Why Ireland for game development?

Niall O'Donoghue (The Washington Post) interviews game designers John and Brenda Romero about why they started their latest game studio "Romero Games" in Ireland in 2015. 

“Empire of Sin,” a role-playing-strategy game directed by Brenda Romero, developed in Ireland, published by Paradox Interactive in 2020. Available on Steam, Microsoft Windows, MacOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.  See Romero Games - https://romerogames.com - for more.

John and Brenda Romero talk about what it is like living in Ireland, their family roots, Ireland's creative, cultural, scene, its stories and history. From a business perspective it was important to them that there was a local tech scene, but also a nascent game design scene and that reflects a deep appreciation for the art of games. Games are expressed through great stories and inspired by great locations (scenery, music, stories, arts and history). 

It was helpful that Ireland's national and local industry development agencies have a tradition of being accessible to entrepreneurs; that there is a positive attitude in Government agencies and among various gatekeepers to get things done in support of inward investment. There also foresee the potential for the industry in Ireland to grow and mature if there were greater supports for investing in start-up and SME initiatives were available (jobs, industry growth, spin-off benefits cultural arts). 

Yet they are puzzled by the absence of targeted tax supports for game development as an artistic creative industry sector. It prompts the question, is it possible that the Irish Government will develop something like the Section 481 Film Tax Credit for the Film/TV industry but targeting the Game Industry? Perhaps a new Section XXX Tax Credit Support scheme for investment in game title projects?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/12/21/john-brenda-romero/

(access may be paywalled or registration required)

Diverse Games Much Needed

On The Creative Independent (from a conversation with Resham Mantri with Tanya DePass and B. Dave Walters - Game developers)

Do read this interview with Tanya DePass and Dave Walters on their work and experiences playing games, designing games, and seeing themselves (or not) being included in the game, in creating content, and telling a range of stories that matter. Focus on the criticism too, on building relationships and connections that matter, that are authentic, rather than casual (people will pick your brain for ideas and you never hear from them again - why not close the loop instead?)

"So don’t be that fair-weather friend. Be an honest collaborator. Get to know someone, see what it is they do and what you like about them. And forging a real bond is going to go way further than the occasional, “Oh, congrats," [Tanya]

https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/game-developers-tanya-depass-and-b-dave-walters-on-making-your-own-rules/

The Game Design Essay (2021)

Game Design Essay (2021)

Essay - based on your final design brief, introduces some of the game design elements, narrative, research commentary with literature, industry history, context, etc.

This year's game essay will be a practical document encompassing your game design project. The essay explains your game design's inspiration and present some of your design ideas. The essay will also relates or position your design concept within the current market. You will identify audience, value and market factors and consider a plan for further development.  

Suggested structure for the essay:

Introduction: An introduction to the game design project (inspiration). 

Literature/commentary: Write a short research commentary including a small number of relevant references from research literature, ludography, related games, history and context, etc.

Provide a text box with a written sample of the game narrative, its backstory or lore.

Provide a small number of illustrations, mood-board, drawings, figures, diagrams. Please use the appendix for providing more detailed design elements if desired.

Discussion: Write a short section as a business pitch and plan for Spiel/Kickstarter. 

Conclusion: Conclude 

References:

Appendix:

No set word-count. 8 pages max (including illustrations, tables, etc.)

Appendix is not included in the page-count.
Choose your own reference style.

You can think of the Game Design Essay as a description summarising the proposed game, including the artistic, project, technical, and commercial elements. The document is not the game itself, it is rather, all the related information about the game that another designer, an investor or publisher, would like to know about the game. The information in the essay would probably address most of the questions a reviewer would have about the game.

Pitch warm-up

---------

In a sentence “It’s like…”

Single player, multiplayer, puzzle, builder, collaborative, cooperative, competitive, open-world, sandbox etc?

Family/Adult, player age, number of players, time to play. Casual vs campaigning etc. 

Background research

----------

Inspiration? 

Genre?

Related titles in this genre? 

Published influences, related and similar titles (even, if you look for it, references in the game literature!!!!) 

Design structural elements

--------

Game design elements? Gamifications?

Outcomes? Win/lose? Display/sharing?

The application of emotion principles?

The application of the uncertainty principles?

Narrative backdrop constructed by the design

Narrative potential constructed by the players

Complexity, scope? Too much, too little?  

Developer perspective

------

Paper prototype or mockups?

Any playtest feedback?

Comment on ease to ‘onboard’ new players? Simple version, complex version. House rules.

Identified ideal player types, market segment? Appeals to who?

Market perspective

-------

Potential to adapt or expand, levels, extent, add-ons, expansions? Is it a platform.

Market size of equivalent or similar titles?

Route to market? (publisher, self-publish, kickstarter, crowdfund)

Packaging/presentation? (box, components, online, platforms) look and feel.

Countries/languages? Cultural fit. Suggest markets. 

Product Production: Value, costs, price, effort

--------

Price-point/Pricing? Cost to design/develop?

Cost to service/operate?

IP or licensing questions?

Potential to rebrand or repurpose the ‘engine’ to another genre?

Persona driven design process

Model users: 'personas'

In following up on the topic of Persona driven design processes, we wanted to highlight that the WCAG Guidelines actually provide example personas for designer. "Stories of Web Users" offer character centred scenarios. While not actual persons nor comprehensively addressing every kind of disability, the characters illustrate and challenge designers to consider users with a range of needs and goals. https://www.w3.org/WAI/people-use-web/user-stories/

Personas offer a cast of synthetic characters complete with values, personal histories, needs and goals. Personas are not average demographic 'types', they are individual characters whose biographical detail allows designers to 'imagine' the persona's individual aspirations, choices and behaviour as realistic, plausible, meaningful. It is simply another way for designers to generate empathy with their users. It enables them to build up a cast of characters, socialised and known among the design team, in order to focus the team's design attention, to enable and contain design ideation, development action, testing, user acceptance, etc.A persona is employed as a shared sense making device, a fictional 'identity' or a character who is imagined in putative roles wherein some future version of the product is employed. These design strategies occupy the conceptual boundary between the design-world and the use-world. Each persona can be used to...

“Develop a precise description of our user and what he wishes to accomplish.” (Cooper, 2004) “Personas are not real people, but they are based on the behaviours and motivations of real people we have observed and represent them throughout the design process. They are composite archetypes based on behavioural data gathered from the many actual users encountered in ethnographic interviews.” (Cooper et al., 2007)

We can use “personas” or special classes of users as representative clients/user/consumers in order to overcome the impossibility of maintaining dialog with each and every participant.

Further reading

For example: Lee, online shopper with color blindness (link)

[Cooper, 2004] Cooper, A. (2004). The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity. Sams, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

[Cooper et al., 2007] Cooper, A., Reimann, R., and Cronin, D. (2007). About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. John Wiley & Sons, Indianapolis, Indiana.

From great ideas to game features

Maciej Szczesnik at GDC 13 on how The Witcher devs turn ideas into features

Source: video still from GDC 13

https://youtu.be/moW8-MXjivs

• Ask questions about the feature (so you know what it could be)
• Research research research
• Talk with the team, brainstorm ideas, (the Crawford slip method - basically structured postit notes on a wall)
• Innovation by reversal, contrasts, strange combinations.
• Use measurable criteria and prioritisations
• Does the idea cohere with the rest of the game?
• Roadmap of ideas and stages so the plan can evolve
• Continuously simplify so you can do more

A good lifecycle for organising game development?

I'll prefix this post by drawing your attention, to notice, that the title of this post makes no claim to this as the best lifecycle, method, or best practice. Rather, I posit that it could be a good practice, a good or useful lifecycle. Why am I careful to couch the claim in such diffident terms? Well, the industry has, certainly in the past, often been in thrall of various experts, consultancies and others, falsely claiming that there are best practices, world leading, methods or methodologies promising certainty and control of software development.

Mark Cerny started talking about and presenting his ideas for the "METHOD" process in 2002, hoping to spark debate about process failures surrounding game development, to address in some way the human cost, the damage to people's health, of "crunch" mode management, of death march projects, of sweatshop conditions in the studio system. Interest in the Method echoed a parallel movement in software engineering that sought to shift from dominant project management paradigms (linear, stepwise and waterfall methods), that led to the Agile Manifesto and Agile Methods becoming mainstream in the software industry.

Cerny wanted those funding the game publishing industry to acknowledge that more fluid process structures and practices were needed for video games. They needed a method that supported game design's highly creative but uncertain development processes. It was a provocation to manufacturers and publishers. It was also a response to the possibilities presented by the inevitable transformation happening in the market for video games, the move from a physical product manufacturing paradigm, to a virtual digital good and distribution paradigm, the move away from copies of 'finished products' to versions and downloadable releases.

Management is the art of organisational control, of minimising risk while maximising benefit. Management methods are organisational approach for producing goods of one kind or another, they are systems of risk management. Processes, lifecycles and methodologies, are attempts to make product design and development repeatable, sustainable, to deliver value. Like many in the business, Cerny thought that games are different. A hybrid of software engineering, artistic expression, and all the creative drive to produce something that is fun, playable, enjoyable, valuable. 

The METHOD is like developing two projects, back-to-back. The first version partial, incomplete, promising. The second version an evolution (perhaps even a revolution) of the first, expansive, complete, a full realisation of the game's potential. And so we organise our goals, teams and activities differently for the different stages of a game's development lifecycle. Pre-product yields a first playable version. Production delivers on that foundation, by scaling and elaborating on the original ideas. The first version is the proof of game, the 30% prototype. At this point we can put the core idea to the test. If it remains exciting, demonstrates its value, convinces us that there is a game and and audience, then yes, we go into production, we invest the 70% to bring it to production. 

"Pre-production" is vastly different from "production". Likewise, the kind of feedback that is useful between the two is different. Think of a small focused audience for the pre-production effort. Think of wider more intensive play-testing (even further discovery) in the build-out and polish of the later design/development process in production. And accept that changes, even significant changes may be needed, even at, what might be thought of as, the end of the lifecycle.

Cerny's METHOD

https://www.slideshare.net/holtt/cerny-method

6 short stories on how to fund your indie game

This post on the Unreal Engine blog presents 6 short stories on how ot fund your indie game project. All of the hint at the value of a working prototype, of asking for and listening to feedback, of using that feedback in some way, either responding and expanding or for analytical introspection of your project. Look for attention, look for interest, listen to the responses, respond honestly while respecting your vision.

Keeping the team as small and costs low for as long as possible.

Reuse whatever you can rather than creating new technologies. That way you'll be investing in realising your vision, the things that are unique to your game, rather than reinventing the building blocks. Build on the shoulders of giants. Along the way, by serendipity or discovery you may invent new, useful, general purpose technologies that are valuable and sellable, (well done if you do).

Make sure you can answer the question; how is your game going to make money?

Building something, even something small but tangible builds confidence and offers immense learning opportunities, both for the team's capabilities and how others perceive the sample.

Look for multiple lines of investment at the appropriate moment. Self-funded, friends and family, public agencies, investors...

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/how-to-fund-your-indie-game

Editing mp3 files for a podcast

Audacity 3 (https://www.audacityteam.org)

Feel free to pick and choose from the general tips on editing mp3 files for a podcast below:

For sound engineering, I encourage you to record and post-edit your recording using the latest version of Audacity. 

Post-editing a recording enables you to tidy things up. Cutting gaps, reducing the 'emms and ahhs', remove filler speech, background noises and any generally unnecessary audio. Audacity also lets you to record directly to the project if needed for voice over and bookend statements.

You can also post-process the recording to try to improve its quality; applying effects such as normalize (e.g. default values, typical -2.5dB) and compressor (default values), noise reduction, to fade in / fade out edits and eventually, and then ultimately, export the finished project to a new mp3 file.

A screen shot of an Audacity project

The screenshot above illustrates what waveform levels might look like for your recording. Above all else  trust your ears to judge the quality of a recording when you listen back to it.

Editing Audio for Podcasting with Audacity

Save Save Save - the Project file and folder

Everything lives in .aup3.

You are strongly advised NOT to save your active project to an external USB stick/disk, networked storage or cloud storage as it is unlikely to be fast enough for satisfactory recording and editing.

To avoid data loss save the project frequently. Make a local disk copy for project editing as Audacity generates very large sets of project edit/state files (online cloud drive services may not unpack or stage quickly enough to support Audacity's project edit/save cycle).
To share an Audacity project with others you will need to share the project aup3 file. 

n.b. older versions of Audacity stored data in a project _data folder.  If you move to Audacity 3 there will no longer be a _data folder for each project (yay).

Importing audio

Create a new project and save to disk.

    File > Save Project > Save Project (cmd S)

Import previously recorded audio (an mp3 or wav file). 

    File > Import > Audio

Save

    cmd S 

Your Audacity project with at least one audio track will resemble the screen shot above.

You can play, pause and even record new audio to the current track. 

The playhead is the vertical line displayed over the waveform. All tracks will play through the audio device unless muted or one is soloed. The keyboard space bar toggles the play/pause function from the current playhead.

Quick select, cut and paste

The Audacity toolbars, click and drag to rearrange or float

Choose the Selection Tool (F1) to edit your audio track directly. Click-drag to highlight parts of the audio waveform. Use the cursor to select the waveform to copy (cmd C), paste (cmd V), duplicate (cmd D) cut (cmd X) or delete (del, backspace or cmd K) along the timeline. The edit commands are also accessed via the menu.

    Edit > etc.

Using Tracks 

Import a second audio file (for example, our intro/outro music).

Save the project (you should save frequently).

You will see at least two tracks in the current Audacity window.

Toggle the Sync-Lock Tracks setting if you want multiple tracks to overlay each other. This is useful if for example you want to overlap and slowly fade out an intro jingle.

    Tracks > Sync-Lock Tracks (on/off)

You can organise the structure of a recording by using new tracks for sections of audio (to organise the large scale edit).

Large scale edit

Your listeners want a well edited informative podcast so remember, less is more. You will have to listen (and re-listen) to your material and decide what to keep or delete. Think about the length and structure of the recording. You can change the order. You will delete stuff so do it. Concentrate on large chunks, the structure of the talk. Don’t worry about breathing, coughs and minor noises just yet. 

Small scale edit

After the large scale edit more or less done, spend time on the small scale edit. This involves zooming in and fine-grained cut and pasting. But think before acting, is it really necessary to remove every single intake of breath? 

For example: cut long gaps, background noises and any generally unnecessary audio. You might also cut some of the egregious 'emms and ahhs' and nervous filler speech we all use. A caution though, the small scale edit can become a journey without an end, or at least a very long journey.

Note: "Sometimes you will not want to close the gap and yet still remove the noise, for instance if somebody breathes loudly. For such occasions copy a section of audio during which nobody is speaking (e.g. at the start of the recording) and paste it over the unwanted noise. This will preserve the natural pacing of speech." (source: Cook & Holdis, CEU Podcast Library - link)

Fade-in Fade-out

Apply fade-in and fade-out when you want the speech to start or end smoothly.

A useful Audacity EQ setting

Post-processing - Graphic EQ (equalization)

Base boost plust treble boost

Post-processing - normalize

Apply default (-3dB) - the waveform will push over 0.5 but keep away from 1.0

Post-processing - compressor

Choose a threshold between default -12dB down to as low as -30dB

Select noise floor, around -50dB

Ratio, between 2:1 - 3:1 - 5:1

Drop attack time (0.2s) and release time (2.0s) to maximise compression applied

These settings end up boosting the volume (visually the waveform moves closer to 1.0) making it too loud and noisy so you'll need to normalize (or amplify) again...

Post-processing - normalize again

Apply default (-3dB) or you can apply Amplify -3dB, for the same result. 

The desired result being for the waveform peaks to re-balance back to around the 0.5 level.

Post-processing - noise reduction (if needed)

Post-processing - low pass / high pass and other ways to reduce echo?

Export the mp3

Quality checks:

• Is the intro/outro music at a suitable level?
• Does the intro/outro transition smoothly to/from the spoken audio?
• Is the spoken audio at a suitable level? (i.e. no clipping, waveform amplitude averages around 0.5 on linear scale)
• Is the speed of speech natural?
• Large scale edit - remove fumbled speech, removed confidential disclosures, cut out a duplicate or passages that were off topic, etc.
• Small scale edit - remove ticks, emms, ahhs, sighs, distracting background, etc.

Useful links

An Audacity tutorial on mixing a narration with background music
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_mixing_a_narration_with_background_music.html

Refer to the Audacity manual online (e.g. the track panel description/explanation is at manual.audacityteam.org)

An Audacity user's simple tutorial and workflow activities:

https://podcasts.ceu.edu/how-edit-your-podcast-audacity-step-step-guide

Using the Compressor in Audacity

https://youtu.be/oztvmA7adDc

Using Noise Removal in Audacity

https://youtu.be/vCx4m5dOA9A

On including music from other artists (for atmosphere, decoratively, for intros/outros & transitions)

In the first instance, if you know the artist ask for their permission to use their material. You may be pleasantly surprised by the positive cycle of recognition and community surrounding artist works. Make sure you acknowledge them in your show notes.

We recommend releasing under the “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike version 4.0  creative commons license (aka CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). You can choose from a number or variations of the CC license; CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC SA etc.

These licenses can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0

Always check the royalty free claims of audio samples found online. If you want to find audio from online sources, search for CC BY titles on Soundcloud or on YouTube

The link to the YouTube channel  "Of Musicians" below is a collection of a selection of royalty free original music.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRmSat9_7JXFGAQD0V-L0-g/videos

Record the following information in your show notes to establish the provenance and bona fides of 3rd party music, artwork and creative content that you decide to use:

Music (CC BY-NC-SA license) 

Title: “a title”

Artist: “a name”

Source: “a link to the original”

License: “CC BY-NC-SA”

Cover Art (CC BY-NC-SA license)

Title: “a title”

Artist: “a name”

Source: “a link to the original”

License: “CC BY-NC-SA”

Articulate online?

Articulate has offered the cards online for people to play during the pandemic.

For a review and tips on the rules? https://youtu.be/xXMsP99edmY

A simplified version of the game board.

Audio recording: a statement on games and game design

Personal Reflection

A short self-recording of a statement on games and game design. Refer to the show notes below:

For this exercise you will create a short high quality audio recording, parts of which will be combined later with other student recordings and compiled into a single podcast episode to be published on Design Talk (dot IE). Record your voice only. Ensure your recording environment has little or no background noise. Leave gaps between statements to enable easy editing. Please do not add musical elements. Speak naturally, as if in conversation with someone. You may record in your preferred language but if so please provide a written english translation. The recording would be between 2 to 4 minutes long. 

Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org)

I encourage you to record and post-edit your recording using Audacity. You will cut unnecessary audio, apply effects such as normalize (e.g. default values, typical -2.5dB) and compressor (default values), noise reduction, fade in / fade out etc. and export to an mp3 file.

Review the simple Audacity tutorial and workflow activities at:
https://podcasts.ceu.edu/how-edit-your-podcast-audacity-step-step-guide

A screen shot of an Audacity project

Refer above to the screen shot to get an idea of what nice waveform levels might look like for your recording. However, above all, trust your ears to judge the quality of a recording when you listen back to it.

Show notes

(introduce yourself, first-name only is sufficient)
(create your own statement or adapt one or more of the following opening sentences) 

• Hi, I'm <Name>.
• For me games are ...
• My best memory ...
• Game design is ...
• The thing we could do better ...
• Good game design can change the world by ...

Terms and conditions

The `Design Talk (dot IE)’ podcasts are released under the “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike version 4.0  creative commons license (aka CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

This license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0

By taking part you are entering a verbal agreement giving permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, for it to be posted and published and available from wherever people get their podcasts.

Play games, lots and lots of games

To quote Katie Salen Tekinbaş and Eric Zimmerman, the authors of Rules of Play (2004)...

"...it is incredibly important that game design students play games, lots and lots of them. Students should play every possible kind of game, digital and non-digital, contemporary and historical, masterpiece and stinker. Game design students play these games in order to cultivate a historical awareness and critical sensitivity about the kinds of games that have already been designed, to learn how games function to create experiences, and to discover what does and doesn't work about particular design choices." (Salen Tekinbaş and Zimmerman: p20, 2004)

Playing games is the kind of homework I wish I had been set. The following selection from Evan Leed's compilation (2020)

Deduction Games

• Codenames - See CodenamesGame.com the official site. Share link, no sign up involved. No cheating possible (can’t peak at key card).

Drawing Games

• Telestrations. Sketch what you see and guess what you saw. Quick intro videos short intro - https://youtu.be/Hcdj4GO16IA or long intro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhAQg05M4ww
• DrawPhone.tannerkrewson.com Simple, just share game code. Can adjust timer, can’t draw in colour.
• brokenpicturephone.com (Broken picture phone) Simple, share room code. No timer, people’s “books” visible backlog.

Word Games

• Just One - see OneWord.games. Share room name. Don’t have to sign up.
• Articulate - cards online for people to play during the pandemic

Improv exercise: rule trees

(A game properties improv exercise adapted from Salen Tekinbaş & Zimmerman (2004))

Rule Trees - a collaborative exercise for creating linked and branching rule sets. 

1. First person writes 2 game rule statements. The first rule is covered.
2. Only reveal the last (new) rule to the next person.
3. Second person writes 2 additional game rule statements based on viewing the last rule (above), 
4. Only reveal the last (new) rule to the next person.
5. Third person writes 2 additional game rule statements based on viewing the last rule (above), 
6. Only reveal the last (new) rule to the next person.
7. <repeat>
8. The last person adds a win condition.
9. The group reviews the 'rules and win' and fashions a game from them.

References:

Salen, K., Tekinbaş, K.S. and Zimmerman, E., 2004. Rules of play: Game design fundamentals. MIT press.

Monopoly's unlikely and ironic history

Long story short. 

"In 1903, a leftwing feminist called Lizzy Magie patented the board game that we now know as Monopoly – but she never gets the credit"

Check out the secret history of monopoly (www.theguardian.com)

Nostalgia, challenge, confronting, or pure playability, 4 games I would/will play again (2021)

We ask ourselves about the reasons behind why we play or would play each of these games again (and again).

From the 2021 class:

Boardgame

"I Doubt It" - cheating card game

Werewolf Kill

Rummikub

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)

Monopoly x3

Snakes and ladders

Chess x2

"Man, don’t get angry"

UNO

Cards Against Humanity

Sport

Badminton x3

Snowboarding

Fencing

Volleyball

Soccer/Football x2

Rugby

Basketball

Running

"Lonely Mountains: Downhill" bicycle simulator

Padel

Videogame

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
QQ Dizzal Dance  -

Counter-Strike Global Offensive

DOTA

Animal Crossing

Mass Effect Trilogy

Minecraft

FIFA

Apex Legends

"Detroit become human"

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Stardew Valley

"Humanity Disappeared"

Super Mario Galaxy

League of Legends

Gamification

Coffee stamp card

Starbucks card/rewards app x2

Burger King Crowns

Simulate the stock market

Nike Fuel

Investopedia market simulator

Raffles

McDonalds coffee cup stickers

Duolingo

Insomnia coffee stamps

Codecademy

Google Maps - Google Guide

Twitch

Exercise: Definition of Game

What is a game? The metaphysics of games.

What is a game?

When is a game?

Why is a game?

Who is etc.

Open Jamboard

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1kUmJWNE53ieg6QUgi4j6K2fS_WVMO52xH8_wK-Zab5A/viewer

(Google Jamboard - access via @ucdconnect account)

(in breakout room)

Scroll to the Jamboard for your breakout room number

Brainstorm definitions and characteristics of games.

This exercise starts the process of game thinking and leads into the project of devising a game concept.

Use the basic shared whiteboard (Google Jamboard).

Respond to the prompts and add information to the Jamboard - this is a time limited activity.

10' introduction

15' breakout room activity

5' debrief

Lecturer points: If needed can seed topics for student concept maps:

Initial conditions; rules; rewards; goals; end-game states; win/lose states; voluntary; cooperative; competitive; constructive; destructive; payouts; motivation-intrinsic; motivation-extrinsic; the Magic Circle; puzzle; joy; fun.

Conclude by filling in the following survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/ Game Thinking Questions

What does a game designer do?

What does a game designer do? I mean, isn't it obvious? Aren't they artists or coders? Don't they write and 'design'?

The Door Problem (Liz England post on the Gamasutra blog)

(a post on Gamasutra recommended by John-Patrick Molloy)

Doors in Dublin (Lesson St). Image by Ron Cogswell - CC BY 2.0

And while Liz England offers the door as a metaphorical lens on the work of the game designer, doors are also one of the most ubiquitous design elements in their own right. Every building, entrance and passage involves a door of some kind, a portal between one place and the next. Each level (or dungeon) is connected to another in some way, often by a door. The appearance and operation of in-game doors are crucial. How they look, sound and work can reinforce the player's experience of "game flow" as much as interfere with it. There is much that the game designer needs to get right. Megan Farokhmanesh's article on The Verge "Why Game Developers Can't Get a Handle on Doors" further explores the challenges of doors, observing that the simplest objects are sometimes the most difficult to design.

https://www.theverge.com/22328169/game-development-doors-design-difficult

Exercise: Four Games I will Play Again

"Four games I will play again"

This task builds on the process of thinking about games, about what they are, what makes them different from other parts of life, what they add to life, their role in society, socially, in our personal lives and relationships.

Take turns to read out your speech script (as if you were delivering a talk for a podcast or talking to a friend directly). The speech is inspired by the title "Four games I will play again" in which you describe and explain why you will play these four games again:

1. a card or board game
2. a video game
3. a physical sports game
4. and a business gamification

10' introduction

15' breakout room activity (up to 5' per person)

5' debrief

Lecturer points: Drop in to each breakout room. Ensure turn taking. Encourage peer comments.

Notes:

What is a gamification?  A gamification is the application of a Game concept to A Business context. Think of examples like a coffee loyalty card scheme, or collecting refunds for recycling, or the in-car fuel consumption dashboard panel in a hybrid-electric car, or air miles rewards.

What is so hard about coming up with a new game idea?

What is so hard about coming up with a new game concept? Brenda Romero must come up with 10 a day and seems to have been doing it for forever. I can't be that hard can it?

Well, yes and no.

Have a look at Brenda Romero's work on analogue games. Perhaps, if you have the time, unravel some of the threads you can find about her work. Consider speculating about the Mexican Kitchen Workers game,(unreleased, probably still in development) or any of the others.

http://brenda.games/mexican-kitchen-workers

On the surface you might think these games appear simple, elegant. Dig a little, try to play one, recreate the experience or reflect on what the experience of playing might have been like if you could have played it.

Cross reference:

http://brenda.games/work-1

https://gamefulthinking.blogspot.com/2021/01/exercise-brainstorm-game-idea.html

https://gamefulthinking.blogspot.com/2021/01/paper-prototyping-exercise.html

Exercise: Talk about "Indie Game: The Movie" (2012)

The Business of Games

Indie Game: The Movie (2012) - 1h 43min (a short intermission at 50:38)

After watching the documentary you might find yourself inspired to seek out and play some of the most influential indie and commercial computer games of the last decades referenced in the film: ICO, Limbo, Zelda (all platforms, all versions), World of Goo, Portal, Slender, etc.

Indie Game: The Movie by Merge Games, shares the background stories of three video games and their developers:

Braid: a level building platform puzzle game designed by Jonathan Blow.

Super Meat Boy: a fast fire platform game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes. The game is notoriously difficult with an edgy thematic and stark graphic mood with a strong emotional dynamic and atmospheric feel.

Fez​​​​​​​: a collecting/puzzle game focused level exploration designed by Phil Fish. The game employs a distinctive 2D/3D spatial twist mechanic that reveals novel possibilities for traversing the game world.

Ludology.net - the most must listen to podcast on game design

Ludology has become one of, if not the most, must-listen-to game design podcast.

Ludology logo (source: http://ludology.net)

Paper prototyping exercise

Paper prototyping exercise

Print-and-play prototypes are simply a PDF file containing a rough description of your game idea as a prototype for others to read and play-test.

The components of a game are [1]:

1. Printable game rules
2. Printable game sheet(s) and components like cards and props
3. And assume players can supply extra items like pens, dice, counters, pawns (meeples).

This exercise takes inspiration from Sergi Sanchez Labrador's "Roll & Write Game Design Contest" on Boardgamegeek - in its 6th season as this post is written. In fact Boardgamegeek hosts a huge array of design contests, some focused, some broad. Sergi's approach is nice because the barriers to entry are low. There are "no restrictions on them, mechanics or artwork" [1], in fact the artwork mostly starts out as simple pencil and paper sketches. The games should be original, copyright aware, shared and available to anyone via instructions and artwork files via online storage sites.

Sergi suggests two phases of development: idea phase; and contest ready. The whole process relies upon rapid feedback from all the prototypers to all the prototypers. Everyone plays everyone's game-idea and offers caring feedback to each other.

[1] https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2532785/6th-roll-write-game-design-contest

Question: Is there any limitation on employing specific game genres and ideas?
Answer: No limitations (but no imitations either). Let your imagination run free. But it must be your own original idea and concept.

Question: Are the three prototypes different versions of the same core game idea?
Answer: No. They must be distinctly different. The three prototypes are supposed to be three distinctly different game ideas. However only one will be developed further for the end of the term project.

Debrief: 

General areas for review/discussion (inspired by Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop (2014) - any edition.

• What genre does the game fall under?
• What are the game's formal elements (rules, outcomes etc)?
• What is the game's dramatic structure?
• What are the flow/play dynamics of the game?
• Comment on game balance (between players, between game engine)?
• Casual or deep game (long or short)?
• Comment on re-playability, depth?
• Comment on 'fun'?
• Comment on the design scope (too little, too much)?
• What is the essence of the game?

Game Design's Canonical Literature

In the field of game design, what are the canonical `writings' that all game designers should know?

Let's assume, that as members of a community of practice, we should all be able to talk about a well-known set of influential games and publications. These could be writings on topics, articles, happenings and just things that everyone should understand, know about, and have a considered opinion on.

Candidates for core canon talking points and short articles (the short, dip-in, quickly-read literature)

• Richard Bartle's article on player types
• 
  

Similarly, a more-or-less agreed set of significant books (the long-read literature)

• Christopher Vogler's Writer’s Journey (and by reference Joseph Campbell's mythic structure), etc.
• 
  

And not to forget, canonical games, games that created and defined genre's of play

• Poker
• 
  

Group presentation activity

A Group Presentation consists of:

1. Preparing, delivering and recording the presentation session
2. Prompting and responding to audience engagement
3. After the show - providing an edited MP3 file typically of 15minutes duration for uploading to the DesignTalk.ie podcast
4. After the show - provide show notes in Word or text file
5. After the show - provide individual cover art (podcast image) adapting provided artwork

Note: Cover art requirement: "Podcast feeds contain artwork that is a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and a maximum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels, 72 dpi, in JPEG or PNG format with appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .png), and in the RGB colorspace. Aim not to exceed ~300KB size file." 

About the podcast

The podcast is "Design Talk (dot IE)", hosted on acast, and has its own website www.designtalk.ie.

• Yes. The podcast is recorded (not livestreamed) and post-edited before uploading.
• Yes. It is possible for you to review the podcast before it is published externally and to have some say in edits.
• Yes. The questions will be available in advance - although the format is conversational, we like a lively gabfest style.

Tips:

The podcast is recorded live, not prerecorded. We are very keen on balanced contributions from all participants. The moderator / host's role is to invite everyone to talk, to move the conversation along and gently redirect it if needed. The engagement person's role is to monitor the chat and other channels, working with the moderator / host to encourage, respond, drawing attention to comments etc.

To make for lively panel discussion, everyone should have something to say about everything. The panel concept is for a discussion of ideas.

Develop your own running order / show notes. The order of questions (and indicated responses) are merely a starting point. Include links to other material you might have referenced in the show or to point to additional content. Don't forget that the show notes will need to include single sentence source acknowledgement for the music and creators of images, clip art etc. (creator name url copyright/license).

The show notes / running order is merely a guide rather than a tight script and the show itself always takes its own course. 

Avoid reading word-for-word scripted responses - unless you have amazing voice acting skills it is nearly impossible to not to sound wooden. However the activity of preparing readies the mind and enables us to engage nimbly with the flow of a discussion.

How to use Audacity - notes:

Audacity tutorial and workflow activities:
https://podcasts.ceu.edu/how-edit-your-podcast-audacity-step-step-guide

Audacity tutorial on mixing a narration with background music

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_mixing_a_narration_with_background_music.html

Is there a role for visual aids during a podcast?

If, for during a recording, you feel that visual props and different kinds of activity fit with the scope of your session then yes, you can use props like graphics, websites, slides and engagement tools such as surveys and whiteboards for interactive components.

However: as the finished product will be an mp3 file (an audio podcast) we expect that the visuals are merely aides for the talk, rather than substitutes. Your show-notes can be used to share links to online versions of visual elements, references to other material etc. If you have an essential diagram or picture, then please provide a description and explanation for the audience who won't be watching the video version. Some of the visual segments of the (i.e those without spoken descriptions) will not make it into the finished edited podcast version. For the final edited podcast, assume your audience is only able to listen to the audio file.

Improv exercise: game + industry pairs

(A game properties improv exercise)

Pair game types with industry types as prompts for new game ideas. Working with external constraints can be extremely creative/productive.

Button artwork

Individually or in small groups.

1. Eyes closed, pick a button from the game types box
2. Eyes closed, pick a button from the industry types box
3. Come up with ideas inspired by the pair of buttons.
4. Capture your idea in a "working title".

Examples:

"Pirates and Underwriters - The Insurance Industry Action Game"

"Energy Roulette - Gamification of Customer Incentives for Electricity Meter Reading"

Resources:

"games_industries.pdf"
"gamesindustry.xlsx"

Use a whiteboard or jamboard

Games, Gaming, Gamification

Should we or shouldn't we? Is gamification manipulation? do we even have a choice if we do it or not? If we're going to do it anyway, well who is going to do it well? Because one thing is certain, it will be done badly too, very badly. (part 1 and part 2 and part 3)

"...but I do know this stuff is coming. Man! It's gotta come. What's gonna stop it?
And the only question I care about right now, is who, in this room, is going to lead us, to get there?" Jess Schell @DICE2010. 

LARP gone wrong

Live Action Role Play (LARP) games can be great for pushing the boundaries of games and play into unconventional areas. The notion of LARP has been drawn on to explain the origin and growth of QAnon -  a game gone wrong (FT video article - link).

NBC News article expanding on the background behind QAnon, its origin as an easter egg hunt, its hijacking and use as a vehicle for a contrived 'movement'. (NBC News - link)