Introduction to game_design

1. Fundamentals of Game Design
What is Game Design?
Sayed Ahmed
BSc. Eng. in CSc. & Eng. (BUET)
MSc. in CSc. (U of Manitoba)
http://sayed.justEtc.net
http://www.justETC.net
Just E.T.C for Business, Education, and Technology Solutions
www.JustEtc.net
JustE.T.Csayed@justetc.net
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2. Course Target
 You Will
 Be Introduced to Unreal
 Learn major elements of Game Design
 Learn major elements of game play
 Learn fundamental game design techniques
 Develop a game design
 Critically evaluate games from different genres
 Develop an understanding of the basic elements of game play
 Balancing
 Risk versus reward
 Engagement
 Document a game design using a game design document
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3. Today’s Class
 Discuss What is a game
 Introduction to Unreal (Game Development Engine)
 Discuss the Elements of Game Play
 Character Development
 Storytelling and Narrative
 User Interfaces
 Game Play
 Core Mechanics
 Game Balancing
 Level Design
 Introduction to the Game Design Document
 Analyze a serious game in light of Game Design Document
 Brainstorm Game Design Ideas
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4. Define game Design
 It’s a process that involves
 Imagining a game
 Define how it will work (the story, the interaction, the rules)
 Define the elements of the game
 Conceptual
 Functional
 Artistic
 Others….
 Communicate the idea to the design team
 What does a game designer do?
 Perform all the above tasks

5. Design Arts or Science
 Neither purely arts nor purely science
 The imagining of ideas and concepts, and making
the game aesthetic belong to Arts
 However, to be a great game, the game also
needs to function well. Though it’s not purely
science but to implement the functionality,
concepts from science and math are highly used
 Games are crafts with highest possible level of
elegance

6. Anatomy of Game Design
 Game design is
 creative and imaginative
 where inherent talent also plays a very important role
 And hence, Game design cannot be represented as
 strict step by step procedure or rules or processes
 However, game design is not a random process either
(knowingly or unknowingly).
 We may be able to identify some similarities
(common/basic components/concepts/principles) in the
successful games (may be genre dependent)
 And device some common principles that hopefully will
lead to good game design
 Can work as guidelines for the novices (or checklist for
the more experienced)

7. Key Elements of Games
 As there is no perfect rule
 One way of seeing game design is
 Identifying common elements in a genre of games
 And Create games in that genre with similar elements but
different story, or graphics goals
 Or find out the genre of your game concept, identify the
common elements of that genre, compare, think, innovate.
Make the game more interesting
 Your ideas, stories can be great but it also needs to have
some of those common and useful elements
 Publishers usually do not go for the very innovative ideas
but want the idea similar to a recent hit with some more
twists
 The successful games are successful – there is a reason
behind this

8. Key Elements of Game
 Common elements
 Rules of the game (your concept should have rules)
 The player’s role
 The challenges
 ….
 Two games can have many common elements but
 different settings, rules, strategies, and balancing
 Many games have the same/similar play mechanics
but with different graphics
 Identifying common elements
 does not to encourage you to imitate/create cookie-cutter
games
 but to ensure that all essential elements are covered

9. Ground Rules for Game Design
 Game design can be broken in three specific area
 Core mechanics
 Storytelling
 Interactivity
 Core mechanics
 Storytelling
 All game has a story
 The game itself can be a story like princess of Persia
 The player can create the story (the way he plays and reaches
the goal)
 Talk about Narrative and non – narrative
 No story, the player creates the story
 Linear narrative, non linear narrative

10. Interactivity
 Define how the interactivity will work
 Graphics
 Sounds
 User Interface
 Poor interactivity can ruin a game
 Wire wind for example
 Use right click, icon based menus, select options to proceed
 Interactivity includes the user interface as well
 Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mario 64 for Wii

11. Importance of Design Document
 All game companies now want a design document
to be written
 The design document may not include all ideas
but can write down the decisions
 Many ideas come from lunch meetings
 If a feature is not written down
 Someone has to create it on the fly
 Different team member may work to different goals

12. Types of Design Documents
 High Concept (2-4) pages
 Game treatment (10-20 pages)
 Game script (50-200 pages)
 High Concept (2-4) pages
 Got a great game idea? Write a high concept document. Will
be used to express the idea to the publishers to fund the game
 Covers
 Premise of the game
 Intended audience
 Genre

13. Game Design Document
 Game Treatment
 Analysis of the Competition
 How your game is different
 A document to sale your game
 Some business and development details
 Game Script
 Bible of the game
 Game design decisions
 Creative, conceptual, and functional
 Does not include how the game will be implemented in
software
 The design document may help you to play the games in paper
– brainstorm, get feedbacks
 A cheaper way to evaluate the game

14. Design Document
 Design Document
 The design document defines the game concept as well as functional and technical
specifics of the game. A design document consists of 3 parts:
 Game Concept Document
 Game Design Document
 Technical Design Document
 Game Design Document:
 Game Foundations (Game Features, The Essence of the Game play, Characters,
Game play Elements, AI)
 User Interface (Navigational Chart, Functional Requirements, Objects of the User
Interface)
 Graphics and Video (Graphics and Animations, Animated Insertions)
 Sounds and Music (General Description, Sound Effects, Music)
 Plot
 Level Description (The graph of the Positional Relationship of the Levels, Queue of
the New Objects Implementation, General Level Design Description)
 Reference:
http://digitalworlds.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/the-process-of-game-creation-the-game-design-documen
(Program Ace)
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15. Elements of Game Play
 Character Development, Storytelling and
Narrative, User Interfaces, Game play, Core
Mechanics,
 Game Balancing, Level Design
 Introduction to the Game Design Document
 Activity: Analyze a serious game in light of a
game design document – “Project Moonwalk”
 Group discussion of Moonwalk
 Activity: Brainstorm Game design ideas, begin
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16. Anatomy of Game Designer
 Requires both
 Talent
 Skill
 Skill Set
 Imagination
 Still if you do not have a talent for it, you can grow and improve
(through exercise of imaginations)
 Forms of Imagination
 Visual and auditory
 Dramatic
 Good character plot, motivation, emotion, climaxes, and outcomes
 Conceptual
 Relationship between ideas, their interactions, and dependencies
 Basic knowledge of the technical capabilities of the platform

17. Anatomy of Game Designer
 Analytical Competence
 Able to recognize good part and bad part of a design.
 Self criticize and improve
 Take opinions, and process those opinions
 Mathematical Competence
 Some math concepts are essential
 Aesthetic Competence
 Writing Skills
 Technical Writing
 Fiction Writing
 Manual, Background Material, Character Description
 Dialog Writing
 Audio voice cover and cinematic materials

18. Anatomy of Game Designer
 Drawing Skills
 Ability to Compromise
 Consider customer or publisher interests and adjust
 Compromise to the limitation of the platform

19. References
 Fundamentals of Game Design, 2nd Edition,
Ernest Adams, Prentice Hall, 2006, ISBN-10:
0131687476. ISBN-13: 978-0131687479
 http://computer.justetc.net

20. Fundamentals of Game Design
Unreal and Maya
Sayed Ahmed
BSc. Eng. in CSc. & Eng.
MSc. in CSc.
http://sayed.justetc.net
http://www.justETC.net
Presented at the University of Winnipeg
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
By
Just E.T.C www.JustEtc.net
JustE.T.Csayed@justetc.net
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21. Unreal Game Engine (UDK)
 Reference:
 Basics , creating a scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8eJUYMKvUo
 Adding Objects/Items to the scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqVPQ5S_Au0&feature


22. Video Tutorials
 http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VideoTutorials.html
 User Interfaces
 All
 Content Browsers
 Import external objects
 View Port Options
 Sound Effects
 Use existing sound waves
 Use Existing Sound Cues
 Create new sound waves/cues
 Physics
 Whatever is shown in the class
 UI Scenes
 Convert UI elements and add game play
 Import external objects and add properties

23. Create and Use Existing Map Files
 Create
 http://www.fileplanet.com/209254/download/UDK-Tutorial---Firs

24. Resources
 http://udk.com/documentation

25. Game Design and Development Career
 Inside EA:
 http://www.youtube.com/user/InsideEA
 EA Game Design Career Paths
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvPZ8xG4LlQ
 Mum, Dad, I want to be a Game Designer
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiQcANX3NNE&feature=relm
 EA QA (Games Tester) Career Paths
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foyEgHHBcI4&feature=relmfu
 EA Programming Career Paths
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eo2ikmbREo&feature=relate