Games: technical or creative?

1. Games: technical or creative? • #1 Games are technical • Technical support costs everyone money • Many games platforms have technical standards • Same development tools as everyone else • Development logistics inevitably gets technical • #2 Games are creative • Duplicate an existing game, and you’ll sell 0 copies • Like books/films/music, constant need to innovate • Layout of a game forms an implicit language

2. The “Technical-Creative Hinterland” • #3 Games are “technical-creative” • Devise solutions to hard technical problems • Consoles aren’t expandable, so have hard constraints • …but games need to improve year on year! • PC’s aren’t much better - a viciously competitive market • So: a constant supply of technical innovations needed! • #4 Games are “creative-technical” • Technical constraints restrict creative expression • memory, speed, tools all act as glass ceilings • 3d modelling needs to work with existing tools • These limitations do not kill us, they make us strong!

3. Observations:- • So, Creative and Technical are not either/or... • ...but are separate interacting dimensions. • Many other dimensions of expression, including:- • Tactile/Input • Interactivity/Responsiveness • Story/Backstory • Milieu/Genre • Licence/Brand - using or originating • Financial • Publicity/Promotional • etc

4. Technical reuse vs Creative reuse #1 • Technical reuse = Design Pattern! • Pros:- • Excellent for team-working - teams are larger now • Our previous project needed 5 core, now needs 10 • Best for new architecture - reengineering is painful • Some Antipatterns you can’t fix, regardless of resources • Cons:- • Not a magic bullet! • Needs collaborative framework & good communication • Only a short-term fix: 0-5years, then will be orthodoxy • Long-term complexity curve will kill us all & all our tools • Engines need to be reinvented every few years • Techniques have appropriate life-spans • We should be sensitive to the time-scale of reuse

5. Technical reuse vs Creative reuse #2 • Creative reuse = quotation/cliché/plagiarism! • Pros:- • Developing an implicit visual language is a major issue! • Visual expression help make games a rich experience • Cons:- • “Seen it / Done it” = biggest criticism of games • #1 Antipattern! • Using someone else’s visual language is plagiarism!

6. Technical reuse vs Creative reuse #3 • Conclusions:- • Engineering and innovation interact • ...often bringing conflicting interests to the table • The two overlap in a technical/creative hinterland • …where reuse is a very double-edged sword • The two need managing in separate ways • Different type of risks, different type of activities • Where they overlap, what is your strategy? • Prioritise? Integrate? Infight? Thrash?

7. “Tales from the Hinterland” #1 • Design Patterns: aggressively anti-innovation • So are they applicable to content integration? • Users know when media reuse content • Films are often the worst offenders • Music too has ultra-short-term bandwagons • Games take longer than most CDs and films! • Was 9 months, now is 18 months and rising • Difficult to build in innovation over long period • Long-term development, but short-term sales • Development lengthening, shelf-life shortening • Obviously there’s a bit of a paradox going on here

8. “Tales from the Hinterland” #2 • Similar structural problem with middleware • (My company sells a middleware movie player) • You pay licence fees for technical reuse • But this locks you into a particular process • So: you’re paying money not to innovate • High risk when innovation is part of your business! • Antipathy towards middleware is natural • Design patterns are collaboration middleware • …they just happen to be free (well: GoF = $49.95). • Less development risk != less publishing risk

9. “Tales from the Hinterland” #3 • Innovation != ‘Perceived Innovation’ • Innovation can be promoted, regardless of size • A small innovation is now as saleable as a large one • Many end up as bullet-points on unsold boxes • The illusion of novelty is the story of the ‘90s • See 95% of Internet companies, for example • Overlap of technical and promotional dimensions • Spin is the new rock’n’roll, allegedly • Games have become areas of dense spin

10. Development perspective... • Games are becoming like movies • Comparable budgets and time-scales • Involving the work of many professions/talents • Art/Music/Design/Animation... “Content”, for short • Integrate well to get more than the sum of the parts • Integration used to be the programmer’s work • Back then, it was assembly rather than integration • Integration is the same, but with more bugs • Now we have specialist jobs devoted to integration • Producers, Content Engineers, and Level Designers • Content engineering is as risky as software engineering • The rest of this is about Level Designers.

11. Level Design Patterns #1 • (and about time too) • 3d Level Design is halfway between:- • software development (GoF territory); and • architecture (Christopher Alexander territory) • …so (like me) you’d think it would benefit from Design Patterns. I have three words for this:- • Wrong… • Dead wrong!

12. Level Design Patterns #2 • Most Design Patterns we identified were:- • 1. Deep storytelling patterns (AKA Hero’s Journey) • Allegedly deriving from myths and legends • Joseph Campbell “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” • 2. Overused pre-existent motifs (AKA cliches) • 3. Pre-existent structural problems (AKA gotchas) • 4. Ways to get it really wrong (AKA bad design) • The Hero’s Journey is as close to a Design Pattern as we got. • All the others are basically Antipatterns.

13. 1. Storytelling Design Patterns #1 • Some well-known examples:- • Hero / Shadow / Threshold Guardian • Functions played by people/elements within the story • Roles can be duplicated, overlapped, or shared • Character Arcs • The idea that each participant should develop • Should be comprehensible from each point of view • Call to Adventure / Return With The Prize • Functions for the overall arc of the story • Again, lots of overlap possible

14. 1. Storytelling Design Patterns #2 • The “Hero With A Thousand Faces” set of ideas has now virtually taken over Hollywood • Many similarities with Design Patterns • Disney were (supposedly) first to use this • cf Christopher Vogler’s “The Writer’s Journey” • However:- • Screenplays are now utterly formalised • …a lot like 3-Act 120-page haiku • Just as many bad films coming out as ever! • Many analogies to spread of Design Patterns!

15. 2. Overused motifs... • An example: “Crate Puzzles” • You need to give the player an item... • A self-timed goo bomb, or whatever • …but you don’t want to make it too obvious... • Sitting around on the floor is a bit cheesy • ie, that’s what we were doing two years ago • …so you stick it in a crate for them to blow up • This ‘puzzle’ has been done to death • Games will still use crate puzzles in 200 years time • …because all the alternatives are time-consuming • We used a few! (not too many, though)

16. 3. Structural problems:- • An example: “Kill The Scientist” • The game “Half-Life” is where this came up in • …which has many similarities to our current game • If a character dies who shouldn’t, what to do? • “how to reconcile narrative continuity with free movement” • Half-Life solution: stop the game and fade out • irritating, but there’s no easy fix for the problem • Usually a manifestation of a deeper problem • Here, the problem is really “how to build top-down narrative with bottom-up design tools?”

17. 4. Ways to get it really wrong:- • An example: “Crazy Quilt” • AKA “Texture Diarrhoea” • Too many different textures in close proximity • “Quake” is full of this! (IMHO) • It’s not a victimless crime - my eyes hurt! • Too many other perpetrators to name • Underlying problem: no clear stylistic lead • Similar to when programmers design levels • Often happens with programmers’ websites • Many portals exhibit the same symptoms • “It’s not brashness, it’s just bad design.”

18. Level Design Patterns Conclusions... • Level design is:- • an expression of ideas via a novel visual language • a frozen moment of time in the evolution of games • In level design (and in creative projects):- • If you can identify design patterns really early... • …you’re probably doing something wrong. • Design patterns should be your target... • ...not the starting point! • The lifetime of a set of creative design patterns should be exactly 10 minutes! • …the 10 minutes after you complete it, before it becomes a set of cliches for other people to avoid

19. Deep structure:- • Structure of Patterns • Design Pattern= a pattern that works • Antipattern = a pattern to avoid • Structure of Ideas • Cliché = Last year’s idea • Anti-cliché = Cliché, with a fresh coat of paint • Ironic cliché = Two year-old idea, freshened up • Novelty = Today’s idea (next year’s cliché) • (Similar to patterns, but with a time dimension)

20. Summary (I’ll be brief)... • Did we identify Level Design Patterns? • Not really - but we gained a lot from looking. • The underlying story is that projects - of all types - are getting larger and more complex. • So: the future is increasingly one of collaboration. • IMHO, design patterns are simply one way of coordinating effort and language to improve teamworking on such large projects • Many other technologies and ideas will emerge • Using patterns as a target helps team coherency • Absence of patterns != lack of communication!