Can You Make A Good Game Without Good Play Mechanics? Prasert “SUN” Prasertvithyakarn Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Prasert Sun Prasertvithyakarn FINAL FANTASY XV Lead Game Designer: Buddy System & AI A game designer specialized in AI and it’s application to CX (Character Experience) design. © 2016 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. MAIN CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA LOGO ILLUSTRATION: © 2016 YOSHITAKA AMANO © 2016 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Can we make a good game without good play mechanics? © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Properties of good play mechanics Meaningful Clear goals Appropriate Appropriate sets of & rules Approaches Challenges Reward Play mechanics = A quality that makes a game a game © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Fun from Play Mechanics Fun from other aspects © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved • Interactive Toy • Interactive Art • Interactive Movie • Apps Fun from Play Mechanics Fun from other aspects © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Boundaries between content genres have become vague • Interactive Toy A Character A narrative • Interactive Art Social Game VR experience etc.. • Interactive Movie Many modern (that rarely have (that rarely have Chess strategic elements at all) meaningful choices at all) • Apps etc… TV games CONTENT A CONTENT B CONTENT C Fun from Play Mechanics Fun from More game-like contents Less game-like contents Fun from Play MechanicsFun from other aspects other aspects GAME PROBABLY A GAME IDK NOT GAME © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved No matter if you call them “game” or not, It’s a game designer’s job to design them anyway! What’s your game/content’s fun balance like? Fun From Fun From Fun from Fun from Play Fun from Play Mechanics Play Mechanics Fun from Mechanicsother aspects other aspects other aspects • Interactive Toy A Character A narrative • Interactive Art Social Game VR experience etc.. • Interactive Movie Many modern (that rarely have (that rarely have Chess strategic elements at all) meaningful choices at all) • Apps etc… TV games CONTENT A CONTENT B CONTENT C Fun from Play Mechanics Fun from More game-like contents Less game-like contents Fun from Play MechanicsFun from other aspects other aspects © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Game Design is more than Play Mechanics Design Good game design can contribute to fun that is not from play mechanics too! Fun from OUR SUBJECT TODAY! Play Mechanics Fun from other aspects © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Our Goals Today Our goals are not to learn that we don’t need good play mechanics but to learn how to see other values games could possess and learn how to enhance them, because you will need it someday. © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Define the VERB © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved What do people do with ice cream? © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved to Eat VERB “to eat” means we should design ice cream that maximize taste. © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved to Eat VERB “to eat” means we should design ice cream that maximize taste. What if we define another VERB that people would do with ice cream? Let’s say… to Instagram! © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved To Instagram…? VERB © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved To Instagram…? VERB Good designer can balance visual and flavor… however… What if we put all we have for the VERB to Instagram? What if we care about the appearance more or equal to its flavor? © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved This what you can get when you focus to one value. In this case “to Instagram” Note: we are not discussing whether ice-cream should prioritize looks than tastes. It’s just a process for a new perspective. © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved What do people do with Ice-Cream? New VERB = New Value New Value = New Design Approach © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved What do people do with game? To play? Then you need good mechanics of play! © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved What do people do with game? What if there are verbs other than to PLAY that people do with games? © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved VERBS © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved What you can do with a gameVERBS Relatively Requires good high awareness to PLAY to designers play mechanics ???? ???? ???? Doesn’t always require good game ???? mechanics. ???? Relatively low awareness ???? to designers © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved to EXPLORE © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Why do people go sightseeing? Do they need a challenge? © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Make it countable!to EXPLORE Itemization & Visualization © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Motivation mightto change EXPLORE ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? VS ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Exploration for Exploration for the sake of exploration the sake of completion = to PLAY (requires good play mechanics) © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Takeaways to EXPLORE Exploring is fun in itself. • Can we use itemization and visualization to add value to the exploration? • How do we use the sense of completion to urge the players to explore more? © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved What you can do with a gameVERBS Relatively Requires good high awareness to PLAY to designers play mechanics • Exploring experience is fun in itself. • Can we use itemization and visualization to add value to the exploration? to EXPLORE • How do we use the sense of completion to urge the players to explore more? ???? ???? Doesn’t always require good game ???? mechanics. ???? Relatively low awareness ???? to designers © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved to ROLE-PLAY © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved The value oft roleo -ROLEplaying PLAY Through being a character, You savor the characters and their interactions, also the world and the story itself. © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Two Types oft oRole ROLE-Playing PLAY Being You Being Him/Her UNNAMED CHARACTER ROLE PLAYING NAMED CHARACTER ROLE PLAYING Be very clear about that in the design! © 2016 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved “Being You” Roleto-playing ROLE Design PLAY Leaving room & allow chances for player to express their thoughts/personality In contrary, provide a concrete role and situation for player to act. © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved “Being Him/Her”to Role ROLE-Playing Design PLAY For the player to be able to act as a character, make sure the users know what the character would do Start with stereotype. See more in my talk about CX (Character Exp) Based Game Design in GDC 2018 lecture: Available in GDC Vault © 2016 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved “Being Him/Her”to Role ROLE-Playing Design PLAY Don’t let the player choose between being himself or being the character You can’t stop players from being them anyway! So why don’t make all choices express the characters! © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Projection Switchingto ROLE PLAY Don’t allow unnecessary freedom to let the player be what the character wouldn’t be Projection switching Narrative-oriented part: Parts with more freedom: tends to be the character tends to be themselves (or the director) © 2016 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Takeaways to ROLE PLAY Role-playing is fun in itself. • How do we define a concrete role for the player to act? • How do we make a game that allow users to express themselves without making conflict with the given character settings? © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved What you can do with a gameVERBS Relatively Requires good high awareness to PLAY to designers play mechanics • Exploring experience is fun in itself. • Can we use itemization and visualization to add value to the exploration? to EXPLORE • How do we use the sense of completion to urge the players to explore more? • Role-playing is fun in itself. • How do we make a game that allow users to express themselves without making conflict with to ROLE-PLAY the given character settings, while make sure it is special than their every day's life? ???? Doesn’t always require good game ???? mechanics. ???? Relatively low awareness ???? to designers © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved to CREATE © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Turn users into creators ≠ Turn users into designer © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Method of Creationto CREATE Creation could be simple To customize a character To customize an environment To customize a scene … To take a picture And to share To draw a picture To write something To name something To dance etc. © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved The TRAP to CREATE “Hey, I’ve added a screenshot + selfie system into the game, so that’s it, right?” © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Player’s Greatest Creationto CREATE See more in my talk in GDC 2017 Turn play experience into something the player could share. Available in GDC Vault © 2016 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA © 2019 Luminous Productions Co., Ltd.