Game Design - University of Albertaugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~c250/F07/schedule/lectures/Lecture4.pdf · Game Design CMPUT 250 Fall 2007 Tuesday, ... !Target has no meaning, but play it

Game Design

CMPUT 250

Fall 2007

Tuesday, September 18

Announcements:

• Premise Document: Due Friday, 5pm

• Design Issues: In Class, Oct 23

• BioWare Guest Lecture: Oct 25• Dave Feltham, Lead Level Designer

CMPUT 250 - Fall 2007

Lecture #4: Game Design

Game Design

! The art/craft/science of making a game

! Primarily the job of lead designers:

! overall vision

! coveted job

! much like a movie director

! less concerned with execution

! more concerned with fun and aesthetics

! But design will be the product of many folk



Game Design Questions

! What makes a game?

! What makes a game good?

Let’s play a game...



SiSSYFiGHT: Overview

SiSSYFiGHT simulates a schoolyard fight

between little girls. Each girls begins with

10 Self-Esteem chips and the goal of the

game is to reduce your opponents’ self-

esteem to zero. When there are only one

or two players left with any self-esteem,

they win the game.



SiSSYFiGHT: Setup

Each player starts with:

1. Three “Action” cards

2. Six “Target” cards

3. Ten chips of a particular color.



SiSSYFiGHT: Rules

Each Round:

! Everyone picks an “Action” and a “Target”

card in secret. Placed face down.

! Reveal cards and resolve actions.

! All communication must be public.

! When you run out of chips, you’re out.

! When one or two people are left, they win.



SiSSYFiGHT: Actions

! Solo: Target discards one chip.

! Team: If someone else also played teamagainst this target, target discards two chips.

! Defend:

! Target has no meaning, but play it anyway.

! Discard half the number of chips you otherwisewould, round down.

! If no one targets you, lose one chip



Overview

! Formal Models for Game Design

! Historical Perspectives (80s and 90s,)

! Funativity (00s; Reading)

! MDA

! The Model

! 8 Kinds of Fun

! Analyzing SiSSYFiGHT

! Design Patterns



Formal Models for Game Design

! An attempt to identify the principles and processesthat make games “fun”

"... we need a way to analyze games, to try andunderstand them, and to understand what works andwhat makes them interesting.”

– Costikyan (1994)

! Interest from designers and academics

! Not a substitue for talent or intuition, but insteadcan magnify and streamline ideas and design



Attitude

! Critical eye: analyze everything

! Don’t just play… analyze, question, critique

! Play lots of games (new and old)

! Don’t get trapped by genre

! Consider games you don’t like

! Why is The Sims the best-selling PC game?

! How did WoW go beyond Everquest?

! Was Gears of War success more than just timing?



Chris Crawford

! The Art of Computer Game Design (1984)

! The first modern treatise on game design

! Games all share:

! Representation, Interaction, Conflict, and Safety

! Some ideas now antiquated:

! Illusion of winnability: “It must appear to be winnable to all

players, the beginner and the expert. Yet, it must never be truly

winnable…”

! Store less: “… paper and ink are still a better technology than

personal computers for storing static information.”

Know Your

Medium



Greg Costikyan

! I Have No Words & I Must Design (1994)

! Aspects of all games:

! Decision-making (games are not stories)

! Goals (games are not toys)

! Opposition (games are not puzzles)

! Managing Resources (e.g., hit points, money, pollution, time,combat strength, food, reputation, “wanted” level )

! Game Tokens (e.g., the hero, military units, paddle)

! Information (i.e., what the player knows affects theirexperience)

! Other aspects: color, narrative tension, diplomacy

Meaningful

Decisions



What About Fun?

! We’ve been focusing on the game. What

about the player?

! !Creates Consumes

Game

Designer Player

! Games don’t have fun. Players have fun.

! How do games make players have fun?



Natural Funativity(Noah Falstein)

! An “evolutionary” explanation of fun, play,and games: those who play survive

! Physical Fun

! Interactions with the physical world

! Social Fun

! Interactions with people/story-telling

! Mental Fun

! Problem solving

! Building mental models of the world

Reading

Assignment



MDA(Hunicke, LeBlanc, Zubek)

! Taught as part of a workshop at the Game

Developers’ Conference (GDC) since 2001

! MDA attempts to “bridge the gap between

game design and development, game

criticism, and technical game research.”

Shamelessly lifted from the GDC 2005 Game Design and Tuning Workshop © Hunicke et al.

Along with SiSSYFiGHT 3000.



Game Consumption

Rules “Fun”System

Behavior! !Designer Player



The MDA Framework

Mechanics AestheticsDynamics! !Designer Player



Definitions

! Mechanics: The rules and concepts that

formally specify the game-as-system.

! Dynamics: The run-time behavior of the

game-as-system.

! Aesthetics: The desirable emotional

responses evoked by the game dynamics.



Two Perspectives

Mechanics AestheticsDynamics !Player



Two Perspectives

Mechanics Dynamics!Designer

Aesthetics



Clarifying Aesthetics

! Charades is “fun”

! Quake is “fun”

! Sims is “fun”

! Final Fantasy is “fun”

! What kinds of “fun” are there?

! How will we know a particular kind of

“fun” when we see it?



Eight Kinds of "Fun"

1. Sensation

Game as sense-pleasure

2. Fantasy

Game as make-believe

3. Narrative

Game as drama

4. Challenge

Game as obstacle course

5. Fellowship

Game as social framework

6. Discovery

Game as uncharted territory

7. Expression

Game as self-discovery

8. Submission

Game as pastime



Clarifying Aesthetics

! Charades

Fellowship, Expression, Challenge

! Quake

Challenge, Sensation, Fantasy

! The Sims

Discovery, Fantasy, Expression, Narrative

! Final Fantasy

Fantasy, Narrative, Expression, Discovery, Challenge

! Each game pursues multiple aesthetic goals, in varying degrees

! There are also subtypes of fun

! Expression in The Sims !"Charades



SiSSYFiGHT: MDA at Work

! What aesthetics come from playing?

! What kinds of fun?

! What dynamics contribute to the fun?

! What mechanics create these dynamics?

Mechanics AestheticsDynamics !Player



Design Perspective

! Given certain aesthetic goals…

! What dynamics contribute to those goals?

! What mechanics cause those dynamics?

Mechanics AestheticsDynamics!Designer



Design Patterns

! General repeatable solution to a commonly

recurring problem

! Concept from architecture then software engineering

then computer games

! Kreimeier (2002); Bjork & Holopainen (2004)

! Mechanics that commonly create specific

dynamics or aesthetics

! Common issues/pitfalls in using a pattern



Doors and Keys

! Much advancement through games can be

characterized as:

! obtain key (e.g., magic cloak, plans, crowbar, letter,

balloon basket, sometimes even an actual key)

! open door (e.g., rift to other universe, next level, new

continent, more spells, sometimes just a door)

! But, be careful to identify potential deadends or

traps in the game

Aesthetic:

Discovery

Challenge

Design Patterns



Predictable Consequence

! In order for a player’s decision to be perceived as

meaningful, they must not feel the outcome was

unavoidable or random

! Try to use real world and past experience to give

visual or audio cues about consequences

! Barrels marked “Explosives” explode

! Lava causes damage

! Counter-example: Blind jumps

! Counter-example: Trick power-upsAesthetic:

Fantasy

Challenge

Design Patterns



Token Chainsaka Weenie Chains

! Tokens are items or information that markaccomplishments

! Token chains: one token earns another, and so on,until some ultimate goal is achieved

! You find the scroll which you give to the old man whogives you the umbrella which shelters the child whotells you about the password to his clubhouse whichholds the old rocking horse that belonged to the mayorwho will cry when shown it and give you the…

Aesthetic:

Submission

Challenge?

Narrative?

Design Patterns



Stats, Resources, Powerups…

! Stats (e.g., strength, wisdom, speed)

! Give basic capabilities

! Rarely (if ever) change

! Resources (e.g., ammo, hit points, “wanted level”)

! Depleted with use

! replenished by discovery/time/achieving goals

! Power-Ups (e.g., mushrooms, turbo, potions)

! single use or limited use items and abilities

! obtained by discovery/achieving goals/starting level

Aesthetic:

Challenge

Design Patterns



Rock-Paper-Scissors

! Rock, Paper, Scissors

! Heavy infantry beat calvalry; calvalry beat

archers; archers beat heavy infantry

! Easy “balancing”

! Can apply to nearly anything (e.g., guns)

Design Patterns

Aesthetic:

Challenge



Cut-Scenes

! Break in the usual gameplay to show an out-of-engine (or live-action) clip

! Advances the story

! Often considered as level rewards

! But, be very careful…

! Video games are about doing not telling

! Cut-scenes steal the player’s autonomy and canbe jarring and distracting Aesthetic:

Narrative

Sensation

Design Patterns



Content Sharing

! Game content usually comes from the gamedesigner. But this is changing…

! NWN provides storytelling tools

! The Sims allows objects to be created

! Spore populates the game with others’ creations

! Sharing content becomes part of the game

! But, design becomes more challenging ascontent possibilities can be infinite Aesthetic:

Expression

Fellowship

Design Patterns



Raid Groups

! Missions that require cooperative play

! Requires different actions (e.g., Counter-Strike)

! Requires different abilities (e.g., WoW)

! Tank, Healer, DPS, Crowd Control

! Difficult to make sure all roles are useful

! See Rock-Paper-Scissors design pattern

! Difficult to make sure all roles are fun

Aesthetic:

Fellowship

Challenge

Design Patterns



Checkpoints and Saves

! Save games

! Record all game progress so game can be turned off

! Unlimited saving vs. savepoints vs. earned saves

! Checkpoints

! Record recent achievements allowing a return upon

failure (usually horrible death)

! But, must be very careful how these are managed

and placed. Critical to difficulty control.

Design Patterns

Aesthetic:

Challenge



Summary

! Focus the design on aesthetic goals…

! This is what makes a game “fun”

! Identify dynamics that are likely to produce thedesired aesthetic experience

! Focus on mechanics to support the dynamics

! Consider design patterns as “common solutions”

Mechanics AestheticsDynamics!Designer



Trial of Rolgan

! What did you think? Was it fun?

! What type of fun? Aesthetic experience?

! What subtype?

! What dynamics caused this experience?

! What were the mechanics?

! Any design patterns that could be reused?



Concept Document

! What is the game “about”?

! What will the player/hero do in the game?

! What story will drive the game?

! What will be interesting or unusual about the player’s

experience?

! Don’t focus on details

! Characters, setting, dialogue are not needed

! Think aesthetics: outline goals to design for



Trial of RolganThe Premise

! Courtroom Drama

! E.g., Law & Order, Perry Mason

! The conflict is not the lack of information (mystery) butrather convincing the jury

! First half: collect facts, active investigation

! Second half: question witnesses, present arguments

! Interesting gameplay?

! Trial questions is how the player will succeed;conversation as action not just information

! Give a compelling/dramatic courtroom “feel”Aesthetic:

Fantasy

Narrative

Challenge?



SiSSYFiGHT ExerciseIf you were to attend the GDC Workshop…

! Choose a fictional genre and/or setting thatmight fit this game.

! Adapt the game to your chosen subjectmatter.

! Keep in mind the aesthetic qualities weidentified in the game.

! How can the rules of the game be changedto best support your fiction?



What’s Next?

1. Sensation

Game as sense-pleasure

2. Fantasy

Game as make-believe

3. Narrative

Game as drama

4. Challenge

Game as obstacle course

5. Fellowship

Game as social framework

6. Discovery

Game as uncharted territory

7. Expression

Game as self-discovery

8. Submission

Game as pastime

Lectures

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Documents

Game Design - University of Albertaugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~c250/F07/schedule/lectures/Lecture4.pdf · Game Design CMPUT 250 Fall 2007 Tuesday, ... !Target has no meaning, but play it