Hello, this is Jaesung Park, the lecturer of understanding the game development process
Before going into the lecture, I'll tell you a famous quote
from Hideo Kojima, who is known for Metal Gear Solid
Hideo Kojima said that game is one of the ways to make life more abundant
Thus, you can tell through this what the role of a game designer is
A game designer creates experiences for users
and that experience has to make their life more full and abundant
This basic role of a game designer is
Something we will touch upon first before going into the lecture
In this lecture, we will understand the importance of game development as a game designer
and check the problems that game designers will face
And we will acknowledge the overall production steps that a game planner needs to know
and classify the abilities and qualities that the designer needs at each step
Finally, we will acknowledge the importance of tests as a game designer
and we will learn about many test methods
The importance of game planning and major steps
We will first learn about the importance of game planning
The importance of game planning isn't all about the game itself
but it also includes the role of the game designer
What is the role of the game designer
that makes their role important
This will be the process of learning about that
You all know about Song Jaekyung of Lineage
And Sid Meier, who made Civilization
Kojima Hideo who made Metal Gear Solid
Miyamoto Shigeru who made Nintendo
And Steve Jobs also started his career as a game designer
Why did these leaders play a role as a game designer
and performed so many jobs?
They were people who wanted to create experience
and in the process of creating experience
they overcame many difficulties
A game designer manifests a vision and maintains it
They motivate their teammates
and show their leadership skills in order for the motivation to reach the goal
And in this process, when many teams collide with each other
They need to make the proper decision and not be hindered by their own emotions
Ultimately the person responsible for the user's experience
That person is the game designer
The role of a game designer isn't about the tasks at work
Such as system planning, settings planning, or battle planning
During the game production process
They overall play a role in many steps
This role isn't divided by tasks
I divided them into these four roles
Creation, Production, Test, Management
Game designers play their roles in these four areas
In these roles, they show their leadership skills
First, a game designer is responsible for the start of a game
And they're responsible for the end of a game
These are the creation and test steps
And they're also responsible for the process of game production
That's the process of production
And in order for the production to work well
Their role is also performing management all the time
As the production process continues
A game designer faces many dilemmas
It isn't just a few dilammas
They may actually face tens and hundreds of dilemmas
I'll introduce you to the five main ones
If a game designer
proceeds with their own great blueprint
They find differences between
what the user wants and what the teammates want
and the difference between what's new and what's useful
They need to satisfy the players
but they also need to save money due to the company budget
And the difference between seeking something new or following the verified success method
The dilemma between innovation and tradition
And if they determine that there's a long-term vision
the short-term accomplishments may not be guaranteed
That may also be the dilemma
In these five dilemmas, a game designer
finds the answer in order to approach the goal
They carry the responsibility for that answer
and play the role of carrying it out until the end
The most difficult part for a game designer is this part
The person who can perform this part well can lead the game to success
Ultimately, the game designer is the one with responsibility
and we can know that the game designer is important
Next, we will learn about the major steps of game planning
When a game planner participates in a game production as a game designer
their job doesn't just pertain to the production perspective
As mentioned earlier, a game planner
from the start to the end of a game
oversees the entire process
They go through these processes
They create ideas, decide the concept, propose the concept
And if the proposed concept is chosen
they make the prototype that creates the core mechanics inside
When this prototype has been verified
they go into production and work together
Once the production has proceeded and the flow has been completed
in order to make the completed flow successful as a businessman
they collaborate with a business team
And at each step
they need to test out every time a production is completed
When the game has finally been released
they need to plan continuous updates
Thus, a game designer, from the beginning and end of a game
has various roles like these
and they have to perform these various roles properly
in order for the game to maintain its nature
A game designer is in charge of the beginning and end of a game production
The most important part is the beginning and the end
So I'll touch upon the final test again later on
Here, I'll explain a little more about the methodology
about idea creation when it first begins
It's a methodology called SCAMPER
This SCAMPER methodology doesn't only pertain to games
but also in all new businesses
Actually, creation of ideas in games
may have many various methods
Therefore, ideas may be very intuitive
or many people may gather for brainstorming
There are many ways
When the first-timers can't choose their direction
it's good to choose one of the methodologies
Especially when one is creating ideas on their own
the SCAMPER methodology is a good method
Each alphabet stands for a meaning
Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse
These are the seven meanings
The meanings are as is
What can we substitute?
What can we combine?
Which idea can we adapt?
How can we modify and expand upon the existing game components?
And how can we put these to another use?
What should we eliminate to improve this play?
Or taking the existing methods
and reversing them 180 degrees will bring what kind of results?
If you try creating ideas with these seven standards
when you can't set the direction at first
these will be good methods
Think of them as references
Ultimately, developing one's own idea creation methods
is the best way
Tasks of a game designer and creative design strategies
Next, I will tell you about the tasks
that a game designer actually carries out
The main job of a game designer
is storytelling, designing the game mechanics, planning the UX or UI
and there are additional various tasks
Actually, as I've mentioned earlier, the tasks of a game designer
varies greatly by company
Some companies are smaller, with just a few people
some companies have hundreds of people working on a single project
So it's different for each company
These are the tasks that apply to all companies
Whether these tasks are carried out by one person or many people
whether tens of people are working together or hundreds of people are working together
varies by company
So you have to understand this first
You have to conceptually understand these parts
and grasp everything
then you will be able to work at any company
I'll first tell you about storytelling
Storytelling, in Korean companies
they call it setting planning
They establish a universe and design the structure of the story
They create characters, write dialogues and narratives
And this is a very important part of game constructing
Set the conflict elements that the player needs to solve in the game
and the reasons why they need to solve these elements
Providing motivation is an important step of the storytelling process
And in the case of adventure games
interactive storytelling is very important
The player is involved in organizing the story
Depending on the choice of the involved player
the story changes in various ways
All the processes of these changes need to be planned
Whether this determined story
integrates other elements such as game play, art, and sounds
has to be consistently checked as well
Another thing I want to tell you here
there's a part that may be a little confusing
To tell you more about developing game characters
in the case of character development, things like their personalities
and adding meaning to their narratives
correspond to character development and storytelling
But in the part of character settings
there are settings for the character's detailed statistics and numbers
Those are a little different from storytelling
These parts are elements of battle planning when being developed
You should understand them as different parts
Here, the narratives and personalities of the characters
is what's being talked about
Next, we will learn about designing the game mechanics
In game mechanics design, there's rule design,
developing the core play mechanisms,
adjusting the balance,
designing experience,
this corresponds to adventure games but designing the ending,
and consistently prototyping
In the process of game mechanics designing
these are the tasks of a game designer
Rule planning is usually called system planning in companies
It's about setting the basic rules
The goals of the player who's playing the game
the procedure methods, the winning conditions
while proceeding with this game
These are what correspond to the basic rule design
For the game play mechanism development, when a player acts
or how they encounter an event when they trigger it
and the kinds of interactions between elements of the game
These are called core mechanism developments
For example, when the character travels, how will they travel
For their skills and events in a battle system
how will these occur?
What kind of interactions will be there?
Between two monsters, or between the boss and the monster
How will they interact?
These all correspond to game play mechanism development
The tasks in this area are in large amounts
There's also balance adjustment
For balance adjustment, what you need to know is
this is the basic premise that you need to keep in mind
Easy to Learn, Hard to Master
When users play this game
it should be easy to learn
but in order to master it, they need to try very hard
This is the basic premise you should have when beginning the development
Within this premise, build upon the styles that you want
and that will create a decent game balance
For experience design
it's about designing the methods of interactions between the player and the game world
When we're playing a game
we open a door or go into a dungeon
what kind of monster or boss we will encounter inside the dungeon
These are the experiences that are designed
The tone, the atmosphere, the difficulty level
these also all correspond to experience design
Now this is usually considered more for adventure games
because these days, services are operated in long-term
so many games have no endings
But many internationally popular adventure games still
have importance in the kinds of endings we will set
The ending design is also important in the game mechanic design
Designing the ways to reach the ending
that's the ending design of
game mechanic design
In the tasks of a game planner, there's also UX and UI planning
This part, for users as well as
for developers working together in the company
it's something that is visually observed
So it's a part that involves many conflicting opinions
Therefore, the game designer
has to set the clear standard
and carry out the standard with confidence
Therefore, in UX and UI planning
a game designer is essential
There are many tasks of UX and UI planning
The main ones are user research, Information Architecture design
interface design, interaction design
usability evaluation and improvement conduction, accessibility design
and monitoring feedback and indicators
The user interface is different for each person
so the things that majority of people want
needs to be acknowledged and designed
So if there's a chance
thoroughly perform market research and interviews
Using the interview results, it should be implemented
into one's own thoughts during the goal reaching process
And the Information Architecture has to be designed
Information Architecture is
for the information that users have to observe during the game
what arrangements will make the users
understand the game more comfortably
and experience it, is what's being designed
For example, how will the skill information be presented
and for the needed items and ingredients to upgrade the skills
how will they go there from the skill information screen
Designing these parts
is called the Information Architecture design
And designers have many difficulties
in designing the UI on their own
They don't know what the users will want
and they don't have confidence in that
For interface design, they create powerpoints or draw it out by hand
and hand it over to the UI team, so they can complete the actual design
to create the final result
There are many other tasks of a game designer
as mentioned earlier, a game designer
plays the role of overseeing
everything of a game, from the beginning to the end
So they have many other roles
But to tell you about a few important roles
they participate in testing procedures and BM planning
That will be it for now
The person who holds onto the goal until the end
is actually only the game designer
The tester only tests out the designated categories
they don't know the goals when they carry out the tests
So if the game designer doesn't consistently check
how the goal will be accomplished during the test
the tests may not head towards the direction that the game is pursuing
So during the testing procedure, the game designer has to consistently be involved
and check whether the targeted direction is included in the game play
whether the initially pursued direction of UI planning is included in the interface
whether the usability is good, whether the balance is good
and whether the game is actually entertaining to users
These things, if a game designer
doesn't consistently check with the tester and just leaves it to the tester
it may negatively create a game that they didn't want
They also need to participate in BM planning
These days, there are many in-app games
this in-app element, in the game procedure
plays a very important part
So if designing the business model is handed over to the business team
the core gameability cannot be connected properly
The core entertainment can't be properly linked
so vague products are released
Those products are neither entertaining nor utilized
so they only provide dissatisfaction to the users
So when you plan games
participate in BM planning
determine which items will provide entertainment to the users
consistently communicate it to the business team
So when the business team plans the game BM
they will be able to implement the core entertainment
That's why you should participate in designing
Next, we will learn about creative game design strategies
When I began this lecture, I told you a quote by Hideo Kojima
Game is something that makes a user's experiences abundant
In order to make the user's experience abundant
it has to be different and new from the existing experiences
the interesting things has to be delivered
The most needed part of this deliverance is creativity
Then what is creativity within a game?
That's what we need to know
As I mentioned earlier
creativity can be emerged in many areas
But we need to first think about the most basic things
Game is about creating experience
If an existing experience is created
that won't make the user's experience more abundant
So thinking about creating new experience
and actually creating the experience is the role of a game designer
This creativity is in the creation of experience
This creativity makes the development be more than just a game
but also as a social and artistic way of expressing
That's the role it plays
Creativity has more meaning than simply pursuing something new
Creativity, through the game
makes the player think and feel in ways they haven't experience before
Thus new world, new rules, new abilities
and they're living in a new society with these things
That's what makes the player's experience more abundant
When the creativity is properly manifested
the potential power of the game is maximized
It provides curiosity, fun, problem awareness
and social awareness to the players
When these are properly delivered
the game has successful results
and if these are developed consistently
the game will last for a long time
Creativity needs to be manifested in many experiences
in order for the game to have life
Think about this thoroughly
before designing a game
In the actual game production
we'll check the elements that needs creativity
In order for you to choose your direction more easily
we'll talk about it together
For every designer, the ways they make ideas
and ways they think creatively are all different
Some people take a random thought
and think about it for a long time
Some people many divide up the categories
do research and analysis on each category
use the combining method talked about earlier
and form new creativity
Ultimately, for a game designer to manifest their own strengths
they need to find their own ways, that's the important part
First, the elements that needs to be thought about when starting this process
is what we will talk about
Game, as I said earlier
has many elements in the development process
To divide up the elements a little bit
the game mechanic may establish creativity
and storytelling may also establish creativity
And for storytelling and game mechanics
even if existing elements are used and improved a little bit
if the graphics and audio are special
Creative elements can be conveyed to users
Also, interactions between the user and the game
can also be implemented in new ways
And when users gather within a game
and work together or battle
or participate in a new challenge together
in these processes as well
new ways have to be continuously thought of and created
In these areas, creativity
can definitely be manifested
Role of a game planner and the testing step
Next, I will tell you about the role of a game planner
The role of a game planner, unlike the job that I talked about earlier
in the overall production process, each team
or the people in charge of the production
We'll talk about what kinds of things they need to work together with
It's not about just what system planning is
and what battle planning is, etc
It's about when the game planner actually jumps into practice as a game planner
In other words, when they play role as a game designer
They're actually in the center
to intervene and manage
If one only thinks about their literal tasks in production
they may not grasp well and be caught off guard
So by each category of work
we'll look into
what the game planner does in general
First, the game planner has to actively
participate in endless iteration
Iteration is related to the development methodology of Scrum
It means they need to perform endless tests and verifications
The game production team
keeps trying to go towards a different direction
from the targeted area
The game designer can check this in between
In order for their path to not stray off
the role of a game designer is to hold onto the goal
and the methodology for this is iteration
The categories for game production
are divided up in small parts
Each category is completed and verified continuously in a short time
Complete, verify, complete, verify
Modify if it's in the wrong direction
These processes have to be consistently carried out
If these are carried out in large terms
for months, as I have said earlier
It may head towards a different direction from the initial goal of the game designer
the results may stray off a lot
and correcting this requires additional months
Because of this situation
the game designer, during this overall process of game production
has to carry out a continuous iteration
That's what you should know
The part that a game planner collaborates the most
is actually the programming part
Programming, as I mentioned earlier, the game designer's game mechanics
Especially game mechanics, system, battle, settings
In order for these to be accurately manifested
they need to create the data and hand it over to the programmers
In the process of the game designer making and delivering this
they need to grasp the ways that the programming team prefers
they need to grasp the solutions that the programming team wants
The data that matches the solution needs to processed
All these things occur
Through the process of working and communicating with the programming team
carrying it out accurately and efficiently
and continuing their hard work, is what the game designer needs to do
Next, there are processes that the design team and the game designer needs to carry out
They communicate the most, verify, and even argue
During the argument, they need to convince and consolate
These processes occur
The area that this occurs the most is
the collaboration with the design team
The UI and UX may involve the most amount of arguments
UI and UX, as I mentioned earlier
the usability that the game designer accurately determined
and the needs of the users
these have to be drawn out themselves
and be handed over to the design team
in order for the design to accomplish the project's goal
If it's just told through words
or be handed over completely to the UI, UX team
Most designers pursue towards
ways that appears good
So in terms of usabilitly
experiences different from what they want to deliver to the players
may be formed
There's a high possibility
So when working with designers
the game designer creates a clear plan and hands it over to the UI, UX team
and whether it's properly implemented
as I continuously told you earlier
need to be verified through iterations
That's what you should know
Next, they need to continuously work together with the sound team as well
This is actually very closely related to
the storytelling part mentioned earlier
So the settings that have to be delivered in the game overall
checking if the set sounds are properly implemented
and confirming it in the final step
These are things that no one does, other than the game designer
So the game designer, in terms of the tone and experience that the game wants to deliver
and the environment that the user needs to go through
they need to grasp this completely
The background music that suits each environment
The effects that fit each usability
In order for these to be implemented, they need to continuously check
verify, and iterate
Actually, a very important step is testing
As I told you earlier
the majority of the processes of production are tests
To produce conveniently
if the production itself was to be convenient
we may say, let's just test it out at the very end of production
and test for a few weeks
But if it's carried out this way
the game may not have bugs
but the possibility that the game may accomplish the initial vision of the game designer
is almost zero
In the process of game production
the game designer, with all the teams
need to perform continuous iteration towards the goal
and test it out in order to create a game that accomplishes the goal
Using the results from continuous testing towards the goal
a final, overall test needs to be performed
Then a stable game that provides the wanted service
will be created
Next is the last section
I'll tell you about the importance of the testing step and quality management
As I told everyone
a game designer is the person who is responsible for the beginning and end of a game
The beginning of the game corresponds to idea creation
and the end of a game corresponds to the test
As I mentioned in the role process before
if the test isn't performed properly
it's difficult to create a game with the wanted goal and vision
If this happens
wishing for the success of the game
is like wishing for luck
Then for the test
let's look into it step-by-step
Tests have 6 main steps
As I mentioned earlier, there's testing in the perspective of production
iteration is something separate that has to be done continuously
Apart from that, to tell you about the tests involved in the test schedule
Function test, UI test, performance test
compatibility test, beta test, stress test
These 6 categories of tests
are the essential ones
In this testing process, if the game designer
hands over the test to the tester
and only checks the results and whether there's a bug
If it's checked this way
the game cannot reach the goal
The categories for testing have to be listed to match the goals
and whether the listed test results satisfy the goals
needs to be checked, and if they don't satisfy
they need to tell the production team so they can modify it
They need to continuously be involved in communication in the middle
for the game to go through successful processes
and reach the goal
The function test tests the play elements of the game
in other words, the elements that implement the game mechanisms
The UI test tests out whether the usability is properly implemented
based on the play patterns of users
This may go beyond the test team
Recruiting users for the test may also be a good method
Going beyond whether the basic functions are well-implemented
and considering the platform that we're targeting
we need to test out if these functions work well in those platforms
It's especially important for mobile devices
whether it works properly for each different device
whether it works for each version
all these tests are needed
And generally, when this game is played by users
whether there are no problems
testing whether there are no problems in service
is what beta test does, and when more users than we expect
participate in the game and play
whether there are no problems in the game's status
testing this stress
is also essential
The important thing here is, if there's a problem at any test step
in order to modify it
the production or design team touches the game
If they modify the game, it will definitely affect not only that part
but also parts as well
Recurrence test
or testing out from the beginning again, needs to be performed
in order to check that there are no problems in the test results
If this is not done, there's a high possibility of problems arising
so when you perform tests or readings
it's essential to think about the importance of this recurrence test
and perform the tests
Last, we'll learn about the importance of quality management
and wrap up the lecture
A famous game designer, Miyamoto Shigeru, said this
Delayed game can become a good game eventually
but a bad game is just a bad game
That's what he said
What these words mean is
understanding the importance of quality
As I told you earlier
when you make the game
the test processes for checking the initial goal
or the final 6 types of test processes
if these are not done properly
and the wanted results are not well-established
making modifications during the testing processes
may take up a long time
But if these processes are not carried out properly
as Miyamoto Shigeru said
the game will be just boring
The game will never work out according to the goal
Quality management ultimately determines the success of the game
The testing process has to be thoroughly carried out
iteration has to be performed continuously
And finally performing the essential testing processes
at the end
will eventually lead the game to success
As I told you in the beginning
a game is creating the user's experience
and delivering the experience as wanted
cannot be simply checked through
bugs or functions
Whether the picture that the game designer wanted
is properly implemented
is something that only the game designer knows
The game designer has to endlessly iterate
and check whether they're properly implemented
in order for the quality to be well-made
In the process of designing games
there are many hard parts
There are also many difficulties in the actual work
That's the reason why
a game designer plays an important role
The person who can perform the difficult tasks
can become a game designer
Rather than just pretending to be a game designer
you will become an actual game designer
That's what you should know
The most difficult part is quality management
Continuous quality management is very important
as something you should know once again
I'll end the lecture here
Importance of game planning and major steps Game designer Performs core roles in all areas, the creation, production, tests, and management Need to solve various dilemmas in the role-performing process
Major steps of game planning Idea creation, concept determination, prototype production, business collaboration, test, update planning Tasks of a game designer and creative design strategies Tasks of a game designer
Storytelling, game mechanic design, UX UI planning, test Manages the entire team through the Scrum method Creative game design strategy Game mechanics, storytelling, visual and audio design, interaction
Role of a game planner and the testing step Role of a game planner Provides the programming data, design management, and sound concept setting, leading the test Performs important roles in all processes of game production
6 steps of testing Function, UI, performance, compatibility, beta, stress tests After all modifications, a recurrence test has to be performed