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How do desginer design their game to be fun?

Started by September 29, 2016 12:47 AM
16 comments, last by Orymus3 8 years, 2 months ago

Heres more videos on game design you can watch for some insight:

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I think its most important to remember that game design is primarily about optimizing user experience (which just comes down to understanding human psychology), secondarily about doing so without excessive complexity or resources (which comes closer to designing systems / programming / content production), and thirdly about keeping the end result novel instead of a direct clone of an existing product or genre (creativity and synthesis of original solutions).

It helps to think about games youve played, and think about what theyve done to ensure good experience for the player. It could be really minor things like some shading or animation on a visual element, or it could be something deeper like letting the user relax occasionally through pacing, or some very interesting emergent gameplay that arises out of the games systems after youve played and improved your understanding of it for hours. Sometimes the interesting part is not that they did something to improve the experience, but how they did it (and games often solve similar problems in different ways, so you could do comparisons - like comparing aspects of inventory systems).

o3o

Lot of great help in here.

I think you might be conflating an artist being their harshest critic with not thinking their own work is any good.

Its true that as the games designer some aspects won't have the same impact on you as the player... You don't get the surprise and wonder since you know where everything is and how it works... But the games core mechanics should absolutely feel fun to you. In a platformer it should feel good just to traverse, particularly since that is the main medium the player will be interacting with and experience in your game. This is what they will be using to construct how your world is seen and interpreted in their minds eye.

Yes, every platform has meaning. In fact EVERYTHING has meaning. How fast can the player go, how far can they jump, how high, how much inertia is there, how does the player turn, how does the player turn running at full speed, how long does it take to stop.

Where is the camera? A higher more isometric camera will lay the level out before the player and allow them to see everything at once, this makes a simpler easier to visually digest experience.

Is it a third person 'behind the back' type camera? Now visual occlusion comes much more into effect, this makes visually digesting much more sophisticated, the player would want to seek vantage points to see the lay of the land.

These are the rules your world will be subconsciously interpreted through... And that you must design the world /map/board around.

Strong consistent rules let's the player form a strong interpretation of how your world works. They will see 'the path' even if it is not marked. When players have a strong understanding of how the game works, they start using those rules to form their own play style.


All that being said... I think you might not have a design problem yet... I think you have a mechanics problem, a rules problem.

Your platformer game should feel good on a fundamental level just traversing. I strongly second Mr. Barrows advice of prototyping the basic gameplay mechanics before you do any more work trying to design levels. How can you design the levels without knowing the rules?

Test out different speeds, inertias, turning rates, a good system shouldn't be super super 1:1 tight, that's boring, of course to loose is frusterating... There should be a knack or groove, sorry for the intangible terms, but, at least when it comes to game mechanics, I believe programming is absolutely an art.

You will feel it, when you like what you feel, then you can start building off of that. Then you can really dig in to all the great advice here.
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Its easy to think that because some gameplay you have doesnt feel fun, that its because of the high level mechanics (that you would normally think as the gameplay). But I feel that usually, 90% of the experience is determines by the 'not gameplay' things. Graphics, music, visual and sound effects, side effects of the primary action, and what purpose the gameplay serves (challenges are usually part of a bigger challenge that gives meaning to the subchallenge).

Consider that even if your gameplay doesnt even exist (the player just passively sits there), it can still be amazing. Thats how movies/music/books work, after all.

So, at the minimum, gameplay just needs to not get in the way, and that can be enough if supported by other content/effects. Maybe you do some basic actions that require zero thought and achieve progress, and repeat.

Of course, if you can tie in some exciting and cognitively interesting tasks, thats great. Make the player choose or build optimal/preferred solutions. Make it rely on their understanding of the games systems. Add some time pressure / risk. Make the consequences of however they act, meaningful.

Just understand that not all gameplay needs to be like that. It can even be exhausting for the player if you require constant focus on solving difficult problems.

o3o

Just understand that not all gameplay needs to be like that. It can even be exhausting for the player if you require constant focus on solving difficult problems.

Good points! We don't want to wear the player out with repetitive things that aren't engaging.

Though It's interesting that even exhaustion can be enjoyable if handled correctly by a game.

All that being said... I think you might not have a design problem yet... I think you have a mechanics problem, a rules problem.

I have just a little bit of clue about the difference of mechanics vs design. Often I use both interchangeably. Adding rules is part of designing the game perhaps the mechanics youre talking about is the gameplay?


Heres more videos on game design you can watch for some insight:

Thanks for the link. Im gonna watch them all

Its easy to think that because some gameplay you have doesnt feel fun, that its because of the high level mechanics (that you would normally think as the gameplay). But I feel that usually, 90% of the experience is determines by the 'not gameplay' things. Graphics, music, visual and sound effects, side effects of the primary action, and what purpose the gameplay serves (challenges are usually part of a bigger challenge that gives meaning to the subchallenge).

Since I havent done a lot of games, I guess you are right on this part. But as everyone have mentioned prototyping the game is important. Im not sure how everyone prototype their game, but for me I just push a box making it as a place holder for the final sprite. I dont put any sound effects and good sprites. So the game I said on my first post isnt a game I guess but a prototype and I dont find it fun. If what you are saying is right should I add sound effects and visual to a prototype? But that destroys the meaning of the prototype. It will be look like I am making the whole game

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Just wanna know how long did you study for game design?

I've been "analyzing" games my whole life, just getting a feel for when things are a good / bad idea (and I tended to be relatively good at it), but I didn't start directly reading up on game design principles until my second year of college, 4 years ago, right when I decided to switch to a computer science degree, learn programming, and work towards a game development career. Ever since then, I've been going keeping track of anything and everything that I felt was relevant to game design in my Google Chrome bookmarks, so it persists between computers. Very useful. Have a decently sized library of links for reference at this point.

These are some general "beginner" tips for when getting started with gamedev / game design (as I did):

- Keep up with the gamedev reddit page. There are often some nice questions / links there. I recommend setting up a Twitter account (@willnations) and a github account (@willnationsdev) and getting your game out there / following other indie developers/etc. as quickly as possible. Twitter hashtags to be aware of: #gamedev, #indiedev, #screenshotsaturday.

- Don't worry about the quality of your starting games too much. The first several games you make will suck horribly, so don't worry too much about making them too polished. The first game I ever made was terrible (made in 2 days at a game jam with a small team of artists), and, in fact, I consider the first 10 games I've made absolutely horrible (though I just received an email saying the latest one got greenlit on Steam after 5 months...somehow. Didn't get the impression it was that great... <_<;; called "SYNCH" if curious).

- I also recommend HackNPlan while trying to keep up with any larger projects and managing tasks/game design document/etc. It basically combines Dundoc (which is an underdeveloped game design document template website) and Trello (a task-managing utility which, while awesome, isn't integrated with a design document directly like HackNPlan is).

- Look into the community's advice regarding game design topics: Visit www.gamasutra.com twice a week at least to keep updated. Find video presentations of panels from the game developer conference at GDCVault.

- YouTube channels w/ good game design topics. Extra Credits, GameMaker's Toolkit, HappieCat (<- bit more intro game programming), PBS Game/Show.

To get back to answering the more base question of why your platformer isn't fun, I'd advise you to consider the simplest conception of your platformer, the jumping, and identify what INTERACTIONS with your jump make jumping worthwhile and enjoyable. Take the simple jump in Mario games. You can jump up, into something, and down, onto something. There is a sound effect that provides feedback and responsiveness to the jump (juice - letting the player "feel" that they are jumping), hitting a ? block actually pushes it up and down a little (juice - the world responds to you), something pops out suddenly (more juice - a visceral, tangible effect in the world has occurred!), and more sound effects to accompany the type of item that has popped out (juice - a COIN came out, *ding* - an upgrade came out *bup,bup,bup*, etc.). <- Yes, these visceral, "juicy" things can make it actually FUN to jump into the ? blocks. What's more, the jumping itself now allows you to interact with the world in a real way: the ? block doesn't even let you hit it anymore (or DOES it? Surprise! Sometimes it keeps going~). You get the gist. These are all things the designers did to make the basic mechanic of jumping (and more specifically, jumping INTO a ? block) be very interesting. You'll notice also that the designers didn't just add more and more functionality to Mario. Generally speaking, the added more influence and power to the jump itself. Jumping into or onto different objects begets different changes in the world, and gives the player a sense of their options when confronted with a set of obstacles in the world to overcome. I'm not sure exactly what it is you've done in your own platformer, but you can rest assured that if the mechanics do not themselves present a tangible influence in the world and/or don't have some sense of juice to spice it up, it won't necessarily "feel" fun or interesting, based on my limited experience anyway.

willnationsdev - Godot Engine Contributor

I think you can sum this up to: make your concept into a prototype as early as possible.

None of the mechanics matter if the core interactions are not fun, and prototyping the core is usually very simple.

Then, test the prototype, have others test it, see if there's value, depth. Can this game evolve to something larger? etc.

Most times, if a game is fun even before there's a visual theme to it, and that you can picture various ways to go (questions like: could I add this? would it work?), you probably have a solid core.

Then, test every new inclusion to see whether they add or remove to the game.

One key concept I feel is design space: there's only so much you can teach your player, so always measure each increment to your game concept against this. If a concept brings 'a little fun' but takes too much attention/brain space from your user, then it's likely not worth adding.

How do you measure what are 'a little fun', 'some fun' and 'this is so fun' ideas?

A LITTLE FUN: The person acknowledges what you did, akin to saying 'I see what you did there'. Could be a a trick to a pre-established mechanic used differently in game. Whatever the reason, the player recognizes how you broke the pattern and challenged them. They feel better about themselves for figuring it out, but likely won't mention it aside from in the heat of the moment (this is why you want to be there during the playtest session).

SOME FUN: The person interacts with this, and given the choice, they are naturally drawn to it. For example, if you let the user choose between two mode of transportations to the next objective and they can either pick up the static elevator, or interact with the staircases, quantitative evidence may lend a hand. Though elevators tend to be more boring, it could be that users prefer them over staircases because of how clunky your staircase segments are (bad camera turns, or other) and that they feel like too much effort with no payday. Or it could be because you actually make the elevator sequence more interesting (window to the outside world where they can see the previous level they've just beaten and can recognize landmarks they've experienced in a recent past). It could even be because of the buildup (preparing for any encounter that will happen once the doors open, getting ready by reloading guns, swapping gear, and placing the character in the most optimized position, anticipating what lurks on the next floor).

Whatever the reason, the 'Some Fun' elements tend to be identified through quantitative feedback.

THIS IS SO FUN: That's the story that sticks with your users. That's what they'll give the most feedback on, and the reason why they keep playing. Likely, if they ask you 'when is this game completed?' etc. it is worth asking them what they like, and the 'This is so fun' ideas are the ones that will spill out. Consider them as user stories, its not the feature or the level or the content or the tweaking: it's all of them, and how they interacted with one another in the particular instance they've mentioned. Break it down, try to see what's different about these specific moments, you'll learn something about your own game.

Obviously, this is so fun moments are better, but in many cases will require a lot more effort and brain space, so it's good to keep in mind the other fun moments and identify those that are simple enough to make the cut.

Making a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for a game is a very difficult task and requires experience more than any specific skillset, and it is a fulltime job for some of us. Hopefully these help you a bit!

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