Principles of Game Design

Week 1 Homework: Review from Survey of the Game Industry Course: Defining Games; Design Philosophy; The Human Element in Game Design, Part I (Markets)

“The best way to learn games is to play games. The best way to make games is to work.” – Alan Emrich

Course Textbook, Game Development Essentials: An Introduction

Chapter 6, Gameplay: In this chapter you’ll receive an important overview of Rules (victory and loss conditions), Interactive Modes, Game Theory (zero sum and non-zero sum), Types of Challenges, and Balance.

 

 

 

 

Your Weekly Homework Game:

Create an Inception Document for your Weekly Homework Game. (You learned about these in your Survey of the Game Industry class, but a review is up on the web site on this week’s class homework page.)

 

Concept limitation: This, your Weekly Homework Game design must be centered on ships, ship activities, and ship interactions. Do not center the game on the ship’s crews or the game world’s environment or anything else (those can all be important elements, but the “stars” of your game that get center-stage attention must be the ships themselves; you’re making a game about different kinds of ships). These can be of any type of ships you want, but make sure that the epoch that this game takes place in (i.e., the historical time period, alternate universe, high fantasy, science fiction, etc.) is clearly defined. An abstract game, like “Toilet Ships”' won't work; this game needs a theme (i.e., it has to be about a particular subject).

Note: This, your “Weekly Homework Game,” is a fictitious design that you will build upon for your class exercises. These exercises will not end in a complete, close-ended game design, but rather will be part of a larger, open-ended game design to cover a broader spectrum of design areas and issues that will exercise your “game design muscles” and reinforce each lesson.

 

In short, you will create an Inception Document for this game that includes:

• Title

• High Concept

• Hook

• One-Sentence Marketing Description

• A single paragraph description of the game’s setting, Epoch, scope, scale, and who the player represents

A sample Week 1: Weekly Homework ('Ship Game') Assignment  .PDF file
is available for your inspection by clicking here.

 

Outstanding sample homework files are included inside this .zip file. It contains complete sets of homework assignments for this course from several award-winning ship games including: Alien Colony, Extreme River Rapids Racing, Hive Mind, and Outlaw Star. Peruse these to see what is expected from you each week!

 

In addition, this week's assignment only can be seen in isolation from this series from the game:
Pirates: The Battle for Booty.

Your Graded Course Project Game:

Important: This is a completely separate game from your Weekly Homework Game (above). Don’t get them confused! They are two completely different games that you’ll be working on in parallel this quarter.

 

Conceptualization, Part I: Think of a theme and / or game concept for your Graded Course Project game. Be sure to read the web site page on Course Project Information for the details about it, but this should get you started thinking this week…

 

Congratulations, you’re a game designer! Here is your first work assignment from an actual game publisher who is interested in publishing and marketing your product.

 

Victory Point Games is a small, desktop publishing outfit specializing in working with new game designers who have created quality game prototypes that have ‘sales potential’ when published and marketed. Specifically, they’re looking for fun games that appeal to either a wide general market or hit a niche market hard. Games that are tried-and-true with a new twist, games that are radically innovative and novel, games with a great story or graphics, brilliant ‘abstract’ or ‘crossover’ games – any game with a great Hook for selling it and player-appeal for enjoyment – they’re are all welcome.

 

Your final course project will be examined and graded by the developers at Victory Point Games and considered for a real life, honest-to-goodness publishing contract. (I kid you not.) You Course Project Game must fit in the following publishing format:

 

1) For this class, it must be an original (i.e., not a game based on an already existing idea, license, or franchise) analog (i.e., board, card, or paper) game. (In Advanced Game Prototyping, you will be asked to make an original digital game.)

2) The game board, if it has one, should fit on either one or two 8.5” x 11” sheets or a single 11” x 17” size sheet of paper. It can use a grid (e.g., hex or square) or be divided into areas, or whatever you want.

3) The game pieces can include 1 sheet of counters OR up to 3 sheets of cards; alternately, you can use ½ sheet of the smaller counters (1/2” or 5/8”) and up to 3 sheets of cards. Card and counter templates are available here.

 

          Class Support Material: Assorted blank grid sheets, cards, and counters

This free download is a .zip file with square- and hex-grid paper, blank card templates, and blank counter sheets. Each is presented in MSWord .doc files and is presented in various sizes in an 8.5" x 11" format. You can easily manipulate every file.

 

4) The game rules should be on the lower-complexity end and fit on either a single (two-sided) 8/5” x 11” sheet or a single (two-sided) 11” x 17” sheet (folded in half vertically to create a 4-page booklet). Typically, game rules have 2- or 3-columns of text on each page, a body font size of 10pt with slightly larger headers, and include color illustrated examples of game components and tricky rules.

5) You may also add one 8.5” x 11” full color cardstock insert (which can be cut down to two 8.5” x 5.5” half-page inserts).

6) You are responsible for creating a full, working game prototype, including solid, separated (i.e., ‘cut apart’) pieces featuring any necessary artwork (‘placeholder’ art is fine). Superior prototype components and artwork are highly recommended (and will be graded), but are not necessary (the rules, playability, and fun are the most important categories being considered).

7) Your game may ask players to provide their own common gaming items that are not included with it (e.g., dice, coins, pencils, etc.). It is not a problem to ask players to provide these common items.

8) Because of these physical limitations, your game should be on the lower end of the complexity scale (not much more complicated than Monopoly, if that can be worked into your design) and generally easy-to-learn.

9) Your game can be suitable for any number of players (even solitaire-play only).

10) A good playing time / game length would be between 15 minutes and 1 hour.

 

If you want to ‘bounce your idea’ off me to see if it would be worthy of your time to make for a grade, contact me by email this week by clicking here.

Article: Prototype, Prototype... Protospiel  by Kes Sampanther

This article discusses a convention where game designers (like you) get together and playtest each other's games and give feedback. Of particular importance to you right now, however, is this section for his article:

How Does One Design a Board Game?

I faced a catch-22 in my game design, MetaMemes, as it is the kind of creative card game I wished I had to study while I was trying to design it. So I took a step back and plundered my knowledge of creativity and brainstorming. The best way to come up with "the next great idea" is to generate tons of ideas—the more ideas you think up, the more there are to choose from and/or combine.

I used a 5 phase creativity model (as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention) to improve the design of my game. The first step is Preparation. Become immersed in the field of study, which in this case means playing games. I wanted to learn what had come before, both to create something original and to avoid making common mistakes. So I dove pell-mell, willy-nilly, full-throttle, and with great vigor into playing European games. I enjoyed myself immensely and kept an eye out for any games with unique mechanics and play experiences.

The second phase, Incubation, might be the hardest, and it's certainly the one most likely to have your loved ones impatiently demanding how, exactly, you can claim that doodling on the tablecloth with a magazine open in front of you and the telly on is "designing". Incubation is basically sitting on your ideas and letting them grow, and it involves another catch-22—making yourself not think about your game so that you can think of something brilliant (this is step 3) while you're shaving or in line at the DMV. Incubation is hard to define—it's an indefinite period of time where you just ponder games, specifically and in general. In my case, knowing my incubation period for MetaMemes was limited by the nearing start of Protospiel 2004, I focused on the newly rediscovered world of text-based adventure games, which had made a comeback since my youth, immersing myself in computer game development while my other game ideas incubated.

The third phase, Insight, is the mythical "A-ha!" or "Eureka!" moment that also mythically strikes at odd times. Like all myths, there's some truth and quite a bit of fiction to both, so don't worry if your idea doesn't pop out of your head shouting its name. I'm not sure when my "eureka" moment came, but there is a before and after. In the "before" I didn't know how to make my good, but raw, idea for MetaMemes into something truly elegant. "After", I did, but I have no lightning flash story to tell. I'd been wrestling with the intricate and complicated sets of cards and rules needed for the prototype of MetaMemes. Getting rid of one type of card streamlined the whole game mechanism—this was the first "a-ha!" realization. The second was, in retrospect, more of a "duh!" moment than a "eureka," but I've found those two are often one and the same. I realized that people enjoy brainstorming in pairs more than by themselves. It seems obvious now, but my game design notebooks reveal that it hadn't occurred to me at all before.

Next, also known as Fourth, comes Evaluation. This is the "Whoa, Nellie" stage that inventors find the most difficult to work through. "A-ha!" comes with a lot of adrenaline and excitement, but serious scrutiny is called for to make sure the idea you're excited about will actually fly. Some ideas are unreasonable, some aren't going to work with the current constraints, and some are just plain bad. A serious evaluation of your idea can save a lot of fruitless work. Don't squash your enthusiasm, just give it some warm milk and put it to bed for a nice nap while you do some serious evaluation.

After my own "Whoa, Nellie" moment, I went back to my game design notes and asked myself if my idea actually met the criteria I'd decided make for a good game. Did these new ideas make MetaMemes more interactive? Check. Is the mechanism elegant? Check. Does it create any complications? Not sure. The only way to answer that question is to try it and see what the effects are. This brings me to the last phase...

Elaboration. Don't neglect this step; it's where an idea actually comes to fruition. This is where I needed to redesign my cards, modify the rules and get a prototype to play testers. Every occupation, and even avocation, has a mantra and game design's is "Prototype, Prototype, Prototype." It's one thing to think of an idea and talk about it, but you won't know if it works until it's implemented. Develop a prototype and start testing as soon as possible, which in this case means get people to play your game and make them give you feedback. Make another prototype, and test some more. Rinse and repeat. Most people dread this phase. It involves taking criticism about your special idea. But it's absolutely necessary.

Article: Game Creation  by Tim Novak of HAE Games

This article discusses where to find inspiration, what sort of game parts to consider for your Graded Course Project (including many that are around the house), plus some consideration on game rules.

Article: Game Themes & Gameplay; Mechanics and Devices  by Steve Peek

In his book The Game Inventor’s Handbook (published by Betterway Books, 1993), game designer and publisher Steve Peek, a folksy Southerner if there ever was one, tells it like it is on the board gaming side of the business. Steve’s thoughts and my comments about a game’s theme, timing, and devices are expressed to help you better focus your ideas and resources.

Article: "Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something!" by Emily K. Dresner-Thomber

Emily, too, is learning the lessons of game design as she goes along and explains the first three steps (concept, synopsis, and basic outline) for her own role-playing game. Her teachings are a good fit for our class with a welcome perspective based upon practical learning experience.

Extra Credit:

Ancients rules: Print out and bring to class next week a copy of rules for Ancients. Be sure to read them and you will earn 2 extra credit points. You’ll find more use for these rules both during Week 5 and while writing the rules for your Graded Course Project. To get these rules, go to http://www.alanemrich.com/PGD/Week_02/Ancients_Rules-classroom.pdf .