“Designers of games have occasionally expressed concern that “professional standards” be maintained by games to uphold the professional honor of this growing subdiscipline. Perhaps they mean that only “qualified” persons should design simulations and games. That may be, but one might just as well insist that only qualified persons write poetry, drama, and novels. I personally have confidence in the ability of games players, particularly those absolutely tough-minded subteenagers, to reject superficial, dull, and spurious games. Furthermore, games are even more effective as a learning mode when designing them than when playing them, so we should not deny even the least qualified student this learning experience because of fanciful ideas about expertise. Let gaming be pervasive, let it flourish in good forms and ill, and the best will emerge. This is no art of the experts but a universal language common to all cultures, ages and conditions.”
– Clark C. Abt (1987): ”Serious Games.” University Press of America, p.114
“The main normative roles identified by Conte and Castelfranchi are the following:
- Legislator, or Sovereign: the one who is entitled to issue a certain norm or a set of norms;
- Addressee: the one whom the norm refer to (explicitly or implicitly);
- Defender: the one who watches over the norm and checks it is enforced;
- Observer: the one who acknowledges and describes the norm.
All these roles are supposed to be necessary in any mature normative system (…)”
– Conte and Castelfranchi (1995, p. 84–85) in Fabio Paglieri (2005), “Playing By and With the Rules: Norms and Morality in Play Development”
“There is magic in games. Not magic like a Level 19 fireball spell is magic. Not
the kind of magic you get when you purchase a trick in a magic store. And not the kind of mystical experience that organized religion can go on about. No, games are magic in the way that first kisses are magic, the way that finally arriving at a perfect solution to a difficult problem is magic, the way that conversation with close friends over good food is magic.
The magic at work in games is about finding hidden connections between things, in exploring the way that the universe of a game is structured. As all game players know, this kind of discovery makes for deeply profound experiences. How is it possible that the simple rules of chess and Go continue to evolve new strategies and styles of play, even after centuries and centuries of human study? How is it that the nations of the entire world, and even countries at war with each other—at war!—can come together to celebrate in the conflict of sport? How do computer and video games, seemingly so isolating, pierce our individual lives and bring us together in play?
To play a game is to realize and reconfigure these hidden connections – between units on a game board, between players in a match, between life inside the game and life outside – and in so doing, create new meaning. And if games are spaces where meaning
is made, game designers are the meta-creators of meaning, those who architect the spaces of possibility where such discovery takes place.”
– Eric Zimmerman (2008), Foreword to Tracy Fullerton “Game Design Workshop. A Playcentric Approach to create innovative Games.”
“One of the most difficult tasks people can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games.”
— C.G. Jung
“A game designer often looks at the world differently from most people. This is in part because of the profession and in part because the art of game design requires someone who is able to see and analyze the underlying relationships and rules of complex systems and to find inspiration for play in common interactions.
When a game designer looks at the world, he often sees things in terms of challenges, structures, and play. Games are everywhere, from how we manage our money to how we form relationships. Everyone has goals in life and must overcome obstacles to achieve those goals. And of course, there are rules. (…)
If you want to be a game designer, try looking at the world in terms of its underlying systems. Try to analyze how things in your life function. What are the underlying rules? How do the mechanics operate? Are there opportunities for challenge or playfulness? Write down your observations and analyze the relationships. You’ll find there is potential for play all around you that can form the inspiration for a game. You can use these observations and inspirations as foundations for building new types of gameplay.”
Tracy Fullerton (2008), “Game Design Workshop. A Playcentric Approach to creat innovative Games.” pp.7-8
“Paper prototypes can be a great tool for low-cost ideation and playtesting of game features or systems that would otherwise cost a lot more to develop in software. It’s much easier to justify spending the resources to realize a game in software after the game framework is developed and refined through more cost-effective means, such as analog prototypes.”
- Chris Plummer (EA) quoted in Tracy Fullerton (2008), “Game Design Workshop. A Playcentric Approach to creat innovative Games.” p.20
“Types of Players
After categorizing play itself, we can also identify the various types of players, each of whom comes to a game with different needs and agendas. Similar to the basic player types described by Richard Bartle (…), these categories address the pleasures of play from the point of view of the player.
- The Competitor: Plays to best other players, regardless of the game
- The Explorer: Curious about the world, loves to go adventuring; seeks outside boundaries – physical or mental
- The Collector: Acquires items, trophies, or knowledge; likes to create sets, organize history, etc.
- The Achiever: Plays for varying levels of achievement; ladders and levels incentivize the achiever
- The Joker: Doesn’t take the game seriously – plays for the fun of playing; there’s a potential for jokers to annoy serious players, but on the other hand, jokers can make the game more social than competitive
- The Artist: Driven by creativity, creation, design
- The Director: Loves to be in charge, direct the play
- The Storyteller: Loves to create or live in worlds
- of fantasy and imagination
- The Performer: Loves to put on a show for others
- The Craftsman: Wants to build, craft, engineer, or puzzle things out.”
– Tracy Fullerton (2008), “Game Design Workshop. A Playcentric Approach to creat innovative Games.” p.92
“I am amazed by the vast number of would-be game designers who whine that while they are brimming with great game design ideas, they lack the large team required to implement these ideas, and therefore they are unable to practice their craft.
This is nonsense of the highest order. A game is a game is a game. The design process for a board game, a card game, a dice game, a party game, or an athletic game is no different from the process of designing a video game. Further, a solo designer can fully develop working versions of these nonelectronic games in a relatively short time. Making and analyzing traditional games can often be far more instructive than trying to develop a fully functioning video game. You can learn much more about game design in a much shorter time, and you won’t have to concern yourself with the technical headaches and limitations involved with interactive digital media. If you really want to understand how to create good interactive entertainment, first study the classics, and then try to improve on them. Riddles, crossword puzzles, chess, poker, tag, soccer, and thousands of other beautifully designed interactive entertainment experiences existed long before the world even knew what a computer was.
To sum up: New technologies allow us to mix together stories and games in interesting ways, but there are very few elements that are fundamentally new—most designs are simply new mixtures of well-known elements. If you want to master the new world of interactive storytelling, you would be wise to first under- stand the games and stories of old.”
– Jesse Schell in Tracy Fullerton (2008), “Game Design Workshop. A Playcentric Approach to creat innovative Games.” p.103
“Play as many games as you can. It’s research. It’s the only way you learn. You can’t design games in a vacuum, without knowing what has already been done, what’s worked, and what hasn’t worked. The idea for almost all games comes from other games. Sometimes you play a bad game with one good idea. Sometimes you play a good game and find a new twist to a good idea. Keep playing. Keep designing. Be confident, but remember that there is always more to learn.”
– Alan R. Moon in Tracy Fullerton (2008), “Game Design Workshop. A Playcentric Approach to create innovative Games.” p.142
“Game design is one of the most misused terms in use today. Some seek to learn game design, but learn game art instead. Still others learn pure programming. While programming and art are important fields and indeed incredibly important to digital games, game design is its own art form and has been around long before computers, polygons, and even the discovery of electricity.”
– Brenda Bratwaite and Ian Schreiber (2009), “Challenges for Game Designers”