July 13, 2011 0

Game Deconstruction: Removing the Art

By jasondeheras in Uncategorized

Ever since I was a kid I’ve always been intrigued by parts of things. I always wanted to know what was inside a toy, gadget, etc. I went about this by simply breaking, smashing and downright destroying these objects. It was fun to discover what was going on inside these objects. I eventually realized that destroying toys, gadgets wasn’t exactly the best way to go about doing this since they were after all gifts from family or friends. The point is I always had a fascination with deconstruction as a means to learn about the object as a whole. Sometimes you have to tear something down in order to learn how the whole darn thing works. Or least have a better understanding.

Games are no different. There are a number approaches to deconstructing video games: Historical, mechanical, pacing, etc.

Here I chose to strip the final art in the Donkey Kong in hopes of removing mental models that do affect the feel of the game. The stripped down version does allow you to see a bit more clearly what objects make up the whole and their placement role in the space.

I haven’t really reached any kind of tangible conclusion other than it’s kind of cool to see the level in this “blockout” form. The main question out of this, would it still be as fun to the play the game in this visual state? The answer is probably still yes.

March 31, 2011 0

How to Become a Game Designer — Advice from the year 2003.

By jasondeheras in game industry

I found this old email correspondence from 2003 between myself and a THQ producer. At the time I had just finished college and returned to THQ for a QA job because it was easy $$$ at the time. That motivated feeling of wanting to get a job as a game designer is something I will never forget. It’s just funny how things have worked out so far when you look back on emails like this. I followed most of the producer’s advice except check out level editors and read game design books. Once I got hired at the developer Heavy Iron, I just put my head down and busted my butt.

The question is: Is this particular advice still valid in 2011?

My initial email to the THQ producer.

Note: I’ve X’ed out real names to protect the innocent.

Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 00:52:29 EDT

Hi XXXXXX!

I'm good, thanks for asking.  How is everything with you?

Well, I finished college in june.  Not sure what I'm going to do with
Political Science degree.  Anyways, I've been back here at THQ...in QA.  I
didn't want to come back, but I'm just doing this for now.  While I was up
here, I got sent off site to Heavy Iron; I was there for about 2 months and
just got back recently. While I was there, I started to see the direction I
want to go in in the video game industry: game design.  I recently
interviewed with Heavy Iron for an entry-level designer.  Not sure if I'll
get hired because my technical background (experience with 3D game editors,
basic scripting, etc) isn't all that great. To make a long story short, I
might be able to get in as a Test/Lead at Heavy Iron, then learn the tools
and put in the extra work to move up to designer.  Sorry to bore you with
all of this. But it seems it's very difficult now to make the transition
from QA to PD here at THQ.  My goal and focus is to use my experience to get
into either PD publisher or PD developer.  I'm just really motivated to
learn another aspect of the industry and see how far I can take it.

Any advice would be appreciated,

Thanks, XXXXXX

--Jason

The Producer’s reply below:

Date: 10/14/2003 10:50:09 PM Pacific Standard Time

If you really want to be a designer, then you should not get a job at a publisher. Publishers are much more business-oriented.  They run models.  They make forecasts.  They are the ones with the money, which is nice, but they are not the epicenters of creativity.  There are exceptions to this, but I would say that as a designer, you will be much happier if you are working at a developer.

Heavy Iron is in a nice position because they have the financial stability of a publisher, but they are still a developer.  Plus, you have a good connection at Heavy Iron, because they know you, and they might overlook the fact that you aren’t 100% up to speed on their tools.

If they take you on as a test lead, and if you accept, you should make it clear to them that you want to move up.  If you can get some idea from them on how long you have to be a lead for that to happen, that would be nice, but be sure to do it in an enthusiastic, I-just-love-this-company kind of way.

And then, once you are in, work your ass off and make yourself indispensable to people like XXXXX, or whoever is designing there.  Pretty soon, they’ll see that they need you, and they’ll promote you.  They should, at any rate.

Just in case they don’t, you should look around for work at other developers in the LA area.  There are tons of them.  Go to these sites and look for jobs:

gamasutra.com
gamejobs.com
dice.com
gamerecruiter.com
Marymargaret.com
Jobsmack.com
Jobsmart.com
Interact.com
hotjobs.com
monster.com

The other bits of advice I have for you is that you should be fooling around with any level editors that you can get your paws on.  Games like Quake, where you can build your own levels… Do it, if you are not already doing it.  Also, look online for other tools that you can learn on your own.  That way, you’ll have something intelligent to say when you interview at another developer.

Go to Amazon.com, and look up books on game design.  They may have something that interests you. The Richard Rouse book looks interesting.

Also, start analyzing games and actually give yourself a homework assignment.  How would you design level X differently?  Where would you put the bad guys, the power ups, the respawn points, etc.  Study some bad games, and really figure out how to make them better.  Don’t just do this in your head, write it down and think about it seriously.  It’s easy to say something sucks, it’s harder to say why, and really hard to actually fix it.   This is also good prep for interviewing, because it’s often a question that they ask.

My understanding of the situation at THQ is that they are not going to consider promoting from within QA to PD.  You guys are pretty much screwed, I’m sorry to say.

Once you find out about if HI will offer you the job or not, you should alert your pals in the business that you are looking for design work.  With the THQ layoffs, there are lots of people at lots of companies.  XXXXX is at Activision.  XXXXX is at Warner Brothers.  XXXXX is at Disney.  XXXXX, XXXXX and XXXXX  are at Take-Two. The layoffs really sucked, but they did sort of “pollenate” the business with people who know you, and who can help you.

So, contact them!  And contact any developers you know, even if they are out of town, because they might  hear of some design job locally.  It’s a small business.  You have to network, baby.  ;o)

Congratulations, by the way, on graduating!  You must be really happy!  That is very cool.

Now, go get a job!  ;o)

–XXXXXX

March 29, 2011 0

Interactive Storybooks

By jasondeheras in game design, ideas

So I bought an iPad awhile back and have been looking at some interactive storybook apps because I’m very intrigued on how these storybook developers mix mechanics with the reading experience. For instance, some are very basic where the participant touches an image and then a sound plays. For example, in Jack and the Beanstalk, touch a cow and it Mooos. (note: I added the speech bubble for effect.)

Then there are other apps that have more fancy things going on like interactive objects on the page. For example, in the Alice In Wonderland iPad storybook app, there’s a page in the story that deals with Alice drinking poison. So naturally there’s an interactive physics object of a bottle that the participant can move with her finger or rotate the iPad and see the object move accordingly.

While I believe these interactions I mentioned earlier are valid in immersing the participant, I think we can take better advantage of these touch mechanics and how they relate to the form and function of the image.

Since it’s a static image we can setup the form and function with clever and perfect integration. Below I’ve mocked up an example based on the iBook Winnie The Pooh of how the swipe mechanic and the image can coexist intuitively. It’s all about setting up the image so the act of interacting doesn’t interfere or distract from the reading.

Figure 1.1 is taken from the Winnie The Pooh iBook. When I first saw this image with Pooh and the train of critters trying to pull him out of the hole, I immediately thought, “Wow, this is the perfect choreography for a swipe mechanic.” There’s something about this image that makes me want to swipe across from left to right, starting with the boy and ending with the farthest right critter. I just thought it was a perfect swipe setup. In short, Figure 1.1 shows the pre-swipe image / idle.

Here’s an IDEA on further integrating what the participant reads with what the participant interacts with:

The text below Figure 1.1 reads as the following:

“So he took hold of Pooh’s front paws and Rabbit took hold of Christopher Robin, and all Rabbit’s friends and relations took hold of Rabbit and they all pulled together…”

So imagine if BEFORE the participant swipes, the text reads as follows and the player cannot turn the page:

“So he took hold of Pooh’s front paws and Rabbit took hold of Christopher Robin, and all Rabbit’s friends and relations took hold of Rabbit and they ___ ______ ________…”

And then AFTER the participant swipes, the missing words magically appear and now the page can be turned and story continues:

“So he took hold of Pooh’s front paws and Rabbit took hold of Christopher Robin, and all Rabbit’s friends and relations took hold of Rabbit and they all pulled together…”

This isn’t the most elegant example, but hopefully you understand the basic idea.

In summary, I see a lot of potential with these kinds of interactive storybooks–potential to really immerse the participant if developers can “setup” the image (clever and perfect form and function) to be mechanically intuitive.

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