I’m coming up for air after an eventful GDC week. Did I mention: Lightning Prototypes, a group of crazy-talented folks, is now open for business?

We’re only a few days old, so there’s not much to tell you, but be assured, exciting things are in motion!

Once again, I am humbled to be working in the company of a truly outstanding group of visionaries, dreamers and doers.

This last Tuesday, the EA axe swung again, lopping off the Boom Blox team.

This is an amazing team, full of passionate dreamers and doers, who can take on a new platforms like no others I’ve seen. It has been my great pleasure to work with them, and I sincerely hope we will work together again soon.

All our good thoughts are with those who remain behind at EA. Good luck to you and your projects, friends!

And now…let’s see what’s next!

Gareth Hinds kicks off the conversation. Gareth is a creator of graphic novels, whose excellent adaptations of Beowulf, King Lear and The Merchant of Venice are not to be missed. He also has a dark, secret past as an extraordinary game artist.

Dave Konieczny is co-founder of Bithoard Games, whose recent release Blastination is one of my favorite iPhone games.

Gareth: What advice do you give to high school kids who think they want to become game designers? Is there anything like a recommended course of study as they head into college?

I recently got asked about this by two different kids.

Sean: You’re asking me? I just made stuff up as I went along, and somehow got people to pay me. But that was more than a decade ago…not sure that works anymore. };^)

Having a background in programming and art is certainly helpful from the standpoint of effectively communicating your ideas. That has certainly been a huge help to me over the years.
There will be math. Algebra, trig, statistics. You will be happy with a strong foundation in maths. The more you know the better off you’ll be.

But the biggest thing, and here is where I think art is important, they have to make themselves keen observers. They also need to read widely, travel, go for nature walks, pretty much everything but sit in a classroom/cubicle all day. Get out of the echo chamber of popular culture once and awhile.

Tell them not to get attached to ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Focus on turning ideas into a product, a demo, something real.

Dave: Learn to work with people and know when to compromise. As a designer you are just a part of a larger team and you need your co-workers to get the game built and make it work. If you don’t learn good people skills nobody is going to want to work with you, let alone build a game based on your idea. Don’t be afraid to champion ideas you think are good, but learn to know when to compromise. As Sean said, listen to feedback and take it seriously. Your co-workers are also very creative and they play a lot of games too.

Sean: The reason they need a diverse and wide-ranging knowledge of the world is that they are going to have to come up with hundreds of thousands of interesting ideas over the course of their career, most of which will softly and silently vanish away.

When someone criticizes an idea, listen to them. You don’t have to agree, but you need to understand their feedback. All of your ideas are not beautiful diamonds. Many of them are turds. Let people help you sort out which is which. Then, when you have one that is undeniably great, you’ll be in a better position to fight for it. If you treat every idea as if they are equally good, people will, rightly, not trust your judgment.

If you’re inclined, learn Flash/Actionscript, C++, or another language. There’s nothing that settles design arguments like a functional prototype.

Remember that prototypes are great for answering specific questions. A bad question to answer with a prototype is, will this game be fun? To answer that, the prototype has to be the game. A better question is, is Mechanic X fun?

Dave: I agree with Sean about prototyping mechanics. A prototype removes silly arguments about what is fun or not. My team and I followed this philosophy on our iPhone dev and it was wonderful. If we had an idea we got it up and running quickly and that answer all our questions rather quickly and definitively. Also, we weren’t afraid to throw it all away. Often you have to iterate to find the fun.

Sean: Always try to work with people who are better and smarter than you are. They are your teachers.

Make friends with your marketing department. They are solving a different set of problems than you, take the time to learn what their goals and methods are. Making a great game does you no good if no one knows about it.

Dave: Play other games in as many genres as possible. You need to see what your competition is doing, but also what else is working and what’s not. There’s lots of inspiration out there.

Keep it simple. I’ve found the best ideas for mechanics are generally simple concepts. You can build upon those basic ideas down the road if you want to add more complexity, but keep the core as simple as you can. I think some of the best games out there revolve around simple mechanics. This is especially true with the move towards more casual/social games.

Maths are good. So is reading, writing and speaking proper English. If you can’t communicate, well… game over.

Sean: Yes. Learn proper English. If you think speling iz 4 luzers, your resume will never reach my hands. Do I sound like a grumpy old man? So be it. This goes back to ideas. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your ideas are, if you can’t effectively communicate them to other people, those ideas will die with you. To give them life in other people’s minds, you have to be a communicator, a salesman, an evangelist. And since much of this happens with the written word, your writing skills must be strong.

There are a number of schools that teach game design. I don’t have much experience with those programs or their grads, so I can’t address that.

Develop a set of marketable secondary skills. The game industry can be brutal. Having a viable Plan B gives you options.

Dave: You really have to be passionate. Game development has become such an incredibly competitive business and with all the layoffs these days there is a very large talent pool for the remaining spots. If you’re not passionate about making games you’ll have a much harder time landing a job and enjoying an extended career.

Gareth: I want to summarize a few of the “getting started” points and make sure I understand them and how they apply to someone just starting to get their feet wet. Correct me where I’m misstating your position:

- A degree is not necessary, but college-level writing and math are more or less a prerequisite. Art or graphic design is a very nice plus. So is programming.

- Get skills/degree that will serve you well in other ways, since you may strike out in game design.

- Play lots of games and think about what makes them fun (or not fun).

- Try prototyping game ideas. Use Flash. How about other methods — paper? Mods? Focus on something you can build, not just big ideas. Prototype specific, simple mechanics.

Dave: Re: the prototyping I would think any method that you can use to demonstrate a specific idea or mechanic would work. The faster you can do it the better.

Sean: Good point about prototyping. Paper, legos, wooden blocks, whatever works.

And here’s a point that many people miss, and it ties back into why you should play lots of games and demos.

The very best demo is the one you don’t have to build.

If you can find a snippet of another game, or an online flash game, or a board game that already demonstrates your mechanic or something close, there’s your prototype.

A background in paper games can help, for certain kinds of game, paper war games too, since they are basically painfully slow video games, minus the computer. Good for systems designers who love making and tuning huge excel spreadsheets.

Dave: Another point on the mods. One really good way to get into a position in design, specifically level design, is to do a mod or use a free level editor and create a level. There’s really no substitute for showing off real game design skills with your own creation.

Sean: I would add: get involved in the community. Find the groups that meet in your area. Build a network of like-minded folks. It’s hard to be a one man or one woman show, so find some engineers and artists and musicians who are interested in games, work together to build a mod, or a demo. That kind of calling card will open more doors than a diploma and good intentions.

Gareth (continuing summary): – Travel, observe, be a pop culture sponge. Write a lot.

- Learn to work with people — network, seek feedback, accept & use criticism, learn from others.

- Be passionate about games, or find something else to pursue passionately.

Dave: Don’t be afraid to do a different job if need be. I did QA and production along the way because those were the available opportunities. Being flexible allowed me to stay in game development and taught me a great deal about the many aspects of game creation.

The industry is brutal. Be prepared for disappointment and definitely have a back-up plan.

Gareth: Thanks!

Try here for a full size version.

EA Will Ask Steven Spielberg To Make A ‘Boom Blox’ Level

Boom Blox Bash Party in Pictures

Spielberg’s Boom Blox Bash Party Rocks Wii This Spring

I wish all games could be this much fun to work on, and the team is the best I’ve ever worked with.

So, first…buy this game when it comes out. It really is, no kidding, fun for the whole family.

Second…make sure to try your hand at building your own levels. It has one of the easiest to use editors out there.

And lastly, an oldie but a goodie:

The Expected Result

I’ll post a picture once I’m sure the traffic-storm that was Democracy Day Patch has subsided.

Here’s a Flash/ActionScript prototype I did for my last game, a Wii title called "Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed."

There’s a more detailed discussion of it over here.

* If you do it right.

WARNING: What follows is a game only a Geek could love.

Today’s design is a twist on the venerable game of chess, via quantum mechanics (See…I warned you).

If you’re the kind of savvy reader that hangs out at the Chrome Cow, you doubtless are familiar with a certain theoretical feline belonging to one Erwin Schrödinger. This cat has the misfortune to be confined in a box with a deadly device that has a 50-50 chance of triggering with an hour. At the end of the hour, goes the thought experiment, the cat, sealed from observation inside the box, is neither dead or alive, but is in superposition, a combination of these possible states. The cat does not live or die until the box is opened by an observer, who through the act of observation collapses the possible dead/alive states of the cat into one or the other state.

So what’s that got to do with Chess? What, indeed!

Enter Superpositional Chess (Super Chess? EigenChess? Quantum Chess? Schrödinger’s Pawn?).

Like Schrödinger’s experiment with the Cat, mine too is wholly theoretical, so to follow along you will need the following imaginary supplies:

• Two Chess Boards
• Two Sets of Chess Pieces

Set up both boards in the traditional manner. The players will take turns as per usual, but each player will move one piece of their color on each board, each turn.

If each player moved the same piece on each board to the same spot, the game would be identical to standard chess. It’s when the two moves diverge that things get interesting.

In this example, the white Knight has two potential legal moves.

If, on the two separate chess boards, he moves to each of these legal spots:
 

 The superpositional board is the additive result of Boards A & B.  In the above example, the knight is said to be superpositional, it exists only potentially in both spots.

So before things get too confusing, here are the rules:

Basic Definitions

• Each board is set up like a traditional chess game
• Both boards have the same color pieces facing the same player
• If two of the same type of pieces of the same color occupy the same space on both boards, that piece Exists in that space.
• Only one piece can Exist in one space at any given time.
• At the beginning of the game, before anyone has moved,
• All pieces Exist
• If two of the same pieces of the same color occupy different spaces on both boards, those pieces are Superpositional.
• See example above
• Only two Superpositional pieces of any color and any type can occupy the same space:

• Existing pieces take precedence over Superpositional pieces
• No move can be made that creates a Superpositional piece on a space occupied by an Existing piece

Player’s Turn

• Movement Round
• Player may move a piece of his color on each board, OR
• Collapse a Superpositional piece
• Player chooses two Superpositional pieces of the same type and color
• Player moves one of those pieces  to match the position of the matching type of piece on the other board
• That piece now Exists (this example follows on from the Knight example above):

Resolution Phase

Two Superpositional pieces of different colors may occupy the same space, but what happens when one of those pieces is Collapsed, and now Exists in that space?

Above we see four Superpositional pieces.

Black chooses to Collapse their Pawn. At then end of Black’s turn, we have a Black Pawn that Exists in the same space as a Superpositional White Knight. This is not allowed, so White now has a Resolution Phase to correct the problem:

In the above example, White chooses to Collapse the Knight to the space not occupied by the Black Pawn. If White had chosen to Collapse the Knight to the same space as the Black Pawn, the White Knight would have been forfeit.

• The first piece to Exist in a given square captures any piece that comes to occupy that space in the resulting Resolution Phase.

It is very likely as the game progresses that one move will trigger a cascade of alternating Resolution Phases.

• White’s move requires a Black Resolution Phase
• Black’s Resolution Phase requires a White Resolution Phase
• And so on…

 

---

 

Threat and Check

For Existing pieces, the endgame rules of Check and Checkmate are the same as regular chess. It is when we bring Superpositional pieces into the mix that we need new rules.

Threat

• When a Superpositional piece is placed such that it can execute a capture move on a King (Existing or Superpositional) the next turn, the player that moved it there must announce "Threat"
• Threat is one step less serious than Check
• The player would have to spend their next turn Collapsing the piece for it to escalate into a Check:

• When an Existing piece is placed such that it can execute a capture move on a Superpositional King the next turn, the player that moved it there must announce "Threat"
• Threat is one step less serious than Check
• The Threatened player can Collapse their King to safety:

What about the case where two Superpositional pieces are threatening two Superpositional kings?

This is still classified as a Threat.

• A Check or Checkmate is only possible when an Existing King is in peril from an Existing enemy piece.

Threat, Check and Checkmate must be announced both in in the Movement Phase and the Resolution Phase

---

Optional Rules

Entanglement

• For all pieces except the king and queen
• Number the pieces
• Pawns 1-8
• Knights 1-2
• etc.
• When placing the pieces in their initial position
• Lowest number go on the left
• So the leftmost pawn is #1, the rightmost #8
• Leftmost Knight is #1, rightmost is #2
• You may only collapse pieces
• Of the same Color
• Type, AND
• Number

Final Thoughts

This game (I kind of like the name EigenChess) might be a great way to introduce young Chess players to the world of quantum mechanics, and build up some intuition for some of the non-intuitive aspects of that branch of scientific inquiry.

If someone really wanted to play this on an ongoing basis, the easiest approach is probably a software solution to manage the boards and states of the pieces.

However, you could also set up two physical boards, place a top-down video camera over each board and then superimpose the two video streams, which would give you a result like the Superpositional Board used in the above illustrations.

Either way, drop me a line and let me know how it works…};^)

-game over-

Thanks for reading another action-packed installment of Design a Day. For background on the Design A Day challenge, take a peek here and here.

Ok. I owe you a Lazarus and the Time Machine Part 2, but I can’t resist the chance to post a quite nearly timely World Cup inspired design.

I’ve consulted with experts in the field, and the consensus is that the World Cup involves Soccer.

In my mind this is quite nearly the same thing as Foosball, except that in Soccer the games are much longer and harder schedule.

I admit it. I’m not really an organized sports guy, and today’s design is less inspired by the World Cup and more by Rockstar’s latest table tennis opus.

The idea is simple:

Foosball + Wii = Awesome.

The perspective is top down, and on the bottom of the screen you can see the single player’s control rods.

Moving the Wii controller left and right in front of the player selects different rods. Moving the wand forward and backwards slides the rod in and out. Twisting the wand (which should be readable with the accelerometer, I think) twists the corresponding handle.

There’s not much more to it. It is single player versus AI. There is a multiplayer mode for two or four people over the network. Two players play head to head, four players play two-on-two.

There is of course room for much ancillary bling: skinnable, unlockable men, unlockable tables, special physics modes, special team count and placement modes, ladder play and of course, as the title of this design suggests, some excellent branding opportunities.

It’s a simple game, where execution and feel is everything.

-game over-

Thanks for reading another action-packed installment of Design a Day. For background on the Design A Day challenge, take a peek here and here.

I posted a couple of small games over in the game design section, but I have also been making noise for awhile about posting some of the lessons I have learned during this process, along with the code to back it up.

It begins. Gambol on over to Learning Flash, and start coding!

The Design-A-Tron Lite. Rewritten, a mere 20k, not counting the text for the database. I think it’s up to about 890+ billion potential combinations.

The new version of the full implementation is in the works. It has…more.