Game Design Fundamentals

Spring 2024 - Syllabus

CMU - ETC
Instructor: Stone Librande
Email: [email protected]
Slack: Game Design - 2024

1) Introduction 4) Video Games 7) Play Balance 10) Review 2 13) Play Styles
2) Game History 5) Review 1 8) Probability 11) Atmosphere 14) Final Project
3) Writing Rules 6) Documentation 9) Reward Systems 12) Level Design Grading Policy

1) Jan. 20 – Introduction

Basics of game design: goals, obstacles, decisions, rules, and

interactions. Player-focused design and subjective types of fun.

Workshop: Team Game

Design a team game that can be played by everyone in the class while on Zoom. Use
items found in your home.

Homework
Download Tabletop Simulator and work through the tutorial videos.
Tabletop Simulator download
Part 1 - Basic Controls (2017)
Part 2 - Advanced Controls (2017)
Part 3 - Custom Game Creation (2017)
Optional: Part 4 - Custom Assetbundles (2018)
Knowledge Base

Links
Optimal Game Design
Classics of Game Design Theory
I Have No Words & I Must Design
Download Windows Go program

2) Jan. 27 – Game History

A brief history of gaming from early folk games to today’s giant

game corporations. An overview of popular game genres will also be
presented.

Workshop: Goals

Play a simple game multiple times, changing the goal each time. How
does the emotional feel of the game change as the goal changes?

Homework
Begin work on your final project. Come up with a theme for your game
and write up a short description of your game idea. You will present
this idea to the class next week.

Links
I-Ching
History of Gambling in the United States

3) Feb. 3 – Writing Rules

Students will present their final project ideas to the class. After the
presentations, we will discuss a basic framework for writing game
rules.

Workshop: Rules
Customize a standard deck of cards with special rules for each suit.
Challenge other players to duels and see whose deck wins. After each
duel, discuss the balance with your opponent. Strengthen suits that
were too weak and weaken suits that were too strong. Find a new
opponent and repeat the process until every deck feels comparably
balanced.

Homework
Using the techniques discussed in class, write an outline of the rules
for your final project.

Links
Download Rules Template (.doc file)
Google Doc Rules Template
Four Square rules
Little Wars - H.G. Wells (.pdf file)
The Compleat Gamester
The Court Gamester

4) Feb. 10 – History of Computer Games

Overview of computer games, from early ASCII text games to the

latest generation of consoles. We will also examine the different
genres of computer games.

Workshop: Obstacles

Make a “par 5” obstacle course using pieces found in Tabletop

Simulator. All the students will play each other’s courses. Keep score
to find out if the average player can make it to the goal in five
attempts.
Homework
Work on your final project and rules. Have it ready to playtest with the
group next week.

Links
The first videogame
Java Spacewar!
Hammurabi
Jet Rocket 1970's flight sim
Williams Arcade Classics
The Art of Computer Game Design
Songs about video games

5) Feb. 17 – Final Project Review 1

Students will present their final projects to the class.

Workshop: Playtesting

We will playtest the games and provide feedback and critiques to the
designer.

Homework
Play your final project with your friends or family members. Take
detailed notes about their interest levels and the comments they
make. Using your notes, write a paper that describes changes you
would like to make to your game. Explain why.

6) Feb. 24 – Design Documents

While some card and board games can be designed and created by
one author, many games (especially digital games) require a large
team. This class will discuss writing a design document to keep large
projects organized.

Workshop: Design Jam

You will be given a random design problem involving a budget, staff,

deadline, creative vision, and technology platform. Working in a small
team quickly design the game's structure and make a paper prototype
of one of its systems.

Homework
Write a one-page diagram based on one feature of the ETC project
you are currently working on. Use the techniques presented in class:
title, date, main illustration, callouts, and white space. Consider your
target audience carefully.

Links
Design Document Outlines (28K Word file)
One Page Designs (12.9M PowerPoint file)

7) Mar. 2 – Play Balance

Play balance theory and practical techniques used to balance games.

Workshop: Opposition

Design a game where players must work together to stop a rampaging

robot from destroying a nearby town. Design the AI for the robot and
then try to beat your own creation.
Homework
Play a multiplayer game on itch.io and write a paper that describes the
game balance. Was the opposition balanced? Were the elements
within the game balanced? How were new concepts introduced over
time? Do players win more through skill or luck?

Links
Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide
Why Study RPS?
Realtime RPS game

March 9 – No Class

Mid-Semester break.

8) Mar. 16 – Statistics and Probabilities

Thorough game design requires an understanding and analysis of the

odds and probabilities in the game. In this class we will cover simple
statistical formulas that can be used to analyze a game.

Workshop: Odds

Using a simple dice-rolling game as a framework, design and tune the

systems of a sci-fi spaceship. Create odds tables based on the different
events that might occur. Battle other players’ spaceships and record
the results. How does the reality correspond to the calculated odds?

Homework
Solve all the problems on the probability worksheet.

Links
Thunderstorm and Pig
Dice Explorer
Tomb Raider Player Modeling
A Visual Introduction to Probability and Statistics
Quake Champions heat maps
Squoddron Odds Chart (Excel file)
How to Calculate Expected Value

9) Mar. 23 – Reward Systems

Why are we compelled to keep playing certain games when our

bodies are telling us to eat or sleep? We will look at some basic
behavioral psychology studies and apply the results to game design.
We will also examine many different types of games and try to
understand why some can be played repeatedly, while others are
played once then shelved.

Workshop: Rewards

Design a Vegas casino game. Try to entice players to your table and
keep them there. Be careful about giving away too much money or
your casino will go broke. But if you give away too little then your
players will leave to visit another table.

Homework

Update the rules for your final project and make sure your game is
ready for others to play. Bring the rules and the game in next week.
Links
Slot Machines
Horseshoes, Hand Grenades - and Slot Machines?
Going for Broke

10) March 30 – Final Project Review 2

Presentations of the students’ final projects.

Workshop: Playtesting

Play and critique the final project games. The game designer will not
be allowed to settle rules disputes and questions. Instead, the players
must rely completely on the rulebook.

Homework
Using feedback from today’s session, write a second draft version of
the rulebook for your final project. Include illustrations.

11) Apr. 6 – Atmosphere

While a game can be abstract, adding a theme can help draw players
into your game world. This week’s lecture will examine how the
“flavor” of a game can enhance the game player’s experience.

Workshop: Thematic Decisions

Design a character that could appear in a low-budget zombie movie.

Create a set of options that describe how that character would move
and attack if trapped in a room filled with zombies. Make sure that all
the options are thematically appropriate. For instance, a Sheriff would
be expected to carry a gun, but a Priest would not.

Homework

Work on your final project. Focus on elements that will add

atmosphere to your game such as colors, fonts, characters and story.

Links
MIT Mystery Hunt

Apr. 13 – No Class

Spring Carnival

12) Apr. 20 – Level Design

We will talk about general design principles for designing a level.

Many of these techniques can be applied to both board games and
digital games.

Workshop: Paper Simulations

Pick a favorite video game and create a simulation of it using only

blank index cards, tokens and dice. You will lose the graphics, the
sound effects and input controllers. What are the core elements of the
game that survive the conversion from electronics to paper?

Homework
Pick a recent movie or television show that you have watched. On paper, design a
video game level that represents some aspect of the story. Exact measurements and
details are not required; instead, focus on the high-level relationships between the
areas. How will the player’s journey through your level create a story? How much
of that story is told by your level, and how much is created by the player’s actions?

Links
Super Mario 3D World's 4 Step Level Design

13) Apr. 27 – Personality and Play Styles

Why do gamers play the games they do? How can a particular game be loved by a
certain group of players, but hated by another? Over the past two decades
researchers have proposed several models of player behavior that analyze the
motivations of individuals within a game world. We will take a look at several of
these taxonomies in order to help us design games best suited for our intended
audience.

Workshop: Playtesting

This is the last chance to playtest your final project game. Work on formalizing the
rules, enhancing the player interface, and tuning the system mechanics.

Homework

Polish your game and rulebook. Write an analysis of your game that
includes the history of the changes you made and why you made
them. Include playtest data and other statistical information. How
does your game rate in the categories of set up, goals, obstacles,
decisions, rules and interaction? How is the balance both from a
player-to-player perspective and gameplay-to-gameplay perspective?

Links
Take the Bartle Test
Take the OCEAN Test
Quantic Foundry
Immersyve

14) May 4 – Final Projects

Presentations of the students’ final projects.

Workshop: Playing games

We will play the final projects. Projects will be graded offsite over the
weekend and final grades will be emailed to the students.

Homework
No homework.

Grading Policy

Grading is based on a percentage scale from 0 – 100%. Attendance is

worth 65%, homework counts as 10%, and the final project is worth
25%.
90 – 100%: A
80 – 89%: B
70 – 79%: C
60 – 69%: D
0 – 59%: Failure

Attendance
Since this is a workshop class, grading will primarily be based on attendance and
class participation. 65% of a student’s grade will be determined by attendance; the
first 13 classes are each worth 5% of your grade.
Attendance is the most important factor of a student’s final grade. Because the
majority of class time is spent doing interactive group activities, there is no way to
make up a missed class.

Homework
There will be one homework assignment each week. Use Google Docs for all
written reports. A link to the document must be emailed (or sent through Slack) to
me before the start of the next week’s class. Make sure the document permissions
are set to allow comments in order for me to give feedback.
10 of the homework assignments are worth 1% each. Late submissions will still be
reviewed, but will not add points to a student’s final grade.

Final Project

The final project is a complete game that can be played from beginning to end in
approximately 20 minutes. Each student must work on their own individual project.
The final project is worth 25% of your grade and is broken down as follows:
5%: Rulebook (ease of use, organization, clearly written)
5%: Graphic Design (clarity, layout, colors, interface, etc.)
5%: Analysis (lessons learned, playtest notes, statistics, etc.)
10%: “Fun” factor (replay value, theme, originality, etc.)

CMU 2024 Calendar