Journal#1 Principles for game design

   In the article of Song and Lee (2007), the computer game industry has become the fastest growing field of the entertainment industry. However, only a very small number of computer game products overcome the costs of production and generate earnings. Therefore, it is time to explore which information and key factors should be considered during the design process.

  Here are some principles for game design:

• Fun: I personally think that this principle is the basis and the most important element for all kinds of games design.

         According to designing interactions (Moggridge, 2007), toys and games are designed for entertainment. In other words, if they fail to please and entertain people, they will die a swift and certain death.

• Easy to learn/play, but hard to become expert:

    From my observation, most people do not have much patience to learn how to use equipment for entertainment. In the class exercise last week, our group would feel bored if we cannot figure out how to play games in 10 minutes. Moreover, Moggridge (2007) said toy and game mean a plaything that an adult is willing to purchase, not only for children. Adults in this modern city usually don’t have much time and sprit to learn how to play a game. Therefore, one of the key factors for game design is easy to learn and play.

     According to “Designing interactions,” to appeal to broad audience, the video game console makers tend to add a little bit of complexity every few years. Complexity is a challenge that players will keep engaging into the game and raise their will to become an expert of the game.

• Affordable price

    As we know, the price of the most popular games is below $300. Moreover, with the economy recession, people will eliminate the expense for entertainment first if they have to reduce life expense.

• Customize

    Everyone believes that she/he is special. Therefore, more and more games customize their game function to let their players feel special as they are and become different from other people. In psychology, this function will make them feel respected and then love it.

• Avatar

    It is very interesting for players to play different roles and have different live experiences. It can be satisfied with players’ fantasy of all kinds of lives.      

• Content: surreal, intensive and life learning etc.

   One of the main reason people love to play games is they want to escape from the real world for a while. That’s why the fighting games in a surreal world become so popular and seem never failing. On the other hand, some people want to learn and experience skills by playing games so that the content of games should be related to the real world in some cases. For example, you can play and experience tennis, baseball and bowling by Wii even though you are not a sporty girl in real world.   

• Portable

    With the increasing gas price, more and more people choose to take public transportation. Thus, people will need portable game equipment to kill their time in the transportation.  

• Multi-players

    I personally like to play games with my friends rather than only myself. Of course, this principle is not necessary for games design, but it will be better for all kinds of games to have multi-players function, which can be connected by wireless.   

• Physical movement/touchable/ sound control:

    These functions are not necessary for game design, but it would be more interesting and fantastic. Moreover, with these function, it can reduce the difficulty to learn how to play games because users don’t need to figure out the function of buttons. All they have to do is press the screen straightly or shake the equipment.   

• Interactive

    In the future, I believe there are more and more interactive functions in games design. For example, I think the trend of interactive games is to apply social networking for the game design.  

Reference

  Song, S., & Lee, J. (2007, August). Key factors of heuristic evaluation for game design: Towards massively multi-player online role-playing game. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65(8), 709-723. Retrieved October 8, 2008, doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2007.01.001

  Moggridge, B. (2007). Designing interactions. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.