The MDA Game Framework

CueNotes
– what does MDA stand for??

– The three different machines described


– Aesthetics MDA

















Mechanics – MDA




Dynamic – MDA









How far can you take your project?? the audience, age, etc
– MDA – Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics

– MDA is created for game analysis, game design and
development, game criticism, and technical game research

– Most things are made through some sort of system (methodology) that gives the designer the start and end of the project. MDA makes that easier.

Aesthetics
1. Sensation 
Game as sense-pleasure 
2. Fantasy 
Game as make-believe 
3. Narrative 
Game as drama 
4. Challenge 
Game as obstacle course 
5. Fellowship 
Game as social framework 
6. Discovery 
Game as uncharted territory 
7. Expression 
Game as self-discovery 
8. Submission 
Game as pastime

Mechanics
Mechanics are the various actions, behaviors and control
mechanisms afforded to the player within a game context.

Dynamic
Encourages individual users to leave their mark: systems for
purchasing, building or earning game items, for designing,
constructing and changing levels or worlds, and for
creating personalized, unique characters.

– When done with any process you should go through the tuning phase where you test and tune the game.

– The three steps to checking your games MDA
– First Pass
What are the aesthetic goals for this design? Exploration and discovery are probably more important than challenges. As such the dynamics are optimized here not for “winning” or “competition”

– Second Pass 
Consider a different version of the game. (age, audience, etc)

– Third Pass
Consider a version of the game for the older audience, what things can you add in?? (Looting, missions, weapons)

– Conclusion
So after this you can now see, what things to restrict of difficulty, or inconvenience, etc

Summary

MDA stands for Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics which makes analyzing your game for error so much easier. It goes both ways though, it also allows the criticizer to make criticism. MDA gives you steps to analysis and criticize a game.

Making Your First Video Game in Unity – Resource Notes

https://youtu.be/IlKaB1etrik

0:13 1:28 Downloading Unity

1:35 2:01 Creating a new project and selecting project save location in Unity

2:02 3:13 User Interface

  • Mouse wheel to zoom
  • Middle mouse or left click to pan around
  • Alt + left click to roate around center view
  • The hierarchy disaplays the objects we have in our scene
  • When you click on a an object in the inspector bar you will see the properties of the object such as the transformation tool and other panlas called componets
  • By going in the top right and selecting default you get the default layout

3:12 to create an object right-click or click on the create button in the hierarchy panel and select the object time… in the video, he selects a cube

3:27 To focus on a specific object select the object and press F

3:37 In the transformation component you can right-click and select reset to reset the position of an object

3:52 How to change the camera position and look at your game live while working on it. 

4:23 Changing the name of an object in the project and moving an object

4:52 Creating a new material for an object (so texture) and changing the color of an object

5:53 Adding physics to an object or player

6:25 How to use different tools like rotation, scale, and move tool as well as short cuts on keyboards

7:02 How to duplicate an object

7:11 Components further explained such as transform and mesh renderer or collision

6:23 Changing the shape of an object

Any adjustment made during the live game demo will not be saved

9:56 Changing sky and pressing shift + space to view game demo in full screen

10:19 How to save your game