Game discussion

This is where we will collect the discussions of games, their designs, and some theoretical underpinnings throughout the seminar. The idea is to submit some questions and discussion topics before the in-class discussion. You are encouraged to contribute to this page, as it is publicly editable (when logged in to Sakai). If anyone has discussion topics, please use the forum by clicking the "Discussion and Private Messages" link in the left side bar (again only visible when logged in to Sakai)… Unless you are the discussant for the upcoming week. Then this is the place where you should be preparing your discussion topics and questions.

Discussion April the Twenty-Eighth: Free for all Form Discussion (Moderation: Christopher Lesiw, Yuri Vishnevsky) ^_^

Snow

• Controls: How did they fail at life? Did they make you want to toss your keyboard and/or mouse out the nearest window, and, more importantly, why?
• Narrative: The player has the choice whether or not they want to explore backstory and detail. Does this choice change the way the (massive air-quotes) "story" is told?
• Flow: Is it anywhere to be found? And, in the same vein: Does this fit the definition of a game, or is it just an interactive story?

8-bit Megaman

• Presentation: How did the change in aesthetics, in the GRAPHICAL sense, effect the way the game felt? How do our expectations (in terms of game flow) change relative to how a game looks?

Karoshi 2.0

• Expectations & Surprise: How did this game challenge your expectations, both as a gamer, and as a computer user?
• Flow: Discuss the design choices made in the game that might otherwise seem like a bad idea, such as continuous resetting.
• Miniature Gardens & Boundaries: While the levels in Karoshi obviously relate to one another, each level has its own set of rules. For example, the Esc key in one level may be the key (hehe) to your success, while in every other level it takes you back to the main menu. Is this an accurate example of miniature gardens (applied to game rules)?
• Narrative: Is there a story here - especially in the final levels? If so, what is the main "character" in the narrative? And if not, ignore this question, because it was clearly on the wrong track - YOU SAW NOTHING.
• Abstraction: If the game were not as abstract, how would the gameplay suffer? Why does the continuous manslaughter seem to have little effect on players, while giving an old lady leg pains in The Graveyard makes us feel like bad people?
• Difficulty: What does the difficulty curve of a single level look like? What were your motivations for continuing the game (if any)?
• CD: What CD did you put in to beat level 48? Seriously, I only had classical available.

Discussion April 21st: Indie Prototyping(Moderation: Sung Soo Jeong, Alex Zhang)

Jonathan Blow

• What is an Indie Prototype?
• How do we choose a good prototype?
• How do you know when it is Success?
• How are indie games different from non-indie games?

"Don't do idea that are 'just good enough' because this is your life you are spending."- Jonathan Blow
"Wow that was a great way to spend 2 years." - Jonathan Blow

Derek Yu

• Do you agree or disagree? Thoughts?

Braid

• Similarities + differences vs Mario
• Is Braid an independent version of Mario?
• How effective is Braid's prototyping process?
• How well are the puzzles designed?

Portal vs Narbacular Drop

• Similarities + differences
• Why did the Narbucular Drop guy make almost identical game? (Non-indie game like Portal has "unlimited resources" while Narbacular Drop doesn't)
• Is inability to jump big enough difference to make it more preferable over Portal?

Discussion April 14th: Conflicts in Story and Game Design (Moderation: Bella Pilyavskaya, Anthony Maddatu)

Story Meaning vs. Dynamic Meaning

• How are they similar/different?
• Where would Gravitation fit in our definitions of story meaning and dynamic meaning?
• Psycosomnium has a balance of both. How is it shown?
• Did Psycosomnium force you to ask yourself questions or reason out solutions to the puzzles?
• Coil had a lot of dynamical meaning in the first level. How did you interpret the first level?
• Aether's main character was very easily interpreted in different ways. How did you see yourself in this game?
• How important is story to you when rating a game?
• If you finished Don't Look Back, how did you finally figure out what the title was about?

Discussion April 7th: Game Prototyping (Moderation: Xiaokang Qin, Cody Bruno)

General

-What does prototype mean to you? What needs to be included in the prototype for it to be a successful one?
-Beside what is mentioned in the presentation, what else should a prototype be used for?

Cost

-To what extent can development time/resources be cut down while still keeping functionality? Inversely, how much time/resources can be given to its development while keeping everything quick and smooth?

Relevancy

-In what other ways is prototyping useful to the development of the game as a whole?

Surprise

-How are upside/downside affected, if the program is too specific? Too broad?

Persuasion

-How important is intuition in terms of "fun" the participant is having? Does intuition contribute at all to the participant's interest in the prototype?

Design Document vs Prototype

-Considering how much better the prototype is compared to a design document, in what instance would a design document prove better?
-According to Hecker/Gingold, a good prototype is also cheap, so where does that leave design documents?

Steal it, Fake it, Rehash it

-In the presentation, the buildings are constructed through a video in Maya - not through an interactive system. Does this defeat the purpose of the prototype or add to it in anyway?

Decomposition

-To what extent should the problems/concept be broken down in order to ensure the best prototype?
-Are there are any specific ways a problem should be broken down to ensure smooth development?

World of Goo (and prototype)

-According to the guidelines set by Hecker/Gingold, were the prototypes successful? If so, what in particular made them so? If not, what did they fail to accomplish?
-With bugs present in each prototype, did they subtract from its functionality? Were the bugs too insignificant?
-Did each prototype function properly at each step, up until its final release?

Discussion March 31st: Games as Miniature Gardens (Moderation: Dan "The Boat" Gopstein, Matt "The Hammer" Zucker)

I. Miniature Gardens

• How would you explain what a Miniature Garden is?
• Are any of these games Miniature Gardens?

II. Micro/Macro

• Is Closure a good example of the whole micro/macro environment? Why???
• Do you prefer a micro view, macro view, or both when playing games?
• What are some examples of abstraction consistency, both good and bad?
• What does Gingold mean when he talks about the Fourth Wall? Is there any "Fifth Wall" significance of the reuse of Mother/Wife in Pathways?

III. Boundaries (Spatial / Non-spatial)

• Knytt Stories is a very good example of this aspect. Discuss.
• What are other possible types of boundaries? Any multi-role boundaries, or multiple boundaries with the same role (Jumpman)?
• How do Linear RPG and Closure use the hide and reveal aspect to enhance the game?
• Is this the only appeal toward these games? (Linear RPG???)

IV. Inviting Participation

• Did you feel safe playing these games? Is that a good thing? How does it complement abstraction consistency? (Half-life)
• What syntonicities did you notice in these games? How immediately apparent were they?

V. Rabbit Hole

• How were we as players able to manipulate our environments in the various games we played?
• Did these ever become overwhelming? (Strange Attractors, Jumpman)
• Are boundaries necessary for effective compound worlds? Are compound worlds a legitimate construct? Is there a discrete definition? (Pathways)

Reference: Pleasures of Participation

• Manipulation
• Problem Solving & Strategizing
• Contest
• Mastery
• Composition & Construction
• Exploration
• Reflecting & Watching
• Communicating
• Transforming Identity

Discussion March 10th: Narrative in Games (Moderation: Sean Li, Raymond Chen)

General

I. Narrative Used Today

• String of pearls vs story machine
• "…give him the freedom to fuck up, give him the freedom to have a moment of triumph…these are all things that we try to let the player do…what we're saying is, for that percentage of gamers who are affected by these things, and who think about these things, we want it to be there". How do you best offer the widest range of experiences?

(Majesty of Colors, Pathways)

II. The Best Use for Narrative

• How can narrative be used as more than entertainment?
• What are your thoughts on using games as edutainment, teaching moral values and life lessons?

(Gravity Bone, Graveyard, I wish I were the Moon)

Games

Majesty of Colors / I wish I were the Moon

• Referencing Shell's article and his mention of 'Multiple Endings Disappoint', did having multiple endings ruin the unity of the game?
• Having to replay the game each time to discover a new ending, did this bog down your overall experience?

Pathways

• The Ludus Novus article argues Pathways is not an interactive game. Agree/disagree? How do you think the argument applies to Gravity Bone?

The Graveyard

• Is Graveyard a game?
• Is it just an expression of art?

Gravity Bone

• "Freedom and destiny are polar opposites". Freedom was taken away in order to generate a linear story with a tragic ending. Do you think this made the game more enjoyable?
• What were your feelings at the conclusion of Gravity Bone?

Discussion March 3rd: Visual Abstraction and Interaction Abstraction (Moderation: Xiaokang Qin, Raymond Chen, Cody Bruno)

General

• Sometimes a game is abstracted to the point where the player needs to read an explanation of the game fiction/rules; Is this taking abstraction too far? How do you define the boundary?
• Mirror's Edge: Discuss the 2D version's abstraction from the 3D version. Asides from visual simplification, what else is gained/lost?

The Marriage

• How would using less abstract icons have affected the feel of the game?
• Did you lose sight of the "fiction" of the game, and just focus on staying alive and dealing with the game rules?

Passage

• Novice vs experienced game player: How would this have affected how Passage is played?
• Compare/contrast Passage with real life (e.g. ability to replay Passage, but not real life)
• Was being able to choose different 'paths' the author's way of implementing difficulty?
• Confused with what came out of the treasure chest (too abstract?)

Zork

• Abstraction as design was the main focus of this game. Therefore, the game mechanics bogged down the ultimate goals and game flow. Agree/disagree?

Stars over Half Moon Bay

• Did the game abstract too much and lose it's purpose/meaning?

Discussion Feb 24th: Flow Theory + Difficulty in Games (Moderation: Bella Pilyavskaya, Anthony Maddatu, Alex Zhang)

General

• How would you describe the notion of "flow" to someone who has never taken this course?

Flow

1. Do you feel the DDA was accurately tracking your progress?
2. What aesthetics appealed to you in the game?
3. What did your creature look like when you stopped?

Flywrench

1. How does the game fair in terms of the flow article for you? Too much anxiety/boredom, or did you reach flow? (ex. I took a joystick out and beat the game within hours and thus I achieved flow.)
2. What aesthetics were in this game?
3. What audience do you believe this game is meant for?

Nicewrench

1. How do you feel about flow in this game as compared to Flywrench?
2. How did the stars and the level design change the game experience?

I Wanna Be the Guy and N

• If you played "I Wanna Be the Guy", did you end up looking at a walkthrough for the first level?
• Do you feel your deaths were your fault or just because of the difficult level design?
• How do these games compare to some of the other games played here and earlier in the semester?

Discussion Feb 10th: Game Feel (Moderation: Dan Gopstein, Sean Li, Matt Zucker)

Strange Attractors I

1. Concentrating on which one of the virtual sensations would have made Strange Attractors a better game?
2. Were the collisions in the game a positive contribution to the game feel?

Osmos

1. How does managing your resources contribute to the game feel?
2. We think there was a lot of impact and satisfying resolution. Anyone agree/disagree?

Ski Stunt Simulator

1. Do you agree with Swink that Ski Stunt Simulator has a low skill floor and high skill ceiling?
2. What would be different if there was a different context (Run Fatty Run)?

Precision

1. Who else hated Precision?
2. How did the predictable results impact this game? Would you have kept playing if there were no predictable results?
3. How was your input crucial to the response from the game?
4. --
5. http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1816/precisionbeatedgt6.jpg
6. "Good fight, precision."
   
7. -Sung Soo (David)

General

1. What do you think of the different input used in these games?
2. Is there some form of game feel that is enjoyable because it is not intuitive?

Discussion Feb 3rd: Game Design Analysis (Moderation: Christopher Lesiw, Yuri Vishnevsky, Sung Soo Jeong) ^_^

Auditorium

• What are the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics of the game?
• If the game's aesthetics were more limited, would the game still be as fun?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of giving the player so much control over the game environment (mechanics)?

Dino Run

• How do the aesthetics of the game make the player feel like he's gonna die?
• If the player didn't feel like DOOM ITSELF were mere SECONDS away, how would this affect decision-making?
• When the player "upgrades," what parts of the MDA model does this affect?

Samorost

• In this game, the dynamics are largely buried underneath several heaping servings of aesthetics. Does this enhance or cripple gameplay?

General

• Which game places the most emphasis on mechanics, which places the most emphasis on dynamics, and which places the most emphasis on aesthetics?
• What's the story in each game?

Discussion Jan 27th: What is a Game? (Moderation: Andy Nealen)

General:

• Do you agree with Costikyan's (or Crawford's) definition of a game?
• if not, how would you change the definition? What would you add/remove?
• Give an example of software you consider a game, which does not qualify under Costikyan/Crawford, yet is encompassed in your definition.
• Discuss the influence of Color (or Setting) in Puzzle Quest Galactrix (PQG) and Crayon Physics Deluxe (CPD).
• How do these games provide variety?

Puzzle Quest Galactrix

• Is PQG a puzzle or a game, or both?
• Is puzzle quest a puzzle at all?
• Discuss the core gameplay mechanic(s) of PQG.
• What are the resources and tokens in PQG?
• How are opposition and conflict represented in PQG?

Crayon Physics Deluxe

• Is CPD a game or a toy?
• What are the goals in CPD, and how do these motivate the player?
• Which of these goals are explicit?
• CPD has no explicit opposition. How to characterize struggle and conflict in the game?
• Are there any resources in CPD? Discuss.

What is a game?

• Discuss the key differences between CPD and PQC with respect to Costikyan's definition of a game.
• Do both qualify as Games according to Costikyan's definition?
• Do both CPD and PQG provide enough audiovisual information to make meaningful decisions?
• Discuss the nature of these decisions. Do they have consequences? How do they weave in to the overall gameplay experience?

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