Innovation Methods in Story-Driven Games: Genre Variation
Name
Innovation methods.pdf
Size
3.52 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
07194684d84156be1114dcbda9fca38e
Author(s)
Fernandez-Vara, Clara
Date Issued
July 2010
Journal
Proceedings of the 2010 Design Research Society (DRS) Design & Complexity Conference
Publisher
Design Research Society
Citation
Fernandez-Vara, Clara. "Innovation Methods in Story-Driven Games: Genre Variation." 2010 Design Research Society (DRS) Design & Complexity Conference (July 2010).
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
The paper proposes a method for game design innovation in story-driven games, as exemplified by the development of the adventure game prototype Rosemary. This method selects a game model in which a specific variation is introduced. Developing a game where the interface, interaction design, rules, goals, and themes are all new can be overwhelming for the user as well as the developers, so using a pre-existing model can ground the development and help evaluate the success of the innovation introduced.
The design method proposed is called Genre Variation. This methodology relies on a particular story-driven game model as the foundation to introduce new mechanics. After selecting the model, the next step is identifying a design problem that has not been tackled before. Then the variation is implemented as a game prototype and evaluated, following the principles of iterative design. In this case study, the problem was designing the mechanics of memory, and how to turn remembering into a core mechanic of the game. This method is intended at facilitating game development within the limited resources of academia.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Terms of Use
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DOI of Published Version
http://www.designresearchsociety.org/joomla/proceedings/138-drs-2010-conf.html
