What Games Are

Constants, Constraints and Conditions [Game Rules]

(with thanks to Slakr)

Most people understand that games restrict a player’s actions. In soccer you are not permitted to handle the ball, for example, and in Halo you may only carry two weapons at once. The ways by which that a game restricts the player are called the game’s rules.

Some rules penalise or restrict, but others enable. In video games, some rules even allow players to do things that they could not ordinarily do. There are three different types of rule that operate in a game world, and they are constants, constraints, and conditions.

The Sweet Spot Theory of Actions [Game Design]

I have a theory that games need a sweet spot of activity in order to stay interesting. Stripped right down to their basics, all games empower the player to do things, so if there’s not enough doing to be done then the game is not empowering the player. Conversely, games can also overload the player with things to be done. It depends.

The questions are:

1. Whether there are definable sweet spots of activity in games?
2. How to interpret that activity usefully?
3. How to profile games to find out where those sweet spots are?
4. How to know whether a game’s actions are over- or under-cooked?

You Need 100 Hours of Gameplay [Design]

(with thanks to Dan Brady)

Most retail games end up in the second hand sales bin almost as quickly as they are bought. Most iPhone games get played only a couple of times and are then uninstalled. Most Facebook games only manage 5-10% engagement. However some games sustain players long after their initial purchase, invite continued engagement and even spawning wildly enthusiastic fans.

Of course the reasons for this are many. Differences of execution, idea, marketing story and other factors all contribute to fandom, but there is also an interesting commonality across successful games that goes ignored by developers. Great games deliver tonnes of interesting gameplay.

How much? 100 hours worth.

Simulacra or Simulation [What Games Are Not]

Because they create a world into which a player can project, video games often incorporate some level of simulation. Constraints such as gravity or real time regularly play a part in games, as do attempts to use procedural algorithms for a variety of things from rag doll physics and enemy behaviour to terrain generation.

However simulation is not actually the point of games. The reason that we use simulation in games is not to create a real world, but instead a deliberately simplified impression of one. In games it is generally better to fake it rather than make it.

How to Get to Work in Games [Video]

During the week, I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation to students on the subject of how to get to work in games. I urged students to look to themselves first and how they could make their own games, rather then just looking to careerism in the games industry as it exists today. As we continue to go forward and the industry itself changes, I think it’s more important than ever to encourage the next generation to think of themselves as makers rather than labourers. Do you agree?

This is the video of the event:

Or you can access it here:

How to Get to Work in Games

(With thanks to Roots, Dan Cook, Greg Sterling, Examiner.com, Maddy Lou, Life, UIC, Zazog, Latin American Studies and Jackie Sadek as the Google sources of some of the more individual images that I borrowed for the presentation. All rights belong to the copyright owners. Video was cut in iMovie 11 and uploaded to Vimeo.)

Dead Island’s Continuity Problem [Marketing Stories]

Alan sent me a trailer for Dead Island, a game which I had not heard of. The trailer (which is here) is an engaging short film that uses a clever juxtaposition of forward and backward sequences to tell a story, creating the impression of a game with thaumatic depth.

But then I went to the Facebook page, and saw this:

- first-person melee combat
- 4-player coop
- weapon customization
- set on an open world tropical island
- RPG elements for character development
- hordes of gruesome zombies

Sounds like a different game, doesn’t it? I think the Dead Island marketing has a continuity problem.

Are You Invisible? [Marketing Stories]

The Invisibility Differential Diagnosis:

• Your game is a console-movie tie-in
• Your game is on the App Store, on the second page of the Strategy category
• Your game is named something like Town Ville
• Your marketing strategy is based on exposure via Applifier
• Your game launched in the middle of the charts
• Your art style is inspired by a genre leader
• Your game design is trying to appeal to all four Bartle types
• Your PR strategy consists of talking about unique selling points
• Your indie game contains ordinary retro graphics
• Your game gets described by others as ‘it’s like A meets B’

I’m afraid the diagnosis is: you are invisible.

Seven Steps to the Epic Win [Design]

A player needs to invest in a game for an epic win to feel truly epic, because it is only by being invested that the win can come to mean something personal to the player. However to become sufficiently invested, the player also needs to experience many other kinds of win. A game needs ascending wins, like the steps of the Chakra scale. Otherwise the epic win will feel hollow.

So what are those steps?

All Games Are Played To Win [Design]

(thanks David)

‘Win’ is a loaded term. It seems of the past, about bullying and other gloating behaviour. To say that games are all about winning seems to detract from their potential as an art and their role as a medium for grown-ups. This is unfortunate, because I think no game design really functions well without incorporating winning.

The What Games Are Digest #7 [Weekend]

This week felt like a personal victory. I’m finally getting to some of the ideas about games and stories, and the response so far as been very positive. In addition, my Minecraft article was republished by Gamasutra and subsequently landed on Reddit and BoingBoing. More than that though, the ideas feel like they’re starting to move beyond just the blog itself into the wider community, and that matters more than traffic.

Also, my trip to the US was pushed back to this week, giving me a chance to get many posts that I have been working on released. I’m going this week instead, but hopefully I’ll be able to keep posting from afar.