Week 06 - Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Despite the small roadblock this week, there was still much to learn about the process and thinking like a designer. I’ll touch on two things, the paper prototype for a video game and general ideas that have sprung up at this point in the semester.

Breaking down a video game was a very valuable experience because it was a familiar one. “Understanding what it means to see, hear, and feel a game is therefore quite important” (Macklin & Sharp, Ch. 4), and that was the first step to my little prototype. If I was going to emulate the mechanics of Splatoon, I needed to capture the visuals and tone of the game first. It’s very fast-paced, chaotic, and colorful, so I matched that energy. I put together a lot of toy pieces my brother plays with like Lego figures, magnetic darts, and dice to emulate that child-like feeling and homed in on the most exciting part of the mechanics to make a fun little game. During our group playtests, that aspect was really successful.

“When a player first plays a game, they are working off prior knowledge to help them interpret the information space” (Macklin & Sharp, Ch. 4). This quote comes to mind when I look back on pitching and playing my prototype. After I first presented the rules, my players had no particular strategy in mind except “get the most points”. Through trial and error in the first few rounds, new strategies became clear to them. By the end of it, they were using the most powerful special weapons to deal the most damage to win. This helped me see the importance of setting a good foundation. I believe I gave my players enough, clear starting information that they were able to interpret the field easily and adapt as they progressed. 

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Looking back at this past month or so of making games, I’ve realized two important things. One—as an artist, I’m drawn to the visuals of a game, anything from the items used to represent game pieces to the choice of aesthetics. Two—I enjoy the lore around a game much more than the mechanics, and that’s what I tend to value when I’m brainstorming in groups. 

“Theme: What is the game about?” (Macklin & Sharp, Ch. 6).
If there has been any driving force for me, it’s been theme. The first game I made was about escaping a warzone, the second game I made was a concert and a sport in one. Establishing a theme makes designing so easy. I can think of a scenario and then pull back all the rules and reasons back to the story I’ve created. Without that background, I struggle to think of why someone would find this game interesting or even make a cohesive game in the first place. Really, it’s what I value the most when I playtest other games, too. The ones I enjoyed the most were the ones I could roleplay into and suspend my disbelief.

“Experience: What does the player do when playing?” (Macklin & Sharp, Ch. 6)
Meanwhile, figuring out the experience is why I really value working in a team. I’m not the best with rules, and I know this. I like house rules, I like omitting things that make everything feel too rigid. I want the achievement to come from player interaction instead. However, it means that balancing games and thinking of good mechanics is something I really need to work on. I can bounce off of others well enough, but I could stand to do better thinking of original concepts first.