GGG at the 2012 NZGDA Conference
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On May 19, the New Zealand Game Developer's Association held their annual conference for local developers to meet each other and share their expertise. GGG was of course in attendance at the conference and gave several presentations. I linked a few that I could find here with the presentation abstract given in the spoiler tags.
Conference Program Jonathan Rogers: Designing for High Impact
Spoiler
Some of the most memorable moments we can
create in games are when decisions or events signifi cantly change the way the game is played. If we make sure our games have these impactful moments, players will be telling stories about them for years to come. In this talk I will cover strategies for adding impact to player decisions and go over common mistakes that designers make for content or balance reasons that kill high impact gameplay. Key Points: • Things you find and decisions you make should have big effects. • Don’t kill impact in the name of balance. Find another way. • Less is often more. Don’t sacrifice impact for more content. Thomas Middeldorp: Getting Started with Game Servers
Spoiler
Almost all modern games require servers, not just
online ones. You require a server for hosting online high scores/achievements, the games website/ forums, selling/distributing the game or content, or any number of other possibilities. Keeping your servers online is top priority, as downtime results in unhappy customers and lost revenue. There are several ways to help maximize uptime - Set up monitoring systems so you know when your servers aren’t happy, and why. Use server management tools so you can easily maintain multiple servers, or roll out new/replacement servers quickly. Employ good security practices to ensure your servers stay safe. I will discuss several tools and methods to help with each of the above. Key Points: • Almost all games require servers. • High uptime is vital for any server. • There are tools to monitor and manage servers, as well as management/security practices, that will help to ensure your servers stay online Eric Olofsson: Sometimes it is Just Fun to Hit Things with a Stick
Spoiler
This presentation covers strategies for creating
visceral and satisfying combat in an action game. I will go over the things that we learned while developing Path of Exile and cover approaches we plan to use to improve our combat even further. Key Points: • Animation - making hits feel good is all about the lead up to the hit • Sound - sound is very important for making a strong connection • Effects - blood and the aftermath of an attack Carl de Visser: Decision Structures in Tech/Skill Trees
Spoiler
When Hiro returns to the village, it has been
destroyed. His dying grandfather gives him a sword and a skill tree. This talk looks at the structure and design of skill (and technology) trees through one example. Key Points: • The forms of technology and skill trees that appear in various games • How to structure a tree to present real and meaningful choices Edwin Mcrae: Interactive Narrative
Spoiler
No Abstract.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find videos for some of the presentations. If you guys can find any others, I'll update this post. Chris' ultra super secret presentation that he unfortunately didn't give: Chris Wilson: How Variance Affects the Balance of Games
Spoiler
Many aspects of games involve random occurrences.
Although the magnitude and probability of these events can be averaged to an expected value, it’s easy to overlook the effect that their variance has on the game. In some cases, variance needs to be mitigated to ensure a consistent player experience. In others, players can become addicted to the infrequent rewards yielded by high-variance activities. Careful understanding of the consequences of these choices can allow a game designer a great degree of control over how players play and perceive their games. Key Points: • High variance can create unpredictable play experiences for players. • Lack of variance creates a situation where you’re unable to establish effective variable-ratio Skinner Boxes. • Different competing titles in the same genres can sometimes intentionally target different levels of variance to achieve their business goals. Forum Sheriff Last edited by tpapp157 on Jun 17, 2012, 5:41:06 PM
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Wow, I have so much more respect for Chris, for considering such a topic! I'm a statistician, and I love to see these kinds of discussions about games.
I'm not blind to the effects of variance. Some people love a consistent experience, and some just have to have that unpredictability. So, it makes sense for competing companies to use (and advertise) different levels of variance, so that the audience gets totally segmented and no customer gets pulled away from one company to another. This in turn, creates very little (income) variance for the companies themselves, which is awesome. As for myself, I love high variance games. That's why I used to be brutally addicted to MTG. I was always like, "I MUST KNOW WHAT THAT NEXT CARD I DRAW IS! HOLY CRAP, I NEVER EXPECTED THAT! BRGHISHDF!!" This is actually terrible for tourny play, as you want a consistent deck. I was more at home with casual games, AND DRAFTS, OMG YES. =P It's too bad he didn't get a chance to give that presentation, but if he ever does, I'd love to see it! =) IGN: Royal_Princess, Princess_of_Wraeclast, Vaal_Princess, Diamond_Princess Last edited by ac429 on Jun 17, 2012, 5:49:18 PM
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Thanks! You're the best.
Last edited by DeF46 on Jun 17, 2012, 6:52:15 PM
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Why didn't Chris give his presentation?
TehHammer is not a crime!
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" I believe that the conference was right around the time that patch 0.9.9 was deployed and the last stress test weekend was held. No doubt that kept him too busy. Forum Sheriff
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" We had six presentations scheduled from our staff (Jonathan, Erik, Thomas, Carl, Edwin and Me), and we were asked to remove one. I nominated mine. | |
" Interesting. Do you mean variance in general, like damage and drops? Or just with loot? | |
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It's pretty cool to see the insight that goes into developing the game and what things you guys are trying to make as well as avoid. Thanks for sharing these videos - I found them very interesting.
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" Loot has a lot to do with it. Instead of seeing gold all the time, now it's really exciting to get that orb of alchemy once in a while. It's far more exiting to see a gem cutter's prism. Seeing a transmute orb is not quite as interesting, but it does give that added, comparative value to the previous two. Furthermore, all the different types of mods on items really lends itself to... All the different feasible builds, and the different feasible tactics. Even amongst bow rangers, you'll see some people focus on elemental damage, some on poison, some on movement speed, some on defense (haha, okay not really defense). And, these aren't a small collection of strategies cooked up by GGG and encouraged to the players. The possibilities stem from the skill map's enormity (and originality), and thus more and more strategies are bound to appear. Some people like chaos inoculation. Some people like iron reflexes. Some people like blood magic. Any class could utilize these in some way or combination. Also, you can really combine and utilize the 3 stats (str/dex/int) to your heart's content. It's not like D3, where you are forced to have the same stats, every time you roll a barbarian or whatever (an example of low variance). You could totally (and pragmatically) get intelligence as a marauder, and enjoy your energy shields. This also leads to... You have a plethora of defenses to consider. You have damage reduction (including resistances), evasion, shield block, energy shield, movement speed. Each shield type has it's own family bonus (damage reflect, stun recovery, elemental resistance). There's also the variance in enemies. You have sluggish zombies, charging rhoas, skeleton archers (physical fast projectile) vs skeleton mages (slow elemental projectile), asshole water monsters who use cold snap, necromancers + minions, etc. It's not just the same monster every time, with a different skin on it's back. You also have a variety of mods for blue and yellow monsters. These are different scenarios, and it's interesting and exciting to come across so many different kinds of challenges (for some people). But, too many monster types can become overwhelming at some point. That point is different from person to person. D2 went one more step: variance in weapons. There were so many variables. Attack speed, range, area of effect. Spears just weren't gonna do as much damage as other 2 handed weapons, but holy crap did it have reach! Knives were the opposite; they just didn't have reach at all. Wands were just a joke in combat itself. You can go crossbows and generally have slow, powerful attacks, or go bows with quick, light attacks. Or, go with javelins, which (along with a different set of skills) didn't have the same damage, but did gave you a nifty (quick) melee attack. You can use a high damage 1-handed axe, OR you could use a lower damage axe that you can also throw! It wasn't just about DPS; Each weapon really had their own styles and considerations. This gave you so much to consider! But it also meant the devs don't have as much control over what the player might do. And for a lot of players, this can be overwhelming, as well. On the other side of the fence, some people are just more comfortable with just seeing swords that do 5 damage, and then the next one which does 6 damage, and then 7. One uniform style of armor, that goes from 3 'armor' to 4 'armor' to 5. I know I couldn't go back to the torchlight armor system after getting used to the PoE armor system. At least for me, it got kind of boring. This is actually something Johnathan Rogers's talk mentioned (the feeling of difference and impact between gear, not my boredom, lol). Maybe this is something Chris was going to touch upon. Or maybe I missed the mark entirely, lol. Sorry! TLDR; For me, it's basically: "Gee, I wonder if this build will work!" *It doesn't* "Gee, I wonder if this other build will work!" *It works moderately* "Gee, I wonder if this other build will work!" *It doesn't* "Gee, I wonder if this other build will work!" *It works well* "Gee, I wonder if this other build will work!" *It doesn't* etc, etc, etc... High variance in a game lets you do that. Low variance games run out of different builds (and outcomes, and scenarios) sooner. IGN: Royal_Princess, Princess_of_Wraeclast, Vaal_Princess, Diamond_Princess Last edited by ac429 on Jun 18, 2012, 6:31:56 AM
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" Is there a possibility to upload other presentations too? :> I'm really interested on all balance mechanics in such games :) |
