WEBVTT

00:00:00.070 --> 00:00:02.500
The following content is
provided under a Creative

00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:04.019
Commons license.

00:00:04.019 --> 00:00:06.360
Your support will help
MIT OpenCourseWare

00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:10.730
continue to offer high quality
educational resources for free.

00:00:10.730 --> 00:00:13.330
To make a donation or
view additional materials

00:00:13.330 --> 00:00:17.236
from hundreds of MIT courses,
visit MIT OpenCourseWare

00:00:17.236 --> 00:00:17.861
at ocw.mit.edu.

00:00:26.310 --> 00:00:28.812
PROFESSOR: So
before class today,

00:00:28.812 --> 00:00:30.770
you should have turned
in your vision statement

00:00:30.770 --> 00:00:33.280
and your product backlogs.

00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:37.660
Wednesday, you should be turning
in a copy of the sprint task

00:00:37.660 --> 00:00:40.270
list, and you should
have a prototype

00:00:40.270 --> 00:00:43.607
ready for testing in class.

00:00:43.607 --> 00:00:45.190
Remember that while
we're offering you

00:00:45.190 --> 00:00:47.540
one in-class testing
session for this project,

00:00:47.540 --> 00:00:52.230
you need to do at least one more
testing session out of class

00:00:52.230 --> 00:00:55.404
for the two focus tests that
are required for project three.

00:00:55.404 --> 00:00:57.320
And when we look over
your focus test reports,

00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:00.240
we're not going to be
impressed with focus tests that

00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.030
were done so late you clearly
couldn't respond to them.

00:01:03.030 --> 00:01:05.030
So the project is due Wednesday.

00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:06.470
Don't do a focus
test on Tuesday,

00:01:06.470 --> 00:01:09.220
because we know you couldn't do
anything with that information.

00:01:09.220 --> 00:01:12.005
So sort of plan out when you
need a focus test accordingly.

00:01:14.570 --> 00:01:17.320
So today is class,
we're going to open

00:01:17.320 --> 00:01:19.030
with just a very
quick two minute

00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:23.005
presentation from
each of the groups.

00:01:23.005 --> 00:01:24.880
Since you've turned in
your product backlogs,

00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:27.171
and hopefully you have
finalized your vision statement,

00:01:27.171 --> 00:01:29.670
you can come and tell us,
what is the goal of the game

00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:33.290
you're now going to make and
what its major features are.

00:01:33.290 --> 00:01:35.630
That's all you need
to do for that.

00:01:35.630 --> 00:01:39.230
Then we'll have a fairly brief
project management check-in.

00:01:39.230 --> 00:01:41.022
We'll sit down,
I'll stand up here,

00:01:41.022 --> 00:01:42.730
and we'll just do a
little bit of talking

00:01:42.730 --> 00:01:45.840
about what is your team
doing for project management.

00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:47.200
Is it working?

00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:50.150
Should you change something?

00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:53.730
Then Philip will be giving
the usability lecture.

00:01:53.730 --> 00:01:55.500
And after that,
we'll take a break.

00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:58.850
If anybody has something that
they would like play-tested,

00:01:58.850 --> 00:02:01.200
after the break, we'll come
back and have an opportunity

00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:04.010
for some play-testing
and working

00:02:04.010 --> 00:02:05.690
on your projects in class.

00:02:05.690 --> 00:02:09.120
If you don't have something
to play test, that's OK.

00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:12.490
This is sort of a hey, if you
actually had your act together,

00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:14.380
get a little extra
play-testing in.

00:02:14.380 --> 00:02:16.540
Wednesday's the day you
have to have something

00:02:16.540 --> 00:02:19.720
that can be play-tested.

00:02:19.720 --> 00:02:22.590
Any questions?

00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:23.710
All right, then.

00:02:23.710 --> 00:02:26.860
Let's move on to presentations.

00:02:29.380 --> 00:02:30.470
Actually up there?

00:02:30.470 --> 00:02:30.510
Yay.

00:02:30.510 --> 00:02:31.010
It is.

00:02:33.700 --> 00:02:37.600
First up we have
Hardcore Dragon.

00:02:37.600 --> 00:02:40.380
PRESENTER 1: OK, so I'm on
the team for Hardcore Dragon.

00:02:40.380 --> 00:02:43.980
We've changed from Dragon's
Lair to Hardcore Dragon.

00:02:43.980 --> 00:02:46.475
And the point of the
change in the name

00:02:46.475 --> 00:02:50.211
is to reflect the slight change
in the direction of the game.

00:02:50.211 --> 00:02:52.460
One of the new elements we've
added as a win condition

00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:55.830
is collecting an entire
set of hardcore armor

00:02:55.830 --> 00:02:59.010
to be the hardcore-est
dragon in the land.

00:02:59.010 --> 00:03:01.950
And so we're intending
on adding a little bit

00:03:01.950 --> 00:03:03.620
of a cheeky, funny,
dialogue flair

00:03:03.620 --> 00:03:05.495
to the game to make it
a little less serious.

00:03:08.110 --> 00:03:10.170
Outside of that, the
main concept of our game

00:03:10.170 --> 00:03:13.200
is that you're a dragon,
and you have a horde of gold

00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:15.780
that you are protecting
and also trying to grow.

00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:19.660
So the player can make decisions
between attacking villagers

00:03:19.660 --> 00:03:21.550
to gain more gold
and also staying

00:03:21.550 --> 00:03:23.280
on their lair to be protected.

00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:25.990
And we're also adding
elements of melee combat

00:03:25.990 --> 00:03:28.970
so that the player is not
only making these decisions

00:03:28.970 --> 00:03:31.460
cognitively but also
has to act on them

00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:34.494
and actually go and perform
those actions, rather

00:03:34.494 --> 00:03:36.160
than something that's,
like, just click,

00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:38.430
oh, I want to do this
action, something like that.

00:03:38.430 --> 00:03:41.655
So we're introducing elements
of strategy and melee combat

00:03:41.655 --> 00:03:46.030
and also collectible
funness of RPGs.

00:03:46.030 --> 00:03:48.590
And then elements
of our backlog--

00:03:48.590 --> 00:03:51.170
we have the player's desire,
such as the playing wanting

00:03:51.170 --> 00:03:57.810
to be able to attack, defend,
and also stay alive to fight,

00:03:57.810 --> 00:03:59.560
despite the attacking armies.

00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:02.020
And we also have a
lot of focus on making

00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:05.455
our game usable and easy to
understand for the player.

00:04:05.455 --> 00:04:06.330
PROFESSOR: Thank you.

00:04:10.830 --> 00:04:11.830
DNA.

00:04:11.830 --> 00:04:12.717
PRESENTER 2: Hi.

00:04:12.717 --> 00:04:14.550
So probably should have
written on the board

00:04:14.550 --> 00:04:17.380
the project previously
known as DNA,

00:04:17.380 --> 00:04:20.760
because we've completely
reskinned our game.

00:04:20.760 --> 00:04:23.000
So it's no longer about
a biology type thing.

00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:26.330
It's about exploring space.

00:04:26.330 --> 00:04:30.010
So DNA is now the name
of your mothership,

00:04:30.010 --> 00:04:35.640
And we're going to put you
as a small spaceship-- RINA,

00:04:35.640 --> 00:04:37.610
so R-I-N-A, basically.

00:04:37.610 --> 00:04:39.140
RNA.

00:04:39.140 --> 00:04:41.990
And your goal is to travel
across different planets

00:04:41.990 --> 00:04:45.360
and eventually make it
back to your mothership

00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:48.663
before running out
of fuel or exploding

00:04:48.663 --> 00:04:50.370
on a bunch of asteroids.

00:04:50.370 --> 00:04:52.320
So our game has two
primary mechanics

00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:53.780
that we're working on.

00:04:53.780 --> 00:04:56.140
First is a menu-type
screen where

00:04:56.140 --> 00:04:58.350
you can see different
planets that you

00:04:58.350 --> 00:05:01.626
can head towards on your
way back to your mothership.

00:05:01.626 --> 00:05:04.250
And each planet would tell you--
if you hover over each planet,

00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:08.080
it will tell you, at this
planet you can pick up X fuel,

00:05:08.080 --> 00:05:12.510
or you can get this
jet boost type thing.

00:05:12.510 --> 00:05:17.570
And so the strategy comes from
the planning for which planet

00:05:17.570 --> 00:05:20.860
to go to relative to
the other planets.

00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:24.050
And the trade-offs also come
with which planet do you go to,

00:05:24.050 --> 00:05:27.860
or what do you pick
up at each planet.

00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:30.510
And the other mechanic is
actually getting to the planet.

00:05:30.510 --> 00:05:33.130
So using a stat boost and/or
fuel that you picked up

00:05:33.130 --> 00:05:38.490
from each planet, you have to
navigate through a platform,

00:05:38.490 --> 00:05:39.675
or not really a platform.

00:05:39.675 --> 00:05:43.430
More like Flappy Bird
or a Copter type level,

00:05:43.430 --> 00:05:46.960
where your stats
increase, like how fast

00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:49.320
you go through the level
or how maneuverable you are

00:05:49.320 --> 00:05:52.097
and how you can avoid obstacles.

00:05:52.097 --> 00:05:53.805
So our game has two
mechanics, and that's

00:05:53.805 --> 00:05:55.660
what we're kind of
working on right now.

00:05:55.660 --> 00:06:00.480
We have the moving from one
level to the next motion part

00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.940
down, so now we're working
mainly on balancing the game

00:06:03.940 --> 00:06:06.750
and seeing what should
the stat caps be,

00:06:06.750 --> 00:06:08.280
or what should the
starting caps be,

00:06:08.280 --> 00:06:10.010
so it's not too boring
at the beginning,

00:06:10.010 --> 00:06:13.970
but it's also not too
hard at the very end.

00:06:13.970 --> 00:06:16.945
And our backlog
has a lot of art.

00:06:16.945 --> 00:06:17.820
PROFESSOR: Thank you.

00:06:22.760 --> 00:06:25.010
Ghost Maze.

00:06:25.010 --> 00:06:27.790
PRESENTER 3: So for Ghost
Maze, our design for the game

00:06:27.790 --> 00:06:28.870
hasn't changed much.

00:06:28.870 --> 00:06:31.190
We solidified our
original idea, is

00:06:31.190 --> 00:06:36.700
that you're going to start off
in the middle of a dark maze

00:06:36.700 --> 00:06:39.270
and you have very
limited visibility.

00:06:39.270 --> 00:06:41.720
You're going to explore
the graph, or the maze,

00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:45.580
and basically find the
exit that leads you out

00:06:45.580 --> 00:06:47.940
of this dark scary place.

00:06:47.940 --> 00:06:51.040
You have a sanity
bar that goes down

00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:52.770
the more you are in the dark.

00:06:52.770 --> 00:06:57.409
And you have the
ability to increase

00:06:57.409 --> 00:06:58.950
the brightness of
your lantern, which

00:06:58.950 --> 00:07:02.300
would give you a higher radius
of visibility or decrease it,

00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:03.510
which would make it lower.

00:07:03.510 --> 00:07:06.710
But the higher it
is, the less slowly

00:07:06.710 --> 00:07:10.080
your sanity goes out, but the
faster that your battery dies.

00:07:10.080 --> 00:07:12.730
So you want to
optimize for that--

00:07:12.730 --> 00:07:17.730
how fast can I explore this
maze versus how slowly do

00:07:17.730 --> 00:07:19.900
I need my sanity to drop.

00:07:19.900 --> 00:07:22.491
And you can completely
have it off if you want,

00:07:22.491 --> 00:07:23.490
because they're battery.

00:07:23.490 --> 00:07:28.590
But that would be chipping away
from your sanity much faster.

00:07:28.590 --> 00:07:33.200
There's ghosts in the
maze, so you can't just

00:07:33.200 --> 00:07:37.775
do the bug around strategy,
which would always guarantee

00:07:37.775 --> 00:07:39.240
you to get out of a maze.

00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:44.060
But there's going to be ghosts
at strategic, random positions.

00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:46.490
These ghosts were
originally intended

00:07:46.490 --> 00:07:50.160
to have AI that would have
them find you or attack you

00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:51.070
or whatever.

00:07:51.070 --> 00:07:52.790
But we changed it
so that they're just

00:07:52.790 --> 00:07:56.030
patrolling in a
predetermined pattern

00:07:56.030 --> 00:08:01.402
so that you can focus on the
one mechanic of the game, which

00:08:01.402 --> 00:08:03.110
is moving around and
finding a good path,

00:08:03.110 --> 00:08:08.040
as opposed to escaping
from things chasing you.

00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:10.830
The one change we made, the
biggest change we made so far

00:08:10.830 --> 00:08:13.980
is we switched from
Flixel to Unity 2D

00:08:13.980 --> 00:08:16.420
because we couldn't
get Flixel running

00:08:16.420 --> 00:08:20.080
on most of the computers
we had, and it just

00:08:20.080 --> 00:08:21.500
brought so many complications.

00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:24.747
So we ended up
switching to Unity 2D.

00:08:24.747 --> 00:08:25.622
PROFESSOR: Thank you.

00:08:29.665 --> 00:08:30.270
Score High.

00:08:33.819 --> 00:08:35.929
PRESENTER 4: So
Score High focused

00:08:35.929 --> 00:08:37.734
on simplifying our game.

00:08:37.734 --> 00:08:39.900
We realized we were probably
overextending ourselves

00:08:39.900 --> 00:08:41.630
with the number of
features we wanted.

00:08:41.630 --> 00:08:44.214
So even though our
goal stayed the same,

00:08:44.214 --> 00:08:45.630
we kind of simplified
it, and I'll

00:08:45.630 --> 00:08:46.850
talk about that in a minute.

00:08:46.850 --> 00:08:50.910
So Score High's goal is to
survive the week of school.

00:08:50.910 --> 00:08:53.416
If you can do well, even better.

00:08:53.416 --> 00:08:55.570
And that becomes difficult
because as a player,

00:08:55.570 --> 00:08:57.360
you have your stats to maintain.

00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.540
You need sleep,
and you need food.

00:08:59.540 --> 00:09:01.680
But you also need to
not fail your classes

00:09:01.680 --> 00:09:04.260
and get kicked out, so
you need to do your work.

00:09:04.260 --> 00:09:08.240
So the main features of the
game are you play your stats,

00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.715
so how are you doing as
a person, your schedule,

00:09:10.715 --> 00:09:13.720
which is going to list your
classes and what PSETs are due

00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:16.210
and when they're due,
and then also the map.

00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:18.310
You, as a character,
go around the map,

00:09:18.310 --> 00:09:21.590
and you have to go to certain
buildings to do your work.

00:09:21.590 --> 00:09:25.530
And as I said, the trade-offs
are managing you internally,

00:09:25.530 --> 00:09:27.520
so you have to go to
your dorm to sleep,

00:09:27.520 --> 00:09:29.940
but your PSET might
be due in two minutes,

00:09:29.940 --> 00:09:31.900
and if you don't
run across campus,

00:09:31.900 --> 00:09:35.406
will you be able to get it
done and pass your class?

00:09:35.406 --> 00:09:38.559
In terms of updates, I
think that's about it.

00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:40.056
Thank you.

00:09:40.056 --> 00:09:43.530
PROFESSOR: Thank you.

00:09:43.530 --> 00:09:45.050
Build a Space Car.

00:09:45.050 --> 00:09:47.650
PRESENTER 5: So originally
we were Build a Car,

00:09:47.650 --> 00:09:50.080
but we decided that the game
would be better in space,

00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:51.530
so now it's Build a Space Car.

00:09:51.530 --> 00:09:53.960
The idea is that you have
some kind of spaceship

00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:55.480
that you need to
add components to,

00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:57.237
and then you send
it out on a mission.

00:09:57.237 --> 00:09:59.320
Out on this mission, it'll
run into random events,

00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:01.304
and you'll get a report
of what happened.

00:10:01.304 --> 00:10:03.290
And then it'll come
back and you need

00:10:03.290 --> 00:10:04.998
to iterate, add more
components to either

00:10:04.998 --> 00:10:07.390
make it faster or stronger
or have more attack.

00:10:07.390 --> 00:10:10.950
And then that way, you'll be
able to succeed on missions.

00:10:10.950 --> 00:10:13.875
The trade-offs come into
what components do you add,

00:10:13.875 --> 00:10:16.722
and what effect does that have
on the stats of your spaceship,

00:10:16.722 --> 00:10:18.430
and the fact that the
more components you

00:10:18.430 --> 00:10:20.110
add to your spaceship,
the more it costs

00:10:20.110 --> 00:10:21.735
and the less money
you're going to make

00:10:21.735 --> 00:10:23.430
from going out on that mission.

00:10:23.430 --> 00:10:26.710
The main product
backlog features

00:10:26.710 --> 00:10:30.380
that we have are the things
like adding components to ships,

00:10:30.380 --> 00:10:33.102
coming up with stats for
all of the components

00:10:33.102 --> 00:10:36.600
that we have in the game,
and designing a system where

00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:39.190
the ship will go
out on missions,

00:10:39.190 --> 00:10:40.730
get some results
from all of that,

00:10:40.730 --> 00:10:44.679
and then loop back into
this initial building phase.

00:10:44.679 --> 00:10:45.665
PROFESSOR: Thank you.

00:10:48.623 --> 00:10:51.950
And MIT Sim.

00:10:51.950 --> 00:10:54.520
PRESENTER 6: All right.

00:10:54.520 --> 00:10:57.740
So the idea of our game is
we play as an unnamed dean

00:10:57.740 --> 00:10:59.560
for student life at MIT.

00:10:59.560 --> 00:11:02.642
And you make and manage
the decisions at MIT,

00:11:02.642 --> 00:11:04.975
and you have to trade-off all
of these various resources

00:11:04.975 --> 00:11:07.060
that you have, like student
happiness and the endowment

00:11:07.060 --> 00:11:07.560
and whatnot.

00:11:07.560 --> 00:11:10.050
And you have to please the
MIT president above you

00:11:10.050 --> 00:11:13.000
and the MIT
corporation above them.

00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:16.260
And then you also have to
please the parents of students

00:11:16.260 --> 00:11:18.235
who might hear of some
crazy things happening

00:11:18.235 --> 00:11:20.410
and you have to respond to them.

00:11:20.410 --> 00:11:24.890
So for example, you might make
shoes mandatory on campus.

00:11:24.890 --> 00:11:27.810
And suddenly East
Campus revolts.

00:11:27.810 --> 00:11:29.330
But maybe it improves
your standing

00:11:29.330 --> 00:11:30.816
with the parents or something.

00:11:30.816 --> 00:11:33.782
So that's the general
gist for our game, yeah.

00:11:42.390 --> 00:11:42.990
PROFESSOR: OK.

00:11:42.990 --> 00:11:46.150
So it's good to hear that people
are both refining and changing

00:11:46.150 --> 00:11:48.600
and scoping down and
kind of figuring out what

00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.420
they're doing with their games.

00:11:51.420 --> 00:11:54.100
That's a good start.

00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:57.550
The next thing I wanted to
talk about, ever so briefly,

00:11:57.550 --> 00:12:03.250
is-- I've been reading
through the project write-ups

00:12:03.250 --> 00:12:05.144
from the last project.

00:12:05.144 --> 00:12:06.810
Haven't gotten all
the way through them.

00:12:06.810 --> 00:12:07.670
None of us have.

00:12:07.670 --> 00:12:08.380
We're still working through.

00:12:08.380 --> 00:12:09.796
But a lot of people
are like, ugh,

00:12:09.796 --> 00:12:13.470
project management got inserted
into the middle of the project,

00:12:13.470 --> 00:12:14.555
and it was a really hard.

00:12:14.555 --> 00:12:17.180
And it made things
clunky and more painful.

00:12:17.180 --> 00:12:19.400
And yeah, I bet it
did, and I apologize.

00:12:19.400 --> 00:12:21.660
What I'm wondering,
however, is what

00:12:21.660 --> 00:12:25.590
are you doing for project
management on this project,

00:12:25.590 --> 00:12:27.900
and is it working better So far?

00:12:27.900 --> 00:12:30.110
I realize we're only
partway through,

00:12:30.110 --> 00:12:33.280
but I'd kind of like to hear
about how has your team decided

00:12:33.280 --> 00:12:36.060
to handle communication.

00:12:36.060 --> 00:12:42.490
I know that meetings were
a big problem last time.

00:12:42.490 --> 00:12:45.910
Is the product backlog being
a useful thing to sort of help

00:12:45.910 --> 00:12:46.960
define your design?

00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.335
Or are you doing it because
we're making you turn one in?

00:12:51.940 --> 00:12:56.040
How are assigning tasks
and sharing work going?

00:12:56.040 --> 00:12:58.870
So I can either do
this as a discussion,

00:12:58.870 --> 00:13:02.122
or I can call teams one by one.

00:13:02.122 --> 00:13:04.580
Do you guys have an opinion as
to how you'd like to run it,

00:13:04.580 --> 00:13:07.201
or should I go ahead and
make an executive decision,

00:13:07.201 --> 00:13:07.950
since I'm up here?

00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:12.510
All right, I'll call
on people team by team,

00:13:12.510 --> 00:13:16.100
and we can just
sort of go through.

00:13:16.100 --> 00:13:19.480
I'll start with MIT Sim,
because you went last last time,

00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:21.976
so I guess you can
go first this time.

00:13:21.976 --> 00:13:23.350
You don't have to
come down here.

00:13:23.350 --> 00:13:24.433
You can stay in the seats.

00:13:24.433 --> 00:13:26.180
But OK.

00:13:26.180 --> 00:13:27.530
OK, a microphone might help.

00:13:27.530 --> 00:13:29.160
I wasn't trying to make
you do an extra report.

00:13:29.160 --> 00:13:31.250
I was hoping this would be sort
of a class discussion where

00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:31.500
you're--

00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:32.510
PRESENTER 7: Well,
I'm already down here.

00:13:32.510 --> 00:13:34.240
PROFESSOR: All right, go ahead.

00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:37.030
PRESENTER 7: So I think one
interesting thing about project

00:13:37.030 --> 00:13:39.700
management for our
team as 611 teams

00:13:39.700 --> 00:13:44.370
is that the driving difficulties
of working on a team like here

00:13:44.370 --> 00:13:47.100
are very different from what
might be in the industry.

00:13:47.100 --> 00:13:50.890
So we have to adapt all
these industry methods, which

00:13:50.890 --> 00:13:53.230
might work really well
for a game company, where

00:13:53.230 --> 00:13:55.930
you have your eight
hours a day of working.

00:13:55.930 --> 00:13:59.770
But here it's much
more sparse and not

00:13:59.770 --> 00:14:02.800
necessarily-- it's
not always one to one

00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:07.760
how you would manage an industry
project versus this project.

00:14:07.760 --> 00:14:12.250
So I think just figuring out
how to adapt these methods

00:14:12.250 --> 00:14:14.890
for students who are
really crunched for time

00:14:14.890 --> 00:14:15.530
is a challenge.

00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:20.000
PROFESSOR: Have you
made any adaptations?

00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.010
Has your team made any
adaptations or changes,

00:14:22.010 --> 00:14:24.343
or are you just trying to do
as little of it as possible

00:14:24.343 --> 00:14:26.860
to help keep things moving?

00:14:26.860 --> 00:14:28.917
PRESENTER 7: Probably
the latter, yeah.

00:14:28.917 --> 00:14:29.500
PROFESSOR: OK.

00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:34.638
If you can think about
the adaptations you're

00:14:34.638 --> 00:14:36.846
making that are working for
your team and share them,

00:14:36.846 --> 00:14:39.800
that would actually be really
helpful for us to hear,

00:14:39.800 --> 00:14:41.370
and for actually
everyone to hear,

00:14:41.370 --> 00:14:42.353
because I think
every team is running

00:14:42.353 --> 00:14:43.500
into the same problems you are.

00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:45.016
But the questions is,
how do you take these,

00:14:45.016 --> 00:14:47.700
and how do you make it work
with a team you actually have

00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:50.530
and a reality you're actually
working with, as opposed to,

00:14:50.530 --> 00:14:52.090
this is the way
your should do it.

00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:54.140
That's actually the really
important thing here

00:14:54.140 --> 00:14:55.630
to try and figure out.

00:14:55.630 --> 00:14:57.560
Thank you.

00:14:57.560 --> 00:15:00.082
OK, Build a Space Car.

00:15:00.082 --> 00:15:05.002
Do you have a
sacrificial victim?

00:15:05.002 --> 00:15:06.970
Scrums masters
are a good person.

00:15:06.970 --> 00:15:08.504
Yeah, it could be
a scrum master.

00:15:08.504 --> 00:15:10.457
Could be either way.

00:15:10.457 --> 00:15:12.790
PRESENTER 5: Our producer
slash scrum master is actually

00:15:12.790 --> 00:15:15.240
out of town, so I
guess I'll handle it.

00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:19.010
But basically coming
off of the last project,

00:15:19.010 --> 00:15:21.540
we saw a lot of things
that we weren't happy about

00:15:21.540 --> 00:15:23.586
and that we saw a lot
of problems with the way

00:15:23.586 --> 00:15:24.780
that we communicated.

00:15:24.780 --> 00:15:26.300
So this time we're
trying to make

00:15:26.300 --> 00:15:28.880
sure to stay in communication
as much as possible,

00:15:28.880 --> 00:15:31.586
let people know what
we've been working on

00:15:31.586 --> 00:15:33.600
and the problems that we see.

00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.350
PROFESSOR: What tools are you
using to stay in communication?

00:15:36.350 --> 00:15:38.690
PRESENTER 5: So we're using
Trello for all of our tasks.

00:15:38.690 --> 00:15:39.481
We have them there.

00:15:39.481 --> 00:15:43.030
We have them color-coded for
different groups of coding

00:15:43.030 --> 00:15:46.240
or UI or testing,
things like that.

00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:49.388
And we have a Google Doc
that's sort of all of the ideas

00:15:49.388 --> 00:15:51.878
that we had and sort of the
design decisions and things

00:15:51.878 --> 00:15:53.380
like that.

00:15:53.380 --> 00:15:55.220
We're also all
programmers, which

00:15:55.220 --> 00:15:57.940
I think has been helpful
so far, in that we

00:15:57.940 --> 00:16:00.240
sort of all understand
what goes into the task

00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:02.505
and what's reasonable
and things like that.

00:16:02.505 --> 00:16:05.035
Not to say that there isn't a
place for non-coding people,

00:16:05.035 --> 00:16:07.660
just that it has
definitely helped on such

00:16:07.660 --> 00:16:09.220
a time-constrained team.

00:16:09.220 --> 00:16:09.950
PROFESSOR: Yeah.

00:16:09.950 --> 00:16:11.700
When you're all talking
the same language,

00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:14.830
and you all come to the same
estimate assumptions quickly,

00:16:14.830 --> 00:16:16.630
that's beautiful.

00:16:16.630 --> 00:16:17.135
Thank you.

00:16:19.900 --> 00:16:20.700
Score High.

00:16:24.550 --> 00:16:28.100
PRESENTER 4: So I think one
thing we realized right away

00:16:28.100 --> 00:16:29.880
was that meeting
outside of class

00:16:29.880 --> 00:16:32.240
was pretty much impossible,
especially when you

00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.980
have seven people with
completely different schedules.

00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:39.120
So having the product backlog
and that list of things

00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:40.750
was really helpful.

00:16:40.750 --> 00:16:44.200
But at the same time, a lot of
the other project management

00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:46.450
stuff is more just on the side.

00:16:46.450 --> 00:16:49.080
So for my team, I've
been taking care of it

00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:53.130
and trying to let
everybody else program.

00:16:53.130 --> 00:16:55.930
But the product backlog, I
think, is really helpful.

00:16:55.930 --> 00:16:59.170
And the vision statement,
having that breakdown

00:16:59.170 --> 00:17:02.090
of who's doing what,
has been pretty useful.

00:17:02.090 --> 00:17:05.085
We use an email thread, just
to keep everyone in contact.

00:17:09.596 --> 00:17:10.970
PROFESSOR: All
right, Ghost Maze.

00:17:18.890 --> 00:17:20.370
Two people can come down.

00:17:20.370 --> 00:17:20.870
That's fine.

00:17:25.070 --> 00:17:25.820
PRESENTER 8: Yeah.

00:17:25.820 --> 00:17:28.450
So I guess as other
people were saying,

00:17:28.450 --> 00:17:32.790
it's been hard to coordinate
meetings in person.

00:17:32.790 --> 00:17:36.339
We tried to have one on
Saturday, but only half of us

00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:37.130
could get together.

00:17:37.130 --> 00:17:39.260
So definitely we have
to rely a little more

00:17:39.260 --> 00:17:41.740
on online
communication and such.

00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:44.070
And people are working
on different schedules.

00:17:44.070 --> 00:17:49.450
So I think one thing we
realized is you have to budget

00:17:49.450 --> 00:17:52.530
how much time people have at
certain points in the project.

00:17:52.530 --> 00:17:55.006
So if someone has
a lot more time,

00:17:55.006 --> 00:17:56.630
maybe they're more
free on the weekend,

00:17:56.630 --> 00:17:58.671
then they could get started
on the earlier stuff,

00:17:58.671 --> 00:18:01.890
whereas if someone has
a big project due today,

00:18:01.890 --> 00:18:06.090
then we would give them more
stuff for later in the day.

00:18:06.090 --> 00:18:08.500
Because when you
develop a game, you

00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:10.620
can't do everything right away.

00:18:10.620 --> 00:18:12.840
Some other things are
dependent on other things.

00:18:12.840 --> 00:18:19.820
I've been taking the role of
scrum master, project manager.

00:18:19.820 --> 00:18:23.990
So figuring out delegations
and responsibilities.

00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:28.810
So I think it helps to have
one or two people plan that.

00:18:28.810 --> 00:18:31.558
PROFESSOR: Thank you very much.

00:18:31.558 --> 00:18:35.179
OK, and DNA.

00:18:35.179 --> 00:18:36.165
In space.

00:18:39.123 --> 00:18:42.590
PRESENTER 9: That actually
was the other working title.

00:18:42.590 --> 00:18:43.851
It might become Finding DINA.

00:18:43.851 --> 00:18:45.350
PROFESSOR: Pretty
much, whenever you

00:18:45.350 --> 00:18:47.808
tack "In Space" to something,
it becomes infinitely better.

00:18:47.808 --> 00:18:49.501
PRESENTER 9: I'll
do that now then.

00:18:49.501 --> 00:18:53.445
So meetings are hard
because people have lives.

00:18:53.445 --> 00:18:56.834
But we do little meetings where
we eat lunch with each other,

00:18:56.834 --> 00:18:58.375
and only two or
three of us is there.

00:18:58.375 --> 00:19:00.240
And the lunch is
tasty, and we talk

00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:02.660
about cool stuff like
game design and weird bugs

00:19:02.660 --> 00:19:05.134
and what exactly are we
doing with our lives?

00:19:05.134 --> 00:19:06.800
As you may be able
to tell from the fact

00:19:06.800 --> 00:19:09.040
that things have changed
drastically from the pitch

00:19:09.040 --> 00:19:12.650
to now, we kind of basically
scrapped everything

00:19:12.650 --> 00:19:14.840
at one point and
said, re-brainstorm.

00:19:14.840 --> 00:19:16.312
Shoot out all of the ideas.

00:19:16.312 --> 00:19:18.395
But of course, since we
already said the word DNA,

00:19:18.395 --> 00:19:21.390
everything kind of ended
up DNA deep down inside

00:19:21.390 --> 00:19:23.370
at heart, kind of sort of.

00:19:23.370 --> 00:19:25.789
So I feel like we did a lot
of email communication then,

00:19:25.789 --> 00:19:27.830
and we still do a lot of
email communication now.

00:19:27.830 --> 00:19:30.038
It's just like, spew all of
the things at each other.

00:19:30.038 --> 00:19:32.040
And I feel like,
that's kind of nice.

00:19:32.040 --> 00:19:34.550
There are times when it's
like, well, I'm really, really,

00:19:34.550 --> 00:19:36.730
really busy until Day
X, so until Day X,

00:19:36.730 --> 00:19:38.730
I will have nothing to
say if we have a meeting.

00:19:38.730 --> 00:19:39.845
And we're like,
OK, then I guess we

00:19:39.845 --> 00:19:41.110
won't have a
meeting until Day X.

00:19:41.110 --> 00:19:43.484
And it's like, well, Day X is
the day right before Monday

00:19:43.484 --> 00:19:44.120
or something.

00:19:44.120 --> 00:19:46.590
So was it really the best
idea to put that off,

00:19:46.590 --> 00:19:48.430
or should we have
done it anyways

00:19:48.430 --> 00:19:50.805
and have you just sit there
and feel lame about yourself?

00:19:50.805 --> 00:19:53.966
I don't know, but
we did what we did.

00:19:53.966 --> 00:19:55.680
PROFESSOR: OK.

00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:57.540
And finally, Hardcore Dragon.

00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:12.460
PRESENTER 10: So
looking up at that list,

00:20:12.460 --> 00:20:14.660
the first thing on the
list is team communication.

00:20:14.660 --> 00:20:19.080
And we actually have quite a
few different things in place.

00:20:19.080 --> 00:20:22.880
We're using Trello,
so we do have that.

00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:24.612
We're using a
Google Folder, which

00:20:24.612 --> 00:20:29.590
is just shared between all of
us and all of the documents.

00:20:29.590 --> 00:20:32.320
And we're also
using a chat, which

00:20:32.320 --> 00:20:35.402
I assume every single one of us
just has open on our computer

00:20:35.402 --> 00:20:37.495
and is just sitting there.

00:20:37.495 --> 00:20:40.750
So everyone's looking in
on it once in a while,

00:20:40.750 --> 00:20:43.516
people are commenting
on it once in a while.

00:20:43.516 --> 00:20:47.960
That's how team
communication is going.

00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:51.160
Design, I think, is probably
the most solid point

00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:51.910
of all the things.

00:20:51.910 --> 00:20:52.660
PRESENTER 1: Yeah.

00:20:52.660 --> 00:20:56.110
I think we came up with pretty
solid ideas the last time

00:20:56.110 --> 00:20:56.992
we met in person.

00:20:56.992 --> 00:20:59.200
And since then, we haven't
really deviated from that.

00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:02.340
It's been pretty straightforward
that this is our goal.

00:21:02.340 --> 00:21:04.180
We might have to
cut-- we'll probably

00:21:04.180 --> 00:21:07.220
have to cut features eventually,
but for now, it's pretty solid.

00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:09.680
PRESENTER 10: I think we're
fine without cutting features.

00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:14.340
I think it will actually fit
right in with the time we have.

00:21:14.340 --> 00:21:15.950
I don't think we
can add features,

00:21:15.950 --> 00:21:20.460
but we-- and I think I know
exactly what the game is

00:21:20.460 --> 00:21:21.370
at this point.

00:21:21.370 --> 00:21:24.906
And I think that everyone
else is in the same place,

00:21:24.906 --> 00:21:26.650
but I don't know.

00:21:26.650 --> 00:21:30.350
So I really think that
figuring out what our design is

00:21:30.350 --> 00:21:34.300
is completely solid
at this point.

00:21:34.300 --> 00:21:39.140
As for assigning
tasks, sharing work,

00:21:39.140 --> 00:21:42.600
that stuff is sort of
a work in progress.

00:21:42.600 --> 00:21:45.010
PRESENTER 1: So we
have a sprint task list

00:21:45.010 --> 00:21:48.270
already that we've been
using to assign estimates

00:21:48.270 --> 00:21:50.200
and people to certain things.

00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:52.360
So far it's kind of
been a free-for-all.

00:21:52.360 --> 00:21:55.840
But from looking at the task
list the last time I saw it,

00:21:55.840 --> 00:21:57.502
it looks like
everyone's completing

00:21:57.502 --> 00:21:58.710
things in a pretty good pace.

00:21:58.710 --> 00:22:00.925
So I think that so far
it's worked out nicely.

00:22:04.562 --> 00:22:06.020
PROFESSOR: OK, I
guess you're done.

00:22:09.470 --> 00:22:10.230
OK, thank you.

00:22:12.780 --> 00:22:14.030
I think that's everybody.

00:22:14.030 --> 00:22:16.167
And now, Phillip.

00:22:16.167 --> 00:22:16.750
PROFESSOR: OK.

00:22:16.750 --> 00:22:20.370
So just a reminder that
this is project three,

00:22:20.370 --> 00:22:23.080
digital prototype
two, user interface.

00:22:23.080 --> 00:22:25.780
So in addition to all of
the project management stuff

00:22:25.780 --> 00:22:28.110
that we've just covered
in the past half hour,

00:22:28.110 --> 00:22:32.290
there's also the intent
to maximize usability.

00:22:32.290 --> 00:22:34.430
And we've already talked
a little bit of usability

00:22:34.430 --> 00:22:37.349
when Sarah gave the
last testing lecture.

00:22:37.349 --> 00:22:39.140
Now we're going to do
a bit of a deep dive.

00:22:39.140 --> 00:22:42.370
So this is going to
take a bit of time,

00:22:42.370 --> 00:22:47.610
but I hope you will
follow me through this.

00:22:47.610 --> 00:22:51.860
You're supposed to use user
feedback through user testing

00:22:51.860 --> 00:22:54.410
on your own, which
means not just relying

00:22:54.410 --> 00:22:56.190
on the testing that's
happening in class,

00:22:56.190 --> 00:22:57.680
but also doing it outside.

00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:00.374
So we're going to talk
a little bit about that.

00:23:00.374 --> 00:23:01.790
Before that, I'm
going to walk you

00:23:01.790 --> 00:23:06.410
through an exercise about
what's the intent of usability.

00:23:06.410 --> 00:23:09.190
The whole point of
testing for usability

00:23:09.190 --> 00:23:11.910
and designing for
usability is basically just

00:23:11.910 --> 00:23:14.120
to figure out whether
someone can figure out

00:23:14.120 --> 00:23:15.440
how to play your game.

00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:17.640
Not so much whether they're
having any fun doing it,

00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:19.785
although obviously
you don't want them

00:23:19.785 --> 00:23:21.920
to be frustrated or confused.

00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:24.330
But you actually are
just trying to figure out

00:23:24.330 --> 00:23:27.170
whether people can understand
how to interact with your game.

00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:33.570
The game could be improved
through play testing

00:23:33.570 --> 00:23:35.240
to sort of say, oh,
the challenge level

00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:37.320
might not be right for instance.

00:23:37.320 --> 00:23:40.190
You can use focus testing
to be able to figure out

00:23:40.190 --> 00:23:45.260
specific design issues in
your game, like for instance,

00:23:45.260 --> 00:23:49.750
do these armor
upgrades make sense

00:23:49.750 --> 00:23:53.090
to somebody who's not
on our design team?

00:23:53.090 --> 00:23:55.130
Usability testing is
we have this thing

00:23:55.130 --> 00:23:58.230
that we designed with the
intent of having it learnable.

00:23:58.230 --> 00:24:02.280
And can people actually
learn how to play this game?

00:24:02.280 --> 00:24:04.190
Now, just a straw
poll-- how many of use

00:24:04.190 --> 00:24:06.890
speak or read German?

00:24:06.890 --> 00:24:08.060
OK.

00:24:08.060 --> 00:24:13.280
How many of you have seen
this game, or played this game

00:24:13.280 --> 00:24:14.690
or have heard of this game?

00:24:14.690 --> 00:24:17.250
All right.

00:24:17.250 --> 00:24:23.070
So if you do speak
or read German,

00:24:23.070 --> 00:24:26.910
just hold your
responses for a second.

00:24:26.910 --> 00:24:29.660
And I'm going to start by
just looking at this game.

00:24:29.660 --> 00:24:35.110
And this is a game that
you'll find on a shelf,

00:24:35.110 --> 00:24:40.840
maybe in a speciality game
store or an Amazon shelf.

00:24:40.840 --> 00:24:44.970
And just by looking
at this, what

00:24:44.970 --> 00:24:48.740
can you intuit from what
this game is or who it's for

00:24:48.740 --> 00:24:51.100
or how it might be played?

00:24:51.100 --> 00:24:52.770
Any ideas?

00:24:52.770 --> 00:24:54.690
Throw it out?

00:24:54.690 --> 00:24:56.130
AUDIENCE: It's for
young-ish kids,

00:24:56.130 --> 00:24:58.671
where they stack randomly-shaped
blocks on top of each other.

00:24:58.671 --> 00:24:59.410
PROFESSOR: Wow.

00:24:59.410 --> 00:25:00.370
How do you figure that?

00:25:00.370 --> 00:25:01.625
AUDIENCE: Because it's
bright and colorful

00:25:01.625 --> 00:25:03.292
and it has cutesy
cartoon stuff on it.

00:25:03.292 --> 00:25:04.750
PROFESSOR: OK,
bright and colorful.

00:25:04.750 --> 00:25:05.545
Cutesy color stuff.

00:25:05.545 --> 00:25:07.744
AUDIENCE: The animals
are making funny motions,

00:25:07.744 --> 00:25:09.618
implying that they are
precariously balanced.

00:25:09.618 --> 00:25:11.336
Also, the alligator
isn't eating anyone.

00:25:11.336 --> 00:25:13.210
PROFESSOR: The alligator
isn't eating anyone.

00:25:13.210 --> 00:25:15.450
It is kind of
nonviolent, bright color.

00:25:15.450 --> 00:25:20.190
What else on this
stuff here, assuming

00:25:20.190 --> 00:25:24.337
that you don't speak German,
gives you any other clues.

00:25:24.337 --> 00:25:25.420
I thought I saw a hand up.

00:25:27.991 --> 00:25:28.490
Yeah?

00:25:28.490 --> 00:25:31.872
AUDIENCE: The type.

00:25:31.872 --> 00:25:33.720
PROFESSOR: The font.

00:25:33.720 --> 00:25:36.220
The cartoonish-- yeah.

00:25:39.120 --> 00:25:40.620
I think, Matt, you
had your hand up.

00:25:40.620 --> 00:25:42.786
AUDIENCE: I was going to
say something, that there's

00:25:42.786 --> 00:25:43.750
an exclamation point.

00:25:43.750 --> 00:25:45.250
PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:25:45.250 --> 00:25:47.070
It's like, you can
imagine there's

00:25:47.070 --> 00:25:49.190
something zany going on.

00:25:49.190 --> 00:25:52.210
Anyone recognize the brand?

00:25:52.210 --> 00:25:54.720
Has anyone heard of
this brand before?

00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:00.590
No one has four-year-old
toddler relatives or anything?

00:26:00.590 --> 00:26:04.440
Because it's a big kids brand.

00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:08.930
OK, folks who do speak
German, what's on this box?

00:26:08.930 --> 00:26:11.838
What's this box telling you?

00:26:11.838 --> 00:26:14.330
AUDIENCE: The title
is Animals on Animals.

00:26:14.330 --> 00:26:16.430
PROFESSOR: Animals on Animals.

00:26:16.430 --> 00:26:19.180
So yeah, again, you're putting
animals on top of each other.

00:26:19.180 --> 00:26:20.721
If you want to open
the box, and I've

00:26:20.721 --> 00:26:23.700
actually gotten a
box, just one second.

00:26:26.270 --> 00:26:30.640
You see these kinds of pieces,
brightly colored wooden pieces.

00:26:34.436 --> 00:26:35.310
There is a crocodile.

00:26:38.230 --> 00:26:47.610
But there's also this bright red
die with these symbols on them.

00:26:47.610 --> 00:26:50.882
Any clues on how this game
is supposed to be played?

00:26:50.882 --> 00:26:52.840
I mean, we already talked
about putting animals

00:26:52.840 --> 00:26:53.810
on top of each other.

00:26:53.810 --> 00:26:54.650
But here are the pieces.

00:26:54.650 --> 00:26:56.316
If anybody actually
wants a closer look,

00:26:56.316 --> 00:26:58.730
you can come in and have a look.

00:26:58.730 --> 00:27:02.450
I'll go back to the previous
slide for you to see.

00:27:02.450 --> 00:27:04.810
Any idea how this game
is supposed to be played?

00:27:04.810 --> 00:27:09.016
Anything more specific than put
animals on top of each other?

00:27:09.016 --> 00:27:11.432
AUDIENCE: I feel like you're
probably going to take turns,

00:27:11.432 --> 00:27:13.066
and every turn, you're
going to roll the die

00:27:13.066 --> 00:27:14.710
and do something
based on what it says.

00:27:14.710 --> 00:27:15.293
PROFESSOR: OK.

00:27:15.293 --> 00:27:16.290
And that's based on?

00:27:16.290 --> 00:27:19.055
Making that assumption based on?

00:27:19.055 --> 00:27:20.680
The fact that there
is a die and you've

00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:22.660
probably played games
with dice before.

00:27:22.660 --> 00:27:25.440
And actually, in the
previous picture,

00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:27.960
I think it actually
says players--

00:27:27.960 --> 00:27:29.140
is that a player number?

00:27:29.140 --> 00:27:31.656
I guess it's off in a corner.

00:27:31.656 --> 00:27:34.100
It is a multiplayer game.

00:27:34.100 --> 00:27:36.040
And if you could
see that corner,

00:27:36.040 --> 00:27:37.950
you would've assumed,
yeah, taking turns

00:27:37.950 --> 00:27:39.702
seems like a normal thing.

00:27:39.702 --> 00:27:41.160
That's based on
your own experience

00:27:41.160 --> 00:27:44.590
of having played board games.

00:27:44.590 --> 00:27:46.094
What else?

00:27:46.094 --> 00:27:47.635
Any idea what these
symbols might be?

00:27:53.890 --> 00:27:54.390
Yeah?

00:27:54.390 --> 00:27:56.810
AUDIENCE: Based on
the hand symbol,

00:27:56.810 --> 00:28:00.198
it seems like it
might be restricting

00:28:00.198 --> 00:28:04.537
which hand you can use
to place the animal.

00:28:04.537 --> 00:28:05.120
PROFESSOR: OK.

00:28:05.120 --> 00:28:09.840
So you are already assuming that
this is a very dexterous game.

00:28:09.840 --> 00:28:14.910
It's going to require item
manipulation, a hand connected

00:28:14.910 --> 00:28:15.910
to that.

00:28:15.910 --> 00:28:17.410
There is a picture
of the crocodile.

00:28:17.410 --> 00:28:19.730
There's a question mark.

00:28:19.730 --> 00:28:22.400
I'm sort of walking you
through the process of somebody

00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:25.120
actually looking at this
box for the first time.

00:28:25.120 --> 00:28:27.700
And sometimes when you see
this kind of game in the store,

00:28:27.700 --> 00:28:30.340
you don't even get a chance
to look inside the box.

00:28:30.340 --> 00:28:33.930
But if you had a
display version,

00:28:33.930 --> 00:28:36.430
you'd be trying to figure out
the game based on these things

00:28:36.430 --> 00:28:37.370
that you're seeing.

00:28:37.370 --> 00:28:40.820
Now, there is a newer
version of this box cover

00:28:40.820 --> 00:28:43.640
that makes the stacking
animals on top of each other

00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:46.000
really, really obvious.

00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.030
That's the same cover
that I've got over here.

00:28:48.030 --> 00:28:52.190
And this is the English
version, Animal Upon Animal.

00:28:52.190 --> 00:28:54.585
But if you wanted to figure
out how to play a game

00:28:54.585 --> 00:28:56.960
and you couldn't look inside
a box, what's the next thing

00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:01.660
you do after seeing
it on the shelf?

00:29:01.660 --> 00:29:03.520
You look at the back of the box.

00:29:03.520 --> 00:29:07.550
And there, everything
that you've

00:29:07.550 --> 00:29:10.260
intuited from just
looking at the components

00:29:10.260 --> 00:29:14.340
and looking at the front of the
box is made even more explicit

00:29:14.340 --> 00:29:15.510
at the back.

00:29:15.510 --> 00:29:17.710
Now, it's in a tiny
little font, but you've

00:29:17.710 --> 00:29:23.820
got a picture of two charming
kids who are stacking things.

00:29:23.820 --> 00:29:27.360
Notice, they're stacking
everything in one plane.

00:29:27.360 --> 00:29:29.080
There are some pieces
scattered around,

00:29:29.080 --> 00:29:30.830
but the only things
that are being stacked

00:29:30.830 --> 00:29:35.290
are stacked within this
single plane of the crocodile.

00:29:35.290 --> 00:29:37.425
And of course, there
are indications

00:29:37.425 --> 00:29:39.050
of how long the game
is supposed to be,

00:29:39.050 --> 00:29:41.800
how many players it takes.

00:29:41.800 --> 00:29:44.162
And of course, if you were
to actually buy the game,

00:29:44.162 --> 00:29:45.870
you would look at a
manual, which happens

00:29:45.870 --> 00:29:48.110
to have six languages in it.

00:29:48.110 --> 00:29:50.140
And it would explain
things, like what

00:29:50.140 --> 00:29:54.520
these icons on the die
are supposed to be.

00:29:54.520 --> 00:29:57.287
But ideally you wouldn't
even get to this point.

00:29:57.287 --> 00:29:58.870
And the kid is not
going to read this,

00:29:58.870 --> 00:30:01.010
because I believe
this was targeted

00:30:01.010 --> 00:30:05.750
at kids age four to 99.

00:30:05.750 --> 00:30:08.850
So if you're age four, you're
not reading this manual.

00:30:08.850 --> 00:30:10.930
A parent is going to
be reading this manual,

00:30:10.930 --> 00:30:14.020
or some sort of older
sibling is having

00:30:14.020 --> 00:30:16.510
to explain this to the kids.

00:30:16.510 --> 00:30:19.800
So this isn't actually
targeted at the target audience

00:30:19.800 --> 00:30:21.075
of this game.

00:30:21.075 --> 00:30:22.950
Maybe it's targeted at
the buyer of the game,

00:30:22.950 --> 00:30:25.339
but certainly not
at the people who

00:30:25.339 --> 00:30:27.630
are going to have the most
difficulty playing this game

00:30:27.630 --> 00:30:29.950
even though the game
is intended for them.

00:30:29.950 --> 00:30:31.340
By the way, this
is a great game.

00:30:31.340 --> 00:30:35.040
This is a whole lot of
fun to play with family.

00:30:35.040 --> 00:30:40.970
So a lot of what I'm going
to discuss going forward

00:30:40.970 --> 00:30:44.527
is just kind of a theoretical
analysis of that process

00:30:44.527 --> 00:30:45.610
that we just went through.

00:30:45.610 --> 00:30:48.570
We just used a whole
bunch of different cues,

00:30:48.570 --> 00:30:52.090
just looking at the
box and the pieces,

00:30:52.090 --> 00:30:57.680
and the text on the box and the
colors and cultural knowledge

00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:00.512
to be able to figure out how
it is that you play this game.

00:31:00.512 --> 00:31:01.720
Now, this is a game for kids.

00:31:01.720 --> 00:31:02.928
It's not a very complex game.

00:31:02.928 --> 00:31:05.700
If I gave you some sort
of really, really abstract

00:31:05.700 --> 00:31:08.120
German board game, where
everything are cubes--

00:31:08.120 --> 00:31:09.930
and there are many,
many games just

00:31:09.930 --> 00:31:11.850
fitting that description--
you'd probably

00:31:11.850 --> 00:31:13.420
have to read the
instructions just

00:31:13.420 --> 00:31:17.450
to be able to figure out
how to play the game.

00:31:17.450 --> 00:31:19.400
But ideally, you'd
want the experience

00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:21.479
to be about as
easy as the process

00:31:21.479 --> 00:31:23.520
that we just walked through
with this board game.

00:31:23.520 --> 00:31:26.170
You look at this game, you're
presented with information

00:31:26.170 --> 00:31:29.332
upon launching it or even before
you bought it, and by the time

00:31:29.332 --> 00:31:31.040
you've actually started
playing the game,

00:31:31.040 --> 00:31:33.870
you already have a sense of
what you're going to expect,

00:31:33.870 --> 00:31:38.460
which sets people up to
learn the more complex things

00:31:38.460 --> 00:31:41.450
that you need to teach
them along the way.

00:31:41.450 --> 00:31:44.442
Now, there's a book-- which I
should have brought upfront.

00:31:46.980 --> 00:31:48.980
This book I strongly
recommend, The Design

00:31:48.980 --> 00:31:52.570
of Everyday Things, which
was previously titled

00:31:52.570 --> 00:31:54.810
The Psychology of
Everyday Things,

00:31:54.810 --> 00:31:57.850
because that's really
what this is all about.

00:31:57.850 --> 00:32:01.970
Usability, designing for
usability and you are testing

00:32:01.970 --> 00:32:04.600
usability, you are
asking questions

00:32:04.600 --> 00:32:07.050
about the player's psychology.

00:32:07.050 --> 00:32:10.220
And you are trying to use
that to your advantage

00:32:10.220 --> 00:32:13.240
to be able to help them
understand how to manipulate

00:32:13.240 --> 00:32:16.880
your game and how to get the
experience that you want out

00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:18.165
of it without being confused.

00:32:18.165 --> 00:32:21.110
Now, there's this model
that Donald Norman,

00:32:21.110 --> 00:32:25.160
the author off this book,
goes into great detail.

00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:31.070
And it says, there are
goals, there's an intention

00:32:31.070 --> 00:32:35.870
that the person using an HCI,
a Human Computer Interaction

00:32:35.870 --> 00:32:36.950
system.

00:32:36.950 --> 00:32:39.150
And that person has
some sort of goal.

00:32:39.150 --> 00:32:40.910
They are using
Excel because they

00:32:40.910 --> 00:32:43.560
want to balance their budget
or something like that.

00:32:43.560 --> 00:32:45.111
They have an intention.

00:32:45.111 --> 00:32:47.360
They're going to put numbers
into the spreadsheet that

00:32:47.360 --> 00:32:50.740
reflect their actual spending.

00:32:50.740 --> 00:32:52.157
They have a plan,
which is they're

00:32:52.157 --> 00:32:53.739
going to collect all
of their receipts

00:32:53.739 --> 00:32:55.450
together and look at
those bottom lines

00:32:55.450 --> 00:32:56.574
and start typing them in.

00:32:56.574 --> 00:32:57.990
And then they
actually execute it.

00:32:57.990 --> 00:32:59.531
They're actually--
all right, I think

00:32:59.531 --> 00:33:01.130
this is the way how it works.

00:33:01.130 --> 00:33:03.690
And then the computer
gives them some sort

00:33:03.690 --> 00:33:07.120
of feedback-- visual,
audio, vibration,

00:33:07.120 --> 00:33:09.390
if you're designing a game.

00:33:09.390 --> 00:33:12.780
The person using the system
has to perceive it and then

00:33:12.780 --> 00:33:15.930
figure out what that means.

00:33:15.930 --> 00:33:19.200
OK, a dialog box
popped up on my screen.

00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:21.910
I did something peculiar
and didn't expect that,

00:33:21.910 --> 00:33:24.450
and then they have to evaluate,
did that get them any closer

00:33:24.450 --> 00:33:26.110
to the goals that they had.

00:33:26.110 --> 00:33:28.040
And maybe then the
goal changes to maybe

00:33:28.040 --> 00:33:31.320
I should learn Excel before I
try to balance my spreadsheet.

00:33:31.320 --> 00:33:36.430
And then now they have a
slightly different goal.

00:33:36.430 --> 00:33:40.240
So you can translate
that into games.

00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:41.530
You start off with the goal.

00:33:41.530 --> 00:33:42.550
How do I win this game?

00:33:42.550 --> 00:33:43.550
How do I lose this game?

00:33:43.550 --> 00:33:46.800
How do I avoid losing, and
how do I win this game,

00:33:46.800 --> 00:33:48.030
or at least complete it?

00:33:48.030 --> 00:33:51.580
And then the player decides,
what do I want to do

00:33:51.580 --> 00:33:54.360
and comes up with a
plan, which is how am I

00:33:54.360 --> 00:33:58.120
going to do that thing that I
want to do, and then tries it.

00:33:58.120 --> 00:34:01.480
The game reacts, gives some
sort of feedback-- audio, sound,

00:34:01.480 --> 00:34:04.390
vibration, whatever--
but the player

00:34:04.390 --> 00:34:06.110
still has to perceive it.

00:34:06.110 --> 00:34:08.739
And this is a big
point right there.

00:34:08.739 --> 00:34:11.590
If you give the player
feedback and the player

00:34:11.590 --> 00:34:14.540
doesn't perceive that feedback
because they're too distracted

00:34:14.540 --> 00:34:16.960
by something else, because
it's the wrong color

00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:19.590
or it's off in the
corner of the screen

00:34:19.590 --> 00:34:22.530
where the player isn't
looking, the player

00:34:22.530 --> 00:34:24.034
doesn't get that feedback.

00:34:24.034 --> 00:34:25.659
The player has to
perceive the feedback

00:34:25.659 --> 00:34:27.889
and then figure out
what that means.

00:34:27.889 --> 00:34:30.020
It's like, oh, a big
giant exclamation mark

00:34:30.020 --> 00:34:32.017
appeared on the screen.

00:34:32.017 --> 00:34:32.850
What does that mean?

00:34:32.850 --> 00:34:35.299
I have no idea.

00:34:35.299 --> 00:34:37.340
And even if a player
understands what that means,

00:34:37.340 --> 00:34:38.923
they have to figure
out whether that's

00:34:38.923 --> 00:34:42.310
getting them any closer or
further away from the goals.

00:34:42.310 --> 00:34:47.658
So here's an example, back
to my StarCraft fandom.

00:34:47.658 --> 00:34:48.699
You're playing StarCraft.

00:34:48.699 --> 00:34:51.550
You wanted a giant army to
roll over your opponent.

00:34:51.550 --> 00:34:54.610
And that's the goal.

00:34:54.610 --> 00:34:58.080
Actually, the goal is just
to roll over your opponent.

00:34:58.080 --> 00:34:59.660
And what do I want to do?

00:34:59.660 --> 00:35:02.240
I want to build a giant army
to accomplish that goal.

00:35:02.240 --> 00:35:03.510
How do I do that?

00:35:03.510 --> 00:35:05.470
I'm going to build
lots of buildings

00:35:05.470 --> 00:35:08.590
that is going to create
all of these army units.

00:35:08.590 --> 00:35:11.570
And those army units are
going to serve that purpose

00:35:11.570 --> 00:35:13.450
that I just described.

00:35:13.450 --> 00:35:14.450
All right, let's try it.

00:35:14.450 --> 00:35:16.330
Game reacts, and you get this.

00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:20.450
What do I see or hear?

00:35:20.450 --> 00:35:23.040
The computer is yelling at me,
saying not enough minerals.

00:35:23.040 --> 00:35:23.890
What does that mean?

00:35:23.890 --> 00:35:26.620
I guess I need minerals.

00:35:26.620 --> 00:35:29.710
And is that what I want?

00:35:29.710 --> 00:35:30.280
I guess.

00:35:30.280 --> 00:35:33.430
If I have minerals, then
I can build those things

00:35:33.430 --> 00:35:36.370
that will get me the army that
I want to roll over my opponent.

00:35:36.370 --> 00:35:39.920
All right, my goal hasn't
changed at these long term,

00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:41.470
but my short term goal has.

00:35:41.470 --> 00:35:46.440
Now I have to figure out
how to get more minerals.

00:35:46.440 --> 00:35:49.980
So in The Design
of Everyday Things,

00:35:49.980 --> 00:35:54.750
Donald Norman introduces this
concept called affordances.

00:35:54.750 --> 00:35:58.470
And the idea is that there are
certain kinds of interfaces,

00:35:58.470 --> 00:36:00.990
things around in the world,
among the machines that you

00:36:00.990 --> 00:36:03.850
use every day but
also within games,

00:36:03.850 --> 00:36:07.920
that encourage you to interact
with them in a certain way.

00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:14.140
If you see, for
instance, a glass wall,

00:36:14.140 --> 00:36:19.510
and your goal is
to vandalize it,

00:36:19.510 --> 00:36:22.420
what's the most natural thing
to do to that glass wall?

00:36:22.420 --> 00:36:24.030
You smash it.

00:36:24.030 --> 00:36:24.570
All right.

00:36:24.570 --> 00:36:27.630
What if it was made
out of plywood,

00:36:27.630 --> 00:36:30.240
and your goal is
to vandalize it?

00:36:30.240 --> 00:36:33.120
You want to write on it.

00:36:33.120 --> 00:36:35.490
What else can do
with a plywood wall?

00:36:35.490 --> 00:36:36.200
Concrete wall?

00:36:39.990 --> 00:36:41.800
You want to break it?

00:36:41.800 --> 00:36:45.610
Or spraypaint-- yeah, yeah
because concrete holds

00:36:45.610 --> 00:36:47.240
paint pretty well.

00:36:47.240 --> 00:36:49.950
So there are these materials
that already suggest things

00:36:49.950 --> 00:36:51.680
that you can do with them.

00:36:51.680 --> 00:36:54.830
And you can take that concept
further in a more explicitly

00:36:54.830 --> 00:36:56.080
designed way.

00:36:56.080 --> 00:36:58.824
So let's look at door handles.

00:36:58.824 --> 00:37:00.490
We've got some door
handles around here.

00:37:00.490 --> 00:37:03.150
I guess there is this
kind of crash bar.

00:37:03.150 --> 00:37:04.810
You've got this
sort of door handle,

00:37:04.810 --> 00:37:07.120
and it's just the right
size for your hand.

00:37:07.120 --> 00:37:09.500
It's kind of curled
in a pleasant way that

00:37:09.500 --> 00:37:13.020
affords gripping, that affords
turning because there is

00:37:13.020 --> 00:37:16.550
a hinge on one side, and
there's a sort of a lever action

00:37:16.550 --> 00:37:19.210
so you can use less force to
be able to turn this thing.

00:37:19.210 --> 00:37:21.025
So you are
immediately encouraged

00:37:21.025 --> 00:37:22.410
to gripping this thing.

00:37:22.410 --> 00:37:25.450
But what does this door handle
not tell you about the door?

00:37:25.450 --> 00:37:28.560
It's very important if
you want to open the door.

00:37:28.560 --> 00:37:32.630
Yeah, do you push or
do you pull this door?

00:37:32.630 --> 00:37:37.470
So let's think of different
kinds of door handles.

00:37:37.470 --> 00:37:42.320
This is something that
you could grab and pull.

00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:48.720
But the designers of these
intended to use this for you

00:37:48.720 --> 00:37:50.470
to push, because it's
a lot easier for you

00:37:50.470 --> 00:37:54.260
to exert force going
outwards than to exert force

00:37:54.260 --> 00:37:57.740
going inwards, using
this kind of bar.

00:37:57.740 --> 00:38:01.450
That's why you see these on
doors that open outwards.

00:38:01.450 --> 00:38:04.834
However, that's still a problem
because there's a little rod

00:38:04.834 --> 00:38:06.250
all the way through,
and your hand

00:38:06.250 --> 00:38:08.180
can go all the way around it.

00:38:08.180 --> 00:38:11.240
And it's still tempting to just
grab the thing and pull it,

00:38:11.240 --> 00:38:14.780
which is a really bad situation
if it's an outward turning

00:38:14.780 --> 00:38:16.340
fire escape, for instance.

00:38:16.340 --> 00:38:19.092
You don't want people
trying to pull a door open

00:38:19.092 --> 00:38:21.550
when they should be pushing it
when they're in an emergency

00:38:21.550 --> 00:38:22.390
situation.

00:38:22.390 --> 00:38:25.320
You don't want to have them
do that kind of processing.

00:38:25.320 --> 00:38:28.810
So that's why they came
up with these crash bards.

00:38:28.810 --> 00:38:31.640
And eventually this one,
which is very similar to what

00:38:31.640 --> 00:38:34.130
we have on our door.

00:38:34.130 --> 00:38:37.680
They have these very wide
bars that you can push,

00:38:37.680 --> 00:38:40.532
and you can put your hand
around it but not comfortably.

00:38:40.532 --> 00:38:42.740
It's much easier for you to
use the flat of your hand

00:38:42.740 --> 00:38:44.470
to be able to push it outwards.

00:38:44.470 --> 00:38:48.350
And the version that we have
on this store over there,

00:38:48.350 --> 00:38:51.960
the part that you push is off
to one side, which tells you

00:38:51.960 --> 00:38:54.840
where you should be putting
your hands so that you can get

00:38:54.840 --> 00:38:57.130
better leverage to open the
door-- which way the door

00:38:57.130 --> 00:38:58.730
opens, left or right.

00:38:58.730 --> 00:39:00.370
And that's the
kind of thing that

00:39:00.370 --> 00:39:02.430
automates this
process of how do I

00:39:02.430 --> 00:39:05.170
open this door in an
emergency situation.

00:39:05.170 --> 00:39:08.120
These are affordances
of the design itself.

00:39:08.120 --> 00:39:10.807
The material is mostly
metal, although I

00:39:10.807 --> 00:39:13.390
guess the version that I've got
up here has a rubberized grip.

00:39:13.390 --> 00:39:14.870
And the idea of
a rubberized grip

00:39:14.870 --> 00:39:17.810
is that, well, maybe you want
to put your hand on the rubber

00:39:17.810 --> 00:39:20.620
part, not on the metal part.

00:39:20.620 --> 00:39:23.190
So you can design these
things in your games,

00:39:23.190 --> 00:39:25.580
these affordances to
sort of encourage people

00:39:25.580 --> 00:39:28.110
to, say, click on something.

00:39:28.110 --> 00:39:30.180
You can design
something that's meant

00:39:30.180 --> 00:39:32.140
to be clicked on to
look like a button,

00:39:32.140 --> 00:39:33.790
for instance, that's
slightly raised.

00:39:33.790 --> 00:39:36.710
And Apple does this a
lot, especially if you

00:39:36.710 --> 00:39:39.200
look at the older iOS design.

00:39:39.200 --> 00:39:43.730
Every single little icon kind
of had this little glossy bump.

00:39:43.730 --> 00:39:46.400
It tried to give you
this impression that this

00:39:46.400 --> 00:39:48.016
was something that
was raised off

00:39:48.016 --> 00:39:50.390
the screen, even though of
course it was completely flat.

00:39:50.390 --> 00:39:52.890
And it tried to encourage you
that this was a thing that you

00:39:52.890 --> 00:39:55.310
can tap with your finger.

00:39:55.310 --> 00:39:57.242
I'll go into more
examples of this later.

00:39:57.242 --> 00:39:58.950
Anyone can think of
something that you've

00:39:58.950 --> 00:40:02.140
seen in a computer
interface that encourages

00:40:02.140 --> 00:40:04.300
you to use it in that way?

00:40:04.300 --> 00:40:05.290
It could be mechanical.

00:40:05.290 --> 00:40:08.910
It could be on screen.

00:40:08.910 --> 00:40:11.330
Look at your
computers right now.

00:40:15.668 --> 00:40:18.506
AUDIENCE: It's not like
this on Mac anymore,

00:40:18.506 --> 00:40:20.006
but the scroll
baller has a little--

00:40:20.006 --> 00:40:21.934
I don't know what you call it,
the lines that look like you

00:40:21.934 --> 00:40:22.975
can grab them and scroll.

00:40:22.975 --> 00:40:25.560
PROFESSOR: Yeah,
it had a texture,

00:40:25.560 --> 00:40:28.260
sort of three little lines
that sort of gave you

00:40:28.260 --> 00:40:31.900
the idea that this was a
raised thing for gripping,

00:40:31.900 --> 00:40:34.230
in the same way that a
rubberized grip over a door

00:40:34.230 --> 00:40:36.920
handle encourages you
to put your hand on it.

00:40:36.920 --> 00:40:39.380
It probably would make more
sense nowadays, actually,

00:40:39.380 --> 00:40:43.050
given that so much of it
has gone to touch screens.

00:40:43.050 --> 00:40:44.730
The scroll wheel
would be another one.

00:40:44.730 --> 00:40:46.730
I just broke my mouse
scroll wheel this morning,

00:40:46.730 --> 00:40:48.220
so it's on my mind.

00:40:51.520 --> 00:40:53.010
Now, scroll wheels
on mice actually

00:40:53.010 --> 00:40:54.010
do two different things.

00:40:54.010 --> 00:40:56.080
You can click them, and
you can rotate them.

00:40:56.080 --> 00:40:58.170
But they're kind of really
designed to be rotated.

00:40:58.170 --> 00:40:59.795
And that's why I
broke my scroll wheel,

00:40:59.795 --> 00:41:03.160
because I kept clicking it.

00:41:03.160 --> 00:41:05.650
You are encouraged to roll
that thing up and down.

00:41:05.650 --> 00:41:09.100
They're usually made out of
some sort of rubberized material

00:41:09.100 --> 00:41:15.110
and a place right where
your finger has easy reach.

00:41:15.110 --> 00:41:19.060
You can flip that around and
make things deliberately hard

00:41:19.060 --> 00:41:21.670
when you don't want someone
to be doing something.

00:41:21.670 --> 00:41:29.190
Here's a screenshot
of-- what game is this?

00:41:29.190 --> 00:41:30.370
Plants vs. Zombies.

00:41:30.370 --> 00:41:35.330
There are no zombies on
screen, but it's very popular.

00:41:35.330 --> 00:41:40.250
And early in the game, early in
the development of this game,

00:41:40.250 --> 00:41:44.665
they had different values
for these early items

00:41:44.665 --> 00:41:46.290
that you'll get right
in the beginning.

00:41:46.290 --> 00:41:49.940
This is I think the very first
level in the entire game,

00:41:49.940 --> 00:41:52.240
and they're just trying to
get you to play this game.

00:41:52.240 --> 00:41:54.190
Now, this is a
tower defense game.

00:41:54.190 --> 00:41:57.380
You plant plants
that do various kinds

00:41:57.380 --> 00:41:58.920
of offensive or
defensive attacks

00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:01.090
against zombies who
are invading your lawn

00:42:01.090 --> 00:42:05.320
and trying to get
into your house.

00:42:05.320 --> 00:42:10.310
And there are things like
sunflowers that actually create

00:42:10.310 --> 00:42:12.660
the energy that you
need to be able to power

00:42:12.660 --> 00:42:15.270
the rest of your plants and
to give you the resources

00:42:15.270 --> 00:42:17.890
to be able to put the
rest of your plants down.

00:42:17.890 --> 00:42:22.780
But if the game
starts like this,

00:42:22.780 --> 00:42:27.350
what is first a first time
player who's encountering

00:42:27.350 --> 00:42:28.590
this game likely to do?

00:42:32.510 --> 00:42:33.980
AUDIENCE: Put a
plant in the dirt.

00:42:33.980 --> 00:42:35.438
PROFESSOR: Put a
plant in the dirt.

00:42:35.438 --> 00:42:36.972
Which plant?

00:42:36.972 --> 00:42:38.424
AUDIENCE: A sunflower.

00:42:38.424 --> 00:42:40.340
PROFESSOR: You think to
put a sunflower first?

00:42:44.768 --> 00:42:46.603
AUDIENCE: Or the pea shooter.

00:42:46.603 --> 00:42:47.228
AUDIENCE: Yeah.

00:42:47.228 --> 00:42:47.970
The one on the left is--

00:42:47.970 --> 00:42:49.170
PROFESSOR: The pea shooter.

00:42:49.170 --> 00:42:50.170
AUDIENCE: Left to right.

00:42:50.170 --> 00:42:50.878
PROFESSOR: Right.

00:42:50.878 --> 00:42:52.390
If they read it
from left to right,

00:42:52.390 --> 00:42:55.090
then they'll probably start
with the one on the left.

00:42:55.090 --> 00:42:56.940
Maybe there's a
50/50 chance at least

00:42:56.940 --> 00:42:58.820
that they will put
the pea shooter first,

00:42:58.820 --> 00:43:00.530
which is the little green guy.

00:43:00.530 --> 00:43:03.230
And that's actually
going to get the player

00:43:03.230 --> 00:43:05.680
into a lot of trouble real
fast, because once they

00:43:05.680 --> 00:43:09.264
put that plant down,
they can't do anything

00:43:09.264 --> 00:43:11.180
for a really, really
long time, by which point

00:43:11.180 --> 00:43:12.700
you may have lost the game.

00:43:12.700 --> 00:43:14.870
They need to put the
sunflower down first.

00:43:14.870 --> 00:43:18.320
So designers recognized,
oh OK, so we could just

00:43:18.320 --> 00:43:19.550
flip things around.

00:43:19.550 --> 00:43:22.319
But again, there's a 50%
chance that they will just

00:43:22.319 --> 00:43:22.860
get it wrong.

00:43:22.860 --> 00:43:24.360
At it's the first
level of the game.

00:43:24.360 --> 00:43:28.070
You don't want to turn somebody
off the game that quickly.

00:43:28.070 --> 00:43:31.120
So what they did
was they reduced

00:43:31.120 --> 00:43:35.380
the cost of the sunflower
and started you off

00:43:35.380 --> 00:43:37.900
with just enough money to
actually plant that sunflower.

00:43:37.900 --> 00:43:39.420
They didn't actually
flip the cards around

00:43:39.420 --> 00:43:40.690
because they figured,
that doesn't really

00:43:40.690 --> 00:43:41.552
solve the problem.

00:43:41.552 --> 00:43:43.010
What they did was
that they made it

00:43:43.010 --> 00:43:44.310
so that the only
thing that you can

00:43:44.310 --> 00:43:45.726
do at the beginning
of the game is

00:43:45.726 --> 00:43:48.480
plant that sunflower,
because that's pretty much

00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:51.700
always the right thing
to do in this game.

00:43:51.700 --> 00:43:54.680
Now, the cost reduction
might have been also

00:43:54.680 --> 00:43:57.120
out of other game
balance considerations.

00:43:57.120 --> 00:43:59.370
Maybe they decided, wow,
we really overpriced

00:43:59.370 --> 00:44:00.169
those sunflowers.

00:44:00.169 --> 00:44:02.460
We should make them a little
bit easier for you to get.

00:44:02.460 --> 00:44:06.610
But this also serves
a usability system.

00:44:06.610 --> 00:44:08.080
They want the people
to understand,

00:44:08.080 --> 00:44:10.420
the first thing that you
do on any level, plant

00:44:10.420 --> 00:44:11.180
that sunflower.

00:44:11.180 --> 00:44:14.510
Now, they could have told you
that, but this is a constraint.

00:44:14.510 --> 00:44:16.340
They've made it
impossible for a player

00:44:16.340 --> 00:44:18.715
to do the wrong thing right
at the beginning of the game.

00:44:21.380 --> 00:44:24.690
However, as the
game goes on, this,

00:44:24.690 --> 00:44:26.530
and due to game
balance issues, they

00:44:26.530 --> 00:44:28.730
started to come up
with other plants.

00:44:28.730 --> 00:44:32.710
This thing is called a walnut,
this brown thing over there.

00:44:32.710 --> 00:44:33.600
It makes a wall.

00:44:33.600 --> 00:44:35.710
It looks like a nut.

00:44:35.710 --> 00:44:38.470
And they figured through
game balance, well,

00:44:38.470 --> 00:44:41.940
it's pretty much got to
be about 50 solar energy,

00:44:41.940 --> 00:44:44.920
so we're going to have to price
it the same as the sunflower.

00:44:44.920 --> 00:44:47.160
But we don't want players
putting down walls

00:44:47.160 --> 00:44:48.368
at the beginning of the game.

00:44:48.368 --> 00:44:49.630
They don't actually need to.

00:44:49.630 --> 00:44:52.890
They should still be
putting sunflowers.

00:44:52.890 --> 00:44:56.599
So the solution
that they had was,

00:44:56.599 --> 00:44:59.140
they have these recharge meters
that fill up from the bottom.

00:44:59.140 --> 00:45:01.431
You can sort of see that this
is right at the beginning

00:45:01.431 --> 00:45:04.010
of the game when you've got a
lot of different kind of plants

00:45:04.010 --> 00:45:05.190
that you can plant.

00:45:05.190 --> 00:45:07.750
But only the sunflower
is fully charged up,

00:45:07.750 --> 00:45:09.520
and it's the only
card that you can use.

00:45:09.520 --> 00:45:12.750
The rest of them are slowly
filling up over time.

00:45:12.750 --> 00:45:15.231
Right in the first, maybe,
five seconds of the game,

00:45:15.231 --> 00:45:16.980
there is no other card
that you can plant,

00:45:16.980 --> 00:45:19.800
even though the costs
may imply that you

00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:21.360
can afford to plant
the walnut right

00:45:21.360 --> 00:45:22.568
at the beginning of the game.

00:45:22.568 --> 00:45:23.170
You can't.

00:45:23.170 --> 00:45:25.410
You have to plant the sunflower.

00:45:25.410 --> 00:45:28.120
So again, they've
made it impossible

00:45:28.120 --> 00:45:29.630
for you to do the wrong thing.

00:45:29.630 --> 00:45:32.470
There's also that shovel, but
you can't use the shovel right

00:45:32.470 --> 00:45:33.175
at the beginning of the game.

00:45:33.175 --> 00:45:35.050
The shovel right at the
beginning of the game

00:45:35.050 --> 00:45:38.390
has no effect because you
haven't planted anything.

00:45:38.390 --> 00:45:39.480
So that's a constraint.

00:45:39.480 --> 00:45:42.950
That's preventing someone
from doing the wrong thing.

00:45:42.950 --> 00:45:44.725
Now, if the decision
of whether you

00:45:44.725 --> 00:45:46.100
do the right thing
or wrong thing

00:45:46.100 --> 00:45:49.260
is a major game play
issue and it's something

00:45:49.260 --> 00:45:52.230
that you want people to sort
of agonize and to decide over,

00:45:52.230 --> 00:45:53.730
then you don't want
to constrain it.

00:45:53.730 --> 00:45:57.090
You want to give them the
option of making that mistake.

00:45:57.090 --> 00:46:00.210
But if it's an issue
of learnability,

00:46:00.210 --> 00:46:04.330
if making the wrong decision
makes your game hard to learn

00:46:04.330 --> 00:46:06.410
and hard to figure out
how to even get ahead

00:46:06.410 --> 00:46:08.100
and how to make
progress in the game,

00:46:08.100 --> 00:46:10.410
or even understand
how your game works,

00:46:10.410 --> 00:46:12.890
then that's something that you
should consider doing things

00:46:12.890 --> 00:46:15.790
like constraints and use
affordances to sort of suggest,

00:46:15.790 --> 00:46:19.400
this is what you should do,
constraints to demonstrate

00:46:19.400 --> 00:46:22.522
what you shouldn't do.

00:46:22.522 --> 00:46:24.210
Now, that's affordances
and constraints.

00:46:24.210 --> 00:46:25.187
Any questions so far?

00:46:32.820 --> 00:46:33.600
All right.

00:46:33.600 --> 00:46:35.930
There are other things
that you can do in addition

00:46:35.930 --> 00:46:38.640
to affordances and constraints
that sort of suggest

00:46:38.640 --> 00:46:41.000
how something should be used.

00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:42.940
So this is from Minecraft.

00:46:42.940 --> 00:46:45.700
And how many of you
have played Minecraft?

00:46:45.700 --> 00:46:50.360
OK, about a quarter
of the class.

00:46:50.360 --> 00:46:54.790
This is something that you see
really early on in the game.

00:46:54.790 --> 00:46:57.070
The way how Minecraft
is played, you

00:46:57.070 --> 00:47:00.230
are dropped off in a sort
of wilderness environment.

00:47:00.230 --> 00:47:02.006
Everything's made up of blocks.

00:47:02.006 --> 00:47:03.880
So it's kind of like a
wilderness environment

00:47:03.880 --> 00:47:04.924
made out of LEGOs.

00:47:04.924 --> 00:47:06.340
And the only thing
that you can do

00:47:06.340 --> 00:47:08.680
is walk around and punch things.

00:47:08.680 --> 00:47:11.790
So you start punching the ground
and you get some dirt blocks

00:47:11.790 --> 00:47:12.420
out of it.

00:47:12.420 --> 00:47:14.369
You start punching
trees, and you

00:47:14.369 --> 00:47:16.160
start getting some wood
blocks out of them,

00:47:16.160 --> 00:47:18.800
and they go into your inventory.

00:47:18.800 --> 00:47:21.960
What you very
quickly discover, I

00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:24.050
would say, in the first
minute of game play,

00:47:24.050 --> 00:47:26.250
is that if you went
into your inventory

00:47:26.250 --> 00:47:28.730
and looked at those
blocks, you can move them

00:47:28.730 --> 00:47:32.585
into this little four-by-four
square, just using your mouse

00:47:32.585 --> 00:47:33.960
and clicking and dragging them.

00:47:33.960 --> 00:47:38.640
And the square is
named crafting.

00:47:38.640 --> 00:47:43.420
So OK, I've beat up 15 trees.

00:47:43.420 --> 00:47:45.352
So now I've got
15 blocks of wood.

00:47:45.352 --> 00:47:46.310
What do I do with them?

00:47:46.310 --> 00:47:49.390
Well, if I drag them into the--
I can turn them into planks.

00:47:49.390 --> 00:47:50.260
Is it planks?

00:47:50.260 --> 00:47:54.640
Yeah, planks-- just by
dragging them up there.

00:47:54.640 --> 00:47:55.370
OK.

00:47:55.370 --> 00:47:58.880
By dragging things
into the crafting box,

00:47:58.880 --> 00:48:00.800
I can make other
kinds of things.

00:48:00.800 --> 00:48:02.860
That's the craft
part of Minecraft.

00:48:02.860 --> 00:48:06.070
The mining part is the
punching part of the world.

00:48:06.070 --> 00:48:09.410
So you punch the world,
and you make planks.

00:48:09.410 --> 00:48:13.552
You put planks into the crafting
square, and you get sticks.

00:48:13.552 --> 00:48:15.010
And you can do all
kinds of things,

00:48:15.010 --> 00:48:19.600
like make torches and make
arrows and so on and so forth.

00:48:19.600 --> 00:48:24.720
Later in the game, you
encounter something--

00:48:24.720 --> 00:48:28.940
you discover that you can
make a crafting table.

00:48:28.940 --> 00:48:32.510
And you see a nine-by-nine
square instead

00:48:32.510 --> 00:48:33.630
of a four-by-four square.

00:48:36.500 --> 00:48:38.991
Because you've already
seen the first one,

00:48:38.991 --> 00:48:41.240
you've already seen this
four-by-four square, the word

00:48:41.240 --> 00:48:44.110
crafting, and the arrow
which points to the right,

00:48:44.110 --> 00:48:47.160
and now you're seeing this very,
very similar thing over here,

00:48:47.160 --> 00:48:49.140
and inventory is
still visible there,

00:48:49.140 --> 00:48:51.610
even though it's not
just you anymore, it's

00:48:51.610 --> 00:48:55.059
you and this crafting
table, the implication

00:48:55.059 --> 00:48:56.850
is that you should
interact with this table

00:48:56.850 --> 00:49:00.540
pretty much in the same way that
you interact with objects back

00:49:00.540 --> 00:49:02.780
when you were examining
your inventory.

00:49:02.780 --> 00:49:05.020
So this is context that
has been established

00:49:05.020 --> 00:49:07.057
to the previous things
that you're seeing.

00:49:07.057 --> 00:49:08.640
And the things that
you see around it,

00:49:08.640 --> 00:49:12.180
like the arrow and your
arrangement of the boxes.

00:49:12.180 --> 00:49:16.490
And the word crafting-- you're
sort of telling the player,

00:49:16.490 --> 00:49:19.060
treat this very
much in the same way

00:49:19.060 --> 00:49:21.510
that you solved that
previous problem.

00:49:21.510 --> 00:49:23.280
And then eventually
you get to make things

00:49:23.280 --> 00:49:28.270
like pickaxes, for instance--
so giving some context to what

00:49:28.270 --> 00:49:29.260
the players are doing.

00:49:29.260 --> 00:49:33.840
Now, there's one particularly
powerful kind of context

00:49:33.840 --> 00:49:37.260
that you can set for any action
that a player does in the game.

00:49:37.260 --> 00:49:38.870
And some of your
games already have

00:49:38.870 --> 00:49:41.950
this-- and that's some sort
of storyline or setting

00:49:41.950 --> 00:49:44.100
or narrative, some sort
of fictional setting

00:49:44.100 --> 00:49:46.240
that your game is
taking place in.

00:49:46.240 --> 00:49:51.050
And often this is done
very, very poorly in games.

00:49:51.050 --> 00:49:53.580
You are being told your
games are in space,

00:49:53.580 --> 00:49:57.450
and you're being encouraged
to walk outside your spaceship

00:49:57.450 --> 00:49:59.340
without a spacesuit or
something like that.

00:49:59.340 --> 00:50:01.470
And in your game, that's fine.

00:50:01.470 --> 00:50:04.530
You have no asphyxiation
mechanic or something

00:50:04.530 --> 00:50:05.420
like that.

00:50:05.420 --> 00:50:07.680
But players don't
necessarily assume

00:50:07.680 --> 00:50:12.450
that they should be able to walk
outside in space and not die.

00:50:12.450 --> 00:50:14.560
So when you choose
your settings,

00:50:14.560 --> 00:50:19.222
when you choose your-- when
you choose your storylines,

00:50:19.222 --> 00:50:20.680
you have to make
sure that they are

00:50:20.680 --> 00:50:22.164
supporting those
kinds of mechanics

00:50:22.164 --> 00:50:23.080
that you come in with.

00:50:23.080 --> 00:50:25.130
A lot of your games started
off by what mechanic

00:50:25.130 --> 00:50:27.660
that you wanted to do.

00:50:27.660 --> 00:50:30.700
Make sure that your storylines
are actually supporting that.

00:50:30.700 --> 00:50:33.500
Can you think of any games,
commercial games for instance

00:50:33.500 --> 00:50:36.000
that you've played, where
the storyline was really

00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:38.400
at odds with what the
players were actually

00:50:38.400 --> 00:50:41.320
being asked to do.

00:50:41.320 --> 00:50:43.130
I see some nods.

00:50:43.130 --> 00:50:45.720
Some hands?

00:50:45.720 --> 00:50:47.190
Let's call out a few bad ones.

00:50:47.190 --> 00:50:51.030
AUDIENCE: Well, one this
is that most-- playing

00:50:51.030 --> 00:50:52.907
games, especially
Japanese ones, tend

00:50:52.907 --> 00:50:54.990
do have battle systems
that have basically nothing

00:50:54.990 --> 00:50:58.205
to do with the story and have
a lot of strange mechanics

00:50:58.205 --> 00:50:59.482
that aren't actually related.

00:50:59.482 --> 00:51:01.690
For example, the Final
Fantasy games-- your character

00:51:01.690 --> 00:51:04.530
can summon these really powerful
monsters, but for some reason

00:51:04.530 --> 00:51:06.684
you never actually use
those to solve your problems

00:51:06.684 --> 00:51:08.100
in the storyline,
for some reason.

00:51:08.100 --> 00:51:09.390
PROFESSOR: Right.

00:51:09.390 --> 00:51:12.150
And I would say that's
actually the difference

00:51:12.150 --> 00:51:15.020
between the better and the
worse Final Fantasy games.

00:51:15.020 --> 00:51:18.690
In the better Final
Fantasy games,

00:51:18.690 --> 00:51:20.580
they actually explain
why that doesn't work.

00:51:20.580 --> 00:51:23.280
In the worse Final Fantasy
games, you have all this power.

00:51:23.280 --> 00:51:27.420
Why aren't you just solving
the problem instantly?

00:51:27.420 --> 00:51:28.490
That's a good one.

00:51:28.490 --> 00:51:30.169
Any others?

00:51:30.169 --> 00:51:34.001
AUDIENCE: Well, I feel like
the classic example is probably

00:51:34.001 --> 00:51:39.280
Skyrim, where you're a warrior
fated to this grand destiny

00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:44.759
and probably just run around
punching chickens for a while.

00:51:44.759 --> 00:51:46.594
PROFESSOR: Well, I'm
trying to remember.

00:51:46.594 --> 00:51:49.010
Skyrim, you start off like a
prisoner or something, right?

00:51:51.810 --> 00:51:54.420
But I do remember some of
the earlier Elder Scrolls

00:51:54.420 --> 00:51:55.710
and a lot of Western RPGs.

00:51:55.710 --> 00:51:58.931
It's like, let's go into
the tunnels and kill rats,

00:51:58.931 --> 00:52:00.180
because you're the chosen one.

00:52:03.790 --> 00:52:06.590
It comes up.

00:52:06.590 --> 00:52:12.210
That is actually, I think,
partly fiction against fiction.

00:52:12.210 --> 00:52:15.632
It's like, you have the quest
which tells you to kill rats.

00:52:15.632 --> 00:52:17.840
And you have the overall
storyline that's telling you

00:52:17.840 --> 00:52:20.470
that you're the savior
of the universe.

00:52:20.470 --> 00:52:23.820
And that's at odds.

00:52:23.820 --> 00:52:26.080
But there are mechanical
issues as well.

00:52:26.080 --> 00:52:31.630
Why is your savior
of the universe

00:52:31.630 --> 00:52:33.650
picking up all the cheese
wheels in the world,

00:52:33.650 --> 00:52:39.300
for instance, which
does happen in Skyrim.

00:52:39.300 --> 00:52:43.550
Something else that you can do
is expose more of your system.

00:52:43.550 --> 00:52:46.170
How many of you are playing
Destiny right now, by the way?

00:52:46.170 --> 00:52:47.350
Just out of curiosity.

00:52:47.350 --> 00:52:48.100
A few hands, OK.

00:52:51.130 --> 00:52:56.570
One thing that Destiny does
that Halo-- how many of you

00:52:56.570 --> 00:52:58.060
have played Halo?

00:52:58.060 --> 00:52:59.780
OK, more.

00:52:59.780 --> 00:53:02.940
One thing that Destiny
does that Halo doesn't do

00:53:02.940 --> 00:53:05.710
is that it actually shows you
how much damage you're putting

00:53:05.710 --> 00:53:07.150
up with every single shot.

00:53:07.150 --> 00:53:09.870
A little floating number,
in a very RPG-like way,

00:53:09.870 --> 00:53:15.350
showing you how effective
your weapon is being.

00:53:15.350 --> 00:53:21.190
And that seems to be a necessary
consideration by Bungie,

00:53:21.190 --> 00:53:24.400
who made both games, that,
well, even though our games kind

00:53:24.400 --> 00:53:28.260
of play in the same way, we need
to reveal this extra little bit

00:53:28.260 --> 00:53:31.640
of information, because the
way how weapons work in Destiny

00:53:31.640 --> 00:53:37.660
is a little bit less predictable
than how they work in Halo.

00:53:37.660 --> 00:53:40.280
So we're actually
just going to show you

00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:43.170
how much damage each weapon
does every time you shoot it

00:53:43.170 --> 00:53:46.230
by showing you the
numerical amount.

00:53:46.230 --> 00:53:48.990
This is a screenshot
from SimCity.

00:53:48.990 --> 00:53:51.250
And one of the neat
things about SimCity

00:53:51.250 --> 00:53:55.746
is that you can kind of open
the hood on all of the variables

00:53:55.746 --> 00:53:57.620
that the game is tracking
at any given times,

00:53:57.620 --> 00:54:00.750
and they show you these
lovely little bar graphs.

00:54:00.750 --> 00:54:04.767
I think this is, like,
citizen satisfaction or maybe

00:54:04.767 --> 00:54:05.600
it's property value.

00:54:05.600 --> 00:54:07.840
I'm not sure.

00:54:07.840 --> 00:54:10.580
But you can go into all
of these different modes

00:54:10.580 --> 00:54:12.920
where you can look at your
city through different lenses

00:54:12.920 --> 00:54:14.461
to see all of the
different variables

00:54:14.461 --> 00:54:16.790
that the game is tracking
and how they're interacting.

00:54:16.790 --> 00:54:19.590
So it takes a lot of
work to be able to reveal

00:54:19.590 --> 00:54:20.880
this sort of information.

00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:23.832
And if you're not careful, you
can reveal so much information

00:54:23.832 --> 00:54:26.290
that a player is just confused
because there's so much data

00:54:26.290 --> 00:54:28.050
on the screen at once.

00:54:28.050 --> 00:54:33.530
But being clear on this is
the action that you're taking

00:54:33.530 --> 00:54:36.220
and this is the result,
or here are all the things

00:54:36.220 --> 00:54:39.930
that the game
currently cares about,

00:54:39.930 --> 00:54:42.600
is one way to help
people better understand

00:54:42.600 --> 00:54:45.919
how your game is working,
so opening up the hood

00:54:45.919 --> 00:54:46.460
a little bit.

00:54:46.460 --> 00:54:48.400
I don't mean giving
them the source code.

00:54:48.400 --> 00:54:50.040
No one's going to read that.

00:54:50.040 --> 00:54:53.140
I mean putting things on
screen or through audio

00:54:53.140 --> 00:54:56.140
to better reveal what's
happening numerically

00:54:56.140 --> 00:54:56.880
in your game.

00:55:01.180 --> 00:55:03.320
Previous user experience,
we focus-- yes?

00:55:03.320 --> 00:55:06.314
AUDIENCE: What about
the danger of you

00:55:06.314 --> 00:55:08.809
revealing that information,
the player seeing how something

00:55:08.809 --> 00:55:12.135
works, and then them saying,
I don't like how this works,

00:55:12.135 --> 00:55:14.310
I don't want to do this anymore?

00:55:14.310 --> 00:55:17.240
PROFESSOR: Then I think you
have a play-testing issue

00:55:17.240 --> 00:55:18.770
to consider.

00:55:18.770 --> 00:55:23.190
It's not like the player is
confused about the situation.

00:55:23.190 --> 00:55:27.550
The question is-- that there
are two possible answers.

00:55:27.550 --> 00:55:30.950
One, maybe our game system is
badly tuned or badly designed

00:55:30.950 --> 00:55:31.850
in the first place.

00:55:31.850 --> 00:55:34.830
And yeah, once people
realize how this game works,

00:55:34.830 --> 00:55:36.910
they're not going to
want to play it anymore,

00:55:36.910 --> 00:55:38.650
which is a game design issue.

00:55:38.650 --> 00:55:41.570
And then the other
situation which

00:55:41.570 --> 00:55:47.550
is, well, if we never explained
these numbers to them,

00:55:47.550 --> 00:55:49.555
they will actually
better like our game.

00:55:49.555 --> 00:55:51.430
Even if they figure out
how this game worked,

00:55:51.430 --> 00:55:52.840
by not showing
them these numbers,

00:55:52.840 --> 00:55:53.970
they better like this game.

00:55:53.970 --> 00:55:55.440
I have that issue with
Destiny, actually.

00:55:55.440 --> 00:55:56.856
I don't want to
see those numbers.

00:55:59.220 --> 00:56:01.710
And you can make that
decision to hide it.

00:56:01.710 --> 00:56:03.530
It's like, this is
complexity that we don't

00:56:03.530 --> 00:56:05.955
want players to care about.

00:56:05.955 --> 00:56:07.580
You guys have to be
very, very careful,

00:56:07.580 --> 00:56:12.141
but that's why design is an
interesting, tough problem.

00:56:12.141 --> 00:56:13.640
But those are the
kinds of decisions

00:56:13.640 --> 00:56:15.100
you get to make as a designer.

00:56:18.565 --> 00:56:19.555
Other questions?

00:56:22.530 --> 00:56:25.730
We used this earlier when
we looked at Animal Upon

00:56:25.730 --> 00:56:30.150
Animal, Tier auf Tier,
And people immediately

00:56:30.150 --> 00:56:32.460
assume that this
was a game for kids

00:56:32.460 --> 00:56:34.730
based on user experience,
other kinds of games

00:56:34.730 --> 00:56:37.070
that you've seen-- the color
of the font and the shape

00:56:37.070 --> 00:56:39.590
and how it's written.

00:56:39.590 --> 00:56:46.420
This is an illustration of how
pull-to-refresh works on iOS.

00:56:46.420 --> 00:56:50.210
If you want to refresh all of
the email in your mail client,

00:56:50.210 --> 00:56:52.900
you pull it down, and
this little circle

00:56:52.900 --> 00:56:56.260
starts to stretch, and
there's a little icon there.

00:56:56.260 --> 00:56:59.660
And then it starts refreshing.

00:56:59.660 --> 00:57:03.960
That is not an interaction
with a computer

00:57:03.960 --> 00:57:05.730
that anybody's born with.

00:57:05.730 --> 00:57:09.267
This is something that someone
had to learn from somewhere.

00:57:09.267 --> 00:57:11.600
Anyone can think of when was
the first time you saw this

00:57:11.600 --> 00:57:14.720
on a cellphone?

00:57:14.720 --> 00:57:16.740
On Instagram?

00:57:16.740 --> 00:57:18.200
OK.

00:57:18.200 --> 00:57:21.850
Any other earlier things?

00:57:21.850 --> 00:57:25.390
I think Twitter actually
has the patent on this,

00:57:25.390 --> 00:57:29.010
but they don't seem to have
sued anyone for using this,

00:57:29.010 --> 00:57:32.134
and Apple uses it
now-- pull-to-refresh

00:57:32.134 --> 00:57:33.050
for your Twitter feed.

00:57:36.020 --> 00:57:37.890
And now it's in
many mobile apps.

00:57:37.890 --> 00:57:39.667
And mobile apps just
assume that we don't

00:57:39.667 --> 00:57:40.750
have to teach anyone this.

00:57:40.750 --> 00:57:44.084
They just assume that if you are
a regular user of mobile apps,

00:57:44.084 --> 00:57:45.750
pull-to-refresh is
something that people

00:57:45.750 --> 00:57:48.710
will understand how to do.

00:57:48.710 --> 00:57:50.770
Here's another example.

00:57:50.770 --> 00:57:52.780
This is early in Half-Life 2.

00:57:52.780 --> 00:57:56.710
And early in the game,
you're just given a crowbar.

00:57:56.710 --> 00:58:01.060
And the dialogue
even says, you know,

00:58:01.060 --> 00:58:04.480
assume you know what
to do with this thing.

00:58:04.480 --> 00:58:07.920
Why can the game just
give you a crowbar

00:58:07.920 --> 00:58:10.330
and not tell you how to use it?

00:58:10.330 --> 00:58:11.874
Why can Half-Life 2 do that?

00:58:15.398 --> 00:58:16.772
AUDIENCE: Because
people know how

00:58:16.772 --> 00:58:18.317
to use a crowbar in real life.

00:58:18.317 --> 00:58:18.900
PROFESSOR: OK.

00:58:18.900 --> 00:58:21.650
There is some real-life
personal experience

00:58:21.650 --> 00:58:22.835
about how to use a crowbar.

00:58:22.835 --> 00:58:25.460
Although I would argue that how
to use a crowbar in Half-Life 2

00:58:25.460 --> 00:58:27.530
is not actually how you
use it in your life.

00:58:27.530 --> 00:58:29.950
In real life, you sort
of lever it, right?

00:58:29.950 --> 00:58:33.950
In Half-Life 2, you
kind of do that.

00:58:37.100 --> 00:58:39.360
Of course, having
to use it in a game

00:58:39.360 --> 00:58:41.400
is using the mouse and keyboard.

00:58:41.400 --> 00:58:44.530
Why can the game get away
with not explaining to you

00:58:44.530 --> 00:58:46.833
what this object is used for?

00:58:46.833 --> 00:58:48.374
AUDIENCE: Well, it's
a sequel, so you

00:58:48.374 --> 00:58:50.499
could assume that the person
played the first game.

00:58:50.499 --> 00:58:53.340
PROFESSOR: The assumption that
they've played Half-Life 1.

00:58:53.340 --> 00:58:55.530
It's a game for fans.

00:58:55.530 --> 00:58:58.140
It's not that crucial a tool,
although eventually they

00:58:58.140 --> 00:58:59.640
start to have puzzles
where you need

00:58:59.640 --> 00:59:01.723
to solve it using the
crowbar, but you can usually

00:59:01.723 --> 00:59:05.290
solve it using some
other weapon as well.

00:59:05.290 --> 00:59:07.190
The crowbar happens
to be an iconic weapon

00:59:07.190 --> 00:59:08.700
of the Half-Life series.

00:59:08.700 --> 00:59:12.440
And so they just assume, you're
getting into Half-Life 2,

00:59:12.440 --> 00:59:14.960
you probably realize
that the crowbar

00:59:14.960 --> 00:59:18.170
is a thing in this series.

00:59:18.170 --> 00:59:20.395
So again, previous
user experience.

00:59:23.310 --> 00:59:26.560
There's cultural cues that
come from outside of games.

00:59:26.560 --> 00:59:28.540
Like, this is a shot
from Grand Theft Auto.

00:59:28.540 --> 00:59:31.610
And even though
you may never have

00:59:31.610 --> 00:59:33.860
driven a car that looks
exactly like that,

00:59:33.860 --> 00:59:37.290
you can make certain assumptions
about this kind of car.

00:59:37.290 --> 00:59:38.840
What kind of car is that?

00:59:38.840 --> 00:59:42.900
It's kind of blurry, but
maybe you can make it out.

00:59:42.900 --> 00:59:45.440
Does it go fast, or is
it kind of a clunker?

00:59:45.440 --> 00:59:46.784
AUDIENCE: Fast.

00:59:46.784 --> 00:59:48.200
PROFESSOR: It's
fast, because it's

00:59:48.200 --> 00:59:52.080
kind of a streamlined,
sports car look.

00:59:52.080 --> 00:59:53.730
So you know that
you're in a fast car.

00:59:56.346 --> 00:59:57.470
Grand Theft Auto is a game.

00:59:57.470 --> 00:59:58.350
There's a lot of violence.

00:59:58.350 --> 01:00:00.391
If somebody shot at you
while you're in this car,

01:00:00.391 --> 01:00:03.190
do you expect to
be taking damage?

01:00:03.190 --> 01:00:04.120
Yeah.

01:00:04.120 --> 01:00:04.990
There's no windows.

01:00:04.990 --> 01:00:06.820
There's no steel frame.

01:00:06.820 --> 01:00:09.790
If you wanted to get onto
that bridge back there,

01:00:09.790 --> 01:00:11.036
how would you do it?

01:00:14.530 --> 01:00:16.780
Just go up the on ramp, right?

01:00:16.780 --> 01:00:20.640
I mean, you can kind of see
it, but it actually curves off

01:00:20.640 --> 01:00:22.210
and then goes onto the bridge.

01:00:22.210 --> 01:00:25.470
But you kind of assume that
players have seen real-life

01:00:25.470 --> 01:00:30.640
on ramps and sort of understand
how urban geography works.

01:00:30.640 --> 01:00:33.610
In this case, it's
particularly an American city.

01:00:33.610 --> 01:00:37.690
And they see a bridge
in the background.

01:00:37.690 --> 01:00:39.610
And this thing
that slopes upward,

01:00:39.610 --> 01:00:42.790
even though it curves away
from the bridge, people

01:00:42.790 --> 01:00:45.170
can assume that it actually
leads to the bridge.

01:00:45.170 --> 01:00:49.470
So they're using all
of these cultural cues.

01:00:49.470 --> 01:00:52.200
But you can take
that idea too far.

01:00:52.200 --> 01:00:58.410
So this is a screenshot from the
Magic Cap PDA user interface.

01:00:58.410 --> 01:01:02.670
So this was pre Apple
Newton, I believe.

01:01:02.670 --> 01:01:09.750
And this was a user interface
for a personal data assistant.

01:01:09.750 --> 01:01:14.160
And there are some things
here that sort of make sense.

01:01:14.160 --> 01:01:19.360
What do you think the little
postcard thing in the middle

01:01:19.360 --> 01:01:22.302
is supposed to be for?

01:01:22.302 --> 01:01:24.034
AUDIENCE: Writing postcards?

01:01:24.034 --> 01:01:24.617
PROFESSOR: Hm?

01:01:24.617 --> 01:01:26.010
AUDIENCE: Writing postcards?

01:01:26.010 --> 01:01:28.690
PROFESSOR: Writing postcards?

01:01:28.690 --> 01:01:30.962
This is a digital device.

01:01:30.962 --> 01:01:34.212
Do you think you're actually
using it to write postcards?

01:01:34.212 --> 01:01:35.420
AUDIENCE: Internet postcards.

01:01:35.420 --> 01:01:37.050
PROFESSOR: Internet
postcards, OK.

01:01:39.590 --> 01:01:44.385
What do you think this thing
in the lower right corner does?

01:01:48.238 --> 01:01:49.375
AUDIENCE: Recycle bin.

01:01:49.375 --> 01:01:50.625
PROFESSOR: It's a recycle bin.

01:01:50.625 --> 01:01:52.250
It's a trash bin.

01:01:52.250 --> 01:01:55.360
You've seen it in a lot of
different desktop-- this time

01:01:55.360 --> 01:01:57.490
it's a trash truck, I'm
assuming because all

01:01:57.490 --> 01:01:59.910
of the other recycle
bin and trash bin things

01:01:59.910 --> 01:02:02.990
have been copyrighted
or trademarked by Apple

01:02:02.990 --> 01:02:06.900
and Microsoft, respectively.

01:02:06.900 --> 01:02:10.245
What does the magic lamp do?

01:02:10.245 --> 01:02:12.160
AUDIENCE: Grants wishes.

01:02:12.160 --> 01:02:14.940
PROFESSOR: Grants your wishes.

01:02:14.940 --> 01:02:15.920
Programs?

01:02:15.920 --> 01:02:17.450
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].

01:02:17.450 --> 01:02:18.520
PROFESSOR: Like, apps.

01:02:18.520 --> 01:02:20.192
Yeah, OK.

01:02:20.192 --> 01:02:20.900
Some other hands?

01:02:20.900 --> 01:02:22.395
Some other ideas?

01:02:22.395 --> 01:02:23.020
AUDIENCE: Help.

01:02:23.020 --> 01:02:24.103
PROFESSOR: You think help?

01:02:24.103 --> 01:02:26.660
Yeah, you rub the
genie for help.

01:02:26.660 --> 01:02:29.670
So we have three
fairly plausible

01:02:29.670 --> 01:02:32.680
entirely different
interpretations

01:02:32.680 --> 01:02:34.240
of what that magic lamp is.

01:02:34.240 --> 01:02:35.670
This is an indirection metaphor.

01:02:35.670 --> 01:02:38.430
Everything on this
desktop-- and we

01:02:38.430 --> 01:02:40.910
still use that
terminology today.

01:02:40.910 --> 01:02:43.990
This is from the early '90s.

01:02:43.990 --> 01:02:46.090
Every single one
of these things is

01:02:46.090 --> 01:02:50.300
a metaphor for something else
that you can use on the PDA.

01:02:50.300 --> 01:02:52.430
You're not going to
be writing postcards

01:02:52.430 --> 01:02:58.940
using a digital device because
that's a medium that exists

01:02:58.940 --> 01:03:00.457
outside of digital technology.

01:03:00.457 --> 01:03:02.040
But you're going to
be sending emails,

01:03:02.040 --> 01:03:05.550
so you're going to use that
postcard icon in the middle

01:03:05.550 --> 01:03:08.345
to send messages.

01:03:08.345 --> 01:03:11.950
Are you going to be
sending faxes exactly?

01:03:11.950 --> 01:03:13.510
That's a fax machine.

01:03:13.510 --> 01:03:16.350
First of all, in 2014,
I'm not entirely sure

01:03:16.350 --> 01:03:19.140
whether anyone recognizes
a fax machine anymore.

01:03:19.140 --> 01:03:21.900
Are you going to be using that
thing to make phone calls,

01:03:21.900 --> 01:03:24.360
or are you going to be
sending pictures with it?

01:03:24.360 --> 01:03:28.635
The clock is not such a
difficult thing to understand.

01:03:28.635 --> 01:03:31.050
So some of these
interaction metaphors work,

01:03:31.050 --> 01:03:33.600
and some of them don't.

01:03:33.600 --> 01:03:35.440
Again, if you put
story in your game

01:03:35.440 --> 01:03:41.760
or even some sort of a fantasy
setting or fictional setting,

01:03:41.760 --> 01:03:45.070
that's already establishing
a metaphor for your game.

01:03:45.070 --> 01:03:47.710
If your game is
about child grows up

01:03:47.710 --> 01:03:51.470
and learns to battle
the evils of the world,

01:03:51.470 --> 01:03:53.630
for instance, that
maps on pretty closely

01:03:53.630 --> 01:03:55.750
to the mechanics
of a lot of games.

01:03:55.750 --> 01:03:59.550
That's why the Zelda
franchise works kind of hand

01:03:59.550 --> 01:04:03.090
in hand, the storyline
and the mechanic.

01:04:03.090 --> 01:04:05.210
You start off as this
kind of helpless kid,

01:04:05.210 --> 01:04:07.860
and then you get
all of these tools

01:04:07.860 --> 01:04:09.650
and take on bigger
and bigger challenges.

01:04:09.650 --> 01:04:13.750
It's a big metaphor
for growing up.

01:04:13.750 --> 01:04:19.060
But you can also confuse, or at
the very least, date your game

01:04:19.060 --> 01:04:22.190
by over-relying on metaphors.

01:04:22.190 --> 01:04:25.890
So if you, say, have a big stop
sign or something that, well,

01:04:25.890 --> 01:04:27.570
that's probably pretty timeless.

01:04:27.570 --> 01:04:31.950
But it's going to assume that
everyone has seen a stop sign,

01:04:31.950 --> 01:04:34.100
and your users will be
unclear whether that

01:04:34.100 --> 01:04:38.560
means stop the current action
or stop forward velocity.

01:04:38.560 --> 01:04:41.790
Those are two different things.

01:04:41.790 --> 01:04:45.140
So I'm just saying, be careful
of using too many metaphors

01:04:45.140 --> 01:04:49.274
to do the heavy lifting on
getting your concepts across.

01:04:49.274 --> 01:04:50.690
Often you're going
to have to rely

01:04:50.690 --> 01:04:53.564
on multiple means of
feedback to help people

01:04:53.564 --> 01:04:54.855
understand how your game works.

01:04:58.040 --> 01:05:00.860
Now, one thing that you're
going to be keeping your eye out

01:05:00.860 --> 01:05:04.380
for when you're designing for
usability errors-- mistakes

01:05:04.380 --> 01:05:06.910
that people are making,
but I want to clarify there

01:05:06.910 --> 01:05:09.000
are two different
kinds of errors,

01:05:09.000 --> 01:05:10.840
and mistakes are
only one of them.

01:05:10.840 --> 01:05:14.050
Slips are skilled
behavior errors.

01:05:14.050 --> 01:05:17.890
Someone who knows what they
want to do and accidentally

01:05:17.890 --> 01:05:19.060
did the wrong thing.

01:05:19.060 --> 01:05:24.710
How many of you
have gone to class

01:05:24.710 --> 01:05:27.676
when you had intended to
go to a friend's dorm room,

01:05:27.676 --> 01:05:29.960
and you just ended
up in your class?

01:05:29.960 --> 01:05:31.360
OK, yeah.

01:05:31.360 --> 01:05:35.450
Or driven to work
or something while

01:05:35.450 --> 01:05:39.140
intending to drive to
your friend's house?

01:05:39.140 --> 01:05:42.535
So it's not like you didn't
know where your friends were.

01:05:42.535 --> 01:05:43.910
You knew where
your friends were,

01:05:43.910 --> 01:05:45.534
and you knew that
you were going there.

01:05:45.534 --> 01:05:48.870
But somewhere along, your skill
behavior of getting to class

01:05:48.870 --> 01:05:51.150
just automatically took over.

01:05:51.150 --> 01:05:53.030
And you did the wrong thing.

01:05:59.070 --> 01:06:01.750
I have calling your boyfriend
by your last boyfriend's

01:06:01.750 --> 01:06:03.240
name on my examples here.

01:06:03.240 --> 01:06:05.190
That's a tricky one.

01:06:09.810 --> 01:06:11.670
But things like
clicking a button that

01:06:11.670 --> 01:06:13.753
looks very similar to the
button that you actually

01:06:13.753 --> 01:06:14.580
wanted to click.

01:06:14.580 --> 01:06:16.350
This is, by the way,
something that you

01:06:16.350 --> 01:06:19.540
find in Dark Souls and many,
many different fantasy games,

01:06:19.540 --> 01:06:21.540
is you have a
monster that happens

01:06:21.540 --> 01:06:23.270
to look like a treasure chest.

01:06:23.270 --> 01:06:24.410
And this was intentional.

01:06:24.410 --> 01:06:30.090
So the game designer is using
this kind of player error

01:06:30.090 --> 01:06:33.354
deliberately to sort of trick
you into a powerless position.

01:06:33.354 --> 01:06:34.270
Ooh, a treasure chest.

01:06:34.270 --> 01:06:35.330
I'm going to open it.

01:06:35.330 --> 01:06:37.310
And it bites you.

01:06:37.310 --> 01:06:39.500
So it's going to mimic.

01:06:39.500 --> 01:06:47.360
And those are things that might
be OK to leave in your game.

01:06:47.360 --> 01:06:49.810
If it happens too often,
it can be frustrating,

01:06:49.810 --> 01:06:52.590
especially if you're sort
of designing your user

01:06:52.590 --> 01:06:56.200
interface in a way that
leads people to confusion,

01:06:56.200 --> 01:07:00.090
and you want to be able to catch
those errors and fix those.

01:07:00.090 --> 01:07:03.540
But a little bit harder to
fix are mental model errors,

01:07:03.540 --> 01:07:07.250
where somebody actually thinks
your game works differently

01:07:07.250 --> 01:07:08.804
from how your game
actually works,

01:07:08.804 --> 01:07:10.970
and they're going to make
a mistake because of that.

01:07:10.970 --> 01:07:13.750
So how many of you play Portal?

01:07:13.750 --> 01:07:14.956
All right.

01:07:14.956 --> 01:07:18.100
Up until you meet
this thing, is there

01:07:18.100 --> 01:07:20.280
anything in the game that
can actually hurt you?

01:07:27.112 --> 01:07:28.190
Oh, yeah.

01:07:28.190 --> 01:07:31.340
You can fall into water,
that really, really

01:07:31.340 --> 01:07:32.600
icky-looking water.

01:07:32.600 --> 01:07:34.360
So that's the
first time you die.

01:07:34.360 --> 01:07:36.026
But that's something
that you fall into.

01:07:36.026 --> 01:07:38.510
That's something you
kind of like-- yeah,

01:07:38.510 --> 01:07:42.570
you can kill yourself, but
you have to kill yourself.

01:07:42.570 --> 01:07:45.760
Then you meet these
things, and you

01:07:45.760 --> 01:07:48.930
haven't met a single thing
that is out to get you.

01:07:48.930 --> 01:07:51.000
And then you walk
around the corner,

01:07:51.000 --> 01:07:52.950
and what does this thing do?

01:07:52.950 --> 01:07:54.330
AUDIENCE: It gets you.

01:07:54.330 --> 01:07:55.575
PROFESSOR: It gets you.

01:07:55.575 --> 01:07:57.090
It shoots you.

01:07:57.090 --> 01:07:58.550
It's a turret.

01:07:58.550 --> 01:08:01.140
It says some really, really
cute things, and then it's like,

01:08:01.140 --> 01:08:02.230
are you still there?

01:08:02.230 --> 01:08:03.063
Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum.

01:08:05.540 --> 01:08:07.750
And then you suddenly
realize in this game

01:08:07.750 --> 01:08:10.540
that there are things out
there who are actively

01:08:10.540 --> 01:08:13.520
going to be trying to hurt
you even if you're not

01:08:13.520 --> 01:08:15.690
moving, for instance.

01:08:15.690 --> 01:08:20.340
So now, up until that point
in the game, the player

01:08:20.340 --> 01:08:24.439
will be perfectly
legitimately thinking,

01:08:24.439 --> 01:08:27.910
the only way that I'm going
to lose or die in this game

01:08:27.910 --> 01:08:32.899
is to make a mistake
myself or to deliberately

01:08:32.899 --> 01:08:36.460
cause myself to be in a position
that's going to kill me.

01:08:36.460 --> 01:08:39.340
But then they find these things,
and they realize, no, actually,

01:08:39.340 --> 01:08:41.485
there are hostile
elements in this game that

01:08:41.485 --> 01:08:42.720
are out to get me.

01:08:42.720 --> 01:08:44.733
And now they have to
revise that understanding

01:08:44.733 --> 01:08:46.024
of what this game is all about.

01:08:49.734 --> 01:08:50.859
Now, this is the challenge.

01:08:50.859 --> 01:08:53.109
You as a designer,
you are the people

01:08:53.109 --> 01:08:54.290
who are making the games.

01:08:54.290 --> 01:08:56.640
You are making these
systems that players

01:08:56.640 --> 01:08:57.779
are going to interact with.

01:08:57.779 --> 01:08:59.920
And when players are
playing the game,

01:08:59.920 --> 01:09:03.090
they're sort of having a little
conversation with the system.

01:09:03.090 --> 01:09:06.170
But your conversation with
the system is kind of one way.

01:09:06.170 --> 01:09:08.310
You are making this
system, and then

01:09:08.310 --> 01:09:10.890
the system isn't there
to tell you, by the way,

01:09:10.890 --> 01:09:14.060
the players are
doing this thing that

01:09:14.060 --> 01:09:16.639
clearly indicates that you don't
understand what's going on.

01:09:16.639 --> 01:09:18.680
But the system isn't going
to be able to give you

01:09:18.680 --> 01:09:21.010
that information.

01:09:21.010 --> 01:09:25.640
Actually, if you take our
design class in the spring,

01:09:25.640 --> 01:09:28.140
it gets even worse, because
what you're really in control of

01:09:28.140 --> 01:09:29.590
are the game mechanics.

01:09:29.590 --> 01:09:33.359
And those are going to result in
emergent dynamics-- strategies,

01:09:33.359 --> 01:09:35.830
for instance, things
that are optimal,

01:09:35.830 --> 01:09:38.729
things that are going to lead
people in a downward spiral.

01:09:38.729 --> 01:09:40.441
And that's going to
create an experience

01:09:40.441 --> 01:09:41.899
for the player,
the aesthetic which

01:09:41.899 --> 01:09:45.240
we will get a little bit
into later in the class.

01:09:45.240 --> 01:09:47.770
They're just what the
player actually experiences.

01:09:47.770 --> 01:09:49.250
So the player may
think your game

01:09:49.250 --> 01:09:52.229
is very threatening
and dangerous

01:09:52.229 --> 01:09:55.120
and it's out to get them,
when really to you, it's

01:09:55.120 --> 01:09:59.330
just a perfectly harmless
logic puzzle, because this

01:09:59.330 --> 01:10:01.240
is what you have control over.

01:10:01.240 --> 01:10:03.050
But through all of
that interaction,

01:10:03.050 --> 01:10:06.130
what you've got here is kind
of a second or even third order

01:10:06.130 --> 01:10:09.290
problem, where the
thing that you get,

01:10:09.290 --> 01:10:12.440
where you can actually
create, is not

01:10:12.440 --> 01:10:16.770
the thing that the players
are actually experiencing.

01:10:16.770 --> 01:10:19.102
So that's why
you've got to test.

01:10:19.102 --> 01:10:20.810
That's the only way
that you are actually

01:10:20.810 --> 01:10:24.054
going to get information about
what the players are actually

01:10:24.054 --> 01:10:24.595
experiencing.

01:10:24.595 --> 01:10:27.720
You can't intuit it just
by looking at your design.

01:10:27.720 --> 01:10:30.480
Maybe with a lot of
experience, you will eventually

01:10:30.480 --> 01:10:31.900
start to get some
best practices,

01:10:31.900 --> 01:10:33.840
but you still have to
do usability testing,

01:10:33.840 --> 01:10:36.970
even if you're
extremely experienced.

01:10:36.970 --> 01:10:39.220
So one way to do testing
is to actually set

01:10:39.220 --> 01:10:40.310
goals for the player.

01:10:40.310 --> 01:10:43.687
Sometimes when you're doing this
in the middle of play-testing,

01:10:43.687 --> 01:10:45.520
the players can come
up with your own goals.

01:10:45.520 --> 01:10:48.080
But what I like to do
is actually ask players,

01:10:48.080 --> 01:10:52.850
all right, I want you to create
a new game with a new player

01:10:52.850 --> 01:10:55.530
and give it a name
of whatever you want.

01:10:55.530 --> 01:10:57.400
Give them a specific
goal, and see

01:10:57.400 --> 01:11:01.379
how they go about that process
of actually accomplishing that.

01:11:01.379 --> 01:11:03.795
And of course, while they're
doing that, you observe them.

01:11:03.795 --> 01:11:07.410
You encourage them
to talk aloud.

01:11:07.410 --> 01:11:10.530
You observe where they're
moving their mouth,

01:11:10.530 --> 01:11:12.400
or if they're doing a
tablet game, observing

01:11:12.400 --> 01:11:14.590
where the fingers are looking.

01:11:14.590 --> 01:11:17.230
Try to figure out what
they're looking at.

01:11:17.230 --> 01:11:19.600
In big companies they
can do things like eye

01:11:19.600 --> 01:11:22.520
tracking-- Riot Games talks a
little bit about eye tracking--

01:11:22.520 --> 01:11:24.930
to actually figure out
what they're looking at.

01:11:24.930 --> 01:11:27.070
But sometimes if
they're talking aloud,

01:11:27.070 --> 01:11:29.590
they will say, well, I
see all these buttons.

01:11:29.590 --> 01:11:31.520
And they all have icons on them.

01:11:31.520 --> 01:11:35.620
And this one looks like
it might mean delete game,

01:11:35.620 --> 01:11:37.860
so I'm not going
to click on that.

01:11:37.860 --> 01:11:40.780
This one looks
like a disk drive,

01:11:40.780 --> 01:11:43.690
so I think it's a save game, so
I'm not going to click on that.

01:11:43.690 --> 01:11:46.060
And then while they're
saying all of these things,

01:11:46.060 --> 01:11:48.770
you start to understand
how your players actually

01:11:48.770 --> 01:11:51.140
understand the things that
you put into your game.

01:11:51.140 --> 01:11:54.020
And you can figure out why
they're making these errors.

01:11:54.020 --> 01:11:56.420
So you're looking for
them to make these errors,

01:11:56.420 --> 01:11:58.625
and you want to record
them down so that later on,

01:11:58.625 --> 01:12:01.000
when you go back to design
and go back to implementation,

01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:01.890
you can fix them.

01:12:01.890 --> 01:12:04.060
Or you can give players
the necessary feedback

01:12:04.060 --> 01:12:06.260
to avoid those kinds of errors.

01:12:06.260 --> 01:12:10.530
But it's important--
when they make an error,

01:12:10.530 --> 01:12:16.000
you have to try to identify what
the player's reaction to that

01:12:16.000 --> 01:12:17.370
is.

01:12:17.370 --> 01:12:20.140
Say something happens that
they didn't quite expect.

01:12:20.140 --> 01:12:23.010
Are they surprised,
or are they confused?

01:12:23.010 --> 01:12:25.160
I thought I was
creating a new game,

01:12:25.160 --> 01:12:29.490
but I ended up
opening an old game.

01:12:29.490 --> 01:12:32.830
That's probably a
confusion situation.

01:12:32.830 --> 01:12:35.270
I thought this was going
to take out one enemy,

01:12:35.270 --> 01:12:37.940
but it took out five enemies.

01:12:37.940 --> 01:12:42.330
Pretty nice surprise--
players might like that.

01:12:42.330 --> 01:12:47.270
So even though
it's an error, you

01:12:47.270 --> 01:12:51.780
might be able to just live with
that, or even amplify that.

01:12:51.780 --> 01:12:53.910
Let's give these
players these weapons

01:12:53.910 --> 01:12:57.490
that occasionally do critical
damage and surprise the player

01:12:57.490 --> 01:13:01.130
by how bad-ass the players are.

01:13:01.130 --> 01:13:03.630
Are they frustrated,
or are they engaged?

01:13:03.630 --> 01:13:06.787
I chose Flappy Birds in
particular as an example

01:13:06.787 --> 01:13:08.870
here because when people
are playing Flappy Birds,

01:13:08.870 --> 01:13:13.560
they get very angry, right?

01:13:13.560 --> 01:13:16.475
But then they go back
and play it again.

01:13:16.475 --> 01:13:18.110
Are they frustrated?

01:13:18.110 --> 01:13:19.040
Well, yes.

01:13:19.040 --> 01:13:20.290
But are they engaged?

01:13:20.290 --> 01:13:21.790
Yeah, they are.

01:13:21.790 --> 01:13:26.143
For some people, Flappy Birds
is an extremely engaging game,

01:13:26.143 --> 01:13:28.405
and it's kind of a pity
you can't get it anymore.

01:13:28.405 --> 01:13:30.530
I also have two different
versions of Flappy Birds.

01:13:30.530 --> 01:13:32.500
One is kind of an
Arduino powered version,

01:13:32.500 --> 01:13:34.500
but it's really made out
of paper and cardboard.

01:13:34.500 --> 01:13:37.850
And one is the actual digital
version, so to remind you,

01:13:37.850 --> 01:13:41.260
you can do this without
having to actually implement

01:13:41.260 --> 01:13:42.260
a digital version.

01:13:42.260 --> 01:13:44.060
You can do this with
your paper prototype.

01:13:44.060 --> 01:13:47.360
You just have to create a paper
prototype of a user interface

01:13:47.360 --> 01:13:51.204
instead of just game play.

01:13:51.204 --> 01:13:52.870
So you can do testing
even before you've

01:13:52.870 --> 01:13:54.119
written a single line of code.

01:13:56.490 --> 01:13:58.265
So I've talked a lot
about constraints.

01:13:58.265 --> 01:14:00.390
Now, so far everything that
I've been talking about

01:14:00.390 --> 01:14:03.290
has been about
informing the player

01:14:03.290 --> 01:14:05.460
and then trying to
catch those errors

01:14:05.460 --> 01:14:08.310
and then feed that back into
your design of how you provide

01:14:08.310 --> 01:14:09.910
more information to the player.

01:14:09.910 --> 01:14:13.390
But you can also prevent
certain problems.

01:14:13.390 --> 01:14:16.480
Constraints is one way, where
you just make it impossible

01:14:16.480 --> 01:14:21.470
for them to do the wrong thing,
or at least early on, when

01:14:21.470 --> 01:14:23.450
you had multiple choices,
you sort of take some

01:14:23.450 --> 01:14:25.840
of those choices away and
maybe later reintroduce

01:14:25.840 --> 01:14:28.000
those choices when
you are fairly sure

01:14:28.000 --> 01:14:30.900
that you've understood what
the consequences of those are.

01:14:30.900 --> 01:14:35.390
You can do conformation,
which is you take an action,

01:14:35.390 --> 01:14:37.230
and then the game asks
you, are you really

01:14:37.230 --> 01:14:39.070
sure you want to do that?

01:14:39.070 --> 01:14:41.948
However, this is
really sub-optimal.

01:14:41.948 --> 01:14:43.370
Any idea why?

01:14:46.220 --> 01:14:49.580
Why is it bad to get a little
dialogue box asking you,

01:14:49.580 --> 01:14:51.628
are you sure you
want to do this?

01:14:51.628 --> 01:14:53.504
AUDIENCE: If you
wanted to get to it,

01:14:53.504 --> 01:14:55.037
it might be really annoying.

01:14:55.037 --> 01:14:55.620
PROFESSOR: OK.

01:14:55.620 --> 01:14:56.690
It gets annoying, yeah.

01:14:56.690 --> 01:15:00.157
AUDIENCE: And it might
make you doubt what you

01:15:00.157 --> 01:15:01.510
were doing in the first place.

01:15:01.510 --> 01:15:02.093
PROFESSOR: OK.

01:15:02.093 --> 01:15:05.410
Are you really sure you
want to close this web page?

01:15:05.410 --> 01:15:09.410
You really sure that you
want to save this game.

01:15:09.410 --> 01:15:14.520
Well, maybe not, but maybe
that was the right thing to do.

01:15:14.520 --> 01:15:16.810
You can also get really
automated on that.

01:15:16.810 --> 01:15:20.770
Players can sort of learn
to just click yes every time

01:15:20.770 --> 01:15:25.290
that thing pops up, and then
kit kind of defeats its purpose.

01:15:25.290 --> 01:15:27.630
If all you're doing is
throwing up a dialogue box

01:15:27.630 --> 01:15:30.980
and they're going to say every
minute or something like that,

01:15:30.980 --> 01:15:33.280
and the answer 90%
percent of the time

01:15:33.280 --> 01:15:37.130
is yes, then players start
to learn to just click

01:15:37.130 --> 01:15:38.824
yes every time they
see the dialog box,

01:15:38.824 --> 01:15:41.240
whether or not they actually
intended to click yes or not.

01:15:41.240 --> 01:15:42.770
And that's bad.

01:15:42.770 --> 01:15:44.570
You're training them
to sort of defeat

01:15:44.570 --> 01:15:45.899
the confirmation process.

01:15:45.899 --> 01:15:47.565
And then you get
dialog boxes like this.

01:15:55.180 --> 01:15:57.035
I don't know what
the buttons do.

01:16:01.530 --> 01:16:07.590
So this is Skype, obviously.

01:16:07.590 --> 01:16:10.920
This itself can be so
confusing for players.

01:16:10.920 --> 01:16:14.480
The confirmation dialog itself
is a piece of user interface

01:16:14.480 --> 01:16:16.980
that can go right
and can go wrong.

01:16:16.980 --> 01:16:19.920
So you've just
introduced a new element

01:16:19.920 --> 01:16:23.090
that can be misinterpreted
in the design of the game.

01:16:23.090 --> 01:16:26.670
So confirmation is something
that exists, is often used,

01:16:26.670 --> 01:16:30.210
and can backfire, and we need to
be aware that it can backfire.

01:16:30.210 --> 01:16:32.050
You can also do checks.

01:16:32.050 --> 01:16:37.640
If you've ever entered a code
into Xbox Live or PlayStation

01:16:37.640 --> 01:16:43.420
network or the Apple
App Store, the numbers

01:16:43.420 --> 01:16:45.800
that you're typing
into the system

01:16:45.800 --> 01:16:51.940
have to fit some sort of
checksum or error correction

01:16:51.940 --> 01:16:53.070
protocol.

01:16:53.070 --> 01:16:55.320
And you can prevent
certain errors

01:16:55.320 --> 01:16:58.750
by doing checks on the
data that you're entering.

01:16:58.750 --> 01:17:00.730
Now, this is probably
very familiar for anyone

01:17:00.730 --> 01:17:03.260
who's done any kind of user
interface, software engineering

01:17:03.260 --> 01:17:03.950
class.

01:17:03.950 --> 01:17:07.170
But this is one from
Microsoft Xbox Love.

01:17:07.170 --> 01:17:09.040
And if you type
in a code that you

01:17:09.040 --> 01:17:14.200
might have gotten from a
giveaway or a free coupon

01:17:14.200 --> 01:17:17.260
from a game developer,
or maybe a card

01:17:17.260 --> 01:17:19.110
that you bought at
the store, they're

01:17:19.110 --> 01:17:21.310
always 25 characters long.

01:17:21.310 --> 01:17:24.810
They're always separated by
these dashes in chunks of five.

01:17:24.810 --> 01:17:26.420
I don't have to type
those dashes in.

01:17:26.420 --> 01:17:28.680
I just start typing, and
those dashes fill themselves

01:17:28.680 --> 01:17:30.010
in automatically.

01:17:30.010 --> 01:17:35.220
If I do type the dash, the input
box will just ignore the dash,

01:17:35.220 --> 01:17:39.230
and it will only allow me to
enter in those characters.

01:17:39.230 --> 01:17:42.360
So that makes sure that
the dashes are always

01:17:42.360 --> 01:17:45.550
exactly five characters
apart from each other.

01:17:45.550 --> 01:17:47.180
And that's a visual
way to provide

01:17:47.180 --> 01:17:51.900
a check while I'm entering
this long string of characters.

01:17:51.900 --> 01:17:53.590
I can do this sort
of visual check

01:17:53.590 --> 01:17:57.890
of, are my characters
appearing in the right position

01:17:57.890 --> 01:18:01.370
in the string as they
are printed on my card,

01:18:01.370 --> 01:18:04.724
and as it is being
displayed on my screen.

01:18:04.724 --> 01:18:06.140
You can do other
kinds of checks--

01:18:06.140 --> 01:18:10.240
like, if you try to do the same
thing on the Apple App Store,

01:18:10.240 --> 01:18:12.810
I believe it could be
numbers, it could be letters,

01:18:12.810 --> 01:18:16.600
or whatever, but you can hit
OK as soon as you enter it in,

01:18:16.600 --> 01:18:19.420
and the system actually does
a quick check before it even

01:18:19.420 --> 01:18:23.010
sends the code off to Apple
on whether that's actually

01:18:23.010 --> 01:18:26.390
a valid string, that fits
a certain kind of checksum

01:18:26.390 --> 01:18:27.027
algorithm.

01:18:27.027 --> 01:18:28.360
Before it sends it off to Apple.

01:18:28.360 --> 01:18:29.830
And if it's a wrong one, it
just tells you right away,

01:18:29.830 --> 01:18:31.380
no, you actually made an error.

01:18:31.380 --> 01:18:32.256
You can fix that now.

01:18:32.256 --> 01:18:34.338
So you don't have to wait
for it to hit the server

01:18:34.338 --> 01:18:34.930
and come back.

01:18:37.550 --> 01:18:39.755
But say the error does happen.

01:18:39.755 --> 01:18:41.690
The player has made
a mistake, and it

01:18:41.690 --> 01:18:45.010
happens to be a mistake that
you know about as a designer.

01:18:45.010 --> 01:18:47.190
And you know this mistake
is going to come up often.

01:18:47.190 --> 01:18:49.220
This kind of error
is going to happen.

01:18:49.220 --> 01:18:51.770
And maybe it's a slip,
maybe it's a mistake.

01:18:51.770 --> 01:18:55.370
And you want to
provide some feedback.

01:18:55.370 --> 01:18:58.430
So first of all, make sure that
you are informing the player

01:18:58.430 --> 01:18:59.877
that an error has happened.

01:18:59.877 --> 01:19:02.210
And you need to test whether
the information that you're

01:19:02.210 --> 01:19:04.500
providing, whether
it's audio or visual,

01:19:04.500 --> 01:19:07.900
some combination of the
two, is actually something

01:19:07.900 --> 01:19:10.420
that people notice
and see, and then they

01:19:10.420 --> 01:19:12.740
realize that, oh, I've
made a mistake somewhere.

01:19:12.740 --> 01:19:14.490
And then you've got
to get them some tools

01:19:14.490 --> 01:19:16.700
to be able to fix that problem.

01:19:16.700 --> 01:19:18.900
There's backwards,
which is basically undo.

01:19:18.900 --> 01:19:21.980
This is Words With
Friends, for instance.

01:19:21.980 --> 01:19:25.090
If you enter in
some sort of word--

01:19:25.090 --> 01:19:27.022
this is an online
game, by the way.

01:19:27.022 --> 01:19:29.230
It's a multi-player game
that you play on your phone.

01:19:29.230 --> 01:19:31.167
And because it's
Words With Friends,

01:19:31.167 --> 01:19:33.250
you're basically playing
Scrabble against somebody

01:19:33.250 --> 01:19:36.110
who's geographically
separated from you.

01:19:36.110 --> 01:19:39.679
And if you've taken a turn,
you've entered in a word.

01:19:39.679 --> 01:19:41.220
And then you say,
wait a minute, I've

01:19:41.220 --> 01:19:42.810
come up with a better word.

01:19:42.810 --> 01:19:43.750
You can hit Undo.

01:19:43.750 --> 01:19:45.590
I think it's called Recall.

01:19:45.590 --> 01:19:47.480
The button is actually
called Recall.

01:19:47.480 --> 01:19:49.450
Take your move
back and then just

01:19:49.450 --> 01:19:51.470
replay your turn
before the other person

01:19:51.470 --> 01:19:52.780
has taken their turn.

01:19:52.780 --> 01:19:55.190
But that's backwards
error recovery,

01:19:55.190 --> 01:19:58.160
very good for things
like turn-based games,

01:19:58.160 --> 01:20:01.920
games that you play by
email for instance or games

01:20:01.920 --> 01:20:07.620
that you are sort of--
like Final Fantasy Tactics,

01:20:07.620 --> 01:20:08.680
or strategy games.

01:20:08.680 --> 01:20:11.560
A lot of strategy games
which are turn-based

01:20:11.560 --> 01:20:14.640
allow you to sort of
undo your decisions.

01:20:14.640 --> 01:20:16.176
Even if you've
said, yes, this is

01:20:16.176 --> 01:20:17.550
what I want to
do, wait a minute,

01:20:17.550 --> 01:20:18.800
this is not what I want to do.

01:20:18.800 --> 01:20:20.870
I want to undo that.

01:20:20.870 --> 01:20:22.660
There's also forward
error recovery.

01:20:22.660 --> 01:20:28.990
This is a screenshot of
Mario where Mario's mid-jump,

01:20:28.990 --> 01:20:31.361
and based on player
experience up to this point,

01:20:31.361 --> 01:20:32.860
you realize halfway
through the jump

01:20:32.860 --> 01:20:34.985
that you're not going to
be able to make that jump.

01:20:34.985 --> 01:20:36.020
What can Mario do?

01:20:38.455 --> 01:20:39.330
You can go backwards.

01:20:39.330 --> 01:20:41.880
You can change
direction in midair

01:20:41.880 --> 01:20:44.330
and say, oop, not
what I'm going to do.

01:20:44.330 --> 01:20:45.420
It doesn't rewind time.

01:20:45.420 --> 01:20:46.961
You're still moving
time in the game.

01:20:46.961 --> 01:20:49.410
And time is important
in a Mario game.

01:20:49.410 --> 01:20:52.290
But the player has the tool to
say, I'm going to try to jump.

01:20:52.290 --> 01:20:54.110
No, I'm not going to
complete this jump.

01:20:54.110 --> 01:20:57.870
I'm going to go backwards
before it's too late.

01:20:57.870 --> 01:21:00.850
There is a consequence to that,
and the player is losing time.

01:21:00.850 --> 01:21:03.070
And in many of
your games, you're

01:21:03.070 --> 01:21:06.400
going to want to allow those
errors to happen but then

01:21:06.400 --> 01:21:10.420
give players tools to be able to
take a new action to compensate

01:21:10.420 --> 01:21:13.320
for the mistake of
the previous action.

01:21:13.320 --> 01:21:17.730
And that is called
forward error recovery.

01:21:17.730 --> 01:21:22.660
Now, if it's a mistake that
happens near the end of a game

01:21:22.660 --> 01:21:25.500
session-- say you're
making a multi-player game

01:21:25.500 --> 01:21:28.540
and somebody's about to win.

01:21:28.540 --> 01:21:30.350
Forward error recovery
may not be something

01:21:30.350 --> 01:21:33.270
that you want to make too
easy, because somebody's

01:21:33.270 --> 01:21:35.380
spent a long time actually
getting themselves

01:21:35.380 --> 01:21:37.820
in a position where
they can win the game.

01:21:37.820 --> 01:21:40.870
And then the person who's losing
uses whatever forward error

01:21:40.870 --> 01:21:45.180
recovery tools you've given
them to say, ah, let me just

01:21:45.180 --> 01:21:46.750
take back all of
those mistakes I did

01:21:46.750 --> 01:21:48.817
and then come back from behind.

01:21:48.817 --> 01:21:51.275
Well, if you were explicitly
designing a game where someone

01:21:51.275 --> 01:21:53.274
is supposed to be able
to come back from behind,

01:21:53.274 --> 01:21:56.254
like Mario Kart does something
like that, then that's great.

01:21:56.254 --> 01:21:58.170
But if you're trying to
make some sort of game

01:21:58.170 --> 01:22:01.330
where long-term strategy is
supposed to pay off, then yeah,

01:22:01.330 --> 01:22:03.750
you don't want to make
those forward recovery

01:22:03.750 --> 01:22:05.995
tools too powerful.

01:22:05.995 --> 01:22:07.495
Let people live
with their mistakes.

01:22:14.074 --> 01:22:15.740
One last point, and
I save this for last

01:22:15.740 --> 01:22:17.573
because I want you to
be thinking about this

01:22:17.573 --> 01:22:19.320
in your team, so
something for you

01:22:19.320 --> 01:22:21.900
to go into discussion
about after this talk,

01:22:21.900 --> 01:22:23.680
is accessibility.

01:22:23.680 --> 01:22:26.730
One challenge is that
when people think,

01:22:26.730 --> 01:22:33.270
my game is for everyone, my game
is for anybody who plays games,

01:22:33.270 --> 01:22:37.430
is that that's not actually
what the game ends up being.

01:22:37.430 --> 01:22:41.150
Often it becomes
this, which is you're

01:22:41.150 --> 01:22:46.250
going to assume that your
player is focused and has

01:22:46.250 --> 01:22:51.540
full use of their hands
and full visual acuity,

01:22:51.540 --> 01:22:53.380
that they speak
English so they'll

01:22:53.380 --> 01:22:55.500
understand any text
that you give them,

01:22:55.500 --> 01:22:57.790
that they know how to
install stuff in a computer

01:22:57.790 --> 01:23:00.650
and they've played games
before, that they are around

01:23:00.650 --> 01:23:04.287
about your age, that they
have desktop computers that

01:23:04.287 --> 01:23:06.870
have lots of processing power,
especially if you're doing a 3D

01:23:06.870 --> 01:23:10.100
game, that their mice have more
than one button, that they're

01:23:10.100 --> 01:23:11.840
actually using mice
and not a trackpad,

01:23:11.840 --> 01:23:13.620
that they've got
headphones so they're

01:23:13.620 --> 01:23:15.654
going to listen
to every audio cut

01:23:15.654 --> 01:23:18.350
that you're going to give
them without distraction.

01:23:22.450 --> 01:23:25.750
So these particular
red line things

01:23:25.750 --> 01:23:30.130
are the things that I want
you to be willing to question

01:23:30.130 --> 01:23:31.440
about your own game.

01:23:31.440 --> 01:23:33.360
There are some things
like-- they're speaking,

01:23:33.360 --> 01:23:34.700
computer-literate young adults.

01:23:37.500 --> 01:23:40.210
It's great to be able to
design games for people

01:23:40.210 --> 01:23:41.960
who are not like you.

01:23:41.960 --> 01:23:45.750
It is a little bit beyond the
scope of this particular class,

01:23:45.750 --> 01:23:48.850
although you do have to keep in
mind that we are also designing

01:23:48.850 --> 01:23:51.330
this games, your
final fourth project,

01:23:51.330 --> 01:23:55.300
for people who may be working
for the Red Cross Red Crescent

01:23:55.300 --> 01:23:56.370
Climate Centre.

01:23:56.370 --> 01:24:01.500
So you want to keep them in
mind and consider-- many of them

01:24:01.500 --> 01:24:02.800
actually speak English.

01:24:02.800 --> 01:24:05.040
They may be
foreigners, people who

01:24:05.040 --> 01:24:09.035
work in other countries, who
will appreciate a game that

01:24:09.035 --> 01:24:13.101
is a little bit more language
agnostic or even localized

01:24:13.101 --> 01:24:13.600
for them.

01:24:16.507 --> 01:24:18.090
Shall we assume that
the computers are

01:24:18.090 --> 01:24:20.610
capable of handling your game?

01:24:20.610 --> 01:24:23.450
OK, I think for this
class that's all right.

01:24:23.450 --> 01:24:27.350
But shall we assume that
the computers are only

01:24:27.350 --> 01:24:29.970
running your game and nothing
else, that they're not

01:24:29.970 --> 01:24:33.131
running any IM clients--
or a lot of the games

01:24:33.131 --> 01:24:34.880
are going to be browser
games so that they

01:24:34.880 --> 01:24:38.090
don't have any other browser
windows open, for instance.

01:24:38.090 --> 01:24:42.331
I think that might be asking
too much of your player.

01:24:42.331 --> 01:24:44.830
You might want to assume that
they have other things running

01:24:44.830 --> 01:24:48.410
around in the background-- their
iTunes playlist, for instance--

01:24:48.410 --> 01:24:51.390
and which is going to
interfere with your sound.

01:24:51.390 --> 01:24:55.570
You should be able to design
your game so that you don't

01:24:55.570 --> 01:24:58.240
assume everyone has a left
mouse button and a right mouse

01:24:58.240 --> 01:25:00.012
button, or necessarily a mouse.

01:25:00.012 --> 01:25:01.720
For one thing, it'll
make testing easier.

01:25:01.720 --> 01:25:03.380
A couple of you
discovered last time

01:25:03.380 --> 01:25:05.630
you did a visual test, that
if you don't have a mouse,

01:25:05.630 --> 01:25:07.969
a lot of your games actually
became difficult to play.

01:25:07.969 --> 01:25:10.010
You might want to have
that discussion-- at least

01:25:10.010 --> 01:25:12.490
have that discussion with
your team, and if you decide,

01:25:12.490 --> 01:25:15.637
no, a mouse is essential,
make it very, very clear

01:25:15.637 --> 01:25:16.720
that's what you're saying.

01:25:16.720 --> 01:25:18.780
And put it in your game.

01:25:18.780 --> 01:25:22.230
Say, this game is best played
with a mouse and headphones.

01:25:22.230 --> 01:25:25.160
There's a lot of iOS games out
there that require headphones,

01:25:25.160 --> 01:25:26.880
and they will state
right upfront,

01:25:26.880 --> 01:25:28.960
this game is best
played with headphones.

01:25:32.100 --> 01:25:38.960
And I would like you to at
least consider colorblindness.

01:25:38.960 --> 01:25:42.860
Actually, yeah, there we go.

01:25:42.860 --> 01:25:45.410
When you are designing
art for your game,

01:25:45.410 --> 01:25:47.010
buttons that need
to be distinguished

01:25:47.010 --> 01:25:49.165
from each under or
visual cues, consider

01:25:49.165 --> 01:25:51.290
that there are people who
can't tell the difference

01:25:51.290 --> 01:25:53.550
between certain color pairings.

01:25:53.550 --> 01:25:54.570
What are common ones?

01:25:54.570 --> 01:25:57.470
Red, green.

01:25:57.470 --> 01:25:57.970
Red, blue?

01:25:57.970 --> 01:25:58.928
AUDIENCE: Blue, yellow.

01:25:58.928 --> 01:26:00.340
PROFESSOR: Oh, blue, yellow.

01:26:00.340 --> 01:26:03.210
And red, blue.

01:26:03.210 --> 01:26:03.735
Red, blue.

01:26:03.735 --> 01:26:05.600
Blue, yellow.

01:26:05.600 --> 01:26:06.469
And red, green.

01:26:06.469 --> 01:26:08.510
Those are the most common
ones, but there's a lot

01:26:08.510 --> 01:26:10.460
of colorblindness out there.

01:26:10.460 --> 01:26:14.410
And it affects, I think,
20% of the population.

01:26:14.410 --> 01:26:15.162
10?

01:26:15.162 --> 01:26:15.927
10 to 20%?

01:26:15.927 --> 01:26:18.260
AUDIENCE: I think it's as
much as 10% of the population.

01:26:18.260 --> 01:26:19.890
PROFESSOR: 10% of
the population.

01:26:19.890 --> 01:26:21.490
So there's a lot
of people out there

01:26:21.490 --> 01:26:24.466
who might well want to
be playing your game

01:26:24.466 --> 01:26:26.840
but can't because they can't
tell apart those visual cues

01:26:26.840 --> 01:26:27.840
that you're giving them.

01:26:27.840 --> 01:26:30.550
So make sure that they're also
taking advantage of things

01:26:30.550 --> 01:26:33.330
like shape and brightness.

01:26:33.330 --> 01:26:36.820
These are things where if
somebody is colorblind,

01:26:36.820 --> 01:26:39.490
they can at least
still distinguish shape

01:26:39.490 --> 01:26:40.430
from each other.

01:26:40.430 --> 01:26:43.470
So instead of having red
diamonds and blue diamonds,

01:26:43.470 --> 01:26:46.740
you have red diamonds and
blue stars or something,

01:26:46.740 --> 01:26:51.020
and that makes it easier to
tell that there's a difference.

01:26:51.020 --> 01:26:53.960
I mentioned other application
windows, touch pads,

01:26:53.960 --> 01:26:56.480
or the possibility that somebody
might be playing your game

01:26:56.480 --> 01:26:58.390
muted, which means
make sure that not

01:26:58.390 --> 01:27:00.917
all of the feedback that you're
giving them is audio only.

01:27:00.917 --> 01:27:02.500
Make sure that you're
also giving them

01:27:02.500 --> 01:27:04.820
some sort of visual
feedback so that they

01:27:04.820 --> 01:27:06.920
understand that if
they're playing in a cafe

01:27:06.920 --> 01:27:08.090
or something like
that, they will still

01:27:08.090 --> 01:27:10.214
be able to understand that
they're making mistakes,

01:27:10.214 --> 01:27:12.930
or errors or slips.

01:27:12.930 --> 01:27:14.460
All right.

01:27:14.460 --> 01:27:17.260
That went way longer
than expected,

01:27:17.260 --> 01:27:20.600
but I did warn you guys
it was going to be long.

01:27:20.600 --> 01:27:23.574
Any questions before
we wrap this one up?

01:27:26.980 --> 01:27:27.610
OK.

01:27:27.610 --> 01:27:28.120
All right.

01:27:28.120 --> 01:27:30.340
Well, now is a break
time, I believe?

01:27:30.340 --> 01:27:31.780
PROFESSOR: Yeah.

01:27:31.780 --> 01:27:34.180
Take a 10-minute break.

01:27:34.180 --> 01:27:35.753
At 2:47, come back here.

01:27:35.753 --> 01:27:38.544
If you want to play-test
a paper prototype

01:27:38.544 --> 01:27:41.953
or have any kind of testing
in your game, let us know.

01:27:41.953 --> 01:27:44.084
Otherwise, working in teams.

01:27:44.084 --> 01:27:44.750
PROFESSOR: Yeah.

01:27:44.750 --> 01:27:46.280
A lot of you have
mentioned how hard

01:27:46.280 --> 01:27:47.290
it is to schedule a meeting.

01:27:47.290 --> 01:27:48.740
You've got the
rest of this class

01:27:48.740 --> 01:27:51.180
to be able to meet
with your team.

01:27:51.180 --> 01:27:54.410
And either test something, or
you can just work on your game.

01:27:54.410 --> 01:27:56.830
If anyone wants to look at
these books or this game,

01:27:56.830 --> 01:27:58.640
come up to the
front, have a look.

01:27:58.640 --> 01:27:59.690
Thank you.

01:27:59.690 --> 01:28:01.240
[SIDE CONVERSATION]