Design Idea Wk 3 – Design a Toy

http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/design-idea-wk-3-design-a-toy/

Design a “toy” – that is a game that has no explicit goals but offers space for self-directed play.

Toy Room

My “toy” is a room with a window and a door. The door signifies exiting the room, and hence the game, and the window is a view to the outside with the sun and moon affecting the lighting in the room. The game is played in first person and you can do almost anything you want and affect the room itself. For example you could get some paint and start painting the walls or the floor, and every time you came back to the room, it would be exactly how you left it. There would also be a toy box, with assorted toys that you would be able to interact with. There would be no goals to the game as everything would be given to you depending on the limits of the games programming.

Design Idea Week 2 – Ball Game

http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/design-idea-wk2-ball-game/

The Ball Game

As I understand the ball game (since I missed the tutorial where it was played), the players work in groups / teams to try and push balls into the other teams areas. In the real life version the space was a room divided into 4 quadrants. The balls fly around the room as teams cannot maintain control over all the balls all the time. The object was to have the least amount of balls in your quadrant at the end of a time limit.

My version of the Ball Game:

is a word game. Essentially players have words come on their part of the screen and they have to type words to pass them on. The game can have anywhere between two and four players but I think that more could be accommodated. In the first version of the game, to make it simple, the player would be able to spell out the words using a keyboard, and as soon as they finish a word, the word is passed on to another player of their choice. Each player would have their own little segment to play with and words that appear in that segment would be theirs.

A variant could be that players have to collect letters in their segment to spell out words to pass them on, instead of having to type out given words.

To draw similarities to the ball game, the players will have a space of their own, and a way to give themselves an advantage while pushing other players back, much like throwing a ball into an opponents court. The game will also be timed, so that there is some semblance of a beginning and ending, not having the game run for too long.

Journal Week 2 – Digital vs. non-Digital Games

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Your reflection topic for this week: What are the differences between table-top board/card/roleplaying games, computer games and sports/live action games? What does abilities and constraints does each kind offer you as a player or as a designer? How might the same game change from one medium to another?

Differences / Similarities

The obvious difference between table top / computer games and live action games is the physical aspect, where live action games have a full sensory experience, with pain and real life physics, table top games have only as much physical action as the players want, and computer games have almost none at all.

Another difference is in the viewpoint of the player. In live action, the player is yourself (i.e. there is no representation or avatar) and your view is first person and field of vision is how much you can physically see, which means somewhere close to 160 degrees wide. However this view is subjective as sometimes people can see certain colours better (this would change the game if the ball was red or green, for example) and some people tend to look to their right or to their left more. In table-top gaming, the player is given a full view of the world, which gives them a more powerful (almost commander / god-like) approach to the game, which means that they gain an overall view of the action and gives a more strategic edge to it. Computer games are dependent on the way it is designed, and can be first person, third person, or both, with maps and some such. A lot of games nowadays also have some sort of game state information displayed, the simplest being the current score.

Constraints / Abilities

As a designer, computer games allow you to determine what actions the player can perform, by designing the games mechanics including things such as the physics of the world etc. This allows the designer to give abilities to the player while putting restrictions on how far they can go, putting the game on a scale between sandbox, such as grand theft auto, and linear gameplay, such as a simple mario game. Computer games can also be multiplayer or single player, depending on design.

Tabletop games are generally representational, and multiplayer competitive / co-operational, which means that there aren’t many single player tabletop games out there, if any. Players are expected to follow the rules of the game to make it fun, but also use their imagination to make it fun.

Live action games usually require some kind of equipment, as simple as a ball, and most games require more than one person to play. The human aspect also means that the rules are not perfectly enforced, as is with computers. This means that rules can be changed, or bent as per the current situation of players etc. This gives more flexibility in the games rules, and hence the game’s designer and players both have control over the mechanics of the game, whereas with computer games, usually only the designer has this power.

Same Game, One medium to another

One examples of games that translate from one medium to another is that involving guns, the computer version being any game in the first-person shooter genre, particularly war games, the table-top version again being any war game, and the real life version being paintball.

The real life version, i.e. paintball, is quite demanding, especially physically as each bullet hurts a fair amount. In this way, the player’s highest priority is not getting hit, the next highest is scoring via shooting the enemy or whatever the objective may be. Also, the experience is quite strong as again you have a full field of vision, holding a relatively heavy item, and wearing army-coloured overalls.

In tabletop, the player takes a more objective view, putting troops into battle, caring most about the objective at hand, whatever that may be. The player is more removed from the game physically, but causes them to use more of their imagination to see what possible outcomes could be, and also possible tactics the players (or in this case the avatars on the field) could employ.

In computer games, both of these two gametypes can be seen. One is the first person shooter game set in a warzone, which gives the player a sense of immersion, of really being there without being there. The interactivity lends to this as well, as it seems like the player is controlling the action. The other type of game (where the player sees the overall view) is demonstrated in real time strategy games where the player can control which troops go where etc.

Design Idea Week 1

The dogma manifesto is an interesting take on originality in gaming, and how its often not there. As I’ve been thinking about an original idea for a game, its been quite tough. I looked at the series of dirty teacups in the sink and was thinking of something to do with washing, or (since the teacups were arranged in straight lines), something to do with dropping a ball / electricity and having to route a path through the cups / “switches”.

The game I have thought of is a sort of simulation / puzzle game, which is to do with woodworking. You are a furniture manufacturer, and so far I am not sure how many aspects to this game I should have, so I will write them all down:

Simple version of woodmaker game:

People come and give you specifications for some kind of furniture that they want installed in their home. They give you some specifications and leave the rest up to you. For example, I want a coffee table that is 0.5 m tall and can fit in a space about 2m x 3 m. At the beginning you will be given simple tools and materials, and as the game progresses you will be given harder and harder tasks, with better tools and materials to work with. You decide whether the table should have 1 leg or 3, straight or slanted, etc. If it fits with the spec and can function properly (eg. coffee table can hold coffee cups) then the solution is valid.

A more complicated version of the game would include pricing for different materials, with you having to also run a business and make sure that all the clients are satisfied on time and within budget.

http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/design-idea-wk-1-dogma-manifesto/

Journal Week 1

• Why are you doing this subject? What interests you about games? What kinds of games would you like to play? To make? What do you hope to learn?
• Think about the question: Why do so many games involve guns?

I am doing this subject because I am interested in games, how they operate and how to make them fun, and most of all because I would like to design games one day. It also seems like a vey interesting course to do, different from most CSE courses where you just learn how to code in a certain language or in a certain style.

What interests me about games is how they operate, with a certain set of rules and graphics coming together to make a game fun, whereas a very similar set of rules and graphics might be a very boring game. This is often seen with remakes and games which are based on other games, where one tends to be original and very fun, whereas little changes from the original can cause the second game to be quite boring. I also like the team aspect, the way that people can bond over playing a game, whether through competitiveness or cooperation.

I like to play a wide variety of games, from casual / flash games, to board / card games to sport and of course video games. In video games I like RPG, FPS, RTS, (some) Sport, Racing, (some) Simulation, Puzzle, Action / Adventure. I play mostly on PC as I don’t hve any consoles at the moment. I haven’t made any games of my own, per se, but I would like to learn about the mechanics and motivations behind games so that I can learn to make good, fun games of my own.

I believe so many games involve guns because of the fantasy aspect, that people often imagine firing guns, being in the army or some such valiant character, and so any character who holds a gun must be cool or great in some way. Also, firing a gun gives a sense of power and accomplishment, as does killing people or monsters a sense of stress release and maybe achievement. Also, it is quite easy to create a competitive structure in games where guns are used, as points for killing and that are added to give an easy comparison between players.

http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/journal-wk-1-why-are-you-here/