A theory of fun for game design

Raph Koster’s book A Theory of Fun for Game Design is indeed a very easily read and interesting book. As the title suggests, it presents several theories on why certain games are fun, and the cognitive processes in the human mind related to this. He speaks of balances and patterns that are crucial in order to make a successful game. I have written a great deal of notes from the book, and are now working on trying to extract the elements that are the most important. Trouble is, that the book is so well written and full of good points, that I’m having trouble letting things out.

I want to focus on the elements that work as guidelines for great game design. However, I might also include some topics that are meant to reflect on game design, the designer’s role and games in general. I have found a great deal of literary sources, and found that I have really taken on a very big task. I think I’m going to focus on design elements that are of use to a “rookie” game designer, such as myself. I’ll try to gather the very core elements of game design, and reflect on these. Also, I’ll try to connect them to our production Trollblod.

Here I present a few of the core topics that’s presented in Raph Koster’s A Theory of Fun for Game Design:

Patterns, patterns, patterns
Our brains specializes in learning patterns and chunking them into our subconsciousness. When we sit down with a new game, playing it, our brains will immediately begin searching for the rules of play – the patterns. Most of us has played computer games before, and we will look for patterns that we are used to from other games. This process is otherwise known as learning. As patterns are learned, we need new ones to keep our interest up. Practicing could extend the gaming experience, however we will reach a point where we’ll move on to other things. Perhaps unless the game is dynamic, like an online game that gets new content, most games will become boring at one point.

Fun is learning, learning is fun!
Yes, learning, although not in the edutainment sense of the word. We feel good when our brains get their fixes of endorphines. This could happen at several occasions, among them the feeling of triumph or accomplishing a task.

Fun happens when it absorbs certain patterns, learning them. The feeling of wanting to learn more and enjoy new things triggers the brain. Fun is challenges that are at the margin of our ability, to quote Koster. Our brains experience little “jolts of pleasure” when we master the patterns, although it is very important to keep the level of difficulty on a adjusted level. Having too easy or too difficult patterns would result in our brains not getting their desired jolts. In ideal gameplay, the player will get these jolts of pleasure throughout the whole game, thus reflecting the importance of having a good flow in the game.

When does a game become boring?
According to Koster, here are some ways in which boredom might strike in a game design:

– Too easy. The players fully masters the game from the beginning. “Child’s game”.
- The players might recognize some depth, however it isn’t interesting enough to keep them playing.
- The patterns aren’t apparent to the players. They simply don’t know what to do.
- Variations in patterns arrive too seldom. The players gets the feeling that the game is just repetitive and boring. They crave more “jolts of pleasure”.
- The patterns are unveiled too quickly. The progress in the game goes too fast, and players lose control. They get the feeling that game got too hard too fast.
- The gamer has mastered all patterns – the game is over. This is probably something that it’s hard to not encounter – unless you’re making an MMORPG…

Reward is one of the key components for successful game activity
There has to be a quantifiable reward. If there’s not an advantage of doing something, there’s a chance brain will discard it. The players simply won’t feel the need to accomplish a task if there is no reward for doing it.

Successful games tends to incorporate the following elements:
-Preparation
Before the actual game sets in, the player is often able to affect their odds of success. This could be as practicing, healing up or making team tactics before the actual game sets in.

Examples: in Team Fortress 2, the medic is able to heal up his team members before battle begins. Demomen can place around their sticky bombs, and engineers will build their sentry guns. All these factors will affect the outcome of the round.

-A sense of space
Could be as concrete as a level or a chess board. Or as the network of relationships between the players of a bridge game.

-A solid core mechanic
Core gameplay. Half-Life 2’s mechanics could be aiming and shooting, vehicle maneuvering and physics puzzles. A game could have several of these mechanics, or just a few very good ones. A trend in modern gaming is that games feature more and more of these mechanics, or “ludemes”. Koster points out that in order to push gaming forward, we need to stop focusing on graphics and technology, “the dressing”, and invent new ludemes that are able to alter people’s views on the world around them.

-A range of challenges
Each challenge operates within the rules of the game, and does not change them. A boss enemy in a shoot-em-up is a different challenge than regular enemies, however the core mechanic remains the same.

-A range of abilities required to solve the encounter
One should be able to solve problems in several ways. An example of this could be in a strategy game, where the player will be able to choose from many types of units to attack his/her enemy. The game will be dull if there is no variation in how to play. The several classes in Team Fortress 2 could also be a good example of this.

-Skill required in using the abilities
Skill should be essential. If you play badly, you should get a negative reaction, as opposed to when you play good, where you should be rewarded. Not requiring skill from a player should be considered a cardinal sin in game design. But not too much skill. Then the player will choose not to play.

These are just a few topics that are adressed in Koster’s book A Theory of Fun for Game Design. I will work more on extracting the essentials of this and other prominent books on game design in order to accomplish my task in “Selvbestemt Pensum”. Finally, I can recommend Koster’s book to anyone that is remotely interested in games or game design.

Patterns in game design

So, I’ve read through the first part of Björk and Holopainen’s Patterns in Game Design, which is the introductory part that covers some theoretical aspects of describing elements in games. Here, these elements are referred to as game design patterns, and should be understood as generic descriptions of typical components found in games. These patterns are structured in a framework that classifies them as either Holistic (the activities of playing a game), Structural (the structural elements that builds up the game), Temporal (the actions, events and closures in the game) and Boundary (the rules and goals in the game).

I was a bit surprised to see that the second part of the book, which is by far the largest, is simply a dictionary of game design patterns. Each pattern’s use and consequence is described, as well as their relations to other patterns. I see no need at this point to read the book from cover to cover, but rather consult it when I need to solve a problem, or just the need of some inspiration or help.

An interesting aspect about this book is that it addresses the advantage of having of having a common language in game design, not just for analyzing games, but also for designing them and communicating them to either fellow team members or publishers. It has been common to use theories from typically narrative medias, such as film and television, in order to analyze games. However, games are an interactive medium, and should therefore be treated differently, in spite of also having narrative qualities.

One can use the book as a tool of problem solving, for example if the designer needs to get rid of an unwanted element from his/her game, and is unsure how to do it, or one can use the patterns to add a new, wanted element to the game. One can use it to stimulate one’s creativity by adding a new pattern to the existing game design and see what difference it makes, or, if the designer feels the need for more tension in the his/her game, he can look up the tension pattern, and learn which elements he can use in order to achieve this.

Whew. I can see the usefulness of these patterns as regards to our prototyping of the Trollblod-project, and hopefully, I will be able to use some of this knowledge in my game design task as well. I would have to show in which settings such a system would be useful. Of course, this system will have to be adapted to each and every project, and in collaboration with other means of game designing. Time will tell. Next up, I’ll read Koster’s A Theory of Fun in Game Design.

Blog-o-rama

This blog will function as documentation for my assignment in “Selvbestemt pensum”, where I aim to create a short and concise overview of general game design rules and theories. The overview is supposed to take form as some sort of handbook or manual. The idea derived from my own interest in the subject, and this could be a good chance to explore the topic further. Here, I will post on my progress on the assignment, as well as my thoughts on games and game design issues in general.

I’ve started to look into books and articles that I can use, and did already come across this interesting article over at GameCareerGuide.com. Brenda Brathwaite, the author, is a 25 year veteran in the gaming industry, and is also hosting a blog here on WordPress, called Applied Game Design. Interestingly enough, her article at GameCareerGuide specifically mentions setting up a blog and writing about games as a smart thing to do in order to create a game designer portfolio. She also mentions two books: Koster’s A Theory of Fun for Game Design and Bjork and Holopainen’s Patterns in Game Design. I had already planned to check out the latter, but I guess I should also check out Koster’s book as well.

I’m still a bit unsure of exactly how I should pursue this task. Which topics should I pay most attention to, and how? Also, I have to avoid just citing various sources, I’ll also have to reflect on them, and add something new. I guess I’ll start by reading some literature. Hopefully, something will come to me.

Post Mortem

When we first got the assignment “The Twilight Zone” at the beginning of the semester, several ideas flew through my head: an interactive photo gallery? Some sort of sound collage? An interactive collage? A game? To capture the feeling of having woken up from a bad dream? Also, for some time I worked on the concept of an interactive children’s book.

None of these ideas were very good. One of the projects I spent a lot of time on was the concept of a book accompanied by sound. I wanted to create certain feelings out of the visuals and sound. However, the idea lacked substance, and I found myself spending lots of time walking in circles, eventually feeling that I wasn’t able to find that one project I wanted to see finished. I generally think of myself as a creative person, so I couldn’t understand why I had such a hard time getting this right.

That state of mind felt useless at the time, but was actually an eye-opener to me. I had to think “out of the box”, to be able to discard the ways I usually work, to trust myself and the idea that I eventually came up with. It was a learning process and a interesting time. Amanda gave me a deadline to come up with my final idea, so I sat down on a coffee shop in Trondheim, and decided that I would not leave before I had come up with something that I wanted to work with. And here I came up with the idea of a brochure that would celebrate the life and death of Aeris Gainsborough.

From there, the idea was further developed into the shrine that was presented on the final viewing last Friday, where “The Flowergirl” was shown for the class and curator Per Platou. This time, I had made the installation bigger, as I had put the cloth over two tables instead of just one. Also, I had lots of candles and two lilies for decoration and to make the setting more sacral and dramatic, something which was further enhanced by the emotional music. In addition, I had got my brochures fresh from the printing works, and they definitely looked better on professional paper.

As the class had already seen the video and brochure before, they were now more reluctant to stand in front of the table to watch the video and read the brochure. I had turned the lights off, and the room was quite dark, so the audience would have to stand in the light from the candles in order to read the brochure comfortably.

As last time, the audience watched the video twice before starting to read the brochure. I had handed them out during the beginning of the session, so I was sure that everyone got the chance to read them. The moving pictures on the laptop took much of the attention, so I wanted to “force” people into reading the brochure. After all, it is the main ingredient in the installation. This time around, I had kept the audience’s cheering at the end of the music, something that provided for an interesting “glitch” in the memorial service, maybe reminding people that this is actually not a real service.

Per commented on the video and said that it was maybe a bit too revealing to show the actual death scene in the video. He meant that the brochure would be more interesting without knowing how the death actually happened, and that people would perhaps check it out for themselves afterwards. He is probably right that the installation would be more mysterious this way. On the other hand, the death scene is what made Aeris and FF7 so famous and important, and that’s why I deliberately put it there, and probably would like to keep it there. Of course, I know that showing someone’s death in a memorial service probably isn’t very “correct”, and there are many elements that were supposed to be not “correct” in “The Flowergirl”. The first impression of the brochure is that it is a funeral brochure. However, when opening it up, it comes clear that this is no regular funeral brochure, but rather a collection of internet quotes, fan art, screenshots and conspiracy theories concerning Aeris’ death. At the same time, the physical installation in itself could look perfectly normal at first sight. Just as the emotions we could feel from the death of a “false”, virtual character, the look of the installation and brochure could be described as deceiving. Is this a genuine memorial service, or is it also something else?

I mentioned to Per that I saw the installation as a prototype, and I had been thinking about other elements and props that could eventually be added to the installation. His comments were that he’d rather see the installation without these elements, and that it was a good thing that I had not dressed up as a funeral agent. He said that he felt that such elements would be too obvious, and leave nothing to the audience, just as showing the death scene gave away too much. On reflection, I absolutely get his point. The installation probably works best on a more reflective level, and the brochure already explains in detail what my work is about. If I had put the installation up on a public place (like Outland, which Per suggested) with no further explanation, I would’ve liked the audience to explore “The Flowergirl” for themselves, walk up to the shrine, watch the video, flip through the brochure and make up a mind of their own what the piece is about.

For what is it about? This have already been explained in the brochure and on this blog. First and foremost, I see “The Flowergirl” as an exploration of the feelings and obsession certain people could feel for a virtual character. My Twilight Zone is where fiction, and more exactly, interactive fiction touches into our very real hearts. The feelings of hopelessness when realizing that she can not be saved or resurrected, and that we have just as little power over life and death in this computer game as we do in the real world. However, there’s hope to be found as some decide to hack the game in order to bring her back into the gaming world, finding out that she actually has some dialogue lines even after her own death! An interesting aspect, indeed, one could almost draw religious parallels to such an act.

Apart from the in-game screenshots, every image in my brochure is actually fan-art, and the quotes are all selected from a few of the many pages speaking of Aeris’ death on the internet. The brochure is thus a tribute to computer games and their unique worlds, the culture of the internet, and its language and aesthetics. It’s a documentation on the amount of work that regular people are willing to put into what they’re interested in, and that the “nerds” out there are not a faceless, cold-hearted mass with no regards for others than themselves. The internet is an abstract place, but is also a place where very real people meet, interact and communicate. It is a twilight zone between our digital and physical lives.

As a conclusion, I have to say that The Twilight Zone has been a very interesting and rewarding process for me. I have learned a lot about myself, how I work and my creativity, and it has been interesting working on a project that is very different compared to what we’re usually working on in OPIM. Judging from the comments on the first and final viewings, the audience captured the essence of what I wanted to communicate, and that the installation worked on a reflective level, so the audience would have to use their minds in order to interpret it. Also, I am satisfied with the feedback, and that the installation captivated and stirred people’s feelings. It’s interesting to see that something this “fake” is perceived as serious, sacral and moving.

To become emotional in a memorial service for a virtual character from a computer game – that’s gotta be called a Twilight Zone, eh?

Getting ready for the final viewing

After the first Twilight Zone viewing on Thursdag, I got some interesting feedback on my project, The Flowergirl.  As I predicted, the video in itself took much of the attention. Noone even touched the brochures until the video looped, and some even watched it a second time before they picked up the brochure. As Amanda pointed out, I should give out the brochures to the audience before they enter the room. To me, the brochure is the main work in the installation, and I am not going to cut it out, even though some suggested this on the first viewing.

To enhance the emotional impact, I will decorate the shrine with flowers and candles. I will also add some of the original sound from the video, in order to make it more interesting and less static. The response I got from last time was that the shrine made an almost sacral feeling, and I hope to that these new additions will make the installation better.

Some suggested that I’d put more footage from Aeris’ life into the video. I don’t think I’ll do that, as I believe there’s enough focus on the video already. Also, it’s the death scene that has been described by the Internet audience as particularly moving, and that’s why I’d like to focus on the death and funeral scenes alone.

I’d need a separate room to hold the installation, as I’d like to stand by the doorway, giving out the brochures before they enter the room. I’ll try to keep the room rather dark and gloomy, to make the shrine look even more “sacral”. I’ll make sure that at least the music has started before I let people in. I’m not sure yet if I’ll wait until people have entered the room before I start the video.

The reason why I’ll keep the brochure and the video as it is today, is because I’d like to keep the installation mainly on the visceral level. What is the installation about? As were mentioned on Thursday, people had a hard time understanding the concept before they had read through the brochure. Some saw it as a piece simply about Aeris and Final Fantasy VII, others saw it as a tribute to video games, and their current status as a “lower” form of art. This is partly true, but the piece is also about the Internet culture and aesthetics. How much people can care about a virtual character, someone who never existed, taking it to the point where they’d want to hack the game in order to bring her back. I’d also like to point out that much of the brochure is actually fan-art, drawn by fans on the net.

Friday’s viewing will sure be interesting. I’ll be sure to point a post mortem on how it went.