View source for Design, Games, and Game Design (feat. SpyParty)

I gave a talk at UC Berkeley called ''Design, Games, & Game Design (feat. SpyParty)''.  It was for the [http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/ UC Berkeley School of Information]'s [http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/newsandevents/events/dfls Design Futures Lecture Series], and I was invited by the excellent [http://www.confectious.net/ Elizabeth Goodman].

The talk was a mix of general design stuff, game design stuff, and [http://spyparty.com '''SpyParty'''] design stuff.  Among other things...

* I talked about the basic ''design &rarr; build &rarr; test'' loop, and how I don't think you can separate out the ''design'' and ''build'' steps if you're making something deep and new and (especially) interactive.  I mentioned how [http://valvesoftware.com/ Valve] doesn't hire single-discipline designers for this reason.<br/><center>[[Image:howtomakethings.png|300px]]</center>
* I went over three kinds of user tests, ''depth testing'', ''kleenex testing'', and ''focus testing'', and how you should never do the last one of those.<br/><center>[[Image:usertesting.png|300px]]</center>
* I talked about [[Metrics Fetishism]] again; since this was a Design talk, it seemed appropriate.
* I claimed games are at about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1905_films 1905] in terms of the history of film, making anologies between current games and '''deep and important works''' like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventure_of_a_French_Gentleman_Without_Pants_at_the_Zandvoort_Beach The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Train_Robbery The Little Train Robbery] (aka. The Great Train Robbery 2: This Time With Kids!)
* I lauded Ico's hand holding mechanic, [[Potential Unreached|again]].
* I whipped out the Korean characters for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosu Gosu], 고수.
* I outlined two approaches to creating games with more emotional depth: ''top-down'' and ''bottom-up'', and I discussed why I think ''bottom-up'' is a better approach.  '''Games need to be able to communicate with players using a wider and deeper set of emotions.'''  Just like film and music communicate emotionally in completely different ways, but are both incredibly deep, I think games will be as different from other art and entertainment forms as they are from each other, but we have a long way to go.<br/><center>[[Image:emodepth.png|300px]]</center>
* I answered questions for longer than the actual lecture!

<table border=0><tr><td>
I also spent some time talking about my aesthetic goals for [http://spyparty.com '''SpyParty'''], which include:<b>
* perception  vs.  deception  &  performance
* attention as a resource
* consequential decisions with partial information
* deduction  vs.  intuition
* analysis paralysis  vs.  extinct by instinct
* extreme asymmetry
* intense focus on player-skills about human behavior
</b>
</td>
<td>
[[Image:lessmore.png|300px]]
</td>
</tr>
</table>

And, I talked more about the Blizzard-inspired ''Depth-first, Accessibility-later'' [http://spyparty.com/2010/02/01/a-new-decade-an-old-development-philosophy/ development model] I'm following, including forcing people to read the [http://spyparty.com/2011/03/10/rtupdatedfm/ four-page instruction manual] before they can play.
<center>[[Image:rtfm.jpg|400px]]</center>

Here are the synced audio and slides, with 40 minutes of Q&A at the end:

<center>
{{#widget:MyPlick|id=fTQsw7Shsc0|width=600|height=514}}
</center>

Here are the raw [[Media:cal11-SpyParty.ppt|ppt]] and [[Media:cal11-SpyParty-64kbps.mp3|mp3]].

Also, Tom Curtis was there and [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33685/Chris_Hecker_Visits_UC_Berkeley_To_Talk_SpyParty_And_The_Future_Of_Emotion_In_Games.php wrote about the lecture at Gamasutra].

I posted a [http://spyparty.com/2011/03/27/uc-berkeley-lecture-posted/ link to this page on the '''SpyParty''' blog], which support comments, so you can head over there if you have something to say about the talk.

Elizabeth recorded video of the talk, which I've embedded here:

<center>
{{#widget:Vimeo|id=21558217|width=640|height=360}}
</center>

And finally, because one cannot get enough of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Ott%27s_Sneeze Fred Ott's Sneeze]:

<center>[[Image:fredott.gif]]</center>

[[Category:Lectures]]
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Design]]
[[Category:Opinions]]