Introduction to game genres & game design

1. Introduction to game genres & game design • Game critique. • What is a game really? • What is game design? • Game genres. • The system - a look at what we can do. • Brainstorm.

5. Six game characteristics • Pre-defined rules (a dynamic system) • Goals • Variable outcome associated with the player(s) • Optional real-world consequences. (You can place a bet on the outcome of a game, but you can also choose not to.) • Non-gambling: The player influences the outcome. • In a game with a theme, a game is a representation of a fictive world.

7. Two gods (acc. to Chris Crawford) • The storyteller: Fly bird, fly. Blow wind, blow. • The designer of laws of nature: Birds can fly under certain cirumstances, wind can blow. Gravity. All these combine.(=Designing gameplay.)

8. Interesting choices Sid Meier: ”A game is a series of interesting choices.” An interesting choice: • No single choice should be the best. • The choices should not be equally good. • The player must be able to make an informed choice.

9. Monopoly Should I build hotels at the first possible time even if I use all my money?

10. Gameplay is emergent • The rules of a game do not describe every possible game session. • From the rules interesting patterns and strategies emerge on a higher level. • The strategies in a strategy game or in chess are not described in the rules but are appear as a consequence of the rules.

11. The open world • Even in rule-based systems, some events can still be determined or are at least very likely to happen. • The player is likely to accept the goal put forward. • Players will tend to do certain things. • Players will search for a good strategy. If the good strategy leads to interesting interaction, it is a good game.

12. Game design is iterative • You cannot predict all that is going to happen in the game. • People may not share your tastes. • Make prototype – test it – fix it – test it.

13. FUN! • All the glitz and glitter poured into games these days, such as expensive art, animation, real actors, or the best musicians, cannot cover up for poor gameplay. (Marc Saltzman) • Not everything is a story! • Are the choices facing the player interesting choices? Are they still interesting the second time? • What are the genre conventions? What does the user expect? • If thinking in terms of storytelling: What ties this particular story/world to an interactive medium? • The designer has to let go. Game design is to set up a system that the players can use as their own.

14. What do players want? • Players want: a challenge, to socialize, a dynamic solitaire experience, bragging rights, emotional experience, fantasize • Players expect: A consistent world, to understand the game-world’s bounds, reasonable solutions to work, direction, to accomplish a task incrementally, to be immersed, to fail, a fair chance, to not need to repeat themselves, to not get hopelessly stuck, to do - not to watch. • Holder det?

15. Genre • Like different personalities, different genres are distringuished from another by which characteristics predominate ... (Dubrow) Do genres exist? • No: We can never come up with complete perfect distinctions between genres. • Yes: The idea of genre plays an important part in both the production and consumption of games (and other things).

16. Action-adventure (adventure’s exploration + real time) Real-tids adventure. Fx Jet Set Willy Kort

17. Genres in the 1980’s Adventure Platform Action Driving Action-adventure: Gauntlet, Jet Set Willy. Various: Pac-man (maze), Pengo, Qix, Frogger, Star Wars

18. Sim City(Simulation, but no goal)

19. Doom - First person shooter(action + some exploration from adventure + first person perspective)

20. Sims (Sim city in a social context)

21. Real time strategy(board game + real-time)

22. Genres ca. 2002(That noone agrees about) Gamespot.com

23. Different genres - different pleasures • action • RPG • adventure • strategy • simulations • Sports • Fighting games • casual • puzzle games

24. Bruce Shelley on games • Differentiate and Innovate, Don't Imitate • Interesting decisions = fun. • Design by Playing. • Provide a Great First 15 Minutes of Easily Accessible Play • The Player Should Have the Fun, Not the Designer, Programmer, or Computer • Provide Multiple Gaming Experiences within the Box. • Gameplay more important than realism.

25. Next time • Susana Tosca: “Role-playing in multiplayer environments. Vampire: The Masquerade. Redemption” in CGDT Proceedings. København: IT University. p. 10-18. (Kompendium) • Simon Egenfeld-Nielsen: Computerspillene "I sig selv". (Kompendium) • Richard Rouse chapter 17: The Design Document • Astinus: A History of Role-Playinghttp://ptgptb.org/0001/history1.html

26. Try the system • diac.it-c.dk/~visichat • Create a user, log in, walk around by clicking, right-click on yourself and others. • This is: A tech demo of functionality. • This is not a complete game. • This is not representative of what your final game is going to look like.

27. Conflicts • Minority report (tech misused). Punished for a crime. • Peasant vs. Emperor • Three brothers. • Armageddon … world threatened by asteroid. • Revenge … (24 hours) • Children’s vs. Parents • Lord of the rings (group of heroes vs. overwelming foe … complete task) • Bin Laden vs. US • Middle east • Demonstrators vs. police (WTO) • Rich vs. poor • Capitalism vs… the alternative • Sports • Groups fighting for the same thing (such as water) • Jekyll & hyde (fight yourself) • Memory problem (Memento)

28. Brainstorm