Week 06: An Introduction to Game Design....

So...What is Game Play?
As defined of Wikipedia, Gameplay is that which includes all player experiences during interaction with the gaming system, especially formal games. So basically, all its saying is the game play is when the player interacts with the game in the intended way, right? But im sure that all of us know that that doesn’t always happen....does it?

Game design in some respects does take place in the modern developer. All kinds of people design games using various tools. Mostly being able to do the same things, but in different ways.
Is game design a single persons responsibility?In a way you could argue that this is a valid statement, however this is also partly false. Yes ok so you do usually work on designated parts to the game in which you spend 2/3 years of your life working on, but you also are part of a team who have to work together to complete the game, and make sure that it is satisfactory to the user. Sometimes you fine you are better at developing and designing a game within a certain genre, but you also have to be able to design games in genres which your may not be so good at, You got to be an all rounder really. Sam Shahirani (on gamasutra) said that 'Children design games everyday. Constructing a complicated game governed by a rule which can be changed at the drop of a hat." so basically we all do it...and recreate games which already exist but give them a spark of uniqueness and make them our own. We all know how many different versions of games there are...and stripped down. They are all built on the same principles and rules. All games designed for certain platforms and within certain budgets will have a similar set of rules and a similar specification, but each will slightly differ in its own way because of the game plot/storyline.

To me, yes graphics and whatever are part of the game. But its not top of the list. A game might have shitty graphics, but it could still be a good game (not that anything nowadays does have shit graphics, i mean come on look at the technology now!!). Having a well constructed design team and all working together when necessary is as important to the game as the storyline ad the challenges which lie within.