Getting Started in Game Design

Dr. Lewis Dr. Lewis

PulsipherPulsipherCopyright 2008 Lewis Pulsipher

April 21, 2023

Who am I Designed my own games while a teenager Began playing commercial wargames in 1963 Played the original Atari 2600 and have played

some PC games heavily, but rarely play any video games these days; never owned a game console

Designer of six commercially-published board wargames (most recently February ‘06)

Active designer of board and card games (playtesters solicited!)

My main job is teaching video game design and development in college

April 21, 2023

Reality Check Almost no one makes a living designing

games Most who do work for a game company,

not freelance You could spend the same time as

profitably by picking up bottles and cans for deposits and recycling!

Most publishers don’t make a lot, either—and it’s risky

Many publishers exist largely to self-publish their own games

April 21, 2023

Reality Check 2 So if you design games, do it because

you like to, or because you must, not because you want to make money– Alan R. Moon, two German “Games of the

Year”, would have had to get part-time job if not for Ticket to Ride winning

Recognize that your “great idea” is probably not that great, not that original, and not that interesting to other people

Finally, it’s extra-hard to get into video game design

April 21, 2023

OK, How much do you make? In my experience, royalties are a

percentage of the publisher’s actual revenue– 5% is most common

Publisher sells to distributor at 40% of list price or less; distributor sells to retailer for 10% more

Internet sales are becoming significant—then publisher makes 100%

Shipping costs may be subtracted from revenue

April 21, 2023

Royalty example $40 list game, 5% of $16 = 80 cents Per 1,000 copies, $800 $20 game, $400 per thousand Wargame typical print run is 2,000 “Euro” games might go up to 10,000 Most games sell poorly after first six

months, most are not reprinted German “Game of the Year” might sell

250,000 or more, after award

April 21, 2023

What about the biggies? In general, the really big companies

have staff to design their games Many will not even accept outside

submissions Virtually all will require you sign a

statement relieving them of all liabilities At least one only works through agents In USA, Hasbro owns all the traditional

boardgame publishers such as Parker Brothers, Avalon Hill

April 21, 2023

Do I need an agent? Whatever for? Yet, I did for my first game back in the

70s, in England– Unfamiliarity– I could meet and talk with him locally

(London) Shady “agents” and “evaluators” abound

– Don’t ever get an agent who wants a fee “up front”

– “Evaluators”—who are they, what to they know? Nothing special—if anything at all.

April 21, 2023

Contracts Not enough money to make a lawyer worthwhile

– And how many lawyers have a clue about game contracts?

Everything is negotiable– But the ultimate strength in negotiation is the ability to

“walk away” if you don’t like it– You probably want publication more than the publisher

needs your game An advance against royalties is possible but not

standard If it isn’t clear, have it changed or deleted What counts is what’s written, not any oral

promises! Contracts exist to determine what happens when

things are not going well Obligatory declaration: “I am not a lawyer”

April 21, 2023

What to include in contract: Publication: if the game is not published

within X time (12-18 months?), it reverts to designer

Reversion: X time after a game is no longer in print (12-18 months?), rights revert to designer

Ancillary/derivatives: who gets what if there is a computer version, T-shirts, other non-game items

Author’s right to use the game system to create other games not destined for same publisher

April 21, 2023

Intellectual Property Rights Ideas are not important, and not valued!

– Ideas are a dime a dozen: execution is what counts Copyright now inherent

– Forget that “mail to myself” idea– Registered copyright makes suits much easier to

pursue and more remunerative Ideas cannot be protected, only expression of

an idea– George Harrison was successfully sued for the tune

of “My Sweet Love” being derived from “He’s so Fine”

– But this cannot happen in games, because ideas are specifically not protected by law

– No, I don’t know why

April 21, 2023

Licensed Properties Tie-ins with movies, comics, books,

etc.? Much too expensive Often not even worth the IP owner’s

time to do the processing for a boardgame—there’s not enough money to bother with it

Those who do get licenses have track records (FantasyFlightGames, e.g.)

April 21, 2023

Designing: Practice and get others to evaluate You’re unlikely to be very good when you start

designing– John Creasey (The Toff, mysteries) rejected 700+

times; then published 600+ novels! So you need to practice! Diplomacy variants and D&D material in my

case Post such things on your or other Web sites Analogy:

– Jerry Pournelle (SF writer) says be willing to throw away your first million words (about ten novels) on the road to becoming successful SF writer

– Similarly, be willing to make lots of games/mods that don’t make any money on the way to making (some) money as a game designer

April 21, 2023

The idea is not the game Novices tend to think the idea is the

important thing– Ideas are “a dime a dozen”. It’s the execution,

the creation of a playable game, that’s important The “pyramid” of game design:

– Lots of people get ideas– Fewer try to go from general idea to a specific

game idea– Fewer yet try to produce a prototype– Fewer yet produce a decently playable prototype– Very few produce a complete game– And very, very few produce a good complete

game

April 21, 2023

Submitting Games Read the publisher’s requirements

– Some require you to sign a form and seal it in an envelope

– Some won’t accept unsolicited proposals at all—this is common

Expect it to take a long time Expect to get rejected

– May have nothing to do with how good your game is

– Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novel rejected many times!

Expect publication to take a long time--publishers schedule 12-18 months ahead

April 21, 2023

Boardgame Developers

Many publishers will assign a developer to modify your game

You don’t control your own game!– My experiences –see

http://www.pulsipher.net/gamedesign/developers.htm

– See also http://www.pulsipher.net/gamedesign/designingvsdevelopment.htm

– Some publishers are different (e.g. GMT)

April 21, 2023

Two forms of game design

Video games and non-video games Scale is different

– “big time” video games are produced by dozens of people, cost millions of dollars

– “big time” non-video games produced by a few people with budgets in the thousands• Yet a few sell more than a million copies

April 21, 2023

Prototypes—”testing is sovereign” To best improve a game, you must have a playable

prototype – Firaxis’ Sid Meier-Civilization series, Pirates– The sooner Firaxis got a playable version of Civ 4, the

more they could learn– A playable prototype includes “artwork” or physical

components, and rules or programming The rules for a non-video game are the equivalent of the

programming of a video game– Programming must be precise and is very time consuming

(game engines may help in the future)– A playable set of rules can be much less precise, relying on

the mind(s) of the designer(s), and notes It’s also much easier to change the non-video prototype

to test different approaches It’s much easier to produce the physical prototype,

than to create the artwork for a video game

April 21, 2023

Learning to design

So we can have a playable, testable non-video game much more quickly than a computer game of similar scope or subject

Consequently, it’s much easier to learn game design with physical games than with video games!– Kevin O’Gorman’s concurrence

April 21, 2023

Art vs. Science As in many other creative endeavors,

there are two ways of approach – These are often called Romantic and

Classical, or Dionysian and Apollonian Or: art and science

– Some people design games “from the gut”– Others like to use system, organization, and

(when possible) calculation Mine is the “scientific” approach; and

that is more likely to help new designers– Game design is 10% art and 90% science

April 21, 2023

Who is the audience? A game must have an audience

– What are the game-playing preferences of that audience

– Short or long?– Chance or little chance?– Lots of story or little story?– “Ruthless” or “nice”?– Simple or complex?

There is no “perfect” game

April 21, 2023

Genre

Video games are more limited by genre than non-video games

Most video games and many others fall into a clear genre category

Each genre has characteristics that come to be “expected” by the consumer

Much easier to market a video game with a clear genre

April 21, 2023

Constraints

Limits lead to a conclusion:– Characteristics of the audience

(target market)• “People don’t do math any more”

– Genre limitations– Production-imposed limitations

• “Board cannot be larger than X by Y”

– Self-imposed limitations• “I want a one-hour trading game”

April 21, 2023

Publisher-imposed limits

Some are publisher preference, some are market-dictated

For example: many publishers want nothing that requires written records in a game (FFG Britannia example)

Another example: consumers strongly prefer strong graphics, whether in a video or a non-video game

April 21, 2023

Self-imposed limits You have your own preferences

– Don’t design a game you dislike to play yourself– If you dislike it, why should anyone else like it?– But don’t design a game “just like you like to play”—it

may already be out there, right?– “Pro” designers will design games other people like,

that they’re not so thrilled about themselves Limits/constraints improve and focus the

creative process– Great art and music is much more commonly produced

in eras of constraints, rather than eras without constraints

Example of a limit: I want to produce a two-player game that lasts no more than 30 minutes

April 21, 2023

Do it!

Too many people like to think about designing so much, they never actually do it

Until you have a playable prototype, you have nothing– (Which is what makes video game

design so difficult)– It doesn’t have to be beautiful, just

usable

April 21, 2023

Design vs. “development”

“Development” has two meanings– In video games, it means writing the

program– In non-video, development (often by a

person other than the designer) sets the finishing touches on a game, but may include significant changes

– Development takes longer than design, in either case

April 21, 2023

The designer’s game vs. the game that’s published Video games are often overseen

by the publisher, who is paying the bills; so it is modified to suit as it is developed

Non-video games are often unseen by the publisher until “done”; some publishers then modify them, often heavily

April 21, 2023

Self Publishing Do you want to design, or do you want

to be a businessperson? But often it’s the only way your game

will be published Most self-publishers will lose money

NOT counting the time they spend Virtually all lose money if you count the

time they put into the business See http://www.costik.com/selfpub.html

April 21, 2023

Brief “What’s Important” on the business side of game design Most people in the business are

honest and try to do good– It’s too small a business to get tricky,

word gets around It really is a small business, and

mistakes are common Barring long apprenticeship and

great good luck, you won’t make a living at it

April 21, 2023

A Summary Don't think you're going to make a lot of money. Very likely,

you'll spend a great deal of time for little return. Non-electronic gaming is "small potatoes", not a big source of money. "How do you make a small fortune in the game industry? Start with a big fortune."

Publishers want games, not ideas. Ideas are cheap, a dime a dozen; recognize that your "great idea" is not that great, not that original, not that interesting to others. That's reality. (How often do we get a really extraordinary new idea? D&D, Magic:the Gathering, maybe Mage Knight?)

You have to DO something to give yourself some credibility, before publishers are likely to look at your game. If you're a complete unknown, why would publishers deal with you?– Volunteer at cons– Write articles– Make variants/mods and publish them– have a decent Web site– GM at conventions

Sorry, folks, while you're really important to yourself and your family, you're nobody to any publisher.

April 21, 2023

Conclusion of Summary Don't design games for yourself, design for others. They’re the

ones who must enjoy it, your enjoyment in playing is unimportant! But don’t design something you expect you’ll dislike.

– If you're only working on one game, or a few, you're not likely to end up with a good one, AND you identify yourself as a dilettante, an amateur. Pros are working on many, many games.

Patience is a virtue. Britannia existed in fully playable form in 1980. It was first published in 1986. In 2008, one publisher told me, "it's a good thing you're immortal, because it's going to take a long time" to evaluate and publish one of my games.

So if you're the "instant gratification" type, recognize your instant gratification will be in seeing people play your prototype, not in the published game.

Self-publishing is practical, if you don't mind losing a lot of money. Moreover, at some point you become a publisher/marketer, not a designer. What do you want to do?

Playtesting is sovereign. You have to playtest your game until you're sick of looking at it, until you want to throw the damn thing away. Then maybe you'll have something. But you have to be willing to change the game again and again: listen to the playtesters, watch how they react, recognize your game isn’t perfect and won’t be even when (if) it’s published.

When your game is rejected, there’s a good chance the rejection had nothing to do with the game’s quality. Be persistent.

April 21, 2023

Resources about the business Game Inventor’s Guidebook by

Brian Tinsman “All about publishing” thread on

ConsimWorld Lots of books about video game

publishing

Come to my seminar on Saturday at 3 about process of game design

Questions?