designing games for game designers
DESCRIPTION
Note : Turn on “Notes View” to see the outline of the talking points. Several images are temporary. Most of them will be enhanced. Designing Games for Game Designers. Stone Librande Creative Director, EA/Maxis. Overview. Class Philosophy Fundamental Exercises Advanced Exercises - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
2012
Designing Gamesfor
Game Designers
Stone LibrandeCreative Director, EA/Maxis
Note: Turn on “Notes View” to see the outline of the talking points.Several images are temporary. Most of them will be enhanced.
• Class Philosophy
• Fundamental Exercises
• Advanced Exercises
• Designing your own “design games”
Overview
• Cogswell Polytechnical College, Sunnyvale, CA.
• Paper, cards, dice (no computers)
• 2 to 3 hour workshops
• Focus on one specific topic
Class Philosophy
Design Goals:• A chance for the class to get
acquainted• Focus on physical rather than
cerebral
Warm Up
What is a Game?
Design Goals:• Goals come in many forms
• All the rules stay the same, only the goal can change
• How does changing the goal change the game?
Goals
Design Goals:• How do you structure rules?
• What are the key words to prevent ambiguity?
• Players make up games from scratch by adding one new rule each turn
Rules
Design Goals:• It’s not enough to put decisions in your
game, you need “interesting decisions”
• The rules and goals don’t change
• The players are given a character and must create three actions. Only one action can be taken per turn.
Decisions
Design Goals:• Use the items in a room to build an obstacle
course
• Players must try to get a ping-pong ball into a cup
• Start with a par 1 hole, then slowly add obstacles until the hole becomes par 5
Obstacles
Design Goals:• Make an asymmetric game where the two
sides are balanced
• One side is a giant robot that operates autonomously
• The other side is a squad of 4 tanks under the players’ control
Balance
Design Goals:• Learn how to calculate odds while playing a
game
• Start with simple calculations and slowly progress in difficulty
• Show how statistics can give you more information than play tests
Odds
Design Goals:• Show the students how powerful rewards
can be
• Roll dice as fast as possible and try to get a double 6.
• Do this for an hour!
Rewards
Design Goals:• Using the lessons on odds and rewards,
make a casino game
• Balance the player’s payout with the houses ability to consistently make money
• Make the rules simple, but give the player options
Entertainment
Design Goals:• Bring in a board game but ignore the rules
• Combine it with another random board game
Mash Up
Design Goals:• MMO style game where the rules change as
the game is being played
• Each player is either a wizard, thief or warrior and levels up by battling other players
• Guilds tend to form naturally, which opens up new rule requirements
World of Rulecraft
Design Goals:• Take an existing video game and recreate it
using cards and dice
• After removing the graphics, sound and controllers, what will survive?
Paper Simulation
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
• Asteroids
• The base game must be simple• Let the students/players do the
work• Iterate the lesson constantly
Making games for designers
Thank you!
Detailed rules and materials for many of thes games can be found at:www.stonetronix.com