Showing posts with label logic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label logic. Show all posts

03 January 2015

Isolating Game Elements: Screenflow

Games work as any ordinary application available at any app market out there. Most people think about making games like an exotic adventure leading where no other human has gone before. And it is true somehow! However, to discover all creative activities a game project might offer, first we have to stick to reality and see games like any other application. What is creative and innovative might be beyond the basics of game production.

The Isolating Game Elements series brings to you everything about game design as independent elements. Gameflow is part of it and provides consistency to your project. Analyzing general game screenflow helps you think about a game from a most remote point of view possible. Suggested structure presented at Figure 1.0 introduces a basic game screenflow.

Figure 1.0 - Although it isn´t something new, this is a General Game Screenflow
proposition to help designers involved in a game project to visualize
whole general screens.

The Company Logo screen (1) is well known by most of gamers. This screen usually displays the company´s logo for a few seconds, plays some music and game flows automatically to next screen. Konami has always the same company logo screen displayed for years. Remember that the function of this screen is to present information about companies involved in the game production process. Inserting more than 2 logos, unless carefully thought, might result on a crowded screen where no information is absorbed.


Main Menu screen (2) is, well, the center of unplayable things at a game. You can go to any screen, configure things and get things ready to start the game itself. Usually, this screen provides a little bit more information and is thematic. As a designer, you must convince players that they are entering into a new reality and it might involve character fonts, colors, textures, patterns, sounds and a convincing logo. The player must get excited to see what happens next, even in a screen that was supposed to be not so cool. Options´ screen (5) includes everything related to configurations and purchases before the game starts including sound and special effects volume, color configurations and specific things. Also, from Main Menu screen (2) player might have option to leave the game.

Games usually have similar menu
screens.
Either arcade machines, video games or mobile games,
main menu has to be simple and intuitive to help player
start interaction.

Main menu is also a place to invite players to try the game,
it is a chance to show what´s coming next and why player
should press start.

Main Game screen (3) is where all party happens. Game´s core runs exactly there and because of that, it is not subject of this article. However, we must pay attention to always leave some options for the player to leave this match after it gets started (9). Also from that screen, if the player has to configure anything else that hasn´t done at previous screen and anything specific from the game while it is running, it has to be available at Game Options screen (6). Main Menu and Main Game Screen are the Gameflow´s Hub and almost every screen might run around it.

Show clearly to player that the match is about to begin.
Use sounds, graphics and animations to know that from
this point, the focus is on the game.

When game´s core is running leave a quit option easily
available to player.
After the game gets played, there will surely be a result of this match: either positive(4) or negative (10). Even if a game seems to have no end clearly, it must have. Usually, player is complimented if some goal is reached or gets some regret message if this goal isn´t reached at all. Although "Game Over" message comes to our minds when we talk about Screen #10, most of recent games try to avoid this term to not be so aggressive to the player.

When game ends and player reached some goal, some compliment is needed.
The same way, make it clear that the player hasn´t reached the game´s goal.
Of course you’ll have to invite him to play again afterwards. Don´t be rude. =)
Pay attention to inform player´s performance. It´s important to catch
player´s attention and keep him coming to play again.
There might be lots of variation from this gameflow screens. As a designer, pay attention because details really make difference when we talk about games. And from this basic gameflow, you can do your homework faster and find some time to spend with innovations, Proof of Concepts (POC) and things with a different approach.  

30 December 2014

Isolating Game Elements: Doing the right thing in arts

It is very hard to talk about art. It is so wide and broad that is risky to explain part of a thing and forget to explain other. However, there is some simple rules that can keep us running on right track even when we don´t have under our control a subject so free and abstract as art. Once you have an idea on what your game will be about, as a game designer, take a note of all ideas, try to sketch some screens, things that you think might be nice to have in the game, desired interactions and then it would be smart to call your best friend and ask him what he has to say. This process is pretty similar to a brainstorm.

Discover what you like the most when you see a picture or something
else. When you know it, you will be able to expand your knowledge
on this subject and perhaps improve your design skills.
Origins

If you sketch things that you saw somewhere else, try to figure out its origins. If you write down anything that might help you in this tasks, also think of where it might come from. Then you are ready to go a little further. It is a very important activity from where you might find things that you really appreciate or, in that case, that you considered relevant. If perhaps you find out that Baroque style fits in what you intend to design, spend a little more time researching it and putting apart things that might be useful.

Don´t be affraid to take notes or sketch thing. It´s natural and
helps you to record insights at any time.
Adequate things

One gold rule at beginning of a design stage is: Find adequacy in everything you do. If perhaps your game is set in Baroque ages, try to stick to this period of time when you do your searches, select your charset and adornments, pay attention to some clothing rules. It is also a good start and makes you look an expert in this matter. If perhaps you intend to create the next Metal Gear, again, stick to militar and war patterns. Game is just a slice of reality, and it can be a good convincing start.

If you will work on a game project about Persia, it would be
wise to start looking around to find some Persia references.

It helps you to build a convincing design and don´t take
so much time to do.
Thinking over your sketches


Once you have in hands couple of sketches, writings and all results of your research, it is time to get them all and think over. It might sounds crazy but spending some time just watching sketches from your own might bring up new insights over it. Personally, I spend this time listening some music at a local coffee bar and just taking a look at them, browsing somewhere on the internet, drinking a little coffee. Just seeing where this activity might lead me. And bingo!, you find amazing things to complement your work.

Taking a break contemplating your sketches and notes helps
you to improve your concepts and get them sharp.
Pinterest, Google Images, Tumblr, Instagram, Youtube and Wikipedia offer a good companionship at this level of the process. You end up discovering new things, learning others and improving your project. These are just examples of where you can go while think over your project. There might be a couple of different address you can discover by yourself.

Creating game projects having relations among all your sketches and notes is a good step to have a consistent design. It gives you a steady environment where you can go beyond this starting point securely, try new things and go back if something weird just happens. At this stage, things that doesn´t match isn´t a good element, keep that in mind. Art itself has no boundaries so, we created fictional boundaries to ease our process. Few people start doing things amazingly coherent and cool. It is a exercise that people serious to getting into game design should do regularly, freely. ;-)

All characters and brands in this
article are properties of their
respective owners. This is a fictional
text and has nothing to do with any
official schedule neither implies
into anyone´s oppinion unless
expressed otherwise.







28 December 2014

Isolating Game Elements - Art in the games

A game is a curious blend of Graphic Art, Music, Literature and Code. It is a multimedia product because each of the described items has autonomy on its own. Only when these items are put together and under certain conditions it might be considered a game. That´s the reason why studying games might be a complex subject. When it comes to creative process, the broader the better. So how to study a subject that is a blend of other complex areas? Lucidity is the key to this problem.


If doing games was an equation, it would surely help us to see more than meets the eye and start thinking analytically. With this equation as a starting point, it can be possible not only to analyze a game but also to subdivide equation members to find their correct classification. It can also help us seek further information regarding a specific area that was hidden behind the game as a whole.

Just as a theoretical exercise, consider all sentences as true and generating different expression subjects:
Graphic Art + Literature = (Installations, comic books, illustrated books, others*)
Graphic Art + Music = (Animations, others*)
Graphic Art + Music + Literature = (Movie, others*)
Graphic Art + Music + Literature + Code = (Game!*)
(*)Results are countless, so "others" always has  to be an option.

Literature

Inside a game, literature can be considered any element directly related to written expression. That said, all explicit elements such as score, character dialogs, numbers and any displayed messages can be considered Literature. There are also elements that have no need to be shown and that might be classified as Literature: Characters descriptions, game plot, text drafts.

Words and Texts are important part of games.
Any work involving translation and localization of texts might be classified as Literature when it comes to game design and development. For people curious about improving skills in this specific field, it is recommended to attend Literature and Arts basic classes at any university. In addition, Geography and History classes can help students to broad their basic knowledge about it.

Graphic Art

Any form of non-written and inaudible message expressed through draws, images and sketches can be considered Graphic Art. Same as Literature, there might be explicit and implicit GA. It embraces any sort of animation and paintings under any technique. It includes icons, characters graphical representation, charset, 3D models, screens, layout design and balance.

Although there isn´t a main component of a game, it is reasonable to say that GA deserves a little highlight in the process. Any form of graphic expression can be used to influence game production. Among others, Baroque, Realism, Naturalism, Cubism, Surrealism. There is no rule to get influenced.

The Last Judgement (Michelangelo).
Putting historical styles apart, an important tool to influence art on games is Color Theory. It is important to work objectively with colors. Sometimes, it is not so easy to work with colors when you are not used to. What seems to be a natural ability at some people skills might be a complete disaster with others. It classifies colors according to certain rules so, when Color Theory is used, designer can rest assured that, at least, regular work was delivered.

Curious people about improving GA skills can attend drawing classes, painting classes, animation classes available at any university. In addition, Art History classes, Aesthetics classes, Print Art classes and related subjects can help students to broad their knowledgment about this GA.

Music

Music is responsible for providing the whole ambient a game needs to push player into the game. Basically music in games can be divided in two: Background Music (BGM) and Auxiliary Sounds. Similarly Music has the same importance at games as it has at movies.
Music and Sound Effects expand player´s game experience

People curious about improving music skills should attend classes at any music institute or school or might go to a music university course if the intention is to become a musician.

Code

Coding involves whole support system to present a game. Code might get analyzed as a means of expressing the game itself. However, most of readers are involved with technology activities at some level and going straight to the point might be better and practical to our purposes.

Code involves game logic, game structure, game screen layout, databases, game programming, security issues, hardware and software connections, quality control tests, code optimization and more. Basically it seems that code activity involves the delivery of the game as a product. The group in charge of coding has a huge responsibility in a game process because game will get delivered from their hands.



Although it is very precise and technical, coding involves art at some level. If we consider that Michelangelo was very concerned regarding human anatomy proportions and that coding activity involves the art of putting every element of a game together, working fine, properly balanced and keeps it running, that coding activity involves getting all part of music, graphics and text to create a new product, it is art indeed.

Art at producing games

Creating games involves areas that are sometimes out of the designer’s knowledge range. This text exposes how to find at ordinary world all information and help a designer might need to accomplish a project. Once all resources are at hand, the whole game creation process becomes easy to get designed, produced and published. Designing a game involves balancing all game´s equation members and testing it insanely to check if desired result meets delivered result. Possibly there might be remaining points that were forgotten, please let me know so it can get fixed.


Clarification

Any written expression might also be considered as a graphic expression. Ideograms would be precisely the place where graphics and texts meet. However, to ease our analytical process, it was decided to explain them apart. In time, there is also a place where sounds meet texts. Any music with voices could get analyzed as a text at some level. Here again, it was decided to classify music with voices as Music and not as Text although there are surely some texts on it.

24 December 2014

Isolating Game Elements - Environment and Players

Isolating Game Elements - Environment and Players

How to analyze a game? It is hard to figure out because there are so many games out there that it’s difficult to find similar traits between them. Firstly, let´s start with a good game definition:"A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that result in a quantifiable outcome." (Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman). A game must provide rules to be followed and, necessarily, some form of challenge or competition in order to achieve any goal. By pursuing this goal, the player must win, draw or defeat according to the game´s rules. As simple as it is.

The aim of this article is to help isolate elements which are common in games and use it to develop and refine concepts to apply on upcoming game design
projects. As first step, we must analyze and classify all possible common information in large groups. It helps us to know more about games and to think sharply when it comes to game design concepts. Only after that we can start narrowing things down.

A game must have an environment where all its rules can be applied. Either electronic or physical game must provide it in order to get things started. By environment we mean everything that helps player to immerse on the game experience (even forget real world in some cases). Regularly environment must be convincing and clear to the player. All interactivity objects and rules must also be available through this environment. 

Figure 1.0 - Necessarily all games should have similar
structure. It seems to have no exception to this rule. 

One player is a must if we are talking about considering an idea or concept a game. There isn´t much insight among the number of players involved in a game match. There will be surely zero, one or multiple opponents and they must be humans or computer guided ones. The number of players involved however makes difference on game concept and design process. Solitaire is a good example of One Player game: there is no need of other players to interact and all the player must do is to finish the deck of cards following the rules. 

A good example of a game to play by your own. There is no need of an adversary to play solitaire.
A good example of a game to play on your
own. There is no need for an opponent
to play solitaire even in an electronic version.


Two Exclusive Players means any game that need necessarily another player to interact and cannot be played by a higher number of players than two. Chess or Checkers is a good example of Two Exclusive Players: it is required two players for the game to happen. 
A match of chess can be played only by two opponents. Eletronic versions allow to play against an digital opponent.
A Chess match can be played only by two
opponents. Electronic version allows you to play
against a digital opponent.

Multiplayer obviously requires a larger number of players and is comprised of a wide range of games from traditional Bingo matches to Counter Strike or League of Legends online games.

Bingo is a game that allows multiplayer matches.
Bingo is a game that
allows multiplayer matches.
Any game must have an Exit Condition. According to the game there might be Draw and Defeat situations. However, all games must have a Victory situation that leads the game to an end. Nowadays we can find lots of games with educational purposes that simply don´t have any situation to lead the player to lose or even draw a match. Some commercial games, in order to ease the winning process, introduced the Continue option in order to keep the player trying on and on until Victory situation is reached. It was very common on arcade machines in the 80´s and 90´s.

One Player
Two Exclusive Players
Multiplayer
Tetris
Chess
Bingo
Solitaire
Checkers
Counter Strike
Bejeweled
Street Fighter
League of Legends
Candy Crush
Pac Man

Games classified according to the number of players


Basic elements on a game enviroment were analyzed in this article. Regardless of the game, it might fit in above presented options. Figure 1.0 helps designers to classify a game and think about games on a different approach.
Putting these elements aside, there will surely remain elements like plots, interfaces, soundtrack, animations, game logic and others that will be subject of following articles. The information above is intended to help creating and developing game concepts, not rules to be followed unconditionally.



Continuing after losing a game match is a resource to prevent
players to lose interest on a game.