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Exercise 1.2: D.O.A.
Take one game that you’ve played that was D.O.A. By D.O.A., I mean “dead on arrival” (i.e., a game that’s no fun to play). Write down what you don’t like about it. What did the designers miss? How could the game be improved?
Sims is a game that I’ve played which was D.O. A. for me. I think I didn’t enjoy it because it lacked a clear objective for me. I didn’t feel as though there was a purpose to the game, though I tried to give it a chance by playing my Sims character. However, as I played, I didn’t understand what there was to the game beyond my role-playing as an online avatar and keeping my Sims character alive. This was not engaging for me at all. Fullerton (2014) notes that an objective is a “key element without which the experience loses much of its structure, and our desire to work toward the objective is a measure of our involvement in the game” (p. 34). This concisely captures my lack of engagement with the game. Since there was no end goal for my Sims character to work towards, there was no structure and no challenge to motivate me to keep playing the game. There wasn’t a treasure that I had to find and there wasn’t a skill for my Sims character to improve upon in a meaningful way. To improve the game, I would have defined a clear objective for the Sims character. Given all of this, I did not feel a desire to continue playing the game beyond my week of experimenting with the game.
Exercise 1.4: Game Journal
Start a game journal. Don’t just try to describe the features of the game, but dig deeply into the choices you made, what you thought and felt about those choices, and the underlying game mechanics that supports those choices. Go into detail; look for the reasons why various mechanics of the game exist. Analyze why one moment of gameplay stands out and not another. Commit to writing in your game journal every day.
I had to come up with a game for my school’s Sports Day. For me, my main concern was making sure the game was safe, engaging, and playable for students kindergarten through grade 6, since those were the students who would be playing. I also had to consider that the game had to be simple enough for my grade 7 helpers to explain and run. In order to come up with the final iteration of my game, I tested various versions of it with my grade 2 students to refine parts of the game that might be unsafe or too complicated for younger students. I decided that I wanted my game to be some sort of beanbag race or competition where the different teams had to get a certain number of beanbags into a designated area.
First iteration: In my first iteration, I had 4 hula hoops set up in a square configuration, with 1 hula hoop belonging to each colour. Each hula hoop started out with 10 bean bags. Then, when the whistle blew, students would run to other teams’ hula hoops and try to steal more bean bags for their team. The rules were simple and easy to follow. However, after one collision between a couple of my students, I realized that this game would be unsafe for a mixed-grade group to play. A kindergartener could get severely injured if they were to collide with a grade 6 student.
Second iteration: For my second iteration, I lined up a cone and three hula hoops at each colour’s station. This is the same set-up as my final iteration. In this version of the game, I decided that each colour would compete to toss their bean bags into a hula hoop. I gave each group 6 bean bags. If the bean bag landed inside a hula hoop, then it would count as a point and they would leave it. If the bean bag landed outside of a hula hoop, then it would count as a miss and they would need to retrieve the bean bag for their team. Once they scored all 6 of their bean bags into a hula hoop, they could advance as a team to that hula hoop and aim for the next hula hoop. The hula hoops got progressively further away so that the final hula hoop would be the toughest challenge. This version worked out better than my first iteration, but I noticed that some students would forget to retrieve their missed beanbags. As well, I noticed that each team really didn’t need all six beanbags and that six beanbags sometimes made it difficult to keep track of.
Final iteration: This was my final iteration of the game. I decided that it was safer and less confusing to have an older student in the group retrieve the missed bean bags and toss them back to students. I also decreased the number of beanbags to 4 for each group.
Bean Bag Race
Objective: Get all 4 beanbags into each hula hoop. Move through all 3 of the hula hoops until you get to the last one.
Set up: 4 cones. 1 for each colour. 3 hula hoops in a row at each cone.
Rules:
When you throw the bean bag, you must stand behind the cone or inside the hula hoop. After you throw, immediately go to the back of the line. The bean bags move up to the first 4 kids in line.
If your bean bag lands inside a hula hoop, it stays there. If you miss, someone will throw the bean bag back to your team so you can try again.
When all the bean bags are inside the hula hoop, the whole team gets to move to that hoop and try to throw the bean bag into the next hoop.
When your team reaches the last hoop, you pick up your bean bags, run back to the start, and sit down.
1 older kid will stand by the hoops and throw back any bean bags that miss the hoops to the teams. When they get tired, they will switch with another older kid.
Exercise 1.5: Your Childhood
List ten games you played as a child, for example, hide and seek, four square, and tag. Briefly describe what was compelling about each of those games.
Snake game: In this game, you have to navigate your snake around a screen to collect “food” blocks that add to the length of the snake as you eat them. Then, as your snake grows, you have to manage to navigate around the screen without your snake accidentally eating its own tail or running into the walls (or boundaries) of the game. I spent many hours playing this game on my dad’s brick of a Nokia cellphone. It was compelling because it had a clear objective and simple boundaries that made the game that much more challenging. Additionally, as you progressed in the game by eating more blocks, it heightened the stakes of the game because it became more difficult to avoid the walls and the snake’s tail.
Pacman: Similar to the Snake game, it was compelling because there was a clear objective and boundaries that made the game challenging and interesting. The graphics were also an integral element of the game because it was satisfying watching the Pacman eat the ghosts and fruits.
Pokemon on Nintendo: This was a role-playing game where you caught, trained, and battled Pokemon. What made this game especially compelling to me were the story, dramatic elements, and world-building. The game was connected to a larger game ecosystem that extended outside of the game itself. At that time, Pokemon cards were incredibly popular, as was the Pokemon TV show. It also had multiple objectives, such as capture and exploration, that made the game multi-faceted and immersive.
Hide and Seek Tag: It’s a combination of the game hide-and-see and tag. What made it engaging for me was that the game didn’t end if someone hiding had been found. Instead, the seeker had an added challenge of tagging the person they found.
Everybody’s It Tag: In this game, everybody is the “it”. If you get tagged by someone, then you are temporarily out of the game, so you have to sit down. However, if the person who tagged you got tagged, then you could rejoin the game. This is a compelling game because the game could conceivably go on forever.
Tic-Tac-Toe: This game is compelling because it has a simple objective and a limited number of ways someone could win. As a child, the simplicity of the game felt achievable and within my zone of proximal development.
Checkers: I really enjoyed this game as a child because it was easier for me to follow and understand than chess. With chess, there were too many rules for me to keep track of. However, with checkers, the rules were simple and set up an enjoyable conflict (single player versus single player) with a defined outcome.
Chinese Checkers: This game is different from the regular Checkers. In Chinese Checkers, you don’t capture other players’ pieces. Rather, the objective is to be the first one to move all of your checkers pieces across the board into your territory. What made this game especially enjoyable to me was that your checkers piece wasn’t constrained to moving 1 spot at a time. Instead, you could create paths using your own checkers pieces and other players’ pieces that your checkers piece could bound over, multiple steps at a time. This turned the game into a fun game of strategy that I could visualize on the board.
Crazy Bones: In this game, you lined your Crazy Bones pieces in a row and you take turns flicking your Crazy Bones at your opponents’ row of Crazy Bones, trying to knock their pieces out of their line. Whoever had the last Crazy Bone standing was the winner. This game was fun because there were different types of Crazy Bones and you had to think about which piece would move in the way that you wanted when you flicked it and which piece would have enough weight to knock away the other player’s piece.
Chopsticks: In this game, you play against one other opponent and you both start out with your index fingers sticking out. Each finger represents 1. Then, you take turns, adding to each other’s hand by tapping the other player’s fingers with yours. For example, if your opponent had 2 fingers out in one hand and 3 fingers out in another and you tapped the 3-fingers with your 2 fingers then it would bring them to 5 fingers. If a player gets to 5 or more fingers then that hand “explodes” and is out. However, in the version that I played, if one hand was out and the other hand had an even number of fingers, then you could split that number up between your 2 hands. For example, 4 fingers in one hand could turn into 2 fingers per hand instead. I thought this game was really fun because I got to practice my addition skills and also combine it with some strategy.
Exercise 2.3: Objectives
List five games, and in one sentence per game, describe the objective in each game.
Monopoly: Acquire as many rent-collecting properties as you can.
Pictionary: Guess the secret word by looking at a drawing.
Dodgeball: Don’t get hit by the dodgeball while you try to hit others with a dodgeball.
California Kickball: Kick the ball far so that you can round as many bases as you can and get to home base.
Everybody’s It Tag: Don’t get tagged by other people while you try to tag other people.
Exercise 2.4: Rules
Can you think of a game that has no rules? If so, describe it. How about one rule? Why is this exercise difficult?
I can’t think of a game that has no rules. I don’t think it would be a game if it didn’t have any rules. Fullerton (2014) defines a game as“ a closed, formal system that engages players in structured conflict, and resolves its uncertainty in an unequal outcome” (p. 48). Boundaries are part of the rules of a game. Without boundaries, it wouldn’t be a closed system. As well, in order for structured conflict to be possible, there have to be rules governing how the conflict can play out. I was trying to think of a game that had one rule, and while I initially thought I had found a game in Everybody’s It Tag, after playing it out, I realized that there were still other rules that governed the game. The one rule of the game might be “tag other people but don’t get tagged yourself”. However, there would be boundaries in the game. There are also rules about what to do if you get tagged and what to do if the person who tagged you gets tagged. Additionally, there are rules to decide what to do in case two people tag each other at the same time. This exercise shows how challenging it is to design a game with no rules or even just one rule because rules create structure and boundaries, which are inherent in the definition of a game.
Exercise 3.6: Rules Restricting Actions
There are many types of rules that restrict action. Here is a list of games: Twister, Pictionary, Scrabble, Operation, and Pong. What rules within these games restrict player actions?
Twister: Your elbow and knee can’t touch the mat would be a rule restricting action. As well, you have to place your body part on the colour that the spinner lands on is another rule restricting action.
Pictionary: You can not spell out or say the word is the key rule restricting player actions in this game.
Scrabble: You must connect your tiles to existing words on the board in a vertical or horizontal fashion would be a rule restricting player actions. Also, you have to take turns with the other players and spell out words that are in the dictionary would be rules restricting player actions too.
Operation: You can not touch the edge of the wound opening is the main rule restricting player action here.
Pong: You can only move your paddle side to side in one plane of direction is a rule restricting player actions.
References:
Fullerton, T. (2014). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, NY: Taylor & Francis (CRS Press)/ Chapters 1, 2, 3.
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