Slides for a workshop on game design for storytellers. narrative not as core, but as one of the useful components. We explore the game universe, give a short intro to game design, explore the different meaning of narrative in / on / form games, and then try a game design exercise.

1. Game design for storytellers: from
the myth of interactive narratives
to the reality of game mechanics
Pietro Polsinelli
@ppolsinelli
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2. 2
Our workshop schedule.

3. Meaningful games:
examples

4. Passage:a full game.
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5. Spaceteam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD_SbJCQov
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6. Refraction http://www.kongregate.com/games/GameScience/refraction

7. The games universe
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Emergenceis the primordial game structure, where a game is specified as a
small number of rules that combine and yield large numbers of game
variations, which the players then design strategies for dealing with. This is found in card
and board games and in most action and all strategy games. Emergence games tend to be
replayable and tend to foster tournaments and strategy guides.
Progressionis the historically newer structure that entered the computer game
through the adventure genre. In progression games, the player has to perform a
predefined set of actions in order to complete the game. One feature of
the progression game is that it yields strong control to the game designer: Since the designer
controls the sequence of events, this is also where we find the games with cinematic or
storytelling ambitions. This leads to the infamous experience of playing a game "on a rail",
i.e. where the work of the player is simply to perform the correct pre-defined moves in
order to advance the game. Progression games have walkthroughs, specifying all the actions
needed to complete the game.

10. Emergence / Progression
Sim City, Braid.

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12. Self referential / Referring games
Both may be good or bad.
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13. Non played games.
Dear Esther, Proteus, Journey

14. Games for change

15. Games for change

16. Oh how nice it is to work as a
slave for this multinational
http://unmanned.molleindustria.org/
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17. Playfied solutions
“Gamification”. Bottle bank arcade. Somemtimes, unhealthy psychological consequences.
Techniology of “fitting better”: technology for control (Foucault).
Game play is instrumental to an external goal.

18. http://thegamebible.com/

19. Persuasive UIs

20. Learning & teaching
with games
from games

21. Cargo Bot
http://twolivesleft.com/CargoBot/
Videogames are ideal for transmitting formal rules through concrete examples. This can cover a lot of
ground.
Also probe – test – rethink – probe cycle.

22. Search energy in a 3D environment.

23. The dark side

24. No narrative ideal, no purpose beyond monetization. Lenses in a skeleton:The Sims Social.

25. Measure,measure,measure.

26. Addiction by Design Natascha Schull
http://gelconference.com/videos/2008/natasha_schull
97% is given by the slot machine – study IT

27. Narrative
for / in / from / out
games

28. The Magic Circle: Huizinga, Johan. 1971. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston:
Beacon Press.

29. Which story?
- user gameplay story
- learning story
- author scripted story
- game generated story
- describing the game (story as ux tool)
Distinguish: emergent narrative vs. embedded narrative.

30. Classical media is not interactive: depends how you look at it.There is a
branching reality, and videogames are rarely truly interactive.
http://gamamoto.com/2011/11/08/storytelling-and-video-games/

31. “If one understands that
storytelling for games
has little or nothing to
do with interactive
storytelling one has
already saved oneself a
lot of trouble.”
It goes in many directions.

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34. Anti narrativism
http://www.whatgamesare.com/2012/05/games-dont-tell-stories-people-tell-stories.html#more

35. There isn't one right way to include stories in games: Storyteller, Blackbar ...

36. Short intro to Game
Design

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38. Example analysis: Pinball
Which are the user inputs?
Works in different media – nice on the iPad.

39. Pinball game hermeneutics.
Progressive views:
1.Just keep the ball in play
2.Make point rich hits
3.Reach goals
4.Complete the story
5.Solo not fun any more.
Can be fun just to show off
(high scores, show to friends).

40. Games vocabulary:article “Formal Abstract Design Tools,” designer Doug Church
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131764/formal_abstract_design_tools.php

41. Game are made of loops
To analyze the mechanics of a game, you got to find the loops.

42. And loops are
interesting
because of
surprises
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise

43. Stick
to
basics
These are some of the mechanics – plus status competition …
This is very important in order to establish deep contact with your users:find the deep motivation.

44. Is this simple mechanic union relevant only for classical games?
Union of drawing – racing

45. Drawing with your finger on the iPad is nice. Racing with small cars is beautiful.

46. “This game is engaging, its fun”
Engagement can be caused by disparate reasons:
1. Engagement because of s fun base mechanic
2. Engagement by using a virtual world projection mechanics
Engaging design is ambiguous:can mean engaging by using a base mechanic (flipper, tower defence),
or by using a virtual world projection mechanics

47. Koster – Deterding definition of fun.

48. “Fun is
about
learning in a
context
where there
is no
pressure”
But in school there is, and there has to be, pressure.There is here a dynamic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x5YtkTw4wn4#!

49. The flow
The blurry edge between challenging and too difficoult.
There is the flow.We are tackling the tip of something complex.When we are
kept at the margin of our abilities – it’s the flow graph. So its complex,
there are exceptions everywhere.

50. Flow:The Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Author)

51. Stress based classification.

52. Fun is learning - but
learning is not always
fun.
“Fun is a feedback we
get in the mind when
absorbing patterns for
learning purposes” -
Koster
From “Theory of Fun”

53. Game Dev Story
A small, simple game…

54. Game Dev Story
reverse engineered
Game genres, …
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Game_Dev_Story/Walkthrough

55. Creating working
prototypes:
Machinations, HTML5,
Unity

56. Show it online: http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/wiki/index.php?title=TempleRun

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58. Example of feedback
loop analysis: Risk

59. Risk feedback loop 1: armies to territories to armies

60. Risk feedback loop 2: attacks to cards to armies

61. Risk feedback loop 3: attacks to continents to
armies

62. Risk feedback loop 4: continents lead to being
attacked

63. Other tools: HTML5, Unity.

64. A game idea is not
a game prototype

65. From “a game on Da Vinci” : Summer 2011. A
decent proto will be ready MAYBE end 2013.

66. Find a theme that it taught in
school and that you like. And that
maybe you don’t like how it is
being thought. Reach as far as
you can in this scheme:
Your turn.

67. Exercise: write up a
“game idea”

68. - Platformer?
- First person magician?
- Strategy?
- Ludo narrative dissonance?
Suggestions

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70. My twitter stream is mostly
dedicated to game design:
http://twitter.com/ppolsinelli
A blog on game design
http://designagame.eu
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