On current issues of game design and ways to resolve them. View from below

So hello everyone and welcome to the world of modern games!

In order to warn various questions in advance, as well as to ensure ease of reading, hereinafter a small disclaimer: everything that will be written further is based on personal and subjective gaming experience, which includes: more than 200 games played in Steam, an unknown number of pirates completed, attempts to participate in the development of modifications to various games in the positions of designer, 3d-modeler and stage designer.



To begin with , for those who are suddenly not in the know, briefly analyze what this game design is, what the English-language Wikipedia will help us with:
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Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment, for educational, physical or experimental purposes.
Game design creates goals, rules, and challenges to determine the desired interactions between game participants.
(Free translation, abbreviated.)

In other words, more appropriate and important in the framework of this article: game design is the process of inventing and thinking over game experience, emotions that a gamer will receive during the passage of your masterpiece.

On the road to the first problems!

What kind of game genres do you know?

Any person spending time on the surface of the earth and in a civilized society will immediately tell you something like: arcades, role-playing games, strategies, shooters.

You will most likely say “And what’s wrong with that?”, But this is the first problem, and it has long been on the surface:

When planning a game, most developers planning ahead for a future genre actually plan a set of cliches. It is very likely that a set of clichés that are boring to everyone in which it is not yet a fact that will cope with the creation of a quality product.



(In screenshots, in order, Conan Unconquered (2019), Cossacks 3 (2016), Age of Empires III (2009).)

Let's say you did it and did everything cool and high-quality, or didn’t do everything like you did at the time Telltale or some conditional Aterdux or Snowbirdgames and you still succeeded.

Moreover, the players began to buy your game and gameplay, it means mechanical actions from the sections “How to walk”, “How to kill”, etc., does not cause any questions.

What's next? What should make a user remember your game, recommend it to friends?

The answer is simple: emotions .

In order not to be unfounded I will offer you a banal challenge: imagine that you have two games and your task is to choose the best one in each of the pairs according to a certain criterion:

Couple 1. The most interesting plot.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Couple 2. The most fascinating strategic component.
Thea 2: The Shattering and Civilization 6

Couple 3. The most enjoyable shooting and action games.
Arma 3 and Battlefield 1

I am sure that most of you have chosen Divinity, for the plot not only about heroes saving the world, which makes you think about building the world and society, Civilization, for the abundance of strategic opportunities and Battlefield, for the crazy dynamics of battles and the beauty of the picture.

The most accurate current situation with the emotional component of the games was conveyed by a random partisan about a year ago, when, during a protracted game, he asked in a tired voice if there was anyone on the map who really liked DotA.



And finally, I’ll write without eyeliner, about replayability .

And although this term usually means precisely the possibility of repeated passage, it seems to me that this term should mean the possibility of playing after passing through a certain “main” piece of the game.

I will explain in more detail in order to move on to possible solutions to the current situation:
I passed GTA 5, passed in 5 days. During the passage of the plot, parallel missions of heroes and tasks of “eccentrics and strangers” took place.

And then the end, all the heroes were saved (was this the most “paladin” ending?), Credits.
I'm on the map again. So what to do?

For someone, the answer was the online mode, I personally did not even want to continue after 5 days of the marathon in the story. What's the point? I used to kill for the sake of completing quests in order to see the next cut-scene with really good humor about the reality of reality, and now?

Well, to a possible solution, perhaps

It is important to make a reservation here that literally here on the Habré, according to the game design, you can find an article about lectures from the HSE with a certain Konstantin, in which it was indicated that the priority goals are monetization, attraction, retention, and return of players.

And although these things are important beyond any doubt, it is also important to understand that the basic monetization models suitable 99 out of 100 projects have already been developed, players are attracted and return good promo features of any game, and in essence the main goal of a game designer is to hold, hold for the purpose of promotion by word of mouth method, withholding to obtain the maximum possible profit within the current monetization model.

So: originality, emotions, replayability.
Or so: originality + emotions = replayability?
Funny algorithm, right? Especially considering that being on the surface, it appears to be behind a stone wall for most developers working for large companies, or for the tenth year sculpting a "dream game", but returning to the topic:

I would suggest that each developer evaluate their project according to the following system, where each of the "quality" and "originality" is subjectively rated as 1 to 5, then calculate the arithmetic average of each parameter and add it.



If you have 20, I congratulate you, you made a game of the future, practically an anti-utopia, because of which you will be killed by crazy sectarians, but seriously, it’s good if it’s 12-13.

And finally, the comments on each of the parameters, which someone would think (like the whole article though) are babble, and someone (and, unfortunately, the majority are vast), something new and unusual.

And let's go counterclockwise - mechanics :

1. Do not disdain mechanics from other genres, this is your originality. As examples, let them be Path of exile, with its incredible even for role-playing games skill system and sane plot and Times of Discord, which I am not afraid to call one of the first kki in the role-playing game.
2. Provide the players with a “levelless” gameplay, where the character can be developed until the very end of the game, even if he simply reduces this step with each step. Of the successful examples, probably the same Path of exile, where the development, albeit levels, but continues until the very end.
3. Create a variety of gameplay, each task should be solved in different ways, even if your game is 3 in a row. From the examples, any good role-playing game in recent years.
4. Allow the user to use only his favorite mechanics, do not force him to do what he does not like, the gameplay should represent equal opportunities for each style of play.

Next we will have a video :

1. Polygons are good, RTX is great. But not necessarily.
   
   Try to create a unique visual style and this will give your game much more charm than high system requirements. As controversial, but examples here will be Allods online, TESO, Arcanum, The Black Death.
2. Reduce special effects. Yes, they are needed in some scenes, situations, but in a global sense they distort the picture, do not allow the player to feel in the shoes of the protagonist. Even if the game is about the conditional Harry Potter, the surroundings play a much greater role than acid trees and the overexposed sky.
3. If possible, create different seasons, locations, biomes. This will allow your game about 3 in a row not to annoy the monotony in the visual plan. As an example, here will probably be Temple run and Subway Surfers, the games are not particularly rich in terms of history or sound, but with mechanics ideal for killing time.
4. Customization Yes, it is expensive and often difficult, but it is it that will bring you the most loyalty and, ultimately, funds. What is the use of killing hundreds of evil spirits if my knight in shining armor cannot upgrade them or change them after some time?

And again about the story :

1. History adds charisma to your game. If your game is all the same 3 in a row, any plot, even conditional: “Your character flew on a plane, crashed, hit an uninhabited island, found there and is trying to open an ancient temple.”, He will explain to the player why he is playing, and what he wants to get as a result.
2. It is highly desirable that the story be optional, at least 2 or three resolution options. So the player does not feel cheated when passing, moreover, he is grateful for the choice presented to him, just remember the ending of Far cry 3 and how many conflicts there were between those who chose “love” and those who chose friends.
3. Do not be afraid to draw parallels in the plot with the real world, with your worldview, the worldview of your colleagues. The story of the “explorer” Fane is much more interesting than the story of the skeleton that killed everyone.

And finally, the most underestimated, both by developers and players - audio :

1. Music is really needed. Different. Lot. If the game is role-playing, or close to this, you still need voice acting. No, I'm serious, without this, right nowhere. If the budget does not allow everyone, or at least the main ones, to sit down, sit down yourself, tell a story on behalf of someone, an old merchant, one of the heroes, it does not matter, the silence of the character is his death. From the examples, at least remember and correlate the trailers on the Asassins creed in Paris and Egypt in my head, the incomparable atmosphere and emotions created by everybody wants to rule the world in the first case and path 5 in the second and the music found directly in the game. Of the lesser-known examples, let there be, to some extent, an anti-example in the form of the Zenith game, the developer of which set a goal to ridicule the entire game dev, which he did on solid 4.8. In this game there are only 2 or 3 songs, one of which plays just the whole time, and embodies the need for its changeability, and the second plays in the menu and credits, and damn it is ideal for menus and credits embodying the need for its (music) presence.
2. It is highly desirable that the soundtrack change, along with all the other things that change: summer was replaced by winter - here's “If there was no winter”, entered a gnome tavern - here’s drunk with dwarven mirth, etc.
3. This mostly concerns more serious games, but it should be here: down with hentai cries! Have you ever seen people in a fight howling, screaming, talking? Me not. If in doubt, you can watch fights of schoolchildren or football fans on VKontakte.

Summarizing: the game development process is a difficult task, which, unfortunately, many players and developers are extremely irresponsible, as I did when I chose my life path. I hope this article helps someone to realize themselves, to change something and release the game - a masterpiece, but I'll probably go play :)