Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Game Design
Game Design
Puzzles
Games
What is a game?
What's the difference between . . . ?
Toys
Just play, no rules or goal
Puzzles
A goal, but usually no rules (e.g. Rubiks
cube)
Games
Play, goal, rules
Play
Participatory form of entertainment
Compare to books, theater, film, which are
not interactive.
Pretending the Magic Circle
Important even in a physical game like
soccer. Why?
The magic circle comes into existence when
players join the game and agree to abide by
the rules.
Goal
Also called the object of the game
Might or not be achievable
Examples of games with unachievable goals?
Defined by the rules, is arbitrary
Must be nontrivial and present a challenge
Victory conditions
Game does not always end when victory
conditions are achieved
Can specify loss conditions also (or instead)
Rules
Definitions and instructions that players
agree to accept
Semiotics--meaning and relationships
between symbols
Gameplay--challenges and actions
Sequence of play
Goals
Termination
Metarules--exceptions or changes to rules
I Have No Words & I Must Design
by Greg Costikyan
The following slides summarize sections
from Greg Costikyan's 1994 paper. You can
find a link to it on the class Notes page.
(Click on the Game Design link.)
We will look at the 2002 version of the paper
later in the term.
Tradeoffs
Goals
Costikyan: "If you have no goal, your
decisions are meaningless."
Opposition
Costikyan: "A game without struggle is a
game that's dead."
Tradeoffs
Decision increases one resource but decreases
another.
Both resources are important in the game.
Game tokens
Anything the player directly manipulates:
cards, pieces, character, etc.
Clues--partial information
Other things that strengthen games
Diplomacy
Color
Simulation
Variety of encounter
Position identification
Roleplaying
Socializing
Narrative tension
Diplomacy
Costikyan: "Whenever multiple players are
involved, games are strengthened if they
permit, and encourage, diplomacy."
Non-exclusive goals
Monopoly
Axis and Allies
Simulation
Costikyan: "Simulating something almost
always is more complicated than simply
exploiting a theme for color. And it is not,
therefore, for every game. But when the
technique is used, it can be quite powerful."
Random elements
Story director
Position identification
Costikyan: "To the degree you encourage
players to care about 'the side,' to identify
with their position in the game, you increase
the game's emotional impact."
Story director
Narrative tension
Adams and Rollings distinguish between dramatic
(narrative) tension and gameplay tension.
Tension (conflict): the sense that something
important is at stake coupled with a desire to know
what happens next
Gameplay tension: comes from the players desire
to overcome a challenge and uncertainty about
whether he will succeed or fail
Possibility of failure
Time pressure
Summary of Costikyan paper
What do you think are his most important
points?