The Human Element in Game Design
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Transcript of The Human Element in Game Design
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Topics
Designing for players
When players play
Critics
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Who is he?Why he play the violin?
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To create a great experience, you must do thesame.
You must know what your audience will andwill not like, and you must know it even betterthan they do.
You would think that finding out what peoplewant would be easy, but it isnt, because inmany cases, they dont really know.
They might think they know, but often there isa big difference between what they think theywant, and what it is they will actually enjoy.
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As with everything else in game design, the
key here is a kind of listening.
You must learn to listen to your players,
thoroughly and deeply.
You must become intimate with their
thoughts, their emotions, their fears, and
their desires.
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Demographics
We know that all individuals are each unique,
but when creating something meant to beenjoyed by vast numbers of people, we have to
consider ways that groups of people are thesame.
We call these groups demographics, or
sometimes market segments.
There is no official means of establishingthese groups different professions have
different reasons for grouping them differently.
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Demographics
For game designers, the two most
significant demographic variables are age
and gender.
We all play differently as we get older, and
males and females play differently than one
another at all ages.
What follows is an analysis of some of the
that a game designer has to consider.
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Age and gender
03: Infant/Toddler.
46: Preschooler.
79: Kids.
1013: Preteen or Tween . 1318: Teen.
1824: Young Adult.
2535: Twenties and Thirties.
3550: Thirties and Forties.
50 : Fifties and Up.
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Five Things Males Like to See in
Games
1. Mastery. Males enjoy mastering things.
2. Competition. Males really enjoy competingagainst others to prove that they are the best.
3. Destruction. Males like destroying things. Alot.
4. Spatial Puzzles. Studies have shown thatmales generally have stronger skills of spatialreasoning.
5. Trial and Error. Males tend to have apreference for learning things through trialand error.
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Five Things Females Like to See in
Games
1. Emotion. Females like experiences that explore therichness of human emotion.
2. Real World. Females tend to prefer entertainmentthat connects meaningfully to the real world.
3. Nurturing. Females enjoy nurturing. Girls enjoytaking care of baby dolls, toy pets, and childrenyounger than themselves.
4. Dialog and Verbal Puzzles. It is often said that what
females lack in spatial skills they make up for inincreased verbal skills.
5. Learning by Example. Females tend to preferlearning by example.
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Psychographics
When we group people by these external
factors, we are trying to get at something
internal: what each group finds pleasurable.
A more direct approach is to focus less on
how players appear on the outside and
more on how they think on the inside.
This is calledpsychographics .
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Psychographics
Some psychographic breakdowns have to do
with lifestyle choices, such as dog lover,
baseball fan, or hardcore FPS player.
These are easy to understand, since they are
tied to concrete activities. If you are creating a
game about dogs, baseball, or shooting people
in tunnels, you will naturally want to pay closeattention to the preferences of each of these
lifestyle groups.
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LeBlancs Taxonomy of Game
Pleasures
1. Sensation.
2. Fantasy
3. Narrative
4. Challenge
5. Fellowship
6. Discovery
7. Expression
8. Submission
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Bartles Taxonomy of Player Types
1. Achievers want to achieve the goals of the
game. Their primary pleasure is Challenge.
2. Explorers want to get to know the breadth of
the game. Their primary pleasure is Discovery.3. Socializers are interested in relationships with
other people. They primarily seek the pleasures
of Fellowship.
4. Killers are interested in competing with and
defeating others.
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shows how the four types neatly cover a sort of space:that is, Achievers are interested in acting on the world,Explorers are interested in interacting with the world,Socializers are interested in interacting with players, andKillers are interested in acting on players.
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Consider this pattern:
How did you reach that conclusion?
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Try this experiment
Find a friend, and ask them to do these three
things:
1. Say the word boast five times. Boast,
boast, boast, boast, boast.
2. Spell the word boast out loud. B-O-A-S-T.
3. Answer this question: What do you put in
a toaster?
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Four principal mental abilities
There are four principal mental abilities that
make gameplay possible.
These are:
modeling,
focus,
imagination,
empathy.