Reading Notes Week 2 - James Newman - What is a video game?

James Newman - What is a video game? Rules Puzzles and Simulations

Aarseth and Frasia - "There is much to be gained by situating video games within the broader critical context of game and play"

"The game is a voluntary activity" the conclusion and hot to get to it are not 100% voluntary, you have to follow pre made paths but make the choice of what path to take and then the end result of that path is already chosen for you by the creators.

"Play is considered free and unfettered; the game is characterized by the constraints of the rule systems"

Rules are sometimes a part of play for example when children are playing fighter pilots they have to pretend to be planes and not cars, otherwise the play isn't working.

 "Games and rules can differentiated according to their outcome"

"The result of a game is victory or success" i.e. winning/losing

"The goal of the activity rather than the structure or constraints imposed upon players is key."

Paidea - Physical or mental activity which has no defined objective and is based on pleasure

Ludus - "Activity organized under a system of rules that defines a victory or defeat"

"Ludus, therefore, requires reference to an external suite of rules where Paidea is understood determined by the player"

Sim City = Paidea - The player determines their own Ludus (Rules for victory)

Paidea + Ludus can work together and the user chooses between the two i.e. a flight simulator, when aimlessly flying around has no goal.

"Consider video games as worlds"

"Players that decide which activities will be performed"

In most games the solution or objective is shown but not how to do it and the player making the decision incorporates Ludus + Paidea

"Games provide environments for learning postmodernist approaches to communication and knowledge: navigating constructive problem - solving, dynamic goal - construction"

Four forms of fame types:
Agon - competition is dominant

Alea - chance + randomness

Ilinx - pleasure is derived from movement.

Mimicry - games orientated around simulation

These qualities are not video game exclusive i.e. poker includes agon + alea

Consider video games as a puzzle.

Single victory state i.e. crosswords - only one correct end state

Games like Tetris are unsustainable as there is no solution or definite end state.

"These are implications for the ways in which we tackle not only the issue of the audience but also the representational system of the game world."

"The definition of video game is orientated around the act of play and "the player" is potentially problematic".

A General Question for My Loyal Followers

Hello there my loyal followers, this is just a quick question to see whether or not you believe i am doing a good job on my blog. Basically do you think that the notes that i am uploading are sufficient or should i take another angle on them and leave my actual notes in the note pad? 
Many Thanks
Dan x

Another photoshop tutorial with phil

Our last lesson with Phil was yet another good one, we was shown how to make a good picture look better with the aid of Photoshop and some hints and tips from Phil. The technique is called inking in the game industry and Phil gave us all a base drawing to start with and then ink ourselves on Photoshop and colour and here is my result.

Dan Out

Notes for Formal Abstract Design Tools week 3

Formal Abstract design Tools – Doug Church

“What is a modern computer game made of? It fuses a technical base with a vision for the player’s experience. All of the disciplines involved (design, art, audio, levels, code, and so on) work together to achieve this synthesis.”

“The technical base on which games stand (game code and content creation tools) is evolving”

“Across all genres and companies, we build on our own and others’ past ideas to expand technical limits, learn new techniques and explore possibilities”

“No single company or team would be where it is now had it been forced to work in a vacuum”

Design is “the least understood aspect of computer game creation. It actualizes the vision, putting art, code, levels and sound together into what player’s experience”

“Design is the game; without it you would have a CD full of data, but no experience”

“We need a shared language of game design”

“A precise vocabulary would improve our understanding of and facility with game creation.”

“Design is hard to point at directly on a screen”

“Formal Abstract Design Tools” (FADT) is an attempt to create a frame work for an all around critical vocabulary for games design as a whole and not just a single project.

“Using the right tools will help get the shape you want, the strength you need, and the right style”

“You, the designer, wield the tools o make what you want, don’t let them run the show”

Mario 64

“Players are given a small, simple set of controls, which work at all times. Simple though the controls are, they are very expressive, allowing rich interaction through simple movement and a small selection of jumping moves”

While playing through levels like Mario 64, the player is introduced and shown the world of the game, how it works and given insight and a sort of demonstration of the game world. As well as this the player is also shown different aspects of the game of which they cannot interact with yet for example a power up box, item etc under water but no way of getting there, until later on when the player has acquired the Metal Mario power up which allows them to walk under water, so the player can then travel back and go through the level again and get the power up box, item etc with the full knowledge of how the game works via simple movement controls. “It’s easy for the players to plan for action”

“They have been presented (usually implicitly) with knowledge of how the world works, how they can move and interact with it, and what obstacle they must overcome. Then, often subconsciously, they evolve a plan for getting to where they want to go. While playing, players make thousands of these little plans, some of which work and some of which don't. The key is that when the plan doesn't succeed, players understand why. The world is so consistent that it's immediately obvious why a plan didn't work”

“No one who plays Mario complains that they want to hollow out a cave and make a fire and cook fish, but cannot. The world is very simple and consistent. If something exists in the world, you can use it.” Everything has its specific purpose.

Goals and control are needed with games so that the player knows what they want and how to get it.

First FADT (Formal Abstract Design Tool) – Intention – “making an implementable plan of one’s own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one’s understanding of the game play options”

“The simplicity and solidity of Mario’s world makes players feel more connected to, or responsible for, their actions.”

Second FADT – Perceivable consequence – “a clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player” Basically every action in the game has a reaction in the game world and to the player and the player must be able to figure out how to solve the problems they face with the actions and reactions within the game world.

“Perceived consequence is often used in RPG’s usually with plot or character development. A plot event will happen, in which the game (through characters or narration) essentially comes out and says “because of x, y has happened””

“Often, however, RPG’s are less direct about consequences. For example, the player may decide to stay the night at an inn, and the next morning he may be ambushed.... That causality is not perceivable by the player. While it may be an actual consequence to the player it appears random” i.e. it may be due to something the character did or the quantity of times he has stayed at the inn but to the player it appears random because they were not shown this.

Sometimes the player is forced into a decision due to an in game point created by the designers where they can chose either x or y and both have different consequences that the player has no control over unless they know the result of the decision before they make it i.e. through forums or they are told by a mystical helper.

"You had no way of knowing, but doing thing X results in horrible thing Z." 

When making perceivable consequences the player must not become frustrated like Mario

Third FADT – story – “Story really refers to any narrative thread that is continued throughout the game”

Stories are in all games, meaning all games have a path of which the player can follow either with them making a choice giving a different ending or following a set plan from the designer meaning the player has less control which is risking the player becoming bored

Definition of story - “The narrative thread, whether designer-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward completion of the game.”

“The more we as designers want to cause particular situations, the less control we can afford to give players.          “                   

“Tools must be chosen to fit the task... you cannot simply add more of each tool and expect the game to work”

“With a bit of a stretch, one can say that sports and fighting games actually mix all three of the tools into one.”

With every action there is an equal reaction.

“In either case, neither the fighter approach nor the sports simulation approach to story and intention is right or wrong. Each elicits a different set of reactions from the player. As a designer, you must understand the ramifications of tool usage if you're going to create the experience you intend.”

“Tools as a vocabulary for analysis present a way to focus on what player experience the designer wishes to create. In this high-level introduction to FADT, I have focused on intention and perceived consequence, with less attention to story. (And what story is mentioned is slanted toward the player-driven.) This is not because these are the only tools or even the best tools.”

“Our most important tools are the ones that involve and empower players to make their own decisions. That is something that allows each player to explore him or herself, which is something our medium is uniquely equipped to do.”

“FADT offers a potential framework for moving the design discussion forward”

 I hope that hits blog entry wasn’t too boring I know that these are just notes but hopefully they have answered the questions that have been asked of me, soon I will upload my drafts of my individual project of my own game, bear with me readers please.

Dan out x

p.s. my apologies for the random font sizes but i have imported this from word and it has decided to add random fonts and sizes and not complete the ends of lines where it should and i have already written this out twice and to be honest i do not fancy doing it again, sorry.

Notes/ Review of Games Britannia pt 1

Games Britannia pt 1

In today's lesson we watched part 1 of 3 of a documentary called Games Britannia. Our task once we had finished watching it was to upload our notes to our blog, I thought as I have already uploaded a lot of notes already I would compile my notes into a short review of the first part of the show and tell you what I learnt from it.

Firstly we saw a finding in an archaeological dig that was of what appeared to be  the first game, of which was further shown to be a game but also a device in which the players and creatures believe could predict the future. This was then proven wrong obviously as it is just a game but was a very complex and difficult game at first glance as there was two teams on a squared board set out much like chess only with different coloured stones and only using one line across each side of the board. As well as this one side had an extra stone in the middle. As the documentary developed we found out how this game would have been played by a professor at Cambridge University and watched a game being played. At first glance it appeared to be a primitive version of a combination between chess a draughts.

After this the narrator and presenter then showed us more older games from all around the world and showed us how that they became worldly popular and their origin, for example most board games that we play now such as chess came from the middle east / Asia as well as many, many more such as snakes and ladders which originally started as a game of which the players would attempt to climb to heaven or the promised land from, what I could gather the Hindu religion. The game was then shown around the world and has been re made and simplified to the snakes and ladders game we all know today.

As I said earlier my notes weren't as long as my previous notes displayed on here so this isn't going to be a long blog entry but from what I can gather the notes that I have taken from my other readings such as Costikyan, Marc Le Blanc etc all explain the same as this documentary, which suggests to me that most if not all games need a degree of struggle and in this documentary it was shown that there was a lot of struggle include in these primitive games as well as endogenous meaning and so forth but the original games became too difficult and then became a tedious task to complete, i.e. the original version of snakes and ladders which exaggerates the fact that in order to make a good, effective and compelling game you need to have the right level of difficulty and attractiveness to your game when creating one to keep the players interested and occupied and having to fight to a reasonable degree, to an overall goal at the end, for example check mate in chess. Also speaking of chess when watching the documentary we was shown why chess was is called the immortal game by being shown a replay with the presenter and a professional chess champion of the first champions game of chess between Britain and France. 

I hope again this was a good entry and you have learnt from my rough notes and review about the basic history of games in Britain and I am looking forward to filling you in on the rest of the documentary.

Reading Notes Week 2 - Greg Costikyan

Greg Costikyan - I Have No Words and I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games

When you get down to it what do all games have in common?

A keyword used is "Game play", but what is it?

To understand, talk about intelligently and to design better games, we need to understand what game play is; in short we need a critical vocabulary for games.

Interaction:

1982 Chris Crawford published The Art of Computer Games Design.

Crawford contrasted games and puzzles.

Puzzles = static, they present the "player" with a logical structure 

Games in contrast = are sometimes static but mostly not but change with players interaction or actions

Example of a puzzle that isn't a game is crosswords

According to Crawford some games are puzzles e.g. "Zork" - main objective is to change game state, no enemies, no role play, no resources, winning is purely through puzzle solving> Costikyan disagrees as the games state is changed due to players actions, solving one puzzle opens other puzzles so is dependent on the players and the end result depends on what puzzles are solved.

Every game includes a degree of puzzle solving - depends on the interpretation of a puzzle i.e. hiding in a FPS behind cover to stay alive is solving the puzzle of staying alive.

Crawford's Statement "A puzzle is static. A game is interactive" is still useful

Every game is interactive i.e. board, card, computer etc depends on user interactions and decisions

Goals:

Interaction must have a purpose, the goal - "interaction with a purpose - a decision"

"What make a thing into a game are decisions"

Decision making is key to every game

The player will look at the game state and decide what is the best thing for them to do to achieve their objective - the goal, personal or set by the game itself

Does every game have goals - in short yes, either determined by the game or by the player

When playing a game the user automatically agrees to play by the rules meaning, the end goal is important and key to the game making them want to achieve it without cheating,

Exceptions however include games such as The Sims and Sim City as they have no specific end goals, but the user makes their own goals to gauge their success or failure, Sim City is described as a software toy not a game.

Football is a set of player defined objective overlaid on a toy - the ball

Some games such as RRG's and MUD's depend on the user making their own goals for example character improvement, as they have no specific end/ winning state. Finding your own goals eventually ends with boredom of the game which is a failure to the player as they have to keep making new rules to make the game entertaining.

"Games are goal-directed interaction, but goals are not enough"

Struggle:

Competitiveness is key to a game

Competition is one way of making a game struggle e.g. if your struggling against a friend in a head to head match you are in direct competition with each other - and this is a key way of making a game struggle

Chess is a key example of struggle making a compelling and competitive game due to the one on one nature of thinking 2 steps ahead of your opponent.

Competition is not the only way to create struggle 

Role playing games do not need direct player opposition to create struggle

Puzzles, difficulty and struggle in solving puzzles makes games, games.

Game developers are using struggle to their advantage  with varying difficulties, but they can't be too hard or to easy otherwise the players get bored and/or frustrated.

Even if a player has an opponent in a game adding obstacles can increase a games richness and emotional appeal.

"A game without struggle is a game that is dead"

We want games to challenge us

Need to feel sense of accomplishment, it's rubbish if the end comes to quickly

"There can be no game without struggle"

Structure:

"Games are structures of desires" - Eric Zimmerman

"By desire he means games have goals, and players agree to behave as if the goal is important to them"

"By structure he means the interaction of the games rules, components, software etc create a structure within which people play"

"Kids playing let’s pretend feel the need for structure" meaning every game needs a degree of structure to work

Any mode of control is a type of structure

"Zone of control is a building block for a war game" - board not computer

Zones of control mean changes of player behaviour 

Electronic game's structure is invisible to the user, generally speaking 

"To reinforce that game design is different from graphic design - it is independent of the specific graphical form in which the structure is represented to the player" - basically the user has no control of the structure, it is built in to the coding and background of the user interface of the computer game that they cannot access legally.

"A small change in structure means a big change in player behaviour"

The "Game shapes the players behaviour" but does not determine it

Garriott - pro social, moral paths

"Economists believe that people respond to economic incentives they face, and attempt to "maximize their utility""

"You can expect that a player will respond to the incentives a game provides"

"Think of a game's structure as akin to the economy or an ecosystem; a complex interacting system that does not dictate outcomes but guides behaviour through the need to achieve a single goal"

Endogenous Meaning:

Endogenous - "Caused by factors inside the organism or system"

"A games structure creates its own meanings"

"Is the stock market a game?" meaning the things people purchased all have an endogenous meaning and a real world value until those companies that have been invested in shut down rendering the investors, invested in something that has no value outside of a working, running company in the stock market, like monopoly money has no value in the real world until you’re playing a game of monopoly. But no the stock market is not a game, but it does, to a degree include and endogenous concept.

Interactive Entertainment:

"A functional definition of a game: an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards a goal"

"To be a form of entertainment, you require some kind of structure" i.e. a conversation is entertaining but it’s not game entertainment as it has no hidden structure and no fixed ending or goals.

"Interactive entertainment means games" i.e. what else can you think of that is interactive entertainment that isn't a variant of a game?

Marc Le Blanc's Taxonomy of game pleasures:

"What we do to create compelling games - provide goals, create endogenous meanings, establish a structure, make sure you make the player struggle"

Sensation:

Good sensory pleasure i.e. it looks good

"It's important to recognize, however, that graphics design or media design more generally, is not in itself game design. This is a fallacy many who do not understand games make - because what they see when they watch someone playing a game is motion on screen" meaning on lookers do not understand the feeling of self gratification when playing and completing a game as well as thinking that the graphics and art are the key focal points for a game but they are not, it needs to look good but is not the main focus and because people believe this they believe that media design and graphic design is the same thing as game design because they do not have the knowledge of the background working and scripting behind computer games.

Fantasy:

Basic escapism from the real world and indulging in a virtual world where all of the players worries and every day struggles disappear for a short while.

Narrative:

Do games need a story line? Depends on game type i.e. chess does not need a story line but a game such as final fantasy does.

"Games should a sense of drama" if a story line is included to indulge the player deeper into the virtual world.

Rising tension to a massive climax is best when thinking of game narrative and whether or not it is needed "for a sense of accomplishment"

Challenge:

Challenge is similar to struggle (Le Blanc's version pretty much)

Cannot have a good successful game without struggle/ challenge

Need to establish with your game what is the challenge and why it's compelling and to make it as challenging and compelling as possible without making it too hard or too easy,

Fellowship:

Basically community in online gaming as an example

Discovery:

A sense of discovery and immersion into the emotions of a game make the game more compelling and fulfilling for the player.

Expression:

Meaning self expression

The player showing themselves to other gamers’ either how they are in the real world or how they would like to be via a virtual character i.e. they would like to be a more muscle bound hero or a evil genius depending on each player desires.

Masochism:

We want our games to be a challenge/ struggle

"What Marc means is that there's a pleasure to be gained by submitting yourself to the structure of a game"

Basically we want to play by the game for the game i.e. not cheating and winning fairly by working up the game structure, beating the challenge, fighting the struggle, and getting personal gain physical or not" i.e. monopoly money is personal gain and physical in the game but not the real world.

Artists:

"A game designer is an artist"

Good artists in game design start by attempting to design a game similar to what they enjoy, not copy or improve it but to pass on and share their experiences in those games within their own creation.

What makes it A Game?

Using Marc Le Blanc's taxonomy or Costikyan's views as bases are a good place to start as they both define the same key characteristics, in my opinion, that game designers and players want from  their games.

When creating a game asks yourself how does it achieve the titles of this entry and see how to improve them. Read pg 31-33 of this book when creating a game and reviewing to see if games on right track.

From the outside looking in writing scripts, creating games, story lines all look easy but are all one of the hardest disciplines to achieve.

"Games are an art form unlike any other, because the product is not passively received"

"A game as it is played is a collaboration between the developers and the players, a journey of mutual discovery, a democratic art form in which the shape of the game is created by the artist, but the experience of the game is created by the player"

"Game design is not merely difficult, it’s impossible" meaning you commit from the start to create a brilliant prototype, leading to a final game straight away without development, and once the game has been polished and tweaked it is impossible to have made a perfect product that every audience member will appreciate and enjoy, for example there is not a single game, film, piece of art etc that everyone in the world likes.

Sorry that was a long entry but I believe that it was necessary and has answered the question that was set.

Dan out x

Reading Notes Week 1 - Jesse Schell

I have just come to the realization that I am probably using too much paper to survive at the moment so I have decided to upload all of my notes from my weekly readings. Below are my notes from week 1 by Jesse Schell - The Art of Games Design: A Book of Lenses:

"Start now! Don’t' wait! - GO! Now!"

"Say to yourself I am a game designer!" - don't be shy or down

Be confident with yourself - don't get down - be fearless

All decision you make, make them with confidence in your work and in general life

If you aren't "dropping the ball", you aren't learning. Meaning if you’re not trying and making mistakes then you will never learn.

Useful Definitions:

Animation - to give life

Anthropology - to study the audience in their natural habitat to adhere to their needs

Hearing is believing - so listen!

Be Open Minded

LOVE YOUR WORK!

 Dan Out x