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Game Flow Charts

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markmist
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The game I am currently designing has several different mechanics that all intermesh with each other in a complex way. Whenever I go to make changes in one area, I don't realize that it adversely affects other areas resulting in an imbalance in the game and more time spent redesigning.

That got me thinking... what if there was a way to display all of the game mechanics and how they relate on one sheet of paper? What about a Game Flow Chart???

I have started sketching out a flow chart with some rough ideas. Maybe a standard format for games could be established. For example, the underlying mechanic could be shown in a rectangle, a diamond could indicate a decision point, and a circle could indicate results from a decision.

If a standard format is used, I see other potential applications for flow charts for games (submissions to publishers, addendum to written rules, and easier explanations for visual learners).

I am sure somewhere along the line, someone else had this idea. Does anyone know of some real games that have used flow charts with their instructions?

Any other comments or suggestions?

phpbbadmin
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Re: Game Flow Charts

markmist wrote:
The game I am currently designing has several different mechanics that all intermesh with each other in a complex way. Whenever I go to make changes in one area, I don't realize that it adversely affects other areas resulting in an imbalance in the game and more time spent redesigning.

That got me thinking... what if there was a way to display all of the game mechanics and how they relate on one sheet of paper? What about a Game Flow Chart???

I have started sketching out a flow chart with some rough ideas. Maybe a standard format for games could be established. For example, the underlying mechanic could be shown in a rectangle, a diamond could indicate a decision point, and a circle could indicate results from a decision.

If a standard format is used, I see other potential applications for flow charts for games (submissions to publishers, addendum to written rules, and easier explanations for visual learners).

I am sure somewhere along the line, someone else had this idea. Does anyone know of some real games that have used flow charts with their instructions?

Any other comments or suggestions?

Great idea. I have actually used hi level flow charting to design the basic flow of a couple of my games. My problem was trying to figure out how much detail to actually include in the flow chart. That combined with my rustiness with flow charts in general, caused me to give up on them for the moment. I have no doubt that a good flow charting program would make the process all that much easier. Anyone have any suggestions? I know flow charting must come second nature to some of you old school programmers (Do they even teach that anymore in school?). There's got to be a good freeware or cheapware software program that could make flow charting easier. Visio's learning curve is too steep (not to mention way too costly) and the drawing tools in Word are too 'dumb'. There's got to be a good wizard driven app out there somewhere.

-Darke

larienna
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Game Flow Charts

Ok, There is 4 kind of charts that could be used in computer software design that could inspire you to design your own chart. I'll explain them fast And there is no graphics so you have to visualise OK.

Dicision chart : This is a series of question, answers and direction. They generally place question in diamonds and answers or decision in rectangle. So if could go like this for example.

Q:Does the opponent has Air Units
no: go to Q2
yes: Build misile launcher

Q2:Does the opponent has any AA unit
no:Build Bomber
yes: Build tank

You can also have loop, which mean an answer to a question get you back to a previous question or state.

Expert System : This is used to identify something by asking question to refine the choices Each step in the tree has it's own question. For example

Does the creature has wings
Yes
Does the wing has feather
Yes
Then it is an angel.
No
Then it is a demon.
No
Does it has fangs
Yes
Then it is a behemoth
No
Then it is an imp.

So the idea is always to refine the choices to get more specific and get to the point.

Database : All games have some sort of database. Data are stored in tables which has entries of the same type. Tables can have some relations with each other. Lets take an RPG example. You have 2 tables : Party and character. Party contains the list of all built party on a server and character contains all the characters information ( name, stats, equipment, etc ). The relations between these 2 tables can be found like this.

Can a party hold many character -> YES
Can a character be present in many parties -> NO

So we have a 1 to N relation : 1 party for many characters. You can also have N to N relations. But I won't get more in the details ( Take a look at MS Access for some practice ).

Application Module : FInaly, the schematic you are probably interested. This is used to represent how the software works. There is first a huge box the the information intering the software to the left and the result given to the right. Now, inside this bigbox, you have a series of small box which represent each module of the programm.

These modules can give receive information from beginning or other module and they can send information to other modules. They can also read or send information from or to tables of the database.

So this might be what you are looking for. Determine what is the data of the game, and determine how the rules, player options or process interect with each other and the data.

Infernal
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Game Flow Charts

Another type of diagram that can be useful in game design, is the feedback diagram. This diagram is used to discover how elements of a program affect others.

The diagram has each element listed in a circle. Each element has a line with an arrow and a symbol to indicate weather it is a positive or negitive influence on the target element.

An example (not of a game, but it a good example of the concept):
There are 2 elements to this:
Rabbits
Foxes

Foxes have a negitive effect on rabits (they eat them)
Rabits have a positive effect on Foxes (provide food for the foxes).

If you count the number of negitive influences in any loop (here it is Fox, Rabit, Fox...). it can indicate wether this loop is self limiting (a negitive feedback loop) or self perpetuating (a positive feedback loop).

The positive feedback loop is usually displayed in a game as a runnaway leader situation. As in Monopoly: If I buy a house for my properties then I can make more money, which I can spend on more houses...

This positive effect can sometimes be useful as it can build tension and excitement, but does need to be carefully balanced (usually by a loosely coupled negitive feedback loop) as it can cause problems.

The negitive feedback will tend to stabilise games and make it harder to get ahead. An example of negitive feedback in a game is, Aquire, where the more hotels in a chain are placed then the more expensive the shares for it are, making it harder to gain or keep control of the chain which feeds back into your available money which lets you buy shares...

OutsideLime
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Game Flow Charts

I usually develop a flow chart to describe Turn/Round structure for myself. It helps alot in being able to see the complexity of my mechanics, and also helps when writing my rulebooks... keeps me from repeating things unneccessarily, and also lets me work out a priority of information for the player.

~Josh

phpbbadmin
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Game Flow Charts

OutsideLime wrote:
I usually develop a flow chart to describe Turn/Round structure for myself. It helps alot in being able to see the complexity of my mechanics, and also helps when writing my rulebooks... keeps me from repeating things unneccessarily, and also lets me work out a priority of information for the player.

~Josh

Yeah that's exactly what I was doing as well. Sometimes timing of various events is very important to make sure all the loose ends get tied.

-Darke

Anonymous
Ralph Koster's "Grammar of Gameplay"

This is a really interesting read:

Grammar of Gameplay by Ralph Koster

This guy is the Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment. I also have his book, a Theory of Fun for Game Design, but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Koster attempts to create a meta-language with which to describe game mechanics.

I also created this chart for the interaction of components in one of my games:

Kingdoms & Empires interaction chart

ensor
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Game Flow Charts

I think Flow Charts for games is a great idea; I was thinking about this last week when writing up the rules for a game, and instead of working it out in english, I drew a flow chart. This is actually how I was taught Munchkin, by using a flow-chart player-aid (under the Munchkin page at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1927 the file is Munchkin.ppt)

Coming from a computer programming background, it makes perfect sense to me that the general structure of a game is a huge "do-while loop" (go until victory condition) with some variation on a "for loop" inside to determine turn order. The rules for a game are an implicit flow chart, with their if/then structured language and logical decision points. With the rules in a graphical format, it is much easier to see the connections and find out how much time each part takes, as well as get a feel for how complicated a particular piece or decision is for the players to grasp.

With a standard flow-chart style for games, I think it would be helpful to have a good notation to illustrate the trade-offs of each decision point for the players. I'd be happy to help work on a good set of squares, cirles, and diamonds and get things going. A good place to start would be to make flow-charts for some very well-known games, like Settlers, Carcassonne, or Ticket to Ride, and then post and discuss them to see what the standard pieces are.

Rick-Holzgrafe
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Game Flow Charts

I'm more interested in some notation that would allow me to chart the effects of player choices, than in flow-charts for what the choices are. Something that would help me identify positive-feedback, or stagnation traps, or balance problems. I've tried to come up with something on my own before this, but with no success.

FastLearner
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Game Flow Charts

Bobby beat me to the Grammar of Gameplay reference. The ideas there aren't bad... I recommend reading through it before trying to re-do what he's done, just in case it works for you.

-- Matthew

Infernal
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Game Flow Charts

Quote:
I'm more interested in some notation that would allow me to chart the effects of player choices, than in flow-charts for what the choices are. Something that would help me identify positive-feedback, or stagnation traps, or balance problems. I've tried to come up with something on my own before this, but with no success.

My notaion for feedback charts are a circle for the elemtn (unit, choice, etc) with a line conecting the elements and arrow indicating the direction of the effect with a "+" or "-" to indicate weather the effect is a positive or negitive influence.

Other than that you just need to make it up as you go (so long as you can read it - a ledgend can help if needed).

Johan
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Game Flow Charts

Hi

I hate to kill an idea, but I want to give my (negative) comments to this. Before I start, I want to say that this is partly what I'm working with (for over 18 years).

markmist wrote:
The game I am currently designing has several different mechanics that all intermesh with each other in a complex way. Whenever I go to make changes in one area, I don't realize that it adversely affects other areas resulting in an imbalance in the game and more time spent redesigning.

In this case no flow cart can help you. If your game is so complex that you as a designer can't see the consequences of a design change, then how do you expect the players to get an overview of the game when they play it?
I think that you should consider reducing the complexity and streamlining the game.

Quote:
That got me thinking... what if there was a way to display all of the game mechanics and how they relate on one sheet of paper? What about a Game Flow Chart???

Actually a Flow Chart does not solve the problem. A flowchart does not show states, objects, and events. It only shows a work or action flow.
There are other describing methods (example UML) but if you don't know how those methods works, don’t try to use them.
At my previous job they tried to describe the order and development process with a flow chart. The overview flowchart was 1 x 5 meters big (covered a wall) (they got a special printer so they could print this chart) and all small boxes had new detail flowcharts) (I was not involved in the main work that time and I'm glad for that).

Quote:
I have started sketching out a flow chart with some rough ideas. Maybe a standard format for games could be established. For example, the underlying mechanic could be shown in a rectangle, a diamond could indicate a decision point, and a circle could indicate results from a decision.

If you still are going to use these: Start with some established standard format for flowcharts. Don’t invent the wheel again.

Quote:
If a standard format is used, I see other potential applications for flow charts for games (submissions to publishers, addendum to written rules, and easier explanations for visual learners).

... your main problem will be that it is not any standard way to describe those things (you will end up with "Send the submission" -> IF (Fantasy Flight) "Send a prototype" and so on. You will end up in all small exceptions and those take 95 % of the times.
When I write computer programs (I only do that professionally), if I do a program where the standard function has 500 lines, all exceptions will probably take 10.000 lines.

Finally, I have used flowcharts to describe complex things in games or when I try to understand a mechanism, but that is for smaller details
One thing I remembers was mortar rules in ASL that I needed to understand and the rules was spread all over the rulebook).

// Johan

larienna
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Game Flow Charts

The last reply touched what I wanted to say.

Making graphics and flow chart is cool, and makes us look organised. But there is a trap. You have to remember that a flow chart is a tool, it is not the goal of the design itself. The goal is to make a game, not a flow chart.

In software design, they sometime make schematics and flow chart for years ,and there is not even 1 line of code written.

So making a chart can be useful if you want to solve a problem, improve something that is bugging you or to organise something which is becomming too complex. But do not over abuse it because you will be only making charts instead of games.

Anonymous
Game Flow Charts

Some good points being made here. Definitely don't want to get locked into a 'chart phase'. I used the chart I linked to earlier to be able to step back and visualize the balance of the game: are different elements/options weighted evenly. If I have game elements A, B, and C, do they affect each other in both positive and negative ways (i.e. if A are "Encounter cards", do some of these cards both add and subtract from B (your "troops")).

When I've built the few games I've made so far, I wonder, do the different elements balance? If element A is far and away more powerful, people will only go after that element (but this can be balanced by A being hard to obtain, rare, etc.) I want people to have different options to choose on their turn, and I want there to be interplay between the different choices, positive and negative aspects of each.

Finally, the random aspect (die roll, which card is on top of the deck) helps keep the game balanced (if the cards in deck "A" are REALLY good, maybe there are some REALLY bad ones in there as well).

zaiga
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Game Flow Charts

A while ago I used some flow charts to illustrate the flow of resources, and the effect of "time" within a game. It's a pretty interesting discussion I think and you can find it here: http://www.bgdf.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=5146#5146

I agree with the poster that flow charts are a tool, and not a goal in itself. Standards are nice, but you can go a long way with some basic figures, a small legenda and a bit of explanation.

Hedge-o-Matic
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Game Flow Charts

Larienna wrote:
The last reply touched what I wanted to say.

The goal is to make a game, not a flow chart.

This is so true. I used a flowchart to map out the complex interactions of a game of mine a few years back,. and checking and double checking the chart for accuracy became a project in and of itself. Beware!

My advice would be to chart the broad overview of the game, and then have recursive sub-charts for more detail if you wanted or needed it.

Pt314
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Game Flow Charts

Sometimes I picture the mechanics in my games as a C++ program. Once it is in a form like that it isn't to hard to come up with a flow chart.

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