Charles Robert Simmon II Game Design Blog

What is Game Design? (My Take on the Question)

Mar 21, 2008
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I was just thinking back to a time where a couple of us in the class went to the Cambie and the question was asked "what is Game Design or just design in general". At the time I wasn't really sure of my answer (or I though my answer didn't sound smart enough) so I declined to answer. Now after finishing the one year course at Vancouver Film School and having a little while to sit back and reflect a little on my experiences I've come up with an answer.

simply put I believe that Game Design is:

"The process one takes to create the equation for X"

What do I mean by this? Let me explain.

I was looking back at the times when I first took algebra, the first time we had to use the equation to find a unknown variable. This is how the "X" fits into the equation. "X" is for the unknown and when game ideas start coming to fruition we don't have the whole equation to figure out what this "X" is. So now comes the creation process:

So in algebra problems X always equals something and that in lies the creation so to use a pseudo algebra equation as an example:

X = Large Machines (Warfare + Love)

One could say that the equation could be a simple as this, but this is where one might start to build the more cohesive experience for the game.

well thats all for my little revelation rant

Till Next Time:

Charles Robert Simmons II-Game Designer

Aroha's Journey has come to an end

Feb 18, 2008
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Aroha's Journey Title copy

Cave Entrance

So its finally come to an end. After a very long 12 week period Catch 22 Games has completed Aroha's Journey. On this project I was PM and also Level Designer. I also wrote a few of the Documents such as the Game Design Doc and the Art Bible. So what is Aroha's Journey? Its a 3rd person Action-Adventure game. You play as Aroha who is on a mission to save her sister from the evil wargod Mauhriki.

So Aroha's Journey was a very interesting experience for me. I was put into the role of leading 4 people to the path way to greatness and admittedly we fell a little short. Maybe it was because of all of our inexperience at any of the skills it takes to make a game, or maybe it was work ethic. Overall looking back at the journey I took to make this game I learned a lot of things.

I learned its not good to do something very important with both people who are your friends and people who are your enemies. When I went to build my team I picked some of the people I felt I could count on and to some degree I felt this bit me in the ass. So if you are building a final team, make sure that you all have a mutal respect for each other and are all working towards the same goal.

Temple

Overall though even though there were a lot of hardships through the development of this game I have grown a lot as a Game Designer and I'm ready to use my past experiences dreaming about become a Game Designer and my new experiences learned through my year at VFS to further my carrer in the Field of game design. So I end this chapter in my life with this quote

"In order to gain great power you must have the courage and wisdom to obtain it"

The Night of Board Games

Apr 9, 2007
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So as stated in my last blog, I entered my game Eltkix in a Board Game Competition. And it was an interesting night seeing all the games that were made from the three selectable Digital Games. It was also weird that I was the only individual that did a Robotron Inspired Game. This is what you see below. Also if you notice from the other slide it has changed quite a bit as well.

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The funny thing about it is that the game board changed because I added a game play mechanic at the last minute (the night before basically) after play testing it and seeing that it wasn't a "full" experience.This Next Picture is so totally a photo Opp, but Mack and Myself are setting up the game for play at the moment. So I guess I should talk about the stuff you really care about....Did I win????? Well not really, I got the runner up prize of a 10 dollar gift card for entering, which I must say is better than nothing, and I was also "Interviewed" by Vancouver Film Schools Blog (which can be reached at www.VFS.com/Blog) about my experience there. Soon I'll be writing my Post Mordem for Eltkix and the who process I went through to make the game. Until next post, later dayz.

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Elktix The Unveiling

Mar 21, 2007
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Robotron Game Board

So on Saturday, March 31 I'm going to be unveiling my Board Game based on the arcade game "Robotron 2084" which can be seen on the right. Just a quick over view of the rules, the numbered portions you see are known as sectors and as each player goes through the game they choose which sector they will attack with their Lasers, because on each white space where will be a "Bot Token" which has to be destroyed, who ever destroys the most Wins! If you live in Vancouver, I hope to see you there and I hope you have a blast!!!!!

IGDACHALLENGE2

. On the right you can see

Vancouver Film School Orentation

Feb 20, 2007
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So for the past two days I've gone through orentation at VFS. The First day was mainly boring stuff about forms to fill out and watching various demo reels and stuff. Afterward I went to the VFS Cafe and chatted with various people from various programs and mainly with my own. So then about 10 of us went out for beers and chatted about what would we like for our final project to be and what game franchise would we like to take over if we had the chance. We later played pool and then had a tour of the "bad" neighboorhoods and some of the urban myths were dispelled for us. then myself and three others went to go play mario golf and we talked about what we though were the most over rated games of all time (I said FFVII). But over all VFS is shaping up to be a very life changing experience. Til the next post!