Jimmy Chattin - I make better games.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

GDCO Notes - Travis George, Stacking the League Team



Stacking Talent: Growing the League of Legends Team
Speaker: Travis George (Riot Games)
--
Basics:
1)      Know who you are and what you are hiring for.
2)      Have a rigorous hiring process.
3)      Only hire 'A's, and don't keep anyone who's not.

Idea Suggested (1 meeting) → Concept (5 days) → Program and Balance (10 weeks) → Forum Posts (community team) → Patch System Release (release team)

Lessons from Lee Sin
1)      Empower the right people.
2)      Trust, but validate, in the execution phase.
3)      Make sure people are passionate with the game and the community.

Lessons from moving to Korea
1)      Hire 'force multipliers' that can replicate themselves and have the right amount of autonomy.
2)      Don't compromise on who you hire or who your hires hire.
3)      Ensure people truly believe in/embody your culture at work.

Lessons from growth
1)      Hire smart, adaptable people.
2)      Think who is the right person for the job (should vs could), not just who's capable.

Don't compromise!
Spend more time on people!
Interview using real-world tests!
Imagine starting over – who are your most valuable people?

Monday, October 29, 2012

GDCO Notes - Dave Mark, Numbers Have Power



Psychology vs. Structure: The Power of Numbers in Game Design
Speaker: Dave Mark (President and Lead Designer at Intrinsic Algorithm LLC)
--
The most important part of any presentation: “Gratuitous use of cats”
Pinning You Down
·         Never give an ‘anchor’ to questions in QA
·         When buying things, no-one likes A = B, but people love A = A-
o   ‘A’ is an internet book, ‘B’ is a real book, and ‘A-‘ is the internet book and the real book
o   A buyer doesn’t want ‘B’, and maybe doesn’t want ‘A-‘
·         Percents are better! Don’t use plain numbers
·         Words/amounts to use in scoring:
o   Thousands and OK, millions are cool
·         Granularity affects perception -> use whole numbers
o   Don’t use percents/fractions
·         Numbers after the 1st comma are commonly ignored
·         Quality is ignored when something is free
·         The ‘Almost’
o   ‘Almost’ refers to $0.99, $8.99, etc
o   Makes the buyer say ‘It’s not really a dollar…’
·         Classy things do not use cents
o   Save money or get quality
·         Stating costs in a public scene is impolite
·         Giving something for free is better than using a reduced price
·         Use ‘Gifting’ to make other people gladly take what you have to offer
o   Don’t give a price value
o   Don’t give actual money
·         Owning something makes something more valuable mentally for the owner
·         Arbitrary thresholds keep people going
o   Player with $90K wants $100K when keeping the $90K is a better option
·         We want bigger rewards!!
·         Low reward -> higher actual reward score
o   Ex: higher game combo makes game harder therefore lower score
·         High HP feels better than damage reduction
o   Taking ‘free/nullified’ is better than having higher HP
·         Time spent in lower health ranges is scarier!
o   Damage taken being based on health gets this result (high HP = higher damage) 

Suggested reading material

Saturday, October 27, 2012

GDCO Notes - Jeff Howard, Occult Game Design


Occult Game Design: An Initiation into Secrets and Mysteries
Speaker: Jeff Howard (Game/Narrative Professor – Dakota State University)
--
'The best secrets are not yet made.'
Introduction:
                The ‘Cursed Pokemon Cartridge’ -> Punish player for hacking the ROM.

The Ultimate Easter Egg
1)      An apparently arbitrary action
2)      Done w/ a strange set of action at the right time at the right place
3)      It unlocks a secret world
a.       A world beyond the world
4)      ‘Occult game Design’ does not = magic/mystical/esoteric
a.       Occult = secret, hidden
                                                                           i.      Easter eggs deepen world building
                                                                         ii.      Ex: The book, ‘Ready Player One’
b.      Mystery = mystes = ‘one who has been initiated’
c.       Mystes = myein = ‘to close, to shut’
d.      Initiation
Cryptic Mechanics Resonate w/ Narrative Themes
1)      Hidden control systems/subsystems
2)      Obscure goals/quests
3)      Puzzling control schemes
4)      Obscure range of actions
Obscure Mechanics: Player action w/ uncertain effect(s) on variables w/ uncertain effect(s) on narrative.
1)      Mysterious lore resonates w/ obscure mechanics
2)      Recursive unlocking
a.       Chris Pruett: get a key and backtrack to unlock a door to another key and backtrack…
b.      Gameplay secret unlocks narrative secret unlocks gameplay secret unlocks narrative…
Puzzling Control Schemes to Cryptic Objectives
1)      Counter intuitive
2)      Uncertain range of actions (Adventure!)
a.       Player gets excitement from possibilities
Hidden Locations: Not broad, but ‘dense’
1)      Keep spatial relationships of locations/characters/events concurrent
2)      Ex: Wizardry 4
Hidden Events: Deepen meaning to locations normally played through
1)      These events are time and place triggered
Cult Classics -> surreal, strange, disorienting (surreal does not equal random!)
Puzzles are symbolic w/ player gaining understanding of the world.
Sometimes, apparent player attraction to ‘horror’ is a ‘desire for initiation’
1)      Horror -> put the player into darkness and leave them in the dark
2)      Initiation -> put the player into darkness and lead them to the light

Howards Law:
  • Power (P) is directly proportional to Innosence (I) times Simplicity (S) with some constant value (K)
  • K*P = I*S
Initiates will protect and communicate the mystery to other initiate-hopefuls.

(Questions)
What is the best practice for forming narrative things?
                Have solid world-building.
Do you feel that horror is the best genre for mystery?
                Horror gives a head start, but it crosses genre boundary.
Parting words to the audience?
                The level design mantra is ‘density’; be consistently ‘dense’!  But use downtime to make design points apparent to the player.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

GDCO Notes - Giving Voice to Guild Wars 2



Guild Wars 2: Finding Our Voice
Speakers: Angel Leigh McCoy (ArenaNet), Bobby Stein (ArenaNet)
--
Team worked in the shadow of Guild Wars 1
1)      Processes/Lora and Legacy
2)      2 writing teams
a.       Lore and Continuity -> dungeons, personal story, and cinematics
b.      Writing -> dynamic events and ambient voices (crowd chatter)
The Voice of the Game
1)      Evolving voice
a.       Evaluate past work and seek improvement
2)      Be concise
a.       Quality vs. Quantity
3)      Breaking bad habits
a.       Reduce rampant capitalization from the first game
b.      Improve punctuation and sentence support structures
Writing Team Goals
1)      Make the world feel alive
a.       Use ambient scenes and dynamic events
2)      Naturalize dialogue for the characters speaking it
a.       Ex: Speak pirate if a pirate
3)      Get out of player’s way
4)      Provide optional lore via dialogue trees
‘Added Complexity’ in Giving Voice
1)      Text objects
a.       Painterly cinematics
b.      Barks/chatter
c.       Branching conversations
d.      Head-to-head conversations
2)      Lore and continuity challenges
a.       Lore documentation going through a single point
b.      Lore Masters writing ahead of gameplay development
Ambient Story via Scenes
1)      Goals:
a.       Impart lore to any player
b.      Tell short stories
c.       Establish characters
d.      Reward exploration
2)      Challenges:
a.       Can’t rely on player to see an entire scene
b.      Free form nature can lead to bad writing
Writing Alongside Designers
1)      Dynamic event team handles:
a.       Living world, spontaneous events, local/regional stories, and event chains
2)      Challenge:
a.       Character development, unavoidable player confusion

Iteration -> Lots of rebuilding makes the game better, but lots of lost work, and squeezed for time a lot

Lessons Learned
1)      Writer/designer relationship is very important
2)      Assign areas of responsibility through expertise
3)      Keep a writer on the character story team
4)      How to fail saving money
a.       Use generic voice-overs for specific characters
b.      Writing way ahead of designers
What Worked
1)      Whole ambient scenes are completed first
a.       Sets the feel of the location
2)      Maintaining the lore wiki
3)      Use writers and editors on the same team
4)      Create and encourage experts with specific expertise
5)      Have table reads
a.       If it is not read as intended, rewrite it
6)      Combine writing and lore teams
7)      Have a new team to handle final copy edits
8)      Keep a record after the design lockdown
9)      Scripts need good notes for context
10)   Constrain voice-over budget across multiple content lines
11)   Plan ahead what generic lines are needed

(Questions)
What is the relationship of designer and writer?
                Define the options of what is wanted to be done.  Mechanics drive events.
                Had a 5:1 designer to writer ratio.
How are ambient scenes triggered?
                They may be run whenever; for example, on a timer.
                They are defined based on NPC interactions.