Game Design

EST310/ISE340Fall 2011

Tony Scarlatos

What makes a good game?

“Games should be easy to learn and hard to master.”

- Nolan Bushnell, Atari

Computer Space Pong

What makes a good game?• People want to play right away. • Games should be easy to learn. Start playing in a few minutes!

People hate to wait. • Keep all players involved, even when it is not their turn. • People love a challenge. • Games should have variety – should be different every time you

play.• People want to win. Combine luck and skill so every player has a

chance to win.• People learn from playing games - so make learning fun.• Aesthetics - eye catching design.• Interesting content - story, dialog.

Player-centric design methodology

• Your player is not you• Beyond mere demographics – age, sex, race,

education, income level, etc.• Players have different likes and dislikes even within

their demographic (ex. Core vs. Casual gamers)• Various research methods (such as focus groups) can

be employed to get data about your target audience• Play testing is an important part of the game

development process• “What does the player want to do?”

Bartle’s 4 Player Types

4 Engagement Styles

Classic Game Genres• Action

– shooter and fighting games, such as Doom (often a First Person Shooter - FPS)• Strategy

– Risk, Warhammer (known as Real Time Strategy or Turn Based Strategy)• Role-Playing Games

– known as RPG’s, can be single player like Final Fantasy, or multiplayer like World of Warcraft• Sims

– simulations, typically sports games like Madden NFL, or racing games, like Midnight Club: Street Racing

• Construction– building games like Sim City

• Adventure– similar to action games except the gameplay focuses on puzzle solving and not combat, Myst is

the common example• Puzzle

– Tetris is the most commonly cited example

Anatomy of a game

• User interface• Core mechanics– Precise rules of the game as symbolic &

mathematical model• Interaction model (what the UI is showing)• Camera model (view of the gameworld)• Shell menus and screens– Load/Save, A/V settings– Title screens, credits, cut scenes

Anatomy of a game

Player

Interaction Model(Controls, Feedback)

Core Mechanics

Camera Model(World View)

INPUT

OUTPUT

ACTION

CHALLENGE

USER INTERFACE GAMEPLAY

GAMEPLAY MODE

Design process• Concept

– Define audience– Determine player’s role(s)

• Elaboration– Primary gameplay mode– Design protagonist– Define gameworld– Design core mechanics and additional modes– Design levels– Write story and dialog– Build (UI, game assets, and programming)

• Tuning– Test

Game Design Process

Game Design Process

Game Design Process

Platform Considerations• Console

– Playstation, Wii, Xbox• Computer

– OS X, Windows• Networked or Stand-Alone• Browser-based• Handheld Game Systems

– DS, PSP• Smartphone

– Android or iOS

• Cost of porting the game to a different platform• Royalty collected by the manufacturer (between $3 to $10 per unit for consoles)

– Apple collects 30% of the price of an app sold on the App Store• Peripherals?

– Joystick, dancepad, Kinect, microphone, custom controller (guitar in RockBand)