This document discusses 7 lessons from game design that can be applied more broadly. The lessons are: 1) Find your North Star goal, 2) Design for emotions, 3) Understand player types, 4) Know your core mechanics, 5) Consider the long-term "elder game", 6) Learn how to teach users effectively, and 7) Always test your designs. The document provides examples and explanations for each lesson. It emphasizes designing around emotions rather than just functionality, understanding different player motivations, and the importance of testing designs through playtesting.
4. These are the wise people I learned from
Some I interviewed, some I read their books, some I watched their videos, some reviewed this
talk…
5. 7 Lessons from game design
1.Find your North Star
2.Design for Emotion(s)
3.Use Player Types
4.Know Your Mechanics
5.Consider the Elder Game
6.Learn to Teach
7.Always be Testing
6. Find your North Star
Every project needs a goal that everyone agrees is worth doing.
8. The Player
Should Have The
Fun, Not The
Designer Or The
Computer
The algorithms were, of course, very
fun to construct and interesting to
discuss outside of the game. The
players, however, felt left behind --
the computer was having all the fun
-- so we cut the feature.
From a Gamasutra Article “Analysis: Sid Meier's Key
Design Lessons”
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
11. Design for An Emotion
Conversion is a crap north star
12. Frustration
Satisfaction
Delight
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke is a world of amazing emotions in technicolor just waiting
We have been designing in Black and White. There
13. Needs
CONNECTION CONNECTION continued HONESTY MEANING
acceptance safety authenticity awareness
affection security integrity celebration of
appreciation stability presence life
belonging support PLAY challenge
cooperation to know and be known joy clarity
communication to see and be seen humor competence
closeness to understand and PEACE consciousness
community be understood beauty contribution
companionship trust communion creativity
compassion warmth ease discovery
consideration PHYSICAL WELL-BEING equality efficacy
consistency air harmony effectiveness
empathy food inspiration growth
inclusion movement/exercise order hope
intimacy rest/sleep AUTONOMY learning
love sexual expression choice mourning
mutuality safety freedom participation
nurturing shelter independence purpose
respect/self-respect touch space self-expression
water spontaneity stimulation
to matter
(c) 2005 by Center for Nonviolent Communication Website: www.cnvc.org
understanding
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
14. PEACE
beauty communion ease equality harmony inspiration order
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
23. “People find role playing
cheesy, makes them self
conscious.
The game forces you into
uncomfortable situations.
You take a situation and a
pattern and match them
up.. It might be a pattern
you avoid because you
aren’t good at it. And it
creates much more
teachable scenarios.”
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
25. Grace (62/ female/ widowed/ Little Rock, AR.)
“I like playing my favorite games online, but if I can play with
friends, well that’s even better!”
Personal Background: Her husband has passed on. She
has two grown kids, both of whom live far away. She misses
the kids, but has a fairly large circle of friends that she spends
time with.
Technical Proficiency : Limited. Can use her browser and
her email. MS Word confuses her, and she doesn’t like using it.
Doesn’t know what an OS is. Tends to click yes if the browser
prompts her to do anything, and will click wildly until things
work.
History with games: Plays crossword puzzles daily and saves
them. Plays card games, PhotoJam, but is offended by South
Park cartoons
Game’s opportunity: If Grace can be convinced to
2001 participate in community activities, she will become a loyal user
of the site. She needs to be sheltered from the sick and twisted
content, however.
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
26. Richard Bartle http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm Drawing: Frank Caron http://frankcaron.com
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke and what features support the behavior desired is also useful.
Understanding behavioral patterns in player types,
Maybe more useful.
27. 4 Key Engagement Styles in Social Gaming
Express Compete
Explore Collaborate
Copyright Amy Jo Kim
28. Satisficers Socializers
Optimizers Self-discovery
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
30. This is a core loop for a very simple game. I’m actually shocked we don’t map this on other projects. Amazon’s is
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
Seek, evaluate, buy.
31. Will Wright on Game Design:
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke http://youtu.be/CdgQyq3hEPo Watch 30:27-33:27
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1003252
45. 6 key principles of
persuasion by Robert
Cialdini
Reciprocity
Social Proof
Commitment and Consistency
Authority
Liking
Scarcity
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
50. Mastery
Crafting in Castleville, and many other games
is all about repetition. Is the user really feeling
mastery here?
In Bubblewich saga, like many match-
three games, it’s all about beating your
own score as well as others. You can
see and feel your improvement.
55. Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.comFTUE (first time user experience) and elder game at a minimum. Almost
All game designers I’ve met talk about @cwodtke
no web/app developer I speak with discusses these much if at all. Is a tutorial enough?
63. Grace and Glory enemy concept
designs by Yusuke Hashimoto. From
the upcoming video game Bayonetta.
Concept design by Min Zhou
http://minzhouportfolio.blogspot.com/
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke
67. Sid Meir, Everything You Think You Know Is
Wrong. Watch 18:40-23:53
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7aRJE-
Christina Wodtke www.eleganthack.com @cwodtke oOY&feature=BFa&list=PL8E8E672C0031DC3A
What is a north star? It is the goal, the thing you are aiming for, and when you arrive, you can launch. http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/building_a_vision_of_design_success,
Game designers have an inherent North Star because they are building a game. It’s FUN. Game designers constantly ask “Is it fun yet” and if the answer is no, they don’t launch. And their team doesn’t launch. Even when it’s late late late. Because there is no point in launching an un-fun game.
Game designers are very user centered. They have to be.
So when you are working on your project, your northstar should be a strong emotion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Z-3mz3j6U&feature=BFa&list=PL8E8E672C0031DC3A Warning: this video will make you cry. It’s awesome. Watch 4:28-7:20
We are often facile when discussing needs in wed design. If we tap deeper into basic needs, we can get more satisfying products.
We are limited in how we talk about emotion in Wed Design. We talk about delight, and frustration. But there are many more words we could be designing for…
As well, Game designers are much more comfortable with creating negative emotions than wed designers, who Mostly aim for “happy.” But as part of a sequence, a slight negative can increase a positive.
Dan Brown’s Communicating Design Game. Sometimes stress can teach.
This is a classic persona my old company CarbonIQ made for a casual gaming site. It was useful. But….
Amy Jo Kim has developed different player types that you find in Social Games. Each one has his or her own play style. Knowing these needs shapes the feature set and core loop.
Backyard Monsters takes the classic tower defense loop (build defense, get attacked, redo) and adds complexity by letting you also attack and build offensive as well as defensive tools.
Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper. The game of rock paper scissors lizard spock adds In two more elements for added complexity. And nerdity.
A constraint is usually about resource management. How much energy/money/stuff you need.
The pinch is the place where you run out of something. I.e. You run out of lives in the arcade, and you reach in your pocked for a quarter. Or twelve.
Energy is a typical social game pinch. You can solve with money or with being “social” i.e. begging from friends.
In cityville, real estate is an excellent pinch. You could just buy more land, but you could also upgrade to better buildings, rearrange your items, or store something. More options + more fun play.
In Castleville the pinch is also part of the play. New land is shrouded in shadow, so you may discover new mysteries as you look to expand.
Manipulation is tough. We go to the theater to be manipulated. We like a certain amount of orchestration of our feelings. But we sure don’t like being taken advantage of.
Name the persuasion techniques being used by these social games. Trust me, a little time on Facebook and you can collect all six. And find a few new ones.
Zynga invented the “doobers” which is when something good happens you see an outflowing of stars or coins. It’s the equivalent of the slot machine flowing out, and very satisfying.
There is a certain satisfaction in kicking a friends bum. However, if you have a place where not much social is happening, be sure to motivate me by making me beat my own high score. Not feel lonely.
Moving from a novice to a master is why we play tennis, chess or even do things like knitting or woodworking. We humans love to know we are getting better at something.
Classic waterfall. Even web people don’t like this anymore.
From Art of Game Design, by Jesse Schell. This his process diagram, and looks accurate to me. Game people often talk about “wandering in the wilderness”: the time while you are trying to achieve fun.
Make it pretty, make a profit. Often web and app design just slaps some pretty on it at the end.
Again, game designers seem way more user centered than most others. They don’t say “we’ll do two rounds of testing.” They’ll test over and over until fun arrives.
Sid Meir, Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong. Watch 18:40-23:53 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7aRJE-oOY&feature=BFa&list=PL8E8E672C0031DC3A
Most web app designers through learning into a quickie tutorial in the beginning. But game designers, focused on mastery and that satisfaction weave it through the game.
Dance Central: you have to do the moves along with the dancer to earn points
Dance Central made learning the moves a key part of the game, not just a simple add on. You feel like you are really learning to dance.