Week 5

Learning Journal

After our group discussion to kick off the class, we learned about the types of experiences a designer might want to build a game around. To begin with, we went over experience-oriented design. This is simply the experience that we (as the designers) want the player to have. I learned that the specific experience we manufacture does not have to be applicable to the whole game. In other words, you can create one that can be for specific design intentions. I think this is a useful thing to keep in mind, especially if I'm trying to tell a story throughout a game. For instance, there are several scenes in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey that are incredibly sad, but the overall mood of the game is not, and the contrast makes these particular scenes more powerful. 

Afterwards, we learned about four main types of experiences: 

Narrative - story-driven. This is the sequence of events that keeps the player interested (the "page-turner"). Examples include Halo and The Last of Us. 

Emergent - the outcome, or ending, depends on the actions the player takes during gameplay. These are sometimes referred to as 'sandbox' games, and can include narratives to sustain a player's engagement. Examples include Minecraft, Don't Starve, most city-builders and Skyrim. 

Emotive - these are designed with a specific, overarching emotional response in mind. These games are the most difficult to design and execute successfully. Examples include Papers Please and most horror games. 

Ludic - based on pure play ('play for the sake of playing'). The enjoyment comes from mastery of the way the game works, and examples include Tetris, Dark Souls and board games. 

I am excited about the prospect of having total control over the manufacture of a game, in that no part of it would exist without me. It is a bit intimidating as a new games student, though. I'm looking forward to learning how to create these experiences for players, and I plan to test all of my games on my family. Looking at the kinds of games that I like to play, as well as my other hobbies, I believe my favourite type of experience is Emergent. Having creative control really appeals to me, so games where players can curate the experience for their own personal enjoyment are probably going to be the type that I will design the most. I do like when a game has a good narrative, because just running around aimlessly can become boring (this is why I don't play idle games), so to have a gripping story in combination with a customisable environment is the perfect combination for me. 

We also went over what it means if a story does or doesn't happen to a player. In simple terms, if the story can be influenced by us, then it happens to us. If it's linear, or scripted - i.e. you will always reach Point A in time for Event B regardless of how you actually interact with the game - then the story does not happen to us. I think I understand what this means, but it is a difficult concept to put into words.