Game Design theory and other stuff

Tuism

Hi all!

I'm putting together a quick 20 slides 20 seconds each chat as a quick brain-teaser introduction/teaser on Game Design, and I thought I'd just throw in a bunch of interesting game design things :)

I've pulled concepts like Yomi, Prisoner's Dilemma, Juice, Theme vs mechanic, balance... so far, and am looking for more :)

Also I remember someone having said something to the effect of "games are essential for human wellbeing as the world doesn't have enough economic activity to support keeping all the human busy/interested/engaged/productive all the time, and games are therefore good for the economy and the wellbeing of the world."... Something to that effect, can anyone recall who said that, when? I can't find it... A link would be wonderful :)

Thanks guys :)

Rigormortis

Some things that might be useful. :)

[url = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight's_tour]The knight's tour[/url]
[url = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life]Conway's game of life[/url]
[url = http://mathsgear.co.uk/products/non-transitive-grime-dice]Non-Transitive Dice[/url] (I think @Fengol originally posted it here somewhere)

raxter

Oh oh, I've been doing some design research: Here's some things that I've gotten, donno if they what you are looking for but def would be interested to see what you have too so I can grow my knowledge. I've also wanted to do a fly-by talk of various game design concepts but am far too busy right now. So hopefully these'll be useful to you ^_^

MDA (Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics) - my personal favorite
http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17464
http://fragileearthstudios.com/2012/11/21/mechanics-dynamics-and-aesthetics-in-game-design/
http://www.8kindsoffun.com/


Positive and Negative Feedback loops
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/wiki/level-4-dot-4-feedback-loops
http://persuasive-patterns.com/patterns/Feedback-loops
http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/feedback-loops-in-game-design.html


Meaningful choice in games
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BriceMorrison/20131119/204733/Meaningful_Choice_in_Games_Practical_Guide__Case_Studies.php
http://devmag.org.za/2010/02/10/what-i-learned-from-dungeon-crawl/ and other things by @Nandrew


There is also a Book of Lenses which deals with viewing your game with various perspectives, but this is far too large to fit into one slide and the whole book is more of a journey than a pile of tips that can be slided

Let me know what you find too! Am very keen to research this area more

raxter

On reflection not brain teasers, but still interesting...

Tuism

Well ok maybe brain teaser's not the right phrase (edited OP), it's more like... A bunch of things that game designers think about, or what makes games good, or why games are good, or... Stuff. I'm titling the thing "The big messy box of game designer things"...

It's for an event called Baxoxe, about people from different creative fields. So I thought I'd just give people an overview, something to think about if they might be interested in game design :) https://www.facebook.com/events/803717462974139/807376782608207/?ref=notif&notif_t=plan_mall_activity

EvanGreenwood

We chat about this concept fairly often: http://renegadesector.com/2013/07/design-musings-hang-on-to-you-ego/

@Raithza calls this "Designer Ego". I think there's a lot of ways of phrasing this problem. Among other things it's the problem of distinguishing your desires for the game as the developer and the players desires for the game as a player. Another related problem is not being aware of what the player isn't aware of. It's the skewed perspectives we get from being too close to the game that allow us to make really shitty design choices.

I'm not sure, but I think this might be more of a problem in video games than most other design fields? (though I know it's a concept discussed in user interface theory)

EvanGreenwood

I know it's pretty tired now. But "emergent gameplay" I think is one of the more fun things to talk about in games (and doesn't have a parallel I'm aware of in other design fields): http://www.witchboy.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/randysmithandharveysmith_gdc_2004.ppt

EvanGreenwood

Agency is pretty fun to talk about (again it's game-centric) http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2013/10/on-theory-defined-player-agency.html

And if you want to veer into the darker side of game design, you can talk about Skinnerian boxes... Though this was my favorite and least evil-sounding article on the subject: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/39341/Opinion_Compulsion_Loops_In_The_Short_Medium_and_Longterm.php (I like it because the author cares about flow).

Daniel Cook has some excellent thoughts on mastery (I think, though I think he focuses on mastery somewhat at the cost of everything else). http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/129948/the_chemistry_of_game_design.php ... and he puts into words some of my dissatisfaction with MDA style theory.