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Designing Game Rules

Designing Game Rules

PAX South 2016

The rules of a game literally define it. In videogames, they are intrinsic limitations. In tabletop, players must enforce them. In all games, players need to learn them. There are good and bad ways to teach a game. From awful tutorials to unparseable rulebooks, elegant demos to hour-long slogs, join us for a mechanical discussion of how game rules are (and should be) written, how players learn games, and why so few people are willing to read a 100 page rulebook (nevermind the appendices)!

Slides

Source Link

Comments

  • There's a lot of luminance noise.
  • Starfox said:

    There's a lot of luminance noise.

    What do you expect? It was a dark-as-fuck room with just two distant spots.

    Maybe if we had more money, we could get a low light camera/lens... ;^)

  • Then we'd be able to see Scott's grumpiness about Patreon with even more clarity.
  • edited March 2016
    It also didn't help that there were no conveniently placed power outlets in that room, so we had to put the camera really far away. That means I had to use the zoomy lens I have, which only goes down to f/4 at best, and f/5.6 if zoomed in a bunch. If I could get closer, we could use the other lens that goes down to f/2.8, turn down the ISO two stops, and get way less noise.

    I have this guy

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    Feel free to buy me this guy

    http://amzn.to/1R3zq02

    I'm saving money up for this guy.

    http://amzn.to/1Lbqnhq

    One day. One day.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • Have you considered renting lenses?
  • edited March 2016
    Wrong thread!
    Post edited by Matt on
  • Dazzle369 said:

    Have you considered renting lenses?

    Not really worth it.
  • Apreche said:

    Dazzle369 said:

    Have you considered renting lenses?

    Not really worth it.
    Yeah. Our panel videos are already better quality than almost anyone out there. If they were getting hundreds of thousands of views, maybe it would be worthwhile to up the production values. But we're already so far above the bar it's ludicrous.
  • If we get to the point where it's worthwhile to rent a lens, then it will also be worthwhile to rent cameras and a person to manage them and such.
  • Surprised Panasonic don't have any extension rings for their lenses. Like these.
  • Dazzle369 said:

    Surprised Panasonic don't have any extension rings for their lenses. Like these.

    You can get them, but you usually don't need them. Since it's a mirrorless micro 4/3 camera you can just mount any lens designed for full frame SLR on an adapter, and get a 2x crop factor. I do this using old Canon FD lenses.

    The problem is that all the FD lenses I have are wider prime lenses. I could get a long Canon FD zoom lens, but the apertures on those aren't great, and they are really big and heavy. The native micro 4/3 lenses are much smaller. If you want to zoom as much as that 100-400 Panasonic lens, you would need this Canon lens.

    http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-800mm-f-5.6-L-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

    Compare that to the Panasonic, which this guy is wearing around his neck in the snow.

  • Rym said:

    Apreche said:

    Dazzle369 said:

    Have you considered renting lenses?

    Not really worth it.
    Yeah. Our panel videos are already better quality than almost anyone out there. If they were getting hundreds of thousands of views, maybe it would be worthwhile to up the production values. But we're already so far above the bar it's ludicrous.
    This is super true. I mean if freaking luminance noise is even something you can notice, everyone else is videomae wa moe shindeiru.
  • The larger Canon telephoto lenses perform better in other scenarios. *tangent

    Having the crop sensor zoom factor on a full frame lens is a bonus, but having that extender also will add a little bit more zoom without sacrificing sharpness. It could be a solution before buying a whole new lens. Not to mention having that extender should work across lenses; so you're just increasing your versatility by having this 1 thing.

    Or just have some better lighting and use some digital zoom.
  • Dazzle369 said:

    The larger Canon telephoto lenses perform better in other scenarios. *tangent

    Having the crop sensor zoom factor on a full frame lens is a bonus, but having that extender also will add a little bit more zoom without sacrificing sharpness. It could be a solution before buying a whole new lens. Not to mention having that extender should work across lenses; so you're just increasing your versatility by having this 1 thing.

    Or just have some better lighting and use some digital zoom.

    That is another option. When the GH4 records in 4k it uses 4K pixels on the sensor and maps them 1 to 1 in the final video. If you tell it to record in 1080p, it actually maps 4 pixels on the sensor to each pixel in the final video. There is also an option for "Ex. Tele Conv" which records in 1080p and maps a single pixel on the sensor to a single pixel on the final video. This results in basically a 2x digital zoom, you just can't record in 4k.

    To get the best quality, though, it's best to record in 4k and scale it down in post.
  • Better lighting isn't an option. PAX has the best lighting of any con out there: it's only downhill when we perform elsewhere.
  • edited March 2016
    Rym said:

    Better lighting isn't an option. PAX has the best lighting of any con out there: it's only downhill when we perform elsewhere.

    Paint yourselves fluorescent.

    image
    Post edited by Dazzle369 on
  • This is easily one of my favorite lectures in terms of useful information. Just a note that the end of the video had some weird strutter looping going on, probably not really worth a re-upload to fix.
  • I am amazed that any of you noticed the few seconds of audio glitches in the last tiny part of the video. Something like 99% of all viewers of ANY of our videos stop watching with less than 30 seconds or so to go.
  • Rym said:

    I am amazed that any of you noticed the few seconds of audio glitches in the last tiny part of the video. Something like 99% of all viewers of ANY of our videos stop watching with less than 30 seconds or so to go.

    I've heard glitches at the end in other videos too. Y r dis?

    I'm usually not near my computer if a video completely plays out, but I can still hear it.
  • Rym said:

    I am amazed that any of you noticed the few seconds of audio glitches in the last tiny part of the video. Something like 99% of all viewers of ANY of our videos stop watching with less than 30 seconds or so to go.

    My OCD completionist ways skew in odd directions sometimes. I am also that guy who will listen through to the end of an audiobook just to hear the guy say, "Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program." Or flip through the entire index of a Kindle book just so that it says 100% on my library page. Or watch the opening and closing of every episode of a TV show even though not doing so would save me 1-3 minutes of time.

    I just don't feel right if I skip over things like that, even though I know I would benefit from it in the long run.
  • I really liked the look of the lighting in this video. It's got a lot of character and looks more dramatic than most of your other panel videos. I watched it before listening to the podcast too, so was surprised you were complaining about it.

    My only criticism is that I want to see the slide EVERY time you point to it or refer to it. I know you think we want to see your faces, but we don't. The picture-in-picture thing you tried out is enough to see your facial expressions and stuff, and the slides are often more important than you think they are.
  • The funny thing is that the lighting is something we have zero control over.

    I was actually working on a Premiere workflow with the multicam that essentially had three cameras for me to switch between:

    1. Wide shot
    2. Close shot + small slide
    3. Slide + small Rym&Scott close shot

    Didn't finish it for this video, but I will try it for the Atari Game Design panel I'm editing next.
  • edited March 2016
    Rym said:

    The funny thing is that the lighting is something we have zero control over.

    I'm seriously considering bringing some shitty clamp lights with me for panels just to throw more light in my panel rooms.
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • Careful there. If you get a low angle, it'll make you look like a skeleton monster ;^)
  • Stop giving yourself ideas
  • It appears me telling my designer followers to watch your video is working and they are learning...
  • Rym said:

    Careful there. If you get a low angle, it'll make you look like a skeleton monster ;^)

    Hah! There's way too much meat (and fat) on these bones for me to look anywhere near skeletal.
  • I enjoyed it. Hard to say what of this was educational vs just distilling lessons I've seen first hand over the years but still to have it all put into words is a big deal and it was definitely am entertaining presentation to listen to.

    One point I guess notes was at the beginning, how everyone will still fail but maybe a little less... I wish that was expanded on. I don't know if it was intended but I naturally picked up a subtext of "and you'll fail over and over until you stop failing so hard and then eventually do not-shit work"

    So if you'd gone back and affirmed thst overtly I think it would have been a strong little message to add even if a common one.
  • edited March 2016


    It's slowly picking up in the BG designer community.
    Post edited by Coldguy on
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