Script (Design Methods)

Click the Bass

Script

Black Screen

SUPER: A JH ORIGINAL

Camera lights flashing, Marco on stage receiving applause

White Screen – to – baby Marco playing piano, then toddler Marco then Present Marco.

Back to Mr Sinclair with “$” signs in his eyes.

          Mr Sinclair sits Marco down and promises that he will teach him to be the best, and that he has           been offered a place in the “Music Inc. Academy”.

Marco signs the contract with Mr Sinclair rubbing hands vigorously.

White Screen – to – toddler Mr Sinclair kicking a football alone in the park in summer, then teenage him kicking it in winter, then older him kicking it in autumn.

Fade to worn out, prison-esque academy.

SUPER: 2 Weeks Later

Marco is seen playing on a piano with missing keys looking exhausted.

Camera pans round to see a number of students playing broken instruments with the “teachers” wearing suits and talking on phones.

Marco then has a wave of anarchy flood his body and decides to break into Mr Sinclair’s office.

          Marco sneaks into office only to find posters of “Anti-Music” slogans.

          Mr Sinclair enters room fuming, shouts abuse at Marco only for the boy to reply in the calmest fashion possible “There is more to music than just profits, so I challenge you to a music battle. I will destroy whoever you send to beat me I promise you.”

Mr Sinclair transforms into a 3 headed demon, each head picturing the face of the 3 artists Marco will face in battle.

The 3 heads shout at the same time, forcing Marco to take a step back, still looking calm and calculated however.

         

Fade to Arena.

Marco walks up to the stage and notices a Guitar, a turntable and a Microphone in front of him.

          Over tannoy “Introducing the epic music battle of Marco Butsped vs. Mr Sinclair AKA the boss. The music genres Rock, Hip-Hop and dance music will be used in this battle. LAST...MAN......STANDING!”

The battle commences with the three headed Mr Sinclair grabbing the guitar and shouting over to Marco “WATCH THIS!”

He starts it off by ‘shredding’ the guitar, using the solo from Voodoo Child to try and over-power the young prodigy across the arena.

The battle goes back and forth, both using the different instruments to try and beat the other. Sparks fly and extraordinary colours emerge from the instruments with both competitors looking determined.

Mr Sinclair uses his wealth of musical knowledge to use all 3 instruments to defeat young Marco, with the crowd getting louder, sensing the end of the battle.

Close up to Mr Sinclair’s intense gaze.

Close up to Marco’s defeated look.

Close up to Mr Sinclair’s face lighting up at the prospect of victory.

Fade to Marco’s flashback of playing when he was younger.

Fade back to Marco with the arena lighting up as he gets faster on the guitar and then EXPLOSION emerging from Marco’s chest, musical power overcomes Marco and he silences the 3 headed demon, finishing him off with a final shout on the microphone “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”.

Crowd silenced, Marco walks over to the Music Inc. board and quietly asks if “it’s all over”. They reply by asking him to be the new boss, he accepts the offer and becomes the youngest manager ever.

Crowd cheers, camera pans to crowd and then Marco who is sitting there with a smile.

End.

Will be improved again before end of term, this is only a draft.

Week 6 - Chance and Skill in games and how designers can implement them

Brenda Braithwaite & Ian Schreiber (2008) Challenges For Games Designers


Why is chance an important component in games and what tools does the designer have at their disposal to deploy this element?

Most games involve some kind of chance unless it is purely strategic such as tic-tac-toe or chess. Having a game that includes something to even the chances for the players is more likely to reach a wider audience over a game that is purely based on skill/strategy, but having the right balance of the two is up to the discretion of the designer.

Chance is something that gives the game random-ability that can ultimately match the skills of players as it bases success on the luck of something as simple as dice. A dice roll is purely random and that is what adds to the game, a sense of mystery and not knowing whether your action will help or hinder your progress in the game, and it can be used as an important dynamic in games design.

Designers can use chance in delaying solvability eg. in a game such as chess, there is an resolution to the game that is achieved by calculated moves and strategy by the player. A similar example is tic-tac-toe which is won through pure skill, but this can get tedious and chance enhances games by adding a random event, this is explained in the book as it "prevents the mastering of the game, because making the exact same decisions may lead to different outcomes".

Chance can also be used as making the play competitive for the weaker players, and it is explained in the book to prolong the enjoyment of a game for the weaker player, as it allows them to have a genuine chance of winning as there are random events that will cause a change to the game. For example in tic-tac-toe, an experienced player will know where to put the next symbol, but if an iteration to the game was considered to add chance, eg. dice roll to see who gets to put 2 symbols on the first turn, gives the weaker player a real chance to win which will ultimately keep him/her interested in the game for longer.

There are 4 mechanics that can be used to increase chance in games:

- Dice | Cube of 6 equal sides with 1-6 on the sides, rolled for a random number.

- Cards | Pack of 51, 4 suits (Ace to King 13 cards) shuffled to make random.

- Pseudo-Random number generators | A number that is close enough to be random generated by a computer.

- Hidden information | When a player doesn't know information it is random.

Why is skill an important component in games and what tools does the designer have at their disposal to deploy this element?

It says in the book "The heart of a good game is a series of interesting decisions" which is ultimately the definition of skill in games. A series of tactical/strategic decisions that will hopefully help the progress in the players quest of winning. 

Skill is in my eyes the most important part in any game, and designers base their games around engrossing the player in a game that is full of decisions, as players of games integrate their feelings and experience of the game with the decisions they are making which makes it feel more real. There are many ways in gaming to make a decision that is seen to create an aspect of skill:

- Obvious decision | A decision too easy to make (eg. pick the higher number to win a prize "1" or "2")

- Meaningless decision | When a game makes it seem a decision is important, but it doesn't matter which choice you make, you'll end up in the same place whatever option you choose.

- Blind decisions | A decision where the player has no information to make a calculated choice. (eg. roulette, it still matters what number you choose, you just don't know where it's going to land)

- Trade-off's | Happens when a player doesn't have enough resources to reach his/her goals. A game is 'balanced' where the options given seem very important, but all have equal outcomes and only bases the outcome of the decision on the players environmental and personal styles.

- Dilemma | (example Golden Balls) This gives the player a sense of danger as whatever choice you make, it will have a negative outcome.

Story (Design Methods)

ClickTheBASS

Story

Marco Butsped was a young boy from Rio de Janeiro who loved to compose classical music. He was highly regarded in the world of music as one of the biggest protégés ever. Being 13, he required a lot of support from his parents who would regularly donate their time and effort to make sure he always enjoys his music, but is still dedicated to being a top musician.

One day, Jeremy Sinclair of world renowned Music Inc. saw Marco playing at the Teatro Municipal in Rio. Mr Sinclair’s eyes immediately lit up at the prospect of having another prodigy join the ranks after seeing Marco direct an orchestra of over 60 members. What Marco and the rest of the world didn’t realise is that Mr Sinclair hates all forms of music, the last album he listened to was Chas ‘n’ Dave’s street party, and that was enough to convince him that music in general came straight from the depths of lower-class nobodies with nothing better to do. Mr Sinclair focused on profits rather than passion, business instead of beauty, and that left a distinct mark on his music label.

After talking to Marco’s parents about the exciting prospect of their son joining such a famous organisation to hone his musical abilities, they agreed to send him to the Music Inc. Academy for the talented. Overhearing the conversation, Marco goes giddy with the idea of attending such a prestigious academy under one of the biggest labels in the world. Mr Sinclair approaches Marco and offers him 24/7 access to high quality music labs/instruments, state of the art accommodation and 50 other young musical prodigies in which he can collaborate and learn from. Marco agrees without a second thought and Mr Sinclair smiles wryly as he can already taste the revenue on his lips.

Marco arrives at the Academy, keen to start composing and excited to meet all of the other young musical geniuses. As soon as Marco steps through the door after waving off his parents, he realises that every promise Mr Sinclair made was empty. He sees the worlds most gifted musicians confined to prison-esque bedrooms, one music room that has 2 piano’s, a couple of old guitars and an ancient soundbooth. Marco suddenly realises that Music Inc. are battery making artists to maximise profits. He frantically searches for a phone or any sort of communication to the outside world, he pleads to Mr Sinclair to let him go home, but the boss tells him that he is ‘here for the long run.'

Marco then bets Mr Sinclair that he could beat his 3 best artists (“Think Floyd” “Wu-Yang Clan” and “DJ Biesto”) in an epic battle of musical genius.

A series of musical battles reveal Marco's true powers as he out guitar's, out raps and out DJ's the three artists! Mr Sinclair pleads with Marco to stay but with the young prodigy pushing back the man's pointless talk, Mr Sinclair had no choice but to attack Marco with a barriage of bass that deafens the world but Marco beats him too, after a long fight of course. He claims his freedom and his trophy was to be the new manager of Music Inc.!  

Week 7 - Space of Possibility and Pacing in Casual Game Design: A PopCap Case Study

What are the design components that Ventrulli believes are important for the creation of casual games and how they can work together to provide a space for great user experiences?

Pacing:

Ventrulli explains pacing in games desing to be indirectly influencing/crafting the players experience by using MDA to create "Relaxation, tension and repetition.", the designer 'paces' the game.

Tension:

Tension is explained as the fear that the player feels when he/she thinks they are going to become the weaker side of the conflict. Aesthetics like sound effects and good graphics can be used to increase the tension, but not the threat.

Movement Impotus:

This is how much time and effort the player is willing to put in to moving forward throughout the level. This is also how willing the player is to make enhancing decisions in the game.

eg. An example is Plants vs. Zombies, the impotus for the player to keep on planting plants to defend the base against zombies is the fact that there is only two outcomes, you either survive the attack or get destroyed, and the player feels there is no point quitting half way through out of frustration/boredom as there is something always going on.

Tempo:

Tempo in any game is how high the 'intensity' of the play is. It is how much time has passed between each big decision made/conflict seen by the player. He explains that the faster the tempo, it minimises how many different possibilities the player could have, where if the tempo is slow, there will be more possibilities as there is more time to do it.

Finally, in the article, Ventrulli believes that once a game is completed/finished by the player it becomes instantly boring. The novelty of not knowing what is going to happen has worn off and the player doesn't play it as that would be repetitive. He explains "re-play" value which is the extra time after the game is completed that the player feels it is still fun to play on.

Week 5 - Tools for creating dramatic game dynamics

What are the mechanics we can use to cause dramatic tension in games? - Marc LeBlanc

Marc LeBlanc's reading links in with the reading of week 4, as it goes into detail about MDA.

Mechanics
Dynamics
Aesthetics

"When we talk about mechanics, we are referring to all the neccessary pieces that we need to play the game."

Mechanics aren't limited to the rules of the game, there are outside influences that govern how the game pans out. eg. Baseball has it's normal rules, other rules include gravity, energy, the limits of the human mind and body.

"Dynamics refer to what might be called the 'behaviour' of the game, the actual events and phenomena that occur as the game is being played."

LeBlanc explains dynamics simply to be how the player wants to play the game, which tactics/strategies will the player use to maximise his/her chance of success? eg. in unreal tournament, a player might decide to use the sniper rifle as the enemy is far away. This increases the overall chance of success/kill for the player and is a dynamic for the game.

"A game's aesthetics is it's emotional content, the desirable emotional responses we when we play."

The aesthetics of a game can be easily exampled by it's graphics. Games are usually more aesthetically pleasing when they have top level graphics as the player enjoys the look and it allows the user to immerse themselves in the game more-so.

This is a graph showing the usual plot/storyline in most games. At the start there is a conflict, or a problem that you as the player have to solve. Then comes the climax of the conflict, usually personified by a boss fight or a final battle. After that is the resolution to the climax/story, has the player lost or won, and how does the story end?






Uncertainty + Inevitability

- Those are the two factors in a game that cause dramatic tension.
- We as game designers have less control than the player.
- control creates drama.

Dramatic Tension:

- Which way to go?
- The outcome is unknown


- Force: The designer's dynamics that affect the game state directly.
- Illusion: Is manipulating the players perception of the game state without actually changing the game state.
- Escalation: Increasing the amount of tasks/objectives asked to be done in the game, making it seem more exciting.

Paidea vs. Lupus [ED]

"What is a videogame? Rules, Puzzles and Simulation"


Paidea:


Paidea is essentially playing a game just for the fun of it. In the game there are no rules or outcomes and the player just plays for the fun of it. In these games the player normally would have self-defined goals such as creating a building in simcity as said in the article.


One example of a game that is defined by Paidea is Garrys Mod on the source engine. It is a game that lets the users create what they like using materials and textures used in other source games. There are mods on the game that creates rules and pushes it into Ludus such as races to build and racing games using vehicles built by the user. The fact that the game allows the user to create whatever they want gives the player a freedom to create a competitive game if they wish using the game's freedom as a canvas.


Ludus:


Ludus is the polar opposite of Paidea, the game has rules and set definitions of what it takes to win or lose the game. Making the game competitive takes away the freedom of Paidea but gives the player a rule-set in which they follow to win the game.


An example of a game that is Ludus is Quake. There are rules to follow, other sources that can power-up or damage the player during the game and a simple way of winning the game. The game always has a winner and a loser, depending on the game-mode it is normally who gets the most frags, which allows the player to aim toward something, while planning to pick up power-ups to beat the opponent. These factors make the game competitive with a definitive outcome using rules.


There can be some objections to the Paidus/Lupus theory as I mentioned above, Garrys Mod can be modded to incorporate user made game-modes such as racing, shooting or quick building. This gives a Paidea game Ludus ideas, as it has clear rules on how to win and what to do to get there, which is a good example of how both can be used in one game.

Week 4 - MDA: A formal approach to games design and game research.

Games are: "systems that build behaviour via interaction"


The article explains a way (MDA) of understanding games in a better light by "bridging the gap between games design and development, game criticism and technical game research".


- Games are like any other consumable product on the market, they are purchased, used and then thrown away most likely.
- MDA explains how consumers "consume" a game and generates it's designing counterpart.
- It's an obvious statement to say the designer and player have different perspectives of the game, but it is important to understand where each is coming from to better a game.


Framework


Designers:
Mechanics -> Dynamics -> Aesthetics
M - How the game works, it's rules and settings.
D - How the game reacts after it's been interacted with.
A - The audiences behaviour while interaction.


Players:
Aesthetics -> Dynamics -> Mechanics
A - The emotions felt by the user (eg. happy when won, frustrated when stuck etc.)
D - Tactical choices in the game (eg. where do you move next)
M - What is actually happening, where is the player positioned, goes back to rules of the game (eg. using dice)


tbf

Week 3 - Formal abstract design tools

"Games are not books, games are not movies. In those media, the tools used......are used to manipulate the viewers or readers, to make them feel or react exactly the way the director or author wants them to.  I believe the challenge of computer games design is that our most important tools are the ones that empower players to make their own decisions"


- The industry and all designers need a universal language that everyone can understand. Having a definitive vocabulary makes it easier to critique games and improve them.
- Don't be naive and think that you have to use every tool available to create a great game, some only need a few.
- Use the mistakes you know about games you love so you can use them to make your game better.
- When critiquing games, find the 'concrete aspects' so you can look into the 'Formal Abstract Design Tools'.


Tools


Intention
"Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options"
- This tool links in to last week's reading, by the player looking at the current game state and devising a plan whether it be on the spot within the space of a second, to having all the time in the world to make a choice.


Perceivable Consequence
"A clear reaction from the game world to the action of a player."
- Linking back to the point above, in the game stated in the article "Mario 64", after the player making a plan of what to do to reach the end of the level, there is input into the playing device and "Mario" responds. 


Story
"The narrative thread, whether designer driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward completion of the game."
- The article explains how stories are important and so different in games. There can be an adventure-style story where the player has choices to make to reach the end of the scripted game, but on the other hand there are stories in sports games such as said in the article. Imagine playing a basketball game on "NBA Live", you could send the game to overtime or you could be 100points up by half-time, everything links back into perceivable consequence and intention by the game creating a story using interactivity and planning.

Week 2 - I have no words I must design

A game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals


Game
- Costikyan explains that games aren't just limited to the platform they are on, games are everywhere and every game is different from each other.
- Games are a plastic medium between the process of doing something and having fun.
- To make sense of games in general, you need to understand what a "game" is and why you play it.


Interactive Structure
- Puzzles/Games -- Puzzles are static with the user figuring out the solution with the use of clues, "Games are not static but change with the players actions."
- Every game needs to define its interaction as it could be many things from moving the character to playing a video.
- If the game reacts to the user's interactivity then it is a game, otherwise it is a puzzle.
- If it isn't a puzzle it's something to do with media as the outcome is not a varied result of the players action, it is a single end result eg. video file/music.


Endogenous
- An endogenous meaning is "caused by factors inside the organism or system"
- Costikyan explains that the games being made create their own meaning. The players figure out what they want to do and how they want to do it, giving it a new meaning every time it is played.
- There are parts in games that are extremely addictive to players, aspects of the game that force the user to want to collect the new item or complete the new quest to get that feeling of achievement that is symbolised throughout the game, giving the game a meaning.


Struggle
- Like Goals/Interactivity, a game without a struggle is a bad game.
- There are many ways to make struggle in a game, one of which is adding competition. The player struggles against another player to win. An example of competition in games is chess. Without the opposition being there, there would be no struggle. Both players aim to create a strategy to beat the opponent and that is where the struggle is created, trying to out-smart the opponent.
- Another example of struggle is role-playing games. If you aren't competing against someone else, you are struggling to reach the next level or struggling to complete a quest to reach the next level.
- Making a game difficult for the player creates struggle, but as Costikyan explains, making something difficult doesn't necessarily mean it will be fun. Creating a game that is fun with struggle is the sign of a good game.


Goals
- Goals in a game link in with interactivity:
- If the game doesn't have a goal but has interactivity then it isn't a game as there is no varied result to the players actions. The audience has nothing to work towards, there is no success.
- If interactivity doesn't have a goal at the end of it then it isn't a game. A goal in a game is something that can be achieved by choosing a varied option with different outcomes.
- At every point in the game the user thinks about the current game state, makes a choice about where he/she stands at the moment in the game and chooses an option to take to reach the necessary goal.

Week 1 - In the beginning there is the designer

What does Schelle offer to the would be games designer?


There are a few key points in the chapter that outline the skills necessary to be a successful games designer:


- Confidence
- "I am a games designer"
- You don't have to be experienced to design games, start designing and believing that you are a games designer.
- Confidence is a must have - "I'm serious, say them out loud, right now. Don't be shy"


Failures
- Failures are a part of the Games Design industry like every other, it is better to take failure as a learning curve rather than for the mistake it actually is.
- Failing over and over again should be seen as a good thing, as it brings you a step closer to having a "truly phenomenal game"


Skills
- No one can master every skill in the industry, but the more you know the better off you will be.
- Listening as a skill is more important than any other skill eg. listening to co-workers, management and carefully listening to feedback from users gives you more to work with.
- Schelle talks about looking beyond just the audio when listening, explaining that sometimes watching body language and the signs people give off are more important than actually listening.