Game Design Vocabulary, A

Anna Anthropy is an artist, author and game creatrix working in the East Bay area. As an ambassador for game creation, she works to empower marginalized voices to gain access to game creation. Her first book, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, is an autobiography / manifesto / DIY guide. She's radical.   Naomi Clark has been designing and producing games for more than two decades, ever since she started creating text-based virtual worlds as a teenager. She’s worked on multiplayer web games (Sissyfight 2000), casual downloadable games (Miss Management), Flash games for kids (LEGO Junkbot). and Facebook games (Dreamland) while working with companies like Gamelab, LEGO, Rebel Monkey, and Fresh Planet. Naomi has also taught classes and workshops at Parsons School of Design, the NYU Game Center, and the New York Film Academy, and written game analysis and feminist critique for Feministe. She is currently developing an independent game with the Brooklyn Game Ensemble.

Part I Elements of Vocabulary     1
By Anna Anthropy


 

1  Language     3
Signs Versus Design     4
Failures of Language     7
A Voice Needs Words     9
A Beginning     10
2  Verbs and Objects     13
Rules     14
Creating Choices     16
Explaining with Context     21
Objects     22
The Physical Layer     25
Character Development     30
Elegance     32
Real Talk     34
Review     36
Discussion Activities     37
Group Activity     38
3  Scenes     39
Rules in Scenes     40
Shaping and Pacing     50
Layering Objects     56
Moments of Inversion     60
Chance     61
Real Talk     64
Review     71
Discussion Activities     71
Group Activity     73
4  Context     77
First Impressions     78
Recurring Motifs     82
Character Design     83
Animation     86
Scene Composition     89
Camera     94
Sound     96
Real Talk     99
Review     103
Discussion Activities     104
Group Activity     104


 

Part II  Conversations     107
By Naomi Clark


 

5  Creating Dialogue     109
Players     110
Creating Conversation     111
Iterating to Fun and Beyond     113
Your Conversation     115
6  Resistance     117
Push and Pull     118
Flow     119
Alternatives to Flow     129
Opening Up Space     132
Opening Up Purpose     134
The Pull of Rewards     137
Time and Punishment     141
Scoring and Reflection     147
Review     150
Discussion Activities     152
Group Activity     153
7  Storytelling     155
Pattern Recognition     156
Authored Stories     159
Interpreted Stories     172
Open Stories     181
Review     187
Discussion Activities     188
Group Activity     189


A  Further Playing     191
Achievement Unlocked (John Cooney, 2008)     192
American Dream (Stephen Lavelle, Terry Cavanagh, Tom Morgan-Jones, and Jasper Byrne, 2011)     192
Analogue: A Hate Story (Christine Love, 2012)     193
The Banner Saga (Stoic, 2014)     193
Candy Box (aniwey, 2013)     194
Consensual Torture Simulator (Merritt Kopas, 2013)     194
Corrypt (Michael Brough, 2012)     195
Crypt of the Necrodancer (Ryan Clark, 2013)     196
Dwarf Fortress (Tarn Adams, 2006)     196
English Country Tune (Stephen Lavelle, 2011)     197
Even Cowgirls Bleed (Christine Love, 2013)     197
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company, 2013)     198
Mighty Jill Off (Anna Anthropy, 2008)     198
NetHack (NetHack Dev Team, 1987)     199
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 2013)     199
Persist (AdventureIslands, 2013)     200
QWOP (Bennett Foddy, 2008) and GIRP (Bennett Foddy, 2011)     201
Spelunky (Derek Yu, 2008)     201
Triple Town (Spry Fox, 2011)     202


 

Index     203