Welcome back!

This will be my fourth post on my design blog. Today I will be discussing the information that we learned in the fourth week of my Game Systems Design class. As I have said in my previous posts if you follow this blog, I would appreciate any feedback you may have. Anything at all, whether it is critiquing the design of my game or giving me inspiration/recommendations.

This week:

To start this post I will continue to go over Module I, It's in the Game: Essentials of Systems Design & Player Behavior from where I left off in my previous post. This is going to be the last post for Module I and my next post will begin Module II. This week we learned about rules and discovery in regard to game design.

"The specific conditions under which we live (i.e., the environment) inherently influence our behavior." - Professor Slota

When designing my game I have to take into account the ruleset that I wish to create. This is important because a ruleset is:

“The combination of designed and perceived parameters for interaction in a given environment, real or virtual; such rulesets define boundary constraints for action” - Professor Slota

Basically, this quote means that the parameters or set of conditions that the game designer(s) decides to implement for the given environment (in this case it would be in the virtual world) determine the player's way of interacting with said environment.

Throughout our everyday life, we come across barriers and boundaries which prohibit our movement. We instantly recognize them based on previous experiences and know what we need to do when we come face to face with them. Games are exactly the same. When we are in the game world we come across barriers that block our path and force us to turn around or open them up and step through to the other side. The problem with barriers in a lot of games is that they are sometimes not that distinctive which can completely make that game fall apart. Basically, this comes down to what systems can you create in order to hold a player back in a certain area in order to make them overcome that challenge and learn the systems the player was intended to learn through playing. For example, in a game like Hollow Knight the player has to find certain items to continue exploring the world. Whether that be backtracking to find some sort of key or just unlocking a new ability like double jumping to be able to access a new area. Systems like this have to be in place in order for the player to feel like they are progressing in the game. Within this ruleset, we have to define the main objective of the game, how to win the game, and somehow manage to teach this to the player before they get too frustrated. The game's rules contribute to complex and interesting gameplay.

• Games
  • Governed by rulesets
  • Take advantage of imagination
  • Include scoring criteria
  • Directed toward playfulness - Professor Slota

There are two different types of rules that I need to create. There are hard rules and soft rules. Basically, hard rules are the rules that make up the game world, behaviors, object properties, and gameplay dynamics. This also includes the final goal of the game. Soft rules are the objectives that player needs to overcome by stringing together actions. For example, in a game which I have previously discussed like Super Mario Bros, the hard rules of the game are that Mario can run and jump. An example of one of the soft rules that this creates is that in order for Mario to turn into Mega Mario he must eat a Super Mushroom by running and jumping into a block in order to destroy that block in hopes for a Super Mushroom to spawn. Then the player must touch the Super Mushroom with Mario to turn into Mega Mario. Other systems like this are soft rules at are confirmed based on the hard rules. Just like Mario running and jumping on a Goombas head in order to kill it. The player does not have to do this in order to beat a level, however, it is an option the player has based on the hard rules in place.

So for my game, I have to construct a series of hard rules, and the soft rules will follow based on the constructed environment. Some of the basic hard rules that are definitely going to be implemented are going to be running and jumping. There will also be the ability to interact with the environment like reading objects (like the tombstone I created). I personally believe there should be minimal restrictions placed on the player so that they are able to explore and get lost in the world. These basic hard rules are going to create the soft rules of the game. For example, in order to actually read the tombstone, the player is going to have to run and jump in order to platform their away to collect the token (which I also previously mentioned that I created) and interact with the environment as well. I still have to figure out the narrative rules of my game.

Thank you for reading my fourth post on my blog. In my next post, I will be going over a new module where I will talk about the information from Week 5: Foundations of Design as well as give more insight into the design of my game. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Please leave a comment!