Fundamental understanding of Game Design

Another day, another week, of just pure chaos and anarchy. College is the chaos, assignments are the anarchy to our lives. 

Anyways, this week's blogs are all about the definition of games, unity tutorials, game ideas and more. This blog will talk about the Fundamental understanding of Game Design.

Game design is all about.

So to begin, we need to ask ourselves is what a game is? How can we define it?

We could say that it is an activity with a set of rules, but that doesn't describe what a game is. Defining the word, game, is a bit complicated as there is no real consensus on the word. There are many proposed interpretations that we can take up as our definition of a game.

One interpretation described by David Parlett is that a game has an "end" and "means." - there are objectives, outcomes and a collection of rules that allow us to get there. This personally describes games in a nutshell. All games have objectives, outcomes that come with those objectives and rules that the two must follow. 

Another interpretation described by Chris Crawford is that it is a "closed, formal system", meaning that there are rules that should be followed. From what can be understood of his interpretation, the rules should involve conflict, interaction, safety and other actions. - This is another interpretation that I can agree with, as within games, some goals should be followed and achieved. 

Arknight game meme that you'll never understand

There are a plethora of other interpretations that we can use to define a game, but from all of the ones proposed, the first one personally describes games overall. 

From examining these definitions we can summarise that games are an activity, they ave rules, conflicts, goals, systems and a form of art.

Although, there can be a problem when it comes to certain interpretations of games. 

For example, if we look at it from the perspective of a puzzle. Firstly, do you believe that puzzles are games? They have rules, they have objectives and a system. It depends solely on which definitions we're using here. The interpretations of Salen and Zimmerman conflict with puzzle games, hence they describe them as a subset of games that require a correct set of answers. 

Now that we know what a game is, we can safely move to the next part; brainstorming ideas to make one. However, as we have understood what games are, we too, need to understand the development of ideas for a game. 

Genshin Impact meme, that only the cultured will understand.

So what makes an idea? There are different methods that support the creation of game ideation. One such method is to seek inspiration. 

Ideas are seen as byproducts from of thoughts generated from a variety of influential but inspiring sources. Common sources of inspiration derive from watching television shows, playing other games, reading, drawing and various other revelations. According to commentaries from employees, they consider that a person's outlook of life, perceiving the environment around them, can lead to the creation of ideas.

In other words, be encouraged and start looking at everything for inspiration.

So how can we apply this method for generating ideas for a game? There are four main techniques that we can use. 

Concentration is the most common method that doesn't require anything at all. You merely just use your head and think. However, depending on the environment that you're in, you'd find yourself thinking different ideas in the process. The changing environment coupled with the observation of other ideas present can lead to your mind generating new ideas.

Another would be to brainstorm. It is a common thing to do. Everyone does this. You just solely need a group of people to help you with this. It is possible to brainstorm by yourself, however, doing so with other people yields greater results. 

There are three main stages for a brainstorm;

- The Statement of the task: influenced by the number of people and their specialization, the amount of money available, the time limit, all converge to influence the kind of project that'll be developed.

-  Generation of Ideas: People begin suggesting ideas and develop other people's proposed ideas. Here these ideas are collected and recorded for future reference.

- Grouping and Selection: The final phase of the process. Here, the ideas are evaluated and the best one is chosen.

Sources: 

- https://tudublin-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/shaun_ferns_tudublin_ie/EcSiRbHfhxtIpGcxOZ5VgesB7DX60CROzijV77hw7S7qtQ?e=g5pQGz

- https://tudublin-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/shaun_ferns_tudublin_ie/Ec8n4j4YSM1AqpVEAUlJgNkBfE2phZaI7xnPy7Wpi6mUvg?e=QRoyOI

- https://www.gamedev.net/tutorials/game-design/game-design-and-theory/four-basic-methods-for-generating-ideas-r4759/