Game Design

 

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What is a game anyway? 

This is such a complicated question to answer because there seems to be so many different ways to define a game. One definition I would like to focus on in this blog post is "A game has 'ends and means': an objective, an outcome, and a set of rules to get there" (David Parlett)

This statement is quite interesting because it is stating that a game always has an end, and it has an objective to get to that end goal but also a set of rules you have to follow to be able to get to that objective to be able to end the game.

One game that reminds me of this statement is the card game 'Go Fish'. This is one of those games that always has an end, because eventually you run out of cards. But, you still have an objective and a set of rules to follow in this game. From all my years playing Go Fish, the objective was always to have the most amount of paired up cards to win in the end, and the rules were to always ask the other player for a card and if they weren't in possession of that card, then you had to pick up a card from the middle deck and hope for a pairing.

When it comes to developing games, there are also so many different ways to do this. Different developers can use different platforms or means. Some games can be developed on a console, for example an Xbox or a PlayStation. Games can also be developed in a board game format, like Monopoly or Cluedo. A final example is that games can also be developed on cards, games like Go Fish can be developed using playing cards, but there is also games like Uno that are their own genre of cards.

There are some methods to consider while generating ideas for games. One method that I would consider an old reliable would be the brainstorming method.

Brainstorming 

Brainstorming usually gives people the chance to just write down a bunch of ideas that could help develop the game to the best it can be. Usually in this stage of development, no idea is a stupid one and all ideas can be connected and used to construct even better ones for the game. In my experience, a lot of brainstorming is done in spider diagrams or just writing down any words and ideas that people throw around.