Designprocesser lecture1

34
Design processer för spel Introduction to the course Petri Lankoski

description

- Course description and assignments (slides 3-10) - Game system design -- Game elements (slides 12-29) -- Hints for design (slides 30-32) - References + reading list (slides 33-34)

Transcript of Designprocesser lecture1

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Design processer för spel

Introduction to the course

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Table of Contents1. Course description and assignments (slides

3-10)

2. Game system design Game elements (slides 12-29) Hints for design (slides 30-32) References + reading list (slides 33-34)

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Learning Goals Identify and describe the design theories and design techniques

from game science, human-computer interaction and interaction design

Describe and use various creative methods to generate game ideas, choose ideas and develop them

Describe game ideas in different ways, both verbally and non-verbally, and effectively communicate and market the game concept in different contexts and for different audiences, such as for their team and for funders

Iterate design using prototyping

Describe the basic connection between the games design and mechanics, and the player's motivation

Evaluate their own and others' design work and relate to it in relation to the artifact itself, gameplay and the game in relation to society.

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Course Content Design theory and practice (All)

Game system design (All)

Narrative design & design processes for narrative design (First: all; the second and third: Designers & Artists)

Object-Oriented Analysis & Design (programmers)

Partly Problem Based Learning You are not given all answers, but problems

To solve the problems requires learning in those areas Development diary

You should provide evidence of your leaning to me!

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Course content… Narrative design assignment 1 & 2 (artist,

designers) (G)

Object-Oriented Analysis & Design assignment (programmers) (G)

3 Design iterations (G)

Playable game prototype demonstrating core mechanics, visual style, and storytelling (G,VG)

Development diary (G,VG)

Being present at sprint reviews and retrospectives (G)

You continue with this project at the Level Design course if your project is ready enough

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OOD & AProgrammers

Read Read McLaughlin, Police & West, Head first object-oriented analysis & design, pp. 1–144 & 577.

By Thu, April 28, 10 o’clock

You should be able to describe the concepts: Class diagram Requirement Scenario

You should be able to describe why OOD&A

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Narrative Design Assignments will be introduced at Narrative

Design lectures

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Design Iterations & Prototype Wed, Mar 13 – Thu, Mar 14

Core mechanic: Collection Chance(luck) element

Visual style: Line art (black and white)

Tue, Mar 19 – Mon, Mar 25

Final design: Choose one design (design 1–3)

and create playable digital prototype of the game that demonstrate the core mechanics, visual style, and story-telling approach.

Mon, Mar 11 – Tue, Mar 12

Core mechanic: Exploration territorial acquisition

Visual style: Monochrome

Fri, Mar 15 – Mon, Mar 18

Core mechanic: Racing Puzzle

Visual style: 6 colours (select)

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Note on Level DesignYou continue with this game in Level Design

course If the design is ready enough

Ready enough means I can playtest the core mechanics by playing your

prototype Your prototype demonstrates look and feel I understand your storytelling approach by playing

your prototype The storytelling is implementable within Level

Design course

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Development diary An entry per day during the

project What where you working on? What was the goal of the work? What theories or methods did

you use? Did you reach your design

goals Did you make compromises

(due technical or limited resources)?

What problems did you have? How did you solve the

problems? What did you learn? Is there something else worth

to mention?

These questions are to help you to write an entry No need to answer all the

questions each day, but to write on entry based on the relevant ones You might have learnt

something at one day You might have solved a

problem at another day

Should show evidence that you have gain understanding in areas defined by learning goals

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Game System Design

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What Games are?

Chess

Space Invaders

Doom

Flower

Sim City

War Hammer 40 000

September 12

GraveyardSims

World of Warcraft

Eve Online

Heavy Rain

Poker

Table-top RPGs

Cow Clicker

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What Games Are?There are prototypical games

Tetris, Chess, Space Invaders,… Understanding what make these things tick help

you to understand game design

BUT going out from the box might produce something very interesting Sim City, Little people, Sims Graveyard, Every day the same dream

However, if a game is too novel, players do not get it

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What games are about Meaningful decisions

Twitch skill

Puzzle solving

Challenges

Learning to play

Mastering the game

In other words

That the players’ actions and choices have an impact In the game To the players’ emotions

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What is game design?Creating rules or game systems

Creating goals for players that

Creating content Not always purely game design But content and game design are always linked

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Why Theories?What are your building blocks?

How the building blocks relate to each other?

What are the consequences of your design?

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Game Autopsy Components

Game environment

Actions What a player(s) can do Verbs

Mechanics

Goals

Game State

Game View

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Components Components are something that can

manipulate or owned Components-of-self Components-of-system Components-of-other

Components in Chess Components-of-self

Pieces that I move Components-of-other

Pieces that the other player moves Components-of-system

Does not have

Chessboard: Klin, ILA-BOY, Beao, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chess_board_blank.svg

Components-of-self

Components-of-other

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Game EnvironmentArea where the game take place

Area can be Field as in Soccer, Ice Hockey, Basket ball Game board as in Chess, Backgammon Screen as in Space Invaders, Game world as in Elder Scrolls Designed or randomly generated,

But no clearly defined environment Shadow Cities Geocaching

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ActionsWhat players do when they play game

Actions can be expressed as verbs Shoot, hide, sneak, drive

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Game StateAll information that can change during the

gameplay and that is needed to construct a situation in a specific moment

Consists of All components, their positions, values Who's turn it is (in turn-based multiplayer) Possible previous game states when the previous

states influence the current state

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Game State examplesPoker

Cards in hands Discarded cards Bot Who’s turn it is What is the stage in the game

Tetris The position and rotation of falling blog Blogs on the ground Score Level

Poker: image by Todd Klassy, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holdem.jpg

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Game View What kind of view a player

have to the game state

Perfect Information The game state is fully

visible to a player of to all players

E.g., Chess

Imperfect Information The game state is partly

hidden E.g., Poker

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Mechanics game system, algorithms or rules,

The core of game

Mechanics defines how game behaves

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GoalsWhat is the goal of playing

What is needed to win the game

Victory conditions / conditions for loosing game

Important for motivating play

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Dynamics Patterns that happens when the game system is

motion, in use

Approximately the same as Gameplay

Same dynamics in (among other dynamics) Bridge Trump Spades Core mechanics is trick-taking

Same core mechanics -> similar dynamics But dynamics depends on implementation and

other mechanics in the game

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Core Mechanics Chase or evade

Trading

Racing

Not exhaustive list

These are commonly used

Very useful

Territorial acquisition

Prediction

Spatial reasoning

Survival

Destruction

Building / Resource management

Collection

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Core MechanicsTetris

Spatial reasoning

Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne Building/Resource management + Trading

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ThemeA game can have a theme

Visual theme vs narrative theme

Example Ico is a game about a boy who get captured

because he is different to others and he needs to escape

Not all games have a theme Poker Tetris

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Where to Start? What this game is about?

How do I play? Verbs

How do I complete the game/How do I win? Goals

What challenges I face? Obstacles, enemies

What are the things I need to do to reach the goals?

Why I do want to play?

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Work with the Limitations Game design is about working with limitations

Limitations are not negative thing Limitations force you to be creative!

Set limitations for the design Our game should contain

A core mechanics, a design pattern, etc. E.g., territorial acquisition, ROLE-REVERSAL, one-button

control Our game should not contain

Limit away the most obvious direction E.g., No shooting

The style of the game is E.g., Dali-like, cute animals, pop art, wild west + magic

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Some Tricks to Overcome Designers Block Kill a rule, remove a feature

Limit or unlimit a resource

Take one random design patterns from Björk & Holopainen and add that to the game

Change a value in the game system or in rules Multiply or dive by two

Change the visual theme or narrative theme Try something very different to the current one

Test the design after a change to get a fresh perspective

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ReferencesBrathwaite & Schreiber, 2008, Challenges for

game designers. Charles River Media, chapters 1-2

Järvinen, 2008, Games without frontiers, Tampere University Press, chapter 4.

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Reading for the Project Brathwaite & Schreiber:

Change/luck: pp., 69–74 Puzzle: pp., 40–50

Exploration as puzzle: p., 47

Strategy: pp., 83–91 Territorial acquisition

Twitch skill: pp. 99–102 Racing

Schell: The art of game design Change/luck, pp., 153–169 Puzzle: pp., 208–219

Carson: Environmental Storytelling http://www.gamasutra.com/view/

feature/3186/environmental_storytelling_.php

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131593/environmental_storytelling_part_.php