VShBI Lectures: Game Design and Game Operations
The rush around the gaming industry among Russians of different age groups does not subside - more and more people, especially young people, begin to treat games not only as entertainment, but they also consider different types of work in the gaming industry as their vocation. Unfortunately, for many of them the question of how to get into the so-called game dev, is not just an open question, but even a secret with seven seals. In order to lift the curtain of this mystery, within the framework of the project “ University opened to the city: lectures of young scientists of the HSE in the ZIL Cultural Center ”, a whole cycle of lectures under the general title: “ Creating online games: game design, monetization, operating and promotion ” was conducted our program “ Management of online gaming projects ”. Under the cut you will find their videos and notes.
In the first two of them, the lecturers - I myself and the scientific director of our program, Konstantin Sakhnov (@Kallist) - told the audience about the basic concepts in the development of online games. The lecture by Konstantin Sakhnov - “The Basics of Game Design or How Virtual Worlds Are Created ” opened the cycle with a narration about professions directly related to the development and implementation of the game universes. You can view the lecture in full in the video below:
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The work of a game designer, based on a lecture by Konstantin, can vary greatly depending on the company and project. In modern companies, it is customary to divide the development team's specialists into three broad categories:
techies responsible for the technical component of the final product - as a rule, this work is the most difficult and highly paid; artists - specialists responsible for the visual component of the game; ideologues - people who invent the game and control its development, and this is the group of game designers. In an indie team, most often highly limited in both financial and human resources, only one specialist can override the entire role or fulfill several of these major roles at once.
According to Konstantin’s lecture, the activities of the game designer are divided into several categories. To create a full-fledged and interesting game for the consumer, the share of these experts falls:
The main part of the lecture was devoted specifically to various types of balancing characteristics, as well as the necessary calculations. For many listeners, it was a revelation that the main part of the game designer's work is connected with quite complex mathematics. Konstantin gave many examples of mathematical equations and formulas that cannot be avoided, for example, in calculating the balance of difficulty passing - any game, he said, should be difficult enough to remain interesting, but also simple enough so that the player would not leave after several defeats. . Using the example of Candy Crush Saga and a peculiar approach of developers to balance complexity (which is considered one of the best in the world), Constantine showed how important it is to simulate the moment when a player is ready to quit in order to drastically reduce the level for him - put a candy bomb on the field, "Exploding" field.
However, the balance is balance, but few players will be satisfied with it alone. An important area of ​​work is narrative design. In his lecture, Konstantin gave examples of the tasks that the scriptwriters perform, in particular the formation of characters and their archetypes , as well as their interaction in the heat of the drama.
An equally important component of any game, with the work on which, by the way, many of the newbies in game design start are content management . In this monotonous manual work, they improve their skills and then increase their effectiveness, including developing the programming skills directly related to the addition of various objects to the game. Such specialists develop into level designers or programmers of game logic.
The last Konstantin dismantled the activities of game designers in the field of analytics . These specialists work at the interface of game mechanics and business parameters: they count retention, attraction, efficiency of decisions, and monetization. One of the most interesting methods, cited as an example, was the calculation of LTV (total company profit received from one client for all the time working with him) - this required higher education mathematics and taking integrals.
In conclusion, and for those who are particularly interested, Konstantin gave practical recommendations on how to become a game designer and how to get into game development, and also answered questions from the audience. A detailed lecture outline can be read on the VSBI website: outline .
The issues of operating and launching a company of their own or third-party games were discussed already in my lecture “ Work in the gaming industry: operating games ”. If the development of online games, many have at least some idea, then the word "operating" in the layman may have a variety of associations. The purpose of my lecture was to clarify what the work in this area of ​​the gaming industry is.
Operating games is the launch and support of the successful functioning of the game on the market. It can be both a licensed game from external developers, and a proprietary product. The goal of the operator is to make money. The specifics of the operation depends largely on the platform on which the company intends to launch its product.
The processes of operation are based on four main activities : monetization, attracting new players, keeping current ones, and returning past ones. These four “whales” in any successful project should harmoniously complement each other - in the case of high-quality and thoughtful work on them, these processes will allow not only to please different categories of players, but also effectively maintain the product, earning good money.
A cohesive team is needed to control these four “whales”. Her head and heart is the producer - it is he who provides the game with all the necessary resources for launching, as well as for subsequent support with the continuous growth of key indicators. Producer is the link between the team, management, developers and players. He knows everything about the game. It is a single information center in which all threads of project management and information flows converge, and he, as a proxy, passes them through himself and issues them to the necessary channels. The story about the key areas of work of the producer and examples from practice, see the detailed lecture notes .
The operating team also includes marketing and PR specialists - they work primarily in the direction of attracting players, as well as retaining and returning players. This includes work with the media and bloggers, and traffic management, and the launch of special projects, and the conduct of offline events, and much more.
Communicating with the players involved in community managers . Their competence includes writing materials for the game’s internal resources (website, social networking sites, forum management), feedback gathering, etc. But the game- makers are involved in solving the problems of players through the support service. They most often grow professionally to the producer of the project.
In addition, the team includes such specialists as localizers, testers, designers, weber and admins, and many others, about the features of whose work you can read in the detailed lecture notes on the VSBI website: synopsis .
Both lectures of the cycle are aimed at giving students a basic understanding of the development, launch and further operation of online games. We have tried to tell the most basic about the people of which professions and specialties are in demand in this area, as well as what their activities consist of. How does game design differ from game producer and how are their teams related? These and many other questions during the lectures were given detailed answers explaining the difference between the two most important components of the work on online games - development and operation.
If you have questions about game design and operation of games, ask, I will answer in the comments.
In the first two of them, the lecturers - I myself and the scientific director of our program, Konstantin Sakhnov (@Kallist) - told the audience about the basic concepts in the development of online games. The lecture by Konstantin Sakhnov - “The Basics of Game Design or How Virtual Worlds Are Created ” opened the cycle with a narration about professions directly related to the development and implementation of the game universes. You can view the lecture in full in the video below:
')
Game designers are different are important, game designers are different need
The work of a game designer, based on a lecture by Konstantin, can vary greatly depending on the company and project. In modern companies, it is customary to divide the development team's specialists into three broad categories:
techies responsible for the technical component of the final product - as a rule, this work is the most difficult and highly paid; artists - specialists responsible for the visual component of the game; ideologues - people who invent the game and control its development, and this is the group of game designers. In an indie team, most often highly limited in both financial and human resources, only one specialist can override the entire role or fulfill several of these major roles at once.
According to Konstantin’s lecture, the activities of the game designer are divided into several categories. To create a full-fledged and interesting game for the consumer, the share of these experts falls:
- creative - inventing unique elements that distinguish the game from others;
- level design or design levels with all their components (dungeons, mobs, bosses, etc), as well as working with content;
- the creation of the script - the history of the world, the plot, which will move the player on it to various goals;
- careful analytical work on the calculation of the numerical characteristics of the game, its economy;
- mathematical calculations of various characteristics and their balancing.
Mathematics - the queen of science and game design
The main part of the lecture was devoted specifically to various types of balancing characteristics, as well as the necessary calculations. For many listeners, it was a revelation that the main part of the game designer's work is connected with quite complex mathematics. Konstantin gave many examples of mathematical equations and formulas that cannot be avoided, for example, in calculating the balance of difficulty passing - any game, he said, should be difficult enough to remain interesting, but also simple enough so that the player would not leave after several defeats. . Using the example of Candy Crush Saga and a peculiar approach of developers to balance complexity (which is considered one of the best in the world), Constantine showed how important it is to simulate the moment when a player is ready to quit in order to drastically reduce the level for him - put a candy bomb on the field, "Exploding" field.
Not matane one
However, the balance is balance, but few players will be satisfied with it alone. An important area of ​​work is narrative design. In his lecture, Konstantin gave examples of the tasks that the scriptwriters perform, in particular the formation of characters and their archetypes , as well as their interaction in the heat of the drama.
An equally important component of any game, with the work on which, by the way, many of the newbies in game design start are content management . In this monotonous manual work, they improve their skills and then increase their effectiveness, including developing the programming skills directly related to the addition of various objects to the game. Such specialists develop into level designers or programmers of game logic.
The last Konstantin dismantled the activities of game designers in the field of analytics . These specialists work at the interface of game mechanics and business parameters: they count retention, attraction, efficiency of decisions, and monetization. One of the most interesting methods, cited as an example, was the calculation of LTV (total company profit received from one client for all the time working with him) - this required higher education mathematics and taking integrals.
In conclusion, and for those who are particularly interested, Konstantin gave practical recommendations on how to become a game designer and how to get into game development, and also answered questions from the audience. A detailed lecture outline can be read on the VSBI website: outline .
Who is he, the mysterious producer of online games?
The issues of operating and launching a company of their own or third-party games were discussed already in my lecture “ Work in the gaming industry: operating games ”. If the development of online games, many have at least some idea, then the word "operating" in the layman may have a variety of associations. The purpose of my lecture was to clarify what the work in this area of ​​the gaming industry is.
Operating games is the launch and support of the successful functioning of the game on the market. It can be both a licensed game from external developers, and a proprietary product. The goal of the operator is to make money. The specifics of the operation depends largely on the platform on which the company intends to launch its product.
Four "whales" of operation and the heart of the "sea"
The processes of operation are based on four main activities : monetization, attracting new players, keeping current ones, and returning past ones. These four “whales” in any successful project should harmoniously complement each other - in the case of high-quality and thoughtful work on them, these processes will allow not only to please different categories of players, but also effectively maintain the product, earning good money.
A cohesive team is needed to control these four “whales”. Her head and heart is the producer - it is he who provides the game with all the necessary resources for launching, as well as for subsequent support with the continuous growth of key indicators. Producer is the link between the team, management, developers and players. He knows everything about the game. It is a single information center in which all threads of project management and information flows converge, and he, as a proxy, passes them through himself and issues them to the necessary channels. The story about the key areas of work of the producer and examples from practice, see the detailed lecture notes .
Team is our everything
The operating team also includes marketing and PR specialists - they work primarily in the direction of attracting players, as well as retaining and returning players. This includes work with the media and bloggers, and traffic management, and the launch of special projects, and the conduct of offline events, and much more.
Communicating with the players involved in community managers . Their competence includes writing materials for the game’s internal resources (website, social networking sites, forum management), feedback gathering, etc. But the game- makers are involved in solving the problems of players through the support service. They most often grow professionally to the producer of the project.
In addition, the team includes such specialists as localizers, testers, designers, weber and admins, and many others, about the features of whose work you can read in the detailed lecture notes on the VSBI website: synopsis .
What are the results?
Both lectures of the cycle are aimed at giving students a basic understanding of the development, launch and further operation of online games. We have tried to tell the most basic about the people of which professions and specialties are in demand in this area, as well as what their activities consist of. How does game design differ from game producer and how are their teams related? These and many other questions during the lectures were given detailed answers explaining the difference between the two most important components of the work on online games - development and operation.
If you have questions about game design and operation of games, ask, I will answer in the comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/305886/
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