Game Design ( 4190.420 Computer Game )

1. Game Design(4190.420Computer Game) Jehee Lee Seoul National University

2. Taxonomy of Creative Expressions beauty Art Creative Expression Movies, Books, etc. Entertainment Toys Playthings Puzzles Challenges Competitions Conflicts Games money non-interactive interactive no goals goals No competitor competitor no attacks Attacks allowed

3. Definitions • A form of play with goals and structure (Kevin Maroney) • A form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal (Greg Costikyan) • An activity with some rules engaged in for an outcome (Eric Zimmerman)

4. Milestone Games: Old-Styles • Monopoly • The most successful board game • Designed in 1930s • It concerns real estate transactions

5. Milestone Games: Old-Styles • Traditional card games • Board wargames • Flourished in the 1960s and 1970s

6. Milestone Games • Space Invaders • designed and programmed by Toshihiro Nishikado in 1978

7. Milestone Games • Pac-Man • Midway, 1980 • A yellow, pie-shaped character named Pac-Man runs along inside a maze, eating dots as it avoids four ghosts.

8. Milestone Games • Platform games • Space panic, 1982 • Donkey Kong, 1981 • Tilted floors • Jumping over barrels

9. Milestone Games • Moria, Wizardry, 1990s • Implementation of Dungeons & Dragons • Map explorations • Designed for the Plato networked computer system

10. Milestone Games • M.U.L.E. • Electronic Arts, 1983 • the first multiplayer resource-based strategy game • Players must manage several resources: food, energy, smithore and crystite.

11. Milestone Games • The 7th Guest • Puzzle-solving adventure • Playing video from the CD nonlinearly

12. Some Milestone Games • Doom • Civilization • SimCity • Starcraft • Populous • 리니지

13. Play “ A voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is ‘different’ from ‘ordinary life.’ ”

14. Play “ A voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is ‘different’ from ‘ordinary life.’ ”

15. Play “ A voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is ‘different’ from ‘ordinary life.’ ”

16. Play “ A voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is ‘different’ from ‘ordinary life.’ ”

17. Play “ A voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is ‘different’ from ‘ordinary life.’ ”

18. Play • Early mammals learned to play as a way of polishing the complex neural circuitry that they were born with • Play’s role in our childhood is dominating

19. Play is Metaphorical • All play represents something from the non-play universe • But, play is not necessarily a simulation of anything in the real world

20. Play must be Safe • The whole idea of play is to give the player an experience without the danger that might normally accompany that experience • Frequent game saving in role-playing games • Players want to feel that their investment is safe • The paradox of play is that it provides the player with dangerous experiences that are absolutely safe • Eg) Roller coasters • Eg) Intro of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” by Spielberg

21. Play Need Not Be Exotic • Players want to face and overcome interesting challenges, but not necessarily be spirited away to an exotic world • Eg) skateboarding in environments forbidden to real skateboarders • Eg) The Sims

22. Challenge Necessitates Rules • All challenges take place in some sort of defined context, setting the conditions (rules) under which the challenge is presented • Most challenges are voluntary

23. Goal vs. Challenge • The goal of mountain climbing is to get to the top of the mountain • Mountain climbing would be so much easier with a helicopter, but that would remove all the challenge • Most climbers have a set of self-imposed rules that limit their utilization of such aides • The point is the challenge, not the goal

24. Rules and Challenges • The primary purpose of rules is to prevent strategies that subvert the challenge • In most sports games, there is some sort of boundary and any play that goes “out of bounds” is forbidden by the rules • It is possible to ruin a good challenge by exploiting loopholes in the rules • “Lock on victory”: A strategy or technique that guarantees success • Eg) MazeWar (one of the earliest multiplayer games)

25. Rules and Challenges • A good game design ensures that only the challenging ways are possible • What constitutes a challenging strategy?

26. Dimensions of Challenge • Cerebellar challenges • Sensorimotor challenges • Spatial reasoning • Pattern recognition • Sequential reasoning • Numerical reasoning • Resource management • Social reasoning

27. Cerebellar Challenges • The cerebellum is the control module for motor functions • Motor control procedure • High-level brain decisions are passed to the cerebellum • Breaks each command down into smaller, precisely timed commands to trigger particular muscle bundles • These commands go down the brain stem to the spinal cord and thence to the muscles

28. Cerebellar Challenges • There are only a few sports that are exclusively cerebellar in nature • Eg) Discus, shot-put and javelin • Do not involve much sensory input • Do not require accuracy of aim

29. Sensorimotor Challenges • Most cerebellar challenges include a sensory element • You don’t just trigger muscles in some predetermined sequence • You must use your senses (most often vison) to direct and control the muscular activity • Even a simple human behavior require very accurate sensory-motor coordination • A single neuron takes a few milliseconds to fire • How do we attain the accuracy?

30. Sensorimotor Challenges • Most sensorimotor challenges require the integration of visual information with motor response • Eg) Hand-eye coordination • Sport vs videogames • Full-body exercise vs. swift thumbs

31. Pushing the Pathways Down • The neural pathways utilized in sensorimotor challenges are complex • Visual data passes from the retina to the visual cortex • Processed into visually meaningful components • Travels to the cerebral cortex • Decide what to do (high-level processing) • Decisions are passed down to cerebellum • Muscle action

32. Pushing the Pathways Down • Any process that we concentrate on repetitively can develop its own custom neural pathways that render its opertaion faster and smoother • By moving the pathways lower into the brain, the player reduces the amount of processing required to react to events in the game or sports • Decision making is no longer conscious or deliberate • Often described as “instinctive” • The brain can learn different tasks with different degrees of facility

33. Altered States of Consciousness • Human are programmed to learn, and successful learning is intrinsically pleasurable • Some players devote the entire mental resource to the learning process and shut conscious processing down • Similar to altered states of consciousness induced by drug

34. Analogy between Videogame and Drug • Pleasure • “videogamer’s high” attained at a certain level of proficiency • The sense of power and invulnerability • Drug users report the feeling that they are smarter, more creative, and able to see more deeply into their souls • Some videogamers report similar experience • The loss of awareness of the real world • Addiction

35. Higher-level Reasoning • Spatial reasoning • Eg) Identifying a bad guy popping up • Pattern recognition • Eg) a puzzle game in which the player was presented with a random pattern of colored dots that slowly dissolved into a recognizable image • Eg) Boardgames • Sequential reasoning • Eg) Baduk, Chess • Programmers tend to overemphasize sequential reasoning because it comes so easily to them

36. Higher-level Reasoning • Numerical reasoning • Usually a tedious challenge • Resource management • Eg) In strategy games, the player must carefully marshal a limited supply of scarce resources • Eg) ammunition and health in shooters • Some of the best game designers argue that resource management is central to game design

37. Higher-level Reasoning • Social reasoning • Less developed source of challenge • Eg) The sims • Eg) Ms. Pac-Man