Design Goals & Design Methods

staffan.bjork@chalmers.se

Today’s Lecture

Evolved & Designed Goals Design Goals Design Methods

Will mention methods from book but no give detail from (chapters 6-11,14)

Expect that you read this Needed for assignment 3

Assignment 3 Note that the low-fidelity playtest is in effect a part of

assignment 3 First supervision time today 15.00-17.00

Evolved & Designed Games

Evolved & Designed Games

Evolved Games Games that have no

documented original design Many anonymous designers Variant rule sets Rule sets maintained through

organizations or manufacturers

Designed Games Identified designer Often commercial intent Original rule set

Example evolved games - Bowling Egyptian Tombs

5200 BC or 500 BC Monasteries

Metaphorical teaching tools in monasteries and church where the pins represented heathens

Medieval Europe Use in English courts gave

rise to the concept of king-pin

United States Banned in the 19th century

due to betting Nine-Pin Bowling changed

into today’s Tin-Pin Bowling

[another example Chess]

Sources:Brasch, R., How Did Sports Begin?, Tynron Press, 1986Levison, D. & Christensen, K. (eds.), Encyclopedia of World Sports – From Ancient Times to the Present, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Example designed Games - Basketball James A. Naismith, 1891

Design criteria enjoyable by average

people skill rather than strength or

weight ball easy to handle, difficult

to conceal no tackling

[another example Landlord]

Differences and Similarities between Evolved and Designed Games Differences

Serendipitous Design – Planned Design Gradual improvement - Original idea Improvised Gameplay - Intended Gameplay

Similarities Same general structures

The games in both categories are all games…

Can be analyzed same way to look at gameplay Claims to be in one category can be wrong

Sequels? Games developed in groups?

Design & Craft?

Differences between design and craftwork Knowledge transferal

Crafts are primarily learned by imitation

Practitioners can not motivate why one does things one way

Unintentional trial-and-error experiments develop methods over periods spanning centuries

Information about designs are only recorded in the produced artifact Fragmented information about

details and patterns are used to recreate the design

Differences between design and craftwork, cont. Crafts do not work with

sketches Experiments are done

on the product itself Full-scale experiments

Craft typically making variants of previous work Design goals more static Design goals can be implicit

What areas of responsibilities do designers have?

Areas of responsibilities for designers Identify and explore critical choices Relate costs for research and cost for erroneous

decisions Plan activities in the work process in relation to

the competences in the work group Identify information sources and their reliability Explore connections between the “product” and

the environment in which it should be used Explore and satisfy the “needs” of the users

Design Goals

Types of design goals

Goals related to pre-planned gameplay experiences Stressing, competing, group effort, etc. Types of fun according Marc LeBlanc

Goals related to the Game system Be something for players to explore and master Be a vehicle used to provide engrossment in gameplay or narrative Be a tool for gamers to create or choose their own gameplay experience Be a tool for gamers to make their own games

Goal related to Diegetic Presentation or Narratives Tell a story of character development Tell a story of player progress Create a believable/compelling/interesting fictional world

External Goal Serious Games

Design goals can be seen as answers to questions

Questions that need to be answered to be able to start design work

Help structure one’s work What should be changed? Why should it be changed? When should the change be completed? Who are the stakeholders? (How should it be changed?)

Questions that need to be answered during the design process Why is it hard to answer these questions? (why cannot we

answer the before the design starts?) One must use available information to predict a future that will

not occur unless the predictions are correct The effect must be determined before the possibilities to reach

them are – the designer must work backwards from an assumed effect to the causes that can “cause the effects”

Sequences of cause and effect make it highly likely that new problems or better goals appear Shifting or changing the design goal(s) Possibly forcing the design process to be restarted

Stakeholders

Distributors Products – boxed packages Services – mediums

IP holders Companies Actors, authors, artists

Producers Project managers Programmers, artists, level

designers, animators, sound artists, …

Subcontractors Players

Expert players Novice players Fan communities Relatives

Interest organizations Legaslators The designers

The Design Space of Games

All possible game designs can be said to describe a design space Defining design goals can be

seen as defining a subspaces where the actual game design should be located

Previous design goals can be seen as external design goals – not based on what is interesting in the space

Design goals regarding gameplay can be seen as defining a subspace on areas that are interesting in relation to other areas

Ways of Creating Subspaces of the Design Space

Specifying required characteristics

Specifying forbidden characteristics

Note that this does not have to be seen as a negative way of design Creativity requires

limitations

Ways of Creating Subspaces of the Design Space, cont. Gameplay

Game Design Patterns, Game Mechanics

Theme Humor, horror, political

Style Realistic, Sequential Art

Narrative Linear, hypertext, player-

created, etc.

Design Methods

Jones’ model of the design process

Jones’ model of the design process Divergence

Find alternatives Transformation

Refine and understand alternatives

Convergence choose alternative

through selection or synthesis

Exact method depends on field, context, available resources and input

Not methods –Ideas and concepts

Divergence

Properties Unclear goals Problem area vaguely

defined Evaluation not relevant Starts from a assignment

or requirement specification

Conscious goal to broaden design group’s sphere of ideas

Identify important stakeholders

Transformation

Properties Find pattern from a

number of alternatives

Choosing goals Defining outer

boundaries of problem and design space

Identify critical variables

Identify subproblems

Convergence

Properties Focus on reach a goal

Endurance and methodic work

Evaluate alternatives to choose which alternative to realize

Two categories Top-down Bottom-up Both can be used

simultaneously

Methods for Game Design

Game Design Workshop & Jones’ model

Jones’ model can be applied to explain overall design process Divergence

Conceptualization - Chapter 6 Transformation

Prototyping - Chapter 7 Digital Prototyping - Chapter 8 Playtesting - Chapter 9

Convergence Functionality, Completeness, and

Balance - Chapter 10 Fun and Accessibility – Chapter 11

But can also be described as narrowing the design space

Jones’ model applied to Conceptualization Divergence

Brainstorming List creation, Idea cards, Shout it

out, Stream of consciousness, Randomize it, Research, Extreme measures

Teamstorming Interaction relabelling, cultural

probes

Transformation Editing & refining

Convergence Focus on formal elements

Conceptualization - Divergence Functional roles

observational, basic, dedicated, unique, supporting, meta

Social roles banned, outcast, recluse,

motivator, negotiator, mediator, helper, violator, dominator, exhibitionist

Atomic gameplay actions Take OBJECT from POSITION, Place

OBJECTS on POSITION, Give OBJECT to PLAYER/NON-PLAYER, Find OBJECT, Perform SKILL BASED ACTION, Randomize, Compute EVALUATION FUNCTION, Select OPTION from SET OF OPTIONS, Order PLAYER to perform TASK

Conceptualization - Transformation Guidelines

support interruptability allow multiple

communication channels consider ambiguity design for external events allow modes of play based

on social roles minimize social weight analyze intended player

groups from several perspectives

Design experiments

Conceptualization - Convergence

Conceptualization - Convergence

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Jones’ model applied to Prototyping Physical & software prototypes

Divergence Consider mediums to use

Paper, software, moddable engine Consider components to use

Transformation Test mediums Test components

Convergence Integrate components into

system

Prototyping – Divergence

Identify technologies

Identify information structures

Identify interaction structures

Prototyping - Transformation

Prototyping – Convergence

Jones’ model applied to Playtesting Self-testing, playtesting with

confidants, playtesting with target audience

Divergence Find gameplay problems,

emergent features Freeform, specific tasks,

secondary tasks Transformation

Analyze problems and emergent features

Convergence Decide to try and keep or

remove identified features

Playtesting

Jones’ model applied to Functionality, Completeness, and Balance

Divergence Find issues of functionality,

internal completeness, balance, fun, and accessibility

Transformation Explore issues and

compare against each other

Convergence Select issues & solutions to

address

Functionality, Completeness, and Balance

Assignment 3

Assignment 3 Task

Design a game for a specific game genre Groups of 3-4

Report Design document

Use component framework (lecture 3) Not mechanically; critically and only relevant parts

Note how the game concept differs from existing games Include theme, setting, and narrative elements Interface Design and how players should learn the game

Process description Clearly state your design goals What methods did you plan to use? Why?

Define and describe plan before starting! What methods were used and how did they work?

Conceptualization - Chapter 6 Prototyping - Chapter 7 Digital Prototyping – Chapter 8 Play testing - Chapter 9 Functionality, Completeness, and Balance – Chapter 10

Thank you!