Reposting_Storytelling: Timelines by Chris Smith

http://gamedesigndiary.com/2013/09/25/storytelling-timelines/?goback=.gmr_2578390.gde_2578390_member_276402264#!



I’d like designers to understand the role of a timeline within a development team, especially in projects with a campaign mode. Designers should work with writers, directors and art directors to gather the required information when creating a timeline.

Basic elements covered in this post include:

1. Game time line function
2. Time line examples
3. Communicating a timeline
4. Summary

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1 – Game time line function

A timeline communicates a snapshot of the intended experience both in terms of game play and story beats. The primary functions of timelines also include:

• Help identify potential high-level risks from custom gameplay, story and environmental art requirements e.g. If you decide to have a snow level this would be identified early as a high risk scope for such a short part of the game. A quick decision can be made to re-theme the level or keep it but use the features in more levels

• Created early, timelines allow design to get feedback and buy-in from team members, management and publishers at the start of production. Getting buy-in early can help you push back on large change requests later in production

• Set priorities on each level/beat to allow the team to focus on the highest priority ‘core experience’ first (along with the corresponding features). Try a simple priority system like A, B, C levels so team members know where the initial production focus will go e.g. A = Must have, B = Should have, C = Would be nice to have

• Alongside a feature list* timelines provide enough information to help production plan for current scope as well as staffing needs e.g. you will know pretty quickly if you’ve over scoped in terms of variety of environments or number of levels

• Set priorities to know ahead of time which levels you could put on hold should you need to adjust scope without compromising the vision. Transparency breeds trust and buy-in (Also following a level gating** process will helps)

• Be flexible enough to cope with creative changes based on discoveries and feedback during the development. No production plan or development will go according to plan, new ideas, feedback and creative discoveries and changes WILL happen.

• A simple way to communicate art direction and level theme, you have concept art so use it to inspire the team

• A simple document that can go through a multiple iterations early in the project before planning or even level production has started (see example below)

• Incomplete timelines show areas that need resolution, keeping unknowns transparent is key to building trust and inviting the team to contribute. I’d advise knowing where you want to start and end the game before displaying a timeline

[*Feature list - A prioritized high-level breakdown of the games feature set to be covered in another post]
[**Gating process - A series of level reviews titled 'gate' that a level must pass in order to continue to the next. Gates are organized reviews providing room for iteration without wasting level development effort. A post will be done on this at some point]

2 – Time line examples

Below is part  of a basic high-level timeline for a campaign based AAA action/driving title.

This is an example timeline for an imaginary title, ignore details as I made them up rather quickly, (actually about 15 minutes:). A timeline created early on in a project will raise a lot of questions and generate a lot of discussion within the team and help evolve the design/story. You’ll need to have answers for each or a time when answers will be generated. 

Questions like these will arise:

• Episode
  • A name allows the team a common reference when they want to talk about a level, will these become the base for naming conventions?
• Playtime
  • Is the game too long or too short? Could some levels be longer or shorter?
  • What is meant by a long, medium or short levels and do you have the appropriate resources in the development plan?
• Location
  • How many environments need to be developed?
  • Can any of the environments share resources?
  • Are there too many environments? If so alternative solutions discussed
• Mission objectives
  • Where is the excitement in your title? Are the objectives exciting and have enough variety?
  • Mission objectives will also start a great dialogue with the writers
  • You could add a story beats line in addition to mission objectives
• Episode highlights
  • What is it that the player will most remember about this game and episode?
  • How are you and can you pull off these big moments?
• Gameplay
  • Are you using your core game play?
  • Is there enough variety or are there too many similar experiences in a row?
  • Can you produce all these game play types at a high level of polish?
  • What is meant by the game play descriptions above?
• Priority
  • As discussed above priorities help focus the team and provide flexibility to development in case of change

Remember the information you choose to add-on the high level time line should express the story, core game beats, locations and core game play. The example above is one potential configuration of information,  just remember to avoid information overload.
 
Below are some other examples, uses and configurations for timelines (I had to blur the images as they are real timelines):

• A visual time line to show an IP’s narrative

• A timeline that shows cinematic beats and level designs intended intensity levels

• A level design ‘quick look’ walk-through For gameplay beats

• A detailed time line for characters and story beats and plot Branching possibilities

• A simple work in progress  post-it note timeline on a team wall (later converted into a more professional format)

• A whiteboard  time line for use during creative writing sessions with writers, designers, artists or directors

The possible formats and uses for a time line goes on, be creative and be clear what your documents function on the team is. Additionally you can use time lines for non-campaign games such as Multiplayer, Open world missions, Etc.

3 – Communicating a timeline

When you have created a timeline, get the document to the team via:

• Printed out summaries displayed on walls in the development space.
  • Having a timeline where the team walks past regularly provides everyone with vision of the game experience.
  • Create an entire wall devoted to story, characters and the game flow(also have a game wall***)
• Email to the team with links to the digital versions
  • Keep you core documents up to date until they are no longer needed
  • Have an uncluttered Digital space where core documents can be referenced easily
• Team, design, art or production meetings
  • Remember to mention these key design and story documentation and request feedback

Use an entire wall for story relevant information and evolve it as the story evolves adding character concepts, character webs, additional environment and enemy details can be added to wall as it evolves.

There is an almost limitless number of potential styles and presentation methods for timelines, I suggest picking a style that works for you and evolving it from there. If you can make your wall time line modular then updates become much easier to perform

[***Game wall - A similar concept to a time line which expands to give a full game over view of game loops, systems, etc.]

4 – Summary

As with all documentation and process you must choose the right tools. What is described about is one tool that can be used or evolved to suit a different style games e.g. Multiplayer, open world or mobile titles.

I want to leave you with these final thoughts: re-do below based on final document

1. Timelines communicate a snapshot of a story or game play experience
2. Keep it current, accessible, visual and add detail as appropriate
3. Timelines help control level scope and priorities
4. Timelines provide early opportunities to raise red flags & get buy-in
5. Time lines provides vision and buy-in From the team

Game Talk: Game Design 1_Blue Team_GAME: Star Fluxx

Game Talk: Game Design 1_Blue Team

from Looney Labs

www.looneylabs.com

GAME: Star Fluxx

So what is Star Fluxx? Simply, it’s a game about change, yes, literally, a “game changer”; constantly changing and evolving as you play, even letting new players join in after the game has already begun. The game is changed by how the players play. 

Never the same with each playthrough, this is what makes it interesting. 

Amusingly, with the rules constantly changing, as well as your end goal(s), a carefully planned strategy can go awry with each card draw, when another player plays a card different one than you need. That is what makes this game fun: the constant change and unpredictability. You get to see the game evolve every time you play it. 

This game focuses on a strategic starship based theme; players will find out that this game has very many different methods of winning. The game is made for 2-5 players, and has a playtime that ranges from 5-30 minutes. The estimated amount of time to set up is only 2 minutes, due to the fact it’s only a card-based mechanic. 

However, there are many different cards to learn special effects about, this can be estimated as taking from 15-30 minutes to learn.

Basics of Play:

You have New Rule cards, which change the rules of the game, Goal cards, which give the players a set goal to achieve in the game. Depending on the current goal, you need a specific pair of Keepers, which you collect and need in order to win the game. 

There are also Action cards which let you complete a special action, but only once. 

There are two types of Action cards: Surprise, which can be used during anyone’s turn, and normal Action cards, which can only be used on your turn. And the last type, are the Creepers, which become attached to your keepers, and could prevent you from winning, although some goals require creepers to win.

The game begins with the each player being dealt three cards, and there is a basic rule card in play on the table. The determining factor of which player goes first is the player who takes the initiative for that turn; like, calling “shotgun” to go first. The order of the game is whichever way the players decide.
 

The game always progresses following the basic rules card, Draw 1 card per turn and play one card per turn. As the game progresses, new rule cards are drawn, and they go into effect immediately after they are played. This means that if the new rule states to play every card in your hand, everyone has to do this even if it is not their turn! 

Also new goal cards are drawn, which tell you which present combination of keepers you need in order to win the game. You basically do whatever the game tells you to do until somebody wins. 

“Mechanics”:

Star Fluxx’s mechanics have very similar qualities to the game Uno in many different ways. They are both card based. Meaning that the only form of interactive play is through the usage of cards. In addition, they both can change the rules of the game. Uno changes the game by focusing on color and numbers; whereas, Star Fluxx focuses on changing the rules and goal of the game. 

However, both methods are used in that respective player’s advantage.

The difference between the two games is only due to the complexity of Star Fluxx’s game theme. This version of the basic game of Fluxx is more focused on futuristic artwork, with having many different card effects containing vast amounts of detail. In contrast, Uno is more simplistic, only focusing on numbers or colors for visual aspect. 

Player opinions:

Kristopher: I would rate this game an 8 for replay value, it’s very engaging and brings together a great strategic based outcome. In addition, the playtime for this game could possibly be extremely short; therefore, players would gladly like to play again.

Sandra: What elements could improve the game?: A chance for play to level off for a time, to give those of us escaping constant change to absorb and adjust—a level card that makes you disregard the next play or two, perhaps. I don’t think there’s a card action within the deck for that, since we played almost enough to restart deck.

Also, maybe, playing a second or more time, after you’ve gotten how the rules can quirk you about would “feel” more comfortable.

It was fun, just you’re never playing the same game, ever. 

Which is really cool on some levels and really cool marketing-wise since there is Fluxx, Star Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx, and tons of other themes available.

Chris: I give this game an 8 out of 10 because of how replayable it is, and because of its constantly changing gameplay, and twists that keep it from getting stale or boring. I also like the combination of luck and strategy that you need to play the game successfully. 

What is the replay value of the game?

Replay can be high, since its rules can make the game new and fresh every time, and there may be a possibility to mix decks and really freak out goals, actions, etc. 

 

 

VCIM 1200: Game Design 1_Group Review / Game Talk by Team Blue [Kristopher, Chris, Sandra, Matthew] at www.Tri- C.edu Cuyahoga Community College - East

Opinion: The tragedy of Grand Theft Auto V by Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/200648/Opinion_The_tragedy_of_Grand_Theft_Auto_V.php

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September 20, 2013 | By Leigh Alexander

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With all the talk about "open world," "mayhem," and "power fantasy," it's easy to forget how confining the Grand Theft Auto series now feels, writes Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander.
 =========
 
I wanted to do something nice for Michael. He'd been rejected in turn by each member of his family, as it seems he is every day. Even with medication and therapy he can't seem to deal with his anger or find a sense of purpose, and his doctor is hiking up the treatment rate again.

I'm controlling this guy Michael, standing on an LA sidewalk at sunny midday. I pull out his phone and I go through his contacts and I dial every single one.
 
The only one who answers is accidental pal Franklin, a young car thief trying to go legit. The bewilderment in Franklin's voice is palpable -- why is Michael calling? We just saw each other, man.

Michael is standing on a sidewalk, graying hair, dorky polo and cargo shorts, peering down at his phone as cars whizz past on some bleak LA highway. The sky takes on a late-day tinge and if I don't press anything he will stand there forever, looking sad, waiting for someone to call.

[][][]

With all the talk about "open world," "mayhem," and "power fantasy," it's easy to forget how confining the Grand Theft Auto series now feels: All of that endless vista, and you with your eyes too-often glued to the mini-map. Orbiting missions and objectives that dot your map like bites to be scratched. You have to shoot. For a game defined by its attitude to freedom and openness, it gives you very little liberty to escape its structure. You can go for a drive, or play tennis or do yoga, but you're delaying the inevitable.

To make progress, you eventually submit to going to a place, and you drive there, and pull up, and you're in it, and only after a long pause do you realize nothing begins until your car touches, precisely, the indicator halo in the middle of the sidewalk.

I feel for the characters in this game: They're living lives on rails, and they can't seem to get out, nor reconcile how to be happy and secure given the directions they've chosen. As Franklin, I drove for miles and miles away from the neighborhood where I've been taking over my cousin's tow truck shifts to keep him and his awful girlfriend afloat while they struggle with crack addiction. I drove what felt like forever, and I rode my bike the wrong way down a train tunnel and emerged on a railway bridge at dawn.

I had Franklin take out his phone to snap the view. It was the first time I'd used the phone in the game, and I noticed I could click the right stick to make Franklin turn the camera around on himself. The character model's position, expression -- phone at arm's length, slightly angled, the selfie-expression open, bewildered, positive -- was perfect. Innocent, even. I don't belong to Rockstar Social Club, the social network membership required for me to be able to save photos, but I took it anyway, pretending Franklin could show his unhinged friend Lamar back home, the one who claims his "Apache blood" forces him to escalate dangerous gangland conflicts.

Then the train came. It struck my parked bike, and then me. I saw Franklin's stunned and mangled body. Then I saw him dazedly exit some small town hospital, as if the adventure had all been a dream. There really wasn't anything else for me to do but drive back. Find another mission. Probably kill some more faceless gangsters, in a game where the best compliment you can give to its third-person shooting is that it's practically automated.

This game gives me everything, and yet I can't stop feeling sad. Trapped.


[][][]
The "mayhem" thing, the freedom thing. I remember when that was an actual feature of Grand Theft Auto: I've always said Vice City was my favorite game in the series, drenched in the mad, manic excesses of 1980s Miami. You killed every gyrating bunny in a dance club because you could: not just because there was a freshness to the gesture, a newness, a transgressive excitement, but because the garish world felt so silly, so impermanent. You never even dirtied your awful polyester. I'm sure I died again and again and didn't mind. 

It wasn't a real world, not really. It was a story of a set of values in a certain time, just like San Andreas, a hyper-textured early-90s hip-hop video -- where you could also drive weary and wary through the fires of the L.A. race riots. That was a thing.

Punching out a stranger for cash is something I could do in pointy-collared Tommy Vercetti's blocky world, or even in C.J.s, as a way of asserting control, of taking ownership of whatever bleak expectations people had of me. It's important to me to tell you that, in Vice City I chased down a prostitute in the rain and beat her to get my money back. 

I mean, I think I did that a lot -- hired and beat a lot of prostitutes -- just the one in the rain is the one I remember, cackling madly because Foreigner's "I've been waiting for a girl like you" was on my car radio. These were the times GTA felt illicit, rebellious, guilty, challenging.

I had to confide about the prostitutes, because I'm one of the people who said I thought it would have been better if GTA V let you play as a woman, and that I thought the game was misogynistic. I still feel that way, but it's not because I'm offended, or because I'm sensitive, or because I want to intervene upon anyone's vision, or because I regret the things I did in older games. It's because I want new monsters. It's because I want to be shocked again.

When Vice City came out, we had a young man doing heists and punching upward against expectations, misconceptions and the traditional boundaries of "permissible" game content. It's more than a decade later, and we have all grown up, and we're given an old man shuffling around his expensive pool in a dorky polo, doing the same heists. We have yet more characters who cannot get out.

I remember old Grand Theft Auto: You're driving around, and you see a car you've never seen before, and it looks expensive, and you want it. And when you fight for it and you shake the cops and you bring down the helicopter and you repair and re-paint the car, and you finally, wincing every tiny turn, drive that fucker to your garage because you worked for it? You felt the needle move.


In GTA V you shoot down a police helicopter within the first couple of hours, with no consequences. I feel gluttonous and bored. I start the game with a gorgeous car because I am a car "reposesser." And if I see another car I want, I pull over and I get it. When my fender gets too banged up, I pull over and I get another car. Nobody ever even really stops me. Neither GTA IV or GTA V have ever given me, personally, a Wanted Star for stealing a car.

I throw some poor guy into the street and I take the car. Some poor lady. I always like to know what they were listening to on the radio when I drive off, unpunished.
Am I coming up in the world, or am I just throwing terrified people into the road?
The thing that feels the most "correct" in GTA V is to drive within the lines, to stop at red lights, to try to do the right thing. To try to call people for Michael to hang out with. To make sure he goes to his doctors' appointments.


[][][]

Where do I go from here? Edge concluded its GTA V review with the quote "Beat that." Do I have to? What constitutes "more" when you have enough? What constitutes transgression when you're some mean, over-the-hill bully?

GTA V is that character -- the $800 million man who doesn't know what to do next. Who used to be a rebel, who pulled the same damn tricks until they stopped working, and then kept doing it.

I know that's not what Rockstar wants. I read all the Dan Houser interviews that are parceled out so rarely, always about vision and never about execution. Always about games and Hollywood, as if there's a competition, and about how interactivity offers us the potential to tell better stories than we did before. In that regard, GTA V is profoundly disappointing: One of the earliest jokes in the game involves a dog doing another dog in the butt. The game is constantly grating you with frat humor whenever you're trying to Have a Moment with it.

Always prescient, the game aims to lampoon the modern obsession with smart devices, social networks -- none-too-subtle "LifeInvader" subs for Facebook, and "Bleater" for Twitter -- and internet politics, but is mostly heavy-handed about it: any elderly pundit at a middle-American local paper can skewer Twitter as an outlet for narcissists' boring snippets. "Information isn't about imparting knowledge anymore," gloats Bleater obtusely, "the internet changed all that."

This is watching your sharp, witty father start telling old fart jokes as his mind slows down. And as much as the internet is habituated to defending GTA as "satire," what is it satirizing, if everything is either sad or awful? Where is the "satire" when the awful parts no longer seem edgy or provocative, just attempts at catch-all "offense" that aren't honed enough to even connect?

Here's a series that has been creating real, meaningful friction with conventional entertainment for as long as I can remember, and rather than push the envelope by creating new kinds of monsters, it's reciting the same old gangland fantasies, like a college boy who can't stop staring at the Godfather II poster on his wall, talking about how he's gonna be a big Hollywood director in between bong rips. You call the trading index BAWSAQ? Oh, bro, you're so funny, you're gonna be huge.

Everything it seems you'd want to compare GTA to, from The Sopranos to Breaking Bad, includes interesting and antagonistic women. GTA is not brave. Anna Gunn gets death threats for her incredible performance of Skyler White, the primary antagonist to Breaking Bad's Walter. You can't avert your eyes from their scenes in this last season. That is brave.

Whenever cinema and dialogue start happening on GTA V, I check Twitter. What am I doing this mission? I don't know, chasing the yellow dot, as always. Killing the red ones.
All a video game had to do to be seen as brave, edgy, risk-taking again would be to give it a shot: Try to write a monstrous woman, a frustrated woman, a hungry, opportunistic woman, and treat her frailties with nuance. This isn't something even TV and cinema regularly knock out of the park.

Instead, we have another GTA. It is so big, and so beautiful, and it's fundamentally just another GTA. It's good. I like it. It's fun to mess around in. It's like an SUV through a glass storefront, declaring that you cannot ignore video games.

We can't help but acknowledge what Rockstar has wrought: No one has ever seen a game world this size, this lifelike. If you squint a little, it almost looks completely real, creepy-real. It approximates the absurdist fantasies futurists have always had about video game, it is like what a movie about the future thinks video games are. Can you do this? Yes. Can you do this? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Sometimes it's too smart for video games, and too cool: The impeccably-curated music selections for the game's radio stations, or the way the game's light behaves, warm, slow haloes flickering across a low-riding luxury car. It understands cool-hunting, power-hunger.

And it's ruthlessly researched that you have to be dazzled, as if in the presence of a mothership of a mind much more observant, much more well-traveled, possessed of much more social wisdom than you, some chump holding the controller.
And still: so confined, so trapped, so tragic. A shame.


[][][]

I drive my shiny car around Los Santos and I kind of wish I had a turn signal. Stranded in traffic, I honk the horn over and over again, and nobody moves. I am triangulated by some missions, none of which I really want to do, stuck in the city's web of repetition. I want to do something nice for Michael. I want to get him out of this sad, sad cycle. It seems to be what he really wants. I can hear it in every note of his pained, excellent voice performance.

My son and daughter have ditched me at the beach. I ride the roller coaster all by myself, a slow, cotton candy sunset-tinged arc across a neverending beach vista. Walking along the beach, I press the wrong button by accident and swing my hairy fist impotently at the sunset, at nothing.

It's dark, maybe. But it's not brave. It's not that funny. It's not a power fantasy, it's not your escape. It's just sad.

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2013 Amazon Game Developer Conference in Las Vegas – Nov 12th-15th Convention Info:

2013 Amazon Developer Conference in Las Vegas – Nov 12th-15th
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Expanding Growth in Game designing for the Fortune 500

http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=33970&accountno=154383

Game designer for the Fortune 500

Mindspace | Tempe AZ 85282 USA | Full Time | Posted: 09/14/2013

Studio Profile Description Requirements Details Job Contact

Studio Profile

Mindspace is an 11-year old ad agency that is focused on gamification for the Fortune 500. Clients include Expedia, Showtime, Virgin, Hyatt and MGM. 

The company includes games-industry veterans from Xbox and EA, along with animators from Pixar and big agency pros. 

This combination of talent and a unique approach to strategic game solutions for acquisition, education and engagement has led to 50% year-on-year growth.

Job Description

Here's something different for a game design pro. Some games-industry veterans from Xbox and EA got together with some ad-industry pros and started creating campaigns with game mechanics. It's strategic gamification. 

Sometimes our projects look like a game, and sometimes we bury those game mechanics deep. This experiment is working. We've made millions for clients like Expedia, Showtime, Hyatt, Virgin and MGM and grew 50% last year.

And now we need you.

We need a game designer with enough swagger to apply what you've mastered in mobile and social games to the world of business. We need you to help us with acquisition, education and engagement gamification for the world's best companies. 

You'll jump onto a new learning curve that takes all you know and adds business strategy and big agency creative. The projects go to market in 3-6 months, so it's fast and fun.

 
Here's what we'd like you to do each day:

-Own the game design from concept to post-launch optimization

-Build inventive game play systems that drive specific consumer behaviors (like clicking on things, watching videos, etc)

-Create Game Design Documents, flows and wire frames

-Work with UI/UX designers, developers, writers and strategists to bring your vision to life

-Study the metrics and user feedback to optimize the game until it delivers against our client's objectives

 
And these are our ideal qualifications:

-5+ years of mobile and/or social game design experience with credits on at least two titles shipped

-The creativity to come up with unexpected game design ideas that solve client problems

-Strong quantitative thinking for game balancing and economies

-The ability to get energized in a collaborative team environment and lead by persuasion

-Knowledge of dominant mobile and social games platforms

-Strong writing ability and the confidence to present your ideas to an exec

-Rich history of playing games and a passion for figuring out what makes them great

 
Reasons why this job could be great:

-If you've been lucky enough to be in the games industry for a while, you may be looking for a break from the cyclical grind. This will challenge you.

-We're growing, but have a 10-year history so there is stability and the excitement of a startup.

-If you live in a coastal city, this job is near Scottsdale, AZ where you could possibly pick up a nice-sized house (with a pool) compared to what you're in now.

-You will have a seismic impact on the world beyond entertainment. Millions will see and play the games you develop here, and in many ways you'll make their lives better for it.

This job listing originated on Gamasutra.com, the game industry's leader.

Experience Required

5+ years

Job Details

Location	Tempe, AZ, 85282, United States
Job Level	Mid-Level
Categories	Game / Level Designer / Creative Director, Writer / Scriptwriter, Social / Online Games
Pref Degree	Bachelor's Degree
Work Site	On site  Contact Information How to apply A resume is required to apply to this job. Applications are sent to employer via email. Click on the link below and follow instructions. Apply Click Here (at gamasutra apply to job) Job Code 11011
Platforms	iOS,Browser Based Games,PC / Windows,Android

Board Game Review

Past week's class goals: start a blog portfolio and play, review a board game.

This is the blog.

Fun Board game was KING OF TOKYO by Richard Garfield [here's Wil Wheaton's take http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGaCjM2hal4]

And we started but didn't really play STAR FLUXX  by Andrew Looney which comes with lots of changing rule cards, much like KoT but without monsters and the like. Will check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj6C1CBXPvc

VCIM 1200 Game Design I Portfolio

This is class blog portfolio. Entry #1.