Space of Possibility and Pacing in Casual Game Design - A PopCap Case Study by Marcos Venturelli
This article only really mentions 'Paceing' as a tool for designing games but within pace there is four core concepts to make it work well, these are Movement Impetus, Tension, Threat and Tempo.
Unfortunately he mostly quotes Davies' descriptions and adds a little extended bit of information on each but doesn't go into detail on the actual application of adding them to a game.
I did find this article very droll but here are descriptions of each of the concepts mentioned.
Movement Impetus: 'Movement Impetus, is the will or desire of a player to move forward through a level' [Davies 2009] is a quote Venturelli uses to start off his description of movement impetus but goes on to mention it is also about making 'advancement decisions', basically just the player actually choosing to continue playing the game.
Tension: This is the more atmospheric and personal version of threat. It can be altered by the music and the graphics but its more about the players personal feelings that they will fail.
Threat: This is the power struggle of the player vs the actual game mechanics and having to pull every trick out of the bag to beat it but also it relates to each life you have and the 'threat' that you will have to start the level over again. This goes hand in hand with tension as the threat alters the tension in every way, no threat = no tension, but tension does not really affect the threat.
Tempo: This is 'intensity' of the game and how quick the decision making in the game should be, Venturelli mentions this affects the fun of the game. I don't think this is always the case.
Formal Abstract Design Tools, a Gamasutra feature by Doug Church
Church has a different way of looking at 'Design Tools' for computer games, which he calls 'FADT' Formal Abstract Design Tools.
These are Intention, Perceivable Consequence and Story.
Intention: 'Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options' as Church puts it.
Basically its the choices that the player makes when playing the game, i think this covers both Movement Impetus and also Tempo mentioned by Venturelli, as if you choose to carry on moving on with the game the tempo is also affected.
Perceivable Consequence: 'A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player' is the main quote to sum up Church's view.
I think this covers both what Venturelli calls Tension and Threat but it could also affect Tempo as more time would be needed to decide how to take a big boss down if you really think he can kill you in one hit.
In an ideal world I think that everything in a game should affect the player but should also let the player affect the game world.
Story: 'The narrative thread, whether designer-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward completion of the game.' This is the only direct quote to use for Church's view but he also mention a lot about the player-driven side of it, for example in sports games and not just designer-driven stories in the very linear ludus style games, for example sometimes if i get an easy win on a fighting game i set myself of finishing it in a very stylish or spectacular way and that's where the 'Story' for me starts and not at the beginning of the fight.
I would say that Church's view of story would include everything the Venturelli considers as Pace. as movement impetus, tension, threat and tempo all are needed to make the story and indeed a game worth bothering with, at least in my opinion
These are Intention, Perceivable Consequence and Story.
Intention: 'Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options' as Church puts it.
Basically its the choices that the player makes when playing the game, i think this covers both Movement Impetus and also Tempo mentioned by Venturelli, as if you choose to carry on moving on with the game the tempo is also affected.
Perceivable Consequence: 'A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player' is the main quote to sum up Church's view.
I think this covers both what Venturelli calls Tension and Threat but it could also affect Tempo as more time would be needed to decide how to take a big boss down if you really think he can kill you in one hit.
In an ideal world I think that everything in a game should affect the player but should also let the player affect the game world.
Story: 'The narrative thread, whether designer-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward toward completion of the game.' This is the only direct quote to use for Church's view but he also mention a lot about the player-driven side of it, for example in sports games and not just designer-driven stories in the very linear ludus style games, for example sometimes if i get an easy win on a fighting game i set myself of finishing it in a very stylish or spectacular way and that's where the 'Story' for me starts and not at the beginning of the fight.
I would say that Church's view of story would include everything the Venturelli considers as Pace. as movement impetus, tension, threat and tempo all are needed to make the story and indeed a game worth bothering with, at least in my opinion
Venturelli is interested in the pacing of casual games and how the movement imputus usually makes for a quick tempo game. For this to happen decision making has to be kept relatively low and complexity introduced in stages. Not in one go.
ReplyDeleteThese are interesting reflections on the articles.
rob