The common accepted psychology theory is PLAYTEST, PLAYTEST, PLAYTEST! It seems far too many people forget about this. Even something as simple as placing a button in the wrong spot can wreck your game. I can''t play a game without finding some nitpicky thing that adds to my list of grievances, and if that list gets too long, the game sucks. You want your players to have an empty grievance list, which means you must take every complain seriously, no matter how small.

Kylotan has the best post I''ve seen in ages, because every freakin'' word is correct. Something else to consider during your playtesting is that you only really care about people who play the type of game you''re making. That''s why it''s so difficult to blend genres: you''re trying to satisfy multiple audiences at once, and you just can''t do that. Pick an audience---preferably the one you fall under---and make a game for it.

The key to making a fun game is to make something you want to play. If you love your project, you''ll put your all into it, and that results in a much higher quality product. If you have even a shadow of a doubt, turn to something else, because you''re going to fail. Game designers are in this for the long haul. You don''t want to get bored after only a week of programming.

If you have to work by yourself, it''s even more important that you love your project. If you have fun making it, people will have fun playing. Don''t be afraid to ask like-minded people what they enjoy. This is a great way to broaden your horizons, and you will be surprised at what positive feedback can do for your own ideas.

quote: Original post by Tom
The common accepted psychology theory is PLAYTEST, PLAYTEST, PLAYTEST! It seems far too many people forget about this. Even something as simple as placing a button in the wrong spot can wreck your game. I can't play a game without finding some nitpicky thing that adds to my list of grievances, and if that list gets too long, the game sucks. You want your players to have an empty grievance list, which means you must take every complain seriously, no matter how small.

It also means that your testers should be explicitly told to complain about stupid and trivial things, even if they're not really a big deal. Cos if 500 of them complain about the same thing, chances are high that you should fix it. Many small annoyances can often be worse than one big one.

By the way, I think the above is fun on the micro level, whereas I was addressing fun on the macro level. Bottom-up vs. top down. Both are essential, of course, and not just in games. A brilliant story full of spelling mistakes and poor grammar is not much fun to read, for example.

quote: Kylotan has the best post I've seen in ages, because every freakin' word is correct.

The check is in the mail.

quote: Something else to consider during your playtesting is that you only really care about people who play the type of game you're making. That's why it's so difficult to blend genres: you're trying to satisfy multiple audiences at once, and you just can't do that. Pick an audience---preferably the one you fall under---and make a game for it.

Damn right. The narrower your audience, the better you know its needs. I've often cited a game called Realms of the Haunting which suffered through trying to be more than one game at once. As a result, it's a great game for versatile gamers but boring/too tough for the rest.

So, to everyone else, pick your target audience - even if it is just yourself. Then think about what that audience finds fun. My first post above is one abstract way of thinking about these things that I'm sure can be applied to most genres to give you a head start with your own ideas.


[ MSVC Fixes | STL | SDL | Game AI | Sockets | C++ Faq Lite | Boost | Asking Questions ]

[edited by - Kylotan on April 22, 2002 2:28:34 PM]

I realize it sounds too anal retentive to make computer game fun a science but compare games to music...

In music there is music theory. Music theory is the set of rules that have been set over thousands of years by people who write music. Sure, you can right a song that is fun, sad, moving, emotional without the help of music theory but wouldn''t it be much easier if you knew the rules? Wouldn''t you be able to create new ideas off of old rules that you wouldn''t have come up with if you didn''t know the rules? Music is fun. Music theory is not. But fun music is created from music theory. Even if someone creates a fun song without following the rules, they are still following the rules without realizing.

Now, take a look at games. Unlike music which has probably been around in some form longer than history itself, computer games have been around for less than half a century. The rules are still largely undefined. Many developers create games that fail by following the same mistakes that were made by previous developers. This is because there is no game theory...

Or is there? Computer games are new but what about card games? How long has poker been around? How about games like Chess? Penta? Games outside of the computer field seem to have a much higher success rate (SEEM to). Magic the Gathering, (dare I say it) Pokemon, AD&D were all huge successes. Perhaps we should revert our ideas to the old ways of pen and paper before we move on to expanding the idea with technology. Sit with a couple friends and make them play your idea out. See how they react. Wouldn''t it be easier to waste a few sheets of paper rather than 100''s of hours of coding time? Just a thought. =)

Maybe in another 500 years, colleges will start offering courses on Game Theory. After all, computer games are becoming socially and perhaps even culturally significant and could follow in the same foot steps as music.

So, my answer to this thread: Yes, there are probably rules to game design. We just don''t know them yet ;-)

- Jay


Get Tranced!

Make the game you want to play. Chances are you''re not alone.

quote:
Actually, the average gamer is 28 years old. Just FYI and all...

Seriously? Where do you get that number, that seems a little high. You''d think at some point we''d all grow up and stop playing with our little games. Shya, right.


Take care,
Bill