Games never exist in isolation, talk about the structure that influences game design

introduction

Each art has its own "structure".

For example, static arts such as fine arts and sculpture have "three-point composition, central composition, and diagonal composition", narrative arts such as films and novels have "linear, looping layers, circular structures, and fragmentary structures", and music has "one-piece, sonata, variational" and so on.

Because the vast majority of people have the same brain structure, the emotional stimuli that allow the brain to release various neurotransmitters are also the same.

The essence of art is emotion.

Therefore, art follows certain laws to stimulate the brain to secrete various neurotransmitters, thereby triggering emotions, and "structure" is one of the main laws.

Engineering is also similar, architecture, mechanical equipment, program code, human body, all have their own structure, these areas of learning will definitely talk about structure.

No matter how complex things are, they are nested between structures and organically combined to complete complex functions and solve complex problems.

Virtually all concrete, abstract things have their own structures: architecture, language, feelings, society, morality, and so on, and even matter is a way of constituting energy.

"Structure determines nature, nature determines use" is the basic concept of high school chemistry, but I think it is too absolute, and it is not the case, so I changed it to "structure affects nature, nature affects use".

For example, the "composition" of static art produces properties such as perspective, focus, and guiding lines, such as "horizontal line composition", which determines that the audience must first look at the protruding object, then look at the "horizontal line" that divides the line of sight, and then cross the "horizontal line" to look at the other side.

This picture is a typical example, this composition is suitable for shooting long-range pictures, and its use is affected. The structure of literature and music should be better understood, not an example.

So the question is: what is the structure of the game? The game has no entities, nor is it simply text or images.

So I'm going to start with the elements that influence game design.

Elements are divided into two levels, one is macroscopic, the entire game industry as a whole to see the structure of the game industry, in order to explain the relationship between the relevant elements of the game industry and the impact on game design; one is microscopic, the game itself as a whole, to figure out the relationship between the design elements, to explain the role of each element and how to form a design structure around the emotions.

There is a strong causal relationship between the former as a whole and the latter as a part, and together they determine why the game is in its present state, and as the elements change, the state of the game changes accordingly.

Incorporating the dimension of "change", the structure becomes a system, but at present I have not understood the specific impact of the changes of various elements on the game design, so let's just talk about the structure.

In fact, the most macroscopic level is to see the whole society as a whole, but the topic is too big to answer, and it is temporarily abandoned.

Let's start with the macro game structure.

Macro game structure

Structure is the nature of the elements and the way they are organized. The physical world is reflected in the shape and material, and the game, as an abstract virtual product, has no entity, so it cannot be understood as a round, square shape.

It is only by finding the constituent elements of the game industry, how they are organized together around the essence of games, and how the entire process of operation generates and transfers value.

We find the elements of the game and then organize them.

Macro game elements

The structure of any industry is changing with the development of the times, and it can be said that it is the result of the game of various elements in the whole world, promoting and restricting each other.

The macro elements that affect games can be divided into several categories: game development, players, markets, technology, economy, culture, and policy.

These elements promote and constrain each other, forming an ever-changing system that together influence game design. In addition to policy, the more far-reaching the factors are, although at a certain point the impact may not be great.

It should be emphasized that in fact, far more than these elements, such as hot events and other artistic changes, will have an impact on game design. However, the above mentioned factors have accounted for a very high impact weight, and then pay attention to other details are too low cost-effective, temporarily give up.

Let's expand on these components.

Game development

The focus of this article is not to introduce the division of labor in the industry, but to simply divide the game industry into production and operation, which are combined into game development.

Whether the game is good or not depends mainly on the design level and technical level of the developer, there is no good design, there is no good design to do it, most of the time is a compromise between design and implementation difficulty.

After going online, the level of operation should be tested, and the poor operation of operational activities and community management will also affect the life of the game. Experienced developers will design the operation mode and community functions in advance, and have already planned how to operate in the development stage, so the operation can significantly affect the game design.

There are many types of game development, from the perspective of purpose, there are commercial games to make money, there are independent games to express themselves, and there is hope to take both.

Judging from the size of the game, there are large AAA games, medium-sized quality games, and small and beautiful casual games.

From the perspective of profit model, there are prop payment, time payment, advertising payment, and buyout payment.

From the perspective of game play types, there are SLGs, MMO, cards, wargames, open worlds and so on.

From the world, there are realistic wars, two-dimensional, medieval, etc., and the art styles are even more varied.

Because there are rich player needs, such a rich type of development can be produced. In order to compete for users, developers must constantly improve themselves and innovate continuously.

gamer

Society is a complex ecosystem, each person's position in the ecosystem is different, the impact of the period is different, so the three views, thinking and behavior habits, and emotional stimuli of each person are different.

The elements that make up a player can be divided into several aspects: thinking and behavior habits, game level, economic strength, ideology, environment, personal experience, gender.

These elements interact with each other, such as experience and the ideology of the environment in which they are affected.

Because people are the fusion of multiple dimensions, it is impossible to perfectly dismantle several completely independent dimensions according to the MECE principle, so that the definition of these elements can only be narrowed down so that they can be independent of each other, but this will inevitably cause some loss of precision, which can only be left for the time being.

In addition, some elements that do not have much influence on game design, such as academic qualifications and personality, are also abandoned to simplify the complexity of the structure.

Habits of thinking and behaving

The habits of most people are similar, because people live in society and there are very few people who behave very strangely.

But specific to a certain industry, a certain time, a certain event, the habits of different groups are very different.

For example, the peak number of online games is generally at noon and evening, the spending power of primary and secondary school students during the New Year period becomes stronger, players are willing to pay more for the value than the appearance, players will lose because of a little unhappiness, and the average daily online time is about 2 to 3 hours (sub-games).

There are many large and small groups, individual behavior habits, we do the game must follow the habits of the player, against the sky will inevitably do half the work.

Behind these habits are various cultural, social systems, psychological factors, master these reasons in order to do targeted design, poke in the emotional points of this part of the user.

Most of the details of the design are aimed at the player's thinking and behavior, so it is difficult to make a detailed design without understanding the player's thinking and behavior habits - that is, we often say "understanding the player".

Game levels

That is, the player's learning ability, operation ability, etc. can make the game play more smoothly.

Although there are some players who are picky and playful, they are actually past the passing line, and there is no situation that they cannot learn, if they can't learn at all, they will definitely lose it a long time ago.

Most people's learning ability will not be particularly good, and excellent people are a minority everywhere. Therefore, the complexity and difficulty of the game must be based on the level of most target users.

Games are bound to go in the direction of easy learning and understanding, such as why warcraft 3 or StarCraft can't be as long as DOTA as competitive games.

Because of the same emotional value, DOTA is relatively easier. That's one reason I've included "lower cost" in my definition of video games.

If you want to make a more difficult and complex game, you have to trigger stronger emotions in the player, otherwise why would the player choose you.

Economic strength

Note that the "economy" under the player factor refers to the economic strength of a certain user group, not the economic situation of the whole society.

The economy is the foundation of the cultural industry, and you can never make a game that exceeds the ability of the target group to pay a lot.

At the same time, the game industry is also a fully competitive market, and it is impossible to set a price that exceeds the competitors too much, which is another angle of "lower cost" in the definition of games.

For example, at present, the highest quality character price of a card game is generally around 2,000 yuan, generally requiring 7 to 8 ontology, and the price is generally around 15,000, and it is difficult for you to set a more expensive price. Of course, there is no discount here, the monthly card party relies on waiting for time to be in the hand at about 50%, and the local tycoons will be more expensive.

Because supply is saturated, the market price is the result of a game of ability to pay and willingness, and it is difficult to raise this price significantly. The maximum paid per player over the past decade has been a downward trend, which can be seen in the previous article.

And from the perspective of macroeconomic development trends, the maximum value of single-user payment will inevitably decline in the future.

ideology

Some people only play realistic war games, some people only play console games, and some people don't play games at all, which is actually the influence of ideology.

Affected by various experiences and environments, people will form fixed prejudices, which are extremely difficult to change, for example, I don't like to play ball games.

Most people's habits and ideologies are difficult to change, so the types of games that can trigger their emotions are relatively fixed. For example, a considerable number of players around the age of 40 only play legendary games because they are very familiar with such games and find them very exciting.

For example, now young people have not experienced material scarcity, emphasizing the era of struggle and competition, material life is relatively rich, naturally do not feel how cool it is to release hatred and greed in the numerical PVP game.

Because as people get richer, the moral level is improving, on average, the post-80s are more moral than the post-70s, and the post-90s are more moral than the post-80s, that is, young people will be more inclined to cooperate rather than plunder.

Ideology is the result of the joint shaping of multi-dimensional influencing factors, and if you want to grasp the change of ideology, you must start from the causes of formation.

Ideology determines preferences, finds ideological trends, and makes it easier to make long-term games. Because once the ideology is formed, it lasts a long time.

The environment in which you are located

Players are obviously affected by the environment, I believe that everyone has had a similar experience, when going to school, everyone in the dormitory or class will play a certain game together, which can gather a lot of people.

In some dormitories, most people do not play games and focus on studying, and individual people who play games may also be affected from playing games.

When I was a child, I went to an Internet café, and everyone would play a certain blockbuster game with the trend. Now because the scale of Internet cafes is relatively large, the people who often go are not fixed, and this effect is much smaller.

The simpler the environment, the easier it is to unify, but with the development of the network, this simple environment is less and less, and the influence of the environment is also decreasing.

Therefore, you need to change your thinking and pay attention to the use scenarios and time of the game.

The audience for games that need to be online for a long time will certainly not be mobile gamers, nor will fragmented console gamers. There is no need to design games to play at parties, games to play during the New Year's Festival, and so on.

The region is a larger environment, but for the game, the impact of the region is not obvious, such as the difference between the players in the north and south of China does not affect the game design. There was a difference 10 years ago, but now that the difference is getting smaller and smaller, let's leave it alone.

In addition, talk about the difference between culture and region, for example, the difference between Americans and Chinese is culture rather than region, because if Americans are moved to China, they will not immediately form the habit of Chinese, which is cultural difference.

Personal experience

The human brain is malleable, and past stimuli have made the brain think that something is good, and will constantly seek similar stimuli, or even adapt to such stimuli.

For example, the sweet and salty party of tofu brain, the jujube dumpling and meat dumpling of zongzi, etc., are not how different there are in human races, or they have eaten it since childhood, and it is difficult to adapt to anything else after getting used to it.

Tastes can be cultivated, as can game genre preferences. For example, when I was a child, I liked to play CS and Diablo 2, and I have always been particularly fond of shooting and brushing equipment games.

A certain gameplay is widely spread and lasts for a long time, which is worth in-depth study, such as the early "DOTA", match-3 and so on.

Not only the gameplay, but also the theme, the familiar theme from childhood is more attractive. For example, "Genghis Khan" of the early Qilin game is said to be the name that appears most frequently in history textbooks.

Why the theme of the Three Kingdoms has been prosperous for a long time has benefited from the brainwashing rotation of the early TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In the early days, in order to grab the ratings, local TV stations would broadcast a TV series all day long, 6 to 8 episodes a day, and those who liked to watch could watch it all day. Of course, it is unlikely that there will be such an influential subject in the future, and the Internet has divided the crowd.

gender

The hormones produced by different sexes have qualitative differences in human behavior and thought, so gender must be a factor that must be considered when designing games.

Due to the physical level and socio-cultural differences, gender must have differences, so there are women to play, men to play.

For example, women are not sensitive to values, but are more sensitive to plot, feelings, and appearance, while men like "car gun ball" games, and are more sensitive to combat and values.

market

The market looks at the game from a business perspective, including several aspects: market size, competitors, channels.

Market size

Market size is the first consideration of commercial games, and no matter how small the scale is, no matter how hard you try, there is no future. If a game had only a thousand players at most, there would be no commercial projects to supply this "market."

The direction of innovation is based on the prediction of the future market size, and it is expected that in the future, a market player will become more or at least not significantly reduced, and innovation will be made in this direction. Of course, it is also possible to do a certain market because of the reduction of competition, but it does not make much sense, after all, the ceiling is the key.

For example, the scale of the secondary market is now very large, and it will not be reduced in recent years, and there will inevitably be many large and small companies doing this market. The horror game market is smaller, and less is invested in innovative projects.

The size of the market determines the cost that developers are willing to invest, a game that can earn billions, considering the input-output ratio after the success rate, developers will be willing to invest hundreds of millions.

The higher the input, the competition of peers will inevitably put forward higher innovation requirements, and the quality of output will naturally be higher, which is good for the development of the entire industry.

Originally wanted to take into account the "population" factor, but the total population will not change much in the next decade, although the elderly population will increase, but for the time being, it is considered that the game design of users who are adults will not have much impact, so let's not consider it.

competitor

Because no one can monopolize all players, the game industry will always be a highly competitive industry, although there will certainly be local barriers.

Because the market is large enough, $180 billion worldwide, it can accommodate a wide variety of products. The market size and competition make the development speed of the entire industry very fast, and the technology, art and design level of the game industry are developing rapidly.

Competition is mainly concentrated in several types: one is high-quality innovative games, often said AAA, console games, are this type, all aspects are very high.

One category is that one aspect is better, one of the art, gameplay, numerical values, narrative, etc. is good, and the other is just the norm.

One category is the follower, the earlier card game fire, a bunch of people to do the cards; SLG fire, a bunch of people to do SLG. AFK overseas for a year no one copied, the domestic fire a bunch of people to copy, enough to show the explosive effect on people's stimulation. This phenomenon will still exist in the future, and it is not a bad thing for the game industry.

One is a casual game, the quality is average, but the gameplay is very relaxed, and it is a type of game with a large number of users.

There is also a class of indie games, and there are a few games with a unique art style and unique gameplay that have a certain influence on the industry.

The user groups of these games are relatively independent, with few intersections, and even different types of manufacturers have few intersections, so each category has its own living space.

However, with the change of other macro elements, the competitive situation of some categories of games will change. For example, as the market is saturated, the success rate of follow-up games will decrease, resulting in fewer followers.

Speaking of platform-based online games, stand-alone games may have platforms close to monopoly, but I don't think online games will. Because online games are longer, the opportunity cost of choice is greater for players, and they will tend to follow the game rather than the platform.

So Roblox type of platform games will at least not be the future of online games, and the probability of success of latecomers is not large.

channel

Once the preference for channels greatly affected game design, but now the impact is slowly becoming smaller.

In the era when channels are king, as long as the quality is not outrageously poor, the channels will certainly make money if they are willing to push. Because it was a blue ocean at that time, the cost of buying volume was extremely low, and it was very easy to return the cost in half a month and a month.

Later, the Red Sea, the channel in order to improve the certainty, will look at the early income of the game, if not good, the follow-up basically will not give the amount, so many value games will try to pull up the income in the early stage, otherwise there is no follow-up amount.

Now that the product is king, good products are not short of channels, such as "Original God" and "Civilization Awakening" are examples.

But the channel will always have an impact, because it is difficult for game developers to publish beyond the channel.

Stand-alone games are currently very dependent on channels, but the influence of channels on the design of stand-alone games is very small, and it is not known whether there will be changes in the future, which can continue to be concerned.

economy

The economic base determines the superstructure, and the game is art and entertainment, which is the superstructure. The richer everyone is, the more willing they are to spend money on spiritual pursuits, whether it is the pursuit of art or entertainment.

Therefore, the economic growth rate and the Gini coefficient affect people's consumption habits, after all, making games is to make money, who spends money, how much money determines which side the developer will go.

The current environment is a decline in GDP growth, except for Africa, the global growth rate is not high, the result is that everyone's wealth increase rate and investment opportunities will become less.

Why did "Journey" and "Fantasy Journey to the West" have hundreds of millions of single-user payments in the early years? It was because it was too easy to make money in that era, and the effect of making money was very strong. People are optimistic about the future, this year to earn a hundred million, will certainly expect to make more in the future, naturally the current spending money is very casual.

It's not so easy to make money now, and it's hard to see any more players like that. If there are no more such players, will the game design idea also have to be changed?

At present, the state proposes "common prosperity", if successful, the spending power of ordinary people will be greatly improved, they will naturally pursue spiritual entertainment, and the consumption of games will become more.

So I've always thought that ARPU will grow faster than ARPPU, and at the moment that view is limited to mainland China.

culture

This element is more complex, it contains too much content, in order to simplify the structural model, I only consider a few aspects: long-term popular things, social ideology, knowledge of history, social culture.

Long-term popular things

Long-term refers to decades, and popular elements refer to things that are or have been popular for a long time. The decades of experience of people in a region are roughly close, and the impact of various events on people is relatively similar.

For example, for people in their 30s, Internet cafes are a very meaningful popular thing; people in their 60s will feel that food stamps have the taste of that era; post-95s may feel that the second dimension is the label of this era.

Most popular cultures have a life cycle, like the fading literary play and stamp collecting, and these cultural products decline because they do not have a matching practical or cultural value. It is estimated that many young people have never seen stamps, and naturally it is impossible to like them.

Will the cultural product of "antiques" decline in the future? I think this market will also be smaller and smaller. Because antiques are a cultural product, the value of cultural products mainly comes from identity, and antiques may not be valuable to young people.

These long-standing things can be used to design "events" in the game, or directly as a world view, so as to trigger the player's emotions and make the player more engaged.

For example, in the previous ARPG game to do pet system, there is a pet is a must have, that is, "panda". Thanks to the country's long-term publicity and education, the public's awareness of pandas is very strong, and pandas sell much better than lions and tigers.

Social ideology

Ideology is emotional and value-oriented, and although there is a reason, there is no fundamental logic.

For example, the class nobility, sexism, racial discrimination, etc. in feudal society are not entirely based on logic, but are determined by value orientation.

There are certain differences in ideology in different countries, such as Westerners pay attention to the "self", their own feelings are more important than others, and Asians care more about other people's opinions. This leads to a stronger sense of competition among Asians, who want to be better at everything than others, so numerical games make better incomes in Asia.

At present, one of the obvious ideologies in China is the rise of national consciousness, because the past decade has indeed developed very rapidly, and even in basic life has surpassed most of the old developed countries, and some major events have been very correct in national decision-making.

Foreign countries are more stupid in comparison, so they are no longer as attractive to contemporary young people as they were in the 70s and 1980s, and some political trade conflicts will cause resentment.

With the national consciousness and economic development, China will inevitably have all kinds of products that belong to its own culture, and only with products that can impress people can cultural output.

Even if you don't talk about output, this trend has a great impact on the preferences of domestic people, the national tide, cultural and creative concepts have been on fire for several years, the game also has several good products, the future will definitely have more.

In addition, I think "aesthetics" is also an ideology. Just like some people like blonde hair, some people like black long straight, some people like baroque, some people like Rococo, there is no absolute correctness, only preferences are different.

Knowledge of history

History will not change, but people's understanding of history can be changed, otherwise why change the history books.

There have been media surveys on the impact of Hollywood movies on the masses' perception of World War II. The result is that before the development of Hollywood films, everyone believed that the european countries that contributed the most to the resistance to Germany in World War II, and after years of Hollywood's "propaganda", the biggest contribution became the United States.

China's perception of historical figures is also inaccurate, especially some well-known TV dramas such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan" and other jokes about historical figures.

When doing design, it is best to verify some historical facts, otherwise it is easy to be spit by professionals and has an impact on word of mouth. If it is done very well in line with historical facts, it will have a certain spread effect after being affirmed by professionals.

This is also the reason why few teams dare to make games with a hardcore historical worldview. But on the other hand, if it can be done well, such a game will be very competitive.

Socio-cultural

Each ethnic group and region will form its own unique cultural customs for a long time, such as the West does not like 13, China does not like 4 and so on.

In the past, "Dota Legend", there was a prop called "urn", and as a result, it was complained about by a large number of players before the New Year, and the official changed the name.

Another example is the difference between coffee and tea culture. Coffee has performed very well in the Chinese market in recent years, but it was not more than 10 years ago, and many people felt that coffee was not suitable for China.

The reason for personal speculation is because of the influence of movies and American dramas on the white-collar class, so that white-collar workers subconsciously think that coffee is suitable for work and drinking. The tea culture is not to go to work to make tea house chat, or high-end tea ceremony is suitable for talking about big things, not suitable for usual drinking.

So culture can change slowly, and these changes do not necessarily directly affect the game design, but they will definitely have an impact over time.

Religious beliefs

Religious beliefs affect people's attitudes, preferences, behaviors, etc., and will be reflected in ideology.

For example, the people of Buddhist countries are more "Buddhist", do not argue or grab, and rational thinking is relatively less. Countries without strong beliefs are relatively utilitarian and do not tend to "lie flat".

Religion can lead to some things that cannot be touched, and the design should be considered where to distribute, otherwise it is easy to get into trouble.

technology

Technology not only changes the real world, technology also changes the virtual world.

The progress of science and technology in the past 20 years has brought about the rapid development of the game industry, of course, it can also be said that the rapid development of the game industry has brought about scientific and technological progress, and the two complement each other.

Engine technology, special effects software, drawing software, model software, and audio software have developed rapidly in the past 20 years, which can design and produce better products and improve efficiency.

The development of hardware has also enabled high-quality games to run, allowing games to create a more realistic experience and attracting players to pay more attention to the game than other forms of entertainment.

In the future, the emergence of various VR/AR and somatosensory devices can make people experience the fun of the game in an all-round way. However, I don't think somatosensory devices will be a big trend, after all, it is not humane to be able to lie down and play games.

There are also indirect effects of scientific and technological progress, such as the emergence of cars, then there will inevitably be cars in the game; artificial intelligence has emerged, and there must be similar designs in the game.

Technological progress will also affect people's thinking and habits, for example, now everyone thinks that "the other party will receive the news immediately" is taken for granted, but in the past, it was not, and the habits that used to take days to deliver the news no longer exist.

policy

Since 2016, the version number has been required for the game to go online, and since then the version number has affected the game. It affects not only the speed of distribution, but also the design, because a lot of content can't be done.

In fact, there are certain policy restrictions abroad, but the management is not strict, giving people the feeling that everything can be done, but in fact it is not.

This part is not deeply discussed.

The nature of the macro game

The reason why a game is a game must have its own unique nature, and the nature determines how the game can be used. I currently find several games of a nature that are not necessarily complete or correct and may be adjusted later.

Available to participate

The essential difference between games and other art forms is that they increase interaction, and the interaction between humans and machines and everyone makes the game dynamic. This dynamic change allows players to get feedback on their behavior and create a sense of engagement.

Other arts only have a sense of immersion or substitution, but because they cannot participate, they have no sense of participation.

Because of the "participatory" nature of the game, there are many experiences that are stronger than other entertainment and art, such as participating in a war, fighting with huge monsters, etc., which can be said to be the most important nature of the game.

Virtual environment

A definition of a game has been given before, but here's a tweak: the designer consciously designs a virtual environment that gets an unexpectedly good experience at a lower cost.

This is the definition given from the designer's point of view, the unique place here lies in the "virtual environment", the game is currently the only low-cost virtual complete worldview art form.

In addition, do not underestimate the "low cost", there are three explanations for low cost: low cost of player mastery, low cost of player payment, and low cost of developers.

Low enough cost is the key to gaming gaining an advantage from the various entertainment industries, and the development of the game industry to a certain extent will even impact other industries, such as cinemas, tourism, and amusement parks.

Games can do things that can't be done in the real world at a lower cost. At present, the figure of game engines has been seen in the film and animation industries, and some "digital twins" products are made through software similar to game engines.

The nature of "virtual" derives from the high degree of freedom, and designers can do various designs regardless of the limitations of reality.

More comprehensive sensory stimulation

The stimulation of the senses in games is more comprehensive than other arts.

The traditional eight major arts, as well as some strange art such as installation art and gastronomic art, can only stimulate a few senses.

The art form will develop to a higher dimension, a more comprehensive trigger for emotions. From one-dimensional to two-dimensional, from static to dynamic, to the current sense of engagement, the experience is becoming more and more comprehensive.

The game is one of the most stimulating to the senses, in addition to seeing and listening, the hands can also move.

At present, there are already "force feedback gloves" which can stimulate the sense of touch, Meta (formerly Facebook) has invented a force feedback glove that can truly restore the "feel".

This technology can be extended to the whole body touch, and then superimposed on the easier to achieve the sense of smell, the overall feeling will be closer to the real, which is bound to happen.

Coupled with the fact that the universal treadmill is already real, this all-round sensory stimulation may not be too far away.

That's why I've always thought that gaming could be the ultimate form of entertainment, with games already getting most of the sensory experience. Further can only directly stimulate the brain, that is not "entertainment" but "drugs", a hundred harms and no benefits.

As a digression, it is not a good thing that the virtual environment is too real, and some people will not be able to distinguish between reality and games, which will lead to cognitive dissonance and "strange" behavior.

These behaviors may shake the foundation of human evolution for tens of thousands of years, such as no longer looking for objects, losing the pursuit of ideals, losing the ability to withstand stress, and so on.

If most people are willing to live in the virtual world, it is actually a human disaster, and the "mother" has come true.

Software features

Thanks to advances in this element of technology, humans can design and make a variety of software, and video games are one of them.

This feature determines that it is easy to produce and iterate quickly, unlike movies, art, etc. that cannot be changed after completion, nor can new content be added quickly.

The software has a high degree of design freedom that allows the design of very large, complex structures, and GTA5 is said to have 48 square kilometers.

The software determines that it can be online and theoretically can interact with everyone at the same time.

Software means possibilities, and no one knows what kind of features will be available in the future.

There are rules and goals

There are goals before there are rules, so I put the rules and the goals together.

Games have goals, some games have unclear goals, and some are very clear.

Like Mine craft, the goal is very vague, requiring players to find their own goals; the goals of traditional games are clearer, how many levels to reach, what dungeons to open, what equipment to get, and what achievements to achieve.

Rules are the essence of game design, and using design to make players have fun in the process of reaching their goals is the embodiment of the designer's level. The so-called "game experience" is the comprehensive feeling of the process of reaching the goal.

Voluntary participation

At present, no one has the right to require players to play a certain game, and they all participate voluntarily.

Therefore, if you want to attract players to play and stay for a long time, you need to have goals and gameplay that interest players and can continue to be interested.

This characteristic determines that the game must satisfy people's desires, otherwise no one will voluntarily play. Similarly, this also determines the direction of competition is who can better satisfy the desires of the target user.

Further, in addition to setting goals that satisfy desires, designers must also make the rules easier for players to understand and accept. Therefore, the complexity of the game will not get higher and higher, and after reaching a certain level, it will not increase, and not many people are willing to do things that are more difficult than learning.

In addition, voluntary participation also determines that the player has accepted the game "setting" in advance, is mentally prepared, can accept most of the "reasonable" design, and will not be easily frustrated.

brief summary

Structure affects properties, and these characteristics are derived from the structure of the game.

For example, the sense of participation comes from the scientific and technological elements of the game, technology allows players to interact with the game; more comprehensive sensory stimulation also comes from science and technology, and the progress of science and technology makes various sensory devices a reality; the virtual environment comes from the literary, film and other artistic and cultural fields in social culture; voluntary participation comes from market competition, players can freely choose which game to play, and you have to make a game that suits the player's cultural and economic conditions.

Taken together, it can be determined that the only thing that meets these qualities is "video games", so these properties together determine what a "video game" is.

The value of macro games

Nature determines the use, but the game is not "used". The use is actually the value, the game must be around a certain fundamental value in order to exist for a long time, then through the value of the game to explain the use of the game.

Why do humans play games?

There are many sayings: you can learn through games, you can escape from reality, and so on, it may all be true. But I studied video games, and modern people play video games for only one general reason: games are more likely to trigger emotions.

Playing games can be relatively low cost to get pleasure, and now game design, technological development, visual effects, etc. are all for better stimulating people's senses and affecting people's emotions.

That's why I've always said that the essence of games is emotion, and even the essence of art is emotion.

Emotions are produced by various neurotransmitters such as dopamine, but I don't think that the essence of games is neurotransmitters, because games cannot directly secrete neurotransmitters. This can only be done by drugs, and games are not drugs.

The game should give players a rich emotional experience through superb design skills, rather than brainless pleasure.

Matter and spirit are the two eternal pursuits of human beings, and emotions are the main part of the spirit, as long as the brain structure does not change, the future technology does not stifle emotions, emotional needs will always exist. The emotional needs of modern society are far greater than the material needs, which is where the human demand for games lies, and it is also the value of games.

In addition, games also have a certain social value, just like real estate drives a series of industries, the development process of the game industry will also produce a series of cultural, scientific and technological, economic benefits.

Each game is the product of a comprehensive game of elements in a macroscopic structure, which is the optimal solution of all elements in a certain locality. The wider and more in line with the law, the better the economic benefits.

Understanding all the elements in the structure and how it works helps you see the big picture. The structure is static, the introduction of dynamic changes, the structure becomes a system, master the operation of the system, you can guide how to use the law to achieve local optimization.

The following is a simple, rough description of the system.

The run of the game value

The business model I understand is the way value is generated and delivered.

A good business model is to produce higher value and a more efficient way of value transmission, and institutional and technological progress can lead to better business models.

So the value of the macro game is what value each element creates and how it is transmitted in the structure.

The essence of the economy is still demand-driven, because people have demand, there will be supply. So the "anchor" of the game is the player, the player moves, we have to follow the move, can not keep up with the end.

The entire industry chain is to better provide emotional value for players, and exchange economic value from players.

Developers are the producers of emotional value, who trigger players' emotions by creating experiences, such as the emperor who has opened up the territory, the hunter who pursues excitement, the musician with invincible hand speed, the adventurer who explores the universe, and so on.

The game industry is still a sunrise industry, and it will become a necessity in the future like eating and sleeping. And it is difficult for a game to monopolize the market for a long time, so in theory every practitioner has a chance.

The demand of players has led to the emergence of new developers to occupy a market, and the change of technology and culture is easier for some products to occupy a larger market.

Technological changes such as host to end travel to page tour to mobile game to XR, cultural changes such as three countries, Western fantasy, two-dimensional, national tide, each time a switch of different scales will produce a number of companies, and finally survive a few large and medium-sized enterprises.

VR, which has been very popular lately, is a small trend. However, I expect the VR market to grow rapidly, but the ceiling will not be too high, and it will not be higher than that of PCs. Because the priority for people to buy equipment must be mobile phones, PCs, consoles or VR.

Technology, culture of the stable period is difficult for enterprises to emerge, this time is a red sea, a large number of homogeneous products, channels can be picked and picked, at this time the income of the channel will be better.

With the development of the game industry, the role of channels in market factors is weakening, because the competition of channels is now very fierce, and there are many channels for products that can reach users widely, and the dependence on channels is decreasing.

Speaking of peer competition in market factors, at present, players have been relatively mature, and there are fewer who have not played games, and they have become stock competition. Therefore, the impact of competition among peers is getting bigger, especially in the competition of high-quality games, where the winner wants to buy where to buy, and where the loser wants to bury.

The entire game industry is generated around how to better provide emotional value to players, but in the various elements of the game in business, after all, it takes a cost to generate value.

The changes in the entire industry are the same as the changes in the country and enterprises, and an element in the structure changes over time, affecting other elements and slowly passing on to the specific game design.

This change will produce a transfer of value, and it is easier for enterprises or individuals who can detect changes and seize trends to occupy a place in the industrial chain.

summary

The game structure I built simplifies many elements, so that you can focus on improving the mastery of the main contradictions, and there is already a high success rate in grasping the main contradictions, and there is no need to care about the elements with small impact.

The macro "game structure" affects game design from the outside, which helps us to see the impact of each macro element on the design and provides guidance at the level of design ideology. It is said that going with the flow and seeing the overall situation can find the "potential".

For example, large and medium-sized products are not easy to do, you can start from small parts. At present, peer competition has a great impact on success or failure, then you can find some less popular but always have demand for play, and then combine your own preferences and abilities to do innovation, almost can position a direction with a relatively high success rate.

Of course, no matter how correct the macro direction is, it will eventually fall to the micro design. Many people don't care about the macro, just want to focus on the product, there is no problem, after all, history is created by people.

The micro game structure is to regard the game design as a whole, find each design element, use each element to do innovation, and the essence of innovation is to arrange and combine it.

Although the essence of innovation is to arrange and combine, it also needs to conform to some laws and principles, and blind arrangement will certainly not be good innovation.

Microscopic game structure

I don't know if you have thought about these questions: Why do "game types" exist? Why are cards, SLGs, and MMO mature business models? Why do some games have to design a bunch of gameplay?

As long as you understand the structure of the game design, these questions will have answers.

As with the macro game structure, find the elements that make up the game design structure first, and then organize them around the essence of the game.

Microscopic gameplay elements

Only the basic elements of the design are considered here, and all designs can be completed through a combination of these basic elements.

Of course, it is not necessary to have these elements to be called a game, and some elements can also be absent.

rules

Rules are the core of a game, and the more complex the game, the more rules there are.

Rules are generally not responsible for triggering emotions directly, it is only responsible for limiting the player's "direction of action". For example, some card games can continue to upgrade after the breakthrough, the player will look for breakthrough props; limit the number of participants in the game, players will play games and so on.

Rules consist of three types, one is a system rule, one is a combat formula, and one is an environment rule. You don't need to have all three, but at least contain system rules.

System rules are everywhere, core gameplay, non-core gameplay, functional systems have system rules, it is to allow players to form and focus on the goal, focus on the flow, produce a sense of immersion. So the rules of the system are at the heart of the game.

Battle formulas affect the player's judgment of the value of attributes, drive players to accumulate attributes, or affect combat strategies, so it is also a rule.

Environmental rules include rules of the objective world such as physics, weather, terrain, etc., but you can also set a rule yourself. The rules of the MMO, open-world type game environment are relatively important, because many of the gameplay is designed through physical rules.

numeric value

It should be emphasized that not all numbers are numeric values, such as the number of rounds, countdowns and other basic settings, which belong to the rules.

Most games have numerical values, and numerical values have two functions, one is to make the player intuitively contrast, and generate emotional stimulation through comparison. For example, the equipment on the body is 10 attacks, and if you suddenly drop a 15 point, you will be happier.

Another role is to control and adjust the emotional rhythm, when the player triggers what events, how long to achieve what intensity, is directly or indirectly controlled by the value, in general, this is the main role.

narrative

The narrative is mainly text, but it can also be combined with animation to tell the story.

Since the game is a virtual world, the worldview becomes an important means of attracting players, and a good narrative can enhance immersion and is also an important means of establishing goals.

Narrative is about building a game worldview, as previously discussed in the article, and will not be repeated.

carrier

Refers to characters, cards, vehicles, equipment, and other things that players want to cultivate.

A carrier is a medium that establishes a sense of substitution, and without a carrier, the player cannot understand the meaning of accessing resources.

Of course, some simple games do not have, such games have no sense of substitution, and the level of emotional stimulation is weak. For example, some casual games, just fun, the excitement is not strong.

resource

Resources are designed for players to pursue and exchange. It can be currency, tokens, props, both in-house and out-of-office.

It is characterized by output and consumption, if not the consumption is actually the same as the logic of "hierarchy", it is used to control the rhythm, and should be classified into the numerical elements.

The essence of the role of resources is as a buffer for the numerical stage, such as 50 liters 51 takes 3 days, and dry play for 3 days is a painful and boring process. If you change to consume 100 resources, these 100 resources need to accumulate for 3 days, which is relatively smooth, because you can see that the progress is rising.

At this point, the resource becomes a short-term goal, which can give the player a clearer "sense of progress". And generally design some general resources, collection will not always lose, but also increase a little sense of growth.

However, in reality, players want to "cheat", so there are free games. Free-to-play games offer a means of "cheating" – spending money on progress, which is why free-to-play games exist.

The paid design of free games is the result of the game between players and developers in the macro elements, there is no right or wrong, and there is no value judgment.

vision

The visual here does not include the character drawing design and model design in the narrative, but refers to the visual stimuli that have nothing to do with the narrative but can be seen.

For example, the overall art style, UI art design, vibrating screen special effects, perspective, mirror movement, etc., the role of general visual elements is to prompt, suggest, and create an atmosphere.

A lot of times we mix visuals with narratives, but there's a difference. For example, a standing painting or animation contains both narrative and art style, which is more difficult to distinguish at this time.

We can understand that the design of the character drawing, such as costumes, expressions, tattoos, etc., is for narrative, but what kind of art style to express it is visual.

Animation is also similar, the character's micro-movements and dialogue are for narrative purposes, while the fight actions, shots, and special effects are visual.

hearing

Hearing is music and sound effects.

Playing at the right time has a relatively large impact on mood, especially with the story and scene well combined with the background music, "Final Fantasy 14" is a good example, and the soundtrack of "Diablo 3" is also very good.

But now playing mobile games will generally turn off the sound, even the best sound players do not listen, so the music of mobile games is difficult to develop, this situation may not change for a long time.

I'm not good at this part, so I won't talk about it more.

control

Control consists of two aspects, one is the mode of operation, and the other is the controllable object.

The way the player operates will affect the game experience, keyboard, joystick, gamepad have their own characteristics, most of the current mobile games are imitation of mouse and joystick, because there is no keyboard on the phone. After getting used to one of them, it is difficult to adapt to the other, like I am used to the key mouse, changing the handle is very unaccustomed.

These modes of operation greatly affect the game design, such as games that do not require complex operation on mobile phones; it is difficult to play shooter games with a controller, and it is impossible to experience the competitive experience of CSGO.

As for the controllable objects, it refers to the number, range, frequency, and rules of the objects that can be manipulated in the game design. Even for the same platform, different games have different operating content, which also has an impact on the game experience.

In the future, there may be other control methods, such as gestures, brain waves, etc., and the impact of operation on the game may be weakened.

Prompt information

For example, new feature unlocks, location guidance, pre-battle hint difficulty, interactive item glow, health prompt, and so on.

The role of information is to reduce the cost of finding the player, after all, spending time looking for something is not a fun process. Also indicate the player's current status to avoid sudden dangers that make the player unprepared.

Why is the prompt message considered a design element, and is it so important?

At first, I also felt as if the prompt information was not a design element and did not have a big effect. And it is actually a combination of rules and vision, independent as an element is not logical.

Later, after thinking about the games I had played, the prompt information seemed to run through the entire game, and it was all designed independently.

A variety of hints make the experience more coherent, and good hint design can enhance immersion. For example, a good beginner's guide allows players to understand the game without playing.

Various HUDs are designed to let the player understand the state, and the various UI rules are designed to be a hint in themselves, and the prompts before major events allow the player to start entering the flow.

Therefore, the prompt information has actually affected the overall experience of the game in various details, and it is easy to miss the important game experience if you do not think about it alone as an element.

The nature of micro games

Micro-level games must have macro-level nature, so I will not repeat it. But there will be more properties at the micro level that are not visible at the macro level.

It can be understood that the nature of the macro level is for the layman to see, and the nature of the micro level is what practitioners need to understand, and only with these properties can it be regarded as a "good game".

Again, I would like to emphasize that my body of knowledge is designed to design video games that operate for a long time, and these natures serve this goal, and it may not be suitable for all games.

Rhythm

Rhythm is all about influencing people's emotions.

If a painting has only one color, a song has only one syllable, and a movie has only one picture, the whole experience must be very boring and not worth appreciating.

The cycle of the human brain on different forms of emotional stimulation is different, so the time of most emotional products is not the same, but each has a close length, a movie is about 2 hours, a song is about 4 minutes, everyone is very tacit.

The formation of the game rhythm can be seen as the structure of each design element establishing an "immersion system" in the player's brain, that is, the player fully understands and immerses himself in the game.

The player inputs through behavior, the game changes according to the rules, and emotions are output in the brain through the "immersion system".

The process of outputting emotions is the rhythm, the rules are the structure, the structure is well set up, the player is easy to understand and accept, and the rhythm of the game is good.

To build an "immersion system" in the player's brain, it is necessary to let the player understand the rules of the entire game, so as to form a clear map, as long as the player is given a goal, the player will naturally find a way to achieve the goal.

The most influential on the long-term experience rhythm is the rule and the value, the rule is the path to the goal, the value is the rhythm planning of the process of reaching the goal, and the other elements are to assist the existence of these two elements.

There is a goal

The goal needs to be created by the designer, so it is not a design element, and if the design is not good, the player cannot find or approve of it.

This does not conflict with the "targeted" nature of the game at the macro level, just like frogs on the macro are all four legs, but individuals have six legs. In theory, games should have goals, but bad games may not.

Allowing players to form game goals has always been the focus of game design, after all, there is a goal to have flow, to have a sense of immersion, to trigger emotions.

The means of establishing goals are generally through narratives and rules, and system goals and numerical goals can be established separately. As mentioned in the previous article, I will not repeat it.

Strategic

Games are the only strategic category of all entertainment and art. Because strategy needs to be chosen, choice needs to be involved, and other categories do not have the nature of "participation". So I don't think a thing that can only be seen is a game, even if it's made with game software.

Because of the strategic nature of the game, we can use the strategic design to give players a richer emotional experience. After all, the excitement brought about by the strategy is not a substitute for other emotions, and many people just like the superiority of IQ.

There are several types of strategy, one is a fixed strategy, although a certain random range can be designed, but after playing for a long time, you can still know that it is a fixed routine. For example, cards and RPG games are basically like this.

A type of non-fixed, generally different strategies caused by games between people and people. If there is ai close to real people in the future, it may also replace the everyone game.

One is puzzle solving, this kind of special, is the designer and the player game, the use of some guidance, inducement, misleading means to make players make decisions, unlike the first two, the strategy path to solve the puzzle is usually very small, but this path is not easy to find.

The strategy of the game has also been discussed in previous articles and will not be repeated.

Freshness

It has been said before that the most important goal of long-term games is to constantly break down adaptability biases and keep players fresh. If there is no freshness, players will definitely lose. So one of the nature of games is constant freshness, and of course only good games can have it.

There used to be a logic that paid players were more likely to stay than unpaid players because they had sunk costs.

In the short term, this is indeed the case. But in the long run, players will not stay for a long time just because they have paid a lot, if the follow-up content is no longer interesting, it is difficult to stay every day, and the cost of silence will not be a reason to prevent players from losing.

At present, there are three kinds of underlying structures that can continue to provide freshness: one is platform-based, represented by Minecraft; one is a game that supports continuous iteration of content, represented by numerical cultivation games; and the other is a short and fast PVP game, represented by several PVP products of Supercell, various MOBAs, and CSGO.

The first only provides the underlying rules, which is very flat and therefore difficult to differentiate. The second is that all the elements are fully utilized, and the sense of immersion is the best, but it can only increase the depth and is not very friendly to new players. The third type has the lowest cost, but is extremely rule-oriented and requires the designer's ability to do so.

In addition to retaining, in order to add new also need freshness, in order to attract attention among many competitors, the difference is large enough than "good and average", which is empirically supported.

Methods of breaking down adaptive bias have also been written in previous articles and will not be repeated.

The value of micro games

As the macro game structure said before, the entire game industry is generated around emotional value, so game design, as the source of industrial value, must be to produce emotional value.

The elements of game design are integrated around the emotional nature of the game. I also built my body of knowledge to figure out how to better trigger emotions.

Structure is to combine the constituent elements in an organized manner to achieve the effect that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. If it doesn't produce greater value, then the structure is not well designed.

So I established a basic axiom: the value of the game lies in whether it can create unique emotional value; whether it can create stronger emotional value at the same cost; and whether players can more easily obtain the same emotional value.

Satisfying any one of them has its value, and the more it is satisfied, the greater the value.

Experiences are the means by which emotions are triggered, and all experiences are created to trigger emotions. The smallest unit of experience is emotion, experience is a continuous period of emotional fluctuations, and the quality of the work of art can even be measured by the intensity of emotional fluctuations.

Because of the macro nature of the game, which can stimulate multiple senses at the same time, the game can have more means to create an experience, immerse the player, and trigger a rich emotional change.

To add, don't simply understand "emotion" as resentment, tranquility, regret, forgetfulness, etc. are all emotions.

Yang Dechang has said that movies make people's lives longer by three times, and games extend "more realistic lifespans."

Using micro game elements, countless structures can be arranged and combined to create different types and intensities of experiences, and each element will change with the times, and each era has its own structure that suits itself.

The body of knowledge I want to study is the desire to find better structures, design unique experiences, and trigger stronger or richer emotions.

Now we can answer the first few questions, which are essentially structural problems.

Why do "game types" exist?

The type of game is a specific game structure, because a certain structure is more likely to trigger a certain emotion and attract players who like this kind of emotion. The large number of such players naturally forms a stable type of game.

Why are cards, SLGs, and MMO mature business models?

It's straightforward because players are willing to pay for the emotional value that this type of game provides, while other genres such as tower defense, text adventure, real-time strategy, etc. are not easy. Essentially, there are a limited variety of emotions that can trigger a player to pay, and these game genres happen to trigger these emotions.

This is also the most criticized place by players, because there are only a few types of game structures that can stimulate payment, and most commercial games can only do these kinds of things over and over again.

Why do so many games design a bunch of gameplay?

The answer is to switch between the game experience and trigger different emotions. The emotions triggered by a single game will inevitably be single in the long run and will be boring.

Switching between multiple gameplay, you can wait for the mood of a certain gameplay to fade before playing, you can keep the player fresh for a long time.

Those games that have been played for a lifetime, such as DOTA, are because the probability of emotional peak triggering is extremely low, the interval between the two times is long enough, and the first time when the second trigger has already declined, so it will not be bored.

Here's how the design elements work to generate emotional value.

How the design features work

Since the purpose of game design is to trigger emotions, and the means is to create an experience, each element must form a structure around how to create an experience that can trigger the player's emotions.

As mentioned earlier, the core of long-term experience is the rules and values, which is also the unique value of the game.

As mentioned earlier, for the player, the rules are paths, and the values are rhythms, so what is the player's goal?

There are two kinds of goals, one is the ultimate goal of the game, the system goal established through narrative or rules, such as unifying the world, saving the princess, etc., or self-explanatory, default potential goals, such as defeating opponents, solving puzzles, and so on.

The other is a numerical goal established through rules and values, which is an explicit stage goal, such as obtaining a certain card, equipment, and then cultivating them to what extent.

Rules, goals, and values form the core loop of the game, and the process of the three cycles forms an experience and triggers emotions.

Rules are the initial driving force, because it is necessary to make the player feel the fun of the game and immerse themselves in it to establish goals, things that are not interested in will certainly not be wanted, and numerical values are to make the process of reaching the goal feel rhythmic.

The remaining elements are to make the process more immersive, fun, and supportive.

To put it personally, most art can be seen as a collection of rhythms, paths, goals, and everything else is decoration.

For example, music is when (rhythm) what sound (rules) let the listener produce what emotions and finally form what experience (goals); painting is in what position (rhythm) what colors are put (rules) to make the audience produce what emotions and finally form what experience (goals); movies are when (rhythm) What bridges (rules) make the audience produce what emotions and finally form what experiences (goals).

Let's talk about other elements.

In addition to establishing the ultimate goal, the narrative can also make the process interesting, after all, a good plot is still quite attractive.

At the same time, narrative and rules together form the establishment of values for the carrier, and the player knows what it is in this worldview, and how I can obtain and cultivate it. This establishes short-term numerical goals, followed by numerical control of the rhythm of cultivation.

Resources are used to control the rhythm of cultivation, and of course, they can also be used to make players "cheat". Resources need rules and narratives to be packaged to enhance the sense of substitution, and it is not appropriate to call it an "experience book" directly, although it used to be very effective "direct".

The main purpose of vision is intuitive, then aesthetics. The player's operation in the game can be timely feedback through the screen, this feedback is not in reality, so the experience will be better, if it can still look good, it is naturally better. It's like every bad joke you tell has someone laugh and laughs a lot.

Hearing is a good way to set off the narrative atmosphere, which can greatly enhance the sense of immersion and emotional peaks.

In general, the game will be designed in operation in order to increase or decrease the cost of getting started, which is a hard threshold. Generally, the game will try to reduce the operating threshold as much as possible, so that the game retains better. The "Soul" system game deliberately increases the difficulty of operation, so that the player gets a strong sense of achievement, of course, failure is a strong sense of frustration.

The reason why the emotions triggered by the "soul" game are strong is because the difficulty is extremely high, and it requires full attention, the player will definitely enter the flow, and when the final victory will trigger strong emotions, the extremely high final value experience makes the player feel that the whole process is very cool, and he hopes to experience it again, and he enters the Skinner box state.

The prompt message is to reduce the boring search process under the premise of trying not to be dramatic.

The middle structure of the game design

As mentioned in a previous article, I broke down the game into several layers:

Starting with the core gameplay, it is the infrastructure that uses the elements of the micro game to be combined around the experience.

This is a tool for designing games, similar to the game engine is a tool for making games, which has not yet formed a game, but has begun to take shape, which can simplify and standardize the design process.

Of course, standardization here refers to having a relatively certain measurement standard, not the production of standard products.

This tool has three functions: First, the fine design, more accurate control of the game experience, can more accurately trigger emotions. The second is to provide judgment criteria, and games that have been established or completed can be used to judge the success rate. The third is to provide innovative methods.

This tool is also a system, combined with macro elements, the whole system can greatly improve the success rate and efficiency. And the system can iteratively evolve and continuously improve the accuracy rate.

There are two reasons why this tool can produce these effects, one is because of the correct way of disassembling, and it is dismantled in enough detail. The second is because it is supported by logic and examples, and logic has strong explanatory and predictive powers.

However, since the instance is not necessarily repeatable, you need to constantly look for the logic behind the instance to increase the success rate. Of course, the ultimate success is still impossible to be 100%, because a lot of subtle logic is currently unobservable, and there is the unpredictability determined by chaos theory.

Designing games in the future will definitely require such a systematic "tool".

In 10 years, I expect the complexity of the game to increase by one more level at most. Take the card game as an example, the card collection is one layer, the ascension star is the second layer, and adding another layer refers to the design of a separate cultivation game for each star in the ascending star. Of course, you can also add layers upwards.

In fact, this is already very complicated, it is difficult to appear like the highly realistic, complex game described in the movie and novel, playing a game is so complicated, why not learn?

Since the direction of the future game will not go to a high complexity, there are only two ways: First, the optimization of local elements, such as better art, more interesting gameplay, better rhythm of values, etc., but unfortunately there is no end to local optimization, and the income is getting lower and lower.

The second is structural innovation, that is, a better game structure, and category integration is one of them. This kind of innovation is difficult and requires a very deep understanding of the structure, but the benefits of success are also large.

Innovation must be able to disassemble, how to dismantle reflects the degree of understanding of the structure, the more correct the understanding, the higher the correct rate of disassembly.

After dismantling, it is necessary to arrange the combination, and what kind of structure is more appropriate to combine, which not only tests the understanding of the structure, but also tests the understanding of the essence.

Our common MECE is a structure, but it is very "flat", the complexity is very low, and the interpretation of the real world is not enough.

The currently more complex structure is a deep neural network (DNN):

It is closer to the way the human brain thinks, so it is the main path of the current development of artificial intelligence. Using this structure to explain the real world is very effective, so the knowledge architecture I created is also based on this.

That's why I layered the game design, which can be nearly independent of each layer, and finally integrated.

summary

Human progress has benefited from the constant invention of new tools that allow us to measure and control more precisely, turning what was previously considered metaphysical knowledge into learnable logic.

At first glance, unquantifiable things, such as weather, can now predict short-term changes relatively well; for example, navigation, which used to be only through compasses and stargazing, is now accurately navigated through positioning systems such as radar and satellites; once unknowable cells and particles are now common sense.

The reason why the game industry has not yet industrialized, in addition to the program, art is still exploring, planning in the design of the lack of sufficiently accurate "tools" is also one of the reasons.

At present, the industry does not have a good study of design principles, or only collects some psychological and economic theories to support local design. Not systematic, imperfect, and without overall goals, and without understanding the essence, the result is that learning is the same as not learning.

Each system that leads to the design may be supported by historical experience and scientific theories, but together it does not look like a thing, and the result is that it is "very reasonable to say, but not fun" (those who make games should have experienced it).

If you can build a system of knowledge just by stacking principles, then the hard disk should be the greatest wise man in the world.

Therefore, in addition to the ability to "store" the knowledge system, the establishment of the knowledge system also requires the abstract ability that the hard disk does not have, that is, the mastery of the essence and the system.

Without essence as an anchor, knowledge is a castle in the air; without a system, knowledge is a pile of scattered sand.

To understand the essence and system, it is necessary to grasp the philosophical layer of the cognitive system, that is, the colloquial "logic", "insight", "wisdom".

This is also the reason why I want to establish a cognitive system, I must see the broader "whole" to know the "part" I am in.