For our second set essay this year we have been taked to write about the major design issues we faced during the development of our Key Stage 1 game for children. Below is my final essay.
When designing and developing any computer game there are certain elements that must be considered in order to secure a sound product. Professional writers’ advice for what constitutes a good game varies, but on reading their work it is clear that there is agreement amongst them that a vocabulary for gaming is essential. Doug Church (1999:pp1) summarises this perfectly when he says,
‘The primary inhibitor of design evolution is the lack of a common design vocabulary.’ (1)
In his writing, Greg Costikyan (2002:pp26) suggests that the essential vocabulary, and thus the criteria for making a compelling game is to:
‘provide goals, create endogenous meanings, establish a structure, make sure you make the player struggle.’ (2)
His opinion is appropriate for measuring the success of the challenge faced by our own design team when tasked to produce a Key Stage 1 game. As such, it will be used to evaluate the particular issues encountered during the development of the project.
Al and Annie’s History Mystery is a puzzle-based, educational game designed for Key Stage 1 (KS1) pupils (aged 5-7years).
The aim of the game is to progress through a haunted mansion by solving puzzles based on different periods of history. The house is split into five rooms, themed differently, each housing two puzzles. The player must correctly solve both puzzles to advance to the next room. Upon completion, the player must then answer some general knowledge questions to finish the game.
The most challenging aspect of creating Al and Annie’s History Mystery was to make the game appropriate for, and easily playable by, our target audience. Additionally, achieving the correct level of participant challenge or struggle in the game was a key element to its eventual success. Costikyan (2002: pp28) emphasises this point when he states that ‘challenge’
‘…is at the heart of any game: you may be able to dispense with fantasy or narrative, but you cannot dispense with challenge.’ (3)
It was clear to the development team from the outset that failure to gauge the necessary level of challenge for Al and Annie’s History Mystery would result in players turning quickly away from the game either because of its difficulty or its simplicity and lack of reward.
To tackle this, it was important to experience a wide variety of activities and games that were already developed for and knowingly successful to KS1 pupils. By accessing and playing a wide variety of computer games for each of the KS1 curriculum subjects and investigating the preferences and interests of this age group, the team established the ideas that were eventually developed in the final game.
With such a wealth of resources available to this age group a further challenge was to select something appropriate but also relatively new. Early ideas included a numeracy fishing game, shape identification game and various literacy challenges. The obvious choice was to create an educational game that would develop a child’s early learning skills. However, it was immediately clear that games for literacy and numeracy were in abundance and this led the team to select a curriculum area that was under-resourced; hence the decision to select ‘history’ as the main theme.
During the research period, the main things noted by the team were that the games were all bright and colourful, whilst being very simple to understand and play. Tasks were clear and characters and graphics predominantly cartoon-styled. Most of the games were educational and fun to play. Eventually, the coupling of history, as the main subject, with its wealth of story and characters, with a mystery/haunted house theme was selected as a potentially successful combination to appeal most to the target audience. The potential to include elements of literacy and numeracy were also considered.
Setting the storyboard for the game was simple enough as it was agreed to select those periods in history that were taught as part of the KS1 curriculum: Egyptians, Romans, 17th and 18th Century. The challenge here was to re-create thematic rooms for our characters to move through and carry out suitable activities appropriate to each time period. Designing these rooms to be colourful, meaningful and historically accurate took up much research time and a considered selection was made of the most appropriate artefacts and settings.
Having agreed the overall concept and structure for Al and Annie’s History Mystery, the next challenge to face was creating the goals and ‘fun’ elements. It is a common mistake to allow one designer’s idea of fun to dictate the design of a game and not consider whether this ‘fun’ appeals to a wider audience. Noah Falstein (2004:pp1) asks
‘What makes a game fun? It's a question that seems central to the process of making good games. But it's an elusive and subjective question.’ (4)
As the game developed, the issue over the balance of ‘fun’ and ‘learning’ was discussed regularly and tested out on a variety of other users. Ultimately the ‘fun’ formula evolved with the careful selection and winning combination of structure, goals, struggle and meaning.
Initially, the game was to feature questions which the player would need to correctly answer to continue through the game. However, our discussions with a teacher of this age group resulted in a re-think as to how easy it would be for most pupil of this age group to read the text. It was decided to change the questions to educational puzzles instead. This allowed the game to be more inclusive, as well as being a more interactive and involving experience for the player. Feedback loops were also considered at this point to encourage rather than demoralise a player who may be having difficulty with a solution. One such loop was placed and trialled at the final level. Further development of this strategy could be included after testing with the target audience in the future.
It was agreed that whilst the game was now based largely upon ‘real’ historical events the issue was to design a game that would offer enough rewards for KS1 children to feel involved. It was therefore important to set a degree of fantasy by including elements of endogenous meaning.
Costikyan (2002:pp22) states that this is something that
“…has no concrete, real-world expression, and no value in any context other than the game” (5)
The team had to be select something in order for the
“…game’s structure to create its own meaning”. (6)
Hence, by adding in collectable cookies that could be earned by completing the puzzles the game retained its fun, modern day feel. To enhance this element, further cookies were hidden throughout the levels, thus developing the struggle element between players and creating the opportunity for re-playability.
During the initial concept designs, I was personally tasked with creating the backgrounds and puzzle art for the game. It was agreed that each room of the house would be set in a different period of history. My challenge, therefore, was to create a backdrop for each room and select appropriate artefacts to decorate and enhance these. Using the graphical style of other games, such as Luigi’s Mansion, as a base, I designed each room along a cartoon-styled theme whilst remaining authentic to the period of time being portrayed. The difficulty lay in capturing the elements of each historical period in a way that remained simple but attractive for the target audience and effective and educational for the overall theme.
This part of the task required a lot of research around the historical periods of history. I made full use of Internet images, but also studied a series of children’s history books from the local library. These were useful in focussing attention on what main historical sources would be best portrayed. From my initial series of sketches I drew together whole room design concepts to share with the design team. The fact that little was altered from my own initial designs is some measure of the success of my research and final selections.
In the early stages of the project, when the historical mystery theme was agreed, the name of the game was Haunted History Mansion. Personally, I did not feel that this was appealing enough and, had the game been a serious attempt at a merchandisable product, such a lengthy title would not have stood out amongst other games. It was my suggestion to the team that Al and Annie be chosen as names in the title, as the characters would feature greatly in the game. Using the alliterative link would also make them easy to remember. History Mystery was also my suggestion as it explains clearly and effectively, using rhyme, what the game is about. Thus, the title, Al and Annie’s History Mystery, was created. Mindful of the fact that, had this been a commercial project it may have needed a follow-up, then Al and Annie have the potential to become the characters for a whole series of games based upon similar themes: Al and Annie’s Maths Mystery or Al and Annie’s Geography Journey could all become future off-shoots.
Creating an appropriate soundtrack was also an important part of designing Al and Annie’s History Mystery. Again, research was done into other KS1 games and spooky television shows to generate ideas on what sort of music to create. Scooby Do, a popular children’s mystery show, was a great inspiration when creating music and sound effects. The haunting sounds used in the show gave ideas on what to create for the right feel to the game. Once the research was completed, sound effects were recorded using everyday objects, which were then digitally altered to give an appropriate effect to incorporate into the game.
Recording the background music for each level was difficult. Having three, separate, main themes for the game required a lot of research into the music styles of each, planned for, period of history. Coming up with authentically sounding, but original, music proved extremely challenging. With the game being aimed at such young children the music needed to be appropriately ‘spooky’ but also fun and lively.
It was essential to make the game appealing to both males and females. In the games used as research, it was a notable common feature that the player was able to choose their own character from the selection provided. To make our game appeal to both genders, it was decided to create a male and female character, either of which could be selected by the user. Character creation was an important part of the game to get right if the player was to empathise effectively. The characters needed to be designed in the same cartoon style as the rest of the game but they also needed to be likeable creations. With the target audience being pupils at KS1, young school children were chosen to depict the playable characters in order to help the player relate to what they were interacting with onscreen.
In fully evaluating the design issues faced by the development team, it is important to return to the first quote from Costikyan (2002) and ask, “Did the final game meet the criteria?” Al and Annie’s History Mystery certainly provides the goals necessary for challenge; has a clear example of a sought-after endogenous element; contains an established and effective structure, and ensures that the player struggles. In every respect it meets the requirements of what might be regarded as a ‘compelling game’.
To achieve this, the total commitment required from every team member was generated by the desire to question, research, trial and improve every idea plus the acknowledgement that there was, within our grasp, a truly sound product. In conclusion, and on a personal note, I have benefited from the important processes needed to successfully work within a team and of adhering to strict deadlines. From the initial ideas stage, right through to the final product, many design hurdles were faced. Creating Al and Annie’s History Mystery was a difficult but rewarding challenge and I shall use many of the experiences and much of the research findings to aid me in future projects.
Bibliography
Church, Doug. (1999) Formal Abstract Design Tools Gamasutra – http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal abstract design to ols,php. pp1.
Costikyan Greg. (2002) “I Have No Words & I Must Design: Towards a Critical Vocabulary for Games”. Proceedings of Computer Games & Design Cultures Conference.Tampere, USA: Tampere University Press. pp22 – 28.
Word Count: 1,999 excluding bibliography.
