Game design and development

Nature of Games,
Design Elements, Game Components

lecture 3

Marwa Al-Hadi
Zelda
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Lecture two part one: Nature of Games

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Definitions of Games
⚫ Adams: Fundamentals of Game Design
A game is a form of interactive entertainment where players must
overcome challenges, by taking actions that are governed by rules,
in order to meet a condition.

⚫ Salen & Zimmerman: Rules of Play

A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict,
defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.

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Design Decisions
⚫Players
⚫How many players are there at a time?
⚫Who or what is the player in the world?
⚫Specifies a notion of identity
⚫Goals
⚫What is the player trying to achieve?
⚫Defined by the game or by the player?
⚫Specifies the player focus

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Design Decisions
⚫Rules
⚫How does the player effect the world?
⚫How does the player learn the rules?
⚫Specifies the boundaries of the game
⚫Challenges
⚫What difficulties must the player overcome?
⚫Is there more than one way to overcome them?
⚫Specifies the fundamental gameplay

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(Other) Design Decisions

⚫Game Modes
⚫How are the challenges put together?
⚫What is the interaction happend?
⚫Setting
⚫What is the nature of the game world?
⚫What is the perspective (e.g. 3D, etc.)?
⚫Story
⚫What narrative or the story will the player involve?
⚫How is it connected to gameplay?

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Play Length
⚫How short a game can I play and have fun?
⚫Least meaningful unit of play
⚫Console: 30 minutes+ is acceptable
⚫Mobile: … think about that
⚫Casual often means short play units
⚫But can have sophisticated gameplay!
⚫Example: Plants vs. Zombies

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Dueling-fighting- Design Philosophies
Narrative-story-
⚫Games are a story medium
⚫ Focuses on storytelling
⚫ Traditional narrative structure
⚫ Advantages:
⚫ Emotionally compelling
⚫ Strong artistic vision
⚫ Disadvantages:
⚫ Author voice over player voice
⚫ Poorly defined mechanics
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Ludic
⚫Games are about mechanics
⚫ Focus on gameplay, rules
⚫ Storytelling is minimal
⚫ Advantages:
⚫ Tight, well-defined gameplay
⚫ Disadvantages:
⚫ Lack of player motivation
⚫ Hard to distinguish yourself
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Narrative The Dangers of Pure Story

What is the player doing?

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But Ludic is Not Everything
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But Ludic is Not Everything
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Game Design Must Be a Balance

Motivate the Player Empower the Player

⚫Needs a story framework ⚫Drama from player actions

⚫ Setting to work within ⚫ Define what the player can do
⚫ Strong sense of identity ⚫ Challenges reward or punish
⚫ Challenges with context ⚫ Freedom in achieving goals

Games are dramatic, but they

have their own conventions.

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The Adams Approach

⚫Games as wish-fulfillment
⚫I want to….. a game with
⚫Questions to answer:
⚫What dream are you satisfying with?
⚫What goals does this dream create?
⚫What actions achieve those goals? Narrative
⚫What setting does this dream create?
⚫What is the appropriate interface?
⚫Use this to define gameplay Ludic
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Exploring Gameplay
⚫To design games, you must play games!
⚫Experience many different types of gameplay
⚫Do not play the same type of game all the time
⚫Flash portals are still a good resource
⚫Games are small but focus entirely on gameplay
⚫Ex: Puzzle game

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 Have Realistic Goals
⚫Goal: Size of a mobile game
⚫Can be played instantly with minimal tutorial

⚫Quality over Quantity

⚫Ten amazing levels better than 30 poor levels
⚫Balance number of challenges with level size

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Commercial Examples
⚫ Braid: Puzzle platformer with time-travel mechanics
⚫ Limbo: Dark platformer with realistic physics
⚫ Hotline Miami: Top-down stealth and action
⚫ Clash of Heroes: Match 3 + Turn-based strategy
⚫ Guild of Dungeoneering: RPG + CCG
⚫ Use cards to build the dungeon that you explore
⚫ Monument Valley: Puzzle-based exploration
⚫ Think about insdie games
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Examples
⚫ Mount Sputnick (Spring 2017):
⚫ Competitive rock-climbing game
⚫ Arc en Ciel (Spring 2015):
⚫ Platformer where you paint platforms, while enemy erases
⚫ Dash (Spring 2014):
⚫ Action game with dash mechanics to avoid enemies, obstacles

⚫ Exodus Protocol (Spring 2013):

⚫ X-Com style strategy game with only three units
⚫ Ensembler (Fall 2011):
⚫ Classical music rhythm game with you as conductor

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Lecture2 part two: Design Elements

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Reminder: Aspects of a Game

⚫Players: How do humans affect the game?(character)

⚫Goals: What is the player trying to do?

⚫Rules: How can the player achieve the goal?

⚫Challenges: What obstacles block the goal?

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Formal Design Elements

⚫Players: Player Mode Sketches

⚫Goals: Objectives

⚫Rules: Actions and Interactions

⚫Challenges: Obstacles and Opponents

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Player Mode Sketches

⚫Game may have several player modes
⚫Ways in which player interacts with a game
⚫Example: Inventory screen

⚫You should storyboard all of your modes

⚫Sketches of each of the major player modes
⚫May have action (like movie storyboard)
⚫Illustrate how player interacts with game

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Dragon Age: Standard Mode
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Dragon Age: Inventory-setting mode- Mode
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Aside: Help the Hero
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Lifted: Player Mode Sketch

Indicating
Action

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Lifted: Completed Game
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Diagramming Action
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Objectives
⚫Anything a player might do their best for
⚫May be a primary game objective
⚫Progressing the story
⚫“Completing” the game
⚫May be an auxiliary game objective
⚫Side missions/quests
⚫Unusual achievements

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Objectives
⚫ Primary objectives reflect vision
⚫ Help player realize the dream

⚫ Auxiliary objectives address player style

⚫ Achievements for achievers
⚫ Online resources for socializers

⚫ Player-driven objectives require a different focus

⚫ Start with a toy, and layer dramatic elements on it

the
29 Design Elements gamedesigninitiative
at cornell university
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Some Objective Categories

⚫ Capture: take or destroy something of value
⚫ Includes “kill all enemies of type X”

⚫ Race: reach a goal within time

⚫ Chase: catch an opponent/enemy

⚫ Race with a dynamic goal/destination

⚫ Rescue/Escape: Get someone to safety

⚫ Exploration: Locate something in game world
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Actions
⚫ Verbs that describe what the player can do
⚫ Walk •(left or right) (walk, but faster!)
⚫ Run Action
•(up; jump/run for left or right) (left or right)
⚫ Jump Platformer
⚫ Shoot

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Designing Actions
⚫Starts with brainstorming the verbs
⚫Define the types of verbs
⚫Define the scope of the verbs
⚫Design Goals
⚫Enough verbs to avoid being too simple
⚫But not so much to be confusing
⚫Do the verbs directly achieve the goal?
⚫Each verb maps to a single input
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Primary Actions
⚫ How do verbs, goals relate?
⚫ Imagine there no challenges??!!
⚫ What verbs must you have?

⚫ Example: Platformers
⚫ Goal: reach exit location
⚫ Only need movement verbs
⚫ Killing enemies is optional
⚫ Other actions are secondary

⚫ Focus on primary actions

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Secondary Actions are Optional

⚫ Often in puzzle platformers

⚫ Platformer verbs + something

⚫ Directly overcome challenges

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The Game State

⚫Collection of values representing game world
⚫Location, physical attributes of each game object
⚫Non-spatial values (e.g. health) of these objects

⚫Actions modify the game state

⚫Only need enough state to understand interactions

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Interactions
⚫ Not a direct action of player
⚫ Result of the game state
⚫ Can happen w/o controller
⚫ Example: impacts
⚫ May be bad (take damage)
⚫ May be good (power-up)
⚫ Other Examples:
⚫ Spatial proximity
⚫ Line-of-sight
⚫ Resource acquisition
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Game Mechanics
⚫Game mechanic
⚫Relationship of verbs, interactions, and state
⚫Often call this relationship the “rules”
⚫Gameplay is displaying of these rules
⚫Example: Joust
⚫Verbs: Fly; go left or right
⚫Interaction: fighting with enemies
⚫Rule: If hit enemies, lower player dies

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Gameplay Example: Joust
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Verbs vs Interactions
⚫ Design Idea: minimalism
⚫ Game with very few verbs
⚫ Common in mobile, tablet

⚫ Example: Sneak Beat Bandit

⚫ Has only one verb: move
⚫ Rhythm-balance- game; move to beat
⚫ All movement on bars
⚫ If obstacle in way, turn
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Avoid Verb Proxies

⚫ Proxy: verb that activates another verb
⚫ “Use an item” (what does the item do?)
⚫ “Shoot” (what does the weapon do?)

⚫ Make the outcome of your verbs clear

⚫ Fire continuous beam (effects are instantaneous)

⚫ Important questions to ask

⚫ How does help reach the goal?
⚫ How is it outcome challenged?

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Challenges: Limitations
⚫ You cannot always perform an action
⚫ Shooting may require bombs Resource
⚫ Cannot (always) jump in mid air

⚫ Limitation: requirement to perform action

⚫ Boolean test (like an if-then)
⚫ Checked at time of user input

⚫ Only one limitation per verb

⚫ If more than one, split into more verbs
⚫ Reason double-jump is distinct

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Challenges: Resources
⚫Resources are non-spatial part of game state
⚫Any value not a location or physical attribute
⚫May be global or attached to an entity
⚫Examples
⚫Entity: bombs, health points
⚫Global: enemy creating, time remaining
⚫They also define the game economy

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Putting It All Together

⚫Start with your vision
⚫This creates setting and player goals
⚫Create a (partial) list of the following:
⚫Objectives
Sketch player
⚫Actions
modes to show
⚫Interactions them in action
⚫Challenges
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Lecture2 part three: Game Components

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Starting Prompt
⚫What exactly is a game engine?
⚫What libraries does it have to provide?
⚫What tools need to come with it?
⚫What skills should an engine require?
⚫Extensive programming experience ?
⚫Minimal programming experience ?
⚫No programming experience?
⚫Artistic ability (vs. paying for assets)?
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So You Want to Make a Game?

⚫Will assume you have a design document
⚫Focus of next week and a half…
⚫Building off the ideas of previous work
⚫Need to assign tasks to the team members
⚫Helps to break game into components
⚫Each component being a logical unit of work.
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Traditional Way to Break Up a Game

⚫Game Engine
⚫Software, created primarily by programmers
⚫Rules and Mechanics
⚫Created by the designers, with programmer input
⚫User Interface
⚫Coordinated with programmer/artist/HCI specialist
⚫Content and Challenges
⚫Created primarily by designers
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Features of Game Engines

⚫Power the graphics and sound
⚫3D rendering or 2D sprites
⚫Power the character and strategic AI
⚫Typically custom designed for the game
⚫Power the physics interactions
⚫Must support impacts at a simple minimum
⚫Describe the systems
⚫Space of possibilities in game world
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Commercial Game Engines

⚫Libraries that take care of technical tasks
⚫But systems always need some specialized code
⚫Game studios buy source code licenses

⚫Is LibGDX a game engine?

⚫It has libraries for graphics, physics, and AI
⚫But you still have to provide code for systems

⚫Basic bones engine: graphics, physics, audio

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Game Engines: Graphics

⚫ Minimum requirements:
1. API to import artistic assets(interface)
2. Routines for manipulating images

⚫ Two standard 3D graphics APIs

⚫ OpenGL: Unix, Linux, Macintosh
⚫ Direct3D: Windows
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Game Engines: Physics

⚫Defines physical attributes of the world
1. There is a gravitational force
2. Objects may have contact
3. Ways in which light can reflect
⚫Does not define precise values or effects
⚫The direction or value of gravity
⚫Friction constants for each object
⚫Specific lighting for each material
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Game Engines: Systems

⚫Physics is an example of a game system
⚫Specifies the space of possibilities for a game
⚫But not the specific parameters of elements
⚫Extra code that you add to the engine
⚫Write functions for the possibilities
⚫Programmer vs. gameplay designer
⚫Programmer creates the system
⚫Gameplay designer fills in parameters
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Systems: Super Mario Bros.

⚫ Levels
⚫ Fixed height scrolling maps
⚫ Populated by blocks and enemies

⚫ Enemies
⚫ Affected by stomping or bumping
⚫ Different movement/AI schemes
⚫ Spawn enemies
⚫ Blocks
⚫ Can be stepped on safely
⚫ Can be bumped from below

⚫ Mario (and Luigi) can be small, big, or fiery

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Characteristics of an Engine
⚫Broad, adaptable, and extensible
⚫Encodes all non-mutable-changeable - design decisions
⚫Parameters for all mutable -changeable - design decisions

⚫Outlines gameplay possibilities

⚫Cannot be built independent of design
⚫But only needs highest level information
⚫Gameplay specification is sufficient
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Data-Driven Design
⚫No code outside engine; all else is data
⚫Create game content with level editors
⚫Examples:
⚫Art, music in industry-standard file formats
⚫Object data in JSON or other data file formats
⚫Character behavior specified through scripts
⚫Major focus for alpha release

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Popular Indie Engines

⚫Use data-driven design
⚫All code is in “scripts”
⚫Core code is inaccessible
⚫Now engines all in-house

Data driven : that all decisions and processes

are dictated by the data and decision made base
on user track

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Rules & Mechanics

⚫Fills in the values for the system
⚫Parameters (e.g. gravity, damage amounts, etc.)
⚫Types of player abilities/verbs
⚫Types of world interactions
⚫Types of obstacles/challenges
⚫But does not include specific challenges
⚫Just the list all challenges that could exist
⚫Contents of the palette for level editor
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Rules: Super Mario Bros.

⚫Enemies
⚫Spinys damage Mario when stomped
⚫Piranha Plants aim fireballs at Mario Piranha Plants

⚫Environment
⚫Mushroom makes Mario small
⚫Fire flower makes Mario big and fiery

Spinys

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Game AI: Where Does it Go?

⚫Game AI is traditionally placed in mechanics
⚫AI needs rules to make right choices
⚫AI to give characters personalities
⚫But it is implemented by programmer
⚫Search algorithms/machine learning
⚫ “AI Photoshop” for designers

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Interfaces
⚫Interface specifies
⚫How player does things (player-to-computer)
⚫How player gets feedback (computer-to-player)
⚫More than engine+mechanics
⚫Describes what the player can do
⚫Do not specify how it is done
⚫Bad interfaces can kill a game

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Interface: Dead Space-video-

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Designing Visual Feedback

⚫Designing for on-screen activity
⚫Details are best processed at the center
⚫Peripheral vision mostly detects motion
⚫Visual highlighting around special objects
⚫Designing for off-screen activity
⚫Flash the screen for quick events (e.g. being hit)
⚫Dim the screen of major events (e.g. low health)

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Interface: Witcher 3-video-
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Other Forms of Feedback

⚫Sound
⚫Player can determine type, distance
⚫In some set-ups, can determine direction
⚫Best for conveying action “off-screen”
⚫Tactile (e.g. Rumble Shock) video
⚫Good for proximity only (near vs. far)
⚫Either on or off; no type information
⚫Limit to significant events (e.g. getting hit)

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Content and Challenges

⚫ Content is everything else
⚫ Gameplay content defines the actual game
1. Goals and victory conditions
2. Missions and quests
3. Interactive story choices

⚫ Non-gameplay content affects player experience

1. Graphics and cut scenes
2. Sound effects and background music
3. Non-interactive story
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Mechanics vs. Content

⚫Content is the layout of a specific level
⚫Where the exit is located
⚫The number and types of enemies
⚫Mechanics describe what these do
⚫What happens when player touches exit
⚫How the enemies move and hinder player
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Mechanics vs. Content

Mechanics palette
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Why the division?

⚫They are not developed sequentially
⚫Content may requires changes to game engine
⚫Interface is changing until the very end
⚫Intended to organize your design
⚫Engine: decisions to be made early, hard-code
⚫Mechanics: design decisions
⚫Interface: how to shape the user experience
⚫Content: specific gameplay and level-design

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Summary
⚫Game is divided into four components
⚫Should keep each in mind during design
⚫Key for distributing work in your group

⚫But they are all interconnected

⚫System/engine limits your possible mechanics
⚫Content is limited by the type of mechanics

⚫Once again: design is iterative

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Thank you