Your team will brainstorm design ideas for possible games that could fulfill the gaming motivations and player experience goals for your target player persona.

As you learned, there are many game design elements that define a game. Arguably, the two most important design elements are the game's premise and objective:

• The premise is the main dramatic concept driving the game's action.

• The objective is the main goal the player is trying to achieve in the game.

The premise helps establish the dramatic elements of the game, while the objective helps establish the structural elements of the game:

• Premise → Setting (Game World) → Characters → Story

• Objective → Conflict → Gameplay (Procedures, Rules, Resources)

If you have an idea for a premise or objective, you can then try to brainstorm related design ideas (setting, conflict, etc.) to help build a more complete game concept.

Of course, you might think of another game design element first, besides the premise or objective. For example, you might first have an idea for a setting — which leads you to an idea for a character — which leads you to an idea for a conflict the character has to resolve — which leads you to the idea for the character's objective in the game.

Assignment

1. As individuals, brainstorm and record your own ideas for possible games.

   • Keep in mind your team's gaming motivations and player experience goals.

   • Try to think of ideas related to different premises or objectives.

   • Don't criticize or reject any ideas yet.

   • You do NOT need complete game concepts yet, but when possible, try to build on your ideas to think of related ideas.

   • If helpful, create simple sketches (characters, setting, etc.) to help record certain ideas. Sketching is also a good way to help spark more ideas.

2. As a team, share your ideas, and brainstorm together to produce more complete game concepts.

   • Don't criticize or reject any ideas yet.

   • Try to build on each other's ideas to create more complete game concepts.

   • You can also combine different ideas to form entirely new game concepts.

   • Be sure to record any new ideas the team generates.

   • Be sure everyone has the opportunity to contribute and be heard.

   • Be sure your team has generated at least 5 different game concepts having at least a premise and objective.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's set of game design ideas

Your team will create game treatments to summarize your top three game concepts. Then you'll gather external feedback to help select and refine one game concept as your team's proposed project.

A game treatment is a written summary of a game concept that includes concept sketches of the game world and characters.

In the gaming industry, game treatments are used to get feedback on game concepts, as well as to pitch game concepts to get approval and funding to create them. Once a game treatment is approved, the team creates a detailed game design document and then begins to prototype the game.

1. As a team, evaluate and refine your team's game concepts to select your top 3 game concepts.

   • You can critique ideas, filter out ideas, revise ideas, and add new ideas.

   • Be sure your top game concepts match your team's targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals listed in your persona.

   • Be sure your top game concepts seem engaging and innovative — as well as technically feasible to prototype.

2. Use this template to create a game treatment for each of your team's top 3 game concepts.

   • The written summary will be brief (working title + 3 paragraphs).

   • The concept sketches are just rough mockups. Be sure to include captions or labels for the sketches.

   • Decide on a plan for each team member to contribute to the game treatments by writing, editing, and/or sketching.

   • Be sure the game treatments will make sense to people outside your team, so you can get useful feedback.

3. Pair with another team to critique each other's game treatments.

   • Review one game treatment at a time.

   • The design team should share its target player persona, so the reviewers are aware of the targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

   • The reviewers should read the game treatment and then provide constructive feedback and ask questions.

   • The design team can respond to the feedback and ask follow-up questions.

   • Be sure someone on the design team records notes on the feedback.

   • Each game treatment review should take about 5-10 minutes. Repeat until all game treatments for both teams have been reviewed.

4. Within your own team, select one game concept as your team's proposed game.

   • If necessary, refine the game treatment prior to the proposal presentation.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's 3 game treatments (including feedback notes)

example of deliverable

Games have certain design elements that help define them as being games — whether it is a board game, a card game, a sport, a video game, etc. If you're going to create a game, you'll need to make design decisions about all the key elements of your game.

For example, we recognize checkers, soccer, and Space Invaders as being examples of games. What do these have in common that define them as being a game?

We would probably agree that one element that all games have is players — people that agree to participate in the game. Checkers needs two players. Soccer needs two teams of players. Space Invaders is a single-player game. Every game has one or more players as part of its design.

Game designers have come up with different ways to define the elements of games. In this assignment, you will come up with a set of game design elements by constructing an affinity diagram.

An affinity diagram takes a large set of information (such as ideas, examples, notes, etc.) and sorts it into a smaller set of groups that reveal patterns and relationships.

Constructing an affinity diagram involves three basic steps:

1. Record each piece of information separately. If possible, record the information on index cards or sticky notes (to make it easier to sort the ideas into groups and label the groups). Otherwise, record the information as a list in a document.

2. Sort related pieces of information into groups. You can have as many groups — or as few groups — as you need, based on the patterns in the information. The groups will not necessarily have the same number of pieces of information.

3. Label each group to identify the pattern or relationship it represents. Add the group's label using a new card or note — or add the label to your document.

Assignment

1. Work in a small team (2-4 people) to construct an affinity diagram of the elements that define games. It might help to focus on a small number of specific games (such as: checkers, soccer, Space Invaders, etc.). What are the specific elements that define each game? Record your examples, sort them into groups, and label the groups. When finished, take a photo of your affinity diagram (if you used cards or notes) — or save a copy of your document.

2. Discuss your findings as a class. How similar are they?

3. Compare your class findings to this reference list of game design elements. How similar are the class findings to these game design elements?

4. Use the reference list to analyze the design elements of an existing game by completing this assignment template. This could be an individual assignment or team assignment, based on your teacher's direction.

❏ Deliverable

Submit the following:

• Document or photo of your team's affinity diagram

• Your analysis of the design elements of an existing game

Affinity Diagram

Your completed affinity diagram will be a document or photo showing related information (ideas, examples, etc.) sorted into groups that are labeled. This example affinity diagram includes a group labeled "Players" with examples from specific games. The other three groups in the diagram don't list specific labels or information (but your diagram should). Your diagram will probably have more than 4 groups. The groups will not necessarily have the same number of pieces of information in them.

Analysis of Design Elements in Game

Here is an example analysis of the game design elements in Space Invaders

Just as people like different types of books or movies, people like different types of video games. If you're going to design a video game, you'll need to know more about what motivates people to play certain games.

You'll start by taking a survey to determine your own Gamer Motivation Profile. Later in the project, your team will decide which gaming motivations to target for its game concept.

Quantic Foundry is a game analytics consulting company that has gathered data from over 400,000 video game players to construct a scientific model that describes different types of gaming motivations.

This model identified 12 gaming motivations that form into 6 groups. For example, Challenge and Strategy are gaming motivations that belong to the Mastery group.

1. Take the online survey to determine your Gamer Motivation Profile. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete.

2. Record your results in this assignment template.

3. Discuss and compare your results with others in the class.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your Gamer Motivation Profile results

Based on the research you completed in the previous assignments, your project team is ready to begin creating its own video game by following a player-centered design process. You'll start by deciding:

• What kind of gameplay experience do you want to design?

• Who are the target players you're designing this game for?

The first step is to select gaming motivations to target for the gameplay experience. Most games target more than one gaming motivation, often from different motivation groups. This can allow the gameplay to be more complex and appeal to more players.

You'll use Quantic Foundry's Gamer Motivation Model, which identifies 12 different gaming motivations that form into 6 motivation groups (Action, Social, Mastery, Achievement, Immersion, and Creativity).

For example, a team might decide to target the gaming motivations of Excitement, Strategy, and Story (which are from the groups of Action, Mastery, and Immersion).

Next, your team will create player experience goals based on your targeted gaming motivations. Player experience goals describe what players will do, think, or feel during your gameplay.

Player experience goals will help narrow your focus for brainstorming game ideas, while still being general enough to allow a range of possible game design features.

For example, some possible player experience goals for a game targeting Excitement, Strategy, and Story might be:

• Players will have to make quick decisions weighing risk vs. reward.

• Players will feel a sense of tension during the gameplay.

Finally, your team will use its targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals to create a persona representing a possible target player for your game.

A persona is a model of a target user for a product or service, such as an app, website, device, etc. The persona summarizes the target user’s background, motivations, goals, needs, and expectations. The persona is used as a reference throughout the design process to help ensure your solution meets the needs of your target users.

Normally, a persona is based on user research data gathered through interviews, surveys, observations, etc. However, in this case, you'll create a fictional (yet realistic) persona based on your targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

Assignment

1. Select 2-4 gaming motivations to target for the game your team will design.

   • Be sure each team member has one of their top three gaming motivations represented (refer to your Gamer Motivation Profile results).

   • Be sure to select motivations from at least 2 different motivation groups.

2. Create 1-3 player experience goals to target for your team's game design.

   • Be sure each goal relates to one or more targeted gaming motivations.

   • Be sure each goal will allow a range of possible game design ideas.

3. Use this template to create a persona representing a target player.

   • List your team's targeted gaming motivations and player experience goal(s).

   • Complete the persona by adding a photo, name, and other relevant characteristics consistent with your target player audience.

   • The persona should seem realistic — not a joke or stereotype.

   • Your team will be designing its game to appeal to this persona.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's target player persona

Each individual will complete the game code tutorials to develop a firm understanding of the technical opportunities and constraints your team will have when designing and coding your own video game with the Phaser CE game framework.

❏ Deliverable

Demonstrate you have completed the assigned tutorials and can discuss how the code works.

We know that video game players are motivated by different types of gameplay. For example, some players are motivated to play games featuring destruction and competition, some players are motivated by games featuring story and strategy, etc.

Besides the type of gameplay, there are other factors that can keep players motivated and engaged in a game. We can use research findings from psychology to understand factors that motivate people to perform certain behaviors (whether playing a game, doing a task, learning something, etc.).

Two of the possible ways to classify motivations include:

• External vs. Internal — External motivations originate outside ourselves, while internal motivations come from within ourselves.

• Negative vs. Positive — Negative motivations involve painful experiences, while positive motivations involve pleasing experiences.

This model represents these two dimensions for classifying motivations:

This model classifies motivations into four types:

• Negative External Motivation (punishments)

• Positive External Motivation (rewards)

• Negative Internal Motivation (feeling bad)

• Positive Internal Motivation (feeling good)

Video game designers typically use all four of these types of motivations to help keep players engaged in the gameplay through incentives and flow.

External Motivation: Incentives

Incentives, such as rewards and punishments, can be very effective at getting people to do certain things. However, the effectiveness depends on the amount and frequency of the rewards or punishments. Psychologist B.F. Skinner conducted numerous studies on the effectiveness of external motivations on behavior.

Rewards and punishments are commonly used in video games to help players learn how the gameplay works and to keep players engaged in the gameplay:

• Rewards in games might include: receiving points, gaining special abilities, etc.

• Punishments in games might include: losing health, losing resources, etc.

An advantage of incentives is they can quickly teach and reinforce desired behaviors. Typically, people will quickly learn the cause-and-effect relationship between their actions and the incentives that result.

However, a disadvantage of incentives is that people will also quickly stop performing a behavior if the rewards or punishments are removed — unless the person has developed some internal motivation to keep performing the behavior.

Internal Motivation: Flow

People will naturally do certain things to avoid pain (e.g., to avoid pain, fear, anxiety, embarrassment, unhappiness, etc.) and seek pleasure (e.g., to feel happy, satisfied, engaged, empowered, etc.). This internal motivation helps us fulfill basic biological, psychological, and social needs. In general, internal motivation is more effective than external motivation at determining people's behavior.

Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi conducted research on happiness, creativity, and motivation in people. He found that people performing tasks can experience a mental state of deep focus and engagement that he called flow. This is sometimes referred to this as "being in the zone" (which is the opposite of "zoning out").

If you're experiencing flow while performing a task:

• You are completely focused on the task (e.g., might forget to eat or rest, etc.).

• You have a feeling of control (e.g., feel confident, know what to do next, etc.).

• You aren't thinking about yourself (e.g., your worries melt away, etc.).

• You lose awareness of time (i.e., usually time will seem to fly by).

• You enjoy doing the task for its own sake (i.e., positive internal motivation).

People can experience flow in many different types of tasks, including: art, music, sports, games, work, hobbies, etc. Experiencing flow requires certain conditions:

• Having clear goals

• Avoiding distractions

• Receiving clear, immediate feedback

• Having proper balance of challenges vs. skills

The challenge of a task plays a critical role in whether or not the person experiences flow. This diagram shows how flow is affected by the challenge of a task compared to the person's skill level:

The diagram reveals several things about challenges vs. skills:

• If the challenge of a task is too high compared to your current skill level, it leads to anxiety (feeling bad) — and you'll probably stop doing the task.

• If the challenge of a task is too low compared to your current skill level, it leads to boredom (feeling bad) — and you'll probably stop doing the task.

• If the challenge of a task is well-matched to your current skill level, it leads to a sense of focus and control (feeling good) — and you'll probably stay engaged in the task. You're probably in a state of flow.

• As you continue to perform a task, your skills tend to increase over time, so the challenges also need to increase at an appropriate rate to keep you in flow (and prevent you from becoming anxious or bored).

Many video games are designed to include the right conditions to encourage a state of flow — such as clear objectives, clear feedback, balancing the game's challenges vs. the player's skills, etc. Including these conditions in your game will typically improve the gameplay experience, even if the player doesn't experience flow.

Assignment

1. Read the information above on external and internal motivations. If necessary, discuss these concepts within your team or as a class. For example, how have you experienced incentives and flow in other tasks besides video games?

2. Follow the instructions and links in this assignment template to playtest two video games to compare their use of incentives and flow to motivate players.

3. Discuss your findings from the video game comparisons as a class.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your analysis of incentives and flow in the video games

Create a slide presentation that summarizes your team’s proposed video game concept. The presentation is an opportunity for other teams to ask questions and provide feedback to help your team clarify and improve its proposed game concept.

Your team's presentation should include the following (in this order):

1. Project Team: game's working title, team name, team members & their roles

2. Target Player Persona: Describe the persona for your game, including the targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

3. Premise: Briefly explain the game's premise — as well as its setting (game world), characters (player and non-player), and story (if applicable). Be sure to include concept sketches of the game world and characters.

4. Objective: Briefly explain the objectives of the game — as well as the conflicts that players will face. If helpful, include concept sketches.

5. Gameplay: Briefly explain how the game is played — as well as key gameplay features. If helpful, include concept sketches.

The presentation should have 5-12 slides and take about 5-10 minutes to deliver.

• Be sure to practice your presentation before delivering it to your class.

• Be sure to record notes on the constructive feedback your team receives.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's slide presentation