game-design-curriculum

Table of Contents:

What is a Game?
Why Do Humans Play Games?
Games of Chance / Games of Skill
- Solved Games
- Being out of your league / swimming out of your depth
  - Vocab Review 1
Game Balance
Feedback Loops
Randomness
- Procedural Generation
- Input Randomness vs Output Randomness
Probability
Reward Systems
- Calculating Score
- Multiple Paths to Victory
Player Agency
- Bad Decision Design
- Good Decision Design
Rule Symmetry/Asymmetry
- Asymmetric Win Conditions
Narrative Writing / World Building
Immersiveness and Flow
Are Video Games Art?
- Art-y Games
- Arcane Kids
Interactive Art
Serious Games / Games For Change
- Nicky Case
Recommended YouTube channels for additional information

What Is a Game?

Is this a game? If not, what is it?


Magic Eye image	Rubiks Cube	Where’s Waldo?
Lift-the-Flap Book	Slinky	Magic 8-ball
Jump rope	2 Truths and 1 Lie	Ring Toss
Marbles	Cookie Clicker	Webkinz/Tamagotchi/Virtual Pet
Fidget Spinner	Word Search	Hopscotch
Fishing	Skipping rocks	Spelling Bee
Musical chairs	Bottle Flipping	Coloring book
Skateboard	20 Questions	Bop-it
FarmVille	Lego set	Nerf Gun
Wooden cup and ball on a stick	Pop-up Book	Don't let the balloon touch the ground
Bouncy Ball	Laser Tag	Fantasy Football
Bobbing for Apples	Geocaching	Furby
Choose Yr Own Adventure book	Electronic Simon	Pinball
Beyblades	Sudoku	Yo-yo
Mad Libs	The Sims or SimCity	Pin the tail on the donkey
Escape Room	Crossword	Hula Hoop
Riddle	Pinball	Solitaire
Don't step on a crack	I Spy	Duolingo

What is a Game?: Crash Course Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPqR2wOs8WI

Toys vs games vs puzzles vs simulations

READ: My Definition of 'Game' by Chris Crawford http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/the-journal-of-computer/jcgd-volume-4/my-definition-of-game.html

Chris Crawford is a veteran game designer and founder of the Game Developers Conference (GDC). He's written several book on game design and his 1984 book The Art of Computer Game Design is available online. Crawford's hierarchy/taxonomy of games divides interactive entertainment ("intertainments") into 5 categories: Interactive Stories, Toys, Puzzles, Competitions, and Games.

What is a game? vocab

interactive story: a narrative with some small interactive element added
toy: a plaything without defined goals
puzzle: a challenge without purposeful opponents
competition: a form of play without direct interaction between the players
game: a form of play in which players directly interact and are allowed to hurt each other's performance

What makes a GOOD game?

Because there are different styles of games, it's easier to ask...

What makes a good survival horror game?
What makes a good platformer game?
What makes a good adventure game?
What makes a good puzzle game?

Generally speaking all good games have: player agency (aka player choices), replayability, and a challenge.

3 Minute Game Design: Episode 2 - The Forms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgyVwFRrzcU

"X" isn’t a game! http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/03/13/x-isnt-a-game/ - review Raph Koster's venn diagram of games and digital interactive art

Which category do the following describe?

challenges without opponents that have clearly defined goals
interactive playthings, simulations, and sandbox games without defined goals
challenges with opponents without direct interaction between the competitors
narratives with limited interaction in which the primary entertainment value is the storyline
challenges with opponents in which the players (human or A.I.) directly interact in such a way as to foil each other’s goals

Cow Clicker by Ian Bogost http://bogost.com/games/cow_clicker/ - an experiment and deconstructive satire of social games by a Georgia Tech professor

Why Do Humans Play Games?

Why Do We Play Games? by Vsauce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5jDspIC4hY

BF Skinner & Positive Reinforcement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG2SwE_6uVM&feature=youtu.be&t=430

positive reinforcement: the act of providing feedback (often a reward) for a behavior in order to change the likelihood that it to happens again in the future

Games of Chance vs Games of Skill

Discuss: What are some games of chance?

How to Win at Candyland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC9ogJy2bwk

DataGenetics.com "There is no skill required to play Candyland (other than being able to recognise colours)" http://datagenetics.com/blog/december12011/index.html

Discuss: How would YOU improve Candyland?

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/candy-land/images/3/39/Candyland_Game_Board.jpg

Luck and Skill in Games by Skaff Elias https://youtu.be/2owa2s8GdlM?t=958

Discuss: What are some games of skill?

game of chance: a game in which the outcome is mostly determined by a random device
game of skill: a game in which the outcome is mostly determined by mental or physical ability

Not enough luck could lead to:

Analysis Paralysis
Solved Games
Being out-matched / out of your league / swimming out of your depth

Solved Games

List of Solved Games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Solved_games

Connect Four
Checkers
Tic Tac Toe
Order and Chaos
Nim

TRY IT YOURSELF >>> Nim https://www.archimedes-lab.org/game_nim/play_nim_game.html

solved game: a game in which the outcome can be correctly predicted if both players play logically

Being out of your league / swimming out of your depth

Imagine playing chess against a Grand Master. Imagine boxing Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather. Imagine serving as goalkeeper against Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. You would likely be so out-matched that it would not be a very fun game.

Somali sprinter's "embarrasing" 22 second 100m race draws government apology

Wrestling weight classes

Vocab Review 1

interactive story: a narrative with some small interactive element added
toy: a plaything without defined goals
puzzle: a challenge without purposeful opponents
competition: a form of play without direct interaction between the players
game: a form of play in which players directly interact and are allowed to hurt each other's performance
game of chance: a game in which the outcome is mostly determined by a random device
game of skill: a game in which the outcome is mostly determined by mental or physical ability
solved game: a game in which the outcome can be correctly predicted if both players play logically

Game Balance

A well balanced game has multiple paths to victory (strategies, items, options, character choice) and no single path is over-powered.

If one path is always an obvious and better choice, most everyone will use the same path and other aspects of the game suffer. It becomes a game of skill and can become solved.

How Games Get Balanced by Game Maker's Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXQzdXPTb2A

game balancing: making sure that a game is fair and that no strategy is overpowered

Fairness

Essential question: Is the game fair?

THIS GAME IS RIGGED (Mario Party Superstars) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugd5U9e-Fh0

This game is not fair | Trap adventures 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7JoFDOU7YA

YOU’RE A TROLL! | TRAP ADVENTURE 2 (Adults React: Gaming) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfftgaedPwg

UNFAIR MARIO (React: Gaming) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBWimCDEo7o

A game is considered "unfair" if the player has a lack of control of the outcome. This could be cause by:

too much random chance (War or Candyland)
an imbalance caused by poor game design (for example, if the first player wins 90% of all games)
an imbalance caused by a skill gap (being out-matched) or an extreme level of difficulty

Handicapping

Some games of skill try to make the game more fair by addressing skill gaps using handicapping. Handicapping adjusts the difficulty level of the game based on the player's skill level.

Handicapping exists in:

Horse racing
Golf
Chess
Go
Shogi
Gliding
Polo
Sailing
Tennis

Mario Kart addresses skill gaps this with difficulty level (50cc/100cc/150cc), item distribution, and dynamic game difficulty balancing.

Difficulty Level https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_balance#Difficulty_level

handicapping: giving different advantages or disadvantages to players at the start of a game in order to equalize the chances of winning

Perfect Information

A game that has perfect information is one in which all players are perfectly informed of everything that happened up to the moment they play. Players can see the entire game state. There could be some random moves, but all players are able to see the result.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_information

Chess is an example of a game with perfect information. Chess also has LOTS of possible moves (especially early in the game).

Analysis paralysis is a problem in which a player is constantly pausing to think about strategy. The game loses its flow and slows down.

Choice Paralysis - Too Much of a Good Thing by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LKrwiGFFs

The paradox of choice is the idea that having more options to choose from is not always better. After making a choice, humans are less happy with their decision if there were too many options.

Overchoice or choice overload choosing between a large variety of options can be detrimental to decision making https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice

perfect information: a game feature in which players can see all the events that have previously occurred when making a decision
private information: a game feature in which players do not have the same common knowledge about the state of the game

Hidden Information

Too many strategy games are over hours before you actually win the game. Once you build up enough of a lead, you have the resources you need to respond to all the game's minor challenges. The key to fixing this problem is uncertainty: hidden information or unexpected events that make you change your plans and keep the game dynamic.

Uncertainty forces you to plan for contingencies and to rethink your strategy because that's what we play strategy games for. Uncertainty comes in lots of forms and randomness can be one of them but more often uncertainty comes in the form of hidden information, unexpected events or even simply playing against a player who might make some unpredictable move that will force you to reconsider your strategy.

Strategic Uncertainty - Keeping Strategy Games Fresh by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJKTDz1zYzs

3 Minute Game Design: Episode 7 - Hidden Information https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGQ-EZE-NO4

Imagine two options:

The key is always behind door #3
We randomly place the key behind door #1, #2, or #3

Option 1 is interesting the first time, but it is an obvious, boring choice on subsequent plays. Option 2 (hidden information) is always more interesting. The opposite is perfect information: Both players see all the game states and decisions. Each decision is made sequentially. Chess is an example of a game with perfect information.

Games need to be complex enough that they won't be solved, but simple enough that they are learnable. We can't give the player 0% of the information that they need to win (a completely random game) and we can't give them 100% of the information (a solved game).

3 Minute Game Design: Episode 3 - How Games Work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9io0mK-5Ec

Private Information

In most games, players do not possess full information. Some players possess private information (for example, hidden cards in a player's hand) or the game hides some information from all players (the murderer, weapon, and location in Clue).

private information is a game feature in which players do not have the same common knowledge about the state of the game

Vocab Review 2

game balancing: making sure that a game is fair and that no strategy is overpowered
handicapping: giving different advantages or disadvantages to players at the start of a game in order to equalize the chances of winning
perfect information: a game feature in which players can see all the events that have previously occurred when making a decision
private information: a game feature in which players do not have the same common knowledge about the state of the game

Feedback Loops

Feedback loops are systems where the output is fed back into the system as an input. In game design, this typically means that a player’s success or failure impacts the likelihood of future successes and failures.

What feedback do players get in the game Eleusis? How does the feedback change the state of the game? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjXXLCQS48E

How Games Use Feedback Loops by Game Maker’s Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4kbJObhcHw

Backup copy of video here

There are two types of feedback loops, positive feedback loops and negative feedback loops. These terms are borrowed from other fields such as control systems and biology, and they mean the same thing in games that they mean elsewhere.

Positive Feedback Loops reward players for performing well. It is a reinforcing relationship. Something happens that causes the same thing to happen again, which causes it to happen yet again, getting stronger in each iteration – like a snowball that starts out small at the top of the hill and gets larger and faster as it rolls and collects more snow. Source

A good example is the kill streak system in the Call of Duty games, especially the earlier titles like Modern Warfare. In those games, getting a handful of kills in a single life grants you special “kill streak” bonuses, which might mean putting enemy locations on your radar, or allowing you to call in an airstrike or an attack helicopter. Which ultimately means that those who are already doing well by racking up kills, are rewarded with the tools to do even better. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Source

positive feedback loop: a game mechanic in which the game rewards players for performing well with advantages that increase their performance

Runaway Leader

Too much positive feedback can be a problem. A runaway leader is a situation in which veteran players are constantly getting more resources/health/strength so that they become less and less likely to lose/die and become powerful steam rollers - which isn’t always that much fun. The game is easiest for whoever's in the lead, so they tend to get further and further in the lead. Players don’t like suffering through a game with no chance of catching the lead player. There is not enough uncertainty.

The runaway leader is one of the main problems with Monopoly and why so many people hate it:

runaway leader: a situation in which one player has an advantage and the other players feel they have no chance of winning and that playing out the rest of the game is pointless

Negative Feedback Loops

Negative feedback loops are, predictably, the opposite of positive feedback loops in just about every way. A negative feedback loop is a balancing relationship. When something happens in the game (such as one player gaining an advantage over the others), a negative feedback loop makes it harder for that same thing to happen again. If one player gets in the lead, a negative feedback loop makes it easier for the opponents to catch up (and harder for a winning player to extend their lead). In racing games, play is more interesting if the player is in the middle of a pack of cars rather than if they are way out in front or lagging way behind on their own (after all, there is more interaction if your opponents are close by). Source

There is one example everyone always uses when talking about negative feedback loops (but that’s just because it’s the perfect one)... the item distribution in Mario Kart. Players who manage to get to the front of the pack will find themselves getting rather weak items like green shells and banana peels. But those who are at the back of the crowd are handed really powerful weaponry like the bullet bill, the golden mushroom, and - of course - the infamous blue shell which specifically targets the person in first place. So winners are punished, and losers are rewarded.

Negative feedback loops can be great for party games where everyone should have a good time, and they create an interesting ebb and flow of comebacks and turnarounds which leads to good drama. But both need to be balanced carefully - positive loops are frustrating for weaker players who get stuck in a death spiral, or struggle to catch up to a runaway winner. And negative feedback loops feel unfair to successful players, who constantly have their victories get taken away. Source

Some examples of negative feedback loops:

Most physical sports like Football and Basketball, where after your team scores, the ball is given to the opposing team and they are then given a chance to score. This makes it less likely that a single team will keep scoring over and over.
In the Jackbox party game Trivia Murder Party, players that are winning get more multiple choice options and those that are losing get fewer options (more likely to randomly choose correctly).
The board game Starfarers of Catan has a negative feedback loop where every player with less than a certain number of victory points gets a free resource at the start of their turn. Early on, this affects all players and speeds up the early game. Later in the game, as some players get ahead and cross the victory point threshold, the players lagging behind continue to get bonus resources. This makes it easier for the trailing players to catch up. Source
In the farming board game Agricola, players in the lead will add more people (children) to their family which allows them take more turns, but as you add more people you also have more people that you must feed every round.
Ultimate Chicken Horse has an extra bonus for a comeback. Extra points are earned for reaching the goal as an Underdog, meaning that you haven't reached the goal for the past 2 (or more) turns while others have.

negative feedback loop: a game mechanic in which the game tries to avoid a runaway leader by either giving the lead player a disadvantage or giving others advantages

Dynamic Game Difficulty Balancing

Also known as Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_game_difficulty_balancing

Game Difficulty Balancing A.I. https://www.giantbomb.com/rubber-band-ai/3015-35/

How does Mario Kart incorporate Dynamic Game Difficulty Balancing? What items does a high ranked player receive compared to a low ranked player?

Mario Kart AI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoh5X30Qz-E&feature=youtu.be&t=29

Is Mario Kart Unfair? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FU5OJxj75c

Is Mario Kart unfair? https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=is+mario+kart+unfair

Left 4 Dead has an AI Director system "...which dynamically adjusts the game’s dramatics and pacing along with the difficulty. For example, spawning enemies are appropriately placed and numbered based on the player's current situation." Source

"...in Max Payne the game dynamically adjusts the strength of enemies and can also provide different levels of aiming assistance for players" Source

Vocab:

runaway leader: a situation in which one player has an advantage and the other players feel they have no chance of winning and that playing out the rest of the game is pointless
positive feedback loop: a game mechanic in which the game rewards players for performing well with advantages that increase their performance
negative feedback loop: a game mechanic in which the game tries to avoid a runaway leader by either giving the lead player a disadvantage or giving others advantages
dynamic game difficulty balancing: adjusting advantages or disadvantages in the middle of a game in order to provide an appropriate challenge

Randomness

Procedural Generation

How (and Why) Spelunky Makes its Own Levels by Game Maker's Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqk5Zf0tw3o

Procedural Generation - How Games Create Infinite Worlds by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgbuWfGeG2o

WHAT IS A ROGUELIKE? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koxMgiQhZf4

procedural generation: automatically creating content based on pre-written instructions
roguelike: a genre of role-playing games that features level randomization and permanent death

Input Randomness vs Output Randomness

Randomness provides variety. It is better to generate something random and allow the player to respond to it, rather than make a player's action random.

Input randomness informs the player before they make a decision. Typical examples of input randomness would be map generation in Civilization or Rogue. Random face-up tile placement in board game like Catan. People often use the term “procedural generation” to refer to this kind of randomness in digital games.

Output randomness decides an outcome. It is noise injected between the player’s decision and the outcome. Examples would be the dice roll combat in Risk or Memoir ’44, or the random number generation combat in X-Com or FTL. Can be frustrating to a player when their plans fail due to bad luck.

3 Minute Game Design: Episode 6 - Output Randomness by Keith Burgun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qfFEP_-LkI

The Two Types of Random by Game Maker's Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwI5b-wRLic

The Price of Randomness - Balancing RNG by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry2xz5yYZwY

input randomness: an unpredictable element brought into the game before players make a decision and allows the players to form a strategy
output randomness: an unpredictable element brought into the game after players make a decision and gives the players no control over the outcome
deterministic: a predictable system that has no randomness or variation in which one input will always produce the same results

Deterministic Games

A deterministic game is a strategy game with the following properties:

No random chance. There are no dice rolled, no cards drawn, no tiles pulled, etc.
No hidden information. Perfect information. There are no cards which are secret to some players, no surprises that will be revealed as the game progresses, and no screens behind which players hide their secrets.
No ties. The game should end in a finite amount of time, with one winner.

Examples include Tic-tac-toe, Chess, Checkers, Go, Othello, Blokus, Dots and Boxes, Nim.

Vocab:

procedural generation: automatically creating content based on pre-written instructions
roguelike: a genre of role-playing games that features level randomization and permanent death
input randomness: an unpredictable element brought into the game before players make a decision and allows the players to form a strategy
output randomness: an unpredictable element brought into the game after players make a decision and gives the players no control over the outcome
deterministic: a predictable system that has no randomness or variation in which one input will always produce the same results

Probability

Independent Probability - Die Rolls / Coin Flips

Khan Academy - Intro to theoretical probability https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzkc-qNVoOk

Khan Academy - Theoretical and experimental probability: Coin flips and die rolls https://www.khanacademy.org/math/ap-statistics/probability-ap/randomness-probability-simulation/a/theoretical-and-experimental-probability-coin-flips-and-die-rolls

1 coin = 2 equally likely possibilities, 2 coins = 4 possible outcomes, 3 coins = 8 possible outcomes

With one die (aka 1d6), what is the prob. of rolling 1?
With one die (aka 1d6), what is the prob. of rolling an even number?
With two coins (2d2), what is the prob. of flipping heads & heads?
With three coins (3d2), what is the prob. of flipping heads, heads, & heads?
With two dice (2d6), what is the prob. of rolling doubles?
With two dice, what is the prob. of rolling a total of 8?
With two dice, what is the prob. of rolling a total of 10?
With two dice, what is the prob. of rolling a total of 12?
With two dice, what is the prob. of rolling a total of 7?
With two dice, what is the prob. of rolling a total of 9?
With two dice, what is the prob. of rolling a total of 11?
With two dice, what is the prob. of rolling a total of 13?
With six coins (6d2), what is the prob. of flipping 1 heads & 5 tails?

Dependent Probability - Card Draws

Khan Academy - Dependent probability introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjLEoo3hIoM

With a 52-card deck, what is the prob. of drawing 2 Aces?
With a 52-card deck, what is the prob. of drawing 2 hearts?
With a 52-card deck, what is the prob. of drawing 2 face cards (J, Q, or K)?

Problems with Probability

Humans are not always rational

The Monty Hall Problem - Human Perception can be skewed Monty Hall Problem - Numberphile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lb-6rxZxx0

Try to predict the probability for ANY 1-12 on two dice (for example, rolling a 1 and a 2 counts as rolling 1, 2, AND 3)

Liar's Dice - Probability mixed with Bluffing and Hidden Information (see also: Poker) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRI_Yvze2ms

Pseudo-Random number generation on computers

Most of the time, we don't need to produce actually random numbers. They just need to seem random. Sequences of pseudo-random numbers look like sequences of genuinely random numbers and have many of the statistical properties associated with random numbers, but they are actually produced using a deterministic process, that is they follow a set rule, a pattern.

How to Generate Pseudorandom Numbers by PBS Infinite Series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C82JyCmtKWg

Game Theory: Psychology + Games

The Risk Game - I will give you 50 points now or we can flip a coin and you get 0/100 points
Loss Aversion Game - We flip a coin and you get -50/100 points. Play or not?
The Ultimatum Game - 2 players, p1 gets 100 points to split, p2 gets to accept or decline
Split or Steal - Both split 200, one steals 200, or both steal nothing
Press Your Luck - I will give you 100 points for each heads, but you bust on tails
The Risk Game - I will give you 40 points now or we can flip a coin and you get 0/100 points
Loss Aversion Game - We flip a coin and you get -100/100 points. Play or not?

Prisoners' dilemma and Nash equilibrium | Microeconomics | Khan Academy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkXI-zPcDIM

Prisoner's Dilemma in Trivia Murder Party by Jackbox. A pile of money is in the middle of the floor. The player can choose to take it or not. If nobody takes the money, nobody dies. If anyone takes the money, everyone who didn’t will die. Players that take the money split $2000. If everyone takes the money, everyone dies. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uHGm9jZqNHmXKu6Suk2njpYBVKolKqIU

TRY IT >>> The Evolution of Trust (The Prisoner's Dilemma) by Nicky Case https://ncase.me/trust/

The Prisoner's Dilemma - The Game Theory of Decision-Making by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5TRstDfQDg

Golden Balls split or steal https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=golden+balls+split+or+steal

Game Theory: The Science of Decision-Making https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHS-htjGgSY

Psychology of Gaming: Crash Course Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYJBRWT7JGU

7 ways games use psychology to control you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2gIE5gyA6s

Infinite Repetition

Monte Carlo Simulation - repeat a random trial a few thousand/million times

Khan Academy - Experimental versus theoretical probability simulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nos-xOCpQqg

Coin flip simulator http://digfir-published.macmillanusa.com/stats_applet/stats_applet_10_prob.html

Markov Chain - probability between states

A Markov Chain is a finite state machine that moves from one state to another according to certain probabilistic rules. Markov Chains can be used to model the probabilities of game states.

Games are finite state machines. There are a set number of game states. The game is not infinite.

A finite state machine is hardware or software that moves through a series of modes and can only be in one mode at a time. A traffic light is a common example of a finite state machine.

Discuss: Give me an example of a finite state machine (hardware device or software) and describe a few of its states.

botnik.org's Harry Potter and the Portrait of what Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-uDnlGJRdk

Origin of Markov chains | Journey into information theory | Computer Science | Khan Academy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws63I3F7Moc

Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly http://www.tkcs-collins.com/truman/monopoly/monopoly.shtml#Markov

Analysis of Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, etc. by datagenetics.com

Chuttes and Ladders http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/november12011/index.html
Risk http://datagenetics.com/blog/november22011/index.html
Candyland http://datagenetics.com/blog/december12011/index.html
Battleship http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/december32011/index.html
Darts http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/january12012/index.html
Yahtzee http://datagenetics.com/blog/january42012/index.html
Hangman http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/april12012/index.html
Minesweeper http://datagenetics.com/blog/june12012/index.html

The Best Mario Kart Character According to Data Science

https://medium.com/civis-analytics/the-best-mario-kart-character-according-to-data-science-7dfb65d4c18e

Reward Systems

When should we schedule rewards? Cookie Clicker and Farmville psychologically manipulate players to keep playing

Calculating Score

How can you make the player's score go down with time?

Multiple Paths to Victory

Discuss: What are some games with multiple victory conditions?

Multiple Paths to Victory https://lanepushinggames.com/article/killer-queen-thoughts-on-multiple-victory-conditions

Multiple victory or loss conditions. For example, a round of Pokémon Trading Card Game can end in three ways... Source:

When one player has Knocked Out enough of the other's Pokémon to draw all his Prize Cards
When one player is unable to play a Pokémon from his Bench to replace his Active Pokémon
When one player has run out of cards in his Deck and is unable to draw at the beginning of his turn.

Player Agency

FPS Level Design - "...it is always advantageous for the player to have a number of paths to get to and from every major area in a multiplayer map." https://www.ongamedesign.net/designing-fps-multiplayer-maps-part-1/

Agency (sociology) - the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(sociology)

Player Agency: How Game Design Affects Narrative https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JoshBycer/20150126/234961/Player_Agency_How_Game_Design_Affects_Narrative.php

Decisions are, in essence, what players do in a game. Remove all decisions and you have a movie or some other linear activity, not a game. As pointed out in Challenges, there are two important exceptions, games which have no decisions at all: some children’s games and some gambling games.

Bad Decision Design

Source: https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-6-dot-1-tips-on-decision-making?module_item_id=44557

Before describing good kinds of decisions, it is worth explaining some common kinds of uninteresting decisions commonly found in games.

Meaningless decisions are perhaps the worst kind: there is a choice to be made, but it has no effect on gameplay. If you can play either of two cards but both cards are identical, that’s not really much of a choice.

Obvious decisions at least have an effect on the game, but there is clearly one right answer, so it’s not really much of a choice. Most of the time, the number of dice to roll in the board game RISK falls into this category; if you are attacking with 3 or more armies, you technically have a "decision" of whether to roll 1, 2, or 3 dice… but your odds are MUCH, MUCH better rolling all 3, so it’s not much of a decision. You roll 3.

Blind decisions have an effect on the game, and the answer is not obvious, but there is now an additional problem: the players do not have sufficient knowledge on which to make the decision, so it is essentially random. Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors against a truly random opponent falls into this category; your choice affects the outcome of the game, but you have no way of knowing what to choose.

Good Decision Design

Source: https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-6-dot-1-tips-on-decision-making?module_item_id=44557

Now that we know what makes weak decisions, the easiest answer is "don’t do that!" But we can take it a little further. Generally, interesting decisions involve some kind of tradeoff. That is, you are giving up one thing in exchange for another.

Resource trades: You give one thing up in exchange for another, where both are valuable. Which is more valuable? This is a value judgment, and the player’s ability to correctly judge or anticipate value is what determines the game’s outcome.

Risk versus reward: One choice is safe. The other choice has a potentially greater payoff, but also a higher risk of failure. Whether you choose safe or dangerous depends partly on how desperate a position you’re in, and partly on your analysis of just how safe or dangerous it is. The outcome is determined by your choice, plus a little luck… but over a sufficient number of choices, the luck can even out and the more skillful player will generally win. (Corollary: if you want more luck in your game, reduce the total number of decisions.)

Choice of actions: You have several potential things you can do, but you can’t do them all. The player must choose the actions that they feel are the most important at the time.

Short term versus long term: You can have something right now, or something better later on. The player must balance immediate needs against long-term goals.

Social information: In games where bluffing, deal-making and backstabbing are allowed, players must choose between playing honestly or dishonestly. Dishonesty may let you come out better on the current deal, but may make other players less likely to deal with you in the future. In the right (or wrong) game, backstabbing your opponents may have very negative real-world consequences.

Dilemmas: You must give up one of several things. Which one can you most afford to lose?

Rule Symmetry/Asymmetry

Rule Symmetry means that all players share the same goals, rules, victory conditions.

Rule Asymmetry means that some players have different goals, rules, victory conditions.

The rules are different for goalies compared to other hockey players, but this does not mean that ice hockey is an asymmetric game. Both teams share the same goals, rules, and victory conditions. It would only be asymmetric if one team were all-time offense and the other team all-time defense.

Asymmetric Win Conditions

Common styles of asymmetric games:

social deduction games (hidden loyalty games) such as Werewolf, The Resistance, Two Rooms and a Boom, Spyfall, Saboteur, A Fake Artist Goes to New York, or Battlestar Galactica. In these games, asymmetry is critical because it facilitates deduction of a player's hidden allegiance based on how they act.
chase games, such as Scotland Yard, Mr. Jack, Fury of Dracula, or freeze tag. In these games, the primary game activity is inherently asymmetric.
one-versus-many games, such as Betrayal at House on the Hill, Descent, Dead of Winter, or Mansions of Madness (first edition), which I suspect are mostly offshoots of tabletop RPGs (such as D&D) and so have inherited the concept of an "adventuring party". You could also look at these as cooperative games where the "game system" has been expanded into an actual player role. Ultimately, I think this model derives from traditional storytelling--their asymmetry results from the fact that one side is "protagonists" and the other is "antagonists".

Source

BANG! is an asymmetric card game:

Sheriff and Deputies: Win if all outlaws and renegade dead, sheriff still alive.
Outlaws: Win if Sheriff dead.
Renegade: All players dead but himself. The game ends when the sheriff dies, so the renegade only wins if he kills the sheriff last.

Source

Overwatch and Asymmetric Level Design - What Makes the Maps Fun? by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DynhzEQtog

Overwatch and Asymmetric Character Design - The Challenge of Varied Playstyles by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEpeGSFQ1tM

Narrative Writing / World Building

How the inventor of Mario designs a game (Level 1 - The Story) https://youtu.be/K-NBcP0YUQI?t=58

Miyamoto based the story on the love triangle in Popeye between a bad guy, a hero, and a damsel in distress. But since Nintendo couldn’t secure the rights to use those characters, Miyamoto replaced them with a gorilla, a carpenter, and his girlfriend. In later games, that carpenter became a plumber. And his named changed, from Mr. Video, to Jumpman, and then to Mario, after this guy, the landlord of a Nintendo warehouse near Seattle.This was one of the first times that a video game’s plot and characters were designed before the programming. That change in approach came at a key time for video games. When Donkey Kong was first released in 1981, the video game market in North America was on the verge of collapse. It was saturated with a lot of different consoles, and the boom in home computers made a lot of people question why they’d want a separate device just to play games. But the storytelling in games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda — which you could only play on Nintendo's own hardware — helped set them apart as best-sellers.

How to Create a Video Game World – Determine the Scope of Your World – Develop a Backstory for This World – Create a Culture and a System of Order – Create Items for Your World – Draw Out the Layout of This World

Source

In Medias Res - Latin for "into the middle of things." Beginning the story with action. For example, "Where's Papa going with that ax?" This is preferable when compared to a boring intro giving the entire backstory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_medias_res

Exposition - From Latin, meaning "a showing forth." Introducing background info about events, settings, characters, etc to the audience/readers. In other words, backstory. For example, "A long time ago in a galaxy far away, far away…" Too much exposition is generally considered a bad thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_(narrative)

Exposition is a two-edged sword. While it is extremely useful for establishing setting, plot, and characterization, too much exposition at once can bog down a story and slow the pace to a crawl. An exposition that is overly long or wordy is known as an Information Dump (or Info Dump for short) and is very difficult to do well. Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Exposition

More Than Exposition - Building Worlds without Info Dumps by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEERJ1a2rsU

First Level Design

You should be able to say, "Everything I needed to know about the game, I learned from the first level." The player should be able to infer the basic moves of the game, the mood and feel of the game, the culture of the world, etc.

How the inventor of Mario designs a game (Level 2 - Simplicity) https://youtu.be/K-NBcP0YUQI?t=170

A lot of Miyamoto’s genius can be seen in the first level of Super Mario Bros. — probably the most iconic level in video game history. It’s designed to naturally teach you the game mechanics while you play. If you look at a breakdown, there’s a lot of really subtle design work going on here. Though Mario is usually at the center of the screen, in this first scene he starts at the far left. All the empty space to the right of him gives you a sense of where to go. This character’s look and movement suggest it’s harmful. But don’t worry. If you run into it, you’ll just start the game over without much of a penalty. Next, you see gold blocks with question marks. These are made to look intriguing — and once you hit one, you’re rewarded. That then encourages you to hit the second block, which releases a mushroom. Even if you’re now scared of mushrooms, the positioning of the first obstacle makes it just about guaranteed that you're gonna run into this thing. When you do, Mario gets bigger and stronger. And just like that, you’ve learned all the basic rules in the game without having to read a single word.

How Level Design Can Tell a Story by Game Maker's Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlnCn2EB9o

Tutorials That Don't Talk Down To You - Context Sensitive Design by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFdEEzgc7pg

Teach players the mechanics by "showing" them, not "telling" them.

Half-Life 2's Invisible Tutorial | Teaching Players by Game Maker's Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMggqenxuZc

Show Don't Tell

"Show, Don't Tell" - Advice that narrative writing should show actions, relationships, and feelings instead of just directly telling the reader what happened. Too much exposition is generally considered a bad thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show,_don%27t_tell

Mechanics Shaping Story - Re-examining the Core Gameplay Loop by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5I6uo39ujQ

God of War and the Mechanics of an Epic Story (No Spoilers) by NIKMOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCB1JOcJHOE

Storytelling Tools to Boost Your Indie Game's Narrative and Gameplay https://youtu.be/8fXE-E1hjKk?t=826

Sometimes Less Is More

"I'd like to go with as little story as possible," he (Shigeru Miyamoto) said. "I've always felt that the Mario games themselves aren't particularly suited to having a very heavy story." The Legend of Zelda games, he feels, should have deep storylines – but not Mario. Source

Using Narrative as Context - Balancing Gameplay and Story Elements by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izk-e0WrjP0

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Information Density - How Mr. Robot Does a Lot with a Little by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrI2Vb8u2U

Elegant Game Design

An elegant game is simple (not complex) and clever, yet has depth of play with multiple paths available.

3 Minute Game Design: Episode 4 - Elegance and Depth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMsFHCdqjTk

Game Complexity - the mental burden put on the player by the game. This includes information the player has to remember, rules they have to process, and calculations they have to make to make a meaningful choice.

BoardGameGeek.com has Complexity ratings for board and card games. Some of the least complex games include The Game of Life, Yahtzee, and UNO. Some of the most complex games include Magic: The Gathering (1993), Chess (1475), Civilization (1980), Axis & Allies (1981).

Game Depth - the number of meaningful choices that the player has available. For example, Tic-Tac-Toe is a low depth game because its rules don't create many different possibilities for the player.

Elegant Game Design - is design with a high depth to complexity ratio. Few rules to learn, but many possibilities. For example, the game Go.

Depth vs Complexity - Why More Features Don't Make a Better Game - Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVL4st0blGU

Immersiveness and Flow

All forms of entertainment strive to create suspension of disbelief, a state in which the … mind forgets that it is being subjected to entertainment and instead accepts what it perceives as reality. — François Dominic Laramée; ‘Immersion’

Definition of immersive: providing, involving, or characterized by deep absorption or immersion in something (such as an activity or a real or artificial environment) Source

The game is incredibly immersive, with stunning 3-D graphics and an excellent array of sound effects that bring the Star Trek universe to life. — Newsweek

How the inventor of Mario designs a game (Level 3 - Immersiveness) https://youtu.be/K-NBcP0YUQI?t=243

Immersiveness in a video game has a lot to do with the controls — the more precisely you can move your character, the more you feel like you’re part of the story.

The Magic Circle - How Games Transport Us to New Worlds - Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ-EY9gTsgU

Are Video Games Art?

Roger Ebert "Video games can never be art" https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news301105ebert

"I am prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful. But I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic." — Roger Ebert Source

Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) "I don't think they're art either, videogames." https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news240106kojimaart

Game Rules as Art http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/issues/issue_41/247-Game-Rules-as-Art