Game Design

After reading about what is a game and what we should look in when making a game, I found three different website based on the same ideas but different information.

• 5 Game Elements That Create Effective Learning Games by Arunima Majumdar
• Game Design, An Introduction by Jill Duffy
• What are game-elements? (PacMan as reference) by Ellis

The first article I read gave me some game mechanics that I should considered when making a game for our assignment. Arunima talks about:

1. Conflict; have some sort of challenges for the player to overcome. It could be a physical obstacle, combat with another player or a puzzle that has to be solved. A sense of collaborative learning can be built in with a challenge that all the player must work together to overcome.
2. Strategy and chance; with strategy-based games they put a lot of control into the players' decisions they can make that affect game okay or their odds of achieving the goal. Also, it based on the chance the player puts and they have little control with the outcome. Games can be based on chance while coming up with a solution can involve the element of strategy.
3. Aesthetics; have the power to pull people into the game. Visuals elements are a powerful means of engaging players and helping them immerse into the game experience. 
4. Theme and story; adds interest and create engagement within a learning game. Theme conveys with the visuals and with a brief "back story", also included in the rules. When talking about themes, there usually isn't any narrative running through the game. When creating a story, you need to considers: Characters. Plot. Tension. Resolution
5. Rewards; things or keepsakes that players earn through game play. Giving players achievements for certain tasks is makes you want to learning and play more of the game. It will encourage learners to do their very best.

The second article was similar to the one we had to read but has more information. The article talks about: 

• What is game design
• What game designers do
• What they need to know
• How much money they make
• All the different job titles a game designer have
• What types of people or personally make a good designer

Game design is interesting and all but it needs a lot of work. You need to have an interesting in game if you want to be a game designer, which is something I'm not interested in. Yes, I play games every now and than and it would be fun to design a game but I personally don't want to do that. Creating a game once or twice is enough for me.

The last article was similar to the first one I read but they used PacMan as a metaphor. In this article, Ellis talks about the different elements that was used in PacMan. Reading this article made me realised that these arcade games are so much different then what we have now.  Games used to be similar but still addicting, quality is basic and not too low or too high. I did realised that at the end of the day, games still work with the same game and visual elements. 

Game play of PacMan;
Source: Flickr

Game play of Fortnite;
Source: Flickr