Richard Lemarchand - A Playful Production Process : For Game Designers (and Everyone)

A Playful Production Process

For Game Designers (and Everyone)

Richard Lemarchand

Foreword by Amy Hennig

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2021 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

Uncredited illustrations by Richard Lemarchand.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lemarchand, Richard, author.

Title: A playful production process : for game designers (and everyone) / Richard Lemarchand ; foreword by Amy Hennig

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020052141 | ISBN 9780262045513 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Video gamesDesign. | Interactive multimedia.

Classification: LCC GV1469.3 .L46 2021 | DDC 794.8dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052141

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To Nova

List of Figures

1. The four phases, milestones, and deliverables of the playful production process. Image credit: Gabriela Purri R. Gomes, Mattie Rosen, and Richard Lemarchand.
2. A work-in-progress mind map centered on the concept of ice cream.
3. Jenny Jiao Hsias physical prototypes for Consume Me, Videogames Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
4. A physical prototype of a digital game, Daunting Dollhouse, by Chao Chen, Christoph Rosenthal, George Li, and Julian Ceipek created in a USC Games IMGD MFA class. Photo credit: George Li.
5. What is Uncharted? (Naughty Dog, circa 2006). A transcription of this text is available in appendix B. Image credit: UNCHARTED: Drakes Fortune 2007 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. UNCHARTED: Drakes Fortune is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. Created and developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
6. Dr. Robert Plutchiks wheel of emotions. Image credit: Machine Elf 1735, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
7. A vertical slice.
8. The perception-cognition-action-input-computation-output loop.
9. A whiteboard flowchart sketching out the gameplay and story sequence at the beginning of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Image credit: UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves 2009 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
10. Whiteboard diagrams showing the way that we moved from flowchart to rough level layout for the beginning of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, in plan view and elevation. Image credit: 2009 SIE LLC/ UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
11. The blockmesh (aka blockout, whitebox, or graybox) process of level design and art creation. Images credit: Erick Pangilinan and 2009 SIE LLC/ UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
12. Michael Barclays Twitter post, which started the #blocktober hashtag.
13. A beautiful corner for visualizing how a completed game level will look.
14. A controls cheat sheet.
15. A written hint or helper.
16. The concentric structure of a castle.
17. Attempted developer effort for many typical game projects.
18. Actual developer accomplishment for many typical game projects.
19. A better way for developers to expend any extra effort.
20. The probable effort path for developers, as they try to work in a healthier way, in relation to the major milestones of the playful production process.
21. Freytags Pyramid.
22. The fractal structure of a feature film story.
23. A game design macro chart template.
24. The cork board index card planning that led to the game design macro chart for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Note that Chloe Frazer was called Jane at this stage in development. Image credit: 2009 SIE LLC/ UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
25. Part of the game design macro chart for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (see also appendix C). Image credit: 2009 SIE LLC/ UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
26. The setup at the beginning of Super Mario Bros. World 11. Image credit: Nintendo.
27. Cork board macro planning for Naughty Dogs The Last of Us, in the Videogames Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Image credit: The Last of Us 2013, 2014 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. The Last of Us is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
28. The beginnings of a simple schedule.
29. Striking tasks off a simple schedule.
30. An example burndown chart spreadsheet. Image credit: Jeremy Gibson Bond, Richard Lemarchand, Peter Brinson, and Aaron Cheney.
31. An example burndown chart infographic. Image credit: Jeremy Gibson Bond, Richard Lemarchand, Peter Brinson, and Aaron Cheney.
32. An example burndown chart infographic, annotated. Image credit: Jeremy Gibson Bond, Richard Lemarchand, Peter Brinson, and Aaron Cheney.
33. The same example burndown chart infographic, a few days later. Image credit: Jeremy Gibson Bond, Richard Lemarchand, Peter Brinson, and Aaron Cheney.
34. The full production phase and its milestones. Image credit: Gabriela Purri R. Gomes, Mattie Rosen, and Richard Lemarchand.
35. A table showing potentially problematic numbers of attempts in Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception, derived from metrics data gathered from ten players during a formal playtest. Image credit: UNCHARTED 3: Drakes Deception 2011 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. UNCHARTED 3: Drakes Deception is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. Created and developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
36. A graph showing playtester progression over time in Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception, derived from metrics data gathered from nine players during a formal playtest. Image credit: UNCHARTED 3: Drakes Deception/ SIE LLC. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
37. The bad jumps system used for Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception, showing where players had attempted to climb upward and had failed. Image credit: UNCHARTED 3: Drakes Deception/ SIE LLC. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.
38. The alpha phase and the beta phase tucked away inside full production. Image credit: Gabriela Purri R. Gomes, Mattie Rosen, and Richard Lemarchand.
39. A stub function.
40. Doors in videogames come in many different shapes, sizes, and behaviors.
41. Solid-looking objects crashing (interpenetrating) and quickly breaking the illusion of the solidity and reality of the objects. Image credit: Mattie Rosen and Richard Lemarchand.
42. Choose the pivot point that a stubbed-in door rotates around carefully to avoid problems with crashing.
43. The beta milestone ends both the beta phase and full production. Image credit: Gabriela Purri R. Gomes, Mattie Rosen, and Richard Lemarchand.
44. Image credit: Gabriela Purri R. Gomes, Mattie Rosen, and Richard Lemarchand.
45. Image credit: 2009 SIE LLC/ UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. Created & developed by Naughty Dog LLC.

Im fortunate to count Richard among my oldest colleagues and dearest friends.

We first met in 1995 when I joined the design department at Crystal Dynamics, and Ill confess I instantly had a professional crush on him. Between his boundless creative energy and good humor and his Oxford degree in physics and philosophy, there was something simultaneously silly and serious about him that I immediately adored. I knew I wanted to work with him but had no idea that our first encounter would lead to a creative collaboration encompassing fifteen years and seven games, and a friendship that would span twenty-five years.