Game design for storytellers: from

the myth of interactive narratives

to the reality of game mechanics

Pietro Polsinelli

@ppolsinelli

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Our workshop schedule.

Meaningful games: examples

Passage: a full game.

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Spaceteam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD_SbJCQov

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Refraction http://www.kongregate.com/games/GameScience/refraction

The games universe

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Emergence is the primordial game structure, where a game is specified as a small number of rules that combine and yield large numbers of game

variations, which the players then design strategies for dealing with. This is found in card and board games and in most action and all strategy games. Emergence games tend to be

replayable and tend to foster tournaments and strategy guides.

Progression is the historically newer structure that entered the computer game

through the adventure genre. In progression games, the player has to perform a predefined set of actions in order to complete the game. One feature of

the progression game is that it yields strong control to the game designer: Since the designer controls the sequence of events, this is also where we find the games with cinematic or

storytelling ambitions. This leads to the infamous experience of playing a game "on a rail", i.e. where the work of the player is simply to perform the correct pre-defined moves in

order to advance the game. Progression games have walkthroughs, specifying all the actions needed to complete the game.

Emergence / Progression

Sim City, Braid.

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Self referential / Referring games

Both may be good or bad.

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Non played games.

Dear Esther, Proteus, Journey

Games for change

Games for change

Oh how nice it is to work as a

slave for this multinational

http://unmanned.molleindustria.org/

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Playfied solutions

“Gamification”. Bottle bank arcade. Somemtimes, unhealthy psychological consequences.

Techniology of “fitting better”: technology for control (Foucault).

Game play is instrumental to an external goal.

http://thegamebible.com/

Persuasive UIs

Learning & teaching

with games

from games

Cargo Bot http://twolivesleft.com/CargoBot/

Videogames are ideal for transmitting formal rules through concrete examples. This can cover a lot of

ground.

Also probe – test – rethink – probe cycle.

Search energy in a 3D environment.

The dark side

No narrative ideal, no purpose beyond monetization. Lenses in a skeleton: The Sims Social.

Measure, measure, measure.

Addiction by Design Natascha Schull

http://gelconference.com/videos/2008/natasha_schull

97% is given by the slot machine – study IT

Narrative

for / in / from / out

games

The Magic Circle: Huizinga, Johan. 1971. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston:

Beacon Press.

Which story?

- user gameplay story

- learning story

- author scripted story

- game generated story

- describing the game (story as ux tool)

Distinguish: emergent narrative vs. embedded narrative.

Classical media is not interactive: depends how you look at it. There is a

branching reality, and videogames are rarely truly interactive.

http://gamamoto.com/2011/11/08/storytelling-and-video-games/

“If one understands that storytelling for games has little or nothing to do with interactive storytelling one has already saved oneself a lot of trouble.”

It goes in many directions.

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Anti narrativism

http://www.whatgamesare.com/2012/05/games-dont-tell-stories-people-tell-stories.html#more

There isn't one right way to include stories in games: Storyteller, Blackbar ...

Short intro to Game

Design

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Example analysis: Pinball

Which are the user inputs?

Works in different media – nice on the iPad.

Pinball game hermeneutics.

Progressive views:

1.Just keep the ball in play

2.Make point rich hits

3.Reach goals

4.Complete the story

5.Solo not fun any more.

Can be fun just to show off

(high scores, show to friends).

Games vocabulary: article “Formal Abstract Design Tools,” designer Doug Church

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131764/formal_abstract_design_tools.php

Game are made of loops

To analyze the mechanics of a game, you got to find the loops.

And loops are

interesting

because of

surprises

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise

Stick

to

basics

These are some of the mechanics – plus status competition …

This is very important in order to establish deep contact with your users: find the deep motivation.

Is this simple mechanic union relevant only for classical games?

Union of drawing – racing

Drawing with your finger on the iPad is nice. Racing with small cars is beautiful.

“This game is engaging, its fun”

Engagement can be caused by disparate reasons:

1. Engagement because of s fun base mechanic

2. Engagement by using a virtual world projection mechanics

Engaging design is ambiguous: can mean engaging by using a base mechanic (flipper, tower defence),

or by using a virtual world projection mechanics

Koster – Deterding definition of fun.

“Fun is

about

learning in a

context

where there

is no

pressure”

But in school there is, and there has to be, pressure. There is here a dynamic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x5YtkTw4wn4#!

The flow

The blurry edge between challenging and too difficoult.

There is the flow. We are tackling the tip of something complex. When we are

kept at the margin of our abilities – it’s the flow graph. So its complex,

there are exceptions everywhere.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Author)

Stress based classification.

Fun is learning - but

learning is not always

fun.

“Fun is a feedback we

get in the mind when

absorbing patterns for

learning purposes” -

Koster

From “Theory of Fun”

Game Dev Story

A small, simple game…

Game Dev Story

reverse engineered

Game genres, …

http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Game_Dev_Story/Walkthrough

Creating working

prototypes:

Machinations, HTML5,

Unity

Show it online: http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/wiki/index.php?title=TempleRun

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Example of feedback

loop analysis: Risk

Risk feedback loop 1: armies to territories to armies

Risk feedback loop 2: attacks to cards to armies

Risk feedback loop 3: attacks to continents to

armies

Risk feedback loop 4: continents lead to being

attacked

Other tools: HTML5, Unity.

A game idea is not

a game prototype

From “a game on Da Vinci” : Summer 2011. A

decent proto will be ready MAYBE end 2013.

Find a theme that it taught in

school and that you like. And that

maybe you don’t like how it is

being thought. Reach as far as

you can in this scheme:

Your turn.

Exercise: write up a

“game idea”

- Platformer?

- First person magician?

- Strategy?

- Ludo narrative dissonance?

Suggestions

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My twitter stream is mostly dedicated to game design:

http://twitter.com/ppolsinelli

A blog on game design http://designagame.eu

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