Tag: The Art of Game Design

Lens #11: The Lens of Unification

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The lens of unification of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses is the next lens I want to look at through on our game All Fucked Up. The book was written by Jesse Schell and is one of the most useful books about game design with its unique approach of lenses.
Unification is about finding a theme for All Fucked Up and reinforce that theme.

  • What is the theme of All Fucked Up?
  • Do I reinforce that theme in all ways possible?

Finding the theme is an important part to design All Fucked Up. Because it will help me to filter all the things which do not fit with my theme. A great decision tool. But it’s not easy to find a theme.
My game is about guns and ammo. It feels good to fire the guns. It feels good to shoot stuff in pieces. The player should have a lot of occasions to fire the collected guns. The theme will be gun-related. The theme is also about being cool and funny, like Eddie Murphy or Will Smith. Being highly skilled with guns like John Wick or Jason Bourne. The theme is about being a guy which is at the wrong time at the wrong place.

"Guns, Ammo, and Being a Funny Hero"

The guns feel good, the ammo has to fit the guns. The focus is on guns, ammo, and the hero. The environment should not be too distractive. Guns fired in the dark looks very cool. The following will reinforce the theme:

  • Dark levels
  • The guns with its kickback, shell ejection, and power
  • The relatively weak opponents make the guns feel very powerful
  • To have an excuse to use the weapons there will be plenty of enemies to shoot
  • The hero is minion like and funny, he loves collecting ammo and is skilled with the guns
  • The enemies have to be mean to make the hero look funny if he screams in fear or surprise
  • Jump, double jump, wall jumps, roles (dashing) to have improved action scenes

I would like to have a different environment which fits the theme but very simple

  • Concrete
  • Fire
  • Neon light
  • Dark
  • Tubes

Enforce the destruction with contrast like silence, action free transitions, butterflies, crickets, and more

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Lens #10: The Lens of Holographic Design

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The next lens I want to look through on our game All Fucked Up is the lens of holographic design from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. This lens is about seeing the four elements (Aestetics, Story, Technology, and Mechanics) and the player experience in a holistic way. Let’s tackle the following questions in this lens.

  • What elements of All Fucked Up make the experience enjoyable?
  • What elements of All Fucked Up detract from the experience?
  • How can I change game elements to improve the experience?

The cute characters, the little details, the smooth gamepad integration, and the guns make the experience enjoyable. To watch and experience guns in action is satisfactory. The gamepad optimized precise control makes the navigation of the character smooth and nice and does not distract from the game experience.

The double barrel shot gun with it’s late shell ejection, like in reality, as well the camera and character kickback makes the feel of the weapon nice and power full.

Here we see wall jumps in action. The control is smooth and lets you navigate quickly through levels.

The environment and the level-design do detract from the game experience. It looks nice but not brilliant. Quite flat and too simple. The levels don’t look exciting enough way to simple and linear. This can be improved, I need to design much more level also to get more experience on what works and what does not work. If I want to introduce the switch from rifles to handguns or knife I need to design the levels accordingly to make that a need. The same for shooting enemies, if I just can jump over them it makes no sense to shoot them except for the joy of using the collected weapons and ammo.

I think it is very clear that the element level needs a big improvement to make this game fun to play. I feel I’m far away from that. I probably first try to improve the existing levels not on the graphical level but on how I compose the platforms, weapons, ammo, and enemies. I need to make it impossible to jump over enemies and evade but have to design it in a way that they are a danger if not eliminated. As well I want to avoid that there is only one way to manage a level.

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Lens #9: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of elemental tetrad from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. Elemental tetrad is the diamond shape of the four elements aesthetics, story, technology, and mechanics.

I will now answer the following four questions:

  • Is my game design using all four elements?
  • Could my design be improved by enhancing elements?
  • Are the four elements in harmony, reinforcing each other and working together toward a common theme?

Our game focus on gamepads rather than keyboard or joystick. For testing and development purposes it is currently also possible to play it with the keyboard. But the main focus will be the gamepad. We will not go into a twin-stick game, so you can only shoot vertical.

The mechanics are laid out for gamepads to have good control over the character while jumping around. As well all the buttons to make reload, switch weapon from rifle to handgun smooth. The mechanics are rather simple, you can walk, jump, double jump, wall jump, shoot, reload, and switch weapons. The levels support this as you often close to enemies you have to switch to the handgun, as rifles don’t work on man to man combat. As well you will need the reload mechanics to have always enough ammo when you enter a platform.

The story is around a man who has been dropped into a weird world full of people who want to shoot him. To go back to his normal life he has to go through all the levels. The man has amazing gun skills he didn’t even know.

The aesthetics are rather simple. We focus more on the little things to add love to the game, like shell ejection. Every weapon does have its shell ejection and reload behavior.

We plan to add more little animations like dust, falling leaves, papers which whirl up if the characters rush through a room, flickering neon, and many more. We focus on these little things and keep the overall graphic design simple.

The very simple graphics might need improvement, I’m not sure if it is enough to just have these little animations. It’s not really up to date graphic design but unique. The animations of the guns reinforce the theme a lot as it is kind of a gun porn game. The cuteness of the characters helps to improve the overall aesthetics I think.
The levels drive the story and the goal is that the player wants to finish a level to see what is coming in the next level. We plan to have different worlds, starting with a grass and bunker world. But as well an office world, tower world, and more. The gamepad should make it more attractive to game shows, it’s much more likely that somebody picks up a gamepad and give it a try than sit down in front of a computer and uses the keyboard. Gamepads also need much less introduction as it is so much more natural to play.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #7: The Lens of Endogenous Value

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of endogenous value from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. Endogenous value means the value which is generated in the value. The score is such a value.

I try to answer the following three questions:

  • What is valuable in our game for the players?
  • How can I make it more valuable to them?
  • What are the relationship between value in the game and the players’ motivation?

The internal value in my game are ammo and weapons, you need that to defeat the enemies. But also a grappling hook or grenades are things with an internal value. You simply need that to complete the level. Not sure if that is enough, but that’s pretty much it.

To make the ammo and weapons more valuable I probably have to place them strategically so that you can’t pass a certain point without them. At the moment you can outsmart the enemies and also the levels and reach the end of the level without any kill. It’s probably possible. So I need to find a way that you can’t just skip them. Maybe they follow you to a certain point? Or make the passage small enough, that you have no other choice? Maybe they protect a key or a smart card you need to leave the level? Or you simply can’t leave until you didn’t destroy everything (a cheap solution)?

Thanks for reading. I would appreciate your oppinion below in the comment section.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #6: The Lens of Curiosity

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of curiosity from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. I try to answer the following three questions:

  • What questions does our game put into the player’s mind?
  • What am I doing to make the player care about these questions?
  • What can I do to make the player invent even more questions?

What animation can I trigger with what action? What happens if I finish the level in time? Can I avoid killing anybody and just sneak through? What happens if I kill all enemies in a level?

I put a low level to gain the first animation, like pickup things or shoot two enemies in under 2 seconds, this should make the player aware of that and make him curious how he can provoke other animations. I love those kinds of little things it feels rewarding if I can unlock a neat little animation by achieving something. That makes me curious about the level and I would try to play a level even more than once to see if I didn’t miss a possible animation. The tricky part will be to collect enough animations. As well as how the enemies react on certain events and the fact that they react differently to certain events. They for example are very nervous if the player hits the scene and they get confused if the player jumps out of sight. They start shooting a second after they see you and if you jump at that moment they kill each other, remember they are very nervous.

The level itself should have animations too, like exploding if time is up in time-limited levels. Or let free prisoners if achieve something and they will shoot to as soon they find a gun. Our game does have friendly fire activated. So bullets kill no matter if friend or enemy. That might add challenge and fun situations if enemies shoot each other in the heat of the battle.

I guess I need to think of more things, but I have the feeling I’m on the right track.

Thanks for reading. I would appreciate your oppinion below in the comment section.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #5: The Lens of Fun

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of fun from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. I try to answer the following three questions:

  • What parts of the game are fun?
  • What parts of the game need to be more fun?

I add my latest sneak peek to document the current state. That might of course and hopefully change over time while improving the game.

I have cute and very simple characters. And using weapons is fun, it looks fun too. The main character is cute, stupid, mean, and funny, I borrowed that from the minions. The dead animation is simple but effective, just a blood and meat splatter for all destroyable characters and targets with a boom sound.

The levels are short and I will add a timer to the game, so that you get points for enemy hits, ammo left and time. That could add extra fun to beat the highscore.

The enemies look a bit 1 dimensional and boring. I would like to improve the soldiers’ behavior and add some funny animations. I like the way BroForce did his enemies, especially when you throw a hand grenade and the enemies are coming close with questions marks above their heads, hilarious. I probably will not copy that, but find other ways to make my enemies funny. One funny thing they offer is, if you are in the middle of two soldiers and jump, one of the soldiers starts to shoot and kills his buddy. That wasn’t intentional but it’s kind of funny that you can outplay them. But not sure if I will keep this "feature".

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #4: The Lens of Surprise

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of surprise from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. I try to answer the following three questions:

  • What will surprise the players playing "All Fucked Up"?
  • Does the story have surprises? The mechanics? The artwork?
  • Does the mechanics give the player ways to surprise themselves?

Quite though to answer this for your own game. I give it a try and might be completely wrong. But at least it is documented. We placed cute funny animations that get played if you achieve a goal like kill two soldiers in a row which makes the character laugh. The artwork is not breathtaking to be honest, but what might be surprising is that every gun feels different. The gun itself is not visualized instead we focus on shell ejection, kickback on the characters (gun impacts the player, bullets provide kickback on the objects they hit).

I plan to have time limited levels as well, where everything explodes if you don’t make it in time. The time goes backward in those levels.

Improvements I can think of

  • Use the gun kickback to achieve something
  • Add a shootable grappling hook to climb up unreachable spots
  • Add defuse abilities
  • Compose weapons out of parts
  • Destroy locks or start a chain reaction on explosives

I think this is an important part and I will have to think more about it and collect more ideas.

Thanks for reading. I would appreciate your oppinion below in the comment section.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #3: The Lens of the Venue

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The first article of my game design diary, probably not daily. If you have recommendations or ideas you want to share let me know in the comments section below.

I look through the first lens of the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell on our game, the emotion lens. There are three questions

  • What emotion shall my player experience?
  • What emotion do they have now?
  • How can I bridge the gap between these emotions?

The player should experience a powerful feeling using the guns, it’s a gun porn game and everything should be around these guns and ammo. The better the experience of these guns the better.
Cute characters should provide a playful experience.
As well it should have a badass experience with those badass comments.

When I play the game using the guns is already very nice, the kickback (camera and player), shell ejection, and also the sound is nicely put together and it feels really good to fire the weapons. As well the enemies are easy to kill which makes the feel of powerful guns even stronger. I have to be care full not to rush to the more powerful guns as this is the trophy of finishing levels. I probably need a lot of guns
I need to add more cuteness to it, the heart emoji is just one that needs to be improved. I like the minion’s way of speaking, so I want to add more of that to improve that "it is cute" emotion.

To improve it I have the following points on my list

  • Add more bass
  • Improve the flashlight
  • Add more weapons
  • Design the levels that I can use the weapons a lot
  • Add badass comments
  • Add more cute sound and animations if we accomplished something.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

I look through the third lens, the lens of the venue from the book [The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses](https://amzn.to/2EWvFk3) written by [Jesse Schell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Schell) at our game “All Fucked Up” and try to answer the following questions

* What kind of venue suits our game the best
* What kind of special properties does the venue have to support our game
* How do the elements of our game harmonize with the chosen venue

This is quite tricky for me and I hardly can get my head around it. My game is a single-player game so far as co-op isn’t something I was thinking about when I started the game. It might be fun to watch somebody playing this game similar to [Mario Bros Games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario) which are both fun to play and fun to watch. The funny cute elements shall make it joyful to watch not only to play it.

This game might be playable as a console, PC, or mobile game. The levels are short and quickly played. The story is implicit.

Let me know in the comments what you think about this lens and if I interpreted it properly?

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*I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought*

Lens #2: The Lens of Essential Experience

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Today I look through the second lens, the lens of essential experience at our game "All Fucked Up". Due to the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell, we have to answer three questions

  • What experience do I want the player to have?
  • What is essential to that experience?
  • How can I capture this essence in our game?

I have some difficulties to see the real difference to Lens #1: The Lens of Emotion to be honest. Our game is all about guns and ammo. The emotion was feeling powerful with those weapons. The essential experience is all about guns and collecting ammo. Ammo is not limitless, you collect that and you have to take care that you do not waste ammo. This is a bit contradictory as firing a gun and feel powerful is all about lens #1.

  • Collecting ammo
  • Don’t waste ammo as it is not limitless
  • Add the possibility to switch between two weapons (handgun and rifle for example)

The smart handling of a handgun and a rifle could be interesting, but then I need the advantage of the handgun over the rifle, currently, there is none. One idea I have is when I’m too close to the opponent the rifle will not fire and you only can fire a handgun. The handgun on the other side should have only little effect on distance. That way I could improve the essential experience I think.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #1: The Lens of Emotion

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The first article of my game design diary, probably not daily. If you have recommendations or ideas you want to share let me know in the comments section below.

I look through the first lens of the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell on our game, the emotion lens. There are three questions

  • What emotion shall my player experience?
  • What emotion do they have now?
  • How can I bridge the gap between these emotions?

The player should experience a powerful feeling using the guns, it’s a gun porn game and everything should be around these guns and ammo. The better the experience of these guns the better.
Cute characters should provide a playful experience.
As well it should have a badass experience with those badass comments.

When I play the game using the guns is already very nice, the kickback (camera and player), shell ejection, and also the sound is nicely put together and it feels really good to fire the weapons. As well the enemies are easy to kill which makes the feel of powerful guns even stronger. I have to be care full not to rush to the more powerful guns as this is the trophy of finishing levels. I probably need a lot of guns
I need to add more cuteness to it, the heart emoji is just one that needs to be improved. I like the minion’s way of speaking, so I want to add more of that to improve that "it is cute" emotion.

To improve it I have the following points on my list

  • Add more bass
  • Improve the flashlight
  • Add more weapons
  • Design the levels that I can use the weapons a lot
  • Add badass comments
  • Add more cute sound and animations if we accomplished something.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought