An Easy Kind of Love: Game Design Fundamentals for Casual Games

Eric Zimmerman, Cofounder and Chief Design Officer of Gamelab

There's a “pass out the cards” exercise. “Massively Multiplayer Color Matching Game”, which was just a quick game where adjacent players traded colored cards until five players had the same color. It was just a quick exercise showing an emergent behavior. Emergent behavior existed on multiple levels. The game mechanism required tuning but the play facilitated new rules and improvements.

Game design is not programming and takes place on and off the computer. Game design is important, although most small projects don't have an explicit designer. The role is shared between programmer, artist, etc. The business model is part of the design process, as the experience must be structured to fit the model.

Game Design Fundamentals

• Rules and play

• Games as systems

• Meaningful choices

• Game goals

• Social play

• Playing outside the game

Hardcore games – complex interaction. Long time to learn and play. Gamer-oriented content (science fiction, military, etc). Casual games are the opposite, simple interaction, quick to learn and play, and more accessible content.

Simple rules can lead to a powerful system – tic tac toe.

Meaningful choices in games. What is a meaningful choice? What is the activity that's actually involved when making a meaningful choice?

To echo the Popcap CEO, the design of something simple is more difficult than the design of something complex. Aiming for something simple and elegant is not an easy process. Complex behavior emerges rather than presents itself all at the beginning.

Anatomy of a choice.

1. The state of the game is represented (chess board)

2. The choices available are represented (all of your available choices are shown)

3. The player makes the choice

4. The choice affects the game system

5. The result of the choice is represented by the game as a new game state

Actions lead to outcomes and the actions must be meaningful to the outcomes. The decisions should not feel arbitrary.

Sometimes the little sparkles and eye-candy may seem pointless, but they can underline the effect of a player's decision and are therefore meaningful.

Conclusion – Game design is an easy kind of love, and it makes for a more playful world.

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