Game Design Workshops

Gebze, 2011

ARTUR

• I’m Artur, known also as Sam-ur (yeap, readtoo much Tolkien in youth). I’m also a gamedesigner with ~5 years of experience. My twogreat passions are: games and running.

• I worked on some really great projects. The most known are:– The Witcher (cancelled XBOX port):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShavN9hAVe8&feature=player_detailpage

• The Witcher 2:– The Witcher (cancelled XBOX port):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShavN9hAVe8&feature=player_detailpage

• Anomaly: Warzone Earth (iPhone version): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1kcruB1XD0&feature=player_detailpage

What are my favourite games?

• I don’t really have one… But there are somegames that walk after me since the time I played them:

• The Sting: Old game where I’m a thiefplanning burglaries. This planning part is reallygreat and interesting game mechanic. Thisalso gives you total control over the time.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryivvJSyEJ0&feature=player_detailpage

• Primordial Soup: Board game in wich you play an amoeba trying to evolve as the best specie. It has really interestig mechanic simulatingeveolution and you have many, manycombination of genes, so almost every gameyou can create something different.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRGbY2SM7do&feature=player_detailpage

• Cannon Fodder: A really old game that I remember playing as a kid. That was a blast to play. You’re controlling couple of army guys by dragging your mouse around the screen and you had to destroy enemy soldiers, trying not to die. A truely legendary game.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ob73lgvE0M&feature=player_detailpage

Aleksander Sierżęga

• I design games 9 years. I've created many simulation, business, educational, video and board games. I'm a sociologist. Graduate Institute of Applied SocialSciences University (specialization "Negotiation, mediation, conflict resolution".)

What I do

• I'm:

owner of Simulation Games Manufacture

coowner of Crazy Rabbit Lab and

coowner of Klasosfera Limited

president of the executive board of PolishEducational Portal „Interklasa” Foundation

My projects

I designed (not alone :) all games for the „School of Negotiations” - one of the biggest negotiations trainingschool for bussines executives.

„Power manager” - board game about Renewables sourcesof energy for childrens

„Proteus” - tactical training game for crysis management teams on local level

„Crazy Rabbit Contest” for Iphone (memory/logic game)

Keri Tap Christmas” for Iphone (logic game)

Favourite games

Pac Man – yes i know :)

America's Army

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Civilization IV

Rick Dangerous (anybody remember thatone?)

Heroes of Might & Magic III

What is a game?

• A game has “ends and means”: an objective, an outcome, and a set of rules to get there. (David Parlett)

• A game has six properties: it is “free” (playing is optional and not obligatory), “separate” (fixed in space and time, in advance), has an uncertain outcome, is “unproductive” (in the sense of creating neither goods nor wealth — note that wagering transfers wealth between players but does not create it), is governed by rules, and is “make believe” (accompanied by an awareness that the game is not Real Life, but is some kind of shared separate “reality”). (Roger Callois)

• Games have four properties. They are a “closed, formal system” (this is a fancy way of saying that they have rules; “formal” in this case means that it can be defined, not that it involves wearing a suit and tie); they involve interaction; they involve conflict; and they offer safety… at least compared to what they represent (for example, American Football is certainly not what one would call perfectly safe — injuries are common — but as a game it is an abstract representation of warfare, and it is certainly more safe than being a soldier in the middle of combat). (Chris Crawford)

• Games are a “form of art in which the participants, termed Players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.” (GregCostikyan)

• Games are a “system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome” (Rules of Play by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman).

• "A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context." (Clark C. Abt)

• Game is a set of rules and/or conditions, established by a community, which serve as a bounded space for play. (Corvus Elrod)

What game designer does?

Top iPhone games

Mobile gaming? Let's see!

• http://antyweb.pl/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/mobilnarozrywka.jpg

What makes those games so great?

• If I would know the answer I would be a rich man;)

• But many of them are simple. When games aresimple many call them casual games, so gamesfor casual players.

• But iPhone game market is developing and I cansee two player groups in here: casual and hardcore players (these are not typical PC hardcore gamers, but they also love challenges, even if not so big as PC’s HG).

Casual Gamers

• Casual gamers are for sure the biggest group. They like simply controlledgames (i.e. in game you have to just tap). Those games should be shinyand graphicaly pleasing. They should future some cute character. Story isn’t needed. They should consist of micro-challanges, that is if level wouldbe too long the game would become boring to casual gamers. They likechallanges that they can beat in max two, maybe three tries.

• Those games should be simple to uderstand, that is the best if just y looking at a screenshot you will know how it plays.

• They play couple of hours a day, mostly during the way to work, waiting inrestaurant, etc.

• Cut the rope(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xPUdFaraoQ&feature=player_detailpage) and Fruit Ninja(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6hUTC1Edyo&feature=player_detailpage) games are great examples of this.

Hardcore Gamers

• They don’t care so much about graphics, but theylove innovative gameplays or/and some big involving games;

• Those gamers love ports of PC/Console games;• If they will meet big challenge they will get mad,

but in the end they will beat it;• They play many hours a day, mostly at home

playing in time spans of hours;• But most times on iPhone there is rather a mix of

hardcore gamer and casual gamer.

Game Physical Prototypes

Prototyping games

• Your every game concept should be made intoplayable prototype in couple of minutes;

• Just use a piece of paper, some counters, diceand try to connect it together with rules thatwill make your game concept alive;

• It has to be playable, but not in a perfectsense, you will worry about: balance, graphics, number of content later on;

• Making physical prototypes is fun and you will justmechanic of the game (no graphics, no sound, no hardthings to implement);

• Also „if you can play it, you can make it”;

• By constantly prototyping, using iterating process youdevelop your game faster and you can really cheapchange something or even the whole game concept;

• Programmers will know much better how this gameshould looks like when they will actually play it, even ifit would be only rough prototype – it’s better thenGame Design Doc.

• It’s good to keep this prototype simple, that isfirstly to implement just basic mechanics, coregameplay and then to add just one mechanics, playtest, see if it fits and then add next gamemechanic;

• This way it would be simpler to solve problemswith game systems, game balance, because youwill know exactly how every one mechanic worksin your game (what’s it’s purpose).

• OK. Let’s make some prototypes now!

Developing Game Feel

• We know already how the gameplay plays, that isalso what’s the basic feel of the game;

• Now we have to dress this game in some ‘fencyclothes’, that is we will work on: graphics, music, levels, interface, story, characters, etc.

• In this this stage graphic artists will create someconepts, sketches set in the game world and game designers will write some descriptions, stories and they will think on levels for this game(because levels also tell the story by themselves, if not the most important one).