Game Design
Not to be confused with Game Development, Game Design Patterns, Game Level Design.
What is Game Design?
What does a game designer do?
Much like architecture design
Designer Programmer Artist
Experience planners
Experiences
Markus Persson - Minecraft
Define rules
Rules become game design documents
Which becomes prototypes
Which turns into games/MVG
Types of game designers
Lead Game Designer (Game Director)
Define the game
Establish game core
Define feature set
Determine how the project is documented
Level Designer
Level by level play
How to become a game designer?
Play a lot of games, both good and bad so you learn what to do, and what not to do. You also come up with your own ideas, character, stories, designs, rules – and make your own games!
Progression Systems
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5camMoNw-o
Avoid Skinner!
Talent tree (old school RPG games)
Respec skill points
Study other games
Find the games you like and play them
Keep a notebook of the games you play and what you like or don’t like about them
Branch out into genres you don’t normally play t learn about new play mechanics
Don’t play to win, play to understand the mechanics
Document the experience, how it improve, take videos
3 Things they do well
3 Things they can improve on
Look for postmortems on other games
https://www.gamasutra.com/features/postmortem/
Game Design Courses
Pluralsight
[Designing Mobile Games with a Game Design Document]
(https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/designing-mobile-games-game-design-document-1827/table-of-contents)
Game Design Frameworks
MDA Framework
6-11 Framework
https://www.academia.edu/1571687/THE_6_11_FRAMEWORK_A_NEW_METHODOLOGY_FOR_GAME_ANALYSIS_AND_DESIGN
The Four Elements of Game Design
https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/four-elements-of-game-design-1--cms-22720
https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/tutorials/four-elements-of-game-design-2--cms-25628
Game Design Resources
Game Maker’s Toolkit:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJ-Xo29CKyLTjn6z2XwYAw
Design Doc
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNOVwMpD-5A1xzcQGbIHNeA
Learning Resources
Paid Courses
https://www.lynda.com/Game-Design-Development-tutorials/role-game-designer/419164/675529-4.html
https://www.lynda.com/Unity-tutorials/Play-more-games/513589/566189-4.html
Books
(A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander)
[https://www.amazon.com.au/Pattern-Language-Towns-Buildings-Construction/dp/0195019199]
(Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.)
[https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202]
[Urban Dynamics - Jay W. Forrester]
Maps of the Mind: Charts and Concepts of the Mind and its Labyrinths - Charles
Hampden-Turner. Collier/Macmillan
The Ants - Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson
Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth - James Lovelock.
The Ages of Gaia, James Lovelock.
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal.
The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, Marshall McLuhan.
Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Donella H. Meadows.
The Society of Mind, Marvin Minsky. Simon & Schuster,
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier.
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Game-Design-Creating-Videogames/dp/1584506717
https://resources.unity.com/games/game-designer-playbook?ungated=true
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-network_game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_video_game_development
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/aug/08/popcap-secrets-of-game-design
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidKuelz/20160418/270698/Narrative_Design_Tips_I_Wish_Id_Known.php
https://www.business2community.com/consumer-marketing/customer-feedback-loop-critical-01509181
http://carnival.io/mobile-insights/core-loop-why-missing-it-can-mean-mobile-app-failure/
https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Game_Design
https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Video_Games
https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Video_Game_Theory
https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Psychology_of_Video_Games