brainstorming by creating a game

SLIDES: Allen, Christopher (2014, May 19). “Brainstorming through Game Creation”. Life With Alacrity. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.LifeWithAlacrity.com

Brainstorming through Game Creation

ABSTRACT: “Creating a game together is a great tool for teams to establish a shared language and to discover aspects of collective experience that can foster innovation. The reason is that games can be defined as “A Playful Journey to Success” — the processes of innovation, entrepreneurship and education are all also Journeys to Success. Thus by designing a game, we are modeling future successful journeys for ourselves.”

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Created by Christopher Allen, [email protected]. Published in blog Life With Alacrity. Text and design ©2014 Christopher Allen and is licensed CC-BY-SA. Individual images are from The Noun Project, are © their respective owners and are licensed under CC license.

Brainstorming through…

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What is a

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Today, as part of our brainstorming exercise, each of our teams will be creating a game. Creating these games will give us a shared language about our different experiences, and will inspire us to discover aspects of our collective that we might have otherwise missed.

Creating a Game

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What is a

So to start — What, exactly, is a Game?

What is a Game?

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What is a

So to start — What, exactly, is a Game?

What is a Game?

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Game

Game

There are many excellent definitions, written by philosophers, game historians, game designers, and scholars of “Ludology” — the study of games.

Game

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Game

A game is a voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.

— Bernard Suits, in The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia (1990)

A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.

— Kalen, Zimmerman inThe Rules of Play (2004)

A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context.

— Clark Abt, in Serious Games (1970)

A formal game has a twofold structure based on ends and means; Ends: it is a contest to achieve an objective. Means: it has an agreed set of equipment and of procedural ‘rules’

— David Parlett, in The Oxford History of Board Games (1999)

There are many excellent definitions, written by philosophers, game historians, game designers, and scholars of “Ludology” — the study of games.

Game

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GameA game is a voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.

— Bernard Suits, in The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia (1990)

A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context.

— Clark Abt, in Serious Games (1970)

A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.

— Kalen, Zimmerman inThe Rules of Play (2004)

A formal game has a twofold structure based on ends and means; Ends: it is a contest to achieve an objective. Means: it has an agreed set of equipment and of procedural ‘rules’

— David Parlett, in The Oxford History of Board Games (1999)

However, my personal definition is quite simple: A Game is “A Playful Journey to Success”So why do I prefer this definition?

to Success!JourneyGame

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GameA Playful

However, my personal definition is quite simple: A Game is “A Playful Journey to Success”So why do I prefer this definition?

A Playful Journey to Success!Game

9

One reason is that I use this definition is that it distills the essence of what is a game down to three key qualities — that games are Playful, that they embody a Journey, and at their end you have a feeling of Success.


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Playful Journey Success

Also important to me, are the words that this definition leaves out.


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In this definition I use the word Playful rather than Play. Though games may be full of play, they are not solely about play. They are much more.


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Playful

Play

Part of this is because games are not always fun — all games will have some form of fun, but typically some portion of the play experience must challenge you, thus you will experience difficultly and frustration. Which is not fun, but overcoming those challenges can be.


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Playful

Fun

Another missing word — Competition. Though competition is often important part of a game, the Journey does not necessarily require players to compete with each other. Instead they may compete with themselves, or against the board.


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Journey

Competition

Similarly do games don’t have to be fundamentally about conflict — there are many great games that are about cooperation.


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Journey

Conflict

Finally, this definition avoids the word Win. Win implies that someone else looses. Winning can be an important part of a game, but I prefer to use Success. In the best games, those who do not win still enjoy and gain value from their play, so also share in the Success.


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Success

Win

So why in this exercise are we using the design of a game as a metaphor?


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A Playful Journey to Success!

The reason is that education, the process of innovation, and entrepreneurship are all also Journeys to Success. Journeys have a path, they have obstacles, and at their end is some measure of success. So by designing a game, we are modeling the process of success itself.

Game

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SuccessJourney

For the next half-hour, you will hear some stories about the Journeys. Take notes.


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SuccessJourneyPlayful

In particular listen for anything that you can use in your game design that fit into the categories of the Playfulness, the Journey or the Success.


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Journey

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Playful Success



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After listening to these Journeys, we will be asking you begin the process of of brainstorming about how to create a game. We are not asking you to create a great game — again, our goal is simulate the Journey in the form of game to see what we learn.


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Transcript22

Breakout:

Stories of Journeys to Success

Creating a Game

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What is a

To recap, games are a Playful Journey to Success. Here are some things to think about in regards to these three aspects of game design.


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To recap, games are a Playful Journey to Success. Here are some things to think about in regards to these three aspects of game design.


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Playful Journey Success

PlayfulA Playful Journey to Success!

Let’s dive into the nature of of what it means to be Playful:

Playful

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There are many kinds of Play. Some elements of play in games are Discovery and Creativity, Collecting Sets, Problem Solving, Achieving Goals, and many more.

There are many kinds of playPlay

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Discovery /Creativity

CollectingSets

ProblemSolving

AchievingGoals

Play

Transcript28

Question:

What aspects of Play do you enjoy?

Discovery /Creativity

CollectingSets

ProblemSolving

AchievingGoals

Transcript29

Question:

What do you find Playful?

PlayfulA Playful Journey to Success!

Here are some things you should be thinking about when describing a Journey..

Journey

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Journey

Journey’s have a path. It can be single path, like a racetrack. Or a Journey can diverge from a single starting point into multiple paths. Or you can start from many different places and converge on a single goal. Path’s can also be very non-linear and chaotic.

Journeys have pathsJourney

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Single Path(racetrack)

Multiple Paths(branching tree) Non-LinearRooted Paths

(upside-down tree)

Journeys have obstacles

Journey’s also have Obstacles. They can be as simple as requiring one thing to be done after another, or require a decision to be made. Other obstacles can be randomness, rules, or time.

Journey

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Order Decisions

1

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4 1

23a

3b

4a

4b

Randomness Rules Time

Journey’s have constraints. You have a limit to how far the Journey is, and how much time you can spend traveling.

Journeys have constraintsJourney

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Space Time

JourneyJourney

Similarly, Journey’s have a scale. Are about a single company, a city, or a whole country? Does your journey take hours, days or weeks?

Journeys have scale

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Space Time

Journey

Our Journey’s lead to Success, but what is the nature of Success?

A Playful Journey to Success!Success

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Success

SuccessWho wins?

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Individual Team Society

First, who wins? Is an individual person, a team of people, or society as a whole?

How do you define success?Success

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Learning

PerformSkill

MakeDecision

Create

Next, how do you define success? Are you demonstrating that you’ve learned to perform a skill, or how make a decision, or the ability to create something?


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Learning

PerformSkill

MakeDecision

Create

Metric

Score/Statistic

Money Vote

Or is it some form of Metric, such as overcoming some score, statistic, or collect money, or winning a vote?


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Improvement

Personal

Overcome Rival

Aesthetic SocialLearning

PerformSkill

MakeDecision

Create

Metric

Score/Statistic

Money Vote

Success can also be very personal. You can feel that you’ve created something beautiful, that you have accomplished an improvement, or overcome a rival. And success can just be that you had a good time with your fellows.

In our next Breakout, talk about the Journeys that were shared previously. What are elements of that might be considered Playful?


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Playful



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What kind of the paths and obstacles occurred during that Journey? What is the nature of Journey’s constraints in space and time, and what was the scale?


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Journey



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Playful



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Who wins? How would you describe the elements of Success?


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Journey



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Playful Success



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Break Out:

The elements of each Playful Journey to Success

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Kinds ofPlay

Nature ofthe Paths ObstaclesConstraints

& ScaleWhoWins

Natureof Success

So after listening these Journey’s, and sharing your thoughts on the nature of these journeys, our next goal for is to begin to create a game.


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A Playful Journey to Success!

You should have some notes about journeys to success that were shared earlier. Similarly you should have some notes about the kinds of play, the elements of the journey, and the nature of success.

Game

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Journey



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Playful Success



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You just focused on these aspects of your Journeys. Which was the most interesting? Don’t start on the mechanics of your game yet — instead, simply choose what kind of journey you’d like to create a game around. Later we’ll help you brainstorm the game mechanics required to support the goals of your game.


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Kinds ofPlay


& ScaleWhoWins

Natureof Success

Transcript47

Break Out:

Choose one Playful Journey to Success to Design

Kinds ofPlay


& ScaleWhoWins

Natureof Success

Now that you’ve defined the broad goals of a game, I’d like to share with you some ideas about game mechanics that can support your goals. You don’t need to understand these mechanics, but you may connect these ideas to games you’ve played in the past, and thus find them useful for your designs.


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Games are often made up of sequences of mini-games

Mini-games

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First, many games are made up of sequences of mini-games If your game is too simple, create mini-games inside it. Or, if you feel your game may be too complex, focus on a mini-game within your larger game.

An early decision that you need to make is the nature of competition. There is a continuum from competing with only yourself, to competing against someone else, to the true cooperative game.

Not all games need to be about competition

Player Interaction

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Solitaire Competition Cooperative

There is actually many more choices here. Between solitaire and competition is ranked solitaire where you compete only by score. Competition can include parters or teams. And you can have games where there is one vs many, like a secret traitor you have in the game Werewolf.

There are many choicesPlayer Interaction

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Solitaire

Individual Ranked

Competition Cooperative

Partners / Teams

One vs. Many/ Secret Traitor

Journeys have guideposts

Game ComponentsJourneys have guideposts. In games, we call these game components.

Guideposts

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Game ComponentsGame Components

There are four basic categories of game components. There is the game environment, the are the tokens, the markers, and the randomizers.

There are four categories

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Tokens(Pawns)

Markers(Scores)

Environments(Boards)

Randomizers(Dice & Cards)

Games are played in a context. This is the game environment. For instance, a game can be played entirely in the hand, or on a table, or on a device such as computer.

Games are played in a contextEnvironments

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In the Hand(Cards)

On the Table(Boards)

On the Computer(Virtual Reality)

However, for our purposes today we are going to be focused on the mechanics of tabletop board games. However, free to create a card game if you prefer.

Games are played in a contextEnvironments

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On the Table(Boards)

There are two kinds of boards. There are those that are the same every time the game is played, but in some games boards are dynamic and thus are different for each play.

Kinds of Boards

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Static Dynamic

Dynamic boards have two sub-types — in the first the board is constructed before the game starts, the other board evolves as the game progresses.

Dynamic Boards

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ConstructedBefore Game

EvolvesDuring Game

What you can do with a board?

So what can you do with a board? You can mark territory, as you have in simple games like tic-tac-toe or complex games like Risk or Go.

Kinds of Boards

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MarkTerritory


The board can also be used to signify projections of force, like chess.

Kinds of Boards

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MarkTerritory

Projectionsof Force


A board can define a racetrack, such as the Game of Life.

Kinds of Boards

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MarkTerritory

Define theRacetrack

Projectionsof Force


Or a board can display the score markers of the players as they proceed along their journey.

Kinds of Boards

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MarkTerritory

Define theRacetrack

DisplayScores

Projectionsof Force

Boards have tokens on them. These tokens can be pawns that represent the players and their opponents, or they can be flags that show ownership or control of territory. Many games have shared tokens that all players may use during their turn.

Tokens are dynamic—they move, or may enter or exit play

Tokens (Pawns & Flags)

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PlayerAvatar

EnemyAvatar

ControlTerritory

SharedToken

Markers are representative for a score, value or state

Markers (Scores & Quantities)

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Money Resources Tools Powers Rules Change

Beyond tokens, boards have markers on them that most typically are used to represent a score, such as money. However, these markers may represent quantities of resources, tools, and powers that the players can use. Or they can signify a rules change has occurred.

All games have some source of randomness

Randomizers

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Player’sChoices

All games have some source of randomness. These may come purely from each players choices, such as with Rock Paper Scissors


Randomizers

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PlayerSkill

Player’sChoices

Or the randomness can come from the differences in players skill or strategies.


Randomizers

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TrueRandom

PlayerSkill

Player’sChoices

But there is also true randomness such as dice…


Randomizers

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Arbitrary(less random over time)

TrueRandom

PlayerSkill

Player’sChoices

…or forms of randomness that become less random over time such as a deck of cards. With a fresh deck you can’t predict which card will be drawn next, but as the deck runs out it becomes more predictable.

So for the next breakout, think about the the nature of cooperation vs competition in your game. Decide on the kind of board you wish to use, what do territories on the board represent, and the nature of tokens and markers required for your game.


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Cooperation vs.Competition

Kind ofBoard

Tokens &Markers

BoardTerritories

Break Out:

Design a Playful Journey to Success!

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Cooperation vs.Competition

Kind ofBoard

Tokens &Markers

BoardTerritories

Transcript70

Report Out:

Share Your Games!

Transcript71

Discussion:

What did you discover aboutSuccessful Journeys

by creating a Game together?

brainstorming by creating a game

Education

game designers

formal game

game historians

game6gamea game

game7gamea game

game creationabstract

study of games

serious games