Brainstorming by Creating a Game

SLIDES: Allen, Christopher
(2014, May 19). “Brainstorming
through Game Creation”. Life
With Alacrity. Retrieved May
19, 2014, from http://
www.LifeWithAlacrity.com
Brainstorming
through Game
Creation
ABSTRACT: “Creating a game
together is a great tool for teams to
establish a shared language and to
discover aspects of collective
experience that can foster
innovation. The reason is that games
can be deﬁned as “A Playful Journey
to Success” — the processes of
innovation, entrepreneurship and
education are all also Journeys to
Success. Thus by designing a game,
we are modeling future successful
journeys for ourselves.”

Created by Christopher Allen, ChristopherA@LIfeWithAlacrity.com. Published in blog Life With Alacrity. Text
and design ©2014 Christopher Allen and is licensed CC-BY-SA. Individual images are from The Noun
Project, are © their respective owners and are licensed under CC license.
Brainstorming through…
2
What is a

Today, as part of our brainstorming exercise, each of our teams will be creating a game. Creating these
games will give us a shared language about our different experiences, and will inspire us to discover aspects
of our collective that we might have otherwise missed.
Creating a Game
3
What is a

So to start — What, exactly, is a Game?
What is a Game?
4
What is a

So to start — What, exactly, is a Game?
What is a Game?
5
Game
Game

There are many excellent deﬁnitions, written by philosophers, game historians, game designers, and scholars
of “Ludology” — the study of games.
Game
6
Game

There are many excellent definitions, written by philosophers, game historians, game designers, and scholars
of “Ludology” — the study of games.
Game
7
Game
A game is a
voluntary effort to
overcome
unnecessary
obstacles.
— Bernard Suits, in The Grasshopper:
Games, Life, and Utopia (1990)
A game is an activity among two or
more independent decision-makers
seeking to achieve their objectives in
some limiting context.
— Clark Abt, in Serious Games (1970)
A game is a system in which
players engage in an artificial
conflict, defined by rules, that
results in a quantifiable outcome.
— Kalen, Zimmerman in
The Rules of Play (2004)
A formal game has a twofold structure based on
ends and means; Ends: it is a contest to achieve an
objective. Means: it has an agreed set of equipment
and of procedural ‘rules’
— David Parlett, in The Oxford History of Board Games (1999)

However, my personal deﬁnition is quite simple: A Game is “A Playful Journey to Success”
So why do I prefer this deﬁnition?
Game
8
Game

However, my personal deﬁnition is quite simple: A Game is “A Playful Journey to Success”
So why do I prefer this deﬁnition?
A Playful Journey to Success!
Game
9

One reason is that I use this deﬁnition is that it distills the essence of what is a game down to three key
qualities — that games are Playful, that they embody a Journey, and at their end you have a feeling of
Success.
Game
10
Playful Journey Success

Also important to me, are the words that this deﬁnition leaves out.
Game
11

In this deﬁnition I use the word Playful rather than Play. Though games may be full of play, they are not solely
about play. They are much more.
Game
12
Playful
Play

Part of this is because games are not always fun — all games will have some form of fun, but typically some
portion of the play experience must challenge you, thus you will experience difﬁcultly and frustration. Which is
not fun, but overcoming those challenges can be.
Game
13
Playful
Fun

Another missing word — Competition. Though competition is often important part of a game, the Journey
does not necessarily require players to compete with each other. Instead they may compete with
themselves, or against the board.
Game
14
Journey
Competition

Similarly do games don’t have to be fundamentally about conﬂict — there are many great games that are
about cooperation.
Game
15
Journey
Conﬂict

Finally, this deﬁnition avoids the word Win. Win implies that someone else looses. Winning can be an
important part of a game, but I prefer to use Success. In the best games, those who do not win still enjoy
and gain value from their play, so also share in the Success.
Game
16
Success
Win

So why in this exercise are we using the design of a game as a metaphor?
Game
17

The reason is that education, the process of innovation, and entrepreneurship are all also Journeys to
Success. Journeys have a path, they have obstacles, and at their end is some measure of success. So by
designing a game, we are modeling the process of success itself.
Game
18
SuccessJourney

For the next half-hour, you will hear some stories about the Journeys. Take notes.
Game
19
SuccessJourneyPlayful

In particular listen for anything that you can use in your game design that ﬁt into the categories of the
Playfulness, the Journey or the Success.
Game
20
Journey
Neque porro quisquam
est qui dolorem ipsum
quia dolor sit amet,
consectetur, adipisci velit
Playful Success

After listening to these Journeys, we will be asking you begin the process of of brainstorming about how to
create a game. We are not asking you to create a great game — again, our goal is simulate the Journey in
the form of game to see what we learn.
Game
21

Transcript
22
Breakout:
Stories of Journeys to Success

To recap, games are a Playful Journey to Success. Here are some things to think about in regards to these
three aspects of game design.
Game
24

To recap, games are a Playful Journey to Success. Here are some things to think about in regards to these
three aspects of game design.
Game
25
Playful Journey Success

PlayfulA Playful Journey to Success!
Let’s dive into the nature of of what it means to be Playful:
Playful
26

There are many kinds of Play. Some elements of play in games are Discovery and Creativity, Collecting Sets,
Problem Solving, Achieving Goals, and many more.
There are many kinds of play
Play
27
Discovery /
Creativity
Collecting
Sets
Problem
Solving
Achieving
Goals
Play

Transcript
28
Question:
What aspects of Play do you enjoy?
Discovery /
Creativity
Collecting
Sets
Problem
Solving
Achieving
Goals

Transcript
29
Question:
What do you ﬁnd Playful?

PlayfulA Playful Journey to Success!
Here are some things you should be thinking about when describing a Journey..
Journey
30
Journey

Journey’s have a path. It can be single path, like a racetrack. Or a Journey can diverge from a single starting
point into multiple paths. Or you can start from many different places and converge on a single goal. Path’s
can also be very non-linear and chaotic.
Journeys have paths
Journey
31
Single Path
(racetrack)
Multiple Paths
(branching tree)
Non-Linear
Rooted Paths
(upside-down tree)

Journeys have obstacles
Journey’s also have Obstacles. They can be as simple as requiring one thing to be done after another, or
require a decision to be made. Other obstacles can be randomness, rules, or time.
Journey
32
Order Decisions
1
2
3
4 1
2
3a
3b
4a
4b
Randomness Rules Time

Journey’s have constraints. You have a limit to how far the Journey is, and how much time you can spend
traveling.
Journeys have constraints
Journey
33
Space Time

JourneyJourney
Similarly, Journey’s have a scale. Are about a single company, a city, or a whole country? Does your journey
take hours, days or weeks?
Journeys have scale
34
Space Time

Journey
Our Journey’s lead to Success, but what is the nature of Success?
Success
35
Success

Success
Who wins?
36
Individual Team Society
First, who wins? Is an individual person, a team of people, or society as a whole?

How do you deﬁne success?
Success
37
Learning
Perform
Skill
Make
Decision
Create
Next, how do you deﬁne success? Are you demonstrating that you’ve learned to perform a skill, or how
make a decision, or the ability to create something?

Success
38
Learning
Perform
Skill
Make
Decision
Create
Metric
Score/
Statistic
Money Vote
Or is it some form of Metric, such as overcoming some score, statistic, or collect money, or winning a vote?

Success
39
Improvement
Personal
Overcome Rival
Aesthetic Social
Learning
Perform
Skill
Make
Decision
Create
Metric
Score/
Statistic
Money Vote
Success can also be very personal. You can feel that you’ve created something beautiful, that you have
accomplished an improvement, or overcome a rival. And success can just be that you had a good time with
your fellows.

In our next Breakout, talk about the Journeys that were shared previously. What are elements of that might
be considered Playful?
Game
40
Playful

What kind of the paths and obstacles occurred during that Journey? What is the nature of Journey’s
constraints in space and time, and what was the scale?
Game
41
Journey
Playful

Who wins? How would you describe the elements of Success?
Game
42
Journey
Playful Success

Break Out:
The elements of each Playful Journey to Success
43
Kinds of
Play
Nature of
the Paths
Obstacles
Constraints
& Scale
Who
Wins
Nature
of Success

So after listening these Journey’s, and sharing your thoughts on the nature of these journeys, our next goal
for is to begin to create a game.
Game
44

You should have some notes about journeys to success that were shared earlier. Similarly you should have
some notes about the kinds of play, the elements of the journey, and the nature of success.
Game
45
Journey
Playful Success

You just focused on these aspects of your Journeys. Which was the most interesting? Don’t start on the
mechanics of your game yet — instead, simply choose what kind of journey you’d like to create a game
around. Later we’ll help you brainstorm the game mechanics required to support the goals of your game.
Game
46
Kinds of
Play
Nature of
the Paths
Obstacles
Constraints
& Scale
Who
Wins
Nature
of Success

Transcript
47
Break Out:
Choose one Playful Journey to Success to Design
Kinds of
Play
Nature of
the Paths
Obstacles
Constraints
& Scale
Who
Wins
Nature
of Success

Now that you’ve deﬁned the broad goals of a game, I’d like to share with you some ideas about game
mechanics that can support your goals. You don’t need to understand these mechanics, but you may
connect these ideas to games you’ve played in the past, and thus ﬁnd them useful for your designs.
Game
48

Games are often made up of
sequences of mini-games
Mini-games
49
First, many games are made up of sequences of mini-games If your game is too simple, create mini-games
inside it. Or, if you feel your game may be too complex, focus on a mini-game within your larger game.

An early decision that you need to make is the nature of competition. There is a continuum from competing
with only yourself, to competing against someone else, to the true cooperative game.
Not all games need to be
about competition
Player Interaction
50
Solitaire Competition Cooperative

There is actually many more choices here. Between solitaire and competition is ranked solitaire where you
compete only by score. Competition can include parters or teams. And you can have games where there is
one vs many, like a secret traitor you have in the game Werewolf.
There are many choices
Player Interaction
51
Solitaire
Individual Ranked
Competition Cooperative
Partners / Teams
One vs. Many
/ Secret Traitor

Journeys have guideposts
Game Components
Journeys have guideposts. In games, we call these game components.
Guideposts
52

Game ComponentsGame Components
There are four basic categories of game components. There is the game environment, the are the tokens,
the markers, and the randomizers.
There are four categories
53
Tokens
(Pawns)
Markers
(Scores)
Environments
(Boards)
Randomizers
(Dice & Cards)

Games are played in a context. This is the game environment. For instance, a game can be played entirely in
the hand, or on a table, or on a device such as computer.
Games are played in a context
Environments
54
In the Hand
(Cards)
On the Table
(Boards)
On the Computer
(Virtual Reality)

However, for our purposes today we are going to be focused on the mechanics of tabletop board games.
However, free to create a card game if you prefer.
Games are played in a context
Environments
55
On the Table
(Boards)

There are two kinds of boards. There are those that are the same every time the game is played, but in
some games boards are dynamic and thus are different for each play.
Kinds of Boards
56
Static Dynamic

Dynamic boards have two sub-types — in the ﬁrst the board is constructed before the game starts, the
other board evolves as the game progresses.
Dynamic Boards
57
Constructed
Before Game
Evolves
During Game

What you can do with a board?
So what can you do with a board? You can mark territory, as you have in simple games like tic-tac-toe or
complex games like Risk or Go.
Kinds of Boards
58
Mark
Territory

The board can also be used to signify projections of force, like chess.
Kinds of Boards
59
Mark
Territory
Projections
of Force

A board can deﬁne a racetrack, such as the Game of Life.
Kinds of Boards
60
Mark
Territory
Deﬁne the
Racetrack
Projections
of Force

Or a board can display the score markers of the players as they proceed along their journey.
Kinds of Boards
61
Mark
Territory
Deﬁne the
Racetrack
Display
Scores
Projections
of Force

Boards have tokens on them. These tokens can be pawns that represent the players and their opponents,
or they can be ﬂags that show ownership or control of territory. Many games have shared tokens that all
players may use during their turn.
Tokens are dynamic—they
move, or may enter or exit play
Tokens (Pawns & Flags)
62
Player
Avatar
Enemy
Avatar
Control
Territory
Shared
Token

Markers are representative for
a score, value or state
Markers (Scores & Quantities)
63
Money Resources Tools Powers Rules Change
Beyond tokens, boards have markers on them that most typically are used to represent a score, such as
money. However, these markers may represent quantities of resources, tools, and powers that the players
can use. Or they can signify a rules change has occurred.

All games have some source of
randomness
Randomizers
64
Player’s
Choices
All games have some source of randomness. These may come purely from each players choices, such as
with Rock Paper Scissors

randomness
Randomizers
65
Player
Skill
Player’s
Choices
Or the randomness can come from the differences in players skill or strategies.

randomness
Randomizers
66
True
Random
Player
Skill
Player’s
Choices
But there is also true randomness such as dice…

randomness
Randomizers
67
Arbitrary
(less random over time)
True
Random
Player
Skill
Player’s
Choices
…or forms of randomness that become less random over time such as a deck of cards. With a fresh deck
you can’t predict which card will be drawn next, but as the deck runs out it becomes more predictable.

So for the next breakout, think about the the nature of cooperation vs competition in your game. Decide on
the kind of board you wish to use, what do territories on the board represent, and the nature of tokens and
markers required for your game.
Game
68
Cooperation vs.
Competition
Kind of
Board
Tokens &
Markers
Board
Territories

Break Out:
Design a Playful Journey to Success!
69
Cooperation vs.
Competition
Kind of
Board
Tokens &
Markers
Board
Territories

Transcript
70
Report Out:
Share Your Games!

Transcript
71
Discussion:
What did you discover about
Successful Journeys
by creating a Game together?

Brainstorming by Creating a Game

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