Hello World!
So, here we go!
This is the first post on my game design blog. My name is Jake Ryno, and I am currently a senior at the University of Connecticut. I am majoring in digital media and design with a concentration in video game design. I am using this forum to publish notes on my design process as I go through all of the content in the modules for one of my classes called Game Systems Design. If you follow this blog, I would appreciate any feedback you may have critiquing the design of my game. Here I hope to explain the decisions that I make and provide a general window into my design process.
To kick off this initial post I will discuss the first week's content of the first module. Module I, It's in the Game: Essentials of Systems Design & Player Behavior goes over why people play video games. My professor said when presenting this module to us:
"Games are organized, goal-driven opportunities for agent-environment interaction in which individuals are directed toward playfulness.” Slota & Young (2014)
This quote gives a good general idea of why people play video games in the first place. Good video games are designed in a way that gives the player a purpose and a goal that allows them to use their creativity in order to overcome challenges that they may face. Games are a controlled form of freedom. Our brains grab onto them because they are structures that allow the user's brains to think creatively and dynamically. Games have always been around ever since the 1900s like card games such as poker and blackjack. However, with the technology we have now the bar has been raised for games. Digital games take many of the powers of traditional analog games and ramp up both the rate of interaction and the complexity of the underlying systems.
When figuring out the game that I want to create I must consider things like why people play games in the first place in order to develop a system that is fun and exciting for the player. There are three different game design approaches discussed in this module that can explain different ways that games can go about teaching the player its mechanics. The first one is called Behavioral Gamification and it reinforces specific behaviors through the use of points, tokens, or badges. For example, how in Super Mario 64 you are taught to collect coins and stars in order to progress through the game. When you find one the player is rewarded with onscreen and sound effects to reinforce the behavior that collecting stars and coins is good. The next one is called Gamification for Memorization which basically involves building content around ‘remember’ and ‘repeat’ mechanics. Games use this approach to teach information through gameplay. For instance, a friendly NPC character tells the player an important fact like in World of Warcraft. Then the player's performance is tested based on how they follow through with the new information they have been taught. The final approach that we learned in this module was Gamification in Character. This approach consists of developing materials so game and learning objectives exist at a 1:1 ratio. Basically, the player is taught through “doing.” This approach is in contrast to the previous one that I mentioned where an NPC would relay new information to the player rather than them having to discover it themselves through mechanics in the game that showcase the growth of the player. I will use elements from these three frameworks in order to teach the users of my game the mechanics and objectives.
Designing my game I must combine these aspects:
Games
- Governed by rulesets
- Take advantage of imagination
- Include scoring criteria
- Directed toward playfulness
Play
- Not always/necessarily fun
- Involves cognition and strategy
- Requires adherence to some ruleset
- Encourages creativity in game setting
Thank you for reading my initial entry on this blog. In the next post, I hope to discuss more specifics about the game would like to build as I dive deeper into the module.
