applied game design by example
TRANSCRIPT
Applied Game
Design By
Example Pietro Polsinelli
@ppolsinelli
Milan, 20th january 2015
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My experience: mainly been of transforming game / gamification
concepts in something else
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“We don’t need a game designer. Everybody knows what a game is.”
Transformation 1/3
Games for
Social Impact
Friday, January 16, 2015
… to develop and implement a
game infused e-learning tool
to promote early access to
services with neglect and
abuse for young people on the
move in Europe
Mission. 5
Kids becoming aware and capable of dealing with
situations of neglect and abuse.
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EU project: deal with these matters harmonically and
effectively across EU.
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Pick a mod, just change the labels ...
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Collateral story gets in the way of play.
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Designing Games for Social
Impact
RE-DESIGN
Inspired by ...
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Inspired by Dumb Ways To Die. Specific mechanics.
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Represent notions with characters
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Inspired by Dominions: cards are characters, actions, a universe.
Universe made of simple atoms
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Build up of awareness defines the game mechanics.
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Game loop: shit happens.
Deal with it and keep your universe together.
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Your identity, your self is complex stuff.
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And actually more ...
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Participative Action Research
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Designing Games
for Social Impact
TIPS
Use cards.
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Cards constitute a universe, not just characters and actions.
Also universal language. Developers, cards are objects –
classes, instances, extensions.
Card design: more pervasive than it looks.
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Plants vs. Zombies (1) was born and prototyped as a card
game – actually collectible card game.
Card enable a complex universe (decks) explored through
simple slices – cards in hand.
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Complexity trains strategic thinking.
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Distinction between input output randomness &
unpredictability: from Randomness and Game Design
Use randomness sparingly.
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Games with simple relations and play mechanics are simpler
to evolve.
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Minimal viable game.
Keep a good state in the loop AND
supply an evolving story line.
If untamed, stories kill fun in loops.
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If Games Were Like Game Stories...
From Nick Case If Games Were Like Game Stories...
Games don’t’ branch, they evolve.
Even branching games do not have branching at their core.
Interact early with concept art.
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Black and white games: “get ready for
fight or flight” or “poetic experience”?
Genre and inclusiveness.
Redesigned by including negative feedback,
turning avatar to mentor, building an AI.
the greatest invention
of the video game era
was – and continues
to be – “single-play”.
Applied game’ customers often don’t get this.
Independence, absence.
Applied games
definition and
theory
An applied game (serious game) is a game designed for
a primary purpose other than
pure entertainment.
Take this as a sort of definition. Hard to say which are not serious. Note
that in effort, style, problematic this changes little.
An applied game is …
… not a game that is just engaging, can’t stop playing it
but has no story, no intended message
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… not a collateral game (say part of a viral campaign) that promotes something as it
is sponsored by it.
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An applied game (serious game)
is a game that teaches something
complex without declaring its
intentions.
Getting more specific. Teach can be read simply as “experience”.
You will need full game design skils – and more - to
create good games that teach something.
Shortcuts …
Game design is a specific profession. Image from Extra Credits.
Working in applied games is particularly complex /
interesting because you are working in between systems.
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Applied game design elicits a dialogue between designer and
customer, both evolving knowledge #noestimates
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Motivational theory?
A game where you can’t win, and its not fun.
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This War of Mine
Each game is played because of a motivational framework
defined by… the game itself.
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What I say here is based on anecdotal evidence
from working experience, no data no lab.
Ian Bogost: gamification is bullshit.
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Friday, January 16, 2015
Category, competition,
avatar, war, reward, levels
Vs.
Inclusive, mentor, path,
story, transformation
A language change. 65
Transformation 3/6
Games for
Change
This is the communication context. Few really cares about global warming, we
have to make people aware of consequences.
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Not so cool for not geeks.
agent based model
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Designing Games for Change
RE-DESIGN
Friday, January 16, 2015
Dystopic future, like in The Curfew. “Lacking food
water oil”, daily life has to change. 70
How will you prepare breakfast without electricity?
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Variations on daily life habits due to external changes.
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Designing Games for Change
TIPS
Emergence: a set of simple rules acting on many elements. The
game is an emergent behaviour
Progression: a predefined set of actions to be performed to
complete the game
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Emergence / Progression
Sim City, Braid.
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Transformation 4/6
Edu Games
Summa of all you can get wrong
Promise of plants vs. Zombies, get a REALLY BAD
game.
Decent game, edu framework ...
Good game, stimulating, still left to your own
means.
Designing Edu Games
RE-DESIGN
Standard model: for edu math, take exercises just as they are, add
gamification …
… or an opportunity to rethink mathematical educational models
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_mathematics
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_mathematics
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Visual calculator
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Simple AI guiding you in decomposing operations to
friendly operations and numbers
Making friends with specific numbers.
Conservation of player learning: Players prefer to use existing skills. Learning is an expensive activity to be minimized when possible. Corollary: Players get righteously upset when their existing investment in learning is invalidated. Something valuable was taken from them.
https://twitter.com/danctheduck
Town of numbers: inclusive mechanics.
Designing Edu Games
TIPS
• http://stfj.net/DesigningForProblem-Solvers/ • create a free playground level for the non comp kind, not a tut, always there and with its dynamic, makes
it more inclusive
Transformation 5/6
Urban Design
A different idea of urban design
RE-DESIGN
SIM City from the point of view of the peole living there.
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http://citieschangingdiabetes.com/
Designing Urban Design Games
TIPS
Innovate urban space representation
Innovate design too.
Beyond
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- Narrative in games - Games with depth - Technical boundaries - Prototyping tips - Estimating costs Stuff for next time.
Become a game designer:
study, prototype, release, loop
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My twitter stream is mostly dedicated to game design:
@ppolsinelli
A blog on game design http://designagame.eu
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