Game design midterm exam study guide questions and answers(latest update)

Players expect * a consistent world * an understanding of the worlds boundaries *reasonable solution *directions * accomplish a task *some setbacks * a fair chance * avoid getting stuck *to do not watch the uneducated expert "Players do not know what they want but they know when it is missing" The two most important techniques in game design are ___________ and _____________' interactive design and playtesting. What is design? to give meaning to something. What does it mean to give meaning? to give context to something. What is game design? Process of creating the content and rules of a game. fill in the blank _____ game design is the process of creating goals that the player feels ___________ to reach and _________ that a player must follow as they make meaningful _____________ in the pursuit of ___________. GOOD game design is the process of creating goals that the player feels MOTIVATED to reach and RULES that a player must follow as they make meaningful DECISIONS in the pursuit of GOALS. Game design is not... art skills and programming The degree and nature of interactivity contained in the game(2) -How players interact with the game world -How that world reacts to the choices players make Types of Design • World Design: backstory, setting, theme • System Design: game rules, underlying math • Content Design: characters, events, challenges • Game Writing: dialog, text, story • Level Design: level construction, mini-‐‐games • User Interface: feedback interfaces, HUDS, menus • Audio Design: all sounds including voice acting What is a Game? 1. Rules 1. Defining objects and conditions 2. Restricting player interaction 3. Determining effects on players 2. Tools 1. Resources the player has - skills, inventory, lives, time, etc. 3. Objectives 1. Missions or quests - what's my purpose? MEANINGFUL PLAY Great game experiences, those experiences that have meaning and are meaningful, is a core concept of game design. The goal of a successful game What relationships work best? • Meaningful play occurs when the relationship between actions and outcomes are: • DISCERNIBLE • INTEGRATED into the larger context of the game. Discernable The result of the game action is communicated to the player in a perceivable way. Integrated An action taken has both immediate significance, but also affects play later in the game. Surplus Energy Schiller (1873): Play is the result of excess surplus energy not needed for the "business of self-‐‐preservation". Relaxation Theory Lazarus (1883): Play is a mode of dissipating the fatigue built up from encountering new things. So, it happens more frequently in childhood. Pre-‐‐Exercise Theory Groos (1898): Play is necessary practice for behaviors that are essential to later survival. Recapitulation Theory G' Stanley Hall (1906): Play serves to rid the organism of primitive and unnecessary skills carried over by heredity. Growth Theory Appleton (1919): Play is a generalized drive for growth in the organism. Play serves to facilitate the mastery of skills necessary to the function of adult behaviors. Cathartic Theory Freud: Play represents a drive to partially satisfy drives or to resolve conflicts when the child doesn't really have the means to do so. When the child works through a drive through play, he has at least temporarily resolved it cognitive theory Piaget: play is derived from a child's working out of two fundamental characteristics of his mode of experience and development: accommodation and assimilation • Accommodation: the attempt to imitate and interact physically with the environment • Assimilation: the attempt to integrate exte