It’s too often that I see a developer look at a game and say: “I could have made that”. Every time, I make the point of replying: “Why haven’t you?”. Playing a game and acknowledging the development experience is very different to actually building a game from the ground up. It’s a creative process in which the developer must recognise and manipulate exactly what sparks enjoyment in the human psyche. I intend to do things a little differently in my project. As opposed to creating a game to answer a question, I intend to research a particular paradigm of game development by creating a game and documenting the process. I have recently been working on articulating and refining what is for me the most constructive and fail safe approach to game design; Experience Driven Game design.

Essentially, Experience Driven Game Design is a game design paradigm that encourages developers to fully consider, research and ultimately design the game around the type of enjoyment end product will imbue in the user. This is as opposed to designing a game based on mechanics. This methodology also helps the game to develop into a holistic experience as opposed to a collection of mechanics. I’ve written an article which summarizes this approach, which can be found here. I should also note that this is by no means a revolutionary design paradigm, I have done some preliminary research which would suggest that it is often used, even if it is not necessarily recognized.

In this course, I intend to further research this topic in a number of ways. Firstly, I intend to research what knowledge already exists on the paradigm within the field of game design. In addition, I intent to look into goal driven models of development in other entertainment mediums, such as films. Lastly, I intend to develop a very simple game using this methodology, which focuses on a single user experience. To do this, I plan to research, deconstruct and document a number of games which have a similar central experience, and apply my findings in my own game.

I’ll ultimately develop a game, but more importantly a report which documents the Game Design process, and also records what I have learned on the subject.