FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGNGAMES AND VIDEO GAMES

Sayed AhmedBSc. Eng. in CSc. & Eng. (BUET)

MSc. in CSc. (U of Manitoba)

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TOPICS

Define Games Essential Elements of Games Define games based on the elements

What computers bring to gaming How video games differ from traditional

games Specific ways how video games entertain

people Some other enjoyable feature

That you need to know for Game Design

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WHAT IS A GAME Playing and pretending are essential elements of playing

games Play:

Arise from human’s desire to entertain themselves Nonessential and usually recreational activities

Pretending: Is the mental ability to create a notional reality

Different from the actual/real world We can create, abandon, or change at will

Toys, Puzzles, and Games Toys: We play with toys

No defined rules or games Puzzles: We play with (or solve) puzzles

No defined rules but defined goals Games: With defined rules and goals

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WHAT IS A GAME

Definition of a Game A game is a type of play activity

Conducted in the context of a pretended reality In which the participants try to achieve at least one

arbitrary, nontrivial goal By acting in accordance with rules

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THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A GAME

Play Pretending A Goal The Rules

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THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A GAME Play

Participatory form of Entertainment Books and movies provide presentational form of

entertainment not necessarily passive but not interactive

Pretending Magic Circle: boundary that divides ideas and

activities from game world and real world Single Player Games: Pretending – just select the

player and pretend with the game world Multiplayer game: All players pretend together and

agree to the game world rules We even pretend in traditional games as the rules or

activities may not have any real significance or effect in real world Exception: The win loss can cause death or not Gambling

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THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A GAME A Goal

Games should have one or more goals (objects) Not necessarily quantifiable (Simcity) Victory condition, termination condition, loss

condition Loss condition: You cannot win but can loss

RollerCoaster Tycon: Lose by running out all of your money and having

your park collapse Rules and Goals within the magic circle

But winning or losing can affect the real world as well The Rules

Definitions and instructions that the players agree to accept during the duration of the game

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THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A GAME

Rules The following things are defined by rules

The semiotics of the game The gameplay The sequence of play The goal(s) of the play The termination condition (may or may not have) Metarules

Rules about rules When certain rules expire or can get changed

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THINGS THAT A GAME IS NOT

Games are not always Competition or conflict

It can be cooperative as well Entertainment and recreation

Can be part of Study, practice, training, and work About fun

Fun is not intrinsic to the game itself Fun is just an emotional response to playing a game

That’s why the definition does not mention about Competition, conflict, entertainment, or fun

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GAMEPLAY

Essential Elements of Gameplay Challenges Actions

Challenges Task set for the player

Nontrivial to accomplish Overcoming a challenge must require

Physical or mental effort Unique, recurring, or continuous

Shooting down – recurring Avoiding to get hit - continuous

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GAMEPLAY: CHALLENGES

Challenges Simple, complex (make a game profitable) Can be divided into smaller challenges

Completing an obstacle course divided into Climbing over a fence, crawling under a barrier,

jumping across a gap Optional challenges

Preventing opponents to score goals May not be explicitly told

But can be logically formed from the rules Nontrivial but not necessarily difficult

Think about casual players, children, inexperienced players

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GAMEPLAY: ACTIONS

Actions Rules specify

What actions players can take to surmount the challenges

Actions that are allowed Actions that are prohibited Which ones are required and under what

circumstances Games also

Permit Optional actions Listen to radio

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GAMEPLAY: DEFINITION OF GAMEPLAY Gameplay consists of

The challenges that the player must face to arrive at the objective of the game

The actions that the player is permitted to take to address to those challenges

As a game designer you should create them simultaneously No point to create interesting challenges without

defining actions to overcome those Some designers consider fantasy and imagination

to be part of gameplay In general, fantasy and imagination are good sources

of fun as well Part of pretending (assuming that he is the pilot –

reality of the situation) You may design fantasy separately from gameplay

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FAIRNESS Players expect that the

Game rules should be fair In single player games

Fairness is a complicated issue It depends on the expectation of the player The outcome should reflect the actions Also dependent on the balancing

In multiplayer games Each player should have equal chance of winning the

game At the beginning Make games symmetric

Lies outside the magic circle Not an essential element Culturally constructed notion Social metarule on how the players will judge the rules of

the game Players try to change the rules (real world games)

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SYMMETRY AND ASYMMETRY

Symmetric Game All players play by the same rule Try to achieve the same victory condition

Basketball Initial conditions, actions allowed, and the victory

condition are identical for both teams

Chess and Backgammon are symmetric Except that one player will go first But in Chess – it does not give any special advantage

(like tic tac toe)

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SYMMETRY AND ASYMMETRY

Symmetry and Fairness All players should start in the same state If a player is already more skilled with the game

He should better take a handicapped role Sometimes people feel – this is fairness

Example: Amateur Golf (allows handicapped concept), Professional Golf

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SYMMETRY AND ASYMMETRY Asymmetric Games

Different players may play with different rules May try to achieve different goals For example: Wargames

More asymmetric if based on historical events Starts with different number of troops and weapons

(different kinds as well) Start from different locations It may be necessary for different players to have different

objectives – to make the game fair Difficult to say players with equal skills have equal

chance of winning At the beginning of the game People adjust the rules to reflect their own notions of

fairness For example: Fox and Geese Games

Adjustment of rules

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COMPETITION AND COOPERATION Two player competitive (you versus me)

Chess, backgammon Multiplayer competitive (everyone for himself)

Monopoly Multiplayer cooperative (all of us together)

Lego Star Wars – two-player cooperative Gauntlet – four-player cooperative

Team based (us versus them) Soccer and sports game Partner games - bridge

Single Player Solitaire, arcade games, Mario for Wii

Hybrid competition modes Diplomacy: Overall context – competitive but also

permits cooperative modes Coordinate strategies, later renege for own advantage

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CONVENTIONAL GAMES VERSUS VIDEO GAMES

A game designer Ideally should be able to design all kinds of

games May be with pen and pencil

Video Game A video game is a game mediated by a computer

Whether it is the traditional desktops and laptops or computers built in A tiny keychain A huge electronic play environment at a theme park

Computers help to borrow entertainment techniques from Books Film Karaoke

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COMPETITION AND COOPERATION

Design considerations You may offer options regarding

Single player, multiplayer, team based Adds considerably for the design and

implementation

Competition: Conflict of interest

Cooperation Cooperate to achieve the same goal

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VIDEO GAMES: HIDING THE RULES Video Games

Do not require written rules The machine implements and enforces them Players need to be told

how to play Not the rules

Computer sets the magic circle The computer also determines when the player

reaches the goal Players don’t have to think the game to be a game

Try and see if the game permits it Provide good immersion and pretending

Disadvantage of Hiding With uninformed rules players cannot optimize their

moves Many players do not like trial and error process

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SETTING THE PACE Pace of game

The rate at which the events required by the rules take place

In traditional games A timer in timer/time based games Non-timer based games

The players or a referee sets the pace of the game Video Games

The computer sets the pace of the game Unless waiting for the players input

The game moves at a pace the designer has set This allows us to make

Fast and furious games – constantly throwing enemies or other challenges

Slow and deliberate games Players can think as long as they want

Games can automatically modulate the pace by giving a rest period between period of intense activity

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PRESENTING A GAME WORLD Game designers can

Place imaginary people, places, and situations in the game world

Can use sound and appropriate video/graphics effect to make the players sense the game world directly

Video games target to present game worlds Similar to fictional world in televison or film

Recent advancement of computer graphics has made this almost reality

Video games are now full of Pictures, animation, movies, music, dialog, sound effect,

and so on Designers now experimenting with a wide range

of visual styles, augmented reality or mixed reality

Computers are used with real world activities to play a game

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CREATING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Strategy Path-finding Natural language parsing Natural language generation Pattern recognition Simulated people and creatures

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HOW VIDEO GAMES ENTERTAIN

Gameplay Aesthetics Harmony Storytellling Risks and rewards Novelty Learning Creative and Expressive play Immersion Socializing

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HOW VIDEO GAMES ENTERTAIN

Gameplay Aesthetics Harmony Storytellling Risks and rewards Novelty Learning Creative and Expressive play Immersion Socializing

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SUMMARY We have learned that

Play, pretending, a goal, and rules are the essential elements of a game

How they work together to create the experience of playing one

Game play is defined as Challenges and actions

Important issues of game design Winning and losing, fairness, competiton, and cooperation

Informed what computers bring in the world of gaming With this knowledge

You are now ready to learn How games are structured How to design them What it takes to be a designer

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