The Game World

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From the course by Michigan State University

Principles of Game Design

985 оценки

Michigan State University

Principles of Game Design

985 оценки

Course 2 of 5 in the Specialization Game Design and Development

You have a great idea for a game. Turning that idea into a reality isn't just about knowing the tools. In this course you will practice moving from game concept through design documentation, prototyping and testing. Numerous elements go into the overall process of game design. These range from topics such as idea generation, story, character, and game world development, game mechanics and level design, and user experience design. You will explore the process for designing meaningful experiences for your players. At the end of the course learners will have produced a game's high concept document, one page blueprint, a physical prototype, pitch and supporting design documentation to move from an idea in your head to a fleshed out design, ready for implementation.

From the lesson

Fleshing Out a Game Design

There's a significant difference between having an idea and beginning to turn that idea into something tangible. People often confuse the phrases "flushing out" and "fleshing out". Idea generation is about "flushing out" an idea. This module in the Principles of Game Design is focused on "fleshing out" your game idea or adding muscle, skin and character to the skeleton created in Module 1. You will explore game worlds of your own creation as well as the kinds of stories you would like to tell through games. By the end of this module you will have created a "Story Bible" for your game.

The Game World8:21

Game World Components10:02

Meet the Instructors

Casey O'Donnell
Associate Professor
Media and Information

[MUSIC]

Welcome to the second module.

Now, in the previous module you had a chance to get ideas out in the open.

Really sort of flush them out.

Right?

Well, in this module, our ideas, our goal is going to be fleshing it out,

filling it out, taking something that has potential and

expanding on it, exploring it.

And we're gonna start with what we call the game world.

Now, if you remember from the first module, we talked about the DPE, or

Design, Play, Experience Framework, right?

So the interesting thing about the game world is it really,

kind of lives right here, right?

Our focus is gonna be on this.

The designer story as well as the mechanics.

How those things fit together.

And so designing your game world is our goal.

One way to start these things is with phrases, right?

In a time, a place.

As a game designer, you really play the role of God, if you will, or

just a creative person with the power to create a new world, right?

And these are worlds that your player is going to exist in.

This is a quote from Will Wright somebody who's very interested in crafting worlds.

So, think about Sim City, Sim Earth, Spore.

These are worlds which players can explore and

they don't have to be identical to ours, right?

And actually, they never can be right?

Because games abstract away certain elements of the world.

So, I wanna play a little game with you.

Let's play a game.

3-TO-15.

So I want you to write out the numbers on a piece of paper.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Okay?

On your turn, you pick a number between one and nine, and You

can't pick a number that's already been chosen, right, that eliminates the number.

And if you manage to pick any three numbers that add up to 15, you win.

So, maybe you pick two, I pick six,

you pick five, I pick four, you pick three, I pick seven.

One of the things that's important as a game designer is to recognize,

games like this, okay.

We're starting to, you need to cultivate in yourself the ability to

deconstruct games, to analyze them, to break them apart and break them down so.

Can I ruin this?

Can I make this game a little less interesting for you?

What is a game like this?

Think about how you organize those numbers.

Because we put them in a straight line.

What if we put them in another format?

Maybe like this one?

Oh, look.

You won at tic-tac-toe.

I lost.

Now Tic-tac-toe is a relatively easy game, right?

We understand that.

It's pretty easy to win at Tic-tac-toe or at least get a cat's game and ideally,

if you're playing right, you're gonna get a cat's game every time.

But we took the same idea and just made it more abstract, but

it was still the same game.

So, another game that we all know, rock paper scissors.

All right?

Okay, so, what are the rules of rock, paper, scissors?

You know, come one.

First pair up.

You go one, two, three, throw, okay?

Rock, paper, scissors, rock crushes scissors, scissors cuts paper and

paper covers rock.

So, the rules of rock, paper scissors are relatively easy.

You pair up, you say one, two, three, throw.

Or maybe you say one, two, three.

Agree first, right?

Okay, so rock crushes scissors, scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock.

It creates a system.

It's a relatively simple one, but that too can be really interesting.

Think about, well, what about a massively multiplayer rock, paper,

scissors game, right?

Where you get randomly teamed up so it changes the dynamic, right?

Maybe you start with a room full of people and

the person who wins at the end ultimately gets something else.

Right, what's a game world?

Even that gets fun and interesting, if you throw enough people together and

just watch.

People are gonna start cheering.

I'm serious, if you get a big enough people, and there's a kind of massively

multiplayer rock paper scissors, you're gonna see interesting things happen okay?

So what's the game world of rock, paper, scissors right?

Does it have a game world?

I don't know.

If it does, what is that game world?

I think one of the important things to keep in mind is that what we are doing

when we do that, is we're creating an artificial space, an imaginary place.

in which the events of a game occur, right?

By entering into, being willing to play rock, paper, scissors,

and maybe you decided you didn't want to play, and that's okay,

you don't need to- but there's this idea of the magic circle in games...

And that games are spaces that we enter into where normal rules don't apply.

A different set of rules apply.

And so that's a really important thing to keep in mind.

And particularly when we're immersed in a game we're really

giving ourselves over to a game.

One of the things I talk about is, particularly as a designer and

a designer that thinks about ethics, are mandatory games, right?

I don't really think that that is sort of right, so I don't know about you,

but dodgeball In elementary school not my favorite thing.

Why? Because

it didn't matter if I wanted to play or not.

Right? I was gonna get beaned with that ball.

And so that wasn't fun, it was required fun.

And so it became something else, but.

I don't know. Do you want to play dodge ball right now?

I don't know, I might, I'd be willing to give over to that.

But there's a difference between

being able to give yourself over to the game versus being required.

Required.

But there's also the idea that we kind of care for one another in the magic circle.

Think about a sporting game.

Well, maybe you tackle somebody, but you help them back up afterwards.

Or even if you accidentally commit a foul, you help them out.

Even if you break the rules of the game within that space, right, there's

a care for that space and that's why we kinda think about it as a magic circle.

And there's lots of people out there who might say on,

the magic circle isn't, there's no place that's outside of the rules.

And they're right, but the magic circle ends up being really useful.

For us as game designers to think with, okay.

So, want to talk a little bit about an important part of this,

which is a lusor, what's called the lusory attitude.

The idea that feeling playful, right.

But that it's a state of mind required to enter the play of a game, right.

If you don't wanna play, you're not going to.

That's not going to be any fun, right?

But to play a game,

the players really have to sort of give themselves over to the system.

And as designers,

what we're trying to do is construct systems that people want to play.

They want to give themselves up over to.

They want to suspend their disbelief that robot chickens don't exist.

But they might in the future.

But, the point is, giving yourself over to a game space, because the rules

are gonna be different there, but maybe that's exactly what makes it fun.

All right, I'm gonna keep talking about these different means

by which you can flesh-out your game ideas.

So I'll see you next time.

[MUSIC]

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