Playable Design
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Media Technology and Games - Design & Analysis IT-University of Copenhagen Rued Langgaards vej 7 2300 København S. Tlf. 72185000 www.itu.dk Title: Playable Design Abstract: The computer game industry is currently facing problems on how to structure and manage a production due to the cause of ever growing budgets and manpower required. Methods from other fields have been tried. However, these are not built with the purpose of developing games and do not facilitate the entire production or qualities of a game. We have during the course of the project addressed this matter by devising a method of our own which should enhance the process of creating games. A deeper analysis of current computer game developments identified the main problems to occur in the pre-production which suggests that this is where the point of insertion should happen. We have based our solution on theory from fields such as software engineering, innovation theory and game design theory and supplied these by observation made through experiments where we simulated parts of a game production. The result is the EVE method, which stands for Experimentation, Visualization and Evaluation and is based on principles of creative process control, flexible design in form of prototypes and easily accessible feedback through early testing. ____________________ _____________________ Bo Behrmann Jensen Simon Larsen ____________________ _____________________ Frank Wisnes Thorvald Kingbo Supervisors: Espen Aarseth & Claus Seeberg Friis Circulation: 4 copies Page Count: 212 Project period: September 1, 2006 – March 1, 2007 Chapter 1 - Table of contents Playable Design 1 Table of contents 2 FOREWORD .............................................................................................................................. 8 2.1 READERSHIP .................................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................................................... 9 3 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 11 3.1 PROBLEM AREA ............................................................................................................................ 12 3.1.1 Problem statement ........................................................................................................ 14 3.1.2 Project scope .................................................................................................................. 14 3.2 PROJECT OVERVIEW ...................................................................................................................... 16 4 GAME DEVELOPMENT FROM THE OUTSIDE ........................................................................... 18 4.1 FACTS ABOUT THE INDUSTRY ........................................................................................................... 18 4.1.1 Development time .......................................................................................................... 19 4.1.2 Budget ............................................................................................................................ 20 4.1.3 Team size........................................................................................................................ 21 4.1.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 22 4.2 GAME PRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 23 4.2.1 Game Design versus Game Development ...................................................................... 24 4.2.2 Game Design .................................................................................................................. 24 4.2.3 Game Development ....................................................................................................... 26 4.3 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................................. 27 4.3.1 The Waterfall Method .................................................................................................... 28 4.3.2 Spiral Development ........................................................................................................ 31 4.3.3 Agile methods ................................................................................................................ 33 4.3.4 Extreme Programming ................................................................................................... 33 4.4 FUN FACTOR ................................................................................................................................ 35 Page 4 of 212 March 2007 Chapter 1 - Table of contents 5 GAME DEVELOPMENT FROM THE INSIDE ............................................................................... 37 5.1 BIG DESIGN UP FRONT .................................................................................................................. 37 5.1.1 Waterfall versus Agile .................................................................................................... 38 5.1.2 The Design Document .................................................................................................... 40 5.1.3 Burnout .......................................................................................................................... 42 5.2 POST MORTEMS .......................................................................................................................... 43 5.2.1 Flexibility ........................................................................................................................ 43 5.2.2 Documentation .............................................................................................................. 45 5.2.3 Pre-production and the vision ........................................................................................ 47 5.2.4 New ideas ...................................................................................................................... 49 5.3 LESSONS ..................................................................................................................................... 50 6 CASE: IO INTERACTIVE ............................................................................................................ 52 6.1 IDEA GENERATION ........................................................................................................................ 53 6.2 PRE-PRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 54 6.3 PROTOTYPES ............................................................................................................................... 55 6.4 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 57 7 ADAPTIVE GAME DESIGN ....................................................................................................... 60 7.1 DESIGNING VERSUS MAKING ........................................................................................................... 60 7.2 PLAYABLE DESIGN ......................................................................................................................... 62 7.3 UNCANNY VALLEY ........................................................................................................................ 63 7.3.1 The Space Pen ................................................................................................................ 65 7.4 READY, FIRE, AIM ......................................................................................................................... 66 7.5 EVE AS A METHOD SUPPLEMENT ..................................................................................................... 67 7.5.1 The experiments ............................................................................................................. 68 8 EXPLORATION ........................................................................................................................ 71 8.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 71 8.2 GETTING THE GREAT IDEA ............................................................................................................... 71 8.2.1 The process of creativity ................................................................................................ 73 Page 5 of 212 Chapter 1 - Table of contents Playable Design 8.2.2 First insight ..................................................................................................................... 75 8.2.3 Saturation ...................................................................................................................... 76 8.2.4 Incubation ...................................................................................................................... 77 8.2.5 Illumination .................................................................................................................... 80 8.2.6 Verification ....................................................................................................................