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Neil - Katharine - Game Design - Tools

Game design tools help designers solve problems without building full games by providing conceptual models, notation systems, and software to support early-stage design thinking. Common tools include Machinations for modeling game systems, Articy:Draft for narrative and quest design, and Progressimo for progression planning. While tools have limitations, using a "toolbox" approach and combining tools with other methods like prototyping can help designers visualize complex designs and learn new perspectives.

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38 views30 pages

Neil - Katharine - Game Design - Tools

Game design tools help designers solve problems without building full games by providing conceptual models, notation systems, and software to support early-stage design thinking. Common tools include Machinations for modeling game systems, Articy:Draft for narrative and quest design, and Progressimo for progression planning. While tools have limitations, using a "toolbox" approach and combining tools with other methods like prototyping can help designers visualize complex designs and learn new perspectives.

Uploaded by

vamicot
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Game design tools

For when spreadsheets and flowcharts


aren’t enough

Katharine Neil
Independent developer
What are game design tools?
Game design tools help you solve design problems without
having to build playable experiences in order to test out your
ideas.
● Conceptual models, notation systems, software tools
● We generally don’t use them!
● We’ve been working on this problem for a while…
(See “Formal Abstract Design Tools”, Doug Church, Game
Developer Magazine, 1999)
Design tools Production tools
● Main goal: support thinking ● Main goal: support production
● Support ambiguous, evolving ● Create usable, bug free assets
ideas
● Technical mistakes and logical
● Unresolved conflicts and issues errors break things
are expected
● Messy, visual ● Clean, optimal, efficient
● Support an anarchic, even ● Easy to measure and
private process (like a demonstrate progress and
designer’s notebook) outcomes
● “But how does this help us build ● Make sense to programmers
the game?” <– wrong question and producers
Tools we typically use for game design
● Documenting
● GDDs, spreadsheets, flowcharts, diagrams
● Prototyping and iterative development
● Player metrics
What design tools can help with
● System design and balancing
● Narrative design
● Progression design
● Level and mission design
● Design for procedural content generation
Game design tools you can use now
Machinations
● Notation system for modelling
game systems

● Models game economies as


resource flows

● Provides interactive simulation


of game dynamics
Prototype
Machinations
model
Machinations is useful for:
● Modelling, balancing systems – especially for games with emergent dynamics
● Quickly sketching out ideas
● Analysing, learning from other games

Limitations:
● Not suited to data-heavy, scripted gameplay
● Can’t factor in « game feel » or topography

Where to get it:


● http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/
Book: “Game Mechanics: Advanced Design”, Adams & Dormans
Articy:Draft
● Narrative design and mission
design
● Flow diagram-style interface
supports branching, graph-
based, nested structures
● Also serves as an authoring tool
Articy:Draft is useful for…
● Writers who want a tool like Scrivener – but for games
● Organising and visualising design and narrative materials
● Narrative-based, dialog-heavy games

Limitations
Heavily tailored towards RPGs, adventure games

Where to get it
http://www.nevigo.com
Skill atoms
● A diagramming system

● A skill atom describes how the


player gains a new skill

● A skill chain describes the


evolution of the player’s skill
set

● Progression design using the


lens of player skills
Skill atoms are useful for…
● Focusing on player experience
● Onboarding/scaffolding

Limitations
● Skill chain graphs can become large, hard to read/use

Where to get it
● Read the article here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/129948/the_chemistry_of_ga
me_design.php
Game design tools of the future:

“Mixed initiative” (procedural


content generation and AI-
assisted) design tools
The Sentient Sketchbook
● AI-assisted top-down sketching of
game levels – particularly strategy
game maps
● Place bases, resources, rough collision
scene, goals
● Evaluates maps for player balance
and gameplay pacing
● Shows navigable paths, choke points
● Fleshes out details and suggests
alternative designs while you sketch
The Sentient Sketchbook is useful for…
● The grey-boxing stage of level design
● Strategy games, FPS
Limitations
● Quite genre-specific
● Preset map sizes
● High level, approximate
Where to get it
http://www.sentientsketchbook.com/
Ludoscope ● AI-assisted mission and level
design
● Design-time procedural
generation with designer-
friendly approach
● Can transform abstract mission
structures into level designs
Ludoscope is useful for:
● Generating or fleshing out level designs
● Devising procedural level generation rules without scripting/code
● Freaky new ways to think about your level design process

Limitations
● Requires hard work in abstract thinking
● Can be challenging to figure out what to use it for
● Highly experimental and still in development

Where to get it
Ask Joris Dormans about beta testing: [email protected]
PCG-based level editor for the game Refraction
● Mixed-initiative design of puzzle game levels
● Computer-aided progression design
● Helps the designer (and the procedural
generation) stick to the progression rules and
structure they’ve defined
Refraction’s level editor is useful as:
● Proof of concept of how we can embed computational assistance
into level editing/world building tools

Limitations
• You can’t use it - it’s specifically for building Refraction game levels
• Built to handle design for a linear game with a small feature set

Where to read about it


https://adamsmith.as/papers/uist2013_progression.pdf
Let’s make design tools!
Progressimo
● Standalone progression
design environment
inspired by the Refraction
tool
● Branching and open-world
progression structures
● Calculates game state,
mission unlocking
● (Disclosure: I made this
tool!)
Progressimo is useful for:
● Progression-heavy games e.g. levels and missions, game-as-a-service,
adventure games, action RPGs, open world games
● Visualising and walking through missions and how they fit together in
the game
● High-level content planning for procedural generation
Limitations
● Not suitable for games where progression is driven primarily by
emergent system dynamics
Where to get it
● Contact me about joining the beta: [email protected]
Benefits of using game design tools
● Adds structure to a design process and makes
design visible
● Can provide a safe space in which to attempt
ambitious, complex designs
● Lessens design’s reliance on production
● Learn new ways of thinking that impact the way you
design even when you’re not using tools
Limitations and pitfalls
● Can take a while to learn and be hard to use
● Hard to tell what fun looks like in abstract form
● Not great for modelling game feel and interaction
● A tool acts like a filter on your ideas. It has its own agenda!
● False positives, false negatives (fun in the tool but not in the
game & vice versa)
Suggested approaches
Use a “toolbox” approach
● Have a range of tools to hand (no “one tool to rule them all”)

Use game design tools to complement


other methods
● For example, alongside prototyping (to tell you things a
prototype can’t tell you)
Example: Dan Cook’s design workflow
Ideation

Skill Concept
Machinations
atoms development
Identify problems Analyse
Prototype Playtest problems

Machinations
Skill
atoms
Fix problems
Example: Design workflow for platformer/RPG Wanderer
Concept & narrative • Storyboarding
Articy:Draft Quest ideas
development •

Game build

Production • Branching dialogue Data


• Interactions
• Quest structures
• Skill trees Gameplay logic
Articy:Draft • Item & character attributes (Lua scripts)
Example: Workflow for my top-down shooter
Level grammar

Level design
Progressimo Ludoscope
patterns & ideas

Prototyping and
hands-on level
design Procedurally-generated level design ideas
Thanks for listening!

[email protected]

@haikus_by_KN

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