Explaining Game Design

One thing I've been struggling with recently is how to explain to my family & friends what exactly I do for a living, being a level designer is a very abstract concept to someone that doesn't know how games are made.

But after mediating on the subject, I think have to come to able to explain it by this simple principle that a designer in the game industry main responsibility is crafting the player's experience, whatever it's by balancing systems or building layouts.

Global Game Jam 2013

Completed the Montreal Global Game Jam 2013 event successfully, it was an extremely interesting experience.

I will be posting a post-mortem at the end of the week but in meanwhile, you can try out our game at the following link:

Controls:

• W, A, S, D to move
• E to pick up/drop hearts
• Shift to run

Credits:

• Anshul Goyal               (programmer)
• Jean-Sebastien Caron   (art)
• Aidan Green                 (designer)
• Sean Noonan                (designer)
• David Baron                 (designer)

Player Expression

I highly recommend this talk, especially for anyone interested understanding the link between theatre & video games, especially if you consider that "play acting" & the concept of the player as a "performer" of the narrative shares a common bond.

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IGDA-Montreal Nov12 FC3 from IGDA Montreal on Vimeo.

Montreal Game Jam 2013

I'll be participating in the Montreal Game Jam this year, this time in the board game category.

See you there ^_^

Achievements

I hope you get an achievement for this epic body pile.

As a lot of players are noticing, most achievements or trophies are being integrated as static waypoints instead of contextual rewards for players that explore & exploit the game's systems.

And at the end of the day, a good player is like a hacker, he's in a constant search to master the game by finding the subtle weaknesses in a targeted system, this should be rewarded for it's what true gaming is all about.

Conflicts in Game Design

Interesting talk by Jonathan Blow, he seems to isolate why traditional narrative structures & mediums, like film, tend to clash with gameplay.

Basically the author of a novel or a film has total control of pacing & the context in which the story is told but video games are an interactive medium were the player can input randomness into the narrative context & break the authors original intent, which causes loss of emotional impact.

In itself, it is not an issue, for most players are lazy and will let themselves be guided by the level design & story but if you don't have a linear approach to your design then you must embrace the interactivity and let the player create meaning.

The player is an actor not a viewer in narrative gameplay.

My Perforce init.d script

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#!/bin/sh -e
export P4JOURNAL=/var/log/perforce/journal
export P4LOG=/var/log/perforce/p4err
export P4ROOT=/var/perforce_depot
export P4PORT=1666

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin"
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

p4start="p4d -d"
p4stop="p4 admin stop"
p4user=perforce

case "$1" in
start)
log_action_begin_msg "Starting Perforce Server"
daemon -u $p4user $p4start;
;;
stop)
log_action_begin_msg "Stopping Perforce Server"
p4Pid=$(pidof /usr/local/bin/p4d);
kill -9 $p4Pid;
;;

restart)
stop
start
;;

*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/perforce (start|stop|restart)"
exit 1
;;

esac
exit 0
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