GAME DESIGN MERIT BADGE PART 1 Counselor Joshua Wolfsohn GOALS

GAME DESIGN MERIT BADGE PART 1 Counselor Joshua Wolfsohn https://tinyurl.com/scoutingathomefallmb GOALS

EXPECTATIONS REVIEW PREREQUISITES SPRINGBOARD HOUSE RULES BUILD ON WHAT WE KNOW HOMEWORK EXPECTATIONS (Be Respectful)

Don’t Forget Design Notebooks

PLEASE USE REAL NAMES TAKE TURNS AND SHARE THE AIR ENGAGE AND SHARE KEEP YOUR SCREEN ON RESPECT OTHER’S OPINIONS COLLABORATE AND CREATE REQ. 1A

MY EXAMPLE Solitaire: card, single player, clear the Analyze four games you have played, field by making piles by suite, no theme each from a different medium. Identify Risk: board, multiplayer, occupy all 42 the medium, player format, objectives, territories by rolling dice, conquer the rules, resources, and theme (if relevant). world Discuss with your counselor the play Minecraft: electronic, open player, play experience, what you enjoy in each with blocks, use resources to … yeah, game, and what you dislike. square world Quidditch: sport, 2 teams 7 players each, score the most points and catch the snitch, no theme. WHY DO WE PLAY GAMES? REQ. 1A

MY EXAMPLE Solitaire: card, single player, clear the Analyze four games you have played, field by making piles by suite, no theme each from a different medium. Identify Risk: board, multiplayer, occupy all 42 the medium, player format, objectives, territories by rolling dice, conquer the rules, resources, and theme (if relevant). world Discuss with your counselor the play Minecraft: electronic, open player, play experience, what you enjoy in each with blocks, use resources to … yeah, game, and what you dislike. square world Quidditch: sport, 2 teams 7players each, score the most points and catch the snitch, no theme. WHY DO WE PLAY GAMES? REQ. 1B NOVELTY: EXAMPLE: Galaxy truckers Players get new or unexpected experiences. Game focuses on the senses.

CHALLENGE: EXAMPLE: Carcassonne Players apply themselves to overcoming. Game focuses on reward for hard work. Describe four types of play value and STIMULATION: EXAMPLE: Forbidden Island provide an example of a game built Players get emotionally invested. Game around each concept. focuses on roles and pacing. HARMONY: EXAMPLE: Chess Player interactions. Game focuses on how players play together. THREAT: EXAMPLE: Fortnite Players get action and one up each other. Game focuses on conflict and resources “A game is a way to play by a set of rules. Good rules help you find the fun. Bad rules obscure it. But the rules are not, themselves, the fun. It sounds obvious when you say it like that. But game designers of all skill levels fall into the trap of believing that the mechanics and the game are the same thing. A game is a whole package. It is not a collection of parts. A game can have a theme, and mechanic, a brand, a hook, a lifestyle. But these parts are not interchangeable with other games. It's only as a complete unit that the game resonates, draws attention, engages players, and becomes a part of their lives. If you want to invent a new game, you have to do better than just improving on existing rules. You need to consider why the game, as a whole, will get into players heads.”

-James Earnest, Origins Award Winner, The Game is Not the Rules REQ. 2

Discuss with your counselor five of the following 17 game design terms. For each term that you pick, describe how it relates to a specific game STORY/THEME

NARRATIVE STORY: Example: Pandemic The story created to attract players and keep them interested. The problem the game gives every player. Themes are often given by the artwork and title of the game. However mechanics should agree with the theme and give the players an actual picture of what is happening through the pieces and graphics. Stories are told in 3 parts a beginning, a middle, and an end. Game play should feel the same way. PLAYER-CREATED STORY: Example: RPG’S The story of each individual’s play experience: the actions and choices they made that led to victory or defeat. This will be unique every time you play a game, and if the game allows many choices: players will be involved in their own stories. This leads to high replay value. SETTING

Example: Carcassonne VS Galaxy Truckers The setting is similar to the story/theme. The setting is a part of the story that will change the feel and flow of your game. The same mechanics in two different settings will have very different feels to the players. CHARACTERS

Characters come in all types of strengths. Some are completely empty, allowing the player to BE the character they play in the game (Chell from Portals). Others are only defined by their art and the actions they can take (the countessa from Coup), while others are partially full, allowing the player to step into their shoes (Luke Skywalker from Star Wars). While others are so full that the player has no say in the character (Sergeant Calhoun from Hero’s duty in Wreck it Ralph). When making characters a useful tool I was taught in high school was the Hero’s Journey Cycle. Every main character follows it and modelling even supporting characters off it makes them stronger. The strength of characters, or their potency, is up to you as the designer. PLAYER FORMATS

SINGLE PLAYER Example: ATARI When one player plays alone. MULTI PLAYER Example: Smallworld When many players get to play together. CO-OP Example: Pandemic When all the players work together to achieve one set of objectives (playing against the game). TEAMS Example: TF2 When many players get to play together AND AGAINST another group of players playing together. PLAY SEQUENCE

TURN ORDER Example: Dutch Blitz The turn order tells everyone when each person gets to play whether that be turns for the players, turns for the characters, or everyone play at once. PHASES Example: Risk Phases tell when players do what on their turn (or lack there of). INTERUPTING COWMOO! Example: SmashUp It is completely OK to allow other layers to interrupt another player’s turn. LEVEL DESIGN/ENVIRONMENT DESIGN

Example: LEGO Star Wars The process of making the game space agree with the theme and mechanics. This is separate from creating the rules, mechanics, and theme. The play space should be easy to use and well organized, so players don’t have to spend a lot of extra time learning how to navigate it. (non example: Egomania) The play space should be easy to understand so that players know what they need to do in order to win. INTERFACE DESIGN

Example: Sushi Go Similar to the environment design, the interface design is how the game communicates with the players. “A game is an interactive mathematical system, made concrete, used to tell a story. just to clarify a bit: interactive mathematical system = mechanics and rules made concrete = pieces and graphics story = theme” -Rob Daviau, creator of Seafall The interface design is the way that the mathematical system (the mechanics) is cleverly hidden in the story and graphics without losing its ability to be understood and used. DIFFICULTY

Example: Minecraft Difficulty is how easy or hard the game is to win and can be changed in many ways depending on the type of game you are making. Consider steps and parts to puzzles, number of resources or points that give better resources or victory points. Look at time, availability of resources, and player restrictions as well. Consider the strength of characters and their gear, and the strength of the enemies faced. BALANCE

Example: SmashUp Balance is almost MORE important than difficulty. Balance relates to how different elements of the game effect the players. Perfectly balanced games don’t let any action, item, or resource decide which player will win. COMPLEXITY

Example: Axis and Allies Complexity relates to the number of rules and parts as well as how easy it is to learn to play. The more complex the game, the harder it becomes to balance. Complicated games can become difficult, so it is important to find a “sweet spot.” Your games should be easy to learn, but interesting enough that you want to play again. DEPTH

Example: Chess Depth often goes hand in hand with replay value. Depth talks about a game’s ability to allow someone to continually get better at playing great balance, appropriate difficulty, and matching complexity result In great depth STRATEGY, REFLEX, AND CHANCE

Strategy Example: Pente When a player’s skill in making choices effects the game’s outcome in a predictable way. Reflex Example: Basketball When a player’s physical skills effect the game’s outcome in a predictable way. Chance Example: Yahtzee When a player’s skill has no effect on the game and the outcome is decided randomly. GOOD GAMES HAVE BOTH CHANCE AND SKILL PACE

Example: Concentration Pace is how fast the game goes. More importantly it is how fast players receive information and how fast they can make decisions on that information. Pace can change during the game. Remember a story is told in 3 parts, a beginning a middle and an end. It is OK for those parts to move at different paces. AGE APPROPRIATENESS

Example: Apples to Apples Age appropriateness is what age players are BEST for playing the game. Some games will bore the tears out of some teenagers but hold the interest of an 8-year-old all day. It does not matter what age a game is designed for however it should be on the box. REPLAY VALUE

Example: Poker The reason people want to play games over and over again. When you are playtesting, you know you have made something good when most of your audience (including the losers) ask to play again. Replay value increases as your game has the right mix of everything we have talked about so far. “A game is a way to play by a set of rules. Good rules help you find the fun. Bad rules obscure it. But the rules are not, themselves, the fun. It sounds obvious when you say it like that. But game designers of all skill levels fall into the trap of believing that the mechanics and the game are the same thing. A game is a whole package. It is not a collection of parts. A game can have a theme, and mechanic, a brand, a hook, a lifestyle. But these parts are not interchangeable with other games. It's only as a complete unit that the game resonates, draws attention, engages players, and becomes a part of their lives. If you want to invent a new game, you have to do better than just improving on existing rules. You need to consider why the game, as a whole, will get into players heads.”

-James Earnest, Origins Award Winner, The Game is Not the Rules REQ. 3

Define the term intellectual property. Describe the types of intellectual property associated with the game design industry. Describe how intellectual property is protected and why protection is necessary. Define and give an example of a licensed property INTELECTUAL PROPERTY REQ. 4

Pick a game where the players can change the rules or objectives. Briefly summarize the standard rules and objectives and play through the game normally. Propose changes to several rules or objectives. Predict how each change will affect gameplay. Play the game with one rule or objective change, observing how the players’ actions and emotional experiences are affected by the rule change. Repeat this process with two other changes. Explain to your counselor how the changes affected the actions and experience of the players. Discuss the accuracy of your predictions. EYE SPY

WITH MY LITTLE EYE REQ. 4

#TheRulesAreNotTheGame #PlayerInteractionIsAMust #KingmakingSucks Kingchooser: A player is forced to choose someone else to win Kingmaker: A player hands the win to another player by trying to lose Kingbreaker: A player Prevents another player from winning #SnowballBadHeadwindGood #TheLastHalfMileIsTheHardest #WriteRulesLikeTrump #CuldesacsAreBoring Flowchart REQ. 5

Design a new game. Make a design statement including

• Medium • Preliminary • Player format rules (flowchart) • Objectives • Define the • Theme resources • Setting • Draw the • Story game elements • Characters • Play value DESIGN STATEMENT EXAMPLE

A board game where players use actions and unique character abilities to move 6 superhero characters through multiple levels of play, each with varying win conditions based on the story line. The story takes place in the future and the players discover through in game short stories that the 6 heroes were genetically altered illegally to be an elite special forces team for a rebel group trying to overthrow the evil global government. The team breaks away from the rebels and works to bring justice and peace in a moral way. The game runs on Challenge, stimulation, and threat. The game is a multi player co-op game for 6 or less players who always share all 6 characters. Characters experience combat and interact with the play area through skill actions and character ability numbers: each allow characters to take certain actions and determine the outcome of the game. Play continues in rounds made of 6 turns where players choose any un-played character and performs 5 of the character’s actions: looking at the guidebook for information relating to in game objects, and NPC’s. Rounds end in an updating phase where character health and energy is updated. Rounds repeat until the final goal is met, or all characters are defeated. GETTING STARTED WITH DEVELOPMENT

MECHANICS DRIVEN THEME DRIVEN

ANY IDEAS?

IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING GO BACK TO WHAT INSPIRES YOU

REQ. 6

Prototype a new game. Make a rough draft of the game

• Player safety • Rules flow chart • Place holders for bits REQ. 7

Playtest your new game. Let other people play your game

• Player safety • Body • Record language feedback • This is science • Blind playtest and engineering • Don’t play with, observe THE DESIGN PROCESS

Game designers are artists, creators, mathematicians, engineers, scientists, makers, salesmen, and basically the best people ever! NEXT TIME ◦ REQ. 5 (Design statement) due ASAP before you make your game. ◦ REQ. 6 (make your game) due next time ◦ REQ. 7 (playtest your game) OCTOBER due next time 1st 4:00-5:30 We will cover REQ. 8 together Or next time. 6:00- 7:30 SUBMIT HOME WORK HERE https://tinyurl.com/scoutingathomefa llmb