Game Design is the art of creating a game. It’s a very fascinating subject, under many aspects, as it requires knowledge of psychology, visual design, mathematics, software engineering, animation, user experience and much more. In this workshop we will introduce the definition of game and the main components of game design, presenting the challenges and the aspects of this science, analysing the design choices of some of the most popular titles of the past. We will also discover why many of the concepts of game design are also useful to web or mobile product designers in general.

1. Codemotion Milan
25 November 2016
emabolo@gmail.com
@emabolo
Game Design
What you should know about game design
whether you create games or not

2. Emanuele Bolognesi
emabolo@gmail.com
http://emabolo.com
@emabolo
www.gamearena.io
www.gamesnostalgia.com
www.gamesvoyager.com
www.gameborder.net

3. 1

4. 2
You do not talk
about game design

5. 3

6. Game vs Toy

7. Game vs Toy

8. What is a game?
1. Games have goals
2. Games can be won and lost
3. Games have rules
4. Games are interactive
5. Games have conflicts
6. Games have challenges

9. Jesse Schell, The Art of Game Design

10. Main components of game design

11. Aesthetics
How your game looks, sounds and feels

12. No Man’s Sky (2016)

13. Monument Valley (2014)

14. Shadow of the Beast II (1990)

15. Warcraft III - Reign of Chaos (2002)
Warcraft iii

16. Monopoly (1935)

17. Story
The sequence of events

18. The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)

19. Assassin’s Creed (2007)

20. Space Invaders

22. Technology
What makes the game possible

24. Commander Keen (1990)

26. Mechanics
• Procedures and rules
• The goal of a game
• The victory conditions
• Actions that players can take
Pacman (1980)

27. Pacman - Commodore 64 version (1983)

28. Tomb Raider (1996)

29. MDA Framework
http://gangles.ca/2009/08/21/mda/

30. None of the elements is more important
than the others
More visible
Less visible
Right brain
Left brain

31. The elements support a theme
• Decide what your theme is
• Use every means possible to reinforce
that theme

32. create an experience
• A memorable experience!
• What experience do I want the
player to have?
• How can my game capture the
essence?
• Find as many ways as possible to
instill this essence into your game
The Goal:
Jesse Schell, The Art of Game Design

33. Batman Arkham Knight (2015)

34. Sid Meier’s Colonization (1994)

35. Game designers design experience
(by definition)
design experience !!!
UX designers
Think about it…

36. Focus and balance

38. Focus
• Clear goals
• No distractions
• Direct feedback
• Continuosly challenging
Mario Cart 8 (2014)

39. Balance
Challenges
Skills
Anxiety
Boredom

40. Balance

41. Rewards
• Reward with feedbacks: they tell the
players they are doing well
• Rewards generate pleasure
• In games there is no such thing as ”too
much reward”

42. Product where I can see
game design choices

43. Let’s take the standard home holiday
services…

44. Airbnb

45. Think about learning
languages…

47. And now let’s take Duolingo

48. GOALS
Experience Points
Difficulty level
-> balance
First of all: easthetic

49. Map + Badges
Player Level

50. Let’s take the usual navigation/map service

52. Now let’s take Waze

53. First of all: easthetic

54. Cartoon-style
Graphics
Player Levels and Ranks
Unlockable
avatars

55. Reports from higher level players have
greater influence
When you level up, your experience of
navigation changes and it even impacts
other “players”
And it’s not just “empty” gamification:

56. Final thoughts
• Give goals and rewards to your
users
• Balance the difficulty to keep
the user in the flow
• Give memorable experiences to
your users
• This is true for both games and
non-games

57. That’s enough!
Max Payne (2001)

59. Thank You!
Email emabolo@gmail.com
Twitter @emabolo
Skype emabolo
Website www.emabolo.com