Fundamentals of Game Design

1. Fundamentals of Game Design Chapter 5: Creative and Expressive Play a. Fonseca February 2011

2. Creative and Expressive Play • Self Defining Play • Forms of Personal Expression (Avatars) • Understanding Attributes • Creative Play • Constrained • Freeform (Sandbox) • Storytelling Play • Game Modifications • Level Editors • Bots

3. Self Defining Play • Self defining play lets players project their personality into a game. • Avatars • Represent the player in a game-world. • Examples: • Nintendo Mii • The boot in monopoly • Can represent a player’s alter ego. • Selecting, customizing, or creating avatars is Self Defining Play.

4. Self Defining Play Mii Alter Ego Blood Elf Paladin

6. Self Defining Play • Forms of Personality Expression: • Avatar Selection • Allow players to choose from a number of pre-defined avatars • Usually humanoid characters (fighting games) • In driving or flying games, avatars = cars or aircrafts • Players awarded with new avatars so choose from as they progress through the game (secret characters) • Avatar Customization • Allow players to customize their avatars by selecting interchangeable features • Skills, weapons, clothing, etc… • Racing games: car paint, new tires, etc…

7. Self Defining Play • Avatar Construction • Gives the player the most freedom • Player can construct his avatar from the ground up from a set of available options. • Takes Character Customization to a whole other level. • Games like Lord of the Rings Online and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion offer avatar construction. • Choose gender and skin colour, as well the avatar’s strength, dexterity, intelligence, etc… *All of these customizable avatar qualities are called Attributes

8. Self Defining Play • Attributes • An attribute is any quality that helps to describe something else. • Hair colour is an attribute of a person • Max airspeed is an attribute of an aircraft • Two types of Attributes : • Functional Attributes • Cosmetic/Aesthetic Attributes

9. Self Defining Play • Functional Attributes • Influence the game play through interactions with the core mechanics. • Can be further divided into two subcategories: • Status Attributes • gives the current status of the character . • changes frequently. • ex. the current airspeed of an aircraft. • Characterization Attributes • Define the fundamental aspects of a character. • Changes slowly. • ex. the maximum airspeed of an aircraft.

10. Self Defining Play • Characterization Attributes (Continued) • In RPG games, an avatar’s strength, dexterity and intelligence are examples of characterization attributes. • Each affect the character’s ability to perform actions in the game • More str = more damage to monsters • More dex = high evasion rate • Players are usually given points to allocate between these stats • How they choose to distribute points determines the character’s strengths and weaknesses, which in turn determines that character’s play style. • When players allocate points to stats, they are defining themselves in a creative way. • a player who likes brute force should allocate more points to str.

11. Self Defining Play • Problems can arise from allowing players to assign value into their functional attributes… • Some players will setup attributes in the best possible configuration, making the game too easy. • Bad for developers • Players who exploit these functional attributes can introduce bugs/glitches.

12. Self Defining Play • Ways to approach this problem: • 1. Give players a fixed number of points to assign amongst all their attributes. • Allows players to make interesting choices without unbalancing the game • 2. include a set of default or recommended settings • Players can get into the game quick • Good for new players who don’t understand how these attributes affect game play.

13. Self Defining Play • 3. Allow players to earn the right to set their attributes, by playing through the game. • ex: Levelling Up in MMORPGs. • Players are rewarded with more points to distribute among their stats as they play the game and level up their avatar. • There is most likely a level cap to prevent players from getting too overpowered.

14. Self Defining Play • Other game genres have player-adjustable functional attributes too! (not just RPGs) • In FPS games, choosing a different weapon changes your character’s attributes. • Character will have greater aim if the player chooses a sniper rifle. • The perks system in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare • Lets players set function attributes called ‘perks’ to make their character run faster, take more hits, or reload more quickly. • Offers more character customization to the FPS genre. • Allows for more unique and personalized styles of game play, specific to the player.

15. Self Defining Play • Cosmetic Attributes • Don’t have any effect on the player’s ability to perform actions or overcome challenges. • Things like: • Paint on a car • Hair colour of an avatar • Decals or insignias • Guild symbols • Mainly used as a way of expressing oneself in the game world. • Makes games more fun at a low implementation cost. • Don’t need to be tested or balanced as thoroughly as Functional Attributes.

16. Creative Play • Games that offer creative play allow players to… • Design/build things. • Save their creations. • Share their creations. • Computerized creative play falls into 2 categories: • Constrained Creative Play • Freeform Creative Play

17. Creative Play • Constrained Creative Play • Players can only create within artificial constraints imposed by rules. • Provides a structure for the players creativity. • Play Limited by an Economy • Ex: In Sim City, players have to start small and earn money before they can construct huge cities. • Similar to RTS games like Star Craft, where players have to gather resources to be able to tech up and produce units. • In this case, economy limits the players ability to wage wars whereas in creativity games, economy limits the player’s ability to create.

18. Creative Play • Creating to Physical Standards • Players are offered all the tools and resources, but they have to create something that meets certain requirements. • ex: Spore • Players can create their creatures however they like. • However, the creature needs to have a backbone and it need to be land animal • Players can’t create creatures with exoskeletons (insects) or creatures with no skeletons at all (like an octopus). • ex: Roller Coaster Tycoon • Players construct roller coasters in a theme park. • But the roller coasters must be designed so that they don’t crash or make the riders sick.

19. Creative Play • Creating to Aesthetic Standards • Hard to do because it is hard to test aesthetic quality. • Some options to test aesthetic quality include: • Testing against a fixed set of rules. • Create a system of trends that the player can research. • Allow the public to vote online

20. Freeform Creative Play • Sandbox games • Few or no rules limit what the player can do within the confines of the game world. • Allows players to use all the facilities it offers without any restrictions on time or resources. • Although play is still constrained to the set of actions the UI offers, and the machine’s physical limitations. • These games usually don’t have an end goal.

21. Storytelling Play • Games that offer storytelling play… • Let players create their own stories using the features provided by the game. • Allow them to export and distribute stories online. • ex: The Movies by Lionhead Studios • Provides players with actors, sets, and camera control which they can use to create movies. • Lets players export their creation as a video file so they can edit it using outside software like Adobe Premier • Requires a lot of time and effort.

22. Storytelling Play • A more simpler approach to storytelling play… • The Sims • Players could take screen caps of their characters and add captions to these shots. • They could then arrange the screen caps into story boards and upload them online. • Telling stories this way requires less complex software, and players don’t have to know how to edit video.

23. Game Modification • Extremely popular with the hardcore gamer community. • By providing the player with mod-tools, your giving them the utmost freedom with your game. • Good Business • People will get bored of your game • Allowing players to build mods that use your game engine will make more people buy your game (to play other people’s mods, and create their own mods). • ex: Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, and Team Fortress Classic are all mods of Half Life.

24. Game Modification • Level Editors • Allows players to construct their own levels for a game. • Some even allow players to rebuild the entire game • Generally, a good level editor lets players construct new landscapes, place challenges in it, and write scripts that the game engine can operate. • ex: Star Craft II’s Map Editor

25. Game Modification • Bots • Not the ones people use to farm gold in MMOs • Bots are programmable AI opponents. • Players can create tougher, more smarter opponents that the default game opponents. • Players can use bots as sparring partners for practice.