Games Studies - Exercise 1
TABLE OF CONTENT
LECTURES
Week 1
Principles of Game Design
- Creating interactive, playful experiences.
- Blends creativity, tech skills, and user psychology.
- Good games = fun mechanics, strong story, balanced challenge.
- Player Experience: How the game feels.
- Mechanics: Rules and systems of play.
- Storytelling: Narrative through gameplay.
- Balance & Challenge: Rewarding but not overwhelming.
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Emotion: Games create immersive emotional journeys.
- User-Centered: Design for audience needs and playstyles.
- Flow State: Balance challenge and skill for engagement.
- Adventure: Discovery, exploration, captivation
- Achievement: Challenge, suffering, completion
- Social: Fellowship, competition, submission
- Excitement: Thrill, humour, subversion
- Imagination: Expression, fantasy, simulation
- Caretaking: Nurture, sympathy, control
- Physical: Sensation, relaxation, intensity
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Primary Mechanics: These are the fundamental actions that players perform throughout the game.
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Movement: How players navigate a board, such as linear paths in Monopoly or network paths in Risk.
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Dice Rolling: Used to resolve actions or determine outcomes, commonly seen in Dungeons & Dragons.
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Card Interaction: Drawing or playing cards to interact with others, as seen in Uno or Magic: The Gathering.
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Secondary Mechanics: These features add extra depth and strategy to the core gameplay.
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Resource Management: Managing items like wood or stone to make strategic decisions, such as in Catan.
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Trading: A social mechanic where players exchange items, found in games like Betrayal at House on the Hill.
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Exploration: Unlocking new areas and rewards on a map, which is a key part of Descent: Journeys in the Dark.
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- Positive Feedback: Systems that provide rewards for achieving goals, which encourages players to keep progressing.
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Negative Feedback: Systems that penalize players or slow them down, like paying
rent in Monopoly, to keep the game balanced
. - Dynamic Feedback: Adjusts the difficulty based on player success or failure to maintain a steady challenge.
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Player Agency: The story is co-created by the players' choices, giving them a sense of ownership over the narrative
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Environmental Storytelling: Using world design, visuals, and physical elements like maps or lore to tell a story without using many words
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Narrative Arcs: Structuring the game experience with rising tension, a clear climax, and a final resolution.
- Difficulty Curve: Designers must ensure a smooth escalation in difficulty so the game is neither too easy nor too frustrating.
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Skill vs. Luck: A good game balances player skill with elements of randomness to
keep the experience dynamic
. - Progression: Rewarding players with growth and achievements keeps them motivated and invested in the game.
Enhance & Refine Game Design
- Playtesting: This process helps identify design flaws and areas that need adjustment to ensure the game is enjoyable.
- Polishing: Using feedback loops to fix parts of the story that feel "flat" or difficulty levels that are unbalanced.
- Context for Action: A well-built world explains why a player is performing certain actions, which increases emotional engagement.
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Believability: Creating a world that feels real helps players stay connected to
the story
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- Over-Complication: Sometimes keeping a game simple makes it more fun.
- Failing to Adapt: Ignoring player feedback or current market trends can lead to a lack of engagement.
- Monetization vs. Experience: Finding a balance between making a profit and ensuring the player actually enjoys the game.
Week 2
Balancing Fun and Educational Elements
- Fun: Games are fun when they offer engaging mechanics and emotionally satisfying challenges. This often involves competition, discovery, and choice.
- Education: This ranges from basic knowledge acquisition to complex critical thinking and real-world application. Topics can include math, science, or history.
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Learning Through Play: Educational content should emerge naturally from the gameplay mechanics.
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Example: Pandemic teaches cooperation and resource management while players try to stop global outbreaks.
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Layered Learning: Designers should avoid "front-loading" too much information. Educational elements are unlocked as players progress.
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Mechanics as Educational Tools: Directly teach concepts through game rules
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Example: Catan mirrors real-world economic systems through resource trading and strategy.
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Storytelling with Purpose: Use narratives to reinforce learning goals and provide emotional stakes.
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Example: The Resistance: Avalon fosters skills in deduction and communication through its Arthurian setting
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Avoid Over-Instruction: Learning should feel natural, not forced. If a game feels like a chore, players will lose interest
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Example: Brain Age presents cognitive challenges as mini-games, keeping the experience engaging.
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Motivation:
- Intrinsic: Players are driven by curiosity and achievement.
- Extrinsic: Rewards like points or badges reinforce progress.
Week 3
Playtesting & Iterative Design
- Focus: Building complex systems that respond to player choices.
- Goal: Using prototyping and iteration to refine game elements and player agency.
This process helps designers understand the user before creating the final product.
- Empathize: Use interviews and observations to understand the player's needs without judging them.
- Define: Identify the main challenges, pain points, and objectives for the player.
- Ideate: Share all possible ideas and prioritize them using "Yes and" thinking.
- Prototype: Create simple mockups or storyboards to "fail fast" and learn quickly.
- Test: Use role play and testing to see what works and find any impediments.
Basic Iterative Cycle: This involves a continuous loop of:
- Analyse: Understanding the motives behind the game.
- Design: Creating the actual game mechanics.
- Playtest: Observing how players behave when interacting with the game.
- Iterative Process with Context: A more detailed cycle that focuses on "Playful Experiences" (PLEX).
Refinement: Using outcomes from playtests to create new ideas and improved visuals.
Playful Experiences (PLEX) Framework
Designers use this framework to categorize different emotional outcomes of play:
- Adventure: Discovery, exploration, and captivation.
- Excel oneself: Challenge, suffering, and completion.
- Social: Fellowship, competition, and submission.
- Excitement: Thrill, humor, and subversion.
- Imagination: Fantasy, expression, and simulation.
- Caretaking: Nurture, sympathy, and control.
- Physical: Sensation, relaxation, and intensity.
MODULE INFORMATION
EXERCISE 1 PART A
EXERCISE 1 PART B
REFLECTION
This exercise pushed me to look at Hay Day beyond enjoyment and consider why it works so well as a game. Analyzing it through the Principles of Game Design helped me recognise how progression, feedback, and worldbuilding shape the overall player experience. It also made me more critical of design limitations, such as pacing and communication features, rather than simply accepting them as part of the game. Through this process, I learned to approach games more thoughtfully and evaluate design decisions from a player’s point of view.
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