4. Games under the hood

Transcription

GAME DESIGN
From CONCEPTS to IMPLEMENTATION
[ 4. Games under the hood ]
LUT SUMMER SCHOOL [ 8-12 AUGUST 2016 ]
Presented by
StudioCLANGORE
Ok, it’s time to dig deep into
GAMES
STRUCTURE
and how this helps designing your game.
[ LUT SUMMER SCHOOL 2016 ]
[ GAME DESIGN - FROM CONCEPTS TO IMPLEMENTATION ]
GAME STRUCTURE
▸ We already went through what games have in
common…
GAME STRUCTURE
▸ Objective
▸ Structure
▸ Right. But…what’s under the hood?
Introducing:
TRACY
FULLERTON
Game designer, educator, writer, and
Director of the Game Innovation Lab @ USC
SHE DISSECTS GAMES
STRUCTURE THROUGH
BASIC BLOCKS CALLED
FORMAL ELEMENTS
FORMAL ELEMENTS
1. PLAYERS
▸ Games are designed
for an AUDIENCE!
▸ What do they like?
▸ What don’t they like? Why?
▸ What do they expect to see in
a game?
▸ …
This is not a
MARKETING
ISSUE
Let’s stress this out.
Defining the right audience is important to
DEFINE THE
RIGHT MECHANICS
…that is, learning “Who likes what”.
Acting
KILLER
ACHIEVER
Players
World
SOCIALIZER
EXPLORER
Interacting
Richard Bartle, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players who suit MUDs (1996)
Acting
COMPETE WIN
PURCHASE
SHOWOFF
COMPARE
TAUNT
CUSTOMIZE
DECORATE
DESIGN
BUILD
Players
World
SHARE
HELP
REVIEW
GREET
COMMENT
LIKE
CURATE
VOTE
EXPLORE
RATE
COLLABORATE
Interacting
Richard Bartle, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players who suit MUDs (1996)
Also, focus on
PLAYER
ROLES
to design intriguing dynamics!
FORMAL ELEMENTS
1. PLAYERS ROLES
▸ Uniform roles
▸ Different roles
▸ Emergent roles
And don’t forget about
PLAYER
INTERACTION
PATTERNS
FORMAL ELEMENTS
1. PLAYER INTERACTION PATTERNS
▸ Single player VS game
▸ Player VS player
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ Multiple individual
players VS game
▸ Cooperative play
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ Multilateral
competition
▸ Unilateral competition
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ Team vs team
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. OBJECTIVE
▸ Give players
something to strive for
▸ Challenging…
▸ …but achievable
Usually players compete over the same objective.
BUT THAT’S NOT
CARVED IN
STONE!
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. ASYMMETRIC OBJECTIVES
▸ That is: different roles,
different goals
▸ Think about unilateral
competition!
Let’s hear you.
WHAT GOALS YOU
ENCOUNTERED
FREQUENTLY
while playing?
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. COMMON GOALS
▸ Capture / Kill
▸ Chase
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. COMMON GOALS
▸ Race
▸ Align
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. COMMON GOALS
▸ Rescue
▸ Escape / Infiltrate
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. COMMON GOALS
▸ Avoid forbidden act
▸ Construct
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. COMMON GOALS
▸ Explore
▸ Solve
FORMAL ELEMENTS
2. COMMON GOALS
▸ Outwit
▸ …and any combination
of those, too.
See some connection with
PATTERNS?
Wait. But what about sandbox games?
What about simulations?
There’s no such thing as NO GOALS. But there are
EMERGENT
OBJECTIVES
that players may put for themselves.
FORMAL ELEMENTS
3. PROCEDURES
▸ Set/sequence of
actions players can
take to achieve the
goal
▸ a.k.a “Who does what, where,
when, how?”
FORMAL ELEMENTS
3. PROCEDURES
▸ A word on efficiency
FORMAL ELEMENTS
3. SUPER MARIO BROS PROCEDURES
▸ Move
▸ Run
FORMAL ELEMENTS
3. SUPER MARIO BROS PROCEDURES
▸ Jump
▸ Shoot
(…and so on.)
FORMAL ELEMENTS
3. COMMON PROCEDURES TYPES
▸ Starting Actions
▸ Put game into play
▸ Progressing Actions
▸ Successive, common actions
▸ Special Actions
▸ Dependent from game state
▸ Resolving Actions
▸ Bring the game towards conclusion
Procedure definition is a good moment to design
CONTROLS,
as there’s usually a strong connection between the two.
FORMAL ELEMENTS
4. RULES
▸ Basically define what
is allowed and what is
not
FORMAL ELEMENTS
4. RULES DEFINITION STEPS
▸ 1) Define objects and
concepts
▸ e.g. “A knight.”
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ 2) Restrict actions
▸ e.g. “A Knight cannot move in
a straight line.”
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ 3) Determine effects
or triggers
▸ e.g. “Whenever a Knight
completes movement on an
opponent piece, the latter gets
captured.”
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ 4) Wrap rules up
▸ Players need to understand or
grasp them clearly!
Wrapping rules up helps
DISCOVERABILITY
which is quite different according to the medium.
FORMAL ELEMENTS
5. RESOURCES
▸ Assets to accomplish
goals or gain
advantages
▸ Scarcity + Utility
FORMAL ELEMENTS
5. COMMON RESOURCES
▸ Traditional resources
▸ Lives
FORMAL ELEMENTS
5. COMMON RESOURCES
▸ Units
▸ Health
FORMAL ELEMENTS
5. COMMON RESOURCES
▸ Currency
▸ Actions
FORMAL ELEMENTS
5. COMMON RESOURCES
▸ Power-ups
▸ Inventory
FORMAL ELEMENTS
5. COMMON RESOURCES
▸ Terrains
▸ Time
FORMAL ELEMENTS
5. COMMON RESOURCES
▸ …and, as always, any
combination of those
FORMAL ELEMENTS
6. CONFLICT
▸ The sum of situations
and conditions which
deny players to
accomplish goals
directly
FORMAL ELEMENTS
6. CLASSIC CONFLICT SOURCES
▸ Obstacles
▸ Physical or conceptual
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ Opponents
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ Dilemmas
FORMAL ELEMENTS
7. BOUNDARIES
▸ What separates the
game from everything
that’s not the game
FORMAL ELEMENTS
7. BOUNDARIES
▸ Physical…
▸ …or conceptual
We are used to think about games as
CLOSED
SYSTEMS,
where boundaries are easily recognizable.
But think about
AUGMENTED
REALITY GAMES,
where interaction with outside world is possible!
FORMAL ELEMENTS
7. BOUNDARIES
▸ Blurred lines
Always think to boundaries in terms of
MAGIC CIRCLE!
Random kid kicking a ball
Soccer player scoring
Also, remember that boundaries may extend
OUTSIDE THE
PHYSICAL SCOPE
of the game!
FORMAL ELEMENTS
8. OUTCOME
▸ The actual “result” of
the game
▸ Which is related to the end
condition, if possible
FORMAL ELEMENTS
8. OUTCOME
▸ It differs from game
objective
▸ Other factors may be involved!
When the outcome is designed, it MUST be
UNCERTAIN
through most of the game!
FORMAL ELEMENTS
8. POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
▸ Zero-sum games
▸ Non zero-sum games
Ok, I get those formal elements. Now,
HOW DO I
USE THEM?
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ As conceptual tools
FORMAL ELEMENTS
▸ Analyze games
PLAYERS
▸ Avoid design holes
OBJECTIVE
▸ As shared vocabulary
▸ To give context
PROCEDURES
RULES
RESOURCES
▸ Inspiration
CONFLICT
▸ Alternatives
BOUNDARIES
▸ Problems
OUTCOME
Remember to examine them all, while writing
YOUR GAME
CONCEPT
Formal elements do describe game fundamentals.
But is this enough to lure players in our web?
(this is fun)
(this is…meh)
Formal elements lack in considering what
ENGAGES PLAYERS
EMOTIONALLY
PLAYER ENGAGEMENT IS
DISCUSSED THROUGH
BASIC BLOCKS CALLED
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
1. CHALLENGE
▸ Basically, we’re talking
about FLOW
▸ It’s about finding the good
balance/pacing between skills
and difficulty
▸ a.k.a. the correct steepness in
the graph
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
1. CHALLENGE
▸ To ensure that, give
CLEAR GOALS
▸ …and CLEAR
FEEDBACK
This is related to the so-called
PARADOX
OF CONTROL
i.e., give meaningful choices to influence an unsure outcome
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
1. THE PARADOX OF CONTROL
▸ Give players tools to
exercise control…
▸ …without undermining
uncertainty.
“Only when a doubtful outcome is at stake, and one is able to
influence that outcome, can a person really know she is in control.”
M. Csikszentmihalyi
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
2. PLAY
▸ “Free movement
within a more rigid
structure”
▸ Basically, it’s what we
can do “creatively”
inside the game
boundaries
It’s more a
TYPE OF
APPROACH
rather than a “thing” itself
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
2. TYPES OF PLAY
▸ Competitive play
▸ Chance-based play
▸ Make-believe play
▸ Vertigo play
Roger Caillois, Man, Play and Games (1961)
Caillois taxonomy can be useful to focus on
TYPE-RELATED
PLEASURES
in order to define the overall game experience.
This has also an impact on
PLAYER
PROFILING
as we described it earlier!
As an example…
COMPETITOR
EXPLORER
COLLECTOR
ACHIEVER
JOKER
ARTIST
DIRECTOR
STORYTELLER
PERFORMER
CRAFTSMAN
(Don’t forget: game design is ALWAYS related to players!)
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
3. PREMISE
▸ What estabilishes the
action within a setting
or a metaphor
▸ Gives context
▸ Sets the conflict in motion
This is (part of) what actually dresses raw data
▸ You are a set of data. ▸ You are the last robot of the
Earth.
▸ Your goal: to increase your
values.
▸ Your goal: to improve your
circuits and weapons.
▸ To do so, you engage other
sets of data according to
complex algorithms.
▸ To do so, you battle a submutant race that took over
the planet.
▸ If your data wins the
analysis, you win.
▸ If your defeat the mutant
menace, you win
(waaay cooler.)
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
4. CHARACTER
▸ Agent(s) to identify
with
▸ Enforces player
presence within the
game
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
4. CHARACTER TYPE
▸ Is that a CHARACTER or an AVATAR?
▸ Shades of grey do exist
CHARACTERS
Pre-designed backstories,
features, motivations
AVATARS
Player-created, customizable,
growth, role-play
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
4. CHARACTER DESIGN PILLS
▸ Define a character
according to
▸ What she wants?
▸ What she needs?
▸ What she fears?
▸ Which situations put her at her
best? Which ones give her
troubles?
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
according to
▸ What she does?
▸ What she says?
▸ What she looks like?
▸ What others say about her?
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
according to her
development
▸ Round
▸ Flat
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
5. STORY
▸ Narrative content that
unfolds through
gameplay
▸ Like the Premise, it gives
context
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
5. STORY
▸ But UNLIKE the
Premise:
▸ It has uncertain outcome
▸ Can be seen as positive
feedback
But most of all, game stories bring a sense of
ACCOMPLISHMENT
given by player agency in solving the conflict
“I saved the galaxy!”
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
5. STORY
▸ Sometimes, players
have even more
control
▸ Branching storylines
▸ Emergent stories
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
5. STORYTELLING PILLS
▸ Like in traditional storytelling, games stories
support the classic dramatic arc
CLIMAX
RISING ACTION
EXPOSITION
RESOLUTION
James Harris,
The PERIODIC TABLE OF STORYTELLING
http://jamesharris.design/periodic/
LET’S SUM UP
FORMAL ELEMENTS
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS
PLAYERS
CHALLENGE
OBJECTIVE
PLAY
PROCEDURES
PREMISE
RULES
CHARACTER
RESOURCES
STORY
CONFLICT
BOUNDARIES
OUTCOME
Your goal, as a designer, is to make the game
COMPELLING
ENGAGING
for the brain, and
for the heart
Tracy Fullerton,
GAME DESIGN WORKSHOP: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games
A K Peters / CRC Press, 3rd edition (2014)
ISBN 1482217163
http://www.tracyfullertona.com/
What is your position towards
FORMAL VS
DRAMATIC
struggle, if any?
Any
FURTHER
QUESTIONS?

4. Games under the hood

Transcription

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