• Lens of Emotion: 

“People may forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

To make sure the emotions you create are the right ones, ask yourself these questions:

• What emotions would I like my player to experience? Why?
• What emotions are players (including me) having when they play now? Why?
• How can I bridge the gap between the emotions the players are having, and the emotions I want them to have?

“Work in the invisible world at least as hard as you do in the visible.” – Rumi

Introspection is the act of analysing your thoughts and feelings, so that you can make judgments about what works and what doesn’t in the game. However, there are some associated perils. 

1. Can lead to false conclusions about reality
   1. For example, Socrates noted when we learn something new, it feels like we knew it all along and were merely being reminded; an interesting observation that most people remember feeling at some point. However, he uses this basis to theorise that since learning feels like a recollection, we must be reincarnated souls who are remembering from a past life. Just because something FEELS true, doesn’t mean it IS true. 
2. My experience =/ Others’ experiences
   1. “I only design for people like me” has these problems:
      1. There may not be enough people like you out there to make your game a worthwhile investment
      2. Game design/development is rarely done alone. If different team members have conflicting ideas, they can be hard to resolve
      3. It will ostracise audiences from you
   2. “Personal opinions can’t be trusted” has these problems:
      1. You can’t leave every decision to playtesting, especially early in the process when there’s no game to playtest. 
      2. Before a game is finished, playtesters may reject an unusual idea; they sometimes need to see it completed to appreciate it. If you don’t trust your own feelings, you may end up throwing out a worthwhile idea
      3. Playtesting only happens occasionally. Game decisions are being made all the time.

2. Lens of Experience:

Stop thinking about the game and start thinking about the experience of the player. Ask yourself these questions:

• What experience do I want the players to have?
• What is essential to that experience?
• How can my game capture that essence? 

Example #1: When creating baseball in Wii Sports, the designers originally wanted to simulate the game as accurately as possible, however quickly came to find out that they wouldn’t have the time. Since they realised swinging the Wii Remote was the most unique aspect of the game, they pivoted to getting that specific aspect of baseball right. The experience became about hitting the ball, rather than the entire game. 

Example #2: When creating the TTRPG James Bond 007, Designer Chris Klug wanted to capture the essence of what made the James Bond movies so thrilling, because espionage games often played too much like war games – and so, he created something called “Hero Points”. Traditionally, when players undertook a risky action, the game master would calculate the probability of success and the player would roll a dice to see it succeed, but balancing this mechanic was tricky: too low a probability and players would never risk it; too high and the novelty wore off. “Hero Points” on the other hand could be used to put risky situations in their favour. Since each player only got a small amount, they had to be careful where to use them – but when they did, the heroic feats would inspire spectacular events that captured the heart of the Bond films. 

The Heisenberg Principle:

This principle refers to the nature of an experience being impacted by its observation, as observation itself is an experience; also known as “paralysis by analysis”. To defeat this, there are several methods:

• Analyse Memories
  • While memories can be imperfect, it ensures that the experience remains untainted by active analysis. A disciplined mind will be able to recognise aspects of the experience as “analysis worthy”, and remember them later for proper scrutiny. 
• Two Passes
  • This method requires repeating the experience twice: first ordinarily, second for analysis. This way your mind has both the untainted experience, and the chance to stop and think.
• Sneak Glances
  • This method requires a brief period of short analysis during the experience, that doesn’t last long enough to affect the experience itself; akin to a quick “check in”. 

12. The Lens of Resonance

To use the Lens of Resonance, you must look for hidden power. It is a quiet, delicate instrument; a tool for listening to yourself and others. We bury important things deep inside ourselves, and when something causes them to resonate, it shakes us to our very core. The fact that these things are hidden gives them power, but also makes them hard to find. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is it about my game that feels powerful and special?
• When I describe my game to people, what ideas get them really excited?
• If I had no constraints of any kind, what would my game be like?
• I have certain instincts about how this game should be. What is driving those instincts?

A unifying theme will focus your game to a goal; the best themes will resonate with your players. Themes are often fantasies and desires, but they can also be truth. Often a designer won’t even know they’ve expressed a truth, and may not even be able to verbally express it. 

When writing Carrie, Stephen King did not realise until the second draft that the book was not about blood in the traditional sense, but an exploration of its many meanings, from family ties to friendship to to injury to coming of age; when he did realise, he was able to build upon this and strengthen the story. 

A good example of this principle in games, is Rob Daviau’s board game Risk: Legacy, creating a game mechanic that mean the player’s choices permanently alter the world, insisting that you modify the board with irremovable stickers, write on the board with permanent marker, rip up and discard game cards, and even make modifications to the rulebook. These unusual game mechanics strengthen the theme: war changes a world. 

Resonant themes elevate your work from craft to art. An artist is someone who takes you where you could never go alone, and a theme is the vehicle for getting there. Some will be experience based, while others will be truth based. You can never tell which themes are resonant just through logic—you have to feel the resonance. 

13. The Lens of Infinite Inspiration

“When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru.” – Ram Dass

To use this lens, stop looking at your game and stop looking at games like it. Instead look everywhere else. This lens requires an open mind and big imagination, finding nongame experiences to inspire a game experience. When your visions are based in real life to guide your decision making, your experience will acquire power, strength, and uniqueness. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is an experience that I have had in my life that I want to share with others?
• In what small way can I capture the essence of that experience and put it into my game?

You can copy other people, but you can never replicate their inspiration. You have to look for your own, and decide for yourself what will make your game special. 

The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 1: Documentation Guidelines for the Game Concept and Proposal by Tim Ryan.

The Purpose of Documentation:

• To communicate the vision in sufficient enough detail to implement it; this way producers are not bombarded with questions from all departments about what their workers should be doing, and ensures each department knows how each part of the game fits in with the other, reducing confusion and wasted efforts
• The documentation will mean different things to different production members. Designers use it to flesh out ideas and make the producer’s vision come to life; programmers use it to implement instructions. The document should be a team effort from everyone. 
• Documentation does NOT remove the need for meetings and discussion; getting people’s opinions on an idea or plan before it is documented is often more efficient. The document merely expresses the consensus, flesh out ideas, and eliminate vagueness, but are not themselves carved in stone. 

The Benefits of Guidelines:

• Prevents designers from becoming too ambitious. 
• Promotes clarity, certainty, and uniformity, ensuring that certain processes and procedures are followed, such as market research, a technical evaluation, and thorough exploration of the vision
• Translates tasks easily to a schedule, as the document lists the requirement of all services needed. It breaks up the story into distinct levels for level designers, lists game objects that require data entry and scripting, identifies the distinct program areas and procedures for programmers, and identifies game elements, features, and functions that the quality assurance team should add to their test plan. 
• Shows where you can be creatively free and where to stick to the guidelines. Only specifics of a particular implementation need to be documented. 

Guidelines for the Game Concept:

• Expresses the core idea of a game in one or two pages that encourages a flow of ideas. 
• Is usually presented to the executive producer before getting out of the product development department; they will determine whether or not the idea has merit.
• A game concept should include the following features
  • Introduction
    • A longer introduction indicates a weaker vision, so it should only be 1 or 2 sentences, encompassing all features listed below in an exciting manner.
  • Background (optional)
    • Expands on other projects, products, licences, or properties that may be mentioned in the introduction, should be physically separated so readers can skip it. This is important for sequels or games heavily based on an existing set of code or tools
  • Description
    • In a few paragraphs/a page, using second person perspective (“you”), describe the key elements that encompass the gameplay to show exactly what the player sees and does. Avoid specifics, but don’t be too vague; this should make the content and entertainment value obvious. 
  • Key features
    • This is a bullet point list that should set your game apart from others and provide goals that the subsequent documentation should acquire. This should make your game UNIQUE.
  • Genre
    • In a few words, describe the game’s genre and flavour with existing classifications from magazines and awards, then refine this genre with descriptors to make it stand out. 
  • Platform(s)
    • List the target platform(s); if the game is applicable to multiple, list the initial or preferred one. If the game is multiplayer with Internet, indicate that as well. 
  • Concept Art (optional)
    • Art helps sell the idea and the vision you want to procure, however as not everyone is artistically inclined, it is not required. 
  • Common Mistakes
    • Concept is off-base to the company’s brand or future plans
    • Requires too many resources
    • Lack of content
    • The game does not seem fun 
    • The document uses poor language and grammar
    • The designer gives up 

Guidelines for the Game Proposal:

• This is a formal project proposal that is used to secure funding and resources, expanding on the game concept and may involve feedback from other departments – particularly the marketing department for analysis on how well the concept might sell. Programming staff also perform a technical evaluation to comment on its feasibility, risks, and tasks, with a rough estimate of development time. 
• A game proposal includes the following features:
  • Revised game concept (preceding)
  • Market Analysis
  • Technical Analysis
  • Legal Analysis (if applicable)
  • Cost and revenue projections 
  • Art

Obsessive Compulsive Game (OCG) by Sweater Wolf

This is a quick, fifteen minute game on itch.io that explores the designer’s relationship with their OCD by forcing the player to do menial tasks set by a “monster”, such as pushing a box or not stepping into certain areas of the room. It works well, because as I was playing, I felt frustrated by having to do the tasks over and over until I got them “right”, because otherwise the game would not progress – which is a real life happenstance for people with OCD. 

Reflection:

The reading this week helped guide me to a conclusion about how I was going to get inspired for my game project, by finding inspiration in works outside of games, understanding how to make a game resonate with a player, how to put emotions and experiences to games, and how to analyse a game without ruining the experience you’re trying to analyse. It also helped me understand the framework for a G.D.D., which should be useful in the coming weeks. Overall, I am feeling positive!

To see the media I used for inspiration, as well as their analysis, please go to the research tab, or click below:

• Horror Media Analysis