Introductionto Game Design{ JORGE PALACIOS, CHRISTIAN CHOMIAK }

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Video games as a concept

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What is a video game?

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What is a video game?“Q: What is a game?A: An activity that:- requires at least one participant- has rules- has a victory condition”

“Q: What is a video game?A: A game played through a video screen”

-Scott Rogers (2010) on ”Level Up! The guide to great video game design”

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What is a video game?

• System of rules with definedobjectives that involes theinteraction between players and software.

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Games as a medium

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Games DesignINTRODUCTION

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People involved in the development

•Producer

•Designer

•Programmer

•2D/3D artist

•Sound artist

•QA

•Others…

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Design is…

…the art of creating experiences

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Boards games

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Children’s parks

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Amusement parks

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What is game design?

• The study of games

• Requires to effectively communicatethe same vision of the Project to allthe members of the team

• It’s NOT directing, management nor“coming up with ideas”

• Being a gamer is not the same as being a game designer.

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Game Design

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Frameworks: MDA

• Defined by Robin Hunicke, Marc Le Blanc & Robert Zubek.• Games structured into three layers:

• Mechanics• Dynamics• Aesthetics

Designer Player

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MDA: Mechanics

• Rules and algorithms that define and govern the actions that take place in the game.

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MDA: Mechanics

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MDA: Dynamics

• Behaviours that arise from plyers interactig with the mechanics.

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MDA: Dynamics

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MDA: Aesthetics

• Emotional responses to the game, by the player.

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MDA: Aesthetics

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MDA: Aesthetics

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Frameworks: Elemental Tetrad

• Defined by Jesse Schell in his book: The Art of Game Design.

Aesthetics

Narrative

Technologies

Mechanics

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Adventure games (’70s)

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Adventure games (’90s)

Monkey Island 2

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Mobile games

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Game DesignTHEORY BEHIND IT

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Playtest• Tests designed to find tech and design bugs.• Bugs found earlier can be corrected earlier in

development (when it’s cheaper).• Works best if:

• Testers give direct feedback (written or verbally).

• Testers are given as few initial information as posible (reduce biasing).

• Indirect feedback can be captured (involuntarily and automatic responses while playtesting).

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Playtest: It’s all about iterations

Design

PrototypeEvaluate

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Bottom-Up & Top-Down design

Concept

Context

Kernel(Characteristics and content)

Mechanics

Verbs

Bo

tto

m-u

p

Top

-do

wn

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Angry Birds: mechanics

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Angry Birds: narrative

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Enter The Matrix

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About Tutorials

• A good tutorial:1. Is not an exercise on reading a

screen.2. Works best if distributed through

the game.3. Should be as interesting as the rest

of the game.4. Must be reinforsed throughout the

game.5. Must not be neither intrusive nor

mandatory. It should be seamless.

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Mario: A good tutorial

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Mario: A good tutorial

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Interest curve

• Experience shouldn’t be linear.

• People get used to external stimuliand require more to be as satisfiedas before.

• There must be alternationsbetween action and resting.

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Conclusions

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Thank you very much!Jorge Palacios – @pctroll – pctroll .net

Christ ian Chomiak – @cchomiakm – bonusdisc.com

@iovizna – iovizna.com

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Any questions?

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