Austin GDC 2009 presentation

2. Introduction Laralyn McWilliams Creative Director, Free Realms Sony Online Entertainment

6. Drivers and Passengers

10. Identify the Passengers

15. Understand Your Passengers

16. Understand Your Passengers

17. Understand Your Passengers

18. Set Guideposts

21. Free Realms Key Design Decision Create a game with a wide variety of activities that are all optional but all equally rewarding Players do what they want to do and feel like they’re playing a game made just for them

22. Free Realms Interaction-Reward Cycle

23. Assess Competing Tours

27. Clear The Path

29. Clear the Path

30. Design The Passenger’s Experience

31. Design the Passenger’s Experience A plan for the passenger’s experience + Speaks with the passenger’s voice + From the passenger’s point of view = User Stories

33. User Stories as the Foundation User Stories + Solutions + Implementation Details = Game Design

55. Stats

59. Look & Feel Combat Non-Combat Costume Freestyle

60. Look & Feel

65. Progression Hindsight + =

69. The Open Road?

70. The Open Road How do you know if any of this is going to work? You don’t know until you try it

74. Parting Thoughts

77. Q & A