quote:Original post by Paul Cunningham
Litmus test, nice term. Every new game whether it be conventional or not writes its own litmus test i''d presume.

That may be true, but generally, the litmus test is "is your game fun?" the derivations begin when you examine the player, and what their expectations and contextual or associative response system is, but game psychology I am not expert in, though I study it and people. It''s that old writer''s are loners thing, so why not enjoy the time.

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Whenever i start working on an idea for a game the first thing i try to do is sniff out where the fun in a game will be drawn from.

Almost always that will be a derivative of the challenge or conflict inherent in the situation that suggested the game to your in the first place as a active mental image or passive non-imaged notion.

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Although a big lesson i learnt doing some speeches for the first time was that no matter how well you plan something to be fun or humourous people will always find something in there you didn''t see and seize on that.

Perhaps that is because people are different in some respects, but similar in the majority? I try to design for the 85% that react and think like a pack when the material is not exotic like macabre fantasy or sci fi. Remember that old axiom, 85% of people don''t know what is happening, 10% can tell you it''s happening, and 5% can say, it''s about to happen. I think there is a micropercentage in there that says, does this really have to happen? :D

This variance drops off to where everyone is 100% captivated and identical responses are elicited from everyone when the content and context are so carefully designed and abstracted simultaneously so that no general inferences can be drawn upon and the audience or user must rely solely on the references of what you choose to exposit.

Shakespeare was a master at this. Seinfeld is a contemporary example. Almost everyone laughs about the same thing the same way with his work, because he limits the context (his place, kramer''s place, the diner, etc.) and he limits the content (elaine''s perennial character issues, kramer''s get rich quick vien, george''s love life) all carefully chosen and all carefully constructed. It seems like spontaneous improve becase of the familiarity with the technique and style, which is why the littlest aspect of mundane life can be hysterical (elaine dancing comes to mind)

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The only real solid rule that i can abide by when making any kind of work that will relate enterntainment to the user or listener is that the more deep and thought provoking the idea is the less likely people will stray to find their own entertainment in your work. A good analogy would be water flowing down a channel, the channel being your work and water is the peoples attention.

I think I just paraphrased you.

quote: By adventuredesign
Sometimes a designer who really knows themself will understand the level they work best on, and go in at the size of project they know they excel and thrive in. Just because they chose not to start small and work their way up in no way suggests that the large scale design will be a bad design.

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If you''ve got the clear picture of what the player is going to experience then yes i would agree now. Such advantages i can see from this approach would be that you''ve always got something for someone to do as well so no one would have an excuse for not being busy.This would be taking game design to the managerial level.

Isn''t it all management, just the altitude changes? A lofty sentiment within a concept still has to be articulated so it reaches the most it can (understanding being the objective of communication), as well as a stock setting or character needs to be raised to uniqueness so it will not be percieved as something you have seen before in a world that is clamoring, "Show me something I haven''t seen before." (add the ''wah, wahh, waaaahhhhh!!'' and traybanging at your own discretion.)

Question: What is the design process?
Answer: by adventuredesign

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It''s a formalized process I learned in architectural design. It begins with determining what you have to work with (the size of the parcel of land minus it''s legal setback percentages gives you the permissible workable land area; this is synonymous to the size of the gameworld that suits the setting that backdrops your game story)

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This has me beat. I can''t quite picture the perspective you''re coming from.

Theme (form) follows --> expositionChoice (function)
where
Choice=(a mini design of setting, time, character and action)
and
action=(ORchallenge, conflict or resolution)
and
character=(ORattitude, pov, experience, emotions, intelligence)
and
time=(ORday, night, dawn, dusk, sunset, sunrise, history, contemporary time, future time)
and
setting=(ORinterior, exterior, weather, topography, luxury, poverty, mayhem, war, status quo, tranquility, peace)
if yes
then
The End / You Win

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Are you taking about a script put together by a story writer then deciding how big a world you need for it to work at best? I would agree on the basis that all you make is adventure/story based games.

Not really, but possibly it applies consistently. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice was told primarily in one room (it was a mass market film; not a ''specialty segmentation'' audience). 1492 was told on the sea and two continents. Tombraider 3 was told on several continents, chess is told on 16 x 16 tiles. Scale of story is not always, but can be told consitent to scale of world. Chess can be elevated to Hamlet, but then it''s surrealism, not realism. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice could get the hots for Laura Croft and chase her around the world trying to get her into their lives, but the conflicting goals would cause confusing scales/objectives, confusing the viewer or player.

quote:by adventuredesign
The particular game I choose to design has as it''s constituent gameworld components previously existing terrain that has been surveyed for decades to a very high degree of 3-D accuracy, and is retained in survey archive repositories in digital formats easily importable into a 3-D graphics program

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Sounds like the quirks and perks of coming from a architectural background Good for you although not all of us have these resources or the experience to apply them.I''d doubt too that there''d be many game designers with this ability.What type of 3d program r u talking about, CAD?

It was amazingly hard work over years alongside a grandmaster, Thomas Kress, apprentice of Hal Pierera. I would characterize it more like commitment to discipline; and it''s not for everyone (exhaling) In retrospect, I recognize anybody can find these principles of design, you would have to teach or learn how to use them once you did tho. I do think though your quirk characterization is particulary meritorious since it was a quirk of luck I was able to con him into giving me a job. LOL

There is an english firm that sells a plugin that allows you to pull a topography wireframe file format (Not sure if it is cadfile format, just know the surveyor who uses the archive, and I am pretty sure he uses CAD; most architects, land use planners and civil engineers I have known use CAD) and the plugin imports the cadfile and converts it to a MAX editable/exportable wireframe. I will try to find the url for you and will post it. I think it is called cadport or something like that. It''s likely googleable.

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