Computer Game Development / Game Design G GAME DESIGN a m e Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 3rd Edition is a truly great book, WORKSHOP and has become, in my opinion, the de facto standard text for beginner- to intermediate-level game design education. D This updated new edition is extremely relevant, useful and inspiring to all kinds of game designers. e — Richard Lemarchand, Interactive Media & Games Division, s School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California i g n This is the perfect time for a new edition. The updates refresh elements of the book that are important as examples, A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games but don't radically alter the thing about the book that is great: a playcentric approach to game design. W — Colleen Macklin, Associate Professor, Parsons The New School for Design o Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 3rd Edition r k covers pretty much everything a working or wannabe game designer needs to know. She covers game theory, concepting, by Tracy Fullerton s prototyping, testing and tuning, with stops along the way to discuss what it means to a professional game designer and h how to land a job. When I started thinking about my game studies course at the University of Texas at Austin, this was o with a foreword by Eric Zimmerman one book I knew I had to use. p — Warren Spector, Director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, University of Texas at Austin “Create the digital games you love to play.” E D Discover an exercise-driven, non-technical approach to game design, without the need for IT3R programming or artistic expertise with Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to IOD N Creating Innovative Games, 3rd Edition. Tracy Fullerton demystifies the creative process with clear and accessible analysis of the formal, dramatic and dynamic systems of game design. Using examples of popular games, illustrations of F design techniques, and refined exercises to strengthen your understanding of how game systems U function, this book gives you the skills and tools necessary to create a compelling and engaging game. L L Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 3rd Edition E R puts you to work prototyping, playtesting, and revising your own games with time-tested methods T O and tools. These skills will provide the foundation for your career in any facet of the game industry N including design, producing, programming, and visual design. Tracy Fullerton is an award-winning game designer and educator with 15 years of professional experience, most recently winning the IndieCade 2013 Trailblazer award for her pioneering work in the independent games community. Tracy is Associate Professor and Chair of the Interactive Media & Games Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the #1 game design program in North America as ranked by the Princeton Review. K22093 3RD EDITION “Game Design Workshop is a truly great book, and has become, in my opinion, the de facto standard text for beginner to intermediate level game design education. This updated new edition is extremely relevant, useful and inspiring to all kinds of game designers.” —Richard Lemarchand, Interactive Media and Games Division, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California “This is the perfect time for a new edition. ... The updates refresh elements of the book that are important as examples, but don’t radically alter the thing about the book that is great: a playcentric approach to game design.” —Colleen Macklin, Associate Professor, Parsons The New School for Design “Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop covers pretty much everything a working or wannabe game designer needs to know. She covers game theory, concepting, prototyping, testing and tuning, with stops along the way to discuss what it means to be a professional game designer and how to land a job. When I started thinking about my game studies course at the University of Texas at Austin, this was one book I knew I had to use.” —Warren Spector, Director, Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, University of Texas at Austin “This is a break-through book, brimming with battle-tested ‘how-to’s.’ Aspiring game designers: you will ‘break through’ to the next level when you learn to set, and then test, experience goals for your game players.” —Bing Gordon, former Chief Creative Officer, Electronic Arts “Game Design Workshop is without a question the most important (and best book) on the topic of game design. Its unique approach is both deep and practical and draws students into the very heart of what game design is all about. The emphasis on paper-and-pencil prototyping encourages students to think, quite literally, “out- side the box,” and stretch themselves to innovate beyond simply rehashing com- mercially successful game genres. If the author’s students are any indication, this method has a proven track record of producing both original and successful games. Game Design Workshop is ideal for those starting new educational programs as the book is structured around a design curriculum that can be easily implemented by instructors with no prior game design experience.” —Celia Pearce, Director, Experimental Game Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology “This book offers a thoughtful and comprehensive look at the field of game design. I’m particularly impressed with the way Tracy has managed to integrate the view- points and comments of so many diverse and notable designers with her own per- ceptive view of the state of the art.” —Noah Falstein, Chief Game Designer, Google “This book does a great job illustrating how games are designed and developed by engaging readers to play along.” —Drew Davidson, Director, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University “If you are considering becoming a professional game designer, you will find this book a reliable, intelligent, and compassionate guide. If you are already a profes- sional game designer, you’ll find this book an inspiration.” —Bernie DeKoven, deepfun.com and author of The Well-Played Game “If you have ever wanted to design a video game, Game Design Workshop is the book you want.” —Jesper Juul, video game theorist and designer, author of Half-Real “Tracy Fullerton has combined her innate understanding and joy of games with her patient and objective experience as a scholar in this excellent book. She’ll make you a better game developer with her clever exercises and concise prose. This is a must- have in the library of anyone serious about their games.” —John Hight, Production Director, Blizzard Entertainment “Game design is something of a black art. The trick to doing it well is retaining the black magic but training oneself to control it. There are a lot of books on game design out there, but Game Design Workshop is among the very few that develops a wizard rather than a drone.” —Ian Bogost, Professor of Digital Media, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Co-Founder, Persuasive Games 3RD EDITION GAME DESIGN WORKSHOP A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games by Tracy Fullerton with a foreword by Eric Zimmerman CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2014 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Version Date: 20131031 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4822-1717-9 (eBook - PDF) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com Contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Image Credits and Copyright Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv Part 1 Game Design Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1 The Role of the Game Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 An Advocate for the Player .............................................................3 Passions and Skills .....................................................................6 A Playcentric Design Process ...........................................................11 Designers You Should Know ..........................................................13 The Iterative Design Process ..........................................................17 Designing for Innovation ...............................................................22 Conclusion ...........................................................................22 Designer Perspective: Christina Norman .............................................23 Designer Perspective: Warren Spector ...............................................26 Further Reading ......................................................................28 End Notes ............................................................................28 Chapter 2 The Structure of Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Go Fish versus Quake .................................................................29 Engaging the Player ...................................................................36 What Is a Puzzle? ...................................................................38 v vi Contents The Sum of the Parts ..................................................................45 Defining Games .......................................................................45 Beyond Definitions ....................................................................46 Conclusion ...........................................................................48 Designer Perspective: Jane McGonigal ...............................................49 Designer Perspective: Randy Smith .................................................. 52 Further Reading ......................................................................54 End Notes ............................................................................54 Chapter 3 Working with Formal Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Players ...............................................................................55 Persuasive Games ..................................................................63 Objectives ...........................................................................66 Procedures ...........................................................................72 Rules .................................................................................74 Resources ............................................................................78 Conflict ..............................................................................83 Boundaries ...........................................................................84 The Mechanic Is the Message .......................................................85 Outcome .............................................................................89 Conclusion .......................................................................... 90 Designer Perspective: Tim LeTourneau ................................................91 Designer Perspective: Matt Korba ....................................................93 Further Reading ......................................................................95 End Notes ............................................................................95 Chapter 4 Working with Dramatic Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Challenge ............................................................................97 Play .................................................................................102 Premise .............................................................................105 Character ...........................................................................108 Story .................................................................................112 The Two Great Myths of Interactive Storytelling ......................................114 World Building ........................................................................115 The Dramatic Arc .................................................................... 116 Conclusion ..........................................................................120 Designer Perspective: Dr. Ray Muzyka ...............................................121 Designer Perspective: Don Daglow .................................................. 123 Further Reading .....................................................................125 End Notes ...........................................................................125 Contents vii Chapter 5 Working with System Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Games as Systems ................................................................... 127 System Dynamics .....................................................................131 Deconstructing Set ................................................................ 132 Interacting with Systems ..............................................................146 A Conversation with Will Wright ....................................................150 Tuning Game Systems ................................................................155 Conclusion ..........................................................................156 Designer Perspective: Alan R. Moon ..................................................157 Designer Perspective: Frank Lantz ..................................................160 Further Reading .....................................................................162 End Notes ...........................................................................162 Part 2 Designing a Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Chapter 6 Conceptualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Where Do Ideas Come From? .........................................................165 Brainstorming ........................................................................ 167 Alternate Methods ...................................................................170 Experimental Gameplay ............................................................171 Editing and Refining .................................................................. 177 Electronic Arts Preproduction Workshop ............................................ 178 Turning Ideas into a Game ............................................................183 Where Do Game Ideas Come From? ................................................ 185 Getting the Most Out of Focus Groups .............................................. 187 Conclusion ..........................................................................189 Designer Perspective: Jenova Chen ..................................................191 Designer Perspective: Josh Holmes ................................................. 194 Further Reading .....................................................................196 End Notes ...........................................................................196 Chapter 7 Prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Methods of Prototyping ..............................................................197 Catastrophic Prototyping and Other Stories .........................................204 Prototyping Your Original Game Idea ..................................................210 The Design Evolution of Magic: The Gathering ........................................213 Making the Physical Prototype Better ..................................................228 Beyond the Physical Prototype ........................................................228 viii Contents Conclusion ..........................................................................229 Designer Perspective: James Ernest .................................................230 Designer Perspective: Katie Salen ...................................................232 Further Reading .....................................................................234 Chapter 8 Digital Prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Types of Digital Prototypes ...........................................................235 Using Software Prototypes in Game Design .........................................242 Prototyping for Game Feel .........................................................246 Designing Control Schemes ...........................................................249 Prototyping Cloud .................................................................250 Selecting Viewpoints .................................................................254 Effective Interface Design ............................................................258 Prototyping Tools ................................................................... 260 Conclusion ..........................................................................264 Designer Perspective: David Perry ..................................................265 Designer Perspective: Elan Lee ..................................................... 267 Further Reading .....................................................................269 End Notes ...........................................................................269 Chapter 9 Playtesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Playtesting and Iterative Design .......................................................272 Recruiting Playtesters ................................................................272 Conducting a Playtesting Session .....................................................275 How Feedback from Typical Gamers Can Help Avoid Disappointing Outcomes ........ 276 Methods of Playtesting ...............................................................282 A Primer for Playtesting: Don’t Follow These Rules! ..................................283 Why We Play Games ..............................................................290 The Play Matrix ......................................................................293 Taking Notes .........................................................................294 Basic Usability Techniques ............................................................296 Data Gathering ......................................................................296 Metrics in Game Design ............................................................298 Test Control Situations ...............................................................301 Playtesting Practice ................................................................. 302 Conclusion ......................................................................... 303 Further Reading .................................................................... 304 End Note ........................................................................... 304