Thesis For Lack of Personal Methodologies in Game Design Building an approach to thinking about game design Which seats personal methodology at the top, And through it trains the intuition A Thesis Submitted to the School of Digital Media in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Interactive Design and Game Development at The Savannah College of Art and Design Melissa Tako Kronenberger Hong Kong Campus © August 2016 Wan Chiu – Committee Chair Hoi Lam Ho – Committee Member Ronald Wilcox – Committee Member Kronenberger 2 Abstract To say that all game designers have an unspoken ‘personal methodology’ requires the granting of two key assumptions: One, that success is not wholly arbitrary and so can be deconstructed; and two, that success is not strictly mechanical, and thus requires some creative intuition. A ‘methodology’ can be articulated, evaluated, and evolved; Thus, a game designer becomes capable not just of growing her designs, but of growing herself as a game designer. In his talk “Triangulation, a Schizophrenic Approach to Game Design,” lauded The Sims designer Will Wright describes this process as both adding new ‘tools’ to a ‘toolbox’, and yet also developing the intuition for where and why to use those tools. This paper looks at the evolution of a living, personal game design methodology as a function of its contextual narrative. Drawing on a broad contextual review, deep self- reflection, and the inspirations from eccentric architects, dour information designers, charismatic entrepreneurs, and splendidly distracted games professionals, it constructs an appropriate design methodology for one context and one designer, in the hopes of opening up a conversation on how all game designers can do likewise. Kronenberger 3 Dedication Firstly, I dedicate this thesis to my parents, Denise and Doug Kronenberger; Kaila Johnson, who got me through the roughest times; Lindsay Holloway, for proving it could be done; my husband Victor, for enduring sleepless nights, attending to my injuries, and bringing me lots of food; and my Chinese mother and father, Yuqi and Ning. Secondly, I dedicate this thesis to my committee, Wan Chiu, Hoi Lam Ho, and Ronald Wilcox; Dean Derek Black; Winnie Soon, Deborah Wacks, and Jose Rueda who approved my original proposal; and Adam Khemiri just for being awesome. Lastly and most importantly, I dedicate this thesis to my cats, Tychus J. Findlay and James E. Raynor, who kept me warm and gave me snuggles; and my tea shop, which fed me in the wee hours of the morning even though I couldn’t speak a word of Cantonese. Kronenberger 4 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 2 Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 4 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 12 I. Overview ........................................................................................................................ 13 1. Inspiration .................................................................................................................. 14 1.1. The ‘Personal Design Methodology’ ................................................................... 14 1.2. Background Narrative ......................................................................................... 15 1.3. Paradigms in Tiers ............................................................................................... 16 1.4. Iterative Refinement ........................................................................................... 17 2. Research Question..................................................................................................... 17 3. Thesis ......................................................................................................................... 18 4. Roadmap ................................................................................................................... 18 II. Research Plan ................................................................................................................ 19 1. Intended Contribution ............................................................................................... 20 2. Approach ................................................................................................................... 20 2.1. Organizing Definitions ........................................................................................ 20 2.2. Ontology and Epistemology ................................................................................ 21 2.3. Research Methodology ....................................................................................... 22 2.4. Manifestation of Methods .................................................................................. 23 Interdisciplinary Exploration ..................................................................... 24 Abductive Inference .................................................................................. 24 Holistic Coherentism ................................................................................. 24 Practice-Led .............................................................................................. 25 3. Research Context ....................................................................................................... 26 3.1. Researching the Art of Design ............................................................................ 26 3.2. The State of the Research Community ............................................................... 26 Kronenberger 5 3.3. Nearby Islands .................................................................................................... 27 4. Objects of Study ........................................................................................................ 29 4.1. Studying Direct Art Objects ................................................................................ 29 4.2. Studying Indirect Art Objects .............................................................................. 29 4.3. Studying Game Design Art Objects ..................................................................... 30 4.4. Studying Component Art Objects ....................................................................... 31 III. Contextual Review ....................................................................................................... 32 1. Working with Vocabulary .......................................................................................... 33 1.1. Overview ............................................................................................................. 33 The Significance of Definitions ................................................................. 33 No Essay Is an Island ................................................................................. 33 1.2. What is ‘Personal’? ............................................................................................. 34 What is the Value of ‘Personal’? ............................................................... 34 What Is ‘Personalized’ and How Is It Different? ........................................ 34 The ‘Personal’ Must Be Tempered ............................................................ 34 ‘Personality’ Has a Bearing on ‘Personal’ .................................................. 35 1.3. Defining ‘Methodology’ by Extended Process of Elimination ............................ 35 What Is Not a ‘Methodology’? .................................................................. 35 a. A ‘Process’, ‘Method’, ‘Technique’, or ‘Pattern’ .......................................... 35 b. A ‘Paradigm’ ............................................................................................... 35 c. A ‘Philosophy’ ............................................................................................. 37 What Is Not Our ‘Methodology’? .............................................................. 37 a. Discarding Some Definitions in Research ................................................... 37 b. Discarding Some Definitions in Design, Engineering, Science, Art, and Production ...................................................................................................... 38 An ‘Artist’s Methodology’ ......................................................................... 40 A ‘Personal Design Methodology’ ............................................................ 41 1.4. A Note on ‘Reflection-in-Action’ ......................................................................... 42 2. Scaffolding and Skeletons .......................................................................................... 43 2.1. Overview ............................................................................................................. 43 The Research Question Asked for Scaffolding and Skeletons ................... 43 Kronenberger 6 Some Allies and Some Rough Expectations .............................................. 43 2.2. Looking for a Good Look ..................................................................................... 44 Loose Collection of Talks and Essays ........................................................