Tutorial and workshop from the Games for Health 2014 conference. Covers common problems, failings of gamification, elements of player experience, paper prototyping, and essential concepts in game design.
8. Best possible outcome if you...
Skip college.
Never move out of your parents' house.
Never get married.
Never have any children.
Never travel or take any vacations.
Work indefinitely past 65.
Die alone in a nursing home with lots of money and
no one to leave it to.
20. A growing backlash
“I don’t do ‘gamification,’ and
I’m not prepared to stand up
and say I think it works.”
–Jane McGonigal
“Gamification is bullshit.”
–Ian Bogost
54. Games for…
Gatorade “Bolt”
game’s goal:
“...to position Gatorade
as the hero helping drive
better performance and
higher scores with water
as the enemy that
hinders performance.”
Media agency OMD’s
case study video
evil?
102. They’re fast and cheap
They focus on the fundamentals
You can playtest with them
They help people speak in a common language
Why paper prototypes?
107. Guidelines
Don’t be too literal
Work on small things
Make it a real game
Iterate
Strip off the aesthetic and usability layers
Focus on the underlying gameplay
127. The hammer card is awesome
1. Draw again right away.
2. Any barrels on the bottom level are smashed.
3. You still have to roll if a barrel is above.
129. Discussion
In what ways was this similar to the original game?
In what ways was this different?
What might you change to improve the experience?
130. Lessons for design
The central conflict of the game
Basic strategy & tactics
What the obstacles are & how often they appear
How hard it should be to jump a barrel
What consequences for mistakes are fair
How the stakes change over time
How the game ends
157. It’s okay for you to do anything that the game
doesn’t specifically prohibit.
As a result, the design is vulnerable to degenerate
strategies.
Arbitration limits cheating
161. You usually don’t directly design the play experience.
You design the parameters in which play executes.
The players, objectives, and constraints interact in
complex ways to construct the experience as you go.
Games as systems
163. 15 minutes
Up next:
A health game design case study.
You prototype your own games.
Break time!
168. Understand the nutritional attributes of food
Build a knowledge base of food choices
Develop skills to interpret nutrition information
Learn to value healthier food choices
Kids need to:
173. Player is responsible for maintaining
the health of a virtual pet
Must shop for the critter's food, cook
for it, and feed it
Each day the player must fill the
critter's green bars without filling the
red bars
176. 1. Define a core message
Design around a clear and
concise statement
of what you want players
to do or to believe.
179. 2. Tie the message to strategy
Games drive players
to find the most efficient ways
to win.
If the message represents
the ideal strategy,
then the process of playing
serves as a proof of its truthfulness.
180. Tiered system of rewards
Better food choices
Health goes up
Greater productivity, more
sports wins, sick less often
Earn more money
Trick out your pad
Social rewards
181. 3. Enable self-directed discovery
Self-directed discovery persuades
by giving people
a feeling of ownership
of the insight they've uncovered.
184. Discovering healthy recipes
Players can cook, combining
ingredients into prepared meals.
Meals of greater nutritional merit are worth more
than their constituent ingredients
185. Meals can be sold to the
restaurant for a profit.
Other players can then
purchase them, enabling
social learning.
186. 4. Offer meaningful choices
If there is no benefit
to making the wrong choice,
then there is
no choice at all.
187. Effects of high-calorie foods
Advantages:
More energy for sports games
More energy for work
Consequences:
Exceed daily limits faster
Critter starts rejecting healthier
options
188. 5. Keep it real
Video games' capacity
to simulate the conditions
of the real world
can impart credibility
to embedded arguments.
190. and the daily objectives are based on
real consumption guidelines
191. Pilot Study
Northbridge Elementary, MA
Run by University of Massachusetts Medical School
100 5th graders, 4 class periods
1. Significant increases in positive attitudes
toward nutrition and fitness
2. Significant increases in students' self-
efficacy
3. Moderate increases in nutrition knowledge
193. (each played by
another person)
10 dragon heads
4 warriors
The game ends when
either all dragon
heads or warriors
have been removed
from the board.
(played by 1 person)
194. If you get anything other than a 1, nothing happens.
The dragon rolls all 4 dice at once
208. Heal
The dragon regrows
1 lost head, which
may be placed in any
space directly up,
down, left, or right
from any other head.
Heads may regrow up
to a maximum of 10.
209. Heal
The dragon regrows
1 lost head, which
may be placed in any
space directly up,
down, left, or right
from any other head.
Heads may regrow up
to a maximum of 10.
210. Heal
The dragon regrows
1 lost head, which
may be placed in any
space directly up,
down, left, or right
from any other head.
Heads may regrow up
to a maximum of 10.
211. Heal
The dragon regrows
1 lost head, which
may be placed in any
space directly up,
down, left, or right
from any other head.
Heads may regrow up
to a maximum of 10.
212. Heal
The dragon regrows
1 lost head, which
may be placed in any
space directly up,
down, left, or right
from any other head.
Heads may regrow up
to a maximum of 10.
213. Heal
The dragon regrows
1 lost head, which
may be placed in any
space directly up,
down, left, or right
from any other head.
Heads may regrow up
to a maximum of 10.
214. So how do the warriors work?
That’s up to you!
Make up roles and rules for each warrior
(e.g. elf, fighter, sorceress, etc.)
Write everything down on the character sheets.
215. Design a system of rules that interact to make a game
experience that’s:
The designer’s objective
Sustained.
Challenging
.
Fair. Enjoyable.
217. Time to play!
15 minutes.
Make changes as you go.
SUSTAINED - CHALLENGING - FAIR - ENJOYABLE
218. Discussion
Did anyone develop a character that worked well?
What was the biggest problem in your game?
What might you change to get rid of that problem?
219. Iteration 2
Start over. Try to improve the experience.
Make new characters with new rules.
You can change the rules for the dragon.
Incorporate at least 1 environmental piece.
222. Was the game better or worse this time?
Were you able to solve the problems?
Did new problems come up?
What’s the most significant problem now?
Discussion
227. Often, you don’t directly design the play experience.
You design the parameters in which play executes.
The players, objectives, and constraints interact in
complex ways to construct the experience as you go.
Games as systems
Although some games aren’t systems, e.g...
229. There are some big design issues here!!
Games execute outside of the designer’s control.
The real-time interactions between game elements
are complex and hard to predict.
Unintended degenerate strategies can emerge.
Players may not understand a game or they may
struggle with its UI.
Players might not be having any fun.
And why are people doing this? Because they want a creative outlet. They want to build something extraordinary.
The artwork is so happy, but the underlying themes are all “Destroy!”
THis is really at the heart of what makes a game a game -- is the ability to make choices that affect the outcome. It consists of tactical decisions in the short term, and strategic decisions over the entire course of play.
the rules governing what players can do with them. It’s the interaction of the rules that are assigned to each of the pieces that brings chess to life, and the game wouldn’t be possible unless people agreed to abide by a common set of rules.
Now most games work in this way as systems, although there are a handful of exceptions.
Games also tend to design very idiosyncratic user interfaces, even when they’re doing the same thing.
Here’s a screen from Deus Ex 3 that lets the player select power-ups, which is common activity in a lot of games a but this particular UI is very pretty unique to Deus Ex 3.