Designing Gameplay Researching and testing Nintendo’s game design Malin Ribäck Arcada Biblioteket och Språkenheten Helsingfors 2019 EXAMENSARBETE Arcada Utbildningsprogram: Mediekultur Identifikationsnummer: 6847 Författare: Malin Ribäck Arbetets namn: Gameplays design – Undersökning och test av Nintendos speldesign Handledare (Arcada): Mirko Ahonen Uppdragsgivare: Sammandrag: Studien gick ut på att utforska hur spelföretaget Nintendo designar gameplay. För att testa resultaten i praktiken skapades ett game design-dokument. Därför börjar arbetet med att diskutera vad game design-dokument är och vad de används för. Game design-dokumentet som gjordes i samband med studien är en kombination av det huvudsakliga game design- dokumentet och ett konceptdokument. Därför tar arbetet också upp skillnaderna mellan dessa dokument. För att utreda hur Nintendo designar gameplay utfördes en litteraturundersökning. Materialet som användes i litteraturundersökningen består av intervjuer. Majoriteten av intervjuerna härstammar från Nintendos egen hemsida. För att utforma en teori tar arbetet upp några befintliga teorier för hur Nintendo designar sina spel. För att kunna diskutera Nintendos gameplay definieras gameplays koncept genom att diskutera olika definitioner av olika författare som tar upp ämnet i fråga. Litteraturundersökningen inleds med en presentation av varifrån materialet för studien har kommit. Inledningsvis tar också arbetet upp två viktiga spelutvecklare från Nintendo, för att ge insikt i varför just de personerna är viktiga. För att presentera en helhet över hur Nintendo designar gameplay studeras, organiseras, presenteras och diskuteras innehållet från litteraturundersökningen. Resultatet från undersökningen visar bland annat att när Nintendo designar sina spel, fokuserar man på följande saker: Att göra spelen användarvänliga, att formge dem enligt deras funktion, att göra spelvärlden responsiv i förhållande till spelaren och att undvika störa eller avbryta spelarens inlevelse i spelet. Resultaten visar också att Nintendo siktar på att göra sina spel bekväma och roliga att spela genom att utmana spelaren lagom mycket och göra spelen i sig belönande att spela. Slutligen visar resultaten också att Nintendo försöker göra sina spel unika och bygga dem med gameplay som grund. Under diskussionen kring litteraturundersökningen presenteras resultaten och hur de har tillämpats i game design-dokumentet. Arbetet diskuterar också vilka principer game design-dokumentet inte kunde följa, samt varför. Arbetet behandlar endast de aspekter inom speldesign som kan kopplas till ganeplay och som dyker upp i intervjuerna. Nyckelord: Gameplay, Nintendo, Speldesign, Game design-dokument Sidantal: 61 Språk: Engelska Datum för godkännande: 29.5.2019 DEGREE THESIS Arcada Degree Programme: Media culture Identification number: 6847 Author: Malin Ribäck Title: Designing Gameplay – Researching and testing Nintendo’s game design Supervisor (Arcada): Mirko Ahonen Commissioned by: Abstract: The study set out to research how the game-company Nintendo is designing gameplay. To test out the results, a game design document was made. Thus, the study starts out discussing that game design documents are and what they are used for. The game design document that was produced in relation to this study is a combination between the main game design document and a concept document. Thus the study also brings up the differences between these documents. To find out how Nintendo is designing gameplay, a literature review was conducted. The material used for the literature review consists of interviews. The majority of the interviews come from Nintendos own homepage. To shape a theory, the study brings up a few existing theories for how Nintendo is designing their games. In order to discuss the gameplay of Nintendo; Gameplay is defined by discussing different definitions of gameplay among authors in the field. The literature review starts out by presenting where the material comes from. Two important game developers from Nintendo are also brought up, and why they are important. In order to present how Nintendo is designing gameplay; The content from the literature review is studied, organized, presented and discussed. The results from the study show for example that when designing games, Nintendo is focusing on the following things: Making the games user-friendly, to have the form follow function, making the gameworld responsive in relation to the player and avoiding interrupting or breaking the immersion for the player. The results show also that Nintendo is aiming to make their games fun and feel-good to play by making sure that they are challenging the player moderately and making the games rewarding to play. Finally, the results also show that Nintendo is trying to make their games unique and made with gameplay as the core. When discussing the literature review; the results are presented and demonstrated how they have been applied to the game design document. The study also discusses what principles the game design document couldn't follow and why. The study focuses solely on the aspects of game design that relates to gameplay that is covered in the interviews Keywords: Gameplay, Nintendo, game design, Game design document Number of pages: 61 Language: English Date of acceptance: 29.5.2019 1 INTRO………………....……………………….……..………………. 6 1.2 Background..................................................................................................................6 1.3. What is a Game design document?.............................................................................6 1.3.1 Why do we make Game design documents..........................................................7 1.3.2 What is the difference between the Game design document and the Concept document?.....................................................................................................................8 1.3.3 What is and isn’t included in the Game design document?.................................9 1.4 Who is Nintendo? And why Nintendo?.......................................................................9 1.5 Research question........................................................................................................9 1.6 Objective....................................................................................................................10 1.7 Method.......................................................................................................................10 2 THEORY…................................................................................. 12 2.1 Developing an analytical framework.........................................................................12 2.1.1 Theories on how Nintendo work........................................................................12 2.1.2 Mark Brown.......................................................................................................13 2.2.2.1 Mark Brown’s theory: Nintendo - putting play first......................14 2.2 What is gameplay?.....................................................................................................15 3 THE GAMEPLAY OF NINTENDO............................................. 19 3.1 Fun for everyone: Making games user-friendly........................................................19 3.1.1 Looking at the game...........................................................................................22 3.1.2 Shigeru Miyamoto..............................................................................................22 3.1.2.1 The Miyamoto method....................................................................23 3.1.3 Realistic play.....................................................................................................24 3.1.4 Compromising cutscenes for the sake of immersion..........................................25 3.2 Feel good gameplay...................................................................................................25 3.2.1 The reward vs the journey.................................................................................25 3.2.2 Pacing courses for the players of today............................................................26 3.3 Gameplay first...........................................................................................................27 3.3.1 Gameplay before the story.................................................................................27 3.3.1.1 The Legend of Zelda: Never emphasize the story…………..……...28 3.3.2 Gameplay before art..........................................................................................28 3.3.3 Sound that follows function................................................................................29 3.3.3.1 Inventing unique sound design: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time……………………………………………………………………….……….30 3.4 Doing games differently............................................................................................31 3.4.1 Coming up with effective ideas..........................................................................32 4 DISCUSSION..............................................................................33 4.1 Make “Fun for everyone” – User-friendly games.....................................................33 4.1.1 Having the form follow the function..................................................................33 4.1.2 Realistic gameplay…………………....................................................................34 4.1.3 Keep the player immersed