Quick reminder that our December meeting is tomorrow night, the 15th, from 6-9 at Bellevue University.
The agenda is pretty light this month. We are hoping to have a couple of people/teams show off some of their work. Vince Twelve has volunteered to show off some of his past work (before Resonance). I believe there will be some other demos as well.
Also, I’m thinking of showing a GDC video so that we can discuss. Suggestions include:
Interesting Decisions — Sid Meier
Long, long ago at a GDC far, far away, I introduced the idea that a useful way of looking at gameplay is as “a series of interesting decisions”. This comment has since taken on a life and identity of its own and appears irregularly in theoretical discussions of game play and game design. While I have referred to it on occasion in game design talks, I’ve never really drilled any deeper into this idea. I propose to examine what types/categories of decisions are inherently interesting. How to we recognize or add these types of decisions, how do we maximize their interest, how does pacing affect decisions. What types of information and feedback are essential to fully immerse the player. Using examples from widely known games we’ll examine how interesting decisions can improve your game designs in a way applicable to a wide variety of game types.
Level Design Case Studies: Trainyard and Cut the Rope — Semyon Voinov, Matt Rix
Cut the Rope and Trainyard are two of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful puzzle games available on the App Store today. Join Semyon Voinov (Cut the Rope) and Matt Rix (Trainyard) as they share game design insights they learned while creating these massively successful games.
Divided into two compelling talks (one on each game), this to-the-point session will feature tried and true principles for level design, data driven decisions, and gameplay choices. Learn how these addictive games have amassed scores of enthusiastic fans and achieved wide popularity.
Certainly there are others, but these two jumped out at me.
