University of Helsinki Pen and Paper Dice, Cards, Rough boards, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Zach Laster University of Helsinki

Pen and Paper Dice, Cards, Rough boards, stand-in play elements Excel Simple scripted games (Löve2D)

Experimental Gameplay Project  Group that made Tower of Goo (amongst other things)  Each person in the group built a game prototype in a week  They bounced ideas off each other and used each other for feedback, but otherwise worked independently  Rules:  Each game must be made in less than seven days  Each game must be made by exactly one person  Each game must be based around a common theme i.e. "gravity", "vegetation", "swarms", etc.

Failure  Embrace the possibility of failure  Don’t just accept it  Take risks!  The thing about rapid prototyping is you are SUPPOSED to fail sometimes  It wouldn’t be a prototype if it was guaranteed to work  If you fail you probably still learn something valuable  Prototyping is for SCIENCE!

Do it fast  The point of rapid prototyping is it is  And throwing more time at the problem doesn’t make the solution better  There isn’t typically a correlation between time and prototype quality

Limits  Building prototypes is easier when  You know the question you are trying to answer  You have defined limits for what you are building  It don’t have to be exact or highly specific, just limiting  The EGP benefited from focusing on themes like “gravity” or “swarming”  They also seem to have all used the same theme at the same time (at least initially)

Team of Individuals  One of the stronger tactics that EGP used was that they don’t work together.  Producing prototypes individually spreads out the risk  At least one of them is likely to be good  It improves competition  Especially if everyone is working with the same constraints  Gives more to share  Code, ideas, concepts, methods, etc  All the stuff you learn individually can now be taught to others!

 The value of the team in this context is primarily helping to provide ideas and competition  EGP found that the team was most useful at the start and the end of prototyping  Bouncing ideas off each other  Competing with final products  In the middle of development, it just http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130848/how _to_prototype_a_game_in_under_7_.php messed with them being in the zone

Brainstorming – How not to do it  Formal Brainstorming doesn’t work (at least, not on schedule)  Mostly, you just want to get something running in your head, bounce some stuff around  If inspiration doesn’t hit you at first, keep it in the back of your head  Your brain does a lot of background processing  Brainstorming IS useful for hammering things out  Feedback on ideas  Helping to solve stuff

Concept Art from Others  One method to help get the initial idea/setting/mood for your game is to collect and put together music and/or art which is somehow significant to you  Tower of Goo, Gravity Head, and On a Rainy Day all used this method to build their atmospheric moods

Thought Experiments  Or, prototype your prototype  Simulate it in your head first, don’t just get half an idea and start coding  Consider how the player is playing and if they are enjoying it  Is everything playing nicely together?  Paper prototypes can help a lot here!

Toy First  Generally, games have some core mechanics that make them what they are  When prototyping, build that first, and make sure it’s worthwhile  If it isn’t, you can save yourself the time of building the rest. ○ This is knowing when to cut and run  The toy is the mechanic that’s fun to play with just by itself, without actual gameplay  Super Tummy Bubble  Tower of Goo

Fake it  Whenever possible (and it’s usually possible), it’s cheaper and faster to fake things  Correct AI doesn’t come up often in AAA games, because fake AI is faster to make, easier to tweak, and works basically as well.  This can also make your game faster  One of those lessons taught by the programming gurus: Learn to slack of with style  Also known as “Hobbits would be fantastic coders”

Shoot it. Shoot it now.  Sometimes, it just isn’t working  Sometimes the toy just never crystalizes  Sometimes the toy just refuses to become a game  You also can’t just add polish to it  People see through this kind of thing quickly, though it may catch their eye initially

Art Matters  Despite not being a good cover for crappy design, art and music very much improve a game  Sets atmosphere  Can greatly improve immersion!  Sometimes just a few simple things put together well can make a strong aesthetic  Build an art style for the game, and that will cover most of it  A standard industry method for music is to build basic themes for things

Engineering only sort of matters  EGP found that “correct” and “reusable” are not really targets  I’d argue that “reusable” is always good, but I can definitely see not making it a requirement here  If you make parts of your base reusable, later prototypes can benefit!  The big thing is: The user will never see your fantastic architecture  Badly architected games can be fun (Minecraft)  If it works, and works fast, then it works; that’s all they care about

Building Games from Primitives  Many mechanics can be reduced to similar mechanics  Dice rolls vs card draws Often possible to simulate mechanics using other means  Most games have highly similar elements, such as drawing or rolling to determine allocation of resources or success. When building a new mechanic, it's probably wise to compare against other similar mechanics

Complexity != Fun  We don’t need a lot  Dice, cards, bouncy balls  We’re pretty easy to entertain  So perhaps all you need are a few basic primitives and a neat idea  This also ties back to “the polish won’t save it”  Similarly, experimental != complex

Goals and Bounce  When converting a toy to a game, we want to try to use any implicit goals  What would you want to do with this even without game mechanics?  Avoid things that feel randomly tacked on  Keep the game bouncy!  Things which are responsive and bounce to user input will help the user  Super Tummy Bubble  The Swarm  Mario  Minecraft (in some aspects)

The Hero with a Thousand Faces  Joseph Cambell determined this trend in most mythic literature; The Hero’s Journey  Many ancient tales from all over the world use this formula ○ Nigeria, Finland, North America, China, … ○ The Odyssey, Inferno, Sleeping Beauty, Faust, …  Also known as the monomyth  Cambell suggested that this trend is rooted in a human need or psyche

 Once it was identified, it was obviously everywhere  It was used to build Star Wars  And has been used to explain Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone  Some virtual worlds (Shadowbane) use it when building their quests

The Quest for Self  The Hero’s Journey is a process of self discovery, from ignorance to mastery  The hero travels from a mundane world to an “other world” of danger and the unknown  Once they succeed there, they return to their own world, armed with new knowledge and a new sense of self, ready to tackle whatever drove them to the other world to begin with  Sounds a lot like the story line from Ultima, doesn’t it?

 With most cases of the formula (books, movies, myths), it’s not the reader who goes on the journey, it’s the main character (whom they hopefully identify with)  While this does provide some similar growth in self, it’s not the same  Virtual Games are the exception to this. You are the character, you control their actions.  The more freedom you have in the game world, the more room you have to explore your self.  You are the hero.

Phases  Departure – The hero leaves their world  Initiation – Takes place in the world of myth  Return – The hero returns to their world, a hero indeed.  The steps that make up these phases can occasionally be reordered or skipped, but not the phases

Departure  The call to adventure  Something gets you to look at the game  Refusal of the call  “Nope, not gonna play. Not enough <fill in the blank>.”  Some people go no further  Supernatural aid  Someone’s promised to help (maybe you found a guide). Feel more confident.  Crossing the first threshold  You downloaded and installed the game  The belly of the whale  You create a character. This is a formal “rebirth.”

Initiation  The road of trials  You become an opportunist (or griefer) and begin to find your way.  Meeting with the goddess  Metaphor for knowledge  You know what you must do  Some drop out here  Scientist/Networker stage  The temptress  The old world, it beckons you to return (your world)  Are you content knowing what you need to know, or are you going to apply it?  Boundary into Planner/Politician