Nick Fortugno - A HELPFUL HINT

Nick Fortugno: Slide slides & audio(49 MB)

This game design microscope focuses on the "hint" and the use of in-game help. When are hints appropriate? How much information do you give up?

And wait -- can't we just design our games so well we don't need hints at all? This talk tackles the topic by looking at examples of recent casual games and exploring the nature of riddles, intelligence and frustration.

Delivered at Casual Connect Amsterdam, February 2008

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Nick Fortugno (email)

Nick Fortugno is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Rebel Monkey, a casual game company based in New York City. Prior to founding Rebel Monkey, Nick worked as a designer, writer and project manager on dozens of digital and nondigital games. While Director of Game Design at Gamelab, Nick was the lead designer on the genre-defining hit Diner Dash, as well as the award-winning serious game Ayiti: The Cost of Life. As a member of the Playground design team, Nick was a co-creator of the Big Urban Game, a groundbreaking large-scale, city-wide game for the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis in fall 2003. In September 2006, Nick was a co-founder, organizer, and designer of the first Come Out and Play Street Games Festival in New York City. He also works at Parsons The New School of Design teaching game design and interactive narrative design, and assisting in the development of the school’s game design curriculum. His most recent writing can be found the Second Person compilation, published by MIT Press.

HOME \| LECTURES & ARTICLES \| GAME DESIGN \| A HELPFUL HINT: UNDER THE GAME DESIGN MICROSCOPE slides & audio(49 MB) This game design microscope focuses on the "hint" and the use of in-game help. When are hints appropriate? How much information do you give up? And wait -- can't we just design our games so well we don't need hints at all? This talk tackles the topic by looking at examples of recent casual games and exploring the nature of riddles, intelligence and frustration. Delivered at Casual Connect Amsterdam, February 2008 DOWNLOAD Nick Fortugno (email) Nick Fortugno is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Rebel Monkey, a casual game company based in New York City. Prior to founding Rebel Monkey, Nick worked as a designer, writer and project manager on dozens of digital and nondigital games. While Director of Game Design at Gamelab, Nick was the lead designer on the genre-defining hit Diner Dash, as well as the award-winning serious game Ayiti: The Cost of Life. As a member of the Playground design team, Nick was a co-creator of the Big Urban Game, a groundbreaking large-scale, city-wide game for the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis in fall 2003. In September 2006, Nick was a co-founder, organizer, and designer of the first Come Out and Play Street Games Festival in New York City. He also works at Parsons The New School of Design teaching game design and interactive narrative design, and assisting in the development of the school’s game design curriculum. His most recent writing can be found the Second Person compilation, published by MIT Press.