10 phút
Để trở thành một game designer chuyên nghiệp, ngoài căn bản về game design bạn cần liên tục cập nhật kiến thức của mình.
Một trong những nguồn kiến thức về thiết kế game được cập nhật thường xuyên nhất là GDC Vault Free.
Hầu hết các bài trên này đều miễn phí, trừ một số nội dung mới nhất cần có tài khoản Thành Viên.
Mình sẽ cập nhật danh sách tại đây hàng tuần, phân loại theo chủ đề để dễ theo dõi hơn. Các bài được đánh dấu ★★★★★ là những bài nổi bật nhất, bạn nên ưu tiên xem trước nếu không có nhiều thời gian.
Bạn có thể xem danh sách đề nghị của Jesse Schell tại đây .
Game Design
One-Page Designs
2010 ★★★★★
Stone Librande, Creative Director, EA/Maxis
Trong bài nói chuyện kinh điển này, Stone Librande chia sẻ kinh nghiệm viết tài liệu thiết kế (design document) để truyền đạt tốt nhất ý tưởng của designer cho team.
In an effort to communicate more effectively and concisely, Stone has been experimenting with a style of design documentation that he calls a one page design. As the name implies, this is a document that is exactly one page long. After all, why create a document with more than one page if most people only read the first page anyway? During this talk Stone will show numerous examples of one page designs from Diablo III, The Simpsons and Spore. He’ll discuss what works and what doesn’t and explain how you can use similar techniques to communicate key design ideas to your team.
Design Your Design Team
2015 ★★★★☆
Richard Carrillo, Game Director, Ubisoft Toronto
Làm sao để phối hợp các ‘kiểu’ game designer khác nhau để làm thành một team design tốt nhất? Bạn thuộc ‘kiểu’ nào?
In eight years in the industry, Richard has worked with many designers. Some he has meshed with well, some have challenged him in new ways, and some have brought conflict. The more he explored their intentions the more he saw patterns in the design teams that failed or succeeded. The final conclusion: it takes all kinds and the best design teams are well rounded. This session explores Richard’s theory on game designer types. The talk will describe his experience with the four major types, how to identify them, and how to determine their skill level. Then the talk will discuss which designers are ideal for what positions — which are leaders and which are doers. This talk will help game designers better understand themselves, their growth, and what roles they can play on a design team. Also, recruiters and producers can learn how to build better design teams
The Anatomy of Gaming Motivation
2017 ★★★★★
Nick Yee, Co-Founder & Analytics Lead, Quantic Foundry
Phân tích chuyên sâu Mô hình người chơi theo độ tuổi & giới tính. Người chơi ‘Idle Game‘ thuộc nhóm nào: Casual, Core, Hardcore?
Gaming motivations vary across gamers in systematic and important ways. This is a data-driven talk based on over 250,000 gamers who have taken the Gamer Motivation Profile. After a brief review of how the motivation model was developed, Nick Yee will use new data to show how some motivations are much more volatile than others, and how these differences in volatility are related to audience coverage and risk in terms of game design. He’ll present visualization techniques developed around volatility assessment and mapping the primary motivation axes of game genres. He’ll also use a client case study to show how some established game genres may be accidental historical combinations of unrelated gaming motivations, suggesting that some genres are ripe for deconstruction.
Game Balance
Rewards in Video Games
2017 ★★★★☆
Travis Day, Senior Game Designer, Blizzard Entertainment
Vai trò của phần thưởng, chúng giúp gì cho người chơi và cái giá phải trả nếu lạm dụng. Kinh nghiệm thiết kế từ World of Warcraft & Diablo 3.
Over the past 12 years Travis has worked on reward systems for both ‘World of Warcraft’ and ‘Diablo 3’. He will share some of the hard learned lessons about how reward systems can guide or harm player experience. He will talk about the role of rewards in video games, what they do for players and the cost of using them. Travis will also discuss some of the ways they have gone wrong for Blizzard games and how Blizzard tried to address the problems rewards created.
Quest for the Healthy Metagame
2017 ★★★★★
Stefan Engblom, Game Designer, Supercell
Nguyên lý và nguyên tắc cân bằng quân lính trong Clash Royale.
Gameplay balancing is a fundamental design challenge in any multiplayer game. Persistent and continuously changing multiplayer games that evolve over the course of several years are particularly challenging to keep in a balanced state. However, that is an essential part of providing a good experience for the players.
Stefan Engblom, game designer on the ‘Clash Royale’ team, will talk about the philosophies and principles used for balancing cards and gameplay in Supercell’s ‘Clash Royale’. In his talk he’ll share lessons learned from successes and failures that the team encountered both pre-launch and through the first year of the game being live.
Balancing Cards in Clash Royale
2017 ★★★★★
Stefan Engblom, Game Designer, Supercell
Balancing League of Legends for Every Player, from Bronze to Bengi
2017
Greg Street, Lead Designer, Riot Games
Design in Depth at Supercell
2018 ★★★☆☆
Touko Tahkokallio, Lead Game Designer, Supercell
Touko Tahkokallio chia sẻ kinh nghiệm cân bằng kinh tế trong Hay Day & cân bằng combat trong Boom Beach.
In this presentation, Supercell veteran Touko Tahkokallio (‘Boom Beach’, ‘Hay Day’) will share his game design philosophy and present many practical examples of granular “design in detail” around aspects of the company’s games. Great ideas and bold visions are sometimes seen as the pinnacle of game design and development. While they are important, game design in practice is mostly about finding solutions to concrete problems. This talk will delve into specifics such as how the economy of ‘Hay Day’ was created, concrete examples of combat balancing in ‘Boom Beach’, and plenty more.
Level Design
Ten Principles for Good Level Design
2013 ★★★★★
Dan Taylor, Senior Level Designer, Square Enix Montréal
A Ramsian-style breakdown of how to create world-class levels, which distills the art and science of level design down to a concentrated set of fundamental principles for innovation, engagement, and immersion.
- Good Level Design is Fun to Navigate.
- … does NOT Rely on Words.
- … Tells What… But NOT How.
- … Constantly Teaches.
- … is Surprising.
- … Empowers the Player.
- … is Easy, Medium AND Hard.
- … is Efficient.
- … Creates Emotion.
- … is Driven by Mechanics.
And last but not least: No Rules is Written in Stone.
Level Design Saga: Creating Levels for Casual Games
2016 ★★★★★
Jeremy Kang, Principal Game Designer, King Digital Entertainment
Thiết kế màn chơi hay là yếu tố quan trọng nhất trong game casual, giúp tạo nên sự khác biệt của Candy Crush Saga và đối thủ. Bài này sẽ tập trung vào quy trình thiết kế màn chơi 4Ts: theory, thought, tools & testing.
Level design is often a key building block in designing a game, which is especially true for King “Saga” games. This session will define the moment-to-moment (or in King’s case, turn-to-turn) gameplay that helps shape the overall player experience. It will explain how good level design is a vital pillar for King to keep their casual players engaged across hundreds of levels.
This talk will focus on the design process used when creating hundreds of levels for a brand new King “Saga” game. Focusing on 4Ts: theory, thought, tools and testing, the talk will cover design considerations, how level design principles are applied, the workflow for creating levels at King, tools King uses, and how data drives the tweaking and balancing of levels in their “Saga” games.
THEORY | Level Design Overview
- Level Design is a Composite Role, which brings together art, design & coding
- Game Designers create rules & systems, Level Designers implement them into Gameplay Experiences
THOUGHT | Level Design Principles
- Concept ➡ Layout ➡ Creation ➡ Balancing ⟳ Testing
- Identify Building Blocks in Candy Crush Soda Saga
- 4 Level Design Principles by Ed Byrne
- Difficulty: keeping Players Challenged
- Rhythm: varying Players’ Experience
- Flow: keeping Players moving toward the Goal
- Hooks: making levels Different
TOOLS | Building a Saga
- The Saga Envelope
- Linear Progression which drives retention
- 100s – 1,000s levels, New levels every 1-2 weeks
- Light social elements for casual audience
- Roller coaster experience: high, low, twist, turn
- Level Library & Beat Chart
- Ki – Shō – Ten – Ketsu
TESTING | Tweaking and Tinkering
- Level Balancing
- No. of Objectives
- No. of Moves
- Mastery Star Value
- No. of Colors in the Level
- No. & level of Blockers
- Self-Testing ➡ Internal Testing ➡ Qualitative User Testing ➡ Playtest Releases
- Retention ➡ Progression ➡ Difficulty ➡ Monetization
- The Most Difficult Level in Candy Crush Saga: Level 65
