Jan
13
Jeanine Cowen – MFA Thesis Proposal One
January 13, 2013 | Comments Off
Game Design and Game Balancing in Platformers
What are the impacts of game design and game balancing on the player experience? Through the controlled use and presentation of current best practice theory as detailed in books like “Rules of Play – Game Design Fundamentals” by Salen and Zimmerman, or “The Art of Game Design” by Schell, this thesis will provide implemented gameplay designed to highlight current thinking in game balancing and design. Through this project, key aspects of game design theory and game balancing will be demonstrated within a playable level.
Utilizing the Unity 3D game engine and a prototype platformer type game, the user will be allowed via the use of adjustable parameters, to modify components of a game’s balance and design within a single, demo level. This will highlight the experience of game play connecting it to tangible player experience while presenting the impacts of theoretical and practical game design practice.
The Unity 3D project will also contain links and tips to current theory on games in order to connect the experience with the presented topics. Research into industry stated expectations of platform games as well as academic articles on effective game design will be coordinated within the level design of the prototype game.
For this thesis, the prototype game will show the currently understood concepts of platform game design and impacts of good versus poor implementation.