Source metadata
- Type: Lecture series (PPTX slides)
- Module: Game Design Theory and Practice
- Programme: BSc (Hons) Game Design & Development
- Location: private course teaching archive
- Lectures extracted: Weeks 1–9 (Wk 10–12 not present in folder)
- Activity docs also present: Week 1–2 activity worksheets (MashUp, Tic-Tac-Toe, Economy, Kickstarter, Physics, Progression, Social, Tactical), Wk4 Thematics, Mario example, Game Genre Choices, Tic-Tac-Toe Analysis
Module content plan
| Week | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Intro to Game Design: games vs. play, history, genres, gamification |
| 2 | MDA: Mechanics (Physics/Economy/Progression/Tactical/Social), Dynamics, Aesthetics |
| 3 | The Player Model & Interaction Loops: player model, LDARF loop, skill chain |
| 4 | Control, Agency, Presence, Immersion & Flow |
| 5 | Character, Level & World Design: archetypes, aesthetics, level structure, convexity, world building |
| 6 | Patterns, Puzzles, Chance & Uncertainty |
| 7 | The Vertical Slice |
| 8 | Ideation, Brainstorming, Tools, Documentation & Project Management |
| 9 | Psychology of Game Design: SDT, player rewards, retention, loss aversion, GOLF |
| 10 | Storytelling / Narrative + Hero’s Journey (slides not present) |
| 11 | Feedback Types (slides not present) |
| 12 | Progression (slides not present) |
Key takeaways
- The lectures’ player model describes a player driven to learn new skills of high perceived value, who takes pleasure in acquiring them. This turns Koster’s idea of fun as pattern-learning into a practical design model.
- The interaction loop (LDARF) runs Learn, Decide, Action, Rules, Feedback. It is treated as the atomic unit of gameplay. Skill chains link these loops into a directed graph of escalating mastery.
- Each skill sits in one of five states: Mastered, Partially Mastered, Active (grind), Unexercised or Burned Out. Each state carries its own diagnostic meaning for the designer.
- Control comes in three types: Direct (real time), Indirect (strategic or delayed) and Scripted (QTEs and branching).
- Agency has four dimensions in which players can feel that their actions count: Narrative, Mechanical, Social and Economic.
- Presence is kept distinct from immersion and splits three ways. Spatial presence is “I am in this world”, social presence is “I am interacting with other minds” and self presence is “I am this character”.
- Immersion is Tactical (moment to moment), Strategic (long term) or Narrative (engagement with the story world).
- The lectures link these ideas in a synergy chain, Control, Agency, Presence, Immersion and then Flow, in which each element reinforces the next.
- Convexity design describes a linear structure with non-linear content. The game starts narrow, with few choices, and widens as the player’s skill grows. It is a neat way of putting flow theory and level structure together.
- A vertical slice is a polished, representative portion of the final game. Teams use it to validate the design, judge resources and build stakeholder confidence. It is not a prototype.
- The documentation types covered are the HCD, Pitch Doc, GDD, Art Bible, Story Bible, Feature Spec and Technical Design Doc. Each has its own audience and purpose.
- Self-determination theory names three intrinsic needs (competence, autonomy and relatedness) behind engagement that lasts.
- The GOLF framework (Charles 2009) is a game-oriented learning framework built on game absorption techniques. Its elements are Fun, Identity, Social, Challenge, Feedback and Structure.
- Loss aversion and the sunk cost effect are presented as psychological mechanisms that games actively exploit to keep players returning.
Notable claims (direct or close paraphrase)
“The player is an entity that is driven, consciously or subconsciously, to learn new skills high in perceived value. They gain pleasure from successfully acquiring skills.” — course lecture series
“A convexity can be described as a linear structure with non-linear content. At the start of a game the player is provided with as little as one choice which consecutively leads to more meaningful choices.” — course lecture series
“A vertical slice is a portion of a game that demonstrates the key features, gameplay mechanics, visuals, and audio to provide a representative experience of the final product.” — course lecture series
“Grokking is delightful: to understand profoundly and intuitively. Gaining a tool to get you what you want is delightful. A piece of what we call fun is this moment of understanding.” — course lecture series (citing Koster)
Relevance
The lectures were the basis for several new game design concept pages and added to a number of existing ones. Two frameworks here are not covered by the textbook sources: the interaction loop and skill chain model (Wk3) and the Control/Agency/Presence/Immersion/Flow synergy model (Wk4). The vertical slice (Wk7) and documentation types (Wk8) fill gaps on the production side.
Links
Pages grounded by this source:
- interaction-loops: player model, LDARF loop, skill chain, skill status, skill failure
- presence-and-immersion: presence types, immersion types, control types, synergy model
- vertical-slice: definition, components, creation process, case studies
- patterns-puzzles-chance: spatial/temporal/behavioural patterns, puzzle types, chance, uncertainty
- game-design-documentation: document types, purposes, pipeline
- self-determination-theory: SDT, GOLF, loss aversion, player transformation
- game-definition: adds several game definitions
- player-agency: adds the 4 agency types and 3 control types
- level-design: adds convexity design and a taxonomy of level structures