LESSON #3: Design Through Disruption Game Design LESSON #3: Design Through Disruption

TODAY: Playtesting Radical Revision Games: 20 minutes of one round of play/responses Introduction to Unity 3D: Interface, 3D design, and interactions Discuss Reading Design Method #3: Disruption

2. INTRODUCTION TO UNITY3D Unity3D Interface Terrain Creation, Textures, Trees 3rd-Person Controller Introduction to C# Scripting Sounds (See website Unity 3D tutorial)

3. The Second Reading: Reality is Broken (pp119-215) by Jane McGonigal We read the first half of Part 2. discuss with your group: Which of the games that she described did you find particularly interesting? Which of her Fixes for Reality spoke to you? What is something in your life you wish could be “fixed” with game?

4. DESIGN METHOD #3: DISRUPTION

WHY DISRUPT? Why change a play mode we enjoy?

WHY DISRUPT? Why change a play mode we enjoy? Boredom – all games necessarily get old, as the game gets less challenging.

WHY DISRUPT? Why change a play mode we enjoy? Boredom – all games necessarily get old. Example 1: Will Ware: Pinball Variations

What and How do we Disrupt? Choose a genre or mode of play. Identify its core mechanics Consider the result of changing each one mechanic in an unusual way. “What if instead…”

Example 2: First Person Shooter (FPS) What are the usual mechanics?

Example 2: First Person Shooter (FPS) MECHANICS: Specific POV, remove other players (kill), seek arms/ammo, hide, run, jump. What happens when you change one of these?

Example 2: Disrupt ammunition for moral dilemmas First Person Mutator (FPM) Consume power-ups to gain powers. (like shooting bees out of a hive arm.)

Example 2: Disrupt ammunition and enemies/challenges First Person Portaler (FPP) Create Linked Holes Between Walls. Use momentum to solve puzzles.

FP?: First Person…? Firefighter in a burning building: FP-Hoser Peacenick vs Wallstreet: FP-Flowerer Short Exercise (10 min): Work in partners, brainstorm at least five (5) non-violent applications of FPS mechanic. Choose your favorite and develop further.

Example 3: Settlers of Catan: What is the mechanic?

Example 3: Settlers of Catan: Goal: Reach 10 points with largest number of settlements/cities + roads and armies BASE MECHANICS: Hexagon Map, can change randomly each game. Each player chooses a starting position and grows their settlement out from there. Adjacent hexes yield resources when any player rolls the number. Resources may be used to build further, trade with other players, or buy acceleration cards. Growing across the opponent’s path blocks their progress. Upgrade developments to yield more resources and more points

Example 3: Disruption 1: Sand Wizard of Catan: Spring 2018 by Alex Pantuck, Jack Collins, Simon Chen, Eduardo Barrera NEW MECHANICS: The desert, normally placed off to the side, is located at the center. The Robber, normally used to attack other players when a 7 is rolled by blocking resources for the hex on which it is placed, stays on the central desert. Instead, every time a player rolls a 7 they choose an adjacent hex to remove the numbered disc, making it into a desert. A player needs to reach just five points before the desert consumes the board, or everyone loses. The Result: An intense clicking clock, and the possibility of permanently losing access to critical resources, requiring regularly changing tactics.

Example 3: Disruption 2: New World Colony by Erik Asmussen/82 Apps

Example 3: Disruption 2: New World Colony Goal: Devour the enemy territory SAME BASE MECHANICS: Hexagon Map, changes randomly each game. Each player chooses a starting position and grows their settlement out from there. Claimed hexes yield resources which may be used to build further. Growing across the opponent’s path blocks their progress.

Example 3: Disruption 2: New World Colony Goal: Devour the enemy territory MAIN DISRUPTION: Once you have upgraded at east one settlement to a city, you may use Victory Points to capture adjacent enemy territory! ALSO: No trading , but a dynamic economy: sell a resource and it is cheaper for everyone. Buy a lot of a resource and it gets expensive for everyone.

Example 3: Disruption 2: New World Colony Goal: Devour the enemy territory ALSO: Build walls (wood or stone), build ports to colonize water for more gold, build gold mines, wreck a building to build something else… ..But it all stems from the key disruption that claimed territory is not permanent– it can be taken and retaken, back and forth. Great Flow as you quickly build and attack each turn, HUGE Fiero when you make a big conquest.

The point of Disruption is to make a change that preserves the familiarity of the game so that entry is easy and the change can be digested and appreciated.

Example 4: Too Much Disruption?: Slam Bolt Scrappers

Example 4: Slam Bolt Scrappers Goal: Destroy Enemy Tower Before Your Tower is Destroyed

Slam Bolt Scrappers: Fighter (with building)

Slam Bolt Scrappers: Tetris (in reverse)

Slam Bolt Scrappers: Tower Defense (like none other) FieldRunners Desktop Tower Defense Plants Vs Zombies

Now for Design Exercise #3: Form NEW Teams of 3! Grab blank paper/ pens.

BOARD GAME EXERCISE: DISRUPTION 1. TEAMS: Choose NEW teams of three. Everyone needs paper and pen to list types/mechanics/disruptions. 2. TYPES: Discuss with each other, taking notes on paper: What are some of your favorite game types?: puzzles, board games, digital games? Any game can be included! 3. MECHANICS: For game types you find most interesting, list the core mechanics. 4. DISRUPTIONS: Choose game and discuss what results with a change to each mechanic. You do not actually have to do all of them—feel free to bounce around until you hit on something that you find particularly interesting. Do not dismiss any ideas—write them down! 5. CHOOSE: Decide which idea you want to pursue further for homework!

Due Next Week: HOMEWORK #3 : With your new team, revise designs from class or create a new paper Disruption game: one significant mechanic change on a tabletop or digital game type. Submit 1-2 typed pages (3-sentence game idea, gameplay rules) board design, and set-up/play photos. ALSO: Read McGonigal's "Reality is Broken" Part 2: Reinventing Reality, chapters 9-10 (pp168-215)

Have a Splendid Week! And don’t forget to email us with questions: Instructor: JASON WISER JasonWiserArt@gmail.com Available daily by email.