Doug Church (1999) Formal Abstract Design Tools

Often in the games industry, games are described as being "fun" or "not fun". This is good to show the opinion of the person talking about the game, but unfortunately it does not give the designers any indication of what needs to be changed to improve the game. For game designers to be able to effectively analyse the games around them, a design vocabulary needs to be created.

Church uses the term "Formal Abstract Design Tools" (FADT) to describe the terms that would make up the common vocabulary for analysing games. The "design tools" part of the term is easy to understand, but the terms "formal" and "abstract" may need to be explained further. The use of the word "formal" in this instance is to indicate that the tools will be precisely defined, without the term being open to ambiguity, depending on the observer's opinion. For example, the term "cool stuff" is not considered an FADT, because it can be interpreted very differently by different people. "Abstract" is used to emphasise fundamental ideas that make up the game, not specific objects in the game.

Church then goes on to talk about a few FADTs (player intention, perceivable consequence and story).

Player Intention: This allows the player to make their own goals, and form their own plan of action, so they aren't stuck with a static "go to A, then B, then C". For example, some games have side quests, or collectible data/items, that a player can choose to pursue. The player can choose to do as many or as little of these secondary objectives as they like, or if they so desire, can choose to progress the main story immediately.

Perceivable Consequence: This tool is used to show the player how their choices and actions affect the game. The player needs to know when their actions have changed the game in some way, otherwise the player does not know what actions they should or shouldn't undertake. Without perceivable consequence, the player has no way of knowing, for example, if that horde of monsters that stormed in and killed the player was a result of something the player did, was an unavoidable event, or was a completely random event. If instead, when you pressed that shiny red button you passed earlier, a small cutscene played, showing the horde of monsters you had just unleashed, then you may think "Hmm, maybe next time I won't press that button". Or you know, some people might press the button anyway, and see how long they could last against the monsters :D (This in itself, creates more player intention).

Story: This is the narrative thread of the game, that leads the player towards the end of the game. In some cases, the story is more designer driven, and the player's actions have little or no effect. For example, if the story of a game is that the main character is a valiant hero that sets out on a quest to kill the evil Lord ScowlyFace, there is nothing the player can do to change it - this is embedded story. The story can also be emergent, i.e. more player driven. Maybe the player can choose to be "good" or "evil", and the game will have multiple endings, depending on which side the player's actions are most aligned to.

Designers need to know which combination of tools are best suited to the game they are making, and will appeal to their target audience most. You cannot just throw all the tools imaginable into a game and expect it to work well. Some tools can conflict with each other. Take intention and story for example: the more concrete of a storyline a game has, the less space there is for player freedom and choice. 

In RPG games like Final Fantasy VIII, the final outcome of the story cannot be changed, but the player can take many different routes to get to the end of the game. Here are some of the things you can deviate from the main story to accomplish:

• Level your characters by fighting monsters
• Collect various sets of magazines in-game, to unlock extra weapons and powers
• Challenge NPCs to matches of the Triple Triad card game, and try to collect all the cards
• Locate all of the Chocobo Forests

At many points in the game, you are free to go and explore the world, without a time limit, before proceeding with the main storyline. By creating the game in this way, the designers are free to really focus on making one very good story, instead of having to spread their time across multiple endings. The game has a very compelling story, and beautiful cutscenes, while still letting players feel in control of the game itself.

Again, it's all a matter of gearing your game towards the target audience: RPG players often expect a well thought-out storyline, whereas in sports and fighting games the perceivable consequence tends to be more important (the feedback of the controls needs to be consistent).

I enjoyed reading this article, as I often find it hard to express my opinion of media in any more detail than "I like this game/film/song". The article has been very helpful for me in determining what specific tools are involved in the games that I like, and hopefully I can use this in the future to better explain my opinions of games.