diseño juegos 20 level 20_ course summary and next steps _ game design concepts

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Game Design Concepts

An experiment in game design and teaching

Level 20: Course Summary and NextSteps

Here we are, at the end of the course. I appreciate the time that you have put in, if you haveread this far and stayed with me from beginning to end. I hope that you got out of this coursesomething of more value than what you put in.

Weve covered a lot of topics in this course. We started by building the beginnings of a criticalvocabulary to allow us to talk about games and game design. We looked at the process ofdesigning games, particularly the advantages of rapid prototyping and iteration. We brokedown the concept of game into its formal elements, and learned to analyze each elementindividually. We talked about common concepts that come up in game design: the MDAframework, feedback loops, emergence and intentionality, flow theory, kinds of decisions,kinds of fun and player types. We looked at narrative and the various roles it can play in anonlinear game experience. We looked at games not only as entertainment, but also as an artform and an educational medium.

And, of course, we made games. Lots of games. Some little ones, and one longer project (whichIm sure you all feel now was way too short, even though you worked on this for a full month).We dove right in, applying the theory in order to make a game. Along the way, we discussedtechniques for playtesting (in all its incarnations), balancing, and designing the UI for thegame.

At this point, you might be wondering what next? If this course is over, what are the nextsteps on this journey towards becoming a better game designer? And when does it end?

Lifelong Journeys

Since none of us are perfect or will ever be, there is always a way for us to improve. If gamedesign is your passion and you want to design better games, youll continue to improve overtime, and this is a process that continues for as long as you make games.

No, the journey of a game designer does not end. But it does get more interesting, because youcan put higher-level concepts together much easier. The kind of thing that used to take you amonth eventually takes you a week, and the rest of that time can be spent doing even more foryour games.

You might wonder, then, what is the next step on this journey? I have created a page on thecourse wiki (http://gamedesignconcepts.pbworks.com/next-steps) with my thoughts, so visitover there (and leave your own thoughts) if you are done with this course and you want to get



to the next level.

Some Other Questions You Might Have

There are some questions Ive been asked a bit during this course, about what happens when itall ends. Here are my answers.

I want to pass some of this material along to other students/friends/colleagues. Can I get therights to use it? Can I link to it from my own blog/course/whatever?

Ive received a number of emails asking about permissions, and I have just upgraded the blogwith a fresh new Creative Commons license that should make it clear. Bottom line: feel free touse any or all of the content that Ive posted here. I created this class to share information, afterall. However, please do credit me as the original source if you use my content. My name is IanSchreiber, and the title of this course/blog is Game Design Concepts.

I came to this class late / I fell behind, so now Im on my own. What happens to this coursenow that its technically over?

I plan to leave this blog right where it is for posterity. Anyone who finds it later can feel free todrop by, going through the course on their own time and at their own pace. They wont be ableto participate with other students as the course is happening, of course, but the material is stillall here.

The course wiki will remain exactly as it is, readable to the public. By popular demand, thecourse forums will remain as they are, allowing those of you who signed up to maintain acommunity.

Are you teaching this class again?

At present, I have no plans to do an exact repeat of this summer. However, all of theinformation is here, so anyone wishing to go through Game Design Concepts can do so at theirown pace at any time.

Are you going to teach any other classes like this?

Update: YES. Summer 2010, I will do something similar to this one, but with new material.

The topic for next summer is game balance. I want to go into greater detail on ways to take anexisting design and get it feeling right: identifying feedback loops and other relationships in agame, cost curves, metrics, randomness, payoff matrices, and similar topics. Its an area offascination for me, and I would love the opportunity to share what I have learned among acommunity of like-minded game designers and hobbyists. Since Game Design Concepts isexperimental in nature, Id like to take the opportunity to go into an experimental topic, thekind of thing that I would probably not be allowed to teach at most schools because it is toospecialized. No textbook for it exists (yet). Id like to write one, some day, but Ive learned tonot write a textbook unless youve taught a class in it first. In Summer 2010, Ill teach that class,and I am already looking forward to it.

The course blog for Game Balance Concepts is at gamebalanceconcepts.wordpress.com(http://gamebalanceconcepts.wordpress.com). Details for signing up are on that site.



And Now, Some Shameless Plugs

Game Design Concepts reached a lot of people. As you see in the sidebar, there were over 1400people who sent an email to formally sign up for the course ahead of time, covering nearlyevery state in the US and an additional 47 countries. Here are some other stats for theinterested:

400+ game industry professionals (including 160+ professional game designers) 200+ teachers and educators (including 60+ who teach game design) 400+ students, ranging from middle school to graduate school 350+ people who signed up in a group (that is, not alone), forming 120+ groups All of the above is just for people who signed up in advance. There are, of course, many

more who visited the blog but did not formally sign up ahead of time. Starting out, the blog had 6,000+ unique visitors for both if the first two lessons, with

13,271 hits in the first week total. More recently, we get about 1,000 hits when theres a new blog post, and about 400 on days

in between posts.

So, if youre reading this, you are in good company.

As a result, I ask the following:

Do you work for a school or company that would be interested in sponsoring next yearscourse? I can offer your logo and link on the main blog page, and mentions at the end ofeach blog post with your message. Your message could be seen by thousands of repeatvisitors. Contact me by email (mailto:[email protected]) to receivesponsorship info.

If you are a professional educator (teacher, professor, etc.) at an institution that offersonline classes: would you be interested in an adaptation of Game Design Concepts for yourinstitution? I can do that for you. Are you looking for game design professors to teach anexisting online class? I can do that, too. Contact me by email(mailto:[email protected]), and lets talk.

Do you work at a game company that may eventually look for a freelance game designeron a short-term contractual basis? Ask me for my full contact details by email(mailto:[email protected]). Rsum and references available on request.

Also, if you liked the textbook, my co-author and I would appreciate if youd leave a review onAmazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158450580X?ie=UTF8&tag=gamedesiconc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=158450580X). For as manypeople as have bought the book, there are currently very few reviews, and it would be nice tosee that change.

Course Evaluation

Update: This survey is now closed, but you can still send email to me directly if you want to commenton the course.

At the end of most college courses, students are given an evaluation to fill out. It asks all kindsof questions about the strong and weak points of the class and the professor. The answers arecollected, compiled, and given back to the professor. I continue this tradition here.



I want to know what I did right, and more importantly, what I did wrong.

I have set up a survey here:http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2kh03mmfz3laohv/start(http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2kh03mmfz3laohv/start)

If you are reading this at all, I would like to hear from you. This is true whether you originallysigned up for the course, or came in late; whether you kept up with the coursework, or not;whether you enjoyed yourself or whether you thought this was a complete waste of time.

Go there and fill out the survey. Im asking you to do this as a personal favor to me, inexchange for the time I have given you in putting together the content for this course. Yourresponses help me to make things even better next year. Thank you.

Final Words

I would like to thank you for your interest, your participation, and your time. I wish you well,in games and in life. Keep playing, keep designing, and keep learning.

Ian Schreiber

This entry was posted on September 3, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Youcan follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, ortrackback from your own site.

19 Responses to Level 20: Course Summary and NextSteps

BastienCil Says: September 3, 2009 at 8:30 am | ReplyThank you for everything!

Ciro Continisio Says: September 3, 2009 at 8:55 am | ReplyThanks Ian!I fell behind and will complete the project in my spare time, but the course was a very goodinitiative!

SteveEG Says: September 3, 2009 at 9:40 am | ReplyThanks Ian for undertaking this imposible task this summer!Over all I am glad I did the work.

unfortunately real life interfered with my ability to participate in the final project.

But, I have my notes on the game I was gonna design and will finish it one day.

Cheers!!



Steven Eric Goodman

Delfar Says: September 3, 2009 at 9:57 am | ReplyBy the way, it could be not needed at all but I want to thank you the great effort you madeto give us this course for free. Although Im just some levels behind in the project Im tryingto read each week the texts

I will like to try to translate into spanish the complete course to my friends and colleaguesand try to make some attending classes and some podcast lessons. If you dont mind Illprobably ask you any question when needed, but is a far future project.

As RPG (book to play on table ones, offline) designer I think it was very useful and I havelearned too much from you. Its a pity not to have more spare time (I didnt have holidaysin these days, only for more working in a RPG convention) to follow the course moreintensively

I will keep finish the course in the next weeks with my prototipe of card game. Would beall the webs and tools up for long time?

Szonja Says: September 3, 2009 at 2:20 pm | ReplyThanks a lot! Great job! It was hard to get enough sparetime with a baby, but this coursewas worth it.

Ben Newman Says: September 3, 2009 at 9:14 pm | ReplyThanks so much, Ian! I had too much on my plate, and too few other playtesters handy, tokeep up with the exercises, but Ive enjoyed reading both the blog posts and the textbookand found both of them to be informative and encouraging background for future gamedesign projects.

Adolfo Says: September 3, 2009 at 10:19 pm | ReplyThanks a Lot Ian,

You made a great work!Im going to finish my games and search for inspiration in your book!

Until next Year. Dear Master.

BTW: I want to see some of your critics in the final projects. I think that the people thatmade it so far wants to see what our profesor thinks about our projects!

Mkr Says: September 4, 2009 at 8:20 am | ReplyThanks a million for your teachings!!! It was hard to keep the pace because of my thesisprojects and the remaining exams but it was worth it!

SeamusP Says: September 4, 2009 at 6:14 pm | Reply



Thanks Ian Amazon review added and survey completed. Best of luck to you with allyour future projects and work. Your realword students are lucky yo have you

SeamusP Says: September 4, 2009 at 6:15 pm | ReplyThanks Ian Amazon review added and survey completed. Best of luck to you with allyour future projects and work. Your realword students are lucky to have you

Jorge Diaz Says: September 7, 2009 at 12:53 pm | ReplyI will be looking forward to next years course. The vocabulary aspects and testing methodswere very helpful. Thanks Ian.

Russ Says: September 8, 2009 at 4:23 pm | ReplyI came in late and tried to sign up to the forums, but was rejected. Is there any possibility ofopening the forums up or is the membership limited to whoever is on it now?

ai864 Says: September 9, 2009 at 2:03 pm | ReplyHi Russ, unfortunately the forums are now closed to the people who signed up inadvance. Since the class is over, posting your material on the forums no longer hasmuch meaning, as you wouldnt be able to get a lot of feedback from others or findplaytesters, which was the whole point of the forums anyway. So youre not missinganything really

CodeJustin Says: September 9, 2009 at 6:48 am | ReplyThanks for offering the course, it was fun!

Hope you do something next year =)

Dr. Mike Reddy Says: September 10, 2009 at 10:23 am | ReplyHave filled out the questionnaire and made some suggestions. Well done Ian.

JohnVanD Says: October 11, 2009 at 1:06 pm | ReplyIAN thanks a lotI made a PDF and at last I finished it .D with this lesson.

U rock Man we really appreciate that you have invested so much timewithout monetary rewards, but as they say we become richer when we help others

Jason Tam Says: May 19, 2010 at 8:58 am | ReplyHey Ian ive finally got around to finish this course. thanks so much and im lookingforward to future lessons!

Meesan | Buy Gaming Computer Says:



May 29, 2010 at 10:57 pm | ReplyThanks a ton Ian! Its amazing you invested so much time into this and helped us all. We allhave grown because of you! Once again thank you!

Aleksander Says: August 25, 2014 at 6:40 pm | ReplyA thousand thanks for providing this course! Its really been enjoyable, and Ive learnt aton! Ill be sure to credit you in future work

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diseño juegos 20 level 20_ course summary and next steps _ game design concepts

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