Reading goal: understand the problems that may arise when prototyping and designing games.

Game Design Fundamentals

• Some basic ideas
  • The player’s experience is the core concern. Do not lose sight of it while dealing with the other details of design.
  • Bring players in early. Testers need to be part of the game development process.
  • Talk to all kinds of people?
  • A gameplay-centered process?
• Some good suggestions
  • Keep a game journal: start simply by reading other people’s game reviews and analyses.

The book is broad and fairly comprehensive. It is possible to focus on one area first, then keep learning and iterating.

The Structure of Games

Exercise 2.1

Describe how players start playing Go Fish or Quake. What do they need to do in each case—socially, procedurally, or in terms of skills? Players starting a card game are certainly different from those starting an action game, but are there similarities? If so, describe them.

Go Fish: sit in a circle and take turns playing cards. The key is to stop the other players from playing all their cards before you reach your own goal. Quake: I have not played it. Keep fighting monsters, get familiar with the abilities? Similarities: a goal, growing proficiency, and difficulties to overcome.

Exercise 2.3

List five games and describe the goal of each in one sentence.

Honor of Kings: in a match, destroy the enemy crystal. Outside the match, reach King rank? Game for Peace: survive to the end. To have fun: take down more opponents. Tetris: clear more blocks and score more points. Battle City: destroy enemy tanks. CS:GO: plant the bomb or defuse it?

Exercise 2.8: Story

Has a game’s story ever gripped you, gripped you and moved you, or sparked your inspiration? If so, why? If not, why not?

I really dislike games that spend ages telling me a story, especially those with a rigidly predetermined main plot. Playing them feels like being the creator’s marionette. It is deeply uncomfortable.

Chapter 4: Working with Dramatic Elements

Flow: an activity guided by goals, constrained by a limited set of rules, and requiring some skill. “Only when an outcome is uncertain, and a person can influence that outcome, can they truly know that they are in control of events.” “Design a continuously effective feedback mechanism.” Questions to consider when designing a game:

• What skills does your target audience have, and at what level? How can this knowledge help you balance the game for your players?
• How can you give players clear, focused goals, meaningful choices, and discernible feedback?
• How can you connect players’ physical actions with their thinking in the game?
• How can you remove the distraction and fear of failure? In other words, how can you create a safe environment in which players lose their self-consciousness and focus only on the task at hand?
• How can you get players to enjoy your game of their own accord?

Demo: the prototype can be non-digital. This is a good suggestion. Another is to learn from existing forms of interactive entertainment.

DAGLOW’s advice: enjoy making games; do not feel you have to succeed by around age 30.

True. If the entire process is painful, the result may not be worth it.