Game and Interaction Design
For my last prompt, I decided to look into the area of designing for games and interaction.
（I brainstorm with the idea of “what to do in my 20s?” and then find the path of game design to go on for further experiment?)
I begin with MDA: a formal approach to game design and game research. The theory divides each game into three components: Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics.
With being mindful about these three aspects, it is also important to keep the overall vision of a game consistent – to make the three components work for the same direction. The essential concept of this theory is to ask: how do they make the player act and feel?
Mechanics are the base components of the game – its rules, every basic action the player can take in the game, the algorithms and data structures in the game engine etc.
Dynamics are the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player input and “cooperating” with other mechanics.
Aesthetics are the emotional responses evoked in the player.
Case Study: Why do swords break in Zelda: Breath of the Wild?
How does that change player behavior?
Action:
Rely less on direct attacks and spend more than sneaking pass enemies or finding creative ways to ambush foes;
Use different weapons and constantly seeking for new one;
Exciting moments of drama in the middle of a fight.
Feeling:
Unpowered
Creative/Crafty
Explorer
MDA example:
Tic-tac-toe
Dynamics: Two players fill the blank squares with x and o.
Mechanics: When three of a player’s shapes line up together, the player wins.
Aesthetics: Focused and Calm. Gets bored after times because of its simple rule.
Badminton
Dynamics: The player swings the racket to hit the ball.
Mechanics: Players play on a 13.4m long and 6.1m wide double court. When the ball falls on one side of the court, the other side of the players get one score. The side of the player(s) hitting a certain score first wins.
Aesthetics: Excited and intense- the ball is the dominant spot for the attention of the whole court. Collaborating – Double play is common, and players get to play in a collaborative way.
(I try to study different sorts of games in order to explore more possibilities.)
Monopoly
Dynamics:
Rolling the dice to decide how many blocks she can walk on the looped and stantard path. Using chest/chance cards to initiate events. Using in-game money to exchange things.
Mechanics:
May varies, but normally the final places depend on overall forture of a player. Different blocks of real estate can be bought, and when others step on her real estate, they will be charged depending on the building level of the block. Some blocks offer change/chance cards, which have different events of good and bad ones. In some digital versions, tools can be used to be advantaged in the game in many ways. Morgage and Cashing is available at the bank.
Aesthetics:
Excited and powerful – closely a mock-up of real world financial rules, but allows the player to explore possibilities in a creative and bold way without real loss.
Fellowship – especially for the offline version, in which people gather to play it together.
Machi: Unmei no Kousaten(City: The Intersection of Fate)
Dynamics:
Visual Novel – the player clicks to proceed the story or select the plot branches.
Mechanics:
1. A multi-perspective narrative. The player needs to jump between eight storylines to read the entire story.
2. Different storylines influence each other. The key to a plot lock in one story probably is needed to be collected from another storyline.
3. Some choices lead to bad endings/dead ends. The player can use Save and Load to continue playing.
Aesthetics:
Curiosity and Surprise – this unconventional type of gaming narrative is intriguing to many first time players. They can be fascinated by the logic system of the game.
Tired and bored – the game is really long, and frankly speaking – outdated. Its text dominated narrative and lack of playful interaction keep a huge number of people from finishing playing it.
Mashup of two(or more) games –
Starting with Monopoly and Machi
After researching I came up with the idea of mashing up two games together – just out of curiosity. I was interested to see where it would go. So I take Monopoly and Machi for my experiment. Despite of their genre differences, of one is board game and the other is a visual novel, their background both locate in big cities, which is an element I am usually passionate to see in a game or narrative. After further studying the mechanics of these two(and a few more, like Pummel Party and Murder Mystery Games), I decided to write my own script with the same mechanics of Machi. Because the original game script is too long, and I was not even able to finish reading it myself. And in the end, with the characters and stories completely being original, I was able to finish a new script. They new one was reduced a lot comparing to the original one, from a content span of 5 days and 8 main characters, to a span of 3 days, 6 characters.
I had my friends to go through the outline once I finished. The average play time is longer than I originally planned: 2-3 hours with only the story outline. So I am very grateful for their support. And it was a very rewarding experience for me to have my games played by someone.
Brainstorming about the mashup
As I had the content I needed, I started by sorting out the main traits of mechanics of each game, highlighting the essential ones. In other words, I was taking out features from a game and reinstalling them into another.
The multi-perspective narrative of Machi can be translated into a multi-player mechanism in the mashup, just like it in Monopoly. The real-estate blocks can turn into mission collect blocks, which are used in pushing forward the storyline. Chest/chance cards can be reformed as event/minor hint cards, in order to make the game more suspenseful.
(I took out all of the features on a monopoly map first for brainstorming.)
(Mechanics of the new game)
Feedback from friends(for future development):
- Character development
They suggested me to give each character a more complete portrait. I could not agree more: the mashup game I am envisioning here is heavily character focused. Just like Machi and some murder mystery games I was looking into, the characters are the main elements of the storytelling. More description in the script is important, which can be articulated in the later steps.
2. Mini games at Work block
My friends suggested me to incorporate mini games at the Word blocks, in which the players step on to collect currency. It can add more competition into the game. The question is that – what kinds of mini games to put into?
3. Gossip/tip card
My friends suggested me to add some minor tips about my characters in some card-drawing session, so the players can learn about the characters as they go.
4. Portal charge
Other minor suggestions about the mechanics- I find most of them extremely useful.
Outline text play time: average 3 hours
Estimated board game play time: 8-9 hours
Feedback from critique and reflection
- The current duration is relatively long. In order to have the game running more smoothly, I can try to break it into different parts/acts/episodes, with some slight variations on the mechanics.
Because the game is aiming for a longer duration, I need to find the targeted players who have access to the game and ideally some experience with the genre. - While breaking the game into different parts, I can experiment with every of them individually, to make sure they all maintain a certain logic.
3. In the brainstorming stage, I could have add more relevant context as an aspect of the game. Monopoly is also an “educational tool, to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies”, while Machi reflects different perspectives from the lives ordinary people in the 90s Tokyo. Maybe setting a real world city, at least for reference, to my game would help.
