![]() Again, I could talk about this one thing for hours, but I’m going to keep things brief, here. Clever developers will make an effort to integrate their tutorial segment(s) seamlessly into gameplay. ![]() Referring to my previous definition of “game design,” this mistake overlooks the importance of intuitive design choices. At the very least, there should always be an option to turn them off. I do not believe that any well-designed game needs these prompts – I’m a purist. Personally, I think these prompts are redundant, and condescending. The necessity of tutorial prompts is a commonly debated topic in the modern gaming industry. More often than not, modern video games will simply throw the player into an abstract, unrelated section of gameplay, where button prompts appear on-screen informing the player of their function when they become relevant.Įven a well-designed game like Hyper Light Drifter is guilty of this. As I’m sure most of you are already aware, a “tutorial” is the part of a game wherein the player is taught how to play the game. Misuse of tutorials is perhaps the most common symptom of the AAA plague. Indie developers simply do not have the resources to hide their mistakes behind pretty graphics, visual flair, and/or A-list voice actors. The reason I commonly associate these mistakes with AAA developers is because they have more resources ( money) to hide their mistakes. It should go without saying that indie developers can be guilty of these mistakes as well. Some of these ‘sins’ are fairly subjective (lots of people enjoy games that I consider to be extremely flawed on a fundamental level), though I would argue that, in just about any case, a game which avoids these mistakes is going to be more enjoyable than one that doesn’t. Simply put, this phrase refers to a trend where AAA developers eschew and/or completely ignore basic, fundamental game design concepts (Game Design 101, if you will). This is an extremely huge topic – one that I could very realistically write an entire book about – but I’ll spare you the details and keep things concise. developed by a major company) video game, you’ve probably experienced what I refer to as ‘the plague of AAA games.’ This is a rather broad phrase I use to refer to common ‘gaming sins’ committed by AAA developers. If you’ve ever played a modern AAA (“Triple A”, i.e. In the former, it would be slightly unbalanced, unless you designed around it, while regenerating health is a fairly common design choice in the latter. Regenerating health has different consequences on gameplay in an RPG than it does for an FPS. Turn-based Role Playing Games, for example, tend to follow a slightly different set of rules than First Person Shooters, and the implications of specific design choices for gameplay within those genres vary. Much like movies can communicate character personalities and development through the framing, composition, and color choices within a particular shot (among other things, of course), video games, as an interactive medium, can communicate similar concepts and information through GAMEPLAY.Īlthough certain broad, more vague game design concepts can be applied universally across all video games, the particulars of game design tend to vary between genres. ![]() In my opinion ( and my own words), game design can be defined as:Ī set of fundamental rules and design philosophies that revolve around teaching players the rules and mechanics of your game through intuitive design choices. After I had played through Hyper Light Drifter for the first time, everything suddenly clicked – I felt that I finally understood game design.īut that statement begs an important question. Much of this realization and appreciation can be traced back to one game – Hyper Light Drifter, an indie game developed by Heart Machine. However, this is an opinion I didn’t develop until the end of my time in high school, towards the beginning of my college years. I think it’s a massively underappreciated art form. ![]() Game design is one of my biggest passions. ![]()
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