Level 5 Introduction & Readings

LEVEL 5: THE EARLY STAGES OF THE DESIGN PROCESS

We have already made progress in game design in this course. In a way, we have already been through the creation process on a small scale. But our method of design, for the most part, has been ad-hoc: "here are a bunch of elements, just throw them together and call it a game". The results of this type of design can be expected to be hit-and-miss.

What about for larger projects where the stakes are higher? Is there a process that can be followed that will lead to better games? There is the iterative process, to be sure, but we have not gone into detail on any of the iterative steps (design, playtesting, evaluation). How exactly do you come up with an initial design? What is the most effective way to playtest? When evaluating a game, what do you look for, and how do you know what to change? These are the things we will be concerned with throughout the rest of this course.

In Level 5 we examine the first step of the iterative process: initial design.

Readings

  • Challenges for Game Designers, Chapter 4 (Converting Digital to Physical).
    This details the process of prototyping a video game in paper. Even if your interest is in board game design, note that many commercially-successful board games originated in the video game world (there are, for example, board-game versions of DOOMWarcraft 3CivilizationAge of Empires, and World of Warcraft, among many others). Some of them are even worth playing.
  • Tabletop: Analog Game Design, Boardgame Aesthetics, p179, Greg Costikyan.

    Costikyan contrasts different genres of tabletop games: Abstract Strategy, Board Wargame, Eurogame, and Ameritrash.

  • Tabletop: Analog Game Design, Ra, p141, Brian Magerko
    Magerko admires the beauty of Ra, Reiner Knizia's auction game.
Additional Resources

For additional readings on these topics, click HERE. It is a list of resources that is student generated and regularly updated.