GAME DESIGN

Module 6:
Final Project

A URF ACADEMY COURSE | RIOT GAMES

VERSION 1.0

60 MINUTES
 MODULE 6: BIG IDEAS

Big Ideas
To conclude their introduction to game
design, students will work in groups of
4-6 to design, develop and playtest a paper
prototype of a multiplayer game. This
final project will be split into five lessons,
leveraging the Game Design Framework.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 01

 MODULE 6: OVERVIEW

Overview
Table of Contents
Lesson 1: Game Premise 60 MINUTES

Final Assignment Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03

Brainstorm Premise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
Pitch Premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05
Create Final Premise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05
Homework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06

Lesson 2: Mechanics Brainstorm 60 MINUTES

Brainstorm Mechanics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07

Lesson 3: Rules and Prototyping 60 MINUTES

Paper Prototype Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Choose a Mechanics Pitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Make Rules > Prototype > Playtest Exercise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Homework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Lesson 4: Playtesting and Feedback 60 MINUTES

Playtesting Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Playtest Another Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Post Playtest Iteration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Lesson 5: Final Iteration and Playtest 60 MINUTES

Final Tweaks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Full Class Playtest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Homework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 02

 MODULE 6: LESSON 1 / GAME PREMISE FINAL ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION

TOTAL TIME: 60 MINUTES

Lesson 1
Game Premise
Introduce students to their final project: a paper prototype of a
multiplayer game.

■■ Students develop the premise of their game (E.g., establishing players,

goals and opposition) and present an ‘elevator pitch’ to the class

5 MINUTES

Final Assignment Introduction

INTRODUCE THAT STUDENTS WILL BE WORKING IN GROUPS TO DESIGN AND PLAYTEST
A PAPER PROTOTYPE OF A MULTIPLAYER GAME FROM SCRATCH.

1. Introduce assignment details / constraints:

CONSTRAINTS
■■ The games must be multiplayer (E.g., designed to support at least 3 players).
■■ All the players must be involved until the end of the game.
■■ No early elimination of players who have to sit and do nothing.
■■ Full game experience should be between 5 and 10 minutes long.

The constraints exist to ensure that the maximum number of students can
participate, and to avoid early elimination, resulting in isolated or bored
students within the group.

2. Have students form into groups of 4-6.

Groups should be 4-6 people and games should be designed to support at

least 3 players, but not more than 1 fewer than the size of the group. I.e. if the
group size is 5, then the game should support 3 or 4 players. This is so that at
least one student can ‘run’ the game for visiting playtesters.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 03

 MODULE 6: LESSON 1 / GAME PREMISE BRAINSTORM PREMISE

25 MINUTES

Brainstorm Game Premise

BRAINSTORM GAME PREMISE IDEAS: 20 MINUTES
1. Students brainstorm game premise ideas.
Challenge students to brainstorm game premise ideas within their group and be
able to explain their game using the template below.

Each person should try to aim for at least two game premises.
■■ Elevator Pitch: You play as {players} that want ■■ Types of Fun: {Types of Fun}
to {goal} but they can’t because {opposition}. ■■ Opposition: {Opposition}
■■ Title: {Title} ■■ Game Feeling: {Game Feeling}
■■ Theme: {Theme}

To encourage creativity, encourage students to come up with several very different,

premises for their game. Bias towards interesting characters with understandable
goals and suitably challenging, but surmountable opposition.

Students should start with the “elevator pitch” and then generate the other
sections afterwards.

The premise of the game is the elevator pitch format given to the students (“You
play as…” etc.). This is the core of all story/conflict–every story has a character,
something they want, and an obstacle in their way.

EXAMPLES
Okay: You play as a group of empty plastic bags that want to get put in a
garbage can, but you can’t find one.

This premise is okay, but not particularly aspirational or resonant.

Better: You play as a group of French Resistance restaurant workers during WWII
trying to sabotage enemy German soldiers’ dinners in the local diner, but you
need to avoid getting caught.

GAME PREMISE EXAMPLE BASED ON THE ABOVE:

■■ Elevator Pitch: You play as a group of empty plastic bags [player] that want to
get put in a garbage can [goal], but you can’t find one [opposition].
■■ Title: Home! ■■ Goal: Reach the garbage can.
■■ Game Feeling: Triumph, whimsical, collaboration. ■■ Opposition: Winds, society, and no trash cans.
■■ Types of Fun: Discovery and Fellowship. ■■ Theme: Big city.

STUDENTS SELECT THEIR BEST GAME PREMISE: 5 MINUTES

2. Each student should select their “best” game premise and prepare to present it
to their group in the next section.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 04

 MODULE 6: LESSON 1 / GAME PREMISE PITCH PREMISE AND CREATE FINAL PREMISE

15 MINUTES

Pitch Premises to the Group

1. Individuals share with the rest of the group the premise of their game.
Refer to the example above.

By sticking to a short, one sentence elevator pitch, it should help them focus on the
broad strokes, rather than getting caught up in lengthy backstories.

15 MINUTES

Create Final Game Premise

1. Groups decide on their final game premise.
After each person has had an opportunity to pitch their premise, the group should
decide together on the premise that they think is the most promising (vote or
another equitable method).

Groups can mix and match sections of their premises or come up with a new
premise that combines the aspects that the entire group is excited about.

For example, a group may not want a game with fellowship, but like the game’s
thematic. In this case, they would just change the types of fun.

Groups will be working together on this final premise to create their game.

Trying to capture the idea that the entire group is

excited and passionate about will be key.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 05

 MODULE 6: LESSON 1 / GAME PREMISE HOMEWORK

Homework
Journal Entry
1. Each student should record the 2 completed game premises they came
up with in the journal.

■■ From the 2 game premises they created, students should document

which one was the best and why.

■■ Students should list the reasons why the final game premise was
chosen by the group.

Final Projects
1. Students will be handing in their final projects as a mixture of group and
individual submissions.

It will consist of the following elements:

Lesson 1 (Group)
■■ Theme
■■ Title
■■ Game Premise 1 & 2 (Thematic framing)
■■ Types of Fun
■■ Game Feeling

Lesson 2 (Group)
■■ Mechanics Brainstorm (on large piece of paper)
■■ Evaluation of chosen mechanics pitch based on individual
design criteria.

Lesson 3 (Group)
■■ Annotated Rules Sheet
■■ Each rule should have a succinct bullet list of why it is present
on the sheet.

Lesson 5 (Individual)
■■ Game Post-Mortem
■■ Long form response detailing key design decisions. GAME
OVER

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 06

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM MECHANICS

TOTAL TIME: 60 MINUTES

Lesson 2
Mechanics Brainstorm
Students will develop the mechanics to complement their game premise.
This is to prepare a paper prototype version of the game.

Student Objectives
■■ New mechanics can be created by drawing on the thematic and
prior knowledge of the setting.
■■ Idea spiraling is a technique to create new goals and mechanics
from previously created goals and mechanics.
■■ Backtracking is a method to create new ideas based off of the
same goal or idea.

60 MINUTES

Group Activity: Brainstorm Mechanics

By the end of this lesson, students will have developed their game premise to
the point that it can be paper prototyped. They will have a rough idea of what
mechanics they require and are hopefully excited to start testing their game.

In this lesson, students will develop the following game components and the
mechanics associated with them in the same groups:
■■ Setting
■■ Player
■■ Goal
■■ Opposition

As a group, students will be documenting various “iteration paths” on a large

sheet of paper.

Students will be making 2 sets of game mechanics that can be prototyped.

(3 for advanced students)

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 07

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM MECHANICS

INTRODUCTION: 2 MINUTES
1. Remind students of what mechanics are.
FROM MODULE 5
What players call rules, designers call mechanics. Mechanics are the actions,
behaviors and mechanisms that a designer uses to produce gameplay.

Mechanics govern “things that the player can and cannot do.”

2. Inform students that we will be taking the game premise and developing enough
detail that this game could be paper prototyped.

This will give them an idea of where they need to be by the end of the lesson and at
points throughout.

We will be using the plastic bag game as our example for this exercise, as it is an
odd premise. This is to illustrate the idea that you can make a decent game out of
any game premise.

■■ Elevator Pitch: You play as a group of empty plastic bags [player] that want
to get put in a garbage can [goal], but they can’t find one [opposition].
■■ Title: Home!
■■ Game Feeling: Triumph, whimsical, and collaboration.
■■ Types of Fun: Discovery and Fellowship.
■■ Goal: Reach the garbage can.
■■ Opposition: Winds, society, and no trash cans.
■■ Theme: Big city.

3. Explain and spend the allocated time on each of the following sections:

SETTING: 10 MINUTES
Objective: Students should decide on a “physical setting” (or lack
of one) for their game.
There are many different representations for a physical setting in a game. Students
should try to piggyback on what they know about this setting.

For example, a bank might be a set of safes represented by cards, or a city might
be split into sets of areas with roads on a game board. A game set in space or
based on the stock market may not even have a physical setting.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 08

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM MECHANICS

For our plastic bag example, we might represent the big city with:
■■ A game board made of square or hexagonal tiles.
■■ It could have areas of interest within the game board.
■■ The outside tiles of the game board might be special.
■■ The tiles themselves could have different properties (E.g., red tiles,
blue tiles).
■■ The game board might expand/contract over time.
■■ What other spins could we put on a game board representation?
■■ A path based game board.
■■ A game board made out of random cards that get drawn from a deck.

Example Setting: Let’s use a game board of hexagonal tiles for our example.

PLAYER: 10 MINUTES
Objective: Students should then think about how the player
interacts with the game.
Perhaps players get to control a character that they move around.

■■ They could move their piece around by playing cards with movement
values on them (E.g., move 2 spaces).
■■ Their piece could freely move around on their turn.
■■ You might roll dice to move your piece around.
■■ Pieces may just move automatically each turn.
■■ They could move up to 3 spaces per turn.

Alternatively, they might not have a playable character, but instead accumulate
currency, victory points, resources or just build up to a goal that results in them
winning the game.

■■ Players might draft cards from a shared pool.

■■ They might accumulate victory points for meeting certain criteria
(E.g., get 3 of a kind).

Students also need to decide whether the game is co-operative or whether

individuals can win. Maybe the game has teams.

Example Player: For our plastic bag example, we will use a token to
represent our playable character.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 09

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM MECHANICS

GOAL: 10 MINUTES
Students should think about the “mechanical representation” of
the goal in this step.
Using what we know about the player and setting from the previous steps, we want
to create a “mechanical representation” of the goal (how players win).

The “mechanical representation” of the goal can be anything from:

■■ Players win when all other players are eliminated.

■■ Players win when they have eliminated 3 players.
■■ Players win when they all reach a certain tile.
■■ Players win when they get to 50 points.
■■ Players win when they complete the team objective.

We don’t need to know anything about how players are eliminated, how they move
around, or how they get points (this comes in the opposition step), but picking a
goal and developing the premise around it will allow us to get a playable game that
we can then start iterating and building upon.

Example Goal: Let’s use a specific tile on the map to represent the trash can.
Players need to get to the trash can to win.

We have 4 players, each with a playable character that needs to make it to the goal
tile. The game currently is quite easy and not very compelling or interesting. There’s
nothing stopping players from just moving straight to the goal; it lacks opposition.

OPPOSITION : 28 MINUTES
Objective: Students will develop the mechanics of several different
types of opposition for their game.
As discussed in Module 3, there are typically many ways to solve a problem, each
with their own tradeoffs. In this section, students will need to get creative with
brainstorming mechanical solutions for the problems they encounter.

At this point, students have their premise, setting (game board), player (player
token), and goal (get to the trash can tile).

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 10

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM MECHANICS

Types of Fun Theme Game Feeling Premise

Discovery, Fellowship Big City Triumph, Whimsical, You play as a group of
Collaboration plastic bags that want to
get to a garbage can,
but can’t find one.

Setting Player Goals Opposition

Where is the game set? Who is the player? How can we represent What are the obstacles?
How is this victory? Depth? Type of fun?
represented?
Game Board Co-Op Teams
- Tiles Individual
- Special Areas 1 vs X
- Tiles and Areas

Trash can tile

No Game Board Roleplay?

Cards No characters

Other Play cards?

Cards make game Vanilla Character

board

Players make game Special character

board

As shown in the diagram above, we know that

there is a game board, there are characters and
that the game has some co-operative elements.
We want to explore the “mechanics” of some
ideas that result in a playable game.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 11

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM MECHANICS

Setting Player Goals Opposition

Where is the game set? Who is the player? How can we What are the obstacles?
How is this represent victory? Depth? Type of fun?
represented?
Game Board Co-Op Teams
- Tiles Individual
- Special Areas 1 vs X
- Tiles and Areas

Hidden trash can tile

No Game Board Roleplay? - Flip tiles when walking on
them. Find trash can tile to
Trash can tile
win
- Too luck based. Need to
add skill!

Cards No characters

Other Play cards?

Cards make game Vanilla Character Students should start by “exploring” one
board goal idea until they would be able to
prototype it. This is shown above in blue.
Players make game Special character
board

CREATING NEW MECHANICS

Coming up with a new game mechanic is difficult.
They can draw on their theme and game premise to create new mechanics. Students
should draw inspiration from what they know about the theme and what objects or
ideas would be associated with it.

For example, with the big city theme, we could draw inspiration from the following
ideas (see how these ideas are represented by game mechanics in the completed
mechanics brainstorm at the bottom of this section).

■■ Cities might be split into areas (E.g., sewers, town, shop).

■■ Cities might have trash everywhere (E.g., rotting fruits).
■■ Cities are large; characters might try to hide in and around the city.
■■ You might collect things from around the city.
■■ Cities might have winds that blow and disrupt everything. Perhaps the plastic
bags could only move around due to the wind and otherwise be unable to move
on their own accord.
Many mechanics, especially in board games, take the behavior of an object/idea and
translate it into game mechanics.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 12

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM MECHANICS

IDEA “SPIRALING”
When “exploring” certain solutions, it will spiral into more ideas to
improve the game.
This is exemplified in the diagram below. These ideas could become their own goal or
give students ideas for new goals or types of opposition. Oftentimes, ideas don’t come
fully formed, but they can be “spiraled” off to create even better ideas.

In the diagram, the idea of players gaining “powerups” spawned the idea of all players
having powerups (represented by 1). This spawned the new “goal” category of the
“trash can” being a playable character (represented by 2) that is on a different team to
the plastic bags.

Asking the question “what if?” is very useful for this process. An example flow using
“what if” is as follows: “What if you picked up power ups from around the city” > “What
if everyone had power ups?” > “What if the trash can had powerups?” > “What if the
trash can was a player?”

Setting Player Goals Opposition

Where is the game set? Who is the player? How can we What are the obstacles?
How is this represent victory? Depth? Type of fun?
represented?
Game Board Co-Op Teams
- Tiles Individual
- Special Areas 1 vs X
- Tiles and Areas

Boss battle at trash can tile

No Game Board Roleplay? - Players must get stronger
by collecting powerups
Trash can tile
from areas
- Ten turns to get as strong
as possible
1
Cards No characters

Players have powerup cards (e./

Other Play cards? Cat & Mouse g. Make a tile impassable)
(One player is the - Evade capture for 10 turns
trash can, other 2
play as plastic
bags trying to
catch them)

Cards make game Vanilla Character

board

Players make game Special character

board

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 13

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2
1 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTR
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MOT
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CTS

BACKTRACKING
If students decided an iteration path didn’t work, they could backtrack
either to point 1 or 2.
This is exemplified in the diagram below. There might be an alternative branch off of
path 1 that can work!

If they have exhausted options branching off of point 1, they might need to backtrack
and branch off of point 2, or could even start fresh with a new goal (point 3). If all of
these options are exhausted, it might be time to re-evaluate the player or setting (or
even the premise!).

Setting Player Goals Opposition

Where is the game set? Who is the player? How can we What are the obstacles?
How is this represent victory? Depth? Type of fun?
represented?
Game Board Co-Op Teams
- Tiles Individual
- Special Areas 1 vs X
- Tiles and Areas

Hidden trash can tile (1)

No Game Board Roleplay? - Flip tiles when walking on
Find the trash can them. Find trash can tile to
tile (2) win
- Too luck based. Need to
add skill!

Cards No characters
NEW GOAL (3)

Other Play cards?

Cards make game Vanilla Character

board

Players make game Special character

board

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 14

 MODULE 6: LESSON 2
1 / MECHANICS BRAINSTORM BRAINSTR
OORB
MOT
MSECF
HLAI
NGIH
CTS

Setting Player Goals Opposition

Where is the game set? Who is the player? How can we What are the obstacles?
How is this represent victory? Depth? Type of fun?
represented?
Game Board Co-Op Teams Boss battle at trash can tile
- Tiles Individual - Players must get stronger
- Special Areas 1 vs X by collecting powerups
- Tiles and Areas from areas
- Ten turns to get as strong
as possible
Hidden trash can tile
No Game Board Roleplay? - Flip tiles when walking on
them. Find trash can tile.
OR
- Game board has areas. IF
you’re in an area, flip a
Trash can tile
card from that area. Cards
are either obstacles,
powerups or the trash can
- Everyone needs to Here is a completed
get to the trashcan iteration path brainstorm
once found
using the techniques
Complete objectives before
from the previous page.
Cards No characters going to the trash can
- Find four rotten fruits
- Turn limit (e.g. 10 turns)

Other Play cards? Cat & Mouse

(One player is the Players have powerup cards (e.g.
trash can, other Make a tile impassable)
play as plastic - Evade capture for 10 turns
bags trying to
catch them)
Players have innate abilities (e.g.
Cards make game Vanilla Character Green plastic bag has extra
board movement, Trash can has
stronger abilities)

Players make game Special character

board

By the end of this lesson, each group should have at least two
iteration paths that they want to take to paper prototype phase.

Advanced students should have three iteration paths, including

at least two different goals.

They will be fully implementing one of these iterations and

determining all of the rules of interaction in the next lesson.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 15

 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING PAPER PROTOTYPE DISCUSSION

TOTAL TIME: 60 MINUTES

Lesson 3
Rules and Prototyping
Students are exposed to the idea that mechanics that seem difficult to
prototype on paper are possible to prototype with a little creativity.

Student Objectives
■■ Paper prototypes are fast, cheap tools that game designers use
to emulate the game experience.
■■ Certain game mechanics are easier to prototype than others.
■■ While paper prototyping, game designers must use creative, alternative
approaches to emulate the game experience.

10 MINUTES

Paper Prototype Discussion

Enduring Understanding
■■ Paper prototypes are fast, cheap options that emulate the game experience
for game designers and players.
■■ While paper prototyping, game designers must use creative approaches to
emulate the game experience.

Essential Questions
What are the benefits of paper prototypes?

■■ A paper prototype is a fast and cheap technique to test whether a game is

fun and achieves its design goals.

■■ A paper prototype is a development tool intended to help game designers

test out creative ideas and emulate the game experience without using any
technology.

■■ For example, in lieu of AI, game designers can ask a friend to play the
part of the enemies.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 16

 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING PAPER PROTOTYPE DISCUSSION

■■ Instead of beautiful character designs, use any vinyl figures lying

around your classroom.

■■ If you want randomized levels, throw some playing cards on the floor and
pretend they’re cover for a shooting game paper prototype.

How would you prototype some of these mechanics?

■■ Leveling up a character?
Putting counters on a character card to level them up.

■■ Moving a character on a game board?

Rolling dice, playing movement cards.

■■ Randomness?
Drawing cards off a deck.
Rolling dice.
Drawing objects from a bag.

■■ Character abilities?
Using custom written character cards.
Drawing ability cards drawn from a deck.

■■ Hidden Roles
Dealing each player a card. An ace might indicate a special role.

How could you paper prototype mechanics from existing games?

■■ Escaping the police in Grand Theft Auto: Roll to move on a square grid city map.
Stay out of sight of the 1, 2, or 3, police pieces, for a certain amount of time to reduce
your wanted level.

Police pieces move one space toward your position each turn.

■■ Planting crops in Stardew Valley: Use a day counter on a piece of paper and
provide players with starting money and costs/growing times for seeds.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 17

 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING CHOOSE A MECHANICS PITCH

5 MINUTES

Choose a Mechanics Pitch

Students will take their list of mechanics pitches and select one that
they want to prototype first.

Reminder:
Each group should have at least two pitches. Advanced students should have at
least three pitches, at least two of which have meaningfully different goals.

1. Each group chooses one of their designs to prototype.

2. While groups are choosing, remind them of some of the design evaluation
criteria from the previous modules.

Some design evaluation criteria from the first 5 modules that may assist in
removing inferior pitches:

■■ Innovation
■■ Capacity for depth
■■ It may be hard to create depth in a game where the outcome is purely
determined by luck.
■■ Thematic resonance/dissonance
■■ Gameplay does/doesn’t match thematic.
■■ Type of fun and gameplay mismatch
■■ Developmental resources
■■ Having one hour to create 10 character cards may be infeasible.
■■ Complexity
■■ A design that has high complexity (E.g., many characters, intricate
abilities) may not be appropriate for the target audience (but potentially
appropriate for others).

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 18

 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING MAKE RULES > PROTOTYPE > PLAYTEST EXERCISE

45 MINUTES

Make Rules > Prototype >

Playtest Exercise
We have created the premise, thematic, player, goal and opposition of our game
and decided on one mechanics pitch we want to prototype. We will now be creating
the paper prototype and the Rules and Interaction components along the way.

By the end of this lesson, each group will have:

■■ A playable (and unpolished) game ready for another group to playtest

in the next lesson.
■■ A single page of written rules.

TEACHERS WILL CARRY OUT THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

1. Instruct students to list the core components of their chosen
mechanics pitch: 5 minutes

2. Demonstrate the make rules > prototype > playtest process: 15 minutes

■■ Make Rules:
■■ Students make an initial set of rules for their game premise (Module 6,
Lesson 1) and mechanics pitch (Module 6, Lesson 2).
■■ “Make Rules” phase is used to fix problems.
■■ Prototype:
■■ Students make a physical copy of their game.
■■ Playtest:
■■ Students playtest their games to “find problems” and
“validate assumptions.”
3. Students conduct at one cycle of the process and one additional
“make rules” iteration: 25 minutes

Homework: Students finalize their rules sheet, ready for playtesting

SEE THE FOLLOWING PAGE FOR AN IN-DEPTH EXPLORATION OF THIS PROCESS

USING THE PLASTIC BAG GAME EXAMPLE.

URF ACADEMY | MODULE 6 60 MINUTES 19

 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING MAKE RULES > PROTOTYPE > PLAYTEST EXERCISE

CORE MECHANICS: 5 MINUTES

1. Instruct students to list the core components of their chosen
mechanics pitch.

We will use the mechanics pitch below as an example, due to its simplicity.

Setting Player Goals Opposition

Where is the game set? Who is the player? How can we What are the obstacles?
How is this represent victory? Depth? Type of fun?
represented?
Game Board Co-Op Teams
- Tiles Individual
- Special Areas 1 vs X
- Tiles and Areas

No Game Board Roleplay?

Trash can tile

Complete objectives before

Cards No characters going to the trash can
- Find four rotten fruits
- Turn limit (e.g. 10 turns)

Other Play cards?

Cards make game Vanilla Character

board

Players make game Special character

board

The core components of this pitch are:

■■ A game board with areas.

■■ Fruit Items (tiles, cards, other).
■■ Playable characters that need to move to the trash
can area once the objective is complete.

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING MAKE RULES > PROTOTYPE > PLAYTEST EXERCISE

EXPLAIN PLAYTEST ITERATION PROCESS: 15 MINUTES

2. Demonstrate the make rules (to fix problems) > prototype > playtest (to discover
problems and validate assumptions) process with the instructions below.

■■ A good way to start is to paper prototype each component and make the rules
along the way.
■■ Similar to Lesson 2, it is better to make fast decisions and test them and fix them
later, rather than spending a lot of time determining the details now.

Make Rules (Fix Problems)

Let’s start by making some quick rules for each component. As noted above,
the rules chosen below were made quickly and arbitrarily.

■■ A game board with areas

■■ The game board is divided into six areas.
■■ Each special area (A, B, C, D, E, F) has 7 hidden tiles, which contain
either a fruit or a blank tile.
■■ The rest of the tiles do nothing.
■■ Playable Characters
■■ Players (1, 2, 3, 4) start in the center.
■■ When players step on a hidden tile it is revealed. It may reveal a fruit.
■■ Players need to collect all 4 fruits, then stand on the trash can tile to win.
■■ Prototype
■■ We might prototype the game board on a large piece of paper, with a marker
and the rules above.

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING MAKE RULES > PROTOTYPE > PLAYTEST EXERCISE

Playtest (Find Problems and Validate Assumptions)

Let’s try to play the game and surface some problems and opportunities.
The “play” phase and “make rules” phase will often happen concurrently.

Finding Problems
Below are some typical problems we might find with the game above
and its initial ruleset:
■■ Rules and Thematic
■■ How do players move?
Example Solutions:
■■ Do they roll a dice?
■■ Do they draw movement tiles out of a bag?
■■ Do they get to move X number of spaces per turn?

■■ Do players have health?

Would plastic bags have health thematically?
■■ Could we represent a plastic bag splitting up with gameplay?
■■ Perhaps when players take damage, their character token
splits up into multiple playable characters with less health.
■■ Players could move any character they own on their turn.
■■ Depth
The game in its current state is quite boring (lacks depth). Players simply move
around the game board until they fortuitously discover the fruit.
■■ How might we increase depth?
■■ The other hidden tiles might interact with the player and interact
with each other (in positive or negative ways).
■■ E.g., Stepping on a certain tile moves the player two spaces
towards the center.
■■ Tiles could be in random positions on each different playthrough.
The players would need to make different decisions each time
they played the game.
■■ Players might be able to reveal one tile per game to check
if it’s a hazard.
■■ Flow and Pacing
Players are taking too long to take their turns.
■■ Could there be a turn timer?
■■ Recording information on how long players take to make their
turns will be useful for future reference.

There is insufficient tension; the game doesn’t approach a climax.

■■ Players could be required to complete all objectives within a
certain number of turns.
■■ There could be explicit peaks in difficulty at section climaxes.
■■ Finding a fruit could increase the number of turns you
have to win by one, but being in a special area might have
heightened difficulty/danger (E.g., tiles that damage the player).

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING MAKE RULES > PROTOTYPE > PLAYTEST EXERCISE

■■ Types of Fun
The game is not fulfilling our expectation for the Fellowship type of fun.
■■ Could we find ways to make the game more co-operative?
■■ Could we require teamwork to explore certain areas?
■■ E.g., Standing on this tile disables surrounding tiles.

VALIDATING ASSUMPTIONS
Playtesting can be used to validate assumptions, such as whether a game
is too complex, lacks depth, has correct pacing, or verifying if the game is
delivering on a certain type of fun.

Make Rules 2
After making more rules (such as those listed above), we would start the cycle again.

STUDENTS CONDUCT PLAYTEST ITERATION PROCESS: 25 MINUTES

3. Students conduct at least one cycle of the process and one additional
“make rules” iteration.

A suggested flow:
■■ Make Rules: 5 minutes
■■ Prototype: 10 minutes
■■ Playtest: 5 minutes
■■ Second Make Rules: 5 minutes

Students should be prepared to cut a playtest short to make a rules iteration or

to start the game part-way through to test particular rules and mechanics.
Have each student be in charge of an element. Students can delegate their own
tasks, or use the examples below.
■■ Rule quality (depth vs complexity) and ensuring the rule sheet is written.
■■ Setting
■■ Assets, design decisions concerning “setting.”
■■ Player
■■ Assets, design decisions concerning “players.”
■■ Goals, subgoals, pacing, and flow.
■■ Design decisions.
■■ Type of fun and game feeling.
■■ In charge of the holistic experience.

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 3 / RULES AND PROTOTYPING HOMEWORK

Homework
1. Students finalize their rules sheet, ready for playtesting.

■■ Students should document each rule on a sheet of paper, to be revised in

the next step.

■■ Students should revise the list of rules together and ensure that the game is
ready for playtesting.

■■ When doing the final check, evaluating the game from the perspective of a
cheater can be a good way to make sure you have covered everything.

■■ Inform students that the rules for the final game should be short enough
to fit on a single piece of paper.

■■ Students will be annotating each rule on the sheet when submitting their
final project, detailing the reason for its inclusion.

GAME
OVER

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 4 / PLAYTESTING AND FEEDBACK PLAYTESTING DISCUSSION

TOTAL TIME: 60 MINUTES

Lesson 4
Playtesting and Feedback
Students learn about giving good (and bad) feedback, playtest one other
group’s game, and improve their game based off playtest feedback.

Student Objectives
■■ Playtesting is conducted to surface feedback to improve the game
and to validate assumptions.
■■ Good feedback is goal-centric and clearly identifies problems and
their causes.
■■ Bad feedback lacks reasoning and proposes solutions, rather than
surfacing problems.

10 MINUTES

Playtesting Discussion
Playtesting
The main goals of playtesting are:
■■ To surface feedback on ways to make the game better in an honest and unbiased
manner (identifying problems and opportunities).
■■ To capture a user’s reactions to your game; things that were confusing, unclear or
make them happy/unhappy.
■■ To validate assumptions.
For example, a designer might say: “I think the cooperative elements in the game
make players happy. Do they succeed at this in practice?”

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 4 / PLAYTESTING AND FEEDBACK PLAYTESTING DISCUSSION

Feedback

GOOD FEEDBACK

Is goal centric.
■■ E.g., You were trying to make a challenging experience, but it was
not challenging.
■■ Help the designer to validate their goals and challenge their goals, rather
than challenging the specific implementation.
■■ The specific implementation is commonly not the best representation of the
goal they were trying to meet.

Clearly identifies problems and why they were problems (E.g., I experienced
X and it did not match my expectations because Y).

Is actionable, specific, and values/goals based.

■■ “This could be better” is neither actionable, nor specific.
■■ By contrast, “X content piece has Y clearly actionable problem, which
does not align with Z core value” clearly describes a specific and actionable
problem and ties it to an overall goal or value that the designer is
attempting to achieve.
■■ Values or goals in this context will typically be associated with “target
audience,” “types of fun,” “game feeling,” etc.

BAD FEEDBACK

I didn’t like this.

■■ Missing the why.

You should do this.

■■ There are many ways to solve a problem, not just one; especially
in game design.
■■ Better: I think this is a problem and here is an EXAMPLE solution.

Personal attacks and generalizing.

■■ “You always make the player feel stupid when they mess up.”
■■ It is easy for feedback to be perceived as a personal attack. Better
feedback will leave the designer out of it and critique the design instead.
■■ Better: “Players tend to feel stupid when they mess up their
character combos.”

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 4 / PLAYTESTING AND FEEDBACK PLAYTESTING DISCUSSION

GENERAL FEEDBACK TIPS

■■ What a player feels is not wrong. If a player is angry/happy, it doesn’t matter
if the game is not meant to make them happy, that is what they are feeling.
■■ Have testers write what they liked/disliked, initial impressions, what their
expectations were, and whether they were met.

General Tips
■■ Give the tester the minimum amount of information about what they’ll be testing
beforehand. For the first playtest, it’s typically only the rules. For the second
playtest, this typically includes test goals to validate (once the testers know what
the game is all about).
■■ Running a playtest puts students in a very vulnerable position. Be respectful of
your classmates when delivering feedback to them. Remember, feedback isn’t
personal criticism, but sometimes can run quite negative; try not to take the
feedback too personally.
■■ Students are going to have differing opinions on the things they playtest
and that’s okay! Different players are going to enjoy different types of fun and
different experiences.

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 4 / PLAYTESTING AND FEEDBACK PLAYTEST ANOTHER GAME

30 MINUTES

Playtest Another Game

Students playtest another group’s game and write test goals for their own game.

1. Groups should write 3 points of feedback they want to collect from

other students.

EXAMPLES
■■ Validate that complexity of game is appropriately low.
■■ Test that there is sufficient depth after the halfway point of the game.
■■ Ensure that the game is delivering on the Fellowship type of fun.

2. Each group will designate one group representative to stay behind and send
the rest of their students to a neighboring team to playtest their game.

GROUP REPRESENTATIVE
■■ One student remains behind to take notes on the experience. They should
provide the rules sheet to the visiting group and take notes (on things that
are confusing, if the game breaks or if pacing is correct), but otherwise not
give any help.
■■ This will help illuminate where the rules sheet needs more or less clarification.

3. After the test, the group representative should interview their testers
about their experience.

GOOD QUESTIONS TO ASK:

■■ Did you understand what your goal or win condition was?
■■ Did you understand the mechanic?
■■ Was there anything that was unclear to begin with?
■■ Is there anything you’re still unclear about?
■■ Would you be interested in playing an improved version in the future?
■■ Is there anything you hated?
■■ Is there anything you really liked?
■■ If you could change one thing, what would it be?

4. Playtest with another group!

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 MODULE 6: LESSON 4 / PLAYTESTING AND FEEDBACK POST PLAYTEST ITERATION

20 MINUTES

Post Playtest Iteration

Students will take their learnings from the playtest and prioritize the things
they can fix/improve.

1. After giving and receiving feedback, students return to their original groups.
2. Students should:
■■ Confirm assumptions that were validated.
■■ Create a list of things they can improve or want to change.
3. Prioritize the list of changes in order of most critical to change, to least critical.
■■ Prioritizing feedback is important, because time is limited in game development.
Features that seem important to fix might need to be postponed or abandoned,
simply because other fixes are higher priority.
■■ Compare fixing an issue that prevents players from ending the game (critical), to
an issue where the early portions of the game drag out too long (minor).
4. Groups delegate tasks to fix some of the issues in order of importance.

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 MODULE 6: PART 5 / FINAL ITERATION AND PLAYTEST FINAL TWEAKS

TOTAL TIME: 60 MINUTES

Lesson 5
Final Iteration and Playtest
Students make a final iteration, then playtest more games from other groups.
They finish the module by writing a game post-mortem.

15 MINUTES

Final Tweaks
Students will make final changes to their games and then jump into a full playtest,
where students will play each others games.

1. In their groups, students should make final changes and tests to their games,
and be strongly encouraged to lean on their prioritized list of problems from the
previous lesson.
2. Students should run one last full experience playtest within their own group
to test the changes and practice running the game.

This is a good time to refine the rules sheet, improve

the art or decoration, and polish the gameplay
(especially pacing). Students should ensure their
game works from start to finish.

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 MODULE 6: PART 5 / FINAL ITERATION AND PLAYTEST FULL CLASS PLAYTEST AND HOMEWORK

45 MINUTES

Full Class Playtest

Students playtest each others’ games.

1. Each student in the group takes a turn to be the group representative.

■■ Remind the group representatives that they should be mostly observing
and taking notes.
2. The other students in the group playtest other groups’ games.
■■ Attempt to test at least three other groups games.

Homework
Game Post-Mortem
Developers commonly release game post-mortems as a way to document learnings
from the development cycle.

The purpose of the game post-mortem for this module is two-fold. Firstly, it should
allow students to reflect on their design decisions. Secondly, it will allow the teacher to
corroborate an individuals’ accounts of the development cycle.

Students will be submitting their post-mortem as part of their assessment.

Deliverable
Students should reflect on:

■■ Things that went well.

■■ Things that went poorly.
■■ Things that seemed difficult, but went better than expected.
■■ Things that seemed easy, but were more difficult than expected.
■■ Key design decisions made and why.
■■ Ways we would improve the development process for next time.

Even experienced developers learn something new every time they make a game,
and find something to improve for next time.

The post-mortem should avoid reflecting on personnel issues; E.g., X person didn’t
manage to get the character designs finished, so my level designs were delayed.

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