DESIGN YOUR OWN VIDEO GAME! (Or: imagine a new sequel to your Final Project game)
This week you need to draw on all of our previous lessons to invent your own video game.* You will design your game according to principles learned from our work on game design; you will describe the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics of your game; you will think through its narrative elements and decide on a structure; you will imagine how some of its audio work; you will identify its genre and explain how it both draws on conventions and innovates to create a unique gaming experience.
Be sure to follow this outline format, including the appropriate roman numerals and capital-word titles for each answer to all parts of I-X below. Don’t forget to read and reply with constructive comments to a classmate’s ideas for full credit! (Replies will become possible 30 minutes after posting your own midterm. They will be accepted up to a week after the midterm deadline.) We recommend viewing this forum in “threaded” form to find posts that have no responses yet more easily.
Submit your project by replying to my post below. It repeats these instructions.
I. [Title of Your Invented Game]
II. GENRE
a. Sub-genre(s)
III. 1-Paragraph Summary Description [in bold font]
a. This should appeal to potential audiences—the kind of text that you might read on the back of a physical game package
IV. DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
a. Identify & briefly describe the main objects and environments in your game.
b. What are the key “themes” of your videogame? (You can describe in specific terms, like “working through survivor guilt” or broad terms like “a sense of wonder and hope.”) If designing a sequel to a pre-existing game, be sure to differentiate your themes from previous ones.
i. How does your videogame work to convey your themes? (2-3 sentences)
c. Identify two GENRE CONVENTIONS your game will draw upon
d. Identify one way that your game will innovate and do something a little different from what typical games in the genre(s) do.
e. Is your game more progressive or emergent? Explain how the game fits that category and your reasons for making it work this way.
f. Finally, share your two most important design choices, drawing on vocabulary from Weeks 1 & 2. What kind of look and feel are you giving your game objects? How are you bringing various objects into internal relationships and how do the attributes of those objects or environments matter for players?
V. AESTHETICS
a. Describe two main “aesthetic appeals” (quote from textbook) or satisfactions that your videogame will offer players, using terms from our study of videogame aesthetics.
i. Describe at least one of the key aesthetic decisions your game will make in terms of space type, perspective, geography & representation, etc.
ii. Explain how these aesthetic decisions will cohere effectively to produce the kinds of satisfactions you want players to experience.
VI. MECHANICS
a. What are two key mechanics in your game? What is it that players can “do” to navigate the game environment? (If designing a sequel to a game that already exists: how are your mechanics different?)
i. Why did you choose those particular mechanics?
b. How are the mechanics “meaningful” in the sense given to the term by the Overanalyzer? That is, how do they relate to particular themes and emotional aims of your game?
VII. DYNAMICS & BALANCE
a. What are one or two key strategic choices that players can make to meet the objectives of the game in different ways?
b. What keeps the game interesting as players go along?
c. How does the game adapt to different player choices?
VIII. NARRATIVE & CINEMA
a. Describe any key “story” elements your game might have, drawing on terms from our textbook and course. What is the “concept” and how do events get strung together meaningfully?
i. Identify a character (or major object) that matters, and why it matters for the narrative
b. What is the “structure” of your narrative (according to the nine types identified by Marie-Laure Ryan)?
i. Why did you make this choice? How does the experience of narrative in your videogame relate to any of its “themes?”
c. Describe the relationship you would like to create between gameplay elements and narrative elements. Do you want to create “ludonarrative dissonance” or would you like to use “spatial storytelling” or other methods? Why?
IX. AUDIO
a. Describe the kinds of audio that fall into the three major categories (sound effects, music, VO)
b. Describe a scenario in which your game will implement interactive audio and give a good example
c. Describe a scenario in which your game will implement adaptive audio and give a good example
d. Describe a couple theme-specific effects you want the audio in your game to achieve (do not just use general terms like “realistic.” “tense,” “scary,” or “immersive” — be sure to explain and justify the specific aims of your audio. Avoid generic explanations like “I want scary audio because it will add to the tension.” Instead, write “I want a peaceful quiet to descend upon the player when they think they have just escaped, and then a droning dread to build around them as they realize they have not. As they appreciate the clear skies and grassy fields, the orchestral music begins to change. That’s not the pleasant sound of bees in a meadow–that’s the whine of a buzz-saw coming closer, fast!”).
X. COMPARE AND CONTRAST your game to any other videogame and draw two conclusions (highlight each one) about how the comparison can illuminate something interesting about your imagined game. (around 100 words?)
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*Instead of inventing your own videogame entirely from scratch, you can instead imagine a new sequel to your final project game. If you choose this option, be sure to focus all of your descriptions on what is different in your new game. You might, for example, decide to tell your story via different narrative mechanics, changing it from a linear structure to a “braided” or “hidden story” format. You might also make changes to core narrative elements by introducing new cast characters, so long as you explain how they impact the way the narrative works as a whole (for example, telling part of the story from an NPC perspective might invite players to view the significance of events in different ways, or make different choices as a result of the different point of view).
Perhaps you might try to involve players in one kind of narrative structure through the game’s original first-person shooter gameplay mechanics but then borrow from a different genre of storytelling (perhaps romance or detective-fiction) in the dialogue. Or, you might change something about the way players experience the game environment and discover their own backstory. You could change the design from emergent to progressive or vice-versa and explain how that impacts players’ interpretations of meaning. You could add a character who tells a contradictory story to the one the player-character experiences, causing players to doubt the imaginative world they have projected so far or draw different conclusions. Or you could add an unreliable narrator, such as we find in “The Stanley Parable.” It’s up to you how you (re)design your game! Be creative and have fun. Just be sure to emphasize your unique vision and how you can draw on concepts discussed in class to achieve it.