Developing a New Major

take aways - team ahs to cmmunicate - amongst themselves , with publisher, with funders, with hte media - about hte game, how it’s being developed, how money will be spent, how time will be spent - documentation is how things are communicated (one way) and different pahses of development producer dfferent types of documentation as outputs. we’ll have a whole class on production - but there are leads in each department and they help make the documentation so everyone needs some practice with leadership, working with teams, communicating with the rest of the team thru doc, scheduling and budgeting

there’s a template for a schedule for the board game on google docs - the URL is in the LInks section of Mambo under project management tools - has start and stop dates - can look for dependencies there, has a section for people needed - also a dependency possibility in a small company

Game development phases - concept, pre-production, prototype, production, alpha, bet, gold, post-production - each phase involves different people on the team to differing extents and each phase has specific objectives to accomplish

concept development phase - starts when an idea for the game comes up and it ends when the decision is made to puton of hte ideas into pre-production - team needed is small - maybe only designer, programmer, artists adn producer, figure out what game is about, get it written downin teh concept document thtaa others on teh team can look at and comment on, gotta identify a target market, figure out what resources from teh company you’ll need

pre-production phase - the planning phase - develop the art style guide, the production plan. phase ends when the game design doc and technical specs are written - difficulty is figuring out which ideas are going to be really good and how to make the game really fun

prototype phase - a tangible version of hte game that shows off what makes your game special and what will make it successful, can create low-fidelity prototypes - paper based with cards, boards, miniatures - to test in house to show that the game mechanics work - using low-fidelity prototype lets ya focus on teh game mechanics and not the aesthetics. funders swant to see prototype - only willing to give an idea a minute or two so if they can’t understand the game they’ll can the project, do’nt develop new tech since project could be cancelled - prototype should just simulate the new stuff - prototypes sell ideas but not best reason to use prototype - instead use it to play iwth new ideas to see if they work in the game, play test with hte prototype with objective playtesters (not just your own team) to get good feedback — you have to incorporate the feedback into the prototype development, for playtesting low fidelity is ok

production phase - this is the longest phase, ends when the game is finished - crnch time happens when we miscalculate how long the production phase will last or when funders don’t give enough time for this phase - it’s producer’s job to keep the team on schedule and project on budget and keep employees fairly satisfied so they don’t all quit at the end

alpha, beta, gold - phases of getting the game ready to ship once it’s finished - fix bugs, test with users and fix more bugs, send it to console makers to be certified, change language for other markets, in alpha might still have place holder art and sounds, will write the manual, in beta ya put in all the finished art and sounds and finalize the interface and manual, gold is the stage where it’s shipped to the stores - gotta decide when to stop the development and move from beta to gold and sometimes that’s tough - always some more cool stuff you could add, can skip manufacturing process (making the dvd’s) if ya use digital distribution

post production phase - make new versions that improve the orginal game - patches, bug fixes, updates with new content, expansiosn - osme versions are free

agile development - rapid developmetn - all about iterations, producting worksable slices of the game over and over again - no tons of preplanning — design which includes planning and preproduction), prototype (playable), evaluate (playtesting)

list of mistakes in development process on p. 350 - many involve communication (motivation, and misunderstanding, dealing with difficult employees)

big thick documentation dudring preplanning stage not so useful because as game develops things change - but you need some doc to put hte game into a framework that everyone on the team can buy into and understand

concept doc - the pitch doc - helps management see if game is viable, no more than 5 pages, no more than a week to write, sell the idea to funders - include premise (the high concept or basic idea, gives the mood and the game’s hook that makes it unique, something you might put on a poster or the front fof hte game box to get player’s attention), talk about player’s otivation and the victory condition and why player is going to play thru to the end, the unique selling proposition - what makes game unique and what will make player choose your game over other games - no more than one paragraph and maybe alist of outstanding features, then talk about target audience - player demographics and psychographics and where thye’ll play and previous experience and specific age range - gain probably no more than a pragraph, talk about genre, target rating, target hardware, if you’re licensing any IP, gotta talk about competition and do a competititve analyis and talk about how your game can beat the competition, talk about the goals for the game - what mood are you trying to get in the player (go beyond fun) an dhow you’re going to achieve those goals

game proposal - your game’s hook, gameplay, any features you’re going to have for online and multiplayer, any special technology you’re going to use, production details (your team, rough estimate of hte cost and mention some key milestones and ship date posibillities, backstory and story synopsis, description of important characters, identify risks (SWOT analysis),include some concept art

game design doc - much longer than the other 2 docs - it’s the details the programmers and artists use to work from to make the game - has details about interface and the engine you want to use, all the characters, their abilities and anything they’ll carry - detials of the doc depend on the project details and company requirements - lots of templates

also gonna have an art style guide

producer makes the project plan - the path taken to develop the game - the tasks, dependencies, it’s the real world schedule with some padding built in - can break down into resource plan, budget, schedule, and milestones

then need a test plan - drawsn up by the QA department - a testing checklist and how the game is gonna be tested for bugs, gets revised as new areas of hte game are finished/added

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ideas for first semester

• they need an assignment to play games and blog - we have categories of games - by genre, by hardware platform, by studio, by strongest characteristic, by success. They have to play games from each category and blog about them. Everybody could be doing a different category each week (so the games will go around) but over hte course of the semester they have to do 5 - 1 every 2 weeks. Goal is to get them to focus on that characteristic in depth in a game or two - for videogames
• same for board games -  we just play them to be playing, to get experience. we go for variety.so need to play in class and have assignments where they play outside of class
• COuld we move the domino and card game making activity to first semester - simple/uninformed approaches to making games,
• COuld also talk about aesthetics and rules and cheating  and briefly about marketing and picking an audience - so figure out what topics to spin off of making board games. could do a little photoshop intro to talk about making the board graphics.
• move the book report exercise to this fall semester class - and have them pick 2 or 3 of the questions to answer
• definitely want to talk more about mmos - community manager is a job they could get while still in school maybe (connects marketing and development, good to be in development meetings to hear what’s being proposed and hopefully talk about how users might react, could update development teams with stats and trends from community forum posts and events, comm mgr works to build relations with users especially the super users who will buy and try everyting related to your product - you pimp their events and websites and give them unique content and go to their events and help them set up whatever they need to create community around the game) , play with some text based (usually built with interactive fiction engines, there are game masters who create content and who work with users, these gmes have to have good solo modes, can do some things in text based games that you can’t in graphical gmes because framerate would disintegrate - like having everybody come to one spot to get a magic spell, when you have a small user base you try tings like personally greeting users as they come into the world and as base increases the personal contact goes down and you put in things like tutorials, people want to customize and make their stuff unique even in text descriptions)  and browser based mmos (they have lower barriers of entry, they’re less intimidating than big mmo’s, they can be bridget games for a probably small portion of casual gamers to more hard core games)
• intro brainstorming

ideas for second semester

• we need to look more at game mechanics from traditional games - collecting, racing, matching… need to focus on the board games and their mechanics so their board games are better. Use the domino and card games they made first semester as examples this semester - see what they did right and what htey did wrong, then build more board/card/domino/pyramid games to talk about their mechanics.have specific milestone dates, use the google spreadsheets in their groups (i put in the main milestones, their group might (should) come up with others)
• so need a different book for the 2nd semester - maybe something about making board/card games
• need to talk about ratings in videogames and any board/card game equivalents
• need to talk about playtest in a lecture before they do it - goals, difference between play testing, playing, quality assurance, need playtest forms
• need to talk about how to balance traditional analog games
• need some specific assignments on the audience reseach and game marketing (first semester just mention, look at some classic ads)
• blog this semester could be a group development blog - weekly or more frequent updates, pics of development, notes from their out of class meetings, final versions of their documentation, share the process, becomes raw materials for their final paperwork
• do more brainstorming practice - then after they’ve picked topic and done some research, have a brainstorm session in class
• need some readings from boardgame blogs, game developer mag, game developer blogs

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http://web.mit.edu/spotlight/stata2/

gotta ask these questions of any building - do people enjoy coming there, can they do their work

but in a building meant to be fun - gotta ask does the space inspire us to ask what the architect was trying to do, does it inspire creative thought, doesit open people up to new ideas, does it raise the spirits of the people in it

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first half of hte semester - do the general readings - media effects, emotions, measurement, fun in other fields, do the video project

second half of hte semester do the fun in games & videogames part - project could be to play videogames, identify types of fun, watch others play, talk to them about fun they’re having - gotta have some measurement project

need some articles on cheating - crawford brings up cheating and rules and how cheating makes the game not fun for most people

need articles on fun in areas other than games

need some more videos on fun, pleasure, creativity, games of all kinds

need some new projects - if we get to set up the institute need an event - gotta tie in to research methods they know

organization - start with readings not based on videogames - look at fun, interactivity, entertainment, engagement, immersion, flow, presence - key terms, then do the videogames the second half of the semester. might get them into the basic topics on a broader basis without going just videogame stuff - - boring.

do a couple of lessons of fun in other fields before they do theirs to give them an example

need some readings on the idea of individual differences and media effects - maybe something on sensation seeking, empathy, effects of demographics

too much to have everybody write weekly summary - maybe each person writes 5 - that’s what jack does

need some different questions too for them to answer - maybe questions each week

and need something specific for them to talk about with their concept map

some articles that might be good to add

• Emotional and Cognitive Predictors of the Enjoyment of Reality-Based and Fictional Television Programming: An Elaboration of the Uses and Gratifications Perspective. By: Nabi, Robin L.; Stitt, Carmen R.; Halford, Jeff; Finnerty, Keli L. Media Psychology 2006, Vol. 8 Issue 4, p421-447, 27p, 7 charts
• Moral Judgment as a Predictor of Enjoyment of Crime Drama. By: Raney, Arthur A. Media Psychology, 2002, Vol. 4 Issue 4, p305-322
• Entertainment is Emotion: The Functional Architecture of the Entertainment Experience. By: Tan, Eduard Sioe-Hao. Media Psychology, 2008, Vol. 11 Issue 1, p28-51
• Immersive Virtual Environments Versus Traditional Platforms: Effects of Violent and Nonviolent Video Game Play.” By: Persky, Susan; Blascovich, Jim. Media Psychology, 2007, Vol. 10 Issue 1, p135-156
• Don’t Tease Me: Effects of Ending Type on Horror Film Enjoyment. By: King, Cynthia M.; Hourani, Nora, 2007, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p473-492
• Does Perceived Realism Really Matter in Media Effects? By: Pouliot, Louise; Cowen, Paul S. Media Psychology, 2007, Vol. 9 Issue 2, p241-259
• Soap Opera Exposure and Enjoyment: A Longitudinal Test of Disposition Theory. By: Weber, Rene; Tamborini, Ron; Lee, Hye Eun; Stipp, Horst. Media Psychology, 2008, Vol. 11 Issue 4, p462-487
• Mystery Appeal: Effects of Uncertainty and Resolution on the Enjoyment of Mystery. By: Knobloch-Westerwick, Silvia; Keplinger, Caterina. Media Psychology , 2006, Vol. 8 Issue 3, p193-212.
• funativity chapter  from Rabin’s Intro to Game Development - p. 71-99 - has stuff about flow, physical, social, and mental fun, choices,, story, character, interactivity — has a couple of good projects - do ex1 & 2 (tho I might have to come up with some hobbies if students don’t play a lot of videogames), #7
• Lazarro article on the 4 fun keys in the usability book (ch20)
• Jackson, SA (2000). Joy, FUn, and FLow State in Sport. in YL Hanin Emotions in Sport.
• Jackson, SA & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). Focusing on fun. in AM Heiles &: L. Stokoe (eds.) Flow in Sports)
• Kimiecik, JC and Harris AT (1996). What is enoyment? A Conceptual/Definitiona Analysis… in Journal of SPort & Exercise Psychology v18, p. 247-263.
• Gunter, BG & Gunter, NC. 1980) Leisure Styles: A conceptual Framework for modern leisure in The SOciological Quarterly 21(2), SUmmer), p. 361-374

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look at the page of notes from the peer evals - some good things - some very specific things people need to work on in the next project - better communication, more respect for the team, more idea generation, more respect for others’ ideas

talk about Craig’s game - radio game show - trivia quiz - what was your job as the studio audience? what kind of sound effects should he add? what would make it a better game?

look at the board game and book report assignments -  new detail added - don’t think of an idea now - pick a topic, do research - goal is to generate a bunch of ideas based on the info ou find so topic an integral part of the game - going to do some brainstorming on Wednesday - have them look at week 9 on mambo for hte details - quesiton is what else can ya do with the dance pad?

audio in games

audio = music, sound effects, dialogue

in a lot of games - the sound design is just a list of files, only a few are ever tested, and the design is only done to the extent of attaching a sound to an object. for some games you might really only need some background mp3 files and a few standard sound effects

bad audio makes you aware of the audio, breaks the immersion

need to create an audio design doc (part of/addition to the game design doc) - sets out the audio enviornment of the game, to show what technology being used. it’s the bible for the audio team but everyone will read/skim it - says what’s the general audio tone of hte game, brief statement about how music, sound effects and dialogue should work in that environment in general and hten details about how that will be implemented, has a list of all the sounds you need including sounds for weapson, transportation, and interface

way to give an cue about the state of the game, about changes in the state of the game. ex: the sound the mushroom powerups make in Mario - player can be focusing on what’s coming next and hear that they got the powerup

way to let htem know the change in location - tone of music changes when you enter the boss area - more threatening sound effects - sound helps tell the story, signaling the start of a new chapter in the story or the begining of a new level

many sound effects are actually composites, layers of sounds to create a new sound or a more realistic sound - for example in the Jurassic Park game , the T. rex roar used was a blend of elephant, lion, alligator, and a couple of other animal sounds. layers come into play also when trying to create ambient sound - places are full of noises -for exaple on a city street you might hear traffic, people walking, people talking, music from radios heard in cars, birds, planes, wind - amient sound creates the world in which we live in a game

music in games different purpose than games in film - in games music creates and reflects the emotional state of the player, whereas in film, the music reflects the emotional state of the characters on screen and gives the audience a visceral response to that state.

game muscians using concept of microscoring - creating hundreds of small score chunks that the game engine puts together as needed as player moves thru the game

game audio guys need to know how to mix the sound, how to edit, how to use sound libraries and how to record their own sounds

game music is not interactive music - the player doen’st have any direct involvement with the music like they do in rhythm & music games

games that are all sound (for people who can’t see - AudioOdyssey - for sighted and visually impaired to play together- http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/audiodyssey.php — this page has a 1:24 news story about the game with some screen shots - http://www.aip.org/dbis/stories/2008/18122.html

games without sound for people who can’t hear - games are starting to include subtitles - Ubisoft starting doing it in 2008 - Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, and Shaun White Snowboarding. - games aren’t required to have subtitles. think of all the uses for sound we talked about - cue things in the interface have been clicked, cue changing part s of the game, cue victories - those need to be shown in multiple ways as well as sound, need subtitles for cut scenes, for any spoken instructions, for any spoken character interaction.

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Game design, Video game, Video game music

Blythe, M. & Hassenzahl, M. (2003). The semantics of fun: Differentiating enjoyable experiences. in Blythe, J., Monk, A., Overbeeke, K., & Wright, P. (eds.), Funology: From usability to enjoyment.91-100.

lack of agreed upon set of terms - enjoyment, pleasure, fun, attraction - often used interchangably but all aren’t really synonymous - this article trying to lay out the difference between pleasure and fun

starts with flow - says it’s one of hte few psych studies of pleasure - flow = peak expeirence of total absorption in an activity, with a close match between skill and challenge, clear goals, constant feedback on performance, decrease in self-consciousness, time distortion, deep enjoyment — but most of the time our activities don’t take us out of ourselves so we don’t get to experience flow as often as we’d like

micro-flow - intrinsically satifsying activities done for a short period of time - like doodling, don’t give the deep intense flow experience - not thoroughly studied yet

politics of fun - fun now= diversion, amusement, jocularity according ot OED, but used to be low class, bad thng, make fun of, opposite of good things like labor and being productive, being serious, fun created to distract us from work, numbs us, turns us into passive spectators - “fun is something we buy, something we consume, something that ulitmately reproduces the situations of alientated labour that we are seeking to escape.” (p. 93)

these guys say people have need both to be absorbed sometimes and distracted other times - don’t want deep flow all the time (absorption) -enjoyment depends on the context and is not built into the activity, not guaranteed (every time you play a game it isn’t enjoyable) - “..enjoyment doesn’t exist in and of itself. It’s a relationship between ongoing activities and states of mind” (P. 94) — tho there seem to be some commong ground in what we enjoy based on pop culture, theme parks

• fun = distraction, triviality, repetition, spectacle, transgression, distracted from teh self and our problems, satisfies an important underlying psych need but it’s superficial, winking paperclip in Windows is distracting and meant to be fun, antonym of serious, absence of seriousness
• pleasure = absorption, relevance, progression, aesthetics, commitment, deeper form of enjoyment, focus on the activity, not short lived, can be spontaneous, “happens when people try to make sense of themselves - explore and nourish their identities” (p. 96)

“work can be a pleasure, it can be absorbing. But is it fun? The workplace can be the site of fun, but it is generally in the context of a break from work. Fun cannot be serious and if it is then it ceasues, in this sense, to be fun. It is likely then that repetitive and routine work based tasks and technologies might be made fun thru design but non-routine and creative work must absorb rather than distract if they are to be enjoyable.” (p. 96)

triviality & relevance - opportunities for personal growth are relevant to people (and relevant brings pleasure), bring pleasure not fun, watching campy movies are fun - they’re trivial, distractions, we don’t take any lessons away for our own life, having radio on in the background is distraction, trivial, fun - - concentrating on a song on the radio that triggers memories and emotions is relevant (memory is a source for relevance) and brings pleasure. Relevance can also come from anticipation because we have to befocused on the activity

repetition & progression - fun based on repetition; pleasure based on progression because progression makes us think, surprises us, stimulates us. pop culture based on repetition and formulaic stories and repeated themes. High culture focused on progression, gradual change, development of themes; there is some repetition in that there are genres but no desire to create formulas (no sequels). “Satisfaction is the emotional consequence of confirmed expectations, whereas pleasure is the consequence of deviations from expectations.” (p. 98). flow based on progression of skills and challenges

spectacle and aesthetics - fun needs spectacle and engaged senses, attention needs to be grabbed. “Spectacle and wild colour signal and signify fun. Subdued pastels do not. If there is an aesthetic of fun then it is gaudy and fleeting, it bursts at the eye like a firework.” (p. 99) - “the fun of hte spectacle is a result of the intensity of perceptual stimulation, whereras aesthetic value is concerned with the quality of perception” (p. 99)- classical architecture, classical art, things of enduring value and appreciation

transgression and commitment - fun is the unexpected, “involves a transgression, albeit temporary and playful, of accepted forms of work behaviour.” (p. 99), temporary break from seriousness. commitment is pleasurable because you’re absorbed. “imagine 2 people playing a game. for the first the game is appealing. she figured out strategies to win in the context of the game. she accepts the game. the activity of playing, understanding nad using hte rules absorbs her. she will experience pleasure. the other person finds the game boring, but wants to oblige the first person. in order to distract herself from the boredom she finds a way to cheat, to bend the rules. by doing this she ridicules the game, but she may now have fun laying it. both players enjoy themselves but their experiences will significantly differ in quality.” (p. 99-100)

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Boredom, Flow, Game, Popular culture, Recreation

Sengers, P. (2003). The engineering of experience. in Blythe, J., Monk, A., Overbeeke, K., & Wright, P. (eds.), Funology: From usability to enjoyment. 19-29.

engineers have worked for efficiency in production - and managed to suck the fun out of most jobs. So peopel go home and try to cram as much fun in at home as possible and accomplish little

hci does the same focus-on-efficiency as production engineering

no room for experiemntation or for user to change how the system is used if context changes - gotta change by integrating experience and fun into systems. need to look at a lot of systems and tasks that exist between work and fun that are important to users

describes some projects they worked on to create open ended experiences between user nad computer

rules for designers (nonexhaustive)

• instead of representing complexity (in software), trigger it in the mind of hte user - can’t get a complete user model - too complex, so instead focus on the actual user experience, focus on teh suer’s strength in engaging in complex interpretation using their cultural background konwledge
• instead of representing complexity, bootstrap off it - can’t model rich complex human behavior completely so build system to interact with human behaviro, human motion - those already complex
• thik of meaning, not information - humans want to know what something means to them, not raw data

says systems for the home need to focus on fun and experience, not efficiency - so home doesn’t become like work, gotta create systems that take into account not just fun but “serious play”

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Overbeeke, K., Djajadiningrat, T., Hummels, C., Wensveen, S., Frens, J. (2003). Let’s make things engaging.  in Blythe, J., Monk, A., Overbeeke, K., & Wright, P. (eds.), Funology: From usability to enjoyment. 7-17.

“physicality of the product should be reinstated to restore engagement. Fun, as such is not hte issue, engagement is.” (p.

we all talk about user-centered design and starting our design process with the user/person - but these guys say design seems to focus on just one aspect of the person or another (designers with psych background focus on cognitive stuff, designers with programming background focus on logic stuff) - these guys say people have 3 kinds of skills - cognitive, perceptual-motor, and emotional - and good design should play on all of those - knowing, doing, feeling - can’t focus just on cognitive/intelligence angle; can’t reduce emotion to just “fun” and smiley faces

“users are not interested in products; they are in search of challenging experiences” (p. 9) - wants to use all his senses, doesn’t want everyting made “easier” - usability is more than ease of use - “A user may choose to work with a product despite it being difficult to use because it is challenging, seductive, playful, surprising, memorable or even moody, resulting in enjoyment of hte experience.” (p. 9) - learning to play an instrument isn’t easy but reward worth the effort

aesthetics important part of usablity and it’s not just making products beautiful - these guys say should want not beuatiful appearance but rather beautiful interaction and engaging interaction

• product has to function correctly, do what it’s supposed to do - nothing i ndesign makes up for that
• user’s needs, interests and skills differ (from person to person, over time) and so not all products resonate with all people all the time
• designer doesn’t always know the context in which the product will be used
• design needs to have aesthetic richness - use all the senses. designer can evoke or intensify feelings but they can’t force someone to have specific feeling
• product should be open to let user create his own story about usage, should allow exloration and interaction

10 rules

• think experiences - not products.think about context for the experience and how to use all the senses. think about how to let hte user create his own experience in the context you’ve created
• think beauty in the interaction, not just in appearance
• think enjoyment of hte experience, not ease of use
• think rich actions, not buttons - all buttons now require the user to do the same thing regardless of what the button does (user pushes and machine starts, stops, goes into reverse, records, palys…) - need to differentiate the actions of the user
• think expressiveness and identity , not labels - lots of controls look alike so they have to be labeled - they think controls should look, sound, and feel different, give user lots of feedback about the product’s use
• metaphor sucks - user usually doesn’t understand the product because of the metaphor and probably has more than one metaphor they use to understand
• show. don’t hid, don’t represent. show the actual thing, not some alternative representation - we hide the cassette in a camera and then put some representation on the screen to show it’s loaded and how much time left
• Think irresistibles, not affordances. A products beauty of interaction can draw people to interact wiht a product, regardless of affordances
• we can understand people’s emotions by how they use products
• don’t think thinking, just do doing. - these guys say we need to do “do” earlier and more often - handle physical objects, manipulate materials - loets you be more creative in ways that just thinking ever will

goal of hte arrticle is to be provocative - enjoyment should not be an afterthought and can not be added to a product by pasting on a smiley face

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