Tracy Fullerton [Tracy Fullerton] - Game Design Workshop, 3rd Edition

Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games

Tracy Fullerton

Eric Zimmerman

CRC Press

Taylor & Francis Group

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2015 by Taylor & Francis Group

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Version Date: 20160316

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Chapter 1

The game designer envisions how a game will work during play. She creates the objectives, rules, and procedures; thinks up the dramatic premise and gives it life; and is responsible for planning everything necessary to create a compelling player experience. In the same way that an architect drafts a blueprint for a building or a screenwriter produces the script for a movie, the game designer plans the structural elements of a system that, when set in motion by the players, creates the interactive experience.

As the impact of digital games has increased, there has been an explosion of interest in game design as a career. Now, instead of looking to Hollywood and dreaming of writing the next block-buster, many creative people are turning to games as a new form of expression.

But what does it take to be a game designer? What kinds of talents and skills do you need? What will be expected of you during the process? And what is the best method of designing for a game? In this chapter, Ill talk about the answers to these questions and outline a method of iterative design that designers can use to judge the success of gameplay against their goals for the player experience throughout the design and development process. This iterative method, which I call the playcentric approach, relies on inviting feedback from players early on and is the key to designing games that delight and engage the audience because the game mechanics are developed from the ground up with the player experience at the center of the process.

The role of the game designer is, first and foremost, to be an advocate for the player. The game designer must look at the world of games through the players eyes. This sounds simple, but youd be surprised how often this concept is ignored. Its far too easy to get caught up in a games graphics, story line, or new features and forget that what makes a game great is solid gameplay. Thats what excites players. Even if they tell you that they love the special effects, art direction, or plot, they wont play for long unless the gameplay hooks them.

As a game designer, a large part of your role is to keep your concentration focused on the player experience and not allow yourself to be distracted by the other concerns of production. Let the art director worry about the imagery, the producer stress over the budget, and the technical director focus on the engine. Your main job is to make sure that when the game is delivered, it provides superior gameplay.

When you first sit down to design a game, everything is fresh, and, most likely, you have a vision for what it is that you want to create. At this point in the process, your view of the game and that of the eventual new player are similar. However, as the process unfolds and the game develops, it becomes increasingly difficult to see your creation objectively. After months of testing and tweaking every conceivable aspect, your once clear view can become muddled. At times like this, its easy to get too close to your own work and lose perspective.

Situations like these are when it becomes critical to have playtesters. Playtesters are people who play your game and provide feedback on the experience so that you can move forward with a fresh perspective. By watching other people play the game, you can learn a great deal.

Observe their experience and try to see the game through their eyes. Pay attention to what objects they are focused on, where they touch the screen or move the cursor when they get stuck or frustrated or bored, and write down everything they tell you. They are your guide, and its your mission to have them lead you inside the game and illuminate any issues lurking below the surface of the design. If you train yourself to do this, you will regain your objectivity and be able to see both the beauty and the flaws in what youve created.

Some game designers dont involve playtesters in their process, or, if they do bring in playtesters, its at the end of production when its really too late to change the essential elements of the design. Perhaps they are on a tight schedule and feel they dont have time for feedback. Or perhaps they are afraid that feedback will force them to change things they love about their design. Maybe they think that getting a playtest group together will cost too much money. Or they might be under the impression that testing is something only done by marketing people.