Lessons from Game Design

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Chapter 10 Lessons from Game Design
Chuck Clanton, Aratar, Inc.
Presentation by Andrea Kirk
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Creation of a game

• Game design
• Game elements
• Lessons from previous games

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Important Elements of Game Design

• A good game sells millions of copies, but is
  later discarded when the game is mastered
• The game should hook the player in the first 10
  minutes of play
• Players should be able to develop more skills and
  achieve greater accomplishments

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Games vs. other software applications

• Currently, HCI communities and game designers
  have very little interaction, but both would
  benefit from it

Example In games, frustration is the way to a
feeling of accomplishment
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Game Platforms PCs

• Control via keyboard, mouse, optional devices
• Allows for more complex games that require more
  sophisticated control
• Updateable
• PC games often more cerebral, for older
  audiences

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Game Platforms Consoles

• Living room boxes and portable, handheld units
• No need to install anything
• Control via a special control pad with a specific
  number of buttons and a directional control
• Not updateable when first released, more
  powerful than most PCs
• Games usually more action-oriented

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Audience

• A different concept of designing for the
  audience designers are also the audience
• Reaching the audience

• Fun is hard to capture from user-oriented
  design methods

• hardcore gamers vs. light gamers

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Elements of Games

• Challenge ramp
• Stories vs. histories
• Interface
• Mechanics
• Gameplay
• Conflict
• Point of View
• Fun

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Level Design

• Hook player within first 10 minutes of play
• Variety and pacing within levels (ex a very
  challenging level followed by an easy one)
• A definite feeling of progress each level is a
  step toward the final goal

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Level Design, contd.

• A specialty within game design and a large focus
  in game creation
• Game designers create a framework that level
  designers work in
• Challenge ramp the progression of player skill
  and game challenge through the game (p.305)

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Stories vs. Histories

• Histories open players control their path to
  victory
• Stories closed there is a predetermined
  story that the player learns about as the game
  progresses

• Solve puzzles and problems to get more storyline
• Definite right and wrong choices

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Game Interface

• The details of how the controller of keyboard
  map to functions, and the output displays on the
  screen that provide game information (p. 307)
• Very little standardization across industry
• Designers try to map UI to tasks closely
• Games may have unique UIs for special in-game
  tasks
• The UI can be part of the fun
• Designers should understand controllers when
  designing games

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Game Mechanics

• The physics of the world of the game for
  example, the simulated and simplified flight
  mechanics of a fighter pilot game (p. 307)
• Flying, driving, shooting, picking things up,
  etc.
• Mastering the mechanics can be part of the fun

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Gameplay

• the mission of the player in terms of goals and
  subgoals, including both official scoring and
  secondary rewards (p.307)
• Also, tactics and strategies to achieve those
  goals
• Levels should offer progression
• Side quests and optional activities

• End of level boss or a path to a new level
• Entire level may teach the player how to beat
  the challenge at the end

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Conflict and Challenge

• The satisfaction of solving a problem is
  proportional to its difficulty and the amount of
  frustration that was tolerated prior to solving
  it
• Need a great villain to make victory more
  satisfying

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Point of View

• Third-person player watches a proxy that can be
  emotionally identified with
• First-person no proxy may or may not have a
  specific role
• Watching from a third-person point of view can
  convey more emotion to the player, much like
  watching a movie

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Types of Games

• Genres action, adventure, strategy, driving,
  fighting, role playing, etc.
• Many newer games cross more than one genre
• Classification by skills involved reasoning,
  hand-eye skill and luck, attention and strategic
  thinking

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Games of Reasoning

• Exploration and solving problems
• Little or no time pressure
• Simple controls
• Key-lock problems
• Combination lock problems
• Mission that sounds like a story plot

• find a key item to use in a lock

• need special knowledge

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Games of Hand-Eye Skill (and a Bit of Luck)

• Player learns hand-eye skills to control proxy
• Usually require more advanced skills and tactics
  as player progresses
• Single players can fight non-player characters
  (NPCs)
• After learning to defeat NPCs, look for human
  players

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Games of Attention and Strategic Thinking

• Player makes long-term decisions
• Games can be realtime or turn-based
• Often complicated to learn and play requires
  control and understanding of many different kinds
  of units
• Again, players can learn by playing against NPCs

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Lessons from Games

• Resident Evil
• Myst
• Populous, the Beginning
• Silent Steel
• You Dont Know Jack
• Metal Gear Solid

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Resident Evil

• Solve a mystery while fighting zombies
• Action/adventure game
• Puzzle motifs improve the pacing
• Third-person POV draws in player, like a horror
  movie
• Good soundtrack adds to the emotion and provides
  anticipation

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Resident Evil, contd.

• Camera camera positions are carefully chosen
  to dramatize the scene (p. 318)
• Grabbing the camera stopping the action for a
  closeup

• But this can make it hard to see where the proxy
  is!

• The change in view changes aim
• Screen-relative press left to attack left side
  of screen
• Character-relative press left to attack at left
  side of character (could be right side of the
  screen)

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Myst

• One of the largest selling retail games of all
  time (p. 319)
• Adventure game with a simple UI
• Good sound and visuals
• Rhythmic pacing, puzzle motifs
• Quest is to free one of two brothers The choice
  is uncertain, but the quest itself is not. (p.
  321)

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Myst, contd.

• Very little moving video uses sound to imply
  movement
• Film cuts during character movement
• Problem violation of consistency
• Problem problems are somewhat difficult for
  novice gamers

• Consistency with user expectations is more
  important than uniformity

• Wide distribution of elements of solutions

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Populous the Beginning

• Player controls a civilization
• Progress more spells, units, etc. new things
  can be taken from defeated enemies
• Levels are distinct from one another early
  levels are for training
• Game provides help, but not too much
• User testing revealed a major flaw

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Silent Steel

• Submarine simulation
• Interactive movie player chooses statements
  made by character
• Conversation mechanics
• Conversations are consequential to the path of
  the game

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Silent Steel, contd.

• Problem consequences should match actions
• Problem consequences should be immediate

• Player usually gets to make pivotal decisions
• In one important case, they do not unfair!

• Like strategy games, actions have long-term
  affects
• But this isnt a strategy game! Bad early
  decisions can make no-win situations unfair!

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You Dont Know Jack

• A trivia game show
• Very TV-like atmosphere
• Humorous, mocking MC
• Player-aware
• Accelerated pacing

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Metal Gear Solid

• Action/adventure game
• In-game retry on failure

• In other games proxy dies, then player must
  reload from a saved game
• In MGS, game automatically restarts at last
  continuation point

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Metal Gear Solid, contd.

• Game mechanics vs. story mechanics
• Breaking the frame in-game characters talk
  about the meta-game (controls, advice for
  gameplay, etc.)

• A villain thought to be dead is shown to be
  alive
• A victory in terms of gameplay, but adds tension
  to the story

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Conclusion The Great Divide

• The market for games is much more demanding than
  the market for other software games must be
  fun
• Game design and application design communities
  know little about each other, but each could
  benefit from using some of the others techniques