Unit 30 – Design for Games

AO1Understanding Aspects of

Game Design

AO1 asks you to demonstrate your understanding of the fundamentals of Game Design. You are going to do this by analysing traditional games

and video games.

You need to be writing about:-

Core MechanicsInteractivity

Storytelling and NarrativeAudio-Visual Components

What do these things mean?

Core Mechanics

The fundamental structures, practices and rules that allow you to get on with playing the game.

●Luck●Strategy and Skill●Diplomacy●Resource Management●Territory Control

Core Mechanics - Luck● Random occurrence

– often a planned random occurrence

● Traditional game – the roll of a dice or the turn of a card

● Videogame – a 'virtual' dice roll – does the creature appear? Does the shot hit you?

Luck – Traditional Games

Poker● What cards are you

and your opponents dealt?

● What cards are dealt in the flop, turn and river?

● How do your opponents react?

Some traditional games involve nothing but luck – Snakes and Ladders is all about the dice.

Core Mechanics - Skill and Strategy● Planning and planned

occurrences.

● Based on your knowledge and understanding of the game and the playing contexts

● Reading and understanding your opponent

● Planning for the short, medium and long term in the game

Skill and Stragegy – Traditional Games

● When to play and when to fold

● When to raise, how much to bet

● Knowing the odds for your hand and what you need

● Knowing and understanding likely odds on opponents hands

● Reading bluffs● Bluffing

Core Mechanics - Diplomacy

● Player interaction● Cooperation,

colaboration and competition

● Short term and long term diplomacy

● 'Capture' games – Sorry or Frustration

● Role Playing Games

Diplomacy – Traditional Games

Poker● Cooperation –

Building a pot● Collaboration –

eliminating players● Competition –

raising, bluffing and betting against opponents

Core Mechanics – Resource Management

● Different 'assets' for different players and characters

● Use now or save for later?

● High value assets

● Money, or the things money can buy?

● Attack or defence?

● Knowledge of the game leads to informed choices

Resource Management – Traditional Games

Poker

● Using your chips

● When to punt on a chance

● When to go with a raise and when to raise

● Draw Poker – keeping or exchanging cards

Core Mechanics – Territory Control

● Controlling game space

● Defensive lines – defending key spaces, players or pieces

● Games about territory control – Risk, Diplomacy

● Wargames

Territory Control – Traditional GamesChess

● Offensive and defensive lines

● Protecting the back rank

● Protecting the king

● Protecting high value pieces

● Balancing offense and defence.

● Using familiar patterns.

AO1 Task 1AO1 Task 1Using the following subheadings, analyse the Core Mechanics of:-

a) A traditional game andb) A video game

* Luck* Strategy and Skill* Diplomacy* Resource Management* Territory Control

You can use different games to illustrate different concepts – you don't have to stick to one traditional game and one video

game for all of them

InteractivityInteractivity

Interactive texts do not follow a linear course but are shaped by your

decisions and actions. You decide where the text goes – within certain

limits.

Interactivity – Traditional Games

Some traditional games are models for interactive video games

● 'Choose your own adventure' books

● Territory games like 'Carcassonne'

Interactivity – Video Games

Videogames now are fundamentally interactive – your decisions and actions shape the future course of the game

● SIMS – when does 'interactivity' become 'creation'

● How interactive were early video games?

AO1 Task 2AO1 Task 2

Analyse with specific examples the uses and effects of Interactivityi) In a traditional game andii) In a video game

Storytelling and NarrativeYou need to demonstrate your understanding of a wide range of aspects of narrative in a game...

●Three Act Structure●Plot●Point of View - 1st Person -v- 3rd Person ●Setting (in time and place)●Linear Narrative -v- Disrupted Narrative●Characters – Stereotypes and Archetypes●Representations, messages and values, themes

The Three Act Structure

Situation / Complication / ResolutionIntroduction / Crisis / Resolution

Act 1 – Introduction – The farmer lives a peaceful lifeAct 2 – Crisis – The family and farm are destroyed by bad guysAct 3 – Resolution – The farmer gains vengeance on the bad guys

More on Three Act Structure

Each Act will also have 'acts' or 'scenes' within it following similar structures. So – end of Act 2

might be...

Situation – The farmer has no fighting skillsCrisis – He is tutored by a Martial Arts expertResolution – He becomes a Kung Fu master ready to whup some bad guys.

Point of View

This can literally mean the view we have of the game – through one character's eyes. Obvious example – a First

Person Shooter

It also means which character we follow. Doesn't have to be a first person view, there can still be a viewpoint character.

Traditional games – Chess or Draughts– black or white- you only see the board from your side. 'Cat and Mouse' board

games – one is trying to escape, one to capture – very different perspectives on the game.

Setting (in time and space)

How 'real' is the world of the game compared to our world?

How do we learn its rules? – anything can happen (flying in Second Life, for example) as

long as the game is internally consistentWhat signs show us when and where we are?

Why are so many fantasy games set in the past?

Linear Narrative -v- Disrupted Narrative

Is there one route through the game that you have to take (Simple board games have one track you go round. Race games take you

around one track at a time) or can things happen in any different order and still get you to the end

(Sandbox games).

Characters: Archetypes and Stereotypes

Archetype – the model example of a particular type of person – the original. Video games are

often built around mythic structures using archetypes.

Stereotype – A personality type observed repeatedly and summed up in an individual – an oversimplification of what a 'type' of person is like

Heroes and villains – helpers and messengers – experts and teachers...

Representations

What is your game about?What does it have to say about the world? (This

world, not the world of the game)What ideas does it have about good and evil?

About gender or race?About leadership?

AO1 Task 3

Using the headings in Aspects of Narrative, analyse how narrative and storytelling work in

i) a traditional game and ii) a video game

Audio Visual Elements

Traditional games still work on being audio- visually and visually interesting.

Black and White in Chess/DraughtsVisual design of board games

Audio suspense from the noise of shaking and rolling dice

Audio stimulus in Crossfire and Kerplunk

Audio Visuals in traditional games

● The traditional look of the table – green baize, traditional cards

● The sound of cards shuffling and being turned

● The look of players bluffing

Audio Visuals in Video Games

● Simple visuals in early video games – Pong – Space Invaders

● Developments in displays – Defender – Elite

● Hardware/Software development and improved AV

AO1 Task 4

i) Analyse the Audio Visual appeal of a traditional game

ii) Analyse the developing Audio Visual appeal of one game or one game genre as it has

developed through successive generations of hardware and/or software

Assessment

All of the above work is required to complete AO1.

Pass – Limited and superficial understandingMerit – Broad and sound understandingDistinction – Comprehensive and detailed understanding

These tasks are designed so that if you complete them in full you should be working to Distinction.