This document discusses what makes a game and how games can be played through various mediums. It notes that games do not need advanced technology, as games can be played with just pen and paper or through text-based mediums like MUDs, IRC and email games. The document defines a game as one or more people playing in a meaningful way, where there is a goal or measurable outcome to players' actions. It encourages thinking about how the essence of a pen and paper game could be translated to other mediums to reach more people.

1. Thanks!

2. Thanks!
Hi, I am Nico
Rorotika's History

3. Why do we want to play games?
What makes an awesome game?
Why do we want to MAKE games? - this one has an
answer: cos it's AWESOME fun!
Let's look at the others...

4. Is this what makes a game?

5. Or this?

6. What about this?

7. And this?

8. Before we had GPU's, we had text, and we still
played games.
MUDs, IRC, BBS's, E-mail games
They are still around!
You can play a game with a pen and a piece of
paper.
Let's see if we can come up with one!

9. A game is simply one or more people playing, in a
meaningful way.
“Meaningful play”
- Rules of play – Game Design Fundamentals
What does that mean?
Two concepts:
- Meaning
- Play

10. Meaning
It needs to mean something
There must be a goal
ie. There must be measurable outcomes to my actions
Minecraft
Bunny hopping (Q3)
GTA VC Stunting
IRC Trivia
TicTacToe

11. Play
Constraints / Rules / System
Everyone agrees!
- Cops & Robbers (eg. What is a kill)
- Hide & Seek (eg. 'Unfair' hiding places)
Rules help control the fun! - Monica from Friends

12. Why the lower end?
"Out of the 1.8 billion phones sold in 2013, 968 million of
them were smartphones. This represents a 3.5 percent
increase from 2012 levels,"
Yes, smartphones are awesome, up and growing.
But that still means, that even in 2013, 50% of all phones
sold in the world, were featurephones or below.

15. Platforms
Android
IOS
Windows
Etc.
What about:
E-mail
IRC
Mxit
WeChat
Other bearers (USSD, WAP, etc.)

18. Not every game has to be Battlefield, Quake 7, GTA 6
People WANT to be entertained!
And for a while still, especially in “lower income” regions,
the feature phone will rule the kingdom.
ALL people like entertainment, play is in our genes, we
do it naturally from when we are born.

19. What about creating a game from our pen & paper
game?
Even though we started with a pen & paper, there is
probably an essence that we can translate into any
medium, being it graphical, or textual.

20. Reading material, for those interested:
- Rules of play – Game Design Fundamentals
(Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman)
- The Art of Game Design – A book of Lenses
(Jesse Schell)
- Masters of Doom - How Two Guys Created an Empire
and Transformed Pop Culture
(David Kushner)
- Any Game Programming Gems book (for the technical)

21. Thank you!
Nico Kruger
nico.kruger@rorotika.com