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FUN AND ACCESSABILITY Session 10 David Mullich Game Design 1 The Los Angeles Film School

LAFS Game Design 10 - Fun and Accessability

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Session 10 of the Los Angeles Film School's Game Design 1 class.

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Page 1: LAFS Game Design 10 - Fun and Accessability

FUN AND ACCESSABILITYSession 10

David Mullich

Game Design 1

The Los Angeles Film School

Page 2: LAFS Game Design 10 - Fun and Accessability

IS YOUR GAME FUN?

Page 3: LAFS Game Design 10 - Fun and Accessability

Is Your Game Fun?

Here’s how you can tell if your game is fun:

ASK THE PLAYTESTERS.

If there they say “no”, here are some things to look at to find out where your game may be lacking in the Fun Department.

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The Fun Factor

Play Living Out Fantasies Story Social Interaction Exploration and Discovery Collection Stimulation Self Expression and Performance

Page 5: LAFS Game Design 10 - Fun and Accessability

The Fun Factor

Challenge Reaching and Exceeding Goals Competing Against Opponents Stretching Personal Limits Exercising Difficult Skills Making Interesting Choices Construction / Destruction

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Fun in Monopoly

Goal of owning all the property on the board

Competition among players Fantasy of being a real estate

tycoon Socializing with other players Construction/destruction of houses

and hotels Collection of property sets

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Fun in Tetris

Goal of clearing all your line of blocks

Simulation of catchy music, colorful blocks

Collection of all the blocks in a single row

Construction/destruction of row of blocks

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Fun in World of Warcraft

Main goal of growing your character with smaller goals of quests and adventures

Competition among players Fantasy of being in a sword and sorcery world Social interaction with online players Exploration of huge fantasy world Stimulation with 3D graphics and sound Self-expression through role-playing Huge story and cast of characters Character construction and monster destruction Collection of inventory items

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IMPROVING PLAYER CHOICES

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Consequence

For a game to engage a player, each choice must alter the course of the game. The decision needs to have “risk vs. reward” potential.

What type of decisions are your players making?

Are those decisions truly meaningful or are they tangential to the main objective?

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Consequence

You shouldn’t have too many choices in your game that are inconsequential. But not every choice needs to be life or death either. An engaging game has peaks and valleys in its tension level.

CRITICAL

IMPORTANT

NECESSARY

MINOR

INCONSEQUENTIAL

Life and Death

Direct and Immediate Impact

Indirect or Delayed Impact

Small Impact. Direct or Indirect.

No Impact or Outcome..

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Decision Types

Hollow Decision: No real consequences Obvious Decision: No real decision Uninformed Decision: An arbitrary choice Informed Decision: Where the player has ample information Dramatic Decision: Taps into the player’s emotional state Weighted Decision: A balanced decision with

consequences on both sides Immediate Decision: With an immediate impact Long-Term Decision: Has an impact will be felt down the

road

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Dilemmas

A dilemma is a decision in which no matter what the player chooses, something will be gained and something will be lost.

A well-placed dilemma and tradeoff can resonate emotionally with a player when encountered within the struggle to win your game.

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Cake Cutting Scenario

The cake cutting scenario is an example of a zero-sum game – the chooser gains the crumb lost by the cutter. The Minima Theory states that there are rational ways to make choices in a zero-sum game, and these are scenarios game designers need to avoid.

Chooser gets a slightly bigger piece.

Chooser gets a slightly smaller piece.

Chooser gets a bigger piece.

Chooser gets a smaller piece.

Cut as Evenly as Possible

Cut One Piece Bigger

Cutter’sStrategies

Choose Bigger Piece

Choose Smaller Piece

Chooser’s Strategies

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Prisoner’s Dilemma

Temptation > Reward > Punishment > Sucker

The question put before the two prisoners does not have an obvious or optimal decision. Games in which players can communicate and negotiate can make for even more compelling strategic gameplay.

Mario = 3 yearsLuigi = 3 years

Mario = 5 yearsLuigi = 0 years

Mario = 0 yearsLuigi = 5 years

Mario = 1 yearLuigi = 1 year

Rat on Mario

Don’tRat

Luigi’s Strategies

Rat on Luigi Don’t Rat

Mario’s Strategies

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How Much Agency do Games Need?

Extra Credits: How Much Agency do Games Need?

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The Lens of Meaningful Choices

Which choices am I asking the player to make? Are they meaningful? How? Am I giving the player the right amount of choices?

Would more make them feel more power? Would less make the game clearer?

Are there dominant strategies in my game?

Jesse Schell, Lens #32

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Rewards and Punishments

Game designers often emphasizes the rewards while limiting the punishments.

However, the threat of punishment, if not the actual punishment itself, carries dramatic tension.

Getting killed is not fun, but sneaking past the guard and avoiding that threat can be a lot of fun.

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Rewards and Punishments

Use the following guidelines for creating your rewards system:1. Rewards that are useful in obtaining victory carry

greater weight.2. Rewards that have a romantic association, like magic

weapons or gold, appear to be more valuable.3. Rewards that are tied into the game’s storyline have

added impact.Make each reward count, and if it can both push the player closer to victory and advance the story, so much the better.

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Rewards and Punishments

Operant Conditioning: the frequency of performing a given behavior is directly related to whether it is rewarded or punished.

The timing and quantity of rewards is critical. If you give the player a steady stream of small rewards, it becomes meaningless.

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Rewards and Punishments

Fixed interval schedule: not very effective Fixed ratio schedule: more effective Random ratio schedule: most effective

The Skinner Box approach works well for game mechanics that are repetitive and likely to become rote.

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Anticipation

The more clearly you allow players to see and anticipate the consequences of their actions, the more meaningful their choices will be.

Games with closed or mixed information structures can create anticipation by giving players quick or limited information. This can actually increase the game’s tension.

Fog of War

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Surprise

Surprise is one of the most powerful tools in a game designer’s toolbox. Randomness adds a level of drama in not knowing how an event will turn out.

When do you know when to surprise the player or to telegraph the situation? The trick is to find the right balance between the randomness of surprise and the importance of making player choices meaningful.

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The Lens of Surprise

What will surprise my players when they play my game?

Does the story in my game have any surprises? Do the game rules? Does the artwork? The technology?

Do your rules give players ways to surprise each other?

Doo your rules give players ways to surprise themselves.

Jesse Schell, Lens #2

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Progress

Nothing is as satisfying as seeing the choices you make result in progress, giving the player a sense of achievement.

One approach for structuring progress is to design milestones for players. These are small goals along the way toward the ultimate goal of winning. Milestones can come in the form of levels or missions. However, there is no reason why you cannot measure progress in several ways at once.

Keep in mind the amount of time the player will spend in the game. Pace the game’s progress so that the player achieves a milestone or has a memorable game event during each play session.

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The Resolution

After the player has spent many hours playing your game, do you reward them at the end?

Multiplayer games have the built-in reward of the satisfaction of beating the other players, but in a single-player game, can you reward the player with a meaningful animation?

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FUN KILLERS

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Micromanagement

There is a fine line between granting your hardcore players control and burdening your average player with unwanted chores.

Micromanagement takes place when a task becomes repetitive or tedious to the player. The best way to find this out is to ask your playtesters.

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Micromanagement

Possible solutions: Simplify your game system by eliminating

lesser decisions Combine many microdecisions into one

macrodecision Give the players the choice of automating

certain tasks

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Stagnation

Stagnation is where nothing new seems to be happening for a long period of time and choices stay at the same level of importance and impact.

One source of stagnation is when players are forced to do the same task over and over. The game designer needs to find ways of varying the action and communicating to the player how progress is being made.

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Stagnation

Another type of stagnation is when the balance of power between players keeps shifting so no one achieves victory. The solution is to create a condition that tips the balance of power so far in the favor of the winner that he can defeat the other players.

A third type is a reinforcing or balancing loop where the player gets so far behind, he can never catch up. One solution is to create a random event that can shake things up.

The last type is where it feels like nothing is happening because nothing is happening due to poorly define goals. The solution is to make the game’s goals clearer.

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Insurmountable Obstacles

Insurmountable obstacles are situations that appear to be impossible to solve to many players.

The best solution is to make sure that the game has some way of recognizing when the player is stuck and provide them with help for overcoming the obstacle without ruining the challenge for them – such as game characters placed in strategic spots to provide clues.

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Arbitrary Events

Arbitrary events are random situations that disrupt the player experience. Bad surprises need to fit in with the players’ expectations for the game and be telegraphed in advance so that they can make preparations.

A good rule of thumb is to warn the player at least three times before hitting them with anything catastrophic. Random events that have lesser impact require smaller warnings or even no warning at all.

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Predictable Paths

Games that give the player only one path to victory can become predictable. Consider giving each object in the world a simple set of behaviors and rules for interaction rather than scripting each encounter separately.

Another solution is to give players a choice from among several objectives.

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IS YOUR GAME ACCESSIBLE?

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Game Accessibility

The final aspect to refining your game is making sure it’s accessible to its intended players.

Can players pick up your game and understand it without help from you?

Usability specialists are generally trained psychologists or researchers whose focus on testing and how users interact with products.

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Layman’s Usability Testing

You will need 3-8 playtesters who are: Part of your target market Objective (not friends or relatives) Never played your game before

You need to identify the most critical areas of your game and create a script to get them focused on the areas of interest to you.

Identify areas that are causing problems, make revisions, and do another series of tests until you are satisfied that your target players have access to the most critical parts of your game.

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Course Evaluation

Go to the following link and fill out the course evaluation:

http://goo.gl/forms/zHgILf5F6H

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1. Playtest 3 of your fellow students’ games

2. Fill out playtesting form for each

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