MIT OpenCourseWare http ocw mit edu CMS 608 CMS 864 Game Design Spring 2008 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use visit http ocw mit edu terms CMS 608 12 February 2008 Notes by Clara Rhee Game History and Types of Fun In the past game history has consisted of lists of game platforms basically boring And then there s this elusive idea of fun the rules don t actually describe the kind of experience there are different types of fun The developers and players have very different perspectives like Course 6 vs CMS from the system vs from the aesthetics Game history as incremental evolution Let s examine matching tile games looked down upon in the game industry even in casual games but so popular First came Bejeweled then lots of clones Then Jewel Quest moderate innovation match on every tile 7 Wonders pass cornerstones through the playing field Da Vinci Code clear a path The family tree is quite complex SEE FAMILY TREE There s a limit to how complex difficult a casual game can get the casual game audience has less patience for a steep learning curve or complicated instructions Comparative game history Same Game vs Tetris the two roots of match 3 games What s still missing from the tree 3D competitive innovations after 2005 How do you determine what came first and what influenced what Example Zuma Puzzle Loop Luxor clones Developers want to be original but players think of all games as versions of each other Should games be innovative or familiar A mix One new thing at a time There have been very successful games that were entirely new concepts Katamari Sims EXERCISE make a game evolution tree Fun vs system Does knowing that Tetris is NP complete tell us anything useful What is a game The system the machinery or the emotions The MDA framework doesn t hold for card board games etc where the players must understand the mechanics first Maybe your design goals should be aesthetic I want the game to make the player feel there are many unpredictable types of fun How do you make a player cry not through frustration emotional development over time and effort expectations for emotional involvement
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