Good answers

I agree about having a main designer and having other designers doing other aspects. Artists have different styles, but the main says what wants to the other artists and it works out or the other artists work on other aspects of the game.

Everyone has their own style in a way.

And you can’t say that all 3,500 games were good and they were lacking in exposure. Some are not good and need help in their design.
Some here says they think they are good and "sometimes" it works out. Why take a gamble on sometimes? Make the idea be known clearly and let it be attacked sooner than later. Well why not make it all the time work out?

I think there should be another few designers and not just artists or programmers to see the work. And you need one that criticizes more and not be a yes man. (Yes yes its all good, u r better with hmmm how about doing this or this and the reason we will change it is because of ....)

take care



Don''''t say something is great by compairing it to other thing, but by what technology can do.

Well, there''s no way to completely guard yourself against a failed game design. Some ideas are not going to be great. But the only real way to know is to try them out. Throwing more designers at the problem is not going to solve anything. Hollywood is always criticized for designing movies "by committee"... endless script rewrites, test audience screenings, etc. And most movies still suck.

The beauty of *independent* game design, is that things can be kept on a small enough scale so that they can fail without anyone losing millions of dollars. Trying to guard against failure at all costs, by hiring more designers or whatever, is a good way to avoid innovation IMHO.

And don''t forget about the other side of the coin, implementation. A game''s design isn''t the whole story, it also has to be implemented well. In fact, I''d say that''s *more* important.

BTW... is your username a reference to the old Genesis game? I am working on a computer game project right now that is inspired by the Langrisser series. =)

Not to start a flame war, but I believe that originality is overrated.
One of the most anticipated games these days is Doom 3...How original is that?
Final Fantasy [insert sequel number here] will also be popular.

Of course originality isn''t gonna be as big as it was in the past.
In the past, there was nothing. Then games came out. Space war came out, and that was the only game. It didn''t get classified by genre until much much later.
As technology gets better, newer genres can be made. RTS games just aren''t possible on machines from the 60s and 70s, let alone FPS and such.
Anyway, how original do you want games to be? The gameplay won''t change much from the original Doom to Doom 3, will it?
Why is it an anticipated title? One, it is a sequel. The first one was awesome, so now years later, it has to be better.
Improvements on current games are good things to strive for. If someone can come up with something completely original, go for it. I am by no means saying that it is impossible to come up with something new. It is just that with every genre, there is something that was improved upon.
Top down shooters gave way to first person shooters and third person shooters and so on.
Text based RPGs gave way to graphical RPGs which gave way to first person RPGs and so on.
Real time strategy games came from turn based.
I mean, how original are a lot of these games types?
It doesn''t matter! These games are fun!
Total Annihilation and Starcraft are two very similar games, but they are done differently. I love both!
Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament are practically identical in gameplay, and yet I sometimes find myself choosing between them when I want to play.
They are different enough to not be the same, and that is good enough for most people.
Those that complain about the lack of originality in games, I am just curious. What games do you play? I wouldn''t mind finding games that are unique and yet unpopular. So long as they are fun to play, I am game.
I used to complain about Doom clones, but then I played Goldeneye on N64, as well as Turok:Dinosaur Hunter. Fun games that aren''t much different from Doom in gameplay.


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(Gorgeous graphics)+(beautiful sound effects)+(symphonic music)+(no gameplay) != Good game

Well, a game need not be innovative to be enjoyable. And a game doens''t need to start a whole new genre to be innovative. Using your example, I would contend that Total Annihilation was innovative and original at the time. Sure, it was not the first RTS, but it introduced new elements and had its own feel (and was technologically innovative too).

Also, orginal != obscure. I think Counterstrike was a pretty new idea when it came out.

Here is a good example of an original shareware title:

http://www.aracnet.com/~acrosser/across/

Never played anything quite like that before. =)

Originality - the term is nowadays not used so much for wholly original ideas, like inventing new genres or some such, but more the feeling of having played a fresh game - instead of feeling like you''ve played the game before.

To that end, originality is accounted very much in the polish of the game - how well the game flows, how well balanced the battle system is, how easy it is to interact with the game, how many options are given, how good the game looks, etc, etc.

Been a good game designer isn''t necessarily about coming up with one really good big idea - its about coming up with many many small good ideas - that remain consistent in its design.

A good way to learn a bit about game designing is by thinking about what features you think would''ve benefitted the gaming experience as you played the game - maybe the automap feature was flawed, maybe there was no autosave during the mission - maybe the autosave spoilt the tenseness of the mission, etc. Figure out how to rectify these problems, by looking at precedence set by other games, or just by a simple solution.

A good designer is able to create a cohesive and polished product, inspecting details rigurously while been able to see the overall vision...

Well there''s a good and bad thing to have more designers.

For example I hear that a few people are making their own 2d space shooter. And I hear some ideas they say and I also have some and think that some of their ideas are like my ideas but they seem to fall short in some extra enhanced options to make the game more fun and original. :o they have original ideas and I have and 1 original idea wont make a good game it takes a couple to stand out.

So it’s not so much in that aspect a conflict but a lack of since there is room to add on more than conflict.

There many games that don’t have a lot of things in it. Even certain games categories don’t have certain thing. Like I said once that their no beatemup games that control like a fighting game?
Doom is a copy from wolfenstine and that is a copy from Bard''s tail. Everything just gets evolved and enhanced.

So a good game designer can’t come up with many ideas as much as many people. Everyone has their own aspect and outlook on things and they put their ideas in it.

I hope I answer all your questions. :o

**Hamdoon yes the name from langrisser. I think the 1st game was the best the rest were not as good. The only disappointment was that the first one was too short. Well at least the first level is challenging and fun It would be good to combine warsong with final fantasy tactics. The best of both worlds heehee. Hey do you need some help in the design? 2 designers are better than 1 lol hmmm that sounds familiar lol

Take care


Don''''t say something is great by compairing it to other thing, but by what technology can do.

I haven''t read all the posts.. though the things that really motivates me is that you''re able to create a top game without having to be old. You don''t need a lot of finance. You just need a lot of passion and as somebody mentioned above a vision. When I joined a Rarebyte we didn''t really have very concrete ideas. We just had that vision that oneday we''ll walk into our favourite computer store and see our game in the advertisement. Our game right next to Quake 7 and Unreal 4. And then you look back at the path you took and say yourself "I did it". That is the vision that keeps me going.

ok, back to ground,
just my thoughts to that :o)

cya,
Phil


Visit Rarebyte!
and no!, there are NO kangaroos in Austria (I got this questions a few times over in the states )

Warsong, if you are really interested email me and I will show you what I am working on.