Game Design & Pitch

Starting Points for New Ideas• Gameplay

New idea for a way to play the game• Technology

Now we know how to do clothes, we’ll make a clothes designer game…

• StoryI’ve always wanted to be an astronaut on a new

planet…• Sport

Let’s make a curling game?• Character

James Bond game

Iterative Design

• Rapid Prototype• Playtest• Revise• Repeat

Player-Centric

• Always think from the player’s point of view– What will they do?– What will they see?

• All players aren’t like you• The player is NOT your enemy!• What do they need to know?• What motivates them to play?• Inside-out Design Principle: Start with internals

(game play) and work out to art and theme

What Players Want

• A Challenge• Socialization - or - dynamic solitary experience• Bragging Rights• Emotional Experience• To Explore• To Fantasize• To Interact

What Players Expect• Consistency• To understand the world’s bounds• For reasonable solutions to work• Directions• Accomplish Tasks incrementally• Immersion• Setbacks• A Fair Chance• To Not Repeat themselves• To Not get hopelessly stuck• To Do, not watch

Teaching the Player

• First few minutes are crucial• Start simply• Introduce controls in a safe environment• Give simple rewards in beginning• Make easy controls (& icons)• Make easy outputs (screens, maps, vitals)

What is Game Design?

• Design the:– World– Level– Content– Code – UI

Main Pieces

• Goal: Territory acquisition, reasoning, survival, destruction, building, collecting, racing, etc…– PvP or PvE?

• Theme: Time, place, characters, story• Mechanics: Setup, play progression, rules– Genre: Action, platformer, shooter, adventure,

management, life, rhythm/music, party, puzzle, sports, strategy, driving, flying

Game Perspectives (Mechanics)

• First-person– Doom

• Third-person– Tomb Raider

• Side Scrolling– Mario Bros

• Aerial - isometric or top-down– Football

• Can have multiple modes

Game Settings (Mechanics & Theme)

• Physical– 1D, 2D, 3D– Scale Factor– Grid-based or continuous space

• Temporal– Real-time or turn-based– Any variableness? Adjustable?

• Environmental– Cultural beliefs, attitudes, values, family structure– Physical surroundings, weather, plants, buildings– Level of detail

Game Settings (Mechanics)

• Emotional– Character emotions– Player emotions

• Ethical– Victory/defeat defines “good” and “bad”– Watch for real-world look without real-world ethics

• Realism– How real does the world look?

• Chance

Types of Challenges (Goals)

• Physical– Speed/reaction time (twitch games)– Accuracy & Precision (steering / shooting)– Timing and rhythm (DDR)– Learning special sequences of moves (fighting)

• Races• Logical Challenges (Don’t use trial & error)

Types of Challenges (Goals)

• Exploration– Doors & Traps game– Mazes

• Conflict– Strategy, tactics, logistics– Survival– Defending resources

Types of Challenges (Goals)

• Economic– Accumulate wealth– Efficiency– Acheiving balance / stability– Caring for living things

• Conceptual– Understand something new– Deduction, observation– Detective games

Types of Challenges (Goals)

• Construction / Destruction– Build a city– Upgrading– Planning– Destroying

• Storytelling– Ask characters what’s going on– Listen to stories– Dicker with merchant

Game Economy (Mechanics & Theme)

• Resources– Ammunition, hit points, life

• Sources– Power ups, clips, potion

• Drains– firing weapons, being hit

Emergence

• Emergence– Desirable aspect of gameplay– Player-unique solutions– As players play, they find a strategy that uses the

rules of the gameworld to his advantage– Can be intentional or unintentional– Ex: When all the grubs are gone, a new batch gets

dispatched. Player kills all but one– Discovery gives sense of pride to player and spreads

by word-of-mouth.

Positive Feedback

• Needed for emergence to work• Each goal met makes the next easier• Tell the user they are doing well• Draw them into the game• Examples:– Power ups become available– Monopoly: more houses = more money– Better I do, worse for enemies

Controlling Positive Feedback

• Introduce negative feedback– Gold is heavy– Ahead in race, more likely to get lost

• Introduce element of chance• Game gets harder as you go

• Game that does this well is balanced.

Non-Linearity

• Ways in which the user can choose • Make sure choices and rules are clear• Think about classic game structure• Types– Story takes different turns (“Choose your own

adventure”)– Multiple solutions– Order of levels or puzzles– Selections: You can solve puzzle A or puzzle B

Modeling Reality

• More real = more immersive?• More real = more compelling?• More real = more boring?• More real = more frustrating?

• Ask yourself – Does it add to the game?

More on Balance…

• Are different strategies to gameplay equally effective (balanced) or is one dominant?

• Chance vs skill• Is it fair?• If you fall behind early, can you catch up?• Does it stalemate?• Is economy balanced?• Not too easy not too hard

Other stuff to know…

• Achievements: extra stuff you can do in a game, not related to main goal. Helps replayability and bragging rights

• Easter egg: Hidden feature that designer may or may not have intended for players to find

People in the industry

• Programmer• Artist• Composer• Writer• Various types of designers• Producers, Managers, Directors• Tester

GDD

• One-sheet: – Title– Platform, Rating– Summary– Unique selling points– Compare/contrast

GDD

• 10-pager is one-pager plus:– Examples– Logos– Flow (progression of challenges)– Flesh out characters, controls, world, mechanics,

etc…

Pitch

• Elevator talk• Formal presentation – What is audience (technical? marketing?)– Few words, lots of pictures– Overview each major piece– Sell it

Look at the Big Picture

• What statements about the world are you making?– Stereotypes– Ethics– Culture– Right/wrong