COMP150 Game Design LESSON #2: Testing and Disruption

TODAY: 1. Game Design through Focus Testing: principles and methods. 2. Software Development Cycle and the Global Game Jam 3. Game Design through Disruption

WHY DO WE TEST?

Creation is 1% inspiration and 99% revision.

WHY DO WE TEST? Creation is 1% inspiration and 99% revision. Our reality is not the only reality.

WHY DO WE TEST? Creation is 1% inspiration and 99% revision. Our reality is not the only reality. Culture: common modes of consumption, presentation, or interaction.

WHY DO WE TEST? Creation is 1% inspiration and 99% revision. Our reality is not the only reality. Culture: common modes of consumption, presentation, or interaction. Testing is how we come to understand our Audience’s needs.

Accessing Audience PRODUCT FIRST: We have a game we want to make, and must identify the audience that will enjoy that game. AUDIENCE FIRST: We have an audience we want to reach and so we design a game to fulfill their interests.

Testing as Marketing Strategy

GAMER AUDIENCE 30 years of game history and conventions to integrate in your game mechanics and interface. Developers of games for core Gamer audiences need a level of knowledge of past games to understand the expectations of their audience Testing can help illuminate Gamer expectations, but you also need to play many games. For example:

Why can’t I punch something spiky?

Mario Bros defined/ruined spikes for everyone

GRAYBOXING When testing digital games to decide if the core mechanic is fun, avoid including much art: use simple forms so the audience can focus on the mechanic: “Grayboxing” Good Mechanics = fun game. Art+ Audio can create greater immersion, a more memorable experience, but cannot fix a mechanic that is not fun.

DESIGN METHOD #2: FOCUS TESTING IDENTFY A PLAYTESTING GOAL: What about your game do you want to improve? OBSERVE OTHERS PLAYING YOUR GAME. Avoid influencing their experience, where possible. LISTEN: Ask them to speak while playing and write down everything they say and you see them do which offers a new perspective on any aspect of gameplay or user interface. INTEGRATE: Iterate your game mechanics and interface with this feedback in mind, while also listening to your own instincts; listen but do not treat all feedback as infallible.

PLAYTEST DESIGN EXAMPLE: Dragon Day Care “Nurturing” card game by Jason Wiser

Three cards types: Egg, Love, and Poach

Playtesting Goal: Speed-up play PLAN: Multiple days of playtests, quick changes between each to test rule adjustments, timing games and frequency of egg hatches. TESTED VARIATIONS: Adjusted card type numbers balance in deck, reduced number of Love cards needed to hatch an Egg, removed most devastating Poach cards and overly- complicated Love cards

Coolest innovation: Stack Eggs

How We Test: Testing Set-up. Communicate to Testers the Plan: – Game is broken: bad at being a game! – Silent note-taking – Talk out-loud while playing During Testing: Stay Silent, Take Lots of Notes! Debriefing, After Testing, Potential Pitfalls.

Now for Design Exercise #2: Pair your team up with another team. Designate one team A and the other B. “A” will test “B”’s game first. “B”teams: run a playtesting session according to the Focus Testing handout: prepare writing materials, set up the game for play, provide your testers with the instructions, let them read and try to play. Write down where they get stuck or confused, and what they enjoy. Only speak when they get too completely stuck to proceed! When the game is done (or has been tried for 15 minutes) form a circle and discuss the game. As a group come up with 3 adjustments you want to explore. Hand-write a copy for the teacher of those 3 (along with game name, designer name, and testers names). Do the same for “B” testing “A”’s game! Be sure to keep play to 15 minutes.

Short Interlude: The software development cycle. Some insight for those going to GGJ this weekend, and for those who are not going.

SOFTWARE DEV CYCLE:

SOFTWARE DEV CYCLE: Typical

SOFTWARE DEV CYCLE: This Course

SOFTWARE DEV CYCLE: GGJ

DESIGN METHOD #3: DISRUPTION

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. Will Ware: Pinball Variations

FPS: First Person Shooter Specific POV, remove other players. Hide, run, jump, kill.

FPP: First Person Portaler Create Linked Holes Between Walls. Use momentum to solve puzzles.

FPM: First Person Mutator Consume power-ups to gain a variety of powers. (including shooting bees out of your hive arm.)

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.

Settlers of Catan: What is the mechanic?

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

Disruption: New World Colony by Erik Asmussen/82 Apps

Disruption: 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.

Disruption: 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: 1.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.

Disruption: 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.

Too Much Disruption?: Slam Bolt Scrappers

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)

Now for Design Exercise #3: Form NEW Teams of 3! Grab blank paper/ pens. If you are not attending the GGJ, please choose people also not going to the GGJ, so you have a team to do homework with all week. If you are attending GGJ, please choose other GGJ attendees, since your homework this week will be connected to that event.

BOARD GAME EXERCISE: DISRUPTION 1. TEAMS: Choose NEW teams of three (GGJ with GGJ). 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 #2: With your new team, revise designs from class or create a new paper game: one significant mechanic change on a board 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 (pp )

Have a Splendid Week! And don’t forget to us with questions: Instructor: JASON WISER Available an hour after class and daily . TA: MIKE SHAH Lab hours: Wednesdays 4:30-5:45