CHALLENGES FOR GAME DESIGNERS - non-digital exercise for video game designers

CHALLENGES FOR GAME

DESIGNERS

BRENDA BRATHWAITE AND IAN SCHREIBER

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008929225

ISBN-13: 978-1-58450-580-8

ISBN-10: 1-58450-580-X

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Challenges for Game Designers

Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber

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Acknowledgments

There were many people who contributed to the making of this book.

One of Brenda’s MFA candidates at the Savannah College of Art and Design, game de￾signer David McDonough, was offered the opportunity to assist in the development of the

non-digital shorts that complete each chapter, and he jumped at the chance. Another of

Brenda’s MFA candidates, artist Blair Cooper, was asked to design the book’s cover. Like￾wise, he was pleased to assist. For both their contributions, we are grateful.

Thanks are due also to members of the Design Army, and in particular SCAD gradu￾ates Michelle Menard (MFA, 2008) and Chris Schmidt (BFA, 2008), who read drafts of this

book and made games from its challenges, a number of which are pictured within.

Professional game designers Jeb Havens, Ian Bogost, and Clint Hocking were kind

enough to contribute material, and countless other designers, including Greg Costikyan,

Sheri Graner Ray, Sam Lewis, Chris Crowell, and Linda Currie, listened to us talk about

games obscure and new and added to the proverbial conversation.

Lastly, but most importantly, our spouses deserve much praise. Sharon Schreiber and

Ian Brathwaite listened to keyboards click away for many a good evening while their game

designer spouses got all excited about things that the average person would probably dis￾miss (or at the very least not find nearly as exciting). Fortunately, they also got to play a lot

of good games.

About the Authors

As a 26-year veteran of the video games industry, Brenda Brathwaite is a game designer

and Chair of the Interactive Design and Game Development department at the Savannah

College of Art and Design. She has worked on 22 internationally known titles, including

the award-winning Wizardry series of role-playing games and the award-winning Jagged

Alliance series of strategy role-playing games. Brenda serves on the board of the Interna￾tional Game Developers Association and is a passionate anti-censorship advocate. She is a

regular speaker at universities and conferences, and according to a 2007 article in Next

Generation magazine written by Ernest Adams, Brathwaite is the longest, continuously

serving woman in video game development today. She is the author of Sex in Video Games.

Ian Schreiber has been in the industry for eight years, first as a programmer and then

as a game designer. He has worked on five published game titles, including Playboy: the

Mansion and the Nintendo DS version of Marvel Trading Card Game. He has also developed

training/simulation games for two Fortune 500 companies. Ian has taught game design and

development courses at Ohio University, Columbus State Community College, and Savan￾nah College of Art and Design, and has mentored college students at those and several

other universities.

Introduction and Welcome xxi

Part I Building Blocks 1

1 The Basics 1

What Is Game Design? 2

It’s Also All About the Player 2

Meaningful Decisions 2

What Game Design Is Not 4

Types of Design 5

What Is a Game? 5

The Core of a Game 6

Where Do Ideas Come From? 9

Learning Game Design 10

Common Terms in Game Design 11

Approaches to Game Design 16

Iterative Design 19

Constraints on Game Design 20

Video-Game Constraints 20

Non-Digital Constraints 21

Contents

v

Overcoming Designer’s Block 22

Make a Resource Limited (or Unlimited) 22

Interacting with Your Friends 23

Mess with the Play Order 23

Kill a Rule 23

Use the “Rule of Two” 24

Resources 24

2 Game Design Atoms 25

The Game State and Game Views 25

Players, Avatars, and Game Bits 26

Mechanics 28

Dynamics 30

Goals 31

Theme 32

What Comes First? 33

Putting It All Together 33

Challenges 35

Challenge 1—The Path 35

Challenge 2—It’s Mine! 36

Challenge 3—When I Find You… 37

Challenge 4—Pick It Up 38

Iron Designer Challenge 5—War Without Frontiers 39

Resources 40

3 Puzzle Design 41

Basic Puzzle Characteristics 42

What Makes Puzzles Fun? 43

Puzzle Types 43

Riddles 43

Lateral Thinking 44

vi Contents

Spatial Reasoning 45

Pattern Recognition 46

Logic 46

Exploration 47

Item Use 47

Level Design and Puzzle Design 48

All for One and One for All 48

Challenges 51

Challenge 1—It’s Da Bomb! 51

Challenge 2—More Than a Maze 52

Challenge 3—What’s the Password? 53

Challenge 4—A Shocking Puzzle 54

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Play New Eleusis (Live) 55

Non-Digital Shorts 56

Resources 57

4 Converting Digital to Physical 59

Practical Application 59

How to Start 59

Challenges 60

Challenge 1—Pick a Game, Any Game 60

Challenge 2—Massively Two-Player Offline Card Game 62

Challenge 3—WWII: The Tabletop RPG 63

Challenge 4—Twitch Board Gaming? 65

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Would You Like

Games With That? (Live) 66

Non-Digital Shorts 68

Contents vii

Part II Chance and Skill 69

5 Elements of Chance 69

The Role (Roll?) of Chance in Games 69

Delaying or Preventing Solvability 70

Making Play “Competitive” for All Players 70

Increasing Variety 70

Creating Dramatic Moments 71

Enhancing Decision Making 71

Mechanics of Chance 71

Dice 71

Cards 72

Pseudo-Random Number Generators 72

Hidden Information 73

Other Game Bits 73

All Randomness Is Not Created Equal 74

Completely Random Games 74

Children’s Games 74

Gambling Games 75

Challenges 75

Challenge 1—Luck Tac Toe 75

Challenge 2—The GDC CCG 76

Challenge 3—The Fourth Wheel 78

Challenge 4—The Alien in the Desert 79

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Open-Ended Randomness 80

Non-Digital Shorts 81

Resources 81

viii Contents

6 Elements of “Strategic” Skill 83

The Role of Skill in Games 83

Types of Decisions 84

Obvious Decisions 84

Meaningless Decisions 85

Blind Decisions 85

Tradeoffs 85

Dilemmas 86

Risk Versus Reward Tradeoffs 86

Frequency or Anticipation of Decisions 87

Strategy and Tactics 87

Completely Skill-Based Games 88

Mechanics of Skill 88

Tradeoff Mechanics 89

Strategic Evaluation 91

Challenges 91

Challenge 1—Skill from Nowhere 91

Challenge 2—Game Systems 93

Challenge 3—Strategy on the Run 95

Challenge 4—A Whole New Dimension 96

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Black Friday: The Board Game 97

Non-Digital Shorts 98

Resources 98

7 Elements of “Twitch” Skill 99

Challenge 99

Tuning 99

Difficulty Levels 100

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment 100

Difficulty Curves 100

Playtesting 100

Contents ix

Twitch Decision Making 100

Twitch Mechanics 101

Pure Speed 101

Timing 101

Precision 101

Avoidance 102

Time Pressure 102

Challenges 102

Challenge 1—Adding Twitch to Strategy 102

Challenge 2—Multi-Ball 103

Challenge 3—Twitch Dice 104

Challenge 4—Avoidance Under Pressure 105

Iron Designer Challenge 5—That’s Hard! 106

Non-Digital Shorts 107

References 108

8 Chance and Skill: Finding the Balance 109

Consider the Target Audience 109

Children 110

Competitive Gamers 110

Social Gamers 111

Professional Players 111

Families 111

Playtesting for Luck/Skill Balance 112

Exchanging Luck and Skill 112

Combining Luck and Skill 113

Games of Chance 113

Games of Twitch Skill 113

Games of Strategic Skill 114

x Contents

Challenges 114

Challenge 1—Risk for Kids 114

Challenge 2—Adult Children’s Games 115

Challenge 3—Fog of Strategy 116

Challenge 4—Casual Quake® 117

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Hardcore/Casual 118

Non-Digital Shorts 119

Part III Writing Game Concepts 121

9 What Is Intellectual Property? 121

Types of IP 122

Why IP? 122

Working with an IP 123

Research 123

Know Your Constraints 124

Honor the Player 125

The Core of the Game Versus the Core of the IP 126

Challenges 126

Challenge 1—Care Bears IP 126

Challenge 2—Add an IP 128

Challenge 3—Find the IP 129

Challenge 4—Shakespeare 130

Challenge 5—Iron Designer Challenge (Live) 131

Non-Digital Shorts 133

10 Creating Sequels 135

Why Sequels? 135

We Can Make It Better 135

We Have the Technology 136

We May Even Have the Content 136

Contents xi

Types of Sequels 136

Expansion Packs 137

Mods 137

Sequels 137

Yearly Releases 137

Spiritual Successors 137

Clones 137

Working on Sequels 138

Honoring the Player 138

Research 139

Challenges 139

Challenge 1—Let’s Do It Right This Time 139

Challenge 2—Creating Monopoly 2 140

Challenge 3—Returning from the Dead 142

Challenge X+1: The Sequel 143

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Infamously Bad (Live) 144

Non-Digital Shorts 145

11 Targeting a Market 147

Why Do I Care? Isn’t This for Marketing People? 147

Learning About Your Target Market 148

Abilities of the Target Market 148

Reading Abilities 149

Learning Curve 149

Cognitive Abilities 149

Learning Style 150

Physical Abilities 150

Tactile Desires 150

Focus Groups 151

xii Contents

The Mass Market 151

Challenges 152

Challenge 1—Gears for Girls 152

Challenge 2—Beyond DDR 153

Challenge 3—Targeting the Everyman 154

Challenge 4—Caribbean Targeted Tourism 155

Iron Designer Challenge 5—The Educational MMO 157

Non-Digital Shorts 158

12 Learning an Unfamiliar Genre 161

Why Start with Genre? 161

How to Start 161

Play, Play, Play 162

Hit the Books 162

Playing Versus Designing 162

Review the Reviews 162

Challenges 163

Challenge 1—Sports Games 163

Challenge 2—Molding the Mob 165

Challenge 3—Idea Exploration 166

Challenge 4—Clueless 167

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Genre Change 168

Non-Digital Shorts 169

13 Designing a Game to Tell a Story 171

Writer, Designer, or Both? 171

Story Arcs 172

The Three-Act Story Arc 172

The Five-Part Hero’s Journey 172

The Screenwriter’s Master Chart 173

Contents xiii

Narratology and Ludology 173

Types of Stories in Games 174

Linear Stories 174

Branching Stories 174

Open-Ended Stories 174

Instances 175

Emergent Stories 175

Thematic Setups 175

Algorithmic Stories 175

Storytelling Methods 175

Cutscenes and Cinematics 175

In-Game Events 176

Dialogue 176

Text 176

A Note About Interactivity 176

Tell, Show, Do 177

Setting and Character 177

Character Design 178

Environment Design 178

Working Backward 178

Choosing Mechanics to Match the Story 179

Challenges 180

Challenge 1—Who Are You? 180

Challenge 2—Where Are You? 182

Challenge 3—What’s the Point? 183

Challenge 4—The Common Uncommon 184

Iron Designer Challenge 5—Narratologist’s Revenge (Live) 185

Non-Digital Shorts 188

xiv Contents