Let’s Make Games

Instructor: Irene Fubara-Manuel
Week 5

Fullerton, Tracy (2019). Game design workshop: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games. Boca Raton, FL: AK Peters / CRC Press.

A game is:

  • A closed, formal system, that
  • Engages players in structured conflict, and
  • Resolves its uncertainty in an unequal outcome.

Fullerton (2019, p.48)

“playcentric” approach, relies on inviting feedback from players early on and is the key to designing games that delight and engage the audience because the game mechanics are developed from the ground up with the player experience at the center of the process

Playcentric Game Design

Fullerton (2019, p.3)

[…] design, test, and evaluate the results over and over again throughout the development of your game, each time improving upon the gameplay or features, until the player experience meets your criteria.

Iterative Design

Fullerton (2019, p.16)

  • Player experience goals are set.
  • An idea or system is conceived.
  • An idea or system is formalized (i .e ., written down or prototyped).
  • An idea or system is tested against player experience goals (i.e., play-tested or exhibited for feedback).
  • Results are evaluated and prioritized.
  • If results are negative and the idea or system appears to be fundamentally flawed, go back to the first step.
  • If results point to improvements, modify and test again.
  • If results are positive and the idea or system appears to be successful, the iterative process has been completed.

Iterative process

Fullerton (2019, p.16)

  1. Brainstorming
  2. Prototyping (first physical and then software)
  3. Design Documentation
  4. Production
  5. Quality assurance testing

Iterative Process

I’m a programmer, so code is my paintbrush. When I want to try an idea out, I code it fast and dirty. From there it’s test, iterate, test, iterate, test…and when the design works…build it properly. When I do code-based prototyping, I use whatever tools will let me test ideas the quickest.

On Prototyping

Christina Norman, Lead Designer Riot games

(cited in Fullerton 2019, p.25 )

  • Players: Multiplayer, single player, coop, team rivalry
  • Objectives: capture, chase, race, rescue, exploration,
  • Procedures: controls, actions or methods of play
  • Rules: clarify what happens in various situations that might arise
  • Resources: lives, units, tokens, health, inventory, power-ups, time
  • Conflict: obstacles, opponents, dilemmas
  • Boundaries: conceptual boundaries? forbidden spots? isolated areas?
  • Outcome: resolving uncertainty

Game Structure

Fullerton (2019, p.32-38)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Theory of Flow

Using physical materials, prototype a simple game based on your commute to class.


The game can be text based, a board game, card game… any format of your choosing.

Stop making games.
Be an author.
Make art-games, not game-art.


Make short and intense games:
think haiku, not epic.
Think poetry, not prose


Realtime Art Manifesto

Links to Sketches


Ball point and click 👉🏿
Ball point and click with score 👉🏿
Draw a tennis ball 👉🏿
Create a tennis ball function 👉🏿
Create an array of tennis ball objects with a constructor function 👉🏿
Create an array tennis balls with for loops 👉🏿
Create an array of tennis balls at random positions 👉🏿
Remove a ball when mouse is clicked on it 👉🏿
Adding a score, title and end screen 👉🏿
 

Objects and Constructor Functions 👉🏿
Arrays 👉🏿

p5.play: A p5.js library for the creation of games and playthings 👉🏿
Creating gifs with p5 play 👉🏿
Allison Parrish’s introduction to p5.play 👉🏿