Completing a Game Design

Dr. Lewis Dr. Lewis

PulsipherPulsipherCopyright 2008 Lewis Pulsipher

April 21, 2023

Who am I Designed my own games while a

teenager Began playing commercial wargames in

1963 Played the original Atari 2600 and have

played some PC games heavily, but rarely play any video games these days; never owned a game console

My favorite game is “the game design game”

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Who am I

Designer of six commercially-published board wargames (most recently November ‘08), more to come

Active designer of board and card games (playtesters solicited!)

My main job has been teaching video game design and development in college

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Some of my games

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The problem and task I’ve talked about the business side

of game design, and about starting a game design, in previous seminars.

You’d think completing a design would be fairly easy; in fact it’s the hardest part

There’s a pyramid, with completing the game at the narrow top, and getting ideas at the very bottom.

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The Design Pyramid: Milestones on the way to production

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Prototypes—”testing is sovereign” To best improve a game, you must have a playable

prototype – Firaxis’ Sid Meier-Civilization series, Pirates– The sooner Firaxis got a playable version of Civ 4, the

more they could learn– A playable prototype includes “artwork” or physical

components, and rules or programming The rules for a non-video game are the equivalent of the

programming of a video game– Programming must be precise and is very time consuming

(game engines may help in the future)– A playable set of rules can be much less precise, relying on

the mind(s) of the designer(s), and notes It’s also much easier to change the non-video prototype

to test different approaches It’s much easier to produce the physical prototype,

than to create the artwork for a video game

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Art vs. Science As in many other creative endeavors,

there are two ways of approach – These are often called Romantic and

Classical, or Dionysian and Apollonian Or: art and science

– Some people design games “from the gut”– Others like to use system, organization, and

(when possible) calculation Mine is the “scientific” approach, which

is more likely to help new designers– I think design is 10% art and 90% science

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One way to look at the difference Art is something created by an

individual, then presented to the public “as is”– There is no “testing” or “focus

groups” Science is something subject to

repeated testing– And almost all good games are

thoroughly playtested– A sign of an “amateur” designer is

insufficient testing

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How to design games

Constraints lead to a conclusion:– Characteristics of the audience

(target market)• “People don’t do math any more”

– Genre limitations– Production-imposed limitations

• “Board cannot be larger than X by Y”

– Self-imposed limitations• “I want a one-hour trading game”

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Constraints

Limits lead to a conclusion:– Characteristics of the audience

(target market)• “People don’t do math any more”

– Genre limitations– Production-imposed limitations

• “Board cannot be larger than X by Y”

– Self-imposed limitations• “I want a one-hour trading game”

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Publisher-imposed limits

Some are publisher preference, some are market-dictated

For example: many publishers want nothing that requires written records in a game (FFG Britannia example)

Another example: consumers strongly prefer strong graphics, whether in a video or a non-video game

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Self-imposed limits You have your own preferences

– Don’t design a game you dislike to play yourself– If you dislike it, why should anyone else like it?– But don’t design a game “just like you like to play”—it

may already be out there, right?– “Pro” designers will design games other people like,

that they’re not so thrilled about themselves Limits/constraints improve and focus the

creative process– Great art and music is much more commonly produced

in eras of constraints, rather than eras without constraints

Example of a limit: I want to produce a two-player game that lasts no more than 30 minutes

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The Process of Design See data flow diagram Circles are processes--activities

– The numbers are for identification, DO NOT indicate a strict sequence of events

Lines show flows of information Rectangles are entities outside the

“game design” system Arc-ed rectangles are “data stores” Each process could generate another

diagram like this one (but I haven’t finished them)

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And 19 essential questions that you’ll answer sooner or later “Distinct” questions (yes/no, or just

a few possible answers): (“digital-style” questions)

What is the genre of the game? Is it competitive or cooperative? Is it Symmetric or Asymmetric? Is it Zero-sum (ZS) or Non-zero-sum? How many (human) "sides" (generally, 1,

2, or many) and (human) players? Is this an “emergent”/rules-dominant

game or a “role-assumption”/story-dominant game?

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19 questions continued Spectrum questions (a wide range of possibilities

along a spectrum, “analog-style” questions) How “big” and how long will the game be? How complex is the game? What is the role of chance, how much does chance play

a part in the game? How strongly will the decisions of the players influence

the outcome of the game? Which kind of skill does a player need to use,

adaptability, or planning? Which kind of skill does a player need, quick reactions

(typical in shooters, for example), or careful deliberation?

What is the level of Fluidity or Chaos? Is the game largely "mechanical" or "psychological"?

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19 questions concluded Other questions: What is the outstanding mechanism

involved? What are the dynamics of being ahead or

behind in the game? What phases does the game naturally fall

into? Is the game "serious" or "just for laughs"? Is the game “ruthless” or “nice”

(competition or entertainment)?

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Put yourself in the player’s shoes What do you want them to feel as

they play? What decisions can they make? How do they affect the course and

outcome of the game? What must they do that might not

be “enjoyable” (especially: recordkeeping)?– So how can this be eliminated?

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The stages of completion of a non-video game design Idea Notes about idea Detailed notes about idea Rough board/layout of pieces (if any) Detailed board/layout (if any) Prototype (pieces/cards added) Solo-played prototype Prototype played by others Full written rules (rarely done before others have

played) "Settled" game Blind testing "Done" (but still subject to change, especially by

manufacturer)

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The stages of completion of a video game design Idea Notes about idea Detailed notes about idea Game treatment “Rules”—very detailed design document Computer Prototype (usually for show) Playable Prototype (usually new code) Development Testing “Done”

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“Playtesting is sovereign”

If your target audience likes it, you’re getting somewhere

If they don’t, you are failing Playtesting is an invitation to say

your game sucks (NOT “you suck”) Don’t take it personally I devote an entire chapter in one of

my books to playtesting

What are YOUR ideas about playtesting?

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80/20 The really hard part of making a game is a last 20%

of improvement that takes 80% of the time. This is a process of playtesting, evaluating the results, modifying the game to improve it in light of the results, playtesting again, and going through the whole cycle again and again and again. This is called the iterative and incremental development of the game. If you want to make a really good game then you are probably going to be sick and tired of it by the time you get toward the end of this process.

Finally, the game is never really done, you just come to a point where the value of the improvement is less than the cost of the time required to achieve it (Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns). Moreover, you might think you’re “done”, and then find out that improvements need to be made either for your peace of mind or because the publisher requires it.

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Design vs. “development”

“Development” has two meanings– In video games, it means writing the

program– In non-video, development (often by a

person other than the designer) sets the finishing touches on a game, but may include significant changes

– Development takes longer than design, in either case

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The designer’s game vs. the game that’s published Video games are often overseen

by the publisher, who is paying the bills; so it is modified to suit as it is developed

Non-video games are often unseen by the publisher until “done”; some publishers then modify them, often heavily

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Brief “what’s important” Know your audience! What do they like? No game can

satisfy all tastes. Know your objectives! What are you trying to achieve? Design is “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”,

especially if you also develop the non-video game. Writing usable rules (or doing the programming) is the

hardest part. Write everything down (and back it up). Playtesting is “sovereign”. No matter what you think

about how the game will work, only efficient playtesting will actually show how it works. Without a playable prototype, you have *nothing*! (That’s only a slight exaggeration.)

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Summary Ideas are cheap (easy); a playable game is much harder to

create. Players must be able to influence the outcome of the game

by their choices amongst non-obvious alternatives–otherwise it’s not a game (though it might be a story or a toy or a puzzle). .

Be willing to change the game again and again. Hardly any idea is original...but ideas can be used in new

ways. And there’s almost always a new way to treat any subject (many, many ways to do real estate–Monopoly is only one).

Games are supposed to be fun. But “fun” means different things to different people.

Keep in mind the nine fundamental structures of games:

The road to the complete game: 1. Ideas, 2. Playable ideas, 3. Prototypes, 4. Play solo, 5. Playtest, 6. Fully written rules, 6. Keep experimenting. 7. “Blind” test.

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Conclusion of Summary Don't design games for yourself, design for others. They’re the ones

who must enjoy it, your enjoyment in playing is unimportant! But don’t design something you expect you’ll dislike.

– If you're only working on one game, or a few, you're not likely to end up with a good one, AND you identify yourself as a dilettante, an amateur. Pros are working on many, many games.

Patience is a virtue. Britannia existed in fully playable form in 1980. It was first published in 1986. In 2008, one publisher told me, "it's a good thing you're immortal, because it's going to take a long time" to evaluate and publish one of my games. I was offered a contract more than a year later.

So if you're the "instant gratification" type, recognize your instant gratification will be in seeing people play your prototype, not in the published game.

Self-publishing is practical, if you don't mind losing a lot of money. Moreover, at some point you become a publisher/marketer, not a designer. What do you want to do?

Playtesting is sovereign. You have to playtest your game until you're sick of looking at it, until you want to throw the damn thing away. Then maybe you'll have something. But you have to be willing to change the game again and again: listen to the playtesters, watch how they react, recognize your game isn’t perfect and won’t be even when (if) it’s published.

When your game is rejected, there’s a good chance the rejection had nothing to do with the game’s quality. Be persistent.

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Books about game design Academic

– More about game analysis than about design– Rules of Play by Salen and Zimmerman, MIT Press

(game design as “Art”—very academic) Video-game oriented

– Tends to platitudes and generalities, because it’s so hard to create and try a video game

– Rollings and Adams on Game Design, New Riders Marketing oriented

– Primarily about how to get the attention of publishers– Game Inventor’s Guidebook by Brian Tinsman

How-to– Well, there aren’t any! for boardgames; a few being

done for video games now

Questions?Comments?