I won’t lie to you. This is a dense mathematical work full of theorems, proofs and exercises. I only understood about a third of it. After the first seven chapters I got lost and could only scan page after page of formulae. But what little I understood was very interesting and work sharing.
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Talking about creativity, you’ve probably already seen this doing the rounds, but there is a lovely quote from Ira Glass on the difficulty one faces as a new artist, when your taste exceeds your capacity to create:
Austin Kleon’s Steal Like An Artist is a must-read for any aspiring creative, whether in writing, music, visual arts or game design. It contains a brief but profound manifesto:
by Michael J. Apter.
Why do people enjoy dangerous sports like mountaineering or running with the bulls? Why do civillians enjoy playing soldiers and why do ex-soldiers sometimes talk about the dangers and even the suffering of war with nostalgia? Why do we enjoy other’s suffering in stories or movies or the evening news?
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This is undoubtably another title to add to my “Secret Books of Game Design” list, and I’m sure I’m not the first person to notice it. There is a lot of general purpose design wisdom in this book that applies well beyond architecture, and it is presented in delightfully plain and pithy language. The topics range from the profoundly aesthetic (Beauty is due more to harmonious relationships among the elements of a composition that to the elements themselves) to the immediately practical (Roll your drawings for transport or storage with the image side facing out).
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[NOTE: This is the full text of a paper we submitted to FDG'11. It was rejected for being too subjective and not citing enough other work. Fair enough. But poorly referenced subjective rants are just what blogs are for, right? So here it is.]
How do we create engaging ethical scenarios in games? This question has been taken up with seriousness by many designers, wanting to see their work grow beyond pure action and address deeper aspects of our lives. We are making progress, but existing designs are still too simplistic. They neither engage us as strategic gameplay nor as meaningful stories. To answer the question we must look deeper into moral reasoning itself to learn the skills it involves and how to engage them. In this paper we investigate the Four Component model of moral psychology to see what light it can shine on the problem. The result is a pattern for a holistic system of ethical gameplay, incorporating ethical identity, investigation, choices and challenges.
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As others before me have said, games designers need to know how to write. They don’t need to be master storytellers (although they should definitely consider employing good writers if their game is going to involve narrative or dialog) but they do need to know how to express their ideas clearly and they also need to understand the rudiments of narrative structure. Paul Callaghan opened my eyes to this in a guest lecture for my games class. I thought I understood the basics of writing: Setting, Character and Plot; but he got us thinking about deeper issues such as Theme, Subtext and Symbolism, and how they applied to our work as game designers. A game may not involve any “writing” per se, but can still benefit from the application of these ideas. They are the meat and drink of serious writing and for our games to earn the same level of artistic merit, they need to be our food as well.
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To a great game designer there is no useless knowledge.
Extra Credits
So You Want To Be A Game Designer
This is not a book on game design. Nor is it a book on any skill you are likely apply to game design. It is, however, a book that has elicited more excited conversation from my fellow game designers than text on graphics or storytelling. It is a book about cooking, but it is not a cook-book. Rather it is a compendium of “science and lore”, a place where the art and craft of the kitchen meet with the science of the laboratory. It short, it is the cooking for geeks.
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The camera is a much neglected topic in game design. We think a lot about what we are looking at and less about how we are looking at it. But if 100 years of cinema have taught us anything, it is that the choice of camera influences us as much as the choice of subject. A good game designer needs to know to use all the tools available, including the camera, so we should take some time to learn from those who have most experience with the device. The Five C’s are a good place to start. Yes, the book is getting old and the example shots look dated, but the principles still hold and are clearly and simply stated. To those who argue that the interactivity of games requires us to break all these rules, I quote from Mascelli himself in the prologue:
“It is important, however, that ambitious movie makers first learn the rules before breaking them. … Experiment; be hold; shot in an unorthodox fashion! But, first learn the correct way, don’t simply do it a “new” way – which, very likely, was new thirty years ago! – because of lack of knowledge of proper filiming techniques.”
So what are the rules? (more…)
I know I’ve harped on this before but playing Fallout New Vegas has brought me back to a persistent problem in RPGs: motivating the main quest. I know I’m not the first to say that FNV has a singularly un-inspiring beginning. I’ve just been shot dead in the course of doing some seemingly pointless delivery for some faceless client. By a stroke of good fortune, I’ve been brought back to life. What do I do? Of course, I should go and find the person who shot me!
Or… I could happily stay out of their way, figuring that life is cheap in a nuclear wasteland and I’ve already pushed my luck to breaking point. Who really cares about a lost poker chip anyway? Maybe I should just spend my time in this bar buying drinks and fleecing the locals at Caravan.
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