Lecture

Perhaps without previously realising it, I am a big proponent for design by subtraction. Many of the games that I consider to be especially well designed are minimal and elegant, with a highly refined core player experience. This lecture on the addition and subtraction of mechanics has only strengthened this core opinion of mine.

All too often, subtraction occurs towards the end of development, in response to deadline pressures or negative playtesting feedback. In most contexts, it should be our job as designers to make our designs simple and elegant from the outset, so as to realistically scope our projects and ensure that we make the best quality experience possible. This last-minute reshaping can be largely avoided by employing a ‘playcentric’ (Fullerton 2004) approach to development in which playtesters are involved at every stage of the process. By playtesting any mechanical additions or subtractions, developers can ensure that they are on the right track, and pivot as early as possible if they are not.

Looking at case studies such as Ico was beneficial to the understanding of why the phrase ‘less is more’ is so often true when looking at expertly crafted games. While I have not yet played Ico (2001) (though it is high on my to-play list), Shadow of the Colossus (2005) is one of my favourite game experiences. In my opinion, the team’s mastery of simplicity and elegance can be best observed in the ‘open world’ of the title. Standing in stark contrast to modern open world titles, the land that Wander traverses is barren and desolate, clearly taking cues from the sublime painting movement, in which “the sudden transformative view; a sensation that is beyond expression and which impairs the intellectual faculties” (Riding and Llewellyn, undated). Here, the developers stripped back the space that the player moves through to serve purely as a backdrop for quiet, contemplative reflection, all in service of the core player experience of solitude. Such a wide, open game space could easily be filled with distractions and tangential content, but none of it would serve the narrative, or Wander’s motivations, so it was emitted and the game is all the better for it.

GDD work

As we get closer to submission date, I have been making some important additions to the back-end of my game design document this week.

Firstly, I have added a chapter detailing the camera’s functionality and how it will be controlled by the player. There will be two primary modes that the camera moves between: cruise mode, and skate mode. Cruise mode will work similarly to many third-person games, with the camera being positioned over the character’s shoulder, and being able to be controlled by the player using the right stick. Skate camera is slightly different, being entered whenever the player is skating. As tricks are performed with the right stick, the camera in this mode is automated, facing whichever way the player is. It will also pull out, and have a widened field-of-view in order to give the player a greater understanding of their spatial environment. Cameras are one of the most important aspects of a game’s design to get right, so I am glad that I included this in my GDD.

Next, I detailed the UI of the game, including the HUD and menu systems. The HUD was best described using a mock-up diagram, representing the view to the player while in-game. I made sure to detail which elements were permanent (the compass, the stamina bar, etc.) and which were contextual (the disrupt bar, money, combo meter etc.) for better clarity. I am happy with the general layout, employing theories from the Laws of UX (Yablonski 2021) such as The Law of Proximity and Jakob’s Law. I also went over the different menu systems of the game, using flowcharts to visualise how they would be navigated and what could be accessed on each page.

Finally I made a ‘miscellaneous’ chapter documenting areas that, while important, were not extensive enough to require their own chapters. I went over the vital topic of accessibility, underscoring its importance to inclusivity and listing the ways in which Slam City Skates would strive to achieve this. I then wrote a small list of example trophies/achievements that could be obtained when playing through the game. While not essential to the design of the experience, they were enjoyable to write, and help to flesh out the game and make it feel like more of a real product.

Iron designer challenge

Our weekly group challenge saw us being tasked with adding top-down shooter mechanics to The Sims 4 (2014). This proved a challenge but we gave it a go.

We started by looking at some of the core elements of The Sims and trying to find what could transfer over to the new context. One feature we wanted to retain was the ‘indirect’ guidance of the characters. In the games, you tell the NPC’s where to go and what to do, but the outcome is largely derided from outside variables, such as their mood. We felt that this could make for an interesting spin on a top-down shooter, with the inclusion of unexpected, emergent gameplay scenarios. The player would have to maintain their Sim’s mood and well being if they wanted to ensure their survival.

This mode would be accessible from the main game, with the player’s Sim getting drafted to fight at a certain point in their playthrough. If their Sim survived, they would receive a healthy pay-out upon returning to their home.

While this challenge response was slightly comical and certainly not anything that would get greenlit, I am mostly happy with what we were able to come up with. We translated the core features of The Sims into a wildly different game genre and context.

Further reading

This week, I watched a really interesting GDC talk about making and self-publishing a game in twelve months (Viglione 2015). As someone who is particularly interested in the idea of indie development, this lecture had a lot of beneficial information. In particular, the emphasis on social media as a marketing platform was emphasised, with it helping the game developers to gain a dedicated following before release. Coincidentally in line with this week’s lecture, they also talked about the need to be ruthless with your mechanics and cut features that are going to hinder development and incur further cost.

Bibliography

FULLERTON, Tracy. 2004. Game Design Workshop. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Ico. 2001. Team Ico, Sony Computer Entertainment.

RIDING, Christine and Nigel LLEWELLYN. Undated. ‘British Art and the Sublime’. Tate [online Essay]. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/christine-riding-and-nigel-llewellyn-british-art-and-the-sublime-r1109418 [accessed 25 November 2021].

Shadow of the Colossus. 2005. Team Ico, Sony Computer Entertainment.

The Sims 4. 2014. Maxis, Electronic Arts.

VIGLIONE, Matthew. 2015. How to Make and Self-Publish a Game in 12 Months [GDC talk]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tbPbMRcMFQ [accessed 25 November 2021].

YABLONSKI, Jon. 2021. ‘Laws of UX’. Laws of UX [online]. Available at: lawsofux.com/ [accessed 24 November 2021].