Gamasutra - Features - Formal Abstract Design Tools Doug Church.

 Thursday’s  reading.

Gamasutra - Features - Formal Abstract Design Tools Doug Church.

This was a very enlighting read for me; we must have a vocabulary for game design. You need one to make films, design cars, work as a doctor etc. If you need one for making films, then you defiantly need it for game design.  Game design has much more depth to it than film making, we don’t just make an actor stand on the x and say his lines; I know this is putting it a bit too simply, but for a game designer we have to think how that x is controlling our characters movement, decision making, and involvement with the storyline and other characters, not just now but in future events in the game play.

Doug Church has a technique called Abstract Design Tools.

Anyone interested in game deign needs tools like these, and most importantly to add to them.

I’m making what would be called in Cossacks a build path for Computer game design, tools like this are a big part of that build path.

FADT stands for Formal, Abstract Design Tools, some examples are:

INTENTION: Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play.

 Make players responsible for their actions, so when a particular game play doesn’t work they have a good idea of why it didn’t, and have more or a chance to work out what to do next time. Give them feedback if necessary.

PERCEIVABLE CONSEQUENCE: A clear reaction from the game world to the action of

The player.

Make sure the player knows why he has just died, or got stuck up a blind alley with no way-out. When you don’t understand why it happened it’s very frustrating. It might help the story line somehow, but as designers we must understand, if we need to get the players some were in the game for the storyline, we must make sure the player understands, and why the decisions he made have got him there.

STORY: The narrative thread, whether designer-driven or player-driven, that

binds events together and drives the player forward toward completion of the

game.

I can see making an enjoyable adventure game while keeping to the story line would be fun, but a very hard part of game designing. Keeping the plot advancing while setting goals for the player, without taking control away from him, and giving him freedom to explore and enjoy the world you have created, is not an easy thing to do. You need to know what tools to use and in what combination to use them.