Want To Be a Games Designer? Read These!

Following up on my last substantial blog post that was about looking outside of the box when researching I have decided to form a list of text books that I have read that I think are invaluable to creating videogames on every level (as well as creating many other things in the design spectrum). I will also throw in a few books that I have not yet read but have had recommended to me. If anyone reads them before I do or has read them already let me know what you thought of them please. On that note lets see what books I think are important.

1# FLOW.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In terms of design this textbook, as I discussed in my last major blog post, discusses the psychology on how to understand as well as to achieve happiness. This may seem a bit ‘hippy like’ to some but if we take and step back and look at the larger picture the information inside becomes invaluable when designing a game. Videogames are meant to ignite enjoyment, achievement and a sense of fulfilment. These are not possible without the understanding of happiness and how the human mind achieves this state. It also will allow you to understand how to take control of your life and to identify the many elements that can take that control away from you. In the process you may even end up happy yourself…

2# The Writers Journey. 

Christopher Vogler

If you want to design your own games then this book is excellent when it comes to writing stories. It gives us a systematic understanding of how stories affect people as well as how to write them. Game narrative as a rule is more complicated than writing for a film or writing a novel yet these guidelines will allow us to understand the psychology of consumers when posed by certain types of stories. With a little intelligence and risk this should help you create stories that are worth playing through whether they are 4 minutes long or 60 hours.

3# Homo Ludens. Johan Huizinga

A brilliant theory book that looks into the reasons man needs to play. Homos Ludens itself means, “Man the Player” and discusses the importance of play in culture and society. I guess the questions may arise in yourself of how can you create a truly remarkable game without knowing the real reasons that one needs to play? Or you may gain some insight into the human need to enjoy themselves through games? Maybe the realization that videogames are an important cultural medium will give you confidence? Any of these things may occur when reading texts that investigate the reasons why we want to play videogames and in turn will help you create better and more substantial games. Anyone can make games that may be true, but knowing why and how they work will help you make better games.

4# Creativity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Another great textbook by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi that looks into the theory of flow in order to understand creativity. This book in itself may not explain how to make better games but what it does do is help you understand the creative process as well as help you enrich your work with a great creative ethos.

These are the books that I have recently read and have helped enrich my creativity as well as help me focus on my own work. In terms of my work ethos it’s also made me want to create exceptional pieces of work for others to enjoy and not myself. In light of this I have also started seeing games design (not games art) as I huge jigsaw puzzle that needs to be pieced together to see the whole picture which gets me highly excited when embarking on a new project.

Other books that I have been recommended are below. I hope to obtain these sometime this month so I can have a read of them before I go back to finish my MA in September.

1# The Laws of Simplicity – J Maeda

2# Universal Principles of Design

3# Emotional Design – Donald Norman

4# The Design of Every Day Things - Donald Norman

5# Hows and Whys of Level Design – Sjoerd De Jong

Wings Review- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011

Some exciting Wings posts starting off with my review of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011 which you can view here. But keep an eye out for later on this week when I will be writing and posting my StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty review for everyone to read. There of course will be news stories throughout the week but I will post on here when they have been submitted to those lovely chaps over at Ifmenhadwings.

See you...

Differences in research – The obvious and not so obvious

One day you hand in that final piece of work for your first MA year before it seems to fast forward to the day that you receive your module marks to suddenly discover that you are in fact in the middle of the summer and that the beginning of your final (and most important) term is only three months away. Three months away? Surely that is plenty of time to enjoy the glowing summer months, to stretch ones feet and bask in the warm weather? Not so it seems when I realised a few weeks ago that I would have a dissertation to write as well as plan a final practical project that must showcase my work in a professional and academic manner. So with this impending doom lurking over me I decided that it would be a wise idea to start researching into material that would benefit the direction that I have already started to take, and thus the first question arises. What books and materials should I pursue in the name of video-games research?

This at first seems like a simple question. Obviously I want to look at material that is relevant to my design discipline and in the case of games design this could mean a number of things. Naturally my first port of call would be to look at various “Games” themselves be that video-games, board games, playground games or role-playing games, before moving onto literature that has been published surrounding my given subject. Chances are these have been written by professionals and academics that have a word or two to say about how a game should or should not be designed. Now there are plenty of great and interesting books out there that are written by well-respected games designers, narrative designers and level designers that are worth reading to gain some insight into how the professional world works.

 One that springs to mind is the collaborative text book “Game Writing: Narrative Design for Video-games” edited by the renowned Chris Bateman, which showcases many different ways to implement narrative into video games successfully as well as talk about the problems that narrative designers face when writing for a game, a great title to draw points out of for what has and hasn’t worked in the past. Another title that I found interesting was that of “The Ultimate Guide To Video Game Writing and Design” by Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten which not only talks about writing for games but the design of them as well, a decent book which again serves as a guide of sorts to creating video-games.

Yet this is where I start to have a problem with my research direction. Many people may feel that this sort of research is enough and maybe at an undergraduate level it is, yet at a master’s level of study surely we should be pushing these writers theories or at least pursuing our own ideas into what creates a ‘better’ video game? This thought process is a new branch of independent thinking for me where instead of looking further into the subject for research inspiration you dare to look away from the discipline to search for new points of interest to aid you in your design work.

So we embark on a research journey of not so obvious research material. One of my main influences to turn away from using games and video games texts as my only research came in the form of an interview in ‘Edge magazine’ with Jenova Chen, lead designer at Thatgamecompany.  During the interview Chen talks about his design philosophies and why he thinks they are highly relevant to keeping his games unique and his creativity at a maximum. “People who write games design books make traditional games, so its not really theory. I find things that are already proven, more well-developed – architecture, psychology or sociology – help games design more”. It is from this quote that my mind got thinking about how games are made, why they are made in certain ways and what is to say that we as games designers have to conform to what has been done in the past. Surely as a design discipline that at times even borders on art we should be looking at new and involving ways to make games and push the boundaries of what we played when we were growing up.

So from that point onwards, without dismissing traditional games design texts and games themselves completely, I have been looking into more philosophy and sociology to help me understand what people will find fun and emotionally engaging. Looking outside of games themselves will also help me avoid making games that have already been or games that are similar to those that are already on the market. People don’t want another game like Gears of War when they already have Gears of War, Gears of War 2 and they are looking forward to Gears of War 3 coming out next year.

Thus I ventured online and started to look at texts that I had spoken to a friend who has a masters in philosophy about a few years back and branched to new texts from there. The first two that I have picked up are that of “Flow” and “Creativity” both by renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The first text talks about the theory of ‘Flow’ and how and why people are (as well as not) happy. This so far has provided me with a huge amount of insight into what people find engaging and why they feel certain emotions which, as well as helping myself, allows me to craft stronger ideas for better games.

The second text ‘Creativity” talks through how ‘flow’ can help explain the creative process and show how creativity can enrich people lives. This obviously applies to myself as well as giving me insight into important psychological processes that affect all of us. There are also a number of other books such as “Homos Ludens” by Johan Huizinga, “Emotional Design” by Donald Borman and “The Laws of Simplicity” by J. Maeda that I am looking at picking up and reading to help build up a research base that I can then refer to when I start my dissertation. I also believe this research will help me when building up my practical project and the direction I want to head in with that.

At the end of the day it is always important to see what designers before you have done so that we can analyse what is still relevant and what is not. Yet it is even more important for us as designers to stray beyond the path and explore other streams of thought so we can design stronger, more fun and individual games whether large or small for people in the future to enjoy.

Wings News! IllFonics Nexuiz first downloadable title to be powered by CryENGINE 3

Afternoon everyone, first up today is a quick news story on Nexuiz a new Arena based First Person Shooter thats going to be gracing us this winter with its blasting presence. If you want to know more about it as well as a few screen shots head over here to check it out. 

It will be interesting to see how it is received.

Enjoy.

Dead Space Ignition and Dragon Age 2 Wings news stories

Two new stories done today folks, one on the prequel to Dead Space 2 called Dead Space Ignition. Visit here for more info. Second story is on the newly announced sequel to Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2! Check If Men Had Wings here for more info on this story.

Enjoy.

So Why A New Blog?

So, I have started a brand new blog to chronic my thoughts, ideas and general games design gibberish in a seperate place to that of my reflective diary, To Play or Not to Play. Why you may ask, must I have more than one blog displaying and discussing my work? Well let me explain a little bit. Over the past few weeks I have been doing quite a bit of work out side of academia developing an iPhone game as well as writing news articles, reviews and previews for a gamer website If Men Had Wings. With this additional work on top of my current academic design research I feel like I have started a new beginning of sorts, and with this feel the need to start something new and seperate to accompany my new fully video-game orientated lifestyle.

The basic gist then is that this new blog is going to cover my entire life in games design, professionally and academically week in week out. This will include on going projects as well as ideas, theories, critical responses to games and their designs, links to stories I have written or have found interesting and of course things that amuse me in the world of games.

So keep posted and subscribe to my feed if you are interested in video-games and the design of them, and thanks for visiting.