VR and Galaxy's Edge

In this article, game designer Sande Chen discusses the use of virtual reality in creating the theme park Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.

Years ago, I was interviewed by Disney Imagineering for an internal documentary on design. I pointed out that level designers of video games are often inspired by amusement parks. Amusement parks are designed to lead visitors through a physical space. Imagineers call this "physical storytelling" or "narrative place-making," which sounds very similar to what we would call environmental storytelling.

In creating the theme park Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the Imagineers wanted to know the details of objects as small as doorknobs or rusty wires. They wanted visitors, whether they were hardcore fans or casual attendees, to be fully immersed in the land. In other words, they wanted this world to be feel alive.

Galaxy's Edge
CrispyCream27 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

It was interesting to me to learn that Disney Imagineers used VR to create Galaxy's Edge - not to create VR rides, but to create physical rides and architecture. They built Galaxy's Edge in VR first and that helped not only in designing the architecture and hiding mundane Earth items like heating and cooling units, but also with how actual construction could occur.

Disney also used VR to design the rides at Galaxy's Edge. Designers used VR headsets while in a vehicle. The display shows all the visuals and the controls. The simulation helps the designers experience the ride before it's even built.

Just another example of a "serious" game!

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

Dear Daughter: A Quarantine Essay

It is with heartfelt joy that I announce the publication of "Dear Daughter," a personal essay written about my quarantine experiences, on Nearness. As a site inspired by the need to share and seek solace from each other during the COVID-19 pandemic, I could not have found a better home for this piece. I also plan to submit the essay to the Greenburgh Library Covid-19 Memory Project and other such memory projects.

This personal essay grew out of a desire to record the rapid changes happening in the world and in my life. While the pandemic has certainly been stressful, I also found life-affirming moments by seeing, feeling, and experiencing firsthand the ups and downs of parenthood, especially during the time when my daughter entered toddlerhood. As an educational design expert, I feel like this time alone with my daughter has not only been incredibly valuable, but also magical.

I want to thank those who have provided feedback and encouragement: Phi Beta Kappa NY for its Quarantine Stories session, my colleague Juliana Loh, my fellow writers from my USC writing circle, and Alia Wilhelm from Nearness.

I don't often write personal essays, but in 2019, I did a reading of 3 personal essays about growing up in the Hudson Valley area.  "The Writer in Westchester" was part of a performance put on by Tutti Bravi Productions called Where the Heart Is: Reflections of Home in Westchester.

Here's the link!

"Dear Daughter"   Words by Sande Chen
You will not remember this year, your mother knows, but one day you will read this letter and see it as a record of your resilience
https://www.nearnessproject.com/dear-daughter

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer with over 15 years of experience in the game industry. Her writing credits include 1999 Independent Games Festival winner Terminus, MMO Hall of Fame inductee Wizard101, and the 2007 PC RPG of the Year, The Witcher, for which she was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in Videogame Writing. She is the co-author of the book, Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform, and was a contributor to Secrets of the Game Business, Writing For Video Game Genres, and Professional Techniques for Videogame Writing.

Game Idea Lists

In this article, game designer Sande Chen discusses the practice of generating game ideas on a daily or weekly basis.

In writing classes, students sometimes are asked to journal or write daily.  Similarly, game design students may be asked to generate lists of game ideas or mechanics. The idea is to promote accountability and consistency with a daily assignment. In fact, well-known game industry professionals have mentioned this practice before at conference talks.

In 2008, Patrick Curry, now CEO of FarBridge, spoke about generating 52 game ideas in 52 weeks as a lead designer at Midway Games. The talk is available free at GDC Vault and the transcript is here. As he explains, he became an "idea sponge" because not only did he have to come up with game ideas, he had to sift through them and decide which were viable. He described the benefit of doing this even on bad days or with ideas you don't necessarily like because as a professional game designer, you have to stay productive.

You can still look through Patrick Curry's 52 game ideas and comment on them. As you can see, they are brief but still explain how to play the proposed game.

While Patrick Curry had his own rules for which game ideas would be acceptable, you can come up with your own rules. This game enthusiast's site, Three Hundred Mechanics, is about coming up with novel game mechanics.

Is this something you've considered doing or have done?  Let me know in the comments!

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

A Vision of CYOA Future

In this article, game writer Sande Chen reports on Gary Whitta's vision of what would be a compelling choose your own adventure experience.

At the GamesBeat Summit in April 2020, Gary Whitta, screenwriter of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, laid down his vision of the future of interaction fiction in an interview session called "Choose Your Own Adventure: The Evolution of Storytelling through the Next Generation." Unfazed by the uncanny valley, he wished games weren't limited by technology and were more lifelike.

Whitta has written for The Walking Dead game and said that game designers try to include a player decision every 26 seconds, but if it were really true-to-life, he mused, decision-making would be every second.

Speaking of role-playing games, he hoped that in the future, NPCs would include more adaptive AI so that their responses would sound more improvised and less scripted.

He marveled how it would be if a player could talk to any NPC and not just the ones with ! on top of their heads. A player could end up getting involved in numerous stories within one game world.

But he did concede one difference between reality and interaction fiction that would have to remain: A game story has to be logical out of fairness to the player.  In the real world, life is unfair and illogical, but in a game, players don't want to invest time to find out it made no difference at all.

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.