games++

Guess what?  I'm participating in another game jam!  games++ is taking place near my stomping grounds this Saturday.  It's a ten hour jam hosted in the basement of a local art center.  Like Ludum Dare, there's a secret theme to be revealed the morning of the jam.  As such, participants are encouraged to show up with empty pockets having not done any preliminary work prior to the jam's start.  Including myself, a group of seven students from my university (many I've just met this semester) will be entering as a group to compete.  Taking the ten hour limit into consideration, our plan is to create a highly polished analog game - board, card, whatever - as opposed to a digital game.  You can be sure I'll post our results here next Tuesday.  Wish us luck!

Cheers,

Danny

Raph Koster

Here are my scribbles from Raph's talk Saturday night.  Personally, I feel the talk started a bit slow.  There was a lot of conversation about text-based MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon - had to look that one up afterwards) and other things that were either above or before me.  Once Raph got going though, the man practically exuded insight.

Without further ado (trouble or difficulty - had to look that one up too) and with sparse context, here's a haphazard and mostly nonsensical list of some genuinely interesting thoughts from an experienced (legendary, actually) game designer:

• systems vs. story
• chess as a sandbox game - "explore the world"
• static storytelling (i.e. interactive movies)
• Raph studied English in college
• Who is Chris Crawford?
• MDA (mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics) framework
• "Rules of Play" - Eric Zimmerman
• "Chemistry of Game Design" - Dan Cook
• "Game Grammar" - Raph Koster
• formalism of game design
• Playdom - Raph's company
• formalism in game design as notation, akin to music notation
• verbs, objects, currency - game grammar; Raph creates this game grammar before he creates any prototypes
• curiosity - first common trait of the most bad ass game designers Raph knows
• both brained (meaning left- and right-brained) - second bad ass game designer trait
• Raph thinks we should reduce the role of narrative in games
• you've made it as a game designer when you can see nothing but the play of math underneath your game but at the same time, come to your game, forget how it all works, and see just the surface
• a classic liberal arts education is beneficial to aspiring game designers (take physics AND poetry)
• games driven by systems over narrative
• games designed to be replayed are more systems-driven
• Raph's favorite game of all time is Mule for the Atari 800 - "the most elegant multiplayer design ever"
• Raph still plays Joust on every available platform
• Raph advocates formalism in games
• when designing games, Raph focuses on creating the experience of the game before the systems of the game
• metaphor and mechanic
• What is the game about?  What is the surface experience of the game as well as the mechanical experience of the game?
• Clint Hocking
• ludonarrative dissonance (Bioshock has it)
• Harmonix's Rock Band vs. Amplitude (related to ludonarrative dissonance)
• beat matching on a plastic guitar made "no ludonarrative dissonance"

Some of the things I wrote down will never again make sense outside of the moment my pen hit the notebook.  Still, there are plenty of items here begging for investigation.  Rest assured that any and all sleuthing born from this talk will make its way onto this blog.

You can watch the entire talk here or here.

I included a bunch of Raph-related links at the end of a previous post.  Go there if you want to be transported to other nooks of the Web sprinkled with Koster.

Cheers,

Danny

Omaha Game Developers Association

Last Saturday I took a major step toward becoming active in the local game development scene: I attended my first Omaha Game Developers Association meeting.

The Omaha Game Developers Association is a local group that meets once-a-month to talk about game development - programming, design, art, sound, anything that relates to game dev.  There were nine of us there on Saturday, but I was told that these meetings have housed as many as 30 people in the past.  Just goes to show that no matter where you are or where your interests lie, it's always possible to surround yourself with like-minded individuals.  For me, these like-minded individuals were packaged and delivered straight to my door courtesy of the Omaha Game Developers Association.

We talked about the current projects people were working on, plans for future projects, necessary reading for game designers, psychology, and an armful of other topics I never thought about in the same space as games.  Last month, they watched Indie Game: The Movie together.  At other meetings, they've had professionals in the industry join the conversation via Skype.  Sometimes, they watch GDC lectures.  Some nights are demo nights.  There's a lot I hope to learn from these guys.

If you're interested, you can learn more about the Omaha Game Developers Association at their Website.

Something similar is bound to exist in your area.  It only took me a few Google searches to find the Omaha group.  If you try, I'm sure Google will show you the same kindness.

Can't wait for the next meeting!

Cheers,

Danny