GDC 07 Notes

1
GDC 07 Notes

• A Brief Overview and Key Takeaways of GDC Game
  Design Sessions
• Muhammad Ahmed

2
The Challenges of Designing First Person Melee
CombatRaphael Colantonio

• Created Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
• FPS Melee Combat was a hard concept to sell
• Initial Goals
• Wanted very symbolic sword fighting image
• Brutal Combat
• Realistic slow/tactical fights
• Encourage players creativity using the
  environment to solve puzzles
• Expand and explore the FPS genre

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• Initial Problems Faced
• Wanted to make sure that melee gameplay did not
  become Half-Life 2 with a sword instead of a
  crowbar
• How to aim at close targets
• Gauging distance and field of view (FoV)
• Getting Started with Design
• No publisher
• Went through a long prototype phase
• Decided to use the Source Engine
• Cleared many issues of FoV and initial setup for
  an FPS game
• Building a Design Vocabulary for
• Player States and Actions
• Controls
• AI States and Actions
• Relative position of Player in regards to AI

4

• Main Problematic Areas of Design
• Aiming with a Sword
• Enemy AI
• Level Design
• Player Habits
• Aiming with a Sword
• Used standard FPS theory and used the center of
  the screen for aiming
• Implemented a full physics system for attacks and
  hits
• Problems Faced
• Using the center of the screen for sword fighting
  was a very bad idea
• Reminiscent of the crowbar!
• Full physics made things worse in terms of AI
  hits and sword to sword combat
• Attempts to hack center aiming and AI hits made
  things even worse during production
• Target Locking
• Somewhat worked as compared to aiming in the
  center of the screen
• Problems Faced
• Inconsistent hit patterns
• The overall solution

5

• Enemy AI
• The Problems
• How to handle multiple AI
• How to balance player reactions towards AI
  attacks
• The Solutions
• A token system was made for the AI
• Only a max of two AI ever attacked the player up
  close
• Other AI kept their distance until it was their
  turn to fight
• All AI telegraphed their attacks indicating
  whether they were going to strike, block, etc.
• Level Design
• The Problem
• The levels were all designed and nearly polished
  before combat and AI were tuned!
• The Solution
• The AI and melee combat along with other game
  mechanics needed to mapped to the design and
  layout of the levels
• Player Habits
• The Problems
• Most FPS gamers are very twitchy when it comes to
  combat
• Using a melee weapon as opposed to guns was a new
  concept
• The Solution

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• Conclusions
• Wished that more blind testing was done on the
  game and the mechanics of melee combat
• Regrets that the levels were built and designed
  before the core mechanics of the game
• If given the chance to change anything for the
  future
• Rework the larger monsters
• Provide the player with more AI variety aside
  from only Orcs
• Key Takeaways
• An FPS game does not need a large arsenal of guns
  to be played
• Any idea for game whether it is a single mechanic
  or the entire functionality can be designed but
  there will be issues along the way. If those
  issues are rationally solved the idea or mechanic
  will be in the game and it may just make the game
  unique in some way or another.

7
The Future of Interactive Storytelling in Next
Generation Game DevelopmentWarren Spector

• Kind of a rant of a lecture but a very good rant
  nonetheless!
• Games CAN tell a story!
• Different types of game stories
• Linear
• Retold
• The player retells how they played the game or an
  instance of the game
• Player Generated
• On the fly story telling as in the Sims
• Shared Authorship
• The game has a story but the player is given
  choices on how to approach it
• Examples KotoR, GTA, Deus Ex

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• There are still haters out there
• Games dont need a story and should not tell one
• There are still supporters out there as well
• Storytelling in games is everything ( I fall in
  this category)
• Overall games should be shorter but deeper
• Limit the amount of gameplay time to reasonable
  level
• But in that time tell a great story
• So what makes a great game story?
• Change
• Pacing
• Empathetic characters
• Thematic Depth

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• Storytelling progress in Next Gen Gaming
• Linear
• Still have games that tell a roller coaster
  style story with many twists and turns but still
  ultimately keep the player on one path to then
  end of the story
• Player Generated
• The Will Wright school of story telling i.e.
  Spore and The Sims
• Shared Authorship
• Recent trend of many open world games i.e. GTA
• Overall standpoint of Next Gen Gaming
• It is NOT the solution or answer to storytelling
• Just because there are better tools and
  processing horsepower does not necessarily mean
  that gameplay stories will be on the same page
• Next Gen makes our lives harder as Designers
• The main issue not just with Next Gen but with
  previous tech as been that tech and graphics have
  been raising the bar way too fast
• With this increase of graphical tech over the
  years it has been hard for tech of AI control and
  interaction to keep up
• Good AI support is a part of great storytelling
  for most games out there

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• Conversation Systems in Games
• Current systems are good but can be better
• Text selection of dialog choices
• In a standard game it is easy to kill someone
  but virtually impossible to talk to them
  Jonathan Rauch
• A quote that is very much true for most games out
  there
• Conclusions (more than one)
• First conclusion
• There will be little or no improvements in the
  near future
• Second conclusion
• Improve upon Shared Authorship
• Let players off the rails once in a while from
  the constraints of the game
• Provide real choices and real consequences
• Damn the technology! Work towards better designs
  of games in terms rather than better graphics
• Takeaways
• A very interesting session that is debatable as
  Warren Spector noted

11
Game Design From Blue Sky to Green Light
Deborah Todd, Matt Costello, Chris Charla, Mike
Mika, and Christopher Ferriter

• This session was hands on panel discussion on how
  to turn game ideas into full fledged concepts
  that can be approved for production
• The first concept that was presented and
  debatable was Blue Sky
• Some of the panelists believed that blue sky was
  the phase of design where anything goes, any idea
  can be pitched without critique until the
  brainstorming phase where ideas will become more
  polished
• Other panelists believed that blue sky is the
  brainstorming phase in it self
• To involve the audience panelists requested that
  people get into small groups with people next to
  them and come up with some blue sky ideas for a
  game

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• After a moment the panelists took ideas from the
  audience and wrote them down
• One thing I noticed here was that some people
  pitched one line ideas, where as others spent a
  minute or more explaining many details of their
  game idea for the pitch
• Of the list of ideas the panelists acting as
  producers for the game selected three of the
  many ideas pitched that stood out the most
• One idea that stood out was an idea for a game
  about manipulating smoke and shadows
• Another one was about watching plants grow
• Another idea was for Virtual Baby game
• Once the ideas were narrowed down the panelists
  requested the audience to come up with unique
  ideas for the games, again there was no criticism
  involved
• Each game had a long list of cool ideas and or
  features that could be possible

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• Brainstorming the ideas into a story
• The panelists took concepts from the audience as
  to what the story could be using the features
  listed for each game.
• What they were looking for the one liner pitch to
  sell the game to a publisher to get approved for
  development.
• Green Light Phase
• Here is where the first elements of criticism
  were received for the game ideas and stories
  pitched.
• The panelists went over each idea and described
  their thoughts and reserves about the ideas and
  how well they would translate into real game that
  would be sold.
• Between the three pitched ideas and their
  features and story elements Virtual Baby came out
  on top in terms of the panelists view as game
  that could possibly well be developed and sold
• The smoke and shadow game would work as well
  given some of the story ideas pitched based on
  audience given features.

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• Conclusions
• The blue sky to green light phase is practice
  done on most games that have been published
  within the industry as a whole
• There are different variations on how the process
  works from studio to studio but the underlying
  concept is the same, to get an idea into fully
  designed concept that will become a marketable
  and published game
• Key Takeaways
• This interactive process was a great learning
  experience that can be used in the future for new
  game ideas or even for unique features within the
  game
• Perhaps this can be an exercise that the design
  team can practice sometime in the future

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Designing Gears of War Iteration WinsCliff
Bleszinski

• Probably one of the most anticipated sessions of
  GDC, aside from Miyamotos Keynote session
• The iterative process used on Gears of War
• Brainstorm
• Any and all ideas are cool
• Design and Documentation
• Ideas are more focused and fleshed out
• All ideas and features that are planned for the
  game should be documented
• The entire team should read the documentation and
  be on the same page

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• Implement/Test
• Once the ideas are focused and documented start
  working on them as soon as possible
• Test the features that pitched for the game as
  they are developed
• Nudge
• Tweak game features once they come online and are
  working to make sure they are what they are
  supposed to be
• Repeat
• Establish Creative Guidelines and ADHERE to them!
• Guidelines on Gears
• Slower paced gameplay than traditional shooters
  with tradeoffs
• NO Aliens from space
• A mix of low and high tech within the game world
• The Hammer of Dawn, Torque Bow
• Standard real world weapons, pistol, shotgun,
  etc
• Embrace some clichés and shed others

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• Development Philosophies on Gears
• Being a game designer along with other teammates
  created a love/hate relationship of other games
• Looked at games with a more critical eye than
  most consumers
• With some ideas in mind Gears had
• More gamey in a sense with little to no HUD
  interactions allowing the player to just play the
  game without on screen distractions
• Established gameplay checkpoints instead of a
  save/load convention
• Presentation with a cinematic eye to focus on
  various encounters
• Little story overviews and cut to chase no need
  for long cut scenes explaining what is going. (
  reflective of Warren Spectors talk?)
• Overall gameplay is king
• But visuals, polish, and presentation count!

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• Iterative Processes on Gears
• Gameplay Camera
• Cover system
• Controls
• Weapons
• Multiplayer Design
• Camera Iteration
• First Person?
• Wanted to move away from the FPS standard of UT
• Show off UE3 characters
• Decided on the third person camera
• Positioning
• Over the shoulder
• FOV tricks
• Widening view during aiming
• Tightening view during roadie run

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• Roadie Run
• Started as follow cam
• Got the name from rock concert roadies
• Freedom of running at a trade offno shooting
• Only 1.2x faster than the normal jog
• Illusion of speed
• Lower camera angle
• Camera shakes
• Provides an sense of urgency
• Cover System Iterations
• Goals
• Make cover essential
• Cover should be fun
• Avoid angles
• Make the player commit to the system
• Avoid fuzzy cover
• Evaluating competing cover systems
• Stick versus A

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• Control Scheme Iterations
• The Halo Controls
• Did not want to break the control standard for
  console shooters
• Though wanted it to be unique
• The reloading control moved to the right bumper
  so that is closer to the trigger rather than on
  button further away
• Weapon swap moved to D-Pad near movement
  controls only four weapons so it works to the
  mapping
• Y was empty and became look at cool shit button
• Weapon Iterations
• Torque Bow
• Started as a wrist mounted weapon ( not mentioned
  but assuming a Deus Ex idea)
• Inspired by Rambo III with the explosive bow and
  arrow thing
• Would detonate on player control
• Good for setting traps
• Issues
• Too much animation
• Would cause loss of the Berserker for animation
  time
• Became
• Crossbow Weapon

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• Grenades
• Did not want traditional Coke Can grenades
• Became Bolo Grenades
• Telegraphed moves
• Multiplayer Design Iteration
• Given the gameplay style circular level designs
  like Unreal Tournament were not done
• Most maps had an I or H shape design
• The most played and well designed map during
  production was Gridlock
• This and all maps had a defined front for the COG
  and Locust Teams
• Down but not Out
• Players could be revived during combat
• Great for players of the same team to keep in the
  fight
• Great for opposing players to setup more kills!
• Conclusions
• Establish a great management structure for game
  features
• Iterate on different ideas and features to make
  sure they are how you want them to be
• Be quick on your feet, and know what to change
  and when
• Consolidate ideas to try and get what you want
  into the game
• Key Takeaway

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Theory Into Practice Single Player RTS Design
for Company of HeroesErin Daly and Joshua
Mosqueria

• This presentation was about the design practices
  at Relic used to create the recently released
  game Company of Heroes
• Company of Heroes is Real Time Strategy (RTS)
  game set within World War 2
• What they did to set themselves apart from other
  great RTS titles such as Starcraft, Warcraft, and
  Command and Conquer was to make an RTS game that
  focused more on the player interaction with the
  units and strategy rather than standard RTS
  mantra of build a base and crush the opposing
  base.

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• Relics Thoughts on What Makes a good RTS mission
• Bend and break the rules to make a compelling
  experience
• Context and Immersion
• Push the story forward not only with each mission
  but each mission objective
• No need to watch grass grow
• RTS games as mentioned rely on building bases and
  resource management
• Company of Heroes does not do that
• Not to say it is a bad thing but not doing it
  relates to bending and breaking the rules
• Present the player with memorable moments
• What Defines a Memorable Moment?
• Something unique that player has not seen before
• Defy the players expectations
• Provide a contextual element
• Leverage game mechanics to provide the maximum
  effect
• Require the player to take serious action and in
  turn reward them for it
• A good movie needs three great scenes and none
  of which suck! Relic

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• Overall approach to Single Player RTS
• Creating a unique experience
• Use the gameplay to advance the story
• Shorter but more engaging missions
• Tools used at Relic
• SCAR- Scripting at Relic
• A LUA Based Scripting system
• Fairly easy to use system for designers
• Empowered designers to create unique scenarios
  given the game mechanics and content
• Provided a lot of re-use with easy to do tweaks
  to already written scripts
• World Builder
• 3-D Level editor allowed designers to place art
  assets
• Placed triggers to run scripts for missions
• Attribute Editor
• A tool used to quickly tune values and attributes
  of scripted elements

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• The Design Mantra
• Minimal paper design
• One to two page mission pitch
• Interactive (links and images) paper prototype
• High level LDD/ MDD
• Allowed for designer ownership for the mission
• Most documents described what was going on the in
  mission not how to actually do the mission or
  build the level or script it.
• Those were broken into other documents
• Overview of the Iterative Process
• Designers benchmarked missions
• For various stages of productions missions were
  to be completed to some extent.
• For the 15 missions designed overall each one had
  production goals, 30, 50 complete
• Goal based iteration
• Mission objectives and scenario design went
  through many iterations before reaching a final
  design
• Reviews
• Peer Reviews
• Once a day play sessions for different missions
• Tore missions apart to tweak them and make them
  not suck

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• Conclusions
• A game in given genre does not need to follow the
  conventions of the genre
• Unique and memorable moments within the game
  really appeal to the player and move gameplay and
  story elements
• A good set of tools should be used that allow
  designers to create unique experiences for the
  player
• Designers should have a sense of ownership on the
  work they contribute to the game.

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The Game Design Challenge The Needle and Thread
InterfaceHarvey Smith, Alexey Pajitnov, David
Jaffe, and Eric Zimmerman

• Three influential game designers were presented
  with a design challenge to make a game with the
  input devices of a needle(s), a square piece of
  fabric, and some thread!
• Eric Zimmerman introduced each of the three
  contestants and provided an overview of the
  design challenge
• The basic idea behind the use of an odd interface
  came from the recent rise in new tech and next
  gaming, especially the Wii controls
• The basic rules and context of the game based on
  the interface were as follows
• Only one piece of cloth can be used per player
• Different needles can be used by the player
• Different threads can be used by the player
• Up to eight clothes can be connected to the TV

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• First up to present was David Jaffe
• Mainly known for designing God of War 1 and 2
• Initial reaction to the design challenge
• Are you fucking shitting me!- David
• Had nice parody of Cinderella Man to the game
  design challenge
• Alexey was Jim Braddock
• Harvey was Max Baer
• David described himself as Paul Giamattis
  character and being on the sidelines of this
  whole thing
• Main intimidation on this idea was the use of the
  fabric
• The fabric as a game pad/controller did not seem
  like a fun tool to use to play a game
• After more ideas of failure David presented his
  breakthrough idea
• Virtual Paper Airplane Creator
• The basic idea behind it was to fold the fabric
  in the shape of the airplane via a tutorial or
  freelance design
• Once folded the player would use the needle and
  thread to sew it together, while they did that
  the virtual plane would be drawn on screen.
• When the plane was designed it could be flown in
  some sort of environment against other planes

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• Following David was Alexey
• Creator of Tetris!!
• His idea was called stitch and cross
• A small two player game
• The goal of the game was that each player would
  use the cloth as playing field and with their
  needles and thread stitch their way to the
  other side of the cloth
• If a player crossed another players stitched
  line kills that players line
• The UI
• On screen players would see a small arena with
  red and blue sides
• One player (blue) would stitch right to left
  (vice versa)
• The other (red) top to bottom (vice versa)
• On screen players would see their lines being
  stitched and killed
• On screen players would see obstacles in their
  path so that they can not stitch straight lines

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• Lastly Harvey presented his idea, a full fledged
  3d adventure game
• He too had an initial reaction like David, This
  is bat shit crazy
• Thought Process
• Took into account the controller and how it would
  work first
• After many presented ideas Harvey went with a lap
  loom style controller for the cloth, but more
  specifically it was shaped like a Native American
  snow shoe! Odd but seemed reasonable
• With this snow shoe loom thing holding the cloth,
  the player would use the needle to sew different
  spots to control the game
• Tired to apply his new concept to existing games
• The game he came up with was entitled The
  Tailors Daughter
• An adventure game with a quilty art style
• Allegorical fiction
• A lot of thread/needle interaction to control the
  main character
• Movement, attacks, puzzle solving.
• His game idea had some great political humor
  aimed at the current administration!

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• Conclusion
• After each of the three unique ideas were
  presented, Eric opened the floor up to some Q/A.
• Then by judging the audiences reaction to each
  presenter Eric awarded Alexey as the winner!
  Harvey got second place with his adventure game
  idea and lastly David Jaffe with his paper
  airplane concept. ( I voted for David )
• Key Takeaway
• No matter how crazy a concept is it can be solved
  reasonably and rationally.
• Though in most cases our design problems may be
  more down to earth on actual game systems, but
  odd challenges will emerge that will need to be
  solved in clever and feasible manner within the
  constraints of the game.
• It is ok to initially curse out the idea
  presented for a game or game concept. ?

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Sharing ControlDavid Edery, Matt Brown, Raph
Koster, and Ray Muzyka

• This was an interesting session that was more of
  an open discussion between the four designers
  about the concept of sharing control between
  designers and users within games.
• All being proponents of sharing control they
  believed that users of games should be allowed to
  do what designers can with the game to promote
  their own creativity
• Everyone is a content creator in some form or
  another
• How much content to create in a game is up to
  user
• This not limited to actual game design but
  playing the game from different perspectives is
  content generation based of emergent gameplay
• Of all the content that is created by users 90
  will suck and 10 will be great
• If each person that can contribute 10 works with
  others that contribute 10 something amazing can
  be created such as a full fledged mod.

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• Sharing control within the actual design process?
• Most game development houses and designers
  completely exclude the user from any form
  expression or control of their game until it is
  available for sale
• Others wish to involve more users in the
  development process of a game
• Neither answer is wrong but how should it be
  handled if users are allowed to par take in game
  design along side the designers?
• All depends on the designers interests
• If the game is yours and you want to make big
  bucks off of it and not let anyone interfere then
  that is cool
• But if you want the game to be for the fans then
  letting them control some aspects of the design
  can be beneficial
• The best and easiest to get user involvement on
  design issues is to ask the fans
• Though it is hard to sift through good and
  through input as compared to the possible influx
  of one liner ideas This object sucksmake it
  better
• Sometimes players are not good at telling what
  the want, but they can tell you what is wrong
  with a game if given the chance to play it via
  focus tests

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• When asking fans for input or focus testing dont
  assume that hardcore fans are right about their
  views
• Only listening to hard core fans may make a game
  virtually impossible to play at a novice level
  excluding those players from buying your game
• Taking novice input will help you balance the
  game
• Community sites and games.
• Managing or working with community sites
  dedicated to a game provides some element for
  users to share control of a game.
• Whether it be about posting questions about a
  game and its features or posting user generated
  content such as levels, scripts, art work, etc
  are all ways for users to express themselves and
  share control
• At times allowing users to share control with
  self expression of mods and what not can be very
  beneficial to the product
• Doom/Unreal Maps
• Machina videos within games, Sims, Never Winter
  Nights
• Interface mods

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• Conclusions
• Sharing control is something that is on the rise
  with the advent of MMOs and large online
  communities
• The way players share control with the game is
  varied but everyone out there is creating content
  either for themselves or the game community as a
  whole
• The level of quality of the content is up for the
  users to decide but some can really deliver with
  awesome content
• Aside from sharing control online and after a
  game is out, designers can also opt to share
  control during design to get the most feedback on
  game before it is done.
• Key Takeaway
• User generated content is a great element for
  designers to get more exposure for their games
• Allowing users to take part in game development
  is great way for designers to know what they are
  doing to appease all audiences or selected
  audiences for their game.

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Writing Great Design DocumentsDamion Schubert

• A very good and practical presentation
• The small lecture room filled up to full capacity
  and more!
• The entire presentation can be found at
  http//www.zenofdesign.com/Writing_Design_Docs.ppt
  
• Some key points presented
• All designers should share their ideas with the
  team
• Likewise all the team members should read the
  documentation created to know what they are
  building!
• Design docs should be short and to the point
• Different design docs should have a target
  audience
• Producers
• Other Designers
• Programmers
• Artists