Dogma 2001

In 2001, Ernest Adams issued a challenge to game designers with the aim of bringing designers’ focus back to original game design. While I believe his intentions are sound, I disagree with the suggestions he made. The core of Adams’ argument was “technology stifles creativity”. That is just flat out wrong.

Technology opens up our options as game designers. When imagining new ideas, one should not be forced to worry about whether or not it will run fast, or how hard it will be to program. Adams’ first two points would do the exact opposite if anyone actually followed them. Adams even goes so far as to say that “hardware accelerated 3D is forbidden”. Are designers immediately better off only working in 2D?

Similarly Adams suggests that game designers forego any use of non-standard input devices. The fact that the Wii exists is enough to prove how foolish this rule was.

Adams fourth and fifth rules are finally within reason and actually would be worthwhile following. Adams encourages designers to not rely on overused tropes such as zombies and space marines, but instead delve in to uncharted territory. The same goes for overused genres, although it seems to me Adams misses the point a little with this one. Game designers shouldn’t pick a genre and then make a game because that immediately puts you in the mindset of what this genre is and what one can and can’t do. Make the game, figure out what genre it is after.

Design Idea Wk1:

It is hard to be immediately inspired by the Dogma Manifesto, but I have been working on a game that happens to fit very nicely with it. In this game you play as a house – not a person, not a space marine, but a house. As the house your goal is to destroy whoever it is living inside you, but if they notice something creepy going on (like a wall moving) they’ll run out the door and escape. In harder instances, the player might be forced to distract the tenant by turning on the TV, or opening the fridge door, allowing them to close the walls in on the tenant.

Filed under: Design Idea

I am a game designer

My name is Sam. This is my blog for COMP4431.

I am doing the Game Design Workshop because games are something that I have always loved, and designing and playing games has consumed my spare time over the past few years. I have hundreds of ideas scribbled down all throughout my house, but only one simple game to my name. What could be better motivation for actually making one of those ideas than a deadline and an audience.

Why do i like games… Hm… The most realistic reason for my interest in games is their ability to absorb my entirety. It may be as complex as a 5 hour session of Fallout 3, or as simple as 15 minutes of Critter Crunch on the bus ride home. I would love to say that I admire games as an artistic medium because they can convey a message by enabling one to experience it themselves, but far too few games have actually done this. Hopefully this will change as the medium matures.

Why do so many games involve guns?

There are countless answers to this, but arguably the most notable is the ease of making the act of firing a gun an enjoyable one. Simply by adding a flash, a loud bang and a spark of shrapnel or explosion of blood a game designer can make clicking the mouse enjoyable.

I’ll give you an example to better explain what I mean: Wolfenstein 3D was the first largely popular FPS that pretty much was based around moving in to a room, shooting everything until it died and then progressing to the next room. Street Fighter II on the other hand, is a one-on-one melee combat game, featuring a complex combat system. I thoroughly enjoy both games and both were rated highly, but just by playing the games it is easy to tell how much more work went in to Street Fighter II’s combat. For something to compare this to, look at the first Street Fighter. Far more simple melee combat, far less favourable reviews.

Now this certainly isn’t a hard and fast rule of game design, but I believe shooters are easier to make enjoyable than most other genres.

Filed under: Journal , guns