Game Design & Pitch

Starting Points for New Ideas Gameplay New idea for a way to play the game Technology Now we know how to do clothes, we’ll make a clothes designer game… Story I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut on a new planet… Sport Let’s make a curling game? Character James Bond game

Iterative Design Rapid Prototype Playtest Revise Repeat

Player-Centric Always think from the player’s point of view – What will they do? – What will they see? All players aren’t like you The player is NOT your enemy! What do they need to know? What motivates them to play? Inside-out Design Principle: Start with internals (game play) and work out to art and theme

What Players Want A Challenge Socialization - or - dynamic solitary experience Bragging Rights Emotional Experience To Explore To Fantasize To Interact

What Players Expect Consistency To understand the world’s bounds For reasonable solutions to work Directions Accomplish Tasks incrementally Immersion Setbacks A Fair Chance To Not Repeat themselves To Not get hopelessly stuck To Do, not watch

Teaching the Player First few minutes are crucial Start simply Introduce controls in a safe environment Give simple rewards in beginning Make easy controls (& icons) Make easy outputs (screens, maps, vitals)

What is Game Design? Design the: – World – Level – Content – Code – UI

Main Pieces Goal: Territory acquisition, reasoning, survival, destruction, building, collecting, racing, etc… – PvP or PvE? Theme: Time, place, characters, story Mechanics: Setup, play progression, rules – Genre: Action, platformer, shooter, adventure, management, life, rhythm/music, party, puzzle, sports, strategy, driving, flying

Game Perspectives (Mechanics) First-person – Doom Third-person – Tomb Raider Side Scrolling – Mario Bros Aerial - isometric or top-down – Football Can have multiple modes

Game Settings (Mechanics & Theme) Physical – 1D, 2D, 3D – Scale Factor – Grid-based or continuous space Temporal – Real-time or turn-based – Any variableness? Adjustable? Environmental – Cultural beliefs, attitudes, values, family structure – Physical surroundings, weather, plants, buildings – Level of detail

Game Settings (Mechanics) Emotional – Character emotions – Player emotions Ethical – Victory/defeat defines “good” and “bad” – Watch for real-world look without real-world ethics Realism – How real does the world look? Chance

Types of Challenges (Goals) Physical – Speed/reaction time (twitch games) – Accuracy & Precision (steering / shooting) – Timing and rhythm (DDR) – Learning special sequences of moves (fighting) Races Logical Challenges (Don’t use trial & error)

Types of Challenges (Goals) Exploration – Doors & Traps game – Mazes Conflict – Strategy, tactics, logistics – Survival – Defending resources

Types of Challenges (Goals) Economic – Accumulate wealth – Efficiency – Acheiving balance / stability – Caring for living things Conceptual – Understand something new – Deduction, observation – Detective games

Types of Challenges (Goals) Construction / Destruction – Build a city – Upgrading – Planning – Destroying Storytelling – Ask characters what’s going on – Listen to stories – Dicker with merchant

Game Economy (Mechanics & Theme) Resources – Ammunition, hit points, life Sources – Power ups, clips, potion Drains – firing weapons, being hit

Emergence – Desirable aspect of gameplay – Player-unique solutions – As players play, they find a strategy that uses the rules of the gameworld to his advantage – Can be intentional or unintentional – Ex: When all the grubs are gone, a new batch gets dispatched. Player kills all but one – Discovery gives sense of pride to player and spreads by word-of-mouth.

Positive Feedback Needed for emergence to work Each goal met makes the next easier Tell the user they are doing well Draw them into the game Examples: – Power ups become available – Monopoly: more houses = more money – Better I do, worse for enemies

Controlling Positive Feedback Introduce negative feedback – Gold is heavy – Ahead in race, more likely to get lost Introduce element of chance Game gets harder as you go Game that does this well is balanced.

Non-Linearity Ways in which the user can choose Make sure choices and rules are clear Think about classic game structure Types – Story takes different turns (“Choose your own adventure”) – Multiple solutions – Order of levels or puzzles – Selections: You can solve puzzle A or puzzle B

Modeling Reality More real = more immersive? More real = more compelling? More real = more boring? More real = more frustrating? Ask yourself – Does it add to the game?

More on Balance… Are different strategies to gameplay equally effective (balanced) or is one dominant? Chance vs skill Is it fair? If you fall behind early, can you catch up? Does it stalemate? Is economy balanced? Not too easy not too hard

Other stuff to know… Achievements: extra stuff you can do in a game, not related to main goal. Helps replayability and bragging rights Easter egg: Hidden feature that designer may or may not have intended for players to find

People in the industry Programmer Artist Composer Writer Various types of designers Producers, Managers, Directors Tester

GDD One-sheet: – Title – Platform, Rating – Summary – Unique selling points – Compare/contrast

GDD 10-pager is one-pager plus: – Examples – Logos – Flow (progression of challenges) – Flesh out characters, controls, world, mechanics, etc…

Pitch Elevator talk Formal presentation – What is audience (technical? marketing?) – Few words, lots of pictures – Overview each major piece – Sell it

Look at the Big Picture What statements about the world are you making? – Stereotypes – Ethics – Culture – Right/wrong