Gamecask, already known for its popular game Knight of Dulcinea is about to release an impressive new casual game.

Dachinko – is a casual game inspired by the culture of ancient Asia and Pachinko machines. 55 unique machines in a classic mode and some more in a bonus mode guarantee great fun for a long time. Moreover, each of six stages of classic mode is rewarded with a Chinese shadow theatre performance.

Advantages of a full version:
* 57 unique machines
* 3 modes of game 
* 6 artistic performances
* the highest quality of sound and graphics

The game seems to have an innovative gameplay,  impressive graphics and gorgeous  music and sound effects! A demo version is not out yet but is promised to be released soon! For now stay with the trailer!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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[View with PicLens]

For more informations visit http://www.gamecask.com

May is over, and also the montly Experimental Gameplay Project. The theme for May was “High Velocity” and we had 21 entries this month. Unfortunately I could not finish my entry in time, my game would be some kind of remake of the Atari game Bump’n'Jump, with new and improved Gfxs, reworked gameplay and some very nice addons over the Atari and Arcade versions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well, Even I did not finished in time, I still hope to finish this game, and plans to have versions for Windows / Mac / Linux and even for Iphone! Once I have more news I’ll post them here! Anyone here also a fan and would like to see a remake of this game? Please leave your comments!

And this month, I hope to not miss and finish my entry for the Experimental Gameplay, here are the 21 entries from May!

Starfall, by Alex Bethke

Collect dreams, while avoiding nightmare in this gorgeously tiled environment. A fun game that induces a trance-like state.

Lightspeed, by Zink Interactive

A beautifully polished flying game by the guys at Zink Interactive! Use the mouse to steer through rings and pick up speed and points.

Warped, by Nathan McCoy

A shooter where each level gradually ramps up in speed. Pretty neat, I just wish I could shoot faster!

High Velocity, by Darshell

A psychedelic, high score driving game – dodge skulls, and collect coins. Great aesthetics on this one.

Full Speed, by Reese

Extremely fast, cognitively intense challenge. Take control of 2 ships (WASD, Arrow keys) and dodge oncoming obstacles.

Fission, by Luke O’Connor

A simple, but addictive game. Split atoms with your shot, while dodging the resulting split atoms. My high score was 14, but my reflexes are admittedly slow these days.

Runout (Mac only), by Mark Sachs

A parody of Outrun, or so I gathered from his post. Does anyone have a Mac?

Circle Skydiver, by Roan Contreras

Use the arrow keys to collect powerups, and health while strafing to avoid helicopters, eagles, and other obstacles.

Orbital, by Katsew

Race around a giant distorted sphere. I’d love to see this one developed further, but it’s interesting to just watch it.

Freeway Fighter, by Rujo

A racing game, and tribute to Road Fighter.

Vanishing Road, by Bolin

A Spy Hunter style game. Avoid taxis, but destroy other cars.

Pill Bug, by Frank Force

A take on the sonic the hedgehog, with shooting and slow-motion capabilities.

veloCity, by Jorge Goyco

Following in the vein of Canabalt, except you’re running on a circular world. Press the left mouse button to jump.

Squigglies, by Nathan Korth

A pretty toy, but no game just yet. Reminds me of “Attack of the Killer Swarm” minus the people you fling up in the air.

Speedy Crash, by Suvozit

Speed up and crash into asteroids to destroy them. Fun, but it feels like the destruction could be a bit jucier.

Be Irresponsible!, by Joe Gribbin

A simple game with a fun art style, go as fast as possible while dodging upcoming walls.

Sonar, by turboRamble

Shoot and dodge enemies using the arrow keys. Z shoots, X heals.

Birdette, by Ed Scheindlin

Hold down the left mouse button mouse to direct your bird toward the cursor. A little twitchy, but an interesting experiment.

Recurring Nightmare, by Frugal Games

Press Z & X to pump those legs, and steer your guy to victory…or else crap yourself. Luckily I don’t have such nightmares.

High Velocity Typist, by MisfitByte

Type quickly to extend a platform for your character to walk on. I wish it had typing goals, since right now the best strategy is to spam “asd.”

Super Running Rescue, by Joaquim

A game about illegal immigration and running from the law in Arizona of all things. Use the arrow keys to run away and jump to avoid oncoming obstacles.

Source

http://experimentalgameplay.com/

Support Indie Developers and Help Charity! Five awesome indie games for the price you want to pay!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wolfire Games is running an innovative pay-what-you-want promotion. Buy World of Goo, Aquiaria, Gish, Lugaru HD and Penumbra and Help Eletronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play. Normally the five games would be valued at $80, but from now until Tuesday, 5/11, you can pay what you want for the entire game bundle, and still help Child’s Play charity for kids, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation!.

The games are DRM-free and work with Mac, Windows, and Linux. The coolest part is that you can choose how to divvy up your payment between the game developers, Child’s Play charity for kids, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation!

Until now, try already raised $369,623. Wow, that is very impressive!

You can also help and get your bundle! I already bought mine, remember, it’s up only until Tuesday, 5/11, so hurry up to not miss.

Nick Hodges from Embarcadeiro began a series of tutorials on Delphi Development Pretty Good Practices. The last one refers to “Source Control”, a feature that no developer should live without. If you think you do not need or would not benefit from  using (even as a single developer), you’re wrong! Read the article below and change your mind!

Delphi Development Pretty Good Practices #2 – Source Control

Okay, so for this first installment, I’ll be illustrating one of my core principles for developing applications:  All my code of any importance at all goes under source control.  All of it.

I’m all by myself – why should I use source control?

We ask about source control use on the annual survey, and a surprisingly large percentage of you are not using source control at all. That as a bit of a surprise.  If you are working on a team of any size, using source control is a no brainer.  But even if you are working alone, using source control is a really good idea.

Why, you might ask?  Well, there are a number of good reasons:

1. It’s good to be in the habit. Sure, you may be working alone.  But in the future you may not be.  Or your “weekend hobby project” might turn into a popular project with many developers.  If anything like that happens, being in the habit of using source code control will stand you in good stead.
2. It protects your code. Since your code is stored in on a server apart from your development machine, you have a backup. And then, you can even backup the code on the server.  Sure, you can zip it all up any time you want, but you don’t get all the other benefits I’m listing here.
3. It can save your butt. Sometimes, you might accidently delete something.  You might make mistakes and change code that you didn’t want changed.  You might start off on some crazy idea when you are feeling a bit saucy, and then regret it.  Source control can save you from all of these by making it a piece of cake to revert to any previous state.  It’s like a really powerful “undo” feature.
4. It allows you to “turn back time”. Say you are a shareware author. You like to release updates and new versions.  And say you get a support request from a customer that has a bug while using a version that is two major releases old. Source control lets you easily recreate the code base for that exact release and debug the problem that the user is seeing.
5. It makes you think about your process.  Even if you work alone, you should be deliberate and organized in how you write code. If you are in the habit of checking your code into a source control system, you’ll end up thinking more about what you are doing, how you are doing things, and you’ll end up being more organized and deliberate.
6. It gives you the freedom to experiment. Somewhat the mirror image of the previous reason, source control gives you the freedom to say “What the heck, I’ll try that wacky way of doing things!”  Since you know that you can always get back to a known good state, you can be free to experiment and try something that might otherwise hesitate to do. And that experiment might just prove to be a brilliant way to do it.
7. It lets you backtrack. Even when we work alone, we can’t remember every single thing we do and every single change we make.  And I bet at least once in your life you’ve looked at some code and said “Huh? When the heck did that happen?”  With a source control system, you can answer that question very easily.  You can track where a specific change came from and when it was made and maybe even the comment you made when you checked the change in.
8. It lets you see what changed. Sometimes, things start acting up. Maybe a section of your application that you haven’t used in a while is behaving differently than you expected.  Maybe it is totally broken and you have no idea why.  Source control can let you track the process and peer into the history of a specific chunk of code to see what changes were made and how those changes affected the project as a whole.

I’m sure you all can think of more reasons.  Bottom line is that if you aren’t using source control, then you should start, no matter what your development situation is.  ZIP files just aren’t going to cut it.  Seriously.

Okay, I’m convinced. What now?

I’m convinced that my points above are so compelling that you are in violent agreement with me, so I’m going to make you use the Subversion client to get the code for this series’ demo project, TextScrubber. TextScrubber is only available from SourceForge under Subversion.   If you don’t use Subversion for source control, you should at least have the command line client on your machine, because Subversion is everywhere, and you should at least know how to get code from code repositories that use it.  I know that there are other well known source control management systems out there.  Gitand Mercurial are growing in popularity, but Subversion is probably the most widely used source control system out there.  We use Subversion internally here on the RAD Studio team.

Getting the Subversion Command Line Client

So the first thing you’ll need to do is to get the Subversion client.  (If you already have the client, you can skip this whole section) A whole lot of projects out there — whether on SourceForge or GoogleCode or CodePlex — use Subversion, so having the client is pretty useful.  It’s also small and easy to use, so here’s how you get it:

1. I’d recommend getting the binary package from Collabnet:  In order to do that, you’ll have to get an account with them. You can sign up here: http://www.open.collab.net/servlets/Join If you don’t want to do that, you can get the binaries here as well: http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=91
2. Go to:  http://www.collab.net/downloads/subversion/ and choose the second download entitled:  “CollabNet Subversion Command-Line Client v1.6.9 (for Windows)”
3. There is a big orange button there that says “Download”.  Note again that this is the second button on that page as we are downloading the client only.
4. Press the button and download the file.
5. Execute the installer that you downloaded.

There, you just installed the Subversion client.  The path to the client should now be on your DOS PATH (if it isn’t, you can put it there) and you should be all ready to go on the command line.

Note: Subversion has only very recently been brought under the umbrella of the Apache Project. As such, it is licensed under the very friendlyApache License, Version 2.0.   It was originally founded by Collabnet, but moved over to be a part of the Apache set of tools just this past February.  It is open source, so if you are really hard core, you can download the source and compile it all yourself.  Me?   I’m not that hardcore. I use the convenient binaries provided by the good folks at Collabnet.

Grabbing the Code for TextScrubber

Once you have the command line Subversion client installed (it’s called svn.exe, by the way), you can easily download the code for TextScrubber.  Seriously, it’s like falling off a log.  Just do the following:

1. Open a command window and go to the parent directory where you want the code to go.  For instance, if you want the code to go intoc:\code\textscrubber, you want to start with your command prompt at c:\code
2. Issue the following command:

svn co https://textscrubber.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/textscrubber textscrubber

‘co’ stands for ‘checkout’. The second parameter is the URL for the ‘tip’ of the Subversion repository. This command will pull from SourceForge the most recent version of the code into the \textscrubber\trunk directory. That last parameter there is the name of the subdirectory that will be created and filled with the code from SourceForge.

That’s it. You now have the most recent, up to date code for TextScrubber on your machine.  You are all ready to start straightening and unformatting text!

Using Subversion

In the future, if I make updates to the project, then all you need to do is to navigate to the \textscrubber\trunk directory and do a “7up” or “svn up”command, and it will get the latest and greatest code for you in a jiffy.  Can’t be much simpler than that. That’s the command you’ll end up using the most, probably.

Since it is so popular and commonly used, there is a lot of information about using Subversion out on the web.  I’ve found this tutorial to be very useful, as well as the book (written by the same guys that wrote the tutorial..): Version Control with Subversion

Another useful tool for using Subversion is TortoiseSVN.  TortoiseSVN is a Windows shell plug-in that provides all the functionality of the Subversion client in an easy to use GUI.  Below is a screen shot of the TortoiseSVN Log Window for the TSmiley project on SourceForge.

TortoiseSVN is also an open source project, so you can get it for free.  If TortoiseSVN proves to be valuable to you, I’d also encourage you make a generous donation to the project.  I did.

Getting and Setting Up the Subversion Server

If you make the wise and sagely decision to go ahead and use source control for all of your code, you can easily set up the Subversion server.  You can, of course, download the Collabnet binaries and install them, but if you want to go the pathetically easy route (which I recommend), you should download and install Visual SVN Server.  I’m not even going to go through the steps to installing the server, because they are not much more than download, run the install, and you are done.  That’s it.  It takes like two minutes.  Seriously. They even provide you with a nice Management Console application for administering the server, making that really easy as well.

(And while you are looking at VisualSVN Server, you can consider upgrading to their Enterprise edition.)

Now, I myself run the full server (Apache, etc. – the whole ball ‘o’ wax….) on my local machine and use it to manage my code.  This enables me to browse my code in a browser and do other things that are supported by a full blown server   But that might be a bit of overkill for some of you (I’m weird that way – I just want the “full” experience and like to be in learning mode…) and you might not want to do that.  Instead, you can simply create local repositories on your local disk.   The Subversion tutorial above can show you how to do that.

I have been using the server locally since I use a laptop exclusively and move it between work and home.  But I think I’ll set up the server on a machine at home and check in there. That way, my code will be stored on a separate machine.

More About Source Control

As you can probably tell, this post isn’t meant to be a primer on Subversion or source control in general.  The tutorial I listed above is a good place to learn about Subversion.  If you want to learn more about source control in general, I recommend reading Source Control HOWTO by Erik Sink.  Eric is a really interesting guy who has a great blog and also runs SourceGear, a commercial vendor of developer tools including Vault, a source control management tool that I recommend considering.  You might be interested to note that Vault is free for single users.

That’s it.

And so that is the first “Pretty Good Practice” for developing with Delphi: Manage your code with a source control system.

So, what do you think?  Are you ready to make the move to source control management?

Source

Nick Hodges’s Blog

Casual Games as a Business

Casual games are a rapidly growing segment of the overall games industry, and it’s a segment in which a small team of developers can be competitive and successful. There are a number of publishing and distribution options available that will allow developers to quickly introduce their games to a large and waiting audience of customers. In working with those publishers and portals, you as the developer share in the revenue generated by your game. With Unity, a career as a casual game developer is within reach, it’s up to you to go get it!

1. What are “Casual Games”?

The term “casual games” means different things to different people as the term is still only loosely defined at best. Despite that, the term “casual games” can still be used to describe a rather large and rapidly growing segment of the game industry. Casual games tend to be those that have simpler game play and engaging game design, they also tend to offer users the ability to step in and play a game within minutes without requiring any long-term skills development or game commitment. The goal with casual games is to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible, including those that have normally fallen outside the traditional “gamer” profile (anyone outside the teen to twenties male demographic). As with any definition there are grey areas where certain games blur the lines between casual and serious, but hopefully the basic gist of the definition comes across: small, fun and easy to play seem to be three commonalities worth remembering.

2. Why You Should Make Casual Games

Casual games are an expanding segment of the games industry that offer the individual Unity developer, or small development team using Unity, a very competitive opportunity for success. The increased chances for success are based on a number of factors, but here are a few of the more notable reasons.

Competitive Opportunity Casual games tend to be smaller in scope and more limited in terms of game play compared to console or AAA desktop titles, and with that comes lower end-user expectations about the casual game experience. Those facts lead to much lower time and resource requirements in order to develop a top-tier casual game title, putting them within reach of dedicated individuals or small development teams. Available Distribution Channels There are a variety of publishers and online game portal websites that you can use to publish your casual game title. The truth is that most individuals or small development teams don’t have the manpower and experience to effectively market and promote their game, nor do they have a large existing user communities at the ready, the available publishers and game portals do. Revenue Potential The casual segment of the game industry is experiencing rapid growth, it’s gone from a side-show for the larger console market to a multi-billion dollar a year industry on its own. That growth has resulted in a casual games market that allows small teams of developers (1-3 developers) to develop a top-tier casual game in a few months (3-9 months), and a premiere casual game can earn $100,000 USD or more.

So as you can see, the casual games market offers smaller development teams a great chance to be competitive and profitable. Below you will find some tips that will help developers realize their own success in the casual games industry.

3. Tips for Creating Successful Casual Games

There are entire courses and even university degree programs that cover the topic of game design and what elements help make for a “good game”. This brief article won’t attempt to cover such a broad topic as a whole, rather it will share a few general guidelines that have been gleaned from first-hand experiences of developers, publishers and game portal websites.

• Think About Your Target Audience

Think about your game and its intended audience when choosing a distribution path. Free browser-based web games appeal to males in their teens and twenties who tend to prefer action, adventure or driving style games whereas downloaded executables appeal to an older and increasingly female audience that tends to prefer story-based or puzzle type games.

• Keep it Simple

Make sure the game is relatively easy to learn and understand, yet still challenging to master overall. Instructions should be almost ignorable and kept to a minimum, a few sentences at most.

• Make it Familiar

The user interface and controls should be as standard as possible. Don’t impose a learning curve on those wanting to play your game as that reduces the chances of them enjoying the experience.

• Reward Your Player

Keep players interested and engaged with the game experience. For example, in an action game you might offer a new weapon, power-up or enemy every 30 seconds or so for the first few minutes, then every few minutes for the next five to ten minutes, and so on. Or in a story-based game offer new items or character modifications on similar time scales to keep the player invested in the story and the game.

• Consider Replayability

Design your game so that it is fun to play repeatedly, try to keep users coming back for more. You can do this by offering alternate game play paths, different weapon/item selections for repeat players or even character dialog choices that result in unique game experiences each time through.

• Reach For a Wide Audience

Design for as wide of an audience as possible as it increases the number of potential players. This can be done in many ways, but you can definitely avoid reducing your audience size and increase portal/publisher appeal by avoiding the use of blood and gore, human-on-human violence and profanity.

• Focus Your Efforts

Maximize your work effort and avoid spending too much time and resources on things the user will likely skip the second time through. For example, don’t spend excessive time on a comic book opening or a cut scene, instead focus on the core game play itself. Similarly, avoid spending too much time on art production value, that time may be better spent focused on developing unique and interesting game play.

• Test Early and Often

Have your game tested by strangers that fall into your target user base, and have that done at various intervals during the development process. You should have them test your game on all platforms and target configurations (operating systems, browsers and/or publish formats for example). It is critical to get outsiders to test the game, unprompted and without instructions, while you watch over the shoulders to see what they enjoy and what they don’t, only talk with them after the game play testing is complete.

Please note that the above are certainly not strict rules that you must adhere to, rather they are general guidelines that can be used to help steer your own effort. Learn from the prior efforts of others and use that information as you carve out your own path as a casual game developer.

4. How to Make Money With Casual Games

There are a large number of ways in which developers can make money with their casual game titles, this discussion will focus on the easiest entry point for commercial games and that’s working with the existing publishers and game portal websites. The reason for this is because many individuals or small development teams lack the time, resources and experience to effectively market their own games to a large-scale audience and most lack a large existing customer base ready to try their latest game. Both publishers and game portal websites offer those critical elements, developers in turn bring their top-quality game to the table and together you can create and publish games that generate revenue for you the developer.

• Browser-Based Web Games

Free browser-based web games generate revenue based on the advertising shown in conjunction with the game. As the content developer you receive a percentage the total advertising revenue generated by your game. Developers typically receive 20-40% of the advertising revenue, but the exact percentage shared with the developer will vary for a variety of reasons. The primary reasons the percentage will vary are the portal website chosen, the types of advertising shown and whether or not your game is exclusive to the portal website.

• Downloadable Games

Downloadable executables typically offer free trial game play and then has to be purchased to unlock the full game. As the content developer you can receive a percentage of the advertising revenue and/or a percentage of the sales revenue generated by your game. Developers typically receive 20-40% of the advertising revenue and/or 15-30% of the sales revenue, but once more the exact percentages shared will vary. The primary reasons the percentages will vary are based on advertising versus sales revenue share and whether or not the game is exclusive to that portal website or publisher.

• Premium Game Play

Additionally, both browser-based and downloadable games can earn additional revenue if they participate in any portal website premium feature offerings. Some websites unlock additional game play for paying website subscribers while others offer end-users various challenge and rating systems or other community building features. Participating in those sorts of programs quite often provides additional revenue share and/or increased game play numbers.

• Fixed-Media Publishing

Games published as downloadable executables or on fixed-media (CD/DVD) through publishers may or may not offer free trial game play and they have to be purchased to unlock the full game. As the content developer you can earn revenue in a few ways, either via sales revenue sharing or from the publisher funding development. The revenue shared with the developer can vary here even more than in the above cases, it will be dependent on the revenue source (revenue share versus funding), your particular game and your experience with that publisher.

So as you can see, the casual games market offers smaller development teams a great chance to be competitive and profitable. Below you will find some tips that will help developers realize their own success in the casual games industry.

5. How Much Money Can You Make?

Here are two anonymous examples, both are casual games that were developed and released just over a year ago. In both cases the games were developed by small teams in a matter of months.

• Example #1

A casual game offered as both a browser-based game and a downloadable game via multiple game portal websites, including shockwave.com and realarcade.com among others. The game achieved moderate success but it never quite made the top-10 lists. It was able to generate approximately $40,000 USD for the developers during the first year of its release.

• Example #2

A casual game offered as a browser-based game via two game portal websites, shockwave.com and miniclip.com. The game was very successful and maintained consistent top-10 rankings during the first six months of its release and top-25 rankings through the end of its first year. It was able to generate slighty more than $100,000 USD for the developers in the first year of its release.

There are most certainly casual games that have made less than the cited values above just as there are some that have made quite a bit more. The point here isn’t to offer a fixed revenue expectation for all developers so much as it’s to provide a sense of scale for the revenue potential offered to those making casual games today.

6. More Information

It’s always important to stay informed and take part in the developer community around you. There are a number of publishers and game portal websites ready to work with Unity developers and/or accept Unity-authored submissions today. Here are some links that offer information on submitting games for a few of them in particular.

Addicting Games and Shockwave.com

• http://www.addictinggames.com
• http://www.shockwave.com

Big Fish Games

• http://www.bigfishgames.com/
• http://www.bigfishgames.com/company/game-developer.html

Freeverse

• http://www.freeverse.com/
• http://www.freeverse.com/about/

Game House and Real Arcade

• http://www.gamehouse.com
• http://www.realarcade.com
• http://gamedevs.realarcade.com/GameSubmission/index.jsp

There are also many forums and websites where you can learn more about the games industry in general, or about casual games in specific.

Casual Games Association

• http://www.casualgamesassociation.org

Gamasutra / CMP Game Group

• http://www.gamasutra.com/

International Game Developer’s Association (IGDA)

• http://www.igda.org

IGDA Casual Games Special Interest Group

• http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Casual_Games_SIG

[Veteran indie game creator Edmund McMillen, known for his work on 2005 IGF Grand Prize winner Gish, Time Fcuk, and Super Meat Boy for WiiWare, shares his opinions and manifesto on making indie games, with 24 clear do-s and don't-s to make your art thrive.]

One of the most common questions I’m asked in interviews is, “Do you have any advice for independent game developers who are new to the scene, or tips for developers in general?” Well, I actually answered it this time: I came up with this list of indie do-s and don’t-s.

Now, I’m going to make clear that I’m not perfect and I’m sure as the years go by this list will change. But from where I stand right now, having made independent art/games for a living for the past 10 years, the advice below is crucial to all indie game designers, and all artists for that matter. Also note that when I refer to a “designer” or “artist,” I include programmers. All aspects of art have a fine balance of the technical and creative; just because programming is viewed as a technical field does not mean it is void of creativity. The creative is visible in the work as a whole rather than in the specifics. Light and shadow are vital technical aspects of illustration, but without creativity the piece is nothing more then a photocopy of the subject, void of any personal touch or presence. This is a list for the creative designer who strives to be independent. This isn’t advice on how to monetize your Flash game or survive financially by copying existing trends and juicing the public for their cash. This is a list for artists who are driven by the desire for creative freedom and/or to “just make some cool shit people will love.” Anyway, here’s the list. Take what works for you and leave what doesn’t:

1. Be honest. When I say “be honest” I mean to speak from your heart. Don’t be manipulative or condescending in your work; treat the player how you’d wanted to be treated. Honesty is extremely valuable when making art.

2. Realize you’re making art.
Game designers are artists and have advantages over non-creative jobs; think about what they are and exploit them. Your goal shouldn’t be to make tons of money. If it were, you would have gone to business school or become a doctor. This is a creative field and should be treated as such first and foremost. Financing your art comes later. This is probably your greatest advantage as an indie designer.

3. Design from the heart.
Write / design around things you’re passionate about. Put yourself into your work and show the world who you are. What do you love? What do you hate? Why? All notable film makers have a stamp, something that appears in their work and speaks to who they are. These themes will always come through to your audience, giving your work a sense of your self.

4. Take big risks.
Try to innovate the hell out of anything you make. From how your game plays to how it looks, be unique and you’ll stand out. Push your personal limits, try new genres, mechanics and aesthetics. Experimentation and risk are the keys to growing as an artist. Don’t be scared of failure; you don’t have much to lose and you’ll only learn from your mistakes.

5. Don’t bite off more then you can chew.
If you’re just starting out, think small, then think smaller. If you start on something big you won’t finish it and if you do you’ll be burnt out and probably won’t make another. A filmmaker never starts his career with a blockbuster movie. One of the easiest mistakes to make starting out is letting ambition drive you down a path you’re not ready to travel. Slow down, take your time and start simple. Prototyping is crucial for all designers.

6. Practice (make lots of small games).
Make lots of small ideas quickly; build on the ones that work. If you look at any successful or “fully realized” game in the indie scene you’ll note that it began as a simple prototype. If you get an idea that feels right, simplify it. Strip it to its core element; this element will become the glue that holds your work together. The stronger the glue the more you can add. On the opposite end, if the glue isn’t holding, move on. Don’t waste your time trying to fix something that won’t work. If it’s not interesting or fun in its primitive form, it’s not going to be when it’s finished.

7. Make the games YOU want to make.
Go with what moves you. If you’re no longer feeling something, put it down and work on what you want. I’ve found that all of my best games were ones I made quickly and felt passionate about. The ones that sucked were ones I lost interest in but forced myself to finish. If things have gone sour and you feel yourself losing interest in a project, try looking at it differently. A simple change of perspective or reinvention of an existing mechanic can make all the difference when you’re losing motivation.

8. Stand out.
Don’t make something that looks or feels exactly like an existing work. When people experience something new they’re more forgiving of its design, and in the end your creation will get more attention. This should be obvious, but somehow goes over the heads of most designers. If you notice a trend in aesthetics or play mechanics: DON’T DO THAT. Avoid trends; innovate and break new ground. Stop making goddamn ninja and zombie games and if you’re making a shooter don’t put it in space. Seriously.

9. Think critically.
99% of game design is critical thinking. Try to find holes in your designs: if you can’t fill them, move on to something else. Before you set out to work on your project you should have already given plenty of thought to how it might NOT work. Start asking how these core elements cpi;d be exploited and how might things come back to haunt you in the future. Thinking critically is the key to avoiding later conflict; always look before you leap. Take a step back from your project. Consider it the same way you would someone else’s work. If you hadn’t made it, what would you see as its strengths and weaknesses?

10. Play games.
You can’t expect to learn anything if you aren’t playing what’s out. Even if they suck, games that sell well in the mainstream do it for a reason: pick them apart and find out why. If you don’t play them, you won’t know what NOT to do when you make your own.

11. Dissect existing formulas.
All game “genres” are formulas. Level design, teaching rules, jumping patterns: it’s all according to a formula. Pick apart those formulas and see how they work. Play a shit load of games: find out what elements you like, decide why you like them, then redesign them. It’s as vital to be able to deconstruct a game’s formula as it is to be able construct one. In most cases you’ll learn much more from deconstruction. You already have thousands of existing formulas at your disposal.

12. Grow up.
Chances are you’re not a fucking kid anymore, so if you feel like making a more adult game, do so. When you’re indie you don’t have to answer to anyone, so stop designing games like you have to have to pass ESRB. I’m not saying everyone should make porn games, but why do all video games seem to have immature themes? People aren’t stupid: stop treating them like they are. Speak through your work like you would to your friends, design for yourself and don’t censor your ideas.

13. Go outside.
The world outside your room is important. It can also be very inspiring. Go take an adventure, then come home and write a game about it. That’s what Miyamoto did. I believe that you can’t be inspired without living. Life is what every artist pulls from; how could you pull from something that wasn’t there? We all strive to be great, and most of us tend to obsess over our work, but it’s important to have balance. Go do things that don’t involve video games and computers. Don’t become stagnant.

14. Stay balanced.
Many designers are prone to depression or other mental disorders. Take care of your brain and, most importantly, yourself.

15. Stay Grounded.
No matter how good you think you are there’ll always be someone better. stay humble and accept that you’re not perfect. A designer’s ego can easily put up walls that will stunt his growth just because he doesn’t want to admit he might be wrong. The moment you think you have nothing to learn is the moment you should quit. Be honest with yourself, admit your flaws and shortcomings and accept that you’re probably wrong.

16. Be open to feedback.
If a bunch of people say your game is lacking in some area, but you insist it’s perfect, chances are you’re wrong. It’s hard to take critical feedback, especially when it’s right. Loosen up, stay humble, remember you’re not as great as you think you are. If players agree that something’s wrong, you should probably take a step back to reconsider what you’re doing. But don’t make the mistake of just doing what your audience expects. If they have an issue with something, figure out why. If people don’t like how your game controls, this could mean one of hundreds of things, from how things move in the game to what buttons it uses. When responding to feedback, ask specific questions and try to find the root of the problem. Don’t attempt a quick fix by just cutting out the problem.

17. Work with people.
People are nice. Some are good at things you aren’t. Game design uses your whole brain; chances are you’re lacking in some area. Find someone who can fill your hole. In my experience, there’s a yin/yang dynamic between a person with a technical mind and one with a creative mind. I’ve found in this a perfect marriage of ideas and approaches. That’s not to say this will be everyone’s experience. But I do think it’s important to work with at least one other person. The indie game designer can easily become a hermit and having someone else in the room to validate an idea can be the one thing that stops you from becoming that recluse who bathes with bleach.

18. Network.
Talk to other designers, fans, the media about what you’re doing. You might gain some perspective on how others view your work, maybe even make a few friends. There’s no shame about wanting to talk to people about your work. The biggest misconception is to assume that people don’t want to hear about creative folks. They do. Writers love to write about you, fans want to know about your next project, and designers want to share their ideas and experiences with you. Talk!

19. Be excited about your work.
If you can’t get excited about something you’ve done, how can you expect others to be? Talk about your work and sell yourself as well as your game. If your work doesn’t excite you, why are you doing it? If you’re not happy doing what you do, stop. It’s impossible to be properly motivated unless you love what you’re doing; don’t be scared to let that passion spill into the press. Being indie means making your own rules: if your own rules don’t excite you, rethink them.

20. Join communities.
Indie game communities are booming: join one. You don’t have to post anything, but reading them will give you an understanding of the dos and don’ts of beginning game development, as well as insight and opinions about design in general.

21. Learn a little about business.
Business sucks ass, but it’s important to know something about it so you’ll know if you’re getting fucked over. This goes hand-in-hand with networking: ask like-minded people about business situations they’ve been in. Find out how much things go for, percentage cuts, sales numbers and the best places to sell your wares. It’s easy to get caught up in a seemingly amazing publishing deal if you have no perspective on how things work, and just as easy to get totally fucked over and lose your intellectual property in the process.

22. Don’t worry about being poor.
Indie game designers are starving artists. Be frugal and humble. Again, your goal shouldn’t be financial gain first and foremost, If it is, you will most likely fail. A profitable indie game designer is a rare thing. If you value money over “a job well done” then this isn’t the field for you.

23. Try to make money.
Selling your work, getting your games sponsored, using online ads or asking for donations are all means of making money from your work. You need money to eat, so try to make some.

24. Have fun.
If you’re not having fun then quit. You only live once; there’s no reason to keep doing something if it’s not making you happy.

[Edmund McMillen is an independent game designer & illustrator based in Santa Cruz, CA. Best known for his work on Gish, Braid and the upcoming Super Meat Boy. Edmund has also spent the past 6 years working on honing his craft by releasing smaller, more personal online projects like Coil, Aether and Time Fcuk.]

• Part 1 –  An Introduction
• Part 2 – Base Mechanics
• Part 3 – Punishment and Reward Systems
• Part 4 - Long Term Incentive
• Part 5 – Aesthetic Layout

The Game Design Canvas: Aesthetic Layout

Who cares if the main character is wearing silver armor or an orange cloak?  Does it really matter if your military troop is fighting in Europe or Asia?  There can’t be any difference between a game about saving the world, and one your one true love, right?

It does matter.  In fact it matters a great deal.  The sights and sounds and feeling contribute to the Core Experience of a game like no other part of the game can.  They are what make games a true art form instead of pure science, they are what make games closer to theater than arithmetic, painting than to geometry.  These artistic strokes are the skin that the world will see view the game, its face, its exterior.

Welcome to the fifth and final component of the Game Design Canvas: the Aesthetic Layout.

The Bells and Whistles

Hardcore gamers, and even some game developers, often tend to think of games exclusively as mechanical systems.  This is expected, because these types of people have typically played so many games that they’ve become experts.  Trained to analyze and dissect, they see through the smoke and boil the game down from bells and whistles to gears and oil.  All of the other systems we’ve talked about within the Game Design Canvas, the Base Mechanics, the Punishment and Reward Systems, and the Long Term Incentive, are all of these gears.  And once they see under the hood, they manipulate the gears as much as possible to get what they want.

This process is called “min-maxing” by game developers.  Min-maxing is exerting the minimal amount of effort to get the maximum benefit in a game.  Gamers and game developers are experts at this; they quickly understand the game and then find and implement the optimal path to win.  It’s an old-school mentality that dates back to coin-op games, when the Core Experience of a game was to master the challenge and get the highest score.  There’s nothing wrong with min-maxing, or viewing game design as systems that create interesting min-maxing situations.

However, there are some aspects of games that are more than mechanics and systems.  This final component of the Canvas is what gives the finesse, the real style, the elegance to a game.  What the characters look like, how they sound when the jump or run, the backdrop in oil painting or in gritty photorealism.  The pixel art of the items, or the solemn music as the player approaches the temple.  The cutscenes and movie sequences, the story and plotline, the cover of the game’s box.  Well executed Aesthetics are extra bang that gets a great title noticed and remembered.  Poor executed Aesthetics are the downfall of otherwise incredible experiences.

A game’s Aesthetic Layout is made up of several key subsections.  The first three subsections are found in almost all traditional video games: Visual Design, Audio Design, and Content. The fourth subsection also appears in all games, but most traditional console and PC titles don’t think too much about it: Interaction Design.

Visual Design

The Visual Design of a game is easy to understand and difficult to master.  It is how the game looks: the graphics, the sights, the colors, and pixels on the screen or on the cards in the player’s hand.  Since humans rely on sight more than any other sense, the visual design of a game is vitally important.  It is the most prominent aspect of the game that will appear on posters, advertisements, and the back of the retail box.  The details of the captain’s face and wind-blown hair, the sparkles on the water, or the shine of a solar flare, these are the parts of a game’s visual design.  Little extras that don’t affect the gameplay at all, such as airplanes flying overhead in Call of Duty, add to the player’s gameplay in an important yet indirect way.

Nowadays, this aspect of games is much more open ended than in the past, fueled by advances in technology as well as pioneering art directors through the past three decades.  During the 90’s, the age of Super Nintendo and the first Playstation, developers sought after the holy grail of perfect realism in games: the goal was to make a game that would be indistinguishable from real life.  In the most recent decade, since that goal is nearly achieved on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, developers have been able to branch out a bit more and flex their own style.

Online web games such as Farmville often specialize in high-resolution cartoony images that feel comfortable and easy to understand.  Independent games like Spelunky stick to modified versions of 90’s pixel art in order to give the experience of childhood nostalgia for those who grew up on Nintendo.  Artistic titles such as Okami or Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker focus on highly stylized effects to give the player a sense of wonder.  All of these Visual Designs support the Core Experience of their corresponding games, and maintain a high quality bar for other developers to match or exceed.

The Visual Design of a game says a lot about who will be playing it and what they will expect.  Web games are easy to understand and have simple rules, but they won’t interest someone who is seeking a game of gritty realism like Gears of War.  Thus, it would be a waste of effort to make its art style photorealistic; it’s important to know who will be playing a game when deciding on its Visual Design.  The level of quality of this subsection is important to many players and obvious from the first glance.  Even if the rest of the game is quite solid, players will be reluctant to try out a game if it doesn’t pass their minimum standard of visual design quality.  Visual design is the fastest way that games become dated.

Audio Design

The sounds and music of a game are important.  Taking cues from the film industry, games quickly learned that music could be used to great effect to evoke emotion and immersion in a game.  A soundtrack to the valiant hero galloping towards apparent doom is certainly better experienced with epic strings and trumpets.  A more playful game may use a bippity-boppity child-like music, such as Wii Play: Tanks, bringing the player back to their youth.  Other games such as Resident Evil choose to have dynamic music tracks, changing depending on the action on screen.  Nervous, low music when roaming the dark streets, and frenzied, fast music when monsters burst through the walls.  All of these choices support the Core Experience through the Aesthetic Layout’s Audio Design.

In addition to background music, a game’s audio sound effects play a great role on conveying the world.  Again, in Wii Play: Tanks, Nintendo could have made the tiny tanks sound like the hulking juggernauts of first person shooters.  But instead they gave them sound effects akin to wind-up toys.  This seemingly insignificant touch focuses the target audience of the game, taking it away from people who want to drive a real tank and towards those who want to relive their long gone action figures and plastic vehicles.

Games that are meant to be played over long periods of time probably don’t want to have background music, while games that are meant to be told through story often use background music and sounds to great effect.  Additionally, both Visual and Audio Design can aid the other parts of the Game Design Canvas by signifying when events occur, such as a red screen and beeping heart upon receiving damage.  These are the choices that developers or audio artists need to make.

Content

The Content of the game is the actual characters, the story, the setting and level design.  On the development side, the content is usually thought of as the parts of the game actually input into the code not by engineers, but by designers and producers.  A game’s plot line, whether it is about the overthrow of the evil Ganondorf or the pursuit of a long lost treasure, is part of the Aesthetic Layout’s Content.  This Content sometimes don’t affect the game’s Mechanical systems in any way, yet like other aspects of the Aesthetic Layout, help to narrow who is interested in a game title and who is not.  An RPG that is set in medieval times would not appeal to those who may actually play the same game were it set in modern day high school.

The story and character components of game can be inserted into the game however the developer likes.  A game is built on top of rules and actions that the player performs (The Base Mechanics and P&R Systems), but from there they make their way through the game’s content.  Each level provides new content; a situation that the player hasn’t seen before.  Exactly how important the game’s story, characters, and plot are is up the developer.  Some players like to min-max and skip through all of the story.  Or the developer may choose to simply partition the plot to optional text such as in Braid.  Exactly how important the Content is to the player is decided upon by the team.

Interaction Design

The final subsection of the Aesthetic Layout is Interaction Design, which are the methods and technologies that the player actually interacts with the game.  Whether through button, motion, analog stick, a tennis racquet, or some other device that has yet to be invented, how the player actually interacts with the game is arguably the most important aspect not just of the Aesthetic Layout, but of the entire Game Design Canvas.

Most video games are played with a handheld controller on a television, but the Canvas includes all games, not just video games.  The actual instruments and devices that the player uses to interact with the game are part of the game’s Aesthetic Layout.  Exactly what these devices do is up to the Base Mechanics, and exactly what the consequences of those actions are is up to the Punishment and Reward Systems, but the actual devices themselves is decided here.

As we’ve already said, the classic gaming controller, with two joysticks, a directional pad, and buttons, is only one form of Interaction Design for games.  Nintendo’s Wii remote is an example of a different one, where the player is required to point the remote at the television or wave it around.  Further still from traditional video games is the sport of soccer, where the player is actually kicking a ball and making contact on a field.  Another example is Poker, where the player deals and receives cards and has specific hand gestures that correspond to actions such as a call or fold.  These are all situations where the Interaction Design affects the player’s experience of interacting with the game as well as other players.

Each of these devices and systems give the game a different Aesthetic feel.  It’s up to the developer to decide what kind of Interaction Design they want their game to have, and how that choice enhances or detracts from the game’s Core Experience.  It’s not enough to use a device just because it seems “fun” in a vacuum, for example, asking the player to turn the Wii remote every time the player needs to open a door.  The developer needs to think and realize what that Aesthetic choice is actually doing to the player’s experience.

Importance of Aesthetic Layout to Players

The Aesthetic Layout is the most important component of the Game Design Canvas in terms of getting players to just try your game out.  People with extensive experience in game development, especially design and engineering, tend to ignore the importance of graphics and sound in a game.  But they ignore the importance of the Aesthetic Layout at their own risk.  Many independent developers, for example, pour their heart and soul into creating games with incredibly complex and innovative Base Mechanics.  However, they neglect to consider, research, or even think about the game’s graphics, music, or sound style.  It’s an afterthought, an area not deemed worthy of much innovation, and just copying everyone else is good enough.  Unbeknownst to the developer, this ends up limiting the reception of the game to a small subset of the possible players who would truly find the game appealing.

If you’ll be willing to take a detour from games, one analogy that is applicable here can be found in the music recording industry.  Country music, at least in the United States, has a bit of a stigma outside of the southern states.  Many people frequently claim that they “Listen to all kinds of music…except country.”  While the reasons for this are varied, the market split is very identifiable.  If listeners hear a song that they believe is country, then they will automatically be turned off.  However if it is of another genre that they’re more familiar with, they’ll be open to it.

Record labels and recording artists understand this.  Having a song labeled as “country” has very real effects on the song’s mainstream potential.  Thus, successful artists are very aware of the choices they’re making when producing a song.  They will have decided beforehand what market they want the song to perform well in, and then accommodate in the track.

As a result, you’ll often hear subtle, seemingly meaningless differences in the mainstream and country versions of a popular song.  It can be as simple as replacing a background instrument from a banjo (country) to an electric guitar (mainstream pop).  This is the only change in the song, and yet this small change has severe implications.  Listeners who hear the version with the banjo will, within seconds, deny the possibility that they might enjoy the song.  They are completely closed off to it.  However hearing the same song with the electric guitar is treated like any other pop song, and they evaluate the song fairly like they would any other pop song.

So back to the games industry, it would be beneficial to developers to be aware of the limiting (or expanding) effects that aesthetic layout alone can have on a game’s reception.  It’s a tragedy to see a game with unique Gameplay not even be considered by players because the Aesthetic Layout was goofed.  For example, a game that would appeal to older women, but has the graphics of a 90’s medieval RPG.

Painting Worlds and Inviting Players

The Aesthetic Layout is incredibly important for developers to think about, because it determines a game’s audience.  The images and sound, story and input devices, though seemingly divorced from the rest of the game’s design, greatly affect who will be open minded about a game and who will never give it a chance.  Additionally, it is the artist’s chance to leave their mark on a game, to take something that is just a simple computer program and liken it to a masterpiece painting.  By nurturing these elements to their fullest, game developers can begin to construct and complete their works of art for the world to interact with.

Source

The Game Prodigy

Part 4 of 5 from the great series of articles “The Game Design Canvas” from The Game Prodigy.

• Part 1 –  An Introduction
• Part 2 - Base Mechanics
• Part 3 - Punishment and Reward Systems
• Part 4 - Long Term Incentive
• Part 5 - Aesthetic Layout

The Game Design Canvas: Long Term Incentive

What makes a person want to continue playing a game?  What takes a game from a 30 second experience to a 30 hour experience?

To answer this, we’ll have to start from the beginning: Why did the player begin playing the game in the first place?  Fun and enjoyment are the most obvious answers.  The thrill of the chase, the challenge, the quest!  The opportunity to interact with others, to improve one’s skills, or to go on an adventure.  All of these are examples of Core Experiences, which gets people to start playing a game.  People want to have interesting experiences, and games are one way to fulfill that.

How about once they start playing, what does the player do then?  They got there because they were seeking the Core Experience, and then they begin to enter into the game itself.  They jump, they run, the roll dice, they make moves.  They begin to interact with the game  and perform actions within the game’s construct.  Seeking an Experience, they are beginning with the Base Mechanics.  They are beginning to become coordinated, so to speak, to learn to move and live in the game’s world.

Once they get going with the Base Mechanics, then they begin to learn the broader gameplay.  They learn that they need to look before they jump, that they should treat villagers with respect when discussing delicate matters, and that they need to use the red bullets when fighting the red enemies.  They begin to map out the interconnections between the actions they are making and the results the game is serving them.  They are making their way through the Punishment and Reward Systems, learning what behaviors are encouraged and which ones aren’t.  Building on top of the Base Mechanics, the P&R Systems draw them even deeper into the game and to the Core Experience they were originally seeking.

But then what?

After the player has learned the game, how it works, how it interacts with them, what makes them continue playing?  What could cause a player to perform the same actions, the same strategies, the same rituals, over and over, yet enjoying themselves at every step?

Enter the fourth Game Design Canvas component: The Long Term Incentive.

Striving for a Goal

In well-designed games, the reason that players continue to play is because the player is seeking something.  They are striving after a goal.  The goal doesn’t need to be as explicit as you would think; it doesn’t even need to be very important to the player.  In fact, the player may not even be consciously aware of the goal that is driving them.  But there is a goal, an Incentive, for them to keep going after.

In Super Mario Bros., the player continue playing so that they can reach the next level and the next world.  In classic coin-op games like Pac-Man, the Long Term Incentive is to get the highest goal possible.  In exploratory games like Spore’s space stage or Knytt, the goal is to simply see what’s next, to make known the unknown.  All of these are examples of a component in the design that drives the player onward, long after they’ve learned what they game is and how it works.  A good Long Term Incentive can extend gameplay like no other component.

If there is no Long Term Incentive, then the game is not really a full game.  These types of experiences are more like toys.  The player explores the actions they can do (Base Mechanics), they investigate the relationships between the actions and feedback (P&R Systems), and they enjoy the content (Aesthetic Layout), but then they are…finished.  There is nothing more to learn, nothing more to do.  Everything has already been done.

A Toy Vs. a Game

Let’s walk through an example of this: Suppose you were walking on the street and you came across a small blue ball.  ”Interesting!” you think.  ”I wonder what happens if I push it?”  You touch the blue ball and it magically hops forward.  ”Wow!  That’s interesting.”  You then try touching it rapidly and find that it does not hop as far.  ”It seems like if I want it to keep hopping, I need to time my pushes.”  So you try this a bit more to prove your hypothesis, and it’s proven successful.  You hop the blue ball around a little more, but then you grow bored and, having better things to do, move on to something else.

This is an example of a system with no Long Term Incentive.  But by adding an Incentive, we can build this little blue ball into a game.  Imagine that after you saw the ball, you saw a small blue box on the other side of the street.  ”Hmm, it looks like I’m supposed to put this ball into the box!”  Now you have Incentive.  You hop the ball over to the box and inside.  You have won the game.

Even though this example is a short one, notice what is extending the gameplay of this blue ball.  No new Mechanics were added.  No new Punishments or Rewards were taking place as you hopped the ball across the street.  Instead, you had a goal that was driving your behavior, a goal that led you to complete the puzzle.

Some Common Long Term Incentives

There are vast arrays of Long Term Incentives in games.  Some of the most popular are:

Complete all the levels. This Long Term Incentive was most popular in the early days of computer games, and still appear in many independent and main stream hardcore games today.  The soldier must trudge and shoot his way through the war, or the intrepid monster hunter must save the kingdom, broken into chapters.  The player completes each stage and, by virtue of another stage appearing, continues on and keeps playing.  An older variation of this Incentive is the high score: since they player already has 115,876 points and can earn more by shooting one more Space Invader, they aren’t likely to quit not.

A more advanced method of Complete All The Levels integrates a scoring system into the stages, giving the player a Silver or Gold Metal, or perhaps a C, B, A, or S score.  In this situation, the player will not only complete the level and move on the next, but be compelled to play each level again to get the best score.  This advanced method is very close to our next popular Long Term Incentive…

Collect Everything. Some players are “completionists”, they can’t leave the game alone until every stone has been turned over and every treasure chest opened.  If there is more in the game to collect, more to do, things to complete, then they won’t stop until it’s all done.   Variations on this include completely leveling up your character to the maximum, finding all the special items, or collecting all the achievements.

Some games are very explicit with the Collect Everything incentive.  Games that are very achievement oriented label each achievement.  RPG’s may have lots of extra side-quests for the player to perform in return for better armor, weapons, etc.  While these items aren’t required for the player to complete the game (Unless you’re doing a parody piece such as Achievement Unlocked), they do greatly extend the time a player is enticed to invest in a game.

Gain Information. Many games dangle new information in front of the player to compel them to continue.  Story is an example of this; even if the levels in a tactics/strategy game grow monotonous, players will continue to learn what happens to Prince Leon, or their other favorite characters.  Information may also be less explicit, such as seeing the end of a cavern or the bottom of an ocean, like in Flow.  And yet as the player in Flow devours different sea creatures and goes deeper into the dark waters, they are compelled to go even further to learn what is down there.

Improve One’s Skill. Games like Street Fighter, Halo, or other action games bring along the Incentive to improve one’s own skill.  This may be to clear incredibly difficult stages (a combination with the first common Long Term Incentive) or to be able to compete against other challengers.  Players engage in the same battles over and over again, on the same stages, with the same weapons and moves, and yet they have a great time.  That’s the Long Term Incentive at work.  Sometimes these come with ranking systems.  Halo, for example, ranks the skill of your performances in matches and then sets you up with other players of similar skill.  This further encourages the player to improve themselves so that they can move up the ladder.

Selecting, Revealing, and Grouping Incentives

Long Term Incentives don’t necessarily have to be hours down the road.  Anything that is driving the player forward in a meaningful way is a Long Term Incentive.  It’s up to the developer to decide what kind of Long Term Incentive they want to put in their game.  Some games seem incomplete because they have no real Long Term Incentive, while others only have a single Long Term Incentive.  Many modern games have several long term incentives packed into the same space.  This is a great way to give a game a professional level of depth.  The game has many things to keep the player going, so that if they become bored with one Incentive, they continue playing because of another.  This way, the developer creates a larger number of fail-safes in their Design Canvas, extra ropes that hold on to the player and keep them from falling away from the game.

In addition to selecting and grouping together Incentives, the developer also has the choice of how explicit to make them.  A game that has very visibly placed Long Term goals, such as listing off achievements after each stage or giving the player a formal score, give a very different feel to games that do not do this.  Games like Spore or Flow have similar goals to other games (complete the level, gain information), however they communicate this much less to the player.  Rather, they let the player find their own goals and have a feeling that their following their own path.  Hiding the Long Term Incentives from the player help the game feel less like a game and more like the Core Experience, but they run the risk of boring players who don’t understand what’s going on, or players who like to have their hand held and guided a little more.

Lengthening Gameplay: More Carrot, or More Stick?

The Long Term Incentive is the easiest way to lengthen gameplay and take a game from several seconds to several hours.  However, developers need to be careful: leaning on the Incentive entirely to provide long term gameplay can be disastrous.  Because of this, developers should be aware of how important the Long Term Incentive will be to the player.

A good analogy is the one of the carrot and the stick.  The horse wants the carrot: the reward, or the Long Term Incentive.  But to get there he needs to travel the length of the stick out in front of him: the task or the Base Mechanic gameplay.  Perform the task, and he receives the reward.  Crafting a good harmony of gameplay is the skill of crafting an effective carrot and stick.

If the Base Mechanics and the Punishment and Reward Systems are the solid focus of the game, then it doesn’t take much to keep the player interested in continuing.  Having a design that forces the player to think, to engage one’s skills, and to execute over the long term is a designer goal worth having.  But it is a challenge to keep this gameplay new and fresh over the long term.  If your game is about flying an airplane, then it is easy to imagine a game where they fly from the U.S. to Canada.  They would enjoy the first experience of learning how to fly, and feel a sense of accomplishment when they completed their Incentive by reaching Canada.

However, this experience isn’t likely to last long.  What if that games needs to be longer, and they need to fly from Canada to China?  They have added more stick to the game, but the stick is the same.  And when you add more stick, you need to either make traversing the stick more fun, or make the carrot more desirable.

For example, the developer could say, “Good job, you’ve flown to Canada.  Now fly to China.  If you get there, you’ll get an entirely new rocket ship that can take you to the moon.”  In this scenario, the player would likely groan, because the challenge set before them is so long and arduous, and is essentially repeating what they have already done.  Some may just quit the game.  But others would see that promise of a new rocket ship and decide to put in the time to earn it.  They want the carrot so much that they will put up with the long stick.  The Long Term Incentive propels them.

Avoiding the Daily Grind

Other games like this, such as many MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft, rely heavily on the Long Term Incentive to drive the player forward.  This often results in what gamers refer to as “grinding”, performing the same boring, brain-dead task over and over again in order to achieve a long term goal.  Fighting the same orc 150 times in order to gain enough gold to buy the silver armor is a great example of a game that is surviving almost entirely on its Long Term Incentive.  If not for that, the player would have quit long ago.

The actions that the player is performing may have been fun at first, but after mastering them, the only thing that keeps the player going is the pursuit of that final goal.  This is a fascinating situation because even though the player is bored out of their mind, they still grind away.  Grinding is a great example of the power of strong Long Term Incentives, albeit used to compensate for weak lower gameplay.

Go for the Long Haul

Photo: Mr Malique

Learning to strike a good balance between the lower level gameplay and the Long Term Incentive is key to having a game that is compelling throughout.  You don’t want your players to quit your game, but you also don’t likely want them to play your game while being bored to tears.  Ideally developers can concoct a Design Canvas that allows for fun as well as long term gameplay, creating an immersive world and Experience where they don’t want to leave.

Part 3 of 5 from the great series of articles “The Game Design Canvas” from The Game Prodigy.

• Part 1 –  An Introduction
• Part 2 - Base Mechanics
• Part 3 - Punishment and Reward Systems
• Part 4 - Long Term Incentive
• Part 5 – Aesthetic Layout

The Game Design Canvas: Punishment and Reward Systems

You have many choices in your everyday life.  Wake up and jump out of bed, or hit the snooze button?  Eat chicken, beef, or veggies?  Do some work, or go out with friends?  These choices, these actions that you can take are the different colors you use to paint the landscape of your day, your week, and your life.  It is through these choices that you experience and express yourself in the world.

If life were a game, these actions that you can take are examples of the Base Mechanics of life.  They are actions that you can perform, that you have the ability to perform, and that you may choose or choose not to perform.  They are the inputs into the system from yourself.  You can freely choose from all the possible abilities you have and perform them to your liking.

…Or can you?  Well, there’s more to it than that.  Your actions and free will are not as free as one would think.  Yes, you have choices you can make, but there are consequences, there are requirements, and there are strings attached.  You may have the ability to go into the middle of a library and shout at the top of your lungs.  You may have the ability to insult your best friend or to rob a convenience store.  You may have the ability to sit in your apartment and be depressed instead of going out and enjoying the weekend with friends.

You could do these things, but you probably won’t.  Even though you have the ability and the means, there is something else that is guiding your decisions.  There is more to this so called “choice” business than you might imagine.  It is as though some invisible force outside of yourself is governing your actions.

Enter the third component of the Game Design Canvas: The Punishment and Reward Systems.

Free Will?  Or Not So Free?

As we discussed in our last introductory article to the game design canvas on Base Mechanics, every game has actions that it lets the player perform.  The player can run, shoot, paint, throw, eat, duck, swap polarity, teleport, or what have you.  But these actions are not isolated; they have higher systems that govern them.  These Punishment and Reward Systems nudge the player towards certain behavior.  They give meaning and weight to the Base Mechanics, forcing the player to think about their choices.

Thus, understanding the Punishment and Rewards System section of the Game Design Canvas is a lesson in understanding human behavior.  It would appear that humans have an incredible range of actions they can make at any given moment, yet the most common behavior is but a small percentage of all of those actions.  The reason for this is, as we said, is that games couple their actions with consequences.  In life and in games, people learn from their past experiences and then choose from among their desired consequences to choose their actions.  These couplings of action and consequences make up the Punishment and Reward Systems that govern player behavior.

Death by henchmen?  I’ll pass.

To begin to understand Punishment and Reward Systems, let’s start simple and work our way up.  In Super Mario 64, the player’s Base Mechanics allow them to run and jump through each stage (ignoring punching and power-ups for a moment).  It’s up to the player to decide how to use those abilities to navigate the world and collect the stars needed to complete the stage.

However, the player’s actions when controlling Mario are constrained by the game’s P&R Systems.  If Mario is touched by an enemy, then he falls to the ground and loses of health.  This is a simple example of Punishment, and we can analyze this System to see how it affects player behavior, because the effects are more far-reaching than one would imagine.  Once the player understands that smacking into a Goomba will result in damaging Mario,their behavior will change.  And that is where it gets interesting.

So Mario is running along, and the player sees a Goomba.  Technically, the player does have the choice of running headlong into the Goomba.  However, the game’s P&R System has taught them that this is something that should be avoided.  Thus, the player steers Mario around the Goomba to avoid him.

Do you see what’s happened here?  The game made no changes to the Base Mechanics: they were still just running and jumping.  But they way that the player used these Mechanics has been changed.  After the player learned what the game was encouraging them to do, the decisions they made were altered.

As players interact with a game and its P&R Systems, they begin to make a mental model in their mind of how the System works, and how they can best navigate it.  Whether or not the developer wants the player to fully understand the system is up to them, but the job of the P&R System is to evoke the desired player behavior.  A good design will be able to plot out the player’s desired behavior and then build a P&R System around that to encourage that very behavior.

Planting The Seeds of Strategy

Mario and the Goomba was an obvious example, but sometimes the effects of a P&R system will be more latent.  Let’s take for example the popular tower-defense genre.  In these games, the player needs to erect offensive towers to keep the enemy army from reaching the other side of the screen.  These towers attack the enemies as they walk by, and the enemies attempt to find the shortest path to their goal.

In these games, the Base Mechanics are:

• Deciding which towers to place (usually weaker vs. stronger but more expensive, etc.)
• Deciding where to place the towers (usually on a 2D plane)

Those are the choices that the player has before them, and they can execute these Mechanics however they like, right?

If you’ve been paying attention, hopefully you’ve learned by now that this is not exactly the case.  Technically, yes, the player can place whatever towers wherever they like, but they are likely to lose.  The game’s P&R Systems will encourage certain behavior.  So in actuality, the player can only use the Mechanics in ways designed by the game.

For example, the player can put a tower in the top right corner, far away from everything else, but the P&R Systems discourage this.  The enemies will not be fired upon as much, and they will likely make it to their goal, causing the player to lose.  Eventually, the player will learn that the best choice is to place the towers in the middle, ideally in a way that blocks the enemies.  Of course the player could continue placing the towers in the corner, losing, and doing it over again, but that gets very boring very quickly.

vs.

Again, this is an example of the Punishment and Reward Systems shaping the player’s behavior.  The game gives the player certain actions to perform, but hidden within the System is an optimal strategy if the player wants to succeed.

Fundamental Rules of P&R Systems

A good way to think about how P&R Systems affect player behavior is with the following diagram:

The developer decides what actions to give to the player via the Base Mechanics.  Then, the developer constructs the P&R System to funnel the player’s possible choices into the desired player behavior.

So how does one go about constructing such an interesting funnel?  To answer that, we need to visit one of the great influences to game design:behaviorist psychology.  Pioneered by researchers such as B.F. Skinner, behaviorism, specifically operant conditioning, was a way of viewing a subject’s behavior in terms of their actions and the system’s responses.

Sound familiar?  Operant conditioning is the foundational field of research that ties in very closely with what we’ve discussed so far in games.  Similarly to operant condition in behaviorism, Punishment and Reward Systems in the Game Design Canvas have four main ways to affect a player’s behavior:

1. Positive Reward – Rewarding the player’s behavior by giving them something they want or like.
2. Negative Reward – Rewarding the player by taking away something they didn’t like.
3. Positive Punishment – Punishing the player’s behavior by giving them something they don’t want or like.
4. Negative Punishment – Punishing the player by taking away something the wanted or liked.

By tying Rewards and Punishments to the player’s use of the game’s Base Mechanics, the game developer shapes their use.  For example, in Super Mario 64, when the player defeats a koopa troopa enemy, then they player often receive a coin, which is something they want.  This is an example of a positive reward.  Additionally, the Goomba is now gone, which is an example of a negative reward, since there are less enemies on the level who could harm you.

For the Punishment side of the P&R System, if Mario falls into the lava, then he begins to wail and dash around uncontrollably, trying to put out the flames on his overalls.  This running around is an example of positive punishment, giving the player some behavior that they don’t want — they want to be able to guide Mario, not have to steer him wildly!  Additionally, the Mario loses some life when he falls in the lava, this is an example of negative punishment, since the player wants to have as many life bars as possible.

Guidelines for Sculpting Player Behavior

As a game grows from a few simple mechanics to dozens or more, and the complexity of the game itself spirals upwards into hours and hours of gameplay, then the Punishment and Reward Systems will begin to get rather complicated.  Thus, good to have a clear understanding of the basic strategies for constructing one in order to get desired player behavior.

Once again, everything always begins with the Core Experience portion of the Game Design Canvas.  Once you have the Core Experience of your game defined, then you can begin plotting out your mechanics, which leads to your desired player behavior.  Think about following these general guidelines:

Making a first guess. A good P&R System is designed indirectly.  Most developers prefer to focus on the behavior they want, then they set up the system to evoke that system, not the other way around.  Focusing on the system itself can be confusing and lead to dead ends.  So plot out how you’d like your player to act, describing it in detail.  Then set up Punishment and Reward Systems around that to encourage that behavior.  Try to put yourself in the player’s shoes and imagine what you’d do.

Slight changes and tweaking. If the system you’ve designed doesn’t result in the player behavior you want, then you can tweak it.  Do you imagine (or see, if you’re prototyping) players always bumping into walls when you wanted them to swing swiftly through the stage?  Then create a light punishment for bumping into walls.  Small changes can make big results in terms of player behavior.  Also, be sure to watch our video on playtesting to learn how you can alter your game to achieve the desired player behavior.

Timing the feedback. Another important aspect to think about is how long it takes for the P&R feedback to reach the player.  The amount of time you decide for this is up to you, but it depends on exactly how you want the player to be learning the systems inherent in your game.  In most games like Super Mario, the feedback is instantaneous.  ”I fell off a cliff and the game told me I died.  Ok, got it.  That is bad.  Next time, don’t fall off a cliff.”

However, in other games, complexity is added by not giving the P&R feedback immediately.  In strategy games like Starcraft, it takes much longer for players to master strategies, because the feedback of a won or lost match may not come until long after the dooming action.  A player may build a base in a difficult-to-defend spot 5 minutes into the game, and that choice may lead to the player’s downfall an hour later.  However, it’s unlikely that the player will make this immediate connection.  The longer the loop between action and feedback, the more focused time it will take  for the player to consciously understand.

Reward them with a Great Game

A good Punishment and Reward System will allow players to feel the satisfaction of mastering your game’s Core Experience.  Whether it’s to save the princess for a giant turtle or to defeat the incoming onslaught of alien armies, P&R can act as guideposts to help the player learn what to do.  On other hand, slopping P&R Systems make for a game that feels like it’s unpolished and has no real destination.  Making the commitment to fine tune the game’s rewards and carrots for the player will result in a smoother experience and a harmony between what the player wants to do and what the game was designed to do.

Source

The Game Prodigy

Part 2 of 5 from the great series of articles “The Game Design Canvas” from The Game Prodigy.

• Part 1 –  An Introduction
• Part 2 – Base Mechanics
• Part 3 – Punishment and Reward Systems
• Part 4 - Long Term Incentive
• Part 5 – Aesthetic Layout

The Game Design Canvas: Base Mechanics

Dave is working on his blockbuster indie game title.  He knows the genre, and he has a general idea of what he wants it to be about.  It’s an action/adventure title about vampires and he wants the player to be able to steal blood from victims.  He’d also like the player to have to avoid light in the day, and it would be a story about love and romance.  Sounds like a great game!

He expresses this idea to a friend of his who is in the industry.  His enthusiasm is apparent in his voice and his excitement about the idea, with the main part of the game revolving around the vampire stealing blood.  But then his friend asks him…

“How does the player actually steal blood?”

Dave reminds his friend that the vampire will be able to go up to anyone and suck their blood, and that’s how it occurs.  But his friend reiterates, “But what actual buttons will the player be pressing?  How are you going to convey stealing someone’s blood as a vampire through pressing a button?”

Dave looks down at his shoes, realizing that although his idea may be exciting from an elevator pitch, he may have jumped the gun.

You Can’t Build a House without Bricks

Dave’s idea may be a good one, but will it come to fruition?  It depends; all of his thoughts are fine ideas, but there’s no structure to them.  Dave hasn’t taken to the time to build the foundation of his game; he’s just started with random anecdotes.  Odds are that if good old Dave just goes ahead and starts coding in his idea without connecting the dots first, he’s going to end up with a mediocre game that feels kind of like…well, every other game.  Which is to say it won’t really feel like anything.

To begin his journey of constructing a vampire experience, Dave will at some point in the early stages of production need to think about the Base Mechanics.

As discussed in our introductory post, the Game Design Canvas is an analysis and planning method that game developers can use to map out their game’s arc, goals, and player experience.  By using the Canvas, designers can structure their game around the desired Core Experience that they’re delivering to the player.

Through the Game Design Canvas, designers, developers, and players can describe and break down of the major components of any game.  Last time we discussed the importance of the Core Experience, the feeling that the developer wants the player to have while playing their game.  In this post we’re going to talk about the second aspect of game design, the Base Mechanics.

Let’s start with an analogy. Houses are made up of bricks.  People don’t think of the actual bricks, wood, or pipes when walk into a house.  New homeowners don’t brag to their friends about the kind of mortar their home uses; no, they want to focus on the finer things!  They want to show off the stylish hardwood floor, the marble counter tops, or the multi-story heating.  The bricks are a given.  If the bricks aren’t put together correctly, then nothing else matters.

In the same way, games are built of Base Mechanics.  These Mechanics are the actual actions that the player performs.  When the player presses a button, then there is a response on the screen.  When the player moves their mouse, then there is a change in the game.  When the player moves their Wii remote or whatever input device they’re using, there is an effect to pair with the cause.  These interactions are what make up the game, and they are vitally important.  Yet paradoxically, players tend to not think about the mechanics very much.  On the other hand, to deliver a high quality title, it’s the developer’s job to be obsessed with these “bricks”.

Base Mechanic, meet Developer!

A Base Mechanic could be introduced as any pairing of player action and reaction in a game.  While the player may be thinking about the game’s story, the goals of the level, or other high level components within the Game Design Canvas, what they are actually doing from second to second, moment to moment, can be described in the Base Mechanics.  Without the Base Mechanics, the player does nothing.

To be a game, players must be interacting with it.  If they aren’t interacting with it, then they aren’t playing a game, they’re just observing or not participating at all.  Player interaction can be any number of things.  For modern games it’s most commonly the press of a button, or for motion controlled games it’s the gesture of a remote.  Outside of video games you have movement in sports and placing pieces in board games.  All of these are examples of the player performing an action that will affect the game.

Games are symbolic.  They give meaning to actions that would not normally be there.  If I pick up a little wooden man and move him across the table, that action has no meaning (other than the fact that maybe be wooden man was in the way of my soft drink).  However in the context of a game like chess, that action has the meaning that I am attacking my opponent with a pawn.

There are several categories of these Base Mechanics.  To be able to apply them to our games, we’ll want to understand and use all types of them.

Atomic Base Mechanics

Some Base Mechanics are atomic, that is, they are the absolute smallest action and effect that can be found in the game.  This is usually a single button press or gesture, but it could also be more complex depending on the game.  The point is that, within the rules of that game, that action cannot be broken down any further into smaller parts.

In Bejeweled, arguably one of the most successful online casual game of all time, the player must click different jewels to swap their locations and make rows of three.  For this, the Atomic Base Mechanic at work here is the player clicking on a jewel.   The reaction to the player’s click is the movement of the jewels.  While this game has been played for hundreds of millions of hours by players all around the works, when you map Bejeweled out on the Game Design Canvas, all those players are doing are clicking a jewel, and moving it.  Over and over.  This

In Wii Sports Tennis, the Atomic Mechanic is when the player swings their Wii remote, resulting in their character swinging their racquet.  It is through this action that every match is played by every player.

Most games are made up of surprisingly few Atomic Base Mechanics.  The two examples above have only one.  Even complex modern games usually only have about 3 or 4 Atomic Base Mechanics at most.  For fighting games there’s attack, defend, move.  For first person shooters there’s shoot, move, using cover, and special items.  In RPG’s the actions are traditionally attack, defend, use magic, and use items.  These games may dress these up and build them into complex chains (more on that in a moment), but the atomic actions the player is taking are relatively simple.

Atomic Base Mechanics are interesting because they describe the game in such a scientific way that often sounds dull.  While the goal of making a game is to attain a Core Experience, how they player will feel, the actual bricks of putting that together appear less enticing than the full package promises to be.  Think about how fun the following games sound:

• All you do is move a ball and try to get it into a certain area.
• You click on something and then select how you want to interact with it.  That’s the game.
• The only thing that happens is you read text and select from different choices.

Not very fun, right?  And yet they are the Atomic Mechanics of some of the most beloved games in history.

• The sport of soccer/football
• The Sims
• Final Fantasy, or classic RPG’s in general

This example serves to show that you can’t judge a game by a description of its Atomic Base Mechanics.  That’s like trying to say you know someone after reading a bunch of facts about them.  ”This person has brown hair, is kind of tall, and enjoys baking.  Do you like them?”  Computers can think like that, but humans need to be taken a little further.  The Core Experience of a game doesn’t begin to shine through until we get at least to the next level of Base Mechanics.

Complex Base Mechanics

Atomic Base Mechanics are important, but of course games are more than running and jumping.  They are running through a crowded city and jumping up on top of a building without hitting their head.  They are running over a gap and then jumping on top of three enemies.  They are running, then pausing to wait for the guard to pass, and then running again.

Complex Base Mechanics are when multiple Atomic Mechanics are tied together to create something new.   These new actions are usually only taught to the player after they have mastered the underlying Atomic Mechanics.  The game may teach them, or given enough time, they may find them themselves.

For out Bejeweled example, we said that the Atomic Base Mechanic is the player being able to click on two jewels and swap their locations.  This allows the player to connect 3 and .  But what happens when the player connects more than three?  The jewels click down into place perfectly and…bam! They’ve created a chain; extra high points!  By performing their Atomic Base Mechanics in a specific way, they complete the Complex Base Mechanic of making a chain.

In Chess, a gambit is where a player intentionally sacrifices a piece in order to gain a long term advantage.  For example, they may put a pawn into a vulnerable position, because when the opponent takes that pawn, the opponent will be in an even more vulnerable position.  There isn’t anything in the Atomic Mechanics of chess that discuss this concept, yet all experienced chess players can tell you what a gambit is.  It is a Complex Base Mechanic, a result of combining several Atomic Mechanics into something more interesting.

How much support the developer gives Complex Mechanics (or any mechanic for that matter) is up to them.  For example, in an action game, the player might be able to run and jump, and so of course the player might be able to run and jump simultaneously to reach new heights.  The developer may simply allow the player to do this using the already existing Atomic Mechanics, or they may add a little extra “umph” to it, allowing the run+jump combination to cause the player to jump unrealistically higher, with new special effects and sounds associated with it.  How the developer crafts this and other Complex Base Mechanics is up to them.

The Big Picture

Base Mechanics are the building blocks of a game, but they are also heavily dependent on the other aspects of the Game Design Canvas.  While they do make up the actions that the player is taking and constitute nearly 100% of the player’s playtime, a game made up of only Base Mechanics would be a boring game indeed.

A game’s Punishment and Reward Systems give meaning to the player’s actions; how does the player know what to do and when?  In what way are these Mechanics supposed to be used and optimized?  The Long Term Incentives provide the drive for the player to continue using these Base Mechanics over and over with continuing excitement and anticipation.  And the Aesthetic Layout gives that pop to the player’s actions: a nice big “Combo!” when the player performs a correct sequence of actions.  All of these aspects work together with the Base Mechanics, the player’s actions, to give them meaning and help deliver the Core Experience.

The Journey of a Thousand Miles…

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” says the ancient proverb.  In the same way, games are built step by step, Base Mechanic by Base Mechanic.  Always supporting the Core Experience, Base Mechanics provide the building blocks of every game, guiding the player’s each moment.  And if those bricks are well put together, it can be an incredible collection of moments indeed.

Source

The Game Prodigy