Panel
Paul Stephanouk - VP of Creative, Candy Crush. Previously EA, Zynga, Bossfight, Schell Games, Big Huge Games. 20 years experience building and running creative teams.
Ian Schreiber - Senior Game Designer at Oxide Games. Previously Assistant Professor Rochester Institute of Technology.
Xelnath - Game Designer World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Snackpass. Founder Game Design Skill.
Brandon Dolinski - Level Designer Eidos Montreal. Previously Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age.
Brock Robin - Senior Game Designer Blackbird Interactive. Previously, Gasket Games Corp, Relic Entertainment.
Josh Foreman - Senior Level Design at Mythical Games. Previously, Moon Studios, ArenaNet.
Christopher Ory - Lead Designer Rec Room. Previously PerBlue, Ignited Artists, EA Maxis, The Playforge.
Mohamed Abdel Khalik - Head of Game Design Relations at Machinations. Previously, Consultant at Mezan Studios.
Notes
Instead of random loot focus on designing variance and sequence. Example: 10 chests in an area, shuffle the items but ensure that the player will get them if they clear out an area
Lots of probability is not intuitive.
Coin flip in Hearthstone.
People will think RNG is broken when they get 10 turns going second in a row.
Fire Emblem makes it seem much less likely than actually hitting to falsify feel good moments for the player.
After you missed x time you guarantee a hit.
Progressive loot - if loot doesn’t come, increase drop rate for next roll with every roll until the item guaranteed to drop or the player gets it.
How to turn it into a mechanic…
Randomness is the tool for fools and masters.
Stop/Loss mechanism:
What’s the worst experience a player could have and stop right before it.
Think like a deck of cards and not like a dice
You want something to happen, add more of the same card in the deck or less if you don’t want something to happen, the deck eventually runs out and you have your experience.