What can go wrong in game design
A hamasutra recently published an article where the author shares his thoughts on what mistakes can be made when creating a game and what to do about it. And the author argues as a game reviewer, he is not a game designer himself. It is curious to read the "view from the side." Only a request not to be taken as a personal point of view, just decided to translate and share, so that there was an understanding of how people from outside play the work of game companies. Under the cut translation.
One of the most difficult things for me to manage the channel is to do reviews on games that do not meet my expectations. I played amazing games that I couldn’t break away from for hours, and games that I lost interest in a few minutes. It is very easy to make a review on a cool game, but try to write it on a game that is completely “not logged in” for you.
Many people do not need to make a video for YouTube in which they pour mud on a game and its developers, but I can't just pounce on someone like that. After all, none of the developers specifically set themselves the goal of making a bad game, and trying to define what a really bad game is is not an easy process.
')
When it comes to video games, there are three types that are considered bad. The first ones are intentionally copied titles, collected from free assets in the image and likeness of another well-known game, or even a direct clone of it. Such clones were never created to become hits, but were designed to quickly pull money out of people, after which they either disappear from Steam or slide down into the stack. Such games are easy to distinguish and I never play them.
The second are those that I call the "Great Shows." These are games that have risen due to HYIP, the hype around them and the well-known “pedigree”, but still received a ton of negativity in their favor, and in some cases in the direction of the developer company. For example, these are games like Mass Effect Andromeda, X-Men Destiny, Dead Space 3, and Godus.
It is difficult to make reviews about them, discussing such titles and their shortcomings, as usually these unfortunate sides are quite specific. Sometimes they are associated with the problem of the publisher or some backstage drama, and such cases are difficult to perceive as errors that a novice developer could learn from.
And the third type is games that fail quietly. As has been said a lot, for every game that has achieved success, there are hundreds of those who could not. Such games can be considered when you need to understand game design and what it is to be a developer.
Some time ago I wrote on the differences between AAA and indie games in terms of design and quality. AAA games may not be super unique, but they can offer a polished quality product, thanks to their many years of experience (and, of course, all this money). And in the indie segment, we can stumble on titles that are not found anywhere else, but they usually lack that level of polishing.
Even if you are a veteran of the industry from a game development company, then in the case of working on your own project it is quite difficult to control all aspects of the development of the game yourself. Nowadays, indie studios are finding it harder to break through and stand out among competitors, and any problems in game design can eventually become a metaphorical nail to the coffin of the game.
The point is not only that there is only one chance to make a good impression, but also that the quality bar in games has risen markedly. I have already lost count of the games in which I encountered problems of game design and a raw unfinished product in the first 10 minutes of the game.
It is sad that such problems are for me the reason why I stop playing such a game at all, no matter how wonderful this game could be for me in a few hours of playing it. That is why one of the key elements of game design is playtests.
In the process of developing the game never comes the moment when you can already stop showing your game to people. So, addressing all the developers who may be reading this article now, I want to say that you do not have serious reasons and excuses for not conducting playtests of your game. It doesn't matter if it takes 2 hours to complete your game, or 20, or more than 100 - you have to show your game to other people during the development process.
It does not take hundreds of hours to notice problems with the interface, quality and gameplay in general, such things are usually noticeable within a few minutes of the game. That is why I am so critical of games with such obvious problems and shortcomings.
Sometimes it happens that you have finished developing a game, making it as perfect as you could possibly do it, but it is not for sale anyway. There are no guarantees when it comes to the release of video games on which of them will still ignite. You cannot plan ahead for your game to be the next PubG or Undertale.
Another trap that newcomer developers fall into is that they do not explore what is happening in the field of games or game design outside their circle. One of the most severe lessons to be learned is that the game you want to create is not necessarily the kind of game that can be successful.
This is a continuation of the topic raised above about the importance of iterations and playtests. The ability to receive and work on feedback is one of the key components of your growth as a game designer. It is worth analyzing the market at least in order to understand what your game is in comparison with its closest competitors, or with the games most similar to it.
So it is very important not to do game design, having closed in your personal bubble of perception, but to do it, analyzing how other representatives of the genre grew and evolved. This is not about copying someone's game, but about observing how their game was perceived by the public, and what aspects players liked the most. Game genres have grown, as well as consumer expectations from them.
If you are going to present your game as “ARPG” or “Souls-Like”, or even “Battle Royale”, then you will need to understand what key elements are present in these games. Moreover, it is worth considering what points can be improved, and try, so that your game would not have already known drawbacks.
The genre and game design of a project may change as it develops, from the moment it starts to the very end. If you are trying to become competitive in a popular genre or compete with a very large title, then you will need to either develop something more cool than that game, or move in a different direction. The painful lesson game designers have learned from the failure of many MMOs in zero is that you cannot chase the top leader of this genre and hope to overtake it.
As I mentioned earlier, developers do not want to create bad games, which is why I cannot criticize games, even those that I did not like.
Many games fail not with a bang, but completely silently, making it difficult to determine the cause of failure. You can say things like: “Maybe I released the game at the wrong time” or “Consumers did not understand my game,” but this will not help you grow.
The phrase “cream always rises to the surface” is applicable when it comes to the best games of the year. However, even taking into account their high quality, their developers did much more than just create a good game design game. This research, and PR, and a lot of backstage work, all in order to be sure that their projects have every chance to influence the market.
So many things can go wrong with your game that you may not even realize it until it is too late. In the end, if you decided to take a step from a hobby to play video games before becoming a game designer, then you need to do a lot more than just 2-4 years of your life to do some kind of game. In the gaming industry, nothing is guaranteed, but this does not mean that you can simply gush with various ideas, hoping that some of them will take root.
If you are able to continue your journey after a failed project, then take everything that you have learned in the process and move forward, because not everyone gets a second chance.
One of the most difficult things for me to manage the channel is to do reviews on games that do not meet my expectations. I played amazing games that I couldn’t break away from for hours, and games that I lost interest in a few minutes. It is very easy to make a review on a cool game, but try to write it on a game that is completely “not logged in” for you.
Many people do not need to make a video for YouTube in which they pour mud on a game and its developers, but I can't just pounce on someone like that. After all, none of the developers specifically set themselves the goal of making a bad game, and trying to define what a really bad game is is not an easy process.
')
Three types of disasters
When it comes to video games, there are three types that are considered bad. The first ones are intentionally copied titles, collected from free assets in the image and likeness of another well-known game, or even a direct clone of it. Such clones were never created to become hits, but were designed to quickly pull money out of people, after which they either disappear from Steam or slide down into the stack. Such games are easy to distinguish and I never play them.
The second are those that I call the "Great Shows." These are games that have risen due to HYIP, the hype around them and the well-known “pedigree”, but still received a ton of negativity in their favor, and in some cases in the direction of the developer company. For example, these are games like Mass Effect Andromeda, X-Men Destiny, Dead Space 3, and Godus.
It is difficult to make reviews about them, discussing such titles and their shortcomings, as usually these unfortunate sides are quite specific. Sometimes they are associated with the problem of the publisher or some backstage drama, and such cases are difficult to perceive as errors that a novice developer could learn from.
And the third type is games that fail quietly. As has been said a lot, for every game that has achieved success, there are hundreds of those who could not. Such games can be considered when you need to understand game design and what it is to be a developer.
Death from a thousand problems
Some time ago I wrote on the differences between AAA and indie games in terms of design and quality. AAA games may not be super unique, but they can offer a polished quality product, thanks to their many years of experience (and, of course, all this money). And in the indie segment, we can stumble on titles that are not found anywhere else, but they usually lack that level of polishing.
Even if you are a veteran of the industry from a game development company, then in the case of working on your own project it is quite difficult to control all aspects of the development of the game yourself. Nowadays, indie studios are finding it harder to break through and stand out among competitors, and any problems in game design can eventually become a metaphorical nail to the coffin of the game.
The point is not only that there is only one chance to make a good impression, but also that the quality bar in games has risen markedly. I have already lost count of the games in which I encountered problems of game design and a raw unfinished product in the first 10 minutes of the game.
It is sad that such problems are for me the reason why I stop playing such a game at all, no matter how wonderful this game could be for me in a few hours of playing it. That is why one of the key elements of game design is playtests.
In the process of developing the game never comes the moment when you can already stop showing your game to people. So, addressing all the developers who may be reading this article now, I want to say that you do not have serious reasons and excuses for not conducting playtests of your game. It doesn't matter if it takes 2 hours to complete your game, or 20, or more than 100 - you have to show your game to other people during the development process.
It does not take hundreds of hours to notice problems with the interface, quality and gameplay in general, such things are usually noticeable within a few minutes of the game. That is why I am so critical of games with such obvious problems and shortcomings.
Market analysis
Sometimes it happens that you have finished developing a game, making it as perfect as you could possibly do it, but it is not for sale anyway. There are no guarantees when it comes to the release of video games on which of them will still ignite. You cannot plan ahead for your game to be the next PubG or Undertale.
Another trap that newcomer developers fall into is that they do not explore what is happening in the field of games or game design outside their circle. One of the most severe lessons to be learned is that the game you want to create is not necessarily the kind of game that can be successful.
This is a continuation of the topic raised above about the importance of iterations and playtests. The ability to receive and work on feedback is one of the key components of your growth as a game designer. It is worth analyzing the market at least in order to understand what your game is in comparison with its closest competitors, or with the games most similar to it.
So it is very important not to do game design, having closed in your personal bubble of perception, but to do it, analyzing how other representatives of the genre grew and evolved. This is not about copying someone's game, but about observing how their game was perceived by the public, and what aspects players liked the most. Game genres have grown, as well as consumer expectations from them.
If you are going to present your game as “ARPG” or “Souls-Like”, or even “Battle Royale”, then you will need to understand what key elements are present in these games. Moreover, it is worth considering what points can be improved, and try, so that your game would not have already known drawbacks.
The genre and game design of a project may change as it develops, from the moment it starts to the very end. If you are trying to become competitive in a popular genre or compete with a very large title, then you will need to either develop something more cool than that game, or move in a different direction. The painful lesson game designers have learned from the failure of many MMOs in zero is that you cannot chase the top leader of this genre and hope to overtake it.
Learn from mistakes
As I mentioned earlier, developers do not want to create bad games, which is why I cannot criticize games, even those that I did not like.
Many games fail not with a bang, but completely silently, making it difficult to determine the cause of failure. You can say things like: “Maybe I released the game at the wrong time” or “Consumers did not understand my game,” but this will not help you grow.
The phrase “cream always rises to the surface” is applicable when it comes to the best games of the year. However, even taking into account their high quality, their developers did much more than just create a good game design game. This research, and PR, and a lot of backstage work, all in order to be sure that their projects have every chance to influence the market.
So many things can go wrong with your game that you may not even realize it until it is too late. In the end, if you decided to take a step from a hobby to play video games before becoming a game designer, then you need to do a lot more than just 2-4 years of your life to do some kind of game. In the gaming industry, nothing is guaranteed, but this does not mean that you can simply gush with various ideas, hoping that some of them will take root.
If you are able to continue your journey after a failed project, then take everything that you have learned in the process and move forward, because not everyone gets a second chance.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/354066/
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