Intro to Game Design, Class #2

GA Sept 2012, Class #2 Game Design 101 What makes a core mechanic engaging? Fun Core Mechanics Portal Portal 2 Coop Braid, by Jonathan Blow Human Tetris Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Theory of Flow Spelltower, Zach Cage Do players like to fail? What is the role of failure in video games? Noah Falstein (Falstein 2005) has refined this to say that game difficulty should vary in waves – sometimes the game should be a little easy, sometimes a little hard, and that irregularity leads to enjoyment. An irregular increase in difficulty makes the player more likely to experience both failure and successes. Writing Up Rules Challenge What makes a game addictive? 1.Setup 2.Rules 3.Gameplay 4.Goal 1)Experience: Was the core mechanic fun? What words did your players use to describe the actions they took in the game? 2)Challenge; Is the game too easy or too hard to win? Is their a dominant strategy that might break the game? Do players have equal chances to win? 3)Replayability: If played again would your game generate the same set of experiences and outcomes? Playtesting Strategies Narrative in Games Psychonauts, Tim Schafer Ico, Fumito Ueda How do we tell non-linear stories? How can we craft narratives that emerge from gameplay? BioShock by Ken Levine How do we create emotions? Journey, thatgamecompany (Jenova Chen)