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SLIDES: Allen, Christopher (2014, May 19). “Brainstorming through Game Creation”. Life With Alacrity. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.LifeWithAlacrity.com
Brainstorming through Game Creation
ABSTRACT: “Creating a game together is a great tool for teams to establish a shared language and to discover aspects of collective experience that can foster innovation. The reason is that games can be defined as “A Playful Journey to Success” — the processes of innovation, entrepreneurship and education are all also Journeys to Success. Thus by designing a game, we are modeling future successful journeys for ourselves.”
Created by Christopher Allen, [email protected]. Published in blog Life With Alacrity. Text and design ©2014 Christopher Allen and is licensed CC-BY-SA. Individual images are from The Noun Project, are © their respective owners and are licensed under CC license.
Brainstorming through…
2
What is a
Today, as part of our brainstorming exercise, each of our teams will be creating a game. Creating these games will give us a shared language about our different experiences, and will inspire us to discover aspects of our collective that we might have otherwise missed.
Creating a Game
3
What is a
There are many excellent definitions, written by philosophers, game historians, game designers, and scholars of “Ludology” — the study of games.
Game
6
Game
A game is a voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.
— Bernard Suits, in The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia (1990)
A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.
— Kalen, Zimmerman inThe Rules of Play (2004)
A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context.
— Clark Abt, in Serious Games (1970)
A formal game has a twofold structure based on ends and means; Ends: it is a contest to achieve an objective. Means: it has an agreed set of equipment and of procedural ‘rules’
— David Parlett, in The Oxford History of Board Games (1999)
There are many excellent definitions, written by philosophers, game historians, game designers, and scholars of “Ludology” — the study of games.
Game
7
GameA game is a voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.
— Bernard Suits, in The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia (1990)
A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context.
— Clark Abt, in Serious Games (1970)
A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.
— Kalen, Zimmerman inThe Rules of Play (2004)
A formal game has a twofold structure based on ends and means; Ends: it is a contest to achieve an objective. Means: it has an agreed set of equipment and of procedural ‘rules’
— David Parlett, in The Oxford History of Board Games (1999)
However, my personal definition is quite simple: A Game is “A Playful Journey to Success”So why do I prefer this definition?
to Success!JourneyGame
8
GameA Playful
However, my personal definition is quite simple: A Game is “A Playful Journey to Success”So why do I prefer this definition?
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
9
One reason is that I use this definition is that it distills the essence of what is a game down to three key qualities — that games are Playful, that they embody a Journey, and at their end you have a feeling of Success.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
10
Playful Journey Success
Also important to me, are the words that this definition leaves out.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
11
In this definition I use the word Playful rather than Play. Though games may be full of play, they are not solely about play. They are much more.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
12
Playful
Play
Part of this is because games are not always fun — all games will have some form of fun, but typically some portion of the play experience must challenge you, thus you will experience difficultly and frustration. Which is not fun, but overcoming those challenges can be.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
13
Playful
Fun
Another missing word — Competition. Though competition is often important part of a game, the Journey does not necessarily require players to compete with each other. Instead they may compete with themselves, or against the board.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
14
Journey
Competition
Similarly do games don’t have to be fundamentally about conflict — there are many great games that are about cooperation.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
15
Journey
Conflict
Finally, this definition avoids the word Win. Win implies that someone else looses. Winning can be an important part of a game, but I prefer to use Success. In the best games, those who do not win still enjoy and gain value from their play, so also share in the Success.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
16
Success
Win
So why in this exercise are we using the design of a game as a metaphor?
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
17
A Playful Journey to Success!
The reason is that education, the process of innovation, and entrepreneurship are all also Journeys to Success. Journeys have a path, they have obstacles, and at their end is some measure of success. So by designing a game, we are modeling the process of success itself.
Game
18
SuccessJourney
For the next half-hour, you will hear some stories about the Journeys. Take notes.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
19
SuccessJourneyPlayful
In particular listen for anything that you can use in your game design that fit into the categories of the Playfulness, the Journey or the Success.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
20
SuccessJourneyPlayful
Journey
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Playful Success
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After listening to these Journeys, we will be asking you begin the process of of brainstorming about how to create a game. We are not asking you to create a great game — again, our goal is simulate the Journey in the form of game to see what we learn.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
21
To recap, games are a Playful Journey to Success. Here are some things to think about in regards to these three aspects of game design.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
24
To recap, games are a Playful Journey to Success. Here are some things to think about in regards to these three aspects of game design.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
25
Playful Journey Success
PlayfulA Playful Journey to Success!
Let’s dive into the nature of of what it means to be Playful:
Playful
26
There are many kinds of Play. Some elements of play in games are Discovery and Creativity, Collecting Sets, Problem Solving, Achieving Goals, and many more.
There are many kinds of playPlay
27
Discovery /Creativity
CollectingSets
ProblemSolving
AchievingGoals
Play
Transcript28
Question:
What aspects of Play do you enjoy?
Discovery /Creativity
CollectingSets
ProblemSolving
AchievingGoals
PlayfulA Playful Journey to Success!
Here are some things you should be thinking about when describing a Journey..
Journey
30
Journey
Journey’s have a path. It can be single path, like a racetrack. Or a Journey can diverge from a single starting point into multiple paths. Or you can start from many different places and converge on a single goal. Path’s can also be very non-linear and chaotic.
Journeys have pathsJourney
31
Single Path(racetrack)
Multiple Paths(branching tree) Non-LinearRooted Paths
(upside-down tree)
Journeys have obstacles
Journey’s also have Obstacles. They can be as simple as requiring one thing to be done after another, or require a decision to be made. Other obstacles can be randomness, rules, or time.
Journey
32
Order Decisions
1
23
4 1
23a
3b
4a
4b
Randomness Rules Time
Journey’s have constraints. You have a limit to how far the Journey is, and how much time you can spend traveling.
Journeys have constraintsJourney
33
Space Time
JourneyJourney
Similarly, Journey’s have a scale. Are about a single company, a city, or a whole country? Does your journey take hours, days or weeks?
Journeys have scale
34
Space Time
Journey
Our Journey’s lead to Success, but what is the nature of Success?
A Playful Journey to Success!Success
35
Success
SuccessWho wins?
36
Individual Team Society
First, who wins? Is an individual person, a team of people, or society as a whole?
How do you define success?Success
37
Learning
PerformSkill
MakeDecision
Create
Next, how do you define success? Are you demonstrating that you’ve learned to perform a skill, or how make a decision, or the ability to create something?
How do you define success?Success
38
Learning
PerformSkill
MakeDecision
Create
Metric
Score/Statistic
Money Vote
Or is it some form of Metric, such as overcoming some score, statistic, or collect money, or winning a vote?
How do you define success?Success
39
Improvement
Personal
Overcome Rival
Aesthetic SocialLearning
PerformSkill
MakeDecision
Create
Metric
Score/Statistic
Money Vote
Success can also be very personal. You can feel that you’ve created something beautiful, that you have accomplished an improvement, or overcome a rival. And success can just be that you had a good time with your fellows.
In our next Breakout, talk about the Journeys that were shared previously. What are elements of that might be considered Playful?
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
40
SuccessJourneyPlayful
Playful
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What kind of the paths and obstacles occurred during that Journey? What is the nature of Journey’s constraints in space and time, and what was the scale?
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
41
SuccessJourneyPlayful
Journey
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Playful
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Who wins? How would you describe the elements of Success?
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
42
SuccessJourneyPlayful
Journey
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Playful Success
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Break Out:
The elements of each Playful Journey to Success
43
Kinds ofPlay
Nature ofthe Paths ObstaclesConstraints
& ScaleWhoWins
Natureof Success
So after listening these Journey’s, and sharing your thoughts on the nature of these journeys, our next goal for is to begin to create a game.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
44
A Playful Journey to Success!
You should have some notes about journeys to success that were shared earlier. Similarly you should have some notes about the kinds of play, the elements of the journey, and the nature of success.
Game
45
Journey
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Playful Success
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You just focused on these aspects of your Journeys. Which was the most interesting? Don’t start on the mechanics of your game yet — instead, simply choose what kind of journey you’d like to create a game around. Later we’ll help you brainstorm the game mechanics required to support the goals of your game.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
46
Kinds ofPlay
Nature ofthe Paths ObstaclesConstraints
& ScaleWhoWins
Natureof Success
Transcript47
Break Out:
Choose one Playful Journey to Success to Design
Kinds ofPlay
Nature ofthe Paths ObstaclesConstraints
& ScaleWhoWins
Natureof Success
Now that you’ve defined the broad goals of a game, I’d like to share with you some ideas about game mechanics that can support your goals. You don’t need to understand these mechanics, but you may connect these ideas to games you’ve played in the past, and thus find them useful for your designs.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
48
Games are often made up of sequences of mini-games
Mini-games
49
First, many games are made up of sequences of mini-games If your game is too simple, create mini-games inside it. Or, if you feel your game may be too complex, focus on a mini-game within your larger game.
An early decision that you need to make is the nature of competition. There is a continuum from competing with only yourself, to competing against someone else, to the true cooperative game.
Not all games need to be about competition
Player Interaction
50
Solitaire Competition Cooperative
There is actually many more choices here. Between solitaire and competition is ranked solitaire where you compete only by score. Competition can include parters or teams. And you can have games where there is one vs many, like a secret traitor you have in the game Werewolf.
There are many choicesPlayer Interaction
51
Solitaire
Individual Ranked
Competition Cooperative
Partners / Teams
One vs. Many/ Secret Traitor
Journeys have guideposts
Game ComponentsJourneys have guideposts. In games, we call these game components.
Guideposts
52
Game ComponentsGame Components
There are four basic categories of game components. There is the game environment, the are the tokens, the markers, and the randomizers.
There are four categories
53
Tokens(Pawns)
Markers(Scores)
Environments(Boards)
Randomizers(Dice & Cards)
Games are played in a context. This is the game environment. For instance, a game can be played entirely in the hand, or on a table, or on a device such as computer.
Games are played in a contextEnvironments
54
In the Hand(Cards)
On the Table(Boards)
On the Computer(Virtual Reality)
However, for our purposes today we are going to be focused on the mechanics of tabletop board games. However, free to create a card game if you prefer.
Games are played in a contextEnvironments
55
On the Table(Boards)
There are two kinds of boards. There are those that are the same every time the game is played, but in some games boards are dynamic and thus are different for each play.
Kinds of Boards
56
Static Dynamic
Dynamic boards have two sub-types — in the first the board is constructed before the game starts, the other board evolves as the game progresses.
Dynamic Boards
57
ConstructedBefore Game
EvolvesDuring Game
What you can do with a board?
So what can you do with a board? You can mark territory, as you have in simple games like tic-tac-toe or complex games like Risk or Go.
Kinds of Boards
58
MarkTerritory
What you can do with a board?
The board can also be used to signify projections of force, like chess.
Kinds of Boards
59
MarkTerritory
Projectionsof Force
What you can do with a board?
A board can define a racetrack, such as the Game of Life.
Kinds of Boards
60
MarkTerritory
Define theRacetrack
Projectionsof Force
What you can do with a board?
Or a board can display the score markers of the players as they proceed along their journey.
Kinds of Boards
61
MarkTerritory
Define theRacetrack
DisplayScores
Projectionsof Force
Boards have tokens on them. These tokens can be pawns that represent the players and their opponents, or they can be flags that show ownership or control of territory. Many games have shared tokens that all players may use during their turn.
Tokens are dynamic—they move, or may enter or exit play
Tokens (Pawns & Flags)
62
PlayerAvatar
EnemyAvatar
ControlTerritory
SharedToken
Markers are representative for a score, value or state
Markers (Scores & Quantities)
63
Money Resources Tools Powers Rules Change
Beyond tokens, boards have markers on them that most typically are used to represent a score, such as money. However, these markers may represent quantities of resources, tools, and powers that the players can use. Or they can signify a rules change has occurred.
All games have some source of randomness
Randomizers
64
Player’sChoices
All games have some source of randomness. These may come purely from each players choices, such as with Rock Paper Scissors
All games have some source of randomness
Randomizers
65
PlayerSkill
Player’sChoices
Or the randomness can come from the differences in players skill or strategies.
All games have some source of randomness
Randomizers
66
TrueRandom
PlayerSkill
Player’sChoices
But there is also true randomness such as dice…
All games have some source of randomness
Randomizers
67
Arbitrary(less random over time)
TrueRandom
PlayerSkill
Player’sChoices
…or forms of randomness that become less random over time such as a deck of cards. With a fresh deck you can’t predict which card will be drawn next, but as the deck runs out it becomes more predictable.
So for the next breakout, think about the the nature of cooperation vs competition in your game. Decide on the kind of board you wish to use, what do territories on the board represent, and the nature of tokens and markers required for your game.
A Playful Journey to Success!Game
68
Cooperation vs.Competition
Kind ofBoard
Tokens &Markers
BoardTerritories
Break Out:
Design a Playful Journey to Success!
69
Cooperation vs.Competition
Kind ofBoard
Tokens &Markers
BoardTerritories