Introduction
Every so often you’ll hear some big game development group go along the lines of “The game design allows for players to intera…” blah blah blah. It sounds boring (or maybe not!) but it’s extremely important. Most people will say stuff like
“Oh yeah a good game is when it has good graphics and good amounts of love and care”
“The animations and models are super nice, can’t wait for this to become a front page game”
“Wow these graphics are amazing, it should be on the frontpage next to Adopt Me!”
Unfortunately, this is not the case. There’s a reason why the first half life, even with its outdated graphics, holds up to this day. It has this core design element that keeps players engaged.
So, for this guide, I’ll be teaching you some fundamental game design mechanics!
Disclaimer: I’m an amateur, don’t take this for 100% expert advice. I’m just telling stuff based off of my experience
1. Fun factor
When we first evolved 200,000 years ago, our little monkey brains had a rewarding system for our survival. It’s dopamine, and you’ve probably heard of it. I’m not gonna explain it any further, but it goes along the lines of “Monkey enjoy and have fun, monkey happy”
There are 3 branches of the Fun Factor.
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Impact.
Humans love seeing their environment being shaped by themselves. It’s pretty fun destroying something and seeing it collapse, except without the actual consequences of breaking it.
An obvious example would be when a sword hits something, it should give some knockback or some fancy particle effects. It lets the brain know “Hey, you did something cool and you saw your environment shape around you. Here’s some enjoyment!”. Explosions, lights, action, etc are all awesome ways to let the player know their impact. -
Feedback.
Similar to impact, our brains are specially wired to enjoy seeing things crumble/build around us. Obviously you can’t get the enjoyment if you don’t actually see/hear it happening. If you blew up a big barrel of oil just for the fun of it and the barrel never gave any visual feedback, you can’t know if it happened. Hence, killing the impact of it. A very common method of impact is usually a big gush of particles, a nice juicy hitmarker, a satisfying audio cue, camera shakes, etc. You also need to take into the account that some things are a lot more powerful than other things (obviously). A big artillery gun shouldn’t sound like a bump. It should sound like a massive roar, or explosion. Sound and visuals help communicate power in something. If the artillery gun didn’t have camera shake or a loud firing sound, it’d sound lame. -
Challenge.
This one’s self explanatory. If something isn’t hard enough, it just becomes a breeze and the game will feel repetitive and boring. If you make it too hard, players will obviously quit because of it.
TL;DR: visuals and sound are very important to having that nice gameplay loop. Challenge, feedback and impact are all needed too
2. Map design
If you made say, an FPS game, you’d definitely need maps. If you just lazily cobble together some crates and walls and call it a day, that ain’t gonna cut it. The environment of the player shapes how they play. If you made a map with a single lane, it’ll get really boring quickly because there’s no room for players to innovate and think outside the box.
This doesn’t apply to all FPS games, it really depends on your game’s mechanics. If you made a movement shooter like Titanfall 2, you’d have to design your maps to have wallrun areas, grappling hook spots, etc. After all, if you give the player a really cool mechanic and never gave them a chance to use it, it’d become lame and unused.
Generally speaking, you should always think about the design of the map before building it first. It doesn’t matter how pretty or realistic the map looks, it’s always about how it’s designed.
3. Uniqueness
Let me get straight to the point. We’re all tired of seeing these simulator games, cash grab games, tycoons, etc. If a player joins your game expecting what the game icon suggests, you should present it appropiately.
For a moment, let us assume the unique quirk of my game was say, clipping through walls to get past levels. That’s a pretty unique idea, players will find that more enjoyable. Humans don’t really like doing the same thing over and over again, just like how if you ate ice cream for the rest of your life, you’d absolutely hate it because you ate it thousands of times.
Players definitely won’t enjoy playing a game that presents little to no creativity in the game’s main quirk. For example, Titanfall 2 has its very advanced movement system as well as its super-awesome titan mechanics. That’s already pretty attractive, players can already imagine themselves running on walls and shooting a gajillion bad guys, while hopping into a big death machine that rips everything in sight… Ok I’m getting off topic again.
Generally, unique = players (almost always) will enjoy it / appreciate it
Examples
Summing it all up, I’ll create some examples.
Our game’s unique mechanic will be using no-clipping to get past levels. Firstly, that’s quite unique (i think), it already presents the player with a really fun idea to play around. Secondly, we’ll have to design the maps in a way to allow such things to be utilized by the player. The design should also reward the player for experimenting and thinking outside the box.
This one doesn’t offer much pathways. You only have 1 obvious path (through the middle wall)
This one is far more open and non-linear. You can see (highlighted in orange) the amount of paths the player can take. This isn’t the best example, but it’s the best I could think of right now
Conclusion
Games can have the best of the best of graphics, or the best of the best of voice acting, but that’ll never live up to the name of good game design. You should always cater your game’s design around quirky mechanics, that make your game stand out to the rest of the platform. Your game should be fun, enjoyable, and unique so that players will find joy in playing your creation.
Sorry if this post is too long, I got a bit carried away lol
Anyways, don’t 100% rely your game design on my points. I’m only so young and learning, you should always look at other innovative game titles for ideas on game design. Don’t look at their first layer, you should always think in the perspective of the player and what they’re subconsciously thinking about the game.
Thanks for reading!