Is this thing on

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Is this thing on?
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Game Design Workshop

• Orientation
• GDC 2008

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About The Workshop

• Started in 2001
• Hands-on
• Focused on iteration
• Grounded in a formal approach
• Intended to be open-ended

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What Its NOT about

• How to get a job as a game designer
• How to write a design document
• Where game ideas come from
• How to get your game funded
• How to use a level editor

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In Other Words...

• Its not about the Business(Getting a job,
  pitching a game, getting funded)
• Its not about the Profession(Writing documents,
  tracking bugs, using tools)
• Its about the Craft(Making games that are fun)

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What Youll be Doing

• Playing games
• Analyzing games
• Critiquing games
• Modifying games
• Refining games

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The Faculty

• Jonathan Hamel
• BreakAway Games
• Clint Hocking
• Ubisoft
• Robin Hunicke
• Electronic Arts (LA)
• Frank Lantz
• Area/Code

• Marc LeBlanc
• Mind Control Software
• Andrew Leker
• Mind Control Software
• Steve Librande
• Electronic Arts (Spore)
• Tim Stellmach
• Vicarious Visions

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A Few Ground Rules

• Please attend as much as you can
• Collaborate, Share, and Encourage
• Save the meta-discussion for the very end
• Turn the laptop off
• Fail Early. Fail Often.
• Fail Sooner. Fail Faster.

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Let the Games Begin!

• Go to the room matching your poker chip
• Blue 3005
• Red 3007
• White 3020

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SiSSYFiGHT 3000
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Overview

• SiSSYFiGHT simulates a playground fight between
  little girls.

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Overview

• Each girl begins with 10 Self-Esteem chips
• and the goal of the game is to reduce your
  opponents self-esteem to ZERO!

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Overview

• When there are only one or two players left with
  any self-esteem, they win the game!

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Setup

• Each player starts with
• 1. Three Action cards
• 2. Six Target cards, 1 No Target card
• 3. Ten chips.
• Each player plays a different color.
• Choose a color and put it in your badge holder.

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Rules

• Each Round
• Choose an Action and Target in secret.
• Reveal cards simultaneously
• Resolve actions
• All communication must be public.
• When you run out of chips, youre out.
• When one or two people are left, they win.

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Actions

• Solo
• Target discards one chip.
• Team
• If anyone else teams against this target, she
  discards two chips per attacking player.
• Defend
• Not an attack choose No Target as your
  target.
• If no one targets you lose one chip.
• Else, lose half the chips required (round
  down).1 ? 0, 2 ? 1, 3 ? 1, 4 ? 2, etc.

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Coffee at 1100

• Play until then
• Come back here at 1115

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General Observations About Sissyfight?
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Whats fun about SiSSYFiGHT?

• What kinds of fun did you experience?
• Can we get more specific than fun?

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Whats fun about SiSSYFiGHT?

• What kinds of fun did you experience?
• Can we get more specific than fun?
• Intrigue Negotiation, Cooperation, Betrayal
• Challenge Tactics, Problem Solving
• Drama

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How do we get from

• Cards
• Chips
• Rules

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To

• Intrigue
• Challenge
• Drama

• Cards
• Chips
• Rules

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Whats missing?
Rules
Fun
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The causal link
Rules
Fun
Behavior
This is what sets games apart
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Games As Software
Rules
Fun
Behavior
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Games As Software
Rules
Fun
Behavior
Code
Requirements
Process
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A Design Vocabulary
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A Design Vocabulary
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A Design Vocabulary
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The MDA Framework
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Definitions

• Mechanics The rules and concepts that formally
  specify the game-as-system.
• Dynamics The run-time behavior of the
  game-as-system.
• Aesthetics The desirable emotional responses
  evoked by the game dynamics.

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The Designer/Player Relationship
?
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The Players Perspective
Mechanics
Aesthetics
Dynamics
?
Player
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The Designers Perspective
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MDA

• A Taxonomy of Design Knowledge
• Aesthetics
• Dynamics
• Mechanics
• and the interactions between them.

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Aesthetics of SiSSYFiGHT

• Fellowship Negotiation, Cooperation, Betrayal
• Challenge Tactics, Problem Solving
• Narrative Drama

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Dynamics of SiSSYFIGHT
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Mechanics of SiSSYFiGHT

• Turn-based
• Hit Points
• Public Communication
• Simultaneous Action

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SiSSYFiGHT Fiction

• Does SiSSYFiGHT do a good job of conveying its
  subject matter?
• How can it do better?

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SiSSYFiGHT Fiction

• What other fictional genre or subject matter
  could the mechanics of SiSSYFiGHT simulate?

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Exercise

• Choose a fictional genre and/or setting that
  might fit this game.
• Adapt the game to your chosen subject matter.
• Keep in mind the aesthetic qualities we
  identified in the breakdown.
• How can the rules of the game be changed to best
  support your fiction?

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Brainstorming

• Everyone Grab a Sticky Pad

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When I Say Go

• You will have 90 seconds.
• Write down as many genre ideas as you can.
• One to a sticky note.
• Keep it Short (? 5 words)
• No idea is too dumb.
• Work in silence.

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Ready?

• Go!

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Pens Down!

• With your group
• Get on your feet!
• Find some wall space
• Stick your ideas to the wall
• Put like ideas together
• Look for critical mass
• Narrow down a fiction to work on.

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Exercise

• Youve chosen a setting or fiction for
  SiSSYFiGHT.
• Adapt the game to your chosen subject matter.
• Keep in mind the aesthetic qualities we
  identified at the beginning.
• How can the rules of the game be changed to best
  support your fiction?

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Lunch at 1230

• Work until then
• Sign up for Electives in 3005
• Come back here at 200

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Welcome Back

• Continue working with your group
• Be ready to present at 300

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Exercise

• Youve chosen a setting or fiction for
  SiSSYFiGHT.
• Adapt the game to your chosen subject matter.
• Keep in mind the aesthetic qualities we
  identified at the beginning.
• How can the rules of the game be changed to best
  support your fiction?
• Be ready to present at 300!

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Discussion

• Lets compare solutions. What different
  approaches did we take?

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Discussion

• How did the game dynamics support your subject
  matter?
• Were the game dynamics and the subject matter
  ever in conflict?
• How did your choice of subject matter influence
  your process?

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Any Final Observations?
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The MDA Framework
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Understanding Aesthetics

• We need to get past words like fun and
  gameplay.
• What kinds of fun are there?
• How will we know a particular kind of fun when
  we see it?

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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation

Game as art object
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy

Game as make-believe
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative

Game as unfolding story
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge

Game as obstacle course
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship

Game as social framework
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship
• Discovery

Game as uncharted territory
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship
• Discovery
• Expression

Game as soap box
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship
• Discovery
• Expression
• Submission

Game as mindless pastime
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Clarifying Our Aesthetics
Charades is fun Team Fortress is fun Final
Fantasy is fun
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Clarifying Our Aesthetics
Charades is Fellowship, Expression,
Challenge Team Fortress is Competition,
Schadenfreude, Challenge, Sensation,
Fantasy Final Fantasy is Fantasy, Narrative,
Expression, Discovery, Challenge, Masochism
Each game pursues multiple aesthetics. Again,
there is no Game Unified Theory.
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Clarifying Our Goals

• As designers, we can choose certain aesthetics as
  goals for our game design.
• We need more than a one-word definition of our
  goals.

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Formulating an Aesthetic Model

• For each aesthetic goal
• Write a formal definition
• List criteria for success
• List modes of failure
• Serves as an aesthetic compass
• These are often reusable

Some examples
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Goal Competition

• Definition A game is competitive if players are
  emotionally invested in defeating each other.
• Success
• Players are adversaries.
• Players want to win.
• Failure
• A player feels that he cant win.
• A player cant measure his progress.

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Goal Pirate Fantasy

• Definition A pirate fantasy conforms to the
  genre conventions of pirate movies, and permits
  the player to engage in certain kinds of
  anti-social pirate behavior.

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Goal Pirate Fantasy

• Definition A pirate fantasy conforms to the
  genre conventions of pirate movies, and permits
  the player to engage in certain kinds of
  anti-social pirate behavior.
• Success
• Empowerment
• Independence
• Greed
• Treachery
• Prey upon Weak

• Failure
• Vulnerability
• Compassion
• Generosity

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Goal Drama

• Definition A game is dramatic if
• Its central conflict creates dramatic tension.
• The dramatic tension builds towards a climax.

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Goal Drama

• Success
• A sense of uncertainty
• A sense of inevitability
• Tension increases towards a climax
• Failure
• The conflicts outcome is obvious (no
  uncertainty)
• No sense of forward progress (no inevitability)
• Player doesnt care how the conflict resolves.

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Understanding Dynamics

• What about the games behavior can we predict
  before we go to playtest?
• How can we explain the behavior that we observe?

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Formalizing Game Dynamics
Input
Output
Rules
(Player)
State
(Graphics/Sound)
The State Machine Model
Examples Chess, Team Fortress
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Models of Game Dynamics

• Again, no Grand Unified Theory
• Instead, a collection of many Dynamic Models.
• Dynamics models are analytical in nature.

Some examples
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Example Random Variable

• This is a model of 2d6

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Example Feedback System

• A feedback system monitors and regulates its own
  state.

Room
Thermometer
Heater
Too Cold
Too Hot
Controller
Cooler
An Ideal Thermostat
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Example Operant Conditioning

• The player is part of the system, too!
• Psychology gives us models to explain and predict
  the players behavior.

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Example Random Variable

• This is a model of 2d6

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Where Models Come From

• Analysis of existing games
• Other Fields
• Math, Psychology, Engineering
• Our own experience

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Understanding Mechanics

• Theres a vast library of common game mechanics.

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Examples

• Cards
• Shuffling, Trick-Taking, Bidding
• Shooters
• Ammunition, Spawn Points
• Golf
• Sand Traps, Water Hazards

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Mechanics vs. Dynamics

• Theres a grey area
• Some behaviors are direct consequences of rules.
• Others are indirect.
• Dynamics usually means the latter.
• Dynamics and Mechanics are different views of
  games.
• Dynamics emerge from Mechanics.

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MDA

• A Taxonomy of Design Knowledge
• Aesthetics
• Dynamics
• Mechanics
• and the interactions between them.

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MDA in SiSSYFiGHT

• Simultaneous turns attack actions ?

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MDA in SiSSYFiGHT

• Simultaneous turns attack actions ?

Competition, Random Attacks
Equality
Scourge
Cooperation, Team Attacks
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MDA in SiSSYFiGHT

• Simultaneous turns attack actions ?

Competition, Random Attacks
Equality
Scourge
Cooperation, Team Attacks
? Betrayal!
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Coffee at 400

• At 415, find your Elective A room
• World of Rulecraft 3005
• Seven Deadly Sins 3007
• Coopetition 3020