Circuitry absurdity

I'm back and this time with a work based essay which we had to write as part of a module for Critical Games Studies.
I wont take ages to explain as hopefully the essay will do that for me, anyway here goes nothing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Design issues faced in making a Key Stage 1 game

During the creation of games there are many risks and problems that a designer will need to overcome, these design issues must be considered so that the final resulting game is one which is enjoyable, appropriate for the audience, at the correct difficulty and many other design issues. A designer must consider every issue that may arise, and even more so within a Key stage 1 educational game, much like the one that I am creating alongside a team of people at university. This essay is dedicated to discussing design issues that our team has faced during the creation of Circuitry Absurdity.

Our first design issue that nearly every games designer will face is how to make a game actually fun. First the designer must understand what the term 'Game' truly means. Greg Costikyan, in his article 'I have no words I must Design' (2002), breaks down the term 'game' and explores various tools for how a games designer may create a game themselves. Costikyan writes about Interaction, Goals, Struggle, Structure and Endogenous meanings. For a successful game all must be considered before going into more detail about what is required within the game to make it 'fun'.
- Interaction between player and the game is imperative, choices with meaning and obvious outcomes to how a player responds can make the game draw the player into the game world.
- Goals that are set to the player must be purposeful, they must make the player adapt to achieve. Just giving goals is not enough however.
- Competition (or as above, struggle) adding an extra element, as the goals increase the difficulty range advances
- Structure is another important area to consider as a small change in structure leads to a large change in player behaviour. This behaviour can be controlled by the designer by introducing certain goals
- Endogenous meaning, possibly one of the most important to the gaming medium as giving the player something in game that has no actual significance in the real world can give the player a reason to complete a game.

Costikyan summarised all these terms with one sentence with which we can use to decide what the term 'game' truly means, and thus how we could start to design our project.
[A game is] 'an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards a goal'. (pg 24)

Looking solely at this single tool set would not profit our project as using only these terms can lead without a doubt to a playable game, however above I have used the term 'Fun'. To keep KS1 children playing our game before giving up bored and uneducated, we need to consider making our game fun to play.
Costikyan also explores Marc LeBlanc's Taxonomy (pg26), 8 terms that he used to describe how a games designer could create a pleasurable experience for the player.
The terms:
Sensation - Visuals, Audio, Tactile or even Muscular sensation
Fantasy - The fictional constructed world of a game
Narrative - A story within a game
Challenge - As above, struggle or competition
Fellowship - Simply put, the community surrounding the game
Discovery - Litterally exploring a game world or just revealing hidden information
Expression - Self expression, how the player portrays him or herself within the game
Masochism - Submission, allowing yourself as a player to be drawn into the games world

So now I have baffled with terminology how is all this related to creating our group projects final product?
Circuitry absurdity is a puzzle game in which the player must complete a circuit using all the components available running wires from the battery to the components within a certain amount of time to be awarded with a gold, silver or bronze medal.
Considering all the terminology above posed a new design issue, that we needed to include the majority of the terms in order to create a compelling game.
Straight away we could add fantasy to the game using a level select feature to create a 'world' or as it were, a house with toys to fix. With the target audience being set at a low age the toys we included would help to immerse the player into the game, making them believe they were fixing their own toys and thus a form of masochism had been included. With a level select discovery became a system to unlock rooms within the house, to find what new toys can be fixed around the various rooms.
The narrative of the game is very loose, Mr Sparks is helping the child to fix all the toys in the house, working from one room to another. This caused a few issues we needed to overcome, do we need a stronger narrative? Is the educational value more important and so should we focus more on the game play itself?
To appeal to the correct target audience we need to make the game compelling to the ages 5 - 7 and thus a more involved story was to be included. Along with the target audience we needed to consider the endogenous meanings. Children love to collect things, be it medals in games or shells in real life. We cannot give the child a shell, but we can give them medals for completing the game, even if the medals mean nothing in real life, through play testing I discovered that the gold medal meant a lot to the player, where his friend did not achieve. The player was therefore presented with a goal, to claim all medals within the game or to even beat his piers by acheiving greater heights and better scores.
This introduces our competition, or struggle in the game and even fellowship. Utilizing a score system to show off the previous players achievements meant each player had something to beat, a time that his fellow community member had set.
Interaction between players is always important however the player having meaningful choices within the game is also imperative. We have created the choice in which level the player wishes to tackle next however there is not a definitive meaning behind each choice, as the player must complete all levels to continue anyway.

I could continue with how we overcame multiple design issues however I have covered all the major areas above. Other aspects of the above terminology I will cover but in less detail.

Having a concept to work with is one thing, being a 5 man team however we needed to decide early what the art style would be, I quickly locked down onto a previously existent style which we dubbed 'The Jimmy Nuetron Effect'. Using the 3D style from this children's TV show, our 3D artists knew exactly how we envisioned the game looking, creating a perfect 'sensation' base for the artistic pleasure.
'We call the representation of one medium in another Remediation'
The artistic style of the television show Jimmy Neutron was used as a springboard onto the artistic style that we took for our game, the representation of a previously existent look, feel and style recreated similarly within our game. A style that will appeal to both genders and therefore a vast target audience

Originally our game was going to appeal to both genders by allowing the player to ave an on screen representation of themselves however this was worked out due to safety issues and such like and so we had a new design issue. How can we make the game appeal to both genders?
To overcome this we set up each room to contain toys that would appeal to both genders or a specific gender.
Gender in gaming is very male dominated, Gamesindustry.com held host to the 'United Kingdom National Gamers Survey 2009'. A survey which discovered in terms of gender children between 8 - 12 had a more male populated games intake than females, where males would play for over 3 hours more than females a week.
Taking this into account we could aim our game more at a male audience however due to this being an educational game which teachers could use to inform students how to create circuits, classes will be filled with boys and girls and therefore our game must comply with both genders.

Looking back at Costikyans assessment of the tools of game design, challenge is one very important area that we had to consider when designing our game. A design issue that without looking into would make or break or game completely. Thus tasked with a play test with the target audience, we needed to see exactly how difficult the game would actually be for the players we were aimed at producing the game for. Its one thing having challenge in a game, its another not being able to complete it due to its intense difficulty! The children managed to complete levels within a certain amount of time however seemingly they couldn't achieve golds as the medal times were set too quick for them. The mechanics of the game therefore became a design issue, we needed to lower the complexity of the level designs or heighten the medals to become more achievable for the target audience we had been briefed.

Adding a tutorial to the start of the game was also extremely helpful as success rates heightened due to a less word based tutorial and a more interactive 'play along' style tutorial. Giving the player the chance to see what his or her actions did in an un-timed version of the game gave them the chance to build up a 'perceivable consequence' for each action. As Doug Church discussed in his work 'Formal Abstract Design Tools' (1999) this is 'a clear reaction of the game world to the action of the player'.
Giving the player this preconceived knowledge of 'what will happen if they do this' allows them to make more informed decisions later on in game thus allowing them the ability to explore themselves different methods to acheive their goals.
Through play testing we have avoided the design issue of young players not understanding the concept of the game, or not being able to play it all together.

With every game that is created or designed there are a multitude of design issues that need to be ironed out quickly and effectively. Our game was no exception. The way we over came each issue was extremely useful to everyone in the group who for many this was our first experience creating a game suitable for a specific market.
To overcome many of these issues we just looked back at our childhood and considered what we would find 'Fun', using Leblanc's taxonomy we could then relate them to real game situations and then effectively utilize them in our project.
Another method was to actually let the children play our game for themselves. Let them tell us what was broken, or what needed fixing. It was a particularly helpful session finding out our tutorial was too confusing and therefore a design issues arose of how to fix this problem. Looking at what works outside of video games was also helpful to us, to decipher what children wanted in an educational game we looked at successful art styles and other games that appeal to this particular target audience, in other words Market research.

Looking back at all the design issues discussed above and remembering the Tools for creating 'Fun' in a video game can help in my future of games design especially considering how we can overcome any problem that brings itself into existence. Breaking down the issue and tackling it as its own entity and then adding it back into the game as a whole, this is what builds a game up to being as massive as they can become, although our project was small compared to the multimillion selling games of today, this project was a good exercise to practise. The knowledge that all these design issues exist is always good to remember especially when under a deadlined project!



References

Costikyan.G, (2002), I Have No Words I Must Design, Tampere University Press, Tampere

Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin (2000) Remediation: Understanding New Media MIT Press

Todays Gamers, (2009), http://www.tnsglobal.com/_assets/files/Factsheets_UK.pdf

Doug Church, (1999), Formal Abstract Design Tools - Gamasutra, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal_abstract_design_tools.php

-----------------------------------

And there we have it, 2009 words and over 5 hours of work later (gladly not in one sitting!) I have completed another essay. I say completed but I am probably just going to have to change a lot of this to reach maximum (or at least a decent grade!)
I hope this was an interesting read, if you managed to read it all...

Ross, Out.

Remediation

So a blog post based upon one rather interesting and easy to grasp lecture, giving you an insight into the work that I as a games design student will undergo.

The term Redmediation, simply means to turn one idea presented in one media, into an idea that can be used on another type of media. For example Turning a TV show into a Radio Show and visa versa. A typical example would be Ricky Gervais' Podcast [http://www.rickygervais.com/podcast.php] is now a cartoon TV series based on the Podcast shown on Channel 4 and E4.

One medium taking successful conventions from another type of media is not uncommon, a basic and more obvious form of remediation is wide-screen televisions. When the television was invented it was a basic square, however painters and the like could use canvas' to create vast rectangular drawings so why couldn't TV? Thus the wide-screen TV was born. A conevention in drawing used in television, one medium to the next.

Its a simple concept that I could keep going on about however I wont bore you with that, instead I will tell tall tales on Technoludic films as a form of remediation. This term was created by Bittanti (2003), its a link between Technology and Ludus (which is latin for play, see blog posts below).

Now, initially this seems confusing however it is basically Remediation from Games to Film.
An example of this could be easily pin pointed to films such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Super Mario Bros. However this form of remediation is too simple, too obvious.
A film that we watched during the lecture was one I had never heard of. A film that I quite enjoyed. It was 'Run Lola Run'.
[http://www.zuguide.com/#Run-Lola-Run]
The film uses all the conventions from video games which we have come to recognise, from timers and menu selections to 'cut scenes' and how the backing soundtrack is presented.
Its a film I would highly recommend watching if you ever get the chance whether your interested in gaming or not.

The lecture wasn't just about watching films however as Immediacy and Hypermediacy
Immediacy is a medium such as a film where the writer and producer has attempted to make the audience lost within the media. Make them forget the real world and even think they are a part of the media. Looking at photographs and photo realistic images, there is very little difference between a photo realistic image and an actual photo, however the photo realistic is so life like that the audience is meant to forget what they are looking at is truly just a painting. This is just one type of Immediacy.

Hypermediacy is the opposite. This is where the audience is meant to know they are watching TV or playing game, so much so to the point that the media will make effort to show the audience that these conventions are in use, such as sports news with the scrolling text at the edges of the screen.

So that covers another lecture in the life of a games design student.

Ross, Out.

Girl Gamers and Me

The game industry is an ever growing market of possibilities and oppourtunities, with over 9000 people employed around the UK in the industry (Prescott and Bogg, 2011)
However with so many people employed there is a very large percentage of male employees against what is only around 4% females working with games.

Now, having gone through a list of the weeks top 40 games, I can deduce that the majority of games are created by men, for men. Games like Crysis, Fallout and Call of Duty all present in the top 40. These are war games, first person shooters, made to give an adrenaline rush, creating set pieces of play to build tension within the game to test the skill of the player. Games stereotypically made for men.
The top 40 did however contain some games for girls. Nintendogs for example would not be expecting a vast male audience however it is still dominant within the top games of the week, Thus suggesting that a large ammount of the female population is buying the game, so much so it can outsell some other titles such as Assassins Creed: Brotherhood or BulletStorm.

So the games industry does have 'girl gamers' with which to claim as a target audience. However with on 4% of females in the game design industry there is very little input with what games to create for girls which they would enjoy. Stereotyping the female market and giving them games they presume they will enjoy, like one website has done (below)
Not sure if the above image can be seen easily however these are games that they have added on http://www.girlgames1.com/
Games including titles such as 'Magic Hairdos house', 'CowGirl', 'Get Married Test' and my personal favourite 'Morning Buns Recipe'
When it comes to stereotyping what girls want in a game, Cooking and How to look good games are just what they desire. I may be wrong in thinking this but I didnt think that girls were obsessed with cooking morning buns so much so that they needed a game to play in between the times when they actually were in the kitchen. My experience of females, when a sexist joke is made, they are not best pleased. So allowing them to be making Buns when they are playing games, I dont know how many people would want to play this game.

In terms of the website itelf, they have aimed it specificall at the female market, not only is the URL called 'Girlgames' but they have designed it to be bright pink.
The actual layout of the site is so simplistic, the navigation is easy and understandable and the categorys explain exactly what the user is chosing therefore no confusion on where to find a specific game.

One thing I found odd, and that backs up that this is a girl gamer website are the category names...
I wasnt expecting 'Kissing' to be a category among the Adventure, Cartoon, Fun and Puzzle categories! Caring was another link that I could not bring myself to click! Im glad i did though or Happy Gardener would never have been found! Caring for Plants and Animals is obviously quite a large aspect of the females gaming desire!
Cooking also played a large role in the female gaming community, sexist games suggesting that girls should always be thinking about being in the kitchen!

That said I will now review the game 'Cake Mania 2' off of all good games sites.

Cake mania is a game in which the player must use timing and efficiency to bake cakes quickly and to a good enough standard. The quicker you bake the more money you gain the more becomes available to you. It is a simple one screen, point and click which builds in pace as the difficulty increases thus enabling the skills and organisation of the player to be tested quite effectively. There is a story behind this game, utilized through a simple non animated comic book style giving the player choices at various intervals to change the game experience. The main difference as far as i can tell between each choice is not only the change in storyline but the change in scenery for each level. The core game does not change all that much. Bake cakes, make people happy.

In terms of challenge the game does have a slow increase however clicking the wrong cake combo can cause a back log in orders thus rendering the player lacking in money to progress eficiently!
The game is still not particularly hard to master, the learning curve is long and anyone could pick the game up and understand what to do and how quickly enough. A tutorial explains everything the players needs to know and the complexity is low.




Games for girls are currently seemingly very sexist attempts to find something a girl may be interested in rather than just pumping out another war game that will ward them away from gaming all together.
How to change this trend in online games?
There is never one difinitive method.

Ross, Out.


References

Prescott and Bogg - Segregation in a Male-Dominated Industry: Women Working in the COmputer Games

www.todaysgamers.com
National gamers survey 2009