power of these machines, and the difference in capabilities to consoles led the development of game genres

• Elements such as varying backgrounds and storylines started emerging

• Following this games started to develop a learning curve, where experience also became an important factor

• Newer Computers had EGA (16) and even VGA(256!!) graphics, Sound Cards and even Mouse input, – The advent of the mouse is where the

computer really took over the RTS genre

• Developing games started to incorporate the length of the gameplay to be extended – both for enjoyment and marketing

• The release of the PlayStation killed arcade machines– Sony also broadened the games market from

Hard-Core to Kids, by marketing the PS1 at young adults

• This created a much larger market, and thus required that games be designed for specific areas of the market

• Marketing people saw this change and the ‘casual gamer’ was born– Did they exist? Or did the market create them?

• It forced the developers to change the format of games– Difficulty didn’t need to be part of gameplay– Frustration was to be avoided– Ergonomics were a key to a games success– Beauty of the game was also a major influence

This brings us to roughly now…

• The aspects we cover in Game Design are a good summary of what is involved at the moment– Changes WILL happen, forever no doubt

• On the up side, basic ingredients for games haven’t changed, just extra spices, and a few new dishes on the menu

How not to make your game

• Limbo of the Lost– Do you trust the people you work with?

Limbo of the Lost

Oblivion

Wow!

Limbo of the Lost Oblivion

Tim Croucher, Steve Bovis and Laurence Francis

One of these guys is not like the others….

I’d recommend avoiding developing like this!

Basic Design Factors

Basic Design Factors 08

We are trying to create an experience

The game is our tool

We create an environment to allow players to have an experience

The four basic elements

Mechanics

Story (when used)

Aesthetics

Technology

The many factors that impact players

Play Style

• Play Styles vary, you should encompass as many styles as you can comfortably

• What Play style affects– Difficulty– Time investment– Flow– Rhythm– Gameplay Hooks

• Things to avoid– Learning through Death (Bosses are an exception to me).– Unexploreable areas that seem reachable– Player Frustration

Personal Factors

• I like killing video game rabbits– That is one of my personal factors

• Probably not one you will want to focus on as it is not a very broad demographic (to my knowledge)

• Select typical Factors as key importance

• Making other parts of your gameplay as flexible as is reasonable

Flow

• Avoiding the difficulty level reaching a point where the player cannot continue playing the game comfortably

• The Inverse holds true, playing a game in which you are flying through the levels can be un-rewarding

Rhythm

• Enter the rollercoaster of Positive Reinforcement– Up and down up and down, but ever climbing

Dissonance and Boredom

• Dissonance is usually your enemy– The torch in Doom3– Getting Irrivesably stuck

• When is dissonance good?– As potential clues to a game puzzle

• Uncharted, used to avoid flow issues

– To creep the player out in a horror

Wow Factor

• This is not always something you intended– Face Off

• It is typically Iconic– Onslaught for Unreal 2k4, cars guns and

violence– QuakeWars was too similar to be a wow

factor to many people– Can be anything in the game that people

remember vividly• The bosses, The Cut-Scenes (FF)

Ergonomics

• How well does the game play?– How well does the menu work?

• Ut3

– Can you customise the things you don’t like?

• Ergonomics also extends to the HUD– Does the player know what is happening?– Can they see the main screen through the

information?

Hooks

• Things that will make people want to play the game– A new experience– Gameplay modes

• Resident Evil story changes

– Achievements– Alternate goals/stories / gameplay– Online modes

Linearity

• This is something to avoid– Well to avoid the feeling of linearity

• Distracting the player

• Using a Bottlenecking design

• Using a Branching design

Gestalt

• This is probably the hardest of all to describe.

• It is roughly to opposite to dissonance, where everything feels right.

• Dictionary explanation is ‘something that is more than the sum of all its parts’

The Development Process

• Concept

• Elaboration

• Tuning

Game Concept

• This is the initial Outline of the Game

• It contains the players role, goals, gameplay mode, genre, audience, a summary of the game world, and summary of how a player will get from start to end of the game

Elaboration

• Pretty self explanatory

• This is where you go through the game and level concept sheets, and expand them into documents with most of the details of the game, and refine the experience through play testing and prototyping of levels / gameplay modes

Elaboration in pictures

Tuning

• Tweaking gameplay mechanics to improve the experience

• Removing / Avoiding errors– Portal Secret Door

• You need people who haven’t played the game before for this!!!!– RA

Back to the Game Concept

The Player Experience• Player

• Interface

• Game Core Mechanics

Knowledge

• Intrinsic

• Extrinsic

References

• http://www.gamethink.net/1975-1984-the-stone-ages-of-the.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost

• http://lotl.wikia.com/wiki/The_Developers