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.