My approved proposal to "The Videogame Cultures Project: 7th Global Meeting" (Oxford, UK)

Observing iterative design on the mobile indie game Dominaedro

Author:
M.A. Vicente M. Mastrocola (Postgraduate Research student and graduation level teacher at ESPM/São Paulo, Brazil; vincevader@gmail.com)

Smartphones and tablets are leading sales of electronic devices around the world, and became a rich field to explore gaming initiatives. Mobile media created a ludic ecosystem in which large publishers and small studios coexist; the new ways of digital content distribution allowed a gaming market with big productions and indie experiments to live in the same platforms. In this scenario, we seek to analyze a development process involving an independent Brazilian mobile game named Dominaedro, launched by Ludofy Studio in 2014.

Our focus in this work will be to discuss iterative design – a design methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analyzing, and refining a work in progress. In this context, we understand iterative design as a methodological tool to create a game. We intend to observe this kind of developing process, giving emphasis to the analogical prototyping phase that gives us some feedbacks from the beta-testing players, like in a qualitative research. Finally, we present the importance of the iterative design to quality assurance in the digital version of the game.

Data collected through 20 beta testing sessions showed the importance of iterative process to improve a gaming experience and to facilitate the production of the digital product. Based on this content we will demonstrate the whole process of creating a mobile game – from the idea, passing through the prototypes, until the final version.

We conclude highlighting the current tendency to create indie games using accurate design methodologies to gain audience in a very competitive scenario, and how indie games could be a learning point for aspirational game designers and small publishers; we will also emphasize the importance of using digital social networks and specialized media to publish and support an independent game.

Keywords: entertainment, mobile, iterative process, Dominaedro, indie game, Brazil

How gamification works wonders for work-life balance

Source: HP

The core structure of a QUEST

Today’s post is about one of my favorite subjects: quest design. A good quest could create immersion and, consequently, an emotional attachment in players. In order to discuss the creative process of quests in games, we will bring some ideas from Jeff Howard (2008) from the book “Quests: design, theory, and history in games and narratives” (one reading that I strongly recommend for all game researchers).

I’ll try to synthetize some nuclear thoughts from Howard in this post. First of all: the space where the quest happens is fundamental to merge the player’s imagination with the narrative. Space for quests should be fantastic (an alien world, a steam punk city), dreamlike (the oneiric realm of Bloodborne, the mysterious ambient of Back to Bed), allegorically arranged to convey ideas through their layout (puzzle games), organized to create a sense of progression through difficult ascent, and labyrinthine (HOWARD, 2008, p.50).



To construct the spaces of the quest is essential to keep in mind some considerations: embedded meaning (allied with plot, narrative etc.), a balance between challenging obstacles and exploration and a sense of progression, and the organization of spaces according to “quest hubs” (HOWARD, 2008, p.58).

After the definition of a space for the quest (based on a previous narrative) it’s very important to tune the characters with the objects of the quest, creating challenging situations. In the Batman’s game, Arkham Asylum, the player wears the hero’s cape to fight the Joker as a final threat. The main narrative has the Joker as the final challenge and, stage-by-stage, there are other villains to stop (Scarecrow, Crocodile, Poison Ivy). For players who want a more immersive challenge, there are a great number of side quests to face: Riddler’s trophies hidden in the scenario, mysterious inscriptions with the diary of Amadeus Arkham and many more.

In games like Arkham Asylum, the balance between main quests and side quests creates an experience for different kinds of players. Some will try to end the game through the main line. Others will finish the game looking for each hidden element in the stages. Think quests for the videogame’s platforms are a challenging exercise and Howard’s book helps us structure this kind of thought more precisely.

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Reference:

HOWARD, Jeff. Quests: design, theory, and history in games and narratives. Wellesley: A K Peters, 2008.

Player interaction patterns

Today we have an excellent image to understand the complexes video games ecosystems and the multifaceted relationship between players and games (FULLERTON; SWAIN; HOFFMAN, 2008, p.52). We can bring some interesting examples to our discussion: single player vs. game (Super Contra); multiple individual players vs. game (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade); player vs. player (Mortal Kombat - versus mode); unilateral competition (Evolve - one monster vs. four hunters); multilateral competition (multiplayer games like Quake); cooperative play (Pandemic board game); team competition (Soccer).

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Reference:

FULLERTON, Tracy; SWAIN, Christopher; HOFFMAN, Steven. Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008.

A qualitative approach for gaming research

As a game designer, I always try to understand methods and practices that can help me in the developing process of a ludic interface. The iterative design - based on creating, testing, modifying and recreating until reaching an error-free product - is a methodological approach that allows excellent hybridizations with other research methods. In my last two projects, I tried to establish a qualitative interview during the iterative process with different players, to discover the potentialities and faults of my game.



Organizing a dialogue between different kinds of players is an inspirational key to open new passages in the game design process. Some feedbacks from players in interviews are fundamental guides to improve the game’s mechanics, dynamics, narrative and layout.

In this context, it’s always essential to remember that “videogames are fundamentally interactive, relying on communication between the player and their character, the player and the content, and even players with one another” and it’s crucial to ponder that “while games are developed in a studio, at least part of their meaning and significance is created at the moment of play and through the people who play them” (COTE; RAZ, p.93, 2015).

The qualitative method is one of many good ways to understand the creation of meaning and significance in a gaming interface. To conduct a quali interview, it’s necessary to have a good script with clear objects imbricated in the questions. Cote and Raz (2015, p.104) teach us how to write a very intuitive qualitative interview guide, adapted for a gaming universe:

1. Create an introductory script to open the interview and remind the study goals;
2. Warm-up questions to put the participant at ease and build rapport. Some examples that the authors use are “How long have you been playing videogames for?” and “What’s one of your favorite gaming memories?”
3. Substantive questions to collect deeper data that answers the research questions. This part is nuclear in the interview, here you will ask player’s feedbacks about gaming interface, mechanics and other aspects;
4. Demographic questions to gather data needed to describe participants in the final research report.

Applying qualitative process with iterative design is a great challenge for game designers. It requires more and more studies to generate better practices in our field. About this subject, I strongly recommend the second part of this Game Research Methods book.

#GoGamers

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Reference:

COTE, Amanda; RAZ, Julia. In-depth interviews for game research. . IN: LANKOSKI, Petri; BJÖRK, Staffan (Eds.). Game research methods: an overview. Halifax: ETC Press, 2015. p.93-117.

Call for papers: 9th International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games

An excellent opportunity for game researches. This year’s conference is devoted to the philosophical exploration of how meaning phenomena contribute to the nature as well as the socio-cultural role of computer games. Click here for more information.



#GoGamers

Space disaster

From The Perry Bible Fellowship.