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game design

- 144 articles or papers

 

Listen! – Improving the Cooperation between Game Designers and Audio Designers

Huiberts Sander
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

In the design research investigation Listen! the multi-disciplinary collaboration between game design and audio design students is researched. The research focuses on gathering more insight in the creative design process of game audio and presents general recommendations and pitfalls for the development of game audio.

 

Retro Evolved: Level Design Practice exemplified by the Contemporary Retro Game

Kayali Fares Schuh Joseph
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

The examples of independent games presented in this paper provide fun through strong, innovative and playful game mechanics. The often-resulting combination of retro flair with focused gameplay is what makes the "contemporary retro game”. This paper argues that game and especially level design have evolved over time and provides insights on contemporary level design practice. By a qualitative analysis of contemporary game examples and a reflection of the authors’ own practice as game and level designers, this paper defines qualities of good level design and presents several distinct level design practices; to expand on strong core mechanics, iterative level design, to design game modes instead of levels, sandboxes, emergent gameplay and object-oriented level design.

 

The Power-up Experience: A study of Power-ups in Games and their Effect on Player Experience

Lange-Nielsen Filip
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

Power-ups are important game world and game play changing game elements. In digital games like 카지노 검증, power-ups can be seen as one of the tools for non-trivial traversal of a game. They can change the way the game world is interpreted and traversed – or even change the look or structure of the game world itself. In this paper I propose a model for analyzing and categorizing power-ups in a way that allows us to further inspect and understand why games are played and enjoyable, and how developers bake such possibilities into the structure of the game. There is a lack of a comprehensive discussion of what a power-up is and how it can be studied. There is no agreement in the literature on a definition of a power-up and the term is often used without defining it. Power-ups are used as examples in the game ontology project when discussing higher level elements like Entities and Entity Manipulation (Zagal et al., 2005). In game design literature the term is used varyingly and seen from different perspectives for example as “resource” with its most common system effects or for its strategical advantages in reaching educational goals through its effect on player behaviour (see Fullerton, 2008 and Squire et al., 2003). These contributions are nevertheless still significant when attempting a further inspection of the power-up. Utilizing a combined framework for aesthetic analysis of games I perform a case study of Metroid Prime (Retro Studios, 2001) where play experience of perceived aesthetic goals is used as a way to see how the designers might have intended their power-ups to work to reach such aesthetic goals as identified through play. Metroid Prime was chosen for its heavy use of power-ups and this approach allowed me to focus in on what player experience power-ups might provide. The framework is adopted from Aarseth’s proposed typology of game research (2003) and Hunicke et al.’s MDA-framework (2004). This allows for looking at interdependencies between gameplay, game-structure and game-world related to designers’ intentions and player’s experience brought about from those elements. Based on my findings and synthesizing previous related literature, the model presented in the end groups power-ups according to whether they are expendable (stored), expendable (instant), constant upgrades or re-chargeable constants. Possible modifiers such as "acquired through", "supply", "duration" and "necessity" are suggested. With this model I attempt to differentiate power-ups from other formal design elements and in such a manner provide a possible reference for designers looking to choose appropriate solutions for their games, as well as an analytical tool for researchers. A mention of other games and how comparable yet different power-ups were implemented in these is also provided to exemplify the model’s utility. In the paper I also argue power-ups are used to afford paidia play as well as ludus play through their application in hyper-ludic and contra-ludic game systems as described by Steven Conway (2010). Using the case study I argue that the most interesting aspect of power-ups as game mechanic is that they shift experiential character when a given power-up's implied formal use changes during gameplay. With this I mean that a power-up can at the same time be a means to achieve a goal as well as goals to be achieved themselves. A model explaining this is also provided. When considering the above, power-ups as abstractions are malleable elements that can be changed to fit in different games for different experiences. Power-ups can impact on the player experience, and changes to power-ups in turn impact on that experience. As the MDA-framework suggests, designers can tweak the run-time dynamics between player and game system by altering mechanics to reach aesthetic goals in their design. For the benefit of further work, both of this paper’s models can be used to inspect and compare other games to better be able to compare them and further increase our understanding of games’ formal elements, and, their impact on player experience.

 

Playful ambience

Eyles Mark Pinchbeck Dan
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This research started in 2004 as a search for a pervasive game equivalent of Brian Eno’s ignorable ambient music, such as ‘Music for Airports’. Brian Eno explicitly stated that the attention of listeners might alter over time, from ignoring to listening intently to the music; the ambient music pervading an environment and creating a mood, "it must be as ignorable as it is interesting" (Eno, 1978) Listeners might come across the music and then choose to what extent they engage with it. Defining ambience, and ambient properties, was particularly challenging. The concept of ambience, especially when applied to games, was not immediately clear. Building on the definition of ambience developed by Brian Eno for music (ibid.), fundamental properties of ambience as applied to games were posited. These properties included ideas of different levels of engagement by players, different levels of affect, persistence of the game when players are not present and the context of the game (where, when, who). The game design research methodology (Dishman, 2003; Eglin, Eyles, & Dansey, 2008; Eyles, 2008b; Zimmerman, 2003) developed for this research was used with phenomenological methods (Krzywinska, 2005; Mallon, 2006) to determine the experience of players and hence throw light on the fundamental nature of games and ambient gameplay. Following research into experimental games (M. Eyles, Eglin, R., 2007a, 2007b) which were designed to contain high degrees of ambience as previously (theoretically) defined it became clear that many existing commercial games contain some ambient (sometimes emergent) properties. They are not designed to be played ambiently, but have properties that facilitate ambient play (see ambient properties above). The research with experimental ambient games enabled the development of a phenomenologically predicated ambient lens through which these existing games could be viewed. This lens was then further refined by considering the ambience of both the experimental and the commercial games; finally arriving at a description of key features of ambient play. Constant comparisons within and between different data, and back to definitions of musical ambience, were used to ensure rigor (Glaser, 1978). This paper focuses on the findings of this research into ambience in games, delivering a succinct and far reaching schema of ambience that has not only been applied to existing games but has some important implications for the design of future games, throwing new light on the experience of game players and in particular of the inventive, collaborative and ambiguous nature of game playing. The applications of this research are wide reaching, in particular due to the ‘gamification’ (Campbell, 2011; McGonigal, 2011; Schell, 2010) of many products and services. For example, the awarding of points and rewards for use of online shops (such as Ebay) and the vine growing display of the Ford Fusion Hybrid car to denote driving efficiency (hypermilling) (Squatriglia, 2009). These applications of game mechanisms are pervasive, having many similarities to the ambient gameplay investigated in this research. The findings of this research into ambient play within games clearly indicate elements and approaches that could enhance the experience of gamified products and applications. Further this research offers a new way of looking at games, including both pervasive and commercial video games.

 

Designing Social Behaviour through Play

Marriott Tanya
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

“All play means something” Johann Huizinga (Huzinga,J, 1949, page 7) In this paper I discuss the strategic and discursive implementation of interactive play in motivating positive social behavior within children and young adults. Central to my discussion is the social role of play and the roles of the players, as described by play theorists Johannes Huzinga (Salen, K et al, 2004, page 465) and Richard Bartle (Salen, K et al, 2004, page 79) Play theory seeks to build meaningful relationships between game participants through the formation of social groups within the play world, referred by Huizinga as the magic circle. In this paper I examine the aspects of social play within the game design of three year-four undergraduate visual communication student projects. I will outline how the students were asked to identify an existing social issue and user group to which they applied the key principles of play methodology in creating a ‘circle of magic’ and motivating factors as a means of instigating social change. In addition my discussion explores the play theories as discussed by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (2004) as instrumental to developing game strategies as frameworks for keeping game users engaged within the social space. I concentrate on how each project encourages player social interaction thus enabling users to customize and manipulate their individual experience, while remaining an active participant within the larger social circle.

 

Integrating Emergence and Progression

Dormans Joris
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper investigates how structures of emergence and progression in games might be integrated. By leveraging the formalism of Machination diagrams, the shape of the mechanics that typically control progression in games are exposed. Two strategies to create mechanics that control progression but exhibit more emergent behavior by including feedback loops are presented and discussed.

 

Game reward systems: Gaming experiences and social meanings

Wang Hao Sun Chuen-Tsai
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

The authors give an overview of how various video game reward systems provide positive experiences to players, and propose classifications for rewards and reward characteristics for further analysis. We also discuss what reward systems encourage players to do, and describe how they provide fun even before players receive their rewards. Next, we describe how game reward systems can be used to motivate or change behaviors in the physical world. One of our main suggestions is that players can have fun with both rewards and reward mechanisms—enjoying rewards while reacting to the motivation that such rewards provide. Based on relevant psychological theories, we discuss how reward mechanisms foster intrinsic motivation while giving extrinsic rewards. We think that reward systems and mechanisms in modern digital games provide social meaning for players primarily through motivation, enhanced status within gaming societies, and the use of rewards as social tools.

 

Meta-Rules and Complicity in Brenda Brathwaite’s Train

Logas Heather Lee
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

Train, a board game designed and produced by Brenda Brathwaite (2009), is an unusual game in many regards. It is a game that reliably elicits feelings of complicity in its players with a tragic human event from history. It does this by using the technique of taking advantage of players␣ and audience members␣␣expectations about the meta-rules around games and conflating them with the meta-rules of our society. In this paper, I will introduce the game Train, briefly explain the concept of meta-rules and their importance to our understanding of game design and game studies, and examine in detail the particular meta-rules that are utilized in Train to create emotional resonance in all who encounter it. Through this close reading of one game, I will show how the meta-rules around games can be effectively taken advantage of to produce projects that force our own internal examinations of our relationships with tragic events and society at large.

 

Game Mechanics and Dynamics of Social Actions in a Prototype Multiplayer Game World

Eladhari Mirjam
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper describes the social actions called ‘affective actions’ that are implemented in the prototype multiplayer game world The Pataphysic Institute (PI). An aim of this paper is to demonstrate how a game mechanic can result in a certain set of dynamics or play patterns. Affective actions are but one feature of the many that make up the game world of PI. In this paper, the feature is used as a vertical slice into the game design. The aim is to, by using this slice, show the founding the principles of the game, the play tests that informed the design, as well as the play patterns that were observed as they emerged in a series of game mastered play–test sessions.

 

Game Prototyping – The Negotiation of an Idea

Manker Jon
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This is a study on the function of the prototyping process in game design. It is based on interviews with 27 game designers in leading positions at companies of various sizes. Prototyping is an important part of game design with which design ideas are explored. One central purpose of prototypes is to serve as a communicational tool. As such it is used to negotiate design problems. Rhetoric has a long tradition of analyzing communication and negotiation. In this paper a number of concepts from rhetoric, (topos, hodos, pistis, partes and to some extent synecdoche) are applied to game prototyping based on data collected as interviews. The results indicate that rhetoric concepts are useful when talking about the prototypes as they grasp the qualities of a prototyping in a good way. By applying the findings using negotiation theory to real practice the game prototyping process would likely become clearer without diminishing its creative qualities. As presented here negotiation theory could serve as a conceptual framework for game prototyping, which the design team can make use of in their design process.