Hey there,
just in-time with the start of the new year, we decided to have a topic covering 2010
Predictions for 2010
Here we will take a look into our magic eightballs and discuss possible game design trends, game of the year contenders and all other things regarding the industry.
1. The obvious
Playing a video game means perceiving information on-screen, interpreting these information, concluding and finally executing. The controller is the execution-tool of the player. His or her lawgiver. Like the mean but necessary lawgiver weapon in the Judge Dredd movie, the controller has to lie comfortable in the hands of the player, giving him the feeling of total control and power. As I cannot influence the input devices – yet – I will concentrate on the options of giving the player the feeling of control and power with the existing input devices. No matter, which type of controller.
Continue reading ‘Designing controller input – the obvious, the reasonable and the extraordinary.’
Dear classic controllers,
I love you. I mean it. Every time I push one of your buttons, something happens. Every time I hold you in my hands, I feel empowered, in control, unstoppable. I feel good. I feel at home. When I first heard that skank “Motion Control” would come to the world of Videogames, I was excited. I dreamed of all the possibilities I would have. Now, I could not only hold the controller, I could move with it, even dance with it. I could not wait to have my first touch of next generation gaming.
…is to release it on X360, PC and DS. Why?
When you are designing a game, it will be interactive to some degree. The means of interaction are going to be an integral part of the experience of the game that you are creating.
That means is usually “using a controller” (e.g. a Wiimote) on the player’s side of the interaction, which has two aspects:
The first one is the actual hardware of the controller (e.g. a piece of plastic); the second is the game’s reaction to a certain controller input (e.g. “Jump”). In order to provide the best experience possible, it is necessary for those two aspects and the rest of the game to be as consistent as possible.
It’s fantastic how well the N64-controller suited Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And the triggers on the 360-controller works really well for shooting in FPS and for stepping on the gas driving games.
It’s by no means a coincidence and you can always look at a controller and see how it’s meant to be used.
But what if that wasn’t the case?
Hey there,
we asked the facebook aboutgamedesign.com community what they would like to have as our next topic. Well, we got a few answeres and from those we chose:
Designing controller input
Congratulations Markus!
The first post will go up soon, so keep an eye open for updates.
Let’s take a look at an approach to creating a successful Triple-A game.
1.Write Design Document
2.Give Design Document to Coder
3.Triple-A Success
It didn’t work out for you like that? Don’t worry, it didn’t for most of those Triple-A studios out there, either.
So how did they do it, if creating a great game from scratch is so difficult? Well, creating Man from a puddle of proteins is even more difficult, yet somehow Evolution happened. The secret sauce is “Iteration”.
Continue reading ‘Of Apes and Men’
It was a long way from our not so smart ancestors to us – the super smart uber-brainers. This evolution is attributed to iterative design. Trying to avoid extinction, our ancestors refined themselves step by step. And that’s how complex systems should be designed today. Continue reading ‘Darwin & Darwinia’
I was going to write about how to iterate effectively, but then I realized how boring my post actually was. So I started thinking “how can I be creative about this subject” and boom there it was; How to iterate on creativity. Now this might be somewhat “out there”, but just let go for a while!
Let’s say I’m working on an action game and start designing a combat system for it. But I need it to be something new and different! How do I go about it? Could iteration be applied?
I personally find it very hard to just come up with something unique out of thin air; I usually need a basic design to start from. So before this first design for something “creative” I try to look at other games, or possibly other media, to see what they are doing and then I try to do it differently. However, I also need to make sure that what I end up doing really is creative.
So once I have my design, I take a step back and compare it with other games. Was I really being creative or just ripping something off? I find that I quite often apply designs from games that I like unconsciously, and there’s nothing wrong with that except if the design that I “stole” is the bread and butter of my own supposedly unique design. But most important, I ask for feedback from other people on how creative and unique they find my design to be.
So I take another swing at it and go through the same process again. I think one important point to make here is that you should iterate on the creativity first and then the actual design. What I mean is that you should separate the process of trying to make something unique from trying to make something that works. Making something that works should take priority in the end and therefore should be able to override creative decision in later iterations. Going the other way around doesn’t really make sense and you could end up with a broken game.
Regardless of that last point, this is iterating on creativity wouldn’t you agree? What kind of process do you use?
The general consensus among developers is that working by iterations is good. I think most of us nod our heads in eagerness to fill the mold of a good designer.
The iteration production process is a way of tackling the issues of not really knowing the problems the team will face during production. In other words making to rigid decisions early on in the project can be difficult as we have little knowledge about the problems we are going to face later on. Therefore we: Idea, make, test, and re-make. On paper this sounds fair and easy, but is it really? And what does it all really entail?
This article is a list of slightly ironic questions we face when working iteratively. The list is somewhat personal and unscientific; it is a compilation of problems I often ram my head against. I will not try to answer these questions. Instead I hope raising the questions will get your head juices flowing.
Arcade
Arshak Ardeshir
Gustav Ziolkowski
Severin Brettmeister
Andre Beccu
