creating compelling museum games (we are museums 2016)

Frankly, Green + Webb

@marthasadie


Why games?

•Gameplay is engagement

•Gameplay is learning

•Games can reach a large

audience

•Museum content can make great

games (interesting subjects,

objects and stories)


What’s going wrong?

•Lack of digital and games knowhow or dedicated

resource

•Specifically a lack of understanding of the game

design process from clients

•Lengthy crippling sign off processes

•A lack of flexibility in the game design process

linked to funding structures - often decisions

are made before games experts have had a chance

to feed in and then are locked in.

•Small budgets or tight schedules that don’t

allow for testing and development

•A poor fit between objectives and outcomes of

the game – little learning or engagement

•Lack of understanding about the audience

•Failure to market – nobody played it

•No shared learning or insight passed on.


What’s going wrong?

•Lack of digital and games knowhow or dedicated

resource

•Specifically a lack of understanding of the game

design process from clients

•Lengthy crippling sign off processes

•A lack of flexibility in the game design process

linked to funding structures - often decisions

are made before games experts have had a chance

to feed in

•A poor fit between objectives and outcomes of

the game – little learning or engagement

•Lack of audience understanding

•Small budgets or tight schedules that don’t

allow for testing and development

•Failure to market – nobody played it

•No shared learning or insight passed on.


Roflpillar by Lucky Frame


What is a game?

A game is a:

• simplified

• fair,

• fascinating,

• empowering

• and enclosed world

• whose purpose is to provide structured

play through

• moderated yet unscripted actions and

• learnable dynamics

• with the goal of winning through

victory or achievement

- Tadgh Kelly


What is a game?

Games are belief engines. Games are canvases for stories in motion.

Games are a challenge and a learning activity. Games are ideas. Games

are explorations both intellectual and meaningful. Games are positive.

Games make life better. Games help you feel success when all around

you is grey and confusing. Games are change. Games are illuminating.

Games are insightful. Games are irreverent. Games are very old. Games

are very new. Games are tests. Games are addictive. Games are

pressure. Games are motivational, inspirational and educational. Games

are fun. Games are exercise. Games are good for body and soul. Games

are about you. Games are projections. Games are worlds which we

superimpose on this world in order to escape or make sense of it.

Games are dynamic, chaotic and delightful. Games are there to be

mastered, used up and then forgotten. Games are participatory,

cultural and shared. Games are demanding. Games are emotive. Games are

sometimes indescribable and yet all too real. Games are made, but more

than the sum of their made parts. Games are a constant source of the

strange. Games are risky. Games are playful. Games are one of the key

experiences that life is for. Games are brilliant. Games are an art

form. Games are numinous. Games are thaumatic. Games belong to us.

– Tadgh Kelly


What is a game?

A game has:


What is a game?

A game has:

• Mechanics

• Dynamics

• Aesthetics

(Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek 2001

http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/pubs/MDA.pdf

http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/pubs/MDA.pdf


What is a game?

A game has:

• Mechanics

• The formal rules of a game. How the

game is played, what actions the

player can make, the win or fail

states, how rules are enforced.


What is a game?

A game has:

• Dynamics

• How the rules act in in motion. How

they respond to player input and

interact with other rules. The “run-

time” behaviour of a game


What is a game?

A game has:

• Aesthetics

• The player’s experience of the game.

Is it fun? Social? Frustrating?

Hilarious?


What is a game?

Mechanics

Dynamics

Aesthetics

Player

Designer


What makes a good game?



• Compelling gameplay mechanics

(intrinsic rewards)




(intrinsic rewards)

• Balanced continuous challenge

(learning curve)




(intrinsic rewards)


(learning curve)

• Satisfying play feel (look, feel,

sound, heft)




(intrinsic rewards)


(learning curve)

• Satisfying play feel (look, feel,

sound, heft)

• Compelling extrinsic motivation (not

always necessary)


What makes a good game

with purpose?


What makes a good game

with purpose?

• A good game design process


Cat On Yer Head by Playniac www.playniac.com


The iterative game design

process

• Identify objectives (DO NOT SKIP)

• Identify mechanics that fit

• Draft a game

• Prototype and test it

• Revise

• Test again

• Revise

• Test again

• Revise

• Test again

• Revise

• etc


The implications?

• Be clear about objectives, the

mechanics will flow from that – these

can be the brief

• Leave room in the development process

for the actual development – must be

flexible enough for this

• Test it early – leave budget and time

for this

• Bring in many voices

• Think about how you are going to

distribute and market it

• Evaluate and share insight – within

your institution and outside too