game design: from rules to craft
TRANSCRIPT
Game Design:
From Rules To
Craft Pietro Polsinelli
@ppolsinelli
These slides:
http://bit.ly/rulescraft
Transformation 1/3
Games for
Social Impact
Friday, November 28, 2014
… to develop and implement a
game infused e-learning tool
to promote early access to
services with neglect and
abuse for young people on the
move in Europe
Mission. 3
Kids becoming aware and capable of dealing with
situations of neglect and abuse.
4
Pick a mod, just change the labels ...
5
Collateral story gets in the way of play.
6
Designing Games for Social
Impact
RE-DESIGN
Inspired by ...
8
Represent notions with characters
9
Inspired by Dumb Ways To Die. Specific mechanics.
10
Universe made of simple atoms
11
Inspired by Dominions: cards are characters, actions, a universe.
Build up of awareness defines the game mechanics.
13
Game loop: shit happens.
Deal with it and keep your universe together.
15
Designing Games
for Social Impact
TIPS
Use cards.
18
Cards constitute a universe, not just characters and actions.
Also universal language. Developers, cards are objects –
classes, instances, extensions.
More pervasive than it looks.
20
Plants vs. Zombies (1) was born and prototyped as a card
game – actually collectible card game.
Complexity trains strategic thinking.
22
Distinction between input output randomness &
unpredictability: from Randomness and Game Design
Use ramdomness sparingly.
24
Games with simple relations and play mechanics are simpler
to evolve.
25
Minimal viable game.
Keep a good state in the loop AND
supply an evolving story line.
Stories get deadly in loops.
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If Games Were Like Game Stories...
From Nick Case If Games Were Like Game Stories...
Games don’t’ branch, they evolve.
Even branching games do not have branching at their core.
Interact early with concept art.
32
Black and white games: “get ready for
fight or flight”
What I say here is based on anecdotal evidence
from working experience, no data no lab.
Applied games
definition and
theory
An applied game (serious game) is a game designed for
a primary purpose other than
pure entertainment.
Take this as a sort of definition. Hard to say which are not serious. Note
that in effort, style, problematic this changes little.
Self referential / Referring games
Both may be good or bad.
37
You will need full game design skils – and more - to
create good games that teach something.
Shortcuts …
Game design is a specific profession. Image from Extra Credits.
Working in applied games is particularly complex /
interesting because you are working in between systems.
41
Motivational theory?
A game where you can’t win, and its not fun.
43
This War of Mine
Each game is played because of a motivational framework
defined by… the game itself.
45
Transformation 2/6
Games for
Health
Help people that are evolving
towards a chronic desease by
influencing behavior and
disrupting this evolution.
NDA
47
Customer thinks (s)he knows what “game”
means. This is a problem. 48
Designing Games for Health
RE-DESIGN
Friday, November 28, 2014
Category, competition,
avatar, war, reward, levels
Vs.
Inclusive, mentor, path,
story, transformation
A language change. 50
Ian Bogost: gamification is bullshit.
51
Redesigned by including negative feedback, turning avatar to mentor,
building an AI.
Designing Games for Health
TIPS
Distinguish (and then merge) projective
experiences and couching.
Genre and inclusiveness.
Power of baptism. Comes in many forms...
57
the greatest invention
of the video game era
was – and continues
to be – “single-play”.
Applied game’ customers often don’t get this.
Independence, absence.
Beyond the avatar: Discarding the relatable avatar for a
meaningful voice learning from poetry
Transformation 3/6
Games for
Change
This is the communication context. Few really cares about global warming, we
have to make people aware of consequences.
61
Not so cool for not geeks.
agent based model
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Designing Games for Change
RE-DESIGN
Friday, November 28, 2014
Dystopic future, like in The Curfew. “Lacking food
water oil”, daily life has to change. 64
How will you prepare breakfast without electricity?
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Variations on daily life habits due to external changes.
66
Designing Games for Change
TIPS
Emergence: a set of simple rules acting on many elements. The
game is an emergent behaviour
Progression: a predefined set of actions to be performed to
complete the game
68
Emergence / Progression
Sim City, Braid.
70
So?
Become a game designer:
study, prototype, release, loop
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Sources www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KeithBurgun/20141015/227740/Randomness_and_Game_Design.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29 http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/NickyCase/20140811/222467/If_Games_Were_Like_Game_Stories.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/global_sustainability_institute/our_research/resource_management.Maincontent.0021.file.tmp/Climate%2520Change_Resource%2520Scarcity_Conflict%252019-09.pdf http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/Pages/default.aspx https://mysugr.com/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/littleloud/6725429655/in/photostream/ http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/24200000/Dominion-card-and-tile-games-24276844-502-405.jpg
76
My twitter stream is
mostly dedicated to
game design
http://twitter.com/ppolsi
nelli
A blog on game design
http://designagame.eu