Game Design

1. Game Design Introduction Asha Bharambe

2. The Creative Road Map • In creating a game, the stages are: • Concept – game is based on.... • Structure – action, interaction, context • Design – core game mechanics, play intent • The three kinds of skill are: • creativity • craft • technique

3. Four phases of the creative process • Inspiration – Where to get ideas • Synthesis – Combining ideas • Resonance – Creating synergy from ideas • Convergence – Finishing the concept

4. Terms • CRPGs – Computer Role Playing Games • Cut scenes – Defining your game

5. Aspects of a game • The game play • the story • the setting • the characters • the interface • the technology Right mix of parts

6. Shaping the Idea • common model of drama elements: • style • plot • character • setting • theme

7. Style - Genre • Action – Lots of button pushing • Adventure – The story matters • Strategy – Nontrivial choices • Simulation – Optimization exercises • Role-playing games—tactical, logistical, exploration, and economic challenges • Puzzle – Hard analytic thinking • Toys – Software you have fun with • Educational – Learning by doing

8. Game Design Principles • The game design should be simple • Every game should be unique • There should be effective representation to bring out the real life environment • It should include social factors. • Playing the game should be fun

9. Game Design Process • Build the concept • Get an idea • Build the game concept • Create a goal • Create an emotional experience for the player • Creating the game specification • Write the design document • Build the prototype • Iterate, that is, choose an appropriate lifecycle model

10. From Idea to Game Concept • A game concept is a description with enough detail to discuss it as a commercial product • A game concept should include: • High concept statement • Player’s role in the game • Proposed primary gameplay mode • Genre • Target audience • Hardware • Licenses • Competition modes • General summary of progression • Short description of the game world • Key characters, if any

11. Creating Game Specification • Plan first • Test the concept • Feature-based description • Interface design • Rules • Level design • Design Document • Other aspects

12. The Player’s Role • Define the role • What is the player going to do? • Most important part of the game concept • Make the definition clear and simple • Help the player understand the goals and rules • Help publisher, retailer, and customer decide to buy the game

13. Examining game play • What it means? • interesting choices • How to achieve it • How to enhance it

14. Gameplay • "A series of interesting choices.” • "The structures of player interaction with the game system and with other players in the game." • "One or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated environment." • "A good game is one that you can win by doing the unexpected and making it work." • "The experience of gameplay is one of interacting with a game design in the performance of cognitive tasks, with a variety of emotions arising from or associated with different elements of motivation, task performance and completion." • "Gameplay here is seen as the interactive gaming process of the player with the game."

15. Game theory is • a branch of economics in which systems governed by rules are mathematically analyzed to determine the payoffs of various end points.

16. Dominance – not wanted! • dominated strategy – option that is never worth using under any circumstances • dominant strategy – an option that is so good it’s never worth doing anything else • near dominance – what is wanted -options used in very narrow circumstances & options that players will use most of the time.

17. Playability's attributes Playability is characterized by different attributes and properties to measure the player experience • Satisfaction: it is the degree of gratification or pleasure of the player for a complete game of some aspect of it like: mechanism, graphics, user interface, story, etc. • Learning: It is identified as the facility to understand and dominate the game system and mechanics (objectives, rules, how to interact with the game, etc.).

18. Playability's attributes • Efficiency: It is defined as the necessary time and resources to offer fun and entertainment to players while they achieve the different game objectives and reach the final goal. An efficient game is able to catch the player attention from the first instant, and provoke him continuing playing to the end of the game. Efficiency can be analyzed as the correct use of the challenge through the game, the correct structuring of the objectives or the best adaptation of the control to the actions in the game.

19. Playability's attributes • Immersion: It is the capacity to believe in the game contents and integrate the player in the virtual game world. The immersion provokes that the player looks involved in the virtual world, becoming part of this and interacting with it because the user perceives the virtual world represented by the game, with its laws and rules that characterize it. A game has a good immersion level when it has got equilibrium between the proposed challenges and the necessary player abilities to overcome it.

20. Playability's attributes • Emotion: It is the involuntary impulse, originated in response to the stimulus of the game and induces feelings or unleashes automatic reactions and conducts. The use of emotions in games help to obtain a best player experience and leads players to different emotional states: happiness, fear, intrigue, curiosity, sadness… using the game challenges, story, aesthetic appearance or the music compositions that are capable of move, affect, to make to smile or to cry to the player.

21. Look and Feel

22. Immersion • Achieved through three means: • Ambience • Interface • Storytelling

23. Ambience • Everything that contributes to the innate look and feel of the game. • With better graphics we can have a realistic-looking crowd of spectators… • Creates more of a story right away with spectators reactions • Games can include all kind of ambient features that create a sense of location and involvement.

24. Ambience is about telling a story • Story should unfold as part of the game itself, and ambience is all about imbuing each separate element with the backstory so as to create unity in the final game.

25. Vision & cohesion • Need to have a storyboard with images even at the point of prototyping, so the vision of the game is specified. • Games achieve cohesion by adhering to a unified look and feel.

26. Detail Design • Enables the team to stay focused on the same goal • Instead of an evolutionary process, do: • Spiral development • Testbed to create a game design & technical architecture • Proceeding by means of iterations to the finished game • Focus the build toward the design

27. The Game concept • Game design – premise that games begin with a raw concept • Game play- aim to begin with a features- based

28. Thank You

29. Plan First • What type of game it is? • What is the objective(s)? • How will the players achieve the objective(s)? • What are the features that will constitute the gameplay? • Determine the criteria for success. • How does the player win? • how does he/she loses? • Determine the rules of interaction • How are constraints explained to the players