Aesthetics in games

I gave a presentation today based on an interesting article by Robin Hunicke. It suggests a approach to game design that focuses on Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics as a progression through game development and game "consumption". I focused on Aesthetics for this meeting because of it's position as the first thing that user's see when playing a game. The article and PowerPoint are below, along with a few comments on some of the games I used as examples.

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research

Presenting a Game (PowerPoint)

Braid was probably my favorite discussion of the day, and I really liked how in depth some of our analyses can go. Mike brought up a good point about many games affording users the ability to completely disregard narrative and focus solely on game-play. If you've got the moo-lah I say check it out, it's a beautiful game.




If you dig rhythm games Audiosurf is a great one to have. It generates tracks based on the music from your computer, so it's a great game to play if you want to turn your brain off a little and get to "feel" your music.





Gregory Weir is one "d" short of Weird, and it's pretty appropriate. His games are deep and very message heavy. He tends to focus on one dynamic and use that to tell his story, whether his users like it or not. If you get the chance play "The Majesty of Colors" and any other game on LudusNovus.

That's it for tonight, Cheers!
Russell