Game Design Confessional

1
Game Design Confessional

• Dan Teasdale
• Senior Designer
• Pandemic Studios

2
Whats this session about?

• Why dont you talk about all the mistakes youve
  made
• Designers make mistakes
• but never actually admit it
• I am a designer
• Dans Seven Deadly Design Sins
• This speech isnt about me telling you how to do
  your job

3
Gluttony, Part 1

• I actually have 9 sins to confess, not 7

4
Pride, Part 1

• I have had a stereotypical designer ego

5
The evidence against me?

• I thought my ideas were best
• I thought the rest of the team were out of
  touch
• I was a Nintendo Fanboy
• I cringe when academics whove never worked on a
  game lecture about Game Design
• I never confessed to my sins

6
Now that Ive alienated half the room and made
the other half think Im an asshole, lets move on
7
Anger

• Ive been angry at the rest of the team for not
  reading my detailed and well-thought out design
  documents and specifications

8
Why werent they reading your documents?

• Because they were huge!
• or they were, just only once

9
And did getting angry help?

• Nope people still didnt read my docs
• Half the time, ended up ignoring the docs and
  implementing something wildly different

10
So, how have you tried to resolve this?

• HTML?
• Nobody knows when its updated
• Small Word Docs?
• Nobody knows where they live
• Design Site/CMS?
• Hard to update
• Wiki?
• Solves these problems internally, not so good
  externally

11
What did you learn from all this, my child?

• Nobody likes reading stuff twice
• Most people only want to know the main jist
  behind the game, and detailed specs when they
  have to work directly on something
• Its a pain in the ass to update, collate, and
  view reference content in HTML or Word

12
Have I repented?

• No. Not ideal, still stuff that needs to be done
  next project, like making Word-like output

13
Pride, Part 2

• I have designed Think like the Designer missions

14
Blasphemy 1 Leading the Player

• DAH Prototype Hypnotize Joe,Abduct Joe(x3),
  Abuct a Car (x4),Blow up the Police Station,
  Level City Hall
• BORING and FRUSTRATING
• Tell the player WHY theyre doing this!
• Designing for broader goals not only removes the
  tedium of Why am I doing this but also allows
  players to complete them their way
• See Rockstar North!

15
Blasphemy 2 Timers as a crutch

• It Came From the Basement! - What, my mission
  isnt fun? Add a timer.
• I couldnt play Pikmin because of this
• Use your mechanics!
• If you want to use time as a mechanic, at least
  make it related to what youre doing
• See Rockstar North (for a bad example)

16
Blasphemy 3 Escort Missions

• DAH Protect Scientist Joe as he walks calmy
  through eight lines of cops and soldiers to a
  panel with a button you could press yourself
• On paper, it sounds good. In reality, too many
  out-of-player-control fail conditions
• Escort missions are obfuscated timers that can
  fail randomly.

17
What made you blaspheme like this?

• Laziness?
• Dont take a step back?
• Didnt follow the Magic 400 Rules of Design That
  Dont Exist?
• well, a little of all

18
Did you feel the weight of this mistake, my child?

• On AMRTS, the mission in question was
  flip-flopping on balance right up to release
• On DAH, it meant I got a lot of angry emails from
  people who thought I was a sucky designer
• Still didnt stop me from bitching about the same
  things in other games

19
Have I repented?

• Yes, to the point where Im annoying the other
  designers.

20
Envy

• Ive always been envious of people who have a
  fresh perspective when playing my game

21
Why is this such a bad thing?

• You lose sight of what the game is
• Oddballs - goal had 5 layers of indirection
• Created these layers over time, didnt realise it.

22
The fallout?

• Figured out a plan to resolve it
• Cancelled before we could implement it

23
How should I approach this in the future?

• Pretty much impossible to ignore 18 months of
  experience when evaluating your own game
• Next best thing is to think about how people think

24
Well, how do people think?

• Perceptual Control Theory
• Dryest bit of this speech, but also probably the
  most base-level in terms of player interaction
• If you want to take a quick nap, nows the time

25
Perceptual Control Theory

• Originally theorised in the 50s as a way to
  explain human and animal behavior
• The core concept of PCT is that every action we
  take is to reduce error
• Components that make up PCT are Perception and
  Reference

26
When your reference is the same as your
perception

• Everything is fine and happy
• Basically a non-event, no need to change
  anything
• Example My reference for this audience was 90
  male gaming nerds
• Perception meets Reference, wasnt shocked when I
  saw you all

27
When your reference is different to your
perception

• Brain goes into an infinite loop
• Creates Error - can be externalised as stress,
  angst, hate, controller throwing
• The error persists until either
• Your reference changes to meet your perception
• You act to change your perception to meet your
  reference

28
An example?

• Metal Gear Solid 2
• At the start, your perception meets your
  reference for a sequel to MGS
• An hour later, your perception is changed
  dramatically and is different from your
  reference, thanks to Raiden
• Good example of how error can be good and bad!

29
Have I repented?

• Totally
• If Id done this on Oddballs, youd be playing it
  now
• Perception/Reference externalisation works for
  determining pretty much all human behavior

30
Gluttony, part 2

• I have Knee-Jerk designed

31
What do you mean, Knee-Jerk designed?

• That is, Ive designed something or extended
  something purely because of an external issue
• No - Bad, Lazy
• and bites you in the ass in the long run

32
Example 1 DAH Conversation System

• A mission where you stop the mayor from giving a
  speech would be cool
• It would be even cooler if you could give the
  speech
• Started out as a minigame for a single mission

33
DAH Conversation System
34
DAH Conversation System

• Dan, youre awesome and we love you. Lets use it
  in all the missions
• Then extended as a mechanic across a number of
  missions, not just speech delivery

35
DAH Conversation System

• Thought System was pretty shallow
• Thoughts are really just for humor value at the
  moment, and theyre pointless otherwise. This is
  a problem. Lets make it that Crypto says the
  thoughts that he finds in peoples brains!
• (cue sirens)
• Then tied into core game mechanics

36
DAH Conversation System
37
DAH Conversation System

• After E3, took a few days break and looked back
  on what we had
• Still had a mechanic suiting a minigame, but was
  used along the gameplay critical path
• Didnt hold up to the stress
• Hunting down a particular person across a whole
  city just for their thought is ass boring.
• Realised we had created a monster out of a small
  minigame setpiece due to knee-jerking.

38
DAH Conversation System

• Took the benefits of this system, and slimmed it
  down
• Convincing each person of Good,Bad,Neutral
  or Instant Fail. No grey areas
• Removed dependence on finding thoughts
• Humor delivery first, progression second
• Back to Really Fun!, not Critical Grinding

39
Have I repented?

• Yes - If I get to the point where Im making
  radical changes, then think about it from the
  ground up.

40
Greed (and a little Sloth)

• I have created unoriginal concepts and worked on
  unoriginal games for money, fame, or out of
  laziness

41
Some people say that youre to blame?

• People always blame designers for being
  unoriginal
• People usually after that pitch their own
  original ideas to me

42
What original ideas have been pitched to you?

• From email Itd be a team-based FPS, but set in
  World War I!
• In person Its a huge saga over thousands of
  years where youd play death, then youd control
  the reaper in a huge RTS that was also an FPS,
  then the reaper would impregnate your sister and
  youd control the reapers babies. Itd also be a
  three part novel, and I wrote the outline
  already. Can you make my game for me?

43
So, where have you committed this sin?

• Attached to resume
• Quake 2 weapons mod
• ltgame titlegt is a 3D RTS set in the fantasy
  world of ltpre-established worldgt
• I worked on Army Men RTS

44
How are you going to stop this?

• GO OUTSIDE!
• Youre more likely to think of new ideas if you
  see new things
• Pikmin arose from Miyamoto playing in his garden

45
So, youve repented, my son?

• Sortaits good to get ideas from other games
• Its easy to convey ideas as Its like the MGS
  Codec or It works like the GTA minimap
• So, referencing other game mechanics is good -
  just try to avoid ripping off entire games.

46
Sloth

• Ive failed to prototype due to either not
  identifying the need, or because of schedule
  constraints

47
Sloth

• THIS IS EVIL!

48
Where did you blaspheme like this!?

• DAH Redesign
• Started off on right track, prototyped an 80
  UFO, 20 Alien game

49
Where did you blaspheme like this!?

• Fun UFO mode, not-so-fun Alien Mode
• THQ and US Office had a reference for 80 Alien,
  20 UFO
• Came up with redesign for Alien Mode, didnt
  prototype

50
Did you feel a just punishment for your actions?

• Lost six months of design time prototyping on the
  fly (although it timed well because of it)
• Generated a lot of resentment amongst other team
  members (Whats the game?!)
• Had to start production still looking for the 30
  seconds of fun for alien mode
• Disclaimer Alien Mode is fun now. Please buy
  lots of copies of DAH

51
What should happen

• Oddballs
• Design Summmary, Design Goals
• Party Game, but real time
• Make sure all players are doing something
• Balance a metagame and minigame

52
Paper Prototype

• Took over Ping-Pong table, laid out prototype map
  with paper strips and printed out objects
• Sorted out basic gameplay mechanic flaws before
  any gameplay code was written

53
Rough Running Prototype
54
First Implementation In-Engine
55
But wasnt this title cancelled?

• Yep, but the process that we took in order to get
  to that point meant we cancelled a few months in,
  rather than having a good design and an unfun
  game 1 year in.
• Showed us how much time a good prototype can save

56
My Reminder Checklist

• Designers make mistakes
• Always remember that someone has to play what
  youre making
• Never Knee-Jerk design
• PROTOTYPE until the game is FUN!
• Thanks for listening!

57
Questions? Can you forgive me?

• dan_at_pandemicstudios.com.au
• or come, chat, and get a free massage at the
  Pandemic Booth!
• 12pm Today
• 1pm Tomorrow