I like the concept of having a place in the game where the player returns and completes a series of routine tasks. Over time, you get used to the place and know all its details, it becomes a second home
Would anyone happen to know of some game design & game design critique/criticism blogs/texts that discuss the thinking behind and impact/influence of game design decisions?
Interested a little less in the problem solving or how to angles and more on why some systems were made and the ways they may have affected player behavior as desired and not.
This time I'm comparing the story structure of Mario Wonder with The Simpsons. Specifically looking at plot beats and how they work, hoping to understand how to say more with less.
I've been thinking about the mechanics of Magic Carpet (well, Magic Carpet 2) and I'm realizing it wouldn't take much tweaking to get something similar to a MOBA.
Basic cycle is:
Kill critters
Mark mana
Build castle
Collect mana
Unlock spells
Fight other magicians
Wreck castles to block respawns
Kill other magicians
Not too far off from killing minions, getting XP and pushing a lane to kill off towers/the other team.
Rather than piling up endless features and gigabytes of data like AAA games, what I admire most in games is elegance, doing a lot with little.
This is why my favorite Zelda games are A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. It's amazing how rich and evocative a world they can build with what little they had to do it with.
Later Zeldas are great games, but feel to me like they started down the path of feature creep already.
I just heard a #indie designer in a #gamedesign say, "it's not a short game: it's like 3 or 4 hours long." And at first I nodded and then I laughed out loud. I don't disagree! I think that 4 to 6 hours feels like a "normal" length to me. But it was funny to me to realise the disconnect between our perceptions as #indiedev vs Teh Gamers. The majority of beginner game dev students I meet would say 4 hours is very short.
I wish more games were like #BotW and #TotK and shut up. So many games have their head stuck up their butt about talking about themselves and not letting me play. #gamedev#gamedesign#legendofzelda
I've had a lot of feedback about my roguelike's demo, but by far the most common criticism is that coins disappear too quickly.
I'm wondering how to address this, as I want to discourage defensive play, where you kill enemies from a safe distance.
Previously, I tried a combo system, where you would get more money for killing enemies in quick succession, but I wasn't that happy with it.
What do you think? How might you address this problem? #gamedev#gamedesign#roguelike#turnbased#indiedev
The bizarre thing about HMs being unforgettable in #Pokemon is that this serves no purpose because HMs can ALSO be taught infinitely.
Unless a mon somehow lost the ability to learn an HM move after evo? there is no situation in which being unable to forget an HM would ever benefit you. You could just re-learn it.
Somehow the pokemon team NEVER figured this out before removing them entirely (which, yeah, they were bad)
Hey all! #RPGMaker is FREE on Steam right now. If you've had any interest in learning how to make games I HIGHLY recommend playing around with this little tool. For kids/teens especially wanting to get some understanding of #gamedesign
Quick #gamedesign tip for any folks making games here…
By virtue of being the game’s creator, you’ll be better at your game than the general public. As a result, it’s very easy to do make things way too difficult because it seems manageable when you know exactly what’s ahead and how to deal with it.
So get third party testers early on, and religiously listen to their feedback.
I dunno why we're talking about yellow paint to indicate climbing spots in games, but #Horizon series does it (mostly) well, I love that the Focus dynamically will show you ANY climbable nook on climbable stuff.
Feels less necessary, but as someone who grew up through SNES-PS1 stuff, there were plenty of "I give up on this game..what tHE FUCK!?! YOU COULD DO THAT?!?!" moments. Your game is not as obvious as you think.
Just met up with my co-designer in a café for a game we're working on. He's doing art, I'm on graphic design, and we're both tweaking the rules.
We're at the table with the prototype playing through and enthusiastically discussing options. A chap walks in with his laptop about to do some work and just stops mid step to watch.
He's a budding game designer. Told him I'm running the local tabletop convention later this year.
Sup #wishlistwednesday
Today I wanna show off my horror game: Unhinged 2. A sequel to a doom mod from over 10 years ago where you traverse through happy hell and shoot happy things with your rooty tooty pointy-n-shootys. :)
so after a recommendation, i played grahfmetal's two games - Spectacle and Infested. they're interesting. https://grahfmetal.itch.io/
please excuse the review below, as it's mostly just thinking out loud about adventure game design.
they are both designed in the tradition of ICOM's NES ports, and they're both somewhat unique in that way. it's such a subtle thing to make adventure game exploration intuitive and enjoyable, and these games mostly get that right.
at the same time, i find it fascinating that i enjoyed about 5 minutes of each before exiting, and i don't think i'll go back to them. they're both designed with a lot of care and craft. at the same time, there's something a bit empty in them - a lack of desire or interest in being anything more than a nes adventure with a scifi/fantasy setting.
there's this sense that the gameplay is going to be exactly the same for the next hour or two. once you've mastered the movement and puzzle mechanics in the first few minutes, there's nothing left to do except do more of the same.
this isn't a problem limited to these two games of course. overwhelmingly, graphical adventures have succumbed to the same kind of paralysis in design for a long time - and more recently they've been relegated to "story delivery devices". game mechanics don't change or develop over time - only the story or puzzles do.
i suspect for many adventure game players, this isn't seen as a problem - it's seen as tradition. but for me, it's an exercise in tedium. surprise me with some new mechanics now and then please!
i suspect this is why Deja Vu delighted me so much yesterday. it totally abandons a lot of adventure game traditions - you can pick up any object in a room, even stuff that appears to be background art. you can't do anything with it usually, but just the fact that you can move stuff around adds delight.
I think about this a lot whenever a new platform comes out. The modern UX paradigm seems to be about reducing the toolset and cognitive load of input and expression to the point of mere billable consumption.
Diversity and resilience comes from an ecosystem that embraces depth and flexibility.
Yes, I'm looking at you, Apple. Ex: Fingers are not the peak of human tool usage unless you are a toddler.
@Danc I still get great enjoyment out of explaining to #ux designers how a lot of game design is about making things difficult on purpose. Their eyes widen. 🤯
I think it's actually the best contribution games make to the broader design field. Faster and more frictionless isn't always better. Our minds need things to slow down, need to grapple with misconception, to achieve transformation and deep satisfaction.