Game Journal

Chapter One: The Role of the Game Designer

In this chapter, the author explained key factors in which you should consider and practice as a game designer. Being a game designer should, you should welcome communication, different ideas from playtesters and focus on a playcentric ideal. Playcentric design is when you invite feedback from player early on in the process of designing you game. This is important because it allows the designer to fix problems of their design quickly and more cost efficiently. Furthermore, this chapter delved into the process of iterative design. With playtesting, communication, prototyping and brainstorming ensures that the game you are designing is as good as it can be. It is often stressed that you should use an iterative design method by prototyping, playtesting, and fixing the problem until it is the best you can get it. Using a playcentric approach too can expand gameplay possibilities and experiment with creative ideas you may have for a game. For the board game we are designing, the game was fun and engaging, however we had a problem that needed constant playtesting in order to figure out. This was that if someone is losing, it became very difficult for them to get the chance to win and they would become the target. The one who was winning, had a huge chance on winning because their stats were the highest since they collected the most body parts. So, we had to add additional stat cards for the losing players in order for them to have a chance on fighting other players to steal body parts.

Chapter Six: Conceptualization

This chapter focused more on the brainstorming and beginning processes of creating a concept for a game. Within this chapter, advice on how to brainstorm was given. Brainstorming is an important key concept to game design because it allows your thoughts to flow instead of waiting for inspiration to hit. Seeing different methods of brainstorming was interesting to read because I often just wait until inspiration hits me so I can create something. Methods such as writing random thoughts on a wall in a short amount of time and playing with something whilst thinking are simple but effective to put your thoughts out there. I also wanted to point out the research aspect of this chapter. When the author added, “ if you want to make a game for ‘tween girls,’ then you should find out what they are already playing and try watch a group engaged with existing products…” (177) in which this stood out to me because a lot of filmmakers do this kind of research as well. I point out filmmakers because I often see more behind the scenes of films rather than movies and a great example of it is Bo Burhman’s film Eighth Grade where he had to research middle school life in order to make this fun, engaging movie. Which is successfully was and was a relatable movie so this could apply to game design, film, or books and in other art forms that engages an audience.

Chapter Seven: Prototyping

Prototyping is always emphasized in design to ensure that the final product is the best it can be. A method of prototyping that always intrigued me was physical prototyping, but I have never tried it. Reading the benefits of how it can benefit the designer makes me want to prototype like this more often. This is because during class, I feel like we are expected a somewhat working code and a digital prototype rather than a physical one because most of our “finished” games are prototype. Also, making games in such a short time, this may be more efficient. Something to also take away from prototyping is asking questions about the mechanic and how the player is interacting with the game. It helps narrow down the errors you will make while designing and improve the mechanics of the game. As the author was narrowing down on physical prototyping, I thought it was important to point out that these prototypes give you a framework to then build up later in your design process. Additionally, visualizing the core game mechanic seemed to be another key factor in designing games. This is something I often struggled with especially when making games in a short amount of time. Here, it is discussed to diagram the core game actions, rewards, and other consequences because games are naturally repetitive. Moreover, as you build up your game like it is a skeletal structure, you need to decided the essentials. Again, this is something that I struggled visualizing because my planning process has never been organized. Thus, breaking it down in parts during the prototyping phase is an important part of designing. My mind goes everywhere when I think of an idea but like what was said in here, “focus on rules first and features later.” Of course, I look at features and aesthetics rather than the core mechanics and rules. With Spooky Strategy, we focused more on how to balance the gameplay. Still being in a prototype phase, the game isn’t perfect, as we need to still figure out a way to balance how the players win and lose. Stats are rather tricky and complex so prototyping the game over and over again with playtesting will help us make a smooth and fun gameplay experience.

Chapter Twelve: Team Structures

Working on a team means communication is vital. Without it, there will be misunderstandings and more errors throughout the design process. Everyone should include their input in order to come up with cool new ideas and thoughts. Some may be bad ideas some may be amazing, but everyone working on the project deserves to be recognized. I thought it is important to stress a good working environment and not one that is stressful and competitive, or else there will be no good creative feedback from each other, and everyone will go downhill because of it. People have their strengths and weaknesses and it just about balancing each other out for everyone to perform their best. Thus, having a structure and roles within the team. Communication is key and setting up meetings is a great way to spew out your thoughts. Having good communication skills in any design team will allow your thought to be heard and to help create a good game.

Carcassonne:

Carcassonne is a tile-placement game in which players place pieces of French landscape on the board. The tiles include cities, roads, grassland or a combination. The tiles cannot be placed in random places where it doesn’t make sense, the cities have to connect to each other as well as the roads. Similar to a puzzle. However, it is a competitive game in which you earn points by completing an area. The meeple has to earn points for its owner. You can expand you city and complete your area, place your tile in the opponents area to make it more competitive and score points. Furthermore, you can score points, for example, by placing a thief on a road so if a tile is placed on that road that the thief you placed there, you earn one point. There are roles in the game such as knight, monks, farmers and thieves. Each play off each other to balance the gameplay. You also gain points by having followers (knights, monks, thief or farmers) on areas that they have completed.

Chapter Two: The Structure of Games

With games seeming different like Go Fish and Quake, there are simple similarities in which a game is built off that these two uses. That is within the structure of the game. The first one is having players playing the game. Both games encourage the player to make decisions and create strategies in order to win the game. Furthermore, rules and objective guide the player into achieving the goal and essentially winning. Rules are a core concept to a game. Rules allow us to lay down a basis so that the player doesn’t stray from the objective and get bored. It also makes the game what it is so if the player doesn’t follow the rules, then they are not playing the game. Additionally, boundaries within a game is also a key factor for games. I thought it was interesting using the Go Fish example, where is states that theorist Johan Huizinga described the temporary world in which a game takes place as a “magic circle,” a temporary world where the rules of the game apply, rather than the rules of the ordinary world. This intrigued me because something as simple as a game of Go Fish immerses one into a different world where they are tasked to pass cards and achieve their goal of winning by following the rules of the game. Understanding elements of the structure of games will provide a framework for the designer like me to be more decisive in what is unnecessary for a game and what is necessary for it.

Chapter 3: Working with Formal Elements

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Having the right number of players will influence the gameplay of the game.  I liked the example of tic-tac-toe, where they explained how the game won’t function if there are less or more than two players. Just like how a one player adventure game won’t work with two or more players. Furthermore, players play a huge role in how games are designed. If your game is an RPG, you need to balance the roles of each player because one can be way more overpowered and win easily making the game unfair and not fun. The way in which you design a game such as a single player, multiplayer, pvp or co-op, all influence how the designer designs the game. It defines the structure of the game. Different gameplay influences the way the player plays the game and their thought process on how to form a strategy to achieve their goals. That is why there are objectives in games so the player can be motivated to earn that goal or to win. I thought the questions you need to ask yourself were important and that stood out to me. You can’t just throw in an objective just because you need one in a game but you need to ask things such as how the objective impacts the game, should you add multiple objectives, and how do certain genres effect the objective itself? Rules and procedures help close loopholes in a game that would make the play of it more confusing. It is important to keep in mind how these rules influence the player as well. Will it make it more difficult or will it make it way to easy, confusing the player. I thought The Mechanic is The Message was an interesting story to read. Brenda Romero was able to tell a story through simple game mechanics to her daughter. It was simply rolling a die and figuring how much food you can use. Through this moment of a prototyped game, she was able to create more games based off of that story and history.

Chapter 5: Working with System Dynamics

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How the interaction of different elements within the gameplay influences how the games system is structured. It impacts the experience that the players have with the game. Systems produce results whether it be predictable or unpredictable. For instance, a game that produces unpredictable results is Life is Strange because it is a game in which the choices of the player impact the outcome of the game. According to the text, an unpredictable system is a system where there are countess possible outcomes determined by the player’s choices. This is also prominent in The Stanley Parable. Furthermore, objects such as player pieces, health, and other stats including strength and experience points affect how a game works. It can also affect the experience the player has throughout the game, does the object make the game more challenging or does it help them like a mushroom in Mario Kart increasing your speed for a certain amount of time. This is an example of the relationship of how an object can influence the role of the player in the game.

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Tuning A Game System.

Testing the rules of the game is an important part to see if the system is complete. It closes any loopholes, so the game won’t be confusing, and situations won’t arise. Rules prevent any issues and makes the gameplay fair and balanced. Balancing the game is very important. If a game is unbalanced, one player can win more easier than others, making the overall experience difficult and frustrating. Thus, playtesting allows designers to figure out what is fun and challenging and what is not working for the players.

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Frank Lantz’s belief in prototype > playtest > redesign loop is a common method that is known as iterative design. Iterative design is great way to make games because there is always something you can fix or make better in order to make a complete game. The advice given to design games is to analyze every part of games and play a lot of games. Think about how you want the game to function and who is playing it like what Lantz’s thought process of designing a game for casual gamers.

Research Sky: Children of Light  

Sky: Children of Light is a third person point of view game that instantly portrays a whimsical and dreamy atmosphere. Jenova Chen developed this game with his team at thatgamecompany to help the game industry. Instead on focusing more on shooting and competition, he wanted the game to be collaborative and to have a positive vibe to it. Which compliments the mystical universe that this game is taken place in. Chen wanted this game to be focused on a more wholesome environment because games that are very successful are violent and based on hyper masculine themes. Instead it is an adventure game that has a warm feeling and immerses you into a different world. Wanting to change how games are made in the industry, he still uses objects and the relationship to the player, character development, a unique story, beautiful art and sound and obstacles in order to make the game engaging to the player.

Exercise 2.1:

• Oxenfree is a supernatural mystery game in which you play as the character Alex. The game is a narrative based game and the choices you make within your dialogue changes the relationship with each character. Furthermore, the main mechanic of the game is your radio. Alex and her friends accidentally tuned into something that triggered the ghosts that haunt the island to communicate with them, messing with timelines, trigger vivid hallucinations and the ghosts play some games with you in order to tell you something. You must figure out what the ghosts want, save your friends, and figure out what is going on in this island.
• Connect Four is an analog game in which you have to stack four of your pieces either horizontally, vertically or diagonally together before the other player does.
• The differences of these two games is that one is narrative based with many different features, characters and mechanics. Connect Four is a quick strategy game. However, these games are similar. In both games, the players have a goal and want to beat someone or something. For Oxenfree, it is a game within a game. As Alex, you need to beat the ghosts, find a resolution before they take all your friends. In Connect Four, it is less dramatic, but you want to beat your opponent before they stack their colored pieces four in a row. Furthermore, both games involve a lot of thinking. For example, in Oxenfree, you have to think how your choice of dialogue may affect the game later on. Will you lose friends? A strong connection with your brother? Or will you try to build up your connections with the other characters? In Connect Four, you have to think how the placement of your piece will affect your opponent and you. Are you going to block your opponent, create a new path to connect four pieces, or lose the game? Thus, both these games have consequences to your actions and you really need to think about what you do before clicking the choice of dialogue or dropping your piece down the board. 

Exercise 2.3: Objectives:

• Checkers – collect all of the opponent’s pieces first.
• Uno – get rid of all your cards before your opponents.
• Pac Man – collect all the dots within the maze without getting captured by the ghosts.
• Mario Kart – finish a race before the other players.
• Donkey Kong – reach the top of the structure to save the princess without getting hit by the objects thrown at you.

Exercise 2.4 Rules:

I cannot think of a game without rules because then the game would be unfair and everyone will cheat. A game with one rule might be The Floor is Lava where all you have to do is don’t touch the floor. This exercise is difficult because even if there is a game with no set rules, the game still has some restrictions that the player cannot do.

Exercise 2.6 Challenge:

• League of Legends is a challenging game for me because it is a combat and strategy game. You really have to know the role of each player and learn the weaknesses or strengths of each character. Playing quickly is also what makes it challenging as the opponent may already know a strategy to defeat you. Thus, if you don’t know a lot of strategies within a high-pressure game, it becomes a challenge.
• Scribblenauts was a challenging game. It is a puzzle based game and you would have to figure out a way to complete the level by drawing out objects that might help solve tiny puzzles. However, out of the many objects you draw, there is only one that does the trick, and you get very little hints because they don’t describe anything in words.
• Temple Run, although simple in what your objective is, is very challenging game. This is because you need to react very quickly once you encounter an obstacle. With a fixed speed, you also want to beat your high score in order to feel like you accomplished something.

Exercise 6.4 Blue Sky Brainstorm:

Busy Mother:

• Works at her 9-5 job
• Picks up her 3 children at daycare
• Takes care of her children for the rest of the day
• Cleans the house
• Gets ready for work
• She can control her children with the remote control
• She can control the laundry and dishwasher
• She can control the robot nanny that cleans everything
• She gets very stressed easily when her children doesn’t listen to her
• She is relieved when she gets a glass of wine and the dishes are cleaned
• The mom has free will to do anything but the chores and her children restrict her to
• The controller:
  • The controller is sleek in design, it is dark rich red like her wine that she likes to drink
  • It is easy to clean thus the sleek design, you never know what the kids will do
  • The controller is hard to break as well.
  • The buttons will:
    • Clean the dishes
    • Do the laundry
    • Make the bed
    • Calm the children down by playing tv and music
    • Pour her wine
    • Pick an outfit for the workday tomorrow