Game Design
Principles & Inspiration
John Say
CEO
Say Design
(USA & China)
Best Contact Methods:
Email: john@saydesign.com
Skype: johnsay
Linkedin.com/in/johnsay
Facebook.com/saydesign
QQ: 1794662346


How the Passion Started

Squandered time in Arcade

Game Console Addict


Pong, Atari2600, Coleco
TRS-80 Color Computer

Learned to Code BASIC
2

About Say Design

23 Years in Business for USA

Last year, made the move to Shanghai!

Areas of Focus:


Virtual Worlds / MMO’s

Serious & Educational Games

Original IP Development

Help Bring Games to Western Audiences


Cross Platform (Mobile/Browser/Console)
Theme Park Rides
Many Partners & Clients Globally
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
3

4

Why is Game Design SO Important?
The World Needs Fun Games!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
5

Gamer’s are a Passionate Audience
And They DEMAND
Fresh Innovate Gameplay.
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
6

What Kind of Game Developer
do you Aspire to be?
Jedi Game Master
Game Cloner
7

Choose Wisely… You Must..
Or a Game Design Jedi, You will not be.
8

Design Principles You Must MASTER

Know what it means to INNOVATE

Keep your Creative Juice FLOWING with INSPIRATION

Make Sure your games have FUN MECHANICS.

K.I.S.S. Principle

GROW ORGANICALLY for Better Long-term Results.

REPLAY VALUE

Solve Real-World Problems with Games
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
9

Firstly.. Exactly What is a Game?

They are Goal driven activities or
EXPERIENCES.

They challenge players in a FUN way that
let’s them grow or learn.

They REWARD player’s achievements
with positive reinforcement and a sense of
PROGRESSION.

All of the above are what make up
occurrences in everyday life!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
10

THE KEY TO INNOVATION
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Iterative Innovation
 Most
Common
 Gradual
 Often
“improvement”
increase in complexity
 Decreasing
 Healthy
 Less
of complexity or simplifying
for industry
Risky than more radical innovation
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
12

Iterative Innovation: DoodleSky (OF3D)

Adding A “Twist” to an existing Genre
 DoodleSky: Added Twist to Flight Control Games…
 The ability to Shoot down enemy planes 
Inspiration:
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
13

Game Trailer
14

Radical Innovation
Radically New, Genre Defining
 Donkey Kong (Platform Game)
 Rez (Rhythm Shooter)
 Braid (Time Distortion Platformer)
 Much
Harder to Pull Off Now than Before
 But Not Impossible!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
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Simplification

Take a difficult game (a core game) and remove what makes it
too challenging for Casual players.

You will appeal to core gamers.

And bring something new to casual gamers.

Examples:

Tower Defense -> Plants Vs. Zombies

Crush the Castle -> Angry Birds

Red Alert -> Social Game: Empires and Allies

SimCity -> Social Game: CityVille
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
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RTS: HardCore
19

Tower Defense: Casual Core
20

Plants vs. Zombies: More Casual
Brighter & More Humor
21

Crush the Castle: Casual Core
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Angry Birds: Casual
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Extending into Real-World Innovations

Game Extending Technology
 GPS – Global Positioning -> Location Based Games
 AR – Augmented Reality
 Cameras
 Motion Tracking
 Toys and Drones
 Gyroscopes
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
26

ARDrone by Parrot: iPhone Game + Drone

Games that Combine Virtual Reality and Actual Reality
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
27

Because the CIA can’t be having ALL of the Fun!
(Trailer)
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
28

First Real-Time & Location-Based
MMORPG for iOS/Android
Parallel Kingdom is a mobile location based massively multiplayer
game that uses your GPS location to place you in a virtual world on
top of the real world. (trailer)
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
29

FUSION INNOVATION

Combining 2 or more game aspects together
 Crystal Castles = Fusion of Pacman + Isometric Playfield
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
30

Fusion Innovation! On the Airplane!

A Couple playing Sudoku on the Plane
  Single Player, bah!
 I looked at this as a design opportunity.
 Used Fusion Innovation:
 Hey 2-player Tic-Tac-Toe has similar Grid! What if…
=?
+
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
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HOW ABOUT FUSING THESE TOGETHER?
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
33

Click for Trailer
34

What about Tempest + Bubble Bobble?
+
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
35

CANDY SHOT
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
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Thematic Innovations
 NanoTroopers
(internal project)
First Person Shooter Meets Anatomy & Medicine
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
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a Frag’em up game where players are Immersed into the
body as Formidable Nanites to save the World.
 Just
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
39

 Not
Reinventing the FPS… but rather…
the Environment and the whole Meta-game
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
40

INSPIRATION DRIVES INNOVATION!
How can you keep your Creative Juices Flowing?
41

Inspiration
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
42

Inspiration requires free flow of undistracted thought.
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
43

Inspirational Game Designer Quote to Ponder
“Doing things that you think people need
but are missing always leads to
innovation. Doing things that are popular
and making money doesn’t.”
44

Inspiration from Experimental Games

Flash Game Portals are FULL of experiments and innovations!

Kongregate.com, AddictingGames.com, TheGamesList.com

Top Performing, AppStore & Facebook Games!

As long as you build on what others have done, and
innovated, it’s NOT the same as CLONING.
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
45

Blast to the Past!

Arcade Classics

Old Consoles Games

Emulators

Many Forgotten Gems!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
46

Inspiration from Traditional Toys & Games

Board Games

Puzzles

Toys
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
47

Inspiration from Arts & Crafts

Paint by Numbers Game
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
48

Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
49

Everyone can Innovate Game Ideas!

KIDS! are full of inventive ideas, and go largely untapped!

Colleges and Universities full of students with Fresh new ideas!

Internships

Contests and Competitions



Joey Betz won 3 competitions at Local Univ.
First Say Design Intern: Did Crush the Castle (w/c inspired Angry
Birds Game Designer)
Game Builder Tools & Communities (no coding req.)

PlayCrafter.com (trailer)

GameSalad.com
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
50

EA’s National Invent-A-Game Challenge

Dan Slutz, 17, of Canton Ohio Wins! (all 3 ideas made top 5)
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
51

Link to interview / article
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
52

WHAT ARE FUN MECHANICS?

IT DEPENDS….

ON YOUR AUDIENCE
Game Designers Must Understand their Audience!

Casual Gamer: Prefers Simplicity (K.I.S.S.)
Good
Forget about it
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Dream on

Hardcore Gamer:
NEED T.K.A.
(total kick ass)
Outstanding!... But…
Hey! No Haptic Gloves & 3D VR Glasses?

What if you have Multiple Target Audiences?

Super Casual

Casual

Casual Core

Core

Hard Core

Troubled
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
58

And these 3 are your primary targets…

Super Casual

Casual

Casual Core

Core

Hard Core

Troubled
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
59

Which do you worry most about leaving
behind?

Super Casual

Casual

Casual Core

Core

Hard Core

Troubled
No Gamer in
Intended Audience
Is Left Behind
(FACT: Hard Core Gamers Love to Play
Angry Birds & Doodle Jump too, just privately LOL)
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
60

TIPS FOR CREATING GOOD GAME MECHANICS

At first Try multiple mechanics

Experiment Liberally

Rapidly Prototype in Flash or Unity3D, etc..

Watch Game Testers and see if they “Get It” without
coaching.

Evaluate On these criteria:
 Easy
 Fun
to Learn?
to Master?
 Can
it provide variety of gameplay without
overcomplicating the core User Interaction?

Let’s Illustrate with Angry Birds…
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
61

Angry Birds: Easy to Learn

Core Mechanic Is Simple and doesn’t change… It’s
familiar to anyone who has flung a rubber band.

Pull Back & Let Go!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
62

Angry Birds: Challenging yet Fun to Master

The Challenge isn’t limited to ability to Aim

But your MASTERING EACH BIRD!

One Player’s Assessment of Each Bird’s Funfactor
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
63

Angry Birds: Challenging yet Fun to Master

The Challenge isn’t limited to ability to Aim

But your MASTERING EACH BIRD!

One Player’s Assessment of Each Bird’s Funfactor
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
64

Angry Birds: Each Level Is like a New Game

Level’s start off easy

Gradually ramping up difficulty!

Allowing rapid replay to achieve 3 stars!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
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Eventually you’re forced to Mighty Eagle  BLASTED! .99
please ;-)

W.T.C.
(what the crap?)
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
66

The K.I.S.S. Principle
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
67

K
I
S
S
E E P
T
I M P L E
T U P I D
That’s not name-calling 
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
68

K.I.S.S. Principle???

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should!

All Games benefit from Simplicty
 UX
& GameFlow even in Hardcore Games

China is still learning this concept 

Don’t take it from me…
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
69

“Simplicity
Is the
Ultimate
Sophistication”
-Leonardo
Da Vinci
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K.I.S.S. Principle in PacMan

Give visual clues and “hints” to
guide the user

Did PacMan Require a
Guidebook or Tutorial?

What kind of Clues?:


aural


visual
Ai Behavior
If Player didn’t figure it out,
Minimal Instructions
the game didn’t punish them,
it allowed them to continue.
Ultimate Goal
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
71

PLEASE MEMORIZE THIS:
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Give Players a Sense of Context & Progression

Players want to explore, but also need to know:
 Where

they’ve been
Where they are
 Where
they are heading
 Progress

they’ve made.
How to do this?

Maps

Achievements

Quest Lists

Experience Points & Leveling
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
73

Organic Development!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
74

Organic Growth of Games

The Game Design Document is NOT LAW.

Start with a SEED of the game.


Remember what that is?
Allow TIME for the seed to be
NURTURED TO MATURITY!

Experiment EARLY

Observe Audience reactions & response

Refine & Polish
 REMOVE

unnecessary complexities / confusion
REPEAT ITERATION TO PERFECTION
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
75

SPOCK’S WARNING:
Don’t Become
Emotionally Attached
To a Game Design
To continue to work
on a game that’s not truly
satisfying
to your Audience..
Is.. Well…
ILLOGICAL.
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TIPS FOR REPLAY VALUE

Multiple Modes of Play

Multiple Difficulty Settings

Level Rankings (★★★) (how many times reply an AngryBird
Level?)

Variety is SPICE of LIFE

Clever Level Design
(don’t just leave it to the coders)

Allow for User Generated Content
ie. Level Editors (crush the castle)

Virtual Currency & Items

RPG Aspects (Improving Attributes)
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
77

TIPS FOR REPLAY VALUE

Goals and Achievements

Score & Achievement
Rankings

Allow to Repeat Levels to
Improve Ranks (perfect rank
achievement)

Memorable Story and
Characters they can be drawn
into.

NEVER Underestimate Humor!

Minion Mayhem ->

Improving Launcher,
Mutating Minions,
Multiplayer/Community
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
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Can Games Change the World? Indeed!
 Games
can be used to Solve
Problems.

Getting People to organize around a
common Goal

People more willing to get involved “IF
IT’S A GAME”

Encourage Cooperation and
Camaraderie

If Mapped to Real World Results or
Effects can impact Reality!

A new and noble challenge for Aspiring
Game Designers!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
80

Games that Solve Problems Scientists Cannot
 FoldIt:
Teaching the world Protein Synthesis, and letting the
world come up with solutions through a GAME!
81

Games that Rehabilitate
 UC
Davis Mind Institute Co-Development Project:
Making games to stimulate Brain for improved Spatial
Resolution for Kids with Neurological Disorders.
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
82

Virtual Worlds that Educate!
 Games
& Tablets will have deep impact on education
Globally. Be prepared!

Korea’s Ministry of Education has mandated schoolbooks be replaced
by Tablets and Digital Education by 2015.
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
83

Virtual World Middle & High Schools
 S.T.E.M.,
 Academic
Language, Social Studies, and more
Achievement Rewarding and Fun
 Multiplayer
and Collaborative

Foster Peer-to-Peer Learning

Teacher / Student Interaction

Virtual Cooperation between different schools.
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
84

Edison Virtual School

Inspirational Pop Quiz:
Name That Innovation & Say WHY

If Iterative (what was was the inspiration)
 Radical (was there real-world inspiration?)
 Simplification (what did they simplify?)

Pacman

Ladybug

Zaxxon

Chuzzle

flOw

Lightopus

Crush the Castle

Angry Birds

Shadow of the Colossus
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
86

Games for Health!
 FamScape:
Challenges and Reward driven village game
designed to help families focus on active and healthy lifestyle.
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
87

Some Homework!
http://casualconnect.org/magazine-archive/
Excusive Interview Jonathan Leaders
What Games Can Learn from an Innovation Leader
(On Culture & Traits of Innovation)!
Copyright 2009 Say Design Incorporated. All rights reserved. Say Design confidential.
88

Thank You! Q/A or SHARE 谢谢
Let’s Exchange Cards!
Grab/Leave One B4 U Leave
Best Contact Methods:
Email: john@saydesign.com
Skype: johnsay
Linkedin.com/in/johnsay
Facebook.com/saydesign
QQ: 1794662346
EMAIL ME FOR THE SLIDES & See you at the PARTY!:
(WILL HAVE CHINESE VERSION READY IN A FEW DAYS!!!)