Week 5 - Lecture notes/ gameplay loop

Gameplay loop:

To describe the activities it has to fit with the game idea and the essential experience
Therefore the activities have to make sense in some way, it can't just be there simply because it looks cool.
To create the activities you must create a gameplay loop.
The gameplay loop is the heart of your gameplay experience.
Gameplay loop and gameplay experience are the same things
The gameplay loop ties the players motivation the risk the rewards the satisfaction of the reward they receive to an activity in the game
Make sure the activity that is going to be in the game is worthwhile because if it won't align with the player's motivation it would be useless.

For example Pac man core gameplay loop:

Eat fruits and avoid the ghost (eating the fruits is the activity but within that activity, there is a risk, and the risk is that you lose lives when you cross with a ghost)
Gain points (When eating the fruits you gain points, this is the reward)
Complicated levels ( As the player progresses through the game the levels become more complicated which gives the player many opportunities)
GOTO 1 ( This is the loop)

The reminder gameplay loop is Activity and risk → Reward → Opportunity
These are the meanings behind the gameplay loop.

Activity and risk:

Activity and risk are essentially one and the same, the player does an action in the game but that action has to align with the player's motivation and interest.

Also in the game, there are limitations to the action which aligns with the risk, e.g. in Red dead redemption 2 one of the activities you can do is rob someone (this is an activity) but that NPC can go the sheriff's office and alert the law on your whereabouts (risk)

When designing a loop it would be better if you ask yourself these questions:

'In this loop, what is my player doing that is meaningful for the game?'

'What is the in-game risk of doing that activity?'

Opportunity:

There would be times in a game where you have multiple attempts to use the same activity and risk in different situations e.g. in Red dead redemption 2 you can rob people on horseback, on the ground, or a train. The activity and risk have to be flexible and malleable so that there could be multiple opportunities.

When designing an opportunity here are some of the questions that you should ask yourself:

'How far should you go?'

'Will these opportunities add variance to the other loop elements?'

How can the gameplay loop be implemented in my game?

Mystery game

Though the features of the mystery idea are still in early development the basic concept of it is that you have to find hidden memories because you can't remember who you were before, the mystery is who were you before? and why you don't remember your memories?. So from this, we already have an activity that could be used in the game finding objects that could trigger memories (Activity) but with that activity, there has to be a risk, this could potentially link with my smell idea, one of the senses that I found that could trigger strong nostalgia is smell because scents are one of the only sensations to travel through the emotional and memory parts of the brain (I talk about this more in-depth in the nostalgic research). So potentially a risk could cross upon a scent that can trigger bad memories. Because the game is going revolve heavily around finding memories that would mean there would be quite a lot of levels (opportunity).

Gameplay loop for mystery idea:

Finding objects that could trigger memories, but could possibly trigger bad memories (activity and risk)

Narrative satisfaction (reward)

You'll find the memories in multiple levels ( Opportunity)

Narrative game

Similarly to the mystery idea, there is a mystery behind this idea as well, but this one is more about exploring the game world trying to find what happened to it. Though the idea is less refined than the mystery idea, I can still play with the gameplay loops with this one. If the player's motivation is trying to find what happened to the game world there would be quite a lot of exploring, so there are multiple scenarios that can happen with that:

Activity:

Finding objects
Exploring abandoned places
Learning the past via Pictures, audio e.g.

Risk:

Getting caught by the law
The abandoned places could be dangerous, e.g. full of traps
The past could be wrong

Reward:

Narrative satisfaction
Gaining points

Opportunities:

Multiple levels

Gameplay loop for a narrative idea:

Exploring abandoned places, but getting caught (Activity and risk)
Gaining points and narrative satisfaction (reward)
Multiple levels (opportunities)

Storyboard:

A storyboard can be a great way to show your mechanic ideas visually
Though having a strong background of fundamentals is important when creating a storyboard, the most important function of a storyboard is its purpose, what is the purpose behind this particular storyboard.
Here are some examples of bad concept art/ storyboard art:

This is concept art of a soldier, and that's about it for all I can see, the artwork doesn't show the personality of the soldier, it doesn't show what the soldier is capable of, so therefore despite the artwork looking very good it is a bad piece of concept art

This is an example of good concept art as it shows the character in different angles, so it shows the range of mobility that the character could process, but also the character design sheet shows the range of emotion of the character, therefore this is good concept art design.

Examples of the storyboard:

This is a storyboard of the film psycho, this is supposed to depict the infamous killing in the shower scene.

The first one in the left:

A lot of panels having a grain-like effect, which I think is supposed to show that the woman is showering.
Also, most of the panels show the woman's face, the panels show to focus on her eyes and her mouth, her eyes look very wide and her mouth is open which I think is suppose to show the woman screaming in fear as she is about to be murdered.
Also, the panels show the knife moving down at different speeds, this is to show the killer stabbing the woman to death

The second one on the right:

Similarly to the storyboard to the left, this one has similar grain like effects that are supposed to predict the shower, it also the woman's face.
But this storyboard shows the grain-like silhouette of the killer.

The task

The task was to get the gameplay loops that we created in the morning and then show the gameplay loops as a storyboard. This is my process

Mystery idea gameplay loop storyboard

1. Sketch