the

gamedesigninitiative
at cornell university

Lecture 2:

Nature of Games
 What is a Game?

Hopscotch Rules
—  Each player has a unique marker
—  Toss marker from starting line
—  Marker hits squares in sequence
—  Progress to next square each turn

—  Hop through squares and back

—  Skip over square with marker
—  Hop on one foot
—  Except for side-by-side squares

—  If fail, repeat at next turn

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2 Nature of Games at cornell university
 What is a Game?

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 What is a Game?

Contest Rules

—  Two attempts per trick

—  5 points for success on 1st
—  3 points for success on 2nd

—  Trick is complete when

—  String fully wound on axel
—  Yo-yo is back in hand

—  Disqualification if
—  Player moves feet
—  Throw leaves trick box
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 What is a Game?

Rules

—  Players take turns

—  Spin the number wheel
—  Move that many spaces
—  When land on space…
—  Ladders take you up
—  Chutes take you down
—  First one to 100 wins!

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 What is a Game?

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6 Nature of Games at cornell university
 Definitions of Games
—  Adams: Fundamentals of Game Design
A game is a form of interactive entertainment where
players must overcome challenges, by taking actions
that are governed by rules, in order to meet a victory
condition.

—  Salen & Zimmerman: Rules of Play

A game is a system in which players engage in
artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a
quantifiable outcome.

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7 Nature of Games at cornell university
 Definitions of Games
—  Adams: Fundamentals of Game Design
A game is a form of interactive entertainment where
players must overcome•  challenges, by taking actions
Players
that are governed by rules, in order to meet a victory
condition. • 
Challenges
—  Salen & Zimmerman: •  Rules
Rules of Play
A game is a system in which players engage in
artificial conflict, •  Goalsby rules, that results in a
defined
quantifiable outcome.

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 Design Decisions
—  Players
—  How many players are there at a time?
—  Who or what is the player in the world?
—  Specifies a notion of identity
—  Goals
—  What is the player trying to achieve?
—  Defined by the game or by the player?
—  Specifies the player focus

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 Design Decisions
—  Rules
—  How does the player effect the world?
—  How does the player learn the rules?
—  Specifies the boundaries of the game
—  Challenges
—  What obstacles must the player overcome?
—  Is there more than one way to overcome them?
—  Specifies the fundamental gameplay

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 (Other) Design Decisions
—  Game Modes
—  How are the challenges put together?
—  What is the interaction context?
—  Setting
—  What is the nature of the game world?
—  What is the perspective (e.g. side-scroller, 3D, etc.)?
—  Story
—  What narrative will the player experience?
—  How is it connected to gameplay?
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 What about Fun?

— But how do we create good games?

—  Games are a creative medium
—  Games are designed to entertain
— Question: What makes a game fun?
— Better: Why do people play games?

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 Casual vs. Core
—  Core gamers play lots of games
—  Almost always to finish games they play
—  Want hard games; will tolerate frustration
—  Casual gamers play for enjoyment
—  Will stop when the game stops being fun
—  Challenges must be reasonable
—  Harder to distinguish than you think
—  Something designers are paying less attention to
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13 Nature of Games at cornell university
 Play Length
—  How short a game can I play and have fun?
—  Least meaningful unit of play
—  Console: 30 minutes+ is acceptable
—  Mobile: No more than a minute
—  Casual often means short play units
—  But can have sophisticated gameplay!
—  Example: Plants vs. Zombies
—  But long play length is always core
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 Psychology: Bartle’s Four Types

—  Theory of players in online games:

—  Achiever: Overcome challenges, gather rewards
—  Explorer: Discover, understand game world
—  Socializer: Interact & role-play with others
—  Griefer: Distress other players in the game
—  Games often designed for multiple groups
—  Example: World of Warcraft
—  But just one model of player psychology
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 The Explorer

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 Dueling Design Philosophies

Narrative Ludic

—  Games are a story medium —  Games are about mechanics
—  Focuses on storytelling —  Focus on gameplay, rules
—  Traditional narrative structure —  Storytelling is minimal
—  Advantages: —  Advantages:
—  Emotionally compelling —  Focus on player agency
—  Strong artistic vision —  Tight, well-defined gameplay
—  Disadvantages: —  Disadvantages:
—  Author voice over player voice —  Lack of player motivation
—  Poorly defined mechanics —  Hard to distinguish yourself
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 The Dangers of Pure Story

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 The Dangers of Pure Story

What is the player doing?

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 But Ludic is Not Everything

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 But Ludic is Not Everything

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 Game Design Must Be a Balance

Motivate the Player Empower the Player

—  Needs a story framework —  Drama from player actions

—  Setting to work within —  Define what the player can do
—  Strong sense of identity —  Challenges reward or punish
—  Challenges with context —  Freedom in achieving goals

Games are dramatic, but they

have their own conventions.

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 But This Course Will Be Ludic-Centric
—  Will focus on design tools
—  Techniques that we can train
—  Using them requires practice
—  Implementing them has
technical challenges

—  But design is much more

—  You use tools to create art
—  Can only learn by doing
—  With critiques from us
—  Like a studio course

—  Keeping balance is up to you

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 The Adams Approach
—  Games as wish-fulfillment
—  I want to _________
—  Questions to answer:
—  What dream are you satisfying?
—  What goals does this dream create?
—  What actions achieve those goals?
—  What setting does this dream create?
—  What is the appropriate interface?
—  Use this to define gameplay
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 The Adams Approach
—  Games as wish-fulfillment
—  I want to _________
—  Questions to answer:
—  What dream are you satisfying?
—  What goals does this dream create?
—  What actions achieve those goals? Narrative
—  What setting does this dream create?
—  What is the appropriate interface?
—  Use this to define gameplay Ludic
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 Exploring Gameplay
—  To design games, you must play games!
—  Experience many different types of gameplay
—  Do not play the same type of game all the time
—  Flash portals are fantastic!
—  Games are small but focus entirely on gameplay
—  Kongregate & Armor Games are some of the best
—  Puzzle game? Look at Kongregate first
—  This is how we will use Piazza this semester
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 Have Realistic Goals
—  Goal: Size of a large, elaborate Flash game
—  Quality should be 3.5+ stars on Kongregate
—  Can be played instantly with minimal tutorial
—  Quality over Quantity
—  Five amazing levels > 30 poor levels
—  Balance number of challenges with level size
—  Avoid feature bloat (e.g. power ups)
—  We will give you constant feedback on this
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 Commercial Examples
—  Oasis: Turn-based strategy in minutes instead of hours
—  Diner Dash: Multitasking game about waiting tables
—  Deadly Rooms of Death: Top-down RPG puzzler
—  One of the worst names, but
—  some of the greatest puzzle design ever
—  Braid: Puzzle platformer with time-travel mechanics
—  Limbo: Dark platformer with realistic physics
—  Think X-Box Live Arcade, not boxed retail
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 GDIAC Examples
—  Roto-Cosmos (Alum Game):
—  Amazing puzzle game created by a GDIAC TA
—  Lifted (Spring 2010):
—  Physics-based puzzle game of alien abduction
—  Forgotten Sky (Spring 2008):
—  Rope-swinging platformer with a variety of challenges
—  Astro War (Spring 2008):
—  Well-designed turn-based strategy with nice AI
—  Ensembler (Fall 2011):
—  Classical music rhythm game with you as conductor
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 Summary
—  Games are not necessarily well-defined
—  They have players, goals, rules, and challenges
—  Not much agreement on anything else

—  Game design is about finding balance

—  Want narrative to motivate players
—  But need ludic elements to give agency

—  Will start with the Adams approach

—  Create a setting or narrative framework
—  Use that to guide the ludic elements
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