Game Design Evolution
Journey of User Centered Game Design
Video games are something that are nowadays being played by all age groups in almost all regions of the earth. Whether its a kid just trying to while away their time or a commuter just trying not to get bored during the commute. Games are being used even in our daily lives just to increase the usage of the applications!
So, what is this concept of games that really grabs your attention? Aren’t video games just the same as playing outdoors? Realistically speaking yes, it is this thrill that is being induced. Taking a dive into this pool may shatter some of the assumptions made by many. So, I advise you to continue at your own risk.
Let’s start all the way from the beginning and I mean all the way. Remember the black and white pong game that was the go-to game? If not, look at the image. And for those that haven’t played the game the image is itself self-explanatory.
Pong was a game which was developed by Atari back in 1970 and was one of the first games and this was the building block leading to all the photorealistic games that we play today. Games like Pong used to be made by combining different hardware and there was no scope for story-telling or garnering to the user’s different needs.
Pong paved the way and started the gaming revolution. This game was developed for the Atari systems and there were issues and limitations with the hardware of that era. 64 MB of ram on a pc would make even the most patient of people lose their sanity. This gave way to the birth of ‘Arcade Games’.
After the success of Pong, there were various games which were developed with the hardware first approach like Speed Race, Gun Fight and Breakout.
Then enters the game played by one and all. The game that defined the history books of games and started using the design first principle and also the concept of ‘Game Design’.
Mario enters the markets in 1983, taking the gaming market, community and developers by a landslide. Mario was one of the first games where the plot, the designs and the colours were decided before development. The game had a proper User-Centred Design which was used throughout and made the experience that much better.
The mastermind behind this game and all the games which were to be released by Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto.
He brought the concept of ‘designing the game first’ and then putting it through the development cycle so as to improve the quality and immersiveness of the game.
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” — Picasso
Miyamoto broke all the norms of making the games with just the hardware in mind and designed his games accordingly. Mario has many natural user-centric designs etched into its DNA.
When you begin Mario you begin on the extreme left of the screen with the NPC(Non-Playable Character) entering the scene from the right. Since we see the massive expanse of the screen on the right we rapidly start moving towards that direction.
The question mark blocks glow and the question mark itself makes you wonder what it does when you are standing underneath it. Everyone ends up hitting the block from beneath because that’s the beauty of the level design. When you hit the first question mark you get introduced to the power-up mushroom and you are introduced to the concept of power-ups. Without a text box or instructions, you are taught the entire control scheme of the game.
These are all the controls that will be required throughout the game. The brilliance of this game design is what made the design-first approach practical and in this platformer era a gold mine.
After 36 years of rigorous advancement in technology and the systems incorporated by gaming companies, Mario evolved with technology. In 2017 Miyamoto released Super Mario Odyssey, which like its predecessor, revamped game design. Adding in new gameplay formulae and warping Mario into different universes to not only make the game feel innovative but also enthralling and encouraging the players to discover and enjoy.
But before I get into detail about this game lets see what transpired in these 36 years!
Blizzard capitalised the market with the innovative Warcraft during this period of time. Bill Roper and Patrick Wyatt were the masterminds behind Warcraft. It marked the inclusion of the mouse in the gaming industry. This gave rise to the clicker and strategy genre. Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Became a huge part of the gaming world. It has a huge fan-base out here in the east but not in the west.
This initiated economy management in the gaming genre. Gamers not only enjoyed the strategy which was essential to eliminate the enemies or command the army but had to manage their economy just like in any county.
Let me describe the basic game system. Initially, most of the main map and minimap are blacked out, but the visible area expands as the player’s units explore the map. The mini-map shows a summary of the whole territory, with green dots for the player’s buildings and units and red dots for enemy ones. The player can click in the main map or the minimap to scroll the main map around the territory.
All functions can be invoked by the mouse. Keys can also invoke the game setup, some of the menu options and some gameplay functions including scrolling and pausing the game. Players can select single units by clicking, and groups of up to four by shift-clicking or bandboxing(click the mouse and drag). To move units, players can shift the mouse to select units on the main map, move to the unit menu to select an action, and then back to the main map or minimap to specify the target area; shortcut keys can eliminate the middle mouse action in this cycle.
This management system and strategy outplay empowered the players with their own dynamic play styles and coherent decision making. The most innovative design aspect of this game is the use of isometric graphics to give the player a holistic view of their entire region and command their troops with quick reflexes.
Many games followed the RTS trend like Age of Empires, StarCraft, Rise of Nations and whatnot. The mouse also started being considered a tool for gaming and made its place in gaming controls. The mouse had become such a significant gaming tool that it's still being used now.
Various games made their impact and left the entire world stunned during this time. This was the rise of the 3d Games.
Games like final fantasy VII, Half-life and the Sims Showed us that there is a 3d world possible in this virtual world.
Rather than not doing justice to all the games mentioned, I’ll take a deep-dive into Half-Life.
Half-Life was one of the many games that took advantage of the advancement in technology to make the entire world a 3d world. The genre of games that were invented in this time was the FPS(first-person shooter).
But even in the world of FPS games, Half-Life held a creative team that thought outside the box. The people behind the game, Valve, brought puzzle-solving mechanics to a game that was only about shooting. Here puzzles ranged all the way from hacking and solving some intense circuit to simple physics puzzles. To the gamers of the current era, this all may seem mundane but the gamers of the Half-Life period couldn’t easily fathom that this would be possible. This opened a new way multiple genres were remixed to create truly unique games.
Half-Life in no ways lacked in the form of storytelling or graphics. The game progresses not as a power fantasy, but a survival story. Freeman (protagonist), weak and disorientated, must grab whatever he can to survive and the game’s first and most iconic weapon, a crowbar, symbolises your role as a worker rather than a soldier.
Half-Life wants you to know that other things are happening in the world. You’re not the space marine hero at the centre of events — this isn’t Doom — you’re trapped in a much wider nightmare. Throughout the game, you stray into scenes you can’t control: you see monsters grabbing scientists, you see guards fighting gigantic beasts. It’s a world where horror keeps unfolding beyond your control, giving you the sense of a real disaster.
Well, one can always go on and on about Half-Life but let's proceed to the next evolution, the biggest.
In my closing statements, I just want to highlight how design has affected video games and is always evolving. Mobile games are a completely different well which I didn’t want to tap into as it requires its own research and deep dive.
Anybody who wants to experience the evolution of games should play these games (other than the ones previously listed) :
- Bioshock Infinite
- Crysis
- Assassins Creed
- What Remains of Edith Finch.
