1. LESSON #10: Level Design 1: Rational Game Design
COMP 50 Game Design
LESSON #10: Level Design 1:
Rational Game Design

2. TODAY: 1. Digital Prototype Testing/Sharing. 2. Level Design Topic #1:
Rational Game Design
(a 2-hour presentation and exercise
based on the April, day workshop presented by Alexis Jolis Desautels, based on Ubisoft’s 9-day intensive RGD training)

3. PART 1: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING
SET UP (10 minutes):
Teams Choose Tables
Set up game digital prototype on 3 laptops.
Decide initial Observers (1-2) and Players.
Discuss: 1-3 points/instructions to share with visiting players? Write them down!

4. PART 1: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING
PLAYTEST ROUND #1 (20 minutes):
Observers stay to manage playtest, Players find other games to play.
If team chose 1-3 instructions, give them.
Players attempt to play prototype (5-10 min). Observers take notes!
Players fill out questionnaire (5 minutes).
Time permitting, discuss answers.

5. PART 1: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING
TEAM MEETING (10 minutes):
Convene at your team table to discuss observations and questionnaire answers.
Discuss Production goals for the next week (next top priority Backlog items, potentially influenced by tester experience/ observations) and divide work equitably.

6. PART 2: Rational Game Design
The Problem:
Many games, particularly large scale projects with many designers, have broken difficulty curves. Players are thrown into scenarios which are far beyond the skills they can be reasonably expected to have developed so far, get frustrated, and quit. Or they encounter many levels that are too easy, given the skills they have so far developed.
Low Player Attachment: Instead of long engagement and positive reports, players stop playing and do not recommend the game to their friends, hurting sales.

7. Rational Game Design Ubisoft’s system for managing difficulty curves in level design
SUMMARY:
RGD is a way to solve the problem of inconsistent / broken difficulty curves in games.
RGD sees games in the most stripped-down way: as a series of mechanics, achieved through specific player input, to build skills.
The analysis of mechanics and inputs provides a list of specific "Atomic" Parameters which can be tested in different combinations. These varied combinations are the "Patterns" on which levels are then built.

8. Rational Game Design A quick example: FPS Enemy motion
These Enemies can run side-to-side or directly at the player. Which is easier for the player to “hit”? Why? A level designer builds these different difficulty experiences into a sequence of ever-more challenging levels!

9. Rational Game Design TAKEAWAYS:
The participant in this workshop should be able to:
Identify Core Mechanics of gameplay (concept) and break a mechanic down to its Atomic Parameters based on Skills and Inputs (physical actions).
Build a Difficulty Matrix (table) for a Mechanic’s Atomic Parameters, and design Level Scenarios based on their variation.
Be able to design Patterns (level scenarios) based on variations on Ingredient (enemy or obstacle) parameters.

10. Rational Game Design
Failure Case: “Avatar Game,” Early level: alien dogs attack before player learns to target & shoot. Dogs jump in from every direction, moving everywhere. Player is lost!
QUESTION: Given the same enemy, how can the space be designed for an easier encounter?
CONSIDER:
What makes this scenario too hard?

11. Rational Game Design Design levels by SUBTRACTING your Mechanics:
A big failure of designers is to try and create variety by constantly ADDING new and more stuff. This spreads the player thin learning many new mechanics without ever delving deeply.
Deep game and level design is achieved when the player can explore a few mechanics in great variation, by SUBTRACTING features.
If you have a mechanic with 5 features, what happens when you turn off 4 at the start, and progress to all 5? Occasionally, turn off some, given the scenario, to focus on a deeper understanding of the others!

12. Rational Game Design Parameter example: Pokemon Go Hit Circle
In addition to Monsters that jump, fly, and stand further or closer away, The Target Circle is the primary way the designers distinguish between enemy experiences. How do the target circle experiences differ to create easier and harder catches?

13. Rational Game Design Consider a mechanic: Aim-and-Shoot:
Example of final game (Form): 1st person shooter, high-intensity alien bloodfest.
Bare inputs (Function): the skill of matching the position of two points (aiming) and validating (pulling the trigger and seeing the target react).
Adjust Parameters for less or greater difficulty:
Size of the target shape on Screen
Movement Speed
Predictability
Window of Opportunity (WoO)
etc.

14. Rational Game Design
Consider a mechanic: Aim-and-Shoot: NOTE: The actual enemy size is irrelevant! It could be a 12-inch scuttling monster running near your feet or a full 6-foot tall human sniper standing in a window in a distant building If both are 10% of the screen they are effectively the same thing in terms of Size on Screen!

15. Rational Game Design PLAYER SKILLS CATEGORIES:
Physical (timing, reflexes, measurement, precision, endurance, etc).
Mental (concentration, choice, observation, management, strategy, tactical, cleverness, etc).
Social (persuasion, leadership, etc).
RGD Mental is harder to quantify than Physical (in terms of concrete progression of difficulty). Why– what happens when the cost/benefit of a choice is too hard for players to decide?
RGD Social challenges are enormously hard to manage. Why – what happens when we provide social difficulty restrictions in games?

16. Remember to always distinguish between Function and Form:
Rational Game Design
Remember to always distinguish
between Function and Form:
Function = player skills, inputs, atomic parameters.
Form = aesthetics/story
For example what are the forms and functions (SKILLS) in G-d of War? In Assassins Creed?  

17. Rational Game Design
The Deliverables for this process: IDENTIFY, IN ORDER: [1] Goal of Gameplay [2] Mechanic [3] Needed Skills [4] Inputs (informs a LOT of design decisions) [5] Atomic Parameters (list them, provide easy, medium, hard, and "no case" examples) [6] Level Design (LD) Patterns (overall easy, medium, and hard patterns based on parameter combinations, ideally with drawn diagrams, which can then be creatively interpreted as story-rich level scenarios)

18. Rational Game Design Level Design (LD) Patterns:
Concrete LD situation extracted from Atomic Parameters
Allows us to create difficulty with a limited amount of well-conceived ingredients (enemies or obstacles).
Create LD patterns (variations) for each mechanic separately-- their combination is the level!
ATOMIC PARAMETERS MUST be quantifiable (no case, easy, medium, hard) and validated through playtesting!
If you know your parameters, you know what your changes will do to your game, and, especially, you can keep all elements within your desired boundary of difficulty.

19. Rational Game Design TIPS FOR ATOMIC PARAMETER SELECTION:
Set Atomic Parameters to FOCUS your game. Remove those you don't want to challenge. Set as constant those you don’t want to evolve
Isolate Atomic Parameters for each Mechanic
Think Skills and Inputs
Eliminate minor Atomic Parameters 

20. Rational Game Design EXAMPLE #1: Gameplay = Driving
What is the mechanic?
What are the Ingredients (enemies or obstacles)?
What are the Skills (how does the mechanic work)?
For each skill, what is/are the Atomic Parameters (what are the physical inputs, especially to manage encounters with the Ingredients)?

21. Rational Game Design EXAMPLE #1: Gameplay = Driving
Mechanic = Steering
Ingredients = Objects in the Road, Other Cars, Turns
SKILLS        ATOMIC PARAMETERS
Precision     Angle of Tolerance
Timing         Anticipation Time
                    Window of Opportunity (WoO)
                    Obstacle Predictability

22. Rational Game Design EXAMPLE #2: Nintendo Archery:
What is the Gameplay?
The Core Mechanic?
The Ingredients?
What skills do they progress the player through, with varied Ingredient Patterns?:
Hit the Goal
Wind/Swinging Objects
Etc

23. Rational Game Design
EXAMPLE #3: 3rd person shooter, like Gears of War:
What is the Gameplay?
The Core Mechanic?
The Ingredients?
What skills does the player learn?

24. Rational Game Design
EXAMPLE #4: Stealth mechanic (like in Splinter Cell):
[1] Goal of Gameplay:
[2] Mechanic:
[3] Skills:
[4] Inputs:
[5] Atomic Parameters:               | No Case | Easy | Medium | Hard |
[6] LD Patterns: Variations of the above!

25. Rational Game Design
EXAMPLE #4: Stealth mechanic (like in Splinter Cell):
[1] Goal of Gameplay: Reach destination without being detected
[2] Mechanic: Move character and/or camera
[3] Skills: Timing, Precision, Measurement (not Observation-- mental!)
[4] Inputs: Move the joysticks with your thumbs
[5] Atomic Parameters:               | No Case | Easy | Medium | Hard |
PRECISION: 
TIMING:
MEASUREMENT:
[6] LD Patterns: Variations of the above!

26. Rational Game Design
EXAMPLE #4: Stealth mechanic (like in Splinter Cell):
[1] Goal of Gameplay: Reach destination without being detected
[2] Mechanic: Move character and/or camera
[3] Skills: Timing, Precision, Measurement (not Observation-- mental!)
[4] Inputs: Move the joysticks with your thumbs
[5] Atomic Parameters:               | No Case | Easy | Medium | Hard |
PRECISION: 
Analogue (Joystick) Angle of Tolerance (direction): | loose angles | medium | exact |
TIMING:
WoO:                 | | long | medium | short |
Predictability:   | camera | guard, repeating pattern | long/intricate or no pattern |
Anticipation Time     | far away | medium | very close/sudden |
Input Change Frequency  | no change | 1 input/sec | 3 input/sec| 5 in/sec |
MEASUREMENT (stick massaging):
Analogue Zone Size (physical zone of tolerance) |80% |40% |10% |
Analogue Zone Placement (where joystick goes)  |0/100% (ends)|50% (mid)|25 or 75%|
[6] LD Patterns: Variations of the above!

27. Rational Game Design INPUTS AND PARAMETER NOTES:
Measurement on a keyboard = timing
A hard WoO (window of opportunity) means only occasionally available to hit: using cover or moving/rotating shielding elements.
Anticipation Time in a rhythm game starts Physical, but as the game gets harder and the player more skilled, they learn the song and offload the work to the Mental
Button mashing: frequency of input and duration of input (g-d of war)

28. Rational Game Design
And Now The Fun: We can examine an Ingredient (enemy or obstacle) as just a set of characteristics, and then consider the Atomic Parameters that would allow us to get varied Patterns (gameplay scenarios) out of each Ingredient: INGREDIENT-TO-LEVEL EXAMPLE: Consider this Character, where all Atomic Parameters are set to easy by default: [Ingredient characteristics]: Size = big (easy) Speed = slow (easy) Predictability = very (easy) WoO = always (easy) Hit Points = low (easy) What is it? (lots of possibilities):

29. Rational Game Design INGREDIENT-TO-LEVEL EXAMPLE:
NOW, create level scenarios for these Parameter Variation scenarios:
[Ingredient characteristics]   [Atomic Parameters]
Team A Team B
Size = big Size on Screen: medium hard
Delta Position on Screen: centered offscreen
Speed = slow Speed on Screen: easy hard
Predictability = very Predictability: easy hard
WoO = always WoO: hard easy
Hit Points = low Shooting Duration: short long
So, an enemy with the characteristics on the left can be used in multiple levels with various combinations from the right!

30. Don’t Create Lots of New Monsters, Create Variations of Access!
Rational Game Design
SUMMARY:
Don’t Create Lots of New Monsters,
Create Variations of Access! 
The big idea here is to avoid constantly adding new mechanics to make the game “more interesting”, but to instead allow a player to learn a few core mechanics more deeply through variation.
In other words, when doing level designs, instead of constantly adding new Monsters, design levels that allow the same monsters to be presented in scenarios where they function differently, by limiting what the monster can do. Change the level to change the way the same monsters work, rather than add brand new monsters.

31. Rational Game Design
FIXING A GAME WITH RGD: In addition to building a game (sequence of levels) using this system, you can also FIX a game with RGD! If you have to cut level #6, levels 5 and 7 are screwed (in terms of difficulty curve) unless you can go back to the matrix of mechanic parameters and tweak them together to fill the gap! Consider a progression of learning: Tease, Learn (in a safe environment), Practice (with increasing challenge), Master (final test). This is the access cycle for each mechanic. Once learned, the mechanics can be combined.

32. Try this system and make better Difficulty Curves!
Rational Game Design
Try this system and make better Difficulty Curves!

33. Production Scheduling: Course Milestones
Due Week 8: Paper Prototypes: “Fun”
Due Week 9: Digital Prototypes: “Quantity.”
Due Week 11: Full Playable Prototypes: “User Clarity.”
Due Week 12: Revised prototypes: “Fun.”
Due Week 14: Prototype Complete: Multiple levels populated, bugs fixed, full Art and Audio.
Final Presentations: Playable Game and Marketing materials: Trailer, Website, Press Release, Icon.

34. Due Next Week: HOMEWORK #10: Final Game, 3rd Digital Prototype TEAMS:
Divide Unity production work evenly (start adding art and audio). Focus on play CLARITY.
Meet with your team at least twice to discuss progress, solve problems, and consolidate build.
Test clarity with at least two new players.
Submit third digital build to class next week.
Individually: Progress Report #3: Submit typed page: What you agreed to produce, what you accomplished, self-evaluation/related screenshots.

35. Have an Phenomenal Week!
And don’t forget to us with questions: Instructor: JASON WISER Available an hour after class and daily .