by Annie | Jul 22, 2011 | Psychology of Games
People are often surprised when I tell them I came to game design through teaching. “Wow, that’s a huge switch!” they’ll say. But if you examine the core of teaching and game design, they’re really not all that different. Sure, I used games in the classroom. On any given day, you could’ve walked into my classroom and seen my students engaged in a scavenger hunt, team trivia tournament, or math race. And let me tell you, any time I brought up the word game, even the most reluctant student would perk his ears up, eager to try something new. But I’m not just talking about using games to enhance teaching. I’m talking about teaching itself. The very act of teaching is, in itself, a form of game design. A teacher has a specific goal in mind (e.g., having her students pass the state math exam) and creates a structured experience to guide students toward that goal. So what do I do as a game designer? The same exact thing. I have a goal in mind, and I structure an experience to teach players the skills they’ll need to master the mechanics and succeed. And what I’ve discovered thus far is that, aside from a clear goal, the most important element of games is clear and immediate feedback. And that’s what my students responded to most in the classroom. Homework exercises required waiting until the next day to figure out if they got the answers right, but games allowed them to immediately correct any misunderstandings and level up their skills. If you think about it, the variety and intensity of...
by Annie | Jul 14, 2011 | Game Design
One of the most commonly dreaded terms in the VFS game design program is term 3. Why? Because that’s the term you write your first DDD – detailed design document. Why is the DDD such a dreaded assignment? After all, don’t game designers love coming up with ideas and fleshing them out? Absolutely. However, an effective DDD requires a level of detail many novice game designers aren’t accustomed to thinking about. Things like rate of fire, game time projections, and difficulty ramping. So how do you go about writing one of these so-called DDDs? Well, there’s no right or wrong way to go about it. First and foremost, you must keep in mind the audience you’re writing for. Think about Your Audience Think about the other members of your team: the programmers, artists, level designers, sound designers, etc. These are the people you’re writing the document for. What information do they need to create the game? As you write, imagine each of them, tired and grumpy at 2am trying to fumble through your document to glean the information necessary to meet the next deadline. In other words, your DDD needs to be both detailed and concise. Information like, “A bunch of enemies will appear on screen when you enter the hallway” is of little use to a programmer trying to script specific encounters. Be specific. Your job as a game designer is to anticipate the issues various people on your team will have when they try to create the game. So put yourself in their shoes, and make sure the DDD meets their needs. Keep It Organized Another thing that...
by Annie | Jul 13, 2011 | Psychology of Games
Wow, look at you reading my blog. And here I didn’t even know you could read. I guess that big head of yours is good for something after all. Or maybe not. As it turns out, trash-talking is almost as important to our enjoyment of social network games as the core gameplay. As counterintuitive as it may sound, research has found that teasing each other is one of the fastest and most effective ways to build and intensify positive feelings for each other. Remember all those times you spent teasing your friends on the playground back in the day? You were just secretly trying to become more popular. What a sad little life you lead. The psychology of teasing was especially pertinent as I played through the Portal games recently. (Yes, I know. I’m a bit late to the party.) The more GLaDOS trash-talked me, the more determined I became and the more I wanted to keep playing. I would try as hard as I could to solve the puzzles, then I’d get a monotone statement like, “Remember before when I was talking about smelly garbage standing around being useless? That was a metaphor. I was actually talking about you. And I’m sorry. You didn’t react at the time so I was worried it sailed right over your head. That’s why I had to call you garbage a second time just now.” Admit it. You love it. So as you’re designing games, especially social games, keep in mind the psychology of teasing and what it could add to your game. Of course, having a great writer like Erik Wolpaw on...
by Annie | Jul 6, 2011 | Game Design
One of the most valuable pieces of advice I got during my year at VFS was to just do it. As creative individuals, we could spend countless hours brainstorming concept after concept, piling on features and thinking of different themes. But in the end, the follow-through is what counts. In my experience, the sooner you lock down a game concept, the better. You’re better off spending your time iterating on a single idea to make it as great as possible than coming up with lots of different ideas while leaving yourself very little time to make any of them good. Sure, everyone wants to come up with that innovative idea. That smashing new concept that no one’s ever thought of, that’s so genius it’ll blow everyone’s socks off. But if it hasn’t come to you within a few brainstorming sessions, choose one of the less genius ideas instead and make it as awesome as possible. And who knows? Maybe the genius idea will come about in the next round. And by then, if you’ve already followed through with another idea, you’ll have more experience and wisdom to bring to your genius idea. So go forth, create, and follow through. Because to be a great game designer, you’ve just got to do...
by Annie | Jul 4, 2011 | Travel
To celebrate Independence Day, Joe and I climbed a mountain. No really. We climbed a mountain. Grouse Grind, commonly referred to as Mother Nature’s Stairmaster, is a 2.9km trail up Grouse Mountain. It includes nearly 3,000 steps and an elevation gain of over 850 meters. Not for the faint of heart. And when I say steps, I don’t mean stairs like the ones you’d find in your house. No no. I actually rejoiced at the sight of “normal” stairs along the trail. Most steps were several normal stairs high, created out of rocks and wooden planks anchored into the side of the mountain. Before heading out on the trail, I knew we were in for quite a hike. But after all, we’d hiked a mountain or two before, so I figured we’d be okay. I kid you not, I probably spent half my energy reserves laughing (in fear!) at the sheer size of the mountain when we got to the base. We’re climbing THAT? But I knew there was no turning back at this point, so we headed out on the trail. Within minutes, I was out of breath. I tell you, my breath must be in much better shape than I am, because I spent the next hour and fifteen minutes trying to catch it. Once we finally reached the top (the summit is over 1,100 meters high), the view was breathtaking. We could see all of greater Vancouver and Mount Baker. A bag of trail mix later, we were ready to explore. We spent the next few hours watching lumberjacks, birds of prey, and grizzlies, getting sunburned,...
