La Estructura Profunda de los Juegos

The Deep Structure of Games

Who I am: a game designer. Videogames, online role playing games, board games. Occasionally, a writer.

A little book

Games and academia

What is a game?

Who plays?

Games

Your brain lies to you We "see" things we cannot see We fail to see things right in front of us We see more than we think It's hard to actually see the world We live asleep, using patterns we have learned

Games are practice for real challenges

And how do they work?

Art

Art

Art

Music

Music

The natural world

The Golden Section

Games are models

Interaction is conversation "A cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak." - Chris Crawford

The parts: Rules, Challenges, Controls, Results

Challenges: reaction time, trajectory calculation, resource usage, graph analysis, measuring influence (power projection), estimating probability

Control: A physical action. Control alias: the recommended input. Command: entered to the system. Command table: mapping to algorithm. Simulation: state change resulting from command. Answer (feedback): enemy turn (variable feedback) Delta: Sign last command was received Total state: given imperfect information Feedback encoding: info packets Graphical display: change info into infographics Mental model: in the user's head

Fun Hard, Easy, Physical, Social

Fractal games

Competitive games

Parallel games

Symmetrical games

Asymmetrical games

Territory: topology

Preparation: You must prepare before the challenge This should be fun in its own right It should be possible to prepare in different ways All previous turns should matter

Skill A verb that can be repeated Which improves with practice Which has variation

Challenges One verb, many challenges, many situations

Choices The user can decide how to solve the problem (if there's only one possible answer, it's a puzzle not a game)

Varied results There's a name for a guaranteed result

Boredom.

The best result: a bigger challenge

Risk: low risk activities for great results bore us. You have to pursue challenges at the margins of your ability.

Failing costs you. Fun and joy don't exist when there are no consequences.

In the end: game design is system and algorithm design. But like all forms of design, it isn't just programming. It is psychology, anthropology, art, science...

Are there implications for how we think, as human beings?