Architecture case study India Habitat Centre, Delhi.pdf
Playful design workshop ferrara - uxlx 2014
1. Playful Design
John Ferrara
An introduction to game experience
design for UX practitioners
While you’re waiting to start
Screenshot a game you’re playing and
tweet it with hashtag #PlayfulDesign
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.
16. 2. Game design is a lot like user experience design
3. Games are a ubiquitous activity
4. Games are innovators in interactivity
5. Technology is bringing games & UX together
Other reasons
48. 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
97. 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
117. 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.
119. 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?
120. 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
147. 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
151. 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
155. (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)
156. If you get anything other than a 1, nothing happens.
The dragon rolls all 4 dice at once
170. 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.
171. 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.
172. 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.
173. 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.
174. 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.
175. 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.
176. 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.
177. Design a system of rules that interact to make a game
experience that’s:
The designer’s objective
Sustained.
Challenging
.
Fair. Enjoyable.
179. Time to play!
15 minutes.
Make changes as you go.
SUSTAINED - CHALLENGING - FAIR - ENJOYABLE
180. 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?
181. 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 2 environmental pieces.
184. 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
197. The “good-tough” problem
Ask yourself
Are players having a hard time for the right reasons?
Do players see the challenge as engaging or discouraging?
Is the challenge appropriate for the current level of the game?
What actions to players take in response to the challenge?
How do players reflect on the challenge after surmounting it?
198. General playtesting guidelines
Recruit selectively.
Test in a cozy space.
Do an observation script.
If your game is long, run long sessions.
Watch. Listen. Chill.
199. Iteration 3
Carry forward your favorite characters and rules from
iterations 1 & 2, or create new ones as needed.
Change the rules to promote one of these effects:
Easy: Maximize risk taking among the warriors.
Easy: Maximize the dragon’s aggressiveness.
Medium: Maximize collaboration among the warriors.
Medium: Incentivize the dragon to hold one edge of the board.
Hard: Incentivize the warriors to betray one another.
Hard: Create a way for the dragon to trick the warriors.
205. 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:
210. 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
213. 1. Define a core message
A persuasive game
must be designed around
a clear and concise statement
of what you want players
to do or to believe.
214.
215.
216. 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.
217. 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
218. 3. Enable self-directed discovery
Self-directed discovery persuades
by giving people
a feeling of ownership
of the insight they've uncovered.
221. Discovering healthy recipes
Players can cook, combining
ingredients into prepared
meals.
Meals of greater nutritional merit are worth more
than their constituent ingredients
222. Meals can be sold to the
restaurant for a profit.
Other players can then
purchase them, enabling
social learning.
223. 4. Offer meaningful choices
If there is no benefit
to making the wrong choice,
then there is
no choice at all.
224. 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
225. 5. Keep it real
Video games' capacity
to simulate the conditions
of the real world
can impart credibility
to embedded arguments.
227. ...and the daily objectives are
based on real consumption
guidelines
228. Pilot Study, November
2011Northbridge 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
230. 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...
231.
232. 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.
But if you’re rolling two dice you get a completely different probability distribution.
[elaborate]
As a designer, there’s more that you can do with this, because the rolls are more differentiated. The entire game of craps is specifically designed around this probability distribution.
Don’t run it in a lab with one-way glass and a ficus in the corner.
Interruptions are invariably going to mess up the player’s flow. Give them directions at the outset, then just see where it goes.
First, define a core message. A persuasive game must be designed around a clear and concise statement of what you want players to do or to believe.
This is critical to guide design decisions toward the central persuasive objective.
These are often best left implicit in the game itself -- but more about that in a minute.