Kuittinen&Holopainen @ DIGRA 2009

Some notes on the nature of
game design

Jussi Kuittinen (University of Jyväskylä)
Jussi Holopainen (Nokia Research Center)

© Annakaisa Kultima

How are these equal?


They are all designed for a
certain purpose


• Game design literature concentrates on
the content of the design i.e. games and
features of games
• Game design is an activity like all forms
of design and should be studied as such.


Linear process model

Idea Design Implementation Testing Maintenance


Iterative process model

Design

Analyze Test


The black box of design needs
to be opened


Two complementary models
• Löwgren and Stolterman’s (2007)
abstraction layers
• Lawson’s model of design thinking
(2005)


The abstraction model by
Löwgren and Stolterman

Vision Operative image

Specification


Vision
• The first guiding principles or ideas
“A STYLIZED HORROR SHOOTER. THE FRENETIC gameplay of
DEVIL MAY CRY meets the horror setting of RESIDENT EVIL and the
immersive game-world of HALF-LIFE.” The Suffering
“There were various issues of this nature, but when questions came up,
we could always turn to our vision statement for guidance and
inspiration.” Titan Quest
“We wanted a bright friendly world set in a historical but mythological time
frame. We wanted to offer unique gameplay features that would appeal to
hardcore gamers yet always be accessible to the casual audience. Fun
and commonsensical approaches [..] which helped to keep the focus on
player enjoyment. Moving forward, we made all our decisions in light of
this overarching vision [..]” Titan Quest


Operative image
• First explicit representations of the vision


Specification
• Sufficiently detailed operative image that
can instruct how to construct the final
artefact


[Implementation]
• Construction and delivery of the final
artefact


Leaping between layers

Vision

Operative
image

Specification


Lawson’s model of designing
• Formulating
• Representing
• Moving
• Bringing problems and solutions together
• Evaluating
• Reflecting


Formulating
• Identifying the elements of the design situation
• Framing the design situation in a way that allows an
experimental design move to be made.
“[..]THE SUFFERING was to be an action horror game, instead of a
survival horror game. This meant we were going to focus more on
combat and avoid the long cut-scenes, frail central characters, clumsy
controls, fixed camera angles, and sparse ammo of many console horror
games.“ The Suffering
“With each of the basic punches, jabs, hooks, and uppercuts, you could
see basic motions that your fist made with each punch. It finally dawned
on us that you could [..] let [the gamers] make the same motions with the
analog sticks that boxers make in real life with their fists.” EA Sports
Fight Night 2004
“We tried to ask ourselves the same questions about each scene, page,
and individual line of dialogue. Why does this exist? What information or
emotion does this bring to the story?” Gun

Representing
• Creating representations of the design
situation to make possible design
choices more concrete
“To start, we decided to visualize the RATCHET & CLANK universe PS3-
style by recreating Metropolis, one of the iconic locations from our PS2
series. We did this by building a “diorama” of the city, adding vehicles,
and sending a camera through it. We built our test city using the
RESISTANCE engine, stitched together a frame by frame camera fly
through, and added audio effects to simulate the experience of being in
Metropolis” Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction
“our game and level design work had much more in common with HALF-
LIFE than with DMC [Devil May Cry], except for our controls. [..] What we
had originally implemented was a target-lock system inspired by
SYPHON FILTER [..] and DMC” The Suffering


Moving
• Creating new or modifying existing design
solutions

“Once we recalibrated the game to be more like a shooter, we
simplified many of the deeper systems tremendously so that
the user would be able to understand them. [..] We ended up
with fewer choices overall, but each one of those choices was
infinitely more functional, understandable, and fun than the
previous ones.“ BioShock


Bringing problems and solutions
together

• Solutions and problems are two aspects of the
design situation and may be hard to discern
from each other
“We asked for the tilt sensor and whammy bar well before we had
any clear idea of how they would be used in the game” Guitar
Hero


Evaluating
• Making judgements concerning the design
situation
“When confronted with any art or design question, it was great to
be able to ask, “Does this rock?” and proceed accordingly.”
Guitar Hero
“[..] the entire design team [..] headed off to see how a group that
knew nothing about our company or BIO SHOCK would react to
the first level. It was brutal. The first level, they said, was overly
dense, confusing, and not particularly engaging. Players would
acquire new powers but not know how to use them, so they stuck
to using more traditional weapons and became frustrated.”
BioShock


Reflecting
• Reflection-in-action is the designer’s continual
thinking about the design situation
• Reflection-on-action is a high-level activity of
monitoring the design process
Postmortems themselves

” The questions we constantly asked were: Does it feel like you’re going
fast? Does it feel good to punch the other skaters (and pedestrians)?
Does it feel like gravity is pulling you downhill? Does it feel good to
power-slide around a corner?” Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for Wii


Why are we doing this?


Impact and future work
• Understanding design activity allows us
to
– Develop and refine methods
– Raise critical awareness of game design
– Better situate game design into a larger
cultural context


Thank you!

Questions?

jussi.kuittinen@jyu.fi
jussi.holopainen@nokia.com

http://gamesandinnovation.com


Kuittinen&Holopainen @ DIGRA 2009

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