Game Design Fundamentals Megadeck

CHRISTINA WODTKE @cwodtke
@cwodtke | cwodtke@eleganthack.com
www.eleganthack.com
CHRISTINA WODTKE
Game Design
Fundamentals
@cwodtke | cwodtke@eleganthack.com
www.eleganthack.com
CHRISTINA WODTKE
The Mega Deck
This work is licensed under
a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.

Hide this slide, educators!
This is a very long deck offered under na attribute, remix and share
creative commons license. Feel free to reuse, just try to keep all the
citations intact, and share back out when you’re done.
It really should be 3 classes at least (depending on how long your
classes are.
I recommend you read these two articles first.
https://medium.com/@cwodtke/teaching-game-design-in-non-game-
design-programs-c1ddae83208c
https://medium.com/@cwodtke/9-big-ideas-from-game-design-you-
should-know-71d6c5c514ac

Play Fluxx

How was playing
Fluxx?

Let’s make a game
Exercise via Brenda Romero

Draw a path

Create a way to
move
• Dice roll
• Answer a trivia question
• Everyone moves
• Person behind moves
• Roshambo
• Card draw
• Pass, but gain currency
• Physical skill

Design Conflict
• Speed people up
• Slow people down
• Extra turn
• Lose a turn
• Swap places
• Block
Hold on to these, we’ll
come back to them.

What is a game?
A closed, formal
system
That engages
players in a
structured conflict
And resolves to an
unequal outcome.
A dynamic system
that supports
interaction for an
aesthetic goal.
Tracy Fullerton

Mechanics, Dynamics,
Aesthetics
How games create
emergent experiences

What is a game mechanic?

What is a game mechanic?
Game mechanics are
rule based systems /
simulations that
facilitate and
encourage a user to
explore and learn the
properties of their
possibility space
through the use of
feedback mechanisms.
Raph Koster
http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/218077

The 7
Formal
Elements
(Mechanics)
• Players
• Objectives
• Outcomes
• Rules
• Procedures
• Resources
• Boundaries
Fullerton, T. Game Design Workshop. 2008

1.Players
Interaction Patterns
Fullerton, T. Game Design Workshop. 2008

Player vs Game

Player vs
Player

Multilateral
Competition

Unilateral
competition

Team vs Team

Multi-player
co-op

Multiplayer
player co-op

How many
players will
you have?
What
relationship?

2.
Objective(s)

Goals in games
Outwit Solution Exploration Construction
Forbidden
act
Rescue or
Escape
Alignment Race
Chase Capture

Capture
Strategery: Capture enemy
Territory

Race
Tiny Wings: Go
farther faster

Alignment: Dots & Bejeweled
Match three or more

Forbidden Action:
Fruit Ninja. Don’t
hit the bomb.

Exploration:
Lego Harry Potter
Wander rooms
collecting things

Construction
Farmville: Make
Beautiful things

Solution
World of Goo
How high can you
go without toppling.

Outwit:
Carcassonne
Board game
(also territory)

Objective(s)
Sometimes many stacked goals that
evolve with game progression…

Objective(s)
Sometimes the goals are less clear…

3. Outcomes

Zero-Sum & Non
Zero-sum

Hide & Seek vs Sardines
How does the player relationship, objective and outcome change the game?

What are your objectives and outcomes?

4. Resources

Resources: Minecraft

Resources:
Kingdom Rush

Resources:
Hopscotch

Resource Types
Lives Units Health Currency
Actions
Power-
ups
Inventory
Special
Terrain
Time

5. Rules &
6. Procedures
• Rules
• Requirements that must be followed.
• Procedures
• How the game flows from state to state.

Rules of
Solitaire
• Setup: 28 cards dealt into 7
tableau piles with the number of
cards increasing from one to
seven, left to right. Top is face up,
rest are face down.
• The rest of the cards are the
draw pile.
• Cards are laid out in descending
order, alternating red and black.
• Aces can be removed to the
foundation.

Procedure of
Solitaire
• Move any aces up to the
foundation.
• Move any face-up cards
you can in the tableau.
• Then go to the draw pile.

Boundaries

The Magic
Circle
“All play moves and has its being within a
play-ground marked off beforehand either
materially or ideally, deliberately or as a
matter of course… The arena, the card-
table, the magic circle, the temple, the
stage, the screen, the tennis court, the
court of justice, etc. are all in form and
function play-grounds… within which
special rules obtain. All are temporary
worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated
to performance of an act apart.”
Johan Huizinga
Homo Ludens, 1938

Magic Circle
“To play a game means entering into a magic
circle, or perhaps creating one as a game
begins.”
-- Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman,
Rules of Play

Magic Circle
“Games are a context from which meaning can
emerge.”
-- Eric Zimmerman, “Jerked Around by the
Magic Circle.”
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/135
063/jerked_around_by_the_magic_circle_.php

The 4 Dramatic Elements
Challenge
Premise
Character
Story

Conflict & Challenge

A good walk spoiled

What makes games engaging?

Ravaja, Niklas, et al.
The Psychophysiology of Video Gaming: Phasic Emotional
Responses
to Game Events.
Digital Games
Research Association International Conference 2005.
http://tinyurl.com/7rsfz
• More pleasure and excitement
in active failure than in success
• However: passive experience of
failure makes players
disengage.
• Attaining a goal DECREASES
player arousal and interest.

“Flappy Bird is a perversely,
oppressively difficult game. Scoring even
a single point takes most players a
considerable number of runs. After an
hour, I’d managed a high score of two.”
- Ian Bogost

Challenges
•Obstacles
•Opponents
•Dilemmas

Premise

Story

Story Time

Characters

Complex Mechanics
There are “N” mechanics in the world

Harvest
Mechanics
Wait longer for more valuable crops

Collection
Mechanic
“Gotta catch ‘em all”

Tabletop Game Mechanics

What do we mean
by Dynamics?
Get your games out

Playtest
Play your game for five minutes, brainstorm fies for 2, then switch.

A game is
unknowable
until it is
played

Dynamics
are emergent

Dynamic System
• “The designer and the
player are both active – if
not equal – parts of the
entire creative expressive
experience which is
mediated by the machine.”
– Clint Hocking (GDC
2006)

Aesthetics?

8 Kinds of fun
• Sensation
Game as sense-pleasure (For example, skiing or driving the 92 way too
fast. Any ios game that leverages the accelerometer. Arguably
Monument Valley.)
• Fantasy
Game as make-believe (I am a hobbit! or a fashion designer!)
• Narrative
Game as unfolding story (What will happen next???)
• Challenge
Game as obstacle course (This game is so hard—said while grinning
maniacally)
• Fellowship
Game as social framework (playing with others. Apples to Apples, and
most board games.)
• Discovery
Game as uncharted territory (What is over that mountain? Bastion.)
• Expression
Game as soap box (Making stuff- Minecraft, Farmville.)
• Submission/ Abnegation
Game as mindless pastime (. Games that let you tune out. Solitaire. Candy
Crush.)
Via Matt LeBlanc

The Player decides
the Aesthetics
And if it’s actually fun.
Playtesting helps you get to your goal.
Games are unknowable until you play them.
Are other kinds of software really that
different?

What’s missing from MDA?
• Context
• Architecture
• Theme

Context

Player Experience Goals

Bartle

More
Player
Types
• The Collector: Acquires items, trophies, or knowledge; likes
to create sets, organize history, etc.
• The Achiever: Plays for varying levels of achievement;
ladders and levels incentivize the achiever
• 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
• The Artist: Driven by creativity, creation, design
• The Director: Loves to be in charge, direct the play
• The Storyteller: Loves to create or live in worlds of fantasy
and imagination
• The Performer: Loves to put on a show for others
• The Crafsman: Wants to build, craft, engineer, or puzzle
things out

Who are your
players?
• Age
• Skill
• Familiarity with Genres
• Platform preference
• Play habits
• Play style

What’s their
POV?
• Where do they play
• How often?
• How does your game fit into
their lives?

Environmental Context
Player
Business Model Platform

The
Architecture
Of Games
Mechanics have to be organized somehow.

Loops and arcs
Daniel Cook: http://www.lostgarden.com/2012/04/loops-and-arcs.html

Arcs are highly efficient at
communicating 'success stories', a
singular path through a system
that someone else previously
explored.

This is a core
loop for a very
simple game.
Start with fish
eggs, that you
grow into fish
that you sell to
buy more
valuable fish
eggs

Build defense
and offence
DefendAttack

Theme / Premise

Add a Theme to
your game

Playtest

You won!
You made a game. Was
that so hard?
Was it fun?

Applying What You Have Learned
For this exercise, you will need a piece of paper, two pens, and
two players.
First, take a moment to play this simple game:
Draw three dots randomly on the paper. Choose a player to go
first. The first player draws a line from one dot to another dot.
Then that player draws a new dot anywhere on that line.
The second player also draws a line and a dot: The new line must
go from one dot to another, but no dot can have more than three
lines coming out of it.
Also, the new line cannot cross any other line. The new dot must
be placed on the new line. A line can go from a dot back to the
same dot as long as it doesn’t break the “no more than three
lines” rule.
The players take turns until one player cannot make a move. The
last player to move is the winner.
Identify the formal elements of this game:
• Players: How many? Any requirements? Special knowledge,
roles, etc.?
• Objective: What is the objective of the game?
• Procedures: What are the required actions for
• play?
• Rules: Any limits on player actions? Rules regarding
behavior? What are they?
• Conflict: What causes conflict in this game?
• Boundaries: What are the boundaries of the game? Are they
physical? Conceptual?
• Outcome: What are the potential outcomes of the game?
Does the game have dramatic elements? Identify them:
• Challenge: What creates challenge in the game?
• Play: Is there a sense of play within the rules of the game?
• Premise/Character/Story: Are these present?
• What types of dramatic elements do you think might add to
the game experience?
Exercise from Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop

MDA for Interaction Design
CAMP
100

C.A.M.P.
Learn more: A
Unified Theory for
Designing Just
About Anything
https://medium.com/
@cwodtke/a-unified-
theory-for-designing-
just-about-anything-
b87f1e4f050b

What do you think
about when you think
of painting?

CHRISTINA WODTKE @cwodtke 103
Poetics: Control, power, precision

CHRISTINA WODTKE @cwodtke 104
Poetics:
easy,
sketchy,
imprecise.

But the mixer comes from
the poetics of polished and
power. It breaks the mood.

What do you think of
when you think of
writing?

10
7
Word is about
power, control,
precision

108
OmmWriter
Beauty, peace, zen. OmmWriter plays soft chimes, setting a mood of “the artist’s way”

109
Iawriter’s poetics invokes Hemmingway and Wolfe.
Serious, typewritten, the labor of words

How can we combine micro-
interactions and themes to
create powerful experiences?
And what are the
aesthetics of internet
software?

How can we combine micro-interactions and
themes to create powerful experiences?
What are the aesthetics of internet software?

Thank
You
@cwodtke | me@cwodtke.com
www.cwodtke.com
CHRISTINA WODTKE

Game Design Fundamentals Megadeck

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