SiSSYFiGHT%203000

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SiSSYFiGHT 3000
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Overview

• SiSSYFiGHT simulates a playground fight between
  little girls.

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Overview

• Each girl begins with 10 Self-Esteem chips
• and the goal of the game is to reduce your
  opponents self-esteem to ZERO!

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Overview

• When there are only one or two players left with
  any self-esteem, they win the game!

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Setup

• Each player starts with
• 1. Three Action cards
• 2. Six Target cards, 1 No Target card
• 3. Ten chips.
• Everyone should pick one of the six colors.

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Each Round

• Choose an Action and Target in secret.
• Reveal cards simultaneously
• Resolve actions
• All communication must be public.
• When you run out of chips, youre out.
• When one or two people are left, they win.

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Actions

• Solo
• Target discards one chip.
• Team
• If anyone else teams against this target, she
  discards two chips per attacking player.
• Defend
• Not an attack choose No Target as your
  target.
• If no one targets you lose one chip.
• Else, lose half the chips required (round down).
  

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Coffee Break at 1100

• Play until then
• Pick a different classroom
• 3001
• 3003
• 3005

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General Observations?
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Whats fun about SiSSYFiGHT?

• What kinds of fun did you experience?
• Can we get more specific than fun?

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Whats fun about SiSSYFiGHT?

• What kinds of fun did you experience?
• Can we get more specific than fun?
• Intrigue Negotiation, Cooperation, Betrayal
• Challenge Tactics, Problem Solving
• Drama

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How do we get from

• Cards
• Chips
• Rules

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To

• Intrigue
• Challenge
• Drama

• Cards
• Chips
• Rules

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Whats missing?
Rules
Fun
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The causal link
Rules
Fun
Behavior
This is what sets games apart
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Games As Software
Rules
Fun
Behavior
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Games As Software
Rules
Fun
Behavior
Code
Requirements
Process
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A Design Vocabulary
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A Design Vocabulary
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A Design Vocabulary
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The MDA Framework
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Definitions

• Mechanics The rules and concepts that formally
  specify the game-as-system.
• Dynamics The run-time behavior of the
  game-as-system.
• Aesthetics The desirable emotional responses
  evoked by the game dynamics.

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The Designer/Player Relationship
?
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The Players Perspective
Mechanics
Aesthetics
Dynamics
?
Player
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The Designers Perspective
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Understanding Aesthetics

• We need to get past words like fun and
  gameplay.
• What kinds of fun are there?
• How will we know a particular kind of fun when
  we see it?

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Eight Kinds of Fun
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation

Game as art object
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy

Game as make-believe
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative

Game as unfolding story
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge

Game as obstacle course
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship

Game as social framework
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship
• Discovery

Game as uncharted territory
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship
• Discovery
• Expression

Game as soap box
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Eight Kinds of Fun

• Sensation
• Fantasy
• Narrative
• Challenge
• Fellowship
• Discovery
• Expression
• Submission

Game as mindless pastime
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Clarifying Our Aesthetics
Charades is fun Counter-Strike is fun Final
Fantasy is fun
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Clarifying Our Aesthetics
Charades is Fellowship, Expression,
Challenge Counter-Strike is Challenge, Sensation,
Competition, Fantasy Final Fantasy is Fantasy,
Narrative, Expression, Discovery, Challenge,
Masochism
Each game pursues multiple aesthetics. Again,
there is no Game Unified Theory.
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Clarifying Our Goals

• As designers, we can choose certain aesthetics as
  goals for our game design.
• We need more than a one-word definition of our
  goals.

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Formulating an Aesthetic Model

• For each aesthetic goal
• Write a formal definition
• List criteria for success
• List modes of failure
• Serves as an aesthetic compass
• These are often reusable

Some examples
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Goal Competition

• Definition A game is competitive if players are
  emotionally invested in defeating each other.
• Success
• Players are adversaries.
• Players want to win.
• Failure
• A player feels that he cant win.
• A player cant measure his progress.

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Goal Pirate Fantasy

• Definition A pirate fantasy conforms to the
  genre conventions of pirate movies, and permits
  the player to engage in certain kinds of
  anti-social pirate behavior.

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Goal Pirate Fantasy

• Definition A pirate fantasy conforms to the
  genre conventions of pirate movies, and permits
  the player to engage in certain kinds of
  anti-social pirate behavior.
• Success
• Empowerment
• Independence
• Greed
• Treachery
• Prey upon Weak

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Goal Pirate Fantasy

• Definition A pirate fantasy conforms to the
  genre conventions of pirate movies, and permits
  the player to engage in certain kinds of
  anti-social pirate behavior.
• Success
• Empowerment
• Independence
• Greed
• Treachery
• Prey upon Weak

• Failure
• Vulnerability
• Compassion
• Generosity

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Goal Drama

• Definition A game is dramatic if
• Its central conflict creates dramatic tension.
• The dramatic tension builds towards a climax.

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Goal Drama

• Success
• A sense of uncertainty
• A sense of inevitability
• Tension increases towards a climax
• Failure
• The conflicts outcome is obvious (no
  uncertainty)
• No sense of forward progress (no inevitability)
• Player doesnt care how the conflict resolves.

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Aesthetics of SiSSYFiGHT

• Fellowship Negotiation, Cooperation, Betrayal
• Challenge Tactics, Problem Solving
• Narrative Drama

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Understanding Dynamics

• What about the games behavior can we predict
  before we go to playtest?
• How can we explain the behavior that we observe?

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Formalizing Game Dynamics
Input
Output
Rules
(Player)
State
(Graphics/Sound)
The State Machine Model
Examples Chess, Counter-Strike
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Models of Game Dynamics

• Again, no Grand Unified Theory
• Instead, a collection of many Dynamic Models.
• Dynamics models are analytical in nature.

Some examples
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Example Random Variable

• This is a model of 2d6

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Example Feedback System

• A feedback system monitors and regulates its own
  state.

An Ideal Thermostat
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Example Operant Conditioning

• The player is part of the system, too!
• Psychology gives us models to explain and predict
  the players behavior.

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Where Models Come From

• Analysis of existing games
• Other Fields
• Math, Psychology, Engineering
• Our own experience

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Dynamics of SiSSYFIGHT
On to Mechanics...
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Understanding Mechanics

• Theres a vast library of common game mechanics.

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Examples

• Cards
• Shuffling, Trick-Taking, Bidding
• Shooters
• Ammunition, Spawn Points
• Golf
• Sand Traps, Water Hazards

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Mechanics of SiSSYFiGHT

• Turn-based
• Hit Points
• Public Communication
• Simultaneous Action

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Mechanics vs. Dynamics

• Theres a grey area
• Some behaviors are direct consequences of rules.
• Others are indirect.
• Dynamics usually means the latter.
• Dynamics and Mechanics are different views of
  games.
• Dynamics emerge from Mechanics.

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MDA

• A Taxonomy of Design Knowledge
• Aesthetics
• Dynamics
• Mechanics
• and the interactions between them.

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MDA in SiSSYFiGHT

• Simultaneous turns attack actions ?

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MDA in SiSSYFiGHT

• Simultaneous turns attack actions ?

Competition, Random Attacks
Equality
Scourge
Cooperation, Team Attacks
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MDA in SiSSYFiGHT

• Simultaneous turns attack actions ?

Competition, Random Attacks
Equality
Scourge
Cooperation, Team Attacks
? Betrayal!
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SiSSYFiGHT Fiction

• Does SiSSYFiGHT do a good job of conveying its
  subject matter?
• How can it do better?

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SiSSYFiGHT Fiction

• What other fictional genre or subject matter
  could the mechanics of SiSSYFiGHT simulate?

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Exercise

• Choose a fictional genre and/or setting that
  might fit this game.
• Adapt the game to your chosen subject matter.
• Keep in mind the aesthetic qualities we
  identified in the breakdown.
• How can the rules of the game be changed to best
  support your fiction?

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Brainstorming

• Everyone Grab a Sticky Pad

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When I Say Go

1. You will have 90 seconds.
2. Write down as many genre ideas as you can.
3. One to a sticky note.
4. Keep it Short (? 5 words)
5. No idea is too dumb.
6. Work in silence.

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Ready?

• Go!

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Pens Down!

• With your group
• Get on your feet!
• Find some wall space
• Stick your ideas to the wall
• Put like ideas together
• Look for critical mass
• Narrow down a fiction to work on.

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• When your group has picked a subject,
• you are free to go to lunch.
• Feel free to get started on your design.
• Dont forget to sign up for an elective.
• We will reconvene at 200.

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Welcome Back!

• Youve chosen a setting or fiction for
  SiSSYFiGHT.
• Adapt the game to your chosen subject matter.
• Keep in mind the aesthetic qualities we
  identified at the beginning.
• How can the rules of the game be changed to best
  support your fiction?

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Discussion

• Lets compare solutions. What different
  approaches did we take?

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Discussion

• How did the game dynamics support your subject
  matter?
• Were the game dynamics and the subject matter
  ever in conflict?
• How did your choice of subject matter influence
  your process?

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Any Final Observations?
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Coffee!

• After the break, go to your Elective A room
• World of Randomness 3001
• World of Creativity 3003
• World of Rulecraft 3005

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Elective B

• Us vs. It 3001
• Cart Before Horse 3003
• 3 Musketeers 3005