History of Videogames Knowledge of the history of games is relevant – Creates game design vocabulary – Future can be predicted by looking at historic trends
Game Design
History
2
Overview Several Historic Games Trends The Future
OVERVIEW Game Design
History
3
Overview
Years 2000
Huge teams (500+)
>2008
Casual/indie (1-10) 18
Diversity in Games Observations – Most genres originate in the eighties – High budgets means more risk • Publishers prefer proven concepts, stimulating clones • Improving playability & Time polishing 2008
Indie spike in creativity 19
Developer Tools Observations – Tools were focused on performance – Slow to adopt new languages – Easy tools made game development more accessible • Game Maker, Flash, Unity3D, XNA Time
Used programming language
2000
C++
>2008
Easy tools
Game Design
History
20
Distribution Arcades: Pay per play
Observations – More easily accessible for the player – More easily distributable for the developer – Larger share of the money to developer – Paying based on playing is back
Retail cartridges
Retail disks
Downloadable
Free to play Game Design
History
21
Audience Observations – Historically dominated by young males – Women are included only recently – Families were targeted by early consoles – More and more inclusion based on gender and age Predominant audience Arcade machines
Young males
Early home consoles
Young males, families
PC’s around 2000
Young males
Casual/social games
Women, families (Wii)
Game Design
History
22
Overview Several historic games Trends The Future
THE FUTURE Game Design
History
23
Future Several uncertainties in the future – More and more games. Market saturation? – Ever-increasing AAA-game budgets. Will it stop? – New devices/peripherals. Which will stay? • Currently Virtual Reality is being introduced
– Will games break through in education?
Game Design
History
24
Overview Several historic games Trends The Future
FAMOUS GAME DESIGNER QUIZ Game Design
The game designer role
25
Who is this game designer? Famous games he designed – Super Mario series – The Legend of Zelda series – Metroid Prime
Shigeru Miyamoto Game Design
The game designer role
26
Who is this game designer? Famous games he designed – SimCity – The Sims – Spore
Will Wright Game Design
The game designer role
27
Who is this game designer? Famous games he designed – Civilization series – Pirates!
Sid Meier
Game Design
The game designer role
28
Who is this game designer? Famous games he designed – Theme Park – Dungeon Keeper – Black & White – Fable series
Peter Molyneux Game Design
The game designer role
29
Who is this game designer? Famous games he designed – Grim Fandango – Psychonauts – Brütal Legend – Broken Age
Tim Schafer Game Design
The game designer role
30
Who is this game designer? Famous games he designed – Braid – The Witness
Jonathan Blow Indievelopment 2014 speaker Game Design
The game designer role
31
Overview Several Historic Games Trends The Future
Game Design
The game designer role
32
Todo’s Work on Pract 1.1 and 1.2 – Pract 1.1 deadline this Tuesday at 23:59 – Why not work on it now? • Usually much more effective than working at home
Don’t forget the mini-tests – First deadline this Tuesday at 23:59
