Design Dive #26

Designing For Down Time

Panel

Paul Stephanouk - Design Director of Candy Crush. Previously EA, Zynga, Bossfight, Schell Games, Big Huge Games. 20 years experience building and running creative teams.

Kelly Tran - Co-founder and Game Designer at Evolved Play. Previously, Game Design Professor researching games and players at High Point University. PhD in learning and tech. Solo Twitch - Group Twitch - Website

Ian Schreiber - Senior Game Designer 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.

Anthony Wong - Game Designer at The Bad Nomads.

Brandon Dolinski - Level Designer Eidos Montreal. Previously Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age.

Christopher Schmidt - Game Design Director at Bioware.

Brian Shurtleff - Game Designer at 1st Playable Productions.

Dave Neale - Designer of several Sherlock Holmes boardgames and 5 Minute Chase from Board & Dice. PhD Researcher and consultant in the psychology of play.

Omar Soliman - Team Lead at The Bad Nomads.

Alex Clark - Senior Game Designer at Nitro Games.

Zorbaz Englander - Creative writer and game designer on Old World.

Mohamed Abdel Khalik - Head of Game Design Relations at Machinations.

Notes

• Types of games

  • Board games - not your turn.

  • Soccer - ball on the other side of the field.

  • RTS - things happening on the other side.

  • Idle games - energy timers.

• The downtown can be a core activity like socializing in MMOs.

  • Hanging out in town between combat.

  • While there is a game underlying all this, socializing is a core activity.

• Candy crush is a small game that is very focused

  • There are activities around core loop.

  • Players want to crush candy or they’re out.

• Candy Crush fills a block of time.

• Downtime paces for more intense experiences.

• Different types of downtime.

  • Intersession breaks.

  • Session breaks.

• It’s also player dependent.

  • Some players may be focused.

• Down time can be integrated into the game experience.

• Fractal Design of Downtown.

  • Engagement/Disengage.

  • Strategic Layer - Preloads etc.

    • Between levels take a break and calmly think for next mission.

      • Which champion you will play in LoL.

  • Tactical layer - what you do in the experience.

    • Changing situations in bursts but not always intense.

  • Skill layer - moment to moment.

    • You don’t want targets to pop up same time.

• Pedal to 10 will make players no longer excited.

  • You need to manage the pacing.

• Purpose - can players purposely express themselves towards the goals they’re working on such as going back to town and preparing my gear for the next adventure.

• Inverted penalties - rested XP - turn a 50% negative into a bonus.

  • Return mechanic - go and come back.

  • Play the right amount and have something that lures you back tomorrow.

  • Don’t over indulge.

• Aligning goals = fulfilling player fantasy.

• Hard stops break that fantasy.

• Knocked out of the game until the next round.

• Traverse big area until you can go to the next quest.

• Definition - Player cannot engage with the verbs.

• Create supporting mechanisms that bridges downtown.

  • Among Us after dying.

• Meta behavior - using the experience of one game outside the boundaries of the core game and using that to prepare for the next game.

  • Losing in Mafia.

• Loading screen are downtimes.

• Players want to optimize.

  • Building games with limited planning horizons.

  • Variance or limited information keeps players from overthinking it.

• Co-op games suffer from Mr. Smartypants telling everyone what to do.

  • Commander problem.

  • Secret objectives.