Level 2.3: Importance of Non-Digital Game Design
Why does this course focuses on Non-Digital forms of Game Design?
- Extra Credits S3 E22, Puzzle Games
Focus on non-digital games is best explained with a deconstruction exercise of the pioneering match-3 video game, Bejeweled. Play Bejeweled 2 Links to an external site. (Flash) before proceeding to the video.
Some of you would rather make board games anyway, so you don’t care how video games are made. But for those of you who would love to make video games, you may have wondered why we will be spending so much time making board and card games in this course. Now you know: it is because iteration is faster and cheaper with cardboard. Remember from Monday: you can make a board game in 15 minutes. Coding that game will take significantly longer. When possible, prototype on paper first, because a 15-minute paper prototype and an hour-long playtest session can save you months of programming work.
Later in this course, we will discuss in detail methods of paper prototyping, both for traditional board games and also for various types of video games.
There is another reason why we will concentrate primarily on non-digital games this summer, particularly board and card games. This is a course in systems design, that is, creating the rules of the game. In board games, the rules are laid bare. There may be some physical components, sure, but the play experience is almost entirely determined by the rules and the player interactions. If the rules are not compelling, the game will not be fun, so working in this medium makes a clear connection between the rules and the player experience.
Furthermore, board games having an open and documented system, saves time. If you want to know how auctions works in Monopoly, you can read the fine manual. How long did it take you to figure out the scoring system of Bejeweled 2, a simple match-3 puzzle game? How long would it take to figure out all the mechanics of that Bejeweled 2?
This is not as true in video games. Many video games have impressive technology (such as realistic physics engines) and graphics and sound, which can obscure the fact that the gameplay is stale. Video games also take much longer to make (due to programming and art/audio asset creation), making them an impractical choice for a ten-week course.
The connection between rules and player experience is also muddied in tabletop role-playing games. I realize that many of you have expressed an interest primarily in RPG design, so this may seem strange to you. However, keep in mind that an RPG is essentially a collaborative story-telling exercise (with a rules system in place to set boundaries for what can and can’t happen). As such, a wonderful system can be ruined by players who have poor story-telling and improv skills, and a weak system can be salvaged by skillful players. As such, we will stay away from these game genres, at least in the early stages.