Here's my notes from the first day of the Austin Game Developers' Conference:
chris crawford on paradigm shifts
- proper study of man is man
- interactivity is most important part of software
- graphics exist only to support interactivity
- no plots; storytelling is process, not plot
- focus on what the user does
- worry about the verbs of the story
- need a linguistic user interface (language) to get large number of verbs
- but, probably can't get natural language on a computer
- chris recommends using Deikto to build toy reality-stories
- use swat to create social-focused games; storytron.com
living with a legacy: lessons from everquest (sony's everquest team)
- pitfalls in mmo systems design
- correcting poor documentation (now wiki-based): made custom data search tools, run checks for new-found bug combos
- non-scaling design: capped % modifiers, capped melee attack speed and other stackable modifiers
- complicated systems: legacy systems accrue cruft over time
- problem resolutions
- reworked obsolete systems: again, systems that worked early on, but failed over the length of the game; had to redesign to scale indefinitely
- adapted problem systems: dealt with system interactions that were only revealed to be problematic after release
- removed some problems entirely: e.g. beam-kiting, combining item and power boost for item
- designing scalable systems
- use visible game systems to give feedback to players
- use game system models/mockups to test new systems before implementing them
- avoid complicating systems through stacking or using non-formula-based calculations
- always design systems with opposing systems to make sure new systems/items scale over time
- design a backup plan for each system in case new systems don't go over well
- be conservative when tuning new systems, it's better to improve a bad system than nerf an overpowered one
writing for cinematic design (bioware)
- now have dedicated cinematic designers (crafting interactive narrative content with cinematic presentation)
- feel cinematic design the best way to deliver story to the player
- building blocks: writing, audio, settings, camera, digital actors, player choice
- in the future: need to find the right balance between audience-led agency and designer-led emotion
- have to watch what audience expects: their expectations constantly change with the medium and we have to change our approach to match
- lately, have moved from writing in novel-style to writing in more film-script format
- involve player in the narrative as much as possible
easy is f**king hard (eric zimmerman with gamelab)
- game design is a design discipline, designers make the rules
- hardcore vs casual: complexity of interaction, time investment required, gamer content
- game design means thinking of games as systems
- as systems, games will have emergent behavior, often social behavior
- via the game, we explore the system as a form of play
- designers describe the system through rules
- need to ensure players have meaningful actions to take during play
- to have a choice, player needs to be able to see the state of the game system and the available choices (but not necessarily the possible consequences of those choices); to evaluate choice and learn, consequences of choice (once made) need to be obvious to the player
- current choices should be integrated into later choices
- slow but powerful advancement keeps players hooked, especially if player can see future rewards (turn them into play goals)
- remember, games take place in a social context; you're really designing a social activity
