Fundamentals Of Video Game Design

Fundamentals of Game Design: Week 4

"True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure — the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature."

Robert McKee

This week's works to review were far more about the actual process of developing a solid game, rathe r than the structure of a game. It is a fun shift from having to think about things in a more abstract or metaphorical form — the philosophy of games and our drive behind playing them — to the actual "let's get down to business" of how to make a game enjoyable for a player. Because, after all, a game could be the most high-concept thing in the world — but if no one wants to play it, it probably wasn't a very effective game.

Steve Meretsky's "Building Character: An Analysis of Character Creation" was really interesting as a follow-up piece from the previous week's reading about how to build empathy for people during games. In my last blog post, I had discussed my experience in designing an escape room in my coat closet that was meant to build empathy for people who are subject to extreme conspiracy theory beliefs. The game itself had you, the player, situated as the friend of someone — a fictional character — who had gone down an Internet rabbit hole. Essentially, you followed their journey by solving puzzles that would unlock new forum post histories.

But of course, the character of your friend had to be compelling in and of itself. I struggled a lot with ensuring that the dialogue on the Internet forums felt natural (as in, they felt like text you would really see posted in an online Internet forum) but the biggest challenge was to create a character that felt like any player could be friends with in real life (making empathy easier) while also not being boring.

Meretsky's final section on building "True Character" was the most compelling portion of his essay for me. Particularly his assertion that game design that doesn't allow you to make real choices — free will, essentially — makes it a fundamentally flawed way of getting to know what a person is like. He cites screenwriter Robert McKee as saying: ""True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure — the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature."

This may be true, but I also see another way around this when it comes to games that are multiplayer — or even when you discuss games that you've played solo with another person. I'm put in mind of the quote from John Searle's "The Construction of Social Reality" where he asserts that "man knows himself through speaking with others." Perhaps while playing a solo game where you don't have free will or true impact on people, you don't necessarily learn all that much about yourself — but in debriefing afterwards with other gamers, you do.

(Just as an addendum I liked the mention of Crash Bandicoot's charming death scenes. I will never forget the crazy noise Yoshi makes in Yoshi's Island 3, a game I played as a child. It still brings me joy to this day.)

Fundamentals Of Video Game Design

Source: https://medium.com/@melissa_gamesclass/fundamentals-of-game-design-week-4-d3d05e103098?source=post_internal_links---------6----------------------------

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