Author:: [[Jesse Schell]] DateFinished:: 05-16-2024 Rating:: 8 Tags:: #🟥 # The Art of Game Design  ## 🚀The Book in 3 Sentences - Game designers at their heart must be great listeners so they can listen to their audience, team, game, self, and client. - Game design is all about making choices which requires an understanding of a vast array of different disciplines. - It's impossible to linearly talk about how to make a great game so instead, we'll use different lenses for how to think through your game you can come back to again and again. ### 🎨 Impressions - Love this book. It's long. And dense. But it's super interesting because of how many different disciplines it pulls from. You don't have to be a game designer to read it. ### 📖Who Should Read It? - Anyone interested in game design. - Anyone interested in creativity. ### ☘️ How the Book Changed Me - Main thing was emphasized how there isn't one *solution* to a problem, just many different ways to look at it. I'm more down with using lenses to think through things. When I create something, I try and give more lenses, questions, or problems to navigate rather than blatant solutions so people can tie it to their specific organism environment relationship. - I'm realizing at the core of any piece of art is the experience. I need to find out how to get the reader to feel what I want them to feel as well as possible. # Linked Book Notes - [[At the foundation of every piece of art is experience]] ## Highlights The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. —Marcel Proust ([Location 918](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=918)) ### CHAPTER ONE In the Beginning, There Is the Designer The most important skill for a game designer is listening. Game designers must listen to many things. These can be grouped into five major categories: team, audience, game, client, and self. Most of this book will be about how to listen to these five things. ([Location 1113](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1113)) ### CHAPTER TWO The Designer Creates an Experience When people play games, they have an experience. It is this experience that the designer cares about. Without the experience, the game is worthless. ([Location 1202](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1202)) #1 The Lens of Emotion People may forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. —Maya Angelou To make sure the emotions you create are the right ones, ask yourself these questions: What emotions would I like my player to experience? Why? What emotions are players (including me) having when they play now? Why? How can I bridge the gap between the emotions players are having and the emotions I’d like them to have? ([Location 1393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1393)) A method that builds on analyzing memories is to run through your experience twice. The first time, don’t stop to analyze anything—just have the experience. Then, go back and do it again, this time, analyzing everything—maybe even pausing to take notes. You have the untainted experience fresh in your mind, and the second run-through lets you “relive it” but gives you a chance to stop and think, considering how it felt and why. ([Location 1419](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1419)) - Note: The Heisenberg principle states if we try to analyze an experience to hard while it’s happening it can spoil the experience. So it’s better to take glances or have two passes one where you just experience and one where you analyze. Is it possible to observe your experience without spoiling it? It is, but it takes some practice. It sounds strange to say this, but if you “sneak quick glances” at your experience while it is happening, you can often observe it quite well without degrading or interrupting it significantly. It is kind of like trying to get a good look at a stranger in a public place. Take a few short glances at them, and they won’t notice you are observing them. But look too long, and you will catch their attention, and they will notice you staring. ([Location 1424](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1424)) As a game designer trying to design an experience, your goal is to figure out the essential elements that really define the experience you want to create and find ways to make them part of your game design. ([Location 1457](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1457)) The key idea here is that the essential experience can often be delivered in a form that is very different from a real experience. ([Location 1460](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1460)) ## New highlights added 16-04-2024 at 9:15 PM ### CHAPTER THREE The Experience Takes Place in a Venue ### CHAPTER FOUR The Experience Rises Out of a Game The more obligated you are to do something, the more it feels like work. The less obligated you are to do something, the more it feels like play. ([Location 1817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1817)) So one possible definition would be: Play is manipulation that indulges curiosity. ([Location 1829](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1829)) So a definition that nicely covers all ten qualities might be: A game is a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude. ([Location 1994](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=1994)) So we have embarked on a long journey of defining our terms. Let’s review what we came up with: Fun is pleasure with surprises. Play is manipulation that satisfies curiosity. A toy is an object you play with. A good toy is an object that is fun to play with. A game is a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude. ([Location 2007](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2007)) - Note: This definition is incomplete. I can have fun while playing stares valley knowing exactly what’s going to happen. Fun to me is pleasure without stakes the player perceives as too great. ### CHAPTER FIVE The Game Consists of Elements ### CHAPTER SIX The Elements Support a Theme ### CHAPTER SEVEN The Game Begins with an Idea “The secret is: don’t look to other jugglers for inspiration—look everywhere else.” He proceeded to do a beautiful looping pattern, where his arms kind of spiraled, and he turned occasional pirouettes. “I learned that one watching a ballet in New York. And this one…” he did a move that involved the balls popping up and down as his hands fluttered delicately back and forth. “I learned that from a flock of geese I saw take off from a lake up in Maine. And this,” he did a weird mechanical looking movement where the balls almost appeared to move at right angles. “I learned that from a paper punch machine on Long Island.” He laughed a little and stopped juggling for a minute. “People try to copy these moves, but they can’t. They always try… yeah, look at that fella, over there!” He pointed to a juggler with a long ponytail across the gym who was doing the “ballet” move. But it just looked dumb. Something was missing, but I couldn’t say what. “See, these guys can copy my moves, but they can’t copy my inspiration.” He juggled a pattern that made me think of a spiraling double helix. Just then, the PA announced a beginner’s workshop—I thanked him and ran off. I didn’t see him again, but I never forgot him. I wish I knew his name, because his advice changed my approach to creativity forever. ([Location 2442](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2442)) When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru. —Ram Dass ([Location 2455](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2455)) ## New highlights added 19-04-2024 at 3:32 PM Don’t fall in love with your solution. Fall in love with your problem. —Anonymous ([Location 2487](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2487)) People who come up with clever solutions are almost always the same people who take the time to figure out the real problem. It’s a dangerous temptation to fall in love with your solution—why not consider falling in love with your problem, instead? ([Location 2499](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2499)) Brainstorm Tip #13: Destroy Your Assumptions I learned this excellent tip from designer Rob Daviau. Make a list of everything about your game that you are assuming to be true, such as “I assume that it is designed to be played indoors,” “I assume that the player will look at the screen,” and “I assume the player only uses one finger to touch the screen.” This can be a long list, because we assume so much. Once you have a good list, go through each item, and think about how your game would work if that assumption wasn’t true. Most of the time, the assumption must stand. But once in a while, blowing up one of your assumptions will give you a great insight. Rob says he arrived at the design for Risk Legacy when he considered destroying the standard board game assumption: “One game does not affect the next one.” ([Location 2768](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2768)) - Note: Assumptions for writing: - must be typed and linear: what if you turned an article into a mini game somehow? Or an entire website into a gamified platform like Yu Kai Chou does. - must be written in proper English and grammatical style - must be short and snappy - must have a clear logical flow - honestly, most groups go about brainstorming all wrong. Research shows that a group just showing up in a room trying to brainstorm cold on an idea is a recipe for wasted time. Much better is to have each individual brainstorm independently first and only then get together to share ideas, mix and match them, and solve problems together. ([Location 2811](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2811)) ### CHAPTER EIGHT The Game Improves through Iteration The Rule of the Loop: The more times you test and improve your design, the better your game will be. ([Location 2953](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2953)) You will try, at times in your career, to rationalize it away, to convince yourself that “this time, the design is so good, we don’t have to test and improve,” or “we really have no choice—we’ll have to hope for the best,” and you will suffer for it each time. ([Location 2955](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2955)) If you are indeed embarking on the design of a game that is likely to involve long “test and improve” loops, you need to answer these two questions: Loop question 1: How can I make every loop count? Loop question 2: How can I loop as fast as possible? ([Location 2959](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=2959)) ## New highlights added 29-04-2024 at 12:28 PM ### CHAPTER NINE The Game Is Made for a Player Submission: This strange term refers to the pleasure of entering the magic circle—of leaving the real world behind and entering into a new, more enjoyable, set of rules and meaning. ([Location 3669](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=3669)) - Note: This is a motivation for playing games I don’t see addressed in the Octalysis Framework. One of the big reasons we are pulled to games, movies, etc is to pull us away from the real world. ### CHAPTER TEN The Experience Is in the Player’s Mind Many designers are quick to point out that while staying in the flow channel is important, some ways of moving up the channel are better than others. Moving straight up the channel like this… FIGURE 10.6 …is definitely better than the game ending in anxiety or boredom. But consider the play experience that follows a track more like this: FIGURE 10.7 This will probably feel much more interesting to a player. It is a repeating cycle of increasing challenge, followed by a reward, often of more power, which gives an easier period of less challenge. Soon enough, the challenge ramps up again. For example, a videogame might feature a gun that lets me destroy enemies if I shoot them three times. As I proceed through the game, the enemies grow more numerous, increasing the challenge. If I rise to the challenge, though, and defeat enough enemies, I might be rewarded with a gun that lets me destroy the enemies with only two shots. Suddenly the game is easier, which is very rewarding. This easy period doesn’t last though, because soon new enemies that take three and even four shots to destroy, even with my new gun, will start to appear, taking the challenge to new heights. ([Location 3908](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=3908)) ### CHAPTER ELEVEN The Player’s Mind Is Driven by the Player’s Motivation ### CHAPTER TWELVE Some Elements Are Game Mechanics ## New highlights added 29-04-2024 at 8:10 PM ### CHAPTER THIRTEEN Game Mechanics Must Be in Balance ## New highlights added 11-05-2024 at 7:56 PM ### CHAPTER FOURTEEN Game Mechanics Support Puzzles A puzzle is a game with a dominant strategy. From this point of view, puzzles are just games that aren’t fun to replay, just as penguins are birds that cannot fly. This is why both puzzles and games have problem solving at their core—puzzles are just miniature games whose goal is to find the dominant strategy. ([Location 6061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=6061)) Puzzle Principle #1: Make the Goal Easily Understood ([Location 6098](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=6098)) Puzzle Principle #2: Make It Easy to Get Started ([Location 6119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=6119)) Puzzle Principle #3: Give a Sense of Progress ([Location 6145](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=6145)) ## New highlights added 16-05-2024 at 3:05 PM #### CHAPTER SEVENTEEN One Kind of Experience Is the Story #### CHAPTER NINETEEN Stories and Games Take Place in Worlds #### CHAPTER TWENTY Worlds Contain Characters To flesh out your characters’ relationships better, make a list of all your characters, and ask yourself these questions: How, specifically, does each character feel about each of the others? Are there any connections unaccounted for? How can I use those? Are there too many similar connections? How can they be more different? ([Location 8364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=8364)) Typical low-status behaviors include fidgeting, avoiding eye contact, touching one’s own face, and generally being tense. Typical high-status behaviors include being relaxed and in control, making strong eye contact, and, weirdly, not moving your head while you speak. ([Location 8387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08LDSZG1W&location=8387)) ## New highlights added 16-05-2024 at 5:05 PM #### CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Worlds Contain Spaces