Game Play Styles
Structure of Game Play
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Game Play Styles
 Games
Have various structures that the
user must handle
 Common structures appear in many
games
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Suggestions?
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Driving & Physical skill
 Player
must control vehicle/self to win
 Must conform to environment
 Music
and Dance games do this
 Fighting game combos
 Jumping in platform games
 Special moves in Skate / Snow Board
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Puzzle - Arrange Geometry
 Some
self-contained artifact must be
rearranged into a solved position
– Sokoban
– Solitaire
– Adventure games
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Dynamic Puzzle
 Some
dynamic artifact must be navigated
through
– Deadly pendulums swinging!
– Tetris
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Rescue/Collection
 The
player has to get something
– Someone needs to be saved from peril
• Defender, Choplifter, Donkey Kong
– Something needs to be collected
• Mario Bros, Sonic, etc
• Diablo, MMORPGs
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Collision Detection
 Shooting
– Player shoots a projectile to make progress
towards winning
 Direct
Attack by self
 Collision Avoidance
– Bullets miss you
– Block punch/kick
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Obstacle Avoidance
 Player
must avoid environmental
objects/enemies to win
– Pac-Man (Inky, Pinky, etc)
– Centipede
– Frogger
– Mario Bros etc etc
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Obstacle Creation
 Player
creates or controls environment to
influence or defeat opponent
 Eg. Light cycles in Tron
 Walls in strategy games
 Go
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Search
 Something’s
hidden in the environment
 Key to locked door
 Find best X in Geometric state
– Words in Bookworm
– Rows or columns of like color in Bejeweled
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Material Removal
 Object
is to remove opponent’s pieces
 Examples
– Chess
– Checkers
– War games
– Action games (Space Invaders, Pac-Man,
Asteroids)
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Material Creation
 Objects
are created by user or game
 May be competing process with Material
Removal
 Direct:
– Tetris, Go, Othello
 Indirect
– Fortifications (Walls created to direct traffic)
– Economies
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Economic Simulation
 You
must set up a flow of material and/or
money
– Get the most stuff
– He who dies with the most toys wins!
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Economy Simulation
 Resource
gathering
– Gold, Wood, Iron, etc, etc
 Direct
– AOE gatherer units, C&C
 Indirect
– Total Annihilation, Kingdoms,
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Economic Simulation
 Buildings
– Create NPCs
• AOE, Warcraft I, Caesar III
– Create/transform materials
• Settlers, Caesar III
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Economic Simulation
 Traffic
Flow
– Roads!
– NPC must pass a building for a transaction to
take place
• Zoo Tycoon, Caesar III
– NPC must stop and deliver/pick something up
• Railroad Tycoon
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“Research”
 Create
a new technology that makes your
NPCs better
– AOE, Starcraft
 Advance
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your civilization
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Dialog/Negotiation
 You
talk to other players/NPCs
– To learn things
– To gain/lose membership in a gang/guild/club
– To coordinate attack/defense
– Trade
 Read
environment for clues
– News clippings
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Artificial Life
 Must
grow your creature
– Train it
– Feed it
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Fun
Flow -- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Chapter 3 “Enjoyment and the Quality of
Life”
Some thoughts on Game Design –
Andrew Glassner
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What is fun?
 Can
you name an experience that was
supposed to be fun but was not?
 Not
supposed to be fun, but was?
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 Is
it reasonable to say some software
“Is fun” ?
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 Is
it reasonable to say some software
“Is fun” ?
It depends:
… on audience
… do you have to learn a new language?
Ease of play vs. Challenge
Other experiences: Museum
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Not just software alone!
 Software
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+ context
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Not just software alone!
 Software
+ context
Depends on mood
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What Mihaly did
 Sociology
 Interviews
 Surveys
of people’s attitudes
 Using the beeper – “Tell me how you’re feeling now”
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How can you be happy?
 Make
external conditions match goals
– eg. “kill the jerks”
or
 Change
your experience of external
conditions
– Even of house is safe, may still worry
– Make goals match external conditions
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Happiness
 Money
can’t buy happiness
– eg. Unhappy rock stars
 Real
happiness
– What happens to us
– How we feel about ourselves
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Pleasure
 Expectations
have been met
– Too high: Hype about experience
– Low expectations: Random video rental
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Pleasure
 Expectations
have been met
– Too high: Hype about experience
Star Wars I & II
– Low expectations: Random video rental
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Enjoyment
 Forward
motion, sense of accomplishment
– Game with matched opponent
– Too easy or too hard is no fun!
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Characteristics of Flow
 Have
chance of completing the “task”
 Able to concentrate
 Clear goals
 Immediate feedback
 Deep but “effortless” involvement
 Exercise control
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Flow
A
challenging activity that requires skill
– Hunting dog story:
– Dog runs in circles, owner tries to catch dog
– Dog runs tighter circle when master is tired
– Dog tunes the challenge!
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Control
 Paradoxical:
Can’t be too afraid of failure
 Rock climbers minimize risk
 More than just being in control:
– Exercising control
 Illusion
of Control
– Anorexia
– Gamblers “figure out” chance events
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Addiction
 Lose
ability to control own choices
 Have you ever been addicted to a game?
– What was going on in your life at the time?
– Was it you, or the game?
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Flow
 Concern
for self disappears
– Returns after experience is over
 Sense
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of time duration is altered
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Flow
 Concern
for self disappears
– Returns after experience is over
… you notice you’re hungry
 Sense
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of time duration is altered
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Success
 “Creates
order in consciousness and
strengthens the structure of the self”
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Success
 “Creates
order in consciousness and
strengthens the structure of the self”
Transition from Beginner to Reasonably
Skilled
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Why do games stop being
fun?
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Why do games stop being
fun?
Stagnation
Obsolescence (new game improves on old)
Plateau in skills
Pacing or difficulty
Why return to a game:
Nostalgia
Forgetting the bad things
Taking a break to think offline
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Design to Achieve Flow
 Pace
difficulty
 Allow control
 Don’t make things too hard
 Don’t make things too easy
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Glassner
 Avoid:
– Making it easy to cheat
 People
will always exploit bugs
– Flight sim
– Multiplayer sim
– etc. etc.
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Repetition
 Make
it easy for users to repeat things
– Interactivity != Participation
– The raw count of mouse clicks is not a good
measure of quality!
– Not all actions taken by the user are
desirable. Has to be fun.
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Detail
 Too
much detail
– Required actions overly detailed
– Eg. Potions in Ultima Online
 Under-detailed
– Don't take control away from the user
 "A
game should offer the fastest and
easiest possible way to do everything
unless there is some entertaining or
informative reason to prevent it."
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Deception
 Faulty
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scuba gauge
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Deception
 Faulty
scuba gauge
Only discover by death
Too severe, plus “save game often” is the
simple, tedious solution
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Large-Scale Randomness
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Multiple-Choice
Conversations
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Multiple-Choice
Conversations
Probably OK between Non-Player Characters
Should have a realistic memory
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Agency
 "Don't
trick players into providing a
personality description."
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Agency
 "Don't
trick players into providing a
personality description."
This is reasonable for Role-Playing Games
The conflict is over first person vs. third person play
Information about the character is important
Can’t play a role without knowing what the role is
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Choices
 Label
them well
 Don’t keep them guessing
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Complexity
 Need
to have picked up pencil 100 turns
ago
 Brick example: need to click on 100 bricks
to find the right one
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Paste-On Interaction
 Design
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the game and the UI together
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Character Control
 Don't
take control of the user's character
– Avoid cut scenes in which your character
does something stupid
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Character Control
 Don't
take control of the user's character
– Avoid cut scenes in which your character
does something stupid
Can use them as a reward
Must have a plot requirement
Problem is primarily with first person agency
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Interactive Fiction
 Respect
for the player.
 Player's time will never be wasted
 Don’t insult or deny her individuality,
intelligence, or creativity
 The player will always be engaged in fun
or interesting events
– passively
– interacting with them
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