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    The Four Phases
    The Four Phases
    The Four Phases
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    The Four Phases

    By The Game Design Guru

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In the vein of books like Jesse Schell's "Book of Lenses" or Raph Koster's "Theory of Fun" comes a new title on the fascinating subject of Game Design. Follow along as the Guru takes you on a journey through the Four Phases of designing a Good Game: One with a well made Story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Game Design Guru
    Release dateMar 31, 2021
    The Four Phases
    Author

    The Game Design Guru

    The game design guru is, in this reality, just a guy who likes to program computers and watch people play games. He currently resides in NY with his always cute wife and two sometimes cute kids.

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      Book preview

      The Four Phases - The Game Design Guru

      The Game Design Guru

      The Four Phases

      A story first structure to open world game design

      First published by Lyfe.Games 2021

      Copyright © 2021 by The Game Design Guru

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

      First edition

      This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

      Find out more at reedsy.com

      Publisher Logo

      Contents

      Prologue: Do Games Dream of Story?

      Introduction

      Basic Training

      Practice Makes Perfect

      The Finishing Touch

      Epilogue: Are Video Games Art?

      Prologue: Do Games Dream of Story?

      All good stories start with a definition of terms. We begin ours by defining that nebulous term at the heart of our concerns: story. I could go into a long list of historical definitions and illustrious quotes trying to capture the essence of this hard to define concept, but the truth is rather simple. A story, like all things, is a line.

      What is a line? A line is simply defined as the connection between two points. When a story is told, it is just that, a connection between two points, the story-teller and the audience. Stories can cover any topic, but to be a story, you need just three simple things:

      Two Points.

      A Connection Between Them

      Let’s ignore the Connection for now, and focus on the points. In the context of a line, we differentiate one point from another by a factor of time, i.e. where the line starts and where the line ends. Thus, we could say we have:

      A Starting Point

      An Ending Point

      Let’s go back to that connection. This is often the hard part to define in a story, simply because it can take many different forms. While we can’t quite pin this Connection thing like we can with the Points, we can still say that it has some kind of form. In the case of a line, we might define it as a series of dots. In a story we might call it a sequence of events. Nonetheless, while this Connection thing can be a bit of a moving target, and can change depending upon the context it is being used in, we can say it has shape, that story has Structure.

      A Starting Point

      An Ending Point

      A Structure Between Them

      When we tell a story, we generally tell it in a specific fashion, from beginning to end. Between those two points, the beginning starting point and the final ending point, is that thing we typically truly call the Story, that journey that runs from the start of a tale and follows it to its natural conclusion. A Story has:

      A Beginning (A Starting Point)

      An Ending (Point)

      The Journey (Structure) Between Them

      A story is a line…

      If a story is a line, then it too must have Structure. Indeed it does, though that Structure can change and morph depending on the medium it is used in. Aristotle argued that most stories had a Three Act Structure, and he was not wrong, that is one form that a story structure can take. I would like for this to serve as your guide to another.

      Many have asked, "Do games need a story?". I would argue that this begs the question, as the truth is that not only do games need story, games are story. A game, like all things, is a line.

      How do we define a game? I could once again launch into the many previous attempts to pin down an accurate definition on just what makes a game a game, but I prefer to cut to the chase and give my own succinct definition:

      A game is an interaction between two or more parties governed by a set of rules.

      Let’s split that in half, starting with an interaction between two or more parties. That sounds like a line to me, one party on one side, another party on the other, with the interaction connecting them.

      Two Parties (Two Points)

      An Interaction (Structure) Between Them

      What does it mean to be governed by a set of rules? It’s the interaction that is being governed, and we can see that this is the key connection between the two parties. A set of rules defines the shape of the interaction, thus giving it Structure. Aristotle lived in a time before games became a mainstream story-telling medium. His particular Structure, that of the Three Acts, while still a completely valid option for those that choose to use it, could be viewed as a bit outdated when it comes to the medium of games. It ignores the key element that makes up the Structure of games, interaction. We need a new Structure for games, one specifically designed for the medium of interactive experiences by those who have actually grown up experiencing it. One such structure is the Four Phases.

      A game is a line.

      A story is a line.

      A game is a story.

      Stories are games.

      It’s really as simple as that.

      Introduction

      It’s hard to remember when it started, my passion for Game Design. Looking back, there have been three constants in my life… books, computers, and games. First, I was the kid who always had his nose buried in a book, regardless of where I was or who I was with. For Computers, I really just happened to be born at a time when they and the internet were just starting to really come into the mainstream. From an early age playing around with the ‘turtle’ in Logo, up to now programming websites and mobile apps

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