Game Design 2: Lecture 8 - Semiotics and Icon Design
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This talk looks at how an understanding of meaning can help us communicate in game design. It also looks at some guidelines for good icon design.
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Game Design 2: Lecture 8 - Semiotics and Icon Design
- 3. Semiotics A sign is “something that stands for something to someone in some capacity”
- 7. What does this mean? “ The guard dribbled down court, held up two fingers and passed to the open man.”
Editor's Notes
- Talk about how you read from non-text Conveying more through images than text: Multimodal texts include: comics > 1/2 the story posters & teeshirts > more about defining one’s identity than conveying the literal info advertisements > brands want you to read meaning into their symbolism associate chocolate or beer with sports This is how brands can get around their being unhealthy - yes the TEXT might read “this will make you fat” - but the rest of the meaning of the piece screams “mars bars are healthy!” the text often says something different to the imagery You need to combine the two (or more) types of information you are receiving to get the full message.
- This leads to this concept - you don’t just read... context... The act of absorbing info from a news paper - totally differs from a hip hop song. Essays and fiction have different kinds of truth but can both be truthful. You need to understand the context of consumption - and each domain has its own rules and requirements.
- So what does this mean? Everyone knows what all the WORDS mean. Basketball - but to know that, you need to already understand the domain. What does ‘two fingers’ mean? Swearing? The same text means something different depending on your domain knowledge.
- Each type of music can be considered as a separate sub domain - each is a semiotic domain. Musical literacy is DIFFERENT in classical music and in hip hop and in rock guitar etc..
- So here is a screenshot from the e-Bug game. The wee soap things spin. Everything else in this screen (except avatar) is static. What does soap do? What keys would you use? What direction should you try to go? Timer? Score? Expectations? Left to right is traditionally western - but is a gaming convention (mario, little big planet) Space bar vs CTRL Box?
- After discussing this, move to next slide
- How absurd is it that we have this trope of ammo crates? The sub domain literacy makes this acceptable.
- When a standard reaches acceptance, designers no longer need to worry as much about communication. They can assume things about their audience (if they believe the audience has this literacy) So - Red barrels blowing up (jon) So - what is necessary to communicate health pack? (ask them)
- all it takes is the cross! not red or white L4D hasw red boxes wtih pills in them. GTA has health boxes - even though it’s a supposedly real-world game. __ Not always about ‘real world in a game’ - crate & health packs are not ‘realism’ - symbols communicate a function.
- Yes, a Swastika has special meaning in certain eastern religions - hinduism, buddhism, janism - but if your audience has a different cultural understanding, you risk offence!
- Puerto Rico Background... controversy... probably not a mistake that the ‘workers’ were brown. But they didn’t want to say that and it caused huge debate.
- Brenda Brathwaite - 20 years in industry - Jagged Alliance... Wizardry... now social games for Loot Drop with Romero. She co-authored the board game book with Ian Shreiber Train... semotic meaning - Kristalnacht typewriter people who play the game twice often find themselves trying to rules-lawyer out of allowing the game to progress...
- Chocolate bars aimed at boys and girls Lemonade story
- Mis en Scene - the scene dressing communicates. You REALLY think in the future, we won’t have rectangular corridors?
- So here is a shot from Quake 4 Angled Corridors desaturated colour scheme this isn’t just “art” this is communication
- pink used to be for boys programming used to be for girls people wear teeshirts to say things about themselves
- Bejewelled is one of the most successful games of all time. 25 million sold 150 million downloads (these numbers are 3 years old!)
- Contrast this with bejewelled - same game mechanics - but it communicates in a very different way. Your expectations are significantly different.
- The ‘save’ icon could lose its meaning in the future - my wife’s pupils know it is a save icon but they’ve never seen a floppy disk. Quick time is clever. Firefox represents name - transmission is a bittorrent tool. VLC is a bloody traffic cone!!!
- The 5th icon is of a shield. The penultimate icon is of a clenched fist. One refers to one’s army. The other to victory conditions. However, the player could confuse the two - the fist could certain pertain to fighting.
- What follows from here is a list of concepts and some suggestions for ways to represent them. These are difficult concepts to icon and would make a good starting point. There are MANY icons here - you should check out Duarte for them as a reference.