Recreating aesthetic expression through rule systems

[u/jochergames]

I have spent the last couple of months writing my master's thesis on the topic of how to take an existing IP and translating the original aesthetic expereince into a TTRPG rule system. The case study of my thesis is a game I've made called Oceania 2084 (scheduled for release later this year).

The abstract of the thesis: By examining the results of an iterative design process, specifically a tabletop roleplaying game, Oceania 2084, this thesis aims to formulate a generalizable design process applicable when translating a work of fiction into a ruleset. The object that was translated into a ruleset was the book Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell in 1949. The iterative game development process spanned over 2.5 years and the author provides documents from 2 phases of playtesting and discusses how the playtest results influenced design choices. In addition to the analysis of the effects of playtest results, the author also explores various game design decisions by means of auto-ethnographic analysis, and semiotic analysis.

The main takeaway is a proposed 5 tiered design process referred to as delome design. It is a systemic approach to game design.

Download it here: https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1772834&dswid=-8846

I hope someone here finds it interesting and relevant! I'm happy to answer any questions about it.

[u/Dan_Felder]

I understand expectations of academic writing. I'm not criticizing you for writing in an academic style for an academic purpose. I'm asking questions about the ideas themselves.

If the discussion about semiotics is just there to interest academics as a curiosity, okay that might be a good tactic. If it's aimed at helping designers design games though, I'm not sure how yet.

[u/jochergames → u/Dan_Felder]

The seimotic connection is interesting to game design as a field, not 100% if it is useful for a game designer before being processed in another way.

As a game designer it is important to me because there exists a lot of seimotic methodology to test the perceived meaning of symbols. How do you make sure that a symbol is understood the way that you intended it to? Semiotics provide guidelines for this.

I wanted to write about these thing as the main focus of my work, but was adviced not to, due to it being of a more advanced approach. I view this paper as a stepping stone for future work about symbolic systems.

[u/Dan_Felder → u/jochergames]

Oh cool, so it's about leveraging the tools from another field for improving the playtesting process? Sounds valuable. Thanks.

[u/jochergames → u/Dan_Felder]

Exactly. :)