In the previous articles in this series I have discussed texturing, lighting and decoration. These techniques often come together to convey a specific narrative in two distinct ways. Embedded Narrative When something is placed in the environment to intentionally tell a story that can be considered an embedded narrative. The archetypical example…

I want to talk a little about something that I haven’t seen explicitly discussed in the game design texts I have read, or by my fellow designers, though I see it done in many games. Decoration In a previous article, I talked about textures, and in the next one I will…

Continuing the discussion of game design techniques visible in the theme park design of Disney World today I will discuss textures. Textures In the real world, everything is made out of something, we have intrinsic materiality and that gives everything that exists texture. In games, everything is made out of polygons…

Continuing the discussion of game design techniques visible in the theme park design of Disney World today I will discuss lighting. Lighting Light in a game scene can be used for a lot more than making sure the space is visible to the player of course. In broad strokes the color…

As a game design professor at Northeastern University, I have been teaching a course on ‘Level Design and Game Architecture’ for undergrads. (The same course is called Spatial and Temporal Design when I teach it to grad students who are paying for fancier words ;) ) One of the units…

I have discussed the idea of a Pattern Language before and discussed the importance of connecting patterns together. Today I want to talk a bit more about how we can connect patterns to the existing games that use them and the benefits of doing so. Using the techniques introduced in…

The Process of writing an academic paper turns out to be a bit different than posting here or even completing a textbook. In the end, it was a rewarding effort and resulted in driving my research forward in useful ways. I was invited to contribute to a special issue of…

This is the syllabus that I use to teach both the undergraduate Level Design and Game Architecture and the graduate version, Spatial and Temporal Design. There are some minor differences between the courses in terms of assignments and grading, but the content is shared. This syllabus shows the application of…

Applying Pattern Language for Game Design to the Classroom — I developed the ideas in Pattern Language for Game Design in part through teaching the above courses at Northeastern University so it seems fitting to go into some detail about how I use the book in those classes. …