Design Goals & Design Methods
Today’s Lecture
Evolved & Designed Goals Design Goals Design Methods
Will mention methods from book but no give detail from (chapters 6-11,14)
Expect that you read this Needed for assignment 3
Assignment 3 Note that the low-fidelity playtest is in effect a part of
assignment 3 First supervision time today 15.00-17.00
Evolved & Designed Games
Evolved & Designed Games
Evolved Games Games that have no
documented original design Many anonymous designers Variant rule sets Rule sets maintained through
organizations or manufacturers
Designed Games Identified designer Often commercial intent Original rule set
Example evolved games - Bowling Egyptian Tombs
5200 BC or 500 BC Monasteries
Metaphorical teaching tools in monasteries and church where the pins represented heathens
Medieval Europe Use in English courts gave
rise to the concept of king-pin
United States Banned in the 19th century
due to betting Nine-Pin Bowling changed
into today’s Tin-Pin Bowling
[another example Chess]
Sources:Brasch, R., How Did Sports Begin?, Tynron Press, 1986Levison, D. & Christensen, K. (eds.), Encyclopedia of World Sports – From Ancient Times to the Present, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Example designed Games - Basketball James A. Naismith, 1891
Design criteria enjoyable by average
people skill rather than strength or
weight ball easy to handle, difficult
to conceal no tackling
[another example Landlord]
Differences and Similarities between Evolved and Designed Games Differences
Serendipitous Design – Planned Design Gradual improvement - Original idea Improvised Gameplay - Intended Gameplay
Similarities Same general structures
The games in both categories are all games…
Can be analyzed same way to look at gameplay Claims to be in one category can be wrong
Sequels? Games developed in groups?
Design & Craft?
Differences between design and craftwork Knowledge transferal
Crafts are primarily learned by imitation
Practitioners can not motivate why one does things one way
Unintentional trial-and-error experiments develop methods over periods spanning centuries
Information about designs are only recorded in the produced artifact Fragmented information about
details and patterns are used to recreate the design
Differences between design and craftwork, cont. Crafts do not work with
sketches Experiments are done
on the product itself Full-scale experiments
Craft typically making variants of previous work Design goals more static Design goals can be implicit
What areas of responsibilities do designers have?
Areas of responsibilities for designers Identify and explore critical choices Relate costs for research and cost for erroneous
decisions Plan activities in the work process in relation to
the competences in the work group Identify information sources and their reliability Explore connections between the “product” and
the environment in which it should be used Explore and satisfy the “needs” of the users
Design Goals
Types of design goals
Goals related to pre-planned gameplay experiences Stressing, competing, group effort, etc. Types of fun according Marc LeBlanc
Goals related to the Game system Be something for players to explore and master Be a vehicle used to provide engrossment in gameplay or narrative Be a tool for gamers to create or choose their own gameplay experience Be a tool for gamers to make their own games
Goal related to Diegetic Presentation or Narratives Tell a story of character development Tell a story of player progress Create a believable/compelling/interesting fictional world
External Goal Serious Games
Design goals can be seen as answers to questions
Questions that need to be answered to be able to start design work
Help structure one’s work What should be changed? Why should it be changed? When should the change be completed? Who are the stakeholders? (How should it be changed?)
Questions that need to be answered during the design process Why is it hard to answer these questions? (why cannot we
answer the before the design starts?) One must use available information to predict a future that will
not occur unless the predictions are correct The effect must be determined before the possibilities to reach
them are – the designer must work backwards from an assumed effect to the causes that can “cause the effects”
Sequences of cause and effect make it highly likely that new problems or better goals appear Shifting or changing the design goal(s) Possibly forcing the design process to be restarted
Stakeholders
Distributors Products – boxed packages Services – mediums
IP holders Companies Actors, authors, artists
Producers Project managers Programmers, artists, level
designers, animators, sound artists, …
Subcontractors Players
Expert players Novice players Fan communities Relatives
Interest organizations Legaslators The designers
The Design Space of Games
All possible game designs can be said to describe a design space Defining design goals can be
seen as defining a subspaces where the actual game design should be located
Previous design goals can be seen as external design goals – not based on what is interesting in the space
Design goals regarding gameplay can be seen as defining a subspace on areas that are interesting in relation to other areas
Ways of Creating Subspaces of the Design Space
Specifying required characteristics
Specifying forbidden characteristics
Note that this does not have to be seen as a negative way of design Creativity requires
limitations
Ways of Creating Subspaces of the Design Space, cont. Gameplay
Game Design Patterns, Game Mechanics
Theme Humor, horror, political
Style Realistic, Sequential Art
Narrative Linear, hypertext, player-
created, etc.
Design Methods
Jones’ model of the design process
Jones’ model of the design process Divergence
Find alternatives Transformation
Refine and understand alternatives
Convergence choose alternative
through selection or synthesis
Exact method depends on field, context, available resources and input
Not methods –Ideas and concepts
Divergence
Properties Unclear goals Problem area vaguely
defined Evaluation not relevant Starts from a assignment
or requirement specification
Conscious goal to broaden design group’s sphere of ideas
Identify important stakeholders
Transformation
Properties Find pattern from a
number of alternatives
Choosing goals Defining outer
boundaries of problem and design space
Identify critical variables
Identify subproblems
Convergence
Properties Focus on reach a goal
Endurance and methodic work
Evaluate alternatives to choose which alternative to realize
Two categories Top-down Bottom-up Both can be used
simultaneously
Methods for Game Design
Game Design Workshop & Jones’ model
Jones’ model can be applied to explain overall design process Divergence
Conceptualization - Chapter 6 Transformation
Prototyping - Chapter 7 Digital Prototyping - Chapter 8 Playtesting - Chapter 9
Convergence Functionality, Completeness, and
Balance - Chapter 10 Fun and Accessibility – Chapter 11
But can also be described as narrowing the design space
Jones’ model applied to Conceptualization Divergence
Brainstorming List creation, Idea cards, Shout it
out, Stream of consciousness, Randomize it, Research, Extreme measures
Teamstorming Interaction relabelling, cultural
probes
Transformation Editing & refining
Convergence Focus on formal elements
Conceptualization - Divergence Functional roles
observational, basic, dedicated, unique, supporting, meta
Social roles banned, outcast, recluse,
motivator, negotiator, mediator, helper, violator, dominator, exhibitionist
Atomic gameplay actions Take OBJECT from POSITION, Place
OBJECTS on POSITION, Give OBJECT to PLAYER/NON-PLAYER, Find OBJECT, Perform SKILL BASED ACTION, Randomize, Compute EVALUATION FUNCTION, Select OPTION from SET OF OPTIONS, Order PLAYER to perform TASK
Conceptualization - Transformation Guidelines
support interruptability allow multiple
communication channels consider ambiguity design for external events allow modes of play based
on social roles minimize social weight analyze intended player
groups from several perspectives
Design experiments
Conceptualization - Convergence
Conceptualization - Convergence
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Jones’ model applied to Prototyping Physical & software prototypes
Divergence Consider mediums to use
Paper, software, moddable engine Consider components to use
Transformation Test mediums Test components
Convergence Integrate components into
system
Prototyping – Divergence
Identify technologies
Identify information structures
Identify interaction structures
Prototyping - Transformation
Prototyping – Convergence
Jones’ model applied to Playtesting Self-testing, playtesting with
confidants, playtesting with target audience
Divergence Find gameplay problems,
emergent features Freeform, specific tasks,
secondary tasks Transformation
Analyze problems and emergent features
Convergence Decide to try and keep or
remove identified features
Playtesting
Jones’ model applied to Functionality, Completeness, and Balance
Divergence Find issues of functionality,
internal completeness, balance, fun, and accessibility
Transformation Explore issues and
compare against each other
Convergence Select issues & solutions to
address
Functionality, Completeness, and Balance
Assignment 3
Assignment 3 Task
Design a game for a specific game genre Groups of 3-4
Report Design document
Use component framework (lecture 3) Not mechanically; critically and only relevant parts
Note how the game concept differs from existing games Include theme, setting, and narrative elements Interface Design and how players should learn the game
Process description Clearly state your design goals What methods did you plan to use? Why?
Define and describe plan before starting! What methods were used and how did they work?
Conceptualization - Chapter 6 Prototyping - Chapter 7 Digital Prototyping – Chapter 8 Play testing - Chapter 9 Functionality, Completeness, and Balance – Chapter 10
Thank you!
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