DTGD Unit 3

Design Thinking for Game Development 18CSE336T
UNIT 3
DESIGN THINKING FOR GAME

DEVELOPMENT
Dr. R. Rajkumar
Game world
The most important part of a game world is the story that is behind it and that holds it together.
When creating a game world it is often the best idea to start by creating a story for the world
and then building around it, or for instance, if you have some landmarks already set out, place
them down and then continue to build the world around it and connect all your world together
so it flows seamlessly. Within your game world, there should be regions and realms and they
should all be different from each other just like how we are surrounded by different counties
and everyone is different. Within your game, there should be different races and types of people
so it will feel like a fully functioning world.
What makes a game world
The things that make up a game world is what elements and assets you as the developer or
designer decide to put into your game, and then the story and lore that is behind it all. When
creating assets you need to create different levels of quality as not every person will have the
same hardware and be able to play the game at full quality “
Meigs, T. (2003)”
Immersion within a game world
One of the most important things within a game world is the immersion that the player feels
when they are playing the game. As a game designer or developer, you want the people playing
your game to be in love with it and for them to feel as if they are in the game world playing the
game. Some things that help the player stay immersed in the game is by having limited
interruptions so they are constantly playing the game rather than stopping and starting every
time they meet an NPC character for example you do not want to bore them with endless
dialogue. Game maps can also play a big hindrance on the immersion of a game world, if the
player gets lost and they have to keep pausing the game and search through a huge world map
on the menu screen they may lose interest as it can be a lot of information to process, one thing
that can help this is unlocking the world map in stages as the player progresses as they won’t
find a smaller world as daunting.
A game world is what you make it and it can be many things from a simple game on a piece of
paper or a very detailed 3D developed game. The most important element of a game world is
the story and lore that backs it up, without that there is no game world to play. It should take
lots of planning and preparation in the days/weeks it takes to plan out your game world and
once you have the story then get started with putting the building blocks in place and start
creating your world. Game worlds can be whatever you make it as long there is a story behind
it with a goal for the player then it is a game world.
The Dimensions of a Game World

Many different properties define a game's world. Some, such as the size of the world, are
quantitative and can be given numerical values. Others, such as the world's mood, are
qualitative and can only be described with words. Certain properties are related to one another,
and these groups of related properties are the dimensions of the game world. To fully define
your world and its setting, you need to consider each of these dimensions and answer certain
questions about them.
The Physical Dimension

Video game worlds are almost always implemented as some sort of simulated physical space.
The player moves his avatar in and around this space or manipulates other pieces or characters
in it. The physical properties of this space determine a great deal about the gameplay.
Even text adventures include a physical dimension. The player moves from one abstract
location, usually called a room even if it's described as outdoors, to another. Back when more
people played text adventures, the boxes the games came in used to carry proud boasts about
the number of rooms in the game. Gamers could take this as a very rough measure of the size
of the world they could explore in the game and, therefore, the amount of gameplay that the
game offered.
The physical dimension of a game is itself characterized by several different properties: spatial
dimensionality, scale, and boundaries.
Spatial Dimensionality
One of the first questions to ask yourself is how many spatial dimensions your physical space
will have. It is essential to understand that the dimensionality of the game's physical space is
not the same as how the game displays that space (the camera model) or how it implements the
space in the software. How to implement the space and how to display it are separate but related
questions. The former has to do with technical design, and the latter has to do with user
interface design. Ultimately, all spaces must be displayed on the two-dimensional surface of
the monitor screen.
These are the typical dimensionalities found in video games:
• 2D. A few years ago, the vast majority of games had only two dimensions. This
was especially noticeable in 2D side-scrolling games such as Super Mario
Bros.(see Figure 4.1). Mario could run left and right and jump up and down, but
he could not move toward the player (out of the screen) or away from him (into
the screen). Two-dimensional worlds have one huge advantage when you're
thinking about how to display them: The two dimensions of the world directly
correspond to the two dimensions of the monitor screen, so you don't have to worry
about conveying a sense of depth to the player. On the other hand, a number of
games with 2D game worlds still use 3D hardware accelerators for display so that
objects appear three-dimensional even though the gameplay does not use the third
dimension. Two-dimensional worlds may seem rather old-fashioned nowadays,
but there are still many uses for them in casual browser-based games and smaller
devices such as low-end mobile phones.
Figure 4.1 , the classic 2D side-scrolling game
• 2.5D, typically pronounced "two-and-a-half D." This refers to game worlds that
appear to be a three-dimensional space but in reality consist of a series of 2D
layers, one above the other. StarCraft, a war game, shows plateaus and lowlands,
as well as aircraft that pass over obstacles and ground units. The player can place
objects and move them horizontally within a layer with a fine degree of precision,
but vertically an object must be in one plane or another; there is no in-between.
Flying objects can't move up and down in the air; they're simply in the air layer
as Figure 4.2 depicts.
Figure 4.2 , with plateaus and lowlands visible
• 3D. Three true dimensions. Thanks to 3D hardware accelerators and modeling

tools, 3D spaces are now easy to implement on hardware that supports them. They
give the player a much greater sense of being inside a space (building, cave,
spacecraft, or whatever) than 2D spaces ever can. With a 2D world, the player
feels as if he is looking at it; with a 3D world, he feels as if he is in it. 3D worlds
are great for avatar-based games with exploration challenges, such as the Prince
of Persia series (see Figure 4.3). Most large games for personal computers and
consoles now use three dimensions, but many small casual games still need only
two.
Figure 4.3 a fully 3D environment
• 4D. If you want to include a fourth dimension for some reason (not counting time),
implement it as an alternate version of the 3D game world rather than an actual
four-dimensional space. In other words, create two (or more) three-dimensional
spaces that look similar but offer different experiences as the avatar moves among
them. For example, the Legacy of Kain series presents two versions of the same
3D world, the spectral realm and the material realm, with different gameplay
modes for each. The landscape is the same in both, but the material realm is lit by
white light while the spectral realm is lit by blue light, and the architecture is
distorted in the spiritual realm (see Figure 4.4). The actions available to the player
are different in each realm. The realms look similar but are functionally different
places governed by different laws. In the movie version of The Lord of the Rings,
the world that Frodo inhabits while he is wearing the Ring can be thought of as an
alternate plane of reality as well, overlapping the real world but appearing and
behaving differently.
Figure 4.4 's material (left) and spiritual (right) realms. Notice how the walls
are slightly twisted in the spiritual realm and the overlay indicator is different.
When you first think about the dimensionality of your game space, don't immediately assume
that you want it to be three-dimensional because 3D seems more real or makes the best use of
your machine's hardware. As with everything else you design, the dimensionality of your
physical space must serve the entertainment value of the game. Make sure all the dimensions
will contribute meaningfully. Many games that work extremely well in two dimensions don't
work well in three. Lemmings was a hit 2D game, but Lemmings 3D was nowhere near as
successful because it was much more difficult to play. The addition of a third dimension
detracted from the player's enjoyment rather than added to it.
Scale
Scale refers to both the absolute size of the physical space represented, as measured in units
meaningful in the game world (meters, miles, or light-years, for instance) and the relativesizes
of objects in the game. If a game is purely abstract and doesn't correspond to anything in the
real world, the sizes of objects in its game world don't really matter. You can adjust them to
suit the game's needs any way you like. But if you are designing a game that represents (if only
partially) the real world, you'll have to address the question of how big everything should be
to both look real and play well. Some distortion is often necessary for the sake of gameplay,
especially in war games; the trick is to distort the scale without harming the player's suspension
of disbelief too much.
In a sports game, a driving game, a flight simulator, or any other kind of game in which the
player expects a high degree of verisimilitude, you have little choice but to scale things to their
actual sizes. In old 2D sports games, it was not uncommon for the athletes to be depicted as 12
feet tall to make them more visible, but nowadays players don't tolerate a game taking such
liberties with reality. Serious simulations need to represent the physical world accurately.
Similarly, you should scale most of the objects in first-person games accurately. Fortunately,
almost all first-person games are set indoors or within limited areas, seldom larger than a few
hundred feet in any dimension, so this doesn't create implementation problems. Because the
player's perspective is that of a person walking through the space, objects need to look right for
their surrounding area. You might want to slightly exaggerate the size of critical objects such
as keys, weapons, or ammunition to make them more visible, but most things, such as doors
and furniture, should be scaled normally.
If you're designing a game with an aerial or isometric perspective, you might need to distort
the scale of things somewhat. The real world is so much larger and more detailed than a game
world that it's impossible to represent objects in their true scale in such a perspective. For
example, in modern mechanized warfare, ground battles can easily take place over a 20-mile
front, with weapons that can fire that far or farther. If you were to map an area this size onto a
computer screen, an individual soldier or even a tank would be smaller than a single pixel,
completely invisible. Although the display will normally be zoomed in on one small area of
the whole map, the scale of objects will have to be somewhat exaggerated so that the objects
are clearly identifiable on the screen.
Games frequently distort the relative heights of people and the buildings or hills in their
environment. The buildings are often only a little taller than the people who walk past them.
(See Figure 4.5 for an example.) To be able to see the roofs of all the buildings or the tops of
all the hills, the camera must be positioned above the highest point in the world. But if the
camera is positioned too high, the people are hardly visible at all. To solve this problem, the
game simply does not include tall buildings or hills and exaggerates the height of the people.
Because the vertical dimension is seldom critical to the gameplay in products such as war
games and role-playing games, it doesn't matter if heights are not accurate, as long as they're
not so inaccurate as to interfere with suspension of disbelief.
Figure 4.5 In the buildings are only a little taller than the people.
Designers often make another scale distortion between indoor and outdoor locations. When a
character walks through a town, simply going from one place to another, the player wants the
character to get there reasonably quickly. The scale of the town should be small enough that
the character takes only a few minutes to get from one end to another unless the point of the
game is to explore a richly detailed urban environment. When the character steps inside a
building, however, and needs to negotiate doors and furniture, you should expand the scale to
show these additional details. If you use the same animation for a character walking indoors
and outdoors, this will give the impression that the character walks much faster outdoors than
indoors. However, this seldom bothers players—they'd much rather have the game proceed
quickly than have their avatar take hours to get anywhere, even if that would be more accurate.
This brings up one final distortion, which is also affected by the game's notion of time (see the
section "The Temporal Dimension" later in this chapter), and that is the relative speeds of
moving objects. In the real world, a supersonic jet fighter can fly more than a hundred times
faster than an infantry soldier can walk on the ground. If you're designing a game that includes
both infantry soldiers and jet fighters, you're going to have a problem. If the scale of the
battlefield is suitable for jets, it will take infantry weeks to walk across; if it's suitable for
infantry, a jet could pass over it in the blink of an eye. One solution is to do what the real
military does and implement transport vehicles for ground troops. Another is simply to accept
a certain amount of distortion and create jets that fly only four or five times as fast as people
walk (StarCraft uses this trick). As long as the jet is the fastest thing in the game, it doesn't
really matter how much faster it is; the strike-and-retreat tactic that jets are good at will still
work. Setting these values is all part of balancing the game, as Chapter 9, "Gameplay,"
discusses in more detail.
Boundaries
In board games, the edge of the board is the edge of the game world. Because computers don't
have infinite memories, the physical dimension of a computer game world must have an "edge"
as well. However, computer games are usually more immersive than board games, and they
often try to disguise or explain away the fact that the world is limited to help maintain the
player's immersion.
In some cases, the boundaries of a game world arise naturally, and we don't have to disguise or
explain them. Sports games take place only in a stadium or an arena, and no one expects or
wants them to include the larger world. In most driving games, the car is restricted to a track
or a road, and this, too, is reasonable enough.
Setting a game underground or indoors helps to create natural boundaries for the game world.
Everyone expects indoor regions to be of a limited size, with walls defining the edges. The
problem occurs when games move outdoors, where players expect large, open spaces without
sharply defined edges. A common solution in this case is to set the game on an island
surrounded by water or by some other kind of impassable terrain: mountains, swamps, or
deserts. These establish both a credible and a visually distinctive "edge of the world."
In flight simulators, setting the boundaries of the world creates even more problems. Most
flight simulators restrict the player to a particular area of the real world. Because there are no
walls in the air, there's nothing to stop the plane from flying up to the edge of the game world;
when the player arrives there he can clearly see that there's nothing beyond. In some games,
the plane just stops there, hovering in midair, and won't go any farther. In Battlefield 1942, the
game tells the player that he has left the scene of the action and forcibly returns him to the
runway.
A common solution to the edge-of-the-world problem is to allow the flat world to "wrap" at
the top, bottom, and sides. Although the world is implemented as a rectangular space in the
software, objects that cross one edge appear at the opposite edge—they wrap around the world.
If the object remains centered on the screen and the world appears to move beneath it, you can
create the impression that the world is spherical. This is used to excellent effect in Bullfrog
Productions' game Magic Carpet. Maxis's Spore actually displays the world as a sphere on the
screen, not just a wrapping rectangle (see Figure 4.6).
Figure 4.6 Parts of are set on a genuinely spherical world.

Finally, you can solve the problem of boundaries by requiring the player to move among
defined locations. For example, you might let a player fly from planet to planet in the solar
system by clicking on the planet she wants to go to. The player cannot go beyond the boundary
of the solar system because there are no planets in interstellar space. The user interface for
movement creates a natural limit that requires no further explanation.
The Temporal Dimension

The temporal dimension of a game world defines the way that time is treated in that world and
the ways in which it differs from time in the real world.
In many turn-based and action games, the world doesn't include a concept of time passing: days
and nights or seasons and years. Everything in the world idles or runs in a continuous loop until
the player interacts with the game in some way. Occasionally, the player is put under pressure
by being given a limited amount of real-world time to accomplish something, but this usually
applies to only a single challenge and is not part of a larger notion of time in the game.
In some games, time is implemented as part of the game world but not part of the gameplay.
The passage of time creates atmosphere and gives the game visual variety, but it doesn't change
the game's challenges and actions. This usually feels rather artificial. If the player can do
exactly the same things at night that she can during the day and no one ever seems to sleep,
then there's little point in making the distinction. For time to really support the fantasy, it must
affect the experience in ways besides the purely visual.
Baldur's Gate, a large role-playing game, is a good example of a game in which time is
meaningful. At night, shops close and the characters in the game run an increased risk of being
attacked by wandering monsters. It's also darker and hard to see. Taverns are open all day and
all night, which is reasonable enough, but the customers don't ever seem to leave and the
bartender never goes off shift. In this way, the game's use of time is a little inconsistent, but the
discrepancy serves the gameplay well because you can always trade with the bartender and
pick up gossip no matter what time it is. The characters do need rest if they've been on the
march for a long while, and this makes them vulnerable while they're sleeping. In the
underground portions of the game, day and night have less meaning, as you would expect.
Variable Time
In games that do implement time as a significant element of the gameplay, time in the game
world usually runs much faster than in reality. Time in games also jumps (as it does in books
and movies), skipping periods when nothing interesting is happening. Most war games, for
example, don't bother to implement nighttime or require that soldiers get any rest. In reality,
soldier fatigue is a critical consideration in warfare, but because sleeping soldiers don't make
exciting viewing and certainly aren't very interactive, most games just skip sleep periods.
Allowing soldiers to fight continuously without a pause permits the player to play continuously
without a pause also.
The Sims, a game about managing a household, handles this problem a different way. The
simulated characters require rest and sleep for their health, so The Sims depicts day and night
accurately. However, when all the characters go to sleep, the game speeds up considerably,
letting hours go by in a few seconds. As soon as anyone wakes up, time slows down again.
The Sims is a rather unusual game in that it's chiefly about time management. The player is
under constant pressure to have his characters accomplish all their chores and get time for sleep,
relaxation, and personal development as well. The game runs something like 48 times as fast
as real life, so it takes about 20 minutes of real time to play through the 16 hours of game-world
daytime. However, the characters don't move 48 times as fast. Their actions look pretty normal,
about as they would in real time. As a result, it takes them 15 minutes according to the game's
clock just to go out and pick up the newspaper. This contributes to the sense of time pressure.
Because the characters do everything slowly (in game terms), they often don't get a chance to
water their flowers, which consequently die.
Anomalous Time
In The Settlers: Rise of an Empire, a complex economic simulation, a tree can grow from a
sapling to full size in about the same length of time that it takes for an iron foundry to smelt
four or five bars of iron. This is a good example of anomalous time: time that seems to move
at different speeds in different parts of the game. Blue Byte, the developer of The Settlers, tuned
the length of time it takes to do each of the many tasks in the game to make sure that the game
as a whole would run smoothly. As a result, The Settlers is very well balanced at some cost to
realism. However, it doesn't disrupt the fantasy because The Settlers doesn't actually give the
player a clock in the game world. There's no way to compare game time to real time, so in
effect, the game world has no obvious time scale (see Figure 4.7).
Figure 4.7 Activities in take anomalous lengths of time, but the user interface does not include
a clock.
Another example of anomalous time appears in Age of Empires, in which tasks that should take
less than a day in real time (gathering berries from a bush, for example) seem to take years in
game time according to the game clock. Age of Empires does have a time scale, visible on the
game clock, but not everything in the world makes sense on that time scale. The players simply
have to accept these actions as symbolic rather than real. As designers, we have to make them
work in the context of the game world without disrupting the fantasy. As long as the symbolic
actions (gathering berries or growing trees) don't have to be coordinated with real-time actions
(warfare) but remain essentially independent processes, it doesn't matter if they operate on an
anomalous time scale.
Letting the Player Adjust Time

In sports games and vehicle simulations, game time usually runs at the same speed as real time.
An American football game is, by definition, an hour long, but because the clock stops all the
time, the actual elapsed time of a football game is closer to three hours. All serious
computerized football games simulate this accurately. Verisimilitude is a key requirement of
most sports games; if a game does not accurately simulate the real sport, the league might not
approve of it, and its competitors are bound to point out the flaw. However, most such games
also allow the players to shorten the game by playing 5- or 10-minute quarters instead of 15-
minute quarters because most people don't want to devote a full three hours to playing a
simulated football game. This is also a useful feature in testing; it takes far too long to test the
product if you have to play a full-length game every time.
Flight simulators also usually run in real time, but there are often long periods of flying straight
and level during which nothing of interest is going on; the plane is simply traveling from one
place to another. To shorten these periods, many games offer a way to speed up time in the
game world by two, four, or eight times—in effect, make everything in the game world go
faster than real time. When the plane approaches its destination, the player can return the game
to normal speed and play in real time.
CREATIVE PLAY
Creativity and Play make up a massive part of video games but what and why exactly are
creativity and play have a big part in games? I might seem simple to others and some might
not know at all but I am here to discuss this in this chapter. In any type of games, Creative
Play is a very important part of any game design. The creativity in games helps open the
player’s mind up and lets the player collect their own share of creativity through viewing and
solving problems with their collective creative thinking. Creative Play is not just one thing.
Behind it consists of creative design, thinking and art all these things come together you can
not have one without the other. In this chapter, I will go over these things in some detail and
discuss the good these things make for a game. During these past couple of weeks, I have been
doing a large amount of research I could do on creative play within games. With the
information from the research, I have gathered I went into detail on certain topics I have found
within the different papers I read. In my chapter, I have written about the importance of creative
play through mini topics bringing it all together for you to read and take in.
Creative Thinking
Creative thinking within a game is needed among the game story because you do need to use
your imagination and mind to develop a great storyline for a game even if it is not the whole
plot. With this, you could come up with amazing outcomes, problems, secret places and what
happens to the character, etc. Because without these thoughts, how are you meant for the game
story? “Koukourikos 2014,” says that adding creative thinking within a storyline forms a pull
towards people being more involved in the story or activity. Children also benefit from playing
video games to improve their creative thinking and imagination, with them playing the right
game it will not only be for fun and leisure purposes it will also be for developing different
skills and learning. Games like Minecraft and Little Big Planet come to mind, as these are
examples of games that have an excellent platform for creativity because they give gamers both
the necessary tools and a framework to solve puzzles. Therefore thinking is a big part of games
the more creative and outstanding the game is the more attention it will seek depending on its
genre but also adding too much will confuse the player.
Figure 1:
Art
Art is a big part of the creativity of a game, the art within games is a mixture or art itself and
science from the 3D modelling, illustration, characters, props, colour and textures, etc. Did you
know? In the United States in 2011, they made a law that video games are a form of art. Why
art is a big part of games is because if the art was sloppy and not appealing to the eye who
would want to buy or at least try the game, nobody when trying or playing a game art is very
important from the layout, character, and other little things surround the game if they look cool
the play will be intrigued. Games that create certain emotional connections and challenges suck
the player deeper into the game and also letting them choose their own paths and creating
themes also takes them in more. “Hall 2020” states that With games creating certain emotional
connections and challenges sucks the player deep into the game and also letting them choose
their own paths and creating themes also takes them in more. Therefore art is a major part of
games if there is no art there is no game but remember art is not just drawing and stuff it is also
music and design.
Creative Skills
Creativity is one of the very important skills for game designers. Creative skills within a game
must be seen just like with game design it creates and advances the ideas of reality, connections,
characters ability hidden areas and problem solvers in a game. There are a variety of different
skills required in games but depending on the genre of game you are designing also depends
on the skills you use, so skills you might use are problem-solving, leadership, social skills,
concentration, patience, etc. Creative skills can also fall on creative thinking as you correlate
the story with skills of the character and player and either develop or learn. “Navarrete
2013” states that The creativity involved with game creation brings in greater engagement with
its design and information. Most video games encourage players to practice some level of
creativity, for example, players may create a character and story for a role-playing game or be
rewarded with creative strategies in competitive games. Therefore overall these skills will also
help form a story and help form new traits toward the character and player.
Figure 2:
Creative Machine Learning
Machine Learning is a useful weapon in game development, it gives more realistic game
worlds, captive challenges and unique content in games. The creative machine learning for
games is just a substitute for human intelligence that focuses on algorithms and statistics, for
games such as Minecraft and car racing games. There are many ways of how ML are used in
games such as the scripts for Non-Playable-Characters (NPC’s), making the game more
beautiful, adding realistic interactions and more engaging mobile games. Seeing that machine
learning is not artificial intelligence looking back on the games played, for example, Super
Mario Bros and Sonic and Sega All Star Racing, these both are animated racing games. I can
not really tell the difference with the machine learning equipment used in the Super Mario Bros
game. “Luhova 2019,” says that making games the source of creativity is noticeable is the
music and art of the game. Therefore if I was to go into deep detail I would maybe probably
find a little difference between games that use machine learning and games that do not.
Game Design
Creativity within the game design is important in games as it puts together the ideas of reality,
connections, characters ability hidden areas and problem solvers in a game. With the game
design, I feel like it is very important to know how you are doing to put together the pieces of
information, equipment, layout, etc in order to make an eye-catching and cool game that people
would want to play, making sure that it fits the certain genre you are producing. Elements such
as mechanics, components, rules and goals are important in any game. Adding creative designs
in games are also added in learning products or programs to open the eye of others by making
the program or product more interesting to use. “Hall 2020” states again that the creative
gameplay they engage in the game and enjoy even if there are not clear instructions given the
design still makes them want to explore the scenery. Therefore there is more to the importance
of game design and everything else written up above is in reaction to this process.
Form of expression: Gaming Acronyms
BRB. This means ‘Be Right Back’ – handy for when you need to grab a drink. If you’re away
from the game for longer, use AFK (‘Away From Keyboard).
CU / CYA. Leaving the game? These mean ‘see you’ / ‘see ya’ (goodbye).
DLC. This stands for Downloadable Content – extra features that you can download from
within the game, like characters, tools, costumes, levels and other items. Some DLCs are free,
while others cost money.
GG / GGWP. If someone has played well, say so with GG (Good Game) or GGWP (Good
Game, Well Played). But be careful – GG can also be used sarcastically to taunt a losing player
(i.e. it means ‘Bad Game’!) or to brag about a victory (GG EZ means ‘Good Game, Easy’).
GLHF. Good Luck, Have Fun. Often used in a friendly way to wish other players luck at the
beginning of a game.
IRL. In Real Life – this is used to refer to something happening in the real world, not the game.
MP. Magic Points or Mana Points – these measure your power to use special magical abilities.
OTW. This is ‘On The Way’. You can say this to tell other players you’re on the way to help
them.
WTT. ‘Want To Trade’. Use this to tell another player you want to trade an item or items.
XP. These are (E)Xperience Points – as you progress through levels, gain new skills and
powers, you build up XP.
GAME MODIFICATIONS
The aim of this paper is to discuss the different aspects of game modifications, specifically the
active modding community that revolves around the gaming industry. The first section features
a discussion of what constitutes a game modification. It includes a brief history and background
into the world of game modifications. The second theme focuses on the various modding
platforms which are available online that play a significant role in the gaming industry in
addition to the modding community as a means of sharing their work. The third theme explores
further into the modding community by examining the motivations to becoming a member of
the community as well as assessing what skills they learn in the process. Theme four discusses
the developmental tools that come with specific games which make it easier for player
communities to start modifying. Lastly, theme five summarises the different types of mods that
the modding community delve into for instance extensive modifications and user interface
customisations.
What is a mod?
The modding community is an essential part of game modifications. By utilizing skills such as
programming, scripting, and game editing, Fan programmers can alter and revamp the overall
look and feel of a game. Fan programmers is another term used to describe the modding
community. The modding community can make adjustments to artefacts such as characters,
weapons, storyline, and map. The gaming industry has also made it easier for fan programmers
to modify games by providing them with developmental tools. An example of this would be a
Lua scripting language which is a learning tool in relation to scripting code. Modding
originated in the 1980s and was previously named “cracking”. Individuals would take an
interest in popular games and would take out important copyright infrastructure in order to sell
it on without getting caught. According to Nieborg (2005) “Mods can differ in size and
complexity and can make little adjustments to the original game or give a game a completely
new look.” The fundamental goal of game modifications is to acquire different skills and to
make use of those skills by changing various features within an existing game. Those features
can vary in size which always depends on the motivations of the fan programmer. Modifying
games can vary from the game mechanics, the characters to the difficulty of the game.
Online modding platforms
There are various modding platforms that make it possible for fan programmers to share their
work. Mod creators tend to look for active modding communities before they start
programming as it makes it easier for them because there are add-ons provided that might speed
up the modding process. An example of an active modding community is Simtropolis which is
a forum revolving around city-building games within the sim-city franchise. This website
carries game artefacts, mods, and add-ons for the modding community. There are over 20,000
different mods on the platform which are categorised by things such as “what’s new”,
“featured”, and “highest ratings”. Wells (2018) describes “Simtropolis and websites like it are
vital elements in terms of sustaining modding communities and ecosystems.” Without active
modding communities, mod developers might find it difficult to receive feedback or progress
on their game modifications. Online modding websites are the basis for sharing content,
receiving bug reports and acquiring peer reviews. This helps fan programmers in assessing,
improving on their final creation. There are various modding communities other than the
Simtropolis website such as Nexus mods which is a website specifically designed for people
who want to download mods on their devices and CurseForge which allows users to download
or upload mods from games such as Minecraft, Terraria, and more.
What motivates the modding community and the skills they learn in the process
Both the gaming industry and the modding community benefit from each other. Fan
programmers are motivated by their work because they have the creative ability to do what
they please with the game they choose to modify. Game developers are often pushed too fast
when it comes to releasing a perfect game so, with the help of the modding community, they
are able to improve the long continuance of games and the gaming experience itself. Fan
programmers need to have a deep understanding of the game that they are modifying. This can
include the time period in which the game has been set and the different developmental kits
associated with the game. There are also many technological skills in which fan programmers
need to have knowledge of such as scripting, 3D graphics, mathematics, computer science, and
graphics programs. In addition to possessing such skills, they acquire new skills in the process
which can help them develop themselves personally and in their career. Team-work, problem-
solving, and peer reviews can benefit them in perfecting their game. These skills are essential
as game developers need to acquire similar skills in order to build a game with their
professional teams. Postigo (2010) states “that modding straddles the lines between
professional production and amateur contributions more thoroughly. It has close ties to the
industry, evidenced by the technological affordances that the industry provides and the extent
to which some elements of the PC game industry incorporate modding culture into their
business models”. Active modding communities develop substantial skills before and after
modifying games which benefits them in the long term.
Developmental tools that make it easier for fan programmers to modify games
Developmental tools and engines make it easier for fan programmers to modify their games.
The gaming industry realizes that the modding community impacts them and improves the
sales of games so in order to help them they create developmental engines which are a part of
their games so that the modding community can straightforwardly manipulate and edit the
virtual world. A principal game that has its own engine is the half-life 2 engine named Valve
Source. After its release in 2004, they published Half-Life 2: Deathmatch only containing 2
maps. In order to challenge and engage their players, they decided to create a map-making
contest in which users could use the developmental kit provided to make maps for the game.
A lot of popular games came out of the Half-Life 2 engine such as Counter-Strike, Garry’s
Mod and the Stanley Parable. These games are technically referred to as mods but they became
their own series of games due to their popularity. These “mods” are total conversions of the
half-life FPS game. Epic Games is another software developer which made a developmental
tool called Epic’s Engine 3 whereby fans could create their own games. Without these
developmental engines, the modding community would be scarce. Nieborg (2005) mentions
that “Not only have gamers now access to the same tools as commercial developers, they also
gain more and more access to the same distribution channels as a large number of games
become available online.” Game developers put active trust in the modding community by
sharing various developmental kits so that fan programmers can make use of them and alter
different things within the game. This both benefits the modding community and the game
industry.
Different types of mods
The modding community has the capability to transform anything within a game. Minor
adjustments can be made such as changing textures, creating weaponry and making small
changes to the game-play like the difficulty. Fan programmers can also make extensive
modifications and total conversions to anything. They can do this by using the developmental
engines provided but before they can do that they would need to have substantial knowledge
of programming and the foundations of the game itself. Extensive modifications may involve
substituting or expanding on certain elements such as quests or tasks within the game or the
game mechanics themselves. Total conversions are complete transformations on the overall
environment and conditions of the game. A popular game example that has been converted is
DOTA 2 which was created by the modding community from the game WarCraft 3: Reign of
Chaos. User interface customisations are mods in which they personalize and improve on the
gameplay. An example of this may be the ability to change a player’s attire or removing some
elements within the HUD such as the health bar in order to make the gameplay more difficult
and interesting.
There are different types of game mods on which fan programmers focus on. Some types of
game mods include characters in which fan programmers modify or create in-game characters.
Graphics that change or construct new 3D textures and models. Mappers who design and
develop an existing map layout or design a brand new one. Equipment that the players can also
be modified like weaponry, clothes, skins. Fan programmers go as far as making their own
weapon sounds within games to give the player a more realistic experience. Hackman and
Björkqvist (2014) outline “that game mods can be divided into characters, item availability,
equipment, graphics, locations, placement, improving immersion and custom help.” Game
modifications can vary on the extent to which can be minor adjustments to the game or total
conversions to a game.
Relationship between player and avatar
Despite how humans and non-human objects relate in very social ways, the relations between
players and their online game avatars are most often examined through conspicuously
parasocial lenses. That is, the player-avatar relationship (PAR) is generally seen as one-way
and non-dialectical as players think, feel, and acts toward the avatar without consideration for
the avatar’s role in that relationship. The present study examines the potential for PARs to be
fully social, in which player and avatar both materially contribute to the relationship. Through
interpretive thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with diverse World of Warcraft players,
analysis revealed that PARs sometimes feature the fully social characteristics of self-
differentiation, emotional intimacy, and shared agency. It is argued that these differences in
sociality may be best understood according to a four-point PAR typology, ranging from non-
social to fully social.
In many massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), players create a three-dimensional

avatar — usually humanoid — choosing its appearance, functions, traits, and names according
to the themes of each game. For example, one might have a dainty Elven hunter with a scar
across her left eye or a burly, broken-horned Minotaur who shuns his combat duties to instead
pick flowers. From the moment of its creation, the avatar is generally understood to be
functioning on behalf of the player. The player uses a keyboard, mouse, or other controller to
indicate what the avatar should do in the gameworld — move, jump, gesture, speak, interact
with characters, cast spells — and the avatar enacts those intentions. This perspective most
certainly accounts for the ways that the player acts upon the avatar, but what of the ways the
avatar acts independently and acts upon the player, and of the interaction between the two? In
other words: what about the potential sociality of the player-avatar relationship?
Despite acknowledgements that humans engage non-human objects in highly social ways
(Reeves and Nass, 1996), the connections between players and avatars in online games has
been examined from conspicuously parasocial perspectives. That is, the player-avatar
relationship is assumed to be one-way, non-dialectical, and existing only in the mind of the
player (Lewis, et al., 2008; cf., Horton and Wohl, 1956). As such, there is not a clear picture
of the potential for online game avatars to be engaged as fully social actors, even though the
potential for social engagement is particularly strong for interactive technologies such as online
games (Nowak and Rauh, 2005). This study is an exploration of online gamers’ stories about
their avatars, analyzed for variations in how player-avatar relations (PARs) mirror human
social relationships. Ultimately, analysis revealed that PARs are variably social, and this
spectrum of sociality is best understood according to a four-point typology that links relational
features to motivations for online gameplay.
Player-avatar relationships as potentially social
A social relationship is a valenced connection between two people through which each party
influences the other (Berscheid and Peplau, 1983; Harvey and Pauwels, 2009). A requirement
for social relationships is self-differentiation — the degree to which a person holds a concrete
definition, understanding, and experience of himself or herself as distinct from another entity
(Bowen, 1978). If an entity is seen as “other,” an association may emerge through relational
knowing, interrelatedness, continuity, and endurance (Harvey and Pauwels, 2009; Snyder and
Lopez, 2007), and each party influences the other according to transactional information
sharing and how each sees that information as valuable or meaningful (Levinger, 1979; Thibaut
and Kelley, 1959). That meaning is shared (Mead, 1934; Pearce, 2007) as people work to
understand how they are seen in the eyes of others (Goffman, 1959). Sometimes meanings
include physical, cognitive, and emotional intimacies that beget a perception of closeness:
feelings of care and understanding, affirmation and value, and warmth and belonging (Sinclair
and Dowdy, 2005).
Although it may seem that only humans have the ability to fulfill these relational criteria,
further consideration reveals that avatars can fulfill them as well. As cybernetics theories posit
(e.g., Haraway, 1991; Wiener, 1948), we engage in recursive, mutual information exchanges
with our digital technologies, and meaning emerges through those transactions. Non-human
objects hold agencies — including the ability to exchange information — that are different
from human agencies (Bogost, 2012; Harman, 2005; Latour, 2005) but that are no less
important in understanding human-technology relationships. Just as players influence avatars,
avatars influence players through encoded features and abilities, such as occupying space and
representing purpose in the gameworld, conveying personality in their autonomous in gait,
voice, and postures, and even priming players to think and behave in accordance with given
cues (Yee and Bailenson, 2007). Intersecting rules of physical and game environments govern
these exchanges (Lessig, 1999) in the same way that social norms govern interpersonal human
relations. Acts of play emerge in this feedback loop similar to acts of interpersonal
communication, as information flows across the interface (see Burn, 2003; Gee, 2005).
Through graphical, textual, aural, and procedural information exchanges between player and
avatar as active agents, the connection between player and avatar may feature characteristics
of an interpersonal social relationship. As such, PARs should be examined for their potential
to be two-way, dialectical relationships rather than as one-way, non-dialectical connections.
To this end, this study examined players’ descriptions of their avatars and gameplay for
characteristics of interpersonal relationships.
To explore the potential for PARs to be fully social relationships, this investigation focused on
gamers’ phenomenal accounts in order to effectively examine the relationship from the
“inside,” as experienced by one entity in the dyad. In particular, interviews were conducted
with players of the MMO World of Warcraft (WoW). WoW is an ideal space in which to
examine PARs because the game’s longevity, stability, and persistence affords players the
opportunity to develop strong ties with their avatars as stable personalities over time (King, et
al., 2010; Lee, 2007), with some players having been involved with their avatars for more than
10 years.
Visual Elements Within Games
Visual images are often used to organize and guide our everyday lives. From road signs to
bathroom signs, visual images tell us where we should and should not be or should and should
not go. This is not entirely different than how visual images are used in video games: to guide,
direct, and communicate with the player. Almost everything in video games has a visual
component, which just as much as level design can guide player action and can communicate
with the player as much as any amount of dialogue. Things like the title screen, the visual
interface of the games, and the visual appearances of the game menus can communicate a great
deal about the game itself and how the player is expected to interact with it.
It's interesting to note that while today games are able to convey situations and images with
almost photorealism, the games of yesteryear had to rely on abstractions to imply what is
happening within the game world. Becuase they were unable to show what they were trying to
convey they had to show a very simple represntationsal image of it and rely on the player filling
in the gaps with their imagination.(Booker) These old gameshad to use different visual images
to convey their messages, but the concept was the same as it is in modern games. It is interesting
to see what it tells up about old timey gmaes based on what images they used to compensate
for their lack of detail, and it provides insight into the older gaming fandom to see how players
of the games of yore interperated and decoded those less detailed images. (Booker)
The title screen from Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. I loved this game as a kid, it's still one
of my favorites.
The first method of visual communication in video games I want to talk about is also the most
common: the video game title screen. Sitting at the opening of almost every video game in
existence the title screen dates from all the way back to arcade games in the early 80's back
when it was used to draw the attention of potential players. In those days title screens had to
stand out and quickly portray to all potential customers exactly what kind of game it was that
they were to be playing. Since video games are no longer public spectacle like they were in the
days of the arcade they no longer use the title screen as a form of advertisement, but they do
still use it to communicate to the player about the nature of the game and what they should
expect from it.
A title screen usually consists of the title of the game (obviously) in a font that should, even
devoid of the meaning of the words in the title, itself convey some meaning to tell what the
game is about. The title will be overlaid over a background, usually one that conveys somewhat
what the game is about. The title screen sets the tone for the rest of the game and is meant to
guide the player into the rest of the game.
The title screen from the mind-blowingly popular game Minecraft. I really wish I could have
gotten an image that had better captured the true grandeur and spirit of Minecraft, but alas I
only needed a picture of the title screen. If you're reading this I suggest you look up Minecraft,
it is truly an amazing game. Fair warning though, it's more addicting than crack.
One of the other most ubiquitous ways a video game will visually communicate with a player
is through the heads-up display or HUD. A HUD is the visual overlay placed on the screen
used to convey information unobtrusively to the player. A HUD's primary job is to
communicate to the player exactly what sort of situation they are in (how much ammo they
have, how much time they have left, their score, their remaining health, that sort of thing) at
any particular moment without disrupting gameplay or obstructing their vision.
The HUD also has another, second function. Along with communicating to the player practical
information the visual overlay (if done properly) should give the player a sense of the world
around them. It should mesh with the game world to reinforce the player's experience and
immersion. It is imperative that a good HUD be unobtrusive while at the same time
communicating to the player what kind of world that they are in.
Metroid is a pretty fun FPS, hard to find nowadays though. Not much else to say about this
image really.
As an example look at the difference between the visual overlay for the Metroid Prime game
(to the left) compared to that of the Elder Scrolls game (to the right). Metroid Prime, a futuristic
first-person shooter set in space has a HUD that's busy with radars numbers and transparent
blue lines, giving the player the feel that they really are wearing a suit of powered armor as
they prepare to do battle with the wicked space pirates. Contrast that with the far more
minimalist HUD from Skyrim, which gives the player a completely unobstructed view save for
a compass with various symbols on it, this helps reinforce the sense of freedom and exploration
that is central to the Elder Scrolls series. Notice how in each game the mood is reinforced by
the HUD, how it cooperates with the rest of the game to create a coherent experience.
Still a fairly boring image. I should've gotten one of fighting a Dragon. That would've
been more awesome.
The bottom screen menu from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS. You know the use
of touch screen controls in the remake I feel really improved the game.
The third and final method of video game visual communication that that I will be discussing
are the in game menus. They may seem bland compared to title screens or HUDs, but they are
just as important. As a rule most video games use menus, like those you would find in most
personal computers, to guide the player’s actions on a technical level and communicate to them
about their options. Menus are an affordance as defined by Livingstone: they both enable and
restrain different actions by the very nature of their design; they frame, but do not determine
the possibilities for agentic action in relation to the game. (Livingstone, 396) By using menus
the game seeks to not only guide but control a player’s actions. While using a menu the player
can only choose between the options given to them, their agency becomes limited as the game
exercises power (Rose 192) over them. Menus communicate to them what they can and cannot
do in any given situation.
A good menu system will be just as well integrated into the game as the HUD or title screen.
Menus are used functions like inventories or options menus. Some menus contain maps or item
descriptions that make it easier to navigate and help guide the player though the game. Often
the title screen includes a menu from which the player can either start the game or go to another
menu to alter game settings.
The inventory menu from The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim. That is one big axe. I mean seriously!
Look at that thing! It's huge!
To communicate effectively to the player a video game needs all of these elements need to
have a sense of intertextuality, as defined by Rose in that each visual image must depend on
the meanings of the other images (Rose 191). In order to make a cohesive game each separate
element must mesh together to form a single whole.
Looking at the video game components of the title screen, the HUD, and the game menus we
can see how these elements give the player means to understand the world within the game and
the means through which they can exercise their agency. They provide both context and frame
through which the player can understand the game and the meanings conveyed within.
Video Game Sound Design?
Video game sound design is the art of creating and adding audio elements to a video game.
This involves creating entire libraries of custom sound effects to give the game a sense of
realism and uniqueness. The sound effects must then be implemented properly to the images
that will be seen by the player. Anyone who has had a game’s audio not working properly, such
as a silent explosion or dialogue, knows how important sound effects are. Even the earliest
video games used what little technical resources they had to add sounds and make the game
more attractive. Pong, for example, had simple beeping sounds when the ball hit the paddles.
Even though the creators couldn’t make sounds of a crowd booing and hissing, the different
tones used in the original helped make it a more fun experience.
The Video Game Sound Designer. A sound designer is a person who generates and manipulates
audio elements for the game.
While there are a few key differences, the role of a sound designer in the gaming industry is
similar in many ways to that of television production, theatre, and filmmaking. Without
someone to actually create the music and sound effects for a game, everyone would have to
use the same existing sounds.
Teamwork
The goal of the sound designer is to work together with the design and animation team to create
rich audio that fits the virtual experience being developed. Unlike the previous industries we
mentioned, games are interactive and thus do not have fixed sound and music. This means that
the sound designer must create several layers of audio that matches the player’s choices and
movement that each sound effect and music track is appropriate to what is taking place on-
screen.
Video game sound designers also often collaborate with composers to help create and edit
music for the game. Since many composers are outsourced, it’s the sound designer’s
responsibility to make sure they understand the vision of the game and what direction the music
should go. Sound designers also have the task of testing the game during the late stages of
development to catch any audio bugs or mistakes. Sound designers do almost all of their work
on computers. Different computer programs and applications are needed to create, manipulate,
and store sound effects for games. Today there are many different tools that sound designers
can take advantage of While most programs cost money to use, there are plenty of free tools
out there.
The Importance of Video Game Audio
It only takes a few seconds of playing your favorite game on mute to realize how important
sound is when it comes to creating a captivating experience. From basic sounds like a gun
reloading to iconic jingles like when you solve a puzzle in any The Legend of Zelda game,
sound effects are there to make the virtual characters, stories, and worlds we are playing come
alive. Much like films and television shows, music is also very important in video games and
is often one of the most beloved elements of our favorite titles. Long after we’ve set aside the
games that made up our childhood, just hearing their soundtrack again years later can fill us
with joy and nostalgia. Music is a very powerful tool when it comes to evoking emotion from
players, whether it’s a playful Mario game, atmospheric horror title, or dramatic story moment.
How Do we Start?
The first step all aspiring sound designers must take is deciding if game audio is really the job
for them. Do you have a strong passion for sound along with great amounts of creativity?
Are you also technically savvy and capable of learning new programs and software needed to
create and edit sound?
Are you good at working with others in a team setting?

You must be able to answer yes to these questions if you want to make a living as a sound
designer for games, which is a very challenging (but also rewarding) career. Today, the internet
has tons of great resources, videos, and tutorials from which you can learn how to be a sound
designer. However, most who get hired by the top game developers across the globe went to
school to learn sound design and audio implementation.
This is because this field is more technical than people imagine; it requires learning and
becoming familiar with all sorts of software, hardware, and techniques.
A good college program will also give you access to trained professors that can offer advice
and provide valuable feedback. You’ll also get a chance to use a lot of industry-standard
software while completing projects that you can then add to your portfolio and increase your
chance of impressing a recruiter during the hiring process.
Having an awesome demo that demonstrates your sound design skills will separate you from
the crowd more than anything else.
The Process of Creating Audio for Games
Since every game is developed differently, there’s really no one single process that every sound
designer follows. In fact, studios differ when it comes to what stage in development they begin
the music and sound production work. Some get started right away by explaining to the sound
designer what the game will be and maybe showing some concept art or levels being made.
Others are brought in when there’s already a playable build with art, which means they get a
solid taste of the look and feel of the game before getting to work. Either way, the sound
designer usually gets started by creating a library of sound effects that are needed in the game.
During this time the sound designer might also work together with a composer to nail down
the soundtrack of the game. If the game has voice-acting, it’s their job to make sure it fits well
with the game and is implemented correctly. As audio elements are added to the game’s engine,
the sound designer also tests to make sure they work as intended.
How to Use Storytelling and Transmedia in Video Games?
Stories are essential parts of the existence of each of us that help us understand our relationships
with ourselves, those around us, and the reality of our lives. The stories are successfully
integrated into all industries of film, music, including video games. Video games have indeed
become an integral part of our lives due to technological progress, new devices. Still,
captivating stories are essential ingredients without their success, probably not have been as
booming. Most video games are based on a story that leads the game and transposes the player
into the fantasy world.
At first glance, there is no storytelling in games like Minecraft or Pac-Man. But if you look
more closely, you will find the lore and reasoning for why their worlds are the way they are.
The difference between storytelling in video games and other types of storytelling is that the
player is the protagonist, making everything more interesting. Not all game developers give
particular importance to storytelling, but games based on a good story quickly occupy a place
in the hearts of players.
Although games based on transmedia and storytelling are relatively new in the video game
industry, they are constantly growing. Video games like Undertale, Life is Strange, and The
Walking Dead, which are based on storytelling and transmedia, have some of the highest user
ratings on Steam. All of them have a scoring above a 95% positive rating, and all ranking within
the top 50 for positive reviews.
Transmedia and storytelling: definition and concepts
Transmedia is one way of telling stories utilizing current digital technologies, and it is used in
the video games industry, movies, radio, social media, etc. The concept of Transmedia was
first introduced by Henry Jenkins, author of the seminal book Convergence Culture. According
to him, transmedia means “across media” and may be applied to superficially similar, but
different phenomena. By creating content and distributing it on various forms of media, one of
the goals of transmedia is to engage the target audience and penetrate their daily lives.
Storytelling is about using stories to create emotions, engage the audience, and make something
more explicit. In video games, storytelling helps the players feel involved in the game and
encourages them to understand what to do next. The player is part of the story and lives the
whole experience on his skin. Storytelling in video games can be done through videos or
animations and is accompanied by player actions and dialogue.
In role-playing video games, the story is central, and players must progress as the story
continues. An example of a role-playing game is The Legend of Zelda or Fallout. In adventure
games, the player can explore more and create their “own stories” while trying to complete
missions to progress. Games in which storytelling is not so obvious are platform games. There
is a general story and a task to accomplish, but the accent is on the player’s skills to pass as
many levels as possible. An example of a platform game is Super Mario Bros or Mario 64.
The difference between transmedia and storytelling.
Although very similar, transmedia and storytelling are two different things. Both terms refer to
media production that takes place through various display technologies and media platforms.
Transmedia is a more generic term that includes a broader communication process. In
storytelling, the accent is on creating the story based on specific, well-defined storytelling
strategies.
Unlike other media types, such as movies that are passively consumed, users are actively
involved in their development in video games. To experience the game as a narrative also
requires creating a gestalt narrative unifying the game experiences into a coherent narrative
structure. Due to the narrative transmedia, the player can identify himself with the characters
and have narrative experiences seldom found in other mediums. Also, the player can seek to
understand the game’s story only by interacting with the environment, characters, and objects
in the world.
Transmedia takes concepts from other environments, such as curiosity, and introduces them to
video games, improving players’ experience. Thus, users can experience curiosity in many
ways. When they have to decide something in the game, they do not ask what will happen next
but what will happen if they make a specific decision. Other concepts that storytelling brings
in video games and increase the players’ emotion are suspense, aesthetics, or self-improvement.
An effective way to convey the story of the game is by outlining the characters. By what they
do and say, the characters will deliver the idea of the game to the players. Also, thanks to
transmedia and storytelling, players can become attached to the characters, and they can inspire
what they are looking for in real life. An example is Master Chief, the fictional character and
the protagonist in the Halo multimedia franchise – who has become an iconic character and
much loved by Halo fans.
What do transmedia and storytelling bring to the gaming experience?
In-game storytelling, we can see that games can tell stories in different ways and has several
approaches. The most common of them are:
Player-Tailored Narratives – in video games that use this storytelling approach, players are put
at the helm and have the opportunity to choose how the game story will end. The choices they
make influence the thread of the story and the reaction of the other characters. For example, if
the player chooses to ally with a particular nation, this alliance will win the enemy empire or
lose the game. Some of the titles that used the Player-Tailored Narratives storytelling approach
are The Wolf Among Us, the Mass Effect trilogy, The Walking Dead, and Life Is Strange.
A Narrative Plot – to tell a great story and create captivating gameplay, you can use some
elements such as cut-scenes, dialogue, and text to say the game’s story in a quick way but still
captivating. Some examples of games that used Narrative Plot are The Last of Us and the
Bioshock trilogy.
Narration – introducing a narrator into the game to tell the story is sometimes the simplest way
to present the game’s story. While evoking the events, the narrator can inform the player what
the other characters feel and think while using simple visual elements to convey the story as
accurately as possible. As the game unfolds, the narrator tells the story based on the player’s
choices throughout the game.
What applications or tools to use to create transmedia video games?
To create emotionally complex stories that are mindful of gaming’s principles, the entire game
development team – game designers, writers, programmers, artists, musicians, etc., have to
collaborate harmoniously and have a common vision of the whole project.
Before defining the game’s story in detail, you must first outline the primary storyline and
determine its type of game. Each type of video game has a particular line of storytelling, and
the player has the freedom to move and the power to control the story differently for each kind
of game.
The contouring of the characters plays a significant role because they powerfully convey the
game’s story, and the player will identify with it and experience its development. Creating a
flowchart of your major story will help you have a better overview and build your story more
efficiently.
Software we can use to write game story.
Word Processor – Although it may seem too simple, a word processor like Pages or Google
Docs can do its job when you want to work on the storytelling of your game.
FinalDraft – This is a tool often used for writing screenplays and can also be used successfully
to write stories for video games.
Twine – This is an excellent tool for writing non-linear stories, with which you can share work
with other colleagues to work together.
Inklewriter – This tool is an alternative to Twine for those who want to write a more interactive
story instead of the branching style offered by Twine.
Video games are an excellent medium for storytelling. Game development takes a long time to
happen, but if they are based on a captivating story, the results can be spectacular, and the work
is well worth it. Understanding the narrative thread by the whole team helps to preserve the
vision and successfully apply the methods of transmedia and storytelling.
Emotional Limits of Interactive Stories
Video games that don't include a story, that is, games that primarily entertain via the challenge
and achievement of gameplay, don't try to arouse complex emotions in their audiences. They
limit themselves to the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, or perhaps to the frustration of
repeated failure. But with a story, you can create other kinds of feelings as well. By crafting
characters that the audience cares about and subtle relationships among those characters, you
have a chance to make your audience feel (in sympathy with the characters) betrayal by a lover,
satisfaction at justice done, or a protective instinct for a child.
However, the nature of the interactive medium imposes some limits on what you can do. This
section looks at the emotional limitations of nonlinear stories and of avatar-based interaction
models.
Emotional Limits of Nonlinear Stories
When you tell a nonlinear story, you give the player the freedom to make choices that
significantly affect the relationships among the characters, which may include decisions that
feel emotionally wrong—or at least that don't conform to what you, as a storyteller, would like
the player to do. Suppose that you tell a story based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, but you give the
player controlling Hamlet a number of options. In the play, Hamlet discovers that his mother
and his uncle have conspired to kill his father, the king of Denmark, and usurp the throne.
Hamlet's father's ghost appears to him and demands that Hamlet seek revenge, but Hamlet is
unsure of what to do.
In your game, the player, acting as Hamlet, could simply run away and never come back; he
could ignore his father's ghost and forgive his mother and uncle; he could try to assassinate his
uncle and assume the throne himself; or he could just kill himself. None of these outcomes is
quite as interesting as what Shakespeare actually wrote; in fact, some of them would bring the
story to a bland and unsatisfactory conclusion.
By offering the player the power to change the course of the story—or at least to change the
ending—you agree to accept the player's decisions, even decisions that are not ideal in ordinary
storytelling terms. You cannot guarantee that the player will experience the most emotionally
powerful resolution you feel that your story offers unless you confine the player to a single
resolution (and even then, the player may prefer a different ending because individual taste
varies).
Designers often restrict otherwise nonlinear stories to a single ending simply to guarantee that
the players experience the emotionally meaningful outcome the designer planned. That means
that the player's agency before reaching the ending is merely an illusion. Players tolerate this
in exchange for a satisfying ending, so long as you don't promise them that their choices will
change an ending which, in fact, is fixed from the start.
Dialogue Trees
The big problem with a purely tree-based system is that the number of branches can easily
explode to an unmanageable size. When I was scripting conversations manually, I could use
tricky code to express complex behavior without explicitly writing out every possibility.
For example: let’s say you’re making a game about Mexican drug cartels. It’s called 4:20 to
Yuma. Early in the game, an NPC named Enrique asks you at gunpoint where his money is
hidden. You have two choices: tell him where it actually is, or lie.
At that point, technically the entire game splits into two possible outcomes. In our
conversation tree model, we would model this as two giant branches.
Now eventually, that choice will have an impact on the game, but in the meantime, Enrique
will probably behave the same either way. He’ll drag you out to wherever you said the
money was. Your choice only has an impact once you reach the destination and Enrique
finds out if you told the truth or not.
Let’s say it’s a long journey and there’s a lot of dialogue along the way. That dialogue is the
same regardless of your initial choice, yet we have to keep two separate copies of it to
maintain our initial branches.
This is less than ideal. A purely tree-based model is clearly too simple for our purposes. On
the other hand, I don’t want to implement a full-on visual programming language because a)
that sounds hard and b) the whole purpose of this system is to avoid convoluted code.
In the end, I decided to add one new construct to our tree-based system: variables. This lets
me set a variable, continue on with the rest of my dialogue, and branch based on that
variable later, like this:
It’s still pretty simple, but much more powerful. An added advantage is that you can easily
split the dialogue into multiple files and link them together using variables.
Step 2: Author
I needed a fast, visual way to design dialogue. I immediately ruled out an in-game editor. It
would be way too much work to write everything from scratch. I looked at a variety of
flowcharting tools before settling on JointJS, an HTML5 flowchart library that integrates
nicely with Backbone and jQuery. I dusted off my JavaScript skills and set to work.
I started with this example, which demonstrates how to combine regular HTML elements
with the SVG it uses to render the boxes and connections.
JointJS turned out to be an absolute joy to work with. It has clear separation between the
model and presentation layers. Each node is a Backbone model, and it’s pretty easy to create
a new type of node:
joint.shapes.dialogue = {};
joint.shapes.dialogue.Base = joint.shapes.devs.Model.extend(
{
defaults: joint.util.deepSupplement
(
{
type: 'dialogue.Base',
size: { width: 200, height: 64 },
name: '',
attrs:
{
rect: { stroke: 'none', 'fill-opacity': 0 },
text: { display: 'none' },
'.inPorts circle': { magnet: 'passive' },
'.outPorts circle': { magnet: true, },
},
},
joint.shapes.devs.Model.prototype.defaults
),
});
After a whole lot of JavaScript hacking and CSS styling, I ended up with this:
I came up with five node types:
• Text – displays a message from the AI character. Can link to one Text, Node, Set, or
Branch, or to one or more Choices.
• Node – does nothing. Can link to one Text, Node, Set, or Branch, or to one or more
Choices.
• Choice - presents a choice to the player. Can link to one Text, Node, Set, or Branch.
• Set – sets a variable to a value. Can link to one Text, Node, Set, or Branch.
• Branch – takes one of several paths based on the value of a variable. Each port can
link to one Text, Node, Set, or Branch.
I chose these rules to make it easier for the authoring tool to validate the dialogue tree. They
still offer a lot of power. You can start execution at any node other than a Choice and it will
make sense.
The purpose of the Node type is two-fold. First, it allows me to start a conversation by
offering Choices to the player without displaying a Text from the AI character. Second, it
allows me to link Branches to Choices, which is useful if I want to offer choices A and B in
one case and choices C and D in another case.
The words you see in the Text and Choice nodes are localization markers. I write a few
words that describe the gist of the message. Later I write the full message in an Excel
spreadsheet and my localization system fills in the correct text (more on that in another
article!) The localization marker doubles as a unique identifier that can be accessed in code
as well.
Try the demo yourself! Right-click to show the menu. Source code here. Tested in Chrome
and Firefox.
Step 3: Export
One great thing about a JointJS graph is that, since it’s a Backbone model, it can export and
import to and from JSON. It even picks up your custom properties!
Here’s my save code:
localStorage[filename] = JSON.stringify(graph);
And here’s how I load it back up:
graph.clear();
graph.fromJSON(JSON.parse(localStorage[filename]));
Here’s how to export the data to a file and have the user download it:
function offerDownload(name, data)

{
var a = $('< a >'); // Sorry, Gamasutra won't let me enter HTML tags correctly
a.attr('download', name);
a.attr('href', 'data:application/json,' +
encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(data)));
a.attr('target', '_blank');
a.hide();
$('body').append(a);
a[0].click();
a.remove();
}
The JSON data includes a lot of information about the visual layout of the graph. This is
great because the graph will load up exactly how you left it, but all that extra information
can make it tough to parse in your game engine. I found it necessary to write a function that
goes through the JSON and pulls out only the parts needed in a game engine.
Step 4: Execute
Almost done! Now we just parse the JSON data, pick an initial node, and start executing the
instructions.
I used the excellent Json.NET library for parsing. Here’s the entirety of my execution code:
public void Execute(Node node, IListener listener, int textLevel = 1)

{
string next = null;
switch (node.type)
{
case DialogueForest.Node.Type.Node:
if (node.choices != null && node.choices.Count > 0)
listener.Choice(node.name, node.choices.Select(x => this[x].name));
next = node.next;
break;
case DialogueForest.Node.Type.Text:
listener.Text(node.name, textLevel);
if (node.choices != null && node.choices.Count > 0)
listener.Choice(node.name, node.choices.Select(x => this[x].name));
next = node.next;
textLevel++;
break;
case DialogueForest.Node.Type.Set:
listener.Set(node.variable, node.value);
next = node.next;
break;
case DialogueForest.Node.Type.Branch:
string key = listener.Get(node.variable);
if (key == null || !node.branches.TryGetValue(key, out next))
node.branches.TryGetValue("_default", out next);
break;
default:
break;
}
if (next != null)
this.Execute(this[next], listener, textLevel);
}
The IListener interface provides four functions: Text and Choice to display messages and
choices to the player, and Get and Set for accessing variables.

DTGD Unit 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

DTGD Unit 3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

DTGD Unit 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Design Thinking for Game Development 18CSE336T

DESIGN THINKING FOR GAME

The Dimensions of a Game World

The Physical Dimension

These are the typical dimensionalities found in video games:

Figure 4.1 , the classic 2D side-scrolling game

Figure 4.2 , with plateaus and lowlands visible

• 3D. Three true dimensions. Thanks to 3D hardware accelerators and modeling

Figure 4.3 a fully 3D environment

Figure 4.6 Parts of are set on a genuinely spherical world.

The Temporal Dimension

Letting the Player Adjust Time

Creative Machine Learning

Form of expression: Gaming Acronyms

Relationship between player and avatar

In many massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), players create a three-dimensional

Player-avatar relationships as potentially social

Visual Elements Within Games

Video Game Sound Design?

The Importance of Video Game Audio

Are you good at working with others in a team setting?

The Process of Creating Audio for Games

How to Use Storytelling and Transmedia in Video Games?

Transmedia and storytelling: definition and concepts

The difference between transmedia and storytelling.

What do transmedia and storytelling bring to the gaming experience?

Software we can use to write game story.

Emotional Limits of Interactive Stories

Emotional Limits of Nonlinear Stories

finds out if you told the truth or not.

I came up with five node types:

Here’s my save code:

function offerDownload(name, data)

public void Execute(Node node, IListener listener, int textLevel = 1)

You might also like