Blog Post #2: How Can I Make Part of My Life A Fun Game, When My Life is ResidentSleeper? (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Introduction

In this blog post, I updated my personal list of “Points of Design Theory” to include 10 aspects. I also took one everyday occurrence in my life, and melded that with my Game Design points from my list.

My Super Awesome and Thought Out List of “What Makes a Game?”

1. Evokes emotion

I think games need to make the player feel something. This doesn’t necessarily mean games bring happiness/serotonin--in fact, I disagree with the statement that “games are supposed to be fun.” Games like This War of Mine (11 bit studios, 2014), Emily is Away (Seeley, 2015), and Coming Out Simulator (Case, 2014) aren’t intended to be “fun” or make the player smile; each game is meant to evoke emotion and make the player think deeply about its message. For example, This War of Mine’s intention is to make the player feel crushed and heartbroken because of its moral depths (Phillips, 2020); Coming Out Simulator shows the player the tough and crushing reality that LGBTQ+ kids face of not being accepted by homophobic parents (Zach, 2019). 

2. Interactivity

A game, by definition, must be interactive. Without an interactive aspect, a game would be no different than watching a movie or TV show.  A game must allow you, the player, to make at least one choice that affects an outcome of some sort (Extra Credits YT, 2013). For example, in games like League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009) or Valorant (Riot Games, 2020), it comes down to thousands of different choices in game that can determine a win or loss. Even simpler games like Monster Prom (Beautiful Glitch, 2018) have some form of a choice where you can pick which location you go to, and how you respond to bachelors/bachelorettes.

3. Mechanics

Mechanics are important to include in a game because they provide a construct of methods or rules designed for the player to interact with (Lake House Media, 2020). Without mechanics, there would be no interactivity in a game, and it would also become incredibly boring. An extremely cool and unique mechanic is the plug-in chips from Nier: Automata (Square Enix, 2017) that boost defense, speed, attack power, etc. as well as changes your games HUD (map, health bar, damage numbers, etc).

4. Goal

A goal or objective is needed for a game to be a game. This is not to be confused with a win/loss state, as they are two different things; games like Minecraft (Mojang Studios, 2009) and Pokemon (Nintendo) have goals, but no W/L states. The goal is the object of the player’s effort, and every game has a (or multiple!) goal, no matter how simple or complex the game is. The goal of mancala is to have more stones than the opponent; the goal of Kingdom Hearts (Square Enix) is to seal keyholes restore peace to every realm (Delong, 2017). 

5. Ruleset

Every playable game has a ruleset that must be followed to play a game. Otherwise, it just turns into Calvinball, a “game” with no rules and every rule (Watterson, 1985). With no rules that the player is required to follow, a game will quickly fall apart.

6. Narrative/lore

I’m personally a huge sucker for any lore or story in a game. It makes the characters and the world feel more 3-dimensional and realistic. It gives a player the possibility of relating to the characters and empathizing with them. For example, Life is Strange (Square Enix, 2015) has an exceptional way of connecting its characters and world to players (Hajnosz, 2018), which is part of what makes the game so damn good. Even League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009), which does not primarily focus on lore in the game itself, has a lot of rich narrative storytelling behind the scenes.

7. Aesthetic

        A game must have a certain ‘aesthetic’ or design that makes it stand out from other games. If a game had 20 different art styles applied to it, the game would be a huge eyesore and would turn many players away from it from the start. Don’t Starve Together (Klei, 2014) is an excellent example of a consistent aesthetic that accurately displays the tone of the game (Kurtblancaflor, 2016).

8. Environment

        One thing I noticed about the games that I play is that they all have a really detailed and/or cool environment to explore. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with aesthetic; however, the game's aesthetic is what initially catches my attention, whereas the game's environment keeps me coming back for more. A game with a really beautiful environment is Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, 2016). The world of Pelican Town is constantly changing, and is full of secrets and Easter Eggs just waiting to be discovered (Resuli, 2020).

9. Sound Design

        Without any sound, a game will feel breathless, plastic, and unfinished at times, too. Sound design is incredibly important and can make or break a game. Take Dark Souls 3 (FromSoftware, 2016), for example. There's no music until bosses, so the player hears all of the environment sounds: cavernous cliff winds, distant shuffles of footsteps, chanting of priests, whispers of shadow mages, everything. Every enemy has a different "sound" to them, and many fans can tell exactly where and what a player is fighting just from the audio (McGee, 2017).

10. Pacing

        The pace of a game is important so the player does not feel like they got barely any playable content, or that the game drags out for so long that it isn't fun. There's nothing necessarily wrong with a super short or super long game, however, the developers of the game must make sure that the pacing matches the content of the game. An example of a game that does this well is Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (Monolith Soft, 2003); the game has over 100+ hours of content, but the rich storyline, art, and character development makes the player come back for more, and it doesn't feel like a chore to play through the game.

My “Everyday Activity” Game

Man, I’m so thankful for having an actual kitchen this year; it’s so nice to be able to cook every day, whether it’s for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a small snack in between. (I just need to flex, that I cooked a lot of spaghetti two nights ago, and I haven’t had such good Italian food in a long time. *muah* chefs kiss)

I choose cooking to turn into an “everyday activity” game because there are actually a lot of aspects to it that are similar to a game. 

Cooking doesn’t necessarily evoke emotion by itself. However, it can be a hobby that a person is super passionate about, or an outlet for emotions. In a cooking game, the story and narrative can be used to invoke emotion. An example of this would be that the main character used to cook with their mother when they were a child. Their mother’s dream was always to open a restaurant, but the mother died before she could see her dream through, and the game follows the character through as they attempt to bring her ambition to life.

There’s many different aspects to learn when learning how to cook, such preparation, seasoning, cooking times, plating/presentation, etc. These could be similar to mechanics in a game. The player could interact with ingredients and kitchen gadgets, such as knives, spatulas, whisks, tongs, etc. to cook the food properly (or just completely butcher or burn it). They could also interact with the cooked meal and plate it to how they see fit.

The goal of the game would be to increase the player’s cooking skills by “levelling up”. The player would start at LVL 1: Novice Cook, and work their way up titles such as Amateur Cook, Personal Chef, Sous Chef, Executive Chef, and more (The Morning Advertiser, 2020). The more the player cooks, the better their skills would get, as long as they cook it properly: a rule would be that if the player burns the food or makes a less-than-satisfactory dish, their rating would go down. The ways to create a bad dish would include, but not be limited to: seasoning the dish improperly, destroying ingredients (ex. mashing an onion instead of finely dicing)

The aesthetic would come from the style of the environment and food itself. Since I would want this cooking game to have a heartwarming narrative and follow the player’s journey, the environment would include warm colors and feel inviting and fun! I’d imagine the food to be something like this (full credits to the artist Vanillain, their 3D work in Blender is phenomenal and inspiring!) The sound design of the game would reflect the art style, and I’d imagine it would be cheerful and bright, but it would be faint background music, similar to Neopolitan Dreams from LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule, 2008).

The pacing would be tough to nail down, as it cannot be too tedious or time consuming for the player to get to the final stage of owning a successful restaurant. Otherwise, the player would get bored or frustrated, and stop playing the game. I think that they should proceed through the beginning levels fairly quickly, but then each level requires more mastery and progress to proceed to the next level. This would be similar to how player level would work in MMOs and MOBAs.