GamePlay

Game Idea Development

The first question a player has to answer is…

• Do I play alone or with friends?– Interactivity mode

• Player-to-game• Player-to-developer• Player-to-platform• Player-to-player• One-on-one• Unilateral• Multilateral• Team

Then the player asks…

• What are the rules? How do I win?

As a designer – you should be asking yourself if…

• Winning and loosing is part of the game.– Is it important to win? Why? What does it have to

do with the concept behind the game?• Go back to the purpose and evaluate your goals for

making this game.

• Does the game have to have a “pay off”

Game Theory

Zero Sum

• Describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant

• NIN – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckUcL7JJ8H0

– What do the visuals have to do with the concept of zero sum?

Non Zero Sum

• Non-zero-sum games differ from zero-sum games in that there is no universally accepted solution. That is, there is no single optimal strategy that is preferable to all others, nor is there a predictable outcome

• Some think that this theory better represents the dynamics of the world we live in.

• This is a book that uses the theory to try and explain/deconstruct our world– http://www.nonzero.org/– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLosZVG54k

Is this a zero sum or non zero sum game?

• http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/the-ceo-game-serious-business-game

• It is not out yet but we can speculate.

Game Theory: Dilemmas and Traps• They say "life is a game." What this metaphor means, is that in life there

are rules, and your role is to play by the rules, attempting to maximize your gains and minimize your losses.

• When you utter the phrase "life is a game," it is usually in response to some dissatisfaction with the rules such as a personal setback, and is a way of distancing yourself from the emotional impact or the reality of things. – A perfect example is the Oscar winning Italian film "Life is Beautiful," where a

father convinces his very young son that being in a concentration camp is only a game.

– http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/980223/the_arts.cinema.its_a_be17.html

Play “Chalked”

The Prisoner's Dilemma• The Prisoner's Dilemma game was first proposed by Merrill Flood in 1951. It was

formalized and defined by Albert W. Tucker. The name refers to the following hypothetical situation:

• Two criminals are captured by the police. The police suspect that they are responsible for a murder, but do not have enough evidence to prove it in court, though they are able to convict them of a lesser charge (carrying a concealed weapon, for example). The prisoners are put in separate cells with no way to communicate with one another and each is offered a deal to confess.

• If neither prisoner confesses, both will be convicted of the lesser offense and sentenced to a year in prison. If both confess to murder, both will be sentenced to 20 years. If, however, one prisoner confesses while the other does not, then the prisoner who confessed will be granted immunity while the prisoner who did not confess will go to jail for life.

• What should each prisoner do?

Outcome?

Scoring Matrix

Play “LadyBug”

Trap: The tragedy of the commons

• is a type of social trap, often economic, that involves a conflict over finite resources between individual interests and the common good.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8gAMFTAt2M

World Of Warcraft

• Struggle between the horde and the alliance

• On PVP servers players are thrown into traps to fight for the same resource

Traps

• When you play to win, you can be drawn into a trap. You are self-assured about your ability to reach your goal. It is like waiting for the bus. You wait, it doesn't come, you wait some more, and then you wait just a little bit more to justify the time already spent waiting. – And now we are back to the Theatre of the

Absurd – remember Waiting for Godot?

More on Traps• Traps are the hook that ruins gamblers, who make one more bet to justify

the losses already incurred. The late Jeffrey Z. Rubin (1941-1995), Professor at Tufts University suggests that traps can be avoided if you set limits in advance regarding the level of your commitment and involvement, and more importantly, stick to it! Also, avoid asking others for advice. – Like waiting for the bus, if others are waiting there too, even if they

are complete strangers, then you are more likely to wait a little too long.

– And watch out if you have a need to impress. While everyone wants to be loved and respected, people get entrapped when they know they are being judged, and feel they have to prove something about themselves.

Play “The Answer to Life”

Influence of Game theory in Psychology: I'm OK, You're OK

• The psychiatrist Thomas Harris (19??-1995) wrote a book on interpersonal interaction entitled "I'm OK, You're OK." The following table invented by Frank Ernst, called the OK Corral, was inspired by this book, for which he got an Eric Berne Memorial Award :

• I'm OK, You're OK, the healthiest way to interact, encouraging words• I'm OK, You're not OK: Arrogance, putting others down, using discouraging words.• I'm not OK, You're OK: Learned helplessness• I'm not OK, You're not OK: We are both very sick! • Note that all options in game theory have a certain probability of being selected.

I'm OK, You're OK (Healthy)

I'm OK, You're not OK (Arrogant)

I'm not OK, You're OK (Helpless)

I'm not OK, You're not OK (Sick)

Concern about the effect of games• Think about the school incident in Littleton, Colorado where 14

students and 1 teacher were killed in a rampage by two students. They just got fed up of being told that they were not OK, and said, you are not OK either and then....kaboom!

• This is what the people who talk about games being an instigator of violence in our world are thinking. They see games as a trap. It is game theory being used against games. – We all know that there is no scientific evidence to back up such a claim.– And it is my personal thoughts that when people point fingers at the arts

(music, games, movies etc) they are looking for an easy answer to a difficult question.

But… you do still have creative responsibility

• This is a concern of all creative professionals• In art when we talk about creative

responsibility we mean that everything we use (imagery, color, composition, choice of medium etc) has a reason to be in the piece.

• There is no gratuitous nudity or violence.• Everything has a reason to be there – the

reason is, it helps to convey the message.

Shock art• Damien Hirst• http://www.nytimes.com/

2007/11/09/arts/09hirst.html?ex=1352350800&en=9bd3fe441ca0fd2b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_art

• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HMU/is_3_28/ai_73023799

You are responsible for

• The user experience.– You need to define what that experience will be.– You need to think about your audience and the

experience they will have.

Examples of art created with the user experience in mind

• http://salavon.com/ClassOf/ClassOf.shtml

• http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/thomas/default.html

Formal tools for game creation

• The next slides will be about formal tools that you need to use, be in control of and even manipulate

Types of Challenges• Implicit vs. explicit

– Strategy vs Adventure– Checkers vs Lara Croft

• Perfect vs. imperfect information– Knowing vs not knowing– Monopoly vs Poker

• Intrinsic vs. extrinsic knowledge– Learn inside the game vs stuff you already knew– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biTH-DJgMqU

• Pattern recognition & matching– Tetris, Bejeweled (‘nuff said??)

• Spatial awareness– Rez, racing games

• Micromanagement– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAEppDYTG-4&feature=related– Exercise: explain the micromanagement in this clip (surround, tower rush)

• Reaction time– FPS (‘nuff said??)

Challenges & GameGoals/Objectives

Advancement = level up

Race = get there first

Puzzles = riddles

Exploration = curiosity

Conflict = competition or combat

Capture = take with being taken from

Chase = catch or elude opponent

Organization = arranging

Escape = rescuing

Break the rules (taboo) = stamina

Construction = building

Solution = solving

Outwit = knowledge

Take a moment to…

• Ponder which one or combinations of the challenges and goals you are using in your game.

Explicit/Imperfect

• A Fading Memory

Pattern Recognition

• Brain Challenge

Spatial Awareness and Reaction Time

• Rez

Balance• Consistent challenges• Perceivably fair playing experiences– You shouldn’t think – Hey that wasn’t fair!

• Lack of stagnation– When can I play???? Ughhhh……..• I love Psychonauts but the beginning of that game is

too long.• Lack of trivial decisions– What does this have to do with anything?

• Ramping Difficulty levels– Ahh Centipede

Static Balance:rules of the game

• Ensuring balance– Obvious strategies– Trade-offs/economics

• Not necessarily negative or positive

• Judgment call– Combination

• Resources and/or characters– Feedback

• Positive – game gets easier• Negative – game gets harder

– Symmetry• Same starting abilities • Relationships of resources

– transitive vs. intransitive

Static Balance

• Centipede

Dynamic Balance:this is what emerges when the game is played

• Destroy – initially balanced; throw the balance off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKVsPBdN9rk

• Maintain – initially balanced; keep the balance from being thrown off– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJed3vYUJU

• Restore– Unbalanced = Balance it– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ4FQc0zUtE

Dynamic Balance

• Resident Evil 5– Restoring order to chaos