Presentation given at JTEL2012 (Joint European Summer school on Technology Enhanced Learning) Event URL: http://www.prolearn-academy.org/Events/summer-school-2012 My contact email: caislas@gmail.com

1. Basics of Game Design
by Carolina Islas Sedano
PhD student at the University of Eastern Finland
Sunday, 27 May 2012

2. About me...
My academic background
1. BSc
Electronic
Engineering
in Mexico
Source image
2. MSc. 3. PhD.
Communication
Educational
and Media
Technologies
Engineering
Research Group
in Germany
2
in Finland
carolina islas sedano Source image JTELSS, 2012
Sunday, 27 May 2012

3. Workshop assumptions
• (i) everybody has played
games
Technology
• (ii) potentially everybody has
the capability to design
Learning
games, Education Game
Design
• (iii) the awareness of the
Context
game development
opportunities and needs in
TEL community.
Sunday, 27 May 2012

4. Workshop aim
• to build an understanding of the basic
concepts in game design.
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5. How to achieve the workshop’s aim
• Offer a brief presentation
• History
• Serious Games
• Game Design Basic Concepts
• Designing Game Tips
• Hands on
• Design a game
• Evaluate your designs
• Discussion
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6. preview: Hands on
• Create a turn-based game for two players.
• The game has to help the player to
understand/learn something. You can choose
the topic.
• The game will be designed in 15 minutes.
• The gameplay will occur within an A3 surface.
• Turns or moves may be signaled by either a
six sided dice (D6) or a coin. (I offer: A3
surface, color papers, pencil colors, dices)
Sunday, 27 May 2012

7. History
Brief Presentation
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8. Reference point
Playing manifestations:
• Being playful
• Ludic activities [ludus
is latin word of play]
• Gameplay
Figure from Islas Sedano, 2012
Source: Salen and Zimmerman (2004).
Further reading: Walther, K. (2003) Playing and Gaming
Defining Play. In Rules of Play. Game Design
Reflections and Classifications. Game Studies Journal Vol 3
Fundamentals. MIT Press
issue 1
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9. Question #1
How old games are?
1. aprox. 60 years old
2. aprox. 1000 years old
3. aprox. 2000 years old
4. as old as our civilizations
5. other
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10. How old games are?
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11. How old games are?
“The fact that play and culture
are actually interwoven with
one another was neither
observed nor expressed, whereas
for us the whole point is to
show that genuine, pure play is
one of the main bases of
civilization.” Huizinga, 1938.
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12. Meta classification
Do you know the following
terms:
agôn, alea, mimicry, ilinx,
paidia and ludus.
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13. Digital Game origins
1958 1961
Wally Steve Rusell
Higginbotham Spacewar!
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14. Digital Games
• Video games (consoles, computer games, MMO)
• Mobile games
• Location-based games* (e.g. visions with Augmented Reality)
• Pervasive games* (IPerG)
• ARG (Alternate Reality Games)*
* transmedia
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15. Serious Games
Brief Presentation
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16. Serious games history
• Edutainment
• First weave aprox. 1954 with
Disneyland
• Second weave in the 1980’s while
Disney believed thatspread should be
PC started to children
allowed togames their own individuality,
• Serious explore
have fun, and learn by personal experience
• End of the 1990s with Game Studies.
(Hawk, 2003)
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17. Serious games history
• Edutainment
• First weave aprox. 1954 with
Disneyland
• Second weave in the 1980’s while
PC started to spread
"[t]he problem is with the way that creators of today's edutainment producers tend to
• Serious games
think about learning and education. Too often, they view education as a bitter
medicine that needs the sugar-coating of entertainment to become palatable. They
provide entertainment as reward if you are willing to suffer through a little education.
• End of the 1990s with Game Studies.
Or they boast that you will have so much fun using their products that you won't even
realize that you are learning — as if learning were the most unpleasant experience in
the world" (Resnick, 2006). 16
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18. Serious games history
• Edutainment
• First weave aprox. 1954 with
Disneyland
• Second weave in the 1980’s while PC
started to spread
• Serious games
• The term starts to be often used at the
end of the 1990s with Game Studies.
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19. Today’s arguments in serious games
Lindroth (2011). Games, Learning and Education Course.
Göthenburg University. He mentions:
• Side effects of the technology.
For instance, while players play, they gain new literacy skills
from digital games, such as multitasking (e.g. Prensky, 2000.
Digital Game-based learning)
• Players acquire knowledge as a side effect of their gameplay.
For instance, multimodal representations of a subject (e.g.
Gee, 2003. What video game have to teach us about learning and
literacy)
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20. Serious games from game designers perspective
(based on Brathwaite & Schreiber, 2009)
• Training games
• Health games
• Advergames and anti-advergames
• Social-awareness games, persuasive games
(Ian Bogost)
• Games as a teaching tool (e.g. game design
workshops, inspirational tool as the Myst
platform, MindcraftEdu)
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21. Challenges for serious games
• Difficult making games that teach and are fun
• Conflict between educational goals and the
characteristics of games
• Efficiency in games (less efficient than other
methodologies)
• Educators’ negative believes about games
• Misinterpretations of Gamification
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22. Game Design Basic Concepts
Basic and Brief Presentation
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23. System.... (in engineering)
..... is a combination of components that act jointly to achieve
a specific objective.
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24. System.... (in engineering)
..... is a combination of components that act jointly to achieve
a specific objective.
Ogata, K. (1987) Dynamic Systems.
Page 417
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25. System lexicon (engineering)
A component is a particular unit in the function of a
system.
A system can be call dynamic when the output
depends of an input from the past. That means, systems
are changing states or moving constantly to be useful.
Example: vehicles, entertainment equipment (TV, radio),
computers.
A static system is constant. Example: buildings, bridges,
furniture.
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26. Defining Games
Games are dynamics systems of
interaction approached with a playful
attitude.
Games consist of
• Game components often includes
aesthetics, story, technology
• Game mechanics
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27. Technology is...
.... essentially the medium in which the
aesthetics take place, in which the mechanics
will occur, and which the story will be told
(Schell, 2008 pg 42).
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28. Bonus: Gartner Hype Cycle
Figure source here
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29. Digital technology for this workshop
27 photo source
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30. Game mechanics
• Game mechanics are the core of the
game.
• Taxonomies of game mechanics are
incomplete.
Why?
a) involve objective set of rules
b) involve mental models of the players.
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31. Game mechanics bonus
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32. What do designers do?
• Everything we have around us has been designed (Cross, 2006)
• The ability of designers to produce efficient, effective,
imaginative and stimulating designs is therefore important
to all of us (Cross, 2006).
Source: Cross, N.(2006). Designerly ways of knowing.
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33. Game design
Game design is the process of creating the content and
rules of a game. Good game design is the process of
creating goals that a player feels motivated to reach
and rules that a player must follow as he makes
meaningful decisions in pursuit of those goals. (Brathwaite
& Schreiber, 2009)
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34. Designing Games Tips
Brief Presentation
Remember: we design for players!
DESIGNER CREATES AN
EXPERIENCE FOR THE PLAYERS
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35. Ways to think or frame about the game of
Chess
1. Strictly a strategic and
mathematical system.
Source: Salen and Zimmerman (2004). Game
Design Fundamentals. MIT Press
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36. Ways to think or frame about the game of
Chess
1. Strictly a strategic and
mathematical system.
2. System of interaction
between players and
the game.
Source: Salen and Zimmerman (2004). Game
Design Fundamentals. MIT Press
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37. Ways to think or frame about the game of
Chess
1. Strictly a strategic and
mathematical system.
2. System of interaction
between players and
the game.
Source: Salen and Zimmerman (2004). Game
Design Fundamentals. MIT Press
Source photo geograph
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38. Taxonomy of Game Mechanics
suggested by Schell.
1. Space
2. Object, attribute and states
3. Actions
4. Rules
5. Skills
6. Chance
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39. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #1: Space
• Are either discrete or continuos
• Have some number of dimensions
• Have bounded areas which may or may
not be connected
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40. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #1: Space
Examples:
Source image tic-tac-toe Source image pool table
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41. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #1: Space
Examples:
Figure based on Schell’s concept
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42. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #2: Object, Attributes and States
• Objects: characters, tokens, scoreboards,
anything that can be seen or manipulated
in your game. Objects have one or more
attributes, one of which is often the
current position in the game space
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43. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #2: Object, Attributes and States
• Attributes are categories of information
about an object.
• Each attribute has a current state.
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44. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #2: Object, Attributes and States
Source image monopoly
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45. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #2: Object, Attributes and States TIP
SECRETS
Who is aware of which attributes and
their states?
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46. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #2: Object, Attributes and States TIP
fates
game
Player 3
C D E
Player 1
A B
Player 2
Figure based on Schell’s concept
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47. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #3: Actions
• Operative actions - simple actions that
the player can take.
Source image checkers
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48. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #3: Actions
• Resultant actions - are only meaningful
in the larger picture of the game.
Resultant actions are not part of the
rules, but rather actions and strategies
that emerge as the game is played.
Interesting emergent actions are the hallmark
of a good game. (Schell, 2008)
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49. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #4: Rules
• Fundamental mechanic.
• Define the space, the objects, the actions,
the consequences of the actions, the
constrains on the actions and the goals.
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50. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #4: Rules
• Most important rule specify the game’s
goal:
1) Concrete
2) Achievable
3) Rewarding
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51. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #5: Skill
• Mechanic that focuses on the player instead of on
the game. Skills can be general be divided in:
1) Physical skills
2) Mental skills
3) Social skills
• Pay attention in the distinction between real skill
VS virtual skill
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52. Schell’s Taxonomy
Mechanic #6: Chance
• Chance = uncertainty = surprise.
• mathematical perspective
• perceived probability (human
element)
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53. Mathematical perspective
3 basic tips
1. Suggestion to scale 0 to 1 (0% to 100%)
-10% winning? or 124.12 % of chance of win
2. OR can mean Add
4/52 + 12/52 = 16/52 = 30.76%
(13 cards - 1 of the ace = 12)
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54. Mathematical perspective
3 basic tips
3. Probability distribution
What actions do you want to
have more/less often in your
game?
Analyze the expected value
for specific transactions in
the game.
photo source
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55. Perceived probability...
• Game A:
66% chance of winning $2400
33% chance of winning $2500
1% chance of winning $0
Expected value of game:
(0.66x$2400)+(0.33x$2500)+(0.01x$0)=$2409
• Game B:
100% chance of winning $2400
Expected value of the game:
(1x$2400)=$2400
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56. Perceived probability...
Kahneman and Tversky (psychologists) study
how we can under-estimate and over-estimate
situations:
Cause of death estimated chance actual chance
heart disease 22% 34%
cancer 18% 23%
other natural causes 33% 35%
accident 32% 5%
homicide 10% 1%
other unnatural causes 11% 2%
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57. Game dynamics
Once players are playing the game is possible
to see the game mechanics in movement,
because the game dynamics unveil.
Game dynamics allow game designers to
balance the game with different choices, for
example:
• rewards VS punishment,
• skill VS chance,
• competition VS cooperation,
• short VS long, ....
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58. Hands on part I: DESIGN
• Create a turn-based game for two players.
• The game has to help the player to understand/learn something. You can choose
the topic.
• The game will be designed in 15 minutes.
• The gameplay will occur within an A3 surface.
• Turns or moves may be signaled by either a six sided dice (D6) or a coin. (I offer:
A3 surface, color papers, pencil colors, dices)
• Think on the:
• Space,
• Object, attributes and states,
• Actions,
• Rules,
• Skills,
• Chance
• I recommend to balance skill VS chance!
• Remember the game is for a player!!!!
• Deliver paper prototype which will be played in the next phase.
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59. Question might help in the design:
1. Is the goal clear for the players in the game?
2. What skills does the game require from the
player?
3. What sort of emotions is the game trying to
evoke in the player?
4. What should the player take away from the
game?
5. What sort of control will the player have over
the game-world?
6. How is this game unique?
7. What do you want the players to understand/
learn?
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60. Thank you for your attention
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