Design & Style, Science & Tech, Sports & Gaming

The Future of Game Design

Lesson time 08:04 min

What’s next? Will speculates on the future and advises game designers to stay open-minded in the wake of technological advancements.

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Topics include: The Rising Potential of VR and AR • Intelligent Game Systems • An Unpredictable Future • Stay Open-Minded

Will Wright

Teaches Game Design and Theory

Collaboration, prototyping, playtesting. The Sims creator Will Wright breaks down his process for designing games that unleash player creativity.

Preview

I think recently we've seen games evolve in an area that was kind of unexpected, let's say, 15 years ago when we had the rise of the app market, and tablets, and smartphones. We're seeing a lot of what I would call interstitial gaming now. These are very short, consumable game experiences on a small screen that I can do in a few minutes on my smartphone. I'm seeing some of the most creative games I've ever seen appearing on tablets. It's actually a really nice format for gaming, wherever you want to be. And it's, you know, something that doesn't have the stigma of I'm carrying around a game machine everywhere because they're using tablets for everything now. So I think those have allowed games to reach a much wider audience. And it's also allowed diversification and exploration of kind of indie games and new experimental gameplay that probably would not have been economically viable on the older platforms. [MUSIC PLAYING] Going into the future, I think, you know, we have VR starting to become more and more accessible. You know, I've played a lot of the VR games, which I enjoy. And it's interesting. As immersive as VR is though, it's not the type of thing where I'm going to be up all night like I was playing "Doom" in a dark room for five hours. There seems to be for almost everybody a limited time that you can kind of be in that box in that world and, you know, without starting to feel really uncomfortable. I think part of it is the fact that you're totally blocked off from the world around you. And there's something, you know, kind of inherently disconcerting about that. And for that reason and a few others, I really think that there's a much bigger potential, you know, for gaming in augmented reality. Games now are-- I'm consuming, you know, without closing off the world around me and, in fact, are occurring placed in the world around me. They have maybe some context even to where I am and what I'm doing. I think that the technology there that I've seen is still several years off. But that stuff is coming at us so rapidly. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if I was seeing some really cool creative stuff in about five years from now, you know, as the headsets get lighter, more transparent, less kind of social stigma with the Google glasses and whatnot. [MUSIC PLAYING] Alongside of augmented reality, I think that AI, in fact, really is going to make the biggest impact by far. I think that-- and when I say AI, I don't mean intelligent opponents. But I mean an intelligent game system that is understanding the player, that is watching what the player is doing, and understanding what motivates the player, what they enjoy, what they don't like, topics they find interesting, things that it can pull in, other people they might want to meet or interact with on certain topics. I think that AI moderating either as a game master or even as a game designer can fundamentally alter the landscape of game design. If you could imag...

About the Instructor

Learn the art and science of game design with Will Wright, the mind behind SimCity and The Sims. In this game design class, Will teaches you how to create games that empower players and unleash their imagination. You’ll develop a tool set for understanding player psychology, as well as learn Will’s approach to generating and pitching ideas, prototyping, playtesting, and building a community.

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Will Wright

Collaboration, prototyping, playtesting. The Sims creator Will Wright breaks down his process for designing games that unleash player creativity.

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