Archive for game design
20 February, 2016 at 5:54 am · Filed under game design
The tragedy of the commons is an economics theory, according to which individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one’s self-interest, behave contrary to the whole group’s long-term best interests by depleting some common resource.
Take an example of overfishing. Every fisherman knows that if there is too much fishing then eventually fish stocks will run out. If all the fishermen could agree to fish at sustainable levels then the fish stocks could last forever. However, if one fisherman starts to overfish then eventually the fish stocks will run out.
When this happens the others might as well overfish as well to get as much as possible before the stocks run out. It only takes someone to start overfishing to mean that it is then logical for everyone else to overfish. The first person might start because they think that just them overfishing will not make any difference but once they start then everyone else soon joins them and the stocks run out.
This is similar to the prisoners’ dilemma. However in the prisoners’ dilemma individuals cannot communicate and so, if they act logically, then they won’t co-operate with the other players and will end up with a worse outcome. In the tragedy of the commons everyone can communicate but it still leads to a situation where a collective resource is overused.
There are some great gameplay opportunities lurking in this kind of model.
Especially where information is limited in some way, and there are competing personal goals that are not always clear to all players.
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7 August, 2015 at 2:53 am · Filed under game design, life
The Focusing Effect – People place too much importance on one aspect of an event and fail to recognize other factors
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/236681
Could be useful when thinking about presenting choices to the player in negotiations, where the information we provide doesn’t have to be ‘fair’. In most circumstances you want the UI information provided to the player to fairly represent the data and encourage a reasonable skilled choice from the player. In negotiations, or in situations of political will, the ‘character’ wants to manipulate the player and can lie, cheat and skew the information that they present to the player. It is then up to the player to use their knowledge, skill, perception etc to understand the situation in front of them.
“Nothing In Life Is As Important As You Think It Is, While You Are Thinking About It” – Daniel Kahneman
Read the rest of this entry »
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24 March, 2015 at 3:39 pm · Filed under game design, quote ·Tagged choices
Every choice takes some mental energy. Make the choices you offer the player ones that matter and that they should care about. Don’t make them burn energy on thinks that don’t matter or aren’t meaningful.
The only thing worse than never having a choice is always having to choose
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22 March, 2015 at 3:39 am · Filed under game design
Thinking about the possible roles in a multiplayer game with a more political aspect. Player’s will need to organize, recruit and remind players of their goals etc. This matches the real world role of a whip.
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party’s “enforcers,” who typically offer inducements and threaten party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy.
A whip’s role is also to ensure that the elected representatives of their party are in attendance when important votes are taken. The usage comes from the hunting term “whipping in,” i.e. preventing hounds from wandering away from the pack. In the United States there are legislatures at the local (city councils, town councils, county boards, etc.), state, and federal levels. The federal legislature (Congress), state legislatures, and many county and city legisltive bodies are divided along party lines and have whips
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20 March, 2015 at 3:59 pm · Filed under game design, quote
“Because there’s so much awesome stuff that’s happening on YouTube, the videos that people are posting, the amazing creations that people are making on Minecraft, all the League of Legends stuff – this didn’t exist before. I think the innovation is just happening in a place where it might be a little bit outside of the control of the developer.”
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19 March, 2015 at 4:45 pm · Filed under game design, quote
“That’s been really the challenge that I’ve been suffering: how can we look at the business differently rather than thinking about ARPU’s, what the numbers are, what knobs to turn etc? Instead, we should be thinking about what experiences can we deliver that are going to delight users. The crazy thought that I was giving with the talk today was I believe that there are going to be companies out there that really practice and really understand the value of user experience over time.
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2 March, 2015 at 10:49 pm · Filed under game design, project management, quote
Game developers should think twice before including ingrained game conventions such as combat, death, and trial-and-error gameplay. Trial and error in games undermines emotional experiences and “keeps the machinery opaque.” It is un-immersive because it “chips away at the make-believe,” forcing the player to examine the game machinery to figure out how to beat the system.
and a really interesting blog post about Indie games as inspiration
http://www.theastronauts.com/2012/10/reboot-your-aaa-brain/
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2 March, 2015 at 10:48 pm · Filed under game design, publishing, quote
Interesting article on tablet trends – http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/4/25/ipad-growth
- iPad sales are slowing and pretty flat.
- Apple still winning, and Android tablets not cause of slow down
- Is it because iPads can’t be used for the same stuff as PCs yet?
…moving to new devices and form factors involves new software experiences, and new software also often both creates and requires new business processes. It’s hard to spend a day creating a 20-slide sales report on an iPad, even now that MS Office is available for iPad. But actually, that sales report should be a SAAS dashboard that takes 10 minutes to annotate. It will take time for those business processes to shift to enable more corporate tablet use.
Maybe suggesting that software will need to keep moving forward to meet the changing needs. In games, tablet games have been very much thrown in with phones most of the time. Unique tablet games will likely have more in common with PC than smartphone.
So, looking at tablets and smartphones as mobile devices in a new category that competes with PCs may be the wrong comparison – in fact, it may be better to think of tablets, laptops and desktops as one ‘big screen’ segment, all of which compete with smartphones, and for which the opportunity is just smaller than that for smartphones. And so tablets will over time eat away at laptop and desktop sales just as laptops ate away at desktop sales, but the truly transformative new category is the smartphone. Maybe.
We need to think about the tablet as part of the ‘PC’ and think about what it does to gamers expectations, and what we have to do to innovate in this space.
An alternate selection of data from Reality Mine on tablet use throughout the day, where and what people are doing with their tablets in 2014.
Tablets used most between 8 & 9pm primarily for content consumption, with games and entertainment apps leading the pack.
- Apps, TV and Video content consumption are top activities for tablet owners.
- Gaming is the most popular activity on tablets, compared to social networking for mobile phone users.
- 85% of all tablet use occurs at home, this is significantly more than in home use of tablets and computers.
- The majority of people are ‘relaxing’ while using their tablet or iPad.
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27 December, 2014 at 5:59 pm · Filed under game design ·Tagged horror
- Cliches
Cliches from film and books, can be over-used. However, while they can telegraph a potential outcome they will create an atmosphere and tell your players something about what to expect and how to behave. They create a form of anticipation. Use them to set the tone, switch them up to avoid over-use or removing any surprise from the plot.
- Relationships
Relationship is the connection that the player has to other characters, to the story and to the environment. Creating space for players to create and form relationships can be challenging in a fast paced or action story.
Look for opportunities for shared experiences that create emotional connections. Some of the strongest bonds that people have are established throug highly emotional circumstances that release chemicals in to the player’s mind.
- Anticipation and Pacing
Anticipation is everything and is key to building any kind of tension in your game. Build and release, repeat. Consider foreshadowing as a means to create anticipation – Checkov’s gun
- Moral decision
Moral = ‘of or concerned with the judgment of right or wrong of human action and character’
It is likely to be a point in time, at which the players have to consider their situation, the story, their relationships and character. Explicit choice is good for a game. And a situation with consequences leads to a meaningful choice that player’s will remember.
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/horror-fear-level-design/part1-survival-horror-level-design-cliches.php
Ultimately it all need wrapping together in a good story
- Story is king
The power of story in your level comes down to two things. The story of the environment; and character’s story in that environment. As well as the relationship between each other.
Story is what we remember. We love to tell stories. We love to listen to stories. There is no better way to communicate and to connect with someone. We don’t care about facts.
Look for ways to tie the environment and story together, select the environment carefully to add to the mood and atmosphere.
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9 February, 2014 at 5:05 am · Filed under design, game design, quote
“The evidence that people are drawn to shiny things is all around us: from the pages of lifestyle magazines to the page stock of lifestyle magazines. One logical explanation for this cultural affection is that we’ve come to associate gloss with wealth and luxury.”
“… that our preference for glossy might be deep-rooted and very human,” says Patrick. “It is humbling to acknowledge that despite our sophistication and progress as a species, we are still drawn to things that serve our innate needs–in this case, the need for water.”
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3024766/evidence/an-evolutionary-theory-for-why-you-love-glossy-things
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2 August, 2012 at 3:02 pm · Filed under game design, life, quote
“Simple ideas are easier to understand. Ideas that are easier to understand are repeated. Ideas that are repeated change the world. “
Simon Sinek
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snippets of cloud 