This week, we were supposed to go to our escape rooms.  However, since those have been canceled so that we can all self-quarantine, we instead played We Were Here.  I found this game to be very interesting, especially relating it to what we discussed in class on Tuesday about possibility spaces and other dynamics of a game.  In We Were Here, there are two players: one is an explorer, and one is the librarian.  The librarian mostly remains in the same room throughout the game and has to help the explorer navigate a variety of rooms to reach the final stage.  Together, the players need to solve puzzles to get to the next challenge.  

In We Were Here, the players get basically zero clues as to what they need to do.  It is entirely up to you to navigate the room and figure out how to solve the puzzle.  Since you cannot see your teammates’ screen and they cannot see yours, communication is very important in this game.  You must describe a variety of shapes that look very similar to each other so that you can figure out what symbols match the ones on your teammates’ screen.  This also reminded me of the week before spring break in which we all played games where we needed to communicate and work together. We Were Here is largely a game about working together.  You both want to survive, so you need to talk to each other and coordinate with each other in order to do this.  However, at the end, there is a big twist (spoiler alert!). You go from wanting to help each other to possibly being against each other.  The last puzzle is you escaping the building; however, in order to open the gate, one person has to stand on the button.  That means only one person is able to escape, and you have to decide who. This can often pit friends against each other, since no one wants to get left behind.  In this way, it goes from a cooperative game to a slightly competitive game. However, the interesting fact lies in the way that different people all play the game differently.  Sometimes, it’s not competitive, and someone is happy to let their friend go and sacrifice themselves. That’s the beauty of a game – everyone has a different experience playing it!  The fact that the game doesn’t offer very many clues also shows how different it is compared to possibility spaces in other games.

In the last game design class we talk and play test about the topic of team based game. First class of the week we get into our groups and play a team based board game together with the people that we have to do the team project on, so we can get familiar with our own group and to figure out how to play the game we pick as a group. Our focus this week is about team game we have see three types of game, the first game is a board game, the second game we watched the gameplay video clip on youtube as a class together, but didn’t get a chance to play it, the third game is called Overwatch. In this three games the game play style is different but there are some common points. It all required time to understand the background skillset of a particular character or a particular race, these kind of game reminds me of a game called Warcraft 3 the frozen throne, because in this game we need to understand a particular hero’s skillset and it’s different passive, just like in Fire Emblems for the archer is good to hide behind the bushes and for the tank, stay in the front line. On Thursday when we play Overwatch in class together, some of the person is their first time to play the game, just like me, so I was lost when I get into the game, I don’t know the ability of the hero I am playing and we have no communication no strategy. But I believe if we spend some time to understand the skillset of the hero, and the map objective of how to win the game. We will have a better player experience, One thing I found out is that for team playing game, communication is so important, and everyone need to be on the same page. If one of the person don’t want to win the game, we will probably have a huge chance to lost the game. and I found out maybe it will be good to have a voice system like Dota or league of legends, when we can communicate with our own teammate in live. But at the same time people may abuse it, to become toxic talk, I think in this part league of legends really do a good job, you can only talk to the person that is in your party when you queue up for a match. You can not communicate with random people, it prevent the situation that talk toxic words verbally to the people you don’t know.

               This week we covered cooperation within games, both in gaming and the designing of. We attempted, important key word right there, to cooperate in games through playing a board game and by playing overwatch. I feel this was something that many, if not all, students within the course had experience with, though none of it really went to good use as perhaps the suddenness of doing so with people we were not wholly familiar with had the opposite effect. Through discussion, we discussed and went over the different roles within game development and the importance of playing our parts, something that we would have to put into effect for our own projects.

                The board game my group played in class was something that took teamwork and really obscured it, making teamwork almost an impossibility throughout the early stages of the game. It did explore different methods of teamwork, as teamwork was something that wasn’t possible in the early game, almost discouraged, but as the game progressed the goal of teamwork with other players would emerge despite the lack of a team objective being present. It explored the idea of teams not needing to be present, just personal goals, and morphing that into working together to achieve those goals despite the game being one where there could only be one “winner.” I feel like the game my group played embodied the idea of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” which within the game setting felt unique when conceptualizing teamwork.

                Something Fullerton briefly mentions in this week’s reading is “everybody does everything.” While we talked in class of people in teams working on what they excel at, we also talked of the importance of actually putting in work individually. Our groups aren’t these large, company scaled work forces; while it is important that we try to put our own knowledge and expertise to use, simply sticking to what we know isn’t possible in small scale projects such as what we are to be working on. These three short words describes our roles as students, and group members, pretty concisely as it covers what we spoke in class about working in groups.

                Sources

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games; Third Volume

In game design this week we were taught about team based narrative games. This week we learned about both the developer’s team and the publisher’s team to make and sell a game. The relationship between the two teams are very important. The publisher’s jobs are to fund the game, market it, get QA testers and more. While the developers come up with ideas and demos for the publisher and make the game. These two teams work together to put out games that will apply to their targeted demographic. They are a perfect example of what team based games are about. We played and watched three different games, a board game, Overwatch, and Fire Emblems. On Tuesday we separated into groups of four and played four different board games that made us play in teams to work towards one goal. And on Thursday we watched a gameplay of Fire Emblems where the player had to use his characters special set of skills to defeat the enemy in front of them. We later played Overwatch, and what Overwatch and the board game we played had in common is that each player would choose a character with a special set of skills and communicate with one another to defeat their enemy or achieve a goal. Team based games are easier with people you know, because it makes communicating with each other easier than communicating with random people who might not understand how you play or think in-game. Good thing about online time based games is that if you can’t talk over your headset then you can still use game text or dialogue to communicate with your teammates. In my opinion I love team based games because even though it can be toxic at times with people on the other team or your own teammates it is still fun to be able to get on a game and work with your friends or others towards one thing. I know I get very hyped and amped up whenever my guys and I hop on a game of Siege and win a game that we thought we had no chance of winning. It’s one of the best feelings ever and being able to share that with friends makes it even better.

Last week I learnt about how important it is to have a diverse team in making a game. Each person has his/her own skill set to bring to the table and we need to utilize those skills to the maximum. How we utilize them efficiently is the main topic that we talked about. In general, when we work in a team, there is always a role assigned to each person. For example, we have different roles such as UI/UX Designer, programmers, visual artist, audio engineers, writers and many more. I think getting the most out of everyone in terms of technical skills is really important, however doing the same when it comes to creating meaningful narrative is more challenging. For example, Virginia 2016, in order to create this fictionalized Virginia that takes place in 1992, they need people who has some knowledge about the cultural context and historical context of Virginia around that time. In week 6, we already talked about some of the details such as the ratio between male characters and female ones. So now the main question is how do we get those people. First, I think we need to have people with related backgrounds in the team and second, we need to get to know them. One thing that is really important is getting to know your team members and understanding where they are coming from. If we want to represent a minority in a game, it’s crucial to have someone who represents that minority in your team.

Then we also played Overwatch in class on Thursday. This game really showcases a teamwork-based game. It’s really hard to win in Overwatch if the team is lacking a role. If you take out the healer from the team, the team does not have any sustainability. The game also relies on team communication whether that be by voice chat or by visuals. The game designers use certain indicators or marks to help the team to communicate to each other. One example would be the healing notification when one of your team member is low in hp.

So to conclude, last week we talked about the importance of teamwork both in a game and in a team that produces games.

Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment, 2015

Virginia. Variable State. Published by 505 Games. 2016. 

For a gaming company, having a strong team structure is extremely important.  Within the team structures chapter, it says that, “Your objective is to create an environment where all individuals are able to contribute to the very best of their abilities” (412).  There are so many different ways that team members can contribute to the overall production of a game.  Members of a developing team all bring different skill sets to the table.  There are members that focus on sound, art, level design, narrative, etc.  This is so the people can focus on one main skill and do it well.  Because there are so many different departments within one gaming company, communication between the different departments is essential. During group projects, I feel like communication is the most important thing.  If team members can’t, or don’t know how to communicate effectively then there is no way for each person’s skill sets to be used to its maximum capacity. Members wouldn’t be able to let the others know how much time they need for certain things, or what they are even skillful in.  With poor communication, nothing really gets done, and people can be stuck doing aspects of a project that they don’t do well in as opposed to working in an area where they can strive and can bring the most to the table.  Not only is it important to use everyone’s skills to the overall team’s advantage, but each member has a unique perspective on situations and can also bring that diversity to the project.  A huge problem in the gaming industry is the lack of representation and diversity in games, and that could very much stem from the fact that members of a game developing team either aren’t diverse, or their diversities aren’t being used in a constructive and innovating way.  There are many examples where there are misrepresentations of people within games.  I feel that that is something that could have been easily avoided by making an effort to engage with the people that are to be represented in a game.  Not only engage but listen and learn from their perspectives to create games that are true to the people and cultures.

Works Cited

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.

This past week we looked at the team dynamics of board games. On Tuesday I played Pandemic with a  group in class and on Thursday I observed a group of classmates play Overwatch together.

During our game of Pandemic, we observed the ways in which the games had us interacting with each other and with the game. Communication was a large part of this game. Each player had unique abilities that would help the group and players had cards that would help towards the goals of the games. By communicating with the other players we were able to plan out or moves 4 or 5 turns ahead of time. We left our cards face up on the table and were fully transparent with each other. It was very satisfying that our advanced planning was so good that we were able to survive two pandemic cards in a row and pull off a win. This gameplay was very different than the collaboration used within the team for Overwatch.  

Overwatch is a faster-paced game than Pandemic and requires more quick communication rather than planning out very far in advance. It was very interesting to hear other classmates discussing how they communicate with teams in online games when you do not have clear in-person communications. How certain moves and even what character you pick could indicate things to other players

Sources:

Pandemic, Z-MAN Games, 2007

Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment, 2015

Every game has a team behind it, where people work together with different skill sets to accomplish one goal. Sometimes the collaborators will join in on more than just their main role. These roles consist of game designers, programmers, visual artists, quality assurance and specialized media. Together they provide the base structure of the developing team. Importantly, balancing and allowing contribution of each member is essential.

However, some roles can be overlooked by other members. In cases where the head programmer is also the game designer, there can be less focus on other elements of the game like story and art due to role bias. “If the roles are divided, the game designer can approach playtests and feedback with a more objective mindset (Fullerton, 394).” Without objectivity, the product will weigh more heavily towards the bias of the designer. Even if the programmer is not the game designer, many people might see the programmer as more essential, due to the rigor of coding and without the code, there is no game. One could say that without an artist, there is no game either. Toxic mentality can really hinder the confidence of other members and cause them to feel disposable and invaluable. As mentioned in class, giving the ability of each collaborator to shine would be a helpful way to acknowledge the significance of their role on the team and on the game.

Similarly, board games that involve cooperation are intriguing examples of how a team should work together. Our group played Mountains of Madness, where we had to communicate what supplies we had in order to escape and collect enough relics. Each player only knew their own supplies in their hand. In the production of a game, we see that same concept. A bunch of people explaining and using what they have to contribute to the end objective.

Overall, developers aren’t just a group of nerds who know how to program. They are a combination of a diverse set of people, who have special contributions to the team and without even the smallest role, something can go awry. It’s a bunch of cogs and wheels in a machine that can’t work properly without every piece. In cooperative board games, there is no “I” in team. Just like real life, we can’t always work by ourselves, no matter how hard we try.

Works Cited

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.

Fullerton summed up some of the major points in this weeks chapter fairly well in her conclusion, writing “Understanding your role in a team and having the interpersonal skills to work within a team structure are as important as any of the design skills I have discussed to this point  Game development is a collaborative art, and game teams, large or small, are involved in complex and innovative work that requires every bit of social skill you can muster” (pg 412). This is crucial to many lines of work and is particularly important in game design. Games are a very artistic and technologically advanced form of entertainment, so it is no surprise that it takes a well structured team to create the games we know and love. 

As games develop and become larger franchises led by several teams of developers and publishers, we see how these different groups can sometimes have conflict on the larger stage. For instance, the entire ordeal with the Sonic movie showed how publishers trying to sell a game franchise in a certain way can have immense conflict with the original designer’s intent. We have also seen games not make it to being finished or having a well deserved sequel, not because of bad quality fo the game but because of the team structures within companies falling apart (for me this includes Fable IV and the full version of PT, but i am sure all os us have games in mind that deserve more than what they got because of inside company issues). This is one of the many examples of a skill that goes unnoticed when it is working well (the skill being teamwork) and then standing out like a sore thumb when it is not done well. This makes it so the importance of teamwork in the creation of games (or anything else on a large scale really) can be severely underestimated in terms of its importance. 

I would also like to conclude this blog post by mentioning how excited I am for all of the memes in the discord server as we retreat to it due to the pandemic, please do not hold back (but also don’t be a dumb edgelord please, wholesome memes are so much better). At what point are we in a Black Mirror episode? 

Works Cited:

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.

Cooperative group board games are not very good at what they set out to do. First, the setup is extremely convoluted. Most teamwork is done in setting up the board, that in itself is a challenge that requires a lot of communication. Secondly, The main problem with them is the instruction booklet is more akin to an actual book. There are a lot of instructions that it becomes teamwork to try and remember them all. Unintentional teamwork once again is displayed at this point. The team has to remember all the rules and come to consensus on how to interpret them. During class period Tuesday as a group the instruction booklet was consulted at nearly every turn and we were unsure if we were playing correctly. Asking players to keep track of many things and even worse when those things are more abstract ideas is bad game design.
    Furthermore, the game’s intention is to put the players at odds. It wants to inhibit communication to make the game harder to play. However, many of the things that would inhibit would just delay the game more so than hinder communication. This is because many of the things that the game could prevent communication would be done in parallel at the start of the round. However, even by the middle of the game the inhibitions were so great it would be hard to play a round. The game also just boiled down to who was able to do mental addition the fastest. 

Sources:

Mountains of Madness, Angry Lion Games (2017)