I have no words & I must design
by Greg Costikyan
Currently a Games researcher at Nokia
Context
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“I Have No Words” was written in the early 1990s, at
a time when virtually nothing had been written on the
subject of game design as a discipline, before game
studies as a discipline or Game Developer magazine
existed.
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This piece was written with emphasis on decision
making and may be less applicable to games that
depend on fast action.
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Greg Costikyan is an inductee of the
Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame
For a Lifetime of Accomplishment in the field
Lots of Games out there
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ITS ALL GAMING!!
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Cart-based
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Computer
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CD-ROM
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Network
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Arcade
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PBM (Play By Mail)
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PBEM
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Mass-Market Adult
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War games
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Card games
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Tabletop RPGs
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LARPs (Live Action Role Playing)
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Freeforms
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Paintball
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Virtual Reality
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Sports
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Horses
Do these things have anything in
common? What is a game?
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How can you tell a good one from a bad
one?
Good game !!
Good book… does that help you write a
better one
Game designers need to analyze games
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Understand them
Understand what works
Understand what makes them interesting
What is a game anyhow?
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Its not a puzzle – Puzzles are static
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Think of games on a continuum
Crossword 100% puzzle
Zork 90% puzzle – 10% game
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Present logic structures to be solved w/assistance of clues
Games are NOT static and change with player’s actions
Characters move from setting to setting allowable actions
vary by setting and inventory changes with action.
Almost all games have some degree of puzzlesolving, even military strategy games require players
to solve puzzle of making optimum attack
Not a toy
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Sim City is not a game at all, but a toy.
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Will Wright makes a comparison to a ball
– Offers many interesting behaviors for your to explore
 Bounce It,
 Twirl it,
 Throw it
 Dribble it
 Can play multiple games with it
– It provides a world that the player may manipulate, but
provides NO objective
– You may chose one…
– BUT Sim City itself has no victory conditions, NO Goals,
– It is a Software toy.
– A toy is interactive, BUT games have goals
Not a Story
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Stories are inherently linear
Games are inherently non-linear
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Depend on decision making
How would gamers feel if game master says
“I don’t want you players to do that, because it will
ruin the story?
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Gaming is NOT about telling stories
It Demands Participation
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Traditional art forms have passive audiences.
Admire a painting, you may imagine things in it, you
may see something other than what the artist intended
When reading a book… Most of it is in your head…
You are receiving the authors words.
Enter the game.
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Games provide a set of rules
But players create their own consequences
Like Music
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The Designers provide the Theme
The Players provide the Music
A democratic art form for a democratic age.
So What is a Game?
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Players make decisions
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Opposition
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Competitive games
Real interest is about struggling toward a goal.
After you win you fill the thrill of victory!
Game Tokens – entities you manipulate directly
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Manage resources through game tokes in the pursuit of a goal
Resources are things you manage efficiently to achieve a goal
Tokens are your means of managing them
Without tokens you have a system that operates with out much
player input
Giving the player a sense of control and it makes the game
more interesting.
Other Things that Strengthen Games
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Diplomacy
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Color
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Color counts a lot and some games work solely because color
Some games suffer because their lack their of.
Pageantry, detail & sense of place can add greatly to emotional appeal, BUT
don’t over do it and make it look appealing
Simulation
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Whenever multiple players are involved they are strengthened with diplomacy
Games permit diplomacy if players can assist each other
STAR Wars: The Role Playing Game
He adds simulations of the move, to encourage players to attempt far-fetched
cinematic stunts
Using the system to reflect something about the atmosphere and ethos of the
films.
Can also improve character identification
Other Things that Strengthen Games
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Variety of Encounter
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Random elements are never wholly random, they are within a range of
possibilities
Randomness can be useful.. It is one way to provide variety
Players like to encounter the unexpected
With inadequate variety, it gets boring quickly
Positive Identification
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Character identification is a common theme in fiction and games
Lends emotional power to a story
In a sports game the identifying position is YOU,
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Role Playing – provides position identification, the feeling that the world is
alive and colorful
Socializing – When designing think about social issues and how the game
encourages or discourages socialization.
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Making the game more important to YOU
How can you encourage better socializing
Narrative tension- The story should become more gripping as it proceeds
until climatic resolution
What do these myriad form of games
have in common?
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All involve
Decision making
Managing Resources in pursuit of a goal
How can we tell a good game from a bad one?
Terms to analyze game appeal
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Decisions
Variety of encounter
Compelling
Narrative Tension
Role Playing
Socializing
Color
Simulation
Diplomacy
Gaming is a artform! Be mindful of what it takes to make it GREAT!