MINDFUL EXPERIENCES

POSTMORTEM PRESENTATIONMICHAEL LEE DAN LIN FELIX PARK

The Team

• Felix Park DESIGNER/PRODUCER

• Dan LinARTIST

• Michael LeePROGRAMMER

• Jesse SchellRalph VituccioADVISORS

• SPECIAL THANKS FOR MUSIC

Adam Lederer

Outline

• What is mindful xp?• Origins of mindful xp• Our games• Things we’d do differently• Wrapping it up

What is mindful xp?

Our Project

• A student pitch project• Rapid-prototyping meaningful games

Our Results

• 10 games released online• Website, blog, and posts (+6000

views)• +26,000 plays of all our games• +80 Twitter followers• And we learned a lot about

developing games and meaning

Origins of mindful xp

Story and Gameplay

• Games as medium– Storytelling– Aesthetics– Gameplay

• Systems• Rules• Mechanics• Dynamics

• “Procedural rhetoric”

Meaningful Games to Us

• Passage• Braid• The Marriage

• Opera Omnia• Gravity Bone• Don’t Look Back• The Graveyard

• Ico• Shadow of the Colossus• Silent Hill 2• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Other Influences

• “A game that makes you cry”• Not-Serious Games• Artgames and Notgames/The State of the

Industry• Experimental Gameplay Project

At the Start

• Make games meaningful using gameplay

• Explore approaches to developing meaningful games

• Discuss and document what we learned for other developers

1. introspection - Something meaningful should invite introspection, how you yourself are as a person after coming into contact with the meaningful media. Looking deep within oneself.

2. reflection - Sort of along the same lines as introspection, it invites reflection, reflecting upon other things out in the world.

3. poignancy - It should feel poignant, like something undiscovered anywhere else. It should be novel, the meaningful thing is something a person has never experienced before anywhere else.

4. changing perspective/mindshift - It should change a person’s perspective, either transplanting it or widening it - maybe even growing a person’s empathy.

5. from the heart, sincere - The work shouldn’t be fake, it shouldn’t be superficial. It has a profound depth to it only achievable from being from a very personal place, the feelings from making it should be “pure” in a sense.

6. not gimmicky - Not just a one-trick pony. Sort of goes into the territory of not being superficial.

1/8/12

Our Games

R-evolution

R-evolution

R-evolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyh8OKr1uwc

Lessons• Make visuals clarify -

abstraction• Moment of subversion• Avoiding games that need

extensive feel or polish• Nailing down what exactly

is the meaningful aspect of the game

• Playtesting• Finishing up• Did we need the conceit?

Connections

• “Round 1”• Abstract/“The

Marriage”-inspired

• What went right:– System with a

message– Using narrative as

context

• What went wrong:– Brainstorming

Scott Told Himself

• Building for the moment vs. for the system

• What went right:– Going on hiatus– More personal… sorta

• What went wrong:– Content overload– Development design

changes

The Path Taken

The Path Taken

• Experimenting with player’s expectations of a Zelda game.

• What went right:– Art– Game Feel– Design Ideas

• What went wrong:– Content overload (again!)– Focusing: Initially mechanic wasn’t clear– Player experience

exhaust

exhaust

• Having the system express a simple idea

• What went right:– Getting the game done (1.5 days!)– Playtesting

• What went wrong:– No one got it

INDIVIDUAL ROUND

Emptiness

Emptiness

• Expressed a certain viewpoint of friendship

• What went right:–Mechanics strengthened the central idea

• What went wrong:– Not engaging– Really long

Collect

• Originally about childhood experience

• Went through 3 different iterations

• What went right:– Going through the process– Finding something to latch

on to

• What went wrong:– Jumping in without a

design– “Too attached”

MARCH

“Built on the shoulders of giants”

Dear Esther, thechineseroom

Korsakovia, thechineseroom

THAT, Axel Shokk

Gravitation, Jason Rohrer

MARCH• Demo

MARCH• VERY personal game - background• Same impetus as writing – as

expression• “Videogames for adolescent boys”• Spatial narrative• Handhold mechanic• “Moment of betrayal”• Theme of confusion – Spatial, visual,

narrative

a game that was how I felt

Lessons• Build from personal experience• Build until you’re personally satisfied

Controlling

• Ludum Dare Game: 48 hours, Tiny World

• What went right:– Finished in time

• What went wrong:–Weak mechanic– Platformer–Weak structure/setup

Get Closer

• Offshoot of failed LD48 game

• What went right:– Rapid prototyping– The central

mechanic

• What went wrong:– Overreliance on

narrative– Time to gestate

Other Things

• “Pyramid of meaning”• Categorical approach to meaningful

games• Categories of subversion• Meaning-Design Delivery model• Priming-provocation-reevaluation model• The “Hamburger”• Game Meaning

Advantages/Disadvantages

“Pyramid of meaning”

• Moments build from the System which builds from the Mindset/Framing (Frame of reference)

Categorical approach to meaningful games

Scripted/System-based

Meaning through Gameplay/Meaning through Narrative

Broad Message or Idea/Targeted Message or Idea

Broad Game Types/Narrow Game Types

Personal/Impersonal

Categories of subversion

• Direct vs. Indirect, the relationship of the mechanic to the meaning– Our ‘C’ games are very direct, you are

literally collecting, connecting, etc.– Indirect games require thought to get to

the meaning through mechanic • exhaust requires thought on how letting go

of a wheel is not directly connected to letting go of controlling your life

Meaning-Design Delivery model

exp

ress

ion

mean

ing

Priming-provocation-reevaluation model

The Hamburger- or -

The Narrative-Ludological Ratio for Representation

Game Meaning Advantages/Disadvantages

What are the strengths of games?• People directly commit actions in a game

– A person does not just reflect on a previous point of view, you reflect on your actual, real actions within the game

• People have choice in games and have the chance to do and redo actions differently– Choice means the player’s actions can be reflective and personal

• People can engage in person-to-person interaction. – Example: Journey (and Way) are based entirely on this aspect of

the medium, creating powerful shared experiences.

• People can be fully immersed in the system and mechanics of the game – becoming less self-conscious and more willing to expose themselves. Their actions then may become more honest and open and will be more conducive to priming

Game Meaning Advantages/Disadvantages

What are the weaknesses of games?• The game may not seem relevant to a person

– Games can be more abstract or removed in settings and set-ups, the relevancy of the game to the player can often be ambiguous

• A person can play a game in a way where meaning stages are not experienced ideally (non-linearity of games)

• People can also get caught up in details and minutiae of the games systems and mechanics, losing a sense of the greater picture– Playing Braid, only interested in achievements and

completion.• The interface of games can be so abstracted and

disconnected from the actions, that a person can be drawn out of it– Flower tries to represent feel of grandiose freedom and

movement of wind through its limited motion control interface, which can feel especially artificial

What Would We Do Different?

• Start with a stronger philosophical/motivational base

• Get rid of time limits or make less games• Delve into research• Get other opinions• Work-life balance

Cool Papers

• Andy Nealen et al – “Towards Minimalist Game Design”

• Ian Bogost – “How to Do Things with Videogames”, “Persuasive Games”

• Douglas Wilson – “In Celebration of Low Process Intensity”

• Jesse Schell – “The Art of Game Design”

What We Did Right

Structuring the Semester

• Doing multiple games

• Doing games collaboratively vs. individually

• Doing variable development times

Being Experimental

• Trying different– Genres– Visual styles– Goals– Etc…

Failing Quickly (and Often)

• Used rapid prototyping principles well

• Great at failing (and learning from failure)

• Moving on

Development Practices

• Choosing the right tools– Flash/Flashpunk– Unity3D

• Being prepared– Workload– Life schedule

(sorta)– Motivation

Thanks Chevy!

Thank You!

We are now open for questions