Systems of Play, a free video game design workshop series sponsored by local developer Arkadium, completed the final class in a series of five at the NYU Game Center in Manhattan Wednesday. The event, titled The Game Industry and Development Process, ended the series with several examples of revenue models, and tips on how to work through the development process.
Workshop speakers Eric Zimmerman and Naomi Clark took attendees through the steps of designing a game, starting with choosing a platform. They said each platform has different abilities, and that this decision can greatly affect the game design.
“The platform is your canvas, but also your paintbrush,” Clark said. “It’s what you have to work with that defines the limitations of your game as well as all the expressive possibilities available.”
The speakers then moved into discussing several revenue models that developers use to distribute their games. Clark and Zimmerman both mentioned the rise of self-publishing as a popular way for smaller studios to compete in the game industry.
"The business model will impact what the constraints are about your game almost as much as the platform,” Clark said. “Unless there’s a rationale for your game to exist and make money, the available funds given to you to make the game are obviously going to be affected.”
After discussing several models, Zimmerman and Clark went on to share the importance of play values. According to Zimmerman, play values help shape the content of the game, and can keep developers on track during a project.
“The play values are like the design principles that you establish at the start of a project that help guide your brainstorming and design and production,” Zimmerman said. “It’s important to understand what you’re making and why.”
Clark added that play values could come from developers, or, in the case of a franchise, from the needs of an existing brand. She said the play values become like a written agreement between two parties on what the game will be about.
“If they agree to these things then you have a good shared reference point to set expectations,” Clark said.
Clark and Zimmerman then broke everyone into small groups and told them they all had to create a game based on the Gilligan’s Island franchise. Each team selected a platform and demographic from a list, and then wrote down the play values that defined their game. Finally, the groups presented a one-minute pitch for their project.
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