The Art of Game Design

"This book contains some thought-provoking suggestions about game design, but it also contains enough empty truisms to become annoying. For example: "there were many decisions the designer made to lay it out, and these decisions made a significant impact upon the game experience" (p. 237). The final paragraph of each chapter and subchapter could probably be omitted without removing any information from the book.<br/><br/>And the number of typos was astounding. (I sent Jesse Schell a list of nearly twenty to correct in e-books or reprintings.) Their sheer volume made me a bit dubious of the depth of thought that went into the book. Some parts of it, especially the emotional ramblings toward the end, read like first drafts. <br/><br/>The premise of the book intrigued me. Schell pulled together a collection of one hundred "lenses": ways looking at a game to see what needs to be changed about it. Some of these could be quite useful, although most don't need the surrounding context of the book to support them. The book has a companion Deck of Lenses that might make a better purchase for anyone actually intending to use the lenses for a design. <br/><br/>As a former professional juggler and former employee of Disney, Schell's perspective on the entertainment side of the industry was valuable, albeit somewhat trite.<br/><br/>Here are some things this book says:<br/><spoiler><br/>*Compared with other media, it is harder to hide the artifacts and connect the user directly to the experience in games because games are more interactive (p. 11).<br/>*The lack of standardized definitions in game design means that we have to clarify what we mean more. Although this step of clarification slows the process, it also means that we think about each detail more thoroughly (p. 25). [This concept reminds me of the essay about Short Hand Abstractions from This Will Make You Smarter. By using SHAs, we can think about combinations of SHAs faster, but we don’t stop to consider what each SHA really means.]<br/>*Schell proposes a ten-part definition of a game (they are entered willfully, have goals, have conflict and rules, can be won and lost, are interactive, have challenge, and create their own internal value to engage players in closed, formal systems)(p. 31-4). He then combines all these as “A game is a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude” (p. 37).<br/>*The four main components of a game (mechanics, story, aesthetics, and technology) (p. 41-3) should support a unified theme (p. 53).<br/>*When brainstorming, numbering the ideas in lists helps to give each idea individual significance (p. 71).<br/>*Games are built on top of toys. One way of designing is to come up with the toy first and let that inspire the form of the game (p. 90).<br/>*In much the same way that comics simplify perception by aligning with our mental models (with large faces and lines dividing objects), games may be fun because they are simplified models and thus require less thought than non-abstracted perceptions of reality (p. 117).<br/>*When designing a game’s mechanics, it’s worthwhile to consider separately the six basic elements of spaces, modes, actions, rules, skills, and chances (p. 130-69).<br/>*Playtest with a mix of novices and experts to ensure that players begin in and remain in the flow channel (p. 177-8).<br/>*Each individual game element should serve as many purposes as possible. Elements with few purposes should be merged (p. 197-8).<br/>*If a game for children is designed to require only one mouse button, it can be useful to set the right-mouse button to also act as a left button so that if their small hands mis-click, the game still responds as anticipated (p. 244).<br/>*A successful entertainment experience should have an “interest curve” that begins with a hook to engage the person’s interest and then adds gradually more interesting experiences until concluding with the most interesting (p. 246-52).<br/>*Inconsistency in a story world is bad because it takes people out of the world and prevents them from imagining themselves in it in the future (p. 276).<br/>*When creating game characters, it can be useful to consider their relationships with each other character, including their relative statuses (p. 318-23).<br/>*One technique for designing aesthetics is to pick a song that evokes the feeling you want to convey and then structure the rest of the game around it (p. 351-2).<br/>*It’s worthwhile to make your client feel like a creative partner in your design (420).<br/>*Schell explains how the education system has many mechanics of a game but that it doesn’t feel like a game because it lacks the elements of a good game design. “It’s not that learning isn’t fun, it is just that many educational experiences are poorly designed” (443).<br/>*If curiosity is a trait that can be nurtured, then structuring the education system to support the development of curiosity will be beneficial to students because they can then seek out any information they need on the internet (p. 447-8).<br/></spoiler><br/><br/>EDIT: Jesse responded to the list of typos I sent him by sending me a pack of his Deck of Lenses as a thank you. This was a very proactive gesture and gave me considerable respect for his professional courtesy. Now that I own the deck, my earlier recommendation that the deck is likely more useful than the book still stands. The deck also has the added merit of being beautifully illustrated and satisfyingly crisp. <br/><br/>I think it's a good idea to publish the media in multiple formats like this; multiple entries into a world are something which Jesse Schell advocates convincingly for in his book. I've heard that Stephen Anderson also created a complementary deck of psychological principles to go with his <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/577893824">Seductive Interaction Design</a></i>."