Games Testing

Games Testing

The first reading I explored discussed the topic of how to give constructive criticism and why giving criticism is important. The second reading goes on to discuss the concept of playtesting and how to make the best use out of it.

Criticism by itself isn't helpful to a person if it's just negative- it can lead to arguments. We typically let our emotions speak before our logic so it's important to really question what you're giving criticism instead of just saying that you like it.

Constructive criticism is both positive and negative in terms of feedback- such as telling the person what they did well in their work and then also what they could improve on or things that can be avoided. This can help people grow in their work and also avoid hurt feelings or coming off as a personal attack or insult due to the structure of constructive criticism.

It's important to give valid and unbiased feedback- feedback that is free of personal taste or opinion and is credible and helpful since everyone has different tastes and opinions and it's not useful to the other person to push your own views onto them. It's also important to be in depth about what you're giving constructive criticism on, such as specifying what would look better eg. size and line spacing rather than just saying that you don't like it.

As a designer it's important to playtest your own games and to set up conditions for other people to playtest your games so that you can get useful information from other people's perspectives.

Playtesting with people who play games is very different from playtesting with game designers as the gamers are the target audience and therefore the feedback gotten from them can be far more valuable as they would be the people who eventually play the final product.

Playtesting without the designer in the room opens room for more observation from the testers and is called blindtesting.


Person testing a game
Source: Armed with Science

Games Stories

Games Stories

This week's readings explore the idea of the importance behind a hero's journey in games, the importance of myths in game writing

The hero's journey is important to game writers and story tellers as it tells myths- which convey the values of society and teach us about ourselves and how we should behave. Myths guide our actions, for example people believe in the literal truth of the Bible, suicide bombers believe that they will go to paradise if they blow themselves up etc.

Myths give us a sense of personal identity, gives us a sense of communuty, lie way to moral values and helps us deal with the mystery of life and death. 

The reading which can be found here goes on to talk of how human tribes in the past would encourage their members to act for the good of the tribe and not for themselves through the telling of myths and stories- and ultimately these were the tribes that survived. Myths become models for how we should behave and influence the way we act.

This is important to games as they allow people to control their environment for a short period of time. As an example, a young boy got control over events and his own feelings thanks to the portrayal of myths in games, he grew less scared of others and his own feelings.

The hero's journey refers to a collection of common elements in thousands of myths that are categorised to create a narrative.

Important elements of the hero's journey include; establishing the world of the hero, the call to start the adventure, entering the mythological woods, trials, meeting the evil one, getting the hero's prize and returning that prize to the community.

The reading outlines steps on how to use the hero's journey to build a story:

1. Pick the premise of the story
2. Create the hero
3. Create the villain
4. Showcase the hero's normal world
5. Disrupt the hero's world
6. Enter the woods
7. Confront the villain
8. Acquire the prize
9. The hero returns

The second reading which can be found here states that common misconceptions of stories in game stories are that the story is just dialogue and doesn't matter in a game. 

Classical stories are important for game developers to know as they are simple and successful. There is a basic structure to creating a classic story, which is as follows:

• There is a protagonist/hero.
• There is an inciting incident that throws the world out of order.
• A gap in the life of the hero opens.
• The hero tries to close the gap through normal means but fails.
• The hero takes a risk to overcome their problems.
• Something new happens and the world is out of order again.
• The hero must take an even greater risk to overcome this,
• There is anothe reversal opening a third gap.
• The hero must take the greatest risk to close the final gap and get to the object of desire.

 A character is not dictated by what they do, but who they are and what they choose to do. Putting a character into a difficult or morally challenging situation pressures the character to bring out these choices which reflects and shapes the character. 

The rest of the character cast should be designed around the hero, and the world should be designed to oppose the hero at every turn.

 

Link from The Legend of Zelda series

Source: DeviantART 

Week 9 Reading and Writing

Reading and Writing

Looking Back

Looking back at all the readings I've done over the course, I feel that they've definitely helped expand my knowledge of topics I may have already been aware of or taught me something completely new. I feel that overall the readings have been going well however sometimes I feel like I can barely make a dent in some of the longer ones in the time allotted for reading content. The reading I felt that I enjoyed the most was this one I did about social psychology and Dunbar's number because it explores the psychology between bonds users make between each other in games through the use of Dunbar's number and also explored how game design can aid players in being social. I feel that the readings help me in my game creation and I definitely have discovered new reading strategies. I feel like I absorb more information when writing notes down as I'm doing the readings rather than reading all in one sitting and then writing afterwards.I'm relatively happy with my game project but I wish I had better resources to work on it such as a laptop that can actually run Unity smoothly and suitable assets for my game. I definitely consider my progress in creating my project to be the biggest achievement for me as I am completely inexperienced in making games and am proud of how far I've gotten with it so far.

Dunbar's Number visual

Source: Wikipedia

From my readings I like this image the most as it is a nice visual of the theory of Dunbar's number- this visual shows off the number of relationships that a person has in their life, the red 5 indicating intimate relationships, the 15 indicating best friends etc. 

Looking Forward

Looking forward I definitely want to improve in my reading as I feel that I tend to stop taking in information after a while, especially with the longer readings, and I tend to get overwhelmed with big blocks of text. I have been doing better with the readings ever since I started taking down notes as I read the content and hope that continuing to do this will improve the scope of the information I take in while reading. I also want to learn more from the readings that I could apply into my game design and help to improve it's gameplay and quality of life features based on the research from the readings. I'm looking forward to learning more about academic writing in the planned workshops in the near future as I feel that it'll help improve my writing overall and help me in my future modules when conducting research and writing.

Looking forward I want to keep improving my knowledge about the topic of games and game design as it will help me if I develop any more games in the future and it's also useful information to have when looking at games both critically and while I play them myself since I do tend to play games a lot in my spare time.

I am particularly looking forward to the following weeks as seeing my game develop is very exciting and rewarding and I'm very excited to see other people's games and get a chance to play them!

Game Fun

Game Fun

"Fun" in games is a very subjective term and it's dictionary definition isn't helpful in understanding what makes a game fun. Though, in recent years game developers have a much better idea of what fun in games is all about.

Looking back at our evolutionary history shows our basic drives for survival, reproduction, social interaction in family and communities. Looking back in time is also beneficial as technology now has made a particularly potent play experience that is both new and old in it's origins.

Games are specialised, and play is deep rooted into our history and we can see it in other species. Basic things animals do such as play fighting, tumbling etc. is a way for them to practice survival skills. Taking this into account, these games/play are all about reproduction and survival and social rules and behaviours.

Playing is common in childhood, and technology and video games have promoted interest in adulthood, and our culture also promotes us to keep learning in life. These observations give path to a theory to explain why people get pleasure from leisure activities that honed their ancestor's survival skills. 

You can read the article here!

Another reading discusses player types and measure of fun in a MUD.

When people examined and evaluated a MUD (Multi-user Dungeon) and what aspects of them players enjoyed the most, the four things the majority of people enjoy when playing are:

Achievement within the game context, exploration of the game, socialising with others and imposition upon others.

We can divide these categories into four player types; achievers, explorers, socialists and killers. Players tend to drift between these

play types depending on their moods, but most players tend to have a primary play style.

Interest graph

Source: mud.co.uk

The axes in this graph represent the interest of a player in a MUD. Certain player types fall into different places on the graph, for example explorers are interested in interacting with the world, so they fall on the top right of the graph.

Game Decisions

Game Decisions

In this week’s reading explores the problems with making an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) including looking at social psychology, friendship, design insights and the social motivation of players.

Looking into aspects of social psychology aids in the development of social design in games.

Friendship between players in a game built up in a variety of in game activities and spaces allows users to build bonds with one another. Important factors in order to determine if individuals are likely to become friends include being close together, being similar to one another, interact back and forth and also be able to confide in the other person. Designing features in the game that allows players to interact, engage and observe is beneficial. Dunbar’s layers explores in depth how people socialise with one another- almost like a network of connections a person may have. It states that people tend to have about 150 friendships in total, branching off into good friendships, casual friendships, best friendships and intimate friendships. Here you can read more about Dunbar’s layers.

This blog goes into extreme detail regarding the social psychology of people, including Dunbar’s Layers.

Dunbar's Number image

Source: Wikipedia

Design Insights

Exploring game design that keeps in mind the social nature and psychology of players will help build a game in which players can bond with others and maintain these bonds.

Designing public and private spaces for players to bond, promoting shared goals, promoting positivity in growth and support aid in players sharing goals and building bonds. It also helps socially motivate players.

Having several communication channels, such as personal/private, tiered, and broadcast channels is an important factor to look into when designing an MMO.

One piece of advice the readings give is to not build a big world first, but to rather define social activities, map out group size and to build social support systems.

Keeping in mind how players interact using social psychology and knowledge of game design allows for a game where player’s social needs are satisfied to be made and is important to learn from.

Games GDD

Games GDD

Physical presentation is a factor many people enjoy about games. Extra expense in executing this is a concern- for example using hand carved wood chess pieces, while making the game more appealing and looks good visually, would add a lot of extra expense.

There are good considerations to make in the design of game components, and these can enhance the player experience to an extent.

Using shape and colour to help distinguish pieces in a board game (eg chess) is a good design consideration as some people may suffer from colour blindness or be visually impaired so having contrasting colours and shapes can assist people with potential problems.

Image of chess pieces on a board

Source: pxhere

Using different components for different elements of a game helps to add variety and distinguish game components- for example in Monopoly she money is made of paper and the chance cards are made of a thicker, smaller paper. This also helps the players to know instinctively that the components are different and helps them become familiarized.

Using distinct and unique icons for different elements is also important.

Using a font that’s legible, easy to read and distinguish. Choosing simple, large and readable fonts help avoid confusion when playing the game.

The box of the game is very important ad generally first impressions of the game come from the way the box is designed. There are some important design components to consider when designing a box for a game.

It’s important that the title of the game is on the side of the box and is distinct and readable. Making the title on the side of the box big helps it be more readable from a distance.

The back of the box is important as players tend to refer to the back of the box to determine the way they should play. Having photos of the game being played correctly at the back of the box is helpful.

Writing the rules of a game clearly, to the point and including examples of the rules in play is extremely helpful to the player and helps avoid confusion and conflict between players.

In the case of a board game, it’s also wise for the game to include or make replacement parts for the game, such as chess pieces, available for players in case one goes missing or gets damaged.

In summary, taking into consideration design components to make the game easier to understand across several ways is an example of good design and should be considered when designing games.

Physical presentation is a factor many people enjoy about games. Extra expense in executing this is a concern- for example using hand carved wood chess pieces, while making the game more appealing and looks good visually, would add a lot of extra expense.

There are good considerations to make in the design of game components, and these can enhance the player experience to an extent.

Using shape and colour to help distinguish pieces in a board game (eg chess) is a good design consideration as some people may suffer from colour blindness or be visually impaired so having contrasting colours and shapes can assist people with potential problems.

Using different components for different elements of a game helps to add variety and distinguish game components- for example in Monopoly she money is made of paper and the chance cards are made of a thicker, smaller paper. This also helps the players to know instinctively that the components are different and helps them become familiarized.

Using distinct and unique icons for different elements is also important.

Using a font that’s legible, easy to read and distinguish. Choosing simple, large and readable fonts help avoid confusion when playing the game.

The box of the game is very important ad generally first impressions of the game come from the way the box is designed. There are some important design components to consider when designing a box for a game.

It’s important that the title of the game is on the side of the box and is distinct and readable. Making the title on the side of the box big helps it be more readable from a distance.

The back of the box is important as players tend to refer to the back of the box to determine the way they should play. Having photos of the game being played correctly at the back of the box is helpful.

Writing the rules of a game clearly, to the point and including examples of the rules in play is extremely helpful to the player and helps avoid confusion and conflict between players.

In the case of a board game, it’s also wise for the game to include or make replacement parts for the game, such as chess pieces, available for players in case one goes missing or gets damaged.

In summary, taking into consideration design components to make the game easier to understand across several ways is an example of good design and should be considered when designing games. 

You can find the article I read here!