Introduction to Game Design Syllabus - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 95

new flexible designs are letting video games fit into the lives of players.
Video games are being reinvented, and so is our image of those who play the
games. This is the moment when we realize that everybody can be a video
game player. �

Casual games are not only simpler to play, but they are also far simpler and less
expensive to produce. In the early days of computer games, the games came on
floppy disks stuck in sandwich bags we called

actually a registered
trademark of the Pactiv Corporation, but applied indiscriminately to all
computer game packages. They were created by tiny teams of developers that
ranged from a handful down to one.

“ baggies, �

Thanks to the iPhone and Facebook, games are again being built by teams as
small as one. A graduate student of mine at Indiana University, Jenna Hoffstein,
built an iPhone game, Castaway Jelly , with the GameSalad game builder from
Gendai. She did everything, except the music.

Theory and Design
So the first reason I taught both the theory and design was that I wanted to learn
why the researchers were so focused on AAA titles meant for hard-core gamers.
And I also wanted to bridge the gap between those of us who made the games
and those who studied the end products of our labors. One question I still have
not had adequately answered is this: Instead of theorizing about the developer

' s

intent while designing a game, why not ask the developer?

I have never been asked why so many AAA game designs favor bullets over
diplomacy. In spite of the elaborate theories about violent cultures and the
bloodthirsty boys who have grown up to make bloodthirsty games, the answer is
much simpler. Players of AAA titles demand instant feedback. Hit a button on
the controller. The bullet immediately blasts the zombie

s head to jelly. Instant
feedback. Try to talk the terrorist out of killing civilians? Well, we still haven

'

t
figured that one out in the real world. All we know is there is no instant
feedback.

'

Players of casual games, on the other hand, much to the surprise of many game
designers, will docilely wait hours, even days, for the result of a key press. To
grow a cantaloupe, you can

'

t just shoot the ground.