Game Design 101
1.3: Your life as a game
List five areas of your life that could be games. Then briefly describe a possible underlying game structure for each. (Fullerton, 2019, p. 9)
These are the games I play concurrently.
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- Speed cleaning: A timed mini-game challenge where the player cleans up their home. It’s a slightly different challenge with every game, and the cleanliness of the home at the end of the game translates into the amount of health available for the next mini-game. (I like to have all the chores done before I start my workday, which means I speed-clean for about 10 minutes every morning. I find that the cleaner my apartment is, the better I feel about starting my day, which then translates into my ability to focus at work.)
- Taking care of houseplants: A slower-paced but continuous game where the player maintains the health bars of numerous houseplants. This includes activities like watering, dusting, rotating, and repotting. If the player is not attentive enough, it will be reflected in the health bars for the plants, and the plants will visually droop and turn yellow.
- Enrolling in courses: A speed game where the player must attempt to, as fast as possible, refresh the course registration page at a certain time and enrol in courses with limited spaces. If the player fails at enrolling in a course, they can add themselves to the waitlist and hope that a spot becomes available if another player exits the course. This incredibly nerve-racking game is available twice a year. The next round happens on February 13, 2023.
- Making money: A game where the player gains currency by completing quests as part of a guild. The quests are typically cooperative play. If the player is kicked out of a guild, they must find another guild to continue gaining currency. The currency is used to acquire items such as food, clothes, and a home, all of which are critical to the wellbeing of the player’s character. Additional currency may be used to acquire other inventory and power-ups; however, currency does not allow the player to acquire additional lives. The player can also use the currency to acquire entrance to the ‘education’ quest; upon completion of the ‘education’ quest, the player’s knowledge stats increases, which allows the player to take on more challenging quests at their guild and increase the amount of currency they acquire through completing these quests.
- Taking care of myself: A Tamagotchi-like–but much more complex–game where the player has to monitor their character’s wellbeing bars and take action as needed. These bars include hydration, hunger level, stress level, physical health, and quality and quantity of rest. If the player fails to address an issue with one of the bars, it negatively impacts all of the other bars, as well as the available resources to play all of the other games above.
Reflection/thought for my group project: These activities seem more fun to me as games than they actually are in real life. I wonder if it is because the idea of games implies that the game can be reset if the player is failing, and the player could try again with the knowledge and skills they built in their last round. This makes me think about how we can leverage “failure states” in our group project to enhance learning (Powers & Moore, 2021, p. 615). (This exercise also reminded me of the /r/outside subreddit.)
2.3: Objectives
List five games, and in one sentence per game, describe the objective in each game. (Fullerton, 2019, p. 34)
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- Gran Turismo 7: Win driving races to earn increasingly higher-performing cars
- Awesomenauts: Get to the enemy team’s base by destroying their defenses, while protecting your own team’s defenses and base from the enemy team
- XCOM: Defend earth from alien invasions by managing the defense organization and commanding its soldiers in combat
- Overcooked: Prepare food ordered by customers, either by working collaboratively with other players or controlling two characters at the same time
- Pokemon Yellow: Catch Pokemon and use them in battle to earn badges and become the best Pokemon trainer
Reflection/thought for my group project: As I look at these objectives, I see that these games, as with many other games, focus on solving problems, building skills, and improving as the player progresses. How might we design for progression in our group project, ensuring the progression is “challenging … but achievable … to the players” (Fullerton, 2019, p. 68)? How will this be reflected in the objective of our game?
2.8: Story
Have any stories within a game ever gripped you, moved you emotionally, or sparked your imagination? If so, why? If not, why not? (Fullerton, 2019, p. 46)
(Meta Quest, n.d.)
The plot of Elixir, perfectly supported by its interactions, stuck with me. Elixir is a virtual reality (VR) hand tracking game, which means the player interacts with the game using the movement of their hands. In Elixir, the player is a human who is starting a role as the apprentice of a sorceress, and the sorceress guides the player in using magic with their hands.
Elixir was my first hand tracking game. I found the hand tracking to be seamless (i.e., not buggy, no lagging), which enabled a fully immersive experience where I could focus on the story.
(Vizm, 2021)
I was beyond fascinated when I learned to use fire and electricity with my hands, and shocked when my fingers briefly turned into tentacles–it all felt so real. After my first time playing, I recall being momentarily confused when I remembered I couldn’t do magic with my hands in real life. It made me think of Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy as “contributors to performance” and how VR can be used in training to “buil[d] muscle memory” (Bandura, 2012; Farrell, 2018, p. 26). In my mind, I had learned to do magic.
Reflection/thought for my group project: How can we “integrat[e] [our story] with play … [to] create powerful emotional results” and increase immersion (Fullerton, 2019, p. 46), so that our players can focus on the story and the learning?
3.3: Interaction patterns
For each of the interaction patterns, create a list of your favorite games in each pattern. If you can’t think of any games in a particular pattern, research games in that area and play several of them. (Fullerton, 2019, p. 64)
Note: If a game has modes in multiple patterns, I listed it under my favourite mode.
Single player versus game
(Gran Turismo 7, 2023; Grand Theft Auto V, 2023; Beat Saber, 2023; Meta Quest, n.d.; XCOM: Enemy Unknown, 2023; RollerCoaster Tycoon (video game), 2023; Pokemon, n.d.)
Link(s) to game page(s): Gran Turismo 7, Grand Theft Auto V, Beat Saber, Elixir, XCOM, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Pokemon Yellow
Multiple individual players versus game
(Kahoot, 2023)
Link(s) to game page(s): Kahoot!
Player versus player
(Awesomenauts, 2023; Jackbox Games, n.d.)
Link(s) to game page(s): Awesomenauts, Quiplash 2
Unilateral competition
(Bomberman Party Edition, 2022)
Link(s) to game page(s): (N/A)
Multilateral competition
(Fall Guys, 2023)
Link(s) to game page(s): Fall Guys
Cooperative play
(LittleBigPlanet 3, 2023; Overcooked, 2023; Streets of Rage 2, 2023)
Link(s) to game page(s): LittleBigPlanet 3, Overcooked, Streets of Rage 2
Team competition
(Mattel, n.d.)
Link(s) to game page(s): Pictionary
Reflection/thought for my group project: It looks like I gravitate towards ‘single player versus game’ games, followed by ‘cooperative play’ games. How might this influence my perception of games, and how can I be more mindful of this perception as I approach the design of our group project? How will we design our game to support the greater “distributed teaching and learning systems” (Gee & Gee, 2017, p. 1), especially considering the interactions of players within and outside of our serious game? In other words, how will we intentionally define the context of our game?
3.9: Resource Types
For each of the resource types just described, create a list of your favorite games that use resources of that type. If you can’t think of any games that use a particular type of resource, research games that do and play several of them. (Fullerton, 2019, p. 85)
| Resource | Example |
|---|---|
| Lives |
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| Units |
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| Health |
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| Currency |
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| Actions |
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| Power-ups |
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| Inventory |
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| Special terrain |
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| Time |
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Reflection/thought for my group project: As I’m looking at this list, I realize it reflects my preferences in real life. I don’t have the patience for turn-based activities and I don’t appreciate time constraints; I enjoy power-ups that enhance my life (e.g., smart lights, voice-activated trash cans, automatic soap dispensers) and I’m intentional about how I build my “inventory” (e.g., work, school, home). How might my preferences influence my approach to our group project? What are the preferences of my group members? How might these preferences show up in our discussions on game design?
References
Awesomenauts [Image]. (2023, January 23). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Awesomenauts&oldid=1135264586
Bandura, A. (2012). Social cognitive theory. In P. A. M. van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology: Volume 1 (pp. 349-373). Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446249215.n18
Beat Saber [Image]. (2023, February 2). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beat_Saber&oldid=1137028349
Bomberman Party Edition [Image]. (2022, September 10). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bomberman_Party_Edition&oldid=1109472645
Fall Guys [Image]. (2023, February 2). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fall_Guys&oldid=1137041790
Farrell, W. A. (2018). Learning becomes doing: Applying augmented and virtual reality to improve performance. Performance Improvement, 57(4), 19-28. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21775
Fullerton, T. (2019). Game design workshop: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games. Taylor & Francis.
Gee, E., & Gee, J. P. (2017). Games as distributed teaching and learning systems. Teachers College Record, 119(11). https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811711901202
Gran Turismo 7 [Image]. (2023, February 5). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gran_Turismo_7&oldid=1137575656
Grand Theft Auto V [Image]. (2023, January 23). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grand_Theft_Auto_V&oldid=1135299753
Jackbox Games. (n.d.). Quiplash 2 [Image]. https://www.jackboxgames.com/quiplash-two/
Kahoot [Image]. (2023, February 2). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kahoot!&oldid=1137098441
LittleBigPlanet 3 [Image]. (2023, January 16). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=LittleBigPlanet_3&oldid=1134069778
Mattel. (n.d.) Pictionary board game for kids, adults and family night, drawing game [Image]. https://shop.mattel.com/products/pictionary-gmt97
Meta Quest. (n.d.). Elixir [Screenshot by Jocelyn Chan]. https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/3793077684043441/
Overcooked [Image]. (2023, February 3). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Overcooked&oldid=1137301481
Pokemon. (n.d.). Pokémon Yellow Special Pikachu Edition [Image]. https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-video-games/pokemon-yellow-special-pikachu-edition/
Powers, F. E., & Moore, R. L. (2021). When failure is an option: A scoping review of failure states in game-based learning. TechTrends, 65(4), 615-625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-021-00606-8
RollerCoaster Tycoon (video game) [Image]. (2023, January 8). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RollerCoaster_Tycoon_(video_game)&oldid=1132448680
Streets of Rage 2 [Image]. (2023, January 31). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Streets_of_Rage_2&oldid=1136745637
Vizm. (2021, March 19). Elixir VR hand tracking full walkthrough [no commentary] 1080p 60fps [Screenshots by Jocelyn Chan]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mQjhq1Zk2M
XCOM: Enemy Unknown [Image]. (2023, January 16). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown&oldid=1134028860