gameplay design workshop 1/3
TRANSCRIPT
Game Design
Gameplay Design Workshop
Petri Lankoskiaalto.fi
Getting Credits
• Return documentation of each game (a PDF document)– Names of group members– Complete set of rules– All what is needed to play (e.g., cards, board)– Postmortem
• 3 to 5 things that went right• 3 to 5 things that went wrong
• Attending lectures– 6 lectures on Wed 13 to 15 starting on 15.9.– Lecture diary containing reflections from 4 lectures
• Deadline for the both: Fri 12.11.
Grading
• Game design are graded– Completeness and quality of rules– Board design and card design– Not graphical quality
• Lecture diary influence grades (-1,, 0, +1)• Missed deadline reduces the grade (-1 per week)
– Unless new deadline is agreed beforehand
Learning Diary
• Short essay style reflections of the contents of a lecture– Can be critical or complementary– You can use references to other sources to expand or criticize
the lecture– Explain why you selected the topics of the lecture
• Should include a page that – Evaluate the lectures as whole– Evaluate ones own learning
• Learning diary is not a summary of lecture
Further Reading
• Brathwaite, B. & Schrieber, I. (2008). Challenges for Game Designers. Course Technology. Available at Ebrary (http://site.ebrary.com/lib/aalto/)
Sep 8 Agenda
• Presentation of yesterday's assignments• Chance and Skill• Design Exercise, Chance and Skill• Presenting the exercise• Design Exercise, Chance and Skill
Chance and Skill
• Skill-based games– Chess,
• Chance-based games– Roulette
• Chance- and skill-based games– Blackjack, Bridge, Settlers of Catan, Risk
• Chance increase variation
Using Change
• Dice– 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, 30, 100 sides– With a single die, each side have equal probability– 2d6 creates bell-curve (skew toward 7)– Each die roll is independent from previous dice rolls
• Further reading: Torben Mogensen: Dice-Rolling Mechanisms in RPGs, http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/systemdesign/torben_rpg_dice.pdf
6 Sided Dice Behavior
Figure: Weisstein, http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Dice.html
Using Chance
• Cards– Imperfect information– Different dynamics depending on how many cards are dealt and when
the deck is reshuffled • Blackjack – Bridge – Magic the Gathering – Carcassonne
– Each card drawn influence to the probabilities of remaining cards• Reshuffling the deck after each draw makes deck behaving like die
Using Chance…
• Pseudo-random numbers– Computers can simulate dice and card shuffling– Typically sufficiently random, but NOT always– You can test the generator by producing, e.g., 1000 events
• Is the distribution of the events sufficiently correct?
• Hidden information– Choices based on hidden information are pseudo-random
Design Exercise: Tic-Tac-Toe with Luck
• Modify Tic-Tac-Toe to add randomness to the game
Design Exercise: The Alien in the Desert
• The game must use– Tiles similar to Carcassonne or Catan– Fog of War– Match with the name