Game Design Confessional Dan Teasdale Senior Designer Pandemic

Game Design Confessional Dan Teasdale Senior Designer Pandemic Studios

What’s this session about? • “Why don’t you talk about all the mistakes you’ve made” • Designers make mistakes • …but never actually admit it • I am a designer • Dan’s Seven Deadly Design Sins • This speech isn’t about me telling you how to do your job

Gluttony, Part 1 I actually have 9 sins to confess, not 7

Pride, Part 1 I have had a stereotypical designer ego

The evidence against me? • I thought my ideas were best • I thought the rest of the team were ‘out of touch’ • I was a Nintendo Fanboy • I cringe when academics who’ve never worked on a game lecture about Game Design • I never confessed to my sins

Now that I’ve alienated half the room and made the other half think I’m an asshole, lets move on…

Anger I’ve been angry at the rest of the team for not reading my detailed and wellthought out design documents and specifications

Why weren’t they reading your documents? • Because they were huge! • …or they were, just only once

And did getting angry help? • Nope – people still didn’t read my docs • Half the time, ended up ignoring the docs and implementing something wildly different

So, how have you tried to resolve this? • HTML? – Nobody knows when it’s updated • Small Word Docs? – Nobody knows where they live • Design Site/CMS? – Hard to update • Wiki? – Solves these problems internally, not so good externally

What did you learn from all this, my child? • Nobody likes reading stuff twice • Most people only want to know the main jist behind the game, and detailed specs when they have to work directly on something • It’s a pain in the ass to update, collate, and view reference content in HTML or Word

Have I repented? • No. Not ideal, still stuff that needs to be done next project, like making Word-like output

Pride, Part 2 I have designed “Think like the Designer” missions

Blasphemy 1: Leading the Player • DAH Prototype: “Hypnotize Joe”, ”Abduct Joe(x 3)”, “Abuct a Car (x 4)”, “Blow up the Police Station”, “Level City Hall” • BORING and FRUSTRATING • Tell the player WHY they’re doing this! • Designing for broader goals not only removes the tedium of “Why am I doing this” but also allows players to complete them their way • See Rockstar North!

Blasphemy 2: Timers as a crutch • “It Came From the Basement!” - What, my mission isn’t fun? Add a timer. • I couldn’t play Pikmin because of this • Use your mechanics! • If you want to use time as a mechanic, at least make it related to what you’re doing • See Rockstar North (for a bad example)

Blasphemy 3: Escort Missions • DAH: “Protect Scientist Joe as he walks calmy through eight lines of cops and soldiers to a panel with a button you could press yourself” • On paper, it sounds good. In reality, too many out-of-player-control fail conditions • Escort missions are obfuscated timers that can fail randomly.

What made you blaspheme like this? • Laziness? • Don’t take a step back? • Didn’t follow the Magic 400 Rules of Design That Don’t Exist? • …well, a little of all

Did you feel the weight of this mistake, my child? • On AMRTS, the mission in question was flip-flopping on balance right up to release • On DAH, it meant I got a lot of angry emails from people who thought I was a sucky designer • Still didn’t stop me from bitching about the same things in other games

Have I repented? • Yes, to the point where I’m annoying the other designers.

Envy I’ve always been envious of people who have a fresh perspective when playing my game

Why is this such a bad thing? • You lose sight of what the game is • Oddballs - goal had 5 layers of indirection – Created these layers over time, didn’t realise it.

The fallout? • Figured out a plan to resolve it • Cancelled before we could implement it

How should I approach this in the future? • Pretty much impossible to ignore 18 months of experience when evaluating your own game • Next best thing is to think about how people think

Well, how do people think? • Perceptual Control Theory • Dryest bit of this speech, but also probably the most base-level in terms of player interaction • If you want to take a quick nap, now’s the time

Perceptual Control Theory • Originally theorised in the 50’s as a way to explain human and animal behavior • The core concept of PCT is that every action we take is to reduce ‘error’ • Components that make up PCT are Perception and Reference

When your reference is the same as your perception… • Everything is fine and happy • Basically a ‘non-event’, no need to change anything • Example: My reference for this audience was 90% male gaming nerds • Perception meets Reference, wasn’t shocked when I saw you all

When your reference is different to your perception • Brain goes into an infinite loop • Creates Error - can be externalised as stress, angst, hate, controller throwing • The error persists until either – Your reference changes to meet your perception – You act to change your perception to meet your reference

An example? • Metal Gear Solid 2 – At the start, your perception meets your reference for a sequel to MGS – An hour later, your perception is changed dramatically and is different from your reference, thanks to Raiden – Good example of how error can be good and bad!

Have I repented? • Totally • If I’d done this on Oddballs, you’d be playing it now • Perception/Reference externalisation works for determining pretty much all human behavior

Gluttony, part 2 I have Knee-Jerk designed

What do you mean, ‘Knee. Jerk’ designed? • That is, I’ve designed something or extended something purely because of an external issue • No - Bad, Lazy • …and bites you in the ass in the long run

Example 1: DAH Conversation System • “A mission where you stop the mayor from giving a speech would be cool” • “It would be even cooler if you could give the speech” • Started out as a minigame for a single mission

DAH Conversation System

DAH Conversation System • “Dan, you’re awesome and we love you. Lets use it in all the missions” • Then extended as a mechanic across a number of missions, not just speech delivery

DAH Conversation System • Thought System was pretty shallow • “Thoughts are really just for humor value at the moment, and they’re pointless otherwise. This is a problem. Let’s make it that Crypto says the thoughts that he finds in people’s brains!” • (cue sirens) • Then tied into core game mechanics

DAH Conversation System

DAH Conversation System • After E 3, took a few days break and looked back on what we had • Still had a mechanic suiting a minigame, but was used along the gameplay critical path • Didn’t hold up to the stress • Hunting down a particular person across a whole city just for their thought is ass boring. • Realised we had created a monster out of a small minigame setpiece due to knee-jerking.

DAH Conversation System • Took the benefits of this system, and slimmed it down – Convincing each person of “Good”, ”Bad”, ”Neutral” or “Instant Fail”. No grey areas – Removed dependence on finding thoughts – Humor delivery first, progression second • Back to “Really Fun!”, not “Critical Grinding”

Have I repented? • Yes - If I get to the point where I’m making radical changes, then think about it from the ground up.

Greed (and a little Sloth) I have created unoriginal concepts and worked on unoriginal games for money, fame, or out of laziness

Some people say that you’re to blame? • People always blame designers for being unoriginal • People usually after that pitch their own original ideas to me

What original ideas have been pitched to you? • From email: “It’d be a team-based FPS, but set in World War I!” • In person: “It’s a huge saga over thousands of years where you’d play death, then you’d control the reaper in a huge RTS that was also an FPS, then the reaper would impregnate your sister and you’d control the reapers babies. It’d also be a three part novel, and I wrote the outline already. Can you make my game for me? ”

So, where have you committed this sin? • Attached to resume… – …Quake 2 weapons mod • “<game title> is a 3 D RTS set in the fantasy world of <pre-established world>” • I worked on Army Men RTS

How are you going to stop this? • GO OUTSIDE! • You’re more likely to think of new ideas if you see new things • Pikmin arose from Miyamoto playing in his garden

So, you’ve repented, my son? • Sorta…it’s good to get ideas from other games • It’s easy to convey ideas as “It’s like the MGS Codec” or “It works like the GTA minimap” • So, referencing other game mechanics is good - just try to avoid ripping off entire games.

Sloth I’ve failed to prototype due to either not identifying the need, or because of schedule constraints

Sloth THIS IS EVIL!

Where did you blaspheme like this!? • • DAH Redesign Started off on right track, prototyped an 80% UFO, 20% Alien game

Where did you blaspheme like this!? • Fun UFO mode, not-so-fun Alien Mode • THQ and US Office had a reference for 80% Alien, 20% UFO • Came up with redesign for Alien Mode, didn’t prototype

Did you feel a just punishment for your actions? • Lost six months of design time prototyping on the fly (although it timed well because of it) • Generated a lot of resentment amongst other team members (“What’s the game? !”) • Had to start production still looking for the “ 30 seconds of fun” for alien mode • Disclaimer: Alien Mode is fun now. Please buy lots of copies of DAH

What should happen • Oddballs • Design Summmary, Design Goals – Party Game, but real time – Make sure all players are doing something – Balance a metagame and minigame

Paper Prototype • Took over Ping-Pong table, laid out prototype map with paper strips and printed out objects • Sorted out basic gameplay mechanic flaws before any gameplay code was written

Rough Running Prototype

First Implementation In-Engine

But wasn’t this title cancelled? • Yep, but the process that we took in order to get to that point meant we cancelled a few months in, rather than having a good design and an unfun game 1 year in. • Showed us how much time a good prototype can save

My Reminder Checklist • Designers make mistakes • Always remember that someone has to play what you’re making • Never Knee-Jerk design • PROTOTYPE until the game is FUN! • Thanks for listening!

Questions? Can you forgive me? dan@pandemicstudios. com. au …or come, chat, and get a free massage at the Pandemic Booth! • 12 pm Today • 1 pm Tomorrow