A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles Behind Good Game Design (Fahad Batla's Library) by Anna Anthropy & Naomi Clark

Author:Anna Anthropy & Naomi Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Addision-Wesley
Published: 2014-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

We use the vocabulary of written and spoken language to communicate with other people. The vocabulary of games allows us to express ourselves in tremendously powerful ways, saying things with systems in ways that words can’t. It lets us create different kinds of dialogue with each other. We’re lucky to live in a time when expressive systems—another way of thinking about games—are being explored by creators and players in all sorts of new ways, to converse about and reflect on our every idea.

It’s compelling to think of a game as a conversation: players make choices and use verbs within a system. In multiplayer games, these choices can communicate with other players. A single press of a button or move of a chess piece can convey aggression or uncertainty or less obvious concepts that are specific to a particular game. Players who are highly conversant in a system can read the moves of an opponent, whether human- or computer-controlled, and understand what’s being said even without words.

As the creator of a game, you also participate in the conversation, but in an unusual and special way. Unlike the times I peered over my sister’s shoulder and watched her play Lode Runner, you’re usually not there to watch your players. Instead, you’ve facilitated a conversation by deciding many aspects of how it will work beforehand. As a game creator, you craft the particular vocabulary of its conversation, deciding how verbs will develop and shaping the space of possibilities in which the conversation will happen. As creators, we try to shape a space where a good conversation with or between players could happen; we hope that players won’t throw their hands up in frustration and leave or get bored and drift away.

During a play session of a single-player game—the kind of game that’s the primary focus of this book—all the conversation is happening between the creators of the game and the player. It’s a tricky kind of conversation to have. As the creator, you have to hope that what you’re saying in the conversation—through the rules and shaping of the experience as well as the words, images, or sounds you’ve added to the mix—gets across and finds a player, somewhere out there, who responds with choices, thoughts, and maybe even interesting strategies and emotional engagement.

This challenge can feel like a gamble, like sealing a letter in a bottle and hoping someone figures out how to open that bottle and understands what you wrote. If you’re drawn to creating games—if you’ve ever felt the spark of excitement that I did when I started making Lode Runner levels for my sister—then maybe you have things to say which can’t simply be expressed in words, but which could find a compelling form in the systems of a game. Take the gamble! The good news is that in recent decades, many others have gone before you. We’ve tried, failed, succeeded, and tried again. Despite the fact that we’re all still learning exactly how to talk about games, finding

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