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.