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Growing Up Gamer
- 1. Chris Floyd Fourteen years in the video game industry From Tester to Lead Game Designer Products on PC, consoles, and mobile
- 2. Growing Up Gamer Reflections on Two Generations of Video Gamers
- 3. History Lesson 1962 1972 1982 First Game Developers First Lifelong Gamers
- 4. The First Gamer Generation Dynamic environment Curious and energized Others find games weird and/or pointless
- 5. Generation Two! Fully developed media industry Immersed in games No longer new, exotic, or weird Who is making their games? Game Developer!
- 6. Influences
- 8. Influences So Long, Oregon! Let’s Go Find El Dorado (2010)
- 9. Influences Super Amazing Wagon Adventure (2013)
- 11. My First Video Game Apple IIe (1983)
- 12. My First Video Game Karateka (1984)
- 13. Karateka Rescue the princess from the warlord’s fortress by defeating all his minions with your awesome karate!
- 14. Karateka
- 15. Karateka
- 16. Game Loops A game loop is an activity in a game that a player does multiple times. Each time he does it, the computer responds or gives him feedback. Player Acts Game Reacts
- 17. Game Loops A game loop is made up of smaller game loops!
- 18. Karateka Game Loops Playing the game start to finish
- 19. Karateka Game Loops Sixteen combat encounters
- 20. Karateka Game Loops Defeat each combatant or be defeated
- 21. Karateka Game Loops Choose offensive or defensive action second by second Q W A S Z X KickPunch High Middle Low Move
- 22. Fight! Mortal Kombat Street Fighter Virtua Fighter
- 23. Shadow of the Colossus Mortal Kombat Sixteen combat encounters
- 24. Platforming! Super Mario Bros. (1985)
- 25. Platforming! Genre Fighting Focus Enemies Challenge Behaviors Methods Attacks Platformer Environment Obstacles Navigation
- 26. Shadow of the Colossus Learn the Colossus’ behavior Navigate the Colossus
- 27. Minecraft
- 28. What Are Games? Player Acts Game Reacts Decision “A game is a series of interesting decisions.” Sid Meier
- 29. What Are Games? Decision Reward? Learning Sid Meier Raph Koster “Fun is just another word for learning.”
- 30. Decisions Decisions in games: Clear Consistent Limited action-set Rewarding Soft failure Decisions in real life: Nuanced & complex Inconsistent Infinite choices Not always rewarded Life-altering failure No wonder we love to play games!
- 31. What About Generation Two?
- 32. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- Quick points about my professional backgroundFourteen years in the video game industryStarted in 1999Multiple Colorado developers/publishersNo longer in the industry – Deloitte Digital, maker of mobile appsQuality Assurance (testing) and Game DesignMost recently Lead Game Designer at Idol MindsProducts on PC, console, and mobileLEGO Universe – PCPAIN – PS3Linked Together – iPhone/iPad
- Title slide / Introduce myself / Thank yous
- A little history lesson:The first original games played on a computer appeared in the 1960s (Spacewar!)Gained broad recognition in the 1970s (Pong/Atari).By the 1980s, kids (like me) had come of age into a world of video games: arcades, Atari, personal computersThese guys were the first game developersJust as momentously, these kids were the first lifelong gamers – Gamer Generation 1
- [need transitions]Generation 1 gamers are unique:* While game devs are in the process of learning their discipline and inventing technology, gamers are playing* Gamers: Curious, energized by newness of games* Others: Found games weird, pointlessI think of Generation One as a little bit like WALL-E:Built out of the available technologyFinds something amazing around every cornerPerceived by some as a little sad or lost
- [needs transitions]Gen 2 is coming…Actually, gen 2 is here! Our kids are growing up gamer!But differently in a few ways:Fully developed media industryImmersed in gamesNot new or exotic or weirdWho is making the games they’re playing?This kid! And me! Generation one.And the games they harken back to are the games they played as kids.For example:
- When this kid grows up to be a game developer, what influences him?Maybe it’s Qbert, that he’s playing here in the arcade.But games are everywhere. He even plays them in school. Maybe he thinks of one of those games…Perhaps you played it too – can you name this game?
- Oregon Trail, a game about living and dying as a pioneer.You be surprised how influential a game like this can be.In the last year or two:
- So Long Oregon. Let’s Go Find El Dorado
- Super Amazing Wagon Adventure
- Organ Trail
- 1985 -- Age 9, my dad brought home an Apple IIe.* 64k of RAM – 125,000x less than a modern PCMonochrome graphicsNot long after, a friend (older, computer savvy) came by with a disc (5 1/4"!) and gave me my first real computer game.
- Karateka(1984)What is Karateka? How can we describe it?
- Rescue the princess from the warlord’s fortress by defeating all his minions with your awesome karate! Does that explain the game? Works better for a novel or movie.
- Rescue the princess from the warlord’s fortress by defeating all his minions with your awesome karate! Does that explain the game? Works better for a novel or movie.How about pictures:[color] Pic of the action[castle] It’s really quite a beautiful game -- animations were incredible
- Rescue the princess from the warlord’s fortress by defeating all his minions with your awesome karate! Does that explain the game? Works better for a novel or movie.How about pictures:[color] Pic of the action[castle] It’s really quite a beautiful game -- animations were incredible
- Still not sure what the game is? I'm going to describe Karateka the way a game designer would: game loops. Game Loops:A game loop is an activity in a game that a player does multiple times. Each time he does it, the computer responds or gives him feedback.* Game loops are made of smaller game loops!
- Still not sure what the game is? I'm going to describe Karateka the way a game designer would: game loops. Game Loops:A game loop is an activity in a game that a player does multiple times. Each time he does it, the computer responds or gives him feedback.* Game loops are made of smaller game loops!
- Game loop for Karateka:The big loop (takes about 20m) is playing the whole game!IntroFighting Akuma’s minionsRescuing the princessFinale
- Game loop for Karateka:The big loop (takes about 20m) is playing the whole game!IntroFighting Akuma’s minionsRescuing the princessFinale
- Fight one enemy on each screen until either he or you is defeated.THAT loop is made up of smaller loops: Deciding what move to make from these choices: move, kick, punch (high/mid/low) -- offense or defense
- Fight one enemy on each screen until either he or you is defeated.THAT loop is made up of smaller loops: Deciding what move to make from these choices: move, kick, punch (high/mid/low) -- offense or defense
- Karateka’s Influence:From Karateka, one-on-one fighting games developed:* Street Fighter (combos/specials)* Mortal Kombat (fatalities)Virtua Fighter (3D) Added depth, which added more levels of mastery, and create a deep difference between skilled and unskilled players.
- In 2005, on PlayStation 2 a game called Shadow of the Colossus was released. The little guy is you. You travel around the world and have one-on-one encounters with about sixteen colossi.[Show loops, identical to Karateka]Like Karateka, down to the number. But the smallest loops aren't the same. Obviously, a high kick does nothing to this guy. SotC has jettisoned the fundamental gameplay of a fighting game, because it wouldn't work on this scale. But what does work?
- To answer that question we have to jump to a totally different gaming platform, the Nintendo Entertainment System and… (anyone?)Super Mario Bros. (1985)A year after Karateka. In many ways, the two illustrate two fundamentally different kinds of games: Focus:Karateka: EnemiesMario: Environment – notice that the ground is totally flat in KaratekaChallenge:Karateka: Behaviors – is an enemy fast or slow, aggressive or not.Mario: Obstacles – even creatures are very predictable, following patterns, timing puzzleMethods:Karateka: AttacksMario: Navigation -- move/jump Few early games could do both. Later some games managed to mix the two--a little fighting, then a little platforming--but never really could combine them. ----- Meeting Notes (4/30/13 13:40) -----introduce platforming term
- To answer that question we have to jump to a totally different gaming platform, the Nintendo Entertainment System and… (anyone?)Super Mario Bros. (1985)A year after Karateka. In many ways, the two illustrate two fundamentally different kinds of games: Focus:Karateka: EnemiesMario: Environment – notice that the ground is totally flat in KaratekaChallenge:Karateka: Behaviors – is an enemy fast or slow, aggressive or not.Mario: Obstacles – even creatures are very predictable, following patterns, timing puzzleMethods:Karateka: AttacksMario: Navigation -- move/jump Few early games could do both. Later some games managed to mix the two--a little fighting, then a little platforming--but never really could combine them. ----- Meeting Notes (4/30/13 13:40) -----introduce platforming term
- Back to Colossus: Is he an enemy? Or is he an environment? He's both! The player has two challenges: learn the behavior of the colossus (maybe you shoot an arrow at him to get his attention), then navigate the colossus (grabbing, jumping, climbing) Genre??Lesson: * The games Gen 1 grew up with were necessarily limited. * NOT dead ends: the genres are still around and thriving.* But better hardware and more experience has allowed us to make some games that defy categorization. What kind of games will Gen 2 make when they have grown up without these limitations?
- Here’s another example of a game that defies categorization: Minecraft (2009-2011) (Can’t even put a normal date on it!) Probably the most important game of the last 5 years:* Sold 1 million copies before it was even finished* No publisher, no marketingSandbox -- no formal goalsKids play it, hardcore gamers play it, it’s used in schools – it’s going to be this generation’s Oregon Trail But what is it?* Digging!* Zombies!* Building!* Inventing!* Farming, animal husbandry, dimensional travel... This would make one gnarly game loop diagram!Minecraft starts to look like something we don’t even recognize as a game anymore.
- So let’s regain some perspective: what do all these games, Minecraft included, have in common?Let’s go back to our game loops: Drill down far enough and every game loop begins with a simple decision: Jump? High kick? Dig here? Sid Meier says: “A game is a series of interesting decisions.” The game responds and you learn something, perhaps how to do better. RaphKoster: “Fun is just another word for learning.”
- So let’s regain some perspective: what do all these games, Minecraft included, have in common?Let’s go back to our game loops: Drill down far enough and every game loop begins with a simple decision: Jump? High kick? Dig here? Sid Meier says: “A game is a series of interesting decisions.” The game responds and you learn something, perhaps how to do better. RaphKoster: “Fun is just another word for learning.”
- Decisions in games are unique:* Clear (Minecraft blocks)* Consistent (crafting)* Limited action-set (Karateka kicks)* Rewarding (Taking down a colossus)* Soft failure (Mario respawn) Compare with real life:* Nuanced and complex* Inconsistent* Infinite choices* Not always rewarded* Life-altering failure This is the root of why games are fascinating to us: We get to learn by making clear, consistent, rewarding decisions without threat of failure.
- What about Gen 2 -- the generation immersed in games? Children are wired to learn, so games are doubly powerful. I’m constantly asked: “my kid/grandkid loves games… How can I encourage him without it becoming unhealthy?”We want to know if games are good or bad. But of course it’s never that simple. GOOD: Games can be practice for real life; a place to experiment; teach kids to weigh choices and make good decisions with less stress. BAD: To much reliance on the simplified world of games may diminish a kid’s ability to cope with the complexity and unfairness of real life. What would a Gen 1 gamer say to Gen 2 about “growing up gamer”? Part of growing up is learning how to relate what you do in games to the real world. Look for challenges in life as well as in games--the rewards are better.