Transcript IAT 410: Advanced Game Design

Instructors: Magy Seif El-Nasr, Eric Yang
Teaching Assistant: Ai Nakatani
Class Overview
 Learn by doing (design,
develop, test, prototype cycle)
 Learn about tools
 Learn to Critique other’s work
Developing
a game
Lab
assignments
Blogs
(individual
assignment)
What would you learn?
 Why games work, Game design principles (what?)
 Interaction models
 Balance
 Feedback
 Motivation
 Immersion
 Design and Development cycle (how?)
 Tools: rendering engines, game engines,
prototyping tools
Books
 Tracy Fullerton’s Book:
Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, and
Playtesting. 2004
Structure
 Lectures:
more on how-tos rather than theory (that is IAT 312)
 Labs
 Lab tutorial
 Lab assignment
 Presentations
 Quick
 Be prepared
 Send us presentations before class (MUST)
Schedule
 Course webpage:
http://www.sfu.ca/~magy/courses/IAT410Fall07/index.html
 Tentative at:
http://www.sfu.ca/~magy/courses/IAT410Fall07/schedule.html
This is where you go for DUES and UPDATES
Grading
 Project
 Group of 5 (individual grade: weekly assessment, and
attendance)
 45% on deliverables
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5% Concept presentation (individual)
15% paper prototype, testing doc, and presentation
15% prototype, testing doc, and presentation
10% final game, testing doc, and presentation
 20% labs
 30% critiques (on ur blogs)
 5% weekly assessment
IMPORTANT
 All deadline are to be submitted before the class, i.e.
Monday midnight
 Send all assignments, presentations, and
documentations by email to [email protected] with subject
[IAT-410], all emails without this subject will be
ignored.
 Note about LABS, no email necessary (check marked)
Setup blog for this class and email me the link
(easy?)
DUE Monday 9/10, 11:59p
2. Game Concept – Presented and Voted on
DUE Monday 9/17, 11:59p
Presented in labs, 9/18
3. No labs or lecture next week, get ready for the concept
competition
1.
How to present your game idea?
How do you design a good game?
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Do a lot of research
Have a good team
Test, test, test
Prototypes (small, use all tools possible)
You can use some of the frameworks around:
 MDA framework (this week’s labs)
 Game balance, fit to an old model (e.g. rock, paper,
scissors)
 Read Tracy’s book (chapters 1-5)
 There are several other good books and papers I can
recommend
Let’s see if you know the games I play …
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Game Trivia
Outside Resources: Fogg Conceptual Designs
(handout)
Concept Document
 Use the template supplied by Fogg
 1. Title Page
 Title
 Visual to situate your game, genre
 Design Challenge: what is new about your game
 2. Overview
 Genre, if one exists
 discuss aesthetics of your game (use MDA to refer to a list of
aesthetics)
Concept Document
 3. User Description
 Who is the audience? Age? Gamers?
 4. Storyboard of experience : discuss gameplay
 What is the player doing? GamePlay
 point out the features of your game
 show the mechanics that will achieve the aesthetics you
pointed out earlier
 Discuss underlying systems of your game
Concept Document
 5. Prototyping: nothing there
 6. Features/Functionality
 More details on the game system
 More details on the aesthetics
 More details on the mechanics of the game
 7. Justification of the Design
 Is it based an already accepted system? Or new (can argue
for originality)?
 Basically: why should we give you money to build this
game?
Concept Document
 8. User Testing: nothing there
 9. Shortcomings
 List problems of the design
 List Risks
 10. Expansion
 What are the alternative designs you are thinking of trying?
 11. Next Steps
 12. Summary
MDA framework
 Slides are Marc’s slides, used at GDC 2005
 Marc is a great guy, look up his game Oasis (Warning:
very very addictive), but a MUST play
The Designer-Player Relationship


Designer
Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Game

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Creates
Game
Consumes

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Creates
Game
Book
Consumes

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Creates
Game
Book
Movie
Consumes

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Creates
Game
Book
Movie
Painting
Consumes

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Creates
Game
Book
Movie
Painting
Chair
Consumes

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Creates
Game
Book
Movie
Painting
Chair
Car
Consumes

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Designer
Creates
Game
Book
Movie
Painting
Chair
Car
Pizza
Consumes

Player
The Designer-Player Relationship

Creates
Game
Consumes
Designer

Player
The difference is the way that games are
consumed.
An Extreme Opposite Example:
A Theatrical Play
The “design team” knows:
 Script
 Lighting
 Acoustics
 Seating
 Intermissions
Games, on the Contrary
The designer doesn’t know:
 When will the player play?
 How often? For how long?
 Where? With Whom?
And most importantly...
 What will happen during the game?
Obligatory Editorial
This lack of predictability is the essence of play.
It should be embraced, not eschewed.
Games as Software
Code
Games as Software
Code
Process
Games as Software
Code
Process
Requirements
Games as Software
Code
Rules
Process
Requirements
Games as Software
Code
Process
Rules
Activity
Requirements
Games as Software
Code
Process
Requirements
Rules
Activity
“Fun”
A Design Vocabulary
Code
Process
Requirements
Rules
Activity
“Fun”
A Design Vocabulary
Code
Process
Requirements
Activity
“Fun”
Mechanics
Rules
A Design Vocabulary
Process
Mechanics
Requirements
Dynamics
Game
“Fun”
A Design Vocabulary
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics
The MDA Framework
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics
Definitions
 Mechanics: The rules and concepts that
formally specify the game-as-system.
 Dynamics: The run-time behavior of the
game-as-system.
 Aesthetics: The desirable emotional responses
evoked by the game dynamics.
The Designer/Player Relationship, Revisited

Designer
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics

Player
The Player’s Perspective
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics

Player
The Designer’s Perspective

Designer
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics
Three “Views” of Games
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics
But they are causally linked
The Building Blocks: Formal Models
 No Grand Unified Theory
 Instead, lots of little models
 We can think of models as “lenses”
 Models can be formulas or abstractions
 Discovering new models is an ongoing process
MDA is a “Taxonomy” for Models
 Knowledge of Aesthetics
 Knowledge of Dynamics
 Knowledge of Mechanics
 Knowledge of the interactions between them
Properties of Good Models
We want our models to be:
 Formal (well-defined)
 Abstract (widely applicable)
 Proven (known to work)
On any given game, we expect to use several
different abstractions, not one big one.
Part III: MDA in detail
In this part, we discuss Aesthetics, Dynamics and
Mechanics in detail.
The Designer’s Perspective

Designer
Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics
Understanding Aesthetics
We need to get past words like “fun” and “gameplay.”
 What kinds of “fun” are there?
 How will we know a particular kind of “fun” when
we see it?
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
1.
Sensation
Game as sense-pleasure
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
Sensation
2. Fantasy
1.
Game as make-believe
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
Sensation
2. Fantasy
3. Narrative
1.
Game as unfolding story
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
Sensation
2. Fantasy
3. Narrative
4. Challenge
1.
Game as obstacle course
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sensation
Fantasy
Narrative
Challenge
Fellowship
Game as social framework
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Sensation
Fantasy
Narrative
Challenge
Fellowship
Discovery
Game as uncharted
territory
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Sensation
Fantasy
Narrative
Challenge
Fellowship
Discovery
Expression
Game as self-discovery
Eight Kinds of “Fun”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Sensation
Fantasy
Narrative
Challenge
Fellowship
Discovery
Expression
Submission
Game as mindless pastime
Clarifying Our Aesthetics
• Charades is “fun”
• Quake is “fun”
• Final Fantasy is “fun”
Clarifying Our Aesthetics
• Charades is
 Fellowship, Expression, Challenge
• Quake is
 Challenge, Sensation, Competition, Fantasy
• Final Fantasy is
 Fantasy, Narrative, Expression, Discovery,
Challenge, Masochism
Each game pursues multiple aesthetics.
Again, there is no Game Unified Theory.
Clarifying Our Goals
 As designers, we can choose certain aesthetics as
goals for our game design.
 We need more than a one-word definition of our
goals.
What is an “Aesthetic Model?”
 A rigorous definition of an aesthetic goal
 States criteria for success and failure
 Serves as an “aesthetic compass”
Some examples…
Goal: Competition
Model: A game is competitive if players are
emotionally invested in defeating each other.
Success:
 Players are adversaries.
 Players want to win.
Failure:
 A player feels that he can’t win.
 A player can’t measure his progress.
Goal: Realistic Flight Simulation
Model: Flight dynamics match user
expectations.
Success:
 Match a mathematical formula
 Pass our “realism checklist”
Failure:
 Counter-intuitive system behavior.
Goal: Drama
Model: A game is dramatic if:
 Its central conflict creates dramatic tension.
 The dramatic tension builds towards a climax.
Dramatic Tension
Clima x
Conflict
Resolution
Narrative Time
Goal: Drama
Success:
 A sense of uncertainty
 A sense of inevitability
 Tension increases towards a climax
Failure:
 The conflict’s outcome is obvious (no uncertainty)
 No sense of forward progress (no inevitability)
 Player doesn’t care how the conflict resolves
On to Dynamics...
Understanding Dynamics
 What about the game’s behavior can we predict before
we go to playtest?
 How can we explain the behavior that we observe?
Formalizing Game Dynamics
Input
(Player)
Rules
State
The “State Machine” Model
Examples: Chess, Quake
Output
(Graphics/
Sound)
Models of Game Dynamics
 Again, no Grand Unified Theory
 Instead, a collection of many Dynamic Models.
 Dynamics models are analytical in nature.
Some examples…
Example: Random Variable
Chance in 36
This is a model of 2d6:
2
3
4
5
6Die7roll8
9 10 11 12
Example: Feedback System
A feedback system monitors and regulates its own state.
Room
Thermometer
Heater
Too Cold
Too Hot
Cooler
Controller
An Ideal Thermostat
Example: Operant Conditioning
 The player is part of the system, too!
 Psychology gives us models to explain and predict
the player’s behavior.
Where Models Come From
 Analysis of existing games
 Other Fields:
 Math, Psychology, Engineering…
 Our own experience
On to Mechanics...
Understanding Mechanics
 There’s a vast library of common game mechanics.
Examples
 Cards
 Shuffling, Trick-Taking, Bidding
 Shooters
 Ammunition, Spawn Points
 Golf
 Sand Traps, Water Hazards
Mechanics vs. Dynamics
 There’s a grey area
 Some behaviors are direct consequences of rules.
 Others are indirect.
 “Dynamics” usually means the latter.
Mechanics vs. Dynamics
 There’s a grey area
 Some behaviors are direct consequences of rules.
 Others are indirect.
 “Dynamics” usually means the latter.
 Dynamics and Mechanics are different views of
games.
Mechanics vs. Dynamics
 There’s a grey area
 Some behaviors are direct consequences of rules.
 Others are indirect.
 “Dynamics” usually means the latter.
 Dynamics and Mechanics are different views of
games.
 Dynamics emerge from Mechanics.
Interaction Models
 How do specific dynamics emerge from specific
mechanics?
 How do specific dynamics evoke specific aesthetics?
Example: Time Pressure
 “Time pressure” is a dynamic.
 It can create dramatic tension.
 Various mechanics create time pressure:
 Simple time limit
 “Pace” monster
 Depleting resource
Part IV: Tuning
Analyze
Test
Revise
Tuning is an iterative process.
Use of Sissy fight as an
example game
 Play the game
 Reflect
 Fiddle with the mechanics to create an aesthetic
 Play test