What is a Game? Introduction to Game Design
So what is a game?
The first article "What is a Game Anyway?" goes into some detail about what the meaning of a game is. You could ask 100 people that question and they could all have their own unique answer and that's the great thing about games. One person could think a game is as easy as a character walking down the street picking up apples while another would shut down that idea and suggest that the character should have some sort of conflict. Take a minute yourself and Google the meaning of game, there's plenty of different descriptions. Here I have included Oxford Dictionary's definition of "Game".
The interviews carried out by Annakaisa Kultima for the paper "The Organic Nature of Game Ideation: Game Ideas Arise from Solitude and Mature by Bouncing" gave some fantastic insight into the mind of a game designer, even paid professionals need inspiration to spark new ideas and it showed that everybody is inspired in different ways. One interviewee said they preferred working alone and that walking helps them while others thought that small groups were beneficial in their creative process. Some of the designers interviewed said the following
"the creative act of producing new ideas was about a certain attitude toward life, keeping your eyes open, since almost
anything could inspire a new idea."
This quote really shows how easy it is to find inspiration and that just looking around during our everyday lives may spark some inspiration. One thing that was interesting is how brainstorming is used by some designers, a simple technique introduced to us in Primary School as kids.
The final article that I read was "Four Basic Methods of Generating Ideas" by Vasiliev Ilya. In it they go into detail about Concentration, Brainstorming, Scamper and Ramsey and how they contribute to the generating of ideas.
I watched this interesting short video on YouTube about a video game designers day at work. In it she talks about how her design process begins and it actually coincides with the articles I read above.
I also found this forum on Reddit which has 55 comments on it were people talk about how they come up with their game ideas, many of which were also mentioned above in the previous articles I have linked.
I didn't really get a chance to read the academic style article because I was too afraid of it and I didn't understand it one bit but your explanation was so much better so thank you! I really like your blog so far. I was actually looking at the exact same reddit post when I was doing my blogpost so great minds think alike ;) I hope you have a fab day !!
ReplyDeleteHi Sean, I think the great thing about games is that even though most games have common elements such as rules, conflict and goals, at the end of the day a game can be whatever you want it to be. I also enjoyed reading the second article and found it interesting how game designers have different ways of finding inspiration for their ideas and that we can all find inspiration in our everyday life.
ReplyDeleteHi Shaun, I am really impress by how you summarized the articles about Game Design so straightforward and clear knowing how long they are hahah. I also like the sayings that you quoted because everyone can get inspirations in anything that surrounds them if they are just become more open to everything.
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