Category Archives: Thesis

August 5, 2011
8:42 am
by: admin

Thesis Abstract V. 1

Many video game designers today employ an architected design philosophy focused on realizing a preconceived vision. This approach frequently births conflicts between game play and story. In the past few years a small number of video game designers have utilized a design philosophy that centers around thorough exploration of a central theme. This “exploration” design philosophy is only beginning to gain traction, mostly among indie game developers, but it has produced some very conceptually cohesive games such as Braid and Portal. This thesis explores the techniques and decisions involved in video game development using exploration as a design philosophy. The goal is to utilize a framework for exploration and decision making to create a game that is indeed conceptually cohesive.

Posted in Thesis

July 21, 2011
9:53 pm
by: admin

Questions for Creating Conceptually Cohesive Games

It occurs to me that as I begin developing the game, I need a method of vetting rules, content, emergent behavior and other game “things”.  I basically need a series of questions for determining whether the item fits the conceptual model of the game.  For the following: Y is the conceptual core of the game, X is the current rule, content, or emergent behavior being evaluated.

  • Does __x__ effectively communicate the idea of __y__?
  • How might I change __x__ to better communicate __y__?
  • Is there another rule, behavior, or piece of that could possibly better communicate __y__?
  • If __x__ were removed from the game, would the game still effectively communicate __y__?

Posted in Thesis