A Tool for Evaluating, Adapting and Extending Game Progression Planning for Diverse Game Genres - Entertainment Computing-ICEC 2014 - page 58

A Tool for Evaluating, Adapting and Extending Game
Progression Planning for Diverse Game Genres

Katharine Neil 1,2 , Denise de Vries 2 , and Stéphane Natkin 1

1 CEDRIC-CNAM, Paris, France
[e-mail], [e-mail]
2 Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
[e-mail]

Abstract. Game progression design is a demanding, data-intensive design ac-
tivity that is typically performed by game designers without even basic compu-
tational support. To address this, a concept for tool-supported “progression
planning” has been proposed and implemented by Butler, Smith, Liu & Popovic
for the design of their educational puzzle game Refraction . Refraction is a game
that has relatively undemanding progression design needs. Further tool devel-
opment and practice-based evaluation is needed to establish whether - and if so,
how - a generic, tool-supported progression design process can address the di-
verse range of often complex progression design challenges that game designers
find themselves engaging with. In this paper we describe how we used three
game design case studies in contrasting game genres to inform the development
of a tool that adapts and extends the progression planning approach.

Keywords: game design, progression planning, design tools.

1 Introduction

Designing game progression, commonly understood as a structure consisting of serial-
ly introduced unique challenges [1], can be a demanding task for a game designer. To
design a game's progression is to design the way that game is experienced by the
player over time; the way gameplay elements are introduced is largely responsible for
its aesthetics of pacing, challenge and variety.
Currently computational support is not used for this task, despite the increasing
importance and sophistication of progression within game design. In response to the
need for tools to aid progression design thinking, Butler, Smith, Liu & Popovic have
proposed a general architecture for “progression planning” tools which they have
implemented within their level authoring tool for their educational game Refraction
[2]. As a demonstration of this concept, the Refraction tool ably hints at its potential.
However, its strength as a tool to help solve challenging progression design problems
remains largely untested; as Butler et al acknowledge, Refraction game's genre and
scope as a puzzle game with modest progression design needs limits its applicability
to other games.