Blog 20 - Interview 4 Prep

A screenshot of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, one of the games Richard Lemarchand was a lead designer on.

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

For my fourth and final interview, I plan to once again interview game designer and USC professor Richard Lemarchand. Richard's area of expertise lies in forming and enhancing the players' experience of a game; through much of his career, he's focused on how gameplay, narrative, and mechanics come together to create a positive experience for players. Richard has worked as one of the lead designers on the popular Uncharted games series.

Richard was immensely helpful in my last interview-- insightful, really. It was all very inspiring. I'm very much looking forward to interviewing him again, if opportunity allows for me to do so!

2.  Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.

1. What is your approach to beginning a new project? How does this approach differ when working in a team, as opposed to working alone?

2. What's a game you're interested in creating that you haven't had the opportunity to yet? Any ideas or concepts you're interested on focusing on?

3. How do you know if your ideas have value or merit?

4. How does the platform you're designing for change your design? Do you find that you tend to design to fit the platform, or find a platform that fits the design?

5. How drastically has the advancements in technology changed the design process?

6. What role do rules play in crafting the player experience?

7. What role does playtesting play in crafting the player experience?

8. What role do the characters play in crafting the player experience?

9. How do designers approach formulating stories and narratives that appear in games?

10. How do designers go about creating the characters that features in these stories and narratives?

11. What design processes need to happen in order to create a good character?

12. How often do you find yourself stuck in a creative block? What do you do to escape this issue?

13. Non-game inspirations? Non-art inspirations?

14. Any inspirations that have stuck with you over time you'd like to share?

15. Have there been any moments throughout your career that made you realize how vital game design is to you?

16. What important lessons have you learned throughout your career in game development?

17. What's the best attitude/mindset a game designer can go into a project with?

18. Are there any specific design experiences you've dealt with that bettered you as a designer?

19. What pitfalls do new designers often fall into?

20. What do you believe makes a "good" game?

Blog 19 - Third Answer

The rules of any game-- digital or physical-- serve as the formal structure of the game. They're a set of guidelines that describe how a game functions.

What is your EQ?

My Essential Question is, "How can a video game be designed to enhance the player's experience?"

Answer #3 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement)

Rules that are well-defined, functioning, and balanced attribute to creating a more positive player experience.

List 3 details to support the answer.

• Rules constitute the inner, formal structure of a game. While they do not create the player experience as a whole, they work to constitute the experience. Rules of any given game (physical or digital) share a few set characteristics:
• Rules limit player action
• Rules are explicit and unambiguous
• Rules are shared by all players
• Rules are binding
• Rules are repeatable

• The rules of a game exist on three levels: constituative, operational, and implicit. The relationship of the three levels creates a formal identity for the game, or an identity that allows players to distinguish a game as formally unique and distinct from other games.

• Rules are directly concerned with players' actions and the outcomes from those actions. The rules of a game manifest in many different ways: through game logic, visuals, audio, player input, game output, and more. Games are multi-layered and complex, but better understanding the abstract formal system of rules can attribute to creating a meaningful player experience. 

List the research source(s) to support your details and answer.

• Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2004. Print.
• Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008. 151-156.

Concluding Sentence

Rules of a game are a vital piece of a game's design: they provide the structure out of which play emerges. Meaningful play, or positive play experience, can emerge from a game with a defined set of balanced, functioning, and cohesive rules.