18-9-02: Gameplay• Game critique• Gameplay lecture• More system hands-on• Groups and brainstorms continued

Graphics vs. Gameplay!

A game is a series of interesting choices(Sid Meier)

”To be worthwhile, gameplay choices must be nontrivial.”(Rollings & Morris)

Andrew Rollings & Dave Morris: Game Architecture and Design

Richard Rouse III: Game Design - Theory & Practice

A game design view of gameplay• A game’s gameplay is the degree and nature of the interactivity

that the game includes, i.e., how the player is able to interact with the game-world and how that game-world reacts to the choices the player makes. (Richard Rouse III)

• A game is a series of interesting choices.(Andrew Rollings & Dave Morris, quoting Sid Meier.)

• All the glitz and glitter poured into games these days, such as expensive art, animation, real actors, or the best musicians, cannot cover up for poor gameplay. (Marc Salzman)

• Without compelling gameplay it doesn't matter how good your technology or graphics may be: no one will want to play the game because it won't be any fun to play. (Rouse)

Interesting choices according to Rollings & Morris (and Sid Meier)

• No single choice should be the best.

• The choices should not be equally good.

• The player must be able to make an informed choice.

Monopoly

Should I build hotels at the first possible time even if I use all my money?

Tic Tac Toe

O(4)

X(1) X(5)

O(2) X(3)

•If your opponent begins with the middle, always place in the corner.

•This is interesting when you’re a child, but not once you’ve figured out the strategy.

Mihayl Csikszentmihalyi: Flow• A positive, optimal state of mind share by many

different people in different situations. (Mount climbers, musicians, chess players.)

• Situations with clear goals, challenges, feedback.• Autotelic, something you are willing to do for its

own sake.

• Possibly useful for describing some aspects of why a game is fun to play.

The 8 basic traits of flow

• A challenging Activity That Requires Skills• The Merging of Action and Awareness• Clear Goals and Feedback• Concentration on the Task at Hand• The Paradox of Control• The loss of Self-Consciousness• The Transformation of Time

Boredom & anxiety

Boredom

Anxiety

flowchannel

0 (low) Skill (High)

(high)

chal-lenge

0 (low)

Some examples

• GTA3

• Space Invaders

• Donkey Kong

• Vib-Ribbon

Emergence

A pattern on a higher level, a pattern that is a result of simple interactions

Classical examples: Life, consciousness, ant hills, bird flocks. [...] occurs only when the activities of the parts do not simply

sum to give the activity of the whole. For emergence, the whole is indeed more than the sum of its parts. To see this, let us look again at chess. We cannot get a representative picture of a game in progress by simply adding the values of the pieces on the board. The pieces interact to support one another and to control various parts of the board.(John Holland)

(Unfortunately, emergence is a buzzword.)

John Conway’s Game of Life If a square is on, it is turned off if it has less

than 2 neighbours (from loneliness) or more than 4 neighbours (overcrowding).

If a square is off, it is turned on if it has exactly three neigbours.

[show]

Gameplay is emergent

• The rules of a game do not describe every possible game session.

• From the rules interesting patterns and strategies emerge on a higher level.

• The strategies in a strategy game or in chess are not described in the rules but are appear as a consequence of the rules.

Quake III

Fast game, but very individual, even on team levels.

If you are killed, you will respawn in two seconds.

Counter-strike

Like Quake III, but:

There is only one life per round.

You die easily.

This completely changes the game towards teamplay.

Some examples

• GTA3

• Donkey Kong

• Vib-Ribbon

Emergence – something complex from something simple• The interaction between the rules and objects in the

game lead to (unpredictable) variation.• Variation comes from the number of possible

interactions rather than the number of objects.• Even in rule-based systems, some events can still be

determined or are at least very likely to happen.• The player is likely to accept the goal put forward.• Players will tend to do certain things.• Players will search for a good strategy. If the good

strategy leads to interesting interaction, it is a good game.

In closing “Interesting choices” or “flow” are too simple descriptions

of game enjoyment. The player may also enjoy the quality of the projected world; the role that he/she undertakes; social interaction.

Interesting choices arise from the interaction between elements. They are emergent properties of the game rules.

Gameplay: The way the player can interact with the game. (Both interesting choices, uninteresting choices, skill, routines.)

Pick your game style: A puzzle-based game with single solutions (the adventure style) is different from a more open game with interacting objects (the emergence style).

For next time

• Carson, Don "Environmental Storytelling Creating Immersive 3D Worlds Using Lessons Learned from the Theme Park Industry". Gamasutra 2000.

• Rouse Storytelling, chapter 11.• Wibroe, K.K. Nygaard & P. Bøgh Andersen "Games

and Stories". In Lars Qvortrup (red.) Virtual Interaction. London Springer Verlag 2001. p. 166-181. Kompendium 171-178

• Gerrold, David. From Worlds of Wonder. Kompendium 51-71

Exercise: Do graphics

• Follow the handout!

• Diac.it-c.dk/~visichat

• Graphics:

• http://www.simgoddesses.com