Blog 21 - Fourth Interview Reflection

(VR and stereoscopic 3D is Michael's specialty in game design.)

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

I believe the most important thing I've learned from this interview is that the best game designers are those who can and know to draw from their experiences from different kinds of media. It's vital that as a designer, I don't just pursue playing other video games to become a better designer, but instead work to include many different kinds of experiences in my design. That will create a design of more variety, and won't be a simple rehashing of currently-existing games. 

2.  How will what I learned affect my final lesson?

I think I'll put emphasis on that point for audience members-- the best way to design is to design from pulling in all of your personal experiences, as opposed to experiences with just other games and interactive medias. Games are a field open to great potential, and this is one of those potentials-- games can be designed with hyper-realistic experiences and that can make them all the better and all the more real to players. It's an interesting take on design I've never heard of or thought about in-depth before, so I'm interesting in taking some time to talk about it in my final presentation. 

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 17 - Interview 3 Reflection

A screenshot of the game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a project on which my interviewee, Richard Lemarchand, was Co-Lead Game Designer. He was Lead Game Designer on the first and third installments of the game series.

The five-minute audio clip of my interview can be found here.

Transcript of the interview can be found here.

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?

I learned so much from this interview, so it's rather hard to narrow down what the most important thing I've learned from it. However, I think I can narrow it down to the few most important things (yes, plural) I've learned from my time speaking with Richard Lemarchand.

(Note: I will now refer to him as simply Richard from here on, as that's how I address him in real life.)

For one, I've learned that my personal preference to holding characters in video games as more important than their stories is a good approach towards narrative games; from the beginning, I've thought that more than anything, a game needs well-designed characters to remain interesting to the players. Story matters, but it pales entirely when the characters the player controls and engages with are bland and boring. Richard told me that good characterization is fundamental to great storytelling. We should craft characters that are recognizable for their human-like qualities, as that's what makes them more realistic and believable to us. 

Another important thing I've learned from this interview is that another portion of game design is considering who your audience for a game is. What's so enlightening about the conversation we had about this was that a game can be for a specific audience, yes, but that audience could be less general-- that audience could just comprise of one. It could solely comprise of you, the game designer, if you so wished. Games, as art forms, can be designed either for others or oneself. It's often seen that games should be designed to be sold to an audience and reap the benefit there-- but a game doesn't necessarily have to be for someone else. It can be more personal, it can be something that the designer wants that simply doesn't exist yet in the world.

2. How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

I believe my approach to interviews has stayed relatively the same throughout the course of the senior project, thus far. If anything, I've gotten better at brainstorming questions for my interviews-- I believe that's because I've narrowed down the focus on my project. It's made it easier to think of questions to ask my interviewee, since I'm not so overwhelmed with all the possible topics of discussion my interview can cross. 

I've definitely gotten better at it, though. I'm not so rigid nor reliant on the list of questions in front of me anymore. Rather, I let the interview flow in the direction it goes-- especially with Richard, this has proven to be very useful and enlightening. I'm happy to say that my interview with Richard was really quite incredible, and I'm very grateful that he took the time to speak with me.

Blog 14 - Interview #3 Preparation

Richard Lemarchand is a super nice dude-- incredibly nice.

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

I plan to interview a current professor at USC Games, Richard Lemarchand. Richard Lemarchand has worked on major game developer Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, serving as the Lead Game Designer for the first and third installments, and Co-Lead Game Designer for the second installment. Mr. Lemarchand's area of expertise lies in player experience, as he's invested much time in his career to studying how gameplay, narrative, and mechanics come together to hold a player's attention. 

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 

Currently, the date of our interview is set to be Friday, February 12, at approximately 3:30pm. We are holding our interview in the Game Innovation Lab.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

Could you recommend any resources that you believe delves into aspects of game design that best influence the player's experience?

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

Aside from research, is hands-on experience a viable way to learn more about enhancing the player experience? Are there any specific experiences that best highlight how to construct a positive game experience?

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 

What aspects of game design do you believe are central to enhancing the player's experience and perception of a video game?

What aspects of creative design and technical design do you consider most important to sharpen in order to enhance the overall experience of the video game?

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

The USC Game Innovation Lab.

The audio of my interview is located here on my blog.

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

I am spending my mentorship time at the Game Innovation Lab located on the University of Southern California (USC). This lab functions as a workplace, primarily, with several research associates/game designers working in the lab, but a significant portion of these people are also educators in the Interactive Media Division of the USC Cinematic Arts School, where they educate game design students. 

My mentors are both educators and game designers. I spend my mentorship time with fellow senior Jessica Bui, and we spend our time in the Game Innovation Lab both shadowing and participating in educational activities that are typically  held for students in the game design program. We have the opportunity to sit in on meetings for several different design projects in the lab, as well as participate in these activities that hone our own design skills. For example, throughout our mentorship, we've re-designed a pre-existing board game, essentially creating a physical prototype of game mechanics (the game in question was Up the River). We've also created a Twine interactive story, or a story that is created on the computer that allows readers to choose which of our pre-set directions they want to take to further the story. 

Other experts in the location would include other staff and faculty in the Game Innovation Lab; these people are experts in specific areas of game design, such as animation, programming, creative design, and more. Everyone in the lab specialize in different areas of study, and are all experienced individuals. 

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

While I was searching over the summer for potential mentors at small game companies and small design teams, my friend Jessica Bui stumbled across the USC Game Innovation Lab, and read into the program and its significance among game design programs across the nation.

I had come across a potential (yet unresponsive) mentor at the same time that Jessica contacted Tracy Fullerton, the director of the Game Innovation Lab at USC. She emailed Tracy all of the information regarding the senior project, how our school functions, and her personal skill level with programming and other aspects of game design. 

While I was still contacting my potential mentor (who, by the way, didn't appear very excited at the prospect of taking on an inexperienced mentor), I was in contact with Jessica, and we were both exchanging information on how our mentor searches were going. When Jessica got the confirmation that a mentorship at USC was  fine with our potential mentors, she asked if I would be willing to also mentor with her at USC. Of course, I jumped on the opportunity with her, and we've both been going to USC every other week ever since. 

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

 Personally, I'm quite comfortable with our mentors, Sean and Elizabeth. It is fairly easy to hold conversation with them, and they've done nothing but make Jessica and I feel welcome. Of course, as students under them who often interact with and shadow them, we dance the line between formality and casualness. While we are very polite to our mentors, we're on a first-name basis and often hold miscellaneous conversation with them. 

The director of the lab, Tracy, who is also one of our mentors, has not been around Jessica and I as often as Sean and Elizabeth, due to her busy schedule. While she is very friendly and welcoming, we have not talked in a casual setting with her as often as we have had with Sean and Elizabeth, so I typically find myself quite formal and polite with Tracy. Nonetheless, she is still a very kind person, and we still learn a lot from her. 

I've found that because I feel welcomed in the Game Innovation Lab by the staff and faculty, I'm quite comfortable in that setting. I'm not nervous or uncomfortable working and shadowing our mentors in that setting, so I feel that that comfort allows Jessica and I to focus more on our learning experiences while we're at the Lab.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

Sean has long-winded answers, and that was amazingly helpful-- to the point where each time I had a follow-up question for him, he managed to answer it before we could even move on to another question. It was both humorous and amazing; essentially, all of my questions for Sean were answered easily because of this ability of his.

As for improvement, I feel that I struggled in the preparation process of the interview, where I would create questions that revolved around Sean's background. I had difficulty distinguishing between questions that asking about Sean's background, and questions that fulfilled my own curiosities. I tried to overlap these two areas as best as I could, but I still felt that some of my questions fell short; thankfully, Sean's long answers provided with me with a good chunk of information, so that definitely helped make up for my mistake.

For future interviews, I will spend more time in the pre-interview process, taking more time creating my questions and reviewing them to ensure that they do what they're intended to do, as well as fill my own curiosities. 

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

Students at USC participating in Demo Day, an event at USC wherein students of Game Design and Interactive Media are able to display their projects and games produced.

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

Currently, I have three different mentors I plan to interview over the course of my senior project. While I've yet to decide which of these mentors I shall speak to for my second formal interview, I know that they are all reliable and excellent options.

Tracy Fullerton is technically my "primary" mentor. She was the one who allowed for Jessica and I to mentor at USC's Game Innovation Lab. Currently, she works as the director of the lab, and is an experienced game designer with many years of work in the industry. She's worked on several projects throughout the years, working as one of the head designers herself or serving as a faculty adviser (for student projects). Furthermore, she's also a professor at USC with her classes and courses, wherein she educates aspiring game designers on game theory and many other essential components of game design.

Sean Bouchard and Elizabeth Swensen were technically my "secondary" mentors. We never directly asked Sean and Elizabeth to mentor under them-- it kind of just happened. But really, "secondary" doesn't quite cut it-- Sean and Elizabeth are really just so much more than that. They've been with Jessica and I during our mentorship since Day 1, doing their best to ensure that we both learn from our activities in the lab/on-campus and enjoy ourselves. Both Sean and Tracy are staff and research associates of the Game Innovation Lab, working both in-lab and teaching their own courses in the university. They have both graduated from USC with MFAs (Masters of Fine Arts), completing the university's game design program. Since then, they've both worked as game designers on projects of their own and projects from outside parties.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

1. Were there any studies or educational experiences you had, in school or out, that were valuable to your career as a game designer?

2. Have any of your interests outside of game design converged with your work in game design?

3. Was there any point in your life where you figured out that a career in video game design was right for you? Was this a specific moment, or a culmination of experiences?

4. Are there any personal characteristics, traits, or qualities you think are necessary to move forward in this industry?

5. Is there any important or helpful advice you have to share for aspiring game designers? Have there been any words, thoughts, or ideas that have pushed you forward or motivated you as a game designer?

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

During the course of the interview, Elizabeth brought up a great deal of points I had never considered, and many ideas I had never fathomed previously.

The most important thing I've learned from her is that inspiration for video game design is not limited to video games and digital media. Maybe this point is quite obvious, but Elizabeth explained this further in detail.

Game designers can be inspired by a great many deal of things; "from a traffic light to a beautiful vista", in Elizabeth's words. But inspiration is not limited to plot, characters, or certain aspects of gameplay. Anything about a video game can take inspiration from anything, anyone, or anywhere.

One such unique example would be the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, a museum created with a set user experience in mind. The museum is intentionally mysterious, even a but strange and creepy. But it is created to make visitors feel that way. Even a physical, non-digital experience can inspire a game designers and have significant effects on their game projects.

For other interviews, I would ask the interviewee what kinds of experiences they'be had-- physical or digital--  that inspired something in their work. I was very immersed in Elizabeth's words, but I did not think to ask her about her own inspirational experiences herself, unfortunately.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

Elizabeth was able to give me several new reading materials to assist me in my research, including books such as Rules of Play by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman and Video Game Workshop by Tracy Fullerton.

Furthermore, she suggested other potential interviewees within the Cinematic Arts school of USC. These people include Dennis Wixon, who previously worked under Microsoft on the Halo series and other projects. According to Elizabeth, he specializes in the user experience side of video game design; essentially, he works to ensure that players are experiencing the game as the creators intended.

Elizabeh also suggested I speak to and interview Richard Lemarchand, another individual with experience in the video game industry. Lemarchand was a lead designer on the Uncharted series during his time with game developer Naughty Dog. Lemarchand has experience in the emotional and experimental aspects of a game.

I've found that Elizabeth's suggestions of potential interviewees was the most helpful of resources. I've found Elizabeth's interview alone incredibly helpful, so I know that interviews with both Dennis Wixon and Richard Lemarchand can potentially be just as helpful.

I'm very much looking forward to speaking with them in the future!

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

The interviewee, Elizabeth Swensen, is a game designer and research associate at the Game Innovation Lab at University of Southern California. She attended and graduated from USC, undergoing the school's video game design program during her time there. Elizabeth graduated with an M.F.A (Masters of Fine Arts), and has since worked for the university in the Games division. At the Game Innovation Lab, Elizabeth has worked on numerous projects over the years.

Interview #1: Elizabeth Swensen

My first formal interview for my senior project, currently focused on video game design. I asked one of my mentors, Elizabeth Swensen, who works at the Game Innovation Lab at USC, a variety of questions I've been pondering regarding game design for quite some time.

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

A screencap of The Witch, a game written and designed by Elizabeth Swensen. The game is a single-player narrative, wherein the player takes on the role of a young girl labeled as a with. By selecting different options and actions throughout the game, the player can change the way in which the story is told.

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

For my first interview, I plan to interview Elizabeth Swensen, one of my mentors at the Game Innovation Lab at USC.

Elizabeth is not the head of the lab, but through watching her work and getting to know her a little, I’ve learned that she’s quite the qualified mentor. Aside from being a research associate of the Game Innovation Lab, she also works as an educator at the university and as a game designer. Seeing her work in the lab and having the opportunity to play some of her previous works, Elizabeth proves herself to be quite the knowledgeable and talented designer.

However, aside from her qualifications, another reason I have for choosing to interview Elizabeth is her history before entering the field of game design; prior to becoming a Game Design student at USC and working at the Lab, Elizabeth actually pursued Humanities (specifically ancient languages) in her education. I’m very much interested in learning more about how her path changed, as I feel that my own path has vastly changed over the years, as well.

For some time, I felt that I was lagging behind other aspiring game designers, due to my interest in game design as a career path only arising within recent years, while others had dreamed of pursuing such a path for so much longer. I believe that speaking with someone whose situation is similar will be not only informative to my project, but important to me on a personal level.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?

Aside from the required five questions to ask, the following are additional questions I plan to ask Elizabeth:

• How much of a balance of creative and technical skills should an aspiring designer aim for? How do you land on this scale?  
• What are characteristics of a game that is successful in immersing an audience?
• It’s often said that time spent on sharpening core mechanic gameplay is sacrificed to instead focus that time on making visuals more appealing. How do you personally feel about this, and how much time do you believe should be spent on sharpening certain aspects of a game?