Source metadata
- Type: Textbook
- Author: Jeremy Gibson Bond
- Date: 2014 (3rd ed.)
- Publisher: Pearson / Addison-Wesley
- Chapters read: 1 (game definition), 2 (analysis frameworks), 3–4 (Layered Tetrad), 7 (acting like a designer), 8 (design goals), 9 (paper prototyping), 10 (game testing), 11 (math and balance), 12 (guiding the player)
- Used in courses at: USC, Michigan State University; designed for university game design programmes
Key takeaways
- The Layered Tetrad is Bond’s major theoretical synthesis. It extends Schell’s Elemental Tetrad with three layers (Inscribed, Dynamic and Cultural), and each layer has a different owner: the developer, then developer and player together, then the player community.
- Bond’s definition of an interactive experience reaches further than “game”: “any experience created by a designer; inscribed into rules, media, or technology; and decoded by people through play.”
- Iterative design runs in four phases (Analysis, Design, Implementation, Testing) and then loops. Bond quotes Chris Swain: “Game design is 1% inspiration and 99% iteration.”
- Design goals fall into two groups. Designer-centric goals are fortune, fame, expression and the greater good. Player-centric goals are fun, flow, empowerment and meaningful decisions. Both are valid, but a designer has to keep them separate.
- Bond draws on Burgun for fun, which must be enjoyable, engaging and fulfilling. He also uses Caillois’ four play types: agon (competitive), alea (chance), ilinx (vertiginous) and mimicry (make-believe or simulation).
- The lusory attitude (from Suits) is the willingness to follow rules for the joy of winning by means of those rules. Cheaters and spoilsports both reject it, in different ways.
- Bond adds two refinements to flow. Flow lasting beyond 15–20 minutes is exhausting, and players need time at the “powerful/awesome” border between flow and boredom to notice their own skill growth. He cites God of War (2005) as a game that designs for this well.
- Paper prototyping is fast to start and fast to iterate. It has a low technical barrier, it is collaborative and it keeps the team focused. The chapter also covers interface prototyping with low-fidelity paper wireframes.
- Playtesters come in four expanding circles: you, then trusted friends (tissue playtesters), then acquaintances and others, then the internet. Each circle tests something different.
- A tissue playtester is an industry term for a naïve playtester who can only be used once. They are especially useful for testing tutorials, first levels, difficulty progression and emotional impact.
- Bond separates the investigator, who runs the test, from the playtester, who takes part in it.
- Formal testing needs a script covering what to say, how to react, the environment, survey questions and note-taking guidelines. Informal testing is more flexible.
- Player guidance can be direct (instructions, a call to action, a map or GPS, pop-ups) or indirect (constraints, goals, interface, visual design, colour, audio, sequencing). This extends Schell’s idea of “indirect control”.
- Positive feedback hands the early leader an advantage, as in poker and Monopoly, and ends games faster. Negative feedback helps the losing player, as with Mario Kart item boxes. It makes games last longer and keeps hope alive.
- Bond reproduces Fullerton’s three groups of elements. Formal elements are the player interaction pattern, objective, rules, procedures, resources, boundaries and outcome. Dramatic elements are premise, character and story. Dynamic elements are emergence and emergent narrative.
Notable claims / quotes
“Game design is 1% inspiration and 99% iteration.” — Chris Swain (quoted by Bond, Ch. 7)
“Any experience created by a designer; inscribed into rules, media, or technology; and decoded by people through play.” — Bond’s definition of an interactive experience (Ch. 2)
Lusory attitude: “the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles” + the willingness to follow the rules as the means to winning. Cheaters win by violating rules; spoilsports reject the game entirely. Neither has the lusory attitude. (Ch. 8, after Suits)
Paper prototype benefit: “no programming knowledge is required to prototype a game” — enables designers, artists, and writers to prototype independently. (Ch. 9)
Relevance
Of the first four textbooks ingested into the wiki, Bond’s is the most practice-oriented. Schell supplies theoretical depth and a design philosophy. Bond supplies a structured process, a working vocabulary and frameworks tested in the classroom. His most original theoretical contribution is the Layered Tetrad.
The book feeds these pages most directly:
- playtesting: the circles model, tissue playtesters, the investigator and playtester roles and formal testing procedures
- prototyping: the benefits and tools of paper prototyping, and the four-phase iterative design model
- flow: the 15–20 minute exhaustion limit, the “powerful/awesome” border and the God of War example
- game-definition: the interactive experience definition, and Suits, Caillois and Burgun as Bond presents them
- foundational-vocabulary: lusory attitude, agon/alea/ilinx/mimicry, tissue playtester and iterative design
- game-balance: positive and negative feedback in depth
- player-guidance: a synthesis of direct and indirect guidance
- layered-tetrad: Bond’s core theoretical contribution
Open questions raised
- Bond’s “interactive experience” definition is deliberately broader than “game”. Does that breadth help or obscure? What falls inside it that we would not normally call a game?
- The Layered Tetrad’s Cultural layer (speedrunning, fan fiction, conventions) sits outside the designer’s control. Can a designer design towards it, or only for it?
- Each tissue playtester can only be used once for a given feature. How do studios manage that limited supply across a multi-year project?