Chapter 3: Working with Formal Elements Derek, Damien, Josh, Nick, Tiarnan, Melinda

Players - Josh Games are experiences designed for the ________, so players must voluntarily accept the rules and constraints of the game in order to play A game designed for a solo player will essentially be very different from a game designed for cooperative play

Players - Josh Most games will have a _________ for the player You must create an engaging invitation to get players interested in playing your game You must also decide how many players your game will require.

Player Interaction Patterns

____________ give your player something to strive for. They define what players are trying within to accomplish the rules of the game. Some forms of objective based games include Capture, Chase, Race, Alignment, Rescue/Escape, Forbidden Act, Construction, Solution, Exploration, and Outwit games Objectives - Damien

Capture games: take or destroy something of the opponents while avoiding being killed Chase games: chase and capture an opponent, or elude one if you are the player being chased Race games: reach the goal (physical or conceptual) before the other players Alignment games: arrange your game pieces in a certain way first (tic-tac-toe, connect 4) Rescue or escape games: get defined unit(s) to safety (super Mario bros, prince of Persia)

Objectives - Damien Forbidden act games: get the opponent to break the rules first (by laughing, talking) Construction games: build, maintain, or manage objects, may be competitive Exploration games: explore game areas, usually has elements of puzzle solving combined Solution games: solve a problem or puzzle faster than the competition Outwit games: use knowledge in a way to outcompete competition (jeopardy, trivial pursuit)

All of these are classified as objective games because each of them have specific and different _________ that you need to accomplish in order to progress in the game Complete Exercise 3.4: Objectives: List ten of your favorite games and name the objectives for each. Do you see any similarities in these games? Try to define the type or types of games that appeal to you. Objectives - Damien

Procedures - Nick Procedures are the methods of play and the actions that players can take to achieve the game objectives. __________ that games tend to have are: 1.Starting action: How to put a game into play 2.Progression of action: Ongoing procedures after starting action 3. Special actions: Available conditional to other elements or game state 4. Resolving actions: Bring gameplay to a close

Procedures - Nick When defining procedures in your game, it is important to keep in mind the __________ of the environment in which your game will be played Digital games tend to have more complex systems compared to non-complex games. One way to think about the procedures is: Who does what, where, when, and how?

Rules - Tiarnan Rules define ________ and allowable _______ by players Players often receive the rules through paper document if a board game, but if the game is digital it might be in a manual or onscreen instruction The rules in a game must be clearly defined so that the game seems fair

Rules - Tiarnan Complete Exercise 3.7: Rules: Write down the rules for blackjack. You will notice that this is harder than you think. Did you remember all the rules? Imagine playing the game with the rules you have written. What rules did you forget? How did these missing rules affect the typical gameplay? Some examples of rules in games: Poker: A straight is 5 consecutively ranked cards; A straight flush is 5 consecutively ranked cards of the same suit Chess: A player cannot move their king into check “Health Bar”: Most action games will give your player some form of health bar. When this drops all the way down the player must ‘die’

Resources - Derek Most games use some form of resources in their systems, such as chips in poker, properties in Monopoly, and gold in WarCraft Managing resources and determining how and when to control player access to them is a _________ of the game designers job Typical resources you may find in a game may include money, weapons, armor, potions, consumable items, or lives

Resources - Derek Some classic forms of resources include _______ and ________, which are very frequent in numerous games Many resources in a game except for consumable health and power- up items are stored in the inventory. These items help players complete game objectives Complete Exercise 3.9: Resource Types: For at least 5 of the resource examples described, create a list of your favorite games that use these resources. If you cant think of a particular game that uses a resource, research one.

Resources - Derek Currency: usually used to depict value in games with trading systems so that trades can be completed easier, can be used to create an in-game economy but is not the only way to do so Actions: In game actions such as moves or turns are considered resources, take 20 questions for an example, where every time you ask a question they become more scarce. Power-ups: generally objects that give a boost to a player. This boost can pertain to the stat of size, power, speed, wealth, or any other game variable. Power-ups are usually made scarce. Time: in time restricted games, time is a resource that limits your actions and periods of gameplay. In other words, you have a total amount of time to use over the course of a game. Special Terrain: In map-based games such s WarCraft III, the currency of the game can be extracted directly from special areas of the terrain such as gold mines or wood from trees.

Resources - Derek Lives: lives are a classic resources on which the game is built around the management of, you have goals to accomplish with only a certain amount of these which adds difficulty to a game Units: in games where the player represents multiple objects an once, they have to manage units as a primary resource rather than lives. They can upgrade/evolve, or keep similar values. Health: health can be a separate resource, or it can be an additional life within a game. When health is used as a resource, there is usually a way to gain health back while playing (med kits)

Conflict - Melinda Standard Examples of conflict include: __________: many games include player or AI-controlled opponents competing against you in a game. Example: COD, playing against live players in close quarters combat, or COD Zombies, playing against AI directed zombies. __________: making a decision that could impact your gameplay in good or bad way. Example: Monopoly, deciding whether or not to buy a house

Conflict - Melinda Complete Exercise 3.10: Conflict: Explain how conflict is created in the following games: Tetris, Frogger, Mineswepper, and solitaire. Does the conflict in these games come from obstacles, opponents, dilemmas, or a combination of these? Standard Examples of conflict (extended): ___________: can be physical bumpers or mental such as a puzzle in gameplay, but this is a frequent source of conflict mainly in single player games.

Boundaries - Derek Boundaries are what separate the game from everything that is not a game Boundaries can by _________ such as walls, or they can be __________ such as a social agreement A social agreement boundary can be described as ten people sitting in a room where a game is being played, but two of them did not agree to play so therefore are outside of the boundaries of the system

Boundaries - Derek Some games are very _____________ and do not require strict boundaries, such as tag, where the rules are very loose Without boundaries, you would be able to do whatever you would like, such as adding money to the bank in Monopoly, move your piece on an infinite board in chess or even bring cars into Super Mario Bros

Outcome - Damien An outcome of a game must be __________ to hold the attention of players Many MMO games do not have a concept of winner or even an ‘end of game’, which is one way to create the uncertainty The outcome of a game is generally determined by the nature of the game objectives

Outcome - Damien When it comes to game outcomes, there are two types, zero-sum and non zero-sum games ___________ games are games where in the end of the game, one player receives (+1) point/win and the other player receives (-1) point/win, adding these values makes a zero sum ___________ games are when the game is completed, a larger gain/loss occurs, so the sum of the two distributions are not zero

Designer Perspective – Lorne Lanning Game designer, writer, animated film director Created the Oddworld series (4 games) Current projects include Citizen Siege and Citizen Siege: Wage wars Game inspirations include Flashback, out of this world, prince of Persia, and terminator 2 (the arcade game)

Designer Perspective – Marc LeBlanc Game designer, project designer and programmer Created the Ultima Underworld II, Oasis, Thief, and Thief II. Game inspirations include GTA III, Sid meiers sim golf, and board games like ‘modern art’ and ‘tigris and Euphrates’