1 / 70

Play-Personas and Game-Metrics

Play-Personas and Game-Metrics. An Accountant’s Perspective on Game Design. Alessandro Canossa / aca@dkds.dk / alessandroc@ioi.dk. “When you can measure what you are speaking about and when you can express it in numbers you know something about it” Lord Kelvin, 1883.

jetta
Download Presentation

Play-Personas and Game-Metrics

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Play-Personas and Game-Metrics An Accountant’s Perspective on Game Design Alessandro Canossa / aca@dkds.dk / alessandroc@ioi.dk

  2. “When you can measure what you are speaking about and when you can express it in numbers you know something about it” Lord Kelvin, 1883

  3. An Accountant’s Perspective on Game Design Game-metrics are sets of techniques for inferring higher-order concepts from the large quantity of information generated when a computer game is played. Play-personas are mental constructs that allow designers to “imply” players in the process of creating game worlds. But the same construct is also used by players to identify their behaviour with prototypical profiles, to unify their actions and to make sense of them. • Using play-personas as masks to filter the raw data gathered by metrics, it is possible to observe how different uses of a game cluster in large groups. The end result is a map of the experiential flow of the game world in exam, beyond simple heat maps.

  4. “A game's value proposition is how it makes its players think and feel” “Customers don’t buy games, they buy experiences”[Nicole Lazzaro – XEO Design] “Designers will transform from being designers of “stuff” to being the builders of scaffolds for experiencing.” “Scaffolds are temporary and moveable structures for building enormous new things, but also for protecting the surrounding area from the new construction. Scaffolds provide support for the workers and their tools and materials”[Elizabeth Sanders - MakeTools]

  5. Scary monsters (and super creeps) • Expensive adaptive technologiesad hoc solutions, AI not up for the task just yet (technologic limitation) • Designer’s desire to maintain controlboth narrative and ludic, even in open games like GTA4 (psychologic limitation) • Ultimately individual nature of emotionintrinsically linked to memory (Damasio, Pert) (phenomenologic limitation) • Problems with ”measuring” experiencedifficult to get a decent resolution with bio-feedback (FUGA)(biologic limitation)

  6. Hunicke, Zubek, LeBlanc (+ Dugan)

  7. MECHANICS (rules, code) • Mechanics describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms. • Mechanics are the tangible, literal, immediate actions (or verbs) the player executes in the game. Classic examples would be run, jump, shoot, move, push, pull. • Mechanics are the necessary instant gratification of interactivity.

  8. DYNAMICS (system, behaviour) • Dynamics describes the run-time behaviour of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each others. • The series of outputs over time. • Dynamics would be the effects of the mechanics on the world and the “strategies” that combine multiple mechanics. • Dynamics are the longer term satisfaction of interactivity.

  9. AESTHETICS (”fun”) • Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the players, when they interact with the game system.

  10. METRICS • Metrics are measures of aspects of the Dynamics, then using those measurements to modify the other three systems • Metrics are a technique for inferring higher-order concepts from the large quantity of information available when a computer game is played.

  11. Play-Values • “Play-values”: the abstract principles that the game’s design, both aesthetic and functional, should embody. They inform the inception of rules.

  12. GamePlay Gestalts / Schemas / Modes • game play gestalts are patterns of interaction between player and the game system. • game play schemas are cognitive structures that underlie and facilitate the above mentioned interaction. • Play-modes are the resulting sets of all possible navigation and interaction attitudes that players can utilise to negotiate any given situation. All the game features that motivate, facilitate and constrain player action, offer the players a certain set of methods of operation within the game.

  13. Play-Styles • Play-styles are consistent sets of isotopic play-modes. Play-style are ways to capture different behaviours into a metaphore, they characterize the momentary style a player chooses to use for a given situation. Styles need not to be consistent, implying that players can change style at a whim and select a radically different set of play-modes for different situations. If, on the other hand, a player chooses to maintain a certain style, he/she will start identifying with a defined, implied play-persona.

  14. Play-Persona • A Priori: It’s a metaphore within which to capture coherent navigation and interaction attitudes, it signifies, unifies or distinguishes players from each other. • A Posteriori: It's a lens through which designers evaluate gameworlds, and players make sense of their experience

  15. SYNTHESIS HYPOTHESIS

  16. Case Study: Hitman Blood Money • Introduction: Aesthetic & Ludic codes • Analysis: Aesthetic & Ludic dimensions • Aesthetic & Ludic Parameters • Defining Personas • Measuring Aestetic and Ludic dimensions • Rebuilding player experience

  17. A vintage year - introduction Aesthetic: • Background story • Spatial layout

  18. A vintage year - introduction Ludic: • Mission targets and goals • Basic rules and tools

  19. Aesthetic analysis • Histograms (luminosity, color dominance) • Symbolical reading • Architectural deconstruction (macro and micro circulation patterns, landmarks)

  20. Aesthetic analysis: histograms

  21. Aesthetic analysis: histograms

  22. Aesthetic analysis: symbology

  23. Aesthetic analysis: symbology

  24. Aesthetic analysis: symbology

  25. Aesthetic analysis: symbology

  26. Aesthetic analysis: symbology

  27. Aesthetic analysis: symbology

  28. Aesthetic analysis: architecture Macro circulation patterns: accessing zones

  29. Aestethic analysis: architecture From outdoor open to outdoor party – ”The Mingler”: • A01- main door entrance in front • A02- service door (and then left) at the right

  30. Aestethic analysis: architecture From outdoor open to outdoor loading zone – ”Open Confrontation”: • A03- through truck entrance on the left • A04- through broken wall on the left (one way only) • A05- through crashed truck and hole in the roof at the right (”wow” moment) (one way only) • A06- through service door (and then straight over the boxes) at the right (one way only)

  31. Aestethic analysis: architecture From outdoor open to hangar – ”Rising from the bowels of Earth”: • A07- through path at the end of the cliff on the left

  32. Aestethic analysis: architecture Micro circulation patterns: moving within a zone

  33. Aestethic analysis: architecture Micro circulation patterns: moving within a zone

  34. Aestethic analysis: architecture Micro circulation patterns: moving within a zone

  35. Aestethic analysis: architecture Landmarks: • Outdoor open: perimeter walls • Outdoor party: cellar entrance • Outdoor loading: mansion • Wine cellar: barrels • Drug lab: refining tank • Hangar: waterplane • Hacienda: dark wood, windows filtering light, balcony

  36. Ludic analysis • Review of mechanics/dynamics • Affordances for dispatching Don Fernando • Affordances for dispatching Manuel • Playing modes

  37. Ludic analysis: Mechanics/Dynamics • Security zones: some areas allow only certain types of people. So disguises are also rated accordingly to the security they grant. • Disguises: changing disguises, dragging bodies, disposing of bodies • Close combat: head butt, punch, disarming, concealing weapon, fibre wiring, elevator ambush, knives, syringes, poison, human shield, push • Agility moves: jumping walls, jumping balconies, climbing through windows, walking ledges, climb drainpipes, climb ladders • Breaking in: spying from far away with binoculars, observe patterns of movement in the maps, talking to npc to gather info, spying through keyholes, lock picking, using keycards, lock shooting, hiding in closets • Distracting: coin, manipulating light • Bomb: direct explosion, secondary effect of explosion (accidents such as falling objects or exploiting environment)

  38. Ludic analysis: kill-affordances Summary of the ways Don Fernando Delgado can be killed Knocking down and gunshot are always available options

  39. Ludic analysis: kill-affordances Summary of the ways Manuel Delgado can be killed Knocking down and gunshot are always available options

  40. Ludic analysis: Playing modes

  41. Aesthetic Parameters Navigation attitudes: • BRAWN, physical prowess, climbing, making use of force, on-the-moveBRAIN, observation skills, finding holes in the surveillance system, patterning behaviours, waiting • ROLE PLAYING dressing up like other characters and actingSNEAKING keeping the suit, walking in shadows (and closets)

  42. Aesthetic Parameters

  43. Ludic Parameters Interaction attitudes: • Lethal / Non-Lethal • Silent / Loud • Clean / Bloody • Single / Multiple target • Close up / Mid Range / Far Away

  44. Narrative definition of personas (design-oriented, a priori hypotheses) SILENT ASSASSIN Stealthy, manages to complete the level without being noticed, only kills the intended targets, possibly by ”accident”. Rational, critical thinker, problem solver, and always remembers the suit. BUTCHER Up, close and personal. He likes a high and bloody body count. SAM FISHER Extremely agile, moral, expert in the art of stealth and hand-to-hand combat. DIRTY HARRY A gun-toting extrovert that relates mostly to lead-ridden bodies. UNABOMBER Not satisfied unless it involves explosions. JAMES BOND Intelligent, skilled both at gunfight and hand-to-hand combat with a fetish for gadgets ECLECTIC AESTHETE Selecting what appears to be best in various methods and styles, consistently looking for “interesting” scenarios.

  45. Parametric definition of personas (towards verified hypothesis) SILENT ASSASSIN

  46. Parametric definition of personas (towards verified hypothesis) BUTCHER

More Related