All right, welcome to the introduction to game development design. I am Purnima Sita Rahman. I have, I'm currently the director of design at uh Zynga. Uh I have about 15 years of experience in the gaming industry. Uh I have been a co-founder of two independent development studios.

I'm a women and games ambassador. I recently uh founded the Women and Games India community as well. Um I worked on Games like Farmer Two Country Escape by NFL VOP and how to train your brackets franchise a lot. I have been uh recently inducted as of last year, inducted into the women teams Hall of Fame. Uh I have also been the uh venture of the year runner up at the Women Tech Network last year and the special recognition, 2020 winner. Uh I have recently been awarded outstanding women in game development uh in India uh for the I A awards. Uh So, yeah, I mean, these accolades came through very recently and I'm super happy about it. Uh because I think we all definitely need validation to uh you know, get through for all the efforts we put through and this in a way encourages everyone else to also participate. Thanks, Ashley. Uh And about me, uh I'm a gamer. I started off as a wedding planner uh became a programmer. That was my academic uh engineering thing brought me into programming, which happened to be a game development studio. So that's where, you know, I realized this career that can be made out of it. Uh Largely been a game designer. Uh I've been an application designer, marketing consultant, uh like always a student, uh a producer, speaker curator, product manager, studio head and entrepreneur.

I think all of this, I think gaming and game design has always been a larger part of my life and will always be. And uh so why do games excite me? Right. So for me, I think uh video games are a source of entertainment, right? But I always wonder, like, can there be something more? I remember my time when I was playing this game called Zeus, which was about Greek mythology and I started getting intrigued about Greek mythology itself through games. Since then, I used to always wonder, can, can I do more than this, right? Like can games be that particular source where I can completely do something that's uh changes the course of things or changes that like brings about a change in thinking. Uh So I think it is possible uh while we may not be able to measure the impact, we can definitely bring about the questioning the change in people in their mindset on what is it that they are asking for? And we can also bring different diversity into like me being here. I may be privileged to something and I may not to other few things. But through games, I can bring these mediums across the board. And I have always compared game experiences like dreams and I've said this like in multiple sessions as well.

So for me, when I'm dreaming something and suppose by some uh weird way, we figure out a way that everyone can get the same dream that is in use into them. Even then I feel that some of us may have the same similar experience, but some of us even with the same set will experience it very differently. And that is very close to games. For me, I can create a game for a particular player type and even they will fluctuate and be very fluid between how they approach, what motivates them to play and all of that. Now, when it comes to what is the gate, right? And these are some of the industry definitions by some really great veterans. What comes to mind here for me is that there's always rules. Uh that's what we are going to focus on, right? Like in each of these definition, when we're talking about game as a system, game as a play, everywhere we are talking about rules that is something that comes across us, uh the common factor. So the first one is acting in accordance with rules. In the second one, it is defined by rules. And the third one, it is a game is a rule based system. So we know for a fact that the game has to exist, it's interactive.

It also has a set of rules and goals that we have to achieve for now the evolution of game, you know, right from simpler things that we used to play as small co uh you know, uh tic tac toes and all of that to all the way to A R and VR. Today, we are transcending the reach of games, right? We can now, uh I recently picked up a VR device and, and I can imagine how amazing that experience is playing something like you feel part of it games in essence, were interactive, but bringing in this dimension, it's becoming a whole lot more. Uh you know, it feels that experience is like, you know, multiply multiply. So all of this is great and it's technology is something that games adapt first. I have seen that often uh in my, in my course of my career, some new tech comes and games are usually something that takes it up and figures out a way to actually go about and uh you know, changing them and figuring them out. Now let's come to type of gamers. Uh This is my spectrum and I call it a broadminded spectrum, I think, irrespective of the game types in itself, right? Like let's let's ignore that for, for now.

Uh think about it this way, like of course, when I am talking about playing a dota uh versus accessing maybe a candy crush, there is a wide difference of entry level barrier that already exists, which is why we categorize them in terms of, you know, casual hardcore mid core as our game categories.

But say that barrier is done and you have come through. Then what happens? I have seen people who play Candy Crush at an expert level. Think about the game Tetris. There are world championship tournaments that run even today where people are professional Tetris player. And Tetris is one of the most casual games in the uh as we call it, right? And then I have actually played traditional RPGS just for the fun of it not to achieve something, not to necessarily do anything. Sometimes I may just want to know the story. Sometimes I would just want to explore the world and chill and not do anything. So I don't necessarily need to always beat the system, right? Hardcore players are someone who want to be professional at it, want to beat the system and then you have the casual spectrum who just want to enjoy whenever they get time. And then the Midco is, you know, we set us at some time to figure out and go through some of the games we like. So this is essentially my broadminded spectrum and I encourage people follow this because to judge anyone on why they play and what they play, we should encourage everyone to play whatever they want, whether it is a board game, it's a digital game.

It really doesn't matter the extent of the game, the scale of the game. None of it. Right. And everyone is a gamer, like companies make money off these people who don't even sometimes consider them as gamers, uh especially a lot of casual players uh who are there. Yes, Emma yes, you're on the casual side, but you're still a gamer and it's, it's great. It's why not. I mean, games are beautiful mediums to do that, right? And uh OK. Now let's talk about what is what? So let's talk about game and game design. Now game is basically, you know, we have talked about what is there is a play, there is a set of rules, the space where you are actually playing this and the goals, there are some objectives you need to face. The main thing that makes it different from any other medium is the participation component, the interactivity that a game brings it right. Now when it comes to game design, game design is one of the main things that you take to make and make it into a game. So there you're talking about imagination. No, you have this great idea that has come into your mind. Now you have to define it, you're going to figure out, OK? I need to extend it. I need to put it in place. I need to explore it, expand it. And then you're going to transmit it and the transmission can be.

In most cases, you have work with the team, you need to convey what this idea that you have defined is to the team, you have to reach it to them and you put it in a format that they understand and then you flow into the execution state. This is actually a loop, a game document also is never complete. Game design document is like a Bible of everything, but it is never really complete. Even in the largest game with like 400 pages of game design document, it is never complete. You may still be like about 70 to 80% accuracy of what this game designs are. Now. Let's go to a key part of a video game model. This is from Ernest Adams workshop. Uh And I think this is one of the best representation of what the key parts of video games are right at the core of it. It is very simple. You have the player and you have the core mechanics and then you have the gameplay board, everything just talks to each other in, in in both ways, right? So when a player is inputting something in the gameplay board, which is we have the interactive model, right? We we take that input and then we put an action and we check with the core mechanics, what should be the action we should use and then we portray the challenges back into the camera model or rather the space in which you are consuming this game.

And that outputs to the player, this is essentially your key parts of your video game, which is kind of very similar to how you're, you're watching Netflix, you're selecting something that is in response, showing you some options, you're picking one option and then you are consuming it except for the fact that here the consumption is not just passive, it's also interactive.

Now, um just a second. Yeah. Now let's come to game development life cycle. Uh If, if many of you are not from gaming and from software, you know, software development, life cycle, what exists and all of that and game development has largely followed processes from there. Uh In some cases, we have bolded it to fit into our requirements, but it is still based off a software. Now, in this case, we can come up with, you know, brainstorming concept and design, create the assets, create the setup, look and feel while the programmer is working on characters A I the physics, uh then the sound effects that brings it all together the U I that surfaces and then we build uh check for quality and then distribute.

And this again, all of this forms a loop, we can make it a hydrated fashion, especially when we have genres like free to play games, which is basically free for you to access. You don't have to pay upfront to it. In which case, this cycle is a constant thing, we call it as live, live operations. So where we can constantly update and make it better for the users to consume. Now, some of the game development roles that we have and I would also like to have like a small call out here. It's largely misunderstood that you need to be a gamer or like an like complete hardcore gamer and all of that to get into the gaming industry. It's not, there are some disciplines which require you to have good game understanding, that's for sure. Like game design, for instance, requires you to understand game design principles, have understanding of basic genres, economic design and level design and all of that, right?

But then there are other rules which it is not mandatory at all. Uh So we can, we can we have producers, we have uh we even have animators, artists, uh product managers who are not necessarily from the gaming domain. Of course, many of them come here and get converted into players. And when I say players, it's not necessary you have to think of hardcore titles and all of that any game anyone plays is good, right? And uh these are some of the areas where I feel people can come in without having any kind of gaming uh requirement or prerequisite doesn't exist. And that's a myth that uh people want to stay away from this industry. I feel like people should come in, especially women and marginalized gender should be coming in a whole lot more uh into this industry. Yes, it definitely needs to be way more diverse than it is. And unfortunately, it's a global problem. Uh And uh I think, you know, you know, organizations like this is where we are trying to reach out, raise that awareness and bring more people into this. Now, let's get into positive feedback. Lo uh this is an interesting component that comes into almost every game that we play. Uh think of it as you know, it's, it's a very simple thing.

You have an achievement which earns rewards and the reward grants you some sort of a power in the game and the power makes it easy for you to clear the next achievement. When I'm saying, achievement, rewards and power don't take it for the literal meaning. It's just like a placeholder. It could be any way. It's some kind of a positive effect that keeps wanting you to play the game over and over again right now. Then what does it do? So there are two components to it. One, there is compulsion, one, there is addiction. So compulsion essentially is your willingness to continue. So in this case, you're talking about say continuous regular challenges you can offer uh you can involve a very engaging storyline. Uh you achieve a flow state, right?

The flow state is between routine and burnout. You, you very nicely achieve that. And that's something you will know over practice experiments. And all of that and emotional connect is also a great way to allow people to continue. Then addiction is the willingness to return.

So you continue for a stretch and then you get out of the app for that day and what makes you want to come back and play it. Some of the things that help you continue will continue to be factors for addiction. But other than that also small intense doses of pleasure. I think that is a very key component. The pacing of how you would uh keep rewards or even challenges is super critical in here. And uh it's easy to obtain the pleasure fades with time. So you need to figure out how you balance all of this. So we need to provide novelty to get away from habit, habituation, right? So everything like after a point, we as humans get habituated to something and then we don't see the merit in doing this anymore, we get bored. So we move on to the next one. So instead you need to figure out how you can pace these things better for good addiction parameters. Now, when I talk about positive feedback loop, it's a great thing, right? Like you feel achieving uh it's amazing, you keep coming back to it, you keep growing stronger, bigger and all of that. But then again, falls into the same thing as now it's become a habit.

Now, even the slightest bit of reward or achievement doesn't give you that sort of essence anymore. So how do you control this positive feedback loop? Uh So at that point, you can also introduce something called the negative feedback loop. You can even limit the player's power, like, you know, you cannot enter this area without ex equipment that is limiting them. So they have to now procure that. Now they have a motive, they have some kind of goal they are chasing after. Uh So they will linger longer in the system. Uh Negative feedback essentially is something that's uh it's, it's the other way, what you have to do in negative feedback is for someone who is doing really well, you kind of penalize them for doing really well. Uh This one looks like very bad strategy. It actually works for the people who are behind you. So imagine a racing game, right? You are really good at it and you are just going up in the front and people are like lagging behind. Now, if I do not put something, we call the rubber banding where at some point, we will decrease the power of the person in the front or like increase the power of the person behind to give them a small window of opportunity to catch up. This adds for challenge while it may seem unfair in the long run, it actually helps both parties. How does it help? Because say if I'm really good at it, I keep playing it. I don't feel challenged, I'll get out of the game.

On the other hand, if I am someone who is not able to catch up, I keep trying, I never catch up. I'll also feel bad about it and I'll leave the system in the end. The game developer doesn't have either of the bad player or the good player, right? This is why as designers, we have to introduce something called the control or the negative feedback. Now, when we talk about game loops and uh positive feedback loops, right? So we have uh code loops uh in most games, especially for free to play games, we call something called code loop. They largely aligned to the positive feedback loop. That's why they work in essence to give you an example. Uh Farmville Two Country Escape. I I work on that project. So in that what happens is you are going to uh you know, uh you have some crops, you're harvesting them, you make recipes out of it, you sell their orders, you even trade them in different shops. You start earning P and coins that gives you new unlocks in terms of crafts and animals and then you continue this cycle. So basically, it is a repeated set of actions that you do over and over again. But the way you pace it, the way you bring in those levels, what unlocks when, how do you create those goals, rewards? And all of that is also critical to make sure people retain in that case on the concept of retention, right?

Why do people stay in the game? Uh So this is like a four nice thing that uh one of the other director of design at Zynga and I have put together one of the other talks we did. Uh So basically, they're having fun playing the game, right? And they are getting rewards that make it feel like they are improving, uh you know, in the game and mastering the game, right? So that, that flows into the growth and mastery aspect of it and mastering the game feels like new challenges that are coming can be tackled upon like you feel a little bit of a boost of confidence that's coming through and then it's a shared experience, this is social or community.

And when I talk about shared experience, it can be anything, right? It can be uh that is happening in the game. You can shout out and say like I did so well or helping someone in your co op any of that or even outside of the game, you are going to be like, I was so good at this particular run that I did in the dungeon and I come back and share that, right. So this file could be outside of the game will continue to add into the aspect of why you would stay in this particular game. Now coming to psychological tactics. So a lot of it, user types, player behavior, uh then player, uh you know, strategy, all of that player motivations, uh everything is very relevant for uh game design and game development. A lot of game designers actually do psychology as uh one of their majors uh to understand how to use psychological tactics to uh get people to retain more, to kind of create a behavior in that right now. Um Yeah, so we have endowment progress, which is basically, you know, you have invested some time into this and you're going to really enjoy uh progressing further, you've done so much effort. So why not go all the way, right?

NB and show off definitely, even in real life, it's the same scenario, motivation and endowment effect. So something I have a larger goal and it's really, I want that particular set. I want that particular ax, I want that particular sword, reciprocity and philanthropy. So someone sends you a gift, you feel, hey, that's nice. If they sent me a gift, uh maybe I'll also reciprocate the same way. Uh temptation, fear of missing out scarcity are also huge drivers and triggers for uh uh getting people to purchase something or engage with something loss. Aversion is another technique where you are instead of missing out. You are rather worried about uh losing something that you put effort into.

And then one of my favorites that I call it as the AD E effect, which the ad E rather ain and dopamine effect. So every time this falls in line with intense doses of pleasure, small intense doses of pleasure. And this is what drives gaming in essence, right? You're, you're focused on something you're just getting through it. And when you get it done, you have the dopamine brush that comes through, this creates that behavior and then once that hits, you are ready to like go back into it and start all over again. Now. Yes. Uh Quickly coming to uh MD A framework, I'll just uh given the interest of time, I will just quickly breeze through it. We are almost there. Uh the MD A framework. Uh So we, this is basically uh uh design framework that was put together by three researchers. Uh We talk about mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, which is associated with rule system and fun. Uh We will talk about aesthetics here uh because that is what motivates people to play. And you can fall in any of these spectrums, could be a mix of it or could be something that is a derivative of this. But largely this is like the guide uh that is exist and uh any kind of game that you play, go back and think about why do you play that? Game, it could be because of sensation. Something about that game appeals to you any of your senses.

Maybe it's a sound, maybe it's the visual. It doesn't matter. Then game as make believe for fantasy you want to explore playing as uh a dark lord, uh a dragon, uh a puppet, a goose, uh a king. Any of that works, right? The game as Make Bill is something that you are not, you can do use that fantasy into that narrative which is game as drama. We love storytelling. We were curious about what's gonna happen, how it will work. And all of that then challenge game as obstacle course like you're crossing one after the other and you feel that great rush coming through because you're going further and further. Then you have fellowship which is game as social framework. This can be cooperated, this can be competitive, this can be philanthropic. Any of that will come into fellowship. Discovery is game as uncharted territory or exploring. You want to find something that is something that's really curious about. You need to access something. You know, you have this amazing pressure map that you can find, you know how to craft a particular portion that is in the far end of the forest. Any of that works expression game as self discovery how I present myself in the game. It can be anything from character customization to uh customizing my farm, my garden, all of that works submission is game as pastime.

Now, in this case, it's like disengagement, you want to zone out, just wanna like give a hard day at work, you just wanna come chill for some time and you're happy in that zone, right? So these, these are some of your eight aesthetics on why you play a game now quickly just touching up on Gamification. What exactly is Gamification? Uh Gamification is where you use principles of games into a ser service, right? And largely why they do that, why has this been happening is because games can provide that level of push the ad that I keep talking about that can drive you can work towards a goal, you can help people attain that make them feel good about my reward, them some points leader, words, ranking and all of that and this motivates them to engage with that system a whole lot more, which is why Gamification is a huge uh deal now and even used in entertainment, right?

Uh We have seen a Khan Academy and all of that, but they are using this purpose and even teaching to students when when I realized that I could learn so much from games, uh which is, which are traditional games in fact. But imagine then we can easily spin it around. And one of my companies I work for in with the half train your Dragons franchise. We did that. We talked about scientific methods, how to use hypothesis and coming up with experimentation and we use games as a medium and people enjoyed that. Kids enjoyed that. Right? So these are some of the derivatives that, you know, uh oh I love that too. Uh Yes. So these are some of the derivatives that can happen and there's far more, there's health care, there's real estate, all of that. But yes, that brings us to the end. Uh I know we are a little over time but uh thank you so much. Uh And we can open for any questions right now. Happy to answer. Hey, thank you, Joshi. Yes, Monkey Island is awesome or thanks Michelle. Yes, Mario Kart. And the blue shell is like the classic example for negative feedback loop. Yes, Sim Farm. Yes, I haven't played Sim Tower.

This thank you. Thanks Michelle. All right. Uh Any of you would love to join me on stage then just let me know. Yes, definitely. Thanks, Ola. Thanks Amy. Yes, Emma II. I definitely agree with that. Even to teach diversity uh teach about different problems people are facing. I think games are wonderful, wonderful mediums. Thank you, everyone. I so see you God. All right. So I take it there's no questions. Uh Awesome. I, I think I got through in that case. Oh, thank you so much. All right. So you can reach me at um uh the email ID pim at Dro life.com. Uh And uh Dr Life is my website. I'm available on social media on Twitter, Insta wherever uh feel free to connect. Uh Happy to have you guys on board. Any time we can discuss games, we can discuss tech in general. Uh Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much for listening to me and you.