Sid Meier's Interesting Decisions

Description

In this 2012 GDC session, Firaxis Games’ Sid Meier examines what types and categories of decisions are inherently interesting in the process of game design.

Register for GDC: http://ubm.io/2gk5KTU

Join the GDC mailing list: http://www.gdconf.com/subscribe

Follow GDC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_GDC

GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every day. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.

My Notes

• 00:46: “A game is a series of interesting decisions.” - Sid Meier, GDC 1989
  • 01:33: a series of: this speaks to the pacing of the game (fast/slow)
  • 02:01: interesting decisions:
    • It’s probably easier to find what is not and interesting decision.
      • Example: If player always chooses A, then that’s not very interesting. Either you should give the player a reason to not choose A, or you should just automatically choose A for the player and move on.
• ❓: 03:06: Really? Are all games a series of interesting decisions?
  • This isn’t necessarily a philosophy that applies to every game, but it is certainly useful for most games.
• 03:46: How do we use this idea of interesting decisions?
  • this is one way to find the fun.

Characteristics of Interesting Decisions

07:10:

• Tradeoffs
• Situational: The decision is highly dependent upon your current situation.
  • Might be a good decision in one situation, but a bad decision in another situation
• Personal: tied to the player’s gaming style
  • cautious vs. aggressive vs. stealthy
• Persistence: How long the decision affects the game play
  • long-term vs. short term
    • long-term decisions should inform the player of the ramifications beforehand.

Types of decisions

11:36:

• Risk vs. reward
• short term vs. long term
  • 15:06: One of the strengths of Civ is that you always want just one more turn. This happens because there are short/medium/long-term goals. At any given moment there are unresolved goals that make you want to continue.
• play style, personality
  • e.g. turtle/cozy vs. rush
• 17:49: Customization, Self-Expression, Aesthetics
  • e.g. In Civ you can name your cities. This doesn’t affect gameplay other than aesthetics.
    • But it’s still valuable to the gaming experience because it allows the player to feel emotionally invested in the game play.

Information

• 18:37: Setting the scene: Think about what info does the player have before making the decision?
  • it’s dangerous to assume the player knows the same things as the designer.
• 21:03: There is a learning curve to your game.
  • As the player gains more skill/experience, there is a difference to the amount and kind of info that they need
• 21:45: Use genre conventions to your advantage.
  • Players know some of how your game works already because they have experience with other games in the same genre.
    • So by following the genre conventions, there is less that the player needs to learn because they already learned it.
    • But then add more. Don’t just follow the conventions or that will feel boring.
    • Reinforce the genre conventions. Let your mechanics follow the player’s expectations.
      • You can break some of these conventions, but make sure your player knows that this part is different.

Giving Feedback to the Player

• 25:06: What information/feedback results from the player making that decision?

Getting Feedback From the Players

• 28:38 You should be getting a feedback loop
  • constant iteration of your design, playtesting, etc.
• Listening to the different kinds of players:
  • 30:14: Mr. Kick-Butt:
    • likes a challenge
    • If they won the game, they like it. If they lost, then they hate it.
  • 31:34: Ms. Genre:
    • Loves a specific genre. Dislikes any deviations from that genre.
  • 32:32: Mr. MinMax:
    • Is looking for the optimal game strategy.
  • 33:27: Ms. Paranoid:
    • Is convinced that the computer is always cheating against them.

Transcript