game design and development - alexandru ioan cuza universityalaiba/pub/gdd-2017/lecture 2... ·...
TRANSCRIPT
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GAME DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
Spring 2017
Dr. Vasile Alaiba
Faculty of Computer Science
“Al. I. Cuza” University Iași, România
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One of the most difficult tasks people can perform,
however much others may despise it, is the invention
of good games.
–C.G. Jung
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WHAT IS GAME DESIGN?A Playcentric Approach
to Game Design
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The Game Designer
■ “Part engineer, part entertainer, part mathematician, and part social director, the role of the game designer is to craft a set of rules within which there are means and motivation to play.” [1]
Why do you play games? ■ Understanding your own answer, and the answers of other
players, is the first step to becoming a game designer.
■ Read more from [1], Chapter 1: The Role of the Game Designer
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Who plays games?
■ The average age of game players is now 35 years old, up 5 years since 2012 (it was 30)!
■ The most frequent FEMALE GAME PLAYER is on average 44 years old!
■ Read more from [2].
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Interesting Facts
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A Playcentric Design Process
■ Core principle:
keep the player experience in mind and test the gameplay with target players through every
phase of development
■ Set Player Experience Goals
– These are not features of the game!
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Player Experience Goals Examples
■ players will have to cooperate to win, but the game will be structured so they can never trust each other
■ players will feel a sense of happiness and playfulness rather than competitiveness
■ players will have the freedom to pursue the goals of the game in any order they choose
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Iterative Game Design Process aka How to come up with good ideas?
■ Player experience goals are set.
■ An idea or system is conceived.
■ An idea or system is formalized (i.e., written down or prototyped).
■ An idea or system is tested against player experience goals (i.e., playtested or exhibited for feedback).
■ Results are evaluated and prioritized.
– If results are negative and the idea or system appears to be fundamentally flawed, go back to the first step.
– If results point to improvements, modify and test again.
– If results are positive and the idea or system appears to be successful, the iterative process has been completed.
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Iterative Process Diagram
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THE STRUCTURE OF GAMES
Elements to Consider
When Designing Games
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Formal Elements
■ Players
■ Objectives
■ Procedures
■ Rules
■ Resources
■ Conflict
■ Boundaries
■ Outcome
Dramatic Elements
■ Challenge
■ Play
■ Premise
■ Character
■ Story
■ World Building
■ The Dramatic Arc
System Dynamics
■ Objects
■ Properties
■ Behaviors
■ Relationships
■ System Structures
– Economies
– Emergent Systems
■ Information Structure
■ Control
■ Feedback
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FORMAL ELEMENTSThe Building Blocks
of a Game
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What are Formal Elements?
■ They define the structure of a game.
■ A system without any one of these elements ceases to be a game!
■ Players
■ Objectives
■ Procedures
■ RulesResources
■ Conflict
■ Boundaries
■ Outcome
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Players
■ Invitation to Play
– How does the game start?
– Is there any ceremony involved?
■ Number of players
■ Roles
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Player Interaction Patterns
■ Single Player versus Game (Solitaire, Tomb Raider)
■ Multiple Individual Players versus Game (Bingo, FarmVille)
■ Player versus Player (Mortal Kombat)
■ Unilateral Competition (Scotland Yard – Mr. X vs detectives)
■ Multilateral Competition (poker, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Starcraft II)
■ Cooperative Play (Journey, Portal 2)
■ Team Competition (soccer, Team Fortress 2)
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Objectives
■ Define what players are trying to accomplish within the rules of the game.
■ Should be challenging, but achievable.
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Types of Objectives
■ Capture or kill (chess, Quake, WarCraft)
■ Chase (Need for Speed: Rivals, Scotland Yard)
■ Race (backgammon, Asphalt 8: Airborne)
■ Alignment (tic-tac-toe, Tetris, Bejeweled)
■ Rescue or Escape (Super Mario Bros., Prince of Persia)
■ Forbidden Act (Twister)
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Types of Objectives
■ Construction (Minecraft, The Sims, Settlers of Catan)
■ Exploration (Zelda, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
■ Solution (Gomoco, Tetris, Day of the Tentacle)
■ Outwit (Diplomacy)
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Procedures
■ Who does what, where, when, and how?
■ Procedures are the methods of play and the actions that players can take to achieve the game objectives.
■ Are accessed by the player via the controls.
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Types of Procedures
■ Starting action: How to put a game into play.
■ Progression of action: Ongoing procedures after the starting action.
■ Special actions: Available conditional to other elements or game state.
■ Resolving actions: Bring gameplay to a close.
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Defining Procedures
■ What type of input/output devices will that setting have?
■ Will players have a keyboard and mouse, or will they have a controller? or a touch screen?
■ Will they sit close to a high-resolution screen or several feet away?
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Example: Super Mario Bros.
■ Select button: Use this button to select the type of game you wish to play.
■ Start button: Press this button to start the game. If you press it during play, it will pause/unpause the game.
■ Left arrow: Walk to the left. Push button B at the same time to run.
■ Right arrow: Walk to the right. Push button B at the same time to run.
■ Down: Crouch (Super Mario only).
■ A Button
– Jump: Mario jumps higher if you hold the button down longer.
– Swim: When in water, press this button to bob up.
■ B Button
– Accelerate: Press this button to run. If while holding B, you press A to jump, you can jump higher.
– Fireballs: If you pick up a fire flower, you can use this button to throw fireballs.
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Rules
■ define game objects
■ define allowable actions by the players
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Examples
■ Poker: A straight is five consecutively ranked cards; a straight flush is five consecutively ranked cards of the same suit.
■ Chess: A player cannot move her king into check.
■ Go: A player cannot make a move that recreates a previous state of the board—this means an exact replication of the whole board situation.
■ WarCraft II: To create knight units, a player must have upgraded to a keep and built a stable.
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WarCraft II: Unit Properties
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Resources
■ In the real world, resources are assets (i.e., natural resources, economic resources, human resources) that can be used to accomplish certain goals.
■ Most games use some form of resources in their systems, such as chips in poker, properties in Monopoly, and gold in WarCraft.
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What is a Resource?
■ Resources must have both utility and scarcity in the game system.
■ If they do not have utility, they are like the sushi in Diablo III: a funny and strange thing to find, but essentially useless.
■ If the resources are overly abundant, they will lose their value in the system.
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Types of Resources
■ Lives (Space Invaders, Super Mario Bros.)
■ Units (checkers, chess)
■ Health (Diablo)
■ Currency (Ultima Online)
■ Actions, moves, turns (Magic: The Gathering)
■ Power-Ups (Super Mario Bros.)
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Types of Resources
■ Inventory (Diablo III)
■ Special Terrain (WarCraft III)
■ Time (speed chess)
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Conflict
■ Emerges from the players trying to accomplish the goals of the game within its rules and boundaries.
■ The procedures and rules challenge the players by forcing them to employ a particular skill or range of skills and create a sense of competition or play.
■ This should be enjoyable in some way, so that players will gain the ultimate sense of achievement that comes from participating.
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Conflict Examples
■ Pinball: Keep the ball from escaping the field of play using only the flippers or other devices provided.
■ Monopoly: Manage your money and your properties to become the richest player in a tightly constrained real estate market.
■ Quake: Stay alive while player or nonplayer opponents try to kill you.
■ WarCraft III: Maintain your forces and resources while using them to command and control the map objectives.
■ Poker: Outbid opponents based on your hand or your ability to bluff.
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Sources of Conflict
■ Obstacles:
– Can be physical (actual objects on the map)
– Can be mental (puzzles)
■ Opponents:
– The other players in a multiplayer game.
– NPCs in a shooter game.
■ Dillemas:
– Stay in or fold in poker.
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Boundaries
■ What separate the game from everything that is not the game.
■ For example, the size of the field in football, tennis, the size of the chess board, etc.
■ When combining real-world elements with the game it is mandatory to have boundaries defined, as in City Treasure Hunt.
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Outcome
■ For many game systems, producing a winner or winners is the end state of a game.
■ At defined intervals it is checked if a winning state has been achieved.
■ If it has, the system resolves, and the game is over.
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Determining Outcome
■ The structure of the final outcome is related to both the player interaction patterns and the objective.
■ For example, single player versus game, the player might either win or lose, or the player might score a certain amount of points before ultimately losing.
■ The outcome can be determined by the nature of the game objective. A game that defines its objective based on points will use those points in the measure of the outcome.
■ Chess games are won or lost based solely on meeting the primary objective, capturing the king.
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What Next?
■ To learn more, read Chapter 3: Working with Formal Elements from [1] (p. 55-96).
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GENRES OF GAMEPLAYCategorizing Games
by Gameplay Experience
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■ Action
■ Strategy
■ Role-Playing
■ Sports
■ Racing/Driving
■ Adventure
■ Simulation/Building
■ Flight and Other Simulations
■ Educational
■ Children
■ Casual
■ Experimental
Other genres, sub-genres or super-genres exist, of course. For example Shooter, Puzzle, Family,
Fighting, etc.
There is no clear standard around how games are actually categorised in genres. For more read
Chapter 15: Understanding the New Game Industry from Game Design Workshop. I used it as a
basis for the genres presented in this lecture.
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Genres – are they useful?
■ Genres give designers and publishers a common language for describing styles of play.
■ They form a shorthand for understanding what market a game is intended for.
■ Genres tend to restrict the creative process and lead designers toward tried and true gameplay solutions.
■ Usually games overlap genres, e.g. Final Fantasy XII is a role-playing action game.
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Action Games
■ Main features:
– emphasize reaction time and hand–eye coordination
– are real-time experiences, with an emphasis on time constraints for performing physical tasks
■ Examples:
– Battlefield 2
– Grand Theft Auto V (also a racing/driving game)
– Tetris (also a puzzle game)
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Strategy Games
■ Main features:– focus on tactics and planning as well as the
management of units and resources– themes revolve around conquest, exploration, and trade
■ Examples:– Civilization IV, StarCraft II, Kingdoms of Camelot
■ Sub-genres:– real-time strategy– turn-based strategy
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Role-Playing Games
■ Main features:– revolve around creating and growing characters– include rich story lines that are tied into quests– players develop their characters while managing
inventory, exploring worlds, and accumulating wealth, status, and experience
■ Examples:– Baldur’s Gate, Dungeon Siege, World of Warcraft,
NetHack
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Sports Games
■ Main features:
– simulations of sports like tennis, football, baseball, soccer, etc.
– involve team play, season play, tournament modes
■ Examples:
– Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, NBA Jam, Sega Bass Fishing and Tony Hawk Pro Skater
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Racing/Driving Games
■ Main features:
– you are racing and you are in control
– arcade style: ■ Mario Kart
■ Burnout
– racing simulators: ■ NASCAR 07
■ F1 Career Challenge
■ Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation
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Simulation/Building Games
■ Main features:– focus on resource management combined with building
something– mimic real-world systems and give the player the
chance to manage her own virtual business, country, or city
– focus on economy and systems of trade and commerce
■ Examples:– Farmville 2, The Sims 2, SimCity, RollerCoaster Tycoon,
Gazillionaire, Lemonade Tycoon, Big Pharma
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Flight and Other Simulations
■ Main features:
– action games that tend to be based on real-life activities, like flying an airplane or driving a tank, train, etc.
– complex simulators that try to approximate the real-life experience
– they require the player to master realistic and often complex controls and instrumentation
■ Examples:
– Microsoft Flight Simulator, Train Simulator, Agricultural Simulator, Car Mechanic Simulator 2015, Euro Truck Simulator 2
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Adventure Games
■ Main features:
– emphasize exploration, collection, and puzzle solving
– the player leads a character on a quest or mission of some kind
– most rely on physical or mental puzzle solving, not improvement and accumulation, for their central gameplay (as opposed to RPG)
■ Examples:
– Adventure and Zork (textdriven)
– Myst, Jak and Daxter, Zelda series, Ratchet & Clank
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Educational Games
■ Main features:
– combine learning with fun, the goal is to entertain while educating the user
– most edutainment titles are targeted at kids, but there are some that focus on adults
– an emerging genre with lots of potential!
■ Examples of kids’ educational games:
– Motion Math, DragonBox, and Gamestar Mechanic
■ Examples for adults:
– Brain Age and Foldit
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Children’s Games
■ Main features:
– are designed specifically for kids between the ages of 2 and 12
– the primary focus is on entertaining (even if they are sometimes educational)
■ Examples:
– Mario, Donkey Kong (also loved by adults!)
– ClubPenguin.com, Freddi Fish series
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Casual Games
■ Main features:
– are meant to be enjoyed by everyone
– often incorporate puzzle elements into their play mechanics
– most are simple games like those hosted on MSN Games or Yahoo! Games
■ Examples:
– Angry Birds, Robot Unicorn Attack
– Tetris is a famous casual game (also an action puzzle game)
– Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords (emphasizes story)
– Scrabble or Solitaire (strategy)
– The Incredible Machine series (construction)
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Experimental Games
■ Main features:
– stand outside either the traditional publishing model or the traditional conception of games
– are often independently financed and explore new territory creatively
■ Examples:
– Braid, Journey, Dear Esther
– Super Meat Boy, Everyday Shooter
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References
■ [1] Fullerton, T., Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, CRC Press, 2014
■ [2] * * *, 2016 Sales, Demographic and Usage Data: Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, Entertainment Software Association, USA, online: http://essentialfacts.theesa.com/Essential-Facts-2016.pdf