Writing for Games

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Writing for Games

• Lynne Hall, Susan Jones

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What we will look _at_
1. Game Genres
2. Game Design Cycle
3. Early Days Techniques
4. Your Game
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Game Genres
Simulation
Strategy
Puzzle
Action
Ages of Empire
World of Warcraft
SIMS 2
Tetris
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Game Design Cycle
Ideas
Research
Testing
Graphics
Programming
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Ideas Research (Writer)

• Very first ideas about what the game will be.
• Action?
• Strategy?
• Life-like?
• Sports
• Research
• Has it been done before?
• Intuitively is it going to work?

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Concept Design (Graphic designer)

• Ideas turned into pictures
• Concept Art

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Modelling/Texturing (Graphic Designer)

• Levels and Characters modelled in 3D
• Pictures put on the models to make them more
  detailed.

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Programming (coders)

• Programmers (coders) write the software to make
  the graphics work together

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Testing (players)

• Testers play the game
• Look for problems (bugs)
• Make sure the game isnt too easy or too hard

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Starting to create games

• Beginning to write

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Generating Ideas

• Who?
• Using what?
• About what?

Morphological Analysis Sticky Notes Activity
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Creating Objectives

• Objective is always to create an enjoyable game
  that players want to play
• What does winning mean?
• Needs
• Approach
• Benefits
• Competition

Game Value Proposition Sticky Notes Activity
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Creating Worlds

• Set the scene
• What are the key features of the world?
• Weather
• Geography
• Political Systems
• What happens in this world?
• War, chaos, harvesting crops, building cities
• Who lives there?
• Personas
• What do they look like
• Creating models / diagrams / figures
• Why do they look like that?

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Examples of design
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Creating Storyboards

• Just like a comic strip
• Frames depicting
• What is happening in the game
• Main tasks and activities
• What players can do
• Does not have to be 2D
• Link frames if part of a story line

Storyboarding Activity
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Next Steps

• Work on your game ideas
• Provide them in a way that other people can
  understand
• Try your ideas out with players
• If they like it, keep going
• If they dont work out why
• Play games