Remember to sign up for the next IGDA Game Design Webinar on Wednesday, September 17 featuring Ian Schreiber on game balance.
Friday, August 29, 2014
IGDA Webinar: Monetization
In this video, game designer Chris Crowell reviews different monetization strategies and illuminates further the concept of free-to-play and play-to-win.
Remember to sign up for the next IGDA Game Design Webinar on Wednesday, September 17 featuring Ian Schreiber on game balance.
Remember to sign up for the next IGDA Game Design Webinar on Wednesday, September 17 featuring Ian Schreiber on game balance.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Game Art Explained
In this article, aspiring game designer Gabby Taylor explains the role game art plays in a game's overall design.
Graphics are usually the center of the console versus PC argument (next to overall cost). We argue about how noticeable pixels should be, acceptable frame rates, and sometimes even perspective. And nearly everyone comes up with one reason or another why they’re right, but so few people seem to actually understand what role game art plays.
Our eyes play a huge role in how we explore the world around us, but it’s how the world is perceived that gives this visual information its potency. This psychological phenomenon is what game art plays on. It’s what causes you to beeline for the one lit area in an otherwise blacked out room. It’s what makes you feel confused or alarmed when things are blurred and red, and what makes the scene with a faintly violet glow seem enchanting. Horror games also use this to clash against our idea of what should be, thus making it creepy. There are a thousand different ways game art assists the design, for those who know how it works.
Game art can be broken down into two basic building blocks: color and design. Each area in a game is carefully crafted using these two principles in order to achieve the feeling the game design needs to successfully immerse the player in the gameplay and story. Think back to Batman: Arkham Asylum. If the place were brighter, or painted in pastel colors, do you think it would have felt the same? No, of course not. It sounds simple, and it is in theory, but applying them effectively requires lots of practice and expertise. Let’s clear the air of all the nonsense arguments, and briefly examine what each game artist has to know.
Colors typically have a meaning attached to them, that can vary by culture. In the United States, for example, white stands for innocence and purity. They can also have physical effects on us, like increased heart rate when we see the color red. Colors affect everything from our appetites, to how heavy something appears, to what emotion we feel when we look at it. The use of color is further broken down into values, hues, and contrast. Hues are the colors themselves, whereas the value is how light or dark that color is. For example, pink is a lighter value of red, and navy is a darker value of blue. A scene with all light values is called high key, and a scene with all dark values is, you guessed it, low key. Colors complement and contrast one another, creating different effects. Using yellow and red, for instance, creates a much different scene than using green and blue, or purple and brown, or even shades of grey.
Design is more about how the scene and the colors in it are arranged. This is not to be confused with overall game design, though; this is artistic design of a scene or area. When designing the scene, you’re focusing on lines and objects to which the colors are applied. You can think of design as the skeleton on which color is the fleshy bits. Going back to the Batman: Arkham Asylum reference, the whole game would have a different feel to it if Calender Man didn’t cover the walls of his cell with calendar pages, or if Poison Ivy didn’t have plants everywhere, or if the whole place looks like it had been meticulously cleaned.
These two elements come together to create game art, which is necessary for the game design to convey the intended message and emotions. That’s all it is. There is no art style that’s superior, or acceptable frame rate ceiling. It’s the emotions, the perception, that’s important to the game’s success at allowing the player to delve into the world set before them.
Gabby Taylor is an aspiring game designer and head of GreyBox Studio. When not making design documents, she contemplates going outside, and sometimes even takes a few steps when feeling particularly frisky.
Graphics are usually the center of the console versus PC argument (next to overall cost). We argue about how noticeable pixels should be, acceptable frame rates, and sometimes even perspective. And nearly everyone comes up with one reason or another why they’re right, but so few people seem to actually understand what role game art plays.
Our eyes play a huge role in how we explore the world around us, but it’s how the world is perceived that gives this visual information its potency. This psychological phenomenon is what game art plays on. It’s what causes you to beeline for the one lit area in an otherwise blacked out room. It’s what makes you feel confused or alarmed when things are blurred and red, and what makes the scene with a faintly violet glow seem enchanting. Horror games also use this to clash against our idea of what should be, thus making it creepy. There are a thousand different ways game art assists the design, for those who know how it works.
Game art can be broken down into two basic building blocks: color and design. Each area in a game is carefully crafted using these two principles in order to achieve the feeling the game design needs to successfully immerse the player in the gameplay and story. Think back to Batman: Arkham Asylum. If the place were brighter, or painted in pastel colors, do you think it would have felt the same? No, of course not. It sounds simple, and it is in theory, but applying them effectively requires lots of practice and expertise. Let’s clear the air of all the nonsense arguments, and briefly examine what each game artist has to know.
Colors typically have a meaning attached to them, that can vary by culture. In the United States, for example, white stands for innocence and purity. They can also have physical effects on us, like increased heart rate when we see the color red. Colors affect everything from our appetites, to how heavy something appears, to what emotion we feel when we look at it. The use of color is further broken down into values, hues, and contrast. Hues are the colors themselves, whereas the value is how light or dark that color is. For example, pink is a lighter value of red, and navy is a darker value of blue. A scene with all light values is called high key, and a scene with all dark values is, you guessed it, low key. Colors complement and contrast one another, creating different effects. Using yellow and red, for instance, creates a much different scene than using green and blue, or purple and brown, or even shades of grey.
Design is more about how the scene and the colors in it are arranged. This is not to be confused with overall game design, though; this is artistic design of a scene or area. When designing the scene, you’re focusing on lines and objects to which the colors are applied. You can think of design as the skeleton on which color is the fleshy bits. Going back to the Batman: Arkham Asylum reference, the whole game would have a different feel to it if Calender Man didn’t cover the walls of his cell with calendar pages, or if Poison Ivy didn’t have plants everywhere, or if the whole place looks like it had been meticulously cleaned.
These two elements come together to create game art, which is necessary for the game design to convey the intended message and emotions. That’s all it is. There is no art style that’s superior, or acceptable frame rate ceiling. It’s the emotions, the perception, that’s important to the game’s success at allowing the player to delve into the world set before them.
Gabby Taylor is an aspiring game designer and head of GreyBox Studio. When not making design documents, she contemplates going outside, and sometimes even takes a few steps when feeling particularly frisky.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Writers, Stop Obsessing Over Three-Act Structure in Games
In this article, game writer Sande Chen muses about the Three-Act Structure and whether it ought to be the dominant structure in video game writing.
If you're a writer, you probably know about the Three-Act Structure. It's a popular yet arbitrary format for Hollywood screenplays. It's a great framework to learn, especially if you want to know more about screenwriting, but it's not a One-Size-Fits-All solution. Video games are not always going to be like Hollywood screenplays. That's like trying to hammer a square peg into a triangle. If game designers don't use the same design pattern for each and every game, why should every video game be written like a Hollywood movie?
The latest console blockbuster shooter isn't going to be designed like a free-to-play Mahjong Solitaire social game. There are different target audiences, different genres, different technologies, different play patterns, and of importance, different business models. Many times, the business model does inform the aims of the game designer. Coin-operated arcade designers back in the day knew that the goal was to get customers to plunk in quarters. Episodic game designers naturally want players to keep on buying episodes and free-to-play game designers would like to maximize sales on virtual power-ups and goods.
This situation is not unique to the game industry. Writers, too, understand the whims of the market. TV writers use cliffhangers to entice viewers to return after commercial breaks. Charles Dickens often wrote his novels in monthly or weekly installments and would even modify plot and character development based on reader feedback.
My point here is not to slam the Three-Act Structure, but to get people to realize that the needs of a game writing project may not be the Three-Act Structure. There are plays with 5 Acts and screenplays with 4 Acts. Evaluate each game writing project carefully and understand how the writing fits into the overall scheme. The Three-Act Structure is useful, but there's no need to apply it to everything.
Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose experience spans over 10 years in the game industry. Her credits include 1999 Independent Games Festival winner Terminus and the 2007 RPG of the Year, The Witcher. She is the chapter leader of the IGDA Game Design SIG.
If you're a writer, you probably know about the Three-Act Structure. It's a popular yet arbitrary format for Hollywood screenplays. It's a great framework to learn, especially if you want to know more about screenwriting, but it's not a One-Size-Fits-All solution. Video games are not always going to be like Hollywood screenplays. That's like trying to hammer a square peg into a triangle. If game designers don't use the same design pattern for each and every game, why should every video game be written like a Hollywood movie?
This situation is not unique to the game industry. Writers, too, understand the whims of the market. TV writers use cliffhangers to entice viewers to return after commercial breaks. Charles Dickens often wrote his novels in monthly or weekly installments and would even modify plot and character development based on reader feedback.
My point here is not to slam the Three-Act Structure, but to get people to realize that the needs of a game writing project may not be the Three-Act Structure. There are plays with 5 Acts and screenplays with 4 Acts. Evaluate each game writing project carefully and understand how the writing fits into the overall scheme. The Three-Act Structure is useful, but there's no need to apply it to everything.
Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose experience spans over 10 years in the game industry. Her credits include 1999 Independent Games Festival winner Terminus and the 2007 RPG of the Year, The Witcher. She is the chapter leader of the IGDA Game Design SIG.
Friday, August 1, 2014
August 2014: Agency
August 2014's topic was submitted by game designer Pascal Bélanger.
He writes:
He writes:
Agency, as defined by Janet Murray in the great industry reference "Hamlet on the Holodeck," is the fundamental feeling of having an impact on a virtual world. It is somewhat the basis of immersion and many game designer consider that their main quest is to pursue a better feeling of agency.
On the other hand, we have games like World of Warcraft that use mechanics that go against this feeling (e.g. Resetting mission states to permit players that have already completed a mission to redo them with their friends and/or clan mates). This acts as a Distanciation Brechtienne" (after Bertolt Brecht) - a French theater concept whereby an element constantly reminds the spectator that what's in front of him is not real agency because it always reminds the player that he is in a virtual world and that in the end he does not have any real impact on it.
Even though many have gone long ways to argue about its systems, one cannot deny the success of World Of Warcraft. And all this without pursuing that particular feeling which is supposed to elevate the medium to another state.
- How does the pursuit of agency impact you as a designer and as a player?
- Do you think it is a requirement for immersion?
As always, submission guidelines along with submission procedure can be found on the right hand side of the blog. Topic suggestions and articles are welcome!Clint Hocking on Agency: http://www.next-gen.biz/blogs/agency-beyond-the-magic-circle
- Do you think it is a requirement for games in general?