Posted by Brice on June 13, 2010
“I hate World of Warcraft.”
“What? Have you ever even played it?”
“Yes.”
“How far did you get?”
“I got to about level 60.”
“And you didn’t like it?”
“No. I hated it.”
I was amazed to find that a friend of mine had put in weeks of time into Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, and yet he felt like he didn’t have any fun. He described the experience as though he was being tricked into playing, that he was “grinding” all the time. He kept on playing, but for some reason, had an internal struggle that pulled him forward without providing excitement or enjoyment. He was miserable.
Most gamers know the term “grinding”. Grinding can and has been called many things, but generally it is defined as when the player needs to do the same thing over and over again in order to progress, seemingly for arbitrary reasons. Dragon Quest was one of the classic RPG’s that seemed to be defined by grinding. Enemies would suddenly appear that required the player be at Level 15 in order to beat, when currently the player was probably around Level 12. The result? In order to go further, the player needed to go back and fight the same old monsters over and over again, until their Level was high enough.
Grind is generally viewed as a bad thing. But rather than just complain about it, how can a grind be understood from a game developer’s perspective? Is there ever a time a grind should be used, and how can it be avoided? WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 31, 2009
Who cares if the main character is wearing silver armor or an orange cloak? Does it really matter if your military troop is fighting in Europe or Asia? There can’t be any difference between a game about saving the world, and one your one true love, right?
It does matter. In fact it matters a great deal. The sights and sounds and feeling contribute to the Core Experience of a game like no other part of the game can. They are what make games a true art form instead of pure science, they are what make games closer to theater than arithmetic, painting than to geometry. These artistic strokes are the skin that the world will see view the game, its face, its exterior.
Welcome to the fifth and final component of the Game Design Canvas: the Aesthetic Layout.
The Bells and Whistles
Hardcore gamers, and even some game developers, often tend to think of games exclusively as mechanical systems. This is expected, because these types of people have typically played so many games that they’ve become experts. Trained to analyze and dissect, they see through the smoke and boil the game down from bells and whistles to gears and oil. All of the other systems we’ve talked about within the Game Design Canvas, the Base Mechanics, the Punishment and Reward Systems, and the Long Term Incentive, are all of these gears. And once they see under the hood, they manipulate the gears as much as possible to get what they want. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 25, 2009
What makes a person want to continue playing a game? What takes a game from a 30 second experience to a 30 hour experience?
To answer this, we’ll have to start from the beginning: Why did the player begin playing the game in the first place? Fun and enjoyment are the most obvious answers. The thrill of the chase, the challenge, the quest! The opportunity to interact with others, to improve one’s skills, or to go on an adventure. All of these are examples of Core Experiences, which gets people to start playing a game. People want to have interesting experiences, and games are one way to fulfill that.
How about once they start playing, what does the player do then? They got there because they were seeking the Core Experience, and then they begin to enter into the game itself. They jump, they run, the roll dice, they make moves. They begin to interact with the game and perform actions within the game’s construct. Seeking an Experience, they are beginning with the Base Mechanics. They are beginning to become coordinated, so to speak, to learn to move and live in the game’s world.
Once they get going with the Base Mechanics, then they begin to learn the broader gameplay. They learn that they need to look before they jump, that they should treat villagers with respect when discussing delicate matters, and that they need to use the red bullets when fighting the red enemies. They begin to map out the interconnections between the actions they are making and the results the game is serving them. They are making their way through the Punishment and Reward Systems, learning what behaviors are encouraged and which ones aren’t. Building on top of the Base Mechanics, the P&R Systems draw them even deeper into the game and to the Core Experience they were originally seeking.
But then what?
After the player has learned the game, how it works, how it interacts with them, what makes them continue playing? What could cause a player to perform the same actions, the same strategies, the same rituals, over and over, yet enjoying themselves at every step?
Enter the fourth Game Design Canvas component: The Long Term Incentive. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 17, 2009
You have many choices in your everyday life. Wake up and jump out of bed, or hit the snooze button? Eat chicken, beef, or veggies? Do some work, or go out with friends? These choices, these actions that you can take are the different colors you use to paint the landscape of your day, your week, and your life. It is through these choices that you experience and express yourself in the world.
If life were a game, these actions that you can take are examples of the Base Mechanics of life. They are actions that you can perform, that you have the ability to perform, and that you may choose or choose not to perform. They are the inputs into the system from yourself. You can freely choose from all the possible abilities you have and perform them to your liking.
…Or can you? Well, there’s more to it than that. Your actions and free will are not as free as one would think. Yes, you have choices you can make, but there are consequences, there are requirements, and there are strings attached. You may have the ability to go into the middle of a library and shout at the top of your lungs. You may have the ability to insult your best friend or to rob a convenience store. You may have the ability to sit in your apartment and be depressed instead of going out and enjoying the weekend with friends.
You could do these things, but you probably won’t. Even though you have the ability and the means, there is something else that is guiding your decisions. There is more to this so called “choice” business than you might imagine. It is as though some invisible force outside of yourself is governing your actions.
Enter the third component of the Game Design Canvas: The Punishment and Reward Systems.
Free Will? Or Not So Free?
As we discussed in our last introductory article to the game design canvas on Base Mechanics, every game has actions that it lets the player perform. The player can run, shoot, paint, throw, eat, duck, swap polarity, teleport, or what have you. But these actions are not isolated; they have higher systems that govern them. These Punishment and Reward Systems nudge the player towards certain behavior. They give meaning and weight to the Base Mechanics, forcing the player to think about their choices. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 14, 2009
Super Mario Bros. is the best selling video game franchise of all time, with over 222 million units sold across all genres and platforms. 222 million! Incredible! But you wouldn’t expect less from one of the most beloved heroes of all time, a hero who at one time helped to single-handedly save a struggling video game industry.
Behind those baggy overalls and red cap lie an incredible game design experience, one that has withstood the test of time and established a high bar for the level of fun and enjoyment required for a commercial video game. What can modern day developers learn by analyzing the Game Design Canvas of the original Super Mario Bros.? A lot, as it turns out. The principles that made Super Mario Bros. a hit back then still apply today.
In “Game Over”, an excellent account of the history of Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, referred to his experiences as a child. He discussed the feeling of seeing something, such as a manhole on the wall, and wondering, “Why is there a manhole on the wall? Where does it lead?” When he made Super Mario Bros., he sought to recreate that same experience for his players. As it turns out, this is a child-like experience that millions around the world were longing to relive as well, and was one of the most massive contributing factors to its wild success.
Breaking it Down
Let’s try to figure out what the Core Experience of Super Mario Bros. is. Defeating enemies? No, you can run through almost every level without attacking the enemies at all. Saving the princess? No, the relationship between our intrepid plumber and the princess is almost entirely left up to the player’s imagination; that aspect of the game seems tacked on. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 9, 2009
“Casual” games have been all the rage in the games industry over the past few years. From the explosive growth of online games to the major First-Party support of the Wii, the “casual gamer” and the entire supposed market space has become a great buzzword and mainstay in game development. Entire divisions of large companies have cropped up solely around the idea of casual, and smaller companies and developers striking it rich in this wild west of an audience.
But seriously. What does “casual” really mean?
Of course anyone can point out games that are casual versus hardcore. Wii Sports and Farmville are casual games, sure. Call of Duty and World of Warcraft are not. But what does that actually signify? And if you’re going to base independent or corporate projects and future sales figures on these genres, doesn’t it make sense to understand what they are and how they work?
By using the Game Design Canvas, we can break down both casual and hardcore games and find out what really makes them tick. When we contrast them as you’ll see in a moment, there aren’t as many differences as one would assume. However, one major difference betrays a casual game as a casual game, and that one difference influences the game’s audience, the viable platforms, sales methods, everything. It is the difference that sets it apart from the hardcore titles and gives it its soul. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 7, 2009
Dave is working on his blockbuster indie game title. He knows the genre, and he has a general idea of what he wants it to be about. It’s an action/adventure title about vampires and he wants the player to be able to steal blood from victims. He’d also like the player to have to avoid light in the day, and it would be a story about love and romance. Sounds like a great game!
He expresses this idea to a friend of his who is in the industry. His enthusiasm is apparent in his voice and his excitement about the idea, with the main part of the game revolving around the vampire stealing blood. But then his friend asks him…
“How does the player actually steal blood?”
Dave reminds his friend that the vampire will be able to go up to anyone and suck their blood, and that’s how it occurs. But his friend reiterates, “But what actual buttons will the player be pressing? How are you going to convey stealing someone’s blood as a vampire through pressing a button?”
Dave looks down at his shoes, realizing that although his idea may be exciting from an elevator pitch, he may have jumped the gun.
You Can’t Build a House without Bricks
Dave’s idea may be a good one, but will it come to fruition? It depends; all of his thoughts are fine ideas, but there’s no structure to them. Dave hasn’t taken to the time to build the foundation of his game; he’s just started with random anecdotes. Odds are that if good old Dave just goes ahead and starts coding in his idea without connecting the dots first, he’s going to end up with a mediocre game that feels kind of like…well, every other game. Which is to say it won’t really feel like anything. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 3, 2009
Caster is a fantastic little indie game that I got into several months ago. You play as a small character in a large, expansive world with some incredibly heavy firepower. Acting as savior for the forests, you run around the level at sonic speeds, firing in all directions with a wide range of lasers and energy orbs. By upgrading your stats and abilities as you complete levels, you fill out your character’s stats, increasing speed, power, and your destructive capabilities. Over the course of several levels, your stats inevitably max out and your resulting impact against each enemy is monstrous.
The game has since been released on the PC, Steam, and the iPhone and has been well received by the independent games community. While I don’t have specific sales figures, it would appear that the game has been successful for a title of its size. It was reviewed positively on many of the major indie sites, and even appears in one of the editor’s choice categories on the iPhone for a time.
What can we attribute the fun and fury of Caster to? The graphics? The controls? The story? While all these elements are important, we’ll have to turn to our trusty Game Design Canvas to really see what makes Caster tick. To begin, we’ll start with the game’s Core Experience. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on December 2, 2009
Do astronomically successful games happen by chance, or can their approach be systematized? Are the games that make us laugh, gasp, and enrich our lives results of the developers getting lucky, or careful decision making? Is there a way to analyze successful games to understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie, and then apply them to your own games?
I believe that the answer to these questions is yes: a game’s design and development can be mapped out, studied, and perfected in a reliable fashion. Successful companies like Nintendo, Valve, Zynga, and Blizzard would agree. Legendary game designers like Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright, and Peter Molyneux would likely agree as well. These companies and developers have found ways of looking at games that lets them consistently crank out hits year after year after year. By the time you get to the third and fourth blockbuster, it is no accident.
Through analyzing countless independent and corporate titles over the course of the last several years, I’ve come to believe that there is a standard way of designing and studying games. Changes in the industry don’t disrupt it. New companies, new genres, and new controllers don’t change it. Independent or corporate, these rules are the same. These are systemic laws that are immutable. Developers ignore them at their own risk.
This approach is called the Game Design Canvas. It is made up of five different components: The Core Experience, Base Mechanics, Reward and Punishment Structures, Long Term Incentive, and Aesthetic Layout. The Game Design Canvas’s goal is to provide a powerful analytical and planning tool for developers, independent and industry veterans alike. All games have aspects that can be represented in the Canvas, and through it, it is possible to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of any game for the purposes of study and improvement on future projects. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »