Formal Abstract Design Tools - Notes
Taken from the Gamasutra article http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal_abstract_design_tools.php
What is a modern computer game made of?
Games are evolving, from the base elements of design, art, audio, levels, code to the platforms they are played on.
Games Design isnt evolving as fast with people failing to share successful elements of their games.
We can use cool elements from one genre of a game and apply it into another genre entirely. Pick a game we enjoyed apart from maybe a certain part which we found annoying and learn not to make the mistake of implementing that annoying part of the mechanic.
Lack of a definitive language in games design. A games design vocabulary as such. A generalised vocabulary we could use across all platforms and titles.
This localised game design vocabulary will be called Formal Abstract Design Tools or FADT for short.
Broken down we have
Formal
Implying the precise definition and the ability to explain it to someone else
Abstract
To emphasize focus on underlying areas, not specific genre constructs
Design
As in we're all designers
Tools
Which will create the common vocabulary we want to create.
Example on Formal constructs would be things like Player reward as it is well defined and explainable and not interoperated as anything else like "cool" for example saying a game is cool is effectively meaningless as it can be interoperated differently by players and doesn't always mean the same thing.
As for abstract saying +2 giant slaying sword in an RPG is not abstract, but rather an element of one particular game. Now the notion in which the sword is based on like the mechanic for delivering a more powerful equipment to the player would be a more appropriate explanation. To simplify that more so a "player power-up curve" might be a good FADT definition.
FADT are game designer tools and not actual building blocks to make a successful game.
With Mario 64 anything that exists in the game world you can use. It gives the player the power to make decisions and has a nice and simple learn as you play game style.
Mario had lots of mechanics and effects that made the game brilliant however say you wanted to take what made Mario 64 and make it successful in another game of a different genre. You couldnt take something like Mario's hip drop and add that into a racing game for example what we need to do is take the abstract design from it.
So in Mario it allows the player to set their own goals and then act on them. So the key to take from that is that the player knows what to expect from the world and made to feel in control of the situation. Goals a player can set can range from making it across a certain part of the level or a big goal of get all the red coins in the world. So the FADT to take from this is intention.
Intention: Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options.
Another by-product of the intention FADT is perceivable consequence. This is basically a player seeing where they went wrong and so can correct on their past mistakes to achieve their goal.
perceivable consequence: A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player.
So in RPG games however their consequences are not always perceivable. Take for example a player deciding to stay at and inn and then in the morning they get ambushed. Now the coders could of made so that a player gets ambushed if they stay at the inn too much however the player doesnt know this and to them it seems completely random. Players do not like being forced in to a bad consequence as another example take a fork in the road and a player has to make a decision and the decision they make has a bad consequence without the player possibly being able to know. So the best uses of consequence is when they are attached to intentional actions.
Story: The narrative thread, whether designer-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward the completion of the game.
There is also statistical type game play. For example in allot of sport games there is a statistical element playing away behind the scenes. A player may press a button and expect a result however its all based on that characters statistics so the result might not be exactly what the player was expecting like shooting in Fifa and missing due to the characters bad shot stats.
So overall the FADT is a means of having a generalised definition vocabulary to cover the actual aesthetics and mechanics that make a game good across all genres.
With Mario 64 anything that exists in the game world you can use. It gives the player the power to make decisions and has a nice and simple learn as you play game style.
Mario had lots of mechanics and effects that made the game brilliant however say you wanted to take what made Mario 64 and make it successful in another game of a different genre. You couldnt take something like Mario's hip drop and add that into a racing game for example what we need to do is take the abstract design from it.
So in Mario it allows the player to set their own goals and then act on them. So the key to take from that is that the player knows what to expect from the world and made to feel in control of the situation. Goals a player can set can range from making it across a certain part of the level or a big goal of get all the red coins in the world. So the FADT to take from this is intention.
Intention: Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options.
perceivable consequence: A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player.
So in RPG games however their consequences are not always perceivable. Take for example a player deciding to stay at and inn and then in the morning they get ambushed. Now the coders could of made so that a player gets ambushed if they stay at the inn too much however the player doesnt know this and to them it seems completely random. Players do not like being forced in to a bad consequence as another example take a fork in the road and a player has to make a decision and the decision they make has a bad consequence without the player possibly being able to know. So the best uses of consequence is when they are attached to intentional actions.
Story: The narrative thread, whether designer-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward the completion of the game.
There is also statistical type game play. For example in allot of sport games there is a statistical element playing away behind the scenes. A player may press a button and expect a result however its all based on that characters statistics so the result might not be exactly what the player was expecting like shooting in Fifa and missing due to the characters bad shot stats.
So overall the FADT is a means of having a generalised definition vocabulary to cover the actual aesthetics and mechanics that make a game good across all genres.
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