The second week on Gotland has been inspiring in a whole new array of ways. With the introduction of the MDA -framework came a whole new way to look at games as both a designer and a consumer. Why do I enjoy this game, what does it offer me as a player that inspire this type of emotion in me? How can I use this emotional response as a designer?
If I want to my players to enjoy fellowship fun in my shooter, I need a mechanic that allows for that to happen, obviously. But in that group, how do I want them to feel? Does the addition of more players increase the struggle or make them feel more powerful? Is it less rewarding to pull the trigger if your friends are already mowing your enemy down?
To try out what mechanics have to be changed to bring forth a different aesthetic, we were told to play a card-game called Sissyfight, which simulates a schoolyard bullying of young girls. The goal of the game is bullying. How does the game achieve this?
Our assignment turned out to be two different things:
– Set sissyfight in a ninja setting.
-Promote different sweets for a snack-company using the sissyfight engine.
For our Ninja-Project we changed a simple mechanic to try and increase the potential for betrayal, and the overall tension. We included a silent communication on top of the normal one, allowing glances, nudging and discreet gestures to try to get your point across. Testing confirmed that our aesthetic goals had been met, that we had achieved what we set out to do.
For the promotion of snacks we had to take apart the combat system and look at what made it work. We wanted our snacks to be promoted, so we wanted them to be integral to the gameplay and for them to be showed in a positive light. We accomplished this by turning them into the score-keeping system of the game, as well as allowing the snacks to be consumed for powerups, thereby giving the player the feeling that snacks were either important to save for yourself, or to consume.
Overall the entire framework of MDA has been an eye-opener. Dynamics are more of an abstract concept than the Aesthetics and the Mechanics of the framework, but no less important. All of it can still be anticipated, tested, predicted. And this gives us as designers the power to design better.
Over the weekend I plan on constructing 2 different versions of sissyfight, starting by choosing an aesthetic, and trying to promote dynamics by changing the mechanics.
wiper92 