Chapter 10 Design Exercises and Questions

Design Practice EXERCISES

CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING EXERCISES BASED ON CHAPTER 10 of ERNEST ADAMS.

READ THE CHAPTER AND DO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: Due 4/29



1. Devise and document the core mechanics for a traditional analog alarm clock.
The alarm clock possesses the following indicators: an hour hand, a minute hand, a
hand indicating the time at which the alarm should go off, and a buzzer. It also has
the following input devices: a knob to set the time, a knob to set the time at which
the alarm will go off, and a two-state switch that arms the alarm when the switch
is in one position and cancels it in the other. (Assume that it is an electric clock
and does not need to be wound.) Explain what entities are needed inside the clock,
what processes operate within it, and what conditions and mechanics govern the
functioning of the alarm. (Explain the movement of the hands in terms of the passage of time not the workings of the clock.)

2. Research the history and rules of Tetris, then perform the following exercises:
a. Devise an entity that contains enough attributes to describe the tetromino (a
Tetris block) that is currently under the player’s control. Name each attribute in
the entity; state whether it is symbolic or numeric; and if symbolic, list its possible values.
Your entity should include one cosmetic attribute.

b. Document the effect of each of the player actions allowed in Tetris on the
attributes of the currently falling tetromino. Bear in mind that some actions
have different effects depending on which tetromino is currently falling. Where
this is the case, be sure to document the effects of the action on each different
type of tetromino.

c. Document one of the scoring systems for Tetris (there are several; you may
choose one), indicating what condition of the play fi eld causes the score numeric
entity to change and by how much. Your mechanic for changing the score
should include as a factor the current game level (another numeric entity). Also
document what makes the current game-level entity change.

3. Using a real-time strategy game or construction and management simulation of
your choice (or one that your instructor assigns), write a short paper describing its
resources, sources, drains, converters, production mechanisms that are not sources
(if any), and traders (if any). Note whether the game has any feedback loops or
mutual dependencies; if so, indicate whether any mechanism exists to break a possible deadlock.

4. Define a mechanic for a trap that harms a character when it detects the character’s
presence and then must wait for a period before it can detect another
character. Document the condition that triggers the trap (the nature of the sensing
mechanism), the character attribute(s) that change when the trap is triggered, and
the length of the reset wait period. Incorporate one or more nonuniform random
numbers to determine the amount of damage done and explain how they are computed.
Indicate what states the trap may be in and what causes it to change from state to state.
Include a vulnerability in the sensing mechanism that could either
(a) set off the trap without harming a character or (b) allow a character to move
within range of the trap’s sensor mechanism without setting it off. (For example, a
pressure-sensor in the fl oor would not go off if the character weighed less than a
certain amount.) Propose a means by which a clever player could exploit this vulnerability to avoid the trap.

Design Practice QUESTIONS

1. What entities and resources will be in the game? Which resources are made up
of individual entities (such as a resource of airplanes consisting of individual planes
that the computer can track separately) and which are described by mass nouns
(such as water, which cannot be separated into discrete objects)?

2. What unique entities will be in the game?

3. Which entities will actually include other entities as part of their defi nition?
(Remember that an avatar may have an inventory, and an inventory contains
objects.)

4. What attributes describe each of the entities that you have identifi ed? Which
attributes are numeric and which are symbolic?

5. Which entities and resources will be tangible, and which will be intangible?
Will any of them change from one state to another, like the resources in Age of
Empires?

6. What mechanics govern the relationships among the entities? Remember that
any symbolic entity requires mechanics that determine how it can get into each of
its possible states and how other entities interact with each possible state.

7. Are there any global mechanics in the game? What mechanic governs the way
the game changes from mode to mode?

8. For each entity and resource, does it come into the game world at a source, or
does it start off in a game world that does not provide a source for additional entities or resources? If it does come in at a source, what mechanics control the
production rate of the source?

9. For each entity and resource, does it go out of the game world at a drain, or does
it all remain in the game world and never leave? If it does go out at a drain, what
conditions cause it to drain?

10. What conversion processes exist in your world? What trader processes exist? Do
any feedback loops or mutual dependencies exist? What means have you provided
to break or prevent deadlocks?

11. Can your game get into a state of equilibrium, static or dynamic? Does it include
any form of decay or entropy that prevents states of equilibrium from forming?

12. How do mechanics create active challenges? Do you need to establish any
mechanics to detect if a challenge has been surmounted?

13. How do mechanics implement actions? For each action that may arrive from the
user interface, how do the core mechanics react?

14. For autonomous entities such as nonplayer characters, what mechanics control
their behavior? What mechanics defi ne their AI?

1. "King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" in-class survey

 

Class,

As you watch the documentary, write comments about the film in the boxes provided based on the questions supplied for each. These will be used as the basis for a post-film class discussion.

1. Mitchell is unabashedly cocky and fond of self promotion, proclaiming himself the "Sauce King" of Florida for his successful line of homemade hot sauces. Next to his family, Mitchell considers his arcade scores his greatest achievements in life.

How typical are these types of values and attitudes among 'core' gamers and how important is it to understand these values if you are a game designer? What *are* these values, exactly?

These values and attitudes and values are very typical among core gamers. If a game designer does not understand a core gamers need to achieve high scores, then a game will do poorly. A player must gain a sense of accomplishment of beating other core gamers scores in a certain game. This means a game must be both enjoyable and difficult,

2. Steve Wiebe has been laid off as a Boeing engineer, and now spends his time as a science teacher. His friends and his wife, Nicole, describe him as a tragic figure who always comes up short, despite being proficient at music, sports, art, and mathematics.

Is Weibe's 'tragic' aspect typical of core gaming 'types'?

What role does self esteem (high or low) play in the culture of hard core gaming and such subcultures as competitive vintage or 'classic' game playing? How would you best describe the relationship between low self-esteem and videogame mastery?

Weibe's aspect is very typical. Most (not all) core gamers fail to do well in activities such as sports or art, that many others can at least do somewhat 

3. Despite Wiebe's protests that his own first score was disqualified for being submitted via unsupervised videotape, Twin Galaxies accepts Mitchell's score over Wiebe's and proclaims that Mitchell is still the record holder.

How valid do you think videotaped gameplay should be in establishing videogame playing records?

If valid, why? If not valid, why not?

I do not think it is valid at all. The reason being that depending on how the videotape is shot, you may not be able to see the player. If the player is not seen then how are we to know that he truly did it. 

4. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, wondering "Who would have guessed that a documentary about gamers obsessed with scoring a world record at Donkey Kong would not only be roaringly funny but serve as a metaphor for the decline of Western civilization?"

What do you think of the film?

Is it an accurate portrayal of what makes videogames so compelling for those who play them?

I really enjoyed the film. I thought it was relatively accurate.

5. On November 10, 1981, Walter Day opened an arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa called Twin Galaxies. Though it was a modest arcade of merely 22 arcade games, it soon became known as the International Scorekeeper for the burgeoning video game industry. Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies set rules for gameplay on hundreds of games, while maintaining a records database of competitive high scores. Twin Galaxies is considered by gaming historians as being the first organizer of professional gaming, putting competitive electronic gaming on the world map.

How important do you think organizations like Twin Galaxies are in the vintage arcade gaming community?

Could such communities exist without such organizations?

What role does Twin Galaxies play ultimately, and why is this significant to the film and its story?

I think organizations such as Twin Galaxies are very important.I believe similar communities would exist even without such organizations. Twin Galaxies was influential however in creating a need to keep scores.

6. The film depicts Wiebe's skill at Donkey Kong being linked to his ability to deeply understand the title's game mechanics, particularly the way that rhythm and timing work to ensure a successful outcome.

The film in one scene compared his love of drumming and his abilities at basketball as well as his musical talent as part and parcel of his gift at playing Donkey Kong.

How would you best describe this set of inter-related skills?

Have you experienced anything like this yourself when playing games? Have you been able to associate the skill of playing games with similar related skills and talents and how would you best describe the nature of this set of inter-relationships between skills/passions/abilities?

7. In the film, Wiebe, while playing the game says hello to Mitchell. Mitchell didn't respond. As he's walking away from Wiebe, Mitchell says, "There's certain people I don't want to spend too much time with." Mitchell offered no explanation for his behavior towards Wiebe but did later explain that at the time of filming, he had not played video games for "more than a year", and that the filmmakers had not given him enough advance warning to train for a public record-breaking attempt. Seth Gordon, the film's Director, in referring to Mitchell's character says that Mitchell "is a true puppet-master", "a master of information-control".

What do you think Gordon means by this? What role does such behavior play in general terms in videogame culture? 

8. What did you think of the film? Is it really only about the game "Donkey Kong" and those who seek to hold the highest score or is it really about something more?

It was an interesting film and I believe that it can be applied to just about any game.

9. Have you ever played "Donkey Kong"? What was your memory of playing it? Where were you, when was it?

I would play it at the movie theaters with my dad.

Design Questions from Chapter 9

Design Practice QUESTIONS

HOMEWORK THIS WEEK:

ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FOR YOUR GAME DESIGN (ITEM 2) AND POST
THESE ON YOUR CLASS BLOG BY 4/22/11

1. What types of challenges do you want to include in your game? Do you want to 
challenge the player’s physical abilities, his mental abilities, or both?

2. Game genres are defi ned in part by the nature of the challenges they offer. What 
does your choice of genre imply for the gameplay? Do you intend to include any 
cross-genre elements, challenges that are not normally found in your chosen genre?
 
3. What is your game’s hierarchy of challenges? How many levels do you expect it 
to have? What challenges are typical of each level?
 
4. What are your game’s atomic challenges? Do you plan to make the player face 
more than one atomic challenge at a time? Are they all independent, like battling 
enemies one at a time, or are they interrelated, like balancing an economy? If they 
are interrelated, how?
 
5. Does the player have a choice of approaches to victory? Can he decide on one 
strategy over another? Can he ignore some challenges, face others, and still achieve 
a higher-level goal? Or must he simply face all the game’s challenges in sequence?
 
6. Does the game include implicit challenges (those that emerge from the design), 
as well as explicit challenges (those that you specify)?
 
7. Do you intend to offer settable diffi culty levels for your game? What levels of 
intrinsic skill and stress will each challenge require?
 
8. What actions will you implement to meet your challenges? Can the player surmount a large number of challenges with a small number of actions? What is the 
mapping of actions to challenges?
 
9. What other actions will you implement for other purposes? What are those purposes—unstructured play, creativity and self-expression, socialization, story 
participation, or controlling the game software?
 
10. What save mechanism do you plan to implement? 

Choose one from the following exercises - use a console game from the locker or an online java/web based game for Questions 2-5

Design Practice EXERCISES

POST YOUR RESPONSES (drawn, written or both) to your individual class blog

1. Write the rules for a simple, single-player, PC-based puzzle game like Bejeweled
but make up your own mechanics for earning points. Document all the challenges
and actions of the game. You must create at least 10 different kinds of atomic challenges. Indicate what action the player should use to surmount each challenge and
what reward the player gets for doing so. You must also create and document at
least four actions that are not intended to meet challenges but serve some other
purpose. You do not have to design a user interface in detail but may find it helpful
to make and submit a quick sketch of the screen and the layout of the controls.

2. Choose an action or action-adventure game you are familiar with (or your
instructor will assign one). Document the challenge hierarchy of the fi rst level in
the game that is not a tutorial level, diagramming it as in Figure 9.1. (If the level
includes more than 50 sequential atomic challenges, you may stop after 50, but be
sure to include any level bosses or major challenges that occur at the end of the
level.) If you have the necessary software, play partway through the level, take a
screen shot, and indicate on your diagram what challenges you were facing at that
moment, similar to the gray boxes in Figure 9.1. If you faced simultaneous challenges, indicate that also. Submit the screen shot along with your diagram.

3. Think of a game you are familiar with that permits the player to achieve victory
by different strategies, similar to Figure 9.2. Write a short essay documenting each
approach and how the hierarchy of challenges (including the intermediate challenges) differs in each one. If one strategy seems more likely to achieve victory than
another, say so and indicate why. Your instructor will give you the scope of the
assignment.

4. Choose a single or multiplayer role-playing game that you are familiar with (or
your instructor will assign one). Identify all the actions it affords. (You may find
the game’s manual helpful.) Divide the actions into those intended to meet challenges, those that participate in the story, those that facilitate socializing with
other players (if any), housekeeping operations such as inventory management, and
those that control the software itself. If another category suggests itself, document
it. Also note any actions that fall into more than one category and indicate why.
The size of the game that you or your instructor selects will determine the scope of
the assignment.

5. Choose ten different types of challenges from among the ones listed in the section “Commonly Used Challenges” in this chapter. For each type, devise one example challenge and two example actions that overcome it (this may rule out  some types). Describe the challenge and the two actions in a paragraph, ten paragraphs in all.

In-class pinball excersise

1) What is "good gameplay" when it comes to pinball game design?

Good gameplay involved having games with a challenging course that was not to difficult at the same time. It allowed the player to enjoy the game while still feeling challenged.

2) How do pinball playfield designers create exciting experiences?

Designers of pinball playfields add various loops, holes and bouncers to keep the game unique and create their own design. This allows for alot of individuality on a game with a fixed course. Since there is no telling how the ball will react or hit a part of the course, one never knows just what will happen next.

User Interface Assignment 4/8/11

Design Practice Exercise - USER INTERFACE

1. Design and draw one icon for each of the following functions in a game:
■ Build (makes a unit build a certain structure)
■ Repair (makes a unit repair a certain structure)
■ Attack (makes a unit attack a certain enemy unit)
■ Move (moves a unit to a certain position)
■ Hide (makes a unit hide to be less visible to enemy units)
Briefl y explain the design choices you made for each icon. All icons should be for the same game, so make them consistent to a game genre of your choice.

2. In this exercise, you will practice designing user interfaces for two different
gameplay modes, each of which has different indicators. Using the following
descriptions of the modes, decide how best to display the functions to the player
and sketch a small screen mock-up showing how these indicators can be positioned
on the screen. Briefl y explain your design decisions.

In the primary gameplay mode, the avatar can move around in the game world and
do different things such as attacking, talking to NPCs, and so on. The mode is avatar-based in the third-person perspective.
Functions/indicators:
■ Character’s health
■ Character’s position in the game world
■ Currently chosen weapon
■ Waypoint to the next mission
■ Character visibility to enemies (indicate that, if the character stands in shadows
or in darkness, he is less visible to enemies)
In the secondary gameplay mode, the player enters vehicle races that include shooting at other vehicles driven by non-player characters. The perspective is fi rst person.

Functions/indicators:
■ Vehicle health
■ Vehicle speed
■ Primary weapon ammo left
■ Type of secondary weapon mounted, if present (if not present, so indicate)
■ Position in race
■ Laps remaining in race

3. In this exercise, you design the same UI, once for breadth and once for depth.
Make the broad UI no more than two levels deep at any point. Make the deep UI at
least three levels deep at one point, offering no more than three options at the top
level. Present the UIs by making flowcharts showing the different levels of interaction or how you group different functions. Include all the following functions.
Briefl y explain your design decisions.

Attack Defend Guard Patrol Move
Set waypoint Choose weapon Research Build barracks Build headquarters
Build hospital Destroy Repair Harvest Save current game
Load game Quit game Change video Change sound Change control
settings settings settings

4. A game intended for a console needs to have its functions mapped to a game pad with a limited number of buttons. Make a button layout that supports all the
actions in the primary gameplay mode (described in the following list). Discuss the pros and cons of your button layout.
The game pad has the following button layout:
■ A D-pad
■ One analog joystick
■ Four face buttons
■ Two shoulder buttons
The main gameplay mode has the following actions:
N ORMAL HARD ATTACK HIGH ATTACK (attack upward) LOW ATTACK
Normal Hard Attack High Attack Low Attack Block Attack
(attack upward) (attack downward)
Jump Crouch Move forward Move backward Strafe left
Strafe right Rotate left Rotate right Choose weapon Use health pack

Design Practice QUESTIONS
1. Does the gameplay require a pointing or steering device? Should these be analog, or will a D-pad suffi ce? What do they actually do in the context of the game?

Our game does require a steering device but as it is a side scroller, the D-pad will suffice. We will allow the player to change between the analog or D-pad depending on their preference. They will steer the character through the level avoiding enemies, traps, etc.

2. Does the function of one or more buttons on the controller change within a single gameplay mode? If so, what visual cues let the player know this is taking place?

There will be a button that allows players to play in 1st person to allow for better aim of enemies. The player will be able to do so at any point in time.

3. If the player has an avatar (whether a person, creature, or vehicle), how do the
movements and other behaviors of the avatar map to the machine’s input devices?
Defi ne the steering mechanism.



4. How will the major elements of your screen be laid out? Will the game use a windowed view, opaque overlays, semitransparent overlays, or a combination?

5. What camera model will the main view use? What interaction model does the
gameplay mode use? Is it one of the common ones or something new? How does
the camera model support the interaction model?
6. Does the game’s genre, if it has one, help to determine the user interface? What
standards already exist that the player may be expecting the game to follow? Do
you intend to break these expectations, and if so, how will you inform the player of
that?
7. Does the game include menus? What is the menu structure? Is it broad and shallow (quick to use, but hard to learn) or narrow and deep (easy to learn, but slow to
use)?
8. Does the game include text on the screen? If so, does it need provisions for
localization?
9. What icons does the game use? Are they visually distinct from one another and
quickly identifiable? Are they culturally universal?
10. Does the player need to know numeric values (score, speed, health)? Can these
be presented through nonnumeric means (power bars, needle gauges, small multiples), or should they be shown as digits? If shown as digits, how can they be
presented in such a way that they don’t harm suspension of disbelief? Will you
label the value and if so, how?
11. What symbolic values does the player need to know (safe/danger, locked/
unlocked/open)? By what means will you convey both the value and its label?
12. Will it be possible for the player to control the game’s camera? Will it be necessary for the player to do so in order to play the game? What camera controls will be
available? Will they be available at all times or from a separate menu or other
mechanism?
13. What is the aesthetic style of the game? How do the interface elements blend in
and support that style?
14. How will audio be used to support the player’s interaction with the game? What
audio cues will accompany player actions? Will the game include audio advice or
dialog?
15. How does music support the user interface and the game generally? Does it create an emotional tone or set a pace? Can it adapt to changing circumstances?