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.

Top Ten Most Read Articles of GDAM

Happy Holidays! I've just noticed that this blog was started 10 years ago! I don't think I've ever done a retrospective, so without further ado, here is the Top Ten list of the most popular articles on Game Design Aspect (according to Google stats):

1.  Great Narrative Stories are the Answer 

This article was the culmination of a series of blog posts about how to measure social impact and effectively change a person's belief system. I summarized Christopher Graves' keynote at the 2017 Games For Change Festival. This article was also cited in the report, "The Limits and Strengths of Using Digital Games as Empathy Machines," by Matthew Farber and Karen Schrier.

2. GDC 2018: Professional Ethics For Game Designers

This article summarized IGDA GDSIG's roundtable at GDC 2018, which covered a range of topics, including government regulation, microtransactions, and gaming disorder. I was surprised by the 10000+ views, considering how lukewarm the topic seemed at the conference. Since then, Gamasutra has featured articles on ethical game design. 

3. Ethics and Game Design: Are They Like Oil and Water? Part 1

This article by Gustavo Guida is about his reactions to the above mentioned roundtable. Gustavo Guida attended the IGDA GDSIG roundtable and the IGDA GDSIG Social Meeting at GDC 2018.  In his article, he divides the various positions held by attendees as Skeptics, Pragmatists, and the Concerned.

4. The Game Designer at the Game Jam

In this article, I reflected on my first experience at the Global Game Jam (GGJ). Even though we had less than 2 days to complete a demo, my team made a crowd favorite that was featured in Microsoft NY's recap of GGJ that year.

5. Upcoming Workshop: Game Writing Portfolio Workout

This was a promotion for my most popular class at PlayCrafting and it also included a link to an interview I did with SciFi Pulse. Since I'm no longer teaching at PlayCrafting, I'm looking to put some courses online.

6. When Story Isn't Everything

In this article, I discussed ludonarrative dissonance, a topic that was touched upon by Omar Shakir in his session at the Creative Arts & Technology Conference in 2016. Omar Shakir is Game Director at Avalanche Studios.

7. How to Teach Game Writing and Other Dilemmas

Here's another one that surprised me with the amount of views. Perhaps people were searching for a review of John Yorke's master class on video game writing. Rather, this article is a reaction to a review of John Yorke's class, in which he stated that video game companies should look to hiring capable screenwriters.

8. What's Wrong with Pre-K Game Apps

This is one of my favorite articles on the blog. Several people have said to me that I was spot-on about my observations regarding this segment of educational games.

9. Building Emotional Connections with Game Design

I became very interested in the topic of creating empathy and player emotion and one of the lectures I attended was from Professor Katherine Isbister, who wrote the book, How Games Move Us: Emotion By Design.  What was interesting about this lecture is that she didn't delve upon stories but rather game design.

10. Monetization and its Effect on Design

Professor Ibrahim Yucel reported on IGDA GDSIG's roundtable at GDC 2019. I'm glad to see IGDA GDSIG hit topics of concern for both the years we were allowed to discuss game design issues at GDC. At previous GDCs, the SIG's roundtables have only been about SIG business.  Hopefully, we will have another successful roundtable next year.

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.

IGDA GDSIG's 2018 Play Harder Challenge

Just in time for 2018 GDC, game designer Daniel Harrison and I have compiled a list for the first ever IGDA GDSIG's Play Harder Challenge, patterned after Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. The gist of this is a list of tasks intended to expand your game playing boundaries, introduce you to new genres or designers, and encourage you to think more about the art game design.

You can try to find one game to fulfill a bunch of challenges or play one game per challenge.  The choice is up to you! 

This isn't a test.  There's no score.  But if you do happen to finish all the challenges, do let us know, and maybe we'll get around to making a badge for you :)

IGDA GDSIG's 2018 PLAY HARDER CHALLENGE

1. Play a text-based game
2. Play a game made by students
3. Play a game created during a game jam
4. Play an arcade game
5. Play a social impact game
6. Play a single player AAA game
7. Play an old school platformer
8. Play a game that's in a museum or art gallery
9. Play a nonviolent shooter
10. Play a game made by less than 10 people
11. Play a tabletop game published in the last 5 years
12. Play a game after remapping controller to your non-dominant hand 
13. Play a twitch game that doesn't involve shooting
14. Play a mobile game with on screen joysticks
15. Play a location-based game
16. Play a VR phone game
17. Play a game with asymmetric multiplayer
18. Play a game using an emulator
19. Play a mobile game that uses the camera
20. Play a game that requires user-created content
21. Play a cooperative game
22. Play a hardcore handheld game

Free Game Writing Workshop this Saturday

Rejoice!  If you are in any way interested in game development and are close to NYC, then you still have time to sign up for this weekend's PlayCrafting + Microsoft Game Jam, which was the largest game jam site in the USA last year for Global Game Jam (GGJ).  Join first-time jammers and veteran developers in experimenting with new ideas for games and learning more about game development.  To participate, you will have to sign up at the official site AND register with PlayCrafting NYC. Watch the video from last year's GGJ.

In addition, Saturday will be Free Workshop Day, which will include my own game writing workshop patterned after Game Writing Portfolio Workout.  Sign up for all or any of the workshops on UI/UX, Unity, Unreal, or Game Design.  The Game Writing Workshop is from 3-4 PM.  It's a nice preview for the upcoming run of the PlayCrafting intensive course, Game Writing Primer, which is kicking off February 20, 2018.

UPCOMING:  GAME WRITING PRIMER

4 Weeks to Learn the Basics of Narrative Design and Build a Game

When:  Tues and Thurs, February 20 - March 15, 2017, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Where:  Microsoft NY, 11 Times Square, New York, NY 10019

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.

The Art of the Brainstorm

In this article, game designer Sande Chen provides the ground rules for a successful group brainstorming session.

When handled badly, brainstorming hurts!

We all know about unproductive meetings.  They're frustrating, annoying, and mostly a waste of time.  It's even worse when it's a group brainstorming session gone wrong.  I remember being in a room full of mobile game developers with the boss at the whiteboard.  He shot down suggestion after suggestion.  We felt such immense pressure over the name of this mobile game!  Why couldn't we come up with an approved, awesome name?  I left the meeting feeling like my brain was fried.

The pressure, the boss, the environment.  All of this was terrible in terms of encouraging creative insight.  Let me tell you, we creatives will do better work in a non-judgemental zone.

If you want to get better at group brainstorming, here are some guidelines:

1)  Can the criticism

Nothing shuts down a brainstorming session more than criticism and defensiveness.  The purpose of brainstorming is not to cause arguments, but to generate ideas.  The mantra should be Quantity, not Quality.  You want to get as many ideas out as possible without stopping to think if they're lame or not.  You can sort out the ideas later.  And who knows, maybe that first idea will lead to better ones as the session goes on, but if you had stopped it there, you would have never gotten to the pearls.

2) Even the environment

If you use a facilitator, then the facilitator probably shouldn't be the boss.  You want the participants to feel that all opinions are valued and that it's a safe environment to share.  Sounds mushy, but that's the way of it. The brainstorming session is going to go better if it's not dominated by a few, loud voices.  Let everyone mingle in a room that's free from pressure and make it a fun activity.

3) Bring out the toys

As in most prototyping sessions, there should be supplies such as sticky pads or index cards or whiteboard markers.  If you've got a doodler, then this is the best time to doodle.  For something like names, you can play word association.  In fact, at the last Global Game Jam I attended, we simply went around in a circle and asked each other what associations or feelings the jam theme word evoked.  This inevitably led to more ideas and furious sketching about what the gameplay may be like.

A successful group brainstorming session is a joy.  Everyone feels energized and excited to continue on the project.  Next time you have a group brainstorming session, try these tips for a more productive meeting.

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.

It's Computer Science Education Week

It's Computer Science Education Week (#CSEdWeek) and there's still time to participate in an Hour of Code!  Check out all the Hour of Code activities available for all ages.  You can learn to code using Scratch within the Google Doodle or see what resources NASA has about programming robots. Millions of students worldwide are taking this opportunity to learn to code.

Here's an interview I did for the Microsoft NY blog a few years ago to celebrate Computer Science Education Week:

Sande Chen, Instructor — Playcrafting NYC

What was your introduction to the gaming community?
As a child, I programmed my own text-based adventures and I definitely played games.  But, I didn’t really think about video games as a career until much later. After I finished film school, I decided that I wanted to work in video games because interactivity was a new frontier in writing. I started working as a freelance writer in the video game industry. I transitioned that experience into jobs as a producer then as a game designer.

What do you teach in your Playcrafting courses?
The courses I’ve done for Playcrafting are Educational Game Design, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Game Worlds, and Game Writing.

How did you learn game dev / design?
I took classes at MIT like Non-Linear and Interactive Writing. The last project in that class is to build your own game or interactive experience. I took other workshops on game design, MMOs, and mobile storytelling at MIT during the Independent Activities Period, which is a whole month where as a student, you can explore anything you want.

Outside of higher ed, what are some opportunities to learn dev or design?
My local public library is currently running a video game design class to make platformers. In the past, the library has had courses on Unity, Scratch, and even on how to build a desktop computer. Scratch, which targets younger learners, has instructional videos online. There are even games that teach programming and game development. Some are available on the Web.

Tell us about computer science applications in gaming.
Computer programming is an important aspect of video game development. It’s also important on the art and animation side. Artists need to learn how to use 2D and 3D tools to make assets for the game. Producers, designers, and writers may not be doing the active coding but they still have to understand how to use the programs.

Outside of game dev, how do coding skills apply in your everyday life?
I think understanding the process of coding and debugging is definitely helpful in daily life in terms of problem-solving. Just looking at a problem logically can help in determining the best way to tackle a problem.

Who can learn computer science?
I think anyone has the capacity to learn computer science. Especially when you consider how computers and computer power has infiltrated our lives, it’s an important skill to have. I think that’s why more states, including New York, will be requiring computer science education.

Who can take a Playcrafting course?
Anyone can take a Playcrafting course! There are so many disciplines covered at Playcrafting that I think it would interest artists, makers, programmers, writers, designers, and even business people.  If you want to be involved in games or if you just want to increase your knowledge about certain topics, then Playcrafting classes are a great way to do that.

A Brief History of Game Jams

The following is reprinted from The Game Jam Guide, available from ETC Press. Download your copy now for free.

At any given weekend, there is a game jam happening somewhere in the world. Professionals and students alike converge on these game jam sites to further their skills, to foster community, and to experiment with game design. These game jams may focus on a social cause or a specific technology. The developers may want to explore a theme and use a word or some starting point to spark creativity. No matter the direction, the goal of the participants is to create a playable game within the constraints in a relatively short period of time.

The earliest known game jam, dubbed the 0th Indie Game Jam, was founded by Chris Hecker and Sean Barrett in March 2002. Intent on encouraging innovation and experimentation within the game industry, they invited a select crowd of well-known designers and programmers to develop games for a specialized engine. Indie Game Jam, which continued in subsequent years, tended to focus on technology-driven constraints. Participants worked on their own, on multiple projects, or in a team.

The following month, in April 2002, Ludum Dare (from the Latin "To give a game"), the first virtual game jam, was launched. The idea for it had grown organically from the Internet forum of the same name. Ludum Dare, which now has solo and team tracks, challenges participants to create a game based on a theme rather than conforming to a technological constraint. Themes are suggested and voted on by the Ludum Dare community. Its community also determines which games are the winners, according to various judging standards. Though source code is required to be uploaded, participants retain all rights to their games. In more recent years, participants have broadcast livestreams on Twitch or created a time-lapse video of their game development progress during the event.

These early examples from 2002 were informal affairs. Nordic Game Jam, which would later grow to be one of the largest single-site game jams in the world, began in 2006 as a collaboration between the Denmark chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), IT University of Copenhagen, and local game companies. The organizers there emphasized the spirit of collaboration and sometimes would not release the theme until teams were formed. Once given the theme and restrictions, teams had just 48 hours to complete a working prototype. Participants of all skill levels were encouraged to come, stressing the educational aspect of the game jam.

Inspired by Indie Game Jam, Ludum Dare, and Nordic Game Jam, Global Game Jam (GGJ) holds the Guinness World Record for the largest game jam in the world. Founded by Susan Gold, Ian Schreiber, and Gorm Lai in 2008, GGJ is a multi-site game jam with many of the same characteristics of its predecessors. Participants may work alone, though teams are more common, to create a game based on a theme and optional diversifiers. In 2017, over 36,000 participants in 702 sites in 95 countries attended, making over 7000 games in one weekend. The games, all available for play on the GGJ site, range from tabletop games to virtual reality, Kinect games, handhelds and tablets, console games, and traditional PC games.

It's clear why educators often recommend that aspiring game developers attend game jams. Not only do the events foster creativity, collaboration, and community, but they also instill the fast prototyping and iterative design culture found in many game companies. Participants learn the lessons of "failing early" in order to perfect a game. They must work with teammates within a time constraint and are exposed to a diverse set of skills and personalities. They come face to face with production realities, which force them to decide which game features remain or must go. There may not be any monetary gain from game jams, but the entire experience of completing a game and learning from others may be priceless.

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.

Childhood Game Creations

In this article, game designer Sande Chen reflects on her childhood game creations and how they aided in her career.

The advice I often give to aspiring game designers is to join a game jam like Global Game Jam to meet other like-minded individuals and make a game.  Game designers aren't solo "idea people" who direct the game development process. Aspiring writers are urged to write, not to get others to write for them, and aspiring game makers should try to make games.

But if there aren't game jams near you, you can certainly learn on your own. There are many game creation tools out there, even ones directed at children. I have seen Scratch games that mimic the mechanics of high-end AAA games.

One of my childhood doodles.

For a recent feature on Polygon, "Veteran Game Developers Reveal Their Childhood Creations," I was asked to reflect on my childhood games and how the process of making them aided me in my career.  I have often spoke about making text-based adventure games at panels and interviews.  Prior to the text-based adventure games, I had programmed spelling, grammar, and vocab quizzes. I was familiar with computer programming so it presented no problems when I decided to make the games.

To me, the text-based adventure games felt like a natural extension of my creative writing pursuits.  The interactivity and branching narrative of text-based adventure games didn't seem foreign to me because of the games I played and the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks I was reading.

Besides digital games, I was fond of drawing elaborate mazes, writing crossword puzzles, and modifying multiplayer tabletop games like mahjong.

While I didn't expect to working in game development after college, I can see how my early interest in games led me to where I am now.  Fresh out of film school, I wanted to be where the frontiers were in new media and writing.  I had grown up with these interactive and non-linear stories and I had created my own.  I decided that I wanted a career in game development.

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.

GDSIG Mentor Ask Me Anything

IGDA Game Design Special Interest Group News!

Last weekend, we held our first GDSIG Mentor AMA (Ask Me Anything) with game designer Ian Schreiber, who currently teaches at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).  He is the co-author of 2 books,  Challenges for Game Designers and Breaking Into the Game Industry.  Ian Schreiber was also a featured speaker during our Webinar series in 2014.

You can find some of his writing here, on Game Design Aspect of the Month.

• Teaching Iteration and Risk-Taking
• Metrics (Part I)
• Metrics (Part II)
• Metrics (Part III)
• Advancement, Progression, and Pacing (Part I)
• Advancement, Progression, and Pacing (Part II)
• Advancement, Progression, and Pacing (Part III)
• Advancement, Progression, and Pacing (Part IV)
• Advancement, Progression, and Pacing (Part V)
• Player Death in Games: Towards a Critical Vocabulary for Assessing Difficulty (Part I)
• Player Death in Games: Towards a Critical Vocabulary for Assessing Difficulty (Part II) 

The transcript for Mentor AMA event is currently housed here, but we will be seeking a more appropriate location, most likely within our Facebook space or on the GDSIG page on the IGDA site.

I encourage all of you to visit or join the GDSIG Facebook community.  Starting this year, we have weekly game design exercises and game design discussion questions.  In the Files section of the group are game design documents from various games.  We'll be holding our yearly roundtable at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March 2017 and will be posting agenda items.  Keep up to date with current competitions, submissions, and news.

If you are interested in being a mentor, please let us know!  We will be planning the next Mentor AMA in the coming months.

The Game Designer at the Game Jam

In this article, game designer Sande Chen discusses the role of the game designer at game jams and describes her first experience at Global Game Jam.

Happy Holidays!  As 2016 winds down, let's look forward to renewing our commitment to becoming better game designers in the New Year.  Specifically, I encourage everyone to attend Global Game Jam (GGJ), the world's largest game jam event.  It's happening January 20-22, 2017 and is the perfect opportunity to meet people in the industry and to challenge yourself.  If you're in New York City, then PlayCrafting NYC and Microsoft are again teaming up to serve as an official site. Be sure to take a look at this advice on how to be successful at game jams.

Although Global Game Jam has been around since 2009, I admit last January was my first time there. I guess I had always been intimidated.  I had heard stories that teams were pre-formed or that if you were a game designer or writer, you might have some difficulty latching on to a team.  Definitely, if you are a designer who knows your way around Unity or other applications, you'll have an easier time of it.  As it happened, I saw a friend at the game jam and while there was some "Oh I already promised I'd be in this group" going on, my friend and I still were able to form a team.  We didn't have a phalanx of programmers and artists, so I just had to design based on what were our capabilities.

In actuality, I think everyone on the team contributed to the design and the polish.  On the first day, after the introductions and discussion, I knew we had to lock down the basic idea and go with it.  I did research on the idea and wrote an initial game design document.  The plan was to make a functional demo in less than 2 days (because we would not be staying overnight and working non-stop.)

Although some game design questions did crop up in the remaining time, I did see that my role made a transition to producer, as I became more involved in making cuts to the design and reminding teammates to keep focused.  I was very careful to keep the vision intact.  I wanted very much to get the game on a tablet but in the end, we made do with a laptop that had touch functionality. 

After the demo night, I was asked to put together a little segment on the inspiration behind our GGJ 2016 demo for Major Nelson's Recap of the NYC Global Game Jam Microsoft site.  Here is our offering, Dance of Love, based on the word "RITUAL."

 

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.

IGDA Game Design SIG at GDC2016!

The IGDA Game Design SIG will be holding its annual SIG meeting and roundtable at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, March 16 at 2-3 PM in Moscone North Hall, Room 110.  Please join us to discuss how the SIG can make you a better game designer.  In particular, we will be focused on the creation of study groups for game design topics and exploring mentoring options.

To join the IGDA Game Design SIG: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gdsig/

We will also be having a joint social with the Analog SIG and Serious Games SIG at 5-6 PM at the IGDA Booth.  Come meet members of the SIG and related SIGs.

Take a look at what members of the IGDA Game Design SIG have been up to last year :)

Hope to see you there!

How to be Successful at Game Jams

In this video, game prototyping specialist Bernard François explains the steps for a successful game jam experience: preparation, concept choice, production planning, and execution.
 
Making games in 48 hours is hard. But what can you do to increase your chances of success? How can your prepare yourself for a game programming competition, such as Global Game Jam?  What are some of the strategies you could employ to turn the odds in your favor?

This video tells you all about it.

Bernard François is a game prototyping specialist and founder of PreviewLabs - the only company in the world entirely dedicated to rapid prototyping for projects using game dev technology.

Upcoming Events: NY Comic Con and Immersive Edge

I'm finally making some virtual appearances, though you can catch me in person at New York Comic Con tomorrow, October 8! I will be there with colleagues Caitlin Burns, Steele Filipek, and Matthew Weise on a panel about Writing for Video Games.  It'll be broadcast live on NYCC Livestream.  Just go to Twitch and check out NYCC's Live Stage.

New York Comic Con
Writing for Video Games
Thursday, October 8, 2015, 11:30 AM

Secondly, I had a great time at the first installment of Game Writing Portfolio Workout on September 28.  We didn't have time to practice quest writing and interactive dialog, but definitely can during the second class on October 20.

Tickets are available here through PlayCrafting NYC and of course, there's still the early bird price if you sign up early.  The first workshop was sold out, so make plans to come soon!  No virtual appearances for this one because PlayCrafting believes hands-on attention and interaction is what makes its classes so valuable.

 

Finally, on November 8, I will have the unique pleasure of attending the launch of Immersive Edge, a collaborative Hypergrid story written, built, and produced by 25 persons.  My avatar will be there in the virtual world to do a short presentation about how technology affects storytelling.  Check out the trailer below to learn more about Immersive Edge.

Upcoming Workshop: Game Writing Portfolio Workout

Last month, I had so much fun leading the Writing for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror Game Worlds workshop, courtesy of Playcrafting NYC.  I was so impressed by the creativity of the workshop participants.  One request was for a workshop on the ins and outs of getting started in game writing, so I'm happy to announce that I will be holding a Game Writing Portfolio Workout on Monday September 28, suitable for beginners and veterans!  Come share insights about the craft.  I like to foster the workshop environment whereby participants feel comfortable sharing and learning from each other.

Specifically, this is a hands-on writing workshop for people who want to build or add to a game writing portfolio.  Be prepared to write during the class.  I will be going through common assignments given to freelance writers as well as mentioning what in-house duties a person can expect.  Feel free to take what's written in class and use it to spark other ideas or expand it to completion.

There is an early bird special if you sign up early, but tickets may be limited.   If you're in the New York City area, come check it out.  I don't know when I'll be offering this workshop again.

Update:  Just added!  An overflow class on October 20:  Get tickets here!

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.

May 2014: Game Design Practice

Hello, and welcome to May 2014's topic, Game Design Practice!

I just wanted to make sure everyone knew about the IGDA Game Design SIG's new Weekly Design Challenges on Reddit.  Every Sunday, a new design challenge goes up.  I hope you all will participate.

As with Game Design Aspect of the Month, the idea behind the weekly design challenges is to inspire you and to get you thinking about game design issues.

It's good practice to expand an idea, write it on paper, and try to make it feasible.  There have even been GDC talks from designers who mapped out a game design idea each day for a year.  It's the first step to realizing your idea rather than just talking about it.  It's often said of writers that we don't always have the luxury to wait around for inspiration to hit.  To be a writer, one has to write.  And a game designer, as we have tried to relay, is not the person who sits around telling people ideas for great games, but someone who has the skills to create and fine-tune games so that they can be great.

So for May 2014, I'd like to learn more about your practice and your inspiration for games.  How do you work out your ideas for games?  Do you go straight to prototyping?  I remember a talk from GDC where the designer talked about exhaustive historical research before even approaching what might be a cool mechanic to be in the game.

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!

Jamming

Today we see the aftermath of the Global Game Jam, with plenty of interesting games made in the last 48 hours. Congratulations to the participants for making it through!  Very impressive stuff.

Last year, I participated in my first game jam and I didn't know what to expect.  I soon realized that programmers were the most sought after teammates.  I learned what really helps is knowing how to use programs that can get you quickly started on your game.  The team I joined in the game jam decided to use GameMaker: Studio, which has a free version.  Lots of different types of games can be made using GameMaker as shown by the video:
 

Furthermore, during a game jam, I found that you need to commit to an idea and just go with it.  That's mostly due to the time pressure.  So while I wish I could have done more during this game jam besides learning how to make levels in GameMaker, I did walk away with an appreciation for these game-making tools.  Even though they may be limited in some aspects, these tools could help a lot in prototyping.

Or even with creating professional-looking games without coding! GameSalad is drag & drop and app developers have had games created using GameSalad in the top 100 of the app store.  Lately, I have been looking at Scratch, which is also drag & drop.  Here are examples of games created using Scratch:

If you do want to see or play the game our team produced during the game jam, it is a top-down dungeon crawler with musical tones synchronized to the player's movements:  Temple of the Gopher God!


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.