Game Design

 Reading 1 - What is a Game, Anyway?

Simple Definition:

• A game has "ends" and "means" : an objective, an outcome, and a set of rules to get there.
• It's an activity involving player decisions. 
• A game is a "voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles" 
• Games are an activity.
• Games have rules.
• Games have conflict.
• Games have goals.
• Games are a form of art.

Puzzles:

Are Puzzles considered a game? 

The reading tells us that it purely depends on the definition. Some say they are a subset of a game whereas some others would argue and say that they are not a game. 

Going back on the definitions of a game we see that a game has an end and that a game is an activity and that it is voluntary effort. Personally looking at these definitions I would say that a puzzle is a game as it fits into many of the criteria of a game. 

Reading 3 - Four Basic Methods for Generating Ideas.

Techniques:

• Concentration
• Brainstorming
• Scamper
• Ramsay

Personally I would agree that concentration and brainstorming are very important when it comes to coming up with ideas, this goes with anything not just game development. 

The Ramsay method is one that stumped me the most, yet it made the most sense. The Ramsay Theory states that if you take a significant amount of information and start looking at it closely and manically you can find new information or find inconspicuous links. At first I had little to no idea what exactly this meant, as I read on further it started to talk about how people with disorders such as paranoia and schizophrenia would see evidence everywhere of their rightness and their theories, so to put it into simple terms the Ramsay Theory deals with looking deeper into a subject to try and find any information that might have been missed at first glance.