User Generated Stories

WHAT ARE USER GENERATED STORIES?

User Generated Stories are a fantastic tool to generate new ideas. They are flexible and fun to use, require no previous knowledge, and can help you find new game mechanics to fit in your game!

The best part of user generated stories is that they are extremely easy to learn, and that can be used by a team of any size with just some paper and a pen!

HOW DO THEY WORK?

The idea behind user generated stories is very simple. Every game can be described as a combination of mechanics that describe how an actor wants to perform an action to achieve a goal. That can be described as follows:

By randomizing roles, actions and benefits, it is possible to create new game mechanics starting from a set of pre-existing ones.

There are multiple advantages of User Generated Stories compared to other idea-creation methods:

They do not require any tools other than pens and paper

They can be used by both beginners and veterans alike

Being based on the team's pre-existing knowledge, the resulting mechanics will be easier to understand, discuss, and scope than random concepts

The ideas come from games that you are already passionate about playing and building.

THEY SOUND INTERESTING, HOW CAN I USE THEM?

User Generated Stories are really easy to use, you just need some paper and a pen! Let's divide it into three simple rounds:

Round 1: Have each member of your team write 3 to 5 game mechanics with the structure described above. You can take inspiration from a game you have already made, but you can also use a game that you have played, or your ideas can come from this year's theme.

Round 2: Create three decks, one for the Roles, one for the Actions, and one for the Benefits, and shuffle.

Round 3: Draw one card from each deck to create a new random mechanic and discuss it with your team. Keep drawing until you have three-to-four mechanics. At this point, you should have enough material to discuss and hopefully find an idea!

Round 3 is supposed to help you be creative, the mechanics that you randomly create are not set in stone and are there to help your team think of something new. If a line doesn't work, just scrap it, and draw again.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

User generated stories are a rather new concept and we are they're still under development. If you've used them during the jam, we would immensely value your feedback. Please use this (very) short form and tell us how your experience was!

MEET THE TEAM

Award-winning game designer and writer with experience of both AAA and indie development, including ‘Burnout Paradise’ and ‘Aliens Versus Predator’ (2010). Professor of Creative and Entertainment Games at Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas), as well as owner of the narrative and game design consultancy Copper Stone Sea.

Mata Haggis-Burridge

Games developer and researcher for the Academy of Games and Media (AGM) at Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas). IGF Student Finalist in 2013 with ‘Atum’. Since then he has worked on multiple games in both commercial entertainment and policy/applied games sectors. His focus is on player personality profiling and the impact of mechanics systems integration on player experiences.

Thomas Buijtenweg

Full time researcher at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and freelance game developer. Winner of the 2019 WorldHaptics Student Innovation Challenge with a project on improving haptic devices to be more appealing for the market, he spends most of his time studying how people interact with digital worlds, with a particular focus on immersive virtual reality.

Riccardo Galdieri