CLASS 3: Demo and Critique
Exploratory Game Design Course Home
Critiquing a game vs. reviewing a game vs. analysing a game.
In this class we will demo our games. We will then critique the games of each of the other groups in the class. Before we get started, this is what I expect from your demo:
A demo is similar to a pitch except that you are showing a game that actually exists. You should outline your game’s core features and show them in action. Whether or not you have a full game at the time of a demo presentation you should be able to show those core features in perhaps 5 minutes of gameplay.
This should not come as a surprise if you have done the suggested readings.
The second part of the presentation is your critique of the game. You will take half an hour to write a critique of your game and half an hour to write a critique of the game of one of the other groups. Discuss your design choices in as much detail as possible and explore the effects that they had on your game. Try to anticipate the questions I might have about the game.
Before you start I want to go over the differences between a review, an analysis, and a critique, (informed assessment). Is that a review is subjective opinion. This is the kind of thing that you would read on your favorite gaming site when deciding whether you want to buy a game, or looking for a reason to feel good about the game you just bought. An analysis of a game is objective explanation of a game using some analytical framework like the MDA framework or the Lenses from the Art of Game Design. This is the kind of thing that you might find on Gamasutra when it’s at it’s best. A critique is using the understanding gained from an analysis and giving your informed opinion on whether the game achieves it’s goals, and how well id does that. It might go so far as to suggest ways that the game could do a better job.
In an analysis you would break down the mechanics of the game describing how it works and what the mechanics achieve. In your critique I would like you to take the understanding of the game provided by your analysis and assess how well the game achieved what you perceive as it’s intended goals. Be as specific as you can and cite examples to support your assertions.
You should not be saying things like “I didn’t like the game because it wasn’t very fun.” and rather saying things like, “The movement mechanics of the game, which restrict the player’s mobility in an attempt to create a sense of the desperation and struggle survivors fleeing a zombie plague, end up lowering player investment because the death of the characters seems inevitable and thus the players disassociate themselves from them. Starting the game with less restrictive mechanics would make it seem more hopeful and would allow players to identify more with their characters making their eventual deaths more meaningful.”
The terms ‘review’ ‘analysis’ and ‘critique’ are not important and their usage varies a lot in the industry and in academia, so you may see them used differently or interchangeably outside of this class. What I am interested in is the critical thinking and understanding of the mechanics you chose and what effect they had on the game you were changing.
To make things a little easier on you I will go first and demo a game that I have just started working on it is in a similar state of development as your prototype.
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the game. Identify as many mechanics as you can.
What are the social dynamics in the game and why is that interesting?
What would you each do to address a weakness you see. Why?
Now each group will demo your games and then we will write our critiques.
Take the rest of class to think about your final project proposals. After you finish with project 3 you will be pitching your ideas and spending the rest of the class working on the selected project. This should be an original game that is exploratory in each of the three ways discussed in this class. We have only finished talking about the first of those so go forward understanding that you will probably revise, refine and expand your ideas as we complete the second and third units about breaking players and spaces.
