(PPT) - Unit 2 - Designing and Editing Games

20CDT62 – Game Design
UNIT II: Designing and Editing Games

By
Mr.S.Selvaraj
Asst. Professor (SRG) / CSD
Kongu Engineering College
Perundurai, Erode, Tamilnadu, India
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Thanks to and Resource from : Dr. Claudio Scolastici, David Nolte, “Mobile Gamess
Design Essentials”, 2013
Unit Wise Syllabus – GD

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Unit 2 : Contents (ch 4, 5 and 6)
• Working with Dramatic Elements (ch 4)
– Challenge
– Play
• Working with System Dynamics (ch 5)
– Games as Systems
– System Dynamics
– Interacting with Systems
• Designing a Game (ch 6)
– Conceptualization
• Coming up with Ideas
• Brainstorming Skills
• Alternative Methods
• Editing and Refining
06/16/2024 • Turning Ideas into20CDT62
a Game_ GD _ UNIT II _ Designing and Ed 3
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Formal Elements
• Formal Elements:
1. Players
2. objective
3. Procedures
4. Rules
5. Resources
6. Conflict
7. Boundaries
8. Outcome
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Dramatic Elements
• Dramatic elements give context to gameplay, overlaying
and integrating the formal elements of the system into a
meaningful experience.
• Basic dramatic elements, like challenge and play, are
found in all games.
• More complicated dramatic techniques, like premise,
character, and story, are used in many games
– to explain and enhance the more abstract elements of the
formal system,
– creating a deeper sense of connection for the players and
– enriching their overall experiences.

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Working with Dramatic Elements
• Dramatic Elements:
1. Challenge
2. Play
3. Premise
4. Character
5. Story

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Exercise 4.1: Making Checkers
Dramatic
• The game of checkers is very abstract: There is no story, no
characters, and no compelling reason why you would want to
capture all of your opponent’s pieces, except for the fact that it’s
the objective of the game. For this exercise, devise a set of
dramatic elements for checkers that make the game more
emotionally engaging. For example, you might create a backstory,
give each piece its own name and distinctive look, define special
areas on the board, or whatever creative ideas you can think of to
connect the players to this simple, abstract system. Now play
your new game with friends or family and note their reactions.
How do the dramatic elements improve or detract from the
experience?
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Checkers Game

Exercise 4.2: Dramatic Games
• Name five games that you find dramatically

interesting. What is it about those games that you
find compelling?

Challenge
• challenge is very individualized and is
determined by the abilities of the specific
player in relationship to the game.
• challenge is also dynamic.

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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow Theory
• Csikszentmihalyi created a theory called “flow” that is illustrated in
Figure. When a person begins performing an activity, they usually
have a low level of ability.
• If the challenge of the activity is too high, they will become
frustrated. As they continue on, their ability rises, however, and if
the challenge level stays the same, they will become bored.

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Challenge Elements
• A Challenging Activity That Requires Skill
• The Merging of Action and Awareness
• Clear Goals and Feedback
• Concentration on the Task at Hand
• The Paradox of Control
• The Loss of Self-Consciousness
• The Transformation of Time
• Experience Becomes an End in Itself
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Exercise 4.3: Skills
• List the types of skills required by the games you

enjoy. What other types of skills do people enjoy
that you could incorporate into the games you
design?

Exercise 4.4: Goals and Feedback
• Pick three games and list the types of feedback

generated in each. Then describe how the feedback
relates to the ultimate goal of each game.

Play
• Play can be thought of as freedom of
movement within a more rigid structure.
• In the case of games, the constraints of the
rules and procedures are the rigid structure.

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Play
• Types of Play
• Types of Players
• Levels of Engagement

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Types of play
• Types of Play
1. Competitive play, or agôn
2. Chance-based play, or alea
3. Make-believe play, or mimicry
4. Vertigo play, or ilinx

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Types of Players
1. The Competitor: Plays to best other players, regardless of the
game
2. The Explorer: Curious about the world, loves to go
adventuring; seeks outside boundaries— physical or mental
3. The Collector: Acquires items, trophies, or knowledge; likes
to create sets, organize history, etc.
4. The Achiever: Plays for varying levels of achievement;
ladders and levels incentivize the achiever
5. The Joker: Doesn’t take the game seriously—plays for the
fun of playing; there’s a potential for jokers to annoy serious
players, but on the other hand, jokers can make the game
more social than competitive
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Types of Players
6. The Artist: Driven by creativity, creation, design
7. The Director: Loves to be in charge, direct the
play
8. The Storyteller: Loves to create or live in
worlds of fantasy and imagination
9. The Performer: Loves to put on a show for
others
10. The Craftsman: Wants to build, cra , engineer,
or puzzle things out
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Exercise 4.5: Player Types
• For each player type described above, list a game

you know that appeals to that variety of player.
What type of player do you tend to be?

Levels of Engagement
• In addition to thinking about categories of play
and types of players, the level of engagement
can also vary; not all players need to
participate at the same level to find the same
enjoyment.
• It depends on
– Player Age
– Game Genre
– Gamming Platform

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– Challenge
– Play
– System Dynamics
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Working with System Dynamics
• Games as Systems
• System Dynamics
• Interacting with Systems

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Games as Systems

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Games as Systems
• Systems can be found in many different forms. They can
be mechanical, biological, or social in nature, among
other possibilities.
• Games are also systems. At the heart of every game is a
set of formal and dramatic elements.
• The goal of a game is to entertain its participants.
• Systems can be simple or complex.
• Systems can produce precise, predictable results, or
they can produce widely varied, unpredictable effects.
• What type of system is best for your game?
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Games as Systems
• The basic elements of systems are
– Objects
– Properties
– Behaviors
– Relationships
• Objects within the system interact with each
other according to their properties,
behaviors, and relationships, causing changes
to the system state.
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Objects
• Objects are the basic building blocks of a system.
• Systems can be thought of as a group of interrelated pieces
called objects, which can be physical, abstract, or both,
depending on the nature of the system.
• Examples of objects in games might be
– individual game pieces (such as the king or queen in chess),
– in-game concepts (such as the bank in Monopoly),
– the players themselves, or representations of the players (such as the
avatars in an online environment)
– Areas or terrain can also be thought of as objects
– The squares on a grid board or the yard lines on a playing field
• Objects are defined by their properties and behaviors.
• They are also defined by their relationships with other objects.
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Properties
• Properties are qualities or attributes that define physical
or conceptual aspects of objects.
• Generally these are a set of values that describe an object.
• For example,
– the attributes of a chess piece include its rank (king, queen,
bishop, knight, rook, pawn),
– its color (white or black), and
– its location.

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Properties -Example
• The simplest types of game objects have very few properties, and
those properties do not change based on gameplay.
• An example of this type of object would be the checkers in a
checker game.
• Checkers have only three properties: color, location, and type.
– While the location of checkers changes, their color never does.
– The type of checker can change from “normal” to “king” if it reaches
the other side of the board.
• These three properties completely define the state of each
checker within a game.

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Properties - Example
• Properties of a character from Diablo game - health, strength, dexterity, experience,
level,

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Exercise 5.1: Objects and
Properties
• Choose a board game you have at home in which
you are able to clearly identify the objects and their
properties. Strategy board games often have objects
with properties that are easy to identify. Make a list
of all of the objects and their properties in the game
you have chosen.

Behaviors
• Behaviors are the potential actions that an
object might perform in a given state.
• Example:
– The behaviors of the bishop in chess include
moving along any of the diagonals radiating from
its current position until it is blocked by or
captures another piece.
– The behaviors of the role-playing character
described previously might include walking,
running, fighting, talking, using items, etc.
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Exercise 5.2: Behaviors
• Take the list of objects and properties you created

in Exercise 5.1 and add a description of the
behaviors for each object. Consider all behaviors in
different game states.

Relationships
• Systems also have relationships among their objects.
• If there are no relationships between the objects in
question, then you have a collection, not a system.
• For example,
– a stack of blank index cards is a collection. If you write
numbers on the cards or mark them in several suits, then
you have created relationships among the cards.
– Removing the “3” card from a sequence of 12 will change
the dynamics of a system that uses those cards.

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Relationships - Example
• Checker Game:
• An example of a relationship that changes during gameplay is
the movement of the checkers on our checkerboard:
– Pieces move toward the other side of the board,
– jumping and capturing the opponent’s pieces along the way.
– As they do so, their relationship to the board and to the other pieces
on it continually changes.

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Exercise 5.3: Relationships
• Take the list of objects, properties, and behaviors

you created in Exercises 5.1 and 5.2 and describe
the relationships between each object. How are
these relationships defined? By position? By
power? By value?

System Dynamics

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System Dynamics
• Exactly how the dynamics of any given game
system are affected by the properties,
attributes, and relationships of its objects is
difficult to generalize.
• A good way to understand how these
elements can affect each other is to look at
some example systems—ranging from very
simple to fairly complex —that exhibit various
types of dynamic behavior.
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System Dynamics
• Tic-tac-toe
• Chess

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Tic-tac-toe

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Type of Game Structure

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Exercise 5.4: System Dynamics
• Now let’s take the game you have been working with in Exercises 5.1, 5.2, and
5.3 and see how we can change the system dynamics by experimenting with
the properties, behaviors, or relationships of its core objects.
• For example, if you chose a game like Monopoly, change the prices, placement, and
rent of every property on the board or change the rules for movement. How you change
these things is up to you, but make significant changes.
• Now play the game. What happens? Did your changes affect the balance of the game?
Is the game still playable?
• If the system is still playable, make another change. For example, take out all the
“positive” Chance cards in Monopoly and leave in only “negative or neutral” cards.
Play the game again. What happens?
• Continue doing this exercise until the game is no longer playable.
• What was the crucial change you made? Why do you think that change finally
broke the game?
System Dynamics
• Economies
• Simple Bartering
• Complex Bartering
• Simple Market
• Complex Market
• Metaeconomy
• Emergent Systems

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Interacting with Systems

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• Games are designed for player interaction, and the
structures of their systems are integrally related to the
nature of that interaction.
• Some of the things that need to be considered when
designing for interaction are:
– How much information do players have about the state of
the system?
– What aspects of the system do players control?
– How is that control structured?
– What type of feedback does the system give the players?
– How does this affect the gameplay?

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Information Structures Types
• Open IS
• Hidden IS
• Mixed or Dynamic IS

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Exercise 5.6: Hidden
Information
• Many strategy games have open information structures
that allow the players access to perfect information
about the game state. Examples are chess, checkers, Go,
mancala, etc. Take a game with an open information
structure and change the system so that there is an
element of hidden information. You might need to add
new concepts to the game to accomplish this. Test your
new design. How does adding hidden information
change the nature of the strategy? Why do you think this
is so?
Exercise 5.7: Information
Structures
• What type of information structures are present in
Unreal Tournament, Age of Empires, Jak II,
Madden 2008, Lemmings, Scrabble, Mastermind,
and Clue? Do they have open, hidden, mixed, or
dynamic information structures? If you do not
know one of the games, pick a game that we have
not mentioned and substitute it.

• Aspect of interaction with the system is in the
form of two methods.
– Control
– Feedback

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Control
• The basic controls of a game system are directly related to its
physical design.
• Board games or card games offer control by direct manipulations of
their equipment.
– Computer games might use a keyboard, mouse, joystick, or alternate
types of control devices.
– Console games usually provide a proprietary controller.
– Arcade games often use game-specific controls.
Computer game controller Console game controller Arcade Game Controller

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Console Game Controls

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Console Games - Xbox 360 Controller

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Arcade Game Types

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Types of Control
• What type of controls do you enjoy?
– Do you prefer to have direct control over the
game elements, such as you might have when
moving your character through a 3D shooter? Or
– indirect control, as in a game like SimCity?
– Do you prefer real time control, like in WarCraft ,
or
– turn-based control, as in Warlords II?

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Exercise 5.8: Control
• For the same games mentioned in Exercise 5.6,

describe the methods of control they use: direct or
indirect, real time or turn based. Are there any
cases in which these distinctions are mixed?

Feedback
• Feedback can be
– positive or negative
– divergence or balance in the system.

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Positive and negative feedback loops

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• In the first example,

– if a player scores a point, they get a free turn. This
reinforces the positive effects of the scored point,
creating an advantage for that player.
– A negative feedback loop, on the other hand, like that
on the right, works against the effect of the point. In
this example, every time a player scores a point, they
must pass the turn to the other player. This has the
effect of balancing the system between the two
players rather than allowing one player to get a larger
advantage over the other.
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Reinforcing and balancing relationships
Reinforcing and balancing relationships over time

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Reinforcing and balancing relationships
• Generally, reinforcing relationships are ones

in which a change to one element directly
causes a change to another element in the
same direction. This might force the system
toward one or the other extreme.
• By contrast, in balancing relationships, a
change to one element causes a change to
another in the opposite direction, forcing the
system toward equilibrium.
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• To improve gameplay,
– a good designer must be able to evaluate how
quickly or slowly the game is progressing.
– a good designer must be able to understand if
there are patterns to growth or contraction in the
system caused by reinforcing loops, and know
when and how to apply a balancing factor.

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– Challenge
– Play
– System Dynamics
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Conceptualization
• Conceptualization Steps:
1. Coming up with Ideas
2. Brainstorming Skills
3. Alternative Methods
4. Editing and Refining
5. Turning Ideas into a Game

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1. Coming Up With Ideas
• Great ideas come from great input into your
mind and senses.
• Csikszentmihalyi describes the classic stages of creativity as follows:
– Preparation: Preparation is becoming immersed in a topic or domain of
interest, a set of problematic issues.
– Incubation: Incubation is a period of time in which ideas “churn around”
below the threshold of consciousness.
– Insight: Insight is sometimes called the “aha!” moment, when the pieces of
puzzle, or an idea, fall together.
– Evaluation: Evaluation is when the person decides whether the insight is
valuable and worth pursuing. Is the idea really original?
– Elaboration: Elaboration is the longest part of the creative process; it takes
the most time and is the hardest. This is what Edison meant when he said
invention is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.
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2. Brainstorming Skills
• Brainstorming Best Practices
– 1. State a challenge
• Example challenges
– Design a game in which players must make strong alliances and then betray them.
– Design a game with a special role for parents to play together with their children.
– Come up with a game that makes interesting use of only one button for control.
– 2. No criticism
– 3. Vary the method
– 4. Playful environment
– 5. Put it on the wall
– 6. Go for lots of ideas
– 7. Don’t go too long

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Exercise 6.4: Blue Sky
Brainstorm
• In this exercise, use the techniques previously described to do a
brainstorm for a “blue sky” project. By blue sky, we mean that
we know this project could not technically be made today, but we
are going to pretend it could. The challenge is to come up with
ideas for a “remote control” for a stereotypical character.
Choose a character from this list:
• Door to door salesman
• Busy mother
• God
• Superhero
• Politician
Hint
• First, brainstorm about the character:
• What does the character do?
• What makes the character interesting?
• What aspect of the character would it be engaging to control?
• How does the character react?
• Does the character have free will?
• Next, brainstorm features for your imaginary controller.
• What will it look like?
• What could each button do?
• Remember, this is “blue sky,” so the buttons can do crazy things. Have
fun with this! Come up with as many ideas as you can.
3. Alternate Methods
• List Creation
• Idea Cards
• Mind Map
– Mind mapping is a way of expressing ideas visually. You start
with a core idea in the center and let related ideas radiate
outward. You can use lines and different colored markers to
connect ideas. Mind mapping provides a structure for thinking
in a nonlinear manner.
• Stream of Consciousness
• Shout It Out
• Cut It Up
• Surrealist Games
• Research

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4. Editing and Refining
• Technical Feasibility
– Sometimes you come up with an idea, like our blue sky character remote
controls from Exercise 6.4, which just is not technically possible yet.
• Market Opportunity
– Sometimes there is no market opportunity for a particular idea. Again, this
does not mean it is a bad idea; it just might not be advisable to do it right
now.
• Artistic Considerations
– If you do not think this idea is artistically challenging, then cutting it might
be the right decision.
• Business/Cost Restrictions
– Sometimes an idea is just too expensive, or too ambitious for your team,
time frame, or budget you have available. If the idea cannot be scaled
down, then cutting it from your list might be the best answer
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5. Turning Ideas into a Game
• Focus on the Formal Elements
• Practice, Practice, Practice
• Feature Design
– design new features for existing games.
• Feature Storyboards
– The most powerful way to explain your ideas for new
features is to visualize them. A good way to begin is to
use screenshots from the existing game and edit them
to explain what the player sees when they use your
new feature ideas.
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Exercise 6.9: Feature Design Exercise
• Think of a feature you would like to see added to

one of your favorite games. We are sure you have
plenty of ideas on this one. It does not matter how
far-fetched or technically difficult the idea is at first
because you are not going to actually build it.
Rather, you are going to illustrate how it works
using storyboards and words.

Thank You

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20CDT62 – Game Design

UNIT II: Designing and Editing Games

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• Name five games that you find dramatically

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• List the types of skills required by the games you

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• Pick three games and list the types of feedback

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• For each player type described above, list a game

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• Take the list of objects and properties you created

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• Take the list of objects, properties, and behaviors

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Computer game controller Console game controller Arcade Game Controller

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• For the same games mentioned in Exercise 5.6,

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Positive and negative feedback loops

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• In the first example,

Reinforcing and balancing relationships over time

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• Generally, reinforcing relationships are ones